Category Preventative Health

Soothing Sounds You Can Customize

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Check out this interesting website I found, which enables you to customize soothing sounds which you can use as a nice background or “white-noise” experience:

https://asoftmurmur.com/

The dashboard for A Soft Murmur, which is available as an app for both iOS and Android, allows you to adjust the volume or omit different nature or soothing sounds: waves, rain, wind, thunder, fire, birds, crickets, singing bowl, white noise, or coffee shop. For example, combining rain and thunder sounds will mimic a thunder storm. If you choose to upgrade to their premium plan, you can then access 13 more sounds, and have access to any new sounds as they are added to the app.

Simple Yet Effective Self-Care Tips for Entrepreneurs — And Why It’s So Important You Make Time for Them

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Check out this very informative article by Jason Lewis, targeted towards entrepreneurs to help them learn how to practice self-care.

Jason Lewis is a personal trainer, who specializes in helping senior citizens stay fit and healthy. He is also the primary caretaker of his mom after her surgery. He created StrongWell.org and enjoys curating fitness programs that cater to the needs of people over 65.

Most entrepreneurs are of the notion that they have to clock an inhuman number of hours each week to obtain some semblance of success. This is the only explanation for the fact that 33% of small business owners put in an average of 50 hours per week and another 25% clock 60 or more. Yet, while many of the world’s most successful business owners agree that a nine-to-five workweek just won’t cut it, most also concede that self-care is an integral component of long-term success. If you have plans to make it big in your industry, take time out of your busy schedule to treat yourself.

The Case for Self-Care

According to Psychology Today, self-care is a key driver of leadership and workplace success. Below are a few benefits of self-care that back this assertion:

  • The most effective self-care activities, which include eating healthy, working out, getting enough sleep, and spending quality time with the people you love, are all known workplace performance enhancers.
  • Self-care keeps you from working more, which actually helps your productivity. Research shows that working more than 50 hours a week produces zero productivity gain.
  • Self-care activities boost your creativity and confidence and decrease your stress and anxiety.
  • Self-care prevents career-crippling crises from occurring.

Now that you understand the importance of self-care, explore ways you can incorporate it into your schedule for the most impact.

Get Plenty of ZZs

Successful people may burn the midnight oil or wake up at the crack of dawn, but rest assured, they sleep. According to a CNBC report, some of the most successful people — including Jeff Bezos, Tobias Lutke, Bill Gates, and Lebron James — get seven to eight hours of sleep per night. So, wake up or go to bed at whatever time you want, but be sure you clock your eight hours.

Hit the Gym

Exercise is important regardless of how you choose to make a living. However, if you won’t rest until you find success as an entrepreneur, then get moving. Per one survey, 76% of some of the most incredibly successful business leaders workout for at least 30 minutes each day. Research shows that exercise releases brain chemicals that improve memory, boost concentration and increase mental awareness.

Exercise does not have to be your typical weightlifting and running routine. Richard Branson plays tennis and kitesurfs. Jessica Alba does yoga and Krav Maga. Oprah averages at least 10,000 steps per day.

Remember to Breathe

Though relaxation seems like the opposite of productivity, you need to take a breather if you want to have more energy to put toward your business. Relaxation techniques will vary for everyone, but a few of the more effective ones include listening to music, writing, walking, and simply breathing. It also doesn’t hurt to say no to tasks that add a lot of stress and little benefit to your life.

Another way to relieve stress is by choosing to structure your business as an LLC. An LLC comes with numerous tax advantages, limited personal liability, minimal amounts of paperwork, and ample flexibility. They are easy to form on your own or via an online formation service — call the Zen Business phone number for assistance.

Find Ways to Save Time

As an entrepreneur, you may feel like you have to do it all, but know that you really don’t. In fact, by outsourcing menial but still important tasks, you can save time, money, and energy — all of which you can put toward the growth of your startup.

Self-care is crucial to your success as an entrepreneur. Start showing yourself some compassion today by doing any of the above. Reach out to Stacey for the fitness and nutrition guidance you need to be your best self! 

Image via Unsplash

How the Pandemic Made Wine O’Clock Acceptable

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Copyright: iridi

Shortly after COVID-19 caused a global lockdown in early 2020, many of us began to regard having a cocktail before 5 pm as acceptable. Conventional rules about how most people used to live were thrown out the window when we were suddenly trapped inside our homes, bored, stressed out, and uncertain about our futures. I don’t doubt for a second that many people turned to booze as a coping mechanism, to quell concerns over the mysterious virus which froze the world in trepidation, and to soothe anxiety over job security and financial wellness. Perhaps some individuals also turned to libations to manage the aggravation which resulted from the constant close proximity to family members from whom they used to be able to escape when they were able to leave the house for work. I suspect boredom has triggered a fair amount of drinking as well.

Copyright: ajlber

During full lockdown, alcohol merchants made it easy for people stuck at home craving a glass of cabernet sauvignon to order online or through apps and have ethanol elixirs delivered to their residences. Even now, with restrictions largely lifted, restaurants and other food-centered businesses have come up with cheeky suggestions on how alcohol can calm spirits ravaged by the chaotic and confusing events which COVID-19 created. It’s surprising to me how so many people who never drank on a regular basis admitted to drinking on a daily basis during full lockdown, because it smoothed the rough edges of a tumultuous and frightening time in history.

