Shirley Archer

Reduce your chances of getting colds, flus and other illness with more yoga.

EVIDENCE BASED

The strength and flexibility benefits of yoga are well known, but did you know yoga helps your brain and immune system too? And did you know those two—your brain and immune system—are actually one?

“The practice of yoga helps improve emotion regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression,” said lead study author Neha Gothe, PhD, director of the Exercise Psychology Lab and professor at University of Illinois, “and that seems to improve brain functioning.” University of Illinois and Wayne State University researchers reviewed 11 studies on yoga’s effects on brain structures, function, and cerebral blood flow. Practicing yoga benefits both brain structure and function by increasing grey matter in brain regions responsible for memory recall and emotion regulation per study findings. Another study found that to get yoga’s stress reduction benefits only requires once weekly practice for 90 minutes.

"The strength and flexibility benefits of yoga are well known, but did you know yoga helps your brain and immune system too?"  -- Shirley Archer, The Wellness Sensei

What is emotion regulation?

When you get cut off in traffic or someone honks loudly at you, do you respond with road rage or are you able to pause, breathe deeply and choose to let an agitated driver pass by? The latter choice exemplifies emotion regulation—the ability to calm emotions and choose a response, rather than to over-react in ways you may later regret. Strengthening brain function in areas that regulate emotions means that you will have fewer emotional highs and lows and enjoy a more stable mood overall. Mastery of this is known as “equanimity”—mental calmness, composure and evenness of temper regardless of whatever circumstances surround you. Click here for a 10 minute Equanimity Mediation.

More stable moods reduce your experience of stress. Stress is not only mental and emotional, it also triggers physiological and biochemical responses that, left unchecked, can increase inflammation risks that taxes your immune system and can lead to more risks of colds, flus and chronic diseases over time. So calm moods equal a happier life and better health!

Have you downloaded your Path to Peace Free Guided Journal?

Go from feeling anxious and stressed to calm and at-ease in 5 simple steps!

I’m a wellness visionary, integrative health educator and embodied mindfulness expert.

Learn more >

If this post helped you, please share by using the social buttons above. I appreciate your support!

"More stable moods reduce your experience of stress."  -- Shirley Archer, The Wellness Sensei

Recent research shows that yoga practice, in particular a yogic lifestyle that includes meditation, breathing exercises, healthy eating practices and rest and relaxation, reduces this stress response and boosts chemicals that reduce inflammation. Learn more about the yogic lifestyle here. I hope this news inspires you to appreciate the yoga practice you have, if you’re already doing it, or encourages you to try it, if you’re considering it. 

Yoga practice extends far beyond the physical practice of yoga postures and embraces a balanced, healthy lifestyle. 

Here’s to your happy, healthy immune system this winter. Learn 9 Tips To Boost Your Immunity here.

Until next time may you be at ease and peace and remember to love yourself healthy!

Shirley Archer The Wellness Sensei

You may think of ginger and pumpkin as the season’s primary flavors for coffee drinks or dessert. However, for cold and flu season, these power-packed foods have wonderful healing properties.

The following top foods and beverages help you get well fast and can also keep you well!

What to Eat and Drink if You Get a Cold or Flu

Drink water and fresh tea, like ginger, lemon, honey and mint tea. I keep a carafe all day at my desk. You can also brew an echinacea tea.

Prepare bone broth with herbs and vegetables.

Eat vitamin C rich foods like broccoli, kale, cantaloupe, pumpkin or citrus fruits, if you tolerate them well (I can’t eat a lot of citrus fruits)

Choose foods rich in zinc like pumpkin seeds, spinach or oysters

Consider vitamin D supplementation, up to 800 IU’s daily when healthy or try to get 10 minutes of daily sun exposure. If you think you’re low in vitamin D, order a lab test and consult a health care professional regarding supplementation. Excess vitamin D can be harmful so do not overdo it on supplements. Seek professional guidance.

Eat magnesium rich foods like spinach, collard greens, legumes, nuts and seeds or take a magnesium supplement. Supplementing with magnesium about 30 minutes before bedtime can also help with sleep.

Eat plenty of fresh foods, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Avoid heavily processed foods that are nutrient poor and high in salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.

