➡️ Lion’s breath (Lion’s Pose or simhasana in Sanskrit)
Lion’s breath is an energizing yoga breathing practice that is said to relieve tension in your chest and face.
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To do this:
🔸️Come into a comfortable seated position
🔸️Press your palms against your knees with your fingers spread wide
🔸️Inhale deeply through your nose and open your eyes wide
🔸️At the same time, open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue, bringing the tip down toward your chin
🔸️Contract the muscles at the front of your throat as you exhale out through your mouth by making a long “ha” sound
🔸️You can turn your gaze to look at the space between your eyebrows or the tip of your nose
🔸️Do this breath 2 to 3 times
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➡️ Humming bee breath (bhramari)
The unique sensation of this yoga breathing practice helps to create instant calm and is especially soothing around your forehead. Some people use humming bee breath to relieve frustration, anxiety, and anger. Of course, you’ll want to practice it in a place where you are free to make a humming sound.
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To do this:
🔸️ Choose a comfortable seated position
🔸️ Close your eyes and relax your face
🔸️ Place your first fingers on the tragus cartilage that partially covers your ear canal
🔸️ Inhale, and as you exhale gently press your fingers into the cartilage
🔸️ Keeping your mouth closed, make a loud humming sound
Continue for as long as is comfortable.
Source: https://www.healthline.com
Tag: chill
SELF LOVE: 30 ways of practicing self-love and self-care pt.2
Time for 2nd part of our 30 ways of practicing self-love and self-care! Last week we did first 6, now time for 6 more! 🤗
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30 ways of practicing self-love/self-care:
🔸️ 7. Have some propper me-time. If you don’t live by yourself be open about it and simply ask your partner or roommate to leave you by youreslf because you need some time by yourself. I learned that last year to simply tell my husband that I need e.g. to watch some girly movie by myself, I leave him by himself in living room and go to bedroom to have some me-time 😉
🔸️ 8. Practice gratitude 🙏 – we have so many things to be grateful for! Your health, your close ones, roof over your head, your surrounding… notice what you really have! 😊 So many people lack it and dream of those things!
🔸️ 9. Be creative! 🤩 Put your emotions on paper and write a story or take some paints and try painting! 🎨 If you’re not a fan of those 2 activities you can try decoupaging, knitting, taking pictures, singing, playing some instruments… there are so many ways to be creative! 🤗 This is what got me through lockdown! Coloring is what makes me relaxed, gets my thoughts away and lets me calm down so I got this BrushMe set 😀 – you get a painting with a set of paints with numbers and all you need to do is to paint right color in the right spot and you can create an amazing picture like I did here! Have you tried one of those?
#notsponsored
🔸️ 10. Spend as much time in nature as possible! 😍 Especially now, in the spring/summer! 🌞 Fresh air and nice views make us calmer and more energetic!
🔸️ 11. End all toxic relationships 😉. Anyone who makes you feel anything less than amazing doesn’t deserve to be a part of your life. If you get/havve a hater in social media – block him/her immediately. We don’t need that 🚫
🔸️ 12. Celebrate your wins no matter how big or small 😀. Pat yourself on the back and be proud of what you have achieved!
Another 6 ways of of practicing self-love and self-care coming next week!
Smiley Future – Step 51
Let’s continue practicing mindfullness 🧘🏼♀️. Next excercise is careful observation 👀. It lets you notice and appreciate simple, obvious elements of reality and it serves you to feel that you’re a part of a beautiful natural environment what tends to slip out in everyday rush 😉.
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➡️ 1. Pick an element of nature in your close surroundings and focus on that for a minute or two. It can be a flower 🌸, a tree 🌳, an insect 🐞, clouds ☁️, moon 🌚…anything
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➡️ 2. Don’t do anything else ❌ just watch the element 👀. Relax and observe it as long as your concentration lets you.
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➡️ 3. Look at the chosen element as if you’ve seen it for the first time 😁
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➡️ 4. Explore every aspect of that chosen element. Let its presence soak you completely 🤗
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How do you feel after that excercise? Do any new thoughts, discoveries come to your mind?
