Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle [Episode #586]

This week’s topic is: Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle

What’s really important about today’s show is the emphasis on lifestyle. What we teach here is not a fad. It’s not a diet that you hop into and hop out of and try for 21 days. We’re really working towards a sustainable, long-term lifestyle that will enhance and nourish all aspects of your being, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And that’s really how you get the best results. And you feel your best, you feel your most energetic, you feel your highest vitality, and yes, you will also look your best because everything is so intimately connected.

When we play on the surface with just makeup or the calorie counting game, we may get some results, of course.However, to get the deep, lasting, life-changing quantum leap sort of results, then we want to take this wider, holistic approach, and we want to transition in. If we go all in sometimes, then we pop all out, that all in mentality. On, off, that yo-yoing, that really doesn’t help us in the long-term.

Today I want to go through some real tips and strategies that will help you stick to this for the long-term. Even if you take five steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one step back. Sometimes two steps forward, one step back, we’re continuously growing and building and building on a foundation that’s solid.

And so, even when we feel like we’re off, even when we go on vacation and totally throw everything out the window, or we have those off weekends or whatever it is, we are not going back to ground zero. We are continuously building and building, sometimes at different rates of growth, but we’re still continuing to grow. And really, that’s what this lifestyle is all about.

Have you been wondering about this very topic? If you want to know the answer to this question and 3 more sent in by Beauties just like you, listen now to find out!

Remember you can submit your questions at https://mysolluna.com/askkimberly/

[Questions Answered]

Louise – Albuquerque 

How to transition to a plant based diet while living with a husband who enjoys eating meat, dairy, etc. He is open to eating more vegetables and fruit and says he can’t imagine being plant based, but I just find it difficult to stay on track, especially on the weekends when he’s home all day. Thanks so much! Louise :)

Gerri – Muckleshoot Indian Reservation 

I’m at ground zero (again) with my eating. With trying to become a more healthy person. Eating, exercise, etc. I remember reading something about, with certain vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, and probiotics- when you take one it helps to enhance the other. I’m not sure which is which and if you are not eating healthy to begin with – do the vitamins & support vitamins help at all?

Sunflower Moonberry May – Seattle

How do you not let people walk all over you and say no in a respectful way?

Colleen – Hawaii 

Now that I think I have the Beauty Detox plan down, I want to incorporate more Ayurvedic practices into my weekly routine. What rituals do you enjoy or suggest?

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Other Podcasts you may enjoy!:

• How Can Families Make The Shift To A Plant Based Diet?
• Vegan Transition Foods
• The Importance Of Self-Care With Ruth Berhe
• Is It Bad To Eat The Same Foods Everyday?

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly : Hi Beauties, and welcome back to our Thursday Q&A podcast where our topic today is Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle. And what’s really important about today’s show is the emphasis on lifestyle. What we teach here is not a fad. It’s not a diet that you hop into and hop out of and try for 21 days. We’re really working towards a sustainable, long-term lifestyle that will enhance and nourish all aspects of your being, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And that’s really how you get the best results. And you feel your best, you feel your most energetic, you feel your highest vitality, and yes, you will also look your best because everything is so intimately connected.

Kimberly : And so, when we play on the surface, and we play with just makeup and some surface routines, and we play that calorie counting game, we may get some results, of course. But to get the deep, lasting, life-changing quantum leap sort of results that we all, I think, deep down really want and crave and desire, we want to take this wider, holistic approach, and we want to transition in, like this podcast title suggests. If we go all in sometimes, then we pop all out, that all in mentality. On, off, that yo-yoing, that really doesn’t help us in the long-term.

Kimberly : So, today I want to go through some real tips and strategies that will help you stick to this for the long-term. Even if you take five steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one step back. Sometimes two steps forward, one step back, we’re continuously growing and building and building on a foundation that’s solid. And so, even when we feel like we’re off, even when we go on vacation and totally throw everything out the window, or we have those off weekends or whatever it is, we are not going back to ground zero. We are continuously building and building, sometimes at different rates of growth, but we’re still continuing to grow. And really, that’s what this lifestyle is all about.

