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3 Ideas To Start Simplifying Your Photos

Are you like me, at that point where you’re starting to think about how you can tackle your collection of photographs? You want to simplify all of these photos that you have collected for years and years and years and years? Well my friend, this video is for you! You are in good company.

I think it is important for us to clarify whether we are in the same boat.

What Is Your Objective

Well, maybe you’re reading this and thinking about preserving your entire collection of maybe 20, 30, 40 or 50 years plus of photographs! That is not what I am going to talk about today because my objective is completely different. If you are trying to simplify your photos by getting rid of some of the paper, the physical photos and streamlining your collection, then you and I are aligned my friend!

If you want to keep all of your photos then you’ll want to be thinking more about storage options and how to store them. If you want to save just those that are perhaps the highlight reel of that year or that decade of your life, then you’re going to want to look at ways that you can have limited storage but easy access.

You want to dig through all the unnecessaries and just have your focus. So think about what your objective is here. I can share that I have allocated just one basket. The photographs basket! That’s it. I really want to cut down on all the paper stuff. So clarify your objective.

Pick Your Method

You’re going to need a game plan in how you start to attack the photo collection. Are you going to look at photos based on your age, say from age 0yrs to 10 yrs in one pile? 11 – 20? 21-30? Is it going to be by theme? Maybe before something happened in your life, and then after that thing happened? Could it be that you’ve lived in a few different countries and you want to categorise your photos by country? I don’t know. So have a think about your method. That’s going to really help you start to get to a place where you think, okay, I know what I’m doing. I have picked by decades, but also by age, as my method.

How Are You Going To Start

So maybe you’ve selected all your photos by decade. Sure, that’s all good, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to keep them ALL. So I like Marie Kondo and her methods for organising your life, and she often says that you want to hold an item and see whether it sparks joy for you. How do you feel when you’re looking at this particular photo?

I found a photo the other day, I must have been maybe 3 or 4 yrs old, and it was me sitting with my Dad, on a Sunday afternoon, and I was mimicking what he was doing and actually, he was reading the Sunday papers. So I must have grabbed part of his paper, and I was holding it up in front of me, copying my Dad.

I don’t know what I was doing, but I looked at the camera and I was laughing. That’s when the picture was taken. So I had forgotten about this photo, and I picked it up and OMGoodness! I couldn’t stop laughing, and even now that I speak about it, I’m laughing. So you know, that totally sparked joy for me. Definitely a keeper!

But there was another photo that I saw which was like, photo 5 of 10, of this same one tree, back in my university days, and I don’t even remember the story behind the tree! It must have been very significant then, but why do I have 10 different photos of this one tree??!! So you know, no joy there, just frustration. What is going on Tessa??

So I would encourage you to maybe think of that method for you, in terms of how you are dividing up the photos that you have, what to keep, what sparks joy for you, and what you’re going to say thank you to, and let go.

Are you with me?

Emotional Disposal

If you are a minimalist at heart like me, then you might want to (now please don’t hate me) get over this emotional block of the sacrilege of ripping up a photograph!!! Don’t get overly emotional about disposing. Unfortunately, it appears that because of the chemicals used in printed photographs, you can’t recycle them like you would paper (apparently). I looked into this because I was thinking surely there has to be a way I can recycle these prints. But alas no. So you’re going to have to make your peace with tearing them up and getting rid of them (or another way you choose). However, all is not lost………

Aspire Towards Digitising Those Photos That You Are Keeping

So there are some great scanners available, that just have the one purpose of scanning photos really quickly and easily, so you can feed them through quickly and get through lots of photos at a time. That is something really great to aspire to because then you can digitise your photos if you choose.

You then have the option of having no paper at all, if that’s your heart’s desire or maybe it gets you excited just thinking about it though you’re not quite there yet! And obviously that is much better for the environment. So, something to think about my friend!

So there you are. Some ideas planted to get your mind buzzing and the juices flowing. This is something that you CAN do. You CAN do it!

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

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Many people ask me to share what health, wellness and beauty products I use. Instead of listing out each item individually here on the blog, I made a list of my Top 20 favourites, the ones I personally love and use here linktr.ee/tessafyffe

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7 Ways To Reduce Scars Naturally

Have you ever thought, well you’ve had surgery and you’ve got these scars and in your eyes they’re pretty ugly, and you’d like to reduce the size of them, or at least minimise them. And you’re not too keen on having additional treatment or special professional procedures to get rid of it. Well on this video, I’m going to look at 7 natural ways to help you reduce your scars.

I also, perhaps like you, have surgical scars, and so I was interested and did some research on what was out there. My scars are pretty old and also hidden from the parts of your body normally on show, and because of what I’ve used, are starting to fade and not be so fiery and sort of blend in with the surrounding skin. But I often wondered, if I had got in there early and made a better effort earlier, would I have had a better result? Anyway……

So I was reading up on this and I found this amazing article that looked at many many natural ways to help you minimise the look of your scars. So I extracted 7 which I thought were fantastic, and one of them is actually the one I’ve been using, which is great!

