READING TO EMPOWER THE HEALTHY STYLISH & BEAUTIFUL YOU
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How many tradeoffs did you make in the last six weeks offering up your own pleasure, wellbeing, or peace of mind for the good or pleasure of someone else? How often to you go to bed late, indulge, or buy something not because you wanted to, but because you had to do it?
Well, December is over and now it is time to return to you. If that seems impossible - many find that even in say May they are constantly putting themselves aside for others - 2020 is a wonderful opportunity to consider making different choices. In our culture, women are raised in the expectation of choosing other people’s happiness instead of their own. It is very difficult, if not impossible to say yes to our own joy, our own happiness, our own pleasure. We have no experience prioritizing our own pleasure or investing in ourselves if it inconveniences someone else. But it is easy, as natural as breathing, to say yes to obligation and responsibility. Let this year be the year of both. Saying yes to your obligations and responsibilities and yes to your own pleasure. I began this yes to my pleasure this morning. I chose to go to Bar because it makes me feel good inside. I began my day with movement dancing to my favorite song to get my blood pumping. I postponed brunch to 12 so the feeling of lightness could return to my body after last night’s feast. Think of three ways this week you can say yes to your own pleasure. Say yes to an investment in your own happiness, health, and wellness. Love, Julia xo P.S. This is a new decade to live intentionally and create the best you.  Switching to a plant based diet is a fast track to better health, beauty, and longevity. Many clients are amazed how their energy returns, skin improves, digestion gets back on track, and they glow.
The transition, although with great benefit, can leave you hungry. I am talking about two types of hunger. First, you can be just plain hungry as in you need to eat. Plant based food the jolieLife way is lower in calories - it is not starch heavy. We are eating vegetables and fruits, not a lot of rice and beans. In light of that, to help with the transition, make sure that you are keeping hydrated. Sometimes hunger and thirst get confused. Also, you may need a snack during the day or to augment your meal with a broth or soup to give you more calories, especially if it is a heavy workout day. Do what you need, it will not compromise your health. The other hunger can come after you are well on your way with plant based eating - these are cravings for foods not typically part of “healthy, plant based eating.” Maybe it’s a chocolate chip cookie, a plate of pasta, or a big, juicy, grass fed steak you desire. Eat them …. occasionally. Plant based is about honoring our body which includes honoring when we really desire a different experience. Plant based eating should be freedom to give ourselves the very best so that we have latitude in how we are living. If it is putting you in a straight jacket, there is room to improve your implementation of plant based eating. If you find yourself feeling hungry on any level, please reach out to me, so we can work on it together. Love, Julia xo Therapeutic Emotional Release is a technique I teach clients to process sorrow, grief, disappointment, anger, and injustice.
It is invaluable as a daily tool when dealing with loss - death, divorce, or big life change - trauma, or a build up of negative emotions. It is also one of the maintenance tools I encourage and use to keep me emotionally clear and light. Emotions are a necessary part of being human. However, it is difficult to know what to do with our negative or darker feelings. If you are like me, you were taught to suppress them. I cannot tell you how many times my father told me to stop crying, get over my anger, pick yourself up and keep going, or swallow my disappointment. Yet despite expert suppression and denial, emotions did not dissipate. Instead they lodged themselves in my body. They became a budding ulcer. Emotional suppression is one of the leading causes of stress related illnesses: heart disease, obesity, autoimmunity, insulin resistance, depression, insomnia, and digestive problems. We need to deal with our feelings. Therapeutic Emotional Release is an easy-to-learn technique to release emotions from the body without losing it. You can do it in a controlled, precise method. The practice has three parts and should take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes a day - you get to decide how much time to devote to it. . Part 1: Decide what emotion you wish to work on releasing or what situation you want to address. Write this down on a piece of paper you will discard once you are done. This part is short - 1 minute tops. Whatever emotion or situation surfaces first is the one to deal with now. Part 2: This section takes ⅔ to ¾ of the allotted time. You are to embody the feeling. If it is sorrow or grief - cry, sob, rant, get on the floor, curl up into a ball. Do what feels like sorrow or grief. The point is to allow your body to physical act the emotion - think modern dance. If the emotion is anger, you may scream, punch a punching bag, pound a pillow, jump on a trampoline, Allow the words, emotions, and energy to flow out of you in movement. The movement is essential because it is what dislodges and empties the emotions from the body - it is like flushing the toilet of anger, sadness, or grief. Part 3: You cannot skip this part of the technique. Without the third part, you no longer have Therapeutic Emotional Release. It will not be effective without the third part. In the third part, you use your senses to bring pleasure to the body. You can dance, you can eat something luscious like a strawberry or orange slowly, you can bathe, you can feel soft fabrics, you can run your fingers through your hair, you can sing - the point here is to do something pleasurable with your body that is also beautiful. This third part is refilling you with good feelings and peace. After you flush out the emotion, it is important to refill the tank with clean water. As you engage with this form of therapy, you will find yourself lighter, less reactive, and healthier. You will also discover that negativity does not need to intrude on the rest of your day. There is time set aside to deal with what you are going through. If you have a large build up of emotion, I recommend daily practice of Therapeutic Emotional Release. As your emotional septic tank gets emptied, you will need the technique less and less. I encourage you to commit to a 30 day practice if you have a significant loss or trauma. Otherwise commit to using this practice once a week. It will transform your life. Love, Julia xo Yesterday I attended a small gathering of people which allowed me to observe and test some of the practices I teach in coaching.