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Kimberly : So, before we get into our questions today, just a quick shout out to please leave us a review on iTunes, if you haven’t already. It’s a great way to support the show and I thank you so much in advance. It really just takes a moment or two. And I know sometimes we put these things off or we get really busy, but really from the bottom of my heart, I thank you. If you could take the time today, just a moment or two, it really does support the show. And while you’re doing that, it’s a great time to subscribe to our show and that way you don’t miss out on any of these Q&A podcasts, any of our Monday interview podcasts. So, you just really get that in your life. It becomes a bit of a structure just to have it going, like a routine, a pattern, all of these are really powerful ways to support your energy and to support your wellbeing. So, it’s a great thing to do as well.

Question #1 around the topic of: Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle: How to transition to a plant-based diet while living with a husband who enjoys eating meat and dairy and so on? He is open to eating more vegetables and fruit and says he can’t imagine being plant-based, but I just find it difficult to stay on track, especially on the weekends when he’s home all day. Thanks so much, Louise.

Kimberly : All right, let’s get right into our topic today. Tips to transition into the Solluna lifestyle. And our first question comes from Louise, who lives in Albuquerque. Hi, Louise. I love Albuquerque. Actually, I worked on a film there and I lived in this older part of town. It seemed a little bit more neighborhoody. It was called Nob Hill, I believe, and I absolutely loved it. So, big hugs out there to you. Louise’s question is, “How to transition to a plant-based diet while living with a husband who enjoys eating meat and dairy and so on? He is open to eating more vegetables and fruit and says he can’t imagine being plant-based, but I just find it difficult to stay on track, especially on the weekends when he’s home all day. Thanks so much, Louise.”

Kimberly : So Louise, we know that our partner, our family, our immediate family, the people that we live with, the people that we share space with, the people that we share a kitchen with do have an impact on our energy and they do have an impact on our habits. And sometimes they can make it easier if we’re going through the same things. Sometimes it can be a little bit more challenging if someone is off doing their own different pattern. I will share with you that my husband was a huge carnivore when we met, and then he became fully plant-based. And since then, he bounces in and out. The past six months he’s been fully plant-based, but then he had meat a couple of times recently. And so, he dips in and out, and I have no issue with that. I think that we’re all on our own journey and it’s really important that we hold that boundary. That what’s right for us isn’t necessarily right for someone else in their journey.

Kimberly : And so, pressuring never works and it never feels good for us or for them, because it puts pressure on us to feel like we have to “fix” this person or do something about this person. And it’s an enormous amount of energy. So it’s really important, Louise, that you really just anchor into yourself and whatever he’s doing, you create this mental boundary, this really healthy boundary, that what is yours, is yours, and what is his, is his. And that way he doesn’t influence you too much and vice versa. So, when it comes down to this, it’s really important that you are working from the morning up and you’re starting the day with a really healthy routine, a really grounded routine that your body can count on, that you can count on. Including hot water with lemon, GGS, SBO probiotics, very important, your meditation practice.

Kimberly : Start to breathe into your body and start to get really clear on your intentions for following a plant-based lifestyle and for your day. So your intentions, which I like to set after my meditation, include, “I’m going to be healthy today in my…” It’s great to do it from a cornerstone perspective. So, “Food-wise, my intention is to be plant-based, so I have more energy and I support my body. Body-wise I’m going to do a walk today. I’m going to take breaks. I want to really treat my bodily temple well. Emotionally, I’m going to take the time to breathe and to notice any reactions and to slow down how I respond, so I feel really good about my interactions with all humans today. Spiritually, my intention is to stay connected to myself and what feels good to me and to stay connected to my intuition.”

Kimberly : So, when we set intentions, and when we start from the morning up, it gives us a much greater chance of staying on track. Also, taking this wider cornerstone approach means that we have the mental and emotional support to keep us going, because really what food cravings are … Because food is essentially, it’s just another thing, right? It’s just a form of nourishment. Foods and flavors can bring on feelings and energies. So if we’re not feeling nourished in other ways, we can tend to over-rely on foods. That’s what food cravings really are. If we’re not feeling soothed and supported, we may reach for that sugar.

