Week of Tips: Ground Yourself: Get in Touch with Nature

Another day, another tips on how to ground ourselves this fall.  See the previous posts of the week on Fall Cleaning, Fall Eating, and Grounding Meditation.

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One of the main reasons fall is my favorite season, aside from Thanksgiving, is the changing of the leaves and the earthy smell that comes with it! Like spring, nature is very active in the fall. There is lots going on in order to prepare for the winter.  Animals are harvesting, trees are shedding their leaves, and birds are flying south.  You could say that nature does its own fall cleaning.

As I mentioned earlier this week, the earth is the most grounding element we can access.  The word "grounding" has its origins with the earth.  Apparently, in witchcraft, to ground yourself is to psychically reinforce your connection with the Earth by reopening an energy channel between your aura and the ground (source).  The earth provides us the main tool to keep us physically grounded: gravity.  Then it provides us a ground to walk on in which we can receive the enormous energy of the earth which spiritually and mentally grounds us.

Because there is usually so much going on in our lives in the fall, a great way to learn to go with the flow is to get in touch with the earth and nature.  By being outside, we can get in sync with nature and be able to go along with the ebb and flow of the season. Some great ways to get out there and experience nature are going apple or pumpkin picking, raking and/or playing in the fallen leaves, taking a walk in the woods or a park, cleaning up your garden and harvesting, and lastly, go leaf peeping!  Leaf peeping is going to see the fall foliage and some people do it on a long drive and others go out to the woods or mountains.  Appreciating, admiring and enjoying nature - that's good stuff.


What activities are you going to do this fall to be in touch with nature?

Week of Tips: Ground Yourself: Meditation

Today continues a a week of tips on how to ground ourselves for the fall.  See the past two days' posts on Fall Cleaning and Fall Eating.

Grounding our physical home and  our physical body is just as important as grounding our mind.  Symptoms of an ungrounded mind include being spacey, having erratic emotions, frenetic energy, stress "freakouts" and other high energy, irrational behavior (vs. low energy irrational behavior like being depressed).  A practice that can help with "getting out of your head" and grounding yourself is meditation.  I've spoken about meditation a couple of times before but not in the context of grounding.

People of all ages can benefit from meditation! (source)

The purpose of a grounding meditation is to bring you back down to earth.  When you have less energy in your mind, you will experience a calmer energy and be more level-headed.  I know that I can always use more calm energy in my life.

Meditation does not have to entail sitting in lotus position for hours.  Here are several simple ways to ground yourself through meditation.

Seated meditation #1: Meditation can take place in many seated forms.  You can be regular cross-legged, in full or half lotus position, or on your knees and sitting on your heels.  The best of these to practice a grounding meditation is touching the ground with your backside.  This gives your body a concrete connection with the earth.  As you meditate, you can picture rooting yourself to the ground and allowing the activity in your head to dissipate back into the earth and simultaneously, bringing up that calm earth energy into your head.

Seated meditation #2: A meditation while seated in a chair can be as effective as one seated on the ground.  Sit comfortably in a chair with both of your feet flat on the ground.  Close your eyes and relax each part of your body.  Next picture yourself as a tree with roots.  Imagine that those roots are holding you firmly into the ground and at the same time bringing you the life energy from the center of earth.  Envision the transfer of energy revitalizing you and rooting you into the ground.

Walking meditation: You don't have to be seated and close your eyes in order to meditate. Meditation is about bringing awareness and being present all the time.  A great way to integrate a grounding practice into your day is to pay attention when you walk.  Focus on the connection between your feet and the ground.  Don't do anything else while you walk.  Don't talk or play on your phone or think about your grocery list. Simply walk and concentrate on each step allowing you to develop a more intimate relationship with the earth.

Have you tried a grounding meditation before?  Any tips for me and other readers?  If you haven't tried any, what do you think you'd like to tackle this week?  I'd love to know!

Week of Tips: Ground Yourself: Fall Eating

I usually set a tip for the week but in honor of fall, I am devoting a week of tips on how to ground ourselves for the fall.  See yesterday's post on Fall Cleaning.

