Mindfulness Archives | Arner Adventures

Summer Self-Care Check-in: Checklist Included

Ever since we were young, summer is the season we all look forward to. We all remember counting down the days until summer break. It is still our favorite season, but with it comes high expectations. We thought we would create a summer self-care check-in. It’s a good time to have a pulse check for not only our physical health but our mental health. While comparisonitis is in full swing, we want to remind you that summer self-care is important. Also, checking in with yourself can be done any time of year.

To make this easy, we put this in a checklist format. We love when things are made simple.

Summer Self-Care Check-in Checklist

Try saying that a few times, quickly. 🙂

Get outside. We cannot say this enough. Getting outside just helps you reset. Whether you are working from home during the day, or just spending time inside too much, be sure you take time to be outside. This does so much for your mental and physical health. If you want a fun and easy way to get outside, try our free Get Outdoors Challenge. Nothing says summer self-care like going outside for a bit.
Start a meditation practice. We know. You may be reading this and are rolling your eyes, but trust us. If we can do it, you can do it. You can start with a simple meditation that we do. It is quick and easy and walks you through five easy steps to calm your mind. You can grab it here.
Start a gratitude practice. Whether you can see the good things in your life to be grateful for or not, even if you can just recognize one thing each day to be grateful for, you will find that this practice helps reduce stress. Sometimes just the ability to breathe is something to be grateful for, and that is ok. You can use a journal, or you can use an app like the Gratitude: Self-Care Journal.
Bring on the summer songs! We have a fabulous summer playlist if we do say so ourselves! You can listen to it here. You can also create your own playlist. Music is a great way to care for yourself, especially if it creates good vibes and makes you want to move and dance! Upbeat and happy is best for the summer self-care beats!
Get moving! The way we love to get moving is on our bikes in the summer! We love riding our Schwinn electric bikes, which makes it where we can pedal and get exercise and also use the throttle and just sort of glide along if we want to let it take us for a ride. We highly recommend these! Plus, they are really cool looking! Here is Shannon’s and here is Gerry’s.

Schwinn e-bike coupon code — We love scooting around in the summer on our Schwinn e-bikes. Save $150 on your e-bike (Coston DX and CE models) with code: ARNER150

Cultivate your own at-home spa day. Listen, going to a fancy spa is luxurious, but it also takes time to fit into your schedule and it is pricey. Keep it low-stress and DIY it. We have all you need right here. You know it wouldn’t be the proper spa day without the playlist to accompany it.
Dine al fresco! Similar to getting outside, dining outdoors has its own benefits. It is thought that we slow down when we eat outdoors. We tend to slow our chewing process, which makes the entire process of digestion healthier for our bodies. Not only that, but we get to take in nature, which is always better for us. Have a picnic, set up your dining table outdoors, or go to a restaurant, and ask to sit outside while you dine.
Eat fresh fruit and veggies from the summer season. You can do this from your own garden, or you can grab these from your local farmer’s market. Not only are these seasonal produce foods yummy, but they are healthier for you.

Summer self-care — There is no better taste than in-season veggies, especially when you grew them yourself!

Get in or near water. If you are a longtime reader/follower of this blog, this isn’t new to you. We LOVE being near water. If you are new here, let us tell you that being near or in water is healing. It is why we moved to live near it. Your mind, body, and spirit are affected in a positive way by water. If you can go for a swim, wade in a body of water, or even sit by it, do that this summer. Your self-care routine can be meditating by the water or simply gazing at it.
Declutter your home and your mind. Most people think of decluttering at the beginning of the year, but mid-year is a great time to reassess your stuff and the things that weigh your mind down. We have a declutter challenge that walks you through easy, daily prompts for 30-days to declutter the things that you may not need anymore, but also rid of negative thoughts and create positive habits in your life.

Just remember that summer is all about what you want it to be. Don’t spend time comparing your summer to someone else’s. Make this summer all about self-care, or sand between your toes, popsicles, or a backyard blow-up pool! Whatever floats your boat, that is what it’s all about!

In wellness ·

Get Outdoors Challenge: Experience the Benefits of Being Outside

The month of June is Great Outdoors Month. It is a great reminder that being outdoors amongst Mother Nature herself is a wonderful way to experience the many benefits offered to your physical and mental health. What better way to do so than with a Get Outdoors Challenge! Whether you are someone who takes in the outdoors on a regular basis or are not accustomed to getting out often, we want you to take some mindful steps to head outside and explore what surrounds you. We want you to get outdoors with us!

Our Get Outdoors Challenge

We have put together our own, 30-day Get Outdoors Challenge. Join us for the month of June in taking a small, easy-to-implement way, each day, in getting outside. You don’t have to do them in any order. The goal is to move through the month and check off each block as you go through the 30 days.

You don’t have to only do this in June during Great Outdoors Month. If you are finding that you and/or your family are in a rut, staying inside too often, then take on the challenge any time of year.

The Benefits of Getting Outdoors

We have talked about this on our podcast, as well as in previous blogs, but there are a plethora of ways being outdoors can be beneficial, physically and mentally.

