10 Instant Energy Boosts To Help You Beat Stress

We all experience stress in our lives, and some days it can be a little overwhelming. If you find yourself feeling stressed out now or soon, don't worry, we're in your corner. Check out the 10 ways below to beat stress by instantly boosting your energy!

1. Breathe deeply.

Sit down and close your eyes. Take a deep breath in and out of your nostrils. If you follow your breath with your attention, you can slow your thoughts and mind down. Breathing deeply brings more oxygen into your cells, flushing your brain and body with instant energy. Think of this as a simple, yet very powerful and effective form of meditation. 

2. Stretch yourself happy.

Stretch your body slowly with gentleness, kindness and love. With each stretching movement you make, celebrate your body: Notice your wrists, your arms, your neck, your spine, your legs, your ankles and your knees. Bring attention to your neck by dropping your left ear towards your left shoulder, then releasing your right ear towards your right shoulder until you find space opening up in your neck and upper shoulder area. Repeat the stretch a few times then drop your chin down to your chest. 

3. Treat yourself with self-massage.

When you're mentally and emotionally stressed, that stress is also being held in your physical body. It can be helpful to release this tightness using self-massage. Begin by gently massaging your body with your fingertips and hands. Typically the body parts most affected by stress are the back, shoulders, legs, arms, face, eyes and jaw. Start massaging these parts of your body to help you identify where stress lives in your body. 

4. Smile a big smile. 

Start with a tiny smile, then let your smile spread widely across your face. Smile the biggest smile you can! Notice how your body responds. Feel your eyes smiling and all the muscles in your face smiling. Breathe this big happy smile all the way into your center. Close your eyes and drink in this new state: the relaxed, happy and peaceful feeling. Feel yourself feeling happy, grounded and centered.

5. Give yourself a vitamin D boost.

Get a natural vitamin D injection by sitting in the sunshine for a few minutes. Feel the warmth of the sunshine, naturally dissolving away stress, tension and tightness in your body and in your life.

6. Inspire yourself.

An easy way to inspire yourself is to surround yourself with positive support, inspiration and motivation. Watch an inspiring video, read an uplifting story or listen to a motivating speech. Another idea is to reconnect with a positive person who inspires you. Notice that it's very hard (if not impossible!) to feel stressed and inspired both at the same time. So, keep yourself tuned in to your inspirational stories, videos and audios until the stress releases. 

7. Play your favorite music.

When you listen to your favorite music, something magical happens. Let yourself move and sing to your favorite songs. Music has an amazing ability to help reconnect you back to yourself, allowing healing to happen easily, naturally and effortlessly. Get into a nice comfortable place, perhaps sitting or lying down, and put on your favorite music and just Imagine your stress melting away, just melting, melting, melting.

8. Do some circle work.

Slowly, with intention, roll your shoulders back and down in a slow, circular motion. Slow everything down and notice how your breath deepens naturally. Feel the spaciousness in your body expand, particularly around your shoulders, chest and heart area as you do this. Consciously imagine opening up even more into this area of your body. Bring your shoulders back into a neutral place, then repeat another five times (more if you have the time and desire). With each shoulder circle that you do, imagine your stress just releasing naturally out of your body.

9. Laugh out loud.

When you laugh out loud, good vibes are able to move through your body, flushing away old energy blocks, along with feelings of stress and frustrations. Your inner child likes nothing more than having fun, so this is a perfect excuse to watch that comedy you've been wanting to see or get together with a good friend who makes you laugh. With each time that you laugh, just imagine laughing at your stress and sending it far, far away. Let the healing vibrations of your laughter move fluidly through your body, transforming stress into pure joy, positivity and optimism.

10. Make your favorite smoothie.

And, if you’ve tried all of these ideas and are still looking for more inspiration to feel better, there's nothing like getting in the kitchen and creating a delicious and healthy smoothie. This is a surefire way to relieve stress and make yourself feel good again! Here’s one of my favorite smoothie recipes: In a high-speed blender, blend 1-2 frozen bananas, 1 1/2 cups chilled, non-dairy milk (or equivalent freshly squeezed juice/water), a generous handful of frozen berries and 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon and pure vanilla essence. Blend together and when thoroughly mixed, pour into a lush cocktail glass and decorate with fresh berries on top. Sip and enjoy ... Mmm!

