What does boosting yourself mean to you? For me, it means giving your life or your loved one’s life that little extra push to move forward. I believe that if you practice boosting yourself and others on a daily basis, you don’t need to have an SOS plan, once you feel like everything in your life has stopped. Today, I will be sharing seven different ways how to give yourself a little extra boost.
Relationship-boost
Relationship-boost is a powerful tool that will make your everyday life much more fulfilling when you have a loving and peaceful relationship with your partner. But we humans are the creatures of habit and therefore it’s very easy to take your relationship for granted and get used to having someone by your side all the time. They say that even the most luxurious items become commodities after some time. Relationships need nurturing and if we don’t do that, they will start to have small cracks that in the end will expand to holes. I know from my own experience how much energy raising kids and running your own company takes, which makes it easy to put your relationship on the back seat. However, it’s not so complicated to give your relationship that little extra kick. My recent biggest relationship boost was when my future husband Jesper proposed to me. Of course, that is a bigger boost that can’t be advised to everyone, but another good way to spice up your relationship is to go on an adventure together. That can be anything from a romantic trip to Bali or a simple one-night treat in a cosy cottage house. To make things even more romantic forget about your smartphones and electricity and take candles with you instead. Whoever has small kids knows that getting a date night can be very difficult and that is also the case with our youngest son, since he is too little to stay with the grandparents yet. Therefore, we have replaced our date-nights with date-days and instead of going out in the evenings, we have mini dates during the day. We discover our hometown, visit small coffee shops or sit on a park bench together and scroll our feeds while laughing at how ridiculous we are. But still, it’s good to be together and enjoy those little moments.
Beauty-boost
From time to time I feel that insufficient sleep (I’m still feeding my little one, which means waking up after every couple of hours), not enough vitamin D and a poor selection of fresh and nutritious food, takes a turn on how I look. I feel tired all the time, my skin becomes dull and I have bags under my eyes. Then I turn to water, fresh-pressed juices and supplements. Whenever I feel that something is not quite balanced in my body, the first thing I do is to increase my water intake. Lately, I have been loving natural spring water, that I bring from the spring myself and put in a glass jar, so my family can also drink clean and natural water.
My second favourite is the different juices. For example, the beloved chef Anni Arro has written in her cookbook “Sepamaa Taluköök” that her favourite juice for winter is a pumpkin-buckthorn-carrot juice. It’s the perfect starter for your day because carrot and pumpkin are packed with beta-carotene and buckthorn has a lot of Vitamin C. Celery and honey are good for your digestive system.
200g pumpkin
0,5 glass of buckthorn
Carrot juice
2 tbls honey
1 celery stick
Blend all ingredients together until even the seeds of buckthorn are blended because they consist buckthorn oil that is excellent for the skin and your body. Thank you Anni Arro for the recipe!
In case you don’t have time to make you own vitamin bombs (because let’s be honest, someone needs to buy all the vegetables and fruits, peel and chop them), then take the easy way out. Nowadays, healthy living has been made as easy as possible and you can buy a ready-made smoothie mix. One of my favourites is definitely the Boost Yourself superfood blend, that consist of collagen and different vitamins. All you need to do, to give your body a boost, is to mix your favourite superfood blend with water, juice or a smoothie and you are good to go! Just add a spoonful of the superfood blend to your drink after all the ingredients have been blended since the mix doesn’t need any more processing. Remember, once you start with a beauty routine, make sure you also finish it to see the difference in your reflection in two-three months. Your body needs time to transport all the vitamins and minerals to vital organs first, after that it starts to distribute the nutrients to nails, hair and skin and will give you that magical “glow”.
Mental-boost
That is something I do every day. Whenever I catch myself brainstorming at night instead of sleeping, then I know that I need to focus more on my mental well-being. The first simple boost you can give your mind is meditating. It’s the easiest yet most difficult thing to do, to give your mind permission to just sit and do nothing for 10-20 minutes. However, for some reason, many of the most successful people in the world say that meditating every day is one of the keys to success. Another great boost for your body and mind is being in nature. Try yourself! A day in nature will give you an amazing feeling, especially in the wintertime, when on average we spend 1-2h outside and even that time is spent walking to the car and back.
