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The Glow Up Secrets176. your winter blues survival guide ❄️ mental health, wellness & self care tips to thrive this winter!
The Glow Up Secrets176. your winter blues survival guide ❄️ mental health, wellness & self care tips to thrive this winter!
176. your winter blues survival guide ❄️ mental health, wellness & self care tips to thrive this winter!
Update: 2024-11-24
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Hi my loves 🦋 In today's episode we chat about how we can survive and THRIVE throughout the winter season. I discuss all the ways in which we can experience this new phase of our lives through mindset reframes, physical health & wellness tips, socializing & much more! ❄️
My vlog channel @eliciagoguen
How to adopt a positive winter mindset (part 1) https://youtu.be/pBLRQpy2GyA
How to stop wasting your life away with bad habits https://youtu.be/gJKWDD-Edhc
Sleep mediation https://youtu.be/UwRKEjQ4yuo?si=Q9hne6t8_l-NXvG0
Yoga nidra https://youtu.be/VIIYutOMesw?si=KfdRHD_NliYep-vN
White noise https://youtu.be/fKbxzeD1-jQ?si=HkDdTkbFaYuifI46
Sydney cummings https://youtu.be/YPwiYwZ01Rs?si=qjNwgqQRxHNiUjMJ
Sarah beth yoga https://youtu.be/XCIviBT3Txc?si=KVZsjVsx9LibUGB5
Ultra human ring https://ultrahuman.com/eliciagoguen ELICIA20
Class pass credits https://classpass.com/refer/MCPN5U0O11
Humidifier, bath rack, colouring books, frother, etc can all be found on my LTK https://www.shopltk.com/explore/eliciagoguen/productsets
My book "the ultimate glow up guide" is available NOW 💗 get it at your local bookstores & online at places like amazon! https://amzn.to/3M4SfGA
One on one sessions are OPEN 💗 https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/504d27dc-4092-4216-bb7a-3ca273e7d082
Abundance mindset digital journal guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/2d3320d4-64a5-43ec-bb2f-3fbf53242649
Inner child shadow work digital guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/76e37742-8b45-4691-a2fd-1acec42c0301
Heal to manifest digital guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/1dd4344d-c10c-4134-b2d5-e10c6ab33986 My main channel @eliciagoguen 🤍
All my home, favourite beauty, skincare, clothes & wellness products on LTK https://www.shopltk.com/explore/eliciagoguen
Link to my microphone, camera & my favourite tech items https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-280d1a49/list/2P83PPZGKLP00?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfinfluencer-280d1a49_426RJGVE7WH4HG1KCM9X
The Glow Up Secrets podcast channel https://www.youtube.com/@theglowupsecretspodcast
My audio podcast, instagram, tiktok & pinterest can all be found here: https://eliciagoguen.komi.io
00:00 adopting a positive winter mindset 02:44 your “winter arc” mindset reframes, self-talk & goals
16:36 nervous system regulation
26:40 deep sleep
31:36 winter friendly movement
38:32 diet: gut health, immune system support & eating seasonally
42:21 calm & cozy environments
46:32 slow self-care
51:22 wellness weekends, socializing & slow hobbies
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-glow-up-secrets--5693167/support.
My vlog channel @eliciagoguen
How to adopt a positive winter mindset (part 1) https://youtu.be/pBLRQpy2GyA
How to stop wasting your life away with bad habits https://youtu.be/gJKWDD-Edhc
Sleep mediation https://youtu.be/UwRKEjQ4yuo?si=Q9hne6t8_l-NXvG0
Yoga nidra https://youtu.be/VIIYutOMesw?si=KfdRHD_NliYep-vN
White noise https://youtu.be/fKbxzeD1-jQ?si=HkDdTkbFaYuifI46
Sydney cummings https://youtu.be/YPwiYwZ01Rs?si=qjNwgqQRxHNiUjMJ
Sarah beth yoga https://youtu.be/XCIviBT3Txc?si=KVZsjVsx9LibUGB5
Ultra human ring https://ultrahuman.com/eliciagoguen ELICIA20
Class pass credits https://classpass.com/refer/MCPN5U0O11
Humidifier, bath rack, colouring books, frother, etc can all be found on my LTK https://www.shopltk.com/explore/eliciagoguen/productsets
My book "the ultimate glow up guide" is available NOW 💗 get it at your local bookstores & online at places like amazon! https://amzn.to/3M4SfGA
One on one sessions are OPEN 💗 https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/504d27dc-4092-4216-bb7a-3ca273e7d082
Abundance mindset digital journal guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/2d3320d4-64a5-43ec-bb2f-3fbf53242649
Inner child shadow work digital guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/76e37742-8b45-4691-a2fd-1acec42c0301
Heal to manifest digital guide https://shop.beacons.ai/theglowupsecrets/1dd4344d-c10c-4134-b2d5-e10c6ab33986 My main channel @eliciagoguen 🤍
All my home, favourite beauty, skincare, clothes & wellness products on LTK https://www.shopltk.com/explore/eliciagoguen
Link to my microphone, camera & my favourite tech items https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer-280d1a49/list/2P83PPZGKLP00?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfinfluencer-280d1a49_426RJGVE7WH4HG1KCM9X
The Glow Up Secrets podcast channel https://www.youtube.com/@theglowupsecretspodcast
My audio podcast, instagram, tiktok & pinterest can all be found here: https://eliciagoguen.komi.io
00:00 adopting a positive winter mindset 02:44 your “winter arc” mindset reframes, self-talk & goals
16:36 nervous system regulation
26:40 deep sleep
31:36 winter friendly movement
38:32 diet: gut health, immune system support & eating seasonally
42:21 calm & cozy environments
46:32 slow self-care
51:22 wellness weekends, socializing & slow hobbies
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-glow-up-secrets--5693167/support.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Hi everyone and welcome back to their podcast episode.
00:00:02
My name is Alicia Gogan, the host of The Gloves.
00:00:04
You guys podcast where I help you expand your mind and become more self-aware so that you can glow up into the best version of yourself.
00:00:11
Hello, how are we doing?
00:00:13
Happy Sunday.
00:00:15
This is essentially part two of our beating the Winter Blues series.
00:00:22
The winter is here and we are not going to let up.
00:00:26
Okay, so last week we talked about how to adopt a positive winter mindset which you can go watch that episode if you have not watched yet or listened on audio.
00:00:35
I will have it linked in the description and the show notes.
00:00:38
I think that episode is very important because if you want to experience winter in a new way and enjoy it and thrive and heal and really lean in and nourish yourself,
00:00:53
your mindset needs to be on point.
00:00:55
We can't be looking at winter like, oh my gosh, it's a dread.
00:00:58
Oh my gosh, I hated, I hated, I hated.
00:01:01
Now listen, there are some downfalls with winter but there is a lot of positives in winter as well.
00:01:07
And if you go into anything with a more positive, optimistic mindset you will find yourself wanting to show up and wanting to embrace the season and heal yourself and glow up and really use this period kind of like your winter arc.
00:01:22
But in this episode, I want to talk about some mental health and physical wellness and self-care things that we can think about and do an implement in our lives to allow us to essentially survive the winter.
00:01:34
This will help for sure with beating that depression and just feeling like the winter is a dread because it really does not need to be.
00:01:42
I just think that we need to move with the season of life a lot more than we tend to do.
00:01:47
We tend to like to resist, resist, resist the things that we feel a little bit uncomfortable with but let's get a little bit more comfortable in this season of life.
00:01:56
Before we get into it, if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe so you can get all the episodes in your subscription box.
00:02:02
And if you could please like this video because this lets the algorithm know that this is a good video to suggest to other people and we want all the girls, all the guys, all the days,
00:02:12
all the whatever, okay?
00:02:14
Up in this glow up journey, okay?
00:02:16
Also, when you hit the like button on videos, your algorithm is going to feed you more of this content.
00:02:22
So even if it's not mine, if you want to stay in this world of self-development and glowing up, the algorithm listens to when you like things or when you comment on things.
00:02:31
And of course, if you're listening on audio, you can follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple, wherever you're listening, so that you always get updated episodes.
00:02:38
And lastly, my 101 coaching is open for November, so all of the information will be in the description.
00:02:44
So we can't talk about surviving the winter and beating the winter blues without talking about mental health.
00:02:50
Like I said, last week's episode really goes into the psychological aspect of the way you move through life and perceive things and your negative biases.
00:03:00
I did essentially a book review on some of the psychology tips when it comes to thinking about how you're gonna move through the winter.
00:03:07
So we're not gonna go too much into the mental health aspect.
