simple life. healthy body spirit soul.
These 4 simple tips truly help prevent sliding into that winter low mood that affects so many of us in these latitudes to varying degrees. Since it is often dark and foggy for many months, we simply miss the sun and warmth. Last winter, I …
I have been dealing with stomach issues since my youth—that’s 30 years. The stomach is simply my weak spot. Exactly when Helicobacter Pylori entered the picture is hard for me to say. It was first diagnosed in 2013 via a stool sample. However, I didn’t …
Yes, I admit it: I love simplicity. Always have. Now I’ve finally found a brilliant solution for super simple natural hair care! Since I tolerate almost no cosmetics (allergic reactions), hair care has always been a challenge. Every time I visited the hairdresser, I was told that I really needed to take better care of my hair… yes, but how?
In fact, over the years I had tried hair oils a few times, but hadn’t quite figured out the right trick. My hair just looked greasy and stringy. By chance, I came across this completely simple, logical method on English YouTube videos:
you take a pure, organic, cold-pressed oil of your choice, apply it generously to your hair the evening before washing, leave it on overnight, and wash it out in the morning.
The result is incredible! I have NEVER had such soft and shiny hair before!
Now you might be asking WHICH oil you should use.
VERY IMPORTANT: There are no one-size-fits-all, correct solutions. Test what feels good for your hair. For example, my body doesn’t like coconut oil at all, even though many swear by it. If I eat it, I feel sick; applied to my skin, it gives me pimples; and it didn’t work in my hair either. My absolute favorite for skin and hair is jojoba oil. But as I said, test and find out what works best for your hair and scalp.
You can of course also use two oils if, for example, you have oily roots and dry ends. It feels really good to massage it thoroughly into my scalp as well.
Other oils for super simple natural hair care:
Almond oil, argan oil, castor oil, avocado oil, evening primrose oil, grapeseed oil
I love this natural solution! Have you tried putting oil in your hair yet?
Yes! My mind is made up: I am done dyeing and bleaching my hair and want to go back to my natural hair color. I started dyeing my hair as a teenager after my bright blonde childhood hair turned into an ash-gray youth hair color …
Do you know that feeling when you’re seeing everything in too negative a light once again? When you view yourself and your surroundings with nothing but criticism, or feel frustrated and depressed? Then it’s time to take a high dose of the elixir of life …
It is not yet widely known in German-speaking regions that adrenal fatigue is actually very common nowadays (some suggest that every second person is affected). It’s best not to expect your doctor to figure it out either. Take your health into your own hands, educate yourself, and act responsibly! 😉
To put it very simply: the adrenal glands produce many vital hormones, including cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline, aldosterone, and DHEA. When we are under stress, the body activates the “fight or flight” mode, and the adrenal glands release cortisol and adrenaline, the so-called stress hormones. Simply put, under chronic stress, the adrenal glands burn out, leading to burnout or the stages leading up to it. There are so many interconnected systems in the body that rely on well-functioning adrenal glands. The thyroid is also closely connected to the adrenal glands. Simply put: when the fight-or-flight = survival mechanism is activated, the body gives it top priority and releases large amounts of cortisol while shutting down digestion and steroid hormone synthesis, among other things, which has far-reaching consequences throughout the entire body.
You can find a wealth of great information on adrenal fatigue here: https://www.adrenal-fatigue.de/
There is no SINGLE cause for why our adrenal glands become exhausted; rather, it is a multi-causal occurrence in the body. Therefore, you must approach it from various angles and bring a lot of patience. This imbalance did not happen overnight, and you must expect many months for the adrenal glands to fully recover!
Stress can have many faces: overload from work, family, relationships, caring for relatives, financial worries, emotional and/or physical stress, but also undiagnosed chronic infections (e.g., Epstein-Barr virus), heavy metal toxicity, or environmental toxins. It is important to get to the root causes and eliminate them to achieve lasting healing. Psychotherapy may be necessary if the stress is primarily emotional in nature. Be sure to learn a relaxation method and incorporate it into your daily routine. Suggestions include: autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, tai chi, qigong, etc. There are many options available, and you will surely find the right one for you.