So let’s dive straight in!

Frankincense Essential Oil

Now the smell of Frankincense is pretty amazing, but I didn’t know you could use this to help you get rid of your scars! So a couple of headline points are that it has natural anti-inflammatory properties, it is really great for dry skin, and it is known to help reduce the signs of ageing and very good with stretch marks, including scars.

Rosehip Seed Oil

This sort of buddies up with Frankincense Essential Oil. This also is very high in anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids which are going to soothe, nourish and rehydrate the skin. This is great. Now combined with Frankincense Essential Oil, it becomes really good for anti-aging! An extra tip there.

Aloe Vera Gel or Gelly

Full disclosure, this is what I have been using over the years to really just soothe, dampen and blend the scars that I have, so this is a top one from me. Now what you want to get at is the lovely oozing gelly that you get in the inner leaf. Now even though I’ve been using this consistently for years, I didn’t know that it is the hyperpigmentation in the scar that the aloe consistently fades.

I knew that it gave a rejuvenating appearance to your skin. I know from my own use that aloe very gel is anti-aging which is fantastic. I also know that it is a natural anti-inflammatory. Now you want to make sure that you are very careful about the quality of what you’re using.

So even though I have been using Aloe Vera Gel for many many years now almost 10 years, I do not extract it from a pot plant on my kitchen window sill, because the quality is not the same. You may choose to do that, but you may not get the same effects that I have been getting. So where you source it from is very important, so more about that at the end.

Lemon Juice

I found this quite interesting. I do drink lemon juice in water everyday, but I didn’t know it would be a really useful natural way to help with your scars. And apparently it is the sort of bleaching effect of it that lightens the discolouration you can get with scars. And it fades it over time with consistent use, which was very interesting.

Watch the Video Here

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Gosh, this is good for so many things isn’t it? So it has this ability to heal up wounds really nicely. It loosens the dead skin cells and it kind of softens the scar.

Cocoa Butter

This is so fantastic and it has been around forever! Preferably organic or raw. It is very highly concentrated. But did you know that it is a fat? It’s a highly concentrated fat! I know that sounds a bit yucky, but cocoa butter is amazing. It penetrates very deeply into the skin. It’s a bit like the Aloe Vera you know, which penetrates 7 layers deep into your skin which is partly why it is so effective.

But cocoa butter penetrates very deeply into your skin, and it also has anti-oxidants which helps you to heal and specifically it helps to prevent the ageing effects of the UV rays from the sun. So I thought that’s really interesting. And of course it has that lovely smell which you just want to eat 🙂 Well there you go, cocoa butter.

Lavender Essential Oil

Now this is probably one of two favourite essential oils for me and I use all the time. I did not know that it was really good for scars. It improves the way that your collagen is made, and we know don’t we, that collagen is one of the important building blocks of the skin. It’s got healing properties, soothing properties, that help to diminish scar tissue. And we know don’t we that when you’re using Lavender oil on your body or as a fragrance in the room where you are, it just soothes you and it helps you to reduce any anxiety, stress or tension, so it is a powerful potent oil.

So those are my 7 natural ways to help you reduce your scars.

And the thing about natural ways is that it is going to take a while, so consistent regular dedicated use, and thinking about how you are applying this daily, maybe twice a day. And especially with the oils, you’ll need to do a patch test first as you may have an allergy or your skin may not be loving that particular oil, so make sure you always do that. If you have any other medical concerns, be sure to check with your medical practitioner or your healthcare adviser.

I think it is wonderful that there are so many options out there to help you deal with surgical scars, which can often really bring you down, especially if you don’t like how they look. There are so many different types of scarring, so if this is a big area for you, I would encourage you to get out there and do your own in depth research. For natural ways, this may not be good for everyone, maybe you’ll need a specific procedure or some other type of surgical remedy, to get rid of the scars, if that is for you.

If you’re interested to know a bit more about my preferred choice of Aloe Vera Gel or Gelly, as I mentioned in the video – I apply it topically but I also drink it – then you’re gonna want to check out my Free Download, my Get the Glow Guide. See the details below.

I’d love to hear how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

4 Health Benefits Of Walking 10,000 Steps A Day

So maybe you’re like me and you’re wondering what all this talk is about 10,000 steps and walking 10K steps a day? Why do I need to know? What’s the magic in that? Well on this video, I’m going to share with you 4 health benefits from walking 10K steps a day.

I was reading this great article, as you do. And I too was intrigued, because a friend of mine said that she was enjoying getting in her 10 K steps a day and kept checking her ‘steps’. Anyway, I found out that 10K steps works out at just under 5 miles and there are so many benefits and it made me think, wow, this is super important, and so I thought I’d share the ones that resonated with me most, with you.

So let’s dive straight in.

