You know what’s best kind of self-love/self-care? 🤔 Taking care of your own health! 🤗
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➡️ First of all, treat yourself well! 🙏 Have a closer look on what you’re eating 👅. Do you plan your meals and grocery shopping 🗒 or do you just go to a store, buy whatever you see and put it all on a pan just to „throw” something into your belly 🤷🏼♀️? Do you bring enough vitamins, proteins, fiber? 🧐 Are your meals nutritious? 🥦🍌🍜
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Now, how’s your physical activity? 🤔 Do you workout 💪, practice some sport 🏀, go for walks , do yoga or pilates🧘🏼♀️? Physical activity has as much impact on your physical health as healthy eating 😉
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And now, how’s your mental health? 🧠 Do you sleep well? 😴 Do you feel confident? Are you anxiety free? 😇
Physical health (so healthy eating and regular physical activities) have great impact on mental health too! You know what they say – healthy body, healthy mind 😉
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➡️ Secondly, do you examine yourself? 📈📊 Do you do regular blood tests 💉, regular ultrasounds or x-rays of your stomach, lungs or heart? Do you go see a doctor regularly or only when you feel bad already? 😶
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I examine myself once a year. I do blood tests, check my heart, my lungs, my stomach and lady parts. You should too! 🤗
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➡️ And lastly, remember to seek help whenever you need it 🙏⚠️No matter if it’s something about your physical health or, especially, mental health! If you feel bad don’t hide it away! Go and get some help! 🙏
Category: Health
Happy hormones and where to find them 🤔/how to boost them 💪
„You are what you eat” is so true! 🙂 Did you know that by eating specific products you can boost your happy hormones? 🤩
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🔶️ 1. Dopamine 💥
This happy hormone is a neurotransmitter that drives your brain’s reward system 🏆
➡️ To boost it eat lots of protein 🥚, less saturated fat, consume probiotics, excercise 💪, listen to music 🎶, get enough sunlight 🌞
➡️ What to eat: dairy foods such as milk 🥛, cheese 🧀 and yogurt, unprocessed meats such as beef 🥩, chicken and turkey, Omega-3 rich fish 🐟 such as salmon and mackerel, eggs 🥚, bananas 🍌, almonds, walnuts 🌰, dark chocolate 🍫
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🔶️ 2. Serotonin 💥
It is a compound that is made of an amino acid called tryptophan.
➡️ Tryptophan works best alongside carbs such as groats, wholemeal flour, rye bread 🍞 or fruit 🍇
➡️ Remember about vitamine B – you’ll find it in green leafy vegetables 🌱 (such as spinach, parsley or kale), wholemeal products 🍞, nuts 🥜, meat 🥩, eggs 🥚
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🔶️ 3. Oxytocin 💥
Both a neurotransmitter and a happy hormone, oxytocin is often called “the love hormone.” 😉❤
➡️ Your body produces oxytocin naturally, but if you want to feel the love, so to speak 🙂, try these natural ways to increase it: yoga 🧘🏼♀️, listen to music 🎶, get a massage 😍, spend time with friends 👥, meditate, have sex ♀️♂️, cuddle, hug ❤
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🔶️ 4. Estrogen (female hormone) 💥
This happy hormone helps form serotonin and protects you from irrita�bility and anxiety, keeping your mood steady 😇
➡️ Estrogen boosting food: tofu, sesame seeds, hummus, garlic, dried fruit, wholegrain bread 🍞
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🔶️ 5. Progesterone (female hormone) 💥
This helps you to sleep well and prevents anxiety, irritability and mood swings 🙃
➡️ While food doesn’t contain progesterone, some foods may help stimulate the body’s production of it 🤗, like: beans, broccoli 🥦, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, nuts 🥜, pumpkin 🎃, spinach 🍃
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So in another words – you can definitely eat to be happy! 😉🤩
P.S. I am doing 28 day Self-Love challenge at my Instagram – come join us!
