Do you ever worry that your children don’t seem to love being outdoors as much as they should do? There’s so much to enjoy about nature, but in an age of gaming, virtual reality and relentless selfie-taking it can be hard to imagine how our children are ever going to appreciate the world outside their screens.
But, it’s certainly possible for children to enjoy technology and the modern world while also appreciating the great outdoors and the timeless cycle of nature. Here are five things you can do to encourage your kids to love it…
- Show no fear
Worms, spiders, creepy crawlies, mud, petting cows and saying hello to horses… it’s all part and parcel of loving the great outdoors, which is why it’s important you lead by example when it comes to interacting with nature. Don’t screech, screw your face up or refuse to touch something: your children will copy you, so get down in the mud and be prepared to make friends with animals and insects!
- Gather treasures
Kids love gathering ‘treasure’, so why not encourage them to view the things that the natural world provides as treasure? Rocks, flowers and feathers can all make beautiful treasures, so organise weekend ‘treasure hunts’ (i.e. walks in the woods), make a treasure box to keep things in, or even do arts and crafts projects using the treasures they’ve gathered.
- Prep them out for the great outdoors
Nature can be beautiful, but it can also be wet, cold and miserable if your kids aren’t wearing the proper clothing. So, make sure they have walking boots, wellies, rain coats, water proof trousers, rucksacks, camping gear – basically everything that helps them to stay comfortable, warm, dry and blister-free. That’s the only way you’re going to have half a chance of getting them outside and staying there. You can find these bits and bobs somewhere like Muddy Puddles, and good quality items will serve as brilliant hand-me-downs to smaller children.
- Plant and forage for things to eat
The natural world provides us with so many tasty treats, so why not introduce your children to them so they learn that good food doesn’t just come from the supermarket? Grow strawberry and raspberry bushes, forage for apples, go fruit picking, ask them to pick you some herbs from the garden for dinner, and take them blackberry picking in autumn. These kinds of things strengthen associations between food, good tastes and textures, and the fact it all comes from nature.
- Give them a special section of the garden
Finally, if you’re lucky enough to have the space, give your kids a patch of garden of their own. Sure, they may just want to make mud pies in it, but that kind of ownership of outdoor space will encourage them to spend time outside come rain or shine. If you’re lucky they’ll fancy growing vegetables, which will be a fail-safe way to get them to eat their greens at the table!
Due to the fast pace of the modern world, making time to relax and focus has become a difficult task. Even when we make time, we often feel as though we can’t truly relax and live in the moment. Our mind wanders to our struggles, our busy schedule, our conflicts, and our worries. A truly healthy mind requires training to be able to accomplish that kind of focus. Learning the skill of meditation is a great way to achieve a high level of focus and control over your mind. It has a variety of benefits to reveal if you are willing to take the time to develop the skill.
For years I thought meditation was kind of woo-woo. I also thought it sounded really boring. Yet every time I listened to an interview or read a memoir of a super successful person, they almost always mentioned meditation. I slowly began to want to give it a try and knowing my short attention span I started with guided meditations so I would begin to understand the process and the intention.
Short Periods of Meditation Are Beneficial Too
One thing that people don’t realize, is that you don’t need to sit for hours in a quiet room to meditate properly. Meditation can be done in almost any place where you feel comfortable, and you can spend mere minutes meditating if that is all you have time for. This will train your mind to get used to coming into a period of meditation with a lot less production. When you have mastered these short meditation periods, feel free to delve deeper into this amazing and rewarding practice.
I began my meditation practice with the popular app HeadSpace. I make it a habit to get to work about 20-30 minutes early for a variety of reasons and I often spent that time sitting in my car scouring Facebook. When I decided to try meditation it was that before work time that seemed to make the greatest sense. I decided to do a 5-10 minute meditation every morning and right from the very first day I was hooked. I felt good all day long and pretty soon people were telling me that I seemed peaceful, happy, and more smiley. A morning meditation seemed like a very small thing but the benefits were not small at all. I was walking into work every day feeling like a freaking rockstar. Woo woo? No, “Woohoo!” is more accurate.
Work Your Way Up to Longer Periods
Once you have gotten used to meditating, you’ll find that you have a much easier time sitting down and getting into a focused state of mind. When you have the time, begin increasing your meditation periods by increments of 3 – 4 minutes. This will extend your stamina for meditation and take you into deeper levels of concentration. There you can find a sort of clarity that is less commonly available during normal conscious hours. You can either focus on specific ideas, or simply repeat a mantra, but the mental benefits will be noticeable over time.
