Fifteen-Minute Fix #7: Chocolate!

This is one of my very favorite fixes.  Most everyone knows by now that chocolate has near-magical properties of making you feel good.  Not only that, but it’s fun to feel good with friends and enjoy the spirit of the holidays.  With lots of tasks tugging on your time, I thought you might appreciate something that you could either use for yourself or take to your next party – and in only fifteen minutes!

Anne's Chocolate Dip Cookies

Anne’s Chocolate Peppermint Dip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 Package of Famous Chocolate Wafers

1 Cup Chocolate Chips (Ghirardelli’s 60% Cocoa)

3 Candy Canes

Melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler.  While waiting for them to melt, place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on top of 4 cooling racks. Place the wrapped candy canes in a plastic bag, zip it up, and bang the canes with a hammer until you get very fine pieces.  Reach in the bag and take out the plastic tubes.

When the chocolate is mostly melted, take a chocolate wafer and dip topside down in the chocolate.  Shake off excess and place on the paper, bottom-side

down, to cool.  When you have the cooling rack full, sprinkle some of the peppermint bits on each cookie.

Continue to dip until all the chocolate and peppermint have been used.  Let cookies cool completely before storing in a tin lined with wax paper.

This is great recipe to experiment with by using different combinations of cookies, chocolates and toppings.  It's really fun to do with the kids, too! 

Fifteen-Minute Fix #6: Collage Your Best Life

Giving Thanks

This fix will help you align your intention for what you would like to strengthen the most in your life.  I am posting it this Thanksgiving week because I am planning to use this process to feel appreciation – and anything that helps me do that in just fifteen minutes is amazing. 

Assemble the following ‘ingredients’:        

1.         A 3x5 piece of cardboard or mat board

2.         Glue, glue stick or mod podge

3.         Three favorite magazines

4.         Scissors or exact-o knife

Set a timer for five minutes (I love my iphone for this) and flip through your magazines looking for smallish images of things that you love about your life now.  They do not have to be the exact things but can be a symbol to represent the thing or the feeling that you would like to focus on.  This card is just for you, so it is less important that it look good and more important that it connect you with feeling good.

You can also use junk mail, newspapers, and old cards – anything that has images that ‘sing’ to you. Don’t get sucked into reading articles, or spend time being too careful – just relax and rip!  If it’s easier, pick more images at this stage and then choose from them in the next step.  Also, pick a page that has a lot of your favorite color to use as the background.  You can also fill in the background with colored markers.

Spend the next five minutes cutting them out.  The images can over or under-lap each other or not even touch at all.  You can do more images if you like the look of it or fewer images to make a stronger statement.

The last five minutes is used to attach the images to the card.  Start with the background color, if you have one.  Then proceed with the rest of the images. If you did not use a background color, fill in the background with colored marking pens.

Appreciation by A. LaBrie

Place your collage card where you can appreciate it – and each time you see it, your appreciation will grow stronger.  Sometimes, I even take a picture of the card and use it as the ‘wallpaper’ on my phone.  This way, every time I pick up my phone, I can feel that good feeling of appreciation all over again! 

Fifteen-Minute Fix #5: Rub Your Feet!

Coming & Going by Anne LaBrie

This is a great way to either start your day or finish your day.  If it’s a really long day, rub your feet both in the morning and at night! Before the fifteen-minute clock starts, make sure you assemble your ingredients – sort of like a recipe. These will enhance the experience because all of your senses will be engaged – sight, sound, smell, taste and, of course, touch! 

Ingredients

         * Favorite lotion

         * Soft music

         * Essential oil – (tangerine, lavender, or

           peppermint are good);

         * Piece of chocolate caramel

Note: This last one counts as both sight and taste!

Okay, now take off your shoes & socks and fill a small basin with warm soapy water. Start your music and add your favorite essential oil.  Put both feet in the water and just let them relax for a minute. 

1.         Starting with your right foot, move it slowly in a clockwise motion in the water 3

            times and then 3 times in a counterclockwise motion.  Repeat with the left foot.

2.         Place the chocolate caramel in your mouth and let it slowly melt.

 

3.         Dry off your foot and put a small dab of lotion in one hand. Rub the bottom of your

            foot from heel to toes in long, sweeping motions - 3  times.

