Hello :)

What if just by changing one tiny habit you made the world a better place, more green, clean, kind, and beautiful?  I think most of the population now agrees that global warming is a real thing.  I see it,  but I am also an annoyingly optimistic person, hoping to rub off on you! 

If i can find the pod cast/youtube video I'll post it below.  They were talking about Health, but he made a comment that if we as a global population don't make serious changes right now, the earth will only last another 10 years.  That is a very dramatic statement, but it stuck in my mind because its so dramatic.  If this is true hopefully that will inspire some urgency in at least some of us, it inspired me to write this article.  And if the severity of that statement is not true, wouldn't you like a healthier, more beautiful, and kind society anyway?  Just like this website title, the smaller the change that we make the more permanent and easy to maintain.   If we all picked one thing to improve on we would be making the world a better place in some way, but also making our own lives better.  Who doesn't want more of the good stuff?!

Here is a list of ideas, that hopefully inspire you to reach for a better life and world.  If you have any ideas that you'd like to add, please comment below!

1.  Walk or bike instead of drive
2. Carpool or take the bus instead of driving
3. Plan out your day, so that you eliminate any extra driving - saves time too!
4. Buy in bulk
5. Use both sides of the paper
6. Only buy what you LOVE - If everybody did this alone, consumerism would almost not exist, and we would all be sooo much happier living life as our true expression.
7. Quit your job if you hate it and find or create work that you absolulty love, this is a game changer.
8. Eat Vegan
9.  Only eat organic, free range, non GMO... Or at least pledge to do it more often.
10.  Maybe just eat vegan one or two days a week.
11.  Quit buying or eating packaged food.  Or maybe set a cap of how much you will spend per week on packaged food.
12. Use both sides of the paper.
13.  Clean with bio degradable products
14. Better yet, clean with food!  Lol, clean with vinegar and baking soda can replace almost all cleaners
15. Laugh more, or even fake laugh - it works, I just started laughing writing about it.
16.  Pick plants that require minimal care, these are usually plants native to your area, plus it will just be easier and take less time to maintain.
17.  If you don't have any plants, get a plant - Bamboo and succulents are so easy.
18.  Quit going to the gym and go for a walk or find a new outdoor sport.
19. Put on jackets instead of turning on the heater - not as comfortable but it will save you a lot of money.
20.  Use candles for heat.  Three candles will heat up one room to almost uncomfortably warm in about two hours.  If you do this, make sure the candles are on a safe stable surface, away from anything that could catch fire.  I like using those giant bowls or lanterns to ecase the candles.
21.  Meditate - I know how how earth can meditation make the world less polluted?  Well if you stick with it, you will start to see shifts in your life, you will notice that you naturally make different choices, that you feel less impulsive, often leading to consumerist tendencies, or decisions that make take some time to re-do.  If you don't know where to start try a guided meditation, you can find them many places, but for sure Youtube.
22.  Are you the type that buys a car every 2-5 years?  Stick with one call for 10+ years, that will make a big impact on the environment.
23. Compost - If you're a plant lover like me, this will save you quite a bit of money in soil, and you'll be closing the loop a lot.
24.  Open the windows, or if remodeling, add bigger windows, or a skylight.  Yes you would be generating waste with the old windows that the contractor will have to throw out, but you'll dramatically reduce your need for electricity, and newer windows have better insulation, so you'll need your heater less, yay for lower bills!
25.  Slow down.  Just slow down in general, but also slow down enough to make mindful well thought out & researched decisions.
26. If remodeling choose post consumer recycled materials, or wood from trees that grow really fast, or harvested from a sustainable forest.  Your designer or architect will know what resources to provide you.  You could also choose to work with someone that is LEED certified.
27.  If you have a tendency to waste food, try making smaller portions and freezing them, so there is less effort to cook and clean.  But if you cook in bulk, like for the week, when storing it, put it away in pre-portioned containers, and freeze anything that you likely won'[t eat with in the next two days.  This will also save you money.
29. Use glass instead of plastic.  If you're throwing everything away to get glass that is not as environmentally friendly - donate it to someone you know :); glass is so much better for your health than plastic.  When we put hot food in plastic pieces of the plastic bind to the food, which we later ingest; super toxic to our systen, and I'm not sure the body knows how to get rid of plastic.
30. If you're having a party, anything thing that you plan on throwing away; ie disposable dishes and cutlery, buy bio degradable, better yet, wash everything and save it for next time!
31.  If you are a home owner, paint your roof white, or do a green roof
32.  Grow your own food.  Or pay your neighbor for their food.  My mom buys almost all of her fruits and vegetable from her friend, its fun when they see each other, its a win win, her friend gets money, and all of her hard work doesn't go waste.  And my mom gets organic, in season, local, freshest of the fresh produce anyone can get.  But we can all grow herbs in our window sill or patio if we have limited space.
33. Use coconut oil instead of lotion.  Game changer.  I love how my skin feels. I now only use coconut oil as my lotion, in the shower before I dry off, and that's all I need.  I know I am getting extra vitamin E from the coconut oil, NO chemicals, and I save quite a bit of money, its so much cheaper and lasts way longer than lotion.
34.  Use olive oil or any other food oil as your hair mask.   I get so many compliments on my hair (I love it every time).  But I take really good care of it, I put olive oil in my hair every day before I take a shower.  I've done an article on this before.
35. Practice self love, be as intentional as you can to fill up your own cup.  It's hard to describe how this has spilled over into all areas of my life.  I am more patient, more compassionate.  I don't really meet crappy people anymore, AND when they are crappy, I feel love for them, because I know that they are acting out of lack and fear, and they almost always calm down after a little while.
36.  Plant a tree on your property.  In college I did a paper, on how important trees are in our society.  They reduce domestic violence by 40%, one new tree on your property will increase your value by 10%, One tree will lower your electric bill by 10%, seeing foliage reduces anxiety, stress, and depression.  Going for a walk in nature, and seeing the lush trees, in several distance view points, does something to the brain that it relieves chronic depression, when done daily.

