Posted on Leave a comment

5 Healthy Benefits of a Slower Morning Routine

5 Healthy Benefits of a Slower Morning Routine

As we let go of the idea of “hustle culture” and embrace a simple, slower lifestyle, the topic of slower morning routines has naturally come up. This doesn’t mean every morning needs to be slow-paced and gentle. The more often you can add it into your life, however, the less stressed and anxious you will feel overall.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a slower morning.

Your Day Starts Calm and Peaceful

One major benefit to having a slower morning is that your day starts so much calmer. When your day starts like this, the rest of the day tends to be stress-free as well. Think about the days when something bad happens right when you wake up. Your alarm didn’t go off and you’re now running late, or you wake up to a sick kid in your bed. Everything is just complete chaos. You feel that stress for the entire day. It feels like when one bad thing happens, all the bad things happen. It’s because your mindset is already in a negative, stressful state.

Imagine how different your day would be if you woke up calmly, happy and relaxed. A slow, intentional morning routine makes all the difference.

Slower Mornings Give You More Energy

Slow mornings actually give you more energy, not less. People often think of them as lazy, but really when you get up slowly and naturally, your body adjusts to the day at a more balanced pace. In turn, your energy picks up naturally as well.

You Prioritize and Focus on What Matters

With a slow morning routine, you don’t have time for 10+ habits anymore. This is actually a good thing, because it allows you to prioritize your habits and only include what is necessary and what benefits you. Chances are, even if you currently have a long morning routine, many those habits aren’t benefitting you as much as you think.

We tend to do what other people are doing, so when we see someone who does yoga in the morning or always drinks matcha tea, we want to do that too. Everyone is unique with different needs, though, so what works for one person, might not work for you. This is why prioritizing tasks during a slow morning routine is so helpful.

filled teacup with saucer beside good morning card and pen and macaroons benefits of a slower morning routine slow morning
Photo by George Dolgikh on Pexels.com

Everything You Do is With Intention

Similar to prioritizing your habits, a slow morning allows you to do more things with intention. You know that every step you take in your morning is something you thought a lot about, and know is going to benefit you greatly. It isn’t just mindlessly checking items off a list. You put a lot of thought into each step of your morning routine.

You choose to no longer rush through a dozen tasks every morning. Instead you pick a few of the most important ones, and each one is done with intention.

A Slower Morning Makes You Feel More Productive

People choosing a slower morning often report being more productive. With a more intentional and mindful approach to your morning habits, you increase your focus and energy. This helps you feel ready to take on the day’s tasks. Just like a chaotic morning, an intentional, slow morning’s energy follows you throughout the rest of the day.

If you want to be productive, don’t try to do too much within the first couple minutes of waking up. Give yourself time to wake up, go through some healthy habits, make your bed, have breakfast, and then focus on working.

To make sure you never miss a post, please sign up for my newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

Signs You Need a Slow Morning Routine

Signs You Need a Slow Morning Routine

Our mornings set the tone for the day. Who hasn’t heard the adage from Benjamin Franklin, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”? The common trend is to do as much as you can in the morning. We’re told to get up at 5:00am, have a smoothie, workout, and fit in hours worth of stuff before our “real” work begins. Instead of a simple, slow morning routine, we’ve been told to squeeze productivity into every second.

Luckily, many people are moving beyond this concept and embracing the beauty of a calm, slow morning routine. It is not a lazy one, it’s a gentle one. A slow, simple routine allows you time to gradually get up, and move at your own pace. It simplifies your routine to just the few most important habits you have.

How do you know it’s time for a slow morning routine? Here are some signs to look out for:

You Always Wake Up Anxious or Stressed

This is probably the biggest and most common sign that you are in need of slowing down in the morning. Waking up already stressed or anxious is a sign of having a lot of stress in your life. But it can also be because your mornings are always so hectic and rushed and stressful, then you are anticipating it from the moment you open your eyes.

