Tag: happiness

Boosting Your Yoga Practice on a Budget
Healthy Living, Mental Health, Personal Wellness

Flexible and Financially Savvy: Boosting Your Yoga Practice on a Budget

Yoga is one of those sports you just fall in love with. Equal parts physical activity and meditative practice, it’s the perfect exercise for those looking to strengthen their bodies, improve their flexibility, and increase their mind-body connection. For many, once you fall for yoga, the drive to improve your practice becomes inescapable.

For those of us on a budget, however, this drive can be a little disconcerting. After all, extra classes, equipment, and training can all cost a pretty penny. So, how can you improve your yoga practice without breaking the bank? Here’s a look at several budget-friendly yoga tips.

Set Goals and Track Progress

Having solid, achievable, trackable goals is a necessary step toward improving. It’s one of the simplest things you can do, but it will make a massive difference. There’s a straightforward reason for this: when you know exactly what you’re trying to achieve, getting there is much easier. Make your goal as specific as possible. “I want to practice three times a week” is better than “I want to practice more.” Find ways to quantify your goals so you can know for certain whether or not you’ve achieved them.

Once you’ve set your goals, you need a way to track them. You can use a journal, phone app, or another device to visualize your progress. An Apple Watch, for example, is a great device for tracking fitness goals. However, they can be pretty pricey — look for online deals and an Apple promo code on refurbished devices to save money if you decide to get one. Whichever way you track your goals, make sure you review your progress to see how far you’ve come. This will encourage you to keep moving forward.

Focus on Meditation 

One of the most beneficial parts of practicing yoga is coming to develop a better understanding of your own body. Mindfulness is an essential part of yoga, and making an effort to focus on it will pay off. Not only will it improve your confidence during flows and reduce your risk of injury, but it will also have lasting effects on your mood.

Studies have shown that regular mindfulness practice reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety. It can also lower blood pressure and improve your energy levels. By learning how to focus on the moment, you can let go of stress-inducing intrusive thoughts. This is a completely free way to turn inward, improve your practice, and boost your health.

Release the Urge to Compare 

In today’s social-media-driven world, we are given plenty of chances to compare ourselves to others. However, little to no good can come of this practice. When you compare yourself with others, you’re almost always going to come up short. This is because our brains are very good at finding the best in others and the worst in ourselves. This means you’ll come to conclusions that are neither fair nor a true representation of the world. Moreover, it can cost you money by driving you toward buying unnecessary stuff in pursuit of being like another person.

Even if we could see others and ourselves completely objectively, however, there’s still little to gain from comparing. After all, someone else’s success does not invalidate your progress. If your friend started yoga after you and is nailing more challenging poses, that doesn’t mean anything bad about you; they’re just progressing at a different rate.

Improving your yoga practice takes time and dedication. But yoga is about so much more than finding balance in a pose or moving confidently through a flow. The journey toward mindfulness, body awareness, and inner peace is the true benefit.


Blog post courtesy of Sheila Johnson @ Well Sheila

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Technology

10 Apps To Download to Help Keep You Happy And Healthy

Our phones play such large roles in our lives. We often find ourselves so busy that we cannot find time to relax or workout. To help you out here are 10 apps that can help you be happier and healthier.

 

Calm

Calm is an app that focuses on helping you relax. You can download it for free on both Android and IOS, with the option to purchase extra features in the app. The most notable free feature in Calm are the guided meditation sessions that are available with different time lengths. Other free features include bedtime stories for adults called “Sleep Stories,” and the ability to play calming nature sounds.

 

 

 

10% Happier

10% Happier is a meditation app. New York Times bestseller Dan Harris and other instructors wanted to simplify meditation through this app. You can download it for free on both Android and IOS. 10% Happier includes a number of free features that include a 7 session info course for mindful meditations, daily teaching videos that simplify meditation, guided audio meditation, quick meditations, and new content each month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MyFitnessPal – Calorie Counter

MyFitnessPal – Calorie Counter is an app for nutrition tracking. You can download it for free on both Android and IOS, with the option to do the premium subscription once you download the app. MyFitnessPal – Calorie Counter has over 6 million different foods already in the system, and it allows you to create your own food as well. A few of the other free features include water tracking, a barcode scanner to scan foods, a breakdown of the nutrients you’ve ingested, and the ability to set goals for yourself.

 

 

Under Armour Record

Under Armour Record is an app for fitness tracking. It is available for free on both Android and IOS. The features for this app include step tracking, workout tracking and logging, ability to log weight, and the ability to log sleep. In addition to those, Under Armour Record syncs with MyFitnessPal – Calorie Counter to show your calorie intake for the day, and it syncs with numerous other fitness apps if you already have one.

 

 

 

Sworkit: Workouts & Fitness Plans

Sworkit is a home workout app that does not require any equipment. It is available for free on both Android and IOS, with the ability to purchase extra features in the app. Sworkit does have a number of free features. One such feature is custom workouts. The app takes the amount of time you say you have to workout and creates a workout for what you want to work that lasts your set amount of time. The other big feature is the 6 week workout program to get you “Leaner,” “Fitter,” or “Stronger.”

 

 

 

Sleep Cycle


Sleep Cycle is an app that tracks your sleep. It is free on both the Android and IOS app stores. Sleep Cycle uses your phone sensors to analyze your sleep, and then it wakes you up during your lightest sleep stage within the time frame you set. This allows you to wake up with more energy for the day. Like many sleep apps, you can see your “Sleep Statistics” after you wake up. The feature that sets Sleep Cycle apart from other sleep apps is that Sleep Cycle does not require you to have your phone under your pillow.

 

 

 

 

Medvoucher

Medvoucher is designed to save you money on healthcare services. They work directly with providers to guarantee the lowest price possible. You can search vouchers based on cost, location, and what service you are looking for. Their database consists of many different providers, so you can choose the one that is best for you. Medvoucher’s platform allows you to not need to pay costly insurance premiums, co-pays, or deductibles. The price of the voucher is all you pay for your service! There are no extra hidden fees!

 

 

 

 

Journey

Journey is an app that allows you to keep a digital journal. It is available for free on both the Android and IOS app stores. Journey includes a number of great features. They include syncing to Google Drive and other Google apps, a journal timeline, a private journal, it syncs across multiple platforms so you could start an entry on your phone and finish on your iPad, and you can post your entry directly to social media if you would like to share with friends.

 

 

 

 

Day One

Day One is a digital journal app. It is available on the Android, IOS, and Mac app stores for free, with the option to purchase extra features from the app. Free features include a private diary, so you can set a passcode in order to view your entries. Other prominent free features include Flashbacks where it will show you journals you had in the past, and a Memory Calendar that you can add pictures to to better remember th

e day.

 

 

 

 

Colorfy

Colorfy is a digital coloring book app. It is available on both Android and IOS app stores for free, with an option to purchase extra features from the app. Colorfy allows you to relax through coloring their numerous designs, and more are added each week. The app offers an offline mode, so you do not need to be connected to the internet in order to use it. Other features include the ability to post your art to social media, and an augmented reality function that allows you to view your art in a real-world perspective.

 

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