Money-boost.
That is something we all need, right? Especially when most of the money is spent on gifts. For me, money is energy and energy needs to flow. But by making it flow, I don’t mean recklessly spending it. I always think twice and sometimes even three times before I buy something new for my home. Instead of things, I like to fill my home with stories and memories. For example, I bought this beautiful ceramic bowl from our trip to Bali with a note that said that it had been made by a local mother of two, who believed in her dreams. That little note spoke to me since I am also a working mum and I happily support other mum’s dreams.
Some time ago I spent money on an expensive teapot. At first, I left the teapot in the store and gave it two days. I decided that if I remember the teapot after two days then it’s meant to be mine… and what happened? I couldn’t find peace until the teapot was in my kitchen. The exquisite design of the teapot was simply mesmerizing and therefore I was willing to pay more for it. The same phenomena inspires me with my own creations - when something is simply mesmerizing and I have never seen anything similar before. Like our Moonchildren earrings, that can be worn in 6 different ways. Actually, on our last Christmas sale day in Swedbank, I discovered they can be worn in 7 different ways...
Another fun way to give your money energy a boost is to write a love letter to money and see if the energy starts to flow or not…
Home-boost
By that, I mean bringing new energy to your home. I have this thing, that whenever my partner Jesper goes for a work trip for a couple of weeks, I get this urge to nest. I fly to interior shops and try to make our home as cosy and as homey as possible. Last time Jesper was away, I decided that I’m not going to buy absolutely anything new before every corner, drawer and cupboard has been cleaned and I have gotten rid of everything that doesn’t have a purpose anymore. Because things you don’t use is just energy that doesn’t flow. It was quite hard to get rid of everything we didn’t need anymore, but I promised to reward myself with flowers. Only flowers, no new interior accessories. What happened was that once everything was clean and organized, I flew to buy new curtains, rugs, tea set and of course plants, lots of plants. Even our dog got a new comfy bed. I could also see how the change at home affected the little ones. My five-year-old son started to clean his room on his own, saying that he doesn’t need so many things and it’s better to have more room. I have noticed that whenever kids start to hang on me too much and all I hear is: “I’m bored”, then it’s usually time to organize their toy drawers and rediscover “new” toys to play with. I make sure to leave them a couple of options, but not too many because that can also be a little overwhelming. It’s better to give them 1-2 toys that they really like. After each cleanup, there is always a couple of days of peace and silence when the kids are exploring a new fantasy world in their room that feels like new.
Boost of Happiness
What is the boost that brings you happiness? For me, it’s my own little jungle. I have gathered quite a few plants, so even when it’s grey outside, there is something green in each corner of my home. My latest discovery has been to gift plant leaves if you are not sure what kind of plant your loved one would like. For example, my latest home purchase was the popular Monstera plant leaf. Since all parts of this plant are poisonous, I haven’t dared to by the plant, but its leaves have brightened up our home for over a month now. It brings as much joy as a pot plant but it’s much easier to take care of. One more place I have filled with plants is our bedroom – except for bed and bedsheets, there are only plants. I like to slowly wake up while looking at my plants.
Another thing that gives me a boost of happiness is learning something new. I have discovered the https://www.domestika.org platform, where you can find different courses by acknowledged teachers from all over the world. Just the thought of what an amazing era we are living at, where home-schooling is made so interesting and easy, makes me happy. So far, I have taken different courses in the fields of design and art, but I’m soon planning to dive into the world of embroidery.
Surprise-boost
That is the final piece of advice that wanted to sneak into this blog post. Lately, I have started to make spontaneous surprises to my loved ones. Mostly things like calling old friends, who I haven’t talked to in a while or send a lovely little surprise package to them. Making little surprises to your loved ones will give an energy boost to you and the gift receiver.
These were some of the ways I like to boost myself.
Mari