Without replenishing nutrients, there will be no improvement! The body is in a state of deficiency that it has tried to compensate for over a long period. Here, a dietary shift and the intake of nutritional supplements must go hand in hand. Simply improving your diet is not enough at the beginning. Although certain vitamins/minerals are often mentioned in connection with adrenal fatigue, I firmly believe that you need to supply all nutrients because everything in the body is interconnected.
Dietary Shift:
Nutritional Supplements:
All the supplements I have described so far serve to replenish your stores and ensure an adequate supply of everything the body needs daily in the long term. Be sure to start with this basic program BEFORE you begin taking special products for the adrenal cortex.
There are also now special nutritional supplements specifically designed to heal the adrenal cortex. As soon as you have replenished your stores a bit, begin to introduce these as well:
For many years, I was extremely exhausted. At the time, I knew nothing about adrenal fatigue. But I am pretty sure now that I had it. In December 2017, I took a saliva test from Medivere, and the test confirms my much better physical well-being today: all values were good, only the noradrenaline/adrenaline ratio was slightly elevated. I attribute this improvement to the fact that in January 2017 I began replenishing all nutrients, healed Helicobacter pylori, did a lot for detoxification and stomach strengthening, and made the lifestyle changes mentioned above. 😉
IMPORTANT: I am only sharing what helped me and what I found out through internet research. Please consult a doctor or alternative practitioner you trust in case of illness and disorders, and always take personal responsibility for your health. Following my tips is at your own risk.
If you are longing for a long-lasting partnership with a man, you should take these “relationship tips for HER” to heart. Indeed, there are these classic mistakes that women tend to make… but there is a better way 😉 Let Him Be a Man …
Have you been in a relationship for a while and routine has set in, perhaps even boredom? Do you want to keep your partnership vibrant? Here is how it’s guaranteed to work! Just think back to when you first met and were freshly in …
How can you create a happy, long-term partnership? After the initial infatuation fades, you move in together, and perhaps even have children (or projects) together, sooner or later you reach a point where you ask yourself: Is this it?
Let’s put it this way: this point comes in almost all relationships, I believe. If you happen to be the exception to the rule, you probably won’t even be reading this article 😉
For everyone else, however, the word **CREATE** is extremely important. Long-lasting, happy partnerships don’t just happen by themselves; they are actively created… and that happens anew in every single moment, requiring a lot of patience, understanding, tolerance, and the willingness to grow and evolve. From both sides, of course.
So here is how you can create a happy partnership:
I think this is very important to understand. Because falling in love happens without any effort on our part… it just occurs. We are drawn in as if by a spell: we can’t stop thinking about the other person, we have butterflies in our stomachs, and the other person is our absolute top priority. The misconception, however, is believing that this state will last forever. After 3 to 6 months (on average), the infatuation phase ends, and we enter the next stage of the relationship. Now, all kinds of relationship patterns, wounds, and conditioning come to the surface and make life difficult for us.
So while falling in love just happens, loving in the long term is something we **DO**. This doing involves facing old wounds, practicing acceptance, patience, and tolerance, developing ourselves, growing, and making the well-being of the other person a priority. It also involves understanding what the other person needs to feel loved and to be happy. The magic word of love-in-action is “giving,” even when you don’t always get back what you wish for. Giving what your partner needs, not just giving what *you* would like to have. This also includes asking your partner what he/she needs in order to feel loved. That is very individual and not always obvious. So: talk about what makes your partner feel truly loved today, and then make the conscious choice to provide it to them in the long run! 😉
Naturally, it is crucial that you have similar ideas about how you want to live. Life plans such as having children/not having children, place of residence, living environment, and fundamental values must align. It cannot work out well if one partner wants children, but the other wants to live a free and independent life without children. If one partner loves to travel extensively while the other only wants to drive as far as the local countryside for a weekend trip, that can be challenging. Or take a scenario where one partner desperately wants to emigrate or work abroad, while the other wants to live in close proximity to their family, ideally where they were born. Core values like loyalty, commitment, freedom, family orientation, helpfulness, education, etc., as well as your lifestyle, should also share a healthy dose of agreement.