How does excercise improve happiness? 💪⬆️😁
Do you regularly workout? 🤔 Working out is good not only to your body but to your mind too! 🧠
Tired of feeling down? 😴
Move! 😁
Stressed about work? 🤯
Move! 😁
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„Simply moving your body, has immediate, long-lasting and protective benefits for your brain”
– Wendy Suzuki, profesor of Natural Science and Psychology 😎
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Excercise will have both a positive chemical effect on your brain 🧠 reducing stress and improving mood as well as resulting in lasting positive benefits for the brain and body!
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It is scientifically proven that working out improves your mood and decreases feelings of depression, anxiety and stress 🤗.
After a good workout session your body starts producing lots of endorphines – happy hormones 🤩
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You feel proud and satisfied that you’ve worked out and managed to make your muscles work = your mood is better 😊
Your heart is beating fast so brings lots of blood and oxygen to your body and to your brain = your mind and memory works better 🤓
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Working out regularly makes your body chage, you lose weight, your body gets firm and looks better, your have more endorphines in your body, your mind works better = you’re happier 🤗
This is so simple!
Excercise does really improve happiness! 😉
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You should workout 20-40 min 3-4 times a week. I know you don’t feel like it, I know it’s hard to start 😉. Believe me it is so hard for me to get up from a couch or desk and workout, I almost never feel like it and need to force myself to do it but I ALWAYS feel soooo good afterwards ☺
So, have you worked out today? 😉
5 Possible reasons why you’re feeling tired
Do you feel tired all the time lately? 😴
You lack energy for anything?
It is quite normal in the autumn especially when the days are getting shorter and shorter but you can change it! ☺
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Here are 5 reasons why you may feel tired all the time:
➡️ Bad lifestyle – you don’t eat healthy food 🥦 (if you lack ideas for it check out my Healthy Food stories highlights! I share 1-2 healthy recipes in stories every week 😉), you don’t sleep enough (you should sleep 7-8h every night) 😴
➡️ You don’t drink enough water 💦 – you should drink 2-2,5l of water everyday (not liquids, water!). If you somehow forget to drink (some people do) there are plenty apps for that now that will remind you every hour to drink a glass of water 😅 just have some water nearby – e.g. I always have my Brita bottle (0,7l) standing next to me when I’m working and I’m reaching for it even subconciously now
➡️ You’re not moving 🏃♂️– physical activity is VERY important both for your body and for your mind! 🧠 I know it’s not best time now for some outside activity but you can still go for a walk to a forest or even work out inside! 😉 There’s plenty fitness programs online that you can watch and workout in front of TV – I workout with @chodakowskaewa and on my stationary bike 🚴♀️
➡️ You’re stressed – I am aware that those are very stressful times but try to stay calm 🧘🏼♀️. Stop watching news if that makes you anxious 🤯, take up yoga or meditation, write down your thoughts and questions that bother you or simply call a friend and tell what’s on your mind (you can always DM me! 😘)
➡️ You won’t let yourself relax – remember about rest! No matter how much work you’ve got, always plan some rest time too! I work A LOT both at my full time job and on my private projects but I always plan the work this way so I’d have an evening off to chill with my husband and at least 1 day a week completely off to recharge 🤗
Does some of the points above apply to you? Share in the comments!
P.s. BIG NEWS – There will be Smiley Advent Calendar on my Instagram with a special surprise everyday from Dec 1st to 24th!
Positive apps!
I showed 5 positive apps in June (7 over all) on my Instagram Stories and I’d like to sum it all up 🤗.
Here’s quick description if you haven’t seen my stories with tutorial on each app (you can still see it in Positive Apps! Highlights on my profile).
🔸️Gratitude (@gratefulness.me) is a great app for building gratitude and affirmations. It works like a journal where you add what you’re grateful for daily. After a week or a month you have a whole list of things you can be grateful for – great to have on a bad day! 🤗
🔸️My Affirmations is a beautifuly done app for affirmations only BUT you get to say them out loud 🎙. In the app you’ll find various affirmations divided into categories. After you pick your affirmations you get to record yourself and in the end you can play a nice presentation with amazing pictures, calm music and your own voice saying amazing things about you! 🤗Pretty incredible presentation to have when you’re feeling down!