4.         Move your big toe in a circle 5 times, then in the other direction 5 times.  Repeat

            with the next toe and so on until all toes have been gently circulated.

5.         Form your hand in a fist, and rub the arch of your foot with those fisted knuckles

            of the other hand, with as much pressure as feels comfortable, for at least one

            minute.

6.         Rub the top of your foot in long strokes from your ankle to your toes 3 times and

            put your foot back in the warm water.

7.         Now, repeat the above steps with the other foot or change feet after each step. 

            (Pun intended!).

When your feet feel happy and the muscle tension is eased, you will be ready to go about your day or relax more fully in the evening. For the low-calorie option, just use your sense of smell to enjoy the chocolate.  For even more relaxation, have a friend do the foot massage!

Fifteen-Minute Fix #4: Visualize the Best

10-29-12         Fifteen-Minute Fix #4: Visualize the Best

Sun Star by Anne LaBrie

As the East Coast prepares for and deals with a giant storm, I find myself feeling tempted to be nervous about the people I know and love that live there.  I know that the more nervous I get, the less grounded I feel which means the more nervous I get.! For me, the best that I can do is to visualize the best for them and for the situation.  Will doing that actually change the outcome?  I will leave that to the scientists and skeptics to be with. There have been some fascinating studies on the subject and I really wish I had to time to dig those out, but for now, I will let that train of thought go and just concentrate on this one thing. It will help me deal with the uncontrollable.  It will help my mind focus on an outcome that is as positive as possible.  If I lived there, I would also be doing the physical work to prepare, and in some ways, that would also give my mind something to do!

Meditation:  Sitting in a comfortable position, take a deep breath in.  As you breathe out, imagine energy traveling down your legs and into the Earth.  Repeat three times.  Next, imagine a white-yellow bubble of light completely  surrounding you.  Imagine your loved ones in their own bubble of white-yellow light and feel your love for them.  Stay in this place as long as you wish.   When you are ready to go about your day, take a deep breath in.  As you breathe out, imagine energy traveling down your legs and into the Earth. Repeat three times.

Just typing this out helped to calm and center me.

Many blessings to you.

Fifteen-Minute Fix #3: Soul Bathing

Bubble Up by Anne LaBrie

This bath is one of my very favorite fifteen-minute fixes. The sea salt and baking soda combination was first introduced to me during my time at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing and has been a really great tool for keeping my aura sparkly and my muscles more relaxed. I use it in the morning sometimes when I wake up after one of those funky-dream nights.  You know the kind.  The kind of dreams that leave fragments floating around in your head and emotional landscape.  A regular shower helps by leaving you feeling clean, but this bath usually leaves me feeling soul-clean!  I also use it at night after a full day of dancing with other peoples’ energy or riding the emotional Roller Coaster of Life.  If I get a cold, I will even take two a day – one in the morning and one at night.  Any colds I do get just don’t seem to last very long.

The Recipe: Into a bath of very warm water, add 2 cups sea salt, 2 cups baking soda and bubbles, because bubbles are fun.  You can also rub some of your favorite aromatherapy oil into the bottom of your feet before you get in the tub.  Fill the tub enough that your body is covered but shallow enough that you can let your neck float!  Unless you own the longest tub in the world, you will not be able to fit both your neck and your feet in at the same time.  I usually start by rubbing my feet and legs first and then let my neck float.  This has the added benefit of stimulating your reflex points on your feet, but more on that in another fifteen-minute fix!  You can also take this time to think about your positive intentions for your day and/or release anything ready to go (and no, you don’t even have to know what that is).  After about 10 minutes, rinse off and notice the difference. 

I would love to hear any comments about your experience with this one.  Oh, and Costco has great prices on baking soda and Epsom salt, which you can use instead of sea salt.  I get my sea salt in bulk at New Leaf, but I’m sure any health food store that carries sea salt in bulk would be happy to order it for you.

Fifteen-Minute Fix #2: Self-Care for a Speeding Life

Photo by Anne LaBrie: John's Car

Lately I’ve noticed that my life seems to be speeding up and I feel as if I’m trying to catch up with it.  In those moments I think that if I could just go a little faster and cram a little more into my day, I’ll actually get it all done so that the next day will be easier.  It takes a few days (or even weeks) to realize that there is always even more stuff to do! This is when I know I need a little relaxation-intervention.