00:03:10
Definitely go check that video out.
00:03:12
But what can help you really survive and beat those winter blues is looking at the season kind of like what everyone's talking about with the quote unquote winter arc.
00:03:23
Now you will find with my tips and what we're gonna be talking about, we're kind of doing an opposite of winter arc in the sense of we're not pushing super hard,
00:03:33
we're not overexerting, we're not being insanely productive, but we're still using the months of November and December, even January and February.
00:03:41
These months to really build, really pour into ourselves, really go in D&D mode and just heal.
00:03:50
Now I found this Pinterest quote and I felt that it aligned with the way that I am moving into the winter months.
00:03:57
So let me read a few points on here.
00:03:59
It says shift your perspective, view winter as a growth phase, which this is a growth phase baby.
00:04:05
Listen, there's gonna be some growth for you this winter and this is really exciting.
00:04:10
'Cause for me, I love growing.
00:04:11
I love to think about in the spring and summertime, the way that I'm gonna flourish because I've been growing and healing and taking care of myself through the winter, the outcome,
00:04:21
the results, the person I'm going to be, is gonna be amazing.
00:04:26
So get ready for that.
00:04:27
Another thing it says, embrace the darkness as a time for renewal.
00:04:32
This leads back into changing the way that you view winter.
00:04:35
We talked about it in that episode.
00:04:37
We get that there's gonna be longer, darker days.
00:04:41
We do not need to dwell on that though, okay?
00:04:44
It's here, it's always going to be here.
00:04:46
Well, I guess depending on where you live, but for the most part, the ones who are afraid of the less sunlight in the gloomy days.
00:04:54
Look at what Mother Nature is giving us right now, those longer, darker days as a chance to renew.
00:04:59
Another one is practice positive affirmations to keep your minds at strong.
00:05:03
I think positivity and gratitude is huge during the winter time because we are susceptible to seasonal depression.
00:05:10
We are susceptible to those lower arousal feelings.
00:05:15
We are susceptible sometimes to not a lot of dopamine because like I said, of the lack of sun, and things sometimes that can be out of our control.
00:05:24
Another one is focus on what you can control, not external circumstances.
00:05:29
The reality is, there's things that we cannot control in our lives in every season of life, but same thing goes with winter.
00:05:35
We can't control the fact that there is not a lot of sun.
00:05:38
So what can we control?
00:05:41
Next, let go of past mistakes.
00:05:43
Winter is about moving forward.
00:05:45
Let's not dwell.
00:05:47
Let's not do it.
00:05:47
Why?
00:05:48
Why are we gonna do that to ourselves?
00:05:49
Let's move forward.
00:05:50
This is a chance to renew.
00:05:51
This is a chance to move forward.
00:05:53
Let's do it.
00:05:54
Let's capitalize on this time.
00:05:56
Next one, it says reframe challenges as opportunities for growth.
00:06:00
And I like to bring this to where I'm at right now with my health.
00:06:03
If you guys haven't been following me on my vlog channel, aka my main channel or my second channel, you can definitely go subscribe and follow if you haven't.
00:06:11
But I've been vlogging.
00:06:12
I vlog basically my lifestyle when it comes to health and wellness.
00:06:16
You guys get mindset shifts and tips and advice and things like that.
00:06:18
But I'm basically going through the process with you guys very much so comfort.
00:06:23
And I've been loving it over there and so of you guys.
00:06:27
But I have been going through a flare up.
00:06:29
I have IBD.
00:06:30
And this flare up is a challenge for me.
00:06:32
It's a challenge for me physically, mentally and socially.
00:06:36
I have a lot of limitations for how I can live my life right now.
00:06:41
And I'm doing my best to reframe this period of my life as a way to grow and to go deeper within what my body needs versus fighting it versus being upset about it.
00:06:53
And dwelling in the fact that there's things that I can't do right now.
00:06:57
So if there is something in your life right now that is a challenge, try your best to look at this challenge as an opportunity to grow.
00:07:05
Because the truth is all the challenges in your life right now, they are showing you something deeper than maybe you can even see right now.
00:07:13
And that's OK if you can't see it.
00:07:14
But there's a lesson.
00:07:16
This challenge right now is bringing you in more alignment than you actually even think right now.
00:07:21
I always think about this when it comes to breakups to or relationship issues when things aren't working out.
00:07:28
You feel like it's the end of the world.
00:07:29
It really hurts.
00:07:31
It sucks.
00:07:32
But for me, I look at a lot of these things.
00:07:35
When I let myself feel my feelings because you can do that, you could have those bad days.
00:07:38
When something is not working out for you, when you're facing rejection or you're facing hard times, it's just bringing you closer to what you want because you're realizing what you need and you want in a relationship moving forward,
00:07:50
what maybe you weren't giving yourself, the things that you were slacking on, the things that you weren't being truthful about.
00:07:57
These are all really important insights and information that you can use moving forward to give yourself a better life.
00:08:04
Now, it also says, "Develop mental resilience through meditation, which we're going to talk about, nervous system regulation, when it comes to our physical health, because I think that's going to be big."
00:08:12
So we'll leave that for that.
00:08:14
It also says, "Limit exposure to negative news or toxic environments."
00:08:17
I think this is really important when it comes to social media.
00:08:20
This is something that I have been doing my best to practice a little bit more is not feeding into the negativity.
00:08:28
And what I mean by that is I don't argue with people online, but sometimes when you go on TikTok or Instagram or even comment sections, whether it's your own or if you're a creator or someone else's,
00:08:41
when you check those comment sections, there are so many negative opinions and backlash with everything.
00:08:49
You could see the most positive thing and then somebody is just giving their take on how, "Oh, well, it's easier for you to say."
00:08:56
Or this is not how it is for everyone and this that.
00:08:59
And I'm not here to say that people can't have their own opinions and people's opinions are like real, but sometimes it can just be so overwhelming to the point where it just feels like you can't win,
00:09:10
right?
00:09:10
Like you just can't win.
00:09:11
There's always complaining.
00:09:12
There's always this that in the third.
00:09:13
So I have just been trying my best to protect my peace in certain ways when I feel like I am getting a lot of that negative energy online.
00:09:24
So just making sure that you're kind of cutting that out 'cause at the end of the day, it's like there's always gonna be negativity whether it's online or offline.
00:09:31
There's always gonna be things you can gossip about.
00:09:32
There's always gonna be things that you can complain about.
00:09:34
So it's like how do you wanna experience the winter?
00:09:37
Do you wanna be in that negativity or do you wanna just say you know what?
00:09:41
I want a better life for me.
00:09:42
I want a positive life.
00:09:43
I want good conversations.
00:09:45
I want to believe that there's better things out there.
00:09:48
You can do that, but it's gonna be up to you.
00:09:50
Another thing it says is keep your thoughts focused on abundant impossibilities.
00:09:54
I think this is very huge, especially when you're going through winter because again, this is the times where sometimes we can get into those routes a lot quicker.
00:10:01
But when you focus on that abundance, when you remind yourself that there's more to life than maybe what's even happening in your life right now, it really gets you through some of those times where maybe you're not seeing that abundance right now.
00:10:13
Maybe you're not seeing the fruits of your labor, but reminding yourself it's coming, you're working on it, it's going to flourish, it's going to come.
00:10:21
And then it also says embrace self-compassion during tough days, which is so incredibly important.
00:10:26
You guys know I am always preaching about this.
00:10:29
There's just going to be days where they don't feel good.
00:10:32
Okay, you're not going to have the best days.
00:10:33
You're going to have imperfect days.
00:10:35
You're going to have days where it feels hard.
00:10:37
You're going to want to give up.
00:10:37
You're going to want to cry.
00:10:38
You're going to want to want to moan and complain in this thought.
00:10:41
Leave room for those days.
00:10:42
You don't need to keep resisting them.
00:10:44
You don't need to be afraid of a negative emotion.
00:10:47
You want to feel your feelings.
00:10:48
You are a human being.
00:10:49
It's a part of life.
00:10:50
I talk a lot about this in my book, The Ultimate Globe Guide, when I went on my glow up journey, and I went on a healing journey and internal healing journey, I realized a lot of my life,
00:11:00
I was suppressing, I was rejecting, I was denying real feelings and emotions, and that kept me stuck in my life.
00:11:07
But once I realized that I didn't need to be a perfect human being to thrive and grow and to just be, oh my gosh, my habits, my glow up, everything changed because I allowed myself to actually feel.
00:11:21
So if you're interested in my book, that's a great book to get during your winter months, which will be linked down below, or you can get it at your bookstores, your local bookstores, and if they don't have it, then you can get it online, Amazon chapters,
00:11:32
all the big places really, you can get books.
