Tips for when your brain or body needs a little push

Your weight loss journey has plateaued. Focus seems to be a thing of the past. You can’t for the life of you remember what you were supposed to remember. Sleep has forsaken you yet again. Acne, you were supposed to stay in the awkward teen years. Your not regular and headaches keep popping up. What’s happening?!

Your body is talking to you! Your brain is talking to you! You are talking to you! Unfortunately, most people have forgotten their first language. Self-speak. But that’s ok! Relearning it is amazingly easy. It starts with reconnecting with yourself. That might sound really culty and imaginary, but think of it like riding a bike. Or doing yoga or dance or working out at the gym! When you first start out, everything hurts. As you become better practiced, you realize that what you’re feeling isn’t pain but stretching, and building, and maybe even a little bit of soreness. You relearn your body’s language! And here’s some quick ways to get yourself back on track, get your body working, your brain working, and your self-speak back to an A++.

1) Breathe. Duh. Everyone knows they have to breath, and everyone hears “take a deep breath”. But wait. Try this. Do breathing exercises. Not just regular deep breathing, but actual breathing exercises. I highly recommend following the Wim Hoff method. Practicing that once a day or at least a few times a week will help to boost your mood, your energy, your metabolism, your cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, help you sleep, and so much more.

2) Do yoga. Ok, ok, you don’t have to go do whole yoga classes. But once in a while go through a few yoga flows and feel your body move. You’ll be surprised at what you find, and you’ll be even more surprised at what you notice as time goes on. It’ll also teach you to recognize types of pain, and pinpoint less generally where they are so that you’ll be able to treat the inflamed area more easily.

3) Cut out sugary drinks and coffee. As best that you can. At least reduce them. Caffeine might give you a boost in the moment, but it makes you more tired overall. WHAT?! I know. Sugar does the same but even worse, and it absolutely ruins your body and brain. Did you know it reduces your ability to focus, remember, learn, and comprehend? And that it dehydrates you significantly? Did you know that most people are terribly dehydrated and never knew? Did you know that it actually takes 3 months to hydrate and that’s why no matter how much you drink when you play beach volleyball you still get all gross feeling later? Or that your skin and hair is dry? Or that you can’t sleep and you’re holding onto water weight and that your stomach hurts sometimes when you eat even the healthiest of foods? Drink some water.

4) Start testing yourself. In every possible way. Don’t compete, just challenge yourself. Try to memorize long lines of numbers. Learn a new language. Take a free course online. Jog to the end of the block and back. Start using your non-dominant hand for things. Make yourself put in the work. Exercise your body and brain. A little goes a long way.

5) Change up your diet. No, don’t “go on a diet”, just change your diet. And I don’t mean that you have to go fully raw either. Reduce your meat intake, reduce your dairy intake, seriously reduce your processed sugar intake (natural sugars ACTUALLY taste good by the way), and add an extra few fruits and veggies into your day. This can be really easy too. Not only will it fix your digestive issues, but it’ll do all of those things that we were just saying needs to be done! From skin issues to neurological issues and everything in between. Ok, so how? Fruit and vegetable mix juices (the ones that just taste like fruit juice are an obvious choice for picky eaters), get your daily dose of vitamins in. Opt for the veggie option a few times a week. Nuts and seeds with dark chocolate is an amazing, energizing (natural caffeine!!!) snack. And remember, kids! Plant protein is the ONLY complete protein! (And North America is the ONLY place where protein packed diets are considered healthy. Everywhere else it’s considered a death trap.)

6) Take cold showers. At least cool showers. At least cool at the end of your showers. Cold is best, but cool is still great. It’ll help you in so many ways. It boosts your immune system, it boosts your energy (long term, not just in the moment if you keep up with it), it reduces inflammation (including skin issues), it assists your metabolism, it helps your hair, and much much more. And maybe it’ll help you save on your water bill too (bonus points for being environmentally friendly)!

7) This one’s important. And it might not sit well with you. Self-care is not indulgence. Repeat it after me. Self-care. Is. Not. Indulgence. We self-care wrong here in the 21st century. We watch too much Netflix when we should be going for a nightly walk. We go for too many runs when we should be soaking our feet in a salt bath. We drink too much alcohol when we should be having deep conversations. We have too many complaining conversations (guised as deep conversations) when we should be dancing with friends. What you want might not be what you need. But once you start to understand self-speak again, what you need will probably be what you want. So cheers.

It’s a short list with with long term miracles. Don’t just test it for a few days. Build a habit. You’ll be surprised when you notice how your life changes.