Barbara Schmidt's Blog, page 47

My Summer Reading List

There is something about summer time that makes me want to read. Maybe because I grew up with summer book lists as a kid, I always relish the relaxed summer vibe with a great book in hand. These days, I’ve been reading more and more books on self-help and wellness, and I feel so inspired by it. I’ve talked in the past about how much reading for inspiration helps me. I find that it brings me back to life and it encourages me to be the best person I can be, plus it teaches me so much; I am always learning. I want to share with you this week a great inspirational summer reading list. These are some great books that I have read many times, that I keep on my bookshelf whenever I need a boost.

A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. One of my all time favorite books, I always take something away from it when I read it, and I find it very comforting and uplifting to read. Marianne Williamson is amazing.
Make Your Own Rules Diet by Tara Stiles. Tara Stiles has been a great influencer in my life from yoga to living life with ease. This book has some great summer recipes as well as tips on living a stress-free life.
Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein. This was one of the first books I read when getting into the self-help world, and I find myself going back to it every now and then. I love Gabby’s personal stories and how they relate to living a more spiritually based life. A great beach read!
Beauty Detox Power by Kimberly Snyder. Kimberly’s work launched me into the health and wellness field many years ago. I have always been so inspired by her positive nature and her zest for living a healthy life. In her newest book, she delves into the mind/body relationship and gives some great recipe tools
Awaken the Spirit Within by Rebecca Rosen. Reading this book gave me so much hope for my life, and helped me connect with myself and my true purpose. Rebecca beautifully explains tapping into intuition and connecting with your higher Self.
The Practice by Barb Schmidt. I may be a bit biased on this one, due to my close relationship with the author, however the simple tools in this book are timeless and life changing. I love having this book on hand for quick references and daily inspiration.
Living with Intent by Mallika Chopra. Intention setting practices are a big part of my life, and I just love this sharing the importance of living with intention. A great read!
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz. Another oldie but a goodie for me personally. This book changed my life in that it challenged the way I was thinking and helped shift me into a more positive mindset. I always have a copy of this book around.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. If you’re looking for a book on finding your life’s purpose, this is the one! The Alchemist is truly a treasure and helps you connect with yourself and realize that you have a purpose in this life.
The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga by Kathryn Budig. My yoga practice is a huge part of my life, and this book is a great tutorial on basic poses and gentle sequencing! Kathryn’s authenticity and enthusiasm shines through this book and makes you feel excited about yoga.

I hope you enjoy my summer reading list! I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts and what books you’re reading this summer! Let me know in the comments below! Happy Reading!

How to Manage Fears

The past few months I’ve been meeting people while on the road. It’s such a cool experience to connect with people all over the world and discover our similarities and differences. One of the main questions I get in the self-help world is how to manage or release fears. Fears are something we all have, whether imaginary or real, that can have a crippling effect on our lives. I’ve spent a lot of the past few years of my life striving to manage my fear-based mindset, because I’ve recognized that I do not want to live in fear. While on a daily basis my ego brings up my biggest fears, I’ve incorporated tools that help me gently let them go so I can live my life in peace. If you’re looking to manage your fears in a simple, meaningful way, I offer you, in this week’s blog, some tips below.

Out your fears. One way to start to tame a unruly situation is to recognize its reality and out it to yourself; name it out loud. What exactly are you afraid of? I’ll start and out mine here. Is it safe to ride the subway in NYC? Will I be single forever? Am I liked enough? Is my family healthy and safe? When will the world be more peaceful? And the list could go on. I am aware of these common fears of mine, so that when they pop into my mind, I can use the following tools to bring me back to peace. Take some time to notice your fears, but do not ruminate in them. Become familiar so you can then take action.
Meditate. I’m pretty sure I use meditation as my top tool for most of my blogs, but it’s simply because it’s such a powerful tool. Whenever I get bogged down in fear-based thinking, I know I can close my eyes, and take a few deep breaths and bring myself back to a calmer place. Incorporating a daily meditation practice allows you to live in that calmer place more often.
Present moment living. Generally when we start to become fearful, we are leaving the present moment and thinking about the past or the future. The fears I listed above fall into this category as most of them are uncertainties on what is to come. When I get into this space, I try to remember that this very moment right now, is all we really have. We cannot control what has happened or what will happen, nor can we know the outcome of certain actions, we simply have to live presently in every moment from a place of love and peace. When your mind begins to wander, gently bring it back to the now, enjoy the now, and live in peace.
Recite positive affirmations. When all else fails above, I quietly recite affirmations or mantras to keep me calm. I have learned that a negative thought and a positive thought cannot exist at the same time. A great affirmation when feeling fearful is “all is well”. Trust that in this moment, all really is well.