The Many Benefits of Meditation
It’s clear that meditation can help you to reach new levels of relaxation, help you to mull over ideas and decisions, and concentrate on specific things, but what else can it do? One of the major changes that you go through after meditation has become a common practice for you, is that the relaxation that you experience will help to improve your neurologic functionality. It makes your brain work better. It can reduce stress (and thus improve your health), make you more self aware, increase acceptance, optimism, and happiness, and improve moods and memory retention. More and more scientific benefits are attributed to meditation each year but all one has to do to see the proof in the pudding is start…with five minutes, and see where it takes you.
I have some brutally honest words to share with you today and for some of you, it will not be the easiest thing to read and come to grasp with. I know, I have been on the other end before and thought…”Geez…what do they know! They don’t know me or what I struggle with!”
I’m sharing this because it’s important to me to see you succeed and to make a real positive change in your life and your level of courage and self-confidence. I hate when women are down on each other when we should be lifting each other up. We should be swarming around each other in a circle of love and helping each other realize our life’s dreams. Why can’t that be reality? It can, but we first need to take a long look in the mirror and realize we have some things we need to address about ourselves. Many of us struggle with positivity. We struggle with a very bad habit, complaining.
Complaining Does You No Good
I get it. It feels good to complain and let off a little steam from time to time. We ladies often times love to talk and communicate and if we are stressed or unhappy then of course we want to talk about (or complain about) all the things that are making us feel this way. I’m not saying you should never complain and I’m not saying that there isn’t a time and a place when you should launch a legitimate complaint. What I’m trying to tell you is that it’s often a waste of time to whine and complain about your situation. Complaining without action and a desire to bring about change does you no good and actually hurts your self-confidence. When you focus on complaining, you’re embracing the role of a victim and that’s not a powerful role at all. It’s a passive, accepting what’s dealt to you kind of role.
Stop it right now. Don’t be the victim anymore. Be the one who sees a problem and says “I am going to fix this”.
Here’s What I Want You To Focus On Instead
When you stop putting energy into complaining you have a lot more time and energy for productive things. Instead of complaining, I want you to channel that energy into taking action and making a difference. For example, instead of complaining that your kids never clean their room, get in there with them and create a system. Find out why they are having a hard time keeping a clean room clean. Is it clutter? Is it overwhelm due to too many possessions? Are other activities like screen time and sports zapping their desire or energy to keep a tidy room? Take a long hard look at all the potential issues and fix them. Take the time to teach them how to clean their room. Going forward, make them responsible for keeping it tidy and make sure there are consequences when it doesn’t happen. Taking the time to investigate the whys, plan some new strategies, and enact a new system can save you from future frustrations.
Taking action and doing something about the circumstances or things you don’t like is very empowering. Think back on a time when you’ve taken a stand or done something to change your situation instead of complaining about it. I bet your confidence went through the roof once you started talking action. Why? Because you felt POWERFUL.
When our kids come to us with a problem they are having at school with another student or perhaps a teacher we don’t just listen to their complaint and then do nothing. We ask questions, we discern why these issues are arising, we offer suggestions, and we offer our help. They are unhappy and we want to help them resolve that. Yet when problems arise for us or something makes us unhappy we often times resign ourselves to complaining rather than finding a way to fix it. We need to show ourselves that same love and care we show for our children.
From here on out, I want you to think of complaining as your clue to take action. When you hear yourself complain about something, or when you start thinking about complaining, stop and ask yourself what you can do about it. What can you do to change and improve the situation? Not only is it much more productive use of your time and energy than whining and complaining, it is also a great way to build your courage and self-confidence.
A good place to start:
The Positivity Kit: Instant Happiness on Every Page
Wildlife pests are extremely frustrating. They dig up our flowers, devour our vegetable gardens, and potentially spread disease to our pets or even to people. When we find out we have a wildlife problem, we get very emotional and develop a serious vindictive streak. All we can think about is revenge when we find our juicy tomatoes laid to waste or our meticulous garden work dug up or trampled!