00:11:34
Now, two other things before we move on to physical wellness self-care, that is particularly helpful for me during the winter months, are self-talks at night,
00:11:45
or you're going to do it in the morning or whatever, but I feel like at night is really good, and there's something about doing at night before you go to sleep, and having some sort of goal that you're gonna be working on during the winter month.
00:11:55
So when it comes to self-talks, I feel like it's so important that you really build a voice of reason and a big sister energy, or a motherly voice, or whatever you wanna call it,
00:12:05
higher self notes to your higher self type of energy towards yourself, and I find taking five to 10 minutes before you go to sleep, and the way that I have this energy with myself,
00:12:18
it's as almost as if I'm getting real with myself.
00:12:20
So I'm putting away my phone, and I'm either sitting down, and I'm speaking out loud, which, I mean, kinda sounds a little bit crazy, but not really for us.
00:12:28
I mean, we be yapping, we be talking, we be journaling.
00:12:32
But I just talked to myself out loud, and I remind myself of how good I am doing, what's working in my life, what I'm excited about, how amazing I am.
00:12:40
I am pouring into myself, and I am having conversations with myself.
00:12:45
I'm sometimes even speaking things out, and just connecting the dots about something in my life, or some realizations that I might be having.
00:12:54
I'm just giving myself a voice.
00:12:57
I am speaking words of affirmation into myself, and I think that this is very important to do, especially during hard times, especially during months where things can be boring,
00:13:09
things can be gloomy, and then what happens when sometimes you experience a lot of those days is the mindset goes, right?
00:13:16
The positivity goes, the positive thoughts, and the affirmations, and the zest for life, it goes.
00:13:23
So having a practice at night, and speaking to yourself five, 10 minutes, it changes the game.
00:13:28
I get so excited, seriously so excited, to talk to myself at the end of the night, because nobody can do it best than you, to be honest, and I think that you should learn how to be better at doing that for yourself if you haven't,
00:13:41
because this goes a long way.
00:13:43
This goes beyond winter.
00:13:44
You will bring this practice anytime that you are feeling anxious, anytime you're second guessing yourself, or you're going through challenging times, you'll be able to have a conversation with yourself and pull yourself together and be like,
00:13:56
all right girl, listen, these are the things that are working today, you're doing the best that you can, with what you have going on, things are gonna change, maybe it's not right now, that is okay, but we are going through it,
00:14:07
we are gonna get through it, don't worry, we are here.
00:14:10
You need to have that energy towards yourself, it will change the way that you feel within your nervous system and your mindset, and you will find yourself going through your days and showing up a little bit better when you have that mindset.
00:14:21
And the second thing is having some sort of goal.
00:14:24
Now, we're gonna talk more about goals and mood boards and planning for our dream lives more when it comes to January because we're not there yet.
00:14:33
And personally for me, I don't like to spend too much of my December, even November, but too much of my December, like spending a lot of time hustling and being productive, and it also just depends on the season of life that I'm in,
00:14:44
of course, right?
00:14:45
But I do still like to have something that I'm working on, whether that's a course or a certification, or a project that I'm working on when it comes to my work, maybe for you guys,
00:14:56
it's simply like you just have a goal when it comes to like your finances and you're kind of like hustling during this season of life.
00:15:02
Maybe you are just dreaming up the idea, like it's not there yet, but you have some sort of idea of what you wanna do for the January months or the February or whatever, like for next year,
00:15:12
things like that, just anchoring yourself in something.
00:15:17
It's helpful for many reasons, of course.
00:15:20
One of them just being, we are human beings that will always be looking for something to work towards.
00:15:26
Always, this is always gonna be something that we'll wanna do and accomplish and achieve.
00:15:31
But your brain actually releases a lot of dopamine when you're on the pursuit of hitting a goal.
00:15:38
So it's not even when you actually hit that goal, but I think a lot of people can relate to knowing what this means when you actually get the thing.
00:15:44
It's actually like less of a dopamine kick than you think and then you're onto the next one, right?
00:15:49
The onto the next one energy is you working towards something and you making headway on something because what's actually happening within your brain is you're releasing dopamine.
00:15:58
And dopamine is something that we really need.
00:16:00
We can't live without it.
00:16:02
And we need a lot of it during the winter time.
00:16:04
And sometimes when we don't get that, then we fall into bad habits, right?
00:16:07
We go to the quick dopamine kicks of going on social media or drinking or smoking or eating unhealthy foods, talking to people who just give us a short-term gratification,
00:16:18
all of that stuff that's not really that helpful for us.
00:16:20
So having at least one thing that you're gonna be focusing on during the winter months can be helpful and it's gonna be dependent on you in your life whatever feels good to you,
00:16:30
aligned to you, what you wanna actually manifest and create in this world.
00:16:35
Okay, let's move on to our physical health.
00:16:37
How can we support our physical health during the winter to allow us to thrive and to survive?
00:16:45
Now, I need you to understand that again, the winter time, whether, regardless of where you live, if there is a seasonal change, which there is everywhere essentially,
00:16:57
your body is going to feel that impact.
00:16:59
And it's not a bad thing.
00:17:00
We don't need to be afraid of it.
00:17:02
We just need to work with the season of life.
00:17:05
So I wanna talk about nervous system regulation and also making your routines very winter friendly.
00:17:11
So if you have a nervous system that is in fight or flight, meaning you worry a lot, you have a lot of anxiety, you maybe are even in shutdown mode.
00:17:24
So maybe you're in freeze mode, not fight or flight, regardless, a very dysregulated nervous system.
00:17:30
You're gonna not have the best experience in life, right?
00:17:33
You're going to not wanna feel like you wanna do much because maybe you don't have energy or maybe you're just overthinking things or maybe your body will be fighting itself in the form of sickness and disease.
00:17:44
There are so many things that root back to a dysregulated nervous system.
00:17:49
So using the winter time to regulate yourself, to slow it down is going to be huge and I personally think the most important thing that you can do for your physical health this winter.
00:18:03
Now, what does nervous system regulation really look like?
00:18:07
It looks like a million different things and it's very dependent on who you are as a person and what triggers you and how you move through this world.
00:18:17
So I'm gonna just talk about a few things that I have been doing and I also have a quote that will kind of touch on a few other things that you might not think about when it comes to regulating your nervous system.
00:18:25
So recently I've been doing a lot, a lot, a lot of guided meditations.
00:18:31
These guided meditations are different in you sitting in a silent room for five to 10 minutes with no thoughts.
00:18:36
I know it can be very difficult.
00:18:37
That is something I personally do not do.
00:18:39
Sorry, I just haven't got myself there yet and I find doing guided meditations, meaning somebody is guiding you through usually a story.
00:18:51
There's usually affirmations in it.
00:18:52
Really just bringing you through a somatic process and bringing your attention towards your body so that you can actually connect to your body is way more beneficial to regulate your nervous system than it is for you to like fight off not thinking or feeling anything and just like sitting in silence.
00:19:09
guided meditations are great for when you want to go to sleep and you struggle with going to sleep.
00:19:14
guided meditations are also great to do midday to reset your nervous system because when you move through life and even in your mind, like whatever's going on in your mind,
00:19:25
there's constantly these unreal but feeling real threats that are coming at you, right?
00:19:32
People places in things and circumstances, everything's just hitting you.
00:19:35
Life is hitting you at every angle.
00:19:37
And so we need to do our best to remind our nervous systems, hey, you don't need to go into fight or flight, you don't need to go and shut down mode, you're okay,
00:19:47
you're resilient, you can do this.
00:19:49
This is not really a threat, it's not a lion, you're not going to die.
00:19:52
How do we do that?
00:19:53
Well, we do things like guided meditations.
00:19:56
We do things like slowing things down and not over working our mindsets when it comes to sensory overload, going outside and going for walks where it is peaceful and we're not listening to 100,000 things all the time.
00:20:11
We are not scrolling and watching a movie and having a conversation all in one go.
00:20:17
We are taking time throughout our days to come back to our breath, remind ourselves that we are safe, that we are loved, that we are here in the present moment, grounding ourselves.
00:20:27
So I will link some guided meditations that I have been doing and this is from a page on YouTube, it's free called The Mindful Movement, I've talked about this so many times,
00:20:37
just the best guided meditations, day meditations, morning, night, whatever.
00:20:42
And there's long ones, there's short ones, you can sleep with them all night.
00:20:46
They're just amazing for you to fall asleep, to have a calm, peaceful mind.
