It's Okay To Make Mistakes

By Claire

Living holistically is all about realizing that everything is connected. So, here is something important I've learned in my life: it's okay to make mistakes! We're all children of God sent here to make mistakes and learn from them. If we couldn't make mistakes we all would have been destined for Hell a long time ago, right?

So, here's my thought on this subject: make mistakes, live your life. But don't allow yourself to dwell on your mistakes. Live and learn.

There's one song I remember very well from when I was a kid. My dad would play it all the time. It went something like "no more excuses, excuses are useless". This has been a mantra for my life all my days. Basically what I get out of it is this: Don't waste time making excuses for what you did. Take responsibility for your actions but don't dwell on them. Learn from them.

I hope that you will go out and live life the way it was meant to be lived, without regret.

Claire

If you would like to learn more about living without regret, check out this blog: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/40-ways-to-live-life-without-regrets/

Claire 4/15/2016 “Why Living a Holistic Lifestyle Makes Sense”

Hey everyone! I am so sorry that I wasn’t able to post a couple of weeks ago. I have been so busy with school and passing my classes that I haven’t really thought about much else. Especially since I was also singing in two very big events this past semester and was focusing all my time and energy on homework and memorizing and singing the words to the songs we sang. But here is my blog post for this week, all about why living holistically makes sense.

We’ve talked a little about what a Holistic Lifestyle is in general and ways you can live a Holistic Lifestyle, but we haven’t talked much about why it makes sense in more detail. So, I am going to explain why a Holistic Lifestyle makes sense not only as a person, but also as a member of my church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Living Holistically is all about realizing that Mind, Body, and Spirit need to be aligned and working together efficiently in order to be happy and have a healthy body. Knowing this, the happier you are the more you are balanced in these three aspects. But let me explain a little more about what I mean by Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Mind is all about keeping your brain healthy. It’s continually learning and using your brain rather than doing menial tasks that require little to no brain power. Your body is at its peak when you are using your brain to solve problems. This is why we are encouraged to never stop learning, keep growing and changing, keep finding new things that make your heart happy and you smile your brightest smile! It’s good! It means you are open and willing to change and become a better person. Always strive for that.

Body is exactly what it sounds like. It’s what your mind and spirit live in, so it is especially important to keep your body healthy. It’s eating healthy, exercising regularly, staying safe and knowing how to protect yourself from outside harm. Remember, when you are sick your mind and spirit aren’t as able to think or feel the spirit. When you are in shape and healthy you feel more energy to do the things you love and to learn more!

Spirit is all about your emotions and your beliefs. It allows us to feel connected and open to generations of people who came before us. Spirit means meditation, continually learning about what you believe in, and just generally practicing your beliefs. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that means that I try to pray to God morning and night, and read my scriptures daily, as well as meditating on a regular basis. Remember, God can only speak to us when we are willing and connected to our spiritual side.

If used effectively, these three aspects will heighten your life and patterns. If your mind is healthy it’s probably a good sign that your body is also in good shape and if you are in shape and your mind is healthy you are better able to practice your spirituality. It all works together as a whole.

So, keep learning and striving for knowledge, spirituality, and health! They all work together to create a happy and healthy life!

Live well,

Claire

Claire 3/18/2016 “What is Rest?”

Last weekend I definitely took Katie’s post to heart. The day she posted it, I went to a hair salon and got my hair cut. Afterwards I walked across the street to a bread store and bought a loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Later that day I had a photoshoot with a friend for my upcoming graduation, then avoided homework like the plague the whole weekend. It wasn’t a very productive weekend, except for the fact that it was indeed quite productive for my health: mental, spiritual, and physical.

This week, however, was crazy-hectic!

Monday: I had two classes and Family Home Evening (we watched a movie), but on top of that I had to finish a book, read more of Northanger Abbey, and took a midterm for my Tuesday classes.

Tuesday: I had three classes back to back from 8am-1pm and a rehearsal for a big concert we’re doing in Salt Lake City today and in Rexburg tomorrow.

Wednesday: I just had my two classes, but I had to make sure all my homework for the rest of the week and Monday and Tuesday of next week was done. I also went on a date with my roommate to watch Peter and the Starcatcher which was being done on campus (she needed to do it for a class).

Thursday: I had my three classes back to back and then another rehearsal.