Kimberly : And if you’re not feeling really anchored, Louise, in and of yourself, if you’re not really following a meditation practice or a stillness practice or something that’s going to give you that real connection to yourself … Gary Jansen at an upcoming podcast, actually, I think it airs next week. Talks about spirituality, spiritual growth, as we talk about here, simply as more awareness. We’re awake. We’re alive to life. We’re awake to ourselves. We’re awake to our own energy. It’s such a concise, wonderful way of looking at it. And so, we want to feel that self-connection, so that no matter what your husband is doing, no matter what he is eating, it doesn’t really sway you.

Kimberly : The other day, we were having dinner outside on the picnic table, which is where we eat if my husband’s going to eat meat, we like to have that halfway point outside. Because he cooks it over in the guest house and it’s warm now, so it’s okay, it’s an option. And he was eating this plate of chicken. It was crunching around and sounds and all this stuff. And I was really just tuning in to his eyes and what he was saying and energy and I was tuning into how I was feeling. And after the meal, he said to me, he’s like, “Oh, I’m surprised you didn’t say anything about all that I was eating.” And I said, “No, I really used my will to focus on other things because I’m not going to control how you eat. I don’t want to try to control how you eat. So, I’m just going to really consciously move my attention away from that.”

Kimberly : It’s powerful because we all have that ability to do that. We don’t have to get into a cycle where we’re so swayed by someone else’s energy or their decisions. We don’t have to be so bothered by it. And also Louise, in this case here, we don’t have to fall into eating what he’s eating. We don’t have to feel this codependency or this crossing over with our partner. We can hold that healthy boundary. We can stay connected to ourself. We can create those intentions at the beginning of the day. We have a plan for what we want to eat, what we want to do in the day and we stick to it. And it feels really healthy to have those healthy boundaries between us and our partners. So, just remember, whatever he’s doing, fine. Whatever you’re doing, fine. Remind yourself of what you’re doing while you’re doing. And over time, it may get easier and easier to be around those foods and not give into it.

Kimberly : Now I will say, practically, maybe you want to eat, drink a bunch of water, have your smoothies so that you go into your meal feeling good, or you don’t feel tempted to snack on those foods or in-between, you feel less susceptible. Fiber and fluid will always help your body feel more stabilized and full. So again, you’re less likely to reach for those other things. Plus the meditations again, the self-connection will help tremendously around meal time, just to remember what your real goals are, remember where you’re going and remember that you have your own path to follow. So thank you so much, Louise. I love this question. Very practical. Let me know how you do and keep in touch with us please, my love.

Question #2 around the topic of: Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle: I’m at ground zero again with my eating, with trying to become a more healthy person eating, exercise, and so on. I remember reading something about certain vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, when you take one, it helps to enhance the other. I’m not sure which is which, and if you’re not eating healthy to begin with, do the vitamins help to support you at all?

Kimberly : All right, next question comes from Geri, who lives in Muckleshoot Indian Reservation. And she writes, “I’m at ground zero again with my eating, with trying to become a more healthy person eating, exercise, and so on. I remember reading something about certain vitamins, minerals, probiotics, prebiotics, when you take one, it helps to enhance the other. I’m not sure which is which, and if you’re not eating healthy to begin with, do the vitamins help to support you at all?”

Kimberly : Geri, this is such a wonderful question and I empathize. I understand what it’s like to feel like, “Oh, I’ve been trying and trying, and now I’m fully off and now, oh shoot, I’m back at the bottom. This sucks. What am I going to do?” So, I will say practically, all these cornerstones work synergistically. So, even if your food feels like it’s a complete disaster at the moment, it is a good idea to get on a routine with supplements and certain vitamins. It is a good routine to get on a meditation practice, as I was saying with Louise. It is a good idea to get into journaling, to become more aware of your emotions, to start to really tune in across your whole life, because the emotional patterns in your life and your ability to be still and to connect with yourself, very much affect your diet.