Improved Mood and Brain Function

So when you exercise, you release these feel-good chemicals in your body called endorphins, and they lift your mood. So you get that benefit from walking 10K steps a day. If you’re going to do your 10K steps outside, in nature, then that’s great too. The release of those endorphins is going to reduce your stress levels and reduce your anxiety, which is brilliant as we don’t need that! Now walking generally, improves your cognitive function and memory, which is important for all of us, no matter what your age. And this will make you feel more focused, having less physical tension and feeling lighter. So that gets my vote.

Help You Improve Your Mobility

Now we all need this, again, as we’re talking about improving your joint health. Now I’m someone who has a personal interest in joint health so I was really intrigued to read about this. I mean, you know walking generally is very good for you. It’s about the movement and how it releases all that lovely lubrication, that synovial fluid, in your joints, which is what you want. I was interested to read that specifically around knee joints, walking 10K a day can help to reduce pain, the type of joint pain that you often get with arthritis. And it increases your circulation. So that’s really interesting. Even if you don’t suffer from joint pain, you want to get into a groove of movement in your life that is going to help prevent joint pain, which this actually does. If you do have pain, I know that when you’re in pain you’re thinking, well, I’m not going to walk because I don’t want to push it. Well, it’s one of those things isn’t it….walking is actually going to help you get out of that painful place. So wherever you can, if it is safe for you to do so, then please do.

Are you with me?

Watch the Video Here

Helping You With Healthy Weightloss

This is of course as part of the other things you would do to lose weight. How does it do that? Well its going to get your heart-rate up which is fantastic. Its going to increase how many calories you burn. Also fantastic. So that will support you if you are intentionally trying to lose weight. Also, we often can take walking for granted. But it works specifically a set of muscles that have to be engaged to enable the movement of walking. Maybe when you’re walking you don’t even think twice about how your leg is naturally lifting up your foot and your ankle. Maybe you don’t think about the muscles, the quadriceps that are needed to ensure that your knee joint is moving. All these muscles in your legs, back, core, abdomen, glutes, these are all working and getting engaged. So it’s great for weightloss.

Helping You To Recover More Quickly

So what do I mean by that? Maybe you’re like me and yes you like walking, but you also like to workout, and you like your weight training, or your yoga or your Pilates practice, or all of those. Well walking 10K steps a day can really help to soothe your muscles and prevent soreness, so good quick recovery from a workout. And also it is stimulating your blood flow which is going to carry the nutrients that are needed around your body after your physical exercise. So that’s really important for recovery.

So many good benefits!

I’ve been aiming towards 10K steps a day for a little while now and it helps if you can monitor your step count. Whether you have an app on your phone or one of these things that I have on my wrist which can also monitor your heart rate. And I love it. I love how I feel. And its exciting. It becomes like a bit of a game. You’re checking how many steps you’ve done so far, and maybe its lunchtime and you’ve hit 5000 steps, and you’re thinking ooh where can I get some more steps. Your body is going to thank you for it, and if you are physically able to do so, you might want to check this out.

So there you have it.

I’d love to hear how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

3 Little Known Factors That Could Affect Your Friendships

Have you ever felt guilty about your friendships? Thinking that you’re not great at keeping in touch with friends, or because of your hidden disability, you have had to cancel so many plans with friends at the last minute and disappointed friends? Perhaps you’re feeling like you’re not really a very good friend? It just bothers you.

Well my friend, this video is for you!

I am a big fan of Brendon Burchard. I love the way he teaches and it resonates with me. I was listening to one of his talks on friendship, and it really struck a chord with me. I was thinking that this is something that I struggle with, and carrying around that guilt, trying to understand how I can do better, and where to put your energies. It’s important to be able to let go of the stuff, the heaviness that defeats you. And sometimes carrying around guilt, just adds to the heavy baby!

Brendon talked about putting friendships into three categories, to help you manage them better and say adios to the guilt. It really helped me, and as I share my takeaways, I hope they help you.

Let’s dive straight in.

Old Friends

So here we’re talking about friends you have had from a long time ago. Friends from the past (not old as in age!), maybe from school or from old workplaces. Friends who you may not have been in touch with for a while, but you have some good memories about those friendships. What I learnt from Brendon when he was talking about this group of people, is that actually, it is okay to have peace with letting go of friendships because they have lived out their timing. People come into our lives, sometimes for a season or a particular time, and we can have a lot of guilt about that like, ‘why didn’t I keep in touch?’.

Sometimes the fact that you haven’t kept in touch, is a bit of an indicator of where you’re at, and whether or not those friendships still have value for you. So I encourage you to think about that in your life. If you have friends in this old friends category, you have permission to just be at peace, and let go of that guilt of not staying in touch. It is important to embrace and give thanks for those wonderful memories that you have with them, but let go of the guilt. Are you with me?

