The wellness world can be a little bit overwhelming when you are first dipping your toe in the water. I recently listened to an interview with Oprah where she described wellness as “a journey to wholeness”. There are so many great therapies and activities out there to help you on this journey, and I always think of meditation as a perfect place to start. When I was reading Jay Shetty’s book Think Like a Monk it resonated with me when he said “When you learn to manage and navigate your breath, you can navigate any situation in life.” Now, obviously, he is an actual monk, and is MUCH better at meditating than I am. This is something I really struggle with, but I am definitely improving. I understand the benefits of meditation now, which beyond breathing is really about controlling your thoughts and connecting them to your breath. For someone with (sometimes severe) anxiety and intrusive thoughts, learning to meditate has been a lifesaver for me. It is a practice that I am still working on, but I think that is kind of the point :). Something that has helped me to improve is knowing that meditation doesn’t always have to be seated and intense, just connecting to your breath in any stressful situation is beneficial to your health. Two apps that I have used to get started are Headspace and Calm. I think Headspace is great for beginners, this is definitely where I learned the basics of meditation. Calm has a lot of variety in what it offers, including sleep stories which I know a lot of people love.

Yoga is another great place to start on your wellness journey. This is not only a great workout but is also known for improving mental health as well. This year, I am hoping to get into a more consistent yoga practice as both a stress reliever and an active recovery from my high-intensity workouts. My sister and I found an awesome yoga studio near us (Phoenix Yoga is awesome if you’re in the Cleveland area!) that offers different kinds of yoga and also different holistic workshops throughout the month. I love this yoga studio because it is so welcoming and beginner friendly (I’ve done yoga on and off for over 10 years and still always feel like a beginner). I’ve been to more intimidating yoga studios, and just absolutely love the vibe here. I also love it because of the workshops offered, and would highly recommend finding a studio that has different forms of healing/transformative classes available. I was fortunate to go on my first wellness retreat this year and was exposed to so many awesome classes, so it is so nice to have a sanctuary at home where I can continue this work.

The yoga classes I have been loving lately are Yoga Stretch or Yin Yoga. This is a really slow meditative form of yoga that works on deep tissues in the body. You hold a single pose for a long period of time, usually about five minutes. It feels amazing. I’ve even felt emotional doing these stretches because it is releasing energy from your body. This is something I learned so much about on my retreat and was really fascinated by. Basically, I learned that when animals have a traumatic experience, they will physically shake their bodies to release the adrenaline and other hormones their bodies produce from fear and stress. When it comes to humans, our society tells us to be calm and cool in stressful situations, and it causes us to trap this energy which puts us in a state of chronic stress.

Another way it was explained is that in hunter/gatherer days, we would actively go through the fight or flight stress response. For example, if an animal was chasing us we would RUN, releasing energy, or FIGHT, also releasing energy. Nowadays, our “animal chasing us” is our high-stress job, screaming kids, financial struggles, etc… and we have no outlet for this negative energy inside of our bodies. We learned at the retreat that exercise, whether it’s running, hiking, swimming, dancing, or even just walking… helps us to cycle that toxic energy from our bodies. I can 1000% feel that this is true. Over the last year, I have consistently exercised, specifically running, sweating, and getting my heart rate up which has led me to the calmest state I have felt in my life. This form of yoga is a great way to cycle out more deeply stored energy. I have honestly felt it happen, and so has my sister! It really is amazing. I am also helping my muscles to recover from my other workouts with this stretching, so it’s just really great all around.

I also love to take Basics Yoga. You can probably find me in beginner yoga classes for the rest of my life ;) I am a perfectionist and I never feel like I’m doing the poses 100% correctly, so I like to just get some extra instruction. Who knows, maybe this will be the year I advance to some higher-level classes! But for now, I really enjoy a slow-flow class with less intimidating poses. I love finding great, motivating instructors who play awesome music and mix in some affirmations and meditation. I always feel like I get a well-rounded wellness experience from a good yoga class.