1. Attention changes interactions to connections. Eye contact is most effective when not only your eyes, but your attention is focused on the other person. Attention is likely the most scarce resource in modern human interaction. Talking to another while thinking about yourself or something else, blocks your ability to connect. Placing all your attention on the other person allows you to see the next questions to ask, where they may be resistant, and gives them a subconscious feeling of being seen. In last nights event, the deepest connections where made by focused attention and those conversations flowed without awkward pauses. 2. Authenticity can include challenge. When seeking true connection with another being authentic is key, but so is challenge. We all enjoy agreeable people, but those who never introduce an different viewpoint or disagreement are more difficult to connect with because they do not demonstrate individuality or how they are unique. When you speak with people be yourself, but also do not be afraid to challenge them. 3. Ask questions. Observing those who talked about themselves mostly with those who asked frequent questions, especially follow up questions - the conversations liberally sprinkled with questions definitely allowed the participants to learn more about each other and deeper discovery. Also, throughout the conversations with questions the participants exhibited more open body language. To learn more about how you can optimize your ability to connect with others to make your life and their life better, join me in a coaching session. To learn more click here.  Feet are neglected in Western beauty culture, but are foundational in Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. They deserve the attention that these alternative modalities advocate. Feet have pressure points which are connected to almost every area of your body. A foot massage affects not only your feet, but your organs also. Foot health also influences the health of your knees, hips, and lower back.
Here is my healthy foot routine to keep me spry. 1. Practice toe separation. If you practice yoga, you are use to the practice of spreading your toes. This helps to alleviate compression of the musculature and nerves of the feet making you more stable and grounded. Without a yoga practice, wear a toe separator for 5-15 minutes each evening. If your toes are too stiff or this causes any discomfort, start gently by weaving a paper towel between your toes. 2. Rub your feet 2-3 times a week with a pumice or exfoliation cream. This will keep your heels and ball of your foot soft avoiding painful calluses which throw off your gait and lead to problems in the knees, hips, and lower back. Do not do this if you have abrasions on your foot. 3. Massage the sole of your foot with a tennis ball daily to address tightness, to relax the foot, and to activate pressure points on the foot. 4. Moisturize your feet twice daily. I use a moisturizer in the morning with lots of botanical oils and another one with 20% urea at night. It will cure cracked heels and help hydrate the skin. It also helps with dry hands. Follow this and you will have fabulously healthy, beautiful feet which will benefit your mobility, agility, and joint health. love, Julia xo  How can you see results from your meditation practice more quickly? Start with the type of meditation for your goals.
When people ask how I teach meditation, I explain to them my very results driven approach to meditation. In private meditation consultations, or My Meditation as I refer to it, I choose the mediation that is aligned with the client's goals. Meditation is not a one size fits all prescription - I want clients to see results, so we use the meditation suited to their needs. To encourage your home practice, here are three types of meditation I use most often.
