5 x Immune System Boosters

As worries grow about the new coronavirus, online searches for ways to boost the immune system have increased massively. Vitamins? Essential Oils? Yoga? Food?

The bottom line is that there is no magic pill or a specific food guaranteed to boost your immune system and protect you from a virus. But there are real ways you can take care of yourself (self-care) and support your immune system in the best possible way to do its natural job; it may just need a bit more help right now.

So, here are my 5 x TOP TIPS for you to bolster your immune system and help the complex network of cells, organs and tissues in your body to work together to protect you from infection, i.e. physically and mentally.

SPEAK A MANTRA

Talking to ourselves in a positive and encouraging way helps our stress levels to reduce and hence lower the risk of infection. Any stress weakens the immune system and increases your risk. So, speak the following daily, several times a day, for as long as you feel like you truly believe that you say:

I am healthy. I am safe. All is good.

USE ESSENTIAL OILS

Natural essential oils are powerful physical healers. Some essential oils are considered to be 40-60 times more potent than herbs. They assist the body in fighting unfriendly microorganisms; cleansing organs, glands and body systems. They can balance body functions and raise the body’s energetic vibration. THIS is exactly what we need in times of a virus, in order to support ourselves from the inside and outside.

Here are the Top 5 Essential Oils (dōTERRA only) I recommend you get into your household right now:

• Oregano: This is a powerful oil that acts as a natural anti-biotic. Moreover, it clears negativity and negative attachments that leave us drained, reducing our natural immune response. Application: Mix with fractionated coconut oil (FCO) and apply onto the soles of your feet. Article Number: #60204665
• On Guard: This is the Oil of Protection. It shields you from bacteria, viruses and mould. It is your anti-viral blend. Furthermore, it supports you in warding off energetic parasites and other negative influences. Application: Mix with fractionated coconut oil (FCO) and apply onto your throat and chest. Article Number: #60204659
• Lemon: The Oil of Focus doesn’t only support you in engaging the mind in the ‘right things’ right now, it also assists you to cleanse your body. Since the essential oils from dōTERRA are the purest on the market, you can also use them internally, for example in your water. This way you flush out any toxins from your body. Application: Put 1-2 drops into 1 litre of still water and drink throughout the day to keep your throat hydrated. Article Number: #60204656
• Air: This oil is the Respiratory Blend, the Oil of Breath. This oil invites you to breathe in (positivity) and breathe out (negativity) and embrace life with openness. It supports the respiratory system by opening up the lungs and air passages allowing air and emotion to release. Application: Mix with FCO and apply onto your chest, back of neck and also onto the soles of your feet. Extra tip: Also helps people who snore ;-). Article Number: #60203777
• Melaleuca: This oil is anti-bacterial and a disinfectant by nature. It’s also knows as tea tree oil. It helps to release micro-organisms in the body, but as the Oil of Energetic Boundaries it also assists in clearing toxic, codependent and parasitic relationships. Application: Mix with FCO and apply behind your ears. For energetic protection, put 1-2 drops undiluted onto the top of your head, crown chakra. Article Number: #60204660
• Fractionated Coconut Oil (FCO): Dilution with a carrier oil no only increases the area of direct application, but also helps to protect your skin from potential sensitivity. For adults, essential oils should be diluted at least 25%, i.e. 25 drops on one teaspoon of carrier oil. Fractionated means the oil stay liquid at all temperates. It is the perfect oil for basic dilution, like described above. Article Number: #60204881

Follow this step-by-step guideline now to order your oils and get through this phase healthier and with confidence. Order now until 30.3.2020.

1. Click on this link: https://www.mydoterra.com/ninasadlowsky/#/joinAndSave
2. Select option “WHOLESALE CUSTOMER” to benefit from a 25% bonus on your order. Now and always. Then click JOIN DO TERRA.
3. Select your country.
4. Enter all your details. Please ensure you see me as the enroller Sadlowsky, Nina / ID# 5690577.
5. Select “DoTERRA Essentials Booklet & Enrolment Fee (23,75€)” in the scroll bar at the top and add to your basket.
6. Add the essential oils and FCO listed above through the search bar or via the article number. Wholesale prices apply for you :-). 
7. Proceed to pay. (Paying by credit card is always quickest)
8. You can join our Loyalty Rewards Programme (LRP) which gives you cash back (in points) on ordered products that you can use to get products for free. 🙂 You find more infos on that here: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ebdoterra/downloads/lrp.pdf
9. The total order incl. tax and shipping will amount to ca. 164,50€.
10. Await your welcome email, which includes a private 25 minute oil consultation with me (only for orders as listed above and until 30.3.2020).
11. You will also receive a 50 point credit, (= ca. 40 Euros) to redeem onto your next order (only for orders as listed above and until 30.3.2020).

