Many of us struggle to get things done – whether that’s a long term work project or simply folding the laundry (ok, maybe especially folding the laundry).

There are many wonderful motivational speakers and resources that offer anything from gentle encouragement to a proverbial kick in the rear to help folks accomplish their goals. I am not one of these people, and this is not a motivational article.

This is about the things we need besides motivation to accomplish a goal, and how to make those things work for you. 

We can’t stop habits from forming and nor do we want to!  Habits help us!  Habits are great when they work for us and not against us.  Whenever we want to change our routines, we need to change our habits.  This is especially true every time there’s a change in season or a change in routine.  Think back to the end of August and the beginning of September.  There’s a lot of change in a couple short weeks.  Not having habits and routines that support you can make changing things harder than it needs to be.

Changing habits can be as easy as making the new habit easy or making something we want to stop doing more difficult.  As humans, we naturally gravitate towards easy over hard - let that work for you in this case!

My favourite season is finally here!! Okay, almost – it officially starts on Saturday. I LOVE autumn and everything to do with autumn. I love the warm days and cool nights, the amazing food (the farmers markets are full of amazing food), chai, soups, all the cozy sweaters and so much more.

Saturday marks the halfway point between the longest and most Yang day of the year (the Summer Solstice) and the longest and most Yin night of the year (Winter Solstice). Yin and Yang will be exactly equal on Saturday. After Saturday, Yin will begin to grow as Yang begins to wane. This is a season of change, a season of pivoting. It’s an important season because it represents the bringing in of all the work that has been done this year. This might be work on your health, work on your relationships, work on your home, work on your business, work on something else entirely.

Personally, I am currently pursuing a degree in Health Sciences. Navigating my path back to academia as a mature learner has introduced its own set of challenges, including the delicate juggling act of harmonizing work, family commitments, and scholarly pursuits. I've also had to embrace the task of acquainting myself with emerging technologies, all the while recognizing that my ability to absorb copious volumes of new information is not quite as swift as it once was.

Incorporating the demands of learning into an already busy life has compelled me to become very efficient in learning and coursework. I have been intentional in creating study habits that give me the best chance of staying on top of coursework and being successful in exams.

We’ve been chatting about how habits are formed, how they affect your daily life and how to start making changes. If you didn’t catch the previous two articles, you can read them here: How Habits Affect Your Life + How to Make them Work for You and How to Change Your Habits and Make it Stick - Part 1.

Simply put, habits are an unconscious response to a specific stimulus. If you get cut off in traffic, what’s your automatic response? If you’re feeling stressed, what’s your go-to solution? If your pet or child comes to see you and wants a hug, what’s your response?

Our lives are run by habit. We wouldn’t be able to do the majority of the things we do in the day without habits. This doesn’t make habits wrong, right, good, bad, healthy, unhealthy… Habits simply are. Habits by nature are subconscious and exist solely to respond to different stimuli (pop over and read How Habits Affect Your Life if you want to understand why habits better).

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." - Health as defined by the World Health Organization

I've come to believe that if I want to thrive, I must invest in my health. If I want to merely survive, I can treat health as an expense and treat symptoms as they arise.  For years I treated my health as an expense and opted for the cheapest solution.  I struggled with iron deficiency anemia, chronic fatigue syndrome, debilitating periods and more.  Unlike most practitioners, I understand chronic illness and the struggles it creates because I’ve lived with it.

Living with a chronic illness is an immense challenge that affects millions of people worldwide. Traditional medical treatments often focus on managing symptoms, but what if there was an alternate approach that could tap into the mind's innate healing abilities? Hypnosis is a therapeutic technique that employs the power of suggestion and deep relaxation to alleviate symptoms and improve the overall well-being of individuals with chronic illnesses.

Did you know that hitting the snooze button actually makes it harder to get out of bed in the morning?  

Studies have shown that we get most of our REM sleep (or dream sleep) in the latter part of our sleep cycles (these cycles happen multiple times throughout the night).  We also get more REM sleep overall in the early morning hours.  REM sleep is the most restorative part of the sleep cycle.  When your alarm goes off in the morning, you’re most likely disrupting REM sleep; especially if you wake up from a dream.  By choosing to hit your snooze button instead of getting up, you are starting another sleep cycle and may be reentering another REM cycle within that sleep cycle.  

In my twenty plus years as a herbalist, there has been one class of remedy that people have complained about consistently – the digestive bitter.

We, as herbalists, are not being cruel or perverse when we recommend that you take one. We know the bitter flavour can come as a bit of a shock to folks used to the average North American diet, but bitters have a plethora of benefits that really do make them worthwhile.

