As you get older, it becomes easier to either block out everything that is negative about yourself, or to start accepting yourself for your flaws and faults. The only way to get to self-acceptance is to start getting real with yourself. It’s perfectly okay to be imperfect. Once you accept yourself a neat thing happens, you start being more accepting of others too and your entire world opens up. You can take steps to get real with yourself by:
Journaling – Keep a journal every day that tells the truth about your dad, both the successes and failures. You can also journal about the past, once a month choose a past event to journal about. Write it as if you’re writing a story to someone else. Write down the truth of what happened exactly as it happened. Include how you felt then and now write down how you feel about the event today.
Meditate – Spend time every day in meditation or prayer. This simple act will bring you closer to your inner self and help improve your self-talk. Self-talk is when you tell yourself inside your head either good or bad things. It is important to try to keep self-talk positive in nature. This is not to say you cannot acknowledge when you have done something wrong. Making mistakes is human. You should never beat yourself up any more than you would someone else you loved for not being perfect.
Self-Acceptance – Do you have faults such as not knowing your left form your right, or being late a lot? Maybe you’re a stickler for being on time, every time. Are you messy and unorganized? Perhaps you’re super organized and alphabetize your spice rack. Do you need a lot of “me” time, or do you prefer to cuddle a lot and be with others? All of these are traits that some people seem to be born with or not born with. Sure, you can modify and change to a point, but at some point you have to realize that it’s okay to be who you are. As long as you’re not putting your health or someone else’s health in danger just accept yourself.
Everything is a choice in life, including getting real with yourself and coming to self-acceptance. Even deciding to change an issue or not change an issue with yourself is a choice. Not making a choice is a choice. As soon as you realize that and take the credit for the choices and decisions you’ve made over your life time the sooner you’ll be to a place where you are getting real with yourself.
You probably read about smoothies all the time. They’re the new super health foods! Actually, they’re quite old, and the ones you buy in the store can be very unhealthy full of high fructose corn syrup, soy and other additives. The best smoothies are the ones you make at home from scratch with organic unprocessed whole foods. There is no reason to use protein powders, or freeze dried foods, or unhealthy sugars in your diet. Whole fruits and vegetables taste great all on their own. If you want to add sweetener choose wholesome disease and bacteria fighting honey!
Smoothies with antioxidants from berries and probiotics protein and calcium from Greek yogurt and enzymes from leafy greens are the anti-aging miracles that you are looking for. You’ll lose weight, feel energetic and even feel and actually be smarter. The following one serving recipes offer many benefits include them in your diet for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Anti-Aging Super Smoothie
Ingredients:
- ½-cup organic blueberries
- ½-cup organic spinach
- ½-cup plain Greek yogurt
- ½-cup filtered water
- ½-cup crushed ice
- ¼-cup honey (optional)
Place water first then all the other ingredients in a high-speed blender, blend until smooth.
Variations:
| Strawberry Dream
|
Orangesicle
|
| Replace honey with a packet or two of stevia
Replace spinach & berries with equal amount of strawberries
Replace yogurt with soy free Almond Milk
|
Replace water with 1-cup fresh squeezed orange juice
Eliminate blue berries
Eliminate spinach
Add seeds of one vanilla bean
Add 1-Tablespoon ground flax seed
|
| Banana Fofanna |
I like Pina Colada’s Smoothie |
| Eliminate spinach
Eliminate blueberries
Add 1 large very ripe banana
Add 1-cup soy free almond milk
Reduce to Two tablespoons raw honey
Add 1 tablespoon ground flax seed |
Eliminate Spinach
Eliminate blueberries
Add 1 cup frozen pineapple
Add 1 frozen banana
Replace water with Coconut water
¼ cup pineapple juice |
Use these as a starting point and create your own smoothie recipes. Remember to use organically grown, fresh, not canned ingredients. You can use pre-frozen organic ingredients but fresh is always best. Also use a very high speed blender such as a Vita Mix or Health Master.
Studies are showing, more every day, that massage is the best cure and treatment for low back pain. Low back pain is one of the most common ailments with age that causes people to miss work. Low back pain is worse most of the time than any type of menopausal symptoms that you might have even hot flashes. The reason is that low back pain can be so debilitating that you cannot go to work, or even fully participate in your life. The other factor regarding massage is that no massage machine matches the magic of human touch to make you feel better.
The great thing is that aside from alleviating back pain massage can assist with overcoming and dealing with other issues related to menopause such as diminished sex drive, up and down moods, tension and more. Ask your massage therapist to pay special attention to your lower back and your lower abdomen. A side benefit of massage is that regardless of your current physical shape, massage makes women feel better about herself. A really awesome side benefit is that massage also aids in weight loss by lowering stress hormones like cortisol.
In addition to lowering stress hormones like cortisol, you will experience improved circulation, less physical pain post exercise (which will make you want to exercise more) and improved posture. Massage has also been proved to help eliminate fat deposits and cellulite improving body contour. What can be better than that, better body contour, weight loss and relaxation, while making you feel younger due to relieving menopausal symptoms.
A certified massage therapist can also give you tips on how to improve your diet, exercise regimen and how to show yourself more love. There are different types of message that are helpful with dealing with menopause symptoms making you feel more youthful. You can get deep tissue massage, Chinese massage that includes compression, pushing, vibration, slapping (not too hard!) friction, joint manipulation and more to get your blood circulating better. Be sure that your massage therapist is certified in whatever type of massage they are performing. To get deep tissue or hard massages by someone who is not knowledgeable about the human body you can damage your liver or other internal organs.