Find a guided meditation tape that’s not too long, maybe 15 minutes -- and program it into your iportable device.  Don’t get mad at yourself if this step takes a week – you’re moving toward a goal!  Pick a time and listen to it. Try to aim for every day for the first 21 days.  If this feels like too many days in a row, ignore it and do what you can – you’re moving          toward a goal!

I find it best the very first thing in the morning – even before getting out of bed. I set my alarm for 15-minutes earlier and just plug in my headphones and listen.  It seems to help me set my intention for the day.  It is astonishing to me how much easier my days go when I’ve done this first.  I don’t forget my keys, there’s no line in the grocery store, traffic moves freely.  All the little things that can trip me up and add stress to my day just seem to happen less frequently. And even if stuff does happen, it doesn’t bug me as much!

Another great time to listen to the meditation is before going to bed.  That way, I’m actually thinking good thoughts before I go to sleep instead of all the things I didn’t get done in the day!  Either way, life will slowly get better.  And isn’t that worth fifteen minutes?

Fifteen-Minute Fix

Photo: Anne LaBrie 2011

I love the concept of the fifteen-minute fix because, hey, any way I can improve my life in just fifteen minutes has got to be good.   The first step is to decide that this idea is important enough to actually rate a little time from your already busy schedule, because really, racing around all the time just isn’t fun – or even practical. This is also true if you tend to spend a lot of time not doing things. Eventually, your body will yell at you.

So, today I offer Tip #1: Unplug

Sometime today, think about your day tomorrow, and see if you can find 15 minutes to be in nature.  This means no cell phones (ahhh!), no paper or books – just grass and trees and birds and things.  See yourself stopping by that little park or going outside to your backyard – any place that is easy and peaceful.

The imagining of doing this is the first step to actually doing it and will pave the way to making it happen.  The next day, when you get to your park-place, turn off your ringer and set the timer on your iportable device for 15 minutes.  Then notice your feet actually touching the ground – even take off your shoes and wiggle your toes in the grass! Pretend you are going to describe this place to someone else and really pay attention.  Are there trees, birds, and/or flowers? What smells do you notice? Is there a breeze?

The intention is that by really paying micro-attention to what is around you, the busy-thoughts will take a little vacation. When your timer goes off and it’s time to join the world again – take a deep breath and give yourself a pat on the back!

My New Favorite Drink - Water!

Lemon Water by Anne LaBrie

8.27.12

My new favorite drink – water!

Trust me, I am shocked by this.  Just a few months ago, drinking water was a complete bore and a chore.  It’s still not something I do automatically, but I am trying to embrace the whole concept.  Here are five things I’ve noticed.

1.  I recently read that your stomach sends the same signals to your brain for hunger as for thirst! Not sure if this is true, but I have noticed that if I drink water before I eat, sometimes I don’t need to eat.  Even if I do need to eat, I eat less because the water has already started the process of filling me up. This has been nothing short of revolutionary for me. 

2.  In order for my body to rid itself of stuff, it needs to have enough fluid to help the flow.  The visual that came to mind is of a river or creek that is close to going dry.  The rocks, sticks and stuff build up along the sides of the river – never really getting released until the rains come and move it all down.

3.  I usually get so busy with a million other things that I just plain forget to drink at all.  Lately, I’ve been using my trusty iphone or stove timer help me remember to drink every 60 minutes.  When I hear the timer, I get myself to the water pitcher, pour a small glass and drink it down.  The trick is to remember to reset the timer, but hey, it’s a process!

4.  I drink 6 swallows at a time.  That way, I actually drink it, instead of just pouring it.  I started out by using an actual measuring cup since I was curious just how much water was the oft-repeated 8 ounces.  Turns out, it’s not that much.  In the past, I poured myself a giant carafe - hours later I would find it again – still full.

5.  I cut up a lemon or lime into wedges and put in a squeeze each time.  Not only does it taste a lot better, it raises the alkaline level in my body.   Sometimes, I even go all out and take a vitamin. How good is that?

Yes, in the beginning, I did wind up going to the bathroom a bit more.  It also should be noted that while I have managed to increase my water consumption, I’m still not up to 8 glasses a day!  Changing patterns take time, but I feel like I’m on the right track.