Category Archives: My thoughts

Self-Care During Covid

Camille’s Selfcare Toolkit

Make a list. Coronavirus has upended our lives, leaving many us at a loss on how to fill our days. We can choose between dissolving on the couch, watching Amazon while nibbling on our favorite sin, or stepping up to the challenge by imposing our own routine. The best way to do this is to start your day with a list. If I make a list, not only do I create structure, but I accomplish tasks and feel better at the end of the day. It might include exercise, writing in your journal, or finally cleaning out that closet. It feels great at the end of the day to see all the checkmarks through your to-do list! Warning, try not to make it too long. Limit your list to 3-6 items, so it is moderately easy to accomplish.

Facial Massage. Although you cannot visit one of our talented estheticians at Spa on the Plaza, you can treat yourself to a facial at home. The Lymphatic Japanese Facial Massage is one of my favorite techniques for firming facial muscles and improving circulation. The method reduces puffiness and tones the facial muscles.

It also improves circulation, which leaves your skin looking vibrant. When we train the spa’s estheticians, we use this video and ask them to practice it on themselves home. If you do this every day for 3 days, you will see the difference. Never underestimate the value of good facial massage. Women have been using this technique in Japan taught from mother to daughter for centuries. Enjoy!

Celery Juice. Ayurveda medicine teaches that all good health starts with the gut. If you want to improve digestion, detoxify your liver and boost your immune system, drink 8 oz. to 16 oz. of celery juice in the morning 30 minutes before you eat. My digestion loves it, and its effect is to diminish unhealthy food cravings.

It is delicious and will reduce unhealthy food cravings and brighten your eyes and skin. Watch this video on celery juicing to help motivate you.

Reflection. Like many women, I juggled child-rearing with a career and somewhere in-between finished a Master’s Degree. The wheels have been turning for a long time, and on a deep level, I feel tired. Suddenly I am being forced to take a break, and there is a part of me that is glad. Today I heard the birds sing, and I wondered how many times my busy mind shut out their beautiful songs. So my lesson during this time is to slow down and listen. Take the time to ask this question for yourself, and maybe you will find a too will find a gift in these challenging times.

Like a Butterfly!

ButterflyWhat secrets do I hold in my deep subconscious?  What is that quagmire of emotions where things go bump in the dark! There, in the belly of my soul, resides all the anger and disappointments swallowed whole and forgotten.

I was the pleasing child, full of smiles and sunny promises. Like most children I lived in a demanding world of needs and expectations and I became “the adaptive child.” Somewhere in my pleasing manner I lost my roots, my center, my personal barometer.

As a woman who chooses to step into my wisdom, I say enough! I no longer serve the voices of my mother, my father, my sisters and the barrage of imagery and hidden messages which tell me to hold my tongue and to diminish myself. In this new found space I shift my focus, for the first time in my long life, solely upon myself. The  roots of my consciousness are there waiting and they eagerly meet me in this realignment of my essence.

One of my favorite spiritual teachers, Bill Little, often compared this phase of life to that of a butterfly, who up until this momentous phase, thought she was a caterpillar! And like the caterpillar I will go inward, into a cocoon of self knowledge and love, so that I may fly like a butterfly.

Be bold!

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Hello world…yes I have something to say. After 54 years of deferring to others I am speaking out boldly about my passions and my dreams for our future. Yes I mean “our dreams” because I believe that our separateness is an illusion. Like a gigantic ameba we move and change form but are all one organism. That includes the plants, rocks, mountains and oceans! And so no matter how small our contribution, it is profound in its impact to the whole.