I hope these tools help you in managing your daily fears! As an end note, the fears I speak of here stem from the mind, and not from actual dangerous situations. Of course, if you find yourself in a harmful situation, please seek help and take care of you! Have a beautiful week!

How to Eat Intuitively

I speak truthfully when I say that for a majority of my life, I have been on some sort of “diet”. Just typing that sentence was exhausting and upsetting. Our culture has become utterly obsessed with food, body image, and “perfect” eating. It seems that every other day, there is someone with some new ideal way to eat that will cure all your worries and make you supermodel skinny. So crazy and so confusing. Being on a diet for most of my life and also going through holistic health training, I’ve learned that there really is no perfect, one–size-fits-all diet. We are all incredibly unique, and so it makes sense that each of us requires foods that make us uniquely feel good. In the past few years I’ve started to veer from “dieting” to eating intuitively. I’m not “perfect” at it, but I generally choose to eat what makes me feel good; what feels good for my body. This sounds like a blanket statement, but truthfully, eating intuitively takes work, but the benefits are innumerable. If you want to dabble into intuitive eating, here are some quick steps below on incorporating this way of life, into your life.

Connect with yourself. Connecting with yourself is the biggest part of eating intuitively. How can you possibly know what’s good for you, if you don’t really know yourself? To connect, of course, I suggest meditation and journaling practices. They take you right into that connected place within.
Be aware. What are your emotions when you eat? Can you pinpoint why you are eating in any specific moment? Is it due to hunger, boredom, or fun? There is no right or wrong, just becoming mindful of why we eat when we do.
Notice how you feel. When you eat something, take a few moments to notice how that particular food or beverage makes you feel. Are you sluggish? Energized? Hyper? Depressed? Food has an enormous effect on our moods and energy levels.
Notice what you crave. Take note of what your body is truly craving. This might change throughout the year with the seasons. Generally in the summer I crave cooling foods and naturally in the winter, more warming foods. Tap into your body’s cravings.
Be purposeful and mindful with what you consume. It’s wonderful to honor your body’s desires, but make sure you choose food from ethical, organically sustained sources. Sure, that might not always be 100% available, but do your best to choose the best ingredients to go into your body.
Let go of judgments. Don’t be so hard on yourself for how you eat, or even better how anybody else eats. We all are on a mission to find what works for us. Allow yourself the space to explore your own relationship to food, and even be loving with yourself while eating. Bless everything that goes into your body and treat your body in a loving way in every meal.

I hope these tips are helpful! I’d love to hear your thoughts on dieting and intuitive eating! Let me know in the comments below!

How to Navigate Grocery Stores for Key Beauty Foods

Have you ever walked into the grocery store and had no idea what to get? Or felt a flicker of extreme confusion/panic that you still don’t really know what the heck to eat?

I get it. I used to feel the same way too. So I definitely know that feeling!

Recently, I had a newish client meet me at Wholefoods.

I had given her a list to start out with, and I was going to meet her about 20 minutes after she started shopping, so then we were going to pickup some things together.

She ended up getting there kind of late, and I happened to be only a few feet behind her when she got the cart and walked through the automatic, revolving doors. I watched the whole thing! Once inside, I saw her sigh visibly and briskly look to the left and right and left again, as if scanning the landscape for wild animals, potential snipers, or other dangers.

She then started scrambling around for her phone, which I knew was to check out the list I emailed her.

Her face switched from resignation to slight confusion to a quasi-panic as she scrambled around. Where is that list?!

I could almost here her screaming in her head. What am I supposed to get? What am I supposed to eat??

I want you to never have to feel that way!