There is no better reason than to start slowing down and simplifying your morning routine, to see if it helps with your stress and anxiety. You may notice this is exactly what you needed.

You Dread Getting Out of Bed

Another big sign of needing to adjust or reset your morning routine is when you dread getting out of bed altogether. This might not be just because of the rest of your day, like not wanting to go to work or having responsibilities you aren’t excited about. But really just having an overly chaotic morning. When you notice you just want to stay in bed and keep putting off starting your morning, it is a good sign that you and to make some changes.

a person holding an alarm clock. Slow morning routine
Photo by Anastasiya Vragova on Pexels.com

Your Mornings Are Always Chaotic

Naturally, if you have chaotic mornings, you should change that. The challenge is that people think this is normal. We all make jokes about how nothing is ready, the kids never want to get dressed, and how we are always hustling. This isn’t a good thing, however, and it doesn’t always have to be the case.

You can have a calmer morning by just adjusting your routine and schedule a little bit. No matter what your lifestyle is like, there are almost always changes to make to have a calmer, slow morning routine.

You Have No Consistent Morning Routine

Some people claim they don’t have a morning routine. What they really mean is that they don’t have a consistent morning routine. Their mornings are so varied and sporadic, they tend to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, not really having a plan or any intentions in place.

If this sounds like you, what you need is consistency. That is exactly what a slow morning routine gives you. It tends to be much calmer and more relaxed, with far fewer habits to go through. Even if your routine just consists of drinking coffee on the porch before getting ready for work, that one little habit is something you can do every single morning. It creates the habit of consistency that you need. 

For me, even though I love everyone being home for the summer, it throws my morning routine off. This, in turn, throws my days off. I don’t have a huge morning routine during the school year, but the consistency makes all the difference. With no schedule commitments, I should have more time to get things done. Instead, the lack of consistency makes me less productive overall.

You Feel Like You Have No Time to Yourself

Lastly, if you feel like you have no time for yourself, you definitely need a slow morning routine. This creates the intention that you are doing something just for you, with no distractions and no responsibilities. It includes absolutely anything you want it to include. Maybe that’s something as simple as reading in bed for a few minutes before getting up, having your favorite tea or coffee with no distractions, or meditating. Anything that gives you a bit of peace in your morning.

If this is something you need in your life, keep following for ways to revamp your morning routine and how it will benefit you.

Posted on 2 Comments

Meditation Basics for Stress Management In 4 Easy Steps

beautiful woman practicing meditation on yoga mat

Stress is something that plagues most people these days. Jobs, health, relationships and all the random unexpected surprises can lead to stress. Meditation is one technique often used for stress management. Best of all, it’s free. Meditation techniques help a person achieve a calm state of mind without drugs or relaxation tools and implements. Every step to meditation is done in the mind.

If you’ve never meditated, it can be a bit daunting at first. Here are some steps for a beginner to start with meditation as their stress management strategy.

Find A Quiet Corner To Start Your Meditation.

If you’ve ever stayed awake at night thinking about something that happened years ago, your to do list and why Pluto is no longer a planet and also why is Pluto a dog-dog and Goofy a human-dog, you know that our brains are awesome at creating distractions. The last thing you need when starting a meditation practice is more distraction from the outside. When you close your eyes, your sense of hearing will be twice as good, so almost any noise in your surroundings will make it hard for you to concentrate.

For beginners, it is important to start out in a quiet place in your home where noise is non-existent. (Ha!) While not necessary, you may want some ear plugs, headphones, a fan or other source of white noise, or some suitable meditation music. These can help block out the noise or give your brain somewhere to focus.

woman in white button up long sleeve shirt sitting on black couch in lotus position Meditation
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Ready Your Position.

It is best for beginners to avoid lying down when practicing meditation. The goal is not to sleep, and it is likely that you will fall asleep if your mind reaches a relaxed state. To stop this from happening, you can start your meditation in a comfortable seated position. This can be on the floor, on a cushion, in a chair, wherever you are most comfortable. It is absolutely not necessary to meditate in the lotus position, unless that is what is most comfortable for you. I know my knees and hips do not tolerate it!