00:20:51
I would really suggest trying some of those out.
00:20:54
And also I've been doing something called yoga nidra and yoga nidra is essentially like a midday nap, but it is in the form of a guided meditation, like you usually put something on and it's a meditation,
00:21:07
that's guided and maybe you do it for 20 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, we can do it for a little bit longer, depends on how much time you have of course, but for the most part you probably will drift off into a little bit of a restful sleep,
00:21:21
which really restores your nervous system, really restores your mindset, really restores your physical health, and that is something that I think is so important to capitalize on this time during the winter because we have so much time,
00:21:35
but I do want to read another Pinterest quote, and it says, "Be kind to your nervous system and stop, showing up where you don't feel valued, forcing connections that don't feel aligned,
00:21:46
spending your energy in places that don't replenish you, worrying about things you cannot control, thinking that what you do doesn't make a difference, pretending that you're okay with things that are not okay,
00:21:57
allowing other people to establish your worth, not considering yourself, taking blame for others poor behavior, and thinking it's too late for you."
00:22:05
And I want to go back to forcing connections that don't feel aligned and showing up where you don't feel valued.
00:22:12
Those two things are in opposition of what your body really needs, okay?
00:22:17
This is really what like nervous system regulation is, is you connecting to your body and saying, "Hmm, do I feel comfortable in this place or around these people?"
00:22:29
Or simply, let's say I want to go to a coffee shop and work, I go into the coffee shop and I'm feeling like this is something that I should be doing, I should be working at this coffee shop and doing some work.
00:22:40
For some reason, it feels too chaotic for me.
00:22:43
It feels loud, it feels like a lot, it feels very fast pace, it's too busy, it's too much.
00:22:48
You honoring your nervous system is connecting to your body and knowing does not feel good and removing yourself.
00:22:55
Sorry, I'm gonna go find somewhere else.
00:22:57
If you can, now, can you do this at all places at all times, all the time?
00:23:01
No, you might need to find tools in ways that you can regulate yourself.
00:23:05
Let's say you're at school, right?
00:23:07
And you can't really leave school.
00:23:09
Well, is there something that you can tell yourself to get through that period of time?
00:23:12
Can you come back to your breath for a moment?
00:23:15
I used to do this when I used to serve in bartend a lot.
00:23:17
I would go into the back and literally just take three deep breaths and just remind myself, like, hey, I'm okay, I am fine, I am safe.
00:23:25
Those small things will continue to regulate your nervous system and tell yourself and your mind and your body, we are safe.
00:23:32
And the more times you stay in that energy, that's where healing can occur.
00:23:37
That's also where a lot of mental clarity can come.
00:23:40
That's where a lot of alignment comes.
00:23:42
That's where a lot of wisdom can come when you are not in a state of fighting life and fighting yourself.
00:23:49
This is also very important when it comes to your health, disease, autoimmune disease, hormonal balancing.
00:23:58
If you are having any sort of health issues, you have to understand your mental health and your nervous system plays a huge role in the way that your body is fighting itself.
00:24:07
I've learned this from experience when it comes to my personal health and IBD, there is a huge stress component.
00:24:15
When I am not taking time to slow down and to honor my body and I'm worrying and I'm stressing and I am eating things that are not an alignment to me or I'm putting myself in places around people that are not into alignment with me,
00:24:28
my body will respond.
00:24:29
And your body responds because you don't wanna respond to it.
00:24:32
You're not listening to it, you keep ignoring it.
00:24:35
So during this time, honor your body, listen to your body, find ways to connect more to your body.
00:24:43
There's other things that I like to do and we'll kind of talk about it, but in the form of like when I wake up in the morning, I like to put on jazz music because I just know that it just brings so much peace and calm to my mind and my body.
00:24:57
And I know that my cells are responding.
00:25:02
They're getting those signals to be like, you know what, it's safe to heal.
00:25:06
It's safe to repair.
00:25:08
It's safe to build right now.
00:25:10
But your body is not going to feel safe to digest the food that you have in your body or to repair damage that's been done in your body when you're constantly showing it that it needs to be online.
00:25:24
It needs to fight.
00:25:25
It needs to focus on things that are not as important as I'm testing your food right now or repairing right now.
00:25:30
That's what your body does when it's in fight or flight.
00:25:33
Now when it comes to regulating ourselves, regulating our emotions, regulating the way that we feel, we tend to go to the things that are those quick dopamine kicks,
00:25:44
the things that help us suppress and reject and deny.
00:25:47
And so I'm going to leave a episode all about how to stop wasting your life away and cutting toxic habit because there are probably things that you do in your life right now that instead of you,
00:26:01
let's say, doing the guided meditation or slowing things down or giving yourself a second to just breathe, you will go to eating or smoking or having a drink to take off the edge.
00:26:15
And those are just those short term things that don't actually support our nervous systems a way that we subconsciously think that it does.
00:26:22
So I'm going to leave that episode down below because at the end of the day, if you are currently in an active, some form of addiction of some sort of habit, it's going to be hard for you to make your routines winter friendly and for you to even decide to do any nervous system regulation because you're so addicted to that habit.
00:26:40
But let's bring it back to winter friendly routines.
00:26:44
Like I said, during the winter, it's going to require us to show up in a new way.
00:26:48
So let's talk about sleep.
00:26:49
Sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep.
00:26:51
This is going to be so important that we capitalize on.
00:26:54
Why?
00:26:54
Because we do have more of that hibernation energy.
00:26:57
Now here's a few things that I like to do to support my sleep.
00:27:00
It's going to be different for everyone, but I figured I would just give you some recommendations.
00:27:04
One is sleeping with a cooler room, although it is not the best because I am somebody who loves to be warm, but when you drop the temperature in your room if you can in any sort of way, even if it just means opening up your window,
00:27:16
it allows your body temperature to regulate in a way that it needs to be so you can have deep sleep.
00:27:22
Also, I have been tracking my sleep on the ultrahuman ring.
00:27:25
If you're watching on YouTube, this is the ring that I'm wearing to track my sleep and my steps and everything.
00:27:29
And on there, it actually does show when your temperature is dropping.
00:27:33
And if it's in optimal ranges, which is really important when it comes to deep sleep and REM sleep and even light sleep and things like that.
00:27:41
So making sure you have that good sleep environment is huge.
00:27:45
By the way, if you guys are interested in a sleep tracker, step tracker, workout tracker, like, you know, all of those like aura rings and the ultrahuman rings or the apple watches,
00:27:56
things like that, I did a lot of research on this ring.
00:27:58
They did end up sending it to me.
00:28:00
This is not sponsored right now, like what I'm talking about, but I figured I would just say this because I have a code for Black Friday that's actually more than it usually is.
00:28:09
And so if you were interested in getting a ring that tracked all of those things, I think it is, I love it.
00:28:15
I've been wanting this ring for a long time.
00:28:18
Well, I've been wanting the aura ring and then the ultrahuman ring came out and I was doing a lot of research on it.
00:28:23
And I do think that it is better than the aura ring.
00:28:26
And it also tracks your cycle as well, which is really great.
00:28:29
I track my cycle.
00:28:30
I cycle sink.
00:28:30
So they're doing a Black Friday deal starting on November 22nd so this episode will already be out.
00:28:36
November 22nd to December 2nd.
00:28:38
My code is going to go from Alicia 10 to Alicia 20.
00:28:43
So if you're interested in getting this ring and you want to do your research on it, absolutely do your research on it.
00:28:47
I think it's a great ring and I just freaking love it.
00:28:49
You can use that code and you can just get 20% off.
00:28:51
So I think that's a really good deal.
00:28:53
You can wear it all the time and it tracks everything.
00:28:55
You just get the app on your phone.
00:28:57
But when it comes to sleep, I, like I said, I do usually do guided meditations to fall asleep.
00:29:04
If you are a tosser and a turner and you can't shut your mind off or you just want to wake up feeling good, guys, your subconscious mind is way more impressionable when you are falling asleep and you are sleeping.
00:29:18
And your belief system is all wrapped up in your subconscious mind, baby.
00:29:22
Okay.
00:29:23
So if you want to have better thoughts about yourself in the world and what gets to happen for you, you need to work on your belief system.
00:29:30
And sometimes it's really beneficial.
00:29:32
If you have those affirmations playing in the background as you fall asleep and oh my gosh, it feels so good when I do guided meditations.
00:29:38
So that's what I do every single night.
00:29:40
I also make sure that I have my humidifier on.
00:29:43
I have a really good one from Amazon.
00:29:44
That's not a lot of money.
00:29:46
So I'll link it down below if you're interested.