Let me know in case of any questions and I am already looking forward to having you on this “oil journey” :-). Please direct your questions to info@ninasadlowsky.com. 

MINDFULNESS PRACTICES

Regardless of method, most mindfulness practices have a positive effect on our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Think about meditation, breathing exercises and yoga and better and more sleep. Whatever you choose, choose what resonates the most with you and then practice it consistently to enhance the benefits of all other practices, such as essential oils.

You are kindly invited to join my Facebook Group to learn more, get ideas and practice with me. Simply follow this link to be part of my group of like-minded people.

COLD SHOWER

You may have heard about the Wim Hof method. Cold showers help reduce stress levels. Regularly taking cold showers imposes a small amount of stress on your body, which leads to a process called ‘hardening’. This means that your nervous system gradually gets used to handling moderate levels of stress. The hardening process helps you to stay calmer and resilient when stress hits you. And the virus is definitely stress right now.

More robust immune response. Scientific studies have found that taking a cold shower increases the amount of white blood cells in your body. These blood cells protect your body against illnesses and diseases. It is believed that this process is related to an increased metabolic rate, which stimulates the immune response.

DRINK WATER

In general it is recommended to drink sufficient water every day, to support your metabolism but also to flush out anything that your body doesn’t need anymore. Now, with any virus, it is even more important to drink sufficiently and regularly every 15-20 minutes to flush the virus out of your body into the gastric tract where the gastric acid juices will destroy the virus. Add Lemon Essential Oil to your water to support the cleansing process.

Stay healthy. Take good care of yourself. I am here for you.

Love, yours Nina

Please note: The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website.

 

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Don’t kill your enthusiasm

Pic by Bérénice Knöß from My Yoga Guide 

I’m starting this blog post with a bold statement:

If you kill your enthusiasm, you kill your joy for life.

I have improved my senses a lot over the last couple of years and along with that my observation skills and mindfulness improved, too. Now, I have noticed more than once that people seem to have lost their enthusiasm. When I am aware and looking at other people, no matter where I am, it just seems like people do lack expression verbally and non-verbally. Maybe it is just a snapshot of a moment, but maybe it is the direction our society has developed to.

And so I was asking myself what people are usually most enthusiastic about.

It is what we call happiness.

Happiness arises when we see opportunities to fulfil our basic needs such as connection and body contact on the one hand, and growth, autonomy and freedom on the other hand. Basically this mean we are happy, when we have the opportunity to grow, in a community or by ourselves.

So then I was wondering, how it’s possible that we lose our enthusiasm? Do we kill our enthusiasm ourselves?

Honestly, how often do you experience a wave of enthusiasm coming over you?

Once a week, once a month? Where did our longing to explore go? Where did our longing to create go? Where did our childish enthusiasm go that made us curious, creative and enthusiastic?

I believe that as we grow older and as we make our experiences, we get stuck in routines and our brain gets rusty. We know our family and friends, we know how things work, we do our job, we have our hobbies, we basically do what needs to be done. But this way life palls. It loses its attractiveness. Life loses its life.

And this is strongly related to the meaning you give to things, to the world you live in. And whilst it’s good to overthink the meaning you give to negative and energy draining situations, it is worth re-giving meaning to the little and beautiful things in your life.

Re-give meaning to the little & beautiful things in your life.

If you don’t make a true effort in spicing up your life, everything will have the same meaning, the same importance. You have arranged and controlled your life so well that its enthusiasm was drained till death. You managed to control your life. You managed to function.

Now it’s time to alter course!

Just imagine you are still a child. Life is not about safety, protection and maintenance, right? Life is about developing skills, about exploring and learning new things, so that we can grow.

It is about expressing yourself, differentiating between the things you love and don’t like, it is about smiling into the world, it is about consciously experiencing things instead of living on automatic mode. It is about breathing new life into your life.

Don’t kill your enthusiasm! Revive your life! For true happiness.