To be continued... I will continue to add to this list.

But please, think about what would be easy for you to change or try out for a month, and see how it fits in your life.  All of these will make the world a better place, and most of them will save you money in the short term, make you healthier and your life better.  A better your makes for a better world.

​Sending love, Jessica

Hi,

So I've been tracking my happiness AND dealing with some gut issues for several months.  Gut issues are really hard to tackle.  If you suspect you may have gut issues I recommend going to a doctor, if your doctor doesn't seem familiar with this, or brushes it /you off, find a functional medicine doctor that does.  I don't know how to go about that.  I got frustrated with my doctor and took this project on myself.  If you've been reading my articles you know that sometimes I write in kind of a round about way and I'm sorry, but I hope you get some benefit from this article.

Tonight I prepared a wonderful meal for myself, according to the book the Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry.  I have been doing my own research once I was sure that what was going on with my health was related to gut imbalance.  I changed a lot of my on the go habits... still working on it.  But one of the things that really fills me up, is preparing a full meal, and sitting down with all of the food at once, and turning off or closing all distractions.  I cannot tell you how much love I feel from this action.  Its as if somebody else loves me, that's how much love and fulfillment I feel.  I recently/finally got Dr. Steven Gundry's book the Plant Paradox.  I recommend this book to anybody, even if you don't want to try the diet, there are a lot of really delicious recipes!

I've been tracking my happiness to raise my bar of "normal happiness levels" and sitting down to a full meal for myself is one thing - to my surprise - that fills me up better than getting a massage or even hanging out with my closest friends.  I think what I feel in that moment, is "you are worth it, you put this much effort for anybody else, but you deserve to enjoy this delicious meal, and you deserve these nutrients."  I hope this inspires you to take the time and do something that fills you up emotionally if not physically as well.  If you don't know what to do I'd encourage you to try this book the Plant Paradox.

Back to the gut issues.  This all started because I was not pooing regularly, and had gained 20 lbs over my heaviest.  I knew something was seriously wrong.  I was becoming allergic to even more things, I was already allergic to dairy and gluten, and when I had complained to my doctor again, (for several years in a row) about fatigue, she said you know you are getting older.  That is BS, I am too young to feel as old as I was feeling.  Having all the background of holistic health and "miracle" healing that I have seen in my family, I took this on myself (ps I don't believe in the traditional model of medicine that is practiced in the US).  I have not done a bowel test, which I know is the best way to test for gut issues.  But I have cut out sugar, and most lectins, maximized how much time I spend out side, prioritized my sleep, made sure I was drinking lots of water, and upped my pro & prebiotics, and while I have made A LOT of progress,  I am so relieved to have it all spelled out of what to eat or not to eat in this book. 