The “what should I be getting/what should I be eating” way at the grocery store is frustrating. It can make you feel lost, inadequate (after all the food info you’ve probably read)…but it’s no wonder it can be confusing.

There are a zillion items at the store, and so much conflicting information, that it can leave you feeling like the grocery store is more confusing than trying to remember all the characters and their backstory in Lord of the Rings, if you are not that into science fiction (like me :)).

While the specific veggies and produce items I get does vary from season to season, I am going to give you the basic map of my grocery store strategy, below. Check it out. Hopefully this map is going to give you some solid guidance for your grocery sessions, like a trusty beauty food compass.

Greens/sprouts

I always enter through the entrance next to the produce (if there is one), and the greens area is always my first stop.

Check that. Actually, my first first stop is the disinfecting wipes you can use to wipe down your cart.

I’m not usually a big germ-aphobe (otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to backpack through rural China and India as long as I have), but I read something once about the micro state of squalor on the handles of grocery carts, and …well you know when something sticks in your head?

Let’s just say I wipe down the cart first, then my hands. THEN I am ready to start!

The greens section of the grocery store feels like my warmup.

Yes, warming up to the grocery shopping experience! Getting into the feel, like how you might do some seated twists on your mat before getting into your full yoga practice. It’s good to have the first item you know you pretty much always need, so you can at least check that off the list.

If you can get to the farmer’s market regularly to get your greens, that is the best. But if you are shopping mid-week, or need to supplement with microgreens (pictured above), sprouts (if you didn’t have time to sprout this week- and quite honestly, I haven’t had time in months!), and other varieties of greens, get ‘em first.

I like to rotate mache, arugula, chard, different kale, mixed greens, whatever I see, really.

Fruit

Then I load up on some fruit. And yes, thankfully they are in the same section. It’s always good to get seasonal stuff, which includes berries right now.

And again, if you can get to your farmer’s market and get fruit, even if it’s once a week, that is even better. But with travel and meetings, as I have been swamped with, I do need to supplement at the grocer…and here’s where I load up on local fruit and some staples, like bananas.

Celery/cilantro

The next thing I get is some Glowing Green Smoothie™ material- you know! Lemons, celery, cilantro. I admit this does not happen on a weekly basis anymore since I get most of my GGS’s from Glow Bio (I know, lazy, lazy! But I need time savers whenever I can take them!).

BUT when I am in Florida or at my parents’ or elsewhere, I definitely get all our classic GGS items. And cilantro is always part of that list, since some research has found it can help chelate (bind) to heavy metals and escort them out of the body.

Heavy metals can be the source of lots of aging free radicals in your body, so it’s good to incorporate strategies/foods, such as cilantro (and infrared saunas, by the way), to help purge those bad boys out!

Kale

I almost always grab some heads of Lacinato or curly kale, as Dharma’s Kale Salad is a big staple for dinner for me.

Purple cabbage

It’s no secret I LOVE purple cabbage. It’s high in Vitamin C, fiber, minerals and fiber…and you can get a head of it and slice it into salads, wraps…so many dishes over your weight.

Cent for cent, it’s a pretty amazing beauty food that is inexpensive and so happily colorful it will brighten up your dishes too!

Other Veggies

While I’m in the general vicinity, I go for it…veggie love!  I grab whatever looks good and whatever I’m feeling like eating.

I like stuff for my salads, like raw radishes, and also mushrooms I can easily throw in the oven and roast…or broccoli I can stir fry with tempeh or quinoa or whatever.

So always grab a bunch of veggies you are feeling.

Okay… so by now you should have a good amount of stuff! You should be very proud of yourself thus far.

Grounding Starchy Veggies

I like to get a few varieties of these when I shop.

Here’s why:

They keep for a while, especially for emergency meals later in the week
They are filling and when paired with a salad, can make a great meal
They digest well
I toss them in the oven and do other stuff (shower, emails, phone calls, pick lemons in my yard….) and then voila! They are magically ready to eat!

Tempeh

 

Organic, non-GMO tempeh is fermented and digests easier and is generally considered more healthful than tofu.

I keep it in my fridge for SUPER fast meals as it is already pre-cooked. I just cut it into cubes, and stir-fry it quickly with some of the veggies I got (a la above). It doesn’t need much- some spices, tamari, nutritional yeast, whatever.

