Step 8 - De-stress and self-care - Life Purpose Guide

De-stress and self-care

Most of the things we have talked about so far could be considered de-stressors and self-care. You will find if you don't continuously look at the ways you spend your time and reset how you might be doing things, you’ll become unbalanced. Just like riding on a bicycle becomes habitual and second nature, where you don't even have to think about the balance, it just happens, you need to form this same habit with self-care in your life.

Boundaries:

I believe that learning to set boundaries and maintain them so you can protect your energy and time is the foundation of self-care.

How do you know when you need to set a boundary? If you are feeling obligated to do something to keep the peace or to avoid conflict a boundary needs to be placed here.

If you feel like someone is walking all over you or you feel like a doormat, a boundary needs to be set.

Setting boundaries is about deciding what is acceptable...

Life Purpose Series Step 7 - Connection

 Being a part of a community makes you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself. It's important for us as human beings to feel accepted and to be able to offer our support to others. Being connected helps us feel a sense of purpose that we might not get from anything else.  

I talk quite often about the Blue Zone Study and community is one of the Power 9, nine commonalities that lead to longer, healthier, happier lives. As a matter of fact, 3 of the 9 have to do with friends, family, and community.

Be sure to spend time with, talk to, or write to your friends and family every day. Connection is one of the basic human needs and is very important to connect with the people in your life. This is one of the most important pieces of the health and wellness puzzle.

This step can be very important right now especially after coming through the past year and a half. 

Finding connection within some of the...

Get outside every day

I know this can be hard when you work indoors or also during winter weather. Making a point to be outside, even for 5 minutes, can make a difference in your mood, your energy levels, and it can even lower your blood pressure. 

You are a living being that needs sunshine to feel good and to grow. Think of yourself as if you were a plant that needs the sun, water, and fresh air to grow and thrive.

Some of the things you can expect when you spend regular time outside every day:

• It can help with anxiety and depression.
• It can help boost your vitamin D levels. Did you know that 40% of men and women in the US are deficient?
• It can help increase creativity, concentration, and mental clarity.
• It helps lower blood pressure and reduces cortisol levels.
• Being active outdoors helps us age more gracefully by improving sleep and improving mobility.

Getting outside with a friend is even better and we will talk more about community later in the guide.

We all feel better...

As women, we always focus on taking care of everyone else and often fall short on taking care of ourselves. Keep in mind if we fail to care for ourselves we will not be able to care for others.

At some point, we burn out and sometimes get sick. While some of these steps will seem simple and may also be something you know you should already be doing, it’s not always something we are doing.

You might be thinking? What the heck does this have to do with life purpose? 

Well, if we feel like shit we will not have the energy or the motivation to pursue any new ventures. I want you to have success and feel amazing.

It’s also hard to pursue anything new when you're sick. 

My hope for you is to uplevel however you feel right now. 

So let’s do this!

Eat Real Food

What is real food? Well, it's food that grows from the Earth, and food that has no label or under 5 ingredients on the label that are real food. This is really simple but not easy to do. It does...

This week we will be covering the second step from the free Finding Your Life Purpose Guide.

If you don’t have the guide yet, grab it here>https://www.tinastinson.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-rocking-your-second-half

~Re-Visit what brings you joy~

We as women get so busy with our family, careers, relationships, and sometimes the care of a parent. We can easily lose track of the things we used to enjoy. It's not just the big things like hobbies and traveling. It's the little things too. A walk in nature, a quiet cup of coffee with a book. We tell ourselves we don't have time.

Before you know it, we are going through our lives unconsciously not even aware that we aren't having too much fun, we lose our sense of self, you know that fun lady you used to know:) Now it's time for you to make time and find her.

Action step: Write down the things that brought you joy during the different stages of your life, anything you can remember.

• Elementary years, Teen Years, Your Twenties, Your...

I wanted to start a series to help women that may be feeling stuck, uninspired about their life as they enter or are in mid-life.

I have a free 12-step guide that you can download and have as a reference. You can grab it here: https://www.tinastinson.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-rocking-your-second-half

I hope you join me for this weekly series and be sure to reach out with any questions.

Everything we are surrounded with throughout our whole life gives us the impression that once we reach mid-life as women we are past our prime, old and worn out, and that we are at some kind of an endpoint.

Media and advertising lead us to believe that aging is not good and we should do everything in our power to stop and delay it.

It might make us feel stuck, unappreciated, somewhat invisible, overwhelmed, and just plain tired.

Well excuse my French but this is complete bullshit. Mid-Life is just the beginning and can be a fresh exciting start.

You've raised your kids and they're fabulous...

One of the most transformational things I learned to do was changing my perspective on the situations in my life.

The funny thing was, that I did it purely out of survival and didn't even realize it too much until it became a habit. I really would focus on trying to figure out why things, kinda crappy things, kept happening to me. I knew I needed to make a shift from this.

You see, I was dealing with so many stressful things at once that I had no choice to look at them differently. The only other choice I had was to spiral into panic and depression and this was unacceptable because I had 3 young children depending on me and me only.

I could go into deeply what I was dealing with but it doesn't really matter too much. People deal with stressful situations differently so something very stressful for me might be considered a walk in the park to you. What is important is feeling good with the place you are right now and to learn from those crappy situations as much as you can and...

It can seem so overwhelming to stay on track with your health especially with some of the added stress we have today. I know from personal experience that it can feel like a roller coaster ride going back and forth from super health freak to off the health wagon rebel.

Here are five ways to set yourself up for success for a healthier you!

• Stop buying all that crap! You know what I'm talking about. Crappy cookies, chips. Instead, op-in to making some homemade treats with whole food ingredients. Freeze some so you don't eat all that yumminess in one sitting. You have control over the ingredients and most importantly you can pronounce them.

• If you have a sweet tooth keep delicious fruit all washed and ready for you to enjoy in your home at all times. It's not always what you might want but it helps control the craving for sweets. Fruit also has fiber included so when you eat it you don't have those extreme sugar highs you get from cookies and candy. This helps...