Hope you enjoyed my rant, please try out preparing a wonderful meal for yourself, turning off all distractions and enjoy the love you have prepared to nourish your wonderful body.  I am still a little speechless of how fulfilling or loved I feel from my own actions.

​Sending you much love, Jessica

Hi Friends,

If there is something you want to improve, the first step is to track it.  This tactic is most commonly used with finances and weight loss, but it can apply to anything.  Its true, if you want to improve your finances or health, just in tracking what you do you will automatically improve because you do or don't want to write it down.  I have heard about tracking your happiness before, but to me it was kind of an abstract concept.  

We all have access to google calendar, or just a regular calendar  I decided to start tracking how happy I feel.  I went into my google calendar, and created a "new calendar" for each rating, 1-10.  I color coded it, because I like color, I like how pretty my calendar is full of pretty colors!  On average I rate myself as a 6-8 for my own happiness level.  But I want to get to an average of 9-10 every day.  

I have been trying to do things to raise my happiness level, but I didn't feel like it was working.  Now with the new year, I am determined to make this year, the best year yet, but how?  I am going to track it.  My determination came because the other day I had a 10 day.  It was amazing, I felt so wonderful.  I organized/cleaned my place for 5 hours.  This is something I do once a month, but this time I also hired a house cleaner during that chunk of time.  I hate cleaning, so it was really nice for someone to clean, while I organized my stuff, and dealt with things that I have been needing to get to.  I felt so incredible when we were finished.  I felt so loved,  and compassion for myself!  And I realized I do actually need help, my life is way too busy for me, I deserve help.

So now I am tracking each day.  Eventually I will see a pattern, I will notice if the things that make my life a 9-10 are things that I can control, or things I can't control.  I will notice what I do that makes me feel good and not so good, and then intentional do more of those things that make me feel good, or put myself in environments that make me feel great.  After a month, I'll post my progress.  

I am also noting the different factors that contribute to how great I feel or not, like if I slept well, or what I ate/drank.  You can add a comment below the "title" where I have my rating.

I would encourage you to do the same thing.  It won't take long for you to just jot down your rating for the day, if you have google calendar in your phone, it will take you one minute to rate your day, once you have the different tabs set up.

So here is to the best year yet!
Love and happiness to all of you!

Hello Everyone, hello 2019!

Personally I love the new year, its a perfect time to look back at what we did well, what we learned, what we can do better this year, and what new things are we looking to bring into our lives, or what new direction do we want to head.  

Personally I believe if you want real change pick the tiniest thing you can and modify or better yet replace it with an upgrade or an experiment.  Check out my last years article on new years resolutions titled "Happy 2018!" if you want ideas.  What I love to do in the beginning of the year is make a list of at least 100 things, more is better in this case, of all the things you want to do, see, enjoy, experience, achieve, become, give, manifest, create....  Just like a vision board you'll want to post it or keep it available to check in with every once in a while.  Then when you look at it, you'll notice that you achieved that "goal"  I'll call it a goal since that's the most general word I can think of in this moment to capture all of those desires.  Its really fun when you realize that you achieved them sooner than you thought.  It would also be really fun to include your entire family in on this too.

For me personally I want to make this year my best year that I have lived so far.  I want to manifest a house that I own.  I want to manifest a man, I'm SO ready for you.  This past year I have been working on and learning manifesting, meditating and really integrating different aspects of myself.  Learning how to love myself better.  I think it was two years ago that I even considered self love a good thing, I used to think that's what egotistical people do. haha, I just have to laugh at myself.  As I have learned to surrender (still learning!) I notice that life has gotten a bit easier, I really like it.  I want to heal my gut health issues, and just live the best possible version of my life that possibly exists.  

I was talking to my friend Heather, who I met at a seminar, and so we can talk about all the woo woo stuff, and how we want to heal our bodies, like Joe Dispenza teaches, or manifest a lot of money, like Abraham Hicks teaches.  I told her that she should write a book, she's got quite a lot on her plate, but I know that without a doubt she can heal and integrate all of it.  And as I was telling her she should write a book, and I know her story will be incredible, she is so fascinating to talk with, I decided I should take my own advice.  So I will keep an online journal here, about my journey of manifesting my home, and just living the best year ever.  That I hope to turn into a book one day.  I'm going to create a separate google calendar just to track how I am feeling physically, emotionally and energetically, because its all related.  I hope you enjoy it, and most of all I hope that this inspires you to reach for something higher and/or bigger.