Frequently these approaches are interwoven in a session with others added to produce the type of transformation available through meditation. I encourage you to think of your goals for your practice and experiment with the types of meditation most suited to helping you get there. If you’d like help, book a My Meditation session. Love, Julia xo P.S. The various forms of meditation each stimulate different parts of the brain. For this reason, they yield different results.  I firmly believe our health is heavily influenced by our beliefs. Science now is backing this up with study results which show how repeated thoughts affect our behavior and cell health. Also studies have shown the power of mantra. When we tell ourselves something over and over it can shift our behavior, habits, and choices.
For example, a friend of mine used to be addicted to ice cream. To break the addiction, each day she would visualize herself eating ice cream and feeling terrible afterwards. Over time, this meditation built an aversion to ice cream within her. Likewise, the placebo effect can increase efficacy of treatments and overall health outcomes - a person thinks something will help her and it does just because of the thought. What we believe determines what we think is possible, our habits, and our choices. But many of our beliefs are under the surface and we operate not being aware of them. However, if we listen to our thoughts and self talk they will reveal our underlying beliefs. You will learn rather or not you expect health or illness. Eavesdropping on yourself will reveal if you are at peace with your body or feel alienated and disconnect from it. What you hear is affecting you on the level of cell health - the essence of wellbeing. If you discover a belief that is negatively impacting your health, how do you change your beliefs? In order to replace or reverse it we first recognize the belief. Do you expect to be stressed? Do you think your health is delicate? Do you expect to recover quickly when sick? Do you think you are undeserving of health or feeling great? Do you think you will always feel bloated and uncomfortable? Do you think you are bound to experience a particular disease? You bring the beliefs to the light. Then, replace the belief with something more aligned to the outcome you want. This process of replacement is gradual, but will work. For example, for a while I had orthorexia. I thought some foods would instantly make me fat and feel terrible. Each time that came up, birthday cake for example, I would tell myself, “My body knows exactly what to do with this food and can use it up quickly.” Over time, I was able to occasionally partake in certain foods without the expectation that they would instantly derail my health gains. Core beliefs I continually reinforce are: I deserve health and energy all day; I eat so my body heals itself; and aging is not inevitable. These beliefs I repeat to myself. This way I expect well being and make choices which support health. It creates habits of choosing food for how they will assist my body in feeling great, When I am sick, rather or not it requires medication, I tell myself that my body is already healing itself. The positive thoughts, help me to heal faster. Using your beliefs for your health is one of the most powerful wellness tools you have. it is effective, free, and accessible.  I am not a vision board person, but I decided to do one at the beginning of the year because I felt that 2019 was going to be amazing! Just about everything happened! How is this?
I will tell you vision boards are not magical or necessary, but are one way to use what I call “conscious effort” to create what you want. A physical or mental vision board is an expression of new possibilities. Creation of anything starts by simply considering the possibility of something. jolieLife food is incredible food - it’s healing and it’s delicious. I wanted more people to experience it because I believe in my core food makes all the difference in illness, aging, and energy. I wanted a way to spread it. The means to do so hadn’t happened, but it could happen. So I began the process of conscious effort. Conscious effort is the work of putting your attention on the thing you desire. This is not the same as hard work. You do not need to work hard at your goal in the traditional way of putting a lot of elbow grease into it. There is a more feminine energy of creation we can access which uses work, intention, and openness. Conscious effort begins with saying that this is something I would really like. So I am going to meditate on this image of what I would really like and I am going to build on it and build on it. It is not to say you don’t do anything, but conscious effort is kind of effortless. You build on the idea mentally and physically until the opportunity presents itself. You prepare yourself for the door without "pounding on a wall hoping to transform it into a door" - Coco Chanel. You take the steps the universe shows you, and you rise to the opportunity when it comes. This does involve time and energy, but it does not have to be a struggle. Consider that you can work hard without struggle. Yes, you have to expend your energy, but it can be effortless. You do the steps, but not in a way that feels pressured or burdensome. So that those steps you do flow out of a love for the work, a love for the process. An important side note is to make sure you are enjoying the process because if you do not enjoy the process, once you reach your goal you will find no joy there either. It is like the person who is on a grueling diet and hates every step of the way. Once they reach their goal, there is no pleasure staying on a program that will maintain the results. Whereas if you enjoy the journey, learn to enjoy healthy food, love the way your body feels in the transition, develop a love for movement; maintaining your weight at the end will be easy. In conscious effort you are putting your attention where you want it to go and letting things come to you. It is helpful to plan out steps, but you want to leave room for flexibility and new inspiration. It is good to have a general plan and then ask the universe to guide you. You do your part and co create with the universe to let providence take you where you want to go. You take action, but allow space for inspiration and serendipity. jolieLife cafe - my goal was in mind. I worked on the quality and presentation of jolieLife meals with love, skill, and conviction. When the universe opened the door and the offer of opening a jolieLife cafe came from Murray Hill Tennis & Fitness, I rose to meet the opportunity with the same love and passion. This is conscious effort in manifestation. Fall is a great time to think about what you want to work on and towards. I am happy to help you create your best life in a Soul Styling session. Book here. Love, Julia xo  I just got back from Paris as many of you know. It is my happy place. Every time I travel there I wish I could bottle up that feeling of Paris so that I can have access to it at all times.