Improves your mood
Reduces blood pressure
Reduces stress level
Increases immune system support
Builds your focus muscle
Accelerates healing
Increases energy level
Improves sleep

All of these benefits are maximized when you experience the outdoors with reduced technology. Think about it. You’re taking a walk on a nature trail. You want to really take in all that nature has to offer on the trail. Stop to actually smell the roses, or the pine. To really experience it, you have to leave your phone in the car, or at least on silent. When you stop in the middle of the outdoors, being very in the moment, you hear sounds you could never hear if you are paying attention to your phone, or have earbuds listening to a podcast or music. Those things are nice, but take some time to be outdoors without them. Your senses open up, and you actually taste the outdoors: the trees, the air, the environment’s tranquility and it is magical. Getting outdoors doesn’t have to be a challenge, but still. We are issuing one. We’re doing it for you, and for ourselves.

Complete the Get Outdoors Challenge for a Chance to Win

If you join our 30-day Get Outdoors Challenge during the month of June (2022), and complete the challenge, you will enter to win a gift card from Eartheasy. Follow the instructions within the challenge for details on how to officially complete the challenge.

In mental health self-care wellness ·

Reduce Stress With a Slower Life

April is Stress Awareness Month so we thought a great way to introduce the month would be to share ways to reduce stress by slowing down life just a bit. Slow living is a broad term, but there are ways that we have found to reduce stress is by slowing down the fast pace that life presents. All month long on our social media platforms, and our podcast, we will be sharing ways that we have found to help combat stress.

Sports fans, you will understand this analogy. I (Shannon) am a BIG Duke Basketball fan. They have a certain pace of play. When a team is trying to outplay them, they tend to speed up the game. It usually throws Duke off a bit. I am usually screaming at the screen, “slow it down, guys! Slow down the game! Go at the pace you know!” They have a pace that is comfortable for them. When the game speeds up, it is a pace that is too fast, too much. I can completely relate to this in life. When things get too fast, to jumbled, I get more stressed and things tend to fall between the cracks.

Our brains, speaking of myself and Gerry now, just work at a better pace when things are a bit slower. Since we moved to the coast, the ‘island time’ way of life is just a better way for us. Don’t get me wrong, when someone doesn’t respond in a manner that I need, it does drive me crazy! Especially when you need a plumber, stat! Nevertheless, slowing things down, simplifying things, isn’t just something that we as minimalists do. It is something that you can implement into your life to reduce your stress level. Slow living is proven to reduce stress.

Here are some ways slow living reduces stress and things you can implement:

Join our Declutter Challenge. Decluttering your space and a negative mindset will help make space for what is important. A cluttered space makes for a rushed life. You constantly feel like things are in disorder, or that you are looking for things. Our declutter challenge is free, easy, and is set-up in bite-size easy steps that you can start any time. Just be consistent and continue it for 30-days.
Do one thing at a time. There is no such thing as multitasking. Really, or at least, not successfully. There are many studies that show this is no longer a skill employers find appealing, especially in the safety arena. Our brains simply cannot multitask as we think they can. Thich Nhat Hanh says, “If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ Meaning, we should be more mindful of the here and now. Be here now. Rituals that we have in place help with this. We have a daily practice of rituals and routines, but we make attempts to make sure that we are mindful of those practices. They help to reduce stress when we are mindful of the activities that we are taking part in. They slow the racing mind, hence, reduce stress.
Meditate. When you allow time in your day for meditation, you allow time for your body and mind to slow down, recover, and have the space to just be. Your mind and body are always working. If you are like us, your mind may always be racing. The stressful mind needs a rest. Meditation helps with this. We have a simple and easy meditation to help you if you’d like to access this free resource.
If you use a google calendar, or other type of scheduling app or calendar, schedule “nothing time” in between appointments. This helps to slow down your day, allowing recovery and rest in between tasks. You will be surprised how much this lowers your stress rate. It slows down your day and makes for a less manic-type of feel in an already busy way of life for most of us.

Learn to adapt to the way of nature. Adapting your wake and sleep schedule to that of nature allows you to coincide your body and mind with that of the Earth. Your eating schedule also adapts. According to the Ayurvedic practice, “Waking up before/with the sun provides you with energy, positivity & all things beneficial for your mental & physical health as it brings balance in one’s constitution. It also regularizes a person’s biological clock, aids digestion, absorption and assimilation, and generates self-esteem, discipline, peace, happiness, and longevity.” This practice helps to reduce stress as it slows down the pace of life.
When you are relaxing, truly relax. Learn to shut off technology when you are relaxing or when it is time for bed. We have the ritual at night of putting our phone to bed– meaning, our phone lives in another room, on silent. There are no temptations to grab it, nor any sounds, nor light coming from it to disrupt the energy we need at bedtime. We have begun turning off television two hours before bed to also reduce the stimulation to our brain so that we may begin the relaxation process. It is similar to the wake-up process of slowly integrating technology into our day. Technology makes us feel rushed and speeds up all of the thoughts that are in our brain. If we can slow things down physically, we can help to reduce the amount of processing our brain has to do, hence, reduce the stress we have.
Lastly, but surely not least important, control your own schedule, day, and life. Do not allow someone else to control it for you. This is rooted in boundaries and is something that we are working on daily. Slowing things down greatly depends on you being able to administer the way of life that you need for yourself. Having others put demands on you, or allowing their needs and wants to integrate into your schedule will put stress on you, and create a rush, manic feel. There is nothing good in this. It creates resentment, along with the stress that you feel.

We hope that these tips help you create a slower life for yourself. No matter where you live, or what type of life you desire, everyone deserves to have a greater sense of calm. May you find a slower, simple life with less stress.

Disclaimer- this blog post only represents our opinions. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. The content is for informational purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions or advice. See Terms and Conditions for more information.