Much love, Jessica

Good morning! I'd like to share how wonderful I think the book the Woman Code is by Alisa Vitti is. 
Here's the link to her website: https://www.floliving.com/
​
Its hard to summarize this book because what each person will get from it will be a bit different.  For example the things I remember most from the book and what I needed to work on.  But after applying her steps to how I eat, and plan my life my life and monthly pains have gotten so much better!  I really believe every woman NEEDS to read this book.  

I've always had very painful monthly symptoms, to the point that I had to schedule work around it, or call out sick.  Every 28 days that's a lot to be calling out sick.  We all have some issue we'd like to work on, this book will iron that out, and even improve some things that you never thought twice about!  The app is also pretty great too, it will give you suggestions on how to heal a symptom if you area experiencing any.  We as a society in the US, for the most part accept aches & pains as a normal part of life, but that's not true!  It doesn't have to be a normal part of life.  When we get some kind of pain that is our body telling us that something is off, and there is an easy solution to heal it without pain killers, we just need to learn what they are.  For example did you know that you experience less pain if you are fully rested?

I used to always start my morning on empty rushing out the door because I needed to get things done.  But I never forgot my coffee :)  Now after reading the woman code and listening to Dr. Jonh Gray I have changed my habits.  Now my morning routine (when I have time) is:  
I wake up and make my bed, for manifesting fun I do an "I like" list

I open up my salt and pour a tiny bit in my hand to suck on the salt rocks while I drink water for 5 minutes.

I use the bathroom

I make hot lemon water and walk a loop around my block (about 15 minutes) I usually eat a bite of something before I go, like an apple or nuts.

Then I make my breakfast.  The bigger the better!  Today I had an egg with tomato and spinach, a pear, and some cashew yogurt with chia seeds, ground flax seed, and goji powder, oh and coffee :)  Now I wait until I eat my meal to have coffee, where as I used to have it before doing anything else.

This entire routine takes me roughly an hour, because I eat slow, and usually do other things at the same time, like write an article :)

If I were rushing and at home, because I'm on the road quite a bit, I would add lemon to cold water while I ate salt and continued to drink more water for 5 minutes.  Then make a smoothie with plenty of fat in it, like peanut butter, or coconut oil, while making my coffee at the same time.  Then bring both to go with me, or drink while I am getting ready.

While on the road, still drink 5 minutes of water first thing.  Then I always have power bars, apples, nuts, and coconut water with me.  So eat while I'm getting ready, then bring a coffee with me out the door.  If you are one of those people that can't get started without coffee, I suggest still drinking 5 minutes of water, then doing some kind of exercise for 2-5 minutes.  Like sit ups, yoga, or a 5 minute workout video, I have playlists of 5 minute workout videos on youtube saved on my phone.  Try it :)  

What I love about this is that for the first time I didn't take pain killers at all during my period, and I feel great!  Normally I am in bed trying not to throw up.  I wish happiness and health for all of you and I hope that sharing my routine will make your health discovery a little bit faster.  

Sending love, Jessica

Hello :)

Today's article is inspired by two people a coworker, and one of my good friends.  At the start of the year I wrote that I would write a new article every week.  Its been three months since that article...  I've been dating, am an auntie to be, and with my job which poses a serious challenge to dating, its tough to squeeze in taking care of my own life on the less than one day a week, which I have to cram all of that into.  Never mind catching up on sleep.  I imagine this is what mom's feel like. 

I was talking about this with a friend, who like me is also trying to build a new career on the side of her full time job, never mind the social life or peace of mind.  And she was saying she just came to peace with it, she's OK that she'll never be a super clean person or be the type that cooks all the time...  And that was such a big reminder for me.  When I heard and her words and felt that acceptance in my body I felt so much relief.  Its OK if my house is a mess even though I'm building an organizing business.  Its OK if my mail is piled up and only the bills are dealt with.  Its OK, if I'm struggling to find time for all of the important people in my life, since I'm not home half of the month, and trying to build a new relationship.  Sometimes life is like that; and when I heard my friend's words I let it be OK, that when I am home, I feel like my life is a mess.

