Get Your Happiness On

So, for skin to be healthy and beautiful, you need good nutrition, good sleep and rest, exercise, a skincare regimen, great products (ha-hum), etc.  However, there is something we tend not to relate with healthy, beautiful skin and that is happiness and laughter.  Do not underestimate what feeling happy and laughing can do for the skin. 

Happiness and laughter bring a natural glow to the skin.  Feelings of happiness, reduce stress and lower blood pressure, which gets reflected on your skin with less wrinkles, improvement in skin conditions, such as acne and eczema, and more suppleness.  With less stress and worry, more nutrients flow to your skin instead of being directed to bodily functions that are a part of the body’s “fight and flight” response.

An Angel We Can All Love

Kick Start Your Happiness Gene
Okay, we don’t really know if there is a happiness gene.   But imagine there is one, and we are going to turn it on.

The quickest way to turn on your “happiness gene” is to think or list all the things you love, every little thing and every big thing you can think of.  Just keep going and going and going with the list.  Hand-n-hand with love is gratitude.  Again, list all the things big and small, you are grateful for.  If it’s hard getting started, think of all the people whose work makes your lifestyle possible: farmers, utility workers, builders, grocery workers, farm workers, automobile designers and workers, etc. 

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists ever, gave thanks and gratitude 100 times a day every day.

A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

Here are few videos and images to jump start your happiness! Yeah, some are cute, some funny, and some ridiculous.  Enjoy.

Ridiculous Happiness

Lizards Get Happy Too

Blossoms Bring Hope

Joyous Abandonment: It's Catchy

Piggy Possum...Too Full to Move...Caught Red Handed

Nothing Like a Good Roll in the Snow

Sign of Spring

Yoga for Skincare

Traditional yoga is a discipline that integrates the body, mind, and spirit and is a way of life.  However, as many people have discovered even bits and pieces of yoga are beneficial. So, don’t worry you won’t have to contort your limbs into a pretzel while standing on your head and go into a transcendental state to benefit from yoga for the skin.

These simple techniques below practiced regularly will enhance your skin.

• Poses
  Anytime you can get the blood flowing in the opposite direction with either forward bends or inversions brings fresh oxygenated blood throughout the body and to the skin.
  • Supported Forward Bend
    Forward bends against a wall are restorative because the wall supports you as you bend; restorative poses are relaxing.  So, you get the benefits of blood moving to the face and the benefits of relaxation that is always good for the mood which translates being good for the skin.
    • Stand against a wall with your feet about a foot or so away from the wall.  Hinge (bend) from the hips (not the waist).  Don’t force yourself to bend any further than the body is willing–allow gravity to help you to deepen into the pose.  Once you in the pose, make a “window frame” with your arms by crossing them above the elbows. Your neck can hang loose (stretches muscles) or bring your chin to towards your chest (stretches the joints in the spine).  Knees can be bent.  Once you are settled in the pose, take a deep inhale and audibly exhale allowing your body to relax in the pose.  Hold the pose from 30 seconds to 4 minutes.  Avoid this pose if you have heart disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, or eye diseases.  When you are done, inhale you way back up against the wall and relax against the wall for a few minutes.
  • Legs Up the Wall
    Legs Up the Wall pose is a simple inversion that is also a restorative pose.  The blood flows in the opposite directions with inversions.  This is a great pose to do if you have trouble sleeping or loaded down with stress.
    • Sit with a side of your body parallel to and against a wall (one hip is touching the wall).  Lie down with legs extended and swing your body around so that you leg go up the wall.  If you need to, scoot your buttocks so they touch the wall.  Extend you arms out to the side.  Take a deep inhale then audibly exhale.  Relax in this pose up to 15 minutes.  You can also place a folded blanket underneath your hips to get more of an inversion (do this before you extend your legs up the wall).
  • Simple Twist
    Twist “wring” out the organs, which helps to eliminate toxins.  Eliminating toxins from the body means they won’t show up on your skin as blemishes, red bumps, or scaly skin.
    • Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent.  Either extend your arms out into a “t” position, or allow them to lie down along your side.  Begin by moving your knees from side to side (knees are together, moving in the same direction.  After a few movements, allow the knees to rest on the floor to one side.  Take a deep inhale and audibly exhale, relaxing into the pose. Hold the pose from 2 – 10 minutes.  Sometimes it help the twist if you move your hips and buttocks opposite the direction the knees are going–do this prior to bringing them to the floor.
• Breath
  Breathing properly and doing breath exercises help to move nutrients throughout the body, eliminate toxins, energize, and relax the body.
  • Belly Breathing
    Belly breathing is the proper way to breathe.  It’s easier on the lungs and heart and allows you to approach life in a more centered way.
    • Can do either sitting or lying down.  Focus on your belly at about the belly button or a bit lower.  On your inhale, the belly expands and moves “up.”  On the exhale, the belly deflates and moves down.  Picture a balloon.  When filled with air it expands and when the air is removed it deflates.  Practice daily until this becomes your normal breathing habit, or do when you feel particularly stressed.  Practice slowing the breath and extending the exhale.  Great to practice at bed time
  • Kaphalapti Breath
    Kapahlapti means skull shining or skull cleansing.  It energizes the body and brings fresh oxygenated blood to the body.  You don’t want to do this breath prior to going to bed (unless you want to pull an all nighter).
    • With kaphalphti breath, the inhale is a natural breath and the exhale is a powerful exhale.  This breath can be practiced sitting or lying down.  First become comfortable belly breathing.  Allow your inhale to come naturally through the nose.  On the exhale, forcibly draw in your belly as you expel the air through your nose. Then again allow a natural inhale followed by forcibly exhaling the breath through the nose by sharply drawing in the belly.  Practice slowly until you are comfortable with the breath and then you can do a little faster.  Also, makes sure your inhaling more than exhaling (hyperventilation).  Inhale can’t be shorter than exhale, but exhales can be longer than inhale.  There are some good You Tube videos that demonstrate this breath.
• Meditation
  Meditation is a terrific body healer and what heals the body benefits the skin.  If meditation is intimidating to you, think of it as sitting quietly or going deeply into prayer.  Begin by doing just a few minutes (3-4) and gradually build up to where you can sit quietly for 20 minutes each day.  Techniques to help you can do to help you be “in your skin” are just following your breath; do a simple chant, such as “breathing in, breathing out; don’t fight your thoughts–allow them to flow, or “watch” them.

