Tag Archives: balance

Finding Inspiration

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I am honored to introduce Michelle Pino who offered to write an inspirational post in honor of National Women’s Week. Sweet Michelle works at Skana Spa in Upstate NY. She truthfully stated to me through e-mail: To me, the daily stresses and life’s challenges, make it so important to make health a priority and inspire us to treat our body right. That motivation morphed into habit once I knew how great taking care of myself felt!

I couldn’t agree more with Michelle. I will let her explain how she keeps health a priority:

Finding Healthy Inspiration

Typically used by wedding and event coordinators, inspiration boards are an assortment of different images that encourage you.  Inspiration boards can be used as a natural way of brainstorming.  Whether your goal is to plan a party or do a closet rehabilitation, inspiration boards will assist you in planning out the necessary steps required to make the process more streamlined.
Here are some easy guidelines to follow when creating an inspiration board:

1. Start looking for images.                                                                                                 This can be done on a poster board or electronically.  Electronically, you can search the web to search your favorite sites to find images.  If you’re creating a tangible poster board, clip images from catalogs or magazines.  The simplest way to do this is by making it a point to not look for any specific thing but rather find images that simply catch your eye.  With the right photos of fitness activities, relaxing destinations, recipes, health food or music lyrics, you can create the perfect inspiration board.

2. Find your focus.
What similarities do your gathered pictures have?  Do you notice a trend?  Is it a particular detail?  A color-scheme?  Find the picture that will be the centerpiece of your creation.

 3. Connect the images.                                                                                               Continue narrowing down your collected items to images that are a better connection to the centerpiece of your project.

 4. Mix it up.
Try a certain combination, look at it for a while and then try another.  Try different combinations of images.  Do this until you find one that satisfies you.  For fresh perspective, you may want to leave your project for a few hours, then come back to it.

 5. Begin creating your inspiration board.                                                                            You can bring your finished board with you when shopping for supplies or selecting new paint.  Don’t be shy about modifying your board as you go, particularly if you discover that some aspect of the board isn’t working and needs tweaking.

 Here is an example board:

Relaxing BoardPhoto Credit: New York Golf Club | Beach Yoga| Paintbrush | Cabin on the Lake |

What inspires me to be active and aspire to live a healthier life is the outdoors.  I love to travel and see new places.  To me, there’s no better feeling than enjoying the outdoors.  I’m really inspired by yoga for a number of reasons.  Yoga focuses the mind and body, teaching ourselves to find a spiritual balance.  I also love that yoga can be done anywhere, even the beach!  Simple yoga poses are simple stretches that can be done in the comfort of your own home or when traveling.  Yoga is great for beginners and the more advanced athlete.  I love the idea of doing yoga on the beach.  The beach is so relaxing, a great place for yoga or walking. 

The outdoors is what truly inspires me and I’ve used for the center of my inspiration.  I’ve been taking lessons near my work at New York golf club, Shenendoah, as a way to spend more time outside. Golf is great because not only is it less strenuous activity, but you also have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors.  Another relaxing activity I’d like to try is painting.  I think painting is a great stress reliever, even if you’re not an artist, it can be a relaxing hobby.

It’s hard to make lifestyle changes that stick over time.  The key to persisting with any healthy lifestyle is balance.  Whether you want to eat more organic food, start exercising daily or just master certain fitness goals, an inspiration board can help you figure out those goals and fine tune what makes you tick so that you stay focused on getting your health together.

Michelle Pino has provided these tips in hopes to educate others on how to lead a more motivating and less stressful life.  Michelle believes more focused approach put on our health will result in more balanced life.  Her hobbies include cooking, DIY projects and learning about healthy lifestyles.  Michelle is thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Alison and together share their ideas on “­­­­­­­­­Berry Happy Bodies”.

Thank you Michelle!

 

Balance

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Life has it’s ways of throwing us off balance.  Like swimming in the rapids of a rushing river, when you really just want to be floating along in a inner tube soaking up the rays. Of course, we all strive to swim with the stream, floating over and around obstacles effortlessly. Inevitably, some days are better than others. Sometimes we find our self off course, and swimming upstream.

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In the past when this would happen I would freak out, wondering when my next breath would be. Over time I developed tools to pull me back into balance, and back into my flow. I also began to realize, swimming up stream is not always such a bad thing. In the middle of the experience, it may be difficult to breathe, my muscles may burn, and my center maybe off. However, it is during the letting go and just moving forward that I grow and learn from the struggle. Then when I make it to smoother currents,  I realize how much I’ve overcome and how much stronger I am.

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The tools to help you find the current to drift again vary from person to person, or even day to day. For me, when I feel my heart rate quicken and anxiety rise I to take a step back. Then I slow my breathing and focus on a solution. If it is a situation that may take days or weeks to resolve I find maintaining good nutrition, exercise, meditation, downtime and sleep in as close to my normal rhythm as possible helps me to just take it day by day.  It is not always perfect and some days many deep breaths are needed, but overall I feel I am better able to drift with the ups and downs of life.

 

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Prioritize

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Being comfortable in my own skin doesn’t come naturally to me. My path to where I am now (continuously evolving) has been through twists and turns, peaks and valleys, sun and snow. You get the picture.

But, it’s the reason why I entered the Health Industry in my teens. And, it’s the reason I’m still here now.

So yes, I’ve been through some unhealthy times where I didn’t work out, ate too much and gained weight.  I can tell you, these were not my happiest of mental places, or my best years. I could choose to blame it on some injuries. Or to scapegoat my lack of time, or situations outside my control.

The truth is and will always be, it is my decision. My decision on how to act or react from moment to moment, my choice. At that time I didn’t know, or understand this. I think I’m finally starting to. Thanks to my husband, family and friends for the support through the years.

I believe it’s all part of my purpose. Part of my reason for being here. To go through challenging times and make it out on the other side to share with you. Help one another, that’s what life is about right? Sharing experiences. I’m starting to feel more comfortable with that.

Anyways, take home lesson of all that.

Health is a choice. It’s what you choose to prioritize everyday to help you get where you want to go.

Even if you are injured, and can’t workout the way you want to. You can still focus on helping your body to heal.

Currently, I have not been making health a priority as much as I usually do. It’s been super busy, which is good. However, my workouts have been a little less intense, a diet a little less clean, overall a little less balance. It’s time for a little Health Spring Cleaning.

This week choose to prioritize the people, places and things that will help you to be your healthiest, physically and mentally. It’s not always the easiest, but it is definitely the most rewarding.

K, going to step off the soap box now. Thanks for listening. If you need help cleaning up your diet, check out my new affiliate Sunfood.

They are a local business in San Diego, who sells organic, and raw superfoods online. Perfect for vegetarians, vegans, athletes, or if you are just trying to add more nutrition value to your meals. I’ve tried several of their products over the years, and they have delicious high quality superfoods. Plus, a variety of minerals and other supplements on their site. To get to their site just click on the Sunfood button to the right.

For workouts take a look at Lindsay’s Friday Flow at Sweetness and Health  to find a new workout, or add your own.