How the Self Care Wheel Applies in 2020

How the Self Care Wheel Applies in 2020

These days, downtime might be spent scrolling on your phone or squeezing in one last response to our never-ending emails. That time could be used for valuable self-reflection and improving our overall wellness. Practicing self-care is becoming increasingly difficult in our high speed, hyper-connected world. The Self-Care Wheel is an easy to use tool created to manage stress and help you lead a more balanced everyday life. The wheel is divided into six sections that represent various aspects of self care: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, personal, and professional care. These six sections focus on daily activities that will help you lead a more balanced life.

Knowing how each aspect impacts our lives is important when it comes to solving the problems that arise in our life. The Self-Care Wheel helps you treat your stress and unhappiness with a directed effort. Below, I’ll explain the six segments of the wheel to help you better understand and address your stress and stay healthy.

Physical Care

Giving your body the daily attention it requires can be difficult to manage, especially when you have other family members to care for and focus on. It is important to make time for physical activity to reduce stress and maintain happiness. Work and familial responsibilities can become repetitive and often leave us overburdened. With continual work, we reach a breaking point in which stress and unhappiness can overcome us. One way to combat your overwhelming stress is doing something physical which requires conscious effort and planning.

The care and attention that your body requires is often overlooked because of outside factors demanding your time and attention (like your family or career). The Self-Care Wheel provides key physical activities to incorporate into your daily lives in order to focus some of that attention back on yourself. Like going for regular medical checkups and consulting your doctor about any unusual symptoms that you are experiencing. Additionally, it stresses the importance of maintaining a nutritious diet. A healthy diet keeps you energized but does not replace the benefits of regular exercise. Taking a morning walk or performing a light exercise would infuse positive energy in your body. Additionally, it is important not to forget about your sexual life. Finally, make sure your body is well-rested and getting good sleep. Referring to the Self-Care Wheel for ideas on physical care will help restore balance in your everyday life.

Psychological Care

Psychological care is another important sector that needs your immediate attention. It is important to carve out time for self-reflection in order to discern trivial concerns from true stressors. Focusing on self-awareness can help you let some things go, which can be difficult sometimes. Other ideas offered by the Self-Care Wheel include arranging time for sensory engagement activities. For example, aromatherapy is a potential way to address psychological stress. Aromatherapy uses aromatic and essential oils to improve your psychological mood. Have you ever smelt lavender oil? It helps calm the body extremely well! Other things to consider would be relaxing under the sun, reading a book, joining a support group, or focusing on creative projects. These activities help in minimizing the stress that you would experience daily. Focusing on psychological care should be of fundamental concern.

Emotional Care

Making time for emotional health can be difficult to prioritize but it can be something done daily with positive affirmations, like complimenting yourself. Alternatively, it can be something more long-term like picking up a new hobby. Emotional care starts with these acts of self-care and self-compassion. It is certainly important to care for others; however, caring for yourself is equally important. Often in life, we suppress our feelings and emotions for the sake of others. This must be avoided; letting your inner emotions out is vital to maintaining emotional stability.

Spiritual Care

Spiritual care is another section that completes The Self-Care Wheel. Many associate spiritual care with religion. While being religious certainly may lead to a fulfilled sense of spiritual peace for some, the world is becoming increasingly secular. Spiritual peace can also be found while you are immersed in the natural world. Whether that be going out for a hike, swimming in a lake or the ocean, or simply sitting in a park. Regardless, being in nature occasionally is key to your spiritual well-being. Other sources of spiritual peace can be found while meditating, singing, or dancing. Spiritual fulfillment can perhaps be more abstract than the other sections but it can come to you in some of the simplest of settings, like when enjoying the sunset or sunrise.

Personal Care

The Personal Care section aptly addresses some deeply personal questions, like determining your short-term and long-term goals. Working with direction helps create a sense of purpose in life. A feeling of purpose can save you from unnecessary negative energy, anxiety, and frustration. Having a purpose in life is easier said than done; you have to be intentional about creating time to explore what makes you feel fulfilled. Activities that provide fulfillment can vary from meeting friends to going on a date, or expressing your creative side and creating a piece of art or poetry. Fulfillment can be hard to achieve but try to determine what your personal source of fulfillment is and then make a plan to concentrate on that.