Today: I had to wake up at 6:30am so that I could be at the meeting point for the concert I’m in by 8am. I’ll be on the road, rehearsing, and singing in a concert all day today in Salt Lake City. Then tomorrow I have the concert again in Rexburg.

So, how do I balance all of this stuff? Well, the short answer is I don’t. The long answer is that I feel so overwhelmed that sometimes I let stuff slip, even though it’s all important. I’ve found that the best thing to do when I’m busy like this is to just relax, figure out what I need to do and organize all of that first, and then fill in the cracks with stuff I want to do.

For example, this week I’ve somehow managed to do yoga every day. Even if it’s just a few minutes of peace in the morning, it is so worth it!

So as you go through the next few weeks and months and you start feeling the way I do now, just remember to slow down, breathe in deeply, and prioritize everything you need to do.

Live well,

Claire

Claire 3/4/2016 “Why Yoga?”

Hey all! 

It feels like forever since I wrote a blog post (I know, it’s only been a couple weeks)! Well, I’ve known for a few weeks that I wanted to write about Yoga, because it’s an important part of my routine. However, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about exactly. There’s just so much about Yoga! Most of it I’ve learned through personal research and by looking up videos on Youtube. Recently, however, I joined this online community called Zenward. This is an online Yoga community focused on providing Yoga routines for Yogis from Beginning to Advanced. I absolutely love it, because our instructors could be from anywhere in the world, and I can do one routine over and over until I get it! Plus, I don’t have to go anywhere to exercise, all I need is my computer and the internet.

However, today when I went to do Yoga, I couldn’t get through the first five minutes of a ten minute flow that I’ve done half a dozen times. I couldn’t figure out why. Sure, I haven’t done Yoga for a couple weeks, but could I really be out of shape already?

For those of you who exercise regularly, you know that the answer is yes, but it’s probably not that simple of an answer either. There could be any number of reasons:

• Not enough sleep
• Not eating enough/well enough
• Not drinking enough water
• The shot I got in my arm yesterday which is still hurting after a day
• And it could even be as simple as motivation

It's hard to tell, but this is Warrior Pose. I don't have my arms
up just because I was in between poses.

That is why it’s SO important to stay on top of your workout routines. Not only that, but to also stay healthy, eat healthy, drink healthy. Really, it’s all about making everything in your body work harmoniously so that you can be in the best shape possible!

This is really hard on me. I was always a healthy kid, but my family wasn’t big on the whole exercise thing, and we did splurge and eat candy and other foods that aren’t the best for our bodies on occasion. This isn’t bad necessarily, it just didn’t teach me healthy habits. I’ve had to learn to create my own healthy habits as an adult, which hasn’t been easy on me. And I’m still learning!

Yoga helps me to realize how each part creates the whole. If one thing is out of whack, everything else will be too, and Yoga understands this. I don’t want to just practice Yoga when I’m on the mat, but I want to practice Yoga in all aspects of my life! And I want to have fun with it while I’m at it! Oh hey, look at that! I AM having fun!

I hope that you will consider these things when you are deciding how to be healthier. And remember, Yoga isn’t just a way to exercise: It’s a way of Life!

Namaste,

Claire

Claire 2/19/2016 "My Bullet Journal"

By Claire Enos

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the idea of using a bullet journal and I posted a link to a how-to guide as well.  I was so inspired, I immediately started my own! I bought a journal and the first thing I did was start doing it exactly how they said to set it up in the video. However, there were some parts I didn’t particularly like, but I didn’t know how to do it the way I wanted, and I’m not good at art. I found another video on bullet journals and looked at how some other people were doing theirs. I soon realized that there are so many different and unique ways to do what I needed my planner/journal to do. So after a few bumps, I finally found something that works for me, at least for now.

I keep everything in my bullet journal. I would tell you, but why don’t I just show you? Here are a few pictures from my very own bullet journal, and then I’ll describe some other pages I have and tell you what else I use it for.

This is what the front of my bullet journal looks like. I wanted a nice sturdy journal that wouldn’t easily fall apart, even with constant abuse. I made sure it was fairly lightweight and had plenty of pages. I love the one I found, it’s by a company called: Blueline. If you pay close attention you can also see that I have tabs at the top. Those tabs take me to individual months. I only have two at the moment because it’s only February, but by the end of the year there will be a lot more!

