Potential for a Better Self

Make sure you make people feel something positive because that is what they will take away from spending time with you.
Even when you disagree, it can be done... with respect and that means they will feel heard.
Even when you might feel angry... respect the other one because they will still feel loved.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

With love, C ❣️

When you are tired,
When you are low,
When you are blue,
When you are depressed,
Every little thing can feel like it is going to take forever.

I used to think that emptying the dishwasher would take me ages until I timed myself.

Time yourself doing the tasks you don’t like much and then you can easily change your thought process when it comes to doing them.

My brain still tries to tell me emptying the dishwasher will take me hours... but I now can observe that thought, interrupt it and say to myself: “It only takes me 3 minutes to do this while the kettle boils.”
That is it. I know there is an end to this job, I know it only takes a few minutes of my day.

I do the same with brushing my teeth when I feel my toothbrush is taking too long to vibrate to signal the 2 minutes.

Which tasks are you going to time?

With love, C ❣️

Thoughts are just that, they do not define you.
Observe them and choose wisely which to listen to and which to let go.

With love, C ❣️

Sometimes, you need a treat.

We buy green bananas for lower sugar content. I peel them, chop them and freeze them flat. Once hard, I store them in a sealed bag in the freezer.

Once in a while, I will make “nice cream” with those frozen bits of bananas.

I blend them with some blueberries or any berries that are in season at the time. I sometimes add some coconut yoghurt & then top it all up with some shredded coconut, almond flakes, fresh fruit... sometimes I even toast the nuts, If I feel like it. I may also add some 85% chocolate chips, blanched almond butter, ...

My kids love it. It’s easy to make and refreshing.

With love, C ❣️

This is another free way to boost your immune system!

❤️ Dealing With Negative Emotions ❤️

It can be really difficult to deal with negative emotions.
The first thing to do is to actually be aware of them. The more you notice them, the earlier you will start to recognise the signs of their seeds taking root.
For me, watching the news brings stress; someone shouting at me brings out anger & fear; someone having a go at something brings out anxiety and insecurity, etc

Emotions are just emotions. They come and go and as valid as they might be, we can choose to let that negative seed germinate or we can pull it out like a w**d.

I am learning to be more aware, I am learning to choose to pull out of a situation that might lead to those negative emotions.

How do I do this?
Well, first I became aware of these emotions and decided I didn’t them to take root and take over my day.

When I get triggered, I try to take a few seconds before reacting (I try to in every situation, even positive ones so that it’s a habit) & by taking that time out, I can decide to keep quiet, to walk away, to lock myself in the bathroom, etc... whatever works for me at that time. Sometimes, I’ll have a good cry; sometimes, I’ll just play my happy music; sometimes, I’ll start baking; sometimes, I’ll meditate; sometimes, I will have a walk and fresh air (always a great mood lifter because it lowers the stress hormone cortisol); etc.

Find what works for you and feel free to SHARE it here as it might be helpful to others.

I would like to thank for helping me on that journey.

🦠 Study on Food and Covid-19🦠

Though I avoid talking about Covid-19 and talk more generally about strengthening the immune system via sleep, food, exercise, I want to share this new study which has just been published.

https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/Diet-may-affect-risk-and-severity-of-covid19

It was conducted on almost 600,000 people (not lab animals) and shows that by increasing your consumption of vegetables & fruit (the low sugar ones and in season preferably) you decreased by 41% the chances of having severe Covid symptoms!

Now, try and make it a game to see how many different veg and different fruit you can consume in a week... I know that as a family, we tend to try on the same ones all the time! Hopefully this study will push me to vary our diet even more!

Why lower sugar fruit? It’s to help lower inflammation, it’s to avoid feeding a virus (any virus will feed off the sugar in your body), to lower insulin, etc...

Something else to help your metabolism would be to shorten your eating window. I will talk about fasting soon but know that you can start by eating breakfast a little later than usual & / or eat dinner a little earlier than usual. This is an easy & free way of boosting your health.

With love, C❣️

🌙 ✨ Sleep and Our Immune System 🌙 ✨

Sleep gives our body the time it needs to rest and repair and that is why sleep is not something that has evolved through the years human beings have been on the planet.
This is one of the main reasons we feel tired and want to sleep more when we are unwell. Sleep supports our immune system by enhancing its ability to destroy cells infected by pathogens.

According to the Sleep Foundation:
“Experts aren’t certain why this process takes place during sleep, but it is believed that several factors may be involved:

-During sleep, breathing and muscle activity slows down, freeing up energy for the immune system to perform these critical tasks.
-The inflammation that happens during sleep could harm physical and mental performance if it occurred during waking hours, so the body has evolved so that these processes unfold during nightly sleep.
-Melatonin, a sleep-promoting hormone that is produced at night, is adept at counteracting the stress that can come from inflammation during sleep.”