When I was a child, I used to beg my parents for a pet; sadly, they never gave in.  However, I found a way around that!  I started babysitting our neighbours pets when they were away, this began a lifelong love of cats (and the occasional dog).

Little did I know then what a profound effect having pets would have on me.

My husband and I currently have four cats - Jane, Darcy, Toes and Lizzie.  They each have such unique personalities and quirks.  I truly can’t imagine life without them.

One of the things I love about being a herbalist is the variety of my work. My day may be spent with clients, taking histories and assessing issues. It may be spent in a deep dive into academic literature, as there is always more to learn and new research to keep up with. And it is often, especially in the growing season, spent outside, planting and tending to my herb gardens, or foraging for wild herbs in woods and meadows. Then there is the slow process of drying herbs for teas, making tinctures, salves, and other plant-based medicines.

In honour of International Pi/Mathematics day, I would like to do an experiment with you where we imagine two different scenarios. 

First, imagine somebody has made you a pie. You appreciate the gesture and set the pie on your counter. You’re on a diet and not allowed to eat pie. Maybe you’re not on a specific diet, but you don’t think pie is good for you or you’re concerned about the amount of sugar and carbs in it. Throughout the day, you walk past the pie and are tempted to eat a piece, but restrain yourself and don’t. By the end of the day, you say what the heck and decide to quickly shovel a piece in your mouth. Quick and dirty, you get it over with so you can stop thinking about it. Do you feel guilty that you ate a piece? Do you beat yourself up for not having more willpower? Did you even really taste the pie? Did you end up eating another piece or 2 so you could actually taste the pie? Maybe you ate it and moved on with your day, not giving it much more thought.

For anyone who’s ever taken a flight, you’ve all heard the safety demonstration telling you to put your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others to do the same. This doesn’t just apply to flights, emergencies and cabin pressure changes.

The reality is, that as women, we need to learn to put our own oxygen masks on everyday.

Recently, I’ve heard from several women that they’re putting themselves last.  Some want to make a change and put themselves first and others have said that they “don’t exist” until a certain point because they’re so overwhelmed by life, the demands on their time and energy, as well as everything else that’s happening on a daily basis. This also includes caring for their loved one.

It’s that time of year when Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are over, and we’re settling in for a few months of cold, snowy weather. And with Winter come seasonal colds, sore throats, and runny noses. 

Being a backyard herbalist is so much easier in the summer when there is an abundance of medicinal weeds and wildflowers, but even in the depths of winter, there are herbal remedies to be found. This one is a great remedy for runny noses and mucousy coughs, and has the added benefit of being right in your living room – it’s your Christmas tree! 

“I’m so bad”, she states as she reaches for a cookie. “No I can’t, I’m trying to be good” as she declines an offer of a homemade muffin. We’ve all heard these phrases, and have probably said them, or something similar, ourselves. When we pause to reflect on these phrases, we can discern how we’re assigning moral value to food choices. Letting what we eat determine whether we’re “good” or “bad”. Our worth is not based on which foods we choose to eat or choose not to eat. 

I grew up in England, so I may be biased, but I believe there is nothing quite as soothing to the soul as a good cup of tea.

Just taking the time to sit down for a few minutes, to be still, to feel the comforting warmth of a cup in your hands, is a balm for busy days. And if your hands happen to be wrapped around a cup of herbal tea, you may also benefit from the healing properties of those herbs. You may be surprised to know that there is an art to making a good herbal tea. It’s not hard to do, but it can greatly improve the quality of your tea.

Have you been struggling with chronic illness for years or even decades? Are you looking for answers and haven’t found any? Are you feeling like no one is listening when you try to explain what’s happening to you or that they don’t understand?

Rebecca provides a calm environment for you to be heard, understood and believed. She truly listens to what you’re saying and asks relevant questions to gain a deeper understanding of what you’re experiencing.

If you fall, you could break a bone, like thousands of older men and women do each year. For older people, a break can be the start of a more serious problem like a trip to the hospital, a permanent disability, or even a move to a long-term care home.

More than one in three people aged 65 years or older fall each year. The risk of falling and fall-related problems rises with age.

Are you looking for a practitioner who is kind, compassionate, empathetic and understands the health struggles you’re experiencing?

Andrea’s near encyclopaedic wealth of knowledge combines perfectly with her calm and compassionate nature to deliver an outstanding level of care.

At Dancing Willow Wellness, we pride ourselves on patient-centred care, and Andrea exemplifies this principle. She is always ready to meet patients where they’re at, and use her skills, expertise, and warmth to bring them closer to where they want to be.

Patients feel supported and heard throughout their journey and appreciate her kindness as well as the great results they achieve.