A humongous melon (that's still growing!)that my mom will make into grounding soups and dishes this winter <3

One of the easiest ways to ground ourselves is through what we eat.  I've been basking in summer's goodies from the farmers' market but as I head into the fall, it makes less sense for me to have berries, summer peaches and raw greens and more sense to eat heavier grounding root vegetables and cooked veggies in healthy fats.  Winter is just around the corner and by eating the right foods, I'm letting my body know that it is time to prepare for the brisk weather ahead. This can also be called eating seasonally (which has other benefits justifying its own post in the future).

If I keep eating summer foods which can be described as "light and airy", I will totally shock my body when winter shows up.  It is so important to eat "grounding" foods - just as nature intended - to prepare our bodies for the winter.  In the spring and summer, nature focuses on upward growth.  Tree branches grow leaves and plants spring abundantly from the ground.  However, in the winter, trees shed those leaves and the tops of plants dry up so they can retreat to their roots and bulbs to concentrate on storing their energy to survive the long winter.  Have you ever noticed that fall and winter foods like yams, potatoes, pumpkins, and carrots are all grown very close to the ground?  It's a sign from nature that we need to ground ourselves during this season.

The rule of thumb is that grounding foods are grown close to the ground and feel heavier when eaten.  As mentioned, root vegetables are ideal to ground ourselves.  This includes sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, white potatoes (keep to a minimum), beets, and my all-time favorite, garlic.  Grounding vegetables also include those grown close to the ground like certain squashes and melons (like in the picture) and pumpkins! Protein is something else that our bodies crave in the colder weather.  You can attain protein from plant and animal sources.  The most common plant sources for protein are beans, legumes and nuts.  Animal sources should be as high quality as possible (e.g., grass-fed, free-range, organically grown).  Organic or local butter or ghee (recipe coming soon!) is another great grounding food.  The last group of grounding foods are whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, barley and oats. 

For those salad eaters out there who yearn for the occasional steak meal, satisfy that urge (occasionally) and know that you are not making a dieting faux pas and actually feeding yourself what you need! Please share - what's your favorite grounding food?  Mine has got to be a baked sweet potato with coconut oil. Yum!

Week of Tips: Ground Yourself: Fall Cleaning

I usually set a tip for the week but in honor of fall, I am devoting a week of tips on how to ground ourselves.

Today marks the first truly chilly day in Boston.  Fall is definitely in the air.  Fall and spring are both transition seasons.  In between the extremes of the hot summer and frigid winter.  They are also the perfect times to revamp our diet and lifestyles.

If you remember from my post, Springtime = Time to Clean, spring is a great time to clean up ourselves, our homes and our diets from the winter to prepare for the hotter summer.  Like spring, fall is a perfect time to clean but the difference being for the winter. 

For me, the most significant "fall cleaning" is the chore of switching my wardrobe.  I write this post in the middle of many loads of laundry and an afternoon of sorting piles of shorts and sweaters into their storage bins and drawers respectively.  The act of clothes sorting is probably my least favorite to do.  I don't know how my mom does it year in and year out (or spring in and fall out :) but to me, it's arduous and time consuming.  However, this task is very important to me to prepare not only physically but also mentally for winter.

Spring cleaning is about opening the windows and letting fresh air in and cleaning up the heaviness that was winter.  Fall cleaning is about getting out of our heads. Summer allows us to stay out late and socialize and be outwardly focused.  Winter is about being more focused on our homes and families.  It's not a coincidence that Thanksgiving and Christmas are both in the winter time.  That being the case, fall cleaning includes making our homes comfy because we are going to be spending a lot of time there.

I am definitely going to focus more on decorating my sparsely decorated condo and ensuring it is going to allow for more activity at home.  A comfortable home environment can contribute so much to being happy when you are snowed in during those winter months.  Because there's two of us, it is also going to be important that we can do our respective activities without being in each other's way.  What are you going to do in your home to prepare for the fall?

