Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep – The Big 3

Nutrition.  Exercise.  Sleep.  These three items are integral to our overall health and wellbeing.  Making them part of a daily routine helps to ensure that we regularly include them in our lives in positive ways.

One thing I have found to be very true is that moderation is key when it comes to eating.  Quantity and quality are meaningful here.  Try to eat three adequately-portioned meals per day with a couple of snacks mixed in.  Check out food/calorie guides to determine your best options in your circumstances.  Keep vegetables, fruits and nuts in your daily regimen because they typically pack in plenty of nutritional benefits.  From my experience, it’s preferable to allow for occasional ‘cheats’ because, for many of us, restricting ourselves from a certain item almost always leads to a greater desire for it.

Exercise is another big area.  Try to get yourself moving as much as possible, especially in this time of more sedentary work-from-home situations.  Walking, biking, hiking, dancing, swimming, yoga, sports, skiing, working out, and so on – whatever you like and can manage to do regularly, make it a solid routine.  Do what you enjoy and it will never feel like a chore.

Sleep, although it may seem like something we can do without at times, is integral to our mental and physical wellbeing.  Sleep gives our bodies and minds time to repair and recharge.  Without proper amounts of slumber, we will inevitably begin to decrease in our functionality on both mental and physical levels.

What it all boils down to when it comes to overall wellness is that MODERATION is key.  Someone very close to me who aged gracefully and healthfully, both physically and mentally, into their 100’s, lived life by that very motto.

Nutrition, exercise, sleep – the Big 3!  Maintaining this trio can create huge benefits that will make for a more enjoyable, fulfilling, healthful and possibly long life.

Until next time,

Heather ~Natural Clarity Coaching~  http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com  naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com  Natural Clarity Coaching on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Support system rooted in experience, knowledge and compassion

As a survivor of many things, including narcissistic abuse, C-PTSD and anxiety, to name just a few, I have chosen to dedicate my journey to supporting others who are going through similar experiences.  My belief is that someone who has “been there and done that” through times of adversity, gains wisdom and tools to help themselves, together with the opportunity to share that knowledge in an effort to help others who could use a support system.

When you work with me, my purpose is solely to support you in your healing and recovery journey.  Beyond my personal experiences, I have studied various areas of life coaching, psychology (with a focus on narcissism and narcissistic abuse recovery), health and wellness, women’s health, music therapy, Reiki and other relevant topics.

Narcissistic abuse recovery support is my primary focus.  I am not a mental health professional and, as such, do not offer those services; however, my support work with clients can be viewed as a complementary facet, in conjunction with treatment by mental health professionals, of their recovery or a stand-alone system where no mental health issues are to be treated.

If you are working your way through challenging times and could use the support of someone who knows on a personal level what you are experiencing and can help to ease the stress and complexity of everything in your healing journey, consider touching base for further information.  My standard rate is $25/hr (Cdn).  Lower rates available on a case-by-case basis.

Until next time,

Heather   ~Natural Clarity Coaching~    naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com  http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com  Natural Clarity Coaching on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

 

Breathing Technique for Anxiety and Sleep – 4-7-8 “Relaxed Breath”

Here is a great way to reduce stress.  It can also help with falling asleep.

It’s called the 4-7-8 Breathing Technique (“Relaxed Breath”).  This is how it works:

Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold breath for 7 seconds, exhale forcefully through pursed lips for 8 seconds.  This cycle can be repeated up to four times in a row, two or more times daily.

You can also pair this exercise with guided imagery or meditation for an even more therapeutic experience.

Just breathe, my friends.

Heather ~Natural Clarity Coaching~ http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com  naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com  Natural Clarity Coaching on FB, Instagram and Twitter

 

What other people think of you is none of your business – words to live by

Not giving any energy or time to what other people think of you; this is one of the greatest tools for finding peace and happiness.

In all honesty, at the end of the day, what matters is our own self-perception and learning to accept ourselves in every way.  Fulfillment doesn’t come from trying to make everyone else happy by changing who we are, or our physical appearance or our belief systems.  Even if we wanted to try, we would never succeed.  It would be a losing and exhausting battle.  Putting our time and energy into attempting to fit in or impress others or change our opinions to make someone else happy, is simply cheating us of our authenticity and taking precious moments away from enjoying our own lives.  Add onto that all of the stress and anxiety and potential depression that worrying about pleasing others creates, and you can see exactly why it’s best to appreciate and nourish who you are and not worry about what anyone else thinks of you.

Be YOU inside and out.  Set yourself free.  It’s your life so do it your way.  What other people think of you is none of your business.

Heather ~Natural Clarity Coaching~  http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com  naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com  Natural Clarity Coaching on FB, Instagram and Twitter

 

Perspective – A Skill (Superpower?) Well Worth Developing

Perspective is a significant part of our day-to-day lives.  As the saying goes, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” (Wayne Dyer).  Negative, positive or neutral, our perspective is our choice.

It’s worth mentioning that we all have struggles, some of which can be incredibly challenging.  No matter how difficult, though, we always have the option to change our perspective in terms of how we choose to view any situation.  Sure, life can throw us really rotten curve balls, but viewing something as a learning experience, for example, can take the edge off of the situation and possibly open the mind to solutions.  The school of hard knocks can literally make us stronger people if we rise to the challenge.  We can also opt for changing our perspective in order to reduce stress levels and keep up our momentum for moving forward.