Now that you know what to eat and drink if you get sick, here are 10 Ways to Prevent Colds and Flu at Home!

Have you downloaded your Path to Peace Free Guided Journal?

Go from feeling anxious and stressed to calm and at-ease in 5 simple steps!

I’m a wellness visionary, integrative health educator and embodied mindfulness expert.

Learn more >

This post is the second in a mid-life women’s series. I’m a midlife woman, who’s worked in health and wellness for 30 plus years. I believe, unequivocally, that the health and wellness industry is not serving us.

My goal is to educate and empower midlife women on how to approach these wonderful years despite being ignored and dismissed. In America’s youth oriented society, respect and appreciation for us and UNDERSTANDING of our unique needs is lacking.

Let’s start with 3 main points to know about your health and wellness.

Women are not small men! Additionally, you’re neither in your child-bearing years, nor are you an older adult. That’s what you’re NOT, so being treated as if you are is a major disservice and can be damaging.

Trust your inner knowing. The medical community is lacking many answers for this life stage. The hormonal shifts you’re going through affect the mind, body—and soul.

Your genetics and lifestyle matter. What you do now lays the foundation for your older age.

Here’s what I know from my own journey and from my years in the health and wellness industry.

THERE IS NO ONE ANSWER!

No single solution optimizes your well-being. It needs to be a way of life and as you age, your health needs are constantly changing. Your heart and mind may still feel youthful but there are real hormonal and metabolic changes in the body that affect your nutritional, sleep and movement needs.

CALM CLARITY IS  PRIORITY NUMBER ONE!

Before you can accomplish any lifestyle changes or impact your health in a meaningful way through nutrition or exercise, you need to calm and steady the mind. A mindfulness practice is essential for grounding, clearing out what you don’t need or want, and creating the space to realize what resonates as true for you regarding what you want and need from life. 

Stress leads to poor decisions and habitual behavior that gives you more of the same in life. If you want things to be different, this does require mental effort and conscious awareness. Calm, centered decision making is essential.

YOU ARE AMAZING! Wherever you are in your journey is exactly where you need to be to begin. Your beautiful body is the vehicle that has sustained your life and helped you to reach this age and your accomplishments today. 

Celebrate yourself! You are amazing.

Have you downloaded your Path to Peace Free Guided Journal?

Go from feeling anxious and stressed to calm and at-ease in 5 simple steps!

I’m a wellness visionary, integrative health educator and embodied mindfulness expert.

Learn more >

If this post helped you, please share by using the social buttons above. I appreciate your support!

NOW, that does not mean you cannot change things about yourself or want to improve yourself by losing some weight or improving your nutrition or making sleep an important priority so that you feel better. The invitation is to approach change from a place of self-love, appreciation for all that you have accomplished and empowerment that what you want more of in your life is absolutely possible. Once you attain that calm clarity, your inner wisdom can keep you on track.

What I want for you!

Question whether you are living to diet, exercise or to seek health. In other words, avoid living to diet….diet and exercise and sleep to LIVE a wonderful life. Many women are missing this point because of marketing messages that take away a sense of personal power. Consider integrating healthy lifestyle practices to enjoy a rich, full, satisfying and wondrous life.

This short experience on our beautiful planet is not worth missing by being constantly preoccupied with weight or appearance to meet society’s standards. Consider what brings you joy. Consider how you can live a full, satisfying, happy life that is meaningful and how your health can support that. Not vice versa.

My wish for you is to feel like you have the tools and resources to create that rich and satisfying life for yourself. Instead of your health being the focus of your day, consider having your beautiful LIFE to be your focus. 

How about optimizing your health and well-being to support your rich, fulfilling and meaningful life?

One easy way to begin optimizing your health and well-being is by subscribing to my newsletter Tea Happy. In it I share actionable, data-based tips on how to live your best life.

I’ve worked in health and wellness over 30 years. I’ve grown up with the industry, its methodology, solutions and marketing; I’ve learned what works and doesn’t. I’m especially attuned to what doesn’t work for midlife women because I am one.

Being blunt, the health and wellness industry is not serving us at all—in fact, it’s creating barriers to well-being.