Once you’ve found a comfortable position, make sure that your back is straight and your hands are relaxed on the armrest or on your lap. Do a quick scan of your body and adjust any areas that are likely to cause pain after a few minutes. You’ll also want to relax any areas of tension as much as possible.

Begin Your Meditation With Proper Breathing.

Once you are in a comfortable position, you’ll focus on breathing. Some say to inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. To me, that is distracting. I find it better to just breathe through my nose. In my experience, the best way is whatever is most comfortable to you.

I have recently heard that the exhale is the important part for relaxation, so you may want to focus on making the exhale longer than the inhale. What I often do is inhale for a count of four and out for eight. I do that at the beginning of my meditation for about four or five cycles. Then I stop counting and let my body try to continue that rhythm. I know I don’t stay exactly on the 4-8 pattern, but it’s not about perfection. If I start to get distracted, I bring my mind back to focus on my breathing and counting again.

The cool thing about this breathing technique, is you can use it outside of meditation to calm down in a stressful situation. Even if you’ve never meditated before, it will help. Once you associate it with meditation, it will be even more effective.

Focus On Your Mind.

While concentrating on your breathing, eventually your mind will start throwing images at you. These are mostly random- events of the day, future plans, problems and worries, fears and so on. It will be hard to ignore these thoughts and you are not supposed to ignore them. The goal here is to acknowledge these thoughts and then release them. This might sound hard, but, honestly it’s something we do all the time.

Here is a simple example to understand the concept. You know that you have furniture at home- you can see it clearly with your eyes, but you aren’t really concentrating on it. Focusing on the furniture makes you think of its color, its material, how it looks in that part of your home, and more. When you don’t focus on it, the furniture fades into the background.

Likewise, you need to look at these random thoughts in a similarly detached state, seeing them clearly in your head but not focusing your attention on it. Eventually, these random thoughts will stop and you will notice that youre already in a blank space in your mind. This is the state you want to achieve during meditation. This blank space is where you can think about a problem or goal and focus on it till you can find a solution. Your “mind palace” for any Sherlock fans.

woman in black top sitting on brown armchair meditating
Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Remember that meditation is not a one shot deal. It is almost impossible to attain a calm state of mind in just a matter of minutes, especially if it’s your first time. It is important that you keep practicing meditation until you have conditioned your mind to achieve that calm state just by thinking about it.

With this, you have successfully mastered the basics of meditation for your stress management program.

To make sure you never miss a post, please sign up for my newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

6 Simple Self Care Practices You Can Start Now

Between work, home, and family responsibilities, do you often feel that all your time is spent taking care of others? Neglecting self care is easy, especially for moms, but the consequences can be serious. Adding self-care practices to your daily routine can greatly strengthen your health and well-being. It’s like they tell you when flying. You need to secure your own oxygen mask before helping others. Otherwise, you won’t be able to help anyone else.

Here are 6 basic self care practices to get started:

 

