Preparing Your Body for Summer [Episode #578]

This week’s topic is: Preparing Your Body for Summer

Summer is this beautiful welcome time where we can start to feel more extroverted, open, and energized. And, we really hope to take advantage of more time in nature. Along with that, we tend to wear less clothing while we’re at the beach and pool parties, and many of us start to feel self-conscious about our bodies. Over the years, I certainly have experienced my own battles with body shame, beating myself up, and extreme self-criticism.

I’ve been able to balance a lot of that just from working with our Four Cornerstones and connecting to the deeper parts of myself, which helped me from hyper-fixating so much on every little part of my body and body shape. This topic lends itself really well to really bringing out this idea of the four cornerstones; food, body, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth.

It is an essential practice to treat ourselves as whole beings, and to nurture and honor that. When we do, we really start to embody this wholeness and stop fixating so much on the surface, and it starts to soften that rigidity. It becomes easier to maintain your weight and to have a healthier relationship with food.

There’s nothing wrong with looking great in the summer and wanting to look great, as long as we don’t put our full worth and our identity into our bodies. It becomes an extension of our connection with ourselves and feeling really good. And then when we feel really good, it emanates out and we like to share. And then we feel good on the inside and outside.

Have you been wondering about this very topic? If you want to know the answer to this question and 3 more sent in by Beauties just like you, listen now to find out!

Remember you can submit your questions at https://mysolluna.com/askkimberly/

[Questions Answered]

Bethany – Alaska 

It feels like I’ve been working on my body since last summer. Any tips on how to not feel so stagnant and get my energy up? I should be feeling more alive by now.

Tori – NJ

What spiritual practice can be applied when heading into the warmer months? Does it really change from other seasons?

Cory – Michigan

I’ve never had issues with seasonal disorder but I seem to be in a funk when I should be excited about warmer weather. How can I start feeling better about summer?

Kirsten – New Hampshire

Feeling SO insecure about the weight I’ve gained this whole past year with covid. How do I do a mindset cleanse so I steer clear of a downward spiral?

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Other Podcasts you may enjoy!:

• Tips for Summer Procrastination
• Summer Time Tips Round Up!
• How Can We Minimize Skin Damage Caused From Sunburns?
• Is Grilling Vegetables Toxic?

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Transcript:

Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.

Kimberly: 00:01 Hi Beauties, and welcome back to our Thursday Q&A community podcast where our topic today is Preparing Your Body for Summer. This is an interesting year, it’s been an interesting spring with everything starting to shift and change and open up. And yes, summer is around the corner, if you can believe it. I hope it is already getting warm and sunny, depending where you live. I hope that you’re getting to be out a little bit more. A lot of us have felt contained, pent up, stagnant over the past many months.

Kimberly: 00:38 So, summer is this beautiful welcome time where we can start to feel more extroverted and open and energized. And really hope to take advantage of more time in nature. Along with that, we tend to, of course, wear less clothing, we tend to be at the beach, or the pool parties, wherever, and many of us start to feel self-conscious about our bodies. Of course, a lot of that I believe is largely unfounded. We all have unique, beautiful bodies. I fall into that category as well. Over the years, I certainly have experienced my own battles with body shame, and beating myself up, and extreme self-criticism.

Kimberly: 01:27 I’ve been able to really balance a lot of that just from working with our four cornerstones and connecting to the deeper parts of myself, which helped me from hyper-fixating so much on every little part of my body and body shape. So that’s what I’ll say, right off the bat, I think that this topic lends itself really well to really bringing out this idea of the four cornerstones; food, body, emotional well-being, and spiritual growth.

Kimberly: 01:57 It is an essential tool, an essential practice to treat ourselves as whole beings, and to nurture that, and to honor that. When we do that, and I’ve experienced that in my personal life, and I’ve seen it with countless clients and readers, and all the people that I’ve talked to and worked with, is that when we really start to embody this wholeness, we don’t fixate so much on the surface, it starts to soften that rigidity. And ironically, it just becomes easier to maintain your weight anyway, it becomes easier to have a healthier relationship with food.

Kimberly: 02:38 So I’m really excited to hear your questions around this topic. We want to feel our best in summer, we want to feel amazing, we want to look our best too. There’s nothing wrong with looking great in the summer and wanting to look great, wanting to look hot, as long as we don’t put our full worth and our identity into our bodies. So it just becomes an extension of our connection with ourselves and feeling really good. And then when we feel really good, it emanates out and we like to share, we like to be out and about and wear less clothes. And we feel good on the outside. And we feel good on the inside.

