Steve and I recently took a trip into Houston. We were headed for the Museum of Natural Science but would up making a little detour before visiting the museum. Across the street from the Museum, located at One Hermann Street, is a garden that is open to the public. One part of the garden is an Aromatic Garden. Filled with raised beds of mints, culinary herbs, rosemary and other aromatics it is truly a delight for the senses.
We wandered through the beds delighting in the plantings and stroking the different plants to release their scents, admiring how many different kinds of mints and basils and thymes, and more there are. The smell, the texture, the setting all combined to make a very relaxing and delightful stroll. I confess that my hands smelled quite delicious by the time we were done.
Next door to the Aromatic Garden is the Rose Garden. Abounding with blooms of all sizes and colors we wandered from bed to bed exclaiming over the different colors and scents. Some of the showiest roses had no scent at all while some were so overpoweringly perfume-y that one small sniff was more than enough.
I could feel my blood pressure dropping and a sense of calm envelop me as we enjoyed both of these gardens. It was a moment of mindful meditation. Even now, thinking about them as I write I find a peaceful feeling rising forth. Such is the power of scent and beauty that it can help us to slow down and enjoy the moment. Not for nothing do we have the phrase “take time to smell the roses.”
While I have aromatic herbs in my garden I'm now considering adding some roses to I can recreate a small dose of the experience we had this morning for those days when I can't get all the way into the city. If you have a small corner of your garden available you might want to consider doing the same.
photo courtesy of Stan Shebs | Wikimedia Commons
Category Archives: stress
Refilling Your Well
Most of us have very busy lives. We frequently find ourselves over-scheduled, constantly feeling like we are behind the eight-ball. The to-do list gets longer and longer and we wind up feeling more and more stressed. In the course of our busy lives many people do not take time for themselves.
My friend Vicki has a business teaching folks about self-care. I believe it is a sign of the times that there is a need for a business like that because so many of us have lost the skill of taking time for ourselves, for downtime. We need to learn to acknowledge and take joy in those small moments, such as 15 quiet minutes to drink a cup of tea. With Vicki's help I've been working on finding and being more mindful of those small recharging moments. She calls it “refilling your well.”
Recently I was able to treat myself to the luxury of an entire day spent with my good friend, Doris. Talk about refilling my well, this was an amazing treat, I felt almost giddy at the end of the day because we had so much fun. Doris and I tend to have very full schedules; between family obligations, household responsibilities, volunteer commitments, and work it's not that easy to find time to get together. To have an entire day together was an amazing treat.
We are both avid foodies. Living in the Houston area there is certainly no lack of places to go and things to do that involve food. We started off with a visit to the Chantal Outlet's once-a-year warehouse sale. I was able to get some really adorable ramekins; I'm working on a new custard recipe that I promise to share as soon as it's ready. I also managed to pick up a few holiday presents while we were there.
Our next stop was Penzey's Spices which is an indulgence. It's fascinating to see and smell all the different spices from around the world, talk to the friendly folks who work there to learn about different uses for everything. I love using good quality herbs and spices in food. These are booster foods that add scent, flavor, and micronutrients. They help make a meal so much more satisfying. It's always hard to resist the lure of their wares, I did, however, manage to restrain myself to only what I really needed to replenish.
After Penzey's we went to Canino's Farmers Market, a great semi-outdoor market with an enormous amount of produce and fruit as well as nuts, including fresh Texas pecans. Walking up and down the aisles trading recipe ideas back and forth we were thrilled by the variety of fresh food available. Finally we finished with a stop at Pizza Fusion a new and amazing pizza place. I definitely plan to go back and sample other wares on their menu.
When you look at it we basically did our food shopping together and then stopped for lunch. While we might have spent a little more time on these errands than if we raced around by ourselves, checking off a list of chores, this no longer felt like a chore. I believe that food shopping, or any activity really, becomes more enjoyable when you are able to do it with someone else, you have time to talk and you share ideas. We both went home at the end of the day feeling like we had accomplished something, reconnected and recharged.
Look for opportunities to recharge your life. They don't need to be big ones, just mindful ones.
Be well.
photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org
Walk Jog Run
Part of a healthy lifestyle is to get out there and get some exercise. As the saying goes, “Move it or lose it.” There are a lot of benefits to moving our bodies. Even simple walking has been shown to help with weight control and cardiac health. It's a great way to reduce stress, strengthen bones and muscles, improve your mood and more.