Write them down! 😊
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Next week: Practicing mindfullness: awareness
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
SELF LOVE: Green tea face masks
Did you know that besides great nutrition values green tea 🌱 is also good for your skin? 🤗
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Here are 3 options for natural face masks with magical green tea:
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➡️ 1. Cleansing mask
Pour 1/4 cup of hot water onto 1 tsp of green tea leaves 🍃. Brew it for 10min covered, strain it and wait for it to cool down. Mix 5 tbsp of green tea with 1 tbsp of oatmeal and a bit of honey 🍯. Apply it on your face for 10 min, then massage your face and neck. Rinse it. 🤗
➡️ 2. Mask for sensitive skin
Pour 1/4 cup of hot water onto 1 tsp of green tea leaves 🍃. Brew it for 5min, strain it and wait for it to cool down.Take 3 tbsp of green tea and mix it with 3 tbsp of corn flour and 1 tsp of lemon juice 🍋. Before applying it, wipe your face down with a tonic, put the facemask on for 20min later rinse it down with warm water 😊
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➡️ 3. Mask for acne
Mix 1 tsp of brewed green tea leaves 🍃 with 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Put it on acne/pimples and leave it on for 10min. Wash it off with warm water 🤗
Have you ever tried such natural facemask? 😊
P.S. I am doing 28 day Self-Love challenge at my Instagram – come join us!
SELF-LOVE: Work on your dreams no matter what vs rest no matter what 🤔
You need to listen to your body and rest when needed 🙏
I have been working too much + had too much stress in November and December and I still ‘feel it’ in my body 😫. Even though i’m not working that much now in January, I have finally lazy weekends and sleep well 🛌, I still feel tired and don’t have that energy to jump into spiral of work 🤷🏼♀️ and have been taking it slowly so far in the 1st half of January and that’s ok 😉. I’m still moving forward, just taking small steps.
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Don’t push yourself if you don’t feel like it ⚠️. Don’t say “I’ll do it no matter what!” if you don’t want to do it ⚠️. It may seem contradictory to me pushing you to follow your dreams and to work on yourself but it’s not, you just have to find that balance ⚖.
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If you’ll be pushing yourself and not feel like it not only your body will give up and you will feel tired all the time but you’ll drop that dream/project quickly as forcing yourself to work on it won’t make you happy 🤷🏼♀️.
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Create a healthy, individual routine for yourself 😊. Try what works for you and what doesn’t. I work 8h at my full-time ‘normal’ job, then work 4-5h on my projects/dream and always need those 3-4h of rest in the evening when I watch Netflix with my husband 🤩, workout and/or play PS4 🕹. And as for weekends I work on my projects for couple hours on Saturdays (but not each Saturday) and always leave Sunday fully off to do nothing and let my body and mind rest 🤗.
What works best for you?
SELF-LOVE: Hand cream
This hand cream recipe is easy, however some of the ingredients are not found in the average pantry.
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The orange and vanilla scent is gorgeous and it goes with this hand wash, however feel free to use your favourite essentials oils 😊
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Ingredients:
a sterilised jar to fit 55 ml or 1.9 oz
12 g/0.4 oz cocoa butter 🍫
12g/0.4 oz beeswax or coconut oil 🥥
30ml/1 fl oz almond, grape seed or calendula oil 🍇
10 drops of carrot or borage seed oil 🥕
10 drops orange or tangerine and vanilla essential oils (optional) 🍊
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➡️ Melt cocoa butter and beeswax in a bain marie (a bowl sitting in a saucepan of water), stir well, turn off the heat and add the almond, carrot or borage and essential oils.
➡️ Pour into a sterilised jar while still warm. Label and enjoy using up in six months if not before 🤗
Enjoy! 🤩
Source: http://blahblahmagazine.com.au
Healthy balance
You know what’s one of my main rules in life? Healthy balance about EVERYTHING 😉
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We live in crazy times where everybody is in a rush, everybody wants to be the best at something 😬. Some people risk it all to get what they want. Is it worth it though? 🤷🏼♀️
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I’ve heard some people say that in order to be successful you need to totally limit your time off and focus on work 😶. That you need to drop Netflix, drop the time with your loved ones and spend every minute of your day self-evolving 😏 That instead of watching a tv show on Netflix in the evening you should focus on broadening your skills, your knowledge and read a book 📖
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I understand that in order to succeed you need to work hard and I totally agree with that 👍 I highly encourage everybody to self-evolve, to learn new skills… sure, that too ☝️. But to limit your time off? 😕 To never watch Netflix (apart from the fact that you can always learn something from a tv show/movie/documentary 🙄)? To never have propper leisure time? 😒
Na-ah 👎
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There needs to be balance⚖. Not only you NEED TO REST regularly in order to rebuild your energy to work, to get new ideas 🤩, to stay fresh 🙂 but if you work your ass off and never rest you’ll lose your motivation, lose your will to work and it will all become a torture for you and in the end when you succeed it won’t bring you any joy 😏
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Another example are people who want to lose weight or muscle up and they work out every day or even twice a day 🙄. That ain’t the way to do it 🚫. Muscles grow on your rest days! You need at least 1 day break from working out a week for the body to recharge and for your muscles to grow.
