Friday, January 29, 2016

January Favorites! ▶︎▶︎

Hello there! Hope you are doing amazing this week! How are your goals and habits working out so far?! My little meditation app has been telling me that I have been meditating at a consistent rate! Hooray! One of my New Years goals is to have meditation become my habit. The app I use is called Calm. You can go in there daily and meditate for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc... and you can pick what scenes and sounds you prefer. For example, they have rain, (my favorite) sunset beach, silent clouds, fireplace, and many more. Did I mention that the app is FREE! Another reason to check it out. 

This week, I wanted to share some random items that I have been loving for the month of January. I know many utubers and bloggers do these monthly favorites, and I thought that I may give it a go ... now, if I can only keep it up. 

My first favorite this month would have to be a candle that I picked up at Whole Foods. It's by Provence, and the scent is Lavender, Lime & Spearmint. It smells incredible and uses 100% essential oils, cotton wicks, 100% GMO-free soy wax and beeswax. This means that it is healthier for the air in your home and YOU. By the way, I would have taken a picture of the actual candle, but I kind of used it all up already! ❤︎





My second favorite is an oldie, but goodie. Good ol' Audrey Hepburn films. Well, actually, I have been watching Roman Holiday like noones business lately! Plus, I own all of her films, so it's easy to throw one in and sip on hot cocoa with loads of whipped topping and marshmallows. Since it is January, and one of the coldest months where you can't go outside much... I love to watch old movies. If you have never watched any of her movies, you are in for a treat! Just go watch, and thank me later. If you have Amazon prime, there are a few of them on there, as well. 




My third favorite is Green Tea... more specific, Choice organic green tea. You can purchase this at your local Whole Foods or any organic shop. I add a little organic honey and I'm good to go! Green tea makes an excellent choice for breakfast tea, as it is loaded with antioxidants (vitamins) for everything from skin to energy levels. It also contains caffeine (not as much as coffee), but enough to kick start the brain and improve your day. 




My next favorite would be the song The Beach by Thieves. They are a British pop band and was pretty popular back in the 90's. I recently discovered this song from a favorite Utuber that was playing it. It can be described as very mellow for most of the song, then moves along to more upbeat at the end. I love it. You can listen to it on iTunes or Spotify. 

It wouldn't be normal if I wouldn't throw in a shameless plug. I recently came out with a new foot soak called Coconut + Vanilla. It features organic vanilla beans that have been infused into salts for many months. Coconut milk is then added to the blend and voila! It smells amazing, is detoxifying, and makes your feet very soft! Lovely. 






And "that is all she wrote" for January. What are some of your recent favorites? I would love to hear! 

I hope you have an amazing weekend!

Take care, 

Jennifer














Friday, January 22, 2016

Minnesota Winterland ▷▷

Hey there lovely people! I hope you are having a lovely and productive week! This past week, we decided to head up the North Shore and view its natural beauty.  It's so refreshing to take a drive and see so many trees and smell the fresh air, even though it was -16 below zero. That's right, we got out of the car to take the following pics... freezing hands and all. Things we do to get gorgeous pics of nature's beauty... all worth it.

Since we were heading "up north," and since it was freezing-- it was a good time to stop at the little coffee house called Mocha Moose. A delicious healthy breakfast and a hot cocoa with extra whipped topping later, we were set to head out and enjoy the scenery, and the freezing temps.



Since the temps were below zero, it was a perfect chance to take pictures of the frozen, dripped icicles and deep blue Lake Superior. As we were driving along the North Shore, there was even a haunting fog over the lake... very eerie, but beautiful. 



So... how gorgeous is this?! Silly me even tried to pick up a few rocks to take home with me--  yup, completely frozen within the earth. Not budging. 


Breathtaking 

Here's a few more of Lake Superior and her beauty... 



Even though it was a cold, cold day, I feel unbelievably fortunate to be able to witness such natural beauty. It really is a true treasure to live in an area where we are able to travel just a few miles to gain peace and view this huge body of water.

Hope you have an amazing rest of the week!

Take care,

Jennifer 






Friday, January 15, 2016

       HAPPY NEW YEAR + PEACE OF MIND 

Happy 2016 everyone! I hope that you set some amazing "habits" (goals) for yourself and know that this is YOUR year to achieve anything! You can do it! YOU can do anything if you set your mind to it... really, it can be done. And... I will be your biggest cheerleader! 




It seems that every year we all set these massive goals that seem nearly impossible once we hit February. We tend to stray away from them and then start to feel sad and hopeless that we can't keep up. 

Who says that we have to do EVERYTHING at once. I think that we can start very small and build ourselves up... why not? There is no set rule for the new year and what you should be doing. After all, you are in control of your own life-- therefore, you control your goals and the time it takes to achieve these goals. If you know that losing weight or keeping yourself away from caffeine will break you in the first month... why not start out with tiny steps.

Grab yourself some tea and let's figure this out. I want you to write what your goals (habits) are for yourself this year. Do they look achievable?






This is what I find works for me every year. I will write down a few goals and work on one for a few months, then a few more in the upcoming months. I place these goals right in front of my face on my desk, so I view them EVERY day! For example, I wanted to lose a few pounds in 2012... I would look at this piece of paper staring at me, and it would tell me to get busy.

First thing, I started to incorporate exercise slowly into my life. I started exercising for about a month for minutes per day until it became somewhat of a habit and comfortable  -- building myself up more minutes each day. Then, came the calorie counting and creating healthier meals, etc... it worked! Each week, I was stepping closer to my goals, and I was feeling mighty great about it. ❤︎

Instead of setting myself up for failure, doing it all at once, I took baby steps. I counted calories and exercised, but I also treated myself each week with a reward. For example, I was doing so great, that I went and bought myself something amazing. I totally gave myself the okay to eat a little chocolate or one of my favorite foods... all in moderation, of course. Don't deprive yourself... reward yourself! You will look forward to it. 

As I was thinking about goals and the new year, I decided to start this year off with something that I call, "Peace of Mind Daily." This is a little list in which I combined some of my favorite "peaceful" and "zen" moments. These little moments will go hand in hand trying to achieve something in your life that will make you happy. It's all about stopping to think about life and what exactly what we are doing to create it and shaping it the way that we want. 

I hope that you love this little list, and hopefully you are able to cross a few of them off daily. You don't have to do all of them... baby steps. In fact, if you don't like some of them, don't do them, or take them off the list. Make a different list that with things that you love. It only takes minutes a day to do this... we waste more time doing things that we dislike --  might as well take some minutes to do things that we do like, and relax the mind and body.

This list is meant to be incorporated into your goals, whether it be losing weight, cutting nicotine or caffeine, paying off bills ... the list goes on.  

Here is the list... I do hope that you will print this off and post it somewhere where you will see it EVERYDAY. All of these directions truly become a peace of mind. They are meant to show more gratitude towards others and more love for yourself. Happy NEW Year! 



"Peace of Mind Daily"

❤︎ meditate for 5 minutes 

❤︎ bless 2 or more people

❤︎ write down 2 things to be grateful for right now

❤︎ smile for 10 seconds 

❤︎ say "thank you" in your mind throughout the day

❤︎ pat yourself on the back and say "great job in life"

❤︎ daydream for 2 minutes 

❤︎ declutter your favorite area of the home

❤︎ take deep breaths throughout the day

❤︎  read something positive for a few minutes

❤︎ concentrate on listening more to others... listen more, talk less

You will start to transform yourself and your goals. Love who you are. Dream bigger! ❤︎

Take care, 

Jennifer