  • Block out time for self-care in your schedule. It’s not enough to occasionally stop your busy lifestyle and take a walk or indulge in a hot bath. Self-care is an ongoing process. Just as you reserve time in your schedule for other appointments, set aside time to take care of yourself, too.  It’s important to adopt self-care habits that you can enjoy on a regular basis. They’ll help you avoid burnout, increase your productivity, and allow you to enjoy life.
  • Enjoy your favorite hobby. Whether you love to experiment with new recipes in the kitchen sew, or paint pictures of sunsets, your favorite hobbies can be part of self-care. Hobbies and activities that you already enjoy are easy to select and put into practice. You just have to find room in your schedule to do them. This is an important step and shows your commitment to self-care.
photo of person holding cup
Photo by Alina Vilchenko on Pexels.com
  • Make note of the compliments you receive. You can enjoy this self-care practice even as you work or run errands! Start taking notes of the compliments you receive. You can keep them in a journal, diary, or online folder. Your compliment folder can also include emails, notes, thank you cards, and other things that make you smile. This self-care practice can help you fight negative thoughts. Compliments can serve as reminders that you matter, your existence is important, and someone appreciates you. On that same note, find reasons to give genuine compliments to others. It just might make their day, too!
  • Remove clutter. Whether you decide to declutter your closet or clean out the fridge, removing clutter will uplift you. Clutter can drain you physically and mentally. It can also make you unhappy as you try to move through your day.  Eliminate the things that no longer serve you. For example, if you’re keeping clothes in your closet that you hate each time you open the door, replace them with clothes that you love. Since you’re here, you probably sew. 🙂 Old, ill-fitting or clothing that just isn’t your style can be altered or used for the fabric and notions. That way you can eliminate clutter frugally and engage in your hobby.
Self care
  • Do one selfish act. Living selfishly all day isn’t recommended, but doing one thing just for yourself that makes you happy can do wonders. You can enjoy just that one thing without feeling guilty about it! If you struggle with self-care, it’s often because you spend all of your energy and time taking care of others. There’s nothing left in your well for yourself. By taking the time to do one selfish act, such as reading your favorite book or ignoring a boring phone call, you’ll be restoring your own importance.
  • Check off important health related self-care tasks. This is the most important one of all. Self care on social media is all about the relaxing baths, the books, hobbies, etc. Those things are an important element, but far more important is taking time to have that checkup, go to the dentist, or find a therapist. Take a moment to schedule that appointment that you’ve been putting off. I’m in the US, so I know that access to healthcare isn’t always easy, but there are some resources and low-cost options to explore.

Self-care often takes a backseat to work, family, and other obligations. However, without stopping to take care of your mind and body, you’re at risk of burning out and suffering from serious health issues. Start making time for your self-care practices today! 

To make sure you never miss a post, please sign up for my newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

Never Ending Upcycled Chaos Candle Making

I love candles and wax melts, but I hate it when there’s a little left in the bottom of a jar or the wax has lost it’s scent. I don’t want to just throw the wax away. If it’s a jar candle, I won’t throw it a way, so it ends up taking up space waiting for me to find a new use for it. 

I’ve always been interested in candle making, but I honestly don’t know much about the correct way to do it. This is just my, for me, kind of chaotic, fun way of using up the leftover wax scraps and jars. If you try to join in my chaos, always take care with the melting, pouring and burning, make sure everything you use is safe for this usage and never leave anything burning or melting unattended.

My solution is to melt down the wax and make my own candles in the old jars. I bought this wick set for the wicks. I start by picking the jar I want to use and then putting in the same number of wicks that were originally in the jar.

Chaos layered perpetual never-ending upcycled candles candle making
My candles still need a haircut. 😀

For the candles in the above photo, the one on the left was originally a three wick candle, so it got three wicks. The one on the right was a yogurt jar, so I just guessed and went with one wick.

After the wicks are in place, I melt down any scrap wax I have and pour it in. Usually, I do this a little at a time as I finish other candles, rather than all at once. That gives it the cool sand art layered look.

With jar candles, to get the last bit of wax out, if I don’t pour it while it’s still melted from the last time I burned the candle, I set the jar on my coffee warmer (do not leave it unattended!). Wax melts just get melted as usual and poured into the jar.

Coffee warmer
Coffee warmer- Not just for coffee.

I do try to keep the candles mostly the same type of wax. In the photo, the big candle on the left is made from candle wax ends. The yogurt jar candle is made of soy wax melts with a little of the tea light wax remnants added.

Tea light candle wax warmer
My one tea light warmer.

For scent, most of the candles I burn are in the same spicy or vanilla scent family. Since the leftover candle wax usually has a good bit of scent left, I don’t worry about adding my own. With the wax melts, I either just leave them as they are and have a mild to unscented candle, or I add a drop or two of an essential or fragrance oil to each layer as I pour it.