It's possible to relieve stress naturally. Stress really can be an energy thief, one that robs you of your precious life force, but you don’t have to let it be so.  

Connecting with your inner wisdom and strength will help you to naturally transform your stress into new energy, courage and confidence so that you can feel better instantly! 

Full article here: http://bit.ly/11Rn3xF

Creating a Zero-Waste Home

Does garbage night for you consist of disposing of several bags of trash? Would you like to make things easier on yourself or just start being more green by throwing less away? If so, check out this story from LearnVest about one Californian family who accomplished exactly that.

Five years ago, Bea Johnson and her husband and two sons were looking for a home closer to the restaurants, shops and school in their coastal California town.

During the year they spent house hunting, the family of four moved into a small apartment, took only the possessions that were absolutely necessary, and left the rest in storage.

“After living with just the necessities, we realized that we had much more time to spend with our family when we weren’t spending it caring for a large house and lots of belongings,” says Johnson.

Then, when they did decide on a house, they chose one half the size of their previous home, and simplified by selling most of their old stuff.

Around that time, Johnson and her husband began investigating environmental issues. “We read books, watched documentaries, and what we learned worried us and made us sad for our kids’ futures,” she says. “So, we decided to do something about it. My husband quit his job to start a sustainability consulting company, and I tackled greening our house.”

It was then that Johnson devised a system to reduce the family’s garbage — what she calls the “Zero-Waste Home.” She started by swapping everything disposable in their home (paper towels, water bottles, grocery bags) for reusable items.

Today, she says, her family’s yearly waste can fit in a quart-size jar.

She spoke with us about how to get started, her zero-waste strategies and the one sustainable habit she’s just not down with.

LearnVest: Was there something you read or saw that you modeled your Zero-Waste Home after?

Johnson: No. Actually, there were no blogs or really anything about being zero-waste, so I had to test everything for myself — I did a lot of Googling. Today, the zero-waste lifestyle is easy for us — we don’t even think about it. But [when we were getting started], we had to experiment to find what our limitations were.

LearnVest: What are the basic tenets of the zero-waste lifestyle?

Johnson: What we do is based on what we call “The Five R’s,” which should be applied in order.

No. 1: Refuse whatever we do not need. For example: junk mail and freebies.

No. 2: Reduce what we do need by donating or selling anything that isn’t absolutely necessary for us to live comfortably.

No. 3: Reuse by buying secondhand, swapping disposable items for reusable items, and shopping with reusable packaging.

No. 4: Recycle. By this point, if you’ve applied the first three R’s, you should be left with very little recycling. For example, what’s left in our recycling bin are bottles of wine that friends bring over and papers sent home from our sons’ school.

No.5 : Rot. Compost anything that can be composted.

LearnVest: How did your sons react to the change in your lifestyle?

Johnson: Our sons [ages 13 and 11] didn’t even know we were doing zero waste until we pointed it out to them. To them, what we do is totally normal. And, the kids have really enjoyed the simplicity aspect of the lifestyle. It clears their heads, keeps them focused, and they say it’s much easier to clean their rooms.

LearnVest: What is your process for grocery shopping?

Johnson: For my weekly grocery run, I bring what I call my shopping kit: three totes, five glass jars (one each for meat, fish, solid cheese, grated cheese and deli meat for the kids’ lunches), two different sizes of cloth bags for dried bulk goods and mesh bags for produce.

I buy olive oil, honey, peanut butter, cereal, snacks — almost everything — from the bulk section in our grocery store where the items are unpackaged. I buy grated cheese from the salad bar and, every week, I ask for 10 baguettes unpackaged from the bakery. I put them in a pillowcase and then cut them in half, freeze them and thaw them out as needed. The produce section is also great for unpackaged foods. The only food that my family eats with disposable packaging is butter — that’s it. We tried making our own butter, but we found that it was not a sustainable option for us.

Continue reading Johnson’s take on zero-waste living on LearnVest.

Full article here: http://bit.ly/ZJi7qc

What Not To Compost or Recycle: 30 Items to Avoid

If you’re growing anything, (house plants, window boxes, hydroponics, etc,) then you may want to consider starting a compost. Everyday items that you’d throw out such as fruit cores and the like can be used to help your greenery grow, but some items should be left out. Check out ‘30 Items to Avoid’ below.

