Continual Growth for 2017
By Alison Canavan
We get notifications on our phones alerting us that we need to upgrade them but how often do we apply this in our own lives? It’s important to check in with ourselves daily and as we evolve and grow we need to freshen our daily habits making sure they serve us in the best way possible.
Change is the only thing we are certain of in this life yet it’s the one thing that people resist the most. It is both continuous and constant and upgrading your life is a journey that needs to be worked on until the day we die. By upgrading, I mean working on your true inner happiness and not the material goods like your house or car. The catalyst for New Year’s resolutions is usually just a guilt driven response to all the excesses of the holiday season, which is why I steer clear of them and stick to small changes regularly throughout the year. A great place to start is with your morning routine. How you start your day is tremendously important as its sets the tone for the day ahead. I always start my day by saying ‘Thank You’ three times as I get out of bed. I do some stretching and then a 10-20 minute meditation. After, I always practice gratitude by writing down what I am grateful for and why.
Finally, I set an intention for the day or choose an affirmation or a mantra. The main thing here is to have fun with it. Another useful change I am learning over time is to reach for refuge within as opposed to using external factors like food, drink, work, people and so on. My daily meditation practice plays a key role in this. It is precious time with myself in an often chaotic and busy world. The one thing we all have control over in this life is our own inner world and if we nurture it our outer world will change for the better.
January is also cold and dark so it’s important to nourish yourself with good wholesome food and keep your immunity high. Souping is the new juicing during the cold months. You can batch cook both soups and stews which means you’ll always have healthy food to hand. As we live in Ireland, we need to make sure we get our Vitamin D (aka the sunshine vitamin) so no prizes for guessing why we don’t have enough here! We also use Vitamin D to metabolise Magnesium, which is a really important mineral that activates over 300 enzyme reactions in the body. These reactions translate to thousands of biochemical reactions happening constantly on a daily basis. Without the right balance, the system cannot work optimally.
I have started using MAG 365, which is easily absorbed and I take it before bed as magnesium has been shown to help with sleep. For women, the new bone formula has Vitamins D, C and K2 along with Magnesium to help contribute to normal healthy bones, while Vitamins D & C help maintain a normal immune system. Ease into the New Year with a mindset of self-care and become more conscious of your inner world and upgrading as you go. After all, slow and steady wins the race.
