7 Daily Habits of Highly Effective People

Welcome to Leo Season you Lions & Lionesses!  

I know I'm grateful to have moved through cancer season after a lot of tears.  I'm grateful to be on the other side of my second round of COVID.  I finally have enough energy to write this newsletter, so sorry it's a little late.  How are you doing?  I'd love to hear from you!  

Are you looking to be more effective in your life?  

Are you wondering how some people maintain their zest and find joy in daily life even on Mondays?  

Do you inspire to have more energy and vitality, so you can help others more efficiently?  

If so, read on for the 7 daily habits of highly effective people:

1.  Wake up at the same time every morning without an alarm clock.  This is key to vitality and it is less shocking on the nervous sytem to be startled with a loud sound during a deep sleep.  Going to bed at the same time every night will help you stick to a regular waking time.

2.  Meditate at least once daily.  Meditating for shorter periods more frequently is known to be more effective than infrequently for longer periods.  Stay consistent and find joy in it over time with practice.  Meditation is a great way to rewire your nervous system and create new neural pathways to help you stick healthy new habits, patterns and ways of thinking.  

3.  Eat nutritious foods and stay hydrated.  Eat many organic vegetables, in season fruits, high quality protein and healthy fats.  Food is grounding and the foundation to health and wellness.  Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and consider a high quality electrolyte.   Limit alcohol and sugar which deplete your immune system and health.

4.  Move your body through exercise, dance, martial arts, qi gong/tai chi or yoga.  Movement is the key to releasing stuck energy and negativity through the body and energy field.  It is great for lymphatic flow and stress reduction.  

5.  Get connection daily and be playful.  Connection is a necessity and playfulness is the key to longevity and joy.  Find support groups, search local meetup groups, go to a community class, call family, or visit a friend in person or vitually.  Be compassionate with yourself and others, always show empathy.  

6.  Get in your Vitamin N (Nature).  Get outdoors daily and often.  It is one of the most grounding things you can do for yourself and can be a highly spiritual experience for some.  Connect to nature and practice mindfulness.  Leave your electronics at home.  

7.  Go to bed at the same time every night.  Create a nightly bedtime ritual.  Turn off wifi and unplug.  Get a good 8 + hours of sleep per night.  Strive to get to bed before 10pm to allow your organs to detox between the hours of 10pm - 4am.  It's hard to fall asleep after this time, because 10pm is pitta (fire) time, so the body wants to start taking action again.  

Contact me if would like more information or support on any one of these steps.  

Peace and love,

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” - Stephen R. Covey

Top 10 Reasons to Work with a Health Coach

 Top 10 Reasons to Work with a Health Coach

You might be wondering what a health coach does or how you might benefit by working with one.  If so, read on...

1. Your recent diagnosis or doctor's orders feel overwhelming and you don't know where to start.  The doctor wants you to cut out sugar, reduce your stress, lose weight or any number of things and you don't want to turn to prescription drugs alone.  You want to get to the bottom of the issue.

2. Your tired of doing it alone.  A qualified health coach will stand by your side, be your biggest fan, help you feel connected, and motivate you to make the decisions that are important to you and in line with your long term goals.

3. Goal setting and accountability.  A health coach can help you brainstorm to come up with the deeper meaning of why you want to make a change, how you will get there, and how to make it sustainable and long term.

4. Health coaches are great resources and work in conjunction with referral partners.  naturopathic doctors, acupuncturists, massage therapists, psychologists/therapists, weight loss programs, chiropractors, and physicians.

5.  Chronic illnesses.  Chronic fatigue, Lyme, lupus, hormonal imbalances, stress, anxiety/depression, fibromyalgia, blood sugar dysregulation, the list goes on and on.  Life can feel lonely and isolating with chronic illness and most people don't understand what you are going through.  Doing what you can to improve your health, take control of what you can, and maintaining your passion and purpose is essential.

6.  Weight loss.  There are many dietary theories out there, but there is not a one size fits all approach.  Fad diets come and go, and don't last long.  Considering your bio-individuality, genetics and lifestyle, a health coach can help you craft a plan that is designed specifically for you and your desired goals.

7.  Education and learning.  You want to learn more and often times nutrition advice can seem very contradictory when researching on your own.  It feels difficult to know which path to follow.

8. You lead a very busy and stressful life, and want to increase your self-care and take time for yourself.  You need a plan to do so!

9. Trusted source.  A health coach holds unconditional positive regard for their clients and is a great listener.  All communication is 100% confidential and I will refer out when necessary.