Kimberly : They very much effect your relationship with food. And it’s very powerful when you start to get this. So, when it really starts to click in, you will start to see that you are able to really have an impact across your life and not even just directly dealing with food, but in all these other modalities, it all starts to work together, very synergistically. So, let’s not talk about food for a minute. Let’s talk about the other cornerstones. Body-wise, this is where exercise and supplements fit in. So, I do recommend if you’re going to take one supplement every day and just one, I recommend taking the Solluna SBO Probiotics. It is the foundational one. I could go on and on about this, and won’t right now, but I will just say that our formula is clinically researched. The ingredients, the way the synergy is, there is clinical research behind all these different strains and the ways that they interact in your body to survive stomach acid, to get into your gut and to actually proliferate and to create this synergistic balance in your microbiome, that will affect your digestion, your energy.

Kimberly : And again, just feeling good gives you that motivation to start to eat better. Your skin. I mean, it goes on and on and on. And so, SBO stands for soil-based organism probiotics. So, it’s the natural form of probiotics. It’s the way that our ancestors used to get them from unwashed fruits and vegetables, where they would literally eat a portion of the soil. So it’s really, really powerful to ingest these on a daily basis. And like I said, it affects your neurotransmitters. It affects your feel-good chemicals. It affects your moods. And it will give you more strength, I believe, to really combat some of these unhealthy patterns and these food cravings that make you feel like, “Oh, I’m off again.” So, if you’re going to take one supplement, that’s the one that I recommend.

Kimberly : I also recommend going for a walk every day, because when we feel dynamic in our body, when we move our body, we start to feel that natural motivation towards getting back to routine, getting back to healthy practices. So, I’m not saying every day you have to do this full gym routine, that sometimes feels like a big chore. Maybe you don’t want to do it all the time. And so, you really feel off. I recommend just going for a walk, start there. That’s actually the main form of exercise that I engage in on a daily basis and it feels great. So 15 minutes, 30 minutes sometimes. You can listen to music, you can do it in silence, but I highly recommend doing that walk regularly, just to get your body moving.

Kimberly : And then emotionally, what could be really great here, Geri, is just to spend five minutes a day journaling. It can be freeform. Over in the Solluna Circle, we have tons of different prompts. If you’re interested in having more daily support from me, check it out over there, where you really start to understand what’s going on inside of you emotionally. So, just journal freeform, when you have a quiet moment. Could be part of your morning routine, or maybe later in the day. And that’s just a great place to start to unpack some of these emotions that build up and cause some issues with food and diet.

Kimberly : And then spiritually, I recommend meditation. Meditation is going to help with your food no matter what. And this, I feel very confident about. When I started connecting inward is when I really started to let go of obsessing. Even when I became healthy, admittedly, as I look back, I would … As I talked about in my podcast recently with John Pisani, my business partner at Solluna. When I noticed, even if there was too much oil, when we went to a restaurant or something was off, it would affect me. I would get upset. I would feel guilty, even if it was inside myself. It had an effect on my life that wasn’t healthy still.

Kimberly : So, when I started to connect in and I really started to dial in my meditation practice, it became so much easier to manage my diet and to feel really good without food. So, that food didn’t become this end all, be all. Food didn’t feel like this major controlling force in my life. It was very liberating. Just so much more easy to control my weight and my energy and how I felt in my body. So, it is something that I highly recommend, Geri, is too. And there’s intuition coming through in your question, because you’re asking about vitamins and other things beyond food. So, get on those SBO Probiotics, try some journaling, try meditation, and then you are more prepared and more fortified and more strong to go back in.

Kimberly : And when you do work on changing your diet, I recommend on taking small, simple steps back to this idea of lifestyle that we talked about. So, start in the morning, making your GGS. It’s a great season now, with summer here, nice and warm, great for smoothies. Try just getting into a routine of having a GGS every day and then start to build from there. Don’t try to change everything at once because that can feel really overwhelming. So, just build, build, and go wide in the cornerstones, and I think you’re going to be very happy with the results that you find. But keep in touch with me, let me know how you do and sending you so much love. All right, next question comes from …

Break

Kimberly: Oh, hold on. Before I jump into the next question, I need to take a little break. I’m going to take a little breather here guys and when I come back after a very short break, we have two more questions for you guys. So, see you in just a moment.

Question #3 around the topic of: Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle: How do you not let people walk all over you, and say no in a respectful way?