The current wellness industry promotes a youthful health image that does not reflect a mid-life woman’s reality. The young, slender, fit Caucasian woman with a physique that has not experienced child-bearing, life years and aging does not represent most people, particularly any woman over 30. It’s not achievable.

The whole field of “anti-aging” cosmetics and medicine says it all. Why be against aging? No one can stop/prevent aging. I am now older as I write this sentence than I was when I wrote the preceding one. Aging is reality. Aging is natural. In America’s youth oriented society, respect, appreciation and celebration of life experience is lacking. The health and wellness industry’s relentless chase of youthfulness is demoralizing.

Where has the health and wellness industry let us down most?

#1: IGNORING THE TRUTH—WE’RE CHANGING!

Research has largely ignored the unique challenges facing mid-life women. Hormones change. Bodies and minds change. 

As mid-life women, the transition out of one’s child-bearing age is as powerful as when we entered puberty and child-bearing years. This sacred life passage deserves respect and honor.

As we leave childbearing years, we experience grief and loss. As we grieve for what’s no longer possible, however, we can simultaneously celebrate the potential of what’s to come. Now that we’re no longer part of a fluctuating rhythmic hormonal cycle, we enter our Third Act—the wisdom phase. New stability and strength are ours.

 #2: LACK OF TAILOR MADE SOLUTIONS

Mid-life women require tailor made solutions. Nutritional needs, the body, movement needs—all change. The body requires more time for restoration and repair so it’s not as tolerant of extreme training. This requires respect and patience.

#3: PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE

The notion that Youth and Health are equated has done the most damage to our psyches and to the way in which we approach our well-being. I call this Toxic Wellness! If we’re trying to re-create the body that we had at 20, we will fail. It’s simply not possible. If we want to have the skin tone that we had in our 20s, we will fail. There is a way to age and be beautiful. Wisdom and experience are also very sexy. Are they valued?

Have you downloaded your Path to Peace Free Guided Journal?

Go from feeling anxious and stressed to calm and at-ease in 5 simple steps!

I’m a wellness visionary, integrative health educator and embodied mindfulness expert.

Learn more >

If this post helped you, please share by using the social buttons above. I appreciate your support!

We’ve been ignored, devalued, cast aside. In response, we must forge our own path and choose for ourselves.

Let’s embrace the sexual and sensual power we possess from our years of experience, we are now unfettered by the requirements of childbirth. There’s a freedom in that experience! Let’s celebrate it.

Let’s value the road we have traveled, cherishing those hard-earned life lessons and taking pride in our age and accomplishments as a result of years on Earth. That’s fantastic!

Let’s value our bodies and our wisdom. We can feel energetic, we can look great, we can have strength and power – all of it is achievable.

Let’s identify what it is that is authentically important to each of us personally in our health and wellness journey.

Let’s get in touch with our unique, heartfelt desires.

"The best news I have for you is this: everything you need to create what you want in life is within you right now."  -- Shirley Archer, The Wellness Sensei

I know what I want for myself personally. But, what I want is not necessarily what you want.

For myself, I want to have energy. I want to wake up with a bounce in my step and look forward to my day ahead. I want to have the energy, strength and flexibility to hike, to walk, to travel and go places and do things. I want to be able to lift and carry items easily. I want to not experience pain in my back, neck or knee or if pain is unavoidable, I want to minimize the pain.

I want to eat foods that make me feel energized and refreshed not sluggish and heavy. I want to fuel my body optimally, train to keep in shape, sleep to restore and refresh, and enjoy time with friends and family so that I can live my life fully.

The health and wellness industry, of which I’ve been a member for a long time, does not serve us in our midlife. I’m here to change that. 

I’m here to celebrate us and share how to love ourselves healthy every day.

Let’s start here: 

What we want to celebrate is healthy, radiant aging. We want to optimize the aging experience and support our bodies and minds as we experience life’s natural rhythms.

In following posts, I want to shine a light on a path we can all travel together. United we are stronger. Understanding you’re not alone is an important first step. We will arm ourselves with knowledge, honor our inner wisdom and act with confidence to create a lifestyle of loving ourselves healthy. Please join us. It’s my honor and privilege to walk alongside you.