10. To be inspired to live your healthiest and most passionate life!

I'd love to support you along your journey!

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts 

Certified Integrative Health Coach, 500 HR E-RYT,  Medical Reiki Master

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” -Benjamin Franklin

DISCLAIMERS 

Client understands that the role of the Health Coach is not to prescribe or assess micro- and macronutrient levels; provide healthcare, medical, or nutrition therapy services; or diagnose, treat, or cure any disease, condition, or other physical or mental ailment of the human body. Rather, Coach is a mentor and guide who has been trained in holistic health coaching to help Client reach their own health goals by devising and implementing positive, sustainable lifestyle changes. Client understands that Coach is not acting in the capacity of a doctor, registered dietitian/nutritionist, psychologist, or other licensed or registered professional and for that any advice given by Coach is not meant to take the place of advice by these professionals. If Client is under the care of a healthcare professional or currently uses prescription medications, Client should discuss any dietary changes or potential dietary supplement use with their doctor and should not discontinue any prescription medications without first consulting their doctor. Client has chosen to work with Coach and understands that the information received should not be seen as medical or nursing advice and is not meant to take the place of seeing licensed health professionals. 

What is grace, messy grace?

What is grace, messy grace? 

How do you cultivate grace and gratitude during difficult and challenging life transitions?  

How do you embody an attitude of gratitude?

Are you open to receive the blessings of grace?

Through the years I've dipped my toes into what I think grace might be, however the more I learn the less I realize I know.  I think the practice of yoga has taught me grace.  Yoga means to yoke or union.  Yoga is the balance of the sun and moon, light and dark.  Yoga is grace and grit.  Yoga has taught me to slow down and breath.  Yoga has brought more balance into my life.  Yoga has taught me how to hold on and let go.  Yoga has brought me great strength on all levels; mind-body-heart.  Yoga has taught me compassionate awareness.  Yoga has taught me to maintain calm and cool during life's challenges and changes.  Yoga has taught me grace and gratitude.

I've become more graceful in my movements and the way I place myself on and off the mat.  Grace has shown me how to flow with life's rhythm and energy.    Grace is unconditional love and highest consciousness.  I'm 44 now.  My body is changing and I'm learning to accept that with grace and compassion.  The wrinkles, fat, imperfections and all.  It is who I am and my protection. Grace has taught me forgiveness and to let go of judgement.  Grace helped me take my power back and quit over giving.  

What is grace to you? 

I would love to hear from you!

In grace and gratitude,

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed.  Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude."  

The Benefits of Yoga and Hormone Harmony

Yoga is a way of life.  Yoga is the path to consciousness. 
                                        

 

There are many benefits to having a regular yoga practice including hormone harmony.  It connects the mind, body, and soul.  Through mindful breathing and moving, yoga helps to quiet the fluctuations of the mind which in turn supports mood stabilization, anxiety, and depression.  You learn how you react on the mat and that awareness helps guide your behavior off the mat, so it helps manage irritability.  Yoga can be very restorative which can help replenish your vitality and recover from fatigue.  

 

Sleep

Yoga can help improve your sleep by activating your nervous system into a parasympathetic state (rest and digest), because we live in a world that is primarily stuck in a sympathetic nervous system state (fight, flight, and freeze).   

Weight

Regarding weight loss I've heard of people losing weight doing restorative yoga because restoration brings down cortisol or stress levels which when elevated can cause weight gain.  Yoga can also be a great form of exercise, especially a yang practice (Ashtanga, Vinyasa, etc.) versus a yin style class (Restorative, Soma, etc.).  There are so many different types of yoga and teachers, so it's important to try different styles and teachers until you find your niche.  It’s equally important to switch it up maybe a couple days of restorative yin yoga and a few days of a more active yang style.   Yoga is a great way to stay flexible and strong.  It helps support bone density, as well due to the weight bearing practices.   There are many yoga videos for free online (I recommend Yoga with Adriene on YouTube).  Dr. Oppitz likes Yoga International, which is a paid affordable monthly subscription.

Stress Management

An important part of yoga is meditation.  Science has proven that meditation creates healthy new habits and patterns in the brain by creating new neural pathways.  You can overcome trauma, grief, addiction, and PTSD just by meditating.  Dr. Oppitz and I love the Insight Timer app for guided meditations because it offers numerous styles and duration.  I always recommend starting small and consistent - 2 minutes every day and build up from there.  Eventually you will notice the positive effects and you will look forward to it and notice the days when you miss it.   It can help improve memory, focus, and clarity.  

Book a virtual private yoga class with Jaclyn today.