Watch Video Here

Maintenance Friends

These are the kind of friends that you maintain. So this is like friends that you might be in touch with once or twice a year. Actually, in all honesty, maybe some of your family, extended or immediate, might fall into this category. Maybe you send them a birthday card, or Christmas card, and when you do connect, it’s great. ‘How are you doing? What’s new with you? It’s really lovely to speak with you’, and you can feel joy for that person. And it’s okay. It’s fine if you have friends in this category.

Growth Friends

So these are people that you have a real heart connection with. You just ‘get’ them. You love being around them. And you do kind of grow together. So you want to have regular contact with these friends, whether that is speaking each week, each month, or maybe daily! These friends might be your besties, if you have them. They might be friends that you just deeply resonate with and you have such deep laughter with. You want to give a commitment to nurturing that friendship because these are people that you’re going to grow with.

Brendon said a number of things about this category that I found really interesting. It might be that you’re really fascinated by friends in this category. Perhaps you’re loving their personal development journey and you’re inspired to become a better person yourself. Perhaps you both bounce ideas off each other, with that level of connection. Perhaps you have deep trust for them and you may confide in them in a way that you wouldn’t with anyone else. You respect their journey and you understand what goals they are working towards.

Then of course your attitude will be completely different for these friends. You want to prioritise making the time to have some good quality connection. You want to put it in the diary when you’re going to meet up, and to create new experiences together. And there shouldn’t be any guilt here, because you’re aligning yourself with these friends, and consciously putting in the time to be with, and to grow together.

Food for thought?

Maybe this might resonate with you and give you permission to let go of that guilt you’ve been carrying. To feel a bit lighter about the people that you haven’t kept in touch with and perhaps have a different point of reference for how you relate to friends and people in your life.

So over to you. I encourage you to take this opportunity to do a bit of soul-searching of the friendships in your life. Perhaps get your journal out and really work through this. Take an inventory of your friendships. The answers you get may be illuminating. You move through different seasons in your life, and so your friendship desires also change.

I’d love to hear how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

What You Ought To Know About GROUNDING

Have you thought, well I’ve heard people talk about Grounding, but I don’t really know what it is, or why I should know about it? Then this video is for you!

I’m a big fan of Dr Deepak Chopra, and he is the author of one of my favourite books… anyway…. I read an article of his ages ago about the benefits of grounding, and it led me to start a regular grounding practice as part of my wellness routine. I recently re-read the article and I just thought, this is just too good with so many benefits….and so I had to share my main takeaways from his teaching.

So what are we talking about when we say ‘grounding’? Well this amazing planet Earth that we inhabit, has its own natural electrical charge, like its own natural electricity, in the earth, the ground. For safety and security reasons, almost all things electrical are connected to the ground i.e. they are ‘grounded’. That’s just a fact and that is basically what it means when we say something is grounded.

However, it also applies to us as human beings, because your body is electrically charged. It all starts in your cells, firing off different charges for different functions in the body, and so when we are connected to the earth’s ground, when we are ‘grounded’, it is often said that you just feel better, and it is meant to be normal and healthy for you.

Are you with me so far?

However, and this is interesting,…… in our modern day city living, we unfortunately have become more and more disconnected to the Earth’s grounding charge. How does that happen? Well we’re not out barefoot on the ground, we don’t sleep on the ground, we don’t walk around on grass or soil barefoot as much as perhaps human beings used to, decades or generations ago. And our shoes as well, most of our shoes have plastic soles and so we’re not getting that natural grounding from the Earth that is good for us.

So the article I read, the focus was all about research that explored how grounding had improved areas of people’s health, and it looked at health benefits of grounding. I found this fascinating so let’s highlight 3 fascinating areas.

Grounding decreases levels of inflammation and pain

Wow!!! How many people do you know, maybe yourself included, who have regular challenges with pain, regular challenges with inflammation, even deep deep deep down in our tissues, the type of inflammation you’re not even aware of……anyway! The research talked about grounding the body during sleep and the impacts that that could have, reducing pain that could often interfere with your sleep and helping you to sleep much better. I talk a bit more about this in the video. Anyway, definitely worth thinking about.

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Grounding can reduce your stress levels

Love this! So in this research, it was shown that grounding can help to normalise your stress hormone, which is called Cortisone. This plays a big part in managing and reducing your stress levels.

Grounding can improve your circulation

This is really interesting, and especially if you’re like me with a hidden disability, and one of the areas that’s super relevant to you is your blood circulation and maximising the oxygen flow to your body. When you have really good blood circulation, your blood carries oxygen around the body, it carries nutrients around the body to where it needs to get to, so it is super important. And this particular research was interesting, as it was sort of looking at blood flow in the facial tissues after grounding, and the tissues had improved so much. How fascinating?!

Anyway, the upshot of it all is I think grounding is too good of a tool for you to ignore in bringing it into your everyday health and wellness routine. So you might be saying well that is all well and good, but what can I do to get more grounded, or get more connected with the Earth’s charge?