Yours, Nina

 

Sensuality

Writing about sensuality already crossed my mind several times and it popped up again whilst I attended the Summer Sensual Days in Rovinj, Croatia. So, back in Munich, I decided to dedicate this blog post to sensuality.

I asked myself when I feel most sensual? And I noticed that it is predominantly whilst I’m moving my body, be it yoga, dancing and sometimes even walking. It’s a feeling of consciously perceiving and feeling my body, it is about mindfulness. I feel sensual, when I’m aware of my body movements and my body language, when I notice my feelings and body sensations. When I feel complete and whole in and with my body.

I usually feel good about myself and my body, but surely we all have our days, when we criticise or judge ourselves, when we feel less comfortable in our skin and when we push ourselves to do better. I guess this is normal, but wouldn’t it be nice to drop the judgment? Wouldn’t it be nice to feel great in our bodies at all times? Wouldn’t you love to feel sensual every single day?

I know that I would love to. And I noticed, when dancing Bachata in Rovinj (and some Kizomba and Salsa), that I felt exactly that. I felt my body. And I felt great in it. I felt sensual – great for Bachata sensual! I felt sexy and actually excited about what my body is capable of. I moved my body into many directions, to different songs, with different dance partners, slower, faster, softer, harder and each and every time whilst and after dancing I simply thought “Wow.”

I felt sexy and excited about what my body is capable of.

Our bodies are fascinating. You can express your feelings through your body, you can move your body, dance, walk, jump, run, everything. And because your body is so awesome, you need to take good care of it. Eat good food. Exercise regularly. And obviously I think we all should practise yoga, meditate and dance!

Dancing is such a wonderful way to move your body, it is a great way to connect with your body, you can experiment how to move, where to move, how intense, and you can notice your body sensations and related feelings when moving.

Dancing in Rovinj made me even more aware of how lucky I am to have such a healthy and beautiful (to me) body and I’m beyond grateful. And you know what?

When you feel great in your body, your charisma, your vibrancy and your energy completely transforms to the positive and it will radiate into the world.

What does sensuality mean for you and when do you feel most sensual? Please share in the comments.

Yours, Nina

Life is beautiful

Life is beautiful.

Life is full of little treasures. Don’t fail to see them as they come.

Do you want to be fulfilled? Are you striving for pure happiness? Do you want to live a beautiful life?

Then I recommend you start with developing your awareness. Sharpen your senses. Look, listen, feel, taste and smell. Be mindful. Life is full of little treasures. And these small things are what makes life so liveable and beautiful.

We often think we need to have big things in life in order to be happy, but the opposite is true.  Appreciate the small things in life, each and every day, and I promise they will add up to something big. Something that you have created from the inside out. Something that is unique to you. Something that will make you feel fulfilled, successful and happy.

For your inspiration, I’d love to share the beauties of my world with you:

• Look into the mirror and be thankful for your life.
• Appreciate a flower, its look, colour and smell.
• If you are a cyclist like me, feel the breeze in your hair and on your skin.
• When the sun is shining, close your eyes for a moment and just enjoy the warmth.
• Treasure conversations with new people, look into the other person’s eyes and give them a smile.
• Be kind to other people, like your neighbours, your colleagues, staff. Treat them just like you want to be treated and better.
• Put on some music and just sing or dance, go crazy.
• Smile. Think of something positive to support yourself.
• Before going to bed, appreciate the bed that you will be lying in.
• When you get up in the morning, be happy to breathe.
• When you exercise, be grateful for your health.
• Treasure stillness when it’s there.
• Listen to all the sounds around you, like birds chirping, people laughing, the wind in the trees.
• Practice yoga.
• Meditate.
• Travel to places to get inspired and motivated.

I am so deeply grateful for my life, I love it, as I’ve come to truly appreciate the small things in life. In reality, the small things are the big things, when you are mindful every day and once you let the universe shine its beauty around you.

Shine your light.

Yours, Nina

When wishing for the pause button

As the year 2017 came to an end, I reflected and reviewed my big and small wins and well as what I failed at, what I could have done better. No worries, I’m not going to write this all down here, but I think it is important for every single one of us to complete that bit of work. Not to beat ourselves up, but on the contrary. Because I noticed that I actually achieved a lot, there were loads of small wins, that I didn’t give myself enough credit during the year. Btw, I’m not only talking about projects, but also shifts in my mindset, changes in my behaviour and actions taken. Of course I also recognised my failures, but the good thing is, you can only learn from them, you can make things better next time. Just be conscious of yourself, your behaviours and actions. Be mindful of those behaviours and actions you’d like to change and then just think “Oh, I was just about to do it again” and then act differently. Break that habit!

