{"id":3162,"date":"2018-06-28T14:05:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T18:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2020-10-05T15:50:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T19:50:59","slug":"feel-lighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/feel-lighter\/","title":{"rendered":"Feel Lighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer is the perfect time to assess what\u2019s weighing you down in life and fix it, says Mary Harris \u201808M, a Certified Holistic Health Coach and specialist professor in the Department of Communication. On her blog, \u201cWild Mary Blossoms,\u201d Harris shares healthy living advice that can help anyone enjoy \u201ca soul-expanding life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here, she shares some positive lifestyle changes you can make this summer to help lighten the load.<\/p>\n

Declutter Your Life<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nLook at your environment\u2014your home, car, office\u2014and get rid of what\u2019s not being used or adding value to your life. The benefits are threefold: it\u2019s physical work, it\u2019s emotionally freeing, and giving things away will help you feel whole spiritually, says Harris.<\/p>\n

Stop Multitasking<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nMonotasking, part of the \u201cslow living movement,\u201d follows the philosophy of prioritizing tasks and fully focusing on completing one thing at a time, says Harris. It can be as simple as cutting back on the number of goals you set each day to keep yourself from rushing through tasks.<\/p>\n

Practice Mindfulness<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nBe mindful of environmental toxins\u2014in what you eat, wear, spray on the lawn, put in your hair\u2014to identify if something is directly affecting your well-being, says Harris. And be mindful of habits that can affect you negatively, she says. Do you shop out of necessity or to fill a void? Does spending an hour on social media each day keep you from having time to exercise?<\/p>\n

Release Yourself From Your Routine<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nGetting stuck on autopilot can weigh you down and keep you from living life in the moment. \u201cStructure is important, but if you can, pepper in spontaneity every now and again just to break a link on the chain,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

Do A Digital Detox Day<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve really distracted ourselves in so many ways and it\u2019s created this internal heaviness where people get so anxious about checking their email, so anxious about having their phone,\u201d says Harris. She suggests you unplug from your phone and computer and instead enjoy time with friends, connect with nature, or read a book.<\/p>\n

Get Outside<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cBeing active is one of the best ways to live lighter because it helps your mental state in a natural way,\u201d says Harris. \u201cSo kayaking, walking, hiking, dancing, or just sitting outside and existing\u2014it\u2019s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ditch bad habits to enjoy summer to the fullest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":3163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":53,\"y\":22}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-3162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-summer-guide"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Uncategorized","issue":"Summer 2018","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11715,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions\/11715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}