Kimberly : All right, my loves, we are back from our break and we have our next question from Sunflower Moonberry May, who lives in Seattle. I love this name, Sunflower Moonberry May. It’s absolutely beautiful. Big props to your parents to giving you such a beautiful name, or if you chose the name for yourself, big props to you. I love it. And your question is, “How do you not let people walk all over you, and say no in a respectful way?” So, I love this question as well, Sunflower. This goes back to real self-connection. When we are connected to ourselves, we understand our real worth. And when we understand our real self-worth, it becomes easier and easier to maintain healthy boundaries.

Kimberly : Now, boundaries, sometimes we make too many boundaries and we close people out and sometimes it sounds like what we’re talking about here, is we don’t make any boundary at all. And then we start to feel trampled down and taken advantage of, and that really impacts our self-worth even more. We start to lose even more confidence and we start to feel just floaty in the world. We don’t really know where the boundaries are, and that really is unhealthy. It’s really important with children, that they know their boundaries and they respond well to boundaries. If you don’t give children boundaries, then they push limits and they start to throw more tantrums, and it really doesn’t feel good to the child. The child wants boundaries. The child wants to feel held. And so, see this as a practice of really starting to hold yourself and hold space for yourself, Sunflower.

Kimberly : And this really is about, first of all, our spiritual growth cornerstone, this awareness. Who is Sunflower Moonberry May, really? Who is she at the core? The true self of Sunflower is this essence inside, which is already whole, it’s already intact. It doesn’t need anything to become more complete. All these surface behaviors and ways that we are in the world and personality traits, ultimately that’s still the surface. The essence of Sunflower is already intact. So, I encourage you to really dial in your meditation practice twice a day. Even if it’s not super long, really establishing the self-connection in the morning and the evening will help you connect to who you really are, Sunflower. I was going to say Moonflower for a second. Sunflower Moonberry, connect in. And that starts to create all sorts of clarity to what is okay and what is not okay, which is individual to you.

Kimberly : And the only way that you can really determine what is okay, and what is not, is when you start to listen more to your intuition and to your inner voice. And when you do that, you are able to discern boundaries like, “Hey, it’s actually not okay for you to just show up at my house.” And you don’t have to say it this harshly, but you can be like, “Hey, it feels really good to me where we talk about it first, before you drop by. Can you please always send a text earlier in the day before you just come by?” Right? I’ve had to hold healthy boundaries with neighbors and people around because I can be very open and it’s not always easy to verbalize things if we don’t like confrontation, if we’re an open person, but it feels really good.

Kimberly : And then it feels good to the other person because then they know where their line is. And then, they don’t have to wonder, “I wonder if I’m annoying this person, or I wonder if I’m taking advantage of them?” You will not be, because they will not let that happen and that creates a very healthy relationship between humans, but first it starts with that self-connection. And then, the next cornerstone that I want to highlight is the emotional wellbeing, because the more aware we become, the more we start to notice our intuitive feelings and emotions about something. So, we can start to feel, “Hey, this really doesn’t feel right to me. This doesn’t feel right when you take your anger out on me and you project it. And I didn’t actually say anything that warrants this type of response. So, please handle your feelings or please work this out, but know that this doesn’t have to do with me and it doesn’t feel good when you project on me.”

Kimberly : Or in your case here, you’re asking about saying no in a respectful way, which is important because saying no means you’re protecting your energy. You’re in touch with your own energy and your time and your vitality. So, it could be something like, I had someone in Bubby’s nature class, this mom reach out about wanting us to come over there, and she lives like an hour away. And she was like, “Oh, the kids just love playing together so much.” And so, I’m writing a very respectful email back and saying, “Oh, I love that Bubby loves playing with your child. It’s amazing. And I’m so happy that they have this nature class together a few times a week, but honestly, I have so much going on right now and I’m wrapping up my book, and I’ve got edits, and I’ve got a new baby who just turned a year.

Kimberly : There’s just a lot going on. So, thank you so much for your invitation, but right now I have to say no, because the timing isn’t right. But again, just so happy the kids are together and maybe in the future, we can find a halfway point or whatever. But right now it’s just so crazy and I know you understand as a mom.” Right?