A special event class I have been loving at my studio (and I also had an amazing experience with on my wellness retreat) is sound baths. I had no idea what this even was before finding this studio, but it is actually an ancient form of healing. In these sessions, you typically lay on your yoga mat with a bolster (big comfy cushion) under your knees or head and get into a meditative state while listening to crystal singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, or whatever the healer is using. The purpose is to clear and balance your energy and it can also help release stress and trauma. I know it sounds crazy, but it is actually based on science and there has been tons of research validating this form of therapy. I live in the Cleveland area, and the Cleveland Clinic has a whole Wellness Institute that incorporates these types of Eastern therapies, including acupuncture (which I have also done and HIGHLY recommend), and reiki (which I have not yet tried but is very high on my wellness to-do list). Reiki is another form of energy healing where a trained healer places their hands on or above your body to deliver energy and improve the flow and balance of your energy to promote healing. This can help with stress, anxiety, depression, pain management and so much more. There are so many studies on this as well and it is another service offered through the Cleveland Clinic. I am so excited to try it and hope to do it sometime in the next month or two. I will definitely write a blog post about it once I do!

I know that the energy exchange from these therapies is real because of the positive experiences I have had at yoga and sound baths, but I have actually had negative experiences with energy exchanges too. I went to a sound bath on a full moon where the intention of the class was to release negative energy, and I went home feeling so awful. I had the most intense anxiety and I even had a panic attack in the middle of the night. I emailed the healer who did our sound bath the next day and she asked me a lot of questions and then concluded that because I am an empath (someone who easily absorbs other people’s pain/emotions) I was basically absorbing all of the bad energy in the room! She told me to shake my body (like an animal) by dancing to a favorite song and to just be crazy and dance around aggressively. She also advised me to take a hot bath with Epsom salts.

I honestly did not do either of those things, but I DID go to my workout class the next day and RAN as if my life depended on it. I ran so much faster and longer than I normally do, and I felt like a new person afterward. I released the negative energy from my body, I could feel it. Thankfully, I’ve never had this experience again at a sound bath (It did happen to me at an intention-burning ceremony at my wellness retreat, where I learned that is not a good group activity for me to participate in). I now know it is best for me to avoid Full Moon energy-releasing classes and intention-burning ceremonies ;)

Having an outlet for toxic energy is so important for your health and well-being. I have actually noticed that since getting to this healthy balance with my energy, I do a better job of protecting my energy as well. I avoid toxic/negative people and situations and try to actively call in positive energy. I do this with positive affirmations, training my words and thoughts to be more positive, and censoring what kind of news and tv shows/social media I am exposed to. I also used to have the most critical inner voice. Once I started to really listen to it, I knew that I needed to do some work on myself to change that. Journaling is another great way to really work through some self-criticism and learn how to be kinder to yourself. Guided journals are especially awesome. This is one that I love that was suggested to me by a therapist. I am a firm believer in the saying “Your mind is your home, make sure it’s a nice place to live.” It may take a lot of special attention to get to this happy place, but it is definitely worth it!

I love having all of these wellness tools as a mom because I think these things can be great for kids as well. The woman who does the sound baths at my studio also does them at local high schools, which I think is so awesome. Making sure my kids are into sports or even just being active by running around and playing to cycle their energy is also important to me. The music classes at the local library program that I take my daughters to even incorporate cute little videos with yoga and meditation in them, which I will link below. There are also so many awesome books teaching meditation to kids without them even realizing what they are doing. I can’t wait to take my daughters to Mommy & Me yoga when they get a little bit older, although they do love to practice with me at home already. They even have their own yoga mats! I must say, yoga is such a fun and easy way to bond with your kids. Even when they were babies they would just crawl around my mat and want to be next to or underneath me.

I know as my girls get older, especially in their teenage years, having these practices will give them a much better way to cope with their emotions than the tools that I had (or didn’t have) as a child/teen. I’m so excited to have these tools for myself and to be able to pass them on to my kids, and now with you as well! Are there any that you are excited to try? Or do you have any suggestions for ones that I may be missing out on? Please let me know!