Beauty of meditation

Meditation Mount in Ojai (https://meditationmount.org)

The beauty of meditation is that you can do it anywhere. And if you can find great gardens and sanctuaries, it is so much easier you to find that quiet peace of mind. So for my birthday get-away, I wanted to visit Meditation Mount in Ojai. You can see more photos on my FB page.

Other great places to enjoy meditation gardens in Los Angeles include:

* Self-realization Fellowship (my favorite is the Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades location off Sunset/PCH)

* Peace Labyrinth in the historic West Adams neighborhood

* Any park of the LA Mountains

* Or other urban parks/gardens you might find as little gems in your neighborhood.

Share with us your favorite gardens and sanctuaries! Post your best finds on our FB page.
PS If you don't know how to meditate and want to just get started with breathing out 2x as long: inhaling 1-2 (count), and exhaling long 1-2-3-4 (count). Take the time to relax and exhale slowly -- it helps lower your blood pressure, improve your heart health, and decrease anxiety and stress.

How meditation can be fun

Some people say they want to learn to meditate but worry it's too difficult or they don't like to sit still. There are so many ways to bring meditation into your life, that can be fun and help you tap into other parts of your brain! Here are some ideas below.

I'm excited that my talented friend, architect and art professor Michael Kieley, has asked me to teach meditation as a short segment of a creative Meditation-Drawing workshop that is going to be so much fun! Whether you're an artist or not, it's just great to exercise your creative muscle in a safe learning space, and he's a terrific guide for that. I have two spots reserved for Embody Health students in this special event, so please be sure to click on the event link and see if you want to join in on Sunday March 29th.

Another way to try meditation in a fun and easy way is to join my Meetup group for Heart Health Hiking. It's not just a hiking group, but we explore different parks and integrate yoga stretches, strength training, meditation, and nutrition tips. All things good for your heart health with the help of nature to get you to de-stress and relax. I started this group because I saw people who were interested in getting a good cardio workout get injured or have missing pieces of the formula for their heart health goals (nutrition, good posture, stretching, breathing/meditation techniques). One of my meditation students has inspired me with her beach walks, that we can plan a beach walk + meditation soon, once the weather is reliably not raining.

Here's an easy exercise for developing mindfulness: When you take a walk, start with taking 5 minutes of your walking to truly pay attention to your breath and the small wonders of nature you see along the way. Things like the unusual stream of light coming through the tree branches, the shapes of the clouds, the small weeds poking out between plants, the patterns of ground covers, the vibrant colors. You've now stimulated at least 2 senses (your breathing and your eyesight). As you go along, see if you can tune in to more of your 5 senses, feeling the breeze against your face, hearing more sounds, etc. Finding a curious attitude like a kid first discovering a new park or street is a way to get more present in your body and make that mind+body connection. You might enjoy this so much that 5 minutes of mindfulness becomes 10 or 15 minutes! Just tuning into your breath alone will help calm down any stress or anxiety. Have fun!

Boost your energy in less than 5 minutes

Easy ways to boost your energy in less than 5 minutes!

Some strategies only take 30 seconds of tuning in.

Are you one of those people who go non-stop? Or maybe feel rushed? Try some (or all) of these strategies and see how you get a boost of energy!

* Stop rushing and Tune in: Take breaks from the computer screen or whatever you're focused on. Close your eyes, sit tall and calm, and breath deep belly breaths for 30 seconds. You can do this on your bathroom break--sitting break, or while you're washing your hands.
* If you have a place to lie down quietly in a comfortable place, we call this "active rest," it might even be better than a nap. Our spine is working hard to be in vertical so it is such a relief to allow your spine to rest horizontal! Keep your knees bent to give your low back some support. Breathe deep belly breaths and let your back relax/melt into the mat or floor.
* Sometimes it's just that your body needs more support all around. Did you get enough healthy energizing food or snacks throughout the day? Take these Activated B vitamins that have super absorption (feel the boost within 5 minutes!). Time it either in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the post-lunch lull. B-vitamins helps support your nervous system as you deal with daily stressors and it's good for your heart! And it's great to take it before a workout. Some athletes have reported that the lift stronger weights or have other performance boosts with this vitamin B. And it's safe! Most of us are low on B-vitamins and because it's water soluble, it's safe to take several caps a day bc any extra will simply be disposed of in your urine.
* If you've had long-term stress, whether from a family/life incident or chronic long work hours, you might need some support to bring down your cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and support your adrenals. This supplement helps you improve your health of your stress hormones to a better balance-- why it's called ACTS (adrenals, cortisol, thyroid, and stress).
* Depending on your mood, listen to some happy or relaxing music on your way out of the office to your exercise class or home workout so you have the energy! My favorite diva power songs come from Pink or old school Gloria Gaynor. What are your favorite power songs?