This page is at the very front of my bullet journal. On one of the videos I found, the girl who was showing off her bullet journal had a word that she wanted to use as a guide for her year. I thought that would be cool, so I chose the word “Explore” because that’s exactly what I hope to do this year! Around the word I have other awesome quotes about traveling and exploring, and then a bigger quote on the next page. I tried doodling the Charmed symbol but it didn’t work. Oh well, I’m sure with practice I’ll get better! ;)

This is how the video I shared at the beginning suggested doing the monthly log. With each date of the month written on each line. I found I didn’t like it much and didn’t really use it as you can see. Later I found a better way of logging stuff on a month to month basis. I will have a picture farther down in this post.

This is my daily task list page, where I put each of the things I need to do in any specific day, things such as appointments, rehearsals, homework assignments, etc. Obviously the formatting changed from the first time I did it to the next. Now I’ve pretty much figured out how I like it, but it took a little work figuring out what I liked! As you can see, I love colors. You’ll see more colorful pages ahead!

On this page, you can see that I doodled a little bit. It is totally fine to doodle as much as you like! It makes your bullet journal YOURS. On the next page, I have my goals for the semester which I wrote up and wanted to keep somewhere safe. I taped it to the page that I track my habits on, that way when I go to mark my habits I can remember to contemplate my goals and see if I’m staying on track or if I need to do better at something. It’s just an easy way to keep track!

This where I track my habits. It doesn’t matter if I forget a day or something, as long as I’m keeping track and seeing where I can fix my habits. I have my weekly as well as daily habits listed here and I mark them off as I do them. I love this page because it keeps me on track with my goals!

This is my ABSOLUTE favorite page in my bullet journal! I love how colorful and ME it is. This is how I now do my monthly log, I just do it as a calendar and then I can put important appointments and birthdays and everything in it. Then each week I transfer them over to the weekly log. This way I can remember everything that’s important. Like that the 14th was Valentine’s Day, and I had no class on Monday because it was President’s Day! <3

This is my weekly log for last week as well as my daily logs for last week. As you can see I have a format I do things in now and I’m sort of figuring this thing out. It’s so versatile and I love it!

I think the best thing about this is that it can do whatever I need it to do.

Besides the pages I’ve shown you, I also have notes from church, my expenses and finances, other doodles, sometimes even class notes if I’ve forgotten my notebook! And I plan on doing a lot more with it as the time goes on. For example, I might even include a log for my blog posts and the dates I’m supposed to post! And, I also have a page for my essays, where I submitted them to, and when. So I can keep track of where I’ve submitted to and what essay I sent them.

I hope this has been as fun and educational for you as it has been for me! Let me know if you do this, and if you have any suggestions I am always looking for new, more colorful, fun suggestions for using my bullet journal!

Live well,

Claire

Katie 2/12/16 “Let’s Talk About Love”

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, let’s talk about love. It’s the defining force of our existence, for it was in love that we were created, by love that we are saved, and through love that we are perfected. It drives each and every one of us. The more love we feel, the happier we are.

The most important thing in our lives are our relationships. At the end of the day, all we want are family and friends who are supportive to us. We spend a lifetime cultivating them. Some come easily, naturally, effortlessly. Others are a hard won battle. Hopefully it doesn’t take a lifetime to learn how to discern between poisonous relationships and tough ones.

Valentine’s Day is all about lovers, but what about our relationship with ourself? Don’t we deserve to feel love for ourselves the same way we do for others? I want you to go deep today, and really think about yourself. Set some time aside today for yourself and use it to reflect and assess how you’re doing. Now that you’re ready, please proceed.

I think we all know that self-love is where our joy comes from. When self-love is deeply established in your heart, you shall never want for love. A lot of people think of love in a backwards direction. They think that if someone loves them, that it will open their heart and heal all their ills. This is a false, limiting belief.

Love and marriage do not heal or correct. It's not a magic spell that fixes all our ills. Those exist just as before. Love has no power to change us or our life like a light turned on with a switch. If you're unhappy and have problems now, they will persist if left alone. Happy relationships are a great tool for the healing process, but not a cure-all. This is why divorce happens. People expect love to fix them and live happily ever after. We must first master self-love.