And it’s pretty simple really. When you can go outside and walk around barefoot. Sit, stand, walk, or soil, barefoot on grass, on concrete, and if you’re near the ocean, just get your whole body in there! But it this isn’t easily accessible for you then there are all sorts of grounding products you can get like grounding mats, I believe grounding chairs are available.

I have a grounding mat which I got at the beginning when I first learnt about grounding. I started using it under my desk when working on my laptop, and after a while I wanted more, so I placed a grounding mat on my bed, on top of my bedsheet at the bottom of my bed, so I can sleep whilst grounding. And I’ve been doing that every night for about 2 years.

And I know it is difficult to measure and quantify your benefits, but I have to say I feel great, I sleep much better; it may well be contributing to how I manage my levels of pain, though I can’t scientifically say that. What I can say is that I feel the difference if I miss it. Recently, I’ve noticed that I get a cooling and calming sensation in my feet which puts a big smile on my face as I relax into sleep mode.

Comment down below and let me know what was your number one takeaway!

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

Who Else Wants To Simplify Life?

Have you ever thought, well I’d quite like to simplify my life, but I don’t know where to start? Well this is a video just for you!

This is a video that will start getting you to ask yourself the types of questions that could help you tackle areas in your life that are maybe giving you stress and you don’t even realise, and help you actively take practical steps to help you simplify your life.

Firstly, let’s talk about some of the benefits. Your life can be less complicated. We all know this. My life can be even less complicated than it is now, although I’ve been working to simplify my life for some time. So you want to be able to have more balance in your life, so you can better enjoy your life as a whole. You want to be able to take the time to embrace and enjoy the process of what you do, without feeling the unnecessary burden of other ‘stuff’ in your life, that just isn’t nourishing for you. There are many other reasons, but this is one of the main points of simplifying your life.

Let’s dive straight in.

Q1. How do you spend your time?

This is a big one…..! Do you do too many things? Should you be thinking about where you could say ‘no’ a bit more often? Perhaps there is space for a bit of a mindset change, are you thinking about being constantly busy? Do you describe your life as being busy all the time, and perhaps you think that is a good thing? Newsflash! That is not a good thing, and you don’t have to live that way. So think about how you spend your time, what activities do you give your time to? What could you do less of? Think about your regular commitments and activities. And these could be all ‘good’ things and ‘good’ activities and ‘good commitments’; but it’s not about getting rid of the ‘bad’ stuff (I mean, what exactly is ‘bad’ anyway) as these could be all really good things, but the point is, are you doing too much? A bit of soul-searching for us all here.

Q2. Let’s talk about the clothes you wear!

The thing about clothing is that you want to put on clothes that make you look your best, feel good, is functional, and are clothes that you actually WANT to wear. You want to open your wardrobe, look at your clothes and think ‘yeah, I really want to wear that; I enjoy wearing that; I love how I look in that top; I love how those jeans fit me’. So what clothes in your wardrobe do you enjoy wearing? What do you actually wear?

So take a look at the stuff you wear regularly – what are your go-to things? You may find that if you have a pile of clothes that for whatever reason, you don’t wear that often, is bigger than the pile of clothes that you do wear, then that’s an alarm bell for you! Things change in how you wear clothes – perhaps you are now leaning towards certain colours, or perhaps you have a sort of uniform in your clothing (I like jeans and a black top).

Do you go for v-necks or maybe plain colour tops? Maybe that flowery number in your wardrobe that you wish you could wear more often but you never do, maybe it is time to admit to yourself that it doesn’t really fit your personality anymore and it could be time to let it go – even if it is brand new 🙂 So there is a lot here to unpack, but this could be a good place to start.

Q3. How and What Do You Eat?

What do I mean by that? How do you go shopping for your groceries? Where do you go? Is it somewhere that is quite convenient for you? Is it local to you? Do you go shopping at a time of the day that is perhaps less busy? Is it a time of day that fits in with your energy levels throughout your working day? Basically, are you working with yourself to think about how you do your grocery shopping. Another little thing is, do you go grocery shopping without a list? It really does just get rid of the clutter if you have a list, and say you’ve got 5 items and you know that’s what you need. So even if you have to go to the ‘supersized’ store, as opposed to the small regular store, with all the distractions, and all the aisles, and running a marathon just to get around the store, you have your list and you know where you’re going, and you do it and you get out. Are these types of things, things that can help you?

And what do you eat? What foods are you cooking at different times of the day? Are you trying to fit in a meal, that takes 3 hours to prepare, on a weeknight when you’ve been hard at work and quite honestly you just want to be able to cook quickly and eat and then just relax and enjoy your evening. Are there ways that you can better work with yourself, to simplify these little things. Yes they are little things, but they are things you do everyday, which is why they are great places to start. Have a think about when and how you prepare your meals, as there could be ways you can streamline your processes, to make life a lot easier for yourself.