That anger can make us reckless and cause us to do things we shouldn’t do. The first thing many people think of is to poison or trap the offending animals and effectively remove them from the premises. But the experts at Moxie pest control know that these techniques aren’t reliable. There are several reasons it can fail or even backfire.
They Can’t Be Sustained
Just how long are you willing to keep refilling a container of rat poison? Pests aren’t like people. They don’t have deeds or leases that only allow them to live in certain areas. Consequently, if you have rats in your garage, you won’t solve the problem by randomly putting out poison. You’ll kill some rats maybe–but you’ll just end up with some different rats.
Expert pest control can not only address the immediate problem but also help you create a strategy that will give you a long-term solution to the issue. Another option is to utilize natural repellents that will permanently deter pests from visiting.
They Can Cause Legal Problems
Just as pests don’t have boundaries, they also don’t know what you are trying to do. That may sound silly, but it’s just as silly to think that poisons, traps, or other home remedies will only affect the pest you are targeting.
If the rat poison smells good to the rat, it will also smell good to other animals. Neighborhood cats and dogs, desirable wildlife, and potentially even people can come into contact with the improvised pest control measures that you use. Injuries or deaths could land you in court with a serious and indefensible position. The outcome of legal action will leave you with costs so great that you’ll wish you had left the pests alone.
They’re Just Cruel
There is a right way and a wrong way to go about pest control. Being humane can be the furthest thing from your mind in the heat of the moment when you discover a problem, but before you take measures to deal with the issue yourself, remember that killing a pest isn’t as neat and clean as it appears.
The reality is that while many forms of pest control are designed to kill the pest, they are also designed to do so as humanely as possible. An improvised system done at home is not going to meet this standard. A professional company has much better methods for eliminating the problem without being needlessly cruel.
Pest problems are frustrating. They’re destructive, expensive, and messy. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and try some DIY steps that you think will take care of the problem, but the reality is that these actions are more likely to fail or to leave you with even bigger problems. When pests are a serious issue, a professional is your best option, hands down.
Are you a blaster yet? As in a Fascia Blaster?
If you have no idea what I am talking about I recommend you visit the FasciaBlaster® web site, watch the YouTube videos associated with the woman behind this company, and also join the private Facebook group with almost 300,000 members. Oh and you can read the amazing book,
After you start exploring all the resources, you are hooked. It really is like falling down the rabbit hole Alice.
When I came out on the other side (aka Wonderland) I ordered a FasciaBlaster, a FaceBlaster, and a Mini2. I went back and forth about whether or not to order the oils because the blasting process requires lots of lubricant. They sound like amazing, science backed products but after dropping about $250 on the other products I decided to save some pennies and make my own instead. I already had all the supplies on hand.
For this cellulite blasting oil I carefully chose essential oils that would help me with my goals to improve the health of my fascia. Here are the ones I chose and why…
Rosemary – This oil is amazing for blood circulation, for improving skin texture, and aiding cell regeneration. It is stimulating and healing, thus helping with firming and toning of the skin.
Fennel – This sweet smelling oil has diuretic properties that support the elimination of stored up waste materials in the cells and decreases water retention in body tissues. It is also great for breaking up the fatty deposits under the skin.
Grapefruit – This fruit is often associated with dieting and there is a reason for that. It speeds up lymphatic circulation and the elimination of toxins in the body. Grapefruit essential oil is rich in antioxidants, especially vitamin C, which is critical for collagen synthesis and healthy skin.
Juniper – This oil is great for circulation, flushing toxins, and keeping you from retaining water.
Cedarwood – Brings balance to the skin and helps clear impurities and toxins.
Carrot Seed – This oil has powerful antioxidant and detoxifying properties. It keeps the skin hydrated and slows the aging process. It stimulates the growth of new skin cells and is rich in vitamins E and C, great for collagen production!
DIY Cellulite & Fascia Blasting Oil
15 Drops Rosemary Oil
15 Drops Fennel Oil
15 Drops Grapefruit Oil
10 Drops Juniper Oil
10 Drops Cedarwood Oil
10 Drops Carrot Seed Oil
3-4 ounces fractionated coconut oil (stays liquid)
Add the oils to a dark blue or brown glass bottle followed by the coconut oil. Use liberally before each blasting session.
I have also been known to use the Renpure Coconut Water Mist I use on my hair. Works just as good for blasting and the bonus is that I smell like a pina colada. I have also used plain old coconut oil, works like a charm.
