Steps to a Healthier and Happier You

Giving to yourself, honoring yourself and loving yourself is important. As you take the time to eat right, exercise, meditate or fulfill your own need, you will begin to experience a sense of empowerment, peace and harmony. Each step that you take will help to bring the scales back into balance.

Exercise

Balance in all things is critical to maintaining health, not only physical health, but emotional and spiritual health as well. In the hectic drive of today's world, many women forget to take care of their most important asset, themselves. In an effort to help people of all ages learn to take care of and nurture themselves, here are some easy ideas you can use to bring balance and harmony into your life, starting with exercise

Eat Right

Eating right is another key toward having and maintaining health and balance in your life. As our society changes and the basis of life becomes accelerated, many of us get trapped in the idea that faster is better. How many times have you found yourself getting frustrated as you sit in your car waiting in line at a fast food restaurant? Or watch as the clock ticks away, counting down the seconds until the microwave announces that your food selection is ready?

Take Multivitamins

Hand in hand with eating healthy is the use of vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. Food production has dramatically changed the nutritional value of the foods we eat. As plants grow, they absorb minerals from the earth, making them available to us in a form our bodies can utilize. Modern farming has stripped the soil of many of the minerals we require. Common industrial fertilizers, while providing the plant with the basic nutrients it needs to grow, lack the full spectrum of minerals originally found in the earth, many of which we ultimately need to survive.

Have a Blissful Day

Stress is a word we are all too familiar with. If it is not the job, it is the kids. If it isn't the kids, it is some unexpected expense you haven't budgeted for. Let's face it, stress is accepted as a basic part of our lives.

Meditate

Meditation is a great technique to use for stress reduction. Meditation can be either active or passive. Active meditation includes exercise, drawing or dancing. Even activities such as doing the dishes or raking the lawn can have a relaxing therapeutic effect. Meditation can also be passive utilizing techniques such as concentration, breath control and even creative visualization. Each of these activities distracts the conscious mind and allows unwanted thoughts and emotions to drain away.

Reduce Stress

Through my work, I have found countless woman who do not know what they want, need or desire. They have spent a majority their lives "taking care" of someone else. When asked what they want, many of them just don't know. They have never taken the time to ask themselves these important questions. They were not taught to take care of themselves or the importance of honoring their needs or their needs and desires are just as important as everyone else's. Why should they? It is not part of our society.

So how do you figure out what your needs and desires? I have found journaling to be an excellent way to help you clarify your thoughts, needs and desires. Journaling gives you the opportunity to separate out your feelings from those around you. It gives you the opportunity to figure out who you really are.

Write a Journal

Journaling is an easy technique to master. Buy yourself a blank writing book, staple together some scrap paper or sit in front of your computer, taking a few minutes each day to write to yourself. As yourself questions like: What do I want? What do I need? What kinds of things make me happy? Where am I going in my life? Where do I want to go? As you start to explore some of these questions, take the time to listen to your answers. Be honest with yourself. What is the point of lying, you will only be deceiving yourself.

Have Fun

That's right, just go ahead and do it. You never know, you may enjoy yourself. Take the time to give to yourself daily.