🔸️CBT Thought Diary is an app that works basically like a diary where you can keep on track with your thoughts, emotions and moods.
🔸️ThinkUp (@thinkupapp) is very similar to My Affirmations but with wider choice of affirmations to choose from.
🔸️21 Days Challenge (@21daysapp) is an app for building new healthy habits! You’ll find 11 challenges there for new habits in sections like: Mental wellness, Sleep schedule, Self care, Gratitude, Productivity, Happiness or No Junk Food. Each challenge has 21 steps with 21 different tasks for each day! 😁
🔸️Focusly (@focuslyapp) is a great app for meditation, fighting stress and calming yourself e.g. before sleep. There’s many meditation sessions divided into couple different types and plenty interesting articles.
🔸️Fabulous (@thefabstory) is another app good for building new habits but also about learning about time management and meditation, a bit of everything actually!
It’s impossible to choose just 1 best because they focus on different things so I’d pick 3 – My Affirmations for building gratitude, Focusly for meditation and keeping yourself calm and 21 Days Challenge for learning new habits.
I love those 3 apps and I am SO HAPPY I found those! You need to check them out! ❤🤗
Healthy eating will make you happier
Do you know that healthy eating will make you feel lighter and actually happier? 🤗 The more „heavy”, unhealthy things you eat the more energy your organism need to burn it, which makes you feel heavy and tired 😴
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In 2016, researchers found that a diet with a high glycemic load may cause increased symptoms of depression and fatigue. A diet with a high glycemic load includes many refined carbohydrates, such as those found in soft drinks 🥤, cakes 🍰, white bread 🍞, and biscuits 🍪 . Vegetables 🥦, fruit 🍓, and whole grains 🥪 have a lower glycemic load.
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Healthy food will also make your mind work better 🧠 & will improve your memory especially if you eat healthy fats like Omega-3 which you can find in avocados 🥑, nuts 🥜 or fish 🐟.
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Light and nutritional meals will also improve your sleep 💤. If you eat a lot before going to bed or you eat something „heavy” your organism will spend the night digesting it instead of resting! 😟
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I don’t think I have to tell you that eating good nutritional meals will also improve your health 💪. Your stamina will get better, your immune system will be stronger, you will reduce cancer risk, prevent any heart attacks and/or strokes! You have no idea how important is to eat well in order to live long healthy life! 😉
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And most obvious reason – weight loss ⚖. Of course not everybody wants to lose weight but if you do eating healthy should be your 1st step! And once you do lose weight you’ll feel more confident, better with yourself, more willing to act and basically happier! 🤗
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There are so many reasons to eat healthy! 😊
If you lack ideas for healthy meals check out my „Healthy food” story highlights on ig! I share many healthy recipes in stories! 😋
Rest
How do you rest? ⚠️
Do you lie down on a couch in front of a TV? And when you do, do you relax, focus on a movie and let your problems aside? ☺ Or do you watch a movie but in reality you keep thinking what you haven’t done, what still needs to be done, you analyze your problems and in fact have no idea what’s going on in the movie? 👀
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You need to LEARN TO REST! That’s right, learn to rest 😉
When it’s relax time you need to focus on here & now and enjoy the silence/movie/chill. 🤗
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Learn to „lock” your problems in a cage and keep them there for later 🗝, now enjoy your time off.
If you’re having a problem dividing relax time and „worrying time” 😅 plan it 😉. Find a spot in your calendar where you can sit for 15-30min and think about your situation, about solutions for possible problems etc. Do it during this time and then have proper time off.
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When it’s relax time it relax time! Remember! Otherwise you’ll never rest and you’ll never feel relaxed ⚠️
Self-isolation time
How are you doing these days?
How are you spending self-quarantine time?