It’s my answer to microwave meals!

Coconut water

 

Now that spring is rolling around, I notice I’ve been craving coconut water a lot again!

Spring/summer are THE months for cooling coconut water, which is hydrating (so important for beautiful skin!), full of potassium and electrolytes.

Choose brands not from concentrate, and in glass or non-BPA, non-leachable containers, rather than aluminum cans.

Kraut

 

If you don’t have time to make your own Probiotic & Enzyme Salad, pick up some raw kraut for sure! I always grab a jar/container if I don’t have a batch going (sadly I do not this week).

But not so sadly is the fact you can get some raw kraut at many local farmers’ markets now, or you can get organic brands at many health grocers.

Bins/quinoa

 

I always load up on some bin goodies…just to have on hand if I am low. So great to keep stocked in your pantry for quick meals!

Quinoa (I rotate multi-colored, yellow, etc.), lentils (soak well! Not a weekly item but here and there), red or black rice, etc…

Dulse

 

Sea veggies are great and great for your hair. If you are okay with the taste (the leaves taste better than the flakes), grab them and add them to your salad. ‘Nuff said!

Dark Chocolate

I do love treats :).  Especially when I am writing a lot. My go-to treat is just a plain bar of dark organic chocolate.

I’m not really a big baked goodie fan or a cold dessert fan, like ice cream, BUT if I do feel like those items I will make my Vegan, Gluten-free Brownie recipe for the former, or get some coconut ice cream for the latter…but most often, its’ just good old chocolate!

PS: I keep it in my freezer, which also helps prevent me from staring at it every time I open the fridge, which leads to more little nips here and there…

Of course, when I am making a specific recipe or have a specific meal planned out, I will make more specific recipe lists, or have to get some specific items.

But I hope this general grocery store map gives you some ideas about what you can check off for most/a lot of your trips, so you always have some items in mind to grab.

We need not ever feel lost, or confused again!

How do you navigate the grocery store?

Share your Beauty Food grocery adventure in the comments below!

Summer Travel Tips

Great news! Summer is just around the corner! I always look forward to the carefree, easy energy of the summer season. For many of us, summer is a time for family vacations or personal holidays that we have been looking forward to for so long. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road this year, and have learned so much about the ins and outs of travel. Traveling can be great, but it’s also helpful to be prepared and know what you can do to stay healthy, happy, and positive on your summer travels this year. Take care of yourself in mind, body, and spirit with these tips below! Be prepared- Plan ahead- Happy travels!

Mind: Be organized, be prepared. Make sure you have all the important details of your trip, such as flight information, hotel confirmations, passports, etc. I have found that a week before a big trip, I like to make a list of things that are required for my trip. Getting organized in this way will help with peace of mind during your travels.

Body. It can be challenging to stay on your health kicks while on the road. One of the main tips I have for travel is to remember to stay hydrated. Travel, especially flying, can be majorly dehydrating. We all know the health benefits of drinking water; make sure to drink as much water as you can. If you’re spending a lot of time on the road or on planes, it could be helpful to bring your own healthy snacks to avoid eating low vibe, packaged, and processed foods. Most importantly, enjoy your time and your food. Don’t put pressure on yourself to eat perfectly, take it all in knowing that vacations are meant to be pleasurable.

Spirit. Try to take some of your daily routines and rituals on the road with you. I bring my yoga mat with me! I know it can be challenging when traveling with others to maintain your daily routines. Choose a few simple actions to take with you and practice them each day. It can be very comforting while in foreign places to have familiar rituals to make you feel more at home. In the same token, don’t get down on yourself when you need to alter your daily routines. Be easy and flexible, and remember you are on this journey to explore and have fun!

What are some of your travel tips? Let me know in the comments below!

We will be in NYC May 20- I can’t wait to meet you!



» Buy tickets to this incredible event here «

How to Start Quieting Negative Thoughts

We have many, many thoughts every single day. Our brains are constantly thinking! Take a minute right now and try to notice or name the thoughts that you think about almost every day. How many of your thoughts are negative? I bet the answer is more than you even thought or would like to admit. I know my brain can go into negative autopilot, spiraling into even more negative patterns. Our thoughts are incredibly powerful; they have the ability to dramatically change our lives. The mind can be a difficult thing to try to control, but with simple tools, you can begin that switch from negative to positive. Much like training for a sport, you must practice. To train your mind to think positively, you must practice. If you’re looking to begin this practice of quieting your negative thoughts, here are some simple tools I use on a daily basis that help me along the way.

Meditation. I try to start every single day with some form of meditation. A meditation practice doesn’t have to be complicated; it can be as simple as closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths and just being in silence. I find that when I start my day in stillness and in peace, I set myself up for a more calm and centered day.
Journaling. When I feel that my thoughts are getting the best of me, I open up my journal and free write. Journaling is a great tool to release negative or unproductive thoughts. Try adding this into your routine, allow yourself to write straight from the soul, without editing or overanalyzing the thoughts.
Mantras/Affirmations Repetition. Your mind can only think one thought at a time. In this vain, your mind cannot think a negative thought at the time as a positive thought. This is why mantras and affirmations are so powerful; they are essentially replacing negative thoughts with positive or even neutral ones. I choose a few that I feel work for me and immediately go to them when I get stressed or upset, my mantra/affirmation practice has now become my positive thought autopilot!
Reading for inspiration. Sometimes to calm my mind I like to get lost in a great inspirational book. I find reading words from others help lift me up and get my thoughts back on track. A great inspirational book with tips on calming the mind that I love is the The Practice. (insert link to amazon for the book please)

I hope these simple tips are helpful for you in starting to dim down the negative thoughts of the mind! I’d love to hear what you do on a daily basis to stay positive! Let me know in the comments below!

How To Live A More Purposeful Life

Living a life of purpose sounds great, right? But really, what does that even mean? I strive every day to add purpose to every aspect of my life. In my opinion, giving purpose and meaning means bringing awareness to every moment, making conscious choices, and having acceptance of the results. My actions, thoughts, and ideas are chosen on purpose (in an ideal world). This, to me, is how we live a purposeful life. Here are some simple tools that you may considering adding into your daily routine that can help you create that purposeful mentality. Some of my favorites are below.

Daily meditation. Purposeful living starts with calming the mind. When my mind races at 1,000 thoughts a minute, I can barely come up with a rational thought, let alone concepts stemmed with purpose. Through meditation I learn to come back to my self and my breath. My thoughts begin to slow down and I can find peace and my purpose in the present moment.
Set intentions. Intention-setting practices are so powerful; they create a positive ripple effect in your life. A great way to live with purpose is to set a simple intention at the beginning of each day; it actually sets the tone for your day. You choose how you want to feel and act in your day. Maybe you simply want to be happy, or be at peace, but you can feel content and at ease knowing that you can choose how to live with intent.
Give small actions meaning. We tend to brush through our simple daily habits without even giving them a thought. Whether it’s brushing our teeth, getting dressed or even eating, we don’t necessarily put thought and purpose into some of the smallest tasks. When we add importance to even the seemingly meaningless actions we then bring meaning into every action. Our purposeful life is our ordinary life!
Live in the present moment. We live in a world of distractions and discontent in the present moment. We yearn for the past and fear what’s to come in the future, and tend to be uneasy in the now. This moment, right this minute, is what truly matters- it’s all we have! Start to adjust your thinking and your habits to be more present in whatever task you are involved in, and let the rest go.

What helps you keep every minute purposeful? I’d love to hear your tips on this! Let me know in the comments below!

How To Manifest

Three Steps to Manifest

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”

-Paulo Coelho

What does it mean to manifest something? Have you heard this term before and thought, gee, I want that but I’m not quite sure how that works? Essentially, manifesting is calling that which you desire in to your life.

Up until a couple months ago, I truly thought I was lacking the skills needed in order to manifest things. In my crazy-town brain, I felt that things just didn’t work out for me like they worked out for other people. Living in a spiritually based world, I hear words like manifest, miracles, magic, dreams, angels, etc., on the regular. I buy into all of these concepts, but to be very honest, I never really felt like those concepts worked for me. There in itself lied my problem. I was essentially blocking myself! I began to talk to my spiritual running buddies, started reading more books, and became more open to the concept that I am capable of living that kind of life. And guess what? It worked!