Guided Meditation
It is important for us to take time out of our hectic, frequently over-scheduled lives to decompress. For many people that takes the form of yoga, journaling, or a spiritual or meditative practice. I often have people tell me that they don't know how to get started or they can't focus enough to take those few beneficial moments to re-center themselves. Guided meditations can be a good way to get started if you are out of practice or just beginning a centering practice of your own.
Taking Time
As a holistic Nutrition Educator I often encourage my clients to work on other areas than just food. We talk about ways to reduce stress in their lives, ways to increase exercise and to work toward living a happy, healthy, balanced life. I try very hard to practice what I preach and I thought I would share an example of that today.
How To Sleep Soundly
We all need sleep. Unfortunately, the pace of modern life and the ability to extend daylight has taught many of us to develop very poor sleep habits. We've all seen the news reports that show how significant numbers of the population are suffering from a sleep debt, many are seriously sleep deprived.
There are reports that show how sleep deprivation can cause delayed reactions and slow or confused thinking. It can also have other significant impacts on your overall health and wellbeing. Getting back into a good sleep cycle with adequate sleep can help re-regulate your brain clock and improve some sleep-related health issues.
Sleep and heart health
What is sleep hygiene?
hy·giene (noun)
- Avoiding caffeine later in the day
- Go to bed at approximately the same time every night
- Don't watch television in bed
- Create a sleep routine that signals your body that it is time to get ready for sleep
- Have a dark, comfortable room to sleep
Nutrition and sleep
Holistic health sleep strategies
Detox bath
Occasionally we get overwhelmed and overstimulated as we go through our daily lives. This can make it difficult to sleep well at the end of the day. High energy output combined with an inability to refocus the mind often leads to a state of wakeful-seeming. Even though we are tired, we cannot shift our focus and calm down enough to sleep or we do not sleep deeply enough for restorative purposes.
One way to help relax the body and the mind is to take a detox bath. This bath is very soothing for many people and the addition of calming essential oils helps to support the transition to restorative sleep.
To make a simple detox bath combine the following ingredients and add them to a tub of hot water:
1 cup epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
3-5 drops of essential oil - choose either lavender, grapefruit, ylang-ylang, cedarwood, or sandalwood (note that lavender is not recommended for males due to its impact on hormones)
Soak for 20 minutes immediately before bedtime. This bath can be repeated up to twice per week.
Caution: Do not use this bath if you have other health conditions that might be severely impacted by immersion in a hot bath.
Avoiding blue light
Blue light is highly stimulating and can interfere with sleep. It is found in electrical devices, phones, game consoles, television, and the computer.
Blue light fasting can be very supportive for those with sleep issues. Start with a 60 minute fast (meaning no exposure) before bedtime. If needed increase this to 90 minutes before bedtime.
For those who are highly sensitive to blue light it may be necessary to block blue light earlier in the day using a lighter filter lens and then shift to a darker filter lens before bedtime.
While this does require the use of two different pair of glasses, having a two step system, such as blue light blockers, provides the graduated blocking filter that is more supportive for removing blue light and more conducive to good sleep.
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne? - Robert Burns
Auld lang syne, times gone by. As the New Year fast approaches many of us think back on the year that has been and, of course, eagerly await the year to be.
- Adding a gratitude practice to your day - writing down five things a day that you are grateful for
- Choosing to leave five minutes early for appointments to reduce stress
- Planning to turn off or not answer the phone the first 15 minutes after you arrive home from work to give yourself some decompression time
- Deciding that at least one day a week you will set a beautiful table for yourself and your family to eat dinner at
- Choosing to eat one more piece of fruit or vegetable a day than you normally do
- Drinking one (or one more) glass of water every day if you, like most people, don't drink enough
Fifteen Minutes
As a Nutrition Educator with a holistic focus to my practice I believe it is important to do more than just pay attention to the food we eat. We need to nourish our whole being; that includes our brains, our emotions, and our spirits.
Unexpectedly Serene
My aunt was here visiting us, and we loved having her here. She used to live in the Houston area 35 years ago, so one day we wandered down to Houston to visit a couple of places. On the itinerary was The Rothko Chapel. The chapel was built as an interfaith chapel, and Mark Rothko was commissioned to create the artworks.