Watch the Video Here

Q4. How do you wear your hair?

It is wonderful to be able to express your personality and your character with your hairstyle. It’s fun to be able to change things up if that’s what you want to do. But does it suit your lifestyle? Do you have to travel hours to get to a specific hair salon, to get a specific stylist, to have your hair done? Does having that extra travel time and effort, and maybe a price that is a little too rich for your taste, is that overcomplicating things for you? Could you change up your hairstyle so that it’s lower maintenance? If you have physical restrictions, then maybe you would prefer to be able to do your hair yourself or have a stylist come to your home? So some little things to think about here.

Q5. How do you manage your personal finances?

This is a whole massive area and I could do an entire video on just this! But, you’re not just looking at your mindset in terms of how you spend, are you aware of what you are spending? Do you have a budget that you use each month and do you follow that budget throughout the month? Do you know at any given time how much money, or how much leeway you have in your different accounts? Are you building up stress because you’re uncertain as to whether there is enough money in your account to cover your bills? Do you need to take another look at how you are paying off your debt, if you have debt? Do you need to get some advice on how you can start automating your finances, where you automatically have money going into different saving pots each month, into your investments, or into paying off your debts? Or for whatever you’re doing at the moment like saving for a holiday, or planning your wedding. Do you feel as though you just don’t have it under control when it comes to your personal finances? That would be an indication that this is a good area for you to tackle, that will really help to simplify your life.

I really just want to encourage you to start asking yourself these questions, so that you can take a real inventory of your life, and see where you can make some practical changes to start making things simpler, and living simpler. It’s always been a fantastic tool for me and I hope it helps you too.

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

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5 Ways To Get Motivated To Exercise

Have you ever struggled with the motivation to exercise? You are not alone! I was reading this amazing article that explored a couple of research based studies on how you can change your behaviour so that you can be motivated to exercise. It resonated with me so much so I decided to share my favourites in this video.

Let’s dive straight in.

Habits Beat Motivation

Motivation is so fickle. You can be on it one day, and the next day it’s gone! So you really can’t rely solely on your motivation. What you really want to do is create habits and processes that you can rely upon.

Change Your Environment

I don’t know about you, but I am a very visual person, and there was research to suggest that if you can bring in some visual cues around your environment, then it will help you to actually get up and exercise and do what you need to do. Maybe you’re planning a 30 minute workout. You could lay out your workout gear for the gym the night before, or if you’re working out at home, maybe you could change into your workout clothes in the morning, ready for when it is time to exercise. Perhaps you exercise on a machine at home that is normally folded up and tucked away until needed. So you could bring out the machine and unfold the night before, in readiness for your exercise time. Little prompts like this in your environment could really help you get into your new habit.

Just 10 minutes!

Love this! Basically, you’re telling yourself, ‘I’m only going to go for 10 minutes’. The logic behind that is you get to do your exercise and you start to do a little bit, and it just helps you to become more regular. Sometimes, maybe, if you’re there doing 5 – 10 minutes, you start to enjoy it and you could start to get into a groove, and maybe 10 minutes becomes 15 minutes, maybe you’re still going at 18 minutes! But the point is, 10 minutes is better than NO minutes! So don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and it doesn’t have to be all perfect to begin with, just keep turning up, even if it just starts with doing a little bit.

Enjoy Yourself!

Exercising doesn’t have to be a chore. This research looked at how when people had the perception that there was going to be a fun element to the exercise, they were much more likely to go, and go again. So think about what type of exercises you are choosing to do. Is it something that you can enjoy, or that you can have fun with? Don’t be so strict on yourself. If you hate going to the gym…..well there is more than one way to exercise! Think of what you can do and how you can up the fun-factor, and it will help you to get more motivated.

Your Strong ‘WHY’

If you can align the reason why you’ve decided to start this new exercise, with your priority values and what is really important to you, then the likelihood of you turning up to do this exercise is greatly increased. So maybe, you want to be able to enjoy more adventures with your family and to do that, you want to be in good health, fit, flexible and agile …….well that’s why you’ll be showing up, especially on those days when you don’t want to exercise! So you know WHY you’re doing this. It might be that you’re looking at your body, and you see your body as this gift you’ve been given, as a temple, and you take your responsibilities about maintaining the health of that body very seriously. There you go, connect with that, and that is your WHY and reason for turning up to exercise.

I’m excited for you to move forward with exercise that is right for you and I’d love to hear how you get on.

Comment down below and let me know what was your number one takeaway.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

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How Do You Do Low Impact Exercise?

If you are someone living with a hidden disability like me, or you have other restrictions to your mobility, or to your physicality generally, be that permanently or coming in ebbs and flows, then this video might be of value to you.

I don’t know about you, but exercise has always been a little bit of a tricky situation to navigate and manage. There are certain triggers for my hidden disability where excessive exercise or excessive cold, can trigger a painful episode. Sometimes exercise can be the trigger for the trigger!

