I recently started reading The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist and was so moved when she talked about “the lie of scarcity”.
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She talks about how “not enough” is such a habitual pattern of thought that most of us don’t even notice it.
We wake up thinking that we didn’t get enough sleep. We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough energy. “Not enough” is our perspective on nearly everything…
We see the world through the lens of scarcity: not enough. The alternative, of course, is a perspective of abundance. Gratitude.
When I read her perspective on “not enough”, I did something I do often. I closed the book, grabbed my journal and started to write about what this looks like in my own life and how I can begin to change it today.
See, I read and hear things that move or challenge me all the time. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is what I do with it. How I practice it. How I implement it.
For months I’ve been thinking about doing some “Inside EB’s Journal” posts and I guess this will be a bit of that.
Here’s what I wrote in my own journal:
Where am I most commonly thinking or feeling that something is not enough?
What do I feel like I don’t have enough of? More accurately, where am I choosing that perspective?
How does this show up in my romantic relationship? Not enough time? Not enough affection? Not enough communication? What’s an alternative perspective? What does it look like to think about this from the perspective of abundance? Where can I practice that?
How does this show up with food? Have I gone my whole life with a perspective of scarcity about food? Is that a huge part of binging or overeating?
What would it look like to choose a perspective of abundance re: food today? I will fuel myself exceptionally well today. I will choose the best I can give my body.
What about money? How can I practice an abundance mindset today?
Going through this exercise was huge. In fact, I’ve asked and answered these questions each day since and I will continue to.
When I catch myself thinking there’s “not enough time” I immediately reframe it. How can I see my day or my tasks from a perspective of abundance today? Right now?
So I want to challenge you to ask and answer some of these questions:
Where are you in the habit of thinking in terms of “not enough”?
What’s an alternative perspective? How can you choose an attitude of abundance?
Is the scarcity you focus on even true?
Where is fear of loss influencing your perspective?
Where do you most need to practice an abundance mindset?
How will you practice today?
How does “not enough” thinking influence your food choices?
How can you leverage an abundance mindset to improve your food choices?
What other ways can you implement this shift from “not enough” to abundance?
Thanksgiving week is the perfect week to put this into practice!
In my family, we’re into holiday stockings. My mom still makes up a stocking for me each Christmas and when I was married, my ex-husband & I exchanged stockings. It’s a tradition I’ll continue forever!
Growing up, my stocking was full of candy & toys. In the last few years, my mom has played it safe by skipping the candy and filling my stocking with socks, candles, dental floss, dish towels and gift cards.
I love floss & dish towels, but it’s time for everyone to step up their stocking game! Here are some of my favorite holiday stocking stuffers for this year.
Coffee mugs are one of my fave stocking stuffers because then you can fill them with other stuff!
The mugs I use most often are the Primal Potential mugs – of course – they’re big, sturdy and they’re for my favorite thing: coffee!
And while you’re at it, throw some glass straws in the stocking! Yup, I drink my coffee with a glass straw so it doesn’t stain my teeth. People always ask me how I keep my teeth so white and this is my hack: I drink my coffee with a glass straw! Here’s the brand I personally use.
Ready for something I’m surprised to love? Naked Cow Beef Jerky. One of the reasons I love it is because it’s super clean – one of the ONLY jerky brands I’ve ever found that doesn’t add sugar (they to do their honey flavor, but not to the others). Plus, it uses beef from grass fed cows. And, obviously, it tastes great!
I’ve never purchased a mantra band (I’m not a big jewelry girl) but lots of my clients love them and it could be a great way to connect with or inspire a loved one!
This might be a little big for a stocking but I’m crazy excited about mine. Okay: so you know how I’m a huge Patriots fan, right? Well Tom Brady recently started promoting recovery sleep wear from Under Armour. Guys. I bought some. I love it. It’s cute, fits well & it’s crazy comfortable. Is it helping me recover? I don’t know. But I love them as PJs and they’ll fit into a stocking! This is one of my fave purchases of the last few months! I’m linking up the women’s but of course they make sleep wear for men, too.
Oh! And you know what I’d love in my own stocking? JUNK headbands! I almost always wear a headband when I work out and these are my faves! I have about 10 of them!
I hope Santa brings you everything you want & that you take some time to give back! If you can, give blood this season! It’s the gift of life, literally!
Most of us aren’t taking advantage of a huge tool at our disposal: light.
Light has the ability to increase our metabolism, speed our healing, reduce inflammation, increase energy and much more.
Yet, we take it for granted. We think using light is quackery. It’s not.
Try to grow a plant in the dark. Overexpose a plant to light. See what happens.
Light is a super-nutrient, as important to human health as it is to plant health, if not more.
Light can dramatically improve our hormones, energy, metabolism, healing, immune system & more.
Alternatively, if not optimized, light can make us tired, unfocused, depressed and sick.
Today we are learning how light influences us, the different types of light and the differing impact and what simple and complex solutions we can begin to implement.
Let’s talk about cellulite. I have it. Most people do. Honestly, it’s not a huge deal (unless you make it one). Hell, it’s not even a small deal.