I share this with you, the public, because I want you to also try on the idea of forgiving yourself for whatever you have been trying to be or accomplish but in your eyes have not succeeded yet.  This web page and philosophy all began because I had many habits that I didn't like and knew the best way to change them was to make the tiniest change I could and commit to it until I forgot about it.  But for right now, I'm practicing forgiveness and I'd like to offer this idea to you.  Like Dr. Wayne Dyer (listening to him yesterday) said when talking about Dowisim, there is a time for feeling happy, there is a time for feeling frustrated, there  is a time for feeling sad, there is a time for feeling overwhelmed, there is a time for feeling ecstatic or euphoric.  In my life momentarily, there is a time for feeling overwhelmed, there is a time for my house being a mess, and there is a time for having to come back to my own philosophy just to find time to squeeze in a workout or meditate, which sometimes is just 5 minutes a day.  And its all OK :)

In the moment of hearing and truly accepting my friend's words I was practicing forgiveness to myself and it feels like a weight has lifted off my shoulders.  I want this for you too!

So I'd like to thank my coworker, who inspired me to write. Just because I told you about this website, that reignited my excitement about it, when it fell by the wayside because of life.  Thank you <3

Love to all,
Jessica

Do you drink a ton of water and yet still feel dehydrated?  Or like you're still thirsty even though you just downed a liter of water? I have been one of those people most of my adult life.  Its super frustrating to drink so much water, go to the bathroom a lot and yet still feel thirsty, ummm what is going on??? 

I'm sure there are many people that are similar to me, so I'd like to share what I have recently learned.    This will be beneficial to anyone that is very athletic, lives/travels in a hot climate, or my drinking buddies and wine lovers :)

I started doing hot yoga every day since October.  I absolutely LOVE it, but I was having a hard time drinking enough water, it just would not fit in my body.  Not to mention my previous condition of drinking tons of water to begin with, yet still feel thirsty.  I'm healthy, athletic, and eat vegan gluten free 95% of the time, and at least one meal a day is raw.   I expressed this frustration to some of my yoga teachers.  And she suggested adding something to my water, and drinking coconut water.  I already drank quite a bit of coconut water, I love it.  But I implemented what she said.  I began drinking a coconut water minimum once a day.  I love the zico bottles, so that is very easy for me to measure.  Then I would add something to my water, an orange, a lemon, some mint, a strawberry, blueberry, cucumber...

After a few days, (probably it only took a day, but when I noticed) I was feeling better, more energetic - a symptom of dehydration is just feeling very drained- and to my surprise I was craving less water.  Craving less water was a first for me!  Now I can just take a hot yoga class when ever I want, I don't need to plan and prepare, and make sure that I drink enough water by a certain time, like I was doing previously.

I remember reading an article somewhere, that said that as we get older our body naturally doesn't retain water as well as it used to, and so adding something like fruit to your water will help your body retain the water better so that you body is getting the hydration it needs.  At the time of reading that article I did it, but was not religious about it, and eventually forgot about it, until my yoga teaching suggested this.

Now very often, in addition to just adding lemon or cucumber to my water, I will toss a few strawberries, or whatever fruit I have in the freezer, and fill the rest of the blender with water, or coconut water :) and throw that into the mix of my drinks for the day.  Its easy, plus a great way to add a little more nutrients into you diet!  Today in preparing for yoga I added only a few cubes of frozen mango, filled the blender with coconut water, and some chia seeds after blending.  It was delicious, thirst quenching and satisfying!  And it also didn't fill me up, where as if I made a full on smoothie, I would have felt a little too full for class.

While you don't necessarily need to be a Yogi to try this out, this hydration technique will also be very beneficial to anyone that does any kind of high intensity training or workouts, like cross fit or athletes, if you live or are traveling in a hot location.  Heat sick is NO fun, simply add a lemon to your water bottle before you venture out, it will make your day so much better.  And of course if you are day drinking or wine tasting.  If you're at a bar then this will be super easy for you to do, so try it out, and see how much better you feel the next day.  You can simply ask your server for any garnish in your water, a lemon or lime will probably be the easiest, but if you are somewhere nice, why not request a strawberry, orange slice or a cucumber? 

Cheers!
​Jessica