Hello self-care ninja’s, how has your week been? I hope you were more successful with starting to eat healthily like I was. While I started a good eating habit at the beginning of lent (leaving out sugar, drink enough, eat more fresh fruit and veg) I did falter boldly last week: Back to cheese on toast for breakfast instead of porridge, sugar in tea and coffee and I made such delicious flapjacks with raisins and cashew nuts I just can’t resist them. Oh, and don’t forget the husbands wonderful Carrot Wine…

Well…

That is how it is. It doesn’t go into my achievement list for my self-appreciation mug but I won’t let it make me feel bad either. Practising radical acceptance of what is and then change what needs changing. So far the “no sugar” in tea and coffee has kicked off again. That’s a start, isn’t it?

So before I change my mind on any of it we better get on with today’s post:

What’s in our mugs this week?

And why mugs in this blog feature anyway? If you have signed up for the Bee Writes…/The Bee Creates… newsletter you got a download about easy daily steps to self-care. One of which is my “Self-appreciation mug”. No, it does not mean to get arrogant about yourself it means to allow yourself a mug (or glass) of your favourite beverage while contemplating what you have achieved and giving yourself praise for it. This is a great way to raise your self-esteem and to realise how far you have come which in turn will encourage to make more changes for the better.

But this week we are cheating. No mugs peeps. It is April so many festivities are around from Easter to Pesach. And how better to celebrate a party or festival with a lovely drink. No, I am not supporting the drinking of alcohol. I want to introduce you to Tia Mowry and her glorious 3 favourite Mocktails which are cocktails without the booze for all of you who don’t know. We are in week 9 of “Singing in the Rain” and deserve a pat on the back for learning so many new ideas about how to care for ourselves and trying out new habits. And a deliciously looking drink is perfect for this, don’t you think? So with no further ado over to Tia Mowry and if you like her recipes make sure you check out her page and/or sign up for her channel.

Video credit: Tia Mowry via YouTube

Singing in the Rain ~ Week 9 ~ Sitting and Standing

In this week’s chapter Rachel Kelly introduces us to the benefits of good posture. Besides the health benefits which you can find out about in the later video good posture also has an effect on our mood. The theory is that if you stand all and are open you automatically feel more confident. I would say this is true. For some time, people were bumping into me all the time when I was anywhere on the street. It did start to annoy me massively and I realised that I didn’t look people in the eye and hunched my way around them so to speak. So I started to straighten up and look people in the face when they came my way and guess what? They moved around me without bumping into me. That definitely helped to feel better.

Rachel offers an exercise for a helpful body posture in her book as well as some stretches but I want to give you some more information about body posture and TEDed made a great video about it:

video credit: TEDed via YouTube

If you would like to find out about Rachel Kelly’s suggestions for a better posture and other ideas for wellbeing then I encourage you to check out Rachel’s “Singing in the Rain ~ An Inspirational Workbook” by Rachel Kelly on Amazon for the full benefit of her suggestions!
(I am not affiliated with Rachel Kelly and get no rewards for this suggestion)

And if you want more of these mindfulness and self-care posts: Please find previous “Mindful Music Monday Mugs” on my abandoned “Bee SelfCaring” blog and the newer posts under the “Mindful Music Monday Mug tag“. There is also an old series called “Music Monday Care & Love“.

Mindfulness in April

Mindfulness is a superpower, did you know? No? Me neither so let’s not wait and find out why 🙂

video credit: Happify via YouTube