What happens when we feel the ‘blues’ set in and have that hint of sadness or depression show its annoying self? We tend to wallow and soak in its venomous bath. At first it doesn’t seem like much but then we’ve submerged into it longer than anticipated, to the point where we’ve turned into raisins and self absorbed too much of our emotions. Let’s combat all this nonsense and gain back ourselves.

Keep active. This allows our energy (Qi) to circulate smoothly and at a consistent rhythm which helps to keep our emotions satisfied, lively, and comfortable. Keeping active builds confidence and our involvement in life; being able to connect with others, shifting our focus on greater tasks, creating solutions.

A great way to break those heavy emotions and get our energy going is to do a healthy form of activity, that gently warms up the body and gets the heart and plus pumping at a faster rate than usual. This can be anything from housecleaning, gardening, hiking, jogging, or even taking a brisk walk outside the work place. Grabbing lunch with a friend is a wonderful activity allowing for companionship and communication. Doing those errands and chores we’ve put aside for later is the perfect time to do them now. Whatever works best for you, just do it, and keep doing it, and change it up every so often so that your activity keeps you fresh, lively, and emotionally vibrant.

Celebrated my birthday a few days ago and the first thing on my mind were to ‘goof off’. I did a great job of doing just that and it didn’t bother me one bit to be unproductive and care less. I relished and bathed in the action of playing just for playings sake.

Now I do this about every once a year at the same time. It’s not enough. We should all incorporate ‘goofing off’ into our lives as a means to reward ourselves for work weeks well done, projects and deadlines completed, and to melt the stress and tension we create for ourselves on a consistent basis.

Think of it as healing and medicine for the soul; to allow our body to reconnect with our mind after being desensitized from the daily grind, to break any cycle of micro-trauma that we may have encountered and wants to be released, to regain our sense of sanity and purpose for the greater good.

So give yourself permission to have fun. Renew your senses, morale, and body. Do what it is that feels like you’re playing hooky and really enjoy it! Life is meant to be fun, allow it to happen!

Goals. What we set for ourselves as guidelines to achieve success in various facets of our lives. We usually focus on long term goals, however short term goals are the building blocks to the aforementioned. My favorite is weekly goals just because they are easier to track and achieve which is very motivating for me.

Setting out weekly health-goals is an excellent way to train your body and mind to shift to better ways of eating and living. This way the goals are achievable, not too far off into the future that it seems daunting, and keeps you in check each week to review your progress. Because these goals are ‘mini’ they do not take much effort and are easy to commit to; our schedules and living habits are not as drastically altered that they’re comfortable and very doable….and those are they keep words ‘comfortable’ and ‘doable’.

Try it out! Start every Monday morning and set out some weekly health goals. A few examples can be as easy as –committing to drink eight cups of water daily, cardio exercise every morning at 6:30, no meat on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, going to bed at night thirty minutes earlier-. My goals for this week…increase my speed on the treadmill when jogging, veggie meals for lunch, and keeping to a bland diet.

Feel good Friday! Allow your Qi to flow smoothly throughout your body to provide nourishment and energy by feeling good now!

Summer weather is approaching fast. Add tomato or apple juice to your diet to clear internal heat. This was definitely part of my liquid intake in Haiti; keeps the mind and body cool and peaceful.