It’s one thing to know this, and another to feel love for yourself. Life can be hella hard, and kick your teeth in and leave you bleeding and alone. The things that happen in life can bury the love we are born with. If you are reading this and think you’re not worth loving, that you can’t ever forgive yourself for your past, or that you’re beyond reach, I want you to know that you’re deceived in these feelings. We are all beings of light and love. We’re Heavenly Father’s children. You have a divine birthright, and are not only worthy of love, but have an eternal spring of it within you.

When you’re having a bad day, smile at a stranger. Think of someone you care about and do something kind for them. This could be as simple as emailing a friend, making your family’s beds, taking your neighbor’s trash bin to the corner for them, or helping a senior bag up her groceries. One of the best ways to build self-worth is to serve. You have capable, helping hands. You can bring light and love to someone, and that’s truly amazing.

As children, we are sometimes shamed for our behavior. It’s not always done in spite, but it still affects us. We carry that shame forever if we don’t do something about it. Think of little children. They are innocent and pure. When they make mistakes, it’s not because they did it to hurt someone. It’s not on purpose. They’re too young to know any better. The same is true of you. When you were punished as a young child, you didn’t know, either. Go back in your heart and mind and rewrite the way you were spoken to. Change the words from a harsh, crushing punishment to words that uplift and heal and guide. Replace all the bad with good. Speak to yourself in your mind the way you would speak to a sweet child, desperate to learn and to please. You would use loving words. You would uplift. You still need that as an adult. More than need, you deserve it. As we rewrite our past, we begin to write a better future.

If there are things you feel regret for, do this same exercise. Forgive yourself and know that the person you are now is a much better, stronger person. Life is not for perfect choices. It’s designed for us to make mistakes and learn from them. We are still very much like children. This is the only life we’ve lived, and we’re going to mess it up the first time! God knew we would sin, that is why he made a plan for us. Just as Christ’s Atonement is infinite, it can cover our finite weaknesses. If the Lord with His strict justice can forgive you, and He does, so can you. Listen to your Father and trust His love. His perfect Son delivers you from the memory of your sins. You don’t have to be harrowed up by them anymore. It’s time to move on and progress.

Thanks for reading, and know Claire and I love you! Now scoot your butt off to a quiet, meditative space and start the process of renewing, invigorating, or beginning your self-love. You’re so worth it!

Live well,

Katie

P.S. Some good literature on the subject of healing past feelings is as follows:

Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol S. Truman

Healing Feelings From the Heart by Karol S. Truman

Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson

Katie 1/15/16: "Restore Your Power"

Welcome back!

Today, we’re going to “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” I find that when things are sequential and build upon each other, it is simpler to understand. “Precept upon precept; line upon line” (Isaiah 10:28).

We begin with the most basic question: What is holistic living? Some definitions follow:

“Characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.”

“Encompassing the whole of a thing, and not just the part. Holistic medicine looks at the whole person for answers, not just at physical symptoms.”

Everything is connected. Your childhood affects how you react to stressors, your reaction affects your choices and health, your choices affect your life, your health affects your quality of life. We already understand that. What we aren’t taught though, is how to advance our lives from lack and sickness to abundance, perfect health, inner peace, joy, and freedom.

In our modern American culture, we are dependent consumers. We don’t grow our food (In 2009, 37% of Americans grew their own gardens. Link #1 below), we don’t make our clothing, we don’t build our houses or furniture, we don’t repair our cars. The list goes on and on. I am in no way saying that having tradesmen and specialized professions is detrimental, quite the opposite. It is wonderful to have skilled people doing what they are good at and being able to make a living off it. Not all of us have the time and talent to provide for all of our needs.

The detriment with consumer culture is that we eat what is fed to us. We don’t have to look far for products that boast miraculous things, and we don’t do more than read warning labels. We are lied to every day, but we don’t even see it anymore. Too few of us question and dig for answers. We’ve given up our power in exchange for instant gratification and convenient access.

The people who are in control of our food and medicine do not have our best interests in mind. The animals we eat live in dirt or cages and are pumped full of hormones, no matter what your packaging says. Yes, grass fed and cage free is a step in the right direction, but it’s still full of antibiotics and growth hormones. If you bought it at the grocery store, it’s probably not good for you.