In actually, I can. You can also tap into the energy of your happy places and happy times. What’s more, is that this practice does not only help you feel happier in the present, but it creates more happiness in your life. Here's the method. For me to access the me in Paris energy, I open myself to imagining myself in Paris. I imagine the beautiful scenery, the yummy food, sitting in a cafe, the casual interactions people have. The imagining is important because the mind is the point of access to the energy of Paris. It is the instrument I can use to tap into that energy which is easier because it is a place I have already experienced. When I access Paris energy I feel calm and peaceful; I feel happy and free. The more I do this kind of daydreaming, the more I get use to or accustom to the feeling of being calm and peaceful. In reality, I am not tuning into Paris, but I am actually tuning into the vibration of happiness. As this becomes my habit of tuning into happiness, then in my day to day life I start looking for more of that experience. It changes my perspective, what I notice, and what I am concentrating on. I get used to the Paris feeling, and then tune myself to things of similar frequency. So when you daydream about your happy place or time, you too are tuning into a vibration of happiness and well being. You begin to shift your mind into a place of peace and tranquility. You feel more deeply the feeling of freedom happiness gives. Habitually experiencing the feeling of happiness will draw more happy experiences and create more happiness within you because you are shifting your own consciousness towards happiness. This is not hard work. You simply need to allow yourself to daydream. You can do this while brushing your teeth. It does not require much from you, but allows you to create a better life for yourself. Love, Julia xo P.S. For more steps and tools specific to you, feel free to reach out.
and to help women embrace that there are more options available to them for interpreting events and happenings than we perceive. Eger, at 90 (I love that too) shows a path toward healing which does not deny or suppress our hurts, yet leads us beyond them.  The Morning Fog
does not make the elixir spicy. Black pepper assist the body’s absorption of curcumin - the active ingredient in turmeric
Recipe: Grate one knob of turmeric. Simmer in 4 cups of water with a healthy pinch to ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Strain the elixir. Add the juice of one orange and one lemon. Add 1 tablespoon of honey and 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. You can enjoy this hot or cold. Cold is my favorite with the heat.  I love aromatherapy, but find it hard to integrate into everyday lfe. A simple way to use aromatherapy is sprinkling a few drops of essential oil onto the floor of the shower. As you dial in your temperature the whole bathroom becomes an aromatherapy room. Try cedarwood or sandalwood for the scent of bathing in nature.
with light, Julia  This is one of the breakfast favorites in the jolieLife menu. I love it for breakfast as well as a healthy snack. Avocado adds healthy fats to nourish your skin and brain. Raw cacao improves heart health, is high in antioxidants, and is anti-inflammatory. This rich creamy treat will keep you satiated until lunch. Here is the recipe if you wish to make it at home. It serves 4-5 Avo-Coco Probiotic Pudding 2 avocados ripe, peeled with seed removed 1/4 c. coconut oil 1 T vanilla 3 T almond butter 1/4 c. maple syrup 1 ½ c. raw cacao powder 1/3 to 1/2 c. water 3 T protein powder 1 probiotic capsule Raspberries Cacao nibs 1. In a high speed blender, blend avocado, coconut oil, and vanilla till smooth. 2. Add in almond butter, maple syrup, raw cacao, water, protein powder, and probiotic powder. Blend till smooth and creamy. 3. Refrigerate. Garnish with fresh fruit and cacao nibs. with light, Julia  When you feel bored, sad, cranky, or moody try a dance break. Put on your favorite song and dance away for 3 minutes. Daily dance breaks help to release energy as well as build positive energy. It is a great way to take your mood up a notch.