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Are there things you can do to reduce cellulite? Yes.
Will you probably have some regardless of what you do? Yes.
Is it worth being miserable & insecure? No! C’mon. Life is short.
I’m absolutely going to share with you what I’m doing to reduce the cellulite on my thighs & butt, but first, we’re talking mindset.
If you put off living your life because of the size of your waist, the flab on your arms or the cellulite on your legs, you will always have a reason to hold back. You will always miss out. And you’ll never be completely happy.
I want to challenge you to change your perspective. Do not let anything about your appearance prevent you from living your fullest, happiest, most confident life.
I recently got home from a short vacation and I picked up Daring Greatly to re-read. The author, Brene Brown, writes something in the introduction that I believe we all need to embrace:
When we spend our lives waiting until we’re perfect or bulletproof before we walk into the arena, we ultimately sacrifice relationships & opportunities that may not be recoverable, we squander our precious time, and we turn our backs on our gifts…
With that said, here are the 6 things I’m doing to reduce cellulite. I have noticed an improvement in the last few weeks.
Reducing cellulite requires a multifaceted approach. The goal is to increase blood flow, strengthen & build muscle, reduce fat and increase hydration.
Mindset
I will not talk myself out of doing something because of my appearance. I wear a bathing suit regardless of cellulite. I will not let my body stop me from fully experiencing life, now or ever again!
Weight training
I lift heavy weights. Heavy is relative but heavy, to me, means a weight where I can only do 4-6 unbroken reps with good from. Deadlifts & squats are a big part of this for me. Here’s an episode I did on strength training.
Massage
I get a deep tissue massage every other week. I don’t do this exclusively to reduce cellulite but to help my muscles recover from my workouts and for relaxation. I’m not a shopper, I’m not a shoe girl, but I love a great massage!
Foam rolling
I foam roll every day before my workout. I also have a foam roller at home and make time to foam roll my legs & butt every evening.
Clean eating
Fat loss is undeniably an important cellulite-reduction strategy. For more on this, check out the Fat Loss Basics series of the podcast (episodes 121-126).
Red light therapy
Like massage, I don’t use red light therapy exclusively for cellulite, but it definitely is helping! Red light therapy, which I do via the Joovv light at home, also helps with overall skin health (like wrinkles) and anti-inflammation. It’s been a huge help to my shoulder & knee!
Let’s talk more about this Joovv light, shall we? I mentioned it on episode 416 of the podcast and you guys have asked a ton of questions.
Let’s talk for a second about light in general. Think about what light does for plants. Sunlight allows plants to manufacture energy. Without light, plant cells don’t function & the plants die.
This is very true for all living things. And, there are different types of light. Our body responds differently to each.
Remember way back in episode 016 we talked about blue light & how it suppresses melatonin production? Blue light is the type of light emitted from televisions, phones, computers, etc and it tells our cells that it is daytime. Receiving that message, melatonin production is supressed, making it harder to fall asleep, stay asleep and get into the deep, restorative stages of sleep.
Another type of light is red light. Red light is therapeutic in a number of ways. It increases collagen production by the cells (part of how it reduces cellulite) and it helps reduce inflammation.
Several months ago, I went to a spa to sit in a red-light sauna. But, the impact of red light is most significant when used regularly.
I definitely won’t be going to a spa several times a week for red light sessions, so I got the Joovv at home light. It hangs in my closet and I go in there, turn the light on, get naked and spend about 10 minutes on most days soaking up the red light rays.
Though it’s not a magic bullet, I have noticed that it, along with training, nutrition, massage & foam rolling, has helped reduce inflammation and lessen the appearance of my leg & butt cellulite.
For me, it pays for itself quickly because of how frequently I use it compared with how often I’d go to a spa for a similar treatment!
If you’re serious about changing the shape of your body, keep in mind that NOTHING will have a larger impact than changes to nutrition. Nutrition is absolutely the driver of change.
If you want to get started with some fat loss nutrition episodes, here are some great starting points!
You can absolutely listen to the Primal Potential podcast right here on this site. But, there are lots of other places where you subscribe, listen and have the episodes automatically download to your device.
No matter where you listen, the Primal Potential podcast is totally free!
If you choose to listen here on primalpotential.com, you’ll find every episode under the Podcast tab of the site. Each episode has it’s own show notes page where you can stream the episode or download it.
Since iTunes recently became Apple Podcasts, I’ll show you how to find the show, subscribe to it & listen.
If you have an iPhone, the podcast app is automatically on your phone. It looks like this:
When you’re looking at all your apps on your phone, you’re looking for that purple guy. Click on him.
Once you’re inside the app, you’ll click on the magnifying glass on the bottom right corner and type in “Primal Potential Podcast”.
Then you will want to hit the purple “subscribe” button.
Now that you’ve done that, the episodes will automatically show up in your Library (see that in the middle at the bottom?) as they are released. The most recent episode will show up at the top. You’ll click the little cloud with the arrow to download it if you want to listen to it without it using up your data. Pro tip: when you’re at home or work (anywhere you’re connected to wifi), download the episodes so they are available to listen without using your data when you aren’t connected to wifi.
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