Composting and recycling seem like straightforward systems, but as with most processes, there are shades of gray to the black and white designations of "plastic", "paper", and "glass".  

I found this list on Mother Nature Network and thought it was a nice refresher for those of us who've ever stood over a recycling bin with an item and wondered if we were helping the process or muddling it up, since not all paper, glass, and plastic can be recycled equally.

Here are a few non-compostable/non-recyclable items to be aware of. Head on over to Mother Nature Network for the full list.

Non-Compostable Items:

Bread products, as they will attract pests.

Meat products, which will also attract pests and bacteria in a general compost pile. There are, however, specially designed composting bins that can be used to compost meat and dairy.

Heavily coated or printed paper. The printing chemicals will leak into your compost and cause contamination.

Cooking oil, which can disrupt the moisture balance in compost and also attract pests.

Rice, as it can become a breeding ground for bacteria that can harm the quality of your compost.

Non-Recyclable Items:

Brightly dyed paper, as the colored ink can leak and alter the color of other items.

Juice boxes and wax-coated cardboard containers. If the containers have not been marked as recyclable, they are not suitable for recycling.

Napkins and paper towels are considered unsuitable for recycling due to contaminants they may have absorbed.

Wet paper is not recyclable because of possible contaminants and damage to the fibers.

Plastic screw-on tops. While plastic bottles are recyclable, the tops are not considered suitable for recycling.

*While this list also contains items like batteries and household glass as items to avoid adding to general recycling bins, these types of items can often be recycled in targeted recycling programs. Earth 911 has a useful search engine that allows you to type in an item along with your zip code to locate an appropriate recycling center.

Full article here: http://bit.ly/ZFPRrm

5 Bonuses of Plants in Small Spaces

When managed correctly, plants can make just about any space feel more healthy and green, whether it's a large space or a little one. For the latter, there are a couple of little bonuses that make plants work even better! Check out the 5 extra perks below.

1. Humidity: Although many folks are okay with remembering to water their plants, many plants need additional humidty to look their best. In a small space it's easy to mist, or simply take warm showers, to fill the place with a little extra.
2. Use Your Walls: Even though the same options are open to those living in larger spaces, somehow it seems less scary to use your walls for hanging planters or wall planters. When it's your only option, you just do it instead of looking at 1,000s of pictures of them on Pinterest for months without pulling the trigger.
3. Light Control: Plants, and the light they receive, have a symbiotic relationship. In a smaller space, this is easier to control and see the exact light each one is getting.
4. Watering: When my environment was larger, the plants at the far ends of my home always seemed to suffer the most. My watering can would either run out, or I would simply forget. In a small space it's easy to flit around, water them all, and call it a day!
5. Design: In a smaller space, you're much more aware of each and every thing in your home. Plants become art pieces and specific choices, instead of just something you got on sale or a friend handed down. Their pots are suddenly worth their designer prices as they've become show stoppers!

Full article here: http://bit.ly/11OpBgy

Your Old Fridge Might Be Costing You A Lot More Than You Think

Energy efficient technology is very popular these days, and although those products may cost a little more, it might end up saving you money in the long run. Your old fridge might be burning through so much energy that a new one will help you on your utility bills. Read more below.

The government's Energy Star website has a nifty refrigerator retirement savings calculator that will help you calculate how much money you'd save by replacing your main refrigerator or freezer or removing your old one from the garage entirely.

I plugged in my own old General Electric refrigerator from 1998, and it estimated an annual electricity cost of $126.05 (based on $.11 per KWh). This cost was more than double what a new energy efficient model might cost to run, which Energy Star estimated at $58 per year. With the average homeowner staying in one spot for 13 years, a savings of almost $70 per year would net $910. That's the entry price for a decent brand new Energy Star refrigerator. You'd gain back the purchase price difference, and enjoy the convenience of a brand new fridge.

That timespan is just about the lifecycle of an average refrigerator also, and consider that the older your appliance gets the more inefficiently it's likely to run as components fail, filters go uncleaned, and so on.

So think about whether it's worth hanging on to that old crusty fridge in the garage just to store a few extra bags of ice and juice. It might be time to trade in or recyclethe old workhorse and get yourself a newer model, or simply go without the extra convenience. After all, how many cans of soda do we need to have in the fridge at one time anyway?

Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/1264wAF