My favorite dance break songs: I'm Not Afraid - with light, Julia  You are at a smorgasbord plate in hand. You circle the offerings taking a little bit this and a little of that. You return to your seat with a plate full of yummy possibilities. What do you eat first?
The food that most excites you. Now take a piece a paper. Draw a circle. This is your plate. It represents a period of time - a day or a week. Within the circle write down all the things you have to do. Take a look at it. Now do the thing you want to do most in the circle. When you finish that, do the next thing you want to do most. Continue like this. Also, on your smorgasbord plate, sometimes you select things and only eat half of them before tasting something else. Or, perhaps, you decide something on the plate isn’t really for you - you leave it on the plate. Now allow yourself to move through your circle like that plate. Some things you will complete, others you will do part of and then switch to a different activity; some you will realize are not for you. I call this feminine list making. You have structure, but fluidity within the structure. I’ve been using this method and it amazes me how productive I am with it AND how much I enjoy my days. The circle feels good as a gentle boundary that I can expand and contract as I feel. The choice aspect allows we to move through the list based on what is exciting me most at the moment. By doing the thing that would give me the most joy at the moment, I use positive motivation to get things done, and build up energy throughout the day as opposed to leaking energy into "eating my frog first." With the freedom and fluidly to move in and out of tasks based on my joy, I get a lot done in a day. My circle has helped me to enjoy the rush and the activities. It feels more like water moving as opposed to digging myself out of a mountain of work. I highly recommend it!! For those with questions of how to use this in a work or school environment, for items that have a deadline or that I must produce for others, I note it, but continue to move within those expectations to where my joy is. And everything gets done, faster than you’d imagine. If you notice that a particular item is repeatedly left in the circle, it means it is something you don’t want to eat just like when you leave food on your smorgasbord plate. That’s okay. It’s time to let that item go or get creative. The smorgasbord analogy is good here. What are all the options for dealing with something that isn’t appetizing to you? Love, Julia xo  Here is my technique for unblock beliefs that are keeping me stuck or hampering my progress. It is very simple, always works, and requires little effort from you. All that is necessary is a willingness to release beliefs which are impeding your progress, repetition when necessary, pen, and paper.
The Release Technique I write down the belief or beliefs that I am holding which are not helping me move positively. This I do anywhere. I keep it as simple as I can. I write whatever comes to mind no matter how irrelevant or unimportant it seems. A belief is simply an idea. An idea someone crafted because it worked for them. It made sense to the creator of the idea. In some cases the idea is enshrined as a cultural norm, familial expectation, social attitude, or the rule of a particular group. But, in its essence, it is simply an idea. An idea that worked for someone else in their particular situation does not mean it works for you. Even an idea that worked for you, may not continuing working for you. So instead of seeing a belief or idea as a rock which is unchangeable, think of it more as water: it can shift and change. Beliefs are fluid. I then look at each idea and I cross it out. Crossing it out signals to my consciousness that I don’t need that idea anymore. For stubborn beliefs, sometimes I have to keep writing them down and keep crossing them out until I feel the belief loosening and drifting away. My father had told me many things I couldn’t do. They were all beliefs from his perspective and experience, crafted to protect me and him too. Many simply stopped working for me - he is quite old fashioned. So, I crossed them out. I have done many of his "you can'ts." This is a way to open yourself that doesn’t require a lot of work because it shifts you internally. As your thoughts about yourself and what's possible changes, your actions change. Your energy changes, and it opens up more space for you to grow. In my practice, I work on energetic changes because they are the ones that help you grow with grace and as much ease as possible. By changing in this way, the path to your goals is smoother and attainable. Love, Julia xo  My first truly clinical use of food was to cure my 6 year old son of gluten intolerance and IBS. I put him on the GAPs diet for 6 months. A diet based on bone broth and slow reintroduction of normal eating. Nathanael went from debilitating stomach aches and diarrhea after wheat and almost every meal to being able to eat whatever he wants. The results have persisted to this very moment.