Stop putting on an act for yourself and your partner. Drop learned roles or roles that you think will “go over well.” Show yourself with your true values, and stand up for what is important to you. Of course, this requires getting to know yourself better, reflecting on yourself, and questioning your motivations. Otherwise, you might not even know who you are or what you stand for.
Dare to openly address your wishes, needs, and problems. Ideally without reproaches or defense mechanisms, but simply openly and honestly, as you experience it. Let your partner know that you love and respect them, but that you are having difficulties with topic XY. Don’t accuse, but take full responsibility for your feelings, fears, and apprehensions. Always try to “put yourself in the other person’s shoes”; this is essential for mutual understanding. If you want your partner to trust you and share their innermost thoughts, make a great effort not to judge, criticize, or make weird remarks when they do. Otherwise, they will think twice about sharing anything from their deep inner self with you. Similarly, it is important NOT to discuss the things they confide in you with your girlfriends, as this is often perceived as a major breach of trust.
Only when you can talk openly and honestly will nothing build up or simmer beneath the surface. It does no good to simply swallow unpleasant things and not address them. Doing so can lead to stomach ulcers and passive aggression. Being able to talk openly about wishes and needs is a great proof of trust and a wonderful foundation for a long-lasting romantic relationship!
I once said to a friend: “In that situation, you could have just as easily said to your wife, ‘Honey, I think that was a bit too much,’ instead of flying off the handle.” To which he replied: “Honey—I have never said that to her in 12 years!”. Really?? Well, that truly surprised me. I consider terms of endearment like honey, darling, sweetie, sweetheart, etc., to be so valuable for creating a happy partnership because they simply express a special love for that person. Doesn’t everyone love hearing that? Doesn’t everyone want to be their loved one’s “treasure” or “honey”? In the English-speaking world, this is much more common; you’re quickly addressed as honey even by strangers. Why not? I think it’s lovely. Of course, you can also be creative and find your own very special nicknames 😉
This is actually a very simple rule: whenever you want to address a point of criticism with your partner, first mention at least one positive aspect of that topic area or something you are grateful for. Of course, it is also important to formulate criticism constructively and strictly avoid hurtful and depreciative remarks. Tell your partner right away what he/she could do better and, above all, what that would look like precisely. Concrete examples help a great deal here! All too often we believe the other person already knows what we mean when we say: “I think it’s important that you appreciate me more.” But frequently, they simply don’t know. That’s why you can say instead: “Yesterday, in situation AB, it would have done me good and I would have felt appreciated if you had said/done XY.”
If you dream that your Prince/Princess Charming will always understand you, that you will never argue, and that you will live in seventh heaven forever, you’d better give up on the idea of a long-term partnership and stick to “3-month relationships” (the infatuation phase typically lasts 3–6 months).
In the long run, your partner will, without meaning to, trigger your emotional wounds. There will be external problems (family, job, health, etc.). Perhaps strokes of fate will happen. Often enough, you will have the urge to run away: exactly then is the time to persevere. (Of course, I don’t mean you should stay if your partner abuses or mistreats you or if there are truly deep chasms separating you. Then it is time to free yourself). Because the invitation is to grow together with the other person, evolve, heal emotional triggers, and open your heart—for yourself and others.
Creating a happy partnership is one of life’s wonderful challenges 😉 Have fun with it!
Here you can find more articles on the topic of partnership:
Creating a Vibrant Partnership
Perhaps you suspect or have just found out that you have food intolerances and have no idea where or how to start. That’s why I’ve put together these beginner’s tips for food intolerances. If you don’t yet know exactly what you’re reacting to: …
Many people suffer from low stomach acid, often without even knowing it. However, it has devastating effects on the gastrointestinal tract and can lead to conditions such as leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), liver strain, nutrient deficiencies, food intolerances, …
Today I’d like to write a little about why I no longer follow any specific diet (vegan, vegetarian, paleo, macrobiotic, 5 elements, keto, etc.), but am instead a “Happy Flexitarian” 😉
As a child, I was always allowed to eat and drink whatever I wanted. My parents raised me with an anti-authoritarian approach and didn’t want to restrict me. Until the onset of puberty, my diet looked something like this: loooots of sweets, bread, meat, cold cuts, little fruit, and even less vegetables. Potatoes, french fries, rice, and my main drink was cola mix 🙁 Looking back now, I strongly suspect that the cola mix, the many sweets, and the lack of vegetables/fruit triggered many of my later digestive issues, or at least greatly contributed to them.