I don’t know if my chaos candle making method will help anyone else, but I have fun with it, and the resulting candles are pretty. It’s also a way to reduce waste and save money.

This post does contain an Amazon affiliate link. If you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

To make sure you never miss a post, please sign up for my newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

How to Use Aromatherapy to Help Insomnia

 

Aromatherapy provides a natural way to deal with insomnia, anxiety, and stress. The primary purpose of aromatherapy is to produce a scent that induces an effect on the human body. The smells from aromatherapy work on a subconscious level. Smell can affect the way that human beings react. Different smells can stimulate the brain and evoke feelings that are then associated with that smell. For example, if the smell of baking cookies reminds you of your grandma and makes you feel relaxed and safe, that is aromatherapy.

Aromatherapy is used for mental and emotional well being. The oils of aromatherapy are often used to stimulate or relax the person as needed. Some aromatherapy oils are lavender, frankincense, patchouli, chamomile, sandalwood, orange, and peppermint.

Aromatherapy to fight insomnia

There are a few different ways that you can enjoy the smells of aromatherapy. One way is to add scent to your bath water. You could blend essential oils with a carrier oil for a massage. You can even sprinkle a few drops on your pillow at night.

Herbs to fight insomnia through aromatherapy

Using aromatic herbs for insomnia

We often think that aromatherapy equals essential oils, but that is not always the case. Herbs like chamomile, lavender and peppermint are a bit more versatile as you can drink it in the form of an herbal infusion (tea). Chamomile tea is well known to be relaxing and aid in sleep.

Essential oil blends

If you look into aromatherapy for the sole purpose of insomnia there will be actual recipes that you can make yourself that act very well for insomnia. One in particular is a mixture of two drops of jasmine essential oil and four drops of lavender essential oil. This can be used in a diffuser or you can place drops of it surrounding your bed. Frankincense and patchouli are also some of my favorites for relaxation and sleep. Just make sure that it is in a place where you will be able to smell it best. This mixture can also be added to a carrier oil and used for a massage.

a woman on a massage table Massage to fight insomnia
Photo by Cojanu Alexandru on Pexels.com

Aromatherapy candles and wax melts are also available in the various scents that are mentioned above. The scent from candles and wax melts are not quite as strong in most cases as the essential oil. They are a great way to test out a new scent to see how it affects you. They are also a nice way to layer scents for aromatherapy.

Other tools to use alongside aromatherapy

Finally, in conjunction with aromatherapy, meditation and yoga work excellently for relaxation. They work as a way to free the negative energy from your body that is causing you to lose precious sleep. Besides helping with insomnia, it will lead you into a more healthy life in general.

woman in red shirt sitting on couch meditating to fight insomnia
Photo by Mikael Blomkvist on Pexels.com

The most popular aromatherapy oil used today is lavender. Lavender is very versatile and can even be grown in your own backyard. It also works great for digestive related issues and as a mild antidepressant. Further, it calms nerves, relaxes the body, and promotes sleep.

Sometimes the everyday stresses of life can build up and a combination of aromatherapy oils can be a seemingly magical tool in creating a harmonic balance, a sense of well being and relaxation, and promoting sleep.

To make sure you never miss a post, please sign up for my newsletter.

Posted on Leave a comment

New Aromatherapy Wax Melts in the Shop

fresh fruit orange beside porcelain mug

This is just a quick post to let you know about the new aromatherapy wax melt scents available at SubEarthan Cottage. I now offer Lemon Mint, Lavender Rosemary, Patchouli Orange and Lavender essential oil soy wax melts. I also still have Pumpkin Lavender and Frankincense and Myrrh fragrance oil scented soy wax melts for those who love those scents year round. 

fresh fruit orange beside porcelain mug
Photo by Ena Marinkovic on Pexels.com