The thing with practicing yoga is that once you begin with a few simple practices done regularly, your body will gradually want to seek out other techniques and ways of living that support your journey through life.

Carrots, Attraction, Happiness, and Bugs Bunny, huh?

Ha.  Wondering how these will get connected?  Read on.

A study done by the University of Bristol showed that fresh fruits and vegetables high in carotenoid give skin a healthy glow. . People with a light yellow hue (we’re not talking sun yellow or anything) are considered more attractive.  It turns out that yellow undertones are more attractive to the opposite sex than tanned skin.  Although the study was done on Caucasians, the researchers belief this holds true across all ethnicities.  The yellow undertone is interpreted as healthiness to the opposite sex.  It becomes important when someone is looking for a mate.  As part of the evolutionary process, a person wants a healthy looking partner in order to procreate. Carrots are high in the yellow undertone-making nutrient, cartenoid.

In his book, “The Secret of Water,” Masaru Emoto measured the energy vibration of different vegetables.  Carrots came out to be high on the happiness chart.  Okay, some people question the validity of his research.  I’m going with it because how can eating carrots make you unhappy?  And besides, there is Bugs as proof.

Carrots are all that Bugs Bunny ever eats.  He is adored by millions and over several generations.  And even when facing the barrel of Elmer Fudd’s gun, he is calm and happy.  No matter what Elmer (“that pesky wabbit”) does to Bugs, Bugs takes it in good humor.

So, there you have it carrots equal attractiveness and happiness as proved by Bugs Bunny.

You know what else makes you attractive and happy? 

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Happy Friday; Grab a Brew!

Get ready for a night out or an evening in by taking a nice soak with our New Bath Brews!  Our Bath Brews  are created to be added to any bath and work like a tea; steeping out the beneficial Herbs, Salts, and/or Essential oils while you soak.

And don’t worry, we have something for everyone!

Bath Brew flavors include:

‘So Long Sore Muscles’Rendezvous

‘Romantic Rendezvoues’

‘Later Alligator Skin’

‘See Ya Later Stress’

‘Reenergize Head to Toe’

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