Professional Care

Professional care can perhaps be the most difficult section to handle because of how demanding professions can be. However, too much time devoted to your career is likely to have a huge negative toll on other segments of care. It’s a difficult balance, but can be achieved with help from someone like a mentor. The most important strategy to professional care is to set boundaries. The Self-Care Wheel offers expert ways to maintain boundaries between professional and personal life. Always take time for lunch, learn to say NO, and take PTO and vacation days. Giving all the attention to work is truly rewarding but in between all those tedious responsibilities, focus on having you-time. This balance will ultimately help your professional development so you do not burn out in the long-term. Most importantly though, leave your work and your worries in your office before leaving for home.

Closing Thoughts

The Self Care Wheel is meant to be a tool to help you look at your life holistically. Perhaps this post has helped you think about an aspect of your life you were neglecting or identified ones where you don’t need much improvement. Sometimes we get too focused on what’s in front of us and forget about the bigger picture. Use the Self Care Wheel to help you get back to balance!

The Health Clique Articles

September 24, 2020October 15, 2020

7 Tips for Staying Productive

7 Tips for Productivity

Staying focused is a task that requires focus itself. So, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations. In my adult life, I have tried all different kinds of “focus-solutions” to achieve greater productivity. These are the tips that changed my life for better productivity.

Throughout my school years I always did well but was constantly distracted. Even in college I struggled to quit procrastinating and to stay on task. I always wondered how those around me were seemingly on top of everything while being supremely organized. It took me forever to figure this out naturally… I found out later on that people I knew were on prescribed medications for these kinds of issues, which was not a route I wanted to take. So, I started my wellness journey to a better mind, body, and quality of life. Here are 7 things you need to try in order to improve clarity and productivity.

1. Get a Good Night’s Rest

In another article, I discuss how to improve your rest. Check that out here. The main thing I used to kick-start my now-amazing sleep habits – BATCH Dream Tincture. I wasn’t always a morning person until I got my sleep cycle under control. I used to lie awake until 3 am because my thoughts were racing when I needed them to be still. Now, I’m an 8.5 hours every night girl, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it… even on the weekends.

2. Get a Planner or Task Booklet

This might be the single most important tip. In order to make life into sizable tasks, get the Passion Planner. Having actionable, bite-sized tasks, and filling them in at exactly what time they should happen gives you a sense of accountability. If you don’t have due dates, your long lists will just become procrastination heaven. Always use an hourly calendar.

3. Turn off Tech

Get rid of the phone. Seriously. If you need to charge, put it outside of your room. Another way to do this would be by placing it on airplane mode. If you’re a music person, download your favorite playlist in “offline” mode. This will help you to tune out unnecessary distractions and focus on the task at hand. To help ease my nerves with tech-related anxiety, I use BATCH Softgel capsules featured in the top image.

4. Set Personal & Work Related Goals

Again, the Passion Planner was my kryptonite for this tip. Every month you will reflect on what you’ve accomplished and what you wish to accomplish in the future. Have a 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, and 3 years goal brainstorm. Write down everything and anything that comes to mind, realistic or not. Then, map out one that you are super passionate about.

5. Prioritize Everything

Constantly be prioritizing your goals. It’s not enough to make lists, always order them or color code them in a way that signals their priority status to you. If you focus on the things that matter, you will feel more accomplished and ready to take on the other tasks on your list.

6. Exercise Daily

Exercising daily helps to clear your mind, and releases endorphins that lead to a healthier you. Since my sleep-deprived days, I’ve started to form backaches. I’ve been using this Fire & Ice Balm from BATCH before I go to sleep. I apply a few layers on my lower back area, then I apply some under my neck just for an aromatherapeutic experience.

