Did you see that the fancy gym Equinox is now offering a $40,000/year health plan? It’s absurd. So I guess the wealthy just get to be healthier because they have more money?

There’s so much news out there about all these fancy things that could make us healthier — expensive creams and bath bombs and candles that calm our nervous systems and cryotherapy and saunas and…and…and…. It can feel overwhelming and completely out of reach to take care of ourselves effectively.

So I keep coming back to the basics. There may be some “easy fixes“ out there that are just out of reach for me or for you.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do anything. Instead of feeling discouraged and overwhelmed by all the options and feeling like you have to do it all or do nothing, consider what is within your control?

What you eat, how you move your body, how you set yourself up for quality sleep, the relationships you cultivate… These are all things that can transform your lifestyle and health that don’t require thousands of dollars and all the fancy products that you see advertised in the media.

It might feel kinda boring compared to what you see on social media. It’s definitely not fancy. But it does the job.

​So if you can’t go to the spa every day, what can you do to support a healthy lifestyle? Comment below and let me know!

So I did a cold plunge last week.

When I got to the place, they talked me through the process before I got in the water and gave me some breathing tips, and still as soon as my body hit the water, I panicked.

I lasted 30 seconds the first time and jumped out as fast as I could.

As I was debriefing with my friend while warming up in the sauna, I realized that I probably could’ve stayed in a little longer. But I had let my mind tell me I couldn’t.

So I resolved to stay in a little longer the next time and even longer the next. By the fourth (and last) time, I’d worked my way up to two minutes, though I had to modify by poking my toes out of the water for part of it.

Your mind is so powerful. It can make or break your life. It dictates whether you act, react, or don’t act at all. I don’t know about you, but I want to choose my life, not just let it happen to me or miss it altogether.

Of course challenges will arise. Of course things happen that are out of your control. But if you’ve trained your mind to do hard things, you’ll be able to handle what comes your way.

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Easeful living doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do hard things. It just means that you can get through hard things with a little less resistance.

Changing your lifestyle and adopting new habits is hard at times, I’m not gonna lie. Getting up and going to the gym before work or eating that vegetable you don’t really like or going out with friends when you’d rather crawl into bed because you know it’ll be good for you or clearing out your home and giving away things that no longer serve you — it’s hard!

When you’re not mindful of the hard, you let your feelings of resistance take over and you just don’t do it. But when you’re mindful, you notice the thought that says, “I don’t want to do this.” And you stay present to your goals and vision for a more expanded life experience. And then you do the hard thing anyways.

What is something you know you need to do but you’ve been resisting lately? How can you push through to just do the thing and prove to yourself that you can do hard things?

​As always, comment below and let me know! Sharing it with someone makes it more real and a little bit easier to follow through on.

When I visited Colorado a few weeks ago, as I was driving to Boulder to meet a friend, I felt so peaceful, driving slowly on the back roads, enjoying watching the bikers in the bike lanes and giving them extra space as I passed. It was lovely.

When I’m in Houston, on the other hand, I’m a little bit of a maniac driver (not as crazy as some, but definitely not a picture of easeful driving 🤣). I’m on the defensive and offensive, not letting people in in traffic, getting so frustrated with slow drivers and fast drivers and anyone who stops me from getting where I’m going as quickly as possible (please don’t judge me…I’m being vulnerable here!).

But in Colorado, I adapted to the environment and circumstances. Colorado drivers are way more chill, and there’s a different energy on the roads.

It doesn’t hurt that this is what you get to stare at as you’re driving in Colorado.I definitely prefer to feel how I felt driving in Colorado than how I feel driving in Houston.

And yet, as soon as I got back to Houston, I turned back into a maniac driver.

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There’s something to the concept of stepping away from your life for a moment to reflect and regroup. And you might be thinking, “but wait, Elaine, didn’t you just tell me last week that retreats don’t improve my well-being?” Yes and no.

Sometimes, you have to climb out of the bottle of your life to be able to read the label. You can’t read the label from inside. There are things in your life that may be driving you crazy or causing pain and suffering that you don’t recognize until you’ve removed yourself from the situation.

But then, eventually, you have to get back in the bottle, back into your life. And if you haven’t done anything to solidify what you learned outside of the bottle and implement those new practices into your real life, nothing is going to change. It was just a nice respite for a moment in time.

If you jump back into the same conditions that made you ill, frustrated, burnt out, or crazy without a plan for change, the peace and calm you experienced while away will disappear so fast, and you’ll be right back where you started.

You can’t heal in the same environment that created the illness. Something has to change, and if you can’t change your environment, you have to change something in or about yourself.

For me, I’m grateful to have had a health coaching session while I was away to help me reprioritize what is important in my life right now. I planned out (and have since implemented) a morning routine that sets me up for a focused and productive day. It includes some practices for me (meditation, gratitude, alignment practices) and some stuff for my business (health news and research, business development, and writing). And by making time for the things that nourish my body, mind, and soul, I get in the car every day less stressed and more patient and gracious.

​Whether you’ve been able to step away from real life recently or it’s been a while, reflect on what it felt like and how you can bring more of that energy (patient, calm, inspired, content, joyfully expectant) into your daily life. Because your health and well-being aren’t about the big fancy things you do for yourself once in a blue moon; it’s about how you take care of yourself every single day.

When I was in high school, I would go to the YMCA to work out at night.

When I was in college, I would get up at 5:00am and go to the gym before early morning classes.

When I was a teacher, I would go for a walk or swim after school.

In the past two years, since I’ve had a little bit more flexibility in my mornings, I got my workouts done in the morning.

But now I’m back to trying afternoon workouts because I realized that morning workouts drain my energy before I’ve done anything else in the day!

So when is the BEST time to exercise?

​The New York Times recently published an article reporting on research done in Australia with a group of 30,000 adults with obesity that claimed the best time to exercise was at night to decrease the risk of death from any cause.

But a different study found that morning exercise is best for heart health and weight loss.

And yet another study said afternoon workouts are best for athletes.

So the best time to exercise? When you’re actually going to do it!

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for anything in life. And there’s likely no solution that is going to work for you for your entire life.

Annoying, I know.

The best way to eat? Low fat, high fat, low carb, high carb, gluten-free, paleo, keto, intermittent fasting, intuitive eating, vegan, no limits. There’s a reason why all these diets exist. Because some piece of research has shown that they were effective for the participants in the study.

The optimal amount of sleep? 8 hours? Think again. Some people need much more, and some people don’t need that much. And it changes as we age.

The perfect job conditions? Work remotely for flexibility, work in person for community, part-time, full-time, big salary and few benefits, lower salary with great benefits. Some people want a job that’s extremely fulfilling, others just show up for the paycheck.

So instead of looking out at the world for the answer to your health and lifestyle challenges, why not go inward and figure out what you want and what’s going to work for you, in the body you have, with the family and friends that surround you, and lifestyle you want to cultivate?

​The best way to be is the way that you can live in congruence with your values and goals. So stop looking outward and trust that you know what’s best for you, and then go do it.