Kimberly : So, there’s ways we can bring love and connection into our communication. And if we stay connected to our heart, which again is strengthened with meditation, always, always that heart connection, we can say anything. As Katelyn says, our General Manager at Solluna, she says, “You can say anything to anyone, as long as you say it with love and connection.” I’m paraphrasing. She says, it’s the way you say it, but I’m adding stay connected to your heart and you will say it with love. You will say it in the connected way. And how someone else receives it, is on them because maybe they have ego at play, or maybe they have a wound that this triggers or whatever. We can’t control that. But you will know, Sunflower, that you are in your heart, you will know that you are in your integrity. And that always, always feels good to respond from that place of deep connection and deep integrity. And that will always serve you and that will help to serve the people around you.

Kimberly : So, try it out, really focus on your practice, your meditation practice. We have more meditations every month coming out on mysolluna.com as well as on the app. So, I’m putting them out monthly, so they’re current. And they go with what is going on in the environment around us, in the world around us, there’s explanation and then there’s the audio of just the meditations as well, that go with our practical enlightenment flow, which is body movement to settle in, breath work, and then introducing the specific intention into your subconscious. It’s a very powerful way to meditate. I encourage you to check that out and to create that emotional awareness where you start to feel, “Hey, this doesn’t feel right to me in some way. Let me stay connected and let me voice a healthy boundary.”

Kimberly : Because when something doesn’t feel right and it comes up repeatedly, especially, that is a call for that healthy boundary to be put in place. And we don’t have to worry about sounding mean or sounding harsh, if we stay connected to our heart, we can always communicate in that loving, connected way. And we can do that in all situations. So, Sunflower Moonberry May, I want to say it one more time, thank you so much, my love, for being part of our community. For being a loving being that is respectful and loving and cares so much to write this question in. I can feel your energy and I thank you so much. And I send you lots and lots of love out there to Seattle.

Question #4 around the topic of: Tips To Transition Into The Solluna Lifestyle:
 Now that I think I have the beauty detox plan down, I want to incorporate more Ayurvedic practices into my weekly routine. What rituals do you enjoy or suggest?

Kimberly : All right. Our next question, final question, comes from Colleen, who lives in Hawaii. Colleen, I’m not sure which island you are on, but I absolutely love Hawaii, especially Kauai, where I will be returning this summer. And I absolutely love, I love the vibes there. So, sending you a warm tropical hug. Your question is, “Now that I think I have the beauty detox plan down, I want to incorporate more Ayurvedic practices into my weekly routine. What rituals do you enjoy or suggest?” So, I love this question and I love this lifestyle approach again.

Kimberly : Ayurveda to me, is a way to layer more self-care onto our lifestyle, onto our routines. So, personally I don’t follow Ayurveda to a tee necessarily. I take what feels good to me, what works, and then I leave the rest behind. Which is what I encourage you to do with all sorts of things that come across your path. To me, the beauty of Ayurveda is it goes beyond food. It really talks about the psychology and the health of a person. It talks about body care, it discusses spiritual practices. So, it’s very holistic. So, let’s talk about Ayurveda in terms of the other cornerstones. Body-wise, hands down, the number one thing I recommend as an Ayurvedic practice on a weekly basis is self-oil massage, which is known as Abhyanga.

Kimberly : So when we use warm oils on our body, it helps with many things. It soothes the nervous system. It helps you feel relaxed. And that’s so important for reactivity, for inflammation, for calmness and equanimity, which is key for accessing our best ideas and to feeling our best and to not aging as quickly. So, I have a lot of information on this, on the site, you can try it out. I talk about it in the Radical Beauty book that I wrote with Deepak Chopra. You basically warm a little bit of warm oil, and I really like the Banyan Daily Massage Oil. That’s the one that I use. And you warm it up in a bowl. I put the oil in a little jar and then I put it in a bowl and I put warm water in the bowl. So, it’s just a very natural, easy way to warm up the oil.