Limiting Face(book) Time

Holding a full time job and starting a business while trying to eat right and workout makes for a busy schedule. I've been balancing everything pretty well before starting my practice in April. Now time seems to escape me and before I know it, it's post dinner and all I want to do is sit on the couch and relax.  But time is of the essence because like everyone else, I only have 24 hours in a day and I want to use it the best I can.
Every time I make a decision of whether to work out, go shopping or leave earlier so I'm not rushing to my full time job, I consider whether or not it detracts from business development time.

When I do get an opportunity to sit down at my desk at home, I am fairly productive minus one thing. You guessed it: Facebook. I was never a super avid user of Facebook, but I have been on it constantly since launching my practice. The boon of social media has been the bane of my time management.

I believe my increased usage is primarily due to the fact that I provide a lifestyle product. Therefore, I should stay top of my contacts' mind and market or write witty updateswhen I can. Unfortunately, Facebook is like a maze. You don't come out the other end until you've explored every nook and cranny of it.

Last night, my client, who has been facing the same problem, and I set a mutual goal of limiting our visits to Facebook to once a day. I'd like to extend the invitation to you and ask you to join us in our goal to regain some of our time. Maybe your big time management sucker isn't Facebook. Maybe its too much TV time, visiting blogs, making multiple trips to the grocery store, etc.  Allow this to be a forum for whatever your goal is.  Good luck!

Tip for the Week: Listen to Others

This week's tip is to spend some time listening to others.  When was the last time that you were in a conversation where you truly listened to the other person?  Where you were not trying to think of something intelligent|witty|sarcastic|newsworthy to say?  Probably quite a while ago.

Listening is a really powerful skill.  I use it often when I am health counseling and it is amazing how I can help and learn so much from others simply by allowing them the time, space, and atmosphere to speak to me and truly be heard.  When you bring this component into your personal life, you allow the person speaking to you to fully express themselves.  Strengthen your relationships and start new ones by simply asking how someone is and truly listening to them.

Try it out this week.  See how you feel and how others react when you give them 100% of your attention.  Let me know how it goes!

FAQ: Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs

I have the pleasure of being part of the Wellness Committee at work.  It has been a slow start but I'm excited for what the group stands for and to be able to do something I related to health and wellness during my daytime job.  As a committee member, I write a Q&A column in the monthly newsletter.  I answer some common questions that people have about health and nutrition.  I thought I would share this information on the blog and start an FAQ section that will keep the archive of the questions.  Have any questions that you'd like me to take a stab at?  Ask them here or email me at lisachinhhc(at)gmail(dot)com.

Q: Is there such a thing as “good” carbs?

A: Great question! Carbohydrates or carbs tend to get a bad rep by dieters (perhaps due to the popularity of the Atkins diet) but not all of them are bad. Sources of carbohydrates break down into glucose, which is essential to our body’s functioning. Did you know that glucose is the main source of energy for our body – including our brain? That means that choosing the right carbohydrate is very important!

There are 2 groups of carbohydrates – complex and simple.
“Good” carbohydrates are the complex carbohydrates because they take a longer time to breakdown in our bodies and do not rapidly increase our blood sugar. Some examples are whole grains, beans and legumes, nuts and whole grain cereal and breads.
“Bad” carbohydrates can simple carbohydrates, which are often devoid of protein or fiber and break down very quickly in our digestive systems. Examples are fruit juices, candy, non-diet soda, table sugar, and white flour and rice. They cause a very rapid spike and drop in our blood sugar. This spike and drop causes stress on our bodies and has been linked to diabetes.

It’s important for our energy level and our overall health to choose complex carbohydrates. Some simple changes you can make are to switch to whole wheat alternatives of your pastas, breads and baked goods and to incorporate more whole grains into your diet. Examples of whole grains include brown rice, quinoa, barley, millet, wild rice, oats, and buckwheat. Beans and nuts are an easy addition too – add them to your salad or have them as snacks (e.g., hummus, trail mix).