A client recently asked me about how to heal their gut. Bone broth is amazing at knitting the lining of the intestine back together. You will see a noticeable difference with just a 1 day broth cleanse. The medicinal broth accelerates healing and maintains a healthy gut through a combination of food, herbs, and roots known to heal and support the intestinal lining and improve gut impermeability. The broth is made from organic chicken bones, a lot of therapeutic mushrooms, vegetables, and 20 different organic roots and herbs to nourish the digestive system. The gut and its microbes are your source of health. When you have a leaky gut, molecules are allowed to cross into the blood which cause inflammation and autoimmune responses. A healthy gut does not allow those molecules to leak into the rest of the body. As the broth restores the lining of the gut, it provides an environment in which the good microbes can flourish. Good microbes = good mood, high metabolism, better brain function, and less disease. Along with the medicinal broth we created the Medicinal Cleanse. A 5 day cleanse targeted at healing your digestion and deeply detoxing the body. It includes only foods and herbs known to heal the gut, liver, inflammation, and the skin. It excludes nightshades, fruit, grains, dairy, nuts, and meat. While nourishing you deeply, you will find the food amazingly delicious and satisfying. To get the broth or cleanse and to learn more look here. You can also email me to see how the medicinal line can help you in your particular situation. Love, Julia xo P.S. The broth contains many mushrooms for their anti-cancer properties for added benefit.  Hunger can be a scary sensation. By scary I mean unfamiliar. Just like in other areas of life, when something is unfamiliar to us we can perceive it as scary or something that needs immediate correction or escape. Hunger is something you can sit with for a bit. Through it we learn, most things can be sat with longer than we think.
It is useful to meditate on that idea because much of our stuffing of emotions and food is literally an attempt to not experience the discomfort of sitting with our emotions. Yet, only by allowing the discomfort to wash over us do we get the opportunity to digest and understand what our emotions are telling us. And, by pushing them away, we miss seeing the beautiful wave as feelings come and go. With hunger, by giving ourselves food at the first hunger pang we don't get to know if the hunger is temporary, a proxy for something else, or passing. Not knowing the source leads to overeating and missing the opportunity to know ourselves more deeply. However, if you look at the scary hunger pangs, situations, or emotions as simply something unfamiliar, they become things you can get look at and explore. You can practice being with the feeling to find out what is underneath it. By exploring our hunger, we learn what we really need. By exploring our emotions, we discover what they are telling us. Hunger is a great opportunity for self growth in many areas. The next time you are hungry accept the invitation of observe and explore yourself, then eat. with love + light, Julia  We are constantly birthing. Birthing is creating. It could be a profession, an education, yourself, a relationship, a service, a home, a garden, whatever you are creating, you are birthing.
Birthing consists of three stages: conception of the idea, the gestation, and the emergence into reality. Each has its process. I use the word process intentionally to underscore that in manifesting a desire it is an intentional unfolding as opposed to forced action. To manifest a desire, or birth it, you essentially want to expand into some area of experience. First to do so, you allow yourself the space. In the body, the uterus is set aside as the space. If you want to create something big, you have to make space for it - mental, physical, and time. Physical space is sometimes needed. If you want to begin painting, but every space of your house is occupied. The making space could be clearing out the garage or guest room. Mental space is cultivated within meditation, journaling, and learning. Visualizations are perfect for this. As we nurture our desire we give attention to it. Attention can be looking for others who have achieved what we want. Seeing is believing. Seeing another’s success signals to you, you can get there too, especially if this person has a story similar to yours. Attention can be baby steps to find out more or experience part of what you want. If you want to go back to grad school, that could be taking one class or going to a lecture series. As we nurture the desire, it grows and will require more space to develop. As the desire grows, it slowly becomes more real to us as we start to see it beginning to manifest. In this stage, the inertia of the desire carries energy which will make it easier to create the space for it. It’s as if the desire gets ignited and the original fanning has created a strong fire. From here just like pregnancy, we continue to give more attention and space to our creation so that it naturally unfolds. Yet, unlike pregnancy, there is no due date. We can create in ease when we allow the process to take its course. If there is something you wish to birth for yourself, be patient with the process, look for people as examples who are farther along the journey, and begin to take steps to experience parts of your desire now.  The most primary relationship we have is with ourselves. As a mother, my health, calm, and patience comes from how I nurture or mother myself. Actually, rather or not you are a mother, mothering or nurturing yourself is essential. It is the only way to cultivate the soil of your life so you are healthy, vibrant, and feel alive.