Kimberly : And then, long strokes up towards your heart. I’m speaking in a very basic way, but you give yourself that warm oil massage for a couple minutes, and then you go in the shower and you let it come off you, and then you pat yourself dry. And you’re doing yourself such a service in terms of all body care, nervous system is connected to endocrine system and immune system. That relaxation, relaxing your mind. It also energizes you in not an overly stimulatory way, but just in a way that feels sustainable and it feels good. So, I highly recommend a daily oil massage or weekly, whatever you can fit in. I haven’t been doing it daily, but I try to do it weekly. So check that out, check out the information and check out the Banyan oil as well.

Kimberly : I also recommend walking, which is an Ayurvedic practice, particularly walking after meals. They recommend walking for about 15 minutes after meals. If you can do that once, twice a day, if you can do it after dinner, it’s a beautiful practice. A beautiful Ayurvedic exercise. So, emotionally, Ayurveda really does talk about the emotional wellbeing of a person. And so, Abhyanga is tied to that as well, because it talks about emotions. But it’s a very important Ayurvedic practice to not eat when you are emotionally upset and you will not digest as well. So, making sure that there is no stress around you, you’re not having a stressful conversation, probably not the best idea to go to dinner with your lawyer, if you’re going to talk about something that’s so charged, right? You want to eat when you’re in a more calm place. And that’s really important across the board.

Kimberly : Spiritually, Ayurveda is of course, tied to yoga. It’s the sister science. So, meditation is a key practice, also incorporating mantras, which means tool of the mind. So, you can use a simple mantra or I use simple affirmations. I actually said one today before doing this podcast, it was part of my practice now. It is part of my practice and it’s something that I teach about more extensively in my upcoming book. But I will say that my mantra today was simply, “I am unconditional love. I am unconditional love.” So, you can start to incorporate a sentence, a mantra, could be Om Namah Shivaya, I bow down to the light within. It can be Sanskrit. It can be English. But you can start to incorporate mantras as a way to shift your underlying, deeper subconscious beliefs and the ways that you walk through the world. And that’s an important part of Ayurveda as well.

Kimberly : So, these are some of the things I recommend, Colleen. Also, really honoring the seasonality, that I think is really important aspect of Ayurveda. So, even within the recipes, even within Beauty Detox, for instance, more raw food in spring and summer, where it’s warm. More cooked and nourishing foods in the winter, more fats, more coconut, milk, things like that. The seasonality is the last thing that I want to point out across all of the cornerstones. So, it’s really wonderful to really take that approach and to layer that on top of the lifestyle that you’re already building on.

Thought of the Week

Kimberly : All right, my loves. I loved these questions today and I love this topic, transitioning into the Solluna lifestyle. And as you can see from our discussion today, it really is holistic. And really, this is the way, this is the pathway to feeling your best, to go wider and to go more holistic versus just deeper. Which has to do actually with my quote of the week, which I wrote right before I read these questions, I wrote when I saw our topic. Which is, “Focus across all Four Cornerstones, food, body, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual growth, versus going deep into just one to get the best results.” So, go wider into all four versus one.

Kimberly : I have gone down the path of hyper-focusing on food, maybe you have too. I’ve gone down the path of being really obsessed with my fitness program, maybe you have too. This will get you somewhere, but you will notice that you don’t really feel that full potential. You feel like you’re on, or you’re off. You’re a little bit nervous, like, “Maybe if I fall off, maybe I’m going to gain some pounds when I’m off.” Planning, thinking. That is not the sign that you’ve fully embodied this lifestyle because when you embody it more and more, you start to really relax and you just start to flow through and believe me, it feels amazing when you do that, because you take all this mind energy and all this exhausting obsession out of it.

Kimberly : So, remember, put some energy into not just food, but body, emotional wellbeing, and spiritual growth, particularly your meditations, and you’ll notice how much more amazing you feel truly. So again, go to mysolluna.com for tons of resources, recipes, supplements, meditations, information, articles, so much is on there. Other podcasts you will enjoy. The show notes for this podcast as well as many others. So, check it out. Also, our free, Solluna by Kimberly Snyder app, which is in the app store. And I will be back here Monday for our next interview podcast. It’s a goody next week, so I think you’ll really enjoy it. Till then, take great care and sending you so much love.

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