Namaste (the divine light in me honors and see's the divine light in you),

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts E-RYT500, Integrative Health Coach, Medical Reiki Master

https://www.naturalrhythmyoga.com/

Creating a morning routine for hormonal stress management

Creating a morning routine for hormonal stress management

 

My morning ritual is the favorite part of the day and quite possibly the only thing that got me through COVID and all the losses that came with it--for that I'm truly grateful.  I wake up each morning, crack my windows to allow for fresh air to come in, make my bed, make my coffee, feed my animals, journal about my dreams, journal what I'm grateful for, and write anything else on my mind that needs to get out, then meditate and administer reiki on myself, and do some movement based on how much time and energy I have that morning.  I work at 7 AM and get up around 5:30 AM naturally without an alarm clock, so I go to sleep normally by 9 PM.  I've been doing this for years and have absolutely fallen in love with my morning ritual.  It helps me stabilize my mood, balance my hormones, and get grounded and embodied for the day ahead.  

Healthy habits stick over time if they're small and stacked on top of one another.  If something feels too overwhelming perhaps it's too big of a change or not the right change.  It's important to feel rewarded by your habits.  It's important to find joy in your habits.  Like anything, habits get easier over time and require less thought and organization.  Science shows it takes about 6 months for a habit to really stick. 

 

Meditation can re-program your mind.  It creates new neural pathways helping you to create and stick to healthy new habits.  Meditation can help you overcome past trauma and PTSD, and let's be honest with ourselves, the last 2 years have been traumatic for most.  Meditation activates the para-sympathetic system which is rest and digest.  Most people these days are stuck in flight and flight, so it's important to take time to slow down, relax, and meditate.  This in turn helps improve digestion by calming the nervous system.  Relaxing, resting, and digesting also help to lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone), which in turn impacts the entire system.  I prefer yoga and meditation for my relaxation routine, but there are many other ways like sitting in prayer or practicing mindfulness in nature.  I also love getting outdoors and walking, hiking, biking, and camping to detach from stress and technology.  Practicing gratefulness can help heal the heart as well.  

 

Namaste (The highest and best in me honors and sees the highest and best in you),

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts, E-RYT 500, Integrative Health Coach, Medical Reiki Master

 www.naturalrhtyhmyoga.com

P.S. According to Dr. Mark Hyman: “Rhythm is key because your hormones are balanced in rhythms.  So, waking at the same time every day, going to bed at the same time every day, eating at the same time every day – these are the rhythms in life that help to reset your natural balance.”

Those were the days...

Those were the days.  I was lying in bed thinking about summer fast approaching and how those were my favorite days growing up on Lake Sylvia in Annandale, MN.  My parents were both school teachers, so they had the summers off, which was glorious and some of the most fun times that I can remember.  Everyone came back to their cabins on the lake in the summer.  What I miss the most is the sense of community and connection we had back then.  Those were the days I will never forget, those are the days I will never regret; reminds me of the track by Lady Sovereign.  She is an English rapper that tells it like it is.  It's a pretty great track actually in case you want to have a listen:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_6AnIwjCg

I remember walking around barefoot all day on gravel roads until dusk eating sugar mixed with koolaid powder.  I remember rocking the inner tube on the lake trying to knock each other off.  I remember sun bathing to the point I was blistered on my shoulders and nose.  I remember going from house to house and getting candy.  Back then love was shown in the form of sugar or at least that was my experience.  I remember swinging on the swinging chair on Marlys's patio over looking the lake.  I remember Marlys giving me hershey's chocolates.   I remember Marlys gifting us our first black cat Jingles.   I remember Marlys and Sandy coming to my grandparents day at school, because my grandma wasn't very nice, and didn't really come to visit very often.  I remember getting to eat brownies and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast when staying with Marlys and Sandy.  I remember playing starlight moonlight with the neighbors.  I remember my best friend Rachael Ferry at my house pretty much all summer.  She would stay for weeks at a time.  She brought so much joy and laughter to my family.  She would recite all of Little Mermaid to me word for word and song for song.  She is so smart and funny.  I remember sleeping in the boathouse, sneaking out, and walking to the end of the gravel road to run in front of cars from miles away.  I remember sneaking alcohol and cigarettes at a young age.  I remember playing all day and night with very little TV time.  I remember playing with both barbies and cars.  I remember being a daddy's girl or tom boy.  I remember pancake John and popcorn John.  He made the best popcorn and pancakes.  I remember when pancake/popcorn John fell off the ladder building us a tree fort.  I remember pancake/popcorn John spilling a can of stain on my lifejacket.  I remember Bonfire Bonnie and Burning Bonnie and all the bonfires and the neighbors coming over.  I remember the frozen pizza.  I remember the shit on a shingle that my Dad made when my mom was out of town.  I remember my Dad burning everything that he grilled.   I remember fishing for sunnies, walleyes, and northerns on Lake Sylvia.  I remember the paddle boat.  I remember taking the fishing boat out looking for boys.  I remember all the pontoon rides.  I remember Bob taking us water skiing.  I remember learning how to drop a ski and slalom ski.  I remember tubing behind the speed boat.  I remember people just randomly stopping by to visit.  I remember all the card games.  I remember all the parties.  