6. Have a Routine

No matter how much of a night owl you are, spending your days productively instead of sleeping-in is so much more rewarding. The best way to jump start a routine is to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time everyday – no matter what. The dreaded snooze button is in between you and your most productive self.

7. Listen to Your Body & Take Breaks

With all of the stress to be perfectly productive, know when to listen to your mind and body when it tells you what it needs. It’s important to have a balance, and to know when to stop working so hard. Ultimately productivity will be strained if you are exhausted from taking all of these steps. However, getting into these habits will be hard at first but over time they’ll be rewarding. If you practice these steps like I did, I ended up have much more energy and focus throughout the days.

The Health Clique Articles

September 16, 2020April 5, 2023

Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation: Everything You Need to Know

Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation: Everything You Need to know

One of the most powerful mental hacks out there is meditation. Learning meditation is like learning any new skill. It takes practice to learn a routine that he has never been worked on before. Mindfulness may sound intimidating, but is simply the practice of focusing the mind on a particular thought, object, or activity. Through mindfulness, one can achieve a clear, calm, and stable mental and emotional state. Meditation can also help you to break negative habits, reshape consciousness, and boost your health. Sa Ta Na Ma meditation is an exercise in mindfulness that has health benefits backed by scientific research.

Whether you are just starting with meditation or want to try something more powerful, Sa Ta Na Ma is a great exercise to try if you want to feel calm and refreshed. It will clear the subconscious mind of traumas and negative emotions, along with bringing increased mental clarity. You can adapt it to several lengths but practicing it for 12 minutes has proven to be time-efficient while still providing beneficial results.

The Origin of Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation

The Sa Ta Na Ma mantra is rooted in Sikhism philosophy. It originated from the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century and is commonly translated to “truth is our identity”. Sa Ta Na Ma is the most important meditation in Kundalini and was introduced to Western society by Yogi Bhajan. Sometimes Sa Ta Na Ma is just called Kirtan Kriya (KEER-tun KREE-a), the word derived from the traditional Indian language Sanskrit. Kirtan means ‘praise’ or ‘song’ whereas Kriya means ‘actions’ or ‘to do’. In Kirtan Kriya, each Syllable of the Sa Ta Na Ma mantra has a unique and specific meaning.

Sa– birth, beginning, infinity, and the totality of cosmos
Ta– existence, life, and creativity manifest
Na– change, death, and transformation of consciousness
Ma– resurrection, rebirth, and regeneration

Tip: The “a” in each syllable should be pronounced as “ah”.

Benefits of Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation

To date, there have been three studies published that prove the health benefits of Sa Ta Na Ma meditation. Two of them are from the University of Pennsylvania. Scientists recognize Sa Ta Na Ma meditation as a powerful tool for preventing Alzheimer’s disease. A study published in 2010 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, examined 15 participants from age 52 to 77 that were having memory issues. After trying Sa Ta Na Ma meditation at home for eight weeks, the participants experienced improved memory.

Another important finding was that the participants experienced better cerebral blood flow in the brain. Blood flow in the frontal and parietal lobes was also improved (both of these are related to memory retrieval). The study also showed that this practice helps with depression and makes people more resilient by enhancing brain chemistry. It has also become useful in minimizing stress levels and refining short term memory.

Mantra & The Use of Different Voices

You’ve likely heard of mantras before; it simply means an often repeated word or phrase. Some people have “carpe diem” (Latin for seize the day) as their mantra and others choose “live laugh love”. According to ancient yogic practice, mantras carry vibrations and are believed to hold sacred energy. Sa Ta Na Ma is the mantra used for this particular mediation. While repeating it, always keep in mind there are three voices. The first is singing, which represents the voice of action. The second is whispering, which represents the voice of the inner mind. Finally, there is silence. This represents your spiritual voice. Here you repeat the mantra mentally to yourself. You don’t use the words aloud; instead, say them to yourself. Using all three voices is a significant part of Sa Ta Na Ma meditation.

