I’m not a nutritionist, but from experience I know that when I eat a good, healthy, high-protein breakfast, that day’s diet is very different from the days when I either skip breakfast or opt for half a piece of toast. Of course there are the breakfast obstacles: lack of time, on the run, looking forward to a big lunch, etc. But when you compare the days that you eat eggs, fruit, and orange juice to the days when you eat one piece of toast or a bowl of sugary cereal, I’m sure you’ll agree that the types of foods you eat for most of the day seem to follow the suite of what you ate for breakfast. What you put in your body for the first time each day sets the expectations for what you’ll be putting into it for the rest of the day. So let’s try to eat a GOOD breakfast, for our body’s sake, for our morning’s sake, and for the sake of the entire day ahead.

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So you may not have 30 minutes, or even 3 minutes, but we ALL have 30 seconds in our day that we can put aside to sit, in quiet, and try to still our mind. Stilling the mind does not necessarily mean stopping the mind or restraining thoughts; rather, we can use 30 seconds a day to find inner calmness and peace by concentrating on thinking about nothing. Of course thoughts will move in and worries may creep up, but in the 30 second meditation, we won’t allow ourselves to focus on them. Instead, we will focus on thinking about absolutely nothing, and try to create stillness in our minds that’s generally hard to find. We can do this lying down, sitting in a chair, or standing up. However we practice our 30 second meditation, we will do it with a clear intent and a sincere desire to create peace, calmness, and stillness in our minds.

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So many times we miss out on valuable conversations because we only hear the words coming from the other person in the conversation; we aren’t actually listening to what they have to say. At first glance, the words “hearing” and “listening” may seem to mean the same thing, but really we can hear all sorts of things without actually listening to them. From my perspective, when we simply hear another person talking, it’s possible for the words they are speaking to go in one ear and out the other. However, when we actually listen to another person talking, we are fully present in the conversation, focusing our attention on what they are saying, and actively partaking in the conversation. Next time you find yourself not fully committed to a conversation with another person, try listening to that person instead of just hearing what they have to say.

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I took my first yoga class in high school. I absolutely hated it! I ended up tensing my muscles more than relaxing them and felt extremely uncomfortable in all of the postures. I felt like everyone around me was so much more advanced than me, and I was trying to do the advanced positions like everyone else, but failing. A few years later, in college, for some reason I decided to try it again. This time I tried to ignore how advanced the other students were, and just concentrate on relaxing. This new approach completely changed my experience. Instead of my mind racing 1000 miles a minute in anticipation of if I would be able to move into the next pose or hold the next position like everyone else, I just allowed myself to move at my own pace, accepting how my body was able to move and not comparing to others. Especially for beginners, I think it is extremely important to emphasize the non-competitive nature of yoga. Everyone has their own limitations, their own edges to push, and their own unique bodies and minds. Let’s respect our individual selves and allow ourselves to be comfortable with where we are: on our own mats, in your own yoga practice.

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You can get a nice stretch while standing or even sitting on the couch or at your desk. Stand or sit up nice and tall, arms down at your sides. Inhale, stretch your arms out, and slowly raise them up. Exhale with your arms up overhead, stretching through your fingertips and making sure to release your shoulders–don’t hunch! Take one more inhale here, and then exhale, bringing your arms out and down to your sides. Repeat as many times as you’d like. Each time, feel your torso lengthening and your rib cage expanding as you inhale. You’re not only stretching, but you’re also creating more space in your body, which is a wonderful thing!

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Do you have a gym membership you’re not making use of, and it’s not because you don’t have the time? Could you maybe squeeze in 20 minutes of exercise, but you can’t motivate yourself to go to the gym? Sometimes getting there is the hardest part, then once you’re working out, you wonder why it took you so long to get there in the first place. If this sounds like you, here are a few things to think about to get yourself motivated:

What else will you be doing for the next 20 minutes?

The cookies you’re eating will be there when you get back.

You’ll feel more energized afterwards.

Your body deserves to be taken care of.

You’ll work out for 5 minutes then see how you feel.

If not now, when?  The time is NOW!

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Stop. Listen. Do you hear your breath? I didn’t think so! Inhale and count to 4, then exhale and count to 4. Do this as many times as you’d like until you begin to naturally inhale and exhale for 4 counts each.

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Are you trying to be “healthy” this holiday season? Do you silently scold yourself for every holiday sweet you indulge in? Do you altogether avoid holiday gatherings in fear of pigging out at the sweets table? We all know how this game works: the more you tell yourself you CAN’T have something, the more you want it! How about instead of eliminating holiday sweets, we recruit healthy foods to help balance them? For example, stock up on more fruits and vegetables, and have them readily available to you for snacks on the go or as a side dish with a piece of cake. If you need more structure, only eat a treat once you’ve eaten two servings of fruit. Or, place a fruit bowl next to or in front of your tray of holiday favorites. There are a variety of healthy techniques we can establish to avoid eliminating holiday sweets from our diets: what’s yours?

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Goal: Lose 10 lbs. Goal: Run 8 errands. Goal: Make $1,000,000 in three years. Goal: Paint a mural. When we set goals for ourselves, sometimes we completely forget about the process of attaining these goals. Often, once we reach a goal, we feel a sense of accomplishment, and then say, “Now what?” What if we started enjoying the process of attaining our goals instead of just focusing on the goals themselves? What if we started enjoying the manifestation of our goals—instead of placing sticky notes around our house with the above goals written, what if we wrote notes to ourselves about the process? “Research for some exercises I enjoy doing. Smile at the people I bump into while running errands. Have fun while making money. Slowly paint my mural.” Enjoying the process of reaching our goals will teach us to be in the present and not only to be happy with what we’ve accomplished, but also to be happy each step along the way.

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I recently heard a powerful phrase: The more time you spend trying to be someone else, the less time you spend being who you are. So often many of us compare ourselves to someone else. We compare our looks, our successes, our material goods, our money, and even our whole lives to those of others. No only do we compare ourselves to those who we deem “better, more beautiful, healthier, or happier” than us, but we also compare ourselves to those we deem “less, uglier, unhealthier, or unhappier” than us – which makes us feel better about ourselves. But you see, if we constantly compare ourselves to “better” or “worse” others, we will constantly try to become someone else rather than try to become the best version of OURSELVES. Let’s spend more time being who we want to be, and less time comparing ourselves to others and trying to be someone who we’re not.

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