So why not take some time today, right NOW, to connect with JOY and GRATITuDE, and maybe even a dash of DEEP Peace?! Having goals and things to strive for is wonderful…it can give purpose, meaning, and direction to our lives. But, if we WAIT to reach our goals to experience joy, fulfillment, and peace, we may never get to those feelings. The goals we have may not be as fulfilling as we expected when we actually attain them, and… There will always be new goals around the corner to strive for. You can spend a lifetime WAITiNG to feel GOOD. And yet, joy and gratitude are available to us at every moment. We just need to slow down and allow ourselves to feel them. It’s important to create goals and work towards them. And it’s equally important to build our CAPACITY for feeling good along the way. Like anything, the more you practice feeling good, and taking time for joy and positive emotions, the better you get at it! If there is an inner, emotional block to feeling GOOD, there are tools that can help you move past the block… Tools like Tapping, Prayer/Meditation, the emotional tools created by Dr. Laurel Mellin, and many such tools ⚒️ What’s one way that you can slow down and give yourself the experience of JoY, or maybe even BLISS today?

First of all, welcome to our newest members, @Tatyana Madzharova , @Elena Maren , @Elizabeth R , @René Barlow , @Steven Bornstein , @Chelsea Sachs , and @Andrea Lecos !! Relaxation Saturday serves as a reminder for us to take time to relax TODAY, this weekend, and beyond. Relaxing can be as simple as taking a few deep breaths, humming and singing to yourself as you drive somewhere, or as involved as spending an hour in meditation and prayer. Whatever works for you, however you can fit it in, is just right! Sharing some videos of our amazing animals on this relaxation Saturday. Sheep eating grass, guinea hen doing the ancient art of “dirt bathing”… Spending time with animals and watching them just do their thing is one of my favorite ways to relax.

What are you doing today, or this weekend, to relax and focus on self care? Share it in the comments below. For bonus points, add a picture, so we can share the experience with you. I'll share some peaceful videos of our animals later in the day. Spending time with animals is often relaxing for me. Except for when the drakes or male guineas are fighting. But, I digress. Below is a guided relaxation I created a few months back. I've posted the video in here before, but we have lots of new members, so I wanted to give it to you again. Special welcome to our new members, like @Katja Nasr , @Nancy Wicks , @Matt Burge , @Andrea Lecos , @Brigitte Mars , @Karisa Bitner , @Steven Bornstein , @Sarah Emami , @Lisa David Olson . Welcome all!! If you know someone who can use some relaxation, and/or a reminder that it's ok to feel good, please share this video with them! https://youtu.be/yRI41vlEteE

Do you have one? Does it support you in living your best life? Developing a supportive morning routine was one of the biggest game changers for me. It was part of the reason I started being able to lose excess weight, after years of trying, with very little success. The morning routine I started with was super simple... Lay in bed and listen to hypnotherapy or guided relaxation for 30-45 minutes. Allow myself to relax completely. That was it. This simple routine put me in a good head space for the rest of the day. It set me up with a positive mindset, gratitude, and openness to the blessings of life. Because it felt so good, I started incorporating guided relaxation at the end of the day too, and sometimes even in the middle of the day, if time allowed. I often incorporated prayer during this time too, since that's an important part of my day. This relaxing morning practice supported me in having balanced cortisol throughout the day. Little did I know that balancing my cortisol would help excess fat drop away from my body, with ease and little effort. I had never experienced this before! I started at 220 pounds. My goal weight was 160. I never weighed myself at home, since we didn't have a scale. A few months after I started my simple morning routine (and intermittent fasting), I weighed myself at the gym and almost fell off when I saw the number...it said 146. I thought the scale must be broken! It wasn't. I do weigh myself weekly now, because I appreciate the information I get from doing that. I share this story as inspiration about how quickly things can change for you when you get your cortisol in balance. Intermittent fasting helped me get my insulin in balance. Balancing these two hormones, insulin and cortisol, is KEY for good health and weight loss, and we talk about them quite a lot in the Release the Weight course, in the Classroom. A good morning routine can go a long way in helping us balance both insulin and cortisol!

Since one of the goals of this community is to expand the reach of the health and wellness professionals in here...to help us all upgrade our Health and Thrive.. And since we are building an awesome Health and Wellness Directory with the Bios of everyone who wants to be included, that you can all check out in the Classroom... I thought it might make sense to make this group public so it can be found and searched on various search platforms. The Wellness Directory includes many of the Movement Coaches, Holistic Doctors and Healers, Business and Life Coaches that are part of this community. I've uploaded bios that I had, including @Becca Turner , @Ben Sherry , @Angela Johnson , @Éva Raposa , @Mary Rose , @Abigail Seaver , @Matt Burge , @Dayana Melian , @Vincenzo Fanfarillo , @Gwendolynn Diaz , @Joy Cook , @Ryan Peters , @Nancy Candea , @Kate Galli , @Victoria Gallagher , @Joshua Haag , @Meghann McCormick , @Damiana Corca , @Tara Seren , and more!! Check out your bio...if you want something changed, you can either let me know or I can make you Admin for the day and you can change it yourself. If you have any issues with going public, or don't like it, please message me. It can be changed very easily. If you haven't yet shared your Bio yet, you can do that very easily by creating a new post in the My Directory Listing Category.