However, low impact exercise might be something you want to consider if you haven’t already, because you’re looking at exercise that is still going to have great benefits to your health, but with minimal negative impact and stress on your joints and sometimes muscles. So this may be an area of exercise you wish to explore.

Remember that you should always listen to your body, and even with low impact exercise, if it is causing you pain or harm then you probably shouldn’t be doing it and you might want to consult a medical professional for specific advice.

So I have 4 ways that you may want to explore plus 1 extra option that I think is fun with a high ‘feel-good’ factor.

Watch the Video

Walking & Power Walking

The wonderful thing about walking, if you are physically able to do so, is that you can control it quite easily, and you can do this within your home, in your building, or outside. It is an immediate feel-good exercise and shifts your mood. It can help you to manage your weight, it is really good for your balance and coordination, and you can make it more strenuous if you wish by going up a hill, or an incline. You may decide to invest in a treadmill for the long-term, or maybe you have lots of spaces outside where you can walk. Even if you live in a built up area, I think walking is a great, immediate, low impact exercise to consider as part of your regular routine.

Pilates

Over the years this has become my favourite go-to low impact exercise for my body and my mind. There are so many benefits for you including building your core strength, improving your alignment, improving your breathing and your breathwork, and depending on how you use pilates, there can be a cardio element too which is great for your heart health. If you are physically able, I would encourage you to try pilates. I first found out about pilates over a decade ago when I was researching how best to rehabilitate after surgery, and I also found out about an actual machine called a Pilates Reformer, so it can be as gentle as you want or as advanced as you want. My muscles and body respond so well and I’m super grateful. Perhaps this could work for you too?

Cycling

So this is mostly low impact but perhaps not for everybody. Great that you can do it indoors or outdoors if you are physically able. It is non-weight bearing and is generally low impact. If you have an issue with your knees, or specifically joint health around your knees is very important to you, you may want to get some advice before you start as some people can find this very challenging on the knees.

Swimming

This can be a wonderful exercise for you if you are physically able, or if you have help with managing your hidden disability and you can go to swimming classes with someone else in the water with you. That can also be quite wonderful. Yes it is low impact exercise, but it can also give a resistance training element with the resistance of the water and the different strokes you’re using. If like me you have a hidden disability that can be triggered with hot and cold temperatures, then you may want to do a bit more research and have a little think about that. So it depends on your circumstances.

Dancing and Moving Freestyle to Your Favourite Music (Loud)

So I love this! Though it isn’t technically a sporty exercise, but the feel-good element is really high. So you whack on your favourite music or some thumping music, nice high volume, and just dancing, moving your body, moving how you are able. Sure, you would have to have a think about how you might make this a regular activity so that you have the impact you desire. However, this can become a great way to instantly change your mood and change your state and you get a bit of a sweat on, which is so good for you. A great tool to have up your sleeve.

So enjoy yourself, exercise safely and I look forward to hearing how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

How To Deal With Unpredictability In Your Hidden Disability

Do you have a hidden disability like me, whose symptoms tend to manifest often without notice, with the kind of unpredictability that can throw your life into chaos, with you on your sick bed, or hospital emergency bed: do you find when you are happening an episode or flare up, that you are struggling to grasp the situation and handle your emotions in that situation? Well if you do then you’re not alone, and this video is definitely for you!

Let’s dive straight in!

Check Your Attitude!

It is often the case that when that flare up or painful episode comes, there is a lot of anxiety and it can be easy for you to spiral and get into that place where you really don’t want to be because you can’t make good decisions in that headspace. So check your attitude and stop your emotions from blowing up into a volcano of negativity and anger. You’re gonna need that precious energy to get through this event.

Acceptance is Your Power

Don’t spend too much time in the ‘why God why???’ headspace okay? It is happening. You’ve been living with your hidden disability. The time to perhaps grasp with issues over your acceptance of it, is not NOW when you’re in the midst of your flare up or painful episode, or when you’re in a challenging situation. This is not the time. So your acceptance can be a real power for you in this situation.

Giving Yourself Love & Understanding

Give yourself Love & Understanding! Living with a hidden disability is messy! Sure life can be messy in itself too. But specifically, this is really messy. Don’t start criticising yourself now, or blaming yourself for eating something or doing something which you think may have contributed to this latest flare up – just give yourself a lot of love and compassion in this moment.

Watch the Video!

Let Everything Else Go!

You need to focus on what is right in front of you now, which is dealing with this pain, dealing with this episode, dealing with what you have to do next, whether that is going into hospital, finding your emergency medication, contacting your carer or putting into place your next steps or your protocol for what you do when you have a really bad episode. So let go of everything else. Now is not the time to be worrying about how many meetings you need to reschedule because you’re gonna be out of action, in a lot of pain, on your sick-bed. There is a time for that, sure, but it’s not right NOW, okay?