Please leave a review on iTunes

Kimberly: 03:21 So before we jump in, I want to give a quick little reminder to please leave us a review on iTunes, which is free and easy and a wonderful way to support the show. So I thank you so much in advance. Please also remember to hit the subscribe button for our show. And that way you don’t miss out on any of these community podcasts, which are always on Thursdays or our Monday interview podcasts. We have such amazing, interesting guests that there’s so much wisdom that comes through those interviews. So the subscription button is a good one to push.

Question #1 around the topic of: Preparing Your Body for Summer: It feels like I’ve been working on my body since last summer. Any tips on how not to feel so stagnant and to get my energy up? I should be feeling more alive by now.

Kimberly: 04:01 Okay, so all that being said, let’s get right into our podcast today. I’m so excited again, preparing your body for summer. First question comes from Bethany and she lives in Alaska. She writes, “It feels like I’ve been working on my body since last summer. Any tips on how not to feel so stagnant and to get my energy up? I should be feeling more alive by now.” So Bethany, thank you so much, first of all, for your question. Sending you big love out there to Alaska, part of the world I haven’t yet journey to but I would like to one day. So big, warm cozy hug.

Kimberly: 04:40 First of all, the thing that caught me about your question as I read it right now for the first time is the should word. We’ve all heard this term or maybe you’ve heard it in passing or maybe you haven’t heard it. I’ve heard it a lot, which is stop shoulding all over ourselves. This idea that should is this aspect of shame, I think, because it means that we second guess ourselves, we beat ourselves up. And really, we’re doing our best in the moment. We’re doing the best that we can. We’re going forth, and there’s going to be times where we stumble. And we pick ourselves up. And maybe we go in circles sometimes and we learn and then we go forth, and then we go backwards. And that’s really just the journey of life.

Kimberly: 05:32 So I really don’t like the word should. I think it should be eliminated from our diets. And I say diets, lives, vocabulary. I just think that it’s a detrimental word. And it doesn’t really move us forward. Shame, guilt, it’s a heavy energy. We may be prompted into, in some cases, realigning. But if we are saying we should have done this, we should have done that all the time, we’re actually not in the present moment, we’re just beating ourselves up.

Kimberly: 06:06 So I would say, Bethany, over the last year, there’s been a lot of stuff that’s going on in the world that’s gone on in your life. So, big change, big adjustments, a lot of stress on your nervous system, immune system, just so many different shifts in our day-to-day life that to say, “Oh, well, this should have also happened in the meantime, my body should have gotten in perfect shape” is a lot to ask of yourself, I think we can agree, and a lot to ask of anybody.

Kimberly: 06:38 So as far as the stagnation and the energy, I understand that feeling, and now we are in May, we’re still in that phase. I think for some of us, especially in places in Alaska, I’m sure where it stays cold for a while, there’s still a lot of that Kapha energy that builds up through the winter that is still probably in your system, that Kapha grounding energy, the earth energy that is spoken of an Ayurveda, but what happens is when it goes into excess, it can contribute to stagnation and lethargy and slothfulness.

Kimberly: 07:16 So, as I was mentioning at the top of the podcast, it’s really a great opportunity to look at this question from the four cornerstone perspective. Body is one of our cornerstones. And so often when we want to get the best results, we have to go wider, not deeper, and more fixated on that one small part. It’s like this idea of going deep down this one rabbit hole versus going more holistic, and really honoring the wholeness, that is us. So that’s what I mean by going wider and taking a wider perspective. So let’s do that. Let’s go right down the four cornerstones.

Kimberly: 08:04 From a food perspective, it’s really important to make sure that food is digesting well in your body and processing well, and then leaving your body efficiently. So right now in spring, this is a great time for more raw foods, more freshness, sprouts, fruit, low sugar fruit, if your system is going through something, or you have Candida, or you have some specific issue going on with your body that you’re working to balance. But in any case, vegetables, salads, just really starting to bring some of that lightness in.

Kimberly: 08:46 I’ve been making raw almond milk lately, which feels really alive to me and making my smoothies with that. And I’ve been putting sprouts in my power protein smoothie every day. So that has felt really nourishing and grounding, but also not heavy. So I would work with a lot of those different foods. You don’t have to eat all raw. That can be tough for any of us. It’s something I attempted for about two years, and I started to feel a little bit off. I started to really crave that cooked food, which adds that fire element. So those are some of the foods I recommend body-wise.