Are you ready to cultivate your manifesting muscles? Here are three steps below to guide you through the process. My friends get ready for some radical shifts!

What is it that you desire? Manifesting requires true desire, but not just external, material desire, but core-feeling desire. In order for us to know what we desire on a truly spiritual level, we must go within. It is there where we find that most of the time our desires aren’t physical but more emotional. We desire love, compassion, understanding, etc. Take time to sit with yourself and determine what your soul craves.
Change your thoughts; change your life. We forget how very powerful our thoughts actually are. We have been taught to doubt and believe that things simply won’t work out. See my story above! This has been my thought process for much of my life! Your thoughts are crucial when manifesting something into your life. You must truly get in the mindset that things WILL and ARE working out for you.
Trust, have faith, surrender. Perhaps the toughest part of manifesting is allowing it not be in your timing. You’ve done the hard work of getting clear, and believing it to be true, but now it’s time to allow the Universe to do it’s thing, and the Universe is working on it’s time, not yours. And that is amazing! The Universe knows exactly what we need and when we need it, so in reality we can rest easy, knowing that we are fully being supported and taken care of.

I hope these steps help you shift gears in your thoughts about manifesting! It’s a constant process of believing you deserve what you desire in life and allowing it to come through in miraculous ways! I’d love to hear some of the amazing things you’ve manifested in your lives. Let me know in the comments below!

5 Affirmations For Spring Time

Last week we talked a bit about preparing for spring. To recap, when the seasons change it can be a really significant time in your life, affecting more than just the weather. For me, spring feels like a rebirth, a fresh start, and an opportunity to make things happen. In the spirit of all things spring, I would love to share with you some affirmations that support this change of season and energetic shift. As we know, our thoughts have a major impact on our day-to-day lives. Using affirmations is a great way to purposefully choose your thoughts, and guard against unwanted, negative thoughts. The use of affirmations in my life has been transformational. I notice I’m happier; more emotionally stable, and generally have a more positive outlook on life simply by switching my thoughts from negative to positive. WE have a choice, the negative thoughts in the mind are really just chatter that we can literally “change the channel” to something positive. Change your thinking and change your life.

Here are five great affirmations!

I love life and life loves me.
I am a magnet for love and happiness.
I’m abundant and open to new opportunities. The possibilities are limitless.
I release that which is not serving me to make space for something better.
All is well; everything is working out for my highest and greatest good.

Do you use affirmations in your life? If so, what are some that you use regularly and that help you stay positive? Let me know!

5 Ways To Prepare For Spring

Spring is coming, I can feel it! Even though for many winter still seems to have a hold on us, soon enough we will be feeling that beautiful spring sunshine on our faces. I love the changing of the seasons, whichever you’re changing to, a change in seasons marks an energetic shift in our environment and in ourselves. There are so many things we can do to mentally, physically, and spiritually prepare ourselves for this change of the season. Here are a few that I do, which help me feel so great:

Connect with yourself by connecting with nature. One of the great parts of spring is we can be outside more and it’s enjoyable! I love going for long walks breathing in the outside air . I find this is a great way to clear your head, connect with nature, and feel gratitude for a new season, and a new day.
Flowers make me happy. When I see the influx of beautiful flowers in the market, I know Spring must be right around the corner. I make a point to bring some sort of flowers or plants into my living space. Plants or flowers bring life and a new vibrant energy into your space. Choose something that uplifts and inspires you. Bonus for finding a bloom that smells beautiful as well!
Clear out the old. Go through your closet and clear out anything that you feel you absolutely will not use anymore. You can even make two piles, one to keep for next winter and one to give away. There is nothing more energizing for me as finally putting away my winter coat for the season!
Eat with the seasons. Another amazing part of a new time of year means new produce that’s in season! Check out your local farmers market or produce section and see what’s back in stock. Strawberries and tomatoes have been my go-tos lately.
Let go of what isn’t serving you. Spring-time is like a rebirth. What would you like to let go of in your life? Take some time now to sit in reflection, journal, and contemplate what you’re ready to leave behind, and what you would like to call in to your life.

What are some rituals you do to call in new seasons of life? Let me know in the comments below, and Happy Spring!