Just Breathe Holistic Health and Wellness

First time massages are always special. 💛 Two friends came in together tonight for their very first bodywork sessions.
While her friend was getting ready for her session, I set this friend up with a yoga mat, a cozy blanket, and some warm apple cider… and this is how she made herself right at home. 🧘‍♀️🍎
Sometimes the best part of self-care is simply giving yourself permission to slow down for a little while and BREATHE.
I am so honored that they trusted me with their very first bodywork experience 🥰

Just Breathe …

1. If you woke up today, you already received something money can never buy.
Another morning means another chance to love, change, begin again, and experience something you've never experienced before.

2. If you can breathe, walk, see, hear, or hold someone's hand, don't call your life ordinary.
The things you barely notice today may be the things you would desperately wish for tomorrow.

3. If you can still make choices, your story isn't finished.
You may not control everything that happens, but you still have power over what you do next.

4. Money can buy an expensive bed, but it cannot guarantee peaceful sleep.
If your mind can rest peacefully tonight, you already possess a form of wealth many people spend their lives searching for.

5. Your scars are not evidence that life defeated you.
They are reminders that something painful happened—and you found a way to keep going.

6. Stop borrowing pain from tomorrow.
Anxiety makes you suffer through possibilities that may never happen while stealing the only moment you can actually live: today.

7. Don't overlook the people who love you while chasing the people who don't.
Sometimes the greatest blessings in your life are sitting beside you while you're busy looking somewhere else.

8. You don't need your entire life figured out today.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is take the next step without knowing exactly where the road leads.

9. One day, you will miss an ordinary day that you didn't realize was beautiful.
The morning you rushed through, the meal you barely noticed, the conversation you postponed—these moments become memories faster than you think.

10. Before asking life for more, pause and notice what is already here.
Your breath. Your body. Your loved ones. Another sunrise. Another chance. Another moment to begin again.

The truth is...

Life doesn't always become meaningful when something extraordinary happens.

Sometimes meaning is already present in the ordinary things we've become too distracted to notice.

So slow down.

Look around.

Appreciate what is still here.

Because someday, you may realize that what you were desperately searching for...

was quietly present in your life all along.

🥹🤮
Even if EPA’s conventional risk assessment says the labeled exposure is acceptable, is that framework adequate for a persistent fluorinated pesticide whose long-term environmental consequences may be difficult to predict?

The U.S. EPA just approved a carcinogenic herbicide called trifludimoxazin for agricultural use on a wide range of crops, including corn, wheat, oats, soybeans, peanuts, citrus fruits (including oranges), apples, and tree nuts such as almonds.

Trifludimoxazin is also considered by many environmental groups to be a PFAS pesticide because it contains highly fluorinated chemical structures and can break down into persistent fluorinated compounds - i.e. nature can't break it down properly as it's synthetic. Environmental organizations have described it as a "forever chemical" and have filed lawsuits challenging the EPA's approval.

Environmental groups have also pointed out that the company's own studies showed evidence suggesting cancer concerns and that the EPA downplayed those findings whe not was approved. The EPA claims the product is safe and that people shouldn't be concerned. Not a good look for MAHA.

As per usual with a systems view, the EPA's decisions are financial first, not human and ecological wellbeing first. The way they see it, if a herbicide helps farmers control resistant weeds and maintain crop yields, regulators will approve even if they are unsure of the long term consequences on humans and nature.

The short sightedness of this view is that while in some cases you might see higher yields and lower costs, the potential environmental costs may take decades to appear and are spread across society - much like they are now with other unwise decisions that have been made. While the system tends to reward the, it punishes humans and nature in the long term.

Why have we designed a food and regulatory system to avoid looking at cumulative, long-term environmental risks before they become major problems?