In fact, Professor Matthew Walker’s research shows that when Daylight Saving Time happens, in the spring, there is a reported 24% increase in heart attack admissions compared to a decrease of 21% when the clocks go back in the autumn. That really helped me put sleep back on my priority list.

It is also rather well known that good sleep helps with memory and learning, retaining information.

During my years of poor sleep, I struggled to sometimes put a sentence together (struggling to find the correct words or struggling to actually grab the idea that I was trying to express) and most certainly I struggled with low energy and was very regularly ill… it actually led to tonsillectomy and very low mood.

I find it is very easy to neglect sleep, it is very easy to ignore our circadian rhythm, especially with our favourite programmes being available 24/7, with lockdowns at the moment, etc… but it has never been as important as now to look after our immune system. Sleep is an easy way to start.

With love, C❣️

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/how-sleep-affects-immunity

🌳 The Power of Nature 🌳

A study led by the University of Exeter found that people who spent at least 2 hours a week in nature were healthier and expressed a greater sense of well-being than people who didn’t get outside at all.

It didn’t matter if it was 2 hours outside at one time or whether it was achieved with shorter visits over the course of the week.

Less than 2 hours did not have significant effect on health or wellbeing and more than 5 hours offered no extra benefits.

Some ways you can get 2 hours a week are:

- taking a walk. This will help you relieve stress and get more in tune with your circadian rhythm being led by natural sunlight.

- eat / go outside at lunchtime rather than sitting at your desk. It will also help your brain switch off a little and by thinking of something else and chatting to people, you might solve the problem you were staring at.

- look at nature’s patterns: clouds, trees, grass, etc... and take it in. Fractals have an almost instantaneous calming effect.

As a home educating family, we often take our work or games outside to the park and soak up the sun to let our bodies make vitamin D.

I know that lately my morning walk has also given me time to myself, energy & definitely a sense of happiness.

With love, C ❣️

I thought I would introduce myself a little bit.

I am a mother of two teenagers and we have been home-educating for about 8 years. It has its ups & downs but mainly, it is wonderful to be around those two amazing human beings and to be around watching them grow. It can be a big pressure but most of the time, we manage it pretty well... though with hormones knocking on everyone’s doors at the moment, it can also be chaotic and challenging as there are hardly any breaks from each other.

We recently moved to a city and are very grateful to be in a friendly neighbourhood. It makes a change to where we used to live.

I have always liked cooking but became a little bit obsessed with giving our eldest the “right“ food when he stopped relying on my milk. I then discovered how much sugar there was in our food and how sugar can create hormone imbalances. That was the beginning of our food journey.

As our daughter tended to need to vomit quite regularly with nothing diagnosed by doctors, I knew there was something else we needed to change.
Hubby also had digestive problems and I had knee pain & was overweight...

We heard about The Plant Paradox, somehow, and read it. It made plenty of sense to us with what we were going through and so we tried eating as compliant as we could without being overboard.
We noticed some improvement.

Lockdown came in 🇬🇧 and once again my daughter vomited and I thought: “Now is the prefect time to go all in!“ & we did.

I have lost all the extra-weight I was carrying on because I don’t have any cravings any more so I don’t need to eat all day.
I don’t have knee pain anymore.
My daughter hasn’t been sick once since we started 2 years ago.
My husband’s digestion is much better.
Our skins have improved.
Our son and daughter are always hungry... but I’m told that’s teenagers for you!

We are thriving on this lifestyle and it feels so good.

I am now on a quest to find my purpose and I know that I want to HELP people... I am still a little unsure how but think I want to use what I have learned on sleep, food and self-care / mindfulness to achieve this. Hence this page.

With love, C ❣️

P.S.: Poncho made by my lovely friend Sali Pike

If you can't go out in nature, bring nature in!

With love, C x

Remember 20 minutes a day is enough.
For me, the best time is first thing in the morning, before everyone else gets up, before things get in the way and become an excuse not to do it.
I walk and I paste a smile on my face if I feel like it’s a real effort because “I don’t feel like it”... a fake smile will trick your body to think you are enjoying yourself and so will release endorphins, the happy hormone!
And then if you see someone, smile even more... it is contagious and safe, I would even say it is vital!

Hearing the birds on my morning walk definitely bring a real smile on my face. I tried to record them but they stopped as soon as I got the camera out so you only have a picture of the mist.

With love, C x