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You should make sure that there’s heathy balance ⚖ in every part of your life:
Between work 💻 & rest 🎬
Between working out 💪& regeneration 🧖♀️
Between your career 👩💻 & private life 💃
Between the time you’ve got for others 👥 and time you’ve got for yourself 🧘🏼♀️
Between physical development 💪 and mental development 🧠
Between caring about what’s important ⚠️ and ignoring what’s not 🚫
Healthy balance is the key, believe me 😉
Smiley Future – Step 28
How do you relax? 😉
Today’s last part of „Be good to yourself” series.
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Do you remember when we talked about factors that weaken your strong will? 🤔 It was stress and tiredness and lately we’ve been talking a lot about the danger of treating yourself badly and punishing (and getting into a trap of „everything or nothing” thinking” ⚠️).
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That’s why sometimes in order to rebuild and strengthen strong will you need rest, regeneration and pleasures that will give you energy and motivation to work 🤗.
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Task for today: Make a list of your ways of relax and pleasures. It is important so that they wouldn’t be contradictory to your goal (so e.g. don’t write on your list „eating huge pizza” or „eating chocolate cookies” when your goal is to eat healthy 😉).
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It might be an evening with a good book 📖 or a movie 🎬, talk or meeting with a friend 💬, relaxing bath 🛀, walk around the neighbourhood 🏞, playing with dog 🐶, relaxing yoga session etc. 🧘🏼♀️
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So what are your ways to relax? Tell me! 😊
Next week: Sometimes it’s better to postpone
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
SELF-LOVE: Sugar Lip Scrub
SELF-LOVE 🙏❤
“Kiss Me” Sugar Lip Scrub 👄
This recipe is a classic! A little honey combined with sugar and almond oil is all you need to moisturize and slough off dead skin. All you need is:
2 teaspoons sugar 🍚
1 teaspoon honey 🍯
1 teaspoon almond oil / coconut oil 🥥/ olive oil
Mix everything together in a small bowl until you have a paste. Apply to lips with fingertips and massage into your lips to gently slough off dry, dead skin cells 😍. You’ll be tempted to eat the mixture – it tastes pretty darn good 😅! Rinse with warm water and follow with lip balm. Keep any extra in a small container 😊
Source: https://helloglow.co – check it out for more DIY Natural cosmetics
SELF-LOVE: Rose water
SELF-LOVE 🙏❤ Are you ready for another recipe for home-made natural cosmetic?
Let’s make rose water! 🌹
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Rose water is a cosmetic that is crucial in everyday make-up removal process. It is a perfect natural tonic that you can spray your face with after cleaning it 🧖♀️.
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If you combine it with glycerine it will work as setting spray – it will improve your make up, make it last longer and will reduce the feeling of powderiness.
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If you use it as tonic it will make your skin calm and will bring its pH balance 🤗
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Rose water is perfect for delicate skin, allergic skin…it will work on any skin really! 😉
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You’ll need:
🔹️250-300ml distilled water
🔹️rose patels (out of 3 big uncoloured roses) 🌹
🔹️10-20 drops of rose essential oil (optional)
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1. Wash petals, put them in a pot and pour distilled water over it
2. Heat the water – it should be hot but it shouldn’t boil!
3. Turn stove off, cover the pot and set it aside to cool
4. Strain the brewing, pour it into a small bottle (spray one would be best), optional add essential oil.
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To make the rose water last longer keep it in a fridge (for up to 2 months). Enjoy! 😘🌹
How to be HAPPY 