to our community
Hope is Going Through a Transformation
While we’re exploring new ways to offer
HOPE, take care of yourselves.
And stay tuned for our evolution.
MANIFESTING HOPE
At Hope Foods, we aspire to manifest hope by providing tools that support your emotional well-being. Our on-site, certified Integrated Nutrition Health Coach and Mental Health First Responder and Trainer curated the tools below to support you in your emotional well-being journey. Each of these practices are proven to have a positive effect on emotional well-being, so keep scrolling to learn more!
*Please note, these are tools you can use to improve your emotional well-being: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
Self-Care is Key to Emotional Well-Being
Ever have a day that you feel so great, you feel like you can handle anything? It’s likely because you have filled your cup with good things – like friends, laughter, relaxation, good sleep, love, and nutritious food. Think of your mood as a sponge; it needs regular doses of goodness to stay positive, fresh, and pliable. When you’re “running low” or “dried up”, your mood is more likely to absorb negativity…could be a partner’s bad mood, a colleague’s frustration, or the weight of the world.
If you grew up believing that taking care of yourself first is selfish, it is time to take it from the airlines: “Put your own oxygen mask on first before assisting others.” Taking care of yourself, so that you CAN take care of others, is the most giving thing you can do.
Self-care comes in many forms – identify the activities, places, and people that make you feel “full of joy” and schedule some of these into each day for preventative and therapeutic care. Set some goals and partner with someone to help hold you accountable to your goals. A health coach is a great resource! Here are some tools for your self-care toolbox.
Tools for Self-Care:
- Create a list of your 100 favorite things – here’s a peek at one of our lists – and try to experience 2-3/day.
- Give yourself a 5-30 minute therapeutic ayurvedic self-massage (abhyanga) – we like using sesame oil, but coconut/sunflower/almond oil are also great. Learn how here.
- Great read on how to “do less”: Essentialism, by Greg McKeown
Manage Your Breath to Manage Anxiety
Practicing breathwork daily (multiple times daily if you are under a lot of stress) is a great way to support your emotional well-being. Lengthening and deepening your breath causes your mind and body to relax by cueing the parasympathetic nervous system. When this system is triggered, blood flow changes, the body’s preparation for a fight or flight ceases, and thoughts become clearer.
One of the easiest breathwork practices is simply inhaling to the count of 4, holding for a beat, and exhaling to the count of 4. We love doing this just before bed instead of turning to our phone or TV screens. If you are prone to waking up in the middle of the night, just repeat this process and your body will head back to la-la-land in no time.
Tools:
Decreasing Anxiety Through Mindfulness
Mindfulness is simply focusing on one present thing at a time. Practicing mindfulness has a powerful impact on emotional well-being and acuity: breath slows, the parasympathetic nervous system takes over, and our minds and bodies relax. Meditation is just one way to develop a mindfulness practice. Here are some ways you can incorporate mindfulness into each and every day.
Links:
- Explore the free app InsightTimer
- Practice active tension
- Color using Monday Mandala or another theme via Just Color. Mindfully fill each space with a single color, or a palette of soothing colors.
- Try mindful walking….slowly and intentionally step forward, planting heel first and fully rolling through the toes for each step. Or, walk your normal pace but decide to look for a single item – like things that are blue, blooming flowers, or count the cracks on the sidewalk.
Redefining “Exercise” as Movement
One of the best ways to diffuse stress and negative energy is to move your body regularly. Most people assume movement means “exercise”; and the more grueling the better. Spending time doing anything that you loathe in the name of “health” is counterproductive. Instead, identify the types of movement that make you feel good – that you WANT to do – and do that every day. Let the runners run and the weightlifters lift. YOU DO YOU, FULL STOP.
If walking is your jam, get up 10 minutes earlier or take a 10 minute walk before you head home from work. Do walking meetings. Try “forest bathing”. Park in the farthest part of the parking lot. If you like to dance, throw yourself a 5 minute dance party in the morning to get your energy flowing. If you are working on your breathwork and mindfulness, try yoga – it’s free, safe, and accessible to everyone. Neat freaks? Vacuuming, dusting, changing sheets, and running laundry up and down the stairs are all forms of movement. Crank your tunes, maybe put a pep in your step, and you are moving in the right direction.
Links:
- Try 7 minutes of yoga
- Bounce! Take 2-5 minutes and just bounce. Set feet hip width apart and bounce your knees. Let your body move organically; if you feel like shaking your arms – do it. Bouncing stimulates the lymphatic system, releases tension, and reduces stagnation.
- Search YouTube – there are lots of free exercise videos from Yoga to SIIT to HIIT
Creative Connection
We all need human contact. Unfortunately, we’re all getting less and less of it…social-distancing mandates, contact-less ordering, riding the subway with headphones on… Building a tribe of at least 10 people that support and care about you is critical to your emotional well-being. Take stock of who is truly in your corner and seek out others from work, church, the gym, clubs, etc. Set up regular check ins, go for a quick walk around the block after work, or schedule a night out.
Not comfortable with that? Then up your contact with strangers at low risk times. Pay a stranger a compliment. Offer your seat to someone on the subway/bus. Pick up the coffee order for the car behind you. These random acts of connection will make both of you feel more joyful more often.
Gratitude
Expressing gratitude is a powerful way to manage your outlook. Acknowledge the things that are awesome in your day, even if some crappy things happened. Give yourself a time limit to stew on the challenging bits and then focus on the things that went right. Gratitude journals are a great way to keep track of the “good stuff” and are a great reference when you are feeling down in the dumps. Asking each member of your family or people you live with to identify the “one good thing” about their day is a great way to prioritize all the good in our lives. You can do it on the drive home, to soccer practice, at dinner, before bed, at the start of team meetings at work, book club, etc.
Links:
- Click to download a free gratitude journal, at 101Planners.com.
- Fill a Gratitude jar. Each day, write something you were grateful for on a piece of paper. At the end of each month (or quarter, or year), read the notes aloud.
Improve Your Food, Improve Your Mood
Did you know that up to 90% of serotonin (your body’s chemical to manage moods) is regulated by the gut? If you are filling your body with toxins – sugars, processed foods, alcohol, foods that create inflammation for YOU – and not enough nutrients from natural sources (especially vegetables!), your GI tract cannot function properly. Understanding the gut-brain axis, and how food affects your mood, is another way to optimize your emotional well-being. Eat plants, more plants, and mostly green plants to give your body the greatest access to the nutrients it needs to operate at its best.
If you are like us, a complete overhaul of your pantry or lifestyle is not realistic or sustainable. OmGirl Integrated Nutrition Health Coach explains how to “Trade Up” the nutritional value of the foods you like in the link below.
More Info:
- Trading Up Guide
- Hacks to Eating More Plants
- See a visual of the Gut Brain Axis and mood here
- Read “The Simplified Guide to the Gut Brain Axis"
- Read “Probiotics and Mood Disorders” within this article
Take Care of Yourself
We hope you picked up a few tips for your emotional well-being. Feel free to share with friends and family. It’s okay not to be okay. As always…we’re rooting for you.