At the end of the day, perspective is a choice.  And that choice can literally change our lives if we actively engage in awareness of our ongoing perspectives and then opening our minds to other views.  It can be quite an empowering skill (maybe even a superpower!) once we develop it and learn to put it into practice regularly.

Until next time,

Heather  Natural Clarity Coaching  naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com  http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com   Natural Clarity Coaching on FB, Instagram, Twitter

 

 

Narcissists are Time Thieves

When a narcissist is involved directly in your life, especially as a partner, there is no doubt that they will take many things from you.  TIME is one of the major thefts.  Let’s chat about that today.

Your time will undoubtedly be stolen through giving seemingly endless amounts of catering to and focusing on someone who can never seem to get enough attention.  Countless hours will be spent on worrying about whatever negative situations the narcissist brings into your life.  Priority and importance will take leave from your own self-care and personal goals in order to be piled into wondering what you said or did (or didn’t say or didn’t do) that caused the narcissist to lash out at you in anger or give you the silent treatment for hours or days.  (Side note:  It’s never truly about you – these are broken people)

As time goes on, most, if not all, of your energy will shift to the narcissist, to the often total detriment of yourself.  Every day becomes all about them; their wants, needs, dreams and goals.  You may even lose all sense of who YOU are in the process.

Obviously it is a matter of personal choice to either stay with or leave a narcissistic partner.  No matter what, though, it is imperative that we hold on to our own self-care, wants, needs, dreams and goals.  Carving out as much time as possible to take care of ourselves and prioritize our own aims in life can make a huge difference, whether we’re with a narcissist or have chosen to live a narc-free existence.

The bottom line is that time is precious and no one should be allowed to steal all of it from us.

Be well.

Heather – Natural Clarity Coaching

Narcissistic Abuse Recovery with Natural Clarity Coaching

One of the main areas of focus at Natural Clarity Coaching is to work with clients who have recognized that they have been the victim of one or more narcissists and who have chosen to work on their recovery from the abuse and damage.

As our target area is recovery, the narcissists and their behaviour are not a major topic.  However, let’s get the basics out of the way.  What exactly is a narcissist (aka an individual with Narcissistic Personality Disorder or NPD)?  NPD is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.  These people often are or were victims of someone narcissistic, which often leads them to engaging in the same behaviour towards others.  They are broken people.  As the saying goes, ‘Hurt people, hurt people’.  It’s a vicious cycle in which serious dysfunctions are created and poor choices are often made.  In the end, it comes down to those crucial points of making a choice to either get help and recover or to allow the brokenness to perpetuate the cycle of hurt.  Many literally can’t or won’t see the patterns and the cycles within their relationships, though, so they simply continue with them.  These issues often run through families for generations.

What are some of the potential resulting issues for someone who is abused by a narcissist?  Well, after any period of time with someone who uses words in manipulative ways in order to control, demean, confuse, isolate and emotionally break you for their own benefit, there will almost always be consequences.  In fact, this is so common that there is something called Narcissistic Abuse Syndrome wherein, very basically put, individuals begin to doubt themselves and their own sanity.  There is also a high risk of Complex-PTSD, adrenal fatigue (from constant fight, flight, freeze), anxiety, depression and a variety of other life-changing issues.

The bottom line is that being abused by a narcissist, whether it is a family member, significant other, employer or co-worker, and so on, is an incredibly difficult and challenging situation.  And because it typically creeps in insidiously and becomes ‘the way of things’, together with silent treatments and/or anger for pushing back against the abusive behaviour, we often become lulled into a sense of it being ‘normal’ and that it’s better to just hunker down, keep quiet (or sometimes argue constantly) and live with it.  It’s possible that we grew up in a dysfunctional family with a narcissistic parent, so dysfunction feels familiar with romantic partners or friends.  This is what love looks like, right?  Maybe we’ve been convinced that we deserve this treatment.  So we slide into survival mode just to get through every day.  But even though we may eventually feel numb, those manipulative words, those ongoing silent treatments or verbal attacks, and that constant emotional pain and hurt, have all culminated in any number of the issues which I noted above.  Like an onion, there are layers of damage and trauma involved.

So that’s a very simplified explanation of narcissists, narcissistic abuse, and the damage it can do to others.  There is ample information online and in a variety of books that will tell us anything we want to know about the subject.  In fact, just look around at many of today’s news headlines (think American politics 😉 ) or the constant selfies and egotistical attitudes of some ‘celebrities’ – that’s a lesson in narcissistic behaviour right there.

Information about recovery from narcissistic abuse isn’t yet as widely available.  And, unfortunately, there are many online sites that offer recovery programs at unreal prices.  Natural Clarity Coaching places importance on making recovery support affordable in the short or long term.

Recovery is a journey but it’s well worth the time and effort.  Contact Natural Clarity Coaching at naturalclaritycoaching@gmail.com or take a look at our website at http://www.naturalclaritycoaching.com.  We offer customized narcissistic abuse recovery programs and a strong support system to stand beside you every step of the way. $25/hour Cdn.

Take that step towards reclaiming yourself and your life.  You’ll be glad that you did.

Heather – Natural Clarity Coaching