Mother's Day gives opportunity to reflect on motherhood and to introduce Aphrodite Project. Birthing and pregnancy is very dear to my heart: I spent 14 years of my life bearing children, I experienced happily water birth, hospital birth, and home birth. Each was fantastic, monumental, and taught me about myself. But, what I did not realize then, and know now, is how very lucky I was in having one healthy pregnancy and birth after another. Aphrodite Project provides women support in pregnancy and postpartum that is desperately needed. The United States is in a health crisis that few are aware of or speak of: the rate of pregnancy related death is rising in the U.S. while decreasing 44% in the rest of the world although we spend more on healthcare. We are at the bottom of the list when compared to other developed countries. Many studies are now being conducted to find out why. The general agreement in the research is echoed in a Harvard University study which asserts that the main contributing factor is the chronic stress women live under which weakens the entire body making pregnancy an extraordinary challenging environment for maternal wellness. So by dissolving stress and building wellness within the body, your chances of a healthy pregnancy and birth dramatically increases. The practices we focus on at jolie are also the recommendations for creating better maternal outcomes. Aphrodite Project takes these practices and adapts them to pregnancy to help women create better results for themselves. My request to you is to take a look at aphroditeprojectbirth.com. Even if you are not in that stage, you will find useful tools. But even more, please join me in connecting childbearing women with the site. It is a growing treasure trove of support. Love, Julia xo  Sometimes we don’t feel the way we want to feel or the way we think we should feel. Maybe we are in a place we don’t like, we don’t feel movement in our life, or things aren’t turning out the way we want. We all want to be happy and feel aliveness. The path to that place is not fighting or resisting your feelings in this moment.
Yet, how do I get rid of a feeling I don’t like? I say to you, you do not need to get rid of the feeling. If you feel, for example, guilty sometimes, simply acknowledge there is part of you that feels this way. The best way to change is to not push against what you don’t want. But to be accepting of who you are at the moment It is you. It is right to say to yourself, “I just don’t feel good. I feel bad right now. I feel guilty right now. I feel a mixture of emotions. I feel love, but I also feel dislike and I feel dis-ease and I feel discomfort with my own emotions, AND I can accept myself for the moment.” This is not to say you must stay in a situation, but you can accept that you don’t feel good at the moment. And, you choose to love yourself anyway. When we push away our negative feelings or chastise ourselves for them it creates a sense of self flagellation. We engage in self talk or actions which say: I am not worthy, everything I do is wrong. But, that is not really a good way to approach life because actually by accepting this part of you where it is now, it can come into cooperation with you to make the changes in your life you want. It is like with any other person, if you want to make change together, you cannot just keep beating them up. You cannot say to them “You should know better. You’re so stupid. You never learn. I just don’t like you.” If you treat another person like that, you would very much be aware that they are not going to like you and they are not going to cooperate with you. That makes logical sense when we frame it in relation to others. However, what happens is that we do this to ourselves. If we feel a kind of guilt, disappointment, or shame, we may very often self flagellate ourselves through variety of means. Here goes again the negative self talk or doing something on the outside to sabotage or punish ourselves. We treat ourselves like this and expect happiness and cooperation which isn’t possible when we are beating ourselves up. So, pause. Whatever method you use to self flagellate, be aware that you are doing it. This awareness combined with the accepting of yourself described earlier, puts you in a place where your ego will slowly loosen its grip on you because it will no longer be under attack. Making peace within, in this way, will allow you to feel a little bit more free to shift and change. The changes will not happen overnight, but little by little as you accept and love yourself in whatever feeling you’re in, one little bit at a time you will see changes in your behavior and life. Love, Julia xo P.S. Begin a dynamic relationship with your own life by acceptance and cooperation within you.  Welcome to April!
The theme of awakening keeps coming to me in my own life, spring, friends, and clients. I am going to devote April to this. Before we begin, I want you to know you don’t need to do anything nor to you lack anything. Think of a seed. It is perfect - it is not better or worse than the plant. The plant is not better or worse than its flower. The fruit is not better or worse than the flower. In whatever stage you are in, you are perfect, just like a seed. And, like a seed with attention, water, food, and sunlight you naturally grow or evolve. So, awakening is going to follow that paradigm. You are perfect now as you were yesterday and will be tomorrow. How you decide or don’t decide to grow or evolve is based on how much water, attention, sun, and nourishment you have. So let’s dig in. The first practice I offer is as you awaken each morning and do not look at your phone first. Instead, take a moment to focus on your heart space. Focus your attention on the physical place where your heart is. Then ask yourself: what do you need today? How can I be of the greatest service to myself and others today? Throughout the month I will ask you to focus on your heart because it is where you give and receive love to others and yourself. The heart will tell you the truth from the perspective of love. Love, however, is not always warm and fuzzy. Sometimes love is angry or boundary pushing or self protective or found in other forms. I ask as we begin, you accept what your heart is telling you without judgement. There is no pressure for action, that will come when you are ready. But, releasing self judgement is essential. With light, Julia xo  How do you know you need a detox? But, more than that, do you even need to do a detox in the first place?
