READING TO EMPOWER THE HEALTHY STYLISH & BEAUTIFUL YOU
 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.  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  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  The full moon is a time for me on a monthly basis to stop and evaluate. What is working? Am I on track? How have my goals changed or progressed?
I highly recommend taking a monthly pause to stop and check the terrain of your life. Without it, we can find ourselves off course not knowing how we got there. Here is my Full Moon Checklist. I take about 10-15 minutes to do it - going with my first impulses. Go somewhere quiet, ground yourself, and dive in. Afterward, spend a little time in meditation or prayer to let go of what’s distracting you and recommit to your goals. Full Moon Checklist:
with love + light, Julia xo  The New York Times published an article titled “Mind May Trump DNA in Exercise and Eating Habits,” which highlighted a study showing that when patients are told they have “a low capacity for exercise or a tendency to overeat, their bodies start to respond accordingly.”
For me, meditation is not sitting on a cushion detaching from the world. More often than not, I use meditation for myself and my clients to create greater health, weight loss, piece of mind, and healing. Using your mind to help your body heal or perform well is complementary to all other efforts with no negative side effects. Try this meditation for the next 30 days: as you drift off to sleep repeat in your mind, “I am in perfect health.” Both scientific and anecdotal evidence suggests that this type of meditation works as well as some medications with no negative side effects and zero cost. Used with other treatments, exercise, and clean eating is a winning combination. with love + light, Julia  Meditation sometimes feels like eating your greens. You know you should do it, you will feel great for doing it, but other things on you plate are calling you.
Meditation doesn’t have to be a commitment. You don’t need special equipment or a lot of time. It is in essence sitting and being with yourself. If you can control your breath or visualize during the time with yourself, great, but otherwise you are still doing it. One great meditation for you to do alone or with kids and family is the wet noodle meditation. Wet Noodle Meditation
To learn more about meditation, take a private training class, explore the jolie blog, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. with love + light, Julia  Meditation, journaling, self reflection, and all spiritual practices are much easier to do daily if you create sacred space to do so. It is the spot set apart for you to engage in deepening your spirit, centering yourself, and grounding - your clarity spot.
When the kids were little it was a struggle to find time for myself to be. However, the daily practice of sitting and reconnecting with yourself and the power beyond you is what keeps you calm, happy, and energized. At that time, I had a chair and a candle in the living room. When I lit the candle, the kids knew mom was taking a 10 minute time out. Now the kids are bigger, I enjoy more private corner of my bedroom for myself. How to Set Up Your Clarity Spot: Find a place in your home where you feel comfortable. You want to be able to unwind here, not a spot where you feel on display or your guard needs to be up. Think of the place you feel happiest or most relaxed. Add something to make it special and denote that this is a space set apart: a candle, pictures of those you love, a special book, journal, a plant or flowers. My favorite way of creating this space is looking around the house for my favorite things or meaningful items and using those for my clarity space. What you place there can change based on your mood, goals, or the time of year. Mine changes throughout the year. I try to keep it visually aligned with my goals and how I want to use the space. I may add a shell I found at the beach to remind me to relax; pretty leaves the kids collect to take me back to my favorite place, the woods; or in spring a potted daffodil welcoming change. If I am working on a big project, I may put something there that reminds me of my “why” in doing the project. I try my best to spend time in my clarity spot each day, even if it is only for a minute. Yesterday was hectic, so my time was spent there doing nothing, but taking in the love of the Universe with each breath. Getting your intuition back is the most valuable self development you can ever do. It is the no fail, no lie, no bullshit, truth serum. Listen to it, and it will tell you what to do.  Getting your intuition back is the most valuable self development you can ever do. It is the no fail, no lie, no bullshit, truth serum. Listen to it, and it will tell you what to do.
Childhood, for most of us, impaired our ability to access our intuition. When we listened to intuition and told grown ups, we were corrected, ridiculed, and told we were wrong. You may ask why is daddy hurting me? He isn’t hurting you, he loves you. Why is mommy crying in her bedroom. Mom’s not crying. She just got something in her eye. We accepted what they said, although internally we knew they were lies. These small betrayals to our internal compass slowly erode our confidence in our intuition. It’s essential you get your confidence back. Break the habit of doubting the voice which is quite clearly telling you what is going on. It's hard to do. You will learn to hear yourself in Be Your Own Guru, but begin by militantly being on your own side. You need to trust yourself - it’s the key to confidence and getting your intuition back. Relying solely on our rational mind - the alternative - does not nourish you. Meditation is helpful in this step. When you give space to listening you will hear intuitive hunches and create the internal space for them to percolate up. That’s valuable stuff. Love, Julia xo Every morning before I get out of bed I visualize what I want in my day. I see everything I know is on my calendar happening how I want it.  I see my time at jolie, my workout, time with my kids, what I’m making for dinner, my errands and chores. I see myself going through my day with high energy and enthusiasm. If I have any special request, I make it then. This morning’s request was to be open to new opportunities, The visualization sets up my day to be the best it can. I begin with an intention and belief that it’s going to be a fabulous day. When you greet the day uplifted, it smooths the winkles. Try this out. It’s easy, practical, and only takes a few minutes. You will be surprised how it uplevels the quality of your day. For help with visualizations, email me. Love, Julia xo  Can meditation help when you're facing a challenge like cancer?