00:29:47
It is so quiet, literally so quiet.
00:29:50
And you know what's crazy?
00:29:51
I got a canopy humidifier, which was like, it's this brand that's like clean and do does really good with like filtering your stuff and this that.
00:30:02
But it was expensive and the filters are insanely expensive and I live in Canada.
00:30:07
So I was like, I need to just get a new one that doesn't need all of that because it was just running me up bills that I didn't need to be running up.
00:30:14
And I end up getting one from Amazon.
00:30:16
It is dead quiet and it brings moisture back into the air, which that's what happens when the winter time comes, which can affect your sleep.
00:30:24
And it also can affect your skin and even like your breathing patterns.
00:30:29
So that's something to consider.
00:30:30
I also sleep with white noise.
00:30:32
I am seriously, it's kind of ridiculous with how I have to have my sleep set up.
00:30:37
But I also sleep with white noise as I'm sleeping with my guided meditation to block out like all of the external sounds of everything because I'm such a sensitive light sleeper.
00:30:46
And then I'll get in my head and then I'll start like having fights with people in my head if I hear noises like neighbors or this that and mind you, it's not that loud.
00:30:57
Anyways, I sleep with white noise.
00:30:59
I just play like an eight hour or a 10 hour white noise thing on YouTube and it allows me to have the best sleep.
00:31:07
I've also been recently trying sleep tape, which if you are a mouth breather, it is good to breathe through your nose.
00:31:13
So I can link the melt tape that I have been using as well.
00:31:16
I know that's a little bit extra, but I'll also link an episode about understanding why it's important sometimes for people to melt tape when it comes to not only your oral health, but also your sleep.
00:31:28
But essentially, you just want to have a routine that is your go-to routine for sleep so that you can have deep, restful sleep.
00:31:36
All right, let's talk about movement.
00:31:37
Movement is going to be huge, okay?
00:31:40
This is the thing that I think that we try and work on the most during winter is physical activity.
00:31:44
And this is where I do think that we need to do some modifications for us to expect that we're going to not only have the most energy and the most motivation to do the workouts that we did in summer, but they're just going to also look different.
00:31:57
So to winterize it, to make it less hard to even do, I would really suggest trying to do some at-home workout.
00:32:06
It's okay.
00:32:07
If you are just not in the phase of your life of going to the gym right now, or wanting to go for whatever reason, maybe you just have a really busy schedule.
00:32:15
Hi, I'm just reminding you that there are these things called at-home workouts, okay?
00:32:19
Let's bring it back to like the COVID era.
00:32:22
So you can find your person online.
00:32:25
My two people are Sydney Cummings.
00:32:29
She has the best, in my personal opinion, at-home workouts, because not only does she structure her workouts, and she has challenges in everything the best,
00:32:40
but she has all types.
00:32:41
Like if you have dumbbells, if you don't, if you have any sort of resistance bands or this that, or if you don't, depending on the time that you have 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, if you're working on cardio, if you're working on strength,
00:32:52
core, anything.
00:32:53
She's amazing.
00:32:54
She has an insane setup.
00:32:56
She's been doing this for years.
00:32:57
She has a background in personal training.
00:32:59
So she really knows what she's doing.
00:33:01
And right now, I'm actually not going to the gym because of my flare-up.
00:33:05
So my gym membership is paused.
00:33:08
I also have a condo gym, but I'm not able to go right now.
00:33:10
So I probably think that when I start having a little bit more of the physical capability to do some more workouts, I'm going to start doing at home workouts.
00:33:21
I also just think it's a great way to just ease yourself into working out because it can be dreadful.
00:33:27
All right, it can be dreadful to be doing these workouts when it's like dead in the winter time and you have no motivation and it's cold.
00:33:33
Now, if you're not in your resistance training era, you can do things like Pilates or yoga.
00:33:37
I really love Sarah Bath Yoga.
00:33:40
Again, she's on YouTube for free.
00:33:42
I am not currently following anyone for Pilates, but there's so many people that you can do for Pilates.
00:33:46
Like you can do all of these at home for free and it's a little bit more wind drives because it's just more cozy.
00:33:53
You can wake up, you can get your workout done in like 30 minutes and you can be about your day.
00:33:58
But if you do want to do classes because they are helpful, okay?
00:34:03
I will say this, when I get a little bit better, will I be doing a workout class here and there?
00:34:08
Yes, I think doing like a Saturday morning spin class or a hot yoga class, like even once a week, it's something to look forward to.
00:34:15
It's something to get yourself out of the house with.
00:34:17
You don't have to overwhelm yourself and commit to doing it every single day if that's just not in your financial books or just even if you just don't want to do it and you're kind of in your home body era,
00:34:28
I think that that is helpful.
00:34:30
Now, I use class pass, so I will link my link down below.
00:34:34
If you have not tried class pass and it's available in your area, which like most major cities and places they do have it, but depends on where you're living in the world.
00:34:40
I know some places don't have them, but that will give you 23 credits so you can try out your first workout class.
00:34:46
Just know when you sign up for class pass, when you actually become a paying member, you're gonna get more studios opening up around your area.
00:34:54
I don't know why they do that.
00:34:56
I mean, I guess 'cause it's like a free trial and things, but so many of you guys have used my link and you have been going consistently and I think it's so amazing.
00:35:04
Like I love to see that, so I think it's just a great way to also be able to see what studios you like because studios can be so expensive, like plaudi studios, hot yoga studios, things like that if you sign up through them,
00:35:17
but if you get class pass, not only can you use that for all of the studios, well, it depends, not every studio is on class pass, but a lot of them are.
00:35:24
You can utilize and kind of go to place to place, but you can also use that for self-care massages and nails and like physiotherapy and all of those things.
00:35:35
So I love that for when I am booking classes.
00:35:39
And the last thing that I will say is walks, walks, walks, girls, we are not letting up on our hot girl walks.
00:35:44
This is what you need to understand.
00:35:47
The weather is changing.
00:35:48
You need to learn to dress for the weather and that's what you're gonna be doing instead of saying, it's cold out, I can't do my hot girl walks, I can't do it.
00:35:57
Double up your socks, it will make a difference.
00:36:00
Even if you're walking in your running shoes 'cause there's not any snow on the ground or if you have boots, make sure you have the right boots so that you can walk where two pairs of socks, it will change the game for you where leggings and then wear something over top of it,
00:36:14
whether it's a track pants or two leggings, I don't care.
00:36:18
But when it gets cold, you're gonna need to double up.
00:36:21
There is a difference when you walk outside and you wear your leggings versus where you put those track pants over top of your leggings.
00:36:27
Are you gonna look like the cutest girl?
00:36:29
Probably not, I don't care though.
00:36:30
Because we are going on our hot girl walks.
00:36:33
And same thing when it comes to your sweaters, right?
00:36:35
Like make sure you have something underneath your sweater and then have sweater or a hoodie or whatever and get your jacket on.
00:36:42
Make sure you have earmuffs or you have your headphones on.
00:36:45
I like to wear my headphones that are like the big ones from one of the Skullcandy ones.
00:36:52
I have them linked down below from Amazon and they double up as earmuffs because they keep my ears cold.
00:36:59
And that's what I use for my walks but sometimes I'll just use my hood, whatever the case is.
00:37:03
Make sure you have mitts.
00:37:04
Just make sure that you are set up and you'll not be complaining about your hot girl walks.
00:37:09
You really won't.
00:37:10
As soon as you get outside and move your body a little bit, you will be just fine.
00:37:14
We gotta get the steps in.
00:37:15
We have to move our bodies.
00:37:17
We have to take breaks throughout the days, even if it's a 10 minute walk in the morning before you want to work or it's a midday walk right after your lunch.
00:37:24
Great way to move your body, by the way, after you eat.
00:37:27
Even if it's at night and it's only 10 minutes, do what you can but let's move our body.
00:37:32
And also stretching.
00:37:33
I think this is more important in the winter time because we sit a lot and we don't move a lot.
00:37:41
And we also have a lot of time that we're usually like watching reality TV or scrolling or this, that.
00:37:48
So I like to, if I find myself watching my TV or lounging around the house, I have an exercise ball.
00:37:56
You don't need to get one.
00:37:57
But I do have an exercise ball where I will lay back and do like a back bends and just release my body and come back to my breath and move my body.
00:38:05
Or if I'm sitting on the couch, I will decide to like go onto the ground and do some child's pose or cobra.
00:38:12
Just moving my body just a little bit and stretching things out.
00:38:15
It doesn't need to be like this whole routine.
00:38:17
But trying your best to move your body or walk around the place or get up and do something.