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There is this worldwide pressure that you NEED TO do something practical during this time, you need to get some new skills, learn something new, bake home-made bread and get ABS 🙄
No, you don’t 😉
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You CAN and it is GOOD IDEA but you don’t HAVE TO ⚠️
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What you should do is stay calm and relaxed 🙏
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We are all different and we react to current situation in a different way.
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If you never had time for your projects/dreams and now you do, if you feel calm & relaxed during this time and you feel productive and want to do something while being at home then definitely use thise time and get to work 💪
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BUT
If you’re feeling stressed, if you’re worrired about the future and can’t stay focused then let it go 😘 Postpone your plans and dreams for better times and now work on your mental health 🧘🏼♀️
Work on your inner peace instead 🙏
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Use this time to do whatever makes you calm and happy 🤗 If working on dreams and being productive makes you happy (like me 😅) then yes, this time is great opportunity to get something done and walk out of quarantine with new skills and/or projects.
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But if you’re not one of those people then ignore this pressure to DO SOMETHING, don’t read those posts that say „You never lacked time, you lacked discipline” 🙄 and read mine instead! 😉
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This is difficult time that we all need to get through and whatever each one of us does during this time it’s his/her business 😉
Just be happy! 🤗
📸 pic taken ages ago 😅
Smiley Future – Step 3
🧠SMILEY FUTURE🧠
— Step 3 —
Let’s get back to our circle of life. Remember it, right? You will find it in ‘Smiley future’ section.
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Today time to think about your health 🥦
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As usual – mark on your circle of life how happy you are about your health in a scale from 1 to 10.
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Here are the questions that will help you mark that subject:
* Do you think this part needs change? If yes, what would have to change?
* In what way are you active physically 💪? Is it well suited in its kind and intensivity?
* Lack of sleep is plague of those times 😴 Lots of people think that they can work more or have some fun at the expense of their sleep time, while research shows that lack of sleep has bad impact on your health and especially on your cognitive abilities (so memory, attention and ability to learn). Do you sleep long enough? 🛌 What’s the quality of your sleep? Do you fall asleep and wake up at similar times or is your sleeping rhythm dysregulated?
* It is easy to forget about health prevention when nothing is wrong with you but it is prevention itself and early diagnosis that help catch alarming symptoms before they get annoying or severe. Do you examine yourself regularly? Do you know that types of examinations and how often you should do? 💉💊
* What will you gain by those changes?
* What will happen if you don’t change anything about your health?
* In what way does health have an impact on other aspects of your life now?
Next week: Finances 💰
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Source: @chodakowskaeka‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
5 ways to fight stress
Are you aware how big impact does stress have on your health both mental and physical? 😳
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Too much stress not only will obviously make your mood worse and make you powerless but in the long run it can affect your immune system, the state of your hair and skin, your digestive system and plenty more 🤯
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It will make you unhappy, less willing to work or follow your dreams. Not to sound too scary but it will make you miserable 😫
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So here’s 5 ways to fight stress. Whenever you feel stressed do one of those:
1. Workout 💪 – physical exhaustion will not only bring down your mental exhaustion and/or chaos in your head but after a good workout your organism will start producing endorphynes – hormones of happiness so you’ll feel much better 💪😊
2. Take a walk 🚶♂️– as I said in my yesterday’s psychological fact – brain secretes certain chemicals when you have trees and plants around you which boosts the brain thinking 🌳🌴🌲. This is a great way to deal with a stressful situation, just walk and think, find a solution
3. Write it down 📝– it is also scientifically proven that taking your thoughts „out of your brain” and writing them down makes you feel calmer, makes you see the problem/stressful situation more clearly and it is easier to think of a solution 🧐
4. Clean 💧– another thing scientificcally proven that when you clean your apartment or take your trash out your brain does „self-cleanse” too and gets rid of the bad thoughts/emotions, puts your thoughts in the order and gets rid of the chaos inside your head, something like placing everything in its spot on a cupboard 😉
5. Take a nap 🛌 – sleep makes everything better. You rest both pchysically and mentally and you’ll be waking up with fresh mind ready to face the stressful situation 🤗
How to be HAPPY 