Detoxification is something that your body naturally does through the liver, skin, breath, pee, and poop. It is a constant process that never ends and is quite efficient on its own. It is necessary to clear out the remains from all the millions of chemical reactions which allow you to live. It also clears out very natural environmental toxins like too much sun exposure, fumes, smoke from cooking fires, plant and animal toxins. In its ideal state, the body does not need you to do a “detox.” Problems arise when it doesn't have the necessary nutrients to use in the process or is overloaded with environmental and agricultural toxins. Then, we need to detox. A gradual acceleration of detoxification will happen as you eat more plants; to kickstart or deepen the process do a detox. I experienced this after switching to a plant based diet (for the curious, I do eat meat). I could feel the increased energy, clarity, and glow that came as my body was able to function better and detoxify faster. However, at some point I reached a state where the need for deeper detoxification arose - think of weekly cleaning versus spring cleaning. So I decided to do a three day juice cleanse every month. I detoxed in this way for about 3-4 months, then one day a month for another 3-4 months. Each time I felt better and better. But, after the 6th or 7th one, I knew I didn’t need to keep “detoxing.” The deep cleansing was complete and my diet gave my body what it needed from there. I recommend detoxes to clients that are experiencing intestinal issues, mood instability, decreased energy, skin eruptions, and accelerated aging. Do a 1-3 day detox for a few months, then a 1-2 day detox until you feel your body clean - trust the body, it knows when to stop. Soup cleanses, low sugar juice cleanses, broth cleanses, and carefully designed food cleanses can all be used as detoxes. For our cleanses, click here. If you need help designing a detox for your particular needs, I am happy to give you some guidance. Please reach out. Love, Julia xo P.S. Sleep and water are essential for detoxification always. Their benefits are immense and you can start today with 7 hours of rest and more hydration. Jolie | Blue Mill, Morristown, NJ 07960 Unsubscribe {recipient's email} Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by julia@thejolielife.com in collaboration with  A rose quartz meditation is a wonderful way to increase the love you have for yourself and others.
To do one:
For the best benefit, repeat daily for 14 days. Let me know how you grow with this meditation. Love, Julia xo  Honoring your boundaries is a huge act of self love. It’s an action which takes attention, trust in your internal GPS, and a deep commitment to you. Realizing that your well being is more important than meeting the expectations or standards of another.
This year I want to cultivate a mindful relationship with money. Money is essentially energy. An energy that can be used for validation, control, nurturing, and expansion. My desire is to use it in ways that nourish, cultivate, and expand. As soon as you establish a boundary the universe often sends a situation to teach you more about your boundaries. My daughter’s birthday was mine - her gift expectations exceeded mine. I did not want to disappoint her and I recognize gifts are her love language, but also wanted honor myself. First, I made space for me to consider her request. I said maybe, but said I needed time and asked her if it was okay with her to receive her gift post-birthday. She said yes and did not ask about it at all. Many times during contemplation I almost said fuck it I will get the Chanel for her. It will make her happy. Each time I stopped short - it did not align with me. Then I decided I would not spend that much and asked the universe to bring the perfect gift that honored me and her. The same day I found a beautiful Roger Vivier clutch at 85% off retail. I gave it to her that evening and she was delighted. When we honor ourselves, our boundaries, the universe meets us. Not only that, but it’s a wonderful lesson and principle that your love for others does not need to come at the cost of compromising yourself. I invite you to deepen your own awareness of your boundaries. It will make you freer and happier. Love, Julia xo  I love facial masks. As winter fades and spring is slow in coming my skin reaches its apex of dryness. Awaken winter skin with an at home mask. My favorite hydrator and reviver is Manuka honey. Try mixing it with one of the following to create a nutrient mask:
with light, Julia |
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