Stress is something we all experience, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The stress response is a natural reaction to life experiences and can help us to cope with potentially serious situations. However if this stress response doesn’t stop firing, these elevated stress level scan take a toll on your long-term health.
Read moreCreate a Wellness Retreat at Home
Countrywide lockdowns, a slow economy, and a pandemic on your doorstep may have taken a toll on your mental health and lead to stress & anxiety. A lockdown is an ideal time to practice self-care and focus on your well-being to recharge your energy.
It's the wellness weekend you've been needing ~ relaxation, self-care, healthy meals, physical activity, and all your favorite wellness treatments. Retreats allow you to truly unplug, harmonise the body and mind, and recharge your energy. You don’t need to go anywhere to get these benefits and you can create your own wellness retreat at home.
Read moreDreams: Why do we have them and what do they mean?
Everyone dreams every night, yet 95% of dreams are forgotten before we wake in the morning. The ones that are remembered can be entertaining, fun, adventurous, vivid and often bizarre. Yet there is still much about sleep and dreams that remain a mystery for experts. Even the question of why we dream is one yet to be answered. However there are studies that can help us to understand what triggers intense dreams and the health benefits of dreaming.
Read more8 Tips to keep your Immune System Strong
When we’re feeling strong and healthy we can take our immune healthy for granted. Yet when the sniffles start we hope our immune system will pick up the slack. The colder months often make it harder to keep up with a healthy lifestyle. I’ve listed my top 8 tips for keeping your immune system strong as the seasons change.
Read moreHow to tell you have reached the point of Burnout?
Burnout is when you reach a state of mental and physical exhaustion. The main cause of burnout is stress. It is when you wake up feeling exhausted and dread getting out of bed. If you continue to push through burnout it can lead to depression, anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
Read more10 Winter Self-Care Tips to get you through the Colder Months
The winter months can be a challenging time both physically and mentally with your health. Self-Care strategies are needed to get through the colder months to boost immunity and support your mental health. Here are 10 Winter Self-Care Tips to get you through the colder months:
Read more10 Essentials to Boost your Immunity Naturally
10 Essentials to Boost your Immunity Naturally
Read moreWhy Every Stressed Person Should Try a Gong Bath
Why every stressed person should try a Gong Bath
When you are feeling stressed-out the best way to unwind and relax is a Gong Bath to let go of the tension from the body and mind. Gong meditation is a unique type of sound practice that creates vibrations to bring healing and therapeutic benefits to the body and the mind. Sound therapy has been used for a long time to bring healing to the body as disease comes into the body when we are vibrating at a non-optimal frequency. Gong sound therapy has been practised for thousands of years and belongs to one of the oldest Southeast Asian musical instruments. The origins may be traced back to the second millennium B.C. In Chinese history, gongs are mentioned around 500 A.D.
Gong bathing can help reduce stress and liberate emotional blockages. Scientific research suggests sound therapy prompts damage human DNA strands to repair themselves. Music therapy is the most mainstream form of sound therapy and been shown to relieve a number of health problems. It is now frequently offered in clinical settings like hospitals and clinics. The sound of the gong reaches the body on a cellular level encouraging integrated healing of the body, mind, and spirit. When the gong is played properly it produces a whole spectrum of harmonics that are based on pressure waves of sound, which vibrate the energy meridians in the body. The sounds of the gong can recalibrate the physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies, and raises the frequency of your electrical magnetic field (the aura) that surrounds your body.
A gong meditation is practised laying on your back and all you need to do is rest in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. The gong usually starts softly and progressively the volume increases. The gong sound is changed frequently to avoid producing a fixed monotonous rhythm. The first brainwave state to be reached is alpha. Alpha brainwaves are associated with creativity and feelings of relaxation. This state is followed by an influx of theta waves. Theta waves are associated with deep meditation, hypnosis, and REM sleep. The sounds from the gong can be very loud. The best way to embrace the gong is to surrender, relax, and let go. The gong is your guide and you will ride the waves of the sound current to a deep relaxing state.
Erin O’Hara, Founder of Golden Yogi
If you are interested in finding out more about Gong Baths, we have some exciting workshops coming up - including Gong Bath Training with Methab Benton.
GONG BATH & YOGA NIDRA WITH MEHTAB BENTON
Master Gong Practictioner Training
Winter Motivation & Inspiration
Over the winter months our natural tendency is to slow down and hibernate from the cold. It is important to keep our bodies moving so we stay healthy. When we exercise and move our body it helps to boost circulation of blood and lymphatic flow through the body, and makes us feel happy.
Your lymphatic system needs exercise to work. The lymphatic system is known as the guardian system to remove waste products from the body. Unlike the circulatory system pumping the blood around the body, the lymphatic system has no pump so relies on us moving our body to stimulate this system. Whenever we move our muscles we are helping the lymphatic system move lymph fluid through the body. To remain healthy it is important that the body is removing toxins and waste products efficiently from the body.
Exercise keeps us happy. It is hard to stay motivated to keep active over the cold winter months when the circulation is sluggish. When we feel sluggish we generally have lower motivation and do not feel like exercising. Exercising regularly will benefit both our body and mind to keep you feeling great over the winter. The hardest part about exercising is having the motivation to get to a yoga class, the gym, or out for a walk in the cold. To keep motivated it is best to create an exercise routine for yourself. Once we start and our blood flow starts circulating we generally feel great!
Write yourself a weekly exercise schedule. This will help you to stay on track. Try to aim to do something most days as little and often is a lot more achievable than doing big long sessions. Set goals for the week and make them achievable for yourself so you can succeed with the plan. Aim for 20-30 minutes per day.
Yoga keeps you happy & healthy 😀Yoga is great to move your body but also stimulate the glandular system to keep you healthy. The Nadi Energy channels are like an energy highway system through the body and these energy channels link to the glands. Yoga postures create angles and shapes to pressurise the Nadi channels and stimulate through the glands in the body. Healthy glands are important for your health, immunity and regulate your mood.
With less natural sun light there is a higher incidence of depression and low mood over the winter months. Yoga and meditation helps boost your mood so you can feel happy. The important glands for happiness are pituitary and pineal glands. These glands regulate our neurotransmitters to allow us to feel happy and balance our mood.
By Erin O'Hara