Be mindful and break that habit.

After I reviewed my big and small wins, I also pictured my 2018. I wrote down my vision for 2018 at the end of last year. My vision relating to various aspects in my life, like my job/work situation, health & fitness, love, relationship and my ideal set up to live. I thought to myself “Well done, Nina” until I had a call with my coach on 2nd of January to dig deeper into my vision and my associated goals. Despite my daily gratitude, yoga and meditation practice, there were still a few challenges and limiting beliefs that needed to be melted in order to reach my true vision – speaking from my heart. And we did. After the session, I went back to my vision and it sounded too rational in a way, so I re-wrote it completely. I moved from my head to my heart. And I was brave enough to listen.

Move from your head to your heart. And listen. It will reveal the truth.

My coach also asked me what I wish for my spiritual growth in 2018. And here we go. I have a little story to tell to answer that question.

I’m writing the 31st of December 2017. I wake up with a content feeling. The sun is out and it’s already 12 degrees outside, yes really. I jump out of bed (and that day I literally did!), I quickly changed into my running gear and 20 minutes later I was out of the door, direction Isar river in Munich. The second I stepped outside, I was just feeling so happy, so calm, yet excited about life, so grateful, so whohoooo, a feeling difficult to describe. My almost ecstatic feeling even intensified when I started running and moving my body, feeling the sun on my skin and in my face. I couldn’t do anything about it (and I didn’t want to), but I was running around grinning like a Cheshire cat. Even now whilst writing this, I have to laugh.

And whilst I was fully enjoying the run, the sun, the movement, and simply my own company, there was this second of thinking “I want to hold this feeling.” This thought instantly moved me from being in the here and now to longing for something. I tried to hold on to something beautiful and let’s be honest, if there was the possibility sometimes in life to hit the Pause button, we might all happily use that button.

When wishing for the pause button…

Interestingly I find that the topics that I’m engaging with, suddenly appear everywhere in different shapes and forms. One appearance was in a yoga class. The teacher opened the class with exactly that thought.

We try to hold onto things we like and we try to get rid of feelings we dislike. But how about letting go of all likes and dislikes? How about loving what we love in the moment we love it? How about enjoying what is in the moment the enjoyment is present? How about accepting what we dislike in the moment we dislike it? How about accepting suffering (dukha) as part of our lives to be able to fully enjoy the pleasures (sukha)?

…makes you fall out of the here and now.

So, to bridge back to the question, what do I wish for my spiritual growth in 2018?

I want to let go of all likes and dislikes to be in the here and now, at all times.

Yours, Nina

Yoga Teacher Training-Episode 4

Wow, episode 4 already, which means I’m half way through the yoga teacher training. I have chosen the featured image of this blog post, as this was a very grounding training, with yoga practice, yoga philosophy and yoga anatomy. Yoga brings me closer to my real self each and every day, on and off the mat. And this picture shows me during a yoga retreat in Tulum, Mexico, where I felt grounded, too. Inspired, like I do now. And especially this pic was taken, when I finally permitted myself to come back to the real me.

Have you read my article yoga love yet? If you haven’t, I’d recommend to do it now, so you really understand why I feel so connected to the yoga practice.

Day 1: Started at 4pm as every Friday. I must admit after 2 weekends in a row and the 3rd weekend to come I felt a bit tired and wouldn’t have minded to just stay on the sofa with a tea and a book, but as I said above, I know why I’m doing this. So I swung my body into my yoga clothes, onto my bike and off to the yoga studio. The day started with correcting our homework, the yoga sequence we had to prepare and also we revised the most important points about standing poses. I was happy to see that my sequence was very good, even if not perfect, and that I knew actually everything on the standing poses, yay. As our teacher Nella always says, everything you need to know and you are ready to know, will sink in… the rest will come.

