Where does your self esteem come from?

I just heard portia-de-rossi say this in an interview and felt it worth repeating...

“If your self esteem depends on how you look you're always gonna be insecure. There's no way you can get around it because if you get the perfect body- you're going to age- you're going to get older and older, you can't avoid it. You have to somehow at some point take control and shift your focus and decide that who you are, what you can contribute to the world, what you do and say is so much more important than how you look” 

learn to love & appreciate who you are on the inside

Stress Awareness Day

5 de-stressers  for keeping the balance 

New scientific research is showing us what the ancients have taught us from old, that emotional wellness determines the state of our physical health.
 It's particularly relevant for us to understand the body/mind connection now as many folk begin each week with a to-do list the length of Great Britain! 


Usually we're so busy we can't even hear ourselves think, let alone hear our inner guidance asking us

to be still for a moment. In fact, often we’ll only stop to take proper care of ourselves once the physical symptoms of stress become uncomfortably obvious. 
 With our system on regular high stress alert the brain activates the stress hormone cortisol. An excess of this ageing hormone can cause a myriad of conditions from insomnia to temporary memory loss, raised blood pressure, insulin resistance or even extra fat around the middle and not just because you'd be more prone to emotional eating but because cortisol actually directs the body to store fat in the abdomen.

Emotional wellness is a mental game and winning can be easier than you think, here are 5 simple steps to give yourself a check-up from the neck up to stay in the mental balancing game. 

1, Practice your breathing: get out of your "head clutter" by bringing your awareness to your heart area, visualise breathing in and out from there for 3 minutes slow gentle minutes.

2, Know appreciation appreciates: whilst doing focused breathing, soothe your soul by remembering or visualising 3 things/people/situations that you are grateful for. This can change your physiology and build great go-to emotions faster than any pill on the planet.

3, Magnify 1 and 2 by doing them outside, breathing natural air and experiencing daylight produces natural melatonin that aids sleep at night.

4, Prioritise spending time with people you love, perhaps teach them steps 1 to 3.

5, Laugh. A good belly laugh really is fantastic medicine, book yourself some time to watch or read a comedy, hang out with your funniest buddy (or multitask and do both). You know even just smiling when you're alone actually physically guides the body to relax :-) 

Bright blessings, Dawn