Your fruits and vegetables are sprayed with poison to keep bugs away, then dowsed in chemical fertilizer to try and get them to grow in hard dirt, and showered in tons of water in an attempt to keep them hydrated since they don’t have strong root systems or living soil to keep them alive. Farms get bigger and bigger every year because they are producing less and less. This unnatural way of growing plants isn’t working, and our land and water and bodies are paying for it.

Even organic isn’t organic. They spray things to make them keep longer on the shelf. Once something is picked, it loses 80% of its mineral properties within 10 MINUTES. Not hours, minutes! (see link #2 to read a bit about why.) Organic farmers have to do some non-organic things to get their food to last long enough from field to truck, truck to grocery store, then store to your fridge.

You wonder why you’re sick and tired and allergic and overweight? It’s because there is no live, clean food available to us at the grocery store. We’re all being poisoned (watch link #3).

My friends, there is a war being waged on us. If we do not take our food back into our own hands, we will continue to be unhealthy, pained, diseased, and obese. We are living in a time when almost all of our food is unsafe. It sucks. It’s evil. Why has this happened? Let’s think of who the god of this world is. God created the earth, but who rules the flesh? It’s Satan. He is the father of all lies. He spreads corruption and sin. He is in control now of our food industry, because he knows how much power he holds over us with it.

We have to fight back. We have to reclaim our right to health and wellness. If you want to be skinny, you have to grow your own food. If you want to be pain free, you have to grow your own food. If you want to be healed of your diseases, you have to grow your own food.

Please understand: you can grow your own food, and it will be simple.

You’ve been told lies your entire life about how much work it is to garden. No one will profit from you feeding your family by your own labors, so of course you’ve been lied to. Where is the money in telling you how capable you are, and how easy it is?

The thing about God is that he’s simple. His truth is simple, even a child can understand. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. He tells us to ask and we shall receive! He doesn’t say, “Ask, and I will make you go on this long, roundabout journey to find an answer and it will be really difficult.” He says receive. It’s instant.

He loves us. He wants us to be happy. In Nephi 2: 25 it reads: “Adam fell that men might be, and men are, that they might have joy.” God put us here to gain experience and physical bodies, which allow us to have families and to progress! He never set us up to fail. He’s given us all good things. Read the first chapter of Genesis. Not once does it say that God made bad things. He saw that each thing he made was good. It was important to him to bless us, not curse us.

I truly believe that His yoke is easy. This is why I am so excited to share my findings with you. I want all of us to live abundant, healthy, joyful lives. If we live after God’s way, we can be nothing but blessed! Sin and lies are what make life hard and painful. That is Satan’s way, not the Lord’s.

Here are the solutions to the food crisis.

Clean animals make healthy bi-products. Buy your meat from local farmers who don’t fill their animals with shots and let them graze all day. Buy eggs from chickens who eat bugs and plants, instead of the sad hens locked in filthy cages and fed grain. Hunt wild animals. They have never been touched by growth hormones or antibiotics and feed solely on organic matter (do all of this legally, so we can begin to improve our rights as citizens).

Grow a Back to Eden garden. It is simple, suits your needs, feeds your family year round, and will be the best food you’ve ever had. Link #4 will show you exactly how to do this. I will also be chronicling my own experience with a Back to Eden style garden this year. You don’t need much space, you don’t need much water, and you don’t need much work! You will be amazed at the perfection God designed for us to partake of! And it’s all free from the Lord!

To return to my previous statement about advancing the quality of our lives, the first step is always a shift in consciousness. You have to become aware that something isn’t true before you can find the truth. Shift with me now. Shift to trusting God, that He will direct your paths if you let him. Proverbs 3:5-10 is powerful. If we depart from evil, it will bring health to us. That is amazing. The more connected we are to God, the more healthy. The happier. This holistic thing gets so clear. God doesn’t overwhelm us. He tells us to start where we are and trust Him to guide us. Wow!

Living holistically isn’t hard, it isn’t a burden, it isn’t unpleasant. It’s a joy! You restore your power as a divine being. Let’s move forward in joy together! Keep following us, and please leave comments, suggestions, and questions. This is our journey together as children of God. We can do all things in Him, who strengthens us!

Live well,

Katie

1. Home gardening on the rise
2. Nutrient loss in fruits and veggies
3. Powerful message on the crap we are fed
4. BACK TO EDEN GARDEN