Then we went into our yoga practice focusing on the low cobra (Bhujangasana) and (Ardha) Chaturanga Dandasana. Whilst I knew the poses in theory, it turned out that even though I thought I had a really strong core, I kept sinking in to compensate what my arms couldn’t deliver. We went into groups of 2 to practice these poses and also to give each other feedback. We also learned assists and how to correct the major weaknesses in these poses, like putting too much pressure in the lower back, or not placing the hands properly underneath the shoulders to achieve a vertical angle to the mat. Afterwards, we incorporated the learnings into the following yoga practice and Jesus, my arms were ‘hurting’. It felt like they’d be falling off any second. But the practice was so good and challenging. And I like a challenge 😉

The second part of the day continued with yoga philosophy. We majorly discussed Ishvarah and the devotion to the Creator as well as the famous sound OM. We went into groups of 5 and prepared a chart about what OM means to us knowing by then that OM is the sound of Ishvarah. We then had to present the chart and in our group Robert and myself took over. The following OM to close the yoga practice was the most beautiful OM I’ve ever sung. It really came from the bottom of my heart and I indeed felt connected to something superior than me. I’ve had this feeling before, but this time was different.

OM, the sound of Ishvarah.

I headed home at 9pm, had a shower, something to eat, read a bit and fell into a good relaxed sleep.

Day 2: Makes me smile. We knew that we would be working with Richard Hackenberg the entire Saturday and Sunday. We were told it is about yoga anatomy. And I guess it was, but it was live anatomy if you know what I mean, so 9am Saturday morning and we went straight into a yoga practice. It was ‘only’ a 50 min practice, but literally after 10 minutes I turned around to the last row and breathed heavily, as it was just tough. The sequence appeared easy, and we didn’t do more than 10 different asanas. But, and that’s the clue, we moved quite slowly and with such an intensity, that we were all pretty exhausted after 10 minutes, haha. What a great practice though. Richard taught us very accurately how the body works whilst practicing yoga, live anatomy! After this practice, I experienced my best Savasana ever. Honestly. My whole body let go into my mat. Absolutely fabulous.

In the afternoon we spoke specifically about certain body parts, such as hamstrings, hip flexors and our spine. Knowing now that our spine is the way to transport energy, it makes it even clearer to me that we need to take good care not only of our spine, but our entire body. And I take good care of my body, once I re-educate it by practicing yoga consciously, with great alignment, with mindfulness, with love to the movement and the knowledge that my body wants to compensate weaker and less flexible body parts. I love my body and I’m so grateful for it, although I do have my physical challenges too, such as a severe tightness in my hip flexors and groins. I do admit that I find it annoying at times, but then I always come back to self-love and acceptance, thinking it will go once my time is right.

Thank your body.

Day 3: Makes me smile again, however this time I knew better. I knew we would be starting with a yoga practice, slow and challenging, so this time I was mentally prepared. And yet again, the practice was sweaty, I felt all muscles, everything, but I simply enjoyed the physical challenge and I could feel my energy rising. The following Savasana after a 60 minute practice was wonderful and I liked the fact that Richard didn’t say anything during Savasana and there wasn’t any music playing. I didn’t miss it, as I felt so peaceful lying on my yoga mat. We finished the practice with singing 3 x 3 OMs. 3 loud OMs for the entire world, 3 OMs a bit quieter for our group and last but not least I sang 3 OMs just for myself. Beautiful, no more words needed.

The second part continued with yoga anatomy again. This time we focused on the different nervous systems and which role they play in our everyday life. Especially the autonomic nervous system took my interest, as this is the system that works without my consciousness. This means that practicing yoga is even more important in order to gain consciousness over our body and mind, as we can only change the things that we move from the unconscious to the conscious.

What I also found fascinating is how our breathing influences our nervous system and whilst all yogis probably know that breathing is good, it is even better to know which role oxygen and CO2 play in the breathing. Meaning the higher the CO2 level in our body, the more relaxed we feel, for example when practicing Kumbhaka, the art of not breathing. Or Kapalabhati, when breathing quickly, which makes us feel more nervous and energetic as the CO2 level in our body decreases.

Last but not least we looked at Richard’s anatomy app over a projector. This was great, as he showed us all the joints, tendons and muscles we discussed over the last couple of days.

I must say I’m completely impressed with my body, with yoga, with the philosophy, what it gives me and it just makes me so happy.

I just love what I’m doing right now and that’s all that counts.

Do what you love and enjoy the way.

Yours, Nina