Mudras

Mudra simply translates to “motion of hands”. These sacred hand positions can have a profound energetic effect on your mind and body. Mudras in Sa Ta Na Ma meditation activate pressure points that help energy flow to the brain more efficiently. This flow of energy plays a vital role in clearing the subconscious mind, bringing great inner peace, and encouraging physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. The mudras involved in this meditation correlate to a particular syllable of Sa Ta Na Ma.

Guyan Mudra

Sa – the index finger (for wisdom – Jupiter)

While chanting Sa, press the tip of your thumb to the tip of your index (or pointer) finger. Experts think that this connection brings wisdom, knowledge, and releases a person from limitations. It also increases air elements within the body, creating a positive effect on emotions and empowering the nervous system.

Shuni Mudra

Ta – the middle finger (for patience – Saturn)

While chanting Ta, hold your thumb to your middle finger. This connection is said to be vital for bringing patience and purity. This connection also increases the cosmic elements within the body, creating positive effects on human intuition and thought.

Surya Mudra

Na – the ring finger (for energy – Sun)

While chanting Na, press your thumb to your ring finger. This connection brings vitality and aliveness by increasing the earth elements in your body while decreasing fire elements. Experts believe that this connection creates a positive effect on the body’s inner organs, bones, tendons, and muscles.

Buddhi Mudra

Ma – the pinky finger (communication – Mercury)

While chanting Ma, hold your thumb to the tip of your pinky finger. This connection supports clear communication. The thumb and pinky finger connection is said to reduce water elements in the body. It also helps to minimize symptoms of excessive hormones and water retention, like watery eyes, runny noses, and loose bowels.

The Use of Visualizations

When it comes to manifestation and clearing the mind, visualizations are an essential tool. The mental focus for the Kirtan Kriya in Kundalini yoga is known as the golden cord, an energy pathway that connects pituitary glands. While repeating in the different voices and using the related finger touches, imagine the vibration of each syllable flowing up to your Sahasrara chakra. This is also known as the crown chakra which is pinpointed at the top of the head. Then, feel the energy flowing out through the Ajna chakra. Also known as the third eye, it is located in between and just above the eyebrows. The glands located at these two chakras are directly associated with our spiritual connection, enlightenment, intuition.

How to Do Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation

Putting it All Together

Sa Ta Na Ma meditation is composed of the three parts already covered: mantra, mudra, and visualization. Each carries equal importance. All three parts should be practiced simultaneously and with full attention. Mental focus and precision are vital. You definitely won’t be perfect to start, so don’t be discouraged. As you’ve figured out by now, Sa Ta Na Ma is rather complex. However, this shouldn’t stop a beginner from trying it out because you’ll quickly get better at it after only a few times. In order to experience the benefits mentioned above, follow these instructions:

Sit with your legs crossed and a straight spine. Close your eyes and bring the mental focus to the chakra also known as your third eye. Make sure you are sitting comfortably. Rest your hands on your knees with your palm turned upward. With each syllable, imagine the sound flowing in through the top of your head (crown chakra) and out the middle of your head (third eye).
Begin to sing “Sa Ta Na Ma” for two minutes.
Then, whisper “Sa Ta Na Ma” for the next two minutes.
For the next four minutes, say the mantra silently in your head.
Return to whispering “Sa Ta Na Ma” for two more minutes
Finish by singing “Sa Ta Na Ma” for the last two minutes

While chanting the Sa Ta Na Ma Mantra press thumbs with all four fingers as discussed earlier. Make sure to press hard enough so you can feel the pressure and stay awake. However, you shouldn’t press so hard that it feels strenuous or hurts. Find a nice middle ground and keep repeating this process in a stable rhythm. Also, imagine the golden cord with each syllable you repeat, and make sure to do this visualization throughout the meditation process. At the end, to come out of the meditation exercise, inhale deeply, make sure to stretch your hands above your head, and then bring them down slowly as you exhale. Shake your hands and body for a minute. This will help to release energy and wake you up.