Evidence Based

This post is the second in our summer series introducing you to new exercise options. In each post I provide evidence based information and, if you find something piques your curiosity or invites you to try it, I’ll be thrilled. My goal with this series is to provide you with data and support in loving yourself healthy. 

Did you know that the sensory-rich pool environment—soothing and simultaneously challenging—is an ideal setting for mindful movement and a welcome respite from digital stress? Fitness innovators have been creating mind-body pool fitness offerings in the water, with programs like paddleboard yoga, aquatic Pilates, Ai Chi and fusion classes.

What Is Mind-Body Pool Fitness?

Use of the term “mind-body” here doesn’t imply that other fitness forms are not mindful. Rather, mind-body indicates that the activity’s predominant objectives are to:

Intentionally coordinate breath with movement,

Emphasize precise alignment,

Challenge balance and centering,

Enhance kinesthetic and present-moment awareness.

This creates a more mindful, meditative state, while at the same time conditioning the body.

Healing Benefits of Water

Bruce Becker, MD, MS, director of the National Aquatics and Sports Medicine Institute and adjunct professor at Washington State University in Spokane, Washington, and other investigators studied the healing benefits of immersion in different temperatures of water. They discovered that immersion in “cool,” “neutral,” or “warm” water can benefit healthy individuals by:

Lowering blood pressure and increasing cardiac output and stroke volume (all water temperatures);

Strengthening respiratory muscles and thereby improving breathing capacity (all water temperatures);

Enhancing mood and relaxation (warm water)

The authors of this study suggest that these benefits are amplified when water immersion is combined with exercise.

YOUR MIND-BODY FAVORITES—IN THE POOL!

Yoga

Pool yoga can be a chance to explore the self-discovery that water offers if you have mobility limitations on land. “Most asanas can be adapted to water, but to me this is not the point of aqua yoga,” says water yoga pioneer Françoise B. Freedman, PhD, author of Aqua Yoga and founder of the Birthlight Trust, an educational charity based in the United Kingdom that has been offering water yoga for over 30 years. “Through mindfulness, we gain awareness of our rhythms in relation to the water environment.”

"More and more people are coming to the water for the meditative aspect. They want to be someplace where they can’t take their phones."  -- Jessie Benson, Founder FloYo.

Standup Paddleboard Yoga and Mat Pilates

These exercise forms are appealing if you are eager for a challenge but also want a more mindful experience. In 2012, Jessie Benson founded FloYo®, a paddleboard yoga program she describes as a workout that utilizes the core while connecting mind and body to create a strong physique and a clear mind.

Similarly, Pilates classes feature mat Pilates exercises performed on a floating board.

Benson says, “More and more people are coming to the water for the meditative aspect. They want to be someplace where they can’t take their phones. [Not everyone can do] a regular sitting meditation practice, and water attracts a broader range of people who want the clarity [that meditation can offer].”

Tai Chi and Ai Chi

Water-based programs inspired by tai chi and qigong may appeal to you if you are seeking restoration and recovery. Ai Chi is a globally popular program created by Jun Konno, president of Aqua Dynamics Institute in Japan. Ai Chi includes visualizations and affirmations and is based on three principles:

Deep diaphragmatic breathing

Concentration on form and body awareness

Acceptance that “how it turns out is the way it’s meant to be”

"Your individual path is unique. Listen to the wisdom of your body and the power of your intuition to discover what is good and right for you."  -- Shirley Archer, the Wellness Sensei

If Mind-Body Pool Fitness sounds like an interesting option to explore, do a search of your local area to find out what’s offered. I’d love to hear your experience if you take a class!

Until next time may you be at ease and peace and remember to love yourself healthy!

References

Hildenbrand, K., et al. 2010. Age-dependent autonomic changes following immersion in cool, neutral, and warm temperatures. International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education, 4 (2), 127–46.

Naumann, J., et al. 2016. Outcomes from a three-arm randomized controlled trial of frequent immersion in thermoneutral water on cardiovascular risk factors. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 16 (250).

Have you downloaded your Path to Peace Free Guided Journal?

Go from feeling anxious and stressed to calm and at-ease in 5 simple steps!

I’m a wellness visionary, integrative health educator and embodied mindfulness expert.

Learn more >