Dipping Into Indie Funk

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If you were to listen to the songs which I have in my iTunes and Spotify libraries, you’d probably scratch your head in wonder over the vast assortment of genres which I enjoy. One of the reasons why I have so many different genres in my music collections is that I tend to obsess over a certain artist or genre for a while, soaking it up until I begin to get tired of it. The latest musical genre which has caught my attention is Indie Funk, and I specifically latched onto one band in particular, Magic City Hippies.

If you want to listen to music that has an easy vibe, catchy beat and tempo, and just puts you into a feel-good mood, then I would definitely recommend checking out Magic City Hippies, Cool Company, and other related groups which create this vibey, groovy music. The past several months have been pretty difficult for me, so I rely on my relaxing home space to provide consistency and comfort. This means that on most days when I find myself hanging out or working at home, I turn on the Magic City Hippies Spotify station. Friends and clients have actually commented on the station, asking about the musical artists featured. I’m not kidding when I say that indie funk can instantly put you into a great mood and cause stress to just melt away.

Here are a few YouTube videos from bands within this genre:

How Many Plants Is Too Many?

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The year 2020 seemed to blow the lid off plant addiction and hoarding.  More people than ever before have developed an obsession for houseplants, which makes sense since we have all pretty much been going stir crazy since the beginning of COVID-19 and lockdown.  It makes sense that we all turned to these beautiful, air-purifying, living things to enhance our home spaces and give us something to focus on besides our troubles.

There is a fascinating psychology behind collecting plants which differs from accumulation of inanimate collectible items.  Houseplants can have an incredibly calming, stress-reducing effect on us, and they also nicely soften the look and feel of home environments while also cleaning the air.  In addition, the rewards of watching a plant thriving under one’s care are considerable.  I know that every time one of my plants pushes out new growth, I get almost giddy with excitement.  

To be honest, I don’t even remember precisely how last year’s plant obsession really started.  I remember seeing and ordering two  Epipremnum cebu blues on May 27th, and two Zamioculcas zamiifolia ravens on Etsy on May 31st, two weeks after my father’s passing.  After that, it’s kind of a green blur.  My indoor plant count is now at 140.  That’s enough for me, because I have run out of reasonable space.

I think my dad’s death, the lockdown and hysteria surrounding COVID, my two roommates suddenly bailing on me, the loss of work, the fact that my weekly in-person visits with my mom were halted for six months, all pushed me into a very specific nesting mode.  I wanted to spruce up my place, and make it cozy and cool.  I added an outdoor fountain which immediately attracted mosquitoes during the warmer months (lesson learned, but I still have the fountain).  I added comfy pillows to all the seating in my living room and den, imparting a Bohemian vibe which I really enjoy.

After lockdown began, I had no desire to hoard things like clothing or little knick-knacks, though I know other people who began accumulating such items.  Instead, I wanted all the plants which caught my eye, living things I could nurture and watch grow, which also helped to melt away my stress. Though I am not one of those people who talks to their plants or names them (a select few have names…more on this in another post), I am aware of every single plant in my home. I know if a leaf is turning yellow, if a specimen needs to be rotated to get more even sun exposure.

So how many plants would be considered overkill?  Though I think the answer is quite subjective, there is an interesting Australian article which analyzes the optimal number of plants one should have in a room:

https://www.bhg.com.au/how-many-plants-you-need-per-room

Plants not only clean the air, they have a relaxing and calming effect on humans, so why have a limit on the number of plants to pack into a space?  My personal take on this is that I think it’s a mistake to allow one’s plant collection to overtake essential areas in a home, such as a kitchen counter, coffee table, floor space in a shower, stairs, and doorways, with the last two creating hazards since they would impede a speedy exit if a natural disaster were to occur.  It’s also a bad idea to put plants in spots where they clearly wouldn’t survive, such as a very dark room with no grow lights added.

I have my plants placed so strategically in my home that no one ever guesses that I have 140 indoor plants.  Although I fully address the light and humidity needs of all my plants, I also make sure they harmonize with the space they are in and look like they belong where they are.   I will never be one to buy a massive shelving unit or glass cabinet in which to shove my plants, because I think it looks supremely unattractive, and also ironically doesn’t showcase the plants optimally.  Whenever I see a plant person with a large shelving unit which is littered with plants, I know that the plant person is the only one who can fully appreciate all the specimens on the shelves, because they all tend to get lost in one big jumble.

I’ve heard some criticism from a couple of close friends about my plant collection, but I know that they don’t have the same mindset that someone who is into plants would have, so I’m not bothered by the snide remarks.  Ultimately, what matters is how a plant person feels about their plant collection.

Review of Squeeze Dried’s Turmeric Citrus Drink

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Want an easy and delicious way to get the benefits of turmeric, curcumin, orange, ginger and black pepper?  Try Squeeze Dried‘s refreshing Turmeric Citrus to combat inflammation, arthritis pain, and promote cardiovascular health.