When I hit puberty, I developed a fascination for healthy and “correct” ways of eating. Something inside me enjoyed restricting myself and no longer consuming “unhealthy” foods. I think I was around 14 years old when some acquaintances visited us. In conversation, they mentioned that they no longer ate pork because it was “unclean.” I immediately jumped on that bandwagon because I didn’t want to eat anything “unclean” either. Over the many years until today, I have tried every single diet and was always fascinated to have found “the best” way to eat. Thus, I soon became a vegetarian, food-combining practitioner, raw foodist, vegan, whole-foods enthusiast, 5-elements follower, sugar abstainer, gluten-free eater, etc.
However, there was no diet that felt consistently aligned or that I could stick to long-term because my body rebelled. The most consistent I was with being a vegetarian, but for example, during all my pregnancies I HAD to eat meat because my body craved it so strongly.
Parallel to my struggle to find the “perfect diet,” my digestive issues increased. I developed more and more intolerances, and my diet shrank drastically as a result (here you can find out more in my story). That was also the reason why I could no longer eat/want vegan and why I recently added meat and fish back into my food repertoire. Now I’m just a happy flexitarian or intuitive omnivore (within the scope of my intolerances).
Now it has become clear to me that all these rules and the search for THE perfect diet are a trap for me. And that it is very important to eat a balanced diet (as best as one can with so many intolerances) and to let go of judgments about food as “good/bad.” That creates pressure and stress. A relaxed, appreciative attitude while cooking and eating is essential for health!
What I also consider very important is that 1. you choose organic ingredients and 2. cook/bake as much as possible yourself with them to avoid the many ingredients, additives, preservatives, and artificial flavors. And to truly trust your body’s intuition more when choosing food. There are always these hypes. Especially in the realm of the gut, leaky gut, and intolerances, gluten is currently being pretty demonized. That doesn’t feel right to me, and my gluten-free period didn’t bring any improvement in my case either. Of course, it is very healing for some people to cut out gluten, but the idea that it is now THE “villain” and the cause of “everything” doesn’t feel right to me.
So: enjoy your food in a relaxed way! AND: if you are very happy with a certain diet, I’m happy for you 😉 I will continue to enjoy my existence as a happy flexitarian 😉
I’ve finally found “my” facial cleanser! The oil cleansing method is simple, natural, and has such wonderful results! As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog, I tolerate almost no cosmetics. That means: makeup of any kind, creams, lotions, shower gels, shampoos, treatments, conditioners, …
Everyone should focus on detoxification nowadays, as we are exposed to many toxins through the environment, food, Monsanto, chemtrails, etc. Today I would like to introduce you to 4 very simple, natural detoxification methods that I use daily. It is best to integrate detoxification …
Some time ago, food intolerances forced me to start baking my own bread. Or perhaps it’s also because nowadays every (?) baker uses pre-made baking mixes containing ingredients that simply don’t agree with me.
In search of a foolproof recipe, I put this one together:
Possible variations: of course, you can add nuts, seeds, or bread spices, and you can also use other flours or rye sourdough powder. Just however you like it best 😉
Instructions:
First, mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly, then gradually add the warm water while kneading the dough. Knead it well and let it rise covered in a warm, quiet place for 2 hours. After 2 hours, knead the dough thoroughly once more using a mixer. Transfer the dough into a loaf pan, place it in the oven along with a small bowl of water (which creates a nice crust), and bake the bread at approx. 180°C (350°F) with convection or top/bottom heat for 50-60 minutes.
I really love the taste of this bread! Mmmh….
Wishing you success and a good appetite!
What do you do when a parent suffers from dementia and can no longer live alone? There’s no question that when parents grow old, sick, frail, or develop dementia, it is an extremely difficult and stressful situation for both the individuals and their families. …