Detachment is Your Power

Detachment! Letting go of the fact that you can’t always influence, or steer, or control how your hidden disability manifests. If you’re getting to know me, then you’ll know that I’m all about putting in very good decisions, strategies and tools into your life, to enable you to live your BEST life, including your hidden disability; but the detachment in the moment that you’re going through your painful episode is to understand that again now is not the time to grapple with that, so letting go of the fact that you can’t control it, but also being detached from the fact that you don’t quite know how this is going to pan out, and you don’t really want to focus on that. So just focus on what you have to do next, right now.

Your Identity is Not Defined By This

Remember the amazing person that you are! Don’t start questioning who you are, or disliking the person that you are, with what’s happening to you. This painful episode, this element of your hidden disability does not define you okay? So if you only remember one thing from this blog please let it be this: remember the amazing person that you are!

Managing the Expectations Of Your Relevant Others

So steps 1 through 6 is all about managing yourself – your own expectations of the situation, of the implications of what’s going on with you now. However, you also need to manage the other people around you. So an example of that could be how you talk to your family and friends. Perhaps there are activities and plans coming up, and now with your flare up, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be well enough to take part. Managing their expectations quickly means that you’re not feeling that pressure, or that guilt about letting people down; because all of a sudden you have taken a turn for the worse and you’re very unwell.

So those are 7 tips all about how to deal with the unpredictability of your hidden disability, especially when you have a flare up or painful episode, or a symptom coming up that just messes everything up that you have planned. It happens a lot!

You’ve got this! I’d love to hear how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/

How To Deal With Disappointment – 5 Ways

Can you recall a time where you have just been so so disappointed, and you’re trying to find a way to move forward?

Well on this video, I look at 5 ways to help you take those steps and to do just that. I was inspired by an interesting article by a psychologist looking at how we can learn to manage periods of disappointment, so I thought I’d share my top takeaways. Let’s dive straight in.

1.Take Care of You – Mind and Body

Often when you’re feeling disappointed, all the basics go out the window, so you want to think about asking yourself questions like ‘are you eating well?’, ‘are you sleeping well?’, ‘are you (if physically able) exercising well and getting some movement into your body?’. All really important foundations that you should make sure you are deliberately doing for yourself, to get you through this period of disappointment. If you are the type of person who likes to talk then maybe there is someone you trust who you could speak to and talk through how you are feeling, if the situation suits and if this will benefit you. But we’re not all like that heehee!

2.Carefully Selecting the Good People Around You

When you’re going through a period of disappointment, you want to be around people who are positive, who are going to support you and affirm your efforts, who have a positive mindset and recognise all the hard work that you’re doing and who can cheer you on. That way you can focus on building yourself up again. Equally, you might want to spend less time with those people who get under your skin, just because you’re feeling a bit vulnerable and may be less tolerant than usual.

3.Deliberate Activities to Raise Your Vibrations To Feel Good

Now this is your job, to generate energy within yourself, preferably through movement……. so you might want to whack on your favourite upbeat song (one of my tried and tested tools in the Fyffe household) at a high volume and just MOVE your body, in whatever way you are able. Or you just want to select those activities that generally make you feel GOOD, that can generate that ‘feelgoodness’ within you. This will help to release those happy endorphins, like dopamine, and you get this big shot into your brain to make you feel happier and better about yourself.

So what are those things, this is over to you now……what are those things that are going to make you feel better? Is it putting on your favourite music and having a dance around? Is it watching your favourite funny movie or boxset or something that is just going to make your heart blossom and open up? Is it doing an activity that’s fun?

4.You Are Learning!

This is a life-long learning experience…..your life! The psychologist in the article talked about how babies learn to walk. They get up and waddle a little bit, they fall down and fail, and maybe have a bit of a cry, and they get back up again, and start walking again. So this disappointment that you’re going through or that you’ve just gone through……..try to see this as a learning opportunity…..so you can review, reflect on what’s happened, what you can change, how you can improve…….especially if it’s a disappointment in relation to your physical ability, perhaps something you thought you could do but you weren’t able to. It may not mean that you can never do that, it might just mean that you have to tweak it and get a bit more savvy about what you can do next time to smooth things over…..are you with me?

5.You Gotta Get Back Up Baby!

This isn’t over. Life isn’t over. You have to get back up. Sure, it might feel like life as you know it is over, but your life is a marathon…..and your job now is to get back up. Ask yourself ‘what’s next?’ ‘what am I going to do next?’, ‘what is my next step?’, ‘how do I start the next step?’…….’how am I going to intentionally feel now that I am moving through it?’

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

If you liked this then hit the ‘FOLLOW’ button, COMMENT letting me know what was your biggest takeaway, and tell a friend!

If you’d like to watch more videos then hit the ‘SUBSCRIBE’ button on my YouTube channel so we can journey together. I’d love to hear from you.

To get my great tips about having healthy glowing skin download my FREE Get The Glow Guide https://tessafyffe.com/glowguide/