The Health Clique Articles

March 20, 2020September 9, 2020

8 Cat-friendly Houseplants

Some common houseplants can be very toxic to your cats and other pets. Therefore it is important to look for cat-friendly houseplants. You may think picking up a houseplant from a nursery means that it is safe to have around, but all plants should be researched, especially if you have pets! Here is a guide to 8 houseplants certified by the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) as non-toxic for pets such as cats and dogs:

1. Gloxinia

2. Air Plant

Air plants require very low maintenance. They also do not require soil so they can be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way, like hanging in a glass container near windows. They do not grow larger than 12 inches so it is possible to have a bunch of air plants. And, of course, they are safe for cats!

3. Baby Tears

Baby tears are easy to care for and create a lush mat of tiny green leaves close to the soil. This low-growing quality makes Baby Tears a good plant for below other plants to protect the soil from pets digging and making a mess out of the soil. And of course, not to mention these houseplants are safe for cats.

4. Spider Plant

Spider plants are easy to care for but quite intricate in appearance. Also known as the airplane plant, it looks great when placed in a small pot on any shelf of the kitchen. Among the list of houseplants safe for cats, these particular plants will tolerate a wide variety of conditions of sun, moisture, and soil.

5. Venus Fly Trap

If you want to choose a houseplant that is both safe for cats and fun, then you should get a carnivorous plant such as Venus Flytrap! They are aesthetically unique and can also help rid of annoying flies roaming around your house. And curious pets won’t get harmed if they plan to try them out. One important thing to note though is that these plants require bright light and distilled water.

6. Polka Dot Plant

The polka dot plant, also known as Hypoestes phyllostachya, has pink, red, and white sprinkled foliage. It is a beautiful plant that will bloom even if not given the perfect conditions. Even without the bloom, the foliage is beautiful all on its own! While safe for cats and dogs, sensitive animals will suffer slight digestive distress if they eat large quantities of the polka dot plant.

7. Peperomia

Peperomia is a great plant to start caring for if you are new to growing houseplants. They are also a popular choice even among the most experienced growers! Peperomia is loved for its vibrant foliage and smooth texture. They look fantastic suspended containers and easily bounce back if you forget to water them for a couple of days.

8. Orchid

Orchids are no doubt some of the most beautiful houseplants and people may not know that they are safe for cats! They are appealing and beautiful, and they will light up their surroundings with their beauty.

Additional Thoughts

Having a pet is a great joy. They can offer you love, compassion, and companionship. A furry friend living with you is no doubt a delight but they require a great deal of care. It is your responsibility to make sure they are in a safe environment. This includes taking into account the things they may end up chewing on! If you have ever owned a pet such as a cat or a dog you must have seen your pets chewing your houseplants. This is typical behavior and should not cause worry so long as you have pet-friendly plants in your house.

There are many theories on why cats chew on plants. Some think that they do it just because they crave the textures, others think that they do it to process the hairballs. The real reason why cats chew plants remains unknown. All cats are natural carnivores, so it is a bit mysterious that they are so inclined to chew on houseplants. Never try to make your cat a vegetarian because it can endanger your cat’s health due to severe amino-acid deficiency. Regardless of the reasons why they chew on plants, it is critical that you surround them with safe ones if they do decide to gnaw.

Closing Thoughts

It’s always a better idea to keep your pets away from indoor plants in the first place. However, if your cat does love to chew on plants, embrace it! Keep houseplants away from them and offer them a tastier option: cat grass.

Some houseplants can cause vomiting if ingested but are still considered safe for cats. If you have any form of lilies cardiac glycosides in your house you should not let your pets near them because they can be toxic. We all know about the benefits of having houseplants, they purify the air we breathe in keeping it oxygen-rich, they absorb the carbon dioxide that is released as a result of our respiration. Houseplants safe for cats give you all those advantages plus they will not affect the health of your cat. Plants provide a very aesthetic look to the house especially if you have plants with vibrant-colored flowers Houseplants simply increase the beauty of the house they are placed in. You can maintain that beauty and serenity while also keeping a safe environment for your furry friends.