So I long for the days when we become more connected as a community and more open to spontaneity and connection.  I long for the days of no electronics at the table.  How do we bring this back?  

www.naturalrhythmyoga.com

Use Yoga, Reiki and Nutrition to support detoxification & relaxation

As March and spring are fast approaching it's a great time to support your detoxification pathways and your relaxation through supporting your parasympathetic nervous system.  We are in kapha season, the depths of winter and the season of spring.  It is the time when our environment holds the coldest, heaviest, wettest qualities of the year as recognized by Ayurveda.  Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga.  Yoga is the science of death or letting go and Ayurveda is the science of life.  

Have you put on some extra weight during this kapha season?  That is totally natural and okay.  It is a primal instinct to add some fat to your body to stay warm and rest more during this time of year.  We are animals having a human and spiritual experience.  It's important to tune into the seasons of life and your inner cycles and primal state.  With that being said, spring is a great time to detoxify and let go of the heaviness of kapha season.  Nutrition, yoga and reiki are a great way to support this process.  

Eating healthy whole foods like vegetables, protein, fat, and a limited amount of seasonal fruit are a great way to support detoxification.  I would recommend cutting out sugar, alcohol, grains, and dairy for 21 - 30 days, while drinking plenty of water and perhaps some juicing like celery.  Maintaining a balanced blood sugar is important to reduce inflammation in the body and address metabolic syndrome.  This is especially important right now during the global pandemic of COVID and the stress that has come along with it.  There are supplements and herbs that help the detoxification pathway system as well relaxation.  Nutrition is perhaps one of the most important ways to support your immune system, as well as supporting your nervous system, and relaxation or parasympathetic state of rest and digest.  Meal timing is important as well to allow your body time to assimilate between meals and restore your digestive tract.  The digestive tract is so very important in supporting your immune system.  You want to release toxins "ama" at least once daily with regular bowel movements.  Eating enough fiber and drinking enough water are super important, and most people can benefit from taking a magnesium supplement to support this process of downward energy and releasing of toxins.  I like to incorporate the principles of Ayurveda into my nutrition coaching based on your constitution or dosha, which is in line with my bio individual approach.  We are all so unique, what works for one doesn't work for another, which is why no one can agree on the science of nutrition.  You know what you need, trust that.  I guide my clients to the answers they already have within themselves, and lead them down the path of self discovery, awareness and small incremental lifestyle changes and habits that stick.

This is actually a great time of year to pick up the pace as far as activity goes, but you may face some resistance to that during kapha season due to the heaviness.  A stronger vinyasa practice or sweaty yoga practice goes a long way to support the detoxification system.  Twists and forward folds are another great way to support detoxification and core work.  Allow yourself time to sit in meditation, breath, and take savasana too, to balance the action of doing of the sympathetic nervous system to rest and digest of the parasympathetic nervous system.  If you are feeling constipated you can always take a twist on the toilet to help with that downward energy of releasing toxins, or get a squatty potty to get into a squat position, which raises your knees above your belly to help.  We yoga teachers and nutritionists like to talk about poop, because it's so important, and my Dad loved this subject as well so it's near and dear to my heart.  ;)

Reiki energy healing sessions are a great way to balance your energy system, which houses your mind, body, and soul  Reiki can leave you feeling more connected and relaxed.  Many of my clients are having great awakenings or realizations after a reiki session or becoming more conscious if you will.  Reiki is loving kindness energy channeled from a higher power using symbols handed down from teachers and gurus before us.  Your body then does it's magic to heal itself and remove any blockages you might have.  If clients aren't getting better on the physical plane energy work is often the ticket.  Reiki is a great way to support the parasympathetic nervous system or rest and digest, which in turn boosts your immune system, supports detoxification, and relaxation.

I would love to support you through this process!!!

www.naturalrhythmyoga.com