00:38:24
When you're sitting and stuck energy, when you're sitting in stagnant energy, it's no wonder you feel like crap during the winter.
00:38:30
So it's very important that you focus on movement.
00:38:32
All right, let's talk about diet.
00:38:34
Now, I don't follow any specific diet and I'm not going to tell you guys how to eat, okay?
00:38:41
We know this, this is the internet here we're talking about.
00:38:44
And depending on the season of life that you're in, your diet will have to change as everything really in life.
00:38:51
For me right now, I am very focused on gut health and immunity, essentially because I am going through a flare up, but I think focusing on gut health and immunity is important during the winter.
00:39:02
Because sometimes we also tend to just go off the whims in the summertime a little bit, you know?
00:39:07
But when I'm talking about gut health, I'm really talking about eating foods that are supportive to your digestion in the form of warming foods,
00:39:17
which makes sense, right?
00:39:19
We're in the winter time, our digestion is gonna need a little bit more fire for the most part.
00:39:25
And warming foods could mean the temperature being more warm, but also foods that are a little bit easier to digest, so essentially cooked foods and roasted and baked and broths.
00:39:38
Those things are really great for our bodies during this hibernation season.
00:39:44
I think looking into traditional Chinese medicine can be helpful if you are interested in eating more for your gut health, but also eating seasonally is really important,
00:39:54
you know?
00:39:56
Having foods that are grown around the season that you're in, you're just gonna get more nutrient benefits from it, which also supports your immunity, which is important during the winter,
00:40:07
because that's when our immune systems tend to go down.
00:40:10
It goes down for many reasons, maybe your body is finding something off, or we have lack of nutrients because maybe we're not supporting ourselves when it comes to warming foods, foods with fiber, foods with protein,
00:40:21
like we wanna have protein and all these things, but also lack of vitamin D.
00:40:25
That can really affect our immune systems as well.
00:40:28
So, making sure, not only are you getting sun exposure, which also brings me back to getting on those walks even in the morning and trying to do your best to get that sun in your face,
00:40:40
essentially, but supplementing with vitamin D3 can be really good.
00:40:45
You wanna make sure that you're doing your research with that, impairing it with vitamin K2, and also making sure that you have a healthy fat, to make sure that you are actually absorbing that vitamin D in your bloodstream,
00:40:58
and I mean, if you have a balanced diet, then you don't really have to worry about it too much, but that's something to note.
00:41:04
But again, I'm not a doctor, so you might wanna actually get your levels checked, but I mean, for the most part, everyone's pretty low on vitamin D.
00:41:11
If you have an autoimmune disease, if you have chronic illness, most likely, you probably have even lower vitamin D levels.
00:41:17
If you have anything to do with IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, you've probably heard, or maybe you don't know, but our gut health is very impacted,
00:41:28
right?
00:41:28
Our immune system is in our gut as well, and vitamin D plays a huge role in the way that we're feeling, and usually it's very low.
00:41:37
Also, people who are melanated, there's a girl who commented on my video last week, and she said just a reminder to anyone who is more melanated, that you will struggle with producing vitamin D more than a Caucasian person.
00:41:50
So, just making sure that y'all get your vitamin D3 in as well.
00:41:55
Lately, I've been making so many soups at home, I've been drinking bone broth, I've been drinking chicken broth, I've been also baking a lot at home, I've been doing this also to save money,
00:42:07
and to really just enjoy the process of nourishing my body.
00:42:12
And this is not about eating the most clean, right?
00:42:16
You don't need to be like a super clean freak when it comes to this kind of stuff, but you are gonna be supporting your health a lot more if you eat from home and your bank account.
00:42:27
And I have been loving making my warm coffees at home, oh my gosh guys, I got the Nespresso Frother, and it has changed my life.
00:42:37
I have barely walked into a coffee shop in the past two months, so not only have I saved so much money, but I just love and enjoy the process of throttling my mouth,
00:42:48
putting cinnamon in it, using raw honey, branch pressing my coffee, I'm also gonna try to make a mocha at home, I got some peppermint extract that I'm gonna be using,
00:42:59
and some cacao powder, gonna mix it up with some milk, and a little bit of espresso, well I espresso but coffee, and I know it's gonna be so good.
00:43:08
So just finding ways that you can make those warming recipes at home as well, like you don't need to get all of these things outside of your home, you can learn to make these things at home,
00:43:19
and make it a fun process.
00:43:20
All right, let's talk about environment.
00:43:22
Environment is really important, okay?
00:43:25
You want to, again, signal to your nervous system, signal to your body that it's a new season, that it can rest, it can slow down, and it can be grounded in present, and I think a way that you can do that is making your place cozy and comfortable,
00:43:37
and a way I like to do that is changing my lighting and ambiance, so lots of candles, it's almost like a ritual, when the sun sets,
00:43:48
I am lighting candles, I am turning down the bright lights that might be on, I honestly try not to even put on super bright lights in my place, 'cause it's just, I don't like the feeling of it,
00:43:59
but I have these light bulbs that I got from Amazon, I can link them down below for my lamps, and I have an app on my phone where I can change the tone,
00:44:09
so I'm always changing it to warm tones, even on my phone when I have the brightness down, I will have night shift, and I'll make it to the orange tone, so warming light is so great to feel cozy and to set those vibes,
00:44:25
and it doesn't have to be much, or you can switch your light bulbs in your room, and change it to that warmer tone, I promise you, it will make a difference.
00:44:35
Also, music I feel really gets you through the winter season, and it can be any music, but I find really spending some time curating your playlist,
00:44:46
whether that's the holiday playlist, the jazz, the house music, the pop, the hip hop, whatever it is, whatever type of music you like to listen to, it can be motivating and exciting, you can go on your walks with it,
00:44:57
you can play it around your house when you need a little bit of a pick me up, I recently created some new Spotify playlist, so if you guys are interested, I'll have it linked down below, you guys love my playlist, but something that I do that is a ritual is when it starts to be fall,
00:45:10
actually, like I've already been doing this since fall time, is I go on YouTube, and I play those like eight hour jazz, cozy, fall music videos,
00:45:23
well they're not music videos, but they're just background videos where they have the cutest aesthetic, by the way, like mainly I love them because I like to put it on my TV, and it's literally like I have a whole new piece of artwork,
00:45:36
and I love a good aesthetic, like find me scrolling Pinterest and making Pinterest boards, all throughout the fall, I mean, I do them all the time, but especially fall winter,
00:45:47
I just love a good aesthetic, so I will have them linked down below, but in the morning time I play my jazz, and boy, does it make a difference?
00:45:56
It just feels so good, it sets the vibe, and it just allows me to embrace the season.
00:46:01
And lastly, if you are celebrating the holidays in whatever capacity you can decorate, make your place cute for the holiday season, I think it's just something to look forward to,
00:46:14
and to make your environment something that you wanna be in.
00:46:18
You're gonna spend a lot of time in your environment, whether it's just your room, or if you live by yourself, or with a roommate, whatever it is, do your best to make your environment very cute,
00:46:29
cozy, even if it's just one or two things.
00:46:31
Next is self-care, self-care will get you through the winter months because it gives you the sense of, like, you're preparing yourself for something good,
00:46:42
you know?
00:46:43
It's like you're this little butterfly in this cocoon, and you are gonna break out looking 10 times better than you did last summer in this spring, in summer of 2025,
00:46:53
okay?
00:46:54
But also, self-care is great for the nervous system, it's great for you to relax.
00:46:59
That's really what I'm doing right now, it's not even that I'm doing self-care so that I can, like, do this huge glow up.
00:47:04
I just really love to spend more time connecting to my body and slowing it down because we have this time.
00:47:11
So if you can get into your bath routines, have that weekly bath, or, I mean, if you're a daily girl, for sure, I don't know, everyone has baths,
00:47:21
but if you have one, get into one, maybe it's after your work day, or after a workout, it can be so therapeutic.
00:47:30
Make sure you add some epsom salts into your bath, okay?
00:47:34
I recently got this bath rack finally, where you can put your little tablet on it with your tea and a candle,
00:47:44
and you can just lay down and watch your favorite reality TV show, things of that nature.
00:47:49
Oh my gosh, it is so nice, I don't like that down below, as well, I got it from Amazon, and I've been wanting one of those forever.
00:47:54
But even if you only have a shower, I love to have a playlist going in the shower, turn off the light, put on a candle, like make it a thing, okay?
00:48:02
We're gonna be here for a while.
00:48:03
You wanna romanticize these parts of your life.
00:48:06
Also, of course, doing self-care at home, if you do not have the money, you can do a lot of these things at home.
00:48:11
I still do, I do my toenails at home, I do my deep conditioners, and my oil treatments, all of these things at home.
00:48:18
Even when it comes to my nails, I do press on nails.
00:48:21
These are my impress nails.
00:48:22
I've been using them the entire year, they're the best.
00:48:24
They save me so much money, and time, I really can't be bothered to go into a nail salon.
00:48:29
I really can't.
00:48:30
Not when I have these.
00:48:31
And these are press-ons, like you don't have to use the glue.
00:48:34
You take off the little flap, and then you press it on your nail in its days.
00:48:37
So I love them, and I can take them off when I feel annoyed by nails, because I'm very like sensory overload sometimes, and sometimes I do not want nails on my fingers,
00:48:48
especially if I'm on my period, I want them off, or if I'm not doing anything, and I'm being very much so home-body, no makeup, not doing my hair.
00:48:56
I don't need to really have my nails on, and I can just throw them on if I'm doing the podcast or this that, so I love those, so just finding ways that you can do self-care at home.
00:49:04
I also just think it feels good, because you save some money.
00:49:07
But if you are a girl or a guy or whoever that wants to do maybe like a monthly massage spa day, things like that, because I love doing that kind of stuff, and if you can try to do it,
00:49:19
get on class pass, because that's where I book all my massages.
00:49:23
Recently, I've been doing a lot of massages for my head neck area, hot-stone massages.
00:49:29
I did a gouache from, this is for my birthday.
00:49:31
I went to a spa on my birthday, but there's so many places, even on a class pass, or even if you're not doing it on class pass, where you can find those just like warming hot-stone massages,
00:49:42
just like once a month, you can look forward to it.
00:49:45
It feels so good on your body, depending on what you need.
00:49:48
If you're really into the gym, or you're holding on a lot of tension, even in your jaw, or your face, or your head, maybe you're doing acupuncture.
00:49:56
There's so many little things that you can do for yourself, caring this time.
00:50:00
And I feel like sometimes we just don't have that time in the summertime to do it, 'cause we're just, we're hot-girls summering it up.
00:50:07
We're not really slowing it down, so that's what I like to do.
00:50:09
So really just thinking about all the ways that you can winterize your routines a little bit, right?
00:50:14
How can I winterize my diet and change a few of the things that I'm eating to support my digestion when it comes to like warming foods and nourishing foods when it comes to my gut health,
00:50:25
when it comes to immunities or any supplements that maybe I want to start taking consistently, I take a probiotic, I take my vitamin D3, and a few other supplements that support my inflammation,
00:50:35
so it depends on what you're going through in your life.
00:50:37
How can you winterize your movement routines so that you can stay in the flow of things?
00:50:42
Maybe it's just changing up simply the type of movement you're doing.
00:50:45
Maybe you're doing more hot yoga than you were doing Pilates, or maybe you're just doing strain training now, 'cause that's what feels good to you, instead of doing Pilates, figure out what works for you so that you can continue to stay into that routine,
00:50:58
making sure that you have some sort of self-care and changing your environment and making it something that you look forward to and you can spend your time doing.
00:51:05
That way you can support yourself and your nervous system as you are living life, right?
00:51:10
'Cause you're still working, I'm sure, you probably still have family friends, things to do.
00:51:14
All of these things that will continue to keep you going in the winter, how can you combat that and support it and embrace the season?
00:51:22
Now let's quickly, before we end this episode, talk about a few more things in terms of social aspects of the winter months.
00:51:29
I really like to have cozy wellness weekends and romanticizing the holiday weekends when it comes to friends.
00:51:38
So when it comes to the cozy wellness weekends for me, I really, for the most part, don't like to go out too much during the winter time.
00:51:47
I just really like to capitalize on routines and sleep and wellness and things like that.
00:51:54
And there's not usually much going on in the winter time anyways.
00:51:57
So I really like to look forward to one of my weekends come, which are different than what I do during the weeks kind of in a way, depending on what I'm doing.
00:52:05
I like to have a theme and a lot of those themes are my wellness weekends.
00:52:10
So this weekend, I'm not drinking, I'm not smoking, I'm not bed rotting, I have a class booked, I'm seeing a friend or maybe I'm not, maybe it's like a solo weekend in,
00:52:22
maybe it's a date night, whatever it is, but it's very like wellness friendly.
00:52:26
I'm gonna make a new recipe on the weekend.
00:52:28
I am going to maybe work on something when it comes to my goals or my hobbies or whatever it is.
00:52:33
Like I really like to have that theme and look at it instead of just being like, oh, it's another weekend and like hopefully like, I'll find something to do or maybe I won't and then I'll have FOMO and then I'll wanna go and drink and party.
00:52:44
When that's not maybe what I really wanna do or that's not maybe conducive to my health.
00:52:48
And I like to still capitalize on my sleep and track my sleep and do my steps and all of the things that I like to kind of do during the week but the wellness weekend is a little bit more exciting and fun.
00:52:59
So thinking of ways that you can spend your weekend through the holiday season and beyond can be very helpful to get you through these winter seasons 'cause they can be boring sometimes and long but also we're meant to sizing the holiday season and the season that you're just in with your friends.
00:53:18
So I really like to make it a point to plan things out even if it's just once a month.
00:53:26
But I really like to do this as much as I can because community, connection, friendship and relationships are seriously something that we need to remember are going to be just as important as anything else that we do.
00:53:41
We cannot isolate ourselves to death during the winter time.
00:53:44
And even some of these things that we talked about in this episode, they can easily fall into the form of isolation if we're not connecting with people, okay?
00:53:53
So I personally love to plan out girls nights or girls days or like wellness days with my friends.
00:54:00
And for me, I have a lot of separate friend groups and like individual people that I hang out with.
00:54:06
I think that tends to be, well, I mean, for one, it's a reflection of who I am.
00:54:10
I'm an introvert, I'm a Scorpio.
00:54:13
I have many different sides of me.
00:54:15
I am very independent.
00:54:16
So I have all these different friends that I have built and created and had over the years and stuff like that and not everyone knows each other.
00:54:23
But all of them also, in a way, sometimes do and we can bring people together.
00:54:28
But I'm saying that also just because if you feel like you can't get your friend groups all to do the same thing, that's fine.
00:54:35
Literally have those one or two friends consistently or just do events with this friend and then do a wellness day with this friend.
00:54:43
You can do separate things with friends.
00:54:45
But I like to keep up with all of the things that are happening in my city.
00:54:49
So I'll follow pages that are like to do Toronto pages or I'll go on TikTok.
00:54:53
TikTok is so good to find things that are happening in your local area, whether it's markets, fitness classes, coffee shops, pop-up events, riffsores, restaurants,
00:55:04
things that you can do with your girlfriends.
00:55:05
Like if you just type anything in and then put your place of region, you will find so many things.
00:55:11
So I'm always saving them and I'm always saving them to my friends and then I look at my week schedule or like my monthly schedule and I see where I can fit in this time and then I message one of my friends.
00:55:22
Usually it's my friend, Kendra, 'cause we do a lot of things together when it comes to like the markets and the holiday tradition things, but it can be other friends as well.
00:55:31
And we just pick things to do.
00:55:32
Let's go to the Christmas market this weekend or there's a pop-up this weekend or let's go to this cafe.
00:55:36
Or if I'm talking to one of my really like wellness-y friends, let's go to a hot yoga class on the morning.
00:55:43
I used to with one of my friends and we'll probably start doing this again is we would go to sweat and tonic and do a spin class on like Saturday mornings and I'm not a spin person, but I did wanna try spin and it is such a good thing to do with your friend to go to a spin class.
00:55:57
It feels like you're in a freaking club for one and then going to get a nice little hot coffee at the end of it or going for a walk.
00:56:06
You don't even have to spend a lot of money.
00:56:07
There's so many of these markets in these places that me and my friends will go to that we don't buy anything.
00:56:12
We're just walking around.
00:56:13
We're just seeing what's happening in the area.
00:56:15
Or maybe it's a concert or a musical.
00:56:20
I think my friend and I are gonna go to the Nutcracker I think, which is really exciting because I don't really do a lot of like musical things, but I like it.
00:56:29
Like I wanna see some theater action, you know?
00:56:31
So just thinking of ways and plans that you can make with your friends or your family's sisters, brothers, however, please try and do something and connect with people because it will take you a really long way throughout this winter,
00:56:46
you need connection.
00:56:47
Now the next things, mainly in pertain to when you're spending time alone or having some sort of solo date night or whatever.
00:56:55
I mean, you could do this while you're with somebody, but essentially you're connected to yourself.
00:56:59
But that is capitalizing on slow hobbies, essentially just hobbies.
00:57:04
Or even having like your go-to shows, but regardless of what you're doing, you're really making it a routine and something you're looking forward to.
00:57:14
So for instance, there's a few days out of the week where I wind down at a certain time, put on the candle, change the lighting, I go for my last walk, maybe I just finished dinner,
00:57:25
and this is the time where I have, where I get to watch a reality TV show, or maybe it's a vlog for that night, whatever I'm feeling, but I have those go-to shows,
00:57:36
or those go-to people, or the go-to thing that allows me to kind of embrace some of my alone time a little bit more, and as I'm doing it,
00:57:46
or even separate, would be capitalizing on some sort of hobby, or like just thing to pass the time that's maybe not just scrolling on your phone.
00:57:55
So I've been so obsessed with coloring, guys.
00:57:58
And I tried doing puzzles last year, listen, puzzles work for you, puzzles work for you, but I don't really have the mental capacity to be sitting there doing a puzzle.
00:58:08
Honestly, maybe I will with my mom when she comes and visits or something, but I found that coloring was the best for me.
00:58:15
So you obviously need to figure out what works for you.
00:58:17
Like maybe it's sewing, or crocheting, or making pottery, or like painting, like actually taking out paint, I was doing that as well.
00:58:26
I like doing painting when it comes to like a girl's night.
00:58:30
So like if my friend is coming over, I have like different candles and a lot of paint, and we'll do like little hearts on the candles, or depending on the season, like it literally is season dependent,
00:58:40
so we did pumpkins actually this year, and we did some candles, where we like put little ghosts and stuff on them.
00:58:47
For me, just to do something to pass the time if I want to, or if I don't want to pass time, I just want to do it.
00:58:53
I have a meditation coloring book.
00:58:55
I'll link a few down below from Amazon, and I just color, and it just, again, it helps with the nervous system regulation, it helps with you just disconnecting from the world, and not taking in a bunch of stuff online,
00:59:08
and it's just a place where you can just connect to yourself.
00:59:12
It's so therapeutic, but I just think having those things that you can grab on the days where days are boring, maybe you're not working that day, you have the day off, or I don't know,
00:59:23
you have no motivation to do something, to have a show on, to have your favorite vlogger, because you know that they're doing vlogmas, or they're doing those cozy vlogs, or you have your coloring,
00:59:34
or you have a good book, whatever it is, having those things on the days that you feel like, mmm, the days are a little bit hard, those are the things you're gonna get you through.
00:59:43
Of course, right?
00:59:44
The same way this podcast is getting you through whatever you're going through right now.
00:59:47
Maybe you're on the treadmill, or you're going for a walk, or you're cleaning.
00:59:52
These are the things that get you through.
00:59:54
So with that said, that is the master list, the survival guide, some of the things that I will be doing, and I hope that you guys will be delving and diving more into during the winter season.
01:00:06
Let's not look at it as a dark, sad season, but more of an expansive, a leaning into a healing, an opportunity for growth season.
01:00:19
There's so much beauty that can come out of the season.
01:00:22
And I think that the beauty comes from us changing the way that we view it, but also the way that we interact with the season, right?
01:00:30
The weather, the way we're eating, the way we're moving our bodies, listening to our bodies, resting our bodies, nervous system regulation, removing ourselves from people places and things that do not serve us,
01:00:41
saying yes, some more things that do feel good.
01:00:44
Following your intuition and the spark that's within you that wants to try something new, maybe you want to start a dance class, or you want to start ballet,
01:00:54
or you want to start something you've never done before, like do it, this is the time to do it.
01:01:00
Or maybe you are following a new love interest or a new friendship, you're connecting in a new way that you haven't.
01:01:07
Do it.
01:01:08
And guys, I think I might be getting a puppy, okay?
01:01:13
I have been considering this for so long, so, so, so long.
01:01:19
I've grown up with two small puppies in my life.
01:01:23
My mom has one of them, and another one is with her past partner, and he's doing amazing, but those were basically my childhood dogs.
01:01:32
Well, not childhood, I wasn't really young, but later into life.
01:01:36
And I know the benefits of like living with dogs, like they're just so beautiful and amazing.
01:01:42
And I think that I might be getting one, but I think I might be getting one.
01:01:49
So I'll give you updates if that happens.
01:01:51
Also, you will see that on my vlog channel if that happens.
01:01:54
It will probably be a little bit of a process, but that this might be the time that I get it is during this winter season.
01:02:00
So I'm not saying you got to go out and get yourself a dog, because that is a whole, that is like an entire process and a responsibility.
01:02:09
But for me, I feel like I think it's time.
01:02:12
I think it's time.
01:02:13
So we'll see.
01:02:14
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
01:02:17
I hope this sparked something new for you to continue to get excited for the winter months.
01:02:22
I'm very excited for this season, regardless of the things that have yet to come, that I'm currently experiencing.
01:02:31
And I'm just very grateful that you guys are on this journey with me.
01:02:33
I have been getting just so many comments and support towards me.
01:02:41
So thank you guys of just saying like, thank you for doing what you do.
01:02:46
But it's just this energy that you guys have of like, we're all in this together.
01:02:51
We're doing it.
01:02:52
We're listening to our podcasts.
01:02:52
We're doing our self development.
01:02:54
We are showing up.
01:02:55
It's a new season of life, baby.
01:02:56
And the podcast is growing.
01:02:59
We hit 60,000 subscribers on YouTube, which is great.
01:03:02
We're going to get that second plaque, baby.
01:03:03
And it's going to go right here.
01:03:05
Listen, this area right here on the podcast really irks me a little bit because I mean, when I'm sitting here, I guess like I'm in the middle of it.
01:03:15
So it's not that it's not balanced.
01:03:16
But like if I move over here, like technically, like I want this kind of to be more over here.
01:03:19
But I was like, I'm not moving it because I'm just going to get a second plaque here and it's going to go right here.
01:03:23
OK, but that's thanks to you guys.
01:03:25
So make sure that you guys are subscribed.
01:03:28
The audio version of the podcast as well is growing like crazy, which is amazing because it is a labor of love.
01:03:35
This podcast podcast sometimes can take a long time to grow, especially if you're growing the audio side of things because on Spotify, Apple, like that side of podcasting,
01:03:47
it's a little bit different than when you post a YouTube video in terms of like virality and exposure and algorithm.
01:03:55
It's a lot different.
01:03:56
So it's a slow, steady pace and a labor of love to be able to build up those downloads on the back end of the audio.
01:04:03
And I see you guys who listen on audio.
01:04:05
I love you guys.
01:04:06
You're like the core audience.
01:04:07
You guys too on YouTube.
01:04:09
At the end of the day, anyone I say this all the time, anyone who listens to podcasts in general, but listens to my podcast, you guys are the deepest core parts of my community.
01:04:18
There ain't nobody deeper than you guys, okay?
01:04:21
Because for you guys to sit and listen to these long ass episodes, you guys are committed.
01:04:28
You guys are something about me that you like that you can sit through and listen.
01:04:31
Even though I know sometimes I'd be doing rants and this, that and talking and saying like a lot, this, that, whatever.
01:04:37
You guys are real ones, okay?
01:04:39
So I just love that.
01:04:41
And you guys are also a reflection of me because that's who I am.
01:04:44
That's who I've always been.
01:04:45
I've always been a podcast girl.
01:04:47
Like I love podcasts.
01:04:48
It just gets me through the hardest times of my life, but also the best times of my life as well.
01:04:54
And I'm just happy that I can provide this content to you guys.
01:04:56
So thank you, everyone who's supporting and who is with me on this journey.
01:05:00
Let me know in the comments what you want to hear next for the next few episodes.
01:05:05
I kind of have like a little bit of an idea of what's gonna happen or what I'm gonna be posting.
01:05:12
I'm not gonna go too much in detail because I haven't like flushed out completely, but I do want to talk about spending time alone and how to kind of embrace doing more things alone in that independent era and like coming in words and stuff because I feel like a lot of you guys do ask me like how to have more confidence with doing things alone and stepping into a dull hood in a way.
01:05:32
And I think that's a really good topic because I think that during the winter time there is a lot of alone time and it's okay to be alone and take it from me,
01:05:43
listen, I live so much of my life alone.
01:05:46
It's insane.
01:05:47
I've had to do the opposite, but I have a lot of advice for you guys, but let me know if you have any like things that you want me to talk about in terms of that topic and I will see you guys in the next one.
01:05:56