Use the link here to order, and make sure to enter my code naito20 to get 20% off your order!

https://squeezedried.com/?ref=_tVU92F1hL7pB

Those Crazy Plant People

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If someone had told me at the end of 2019 that in 2020, I would surpass the level of plant of obsession I experienced in 2000-2002, I would have argued that it would never happen.  Yet here I am, with over 100 indoor plants (119 at the time of writing this post, to be exact), still thinking about the next plant I intend to add to my wishlist.  I am in good company too, because there is massive and ever growing community of plant fanatics which is knit together by countless social media plant influencers, Facebook groups, and online plant shops.  As long as we continue to be sequestered in our homes and encouraged to continue to practice social distancing, the frenzy over hoarding plants is likely to intensify.

Plant people create plant communities inside their homes which serve as therapy and great comfort during the lockdown and social turmoil which has us roiled.  There are times when I will walk around my home, surveying the lush environment I have created, noting the character of each plant, and I honestly appreciate them all.  Then there’s the anticipation of ordering a plant online, which is akin to meeting a new potential love interest.  I can honestly say that I have become giddy after finding a coveted plant and ordering it.  And when a plant arrives in the mail, I want to open the parcel immediately, not only because I am concerned for the living thing inside the box, but I simply can’t wait to feast my eyes on the new addition to my plant collection.

Now that I am a “plant person” once again, I have picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge of nomenclature and plant care.  I have encountered a number of other plant people who could definitely be accused of being plant snobs, using terms like “etiolated” or “pubescent leaves”, and showing disgust when someone doesn’t know what they are talking about.  For the most part, though, plant people tend to be very positive, caring, and friendly.

 

 

I Think My Plants Dig Me :-)

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For those of you who have plants in your home, have you noticed that your plants don’t look as healthy after you return home from a trip? I have consistently noticed in the past year that whenever I go on a trip, at least one of my plants is drooping, exhibiting brown leaf edges, or some other sign of less than optimal health.  I didn’t mind it quite as much last winter, when I only had six plants inside my residence, but by my second out of town trip in September, I had over 30 plants, and wasn’t very pleased by the fact that I came home to see half a dozen droopy, sad plants.  Four of my plants swung back to perfect health within three days, while two of them ended up in the houseplant graveyard.  Thing is, I was only gone for four days, and I returned the day before my regular weekly plant watering day.

Then in November, I made another four-day trip, and by that time I had over 50 plants.  I scheduled my trip so that I would once again return home the day before my weekly plant watering/assessment day, yet I once again returned to a number of plants which were not looking very happy.  I’m thankful that they bounced back to health, but I still can’t figure out why this keeps happening.

I only devote one hour, one day per week, to assess the watering needs of my plants, water the ones which need a drink, spray orchid plant food on all my Hoyas (Hoyas love it), and rotate the pots by 90 degrees clockwise.  I don’t fuss over my plants daily like some people do, not because I don’t care about my plants, but because my plate is always so full that I avoid plants which are fussy and require that type of attention.

My den and dining area, early February 2021

 

Now that my indoor plant collection exceeds 100, I truly wonder what would  happen if I were to take a short trip out of town.  And though plants don’t have feelings per se, why is it that my plants are so much healthier and perkier when I spend more time at home?  As weird as this may sound, I’m almost convinced that plants pick up on our energies, and since I admire my now sizeable plant collection and appreciate every single specimen, I believe my plants sense that.  I know that in general, I have a very green thumb, and had discovered that talent about a quarter century ago, but my recent foray back into houseplant cultivation somehow seems different.  I feel much more connected to the plants in my home, and though I don’t talk to them, simply looking at them makes me happy.  I think they know how I feel.

I read this comment on a blog post about plants on The Smiling Gardener which I found quite interesting:

About fifty years ago as an enquiring hippy I ran atest with my wife to see if plant groth could be affected by love and hate . Four pots of garden soil had the same number of seeds sown in them and were placed together in a window and watered the same amount. The pots had either
1) no treatment
2) SM 3 seaweed liquid feed
3) Projection of love or positive feelings every time we passed
4) Projection of hate or bad mental feeligs every time we passed
Now this sounds quite unscientific and already plenty of room for doubters and skeptics to burst out laughing.

The results ?
No treatment -several seeds germinated plus a few garden weeds.
Seaweed treatment – as above but more seeds germinated and more garden weeds.
Projection of ‘love’- a veritable jungle of germination.
Projection of ‘hate’ – NOTHING germinated

Obviously no prejudiced person could even consider these results as indicative of anything but I always found them very interesting . May even try it again in different format fifty years later.

  • ron daguerre

 

Feel free to check out the links below, both of which explore the idea of whether plants have feelings.  At the very least, there is scientific evidence that plants send chemical signals to each other through the air or soil.  Could my plants be chatting it up about how groovy my home is, how the humidity and the grow lights and natural light are (hopefully) just right?

https://www.houseplantscorner.com/post/do-plants-get-lonely

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/do-plants-have-feelings-expert-answer