* Have fresh plants at your desk or home. Nature helps change the energy in the area and might even make you smile! I bought these potted tulips before the flowers were in bloom, and apparently they were bursting with so much energy that each stem produced twin flowers! Now, that's extra energy from the flowers for you!

Saving the stomach

While I do my best to eat healthy, it's tough to be super clean with my nutrition and there is always room for improvement. So I have to find a way to save the stomach! A number of my friends and I are not good with digesting dairy or wheat products -- and mostly I stay away from it. It's not that I have Celiac's (read more about that here), but I can see my stomach gets bloated and more easily irritated when I eat the offending lactose or gluten. While I mostly cook at home, when going out to parties and restaurants, there is so much processed foods to watch out for. I don't want to ruin the fun by being too much of a picky eater. So when I go to the restaurants, sometimes there is a fried treat or a something with bread I occasionally splurge on. Even sauces are sometimes thickened with wheat. So the safe thing to do is to prevent the damage by taking these digestive enzymes travel packs with me and drinking it with my water before I eat. Tastes like lemonade and it helps with any processed foods. Yes, you can take digestive enzymes after you ate the offending foods, but let's save the stomach from being irritated by taking the digestive enzymes first! Other people are irritated by fructose which digestive enzymes also help break down. Be forewarned that there are hidden sources of bad fructose like in sauces like ketchup which have high fructose corn syrup we should all stay away from.

Probiotics are helpful to give us the "good bacteria" or what I call "good soldiers" to help boost our immune system. When our GI tract is not healthy, we're more prone to getting sick. Easy things to learn about digestive health is found in this article, and if you want to learn more about IBS, there's more here. You can read more about getting a high quality probiotic here, and if you want to save money on digestive health support, here's a great kit that gives you digestive enzymes, probiotics AND aloe juice!

Helping to save your stomach also means managing your stress and getting enough good sleep. Because we have such stress in our lives with this fast-paced world with phones and computer beeping and chirping and lots of interruptions, it really helps to make a daily practice in finding 20-30 minutes of quiet time to focus on breathing, meditation, or restorative yoga. There are surprises and challenges that are beyond our control and some kind of relaxing meditation practice helps. Even if you already know how to meditate, it helps to get new inspiration from different teachers. I'm on Day 9 with a new course and I have felt a little lighter, more able to handle the stresses that come my way (check out this 21-day meditation challenge through the Deepak Chopra meditation center). I hope these tips help you save your stomach and boost your immune system and mood!

Exercise and Nutrition helps with anxiety, depression, and stress

Want to feel less stressed or worried?
Check out Dr. Mercola's comments on research reported from a June edition of Time Magazine. Join our hiking group, or register for a free 20-minute wellness/nutrition consultation. Exercise and nutrition can help you improve your brain chemistry. Why wait? Together, we can make exercise and nutrition easy and something that becomes part of your lifestyle today.

---excerpt from the doctor's blog---
Psychologist Jasper Smits is working on an unorthodox treatment for anxiety and mood disorders. The treatment is free and has no side effects. What is it? Exercise.

Research has shown again and again that patients who follow aerobic-exercise regimens see improvement in their depression -- improvements comparable to that of those treated with medication. Exercise not only relieves depressive symptoms but also appears to prevent them from recurring.

According to Times Magazine:

"Molecular biologists and neurologists have begun to show that exercise may alter brain chemistry in much the same way that antidepressant drugs do -- regulating the key neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine."