Plugging in to Unplug

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I had the distinct pleasure of spending these past two Saturdays celebrating with a whole crew of family of friends.  The days were full of talking, laughing, eating, pondering, drinking, introducing old friends to new friends and connecting.

When the day was over I picked up my phone and opened back into the world of Instagram & Facebook. I usually use these apps as a primary form of connecting with others but after connecting with real people, this felt secondary and I didn’t seem to care the way I usually do.

Yet on a day to day basis that is the thing I do constantly, checking in with people’s updates – often with the intention of wanting to feel connected, but more often than not – feeling disconnected, not good enough, interesting enough, clever enough, successful enough, etc – and feeling like I never will be.  I compare, and I let my value be determined by the amounts of likes or comments I get.  Like if you can relate! ;)

I login in an attempt to connect, but also to disengage, distract, and fill up any empty spaces.  But I’m starting to wonder what would happen if I allowed moments of nothing – waiting  & transitional times – to get notifications and messages from myself, instead of the online world.  These internal messages will ultimately guide me in my life, rather than thinking I should follow all this other input that I see.

My quality of life is very rarely drastically enhanced after scrolling through the feeds.  And yet, these platforms can be so useful and have transformed the way information is shared.  There is so much good, my habits recently just haven’t been so good.

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I think if I set guidelines around how and when I engage – and ensuring mindfulness backs up my intake, I may have a different experience.  The thing is I always try this, until one day I wake up tired and scroll through the internet before I leave for work.  It’s all a process, let’s see.

Today I have made it until 5:00 pm without looking at my personal email, Facebook, & Instagram – and I am able to hear more from me.

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Lemon Water Power

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One of the best things you can do for yourself when you first wake up is drink your H2O.  Since you haven’t had any water for over 8 hours your body will be thanking you when you fill it up with the good stuff.  So go ahead and pour yourself a nice tall glass and drink up.

Another fantastic thing you can do  is squeeze some lemon into your cup and sip on some lemon water.

Lemons & Lilacs

Lemons & Lilacs

Lemon is super alkalizing, meaning it brings the internal state, or ph level of your body towards alkaline if it is lurking in the acidic end.  Your PH level is largely a result of your diet, and if you have been indulging on a cappuccino & sugary treat, followed by some meat and cheese – it may be more acidic than you would like.  An acidic environment is void of oxygen, and disease, sickness, and colds thrives where there is little oxygen.  So eat your plants, and get your lemon water on.

Lemon water also gets everything moving inside and wakes up your digestive fire.  And that my friends is a very wonderful thing.

So go get some lemons, leave a cup of water by your bedside, whatever you need to do – to make sure you are hydrated right away.  And you may notice yourself craving less throughout the day.

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Creature of Habit

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I have some wonderful habits, and then I have some really not so great ones.  I wake up and get on my yoga mat every morning, and I almost always end the day with some sweet indulgent treat on the couch watching TV. The thing about habits are –  I don’t think much about them.  I just do them.  Whether they build me up or break me down.  What I chose to eat, think, say, love, or not love are all engrained based on my likes and dislikes.

engaging in one of my good habits

engaging in one of my good habits

Often we forget we have the power to change our habits.  We forget we can choose to leave old ones and create new ones.

Some habits I engage in have got to go, but I never really pay any attention to them.  I accept them as this is who I am, and this is what I do – I am always just 5 minutes late, I always overcommit, I always have one more bite of cake, I NEED dark chocolate every day, etc.  The only way I pay attention is when they get really bad and ridiculous.  Like falling asleep the other night with a piece of dark chocolate in my mouth!  Now that is a wake up call – a WHOA Leah – check it out.  Time to re-pattern.

Those moments of breakdown can be super embarrassing- but if you choose to listen to them and see what they are saying – they can lead you through a breakthrough.

So that late night chocolate melting in my mouth as I drifted off to sleep combined with a general feeling mehness in my body inspired a week of changing my normal eating habits.  I consider myself to eat a pretty healthy diet, but I know there are pockets of excess that I don’t actually realize I am putting into my body.  Because I’m not thinking – I’m just doing.  I’m going to find out what it is I actually need, versus what I think I need.  

It’s challenging to really look at what we do, look at the habits we engage in – and ask ourselves is this something we want to continue?  Is this helping or hurting?  And if it is hurting choosing to do something about it.  That’s the beauty of it all – you decide.  

Hope all your weeks unfold beautifully.  Letting you decide and your habits taking a back seat.

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I’ve bent thinking about this a lot lately, what did the 8 year old me love?

Dancing, playing with my brothers, hanging out with my friends, playing outside, being with my family, making art, sneaking cookies, laughing, running to the ice-cream truck, hanging upside down, campaigning for a dog, and making myself beautiful with whatever make-up I could find.

What would that little girl think of the grown up me now?

What did you love to do?  Are you still doing it in some way?

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