I have a dear friend undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Alternative cancer treatments have been my obsession lately to help support conventional treatments and make them less painful. Mindfulness meditation, the practice of focusing on the present moment, has helped cancer patients experience less pain, more calm, and increased happiness according to a 2011 study. Mindfulness also helps the body to heal by helping cancer patients sleep better and feel less stress. By concentrating on compassion and the present moment, meditation is an alternative to the anxiety and worry many people experience. Through mindfulness, we become more aware of our thoughts and emotions. This allows us to create more space so we can choose to enjoy the present moment and not race towards future what ifs. We can choose more healing thoughts and appreciate what is - positive mindset has been documented over and over as a non-medical key to healing. Experiencing a health challenge? Try developing a meditation practice. My Learn to Meditate course offers instruction in mindfulness and using meditation to promote calm and relaxation. Also, experience our mindfulness and compassion meditations as well as singing bowl meditation to help you cope with the stress of illness. I wish all health and healing. Love, Julia xo MOTIVE TO MEDITATEWhen you meditate, you plug into a supercomputer. When I meditate I solve problems, find inspiration for new initiatives, cut through my feelings to find the core truth, let grow of anger and frustration and have the most amazing conversations afterwards. It’s my superpower.  Meditation is more than sitting still and quiet. Many people resist meditation because they think it’s boring or a waste of time. It is easy to believe that time can be used more productively: working, exercising, going out, shopping, or seeing friends. Meditation can seem self indulgent. Time is limited: we expect those other activities will accomplish more in terms of money and relationships.
The benefits of meditation are so multifaceted- it can change your life in many ways. Eight weeks of regular practice will make you happier and more centered, rewire your brain, reduce stress related hormones, improve intuitive skills – that’s the short list. In our busy, complicated lives we don’t realize its importance because meditation does not immediately produce emotional, physical, and mental benefits we can see. Meditation works subtly from the inside out. Meditation, in many cultures and traditions, is considered the way to live a balanced, harmonious life with others and the planet. Many religions, including Christianity, see meditation as an essential part of life just like eating, working, cultivating relationships. They begin and punctuate the day with meditation understanding that connection to Source or God grounds us and empowers us to work on our life’s purpose. The more relaxed and calm we are, the more we are receptive to the flow of experiences, information, and solutions in our lives. It allows us to be more aware of our environment and act with more presence of mind. If you think there is not time to meditate, you are missing a key opportunity that can change your life. When you meditate, you plug into a supercomputer. When I meditate I solve problems, find inspiration for new initiatives, cut through my feelings to find the core truth, let grow of anger and frustration and have the most amazing conversations afterwards. It’s my superpower. Not to mention, my fine lines relax and my energy is more positive. The most difficult obstacle blocking you from achieving your goals is that you don’t know yourself as well as you think you do. The activity of life distracts us from going inside and asking questions of ourselves. That is why meditation is so vital. It takes you out of the commotion: the awareness created in meditation helps you get in touch with yourself, learn about yourself, and love yourself. The more knowledge you have about yourself, the better you will understand yourself. From there it is easier to decipher why you are here and what your true purpose is. You are an amazing, powerful, creative being, but me telling you that is kind of like your mother telling you you are beautiful. You need to discover yourself beautiful just like you need to uncover your own powerful, amazing, creative self. There are many types of meditation. At jolie we teach various forms. This allows you to find the types that work best for you. You can learn and refine those and can take them with you into the rest of your life. My favorite guided meditations are visualizations, body scans, and sitting in silence. Using those forms I shed stress and manifest things like crazy. Here are some tips to get you started: take five minutes in the morning and focus on your breathing. I often do this after hitting snooze on my alarm if I’m sure I won’t fall back asleep otherwise I do it after my shower. It helps to focus on the light of a candle or imagine myself walking across a never ending field. Notice how your body feels, emotions that arise, thoughts that come up. Gradually increase your meditation time as you feel comfortable. Guided meditations at jolie are also a wonderful way to kick start and deepen your practice--it’s akin to having a private trainer for your mind. You move forward finding greater peace within and your own superpowers. with love and gratitude, Julia Stress is the enemy of maintaining beauty and health. Hormones related to stress put our cells into overdrive. We were created to respond to momentary stress, but not to the constant onslaught modern life can present. Sustained stress damages our cells causing more rapid aging. Fat cells respond to high stress levels by storing more energy as fat. Aging and weight gain--a dreadful combination.
Taking time to breathe and meditate quietly throughout the day is a wonderful antidote to stress. Slowing down consciously two to three times a day gives the spirit time to reconnect with the sacred inside you. Just a five minute break will relax the body and clear the mind. So today set a reminder on your phone to stop, breath in for four counts and breath out for four counts. Concentrate on your breathing. Visualize stress, tension, and worry draining from your body as you exhale and light energy flooding you as you inhale. This practice alone will do more than glass of wine ever could! |
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