Kimberly: 09:26 I recommend getting outside. I’m not sure exactly where in Alaska you are, what the weather’s like. But one of the best ways to get past stagnation is to be in the fresh air and to be in nature. And so, if you’ve been working out but it’s inside in a gym, maybe you’ve been doing the same exercise routine, lifting weights or being on a bike or whatever it is, I really encourage you to go outside and to walk around, get some fresh air, go for a hike, or any other activity that really feels good for you right now.

Kimberly: 09:59 It’s also an argue that it practice, it’s a recommended practice to walk for at least 15 minutes after meals. So another way you can enhance your digestion is to walk around after lunch or dinner, time permitting, sunlight permitting. So that’s a beautiful practice as well.

Kimberly: 10:17 Emotionally, we’ve been through so much, you guys. Let’s not beat around the bush here, there’s been a lot of challenge and fear and uncertainty that’s been brought up in most all of us. So I think that the way to, and that drags us down unless we process it. So it’s a really good time to… As we’re transitioning in the world, we’re transitioning in our bodies, we’re transitioning in the seasons, to really honor that space to create some stillness, and just have some space to reflect and to journal.

Kimberly: 10:54 If there’s community around you that you feel would understand some of that, it’s a good time to call on community and connection and loved ones. We, of course, have our Solluna circle, which is our membership part of… it’s hosted on our app if you want to check it out for yourself. But we certainly talk about these issues, and these ideas on a daily basis, and in our monthly Zoom, or live call. So I really recommend that as well.

Kimberly: 11:26 And then spiritually, our inner state, our true self, our essence is, by nature, dynamic and full of abundant, limitless energy. So I would encourage you, Bethany, to really meditate and to get into your practice to breathe. And you can combine meditation with being outside. I love to meditate outside as much as I can. I love to go on my lawn, and plop down right on the grass, and be out there and to feel that grounding and that connection with my body with the earth. At the same time, I’m breathing and being outside, it feels really good to me. So these are some of the practices that I recommend.

Kimberly: 12:15 I also, of course, recommend that you really focus on your gut health, and your digestion. So check out our SBO probiotics, check out Detoxy. We have a few supplements at Solluna. I’m not a big supplement for sure because I don’t believe that you need to take a million different things. But these are supportive to your energy and your gut health and feeling light. It’s not so much, again, just what we’re putting in, but also peeling away the layers.

Kimberly: 12:44 This means on a physical, first, on the physical level, we want to get rid of toxins and stagnation in our body. But it’s also spiritual. This idea of the Shiva energy and yoga, for instance, the supreme self, we’re not earning it or trying to get somewhere, we’re just peeling away, dropping off these extra layers of our ego, that make us… we feel like we identify with all this stuff that isn’t really us. And so when we just shed layers and shed layers, we start to feel lighter and lighter, we start to feel more joyful as we start to really connect with our true selves. And that’s where freedom is. That’s where joy is. That’s where peace is. It’s a really beautiful process to go through.

Kimberly: 13:33 So check out these tips, check out really putting some energy into all four of the cornerstones, Bethany, and perhaps seeing as I spoke through them, which one may really need some extra love from you right now. Which one really resonates with you, and putting some extra love in that one cornerstone. So thank you so much for your question, my love. Again, sending you a warm hug out there in Alaska, and keep in touch with me, let me know how you do. Let me know how it goes.

Question #2 around the topic of: Preparing Your Body for Summer: What spiritual practice can be applied when heading into the warmer months? Does it really change from other seasons?

Kimberly: 14:03 Our next question comes from Tori and she lives in New Jersey. She writes, “What spiritual practice can be applied when heading into the warmer months?” Yes, this podcast is about summer, into the warmer months. “Does it really change from other seasons?” I love this question. So, I think that our energy shifts from season to season. So, along with that, we may feel different in our practices, we may adjust our practices, we may shift our practices because just like in nature, the way that we see the birds coming in the spring and then the fullness of the leaves and then the shedding of the leaves and the absence of leaves through the different seasons, we want to honor those energetic shifts in our body.

Kimberly: 14:55 So, for me, meditation is a through-line, day in and day out, week after week. I really would be a very different energy, I’d be a different person if I didn’t have my meditation practice. One thing I will say to you with truth and right from my heart the fullness of my belief is that I am so much more aligned day-to-day, I’m so much lighter, you guys, and so much more joyful since I really dialed in my meditation practice, which started around four years ago was the turning point when my mom passed away. I had been meditating before, but I think that was really… looking back, that was the time that I really started to shift.

Kimberly: 15:43 I will just say that, that is consistent. But as I mentioned with Bethany’s question earlier, there’s this extroverted energy when it’s warm and beautiful outside. So I meditate more outside in the summer, I ground more outside, I take my shoes off, I walