Food for Thought Thursday - Emotional Wellness

Although I focus a lot of food and fitness here at Growing Healthy Sprouts, this year has been a wake-up call for me regarding the importance of emotional health. Earlier this year, after reading Crazy Sexy Diet, I incorporated an amazing self-care practice that includes meditation, yoga, exercise and adequate rest. Although I've fallen off the wagon a few times, I notice such a difference when I'm in my routine that I always get myself back to it as soon as possible.

My experience over the past six months has made me think a lot about how to teach these principles to the kids; I wish I'd learned this earlier in life, so I'm hoping I can start them off right. Little Sprout has a lot of emotions that I feel she needs some extra help in handling, and Big Sprout - as laid-back and mellow as he seems - tends to avoid his feelings until they erupt out of nowhere. I try to avoid gender stereotypes, but they definitely seem like the typical "women" vs. "men" approach to emotions to me.

In any case, we've been reading a lot of inspirational books lately, and as we prepare to begin our new homeschool year next week, I plan to expand on these great books and implement some daily self-care practices for us all. At least four days a week, we'll read one of the following books followed by 10 minutes or so of either meditation or yoga.

Here are some of my favorite inspirational books from our home library:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today  

(my current favorite!) 

 

Unstoppable Me! 10 Ways to Soar Through Life

(a close second)

I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem

Today I Feel Silly (& Other Moods That Make My Day)

Incredible You! 10 Ways to Let Your Greatness Shine Through

I'm Thankful Each Day

I'm really excited to be introducing the Sprouts to some tools that have been so helpful for me! I've downloaded several guided meditations geared towards children and will share more about those once we start using them!

Something Good for the Soul - Positive July

If there's one lesson I've learned so far this year, it's that my mental and emotional health are just as important as anything physical that I do - and in fact, the former definitely affect the latter. In the blur that was our May and June, I've struggled to remember this a bit, so when my friend Regina (whose blog I'd definitely link to if she was "public" with it yet . . . hint, hint) created an event called Positively July, I took it as the inspiration needed to get back on track.

Here's how it works:

Step 1. Share 31 days of positive energy with the world.

Step 2. Invite all you friends to participate in Positively July.

Step 3. Each day in the month of July select someone from the first five friends on your profile page and share something positively wonderful about them - something they have done for you, for a friend, or for the world, share how they cared more for another than for themselves or simply something positive about them.

Step 4. Be sure to tag that person in the status and include the event title: Positively July.

If you're not on Facebook, feel free to play along via e-mail or however you'd like. In fact, you can play along right here. In the spirit of Positively July, share with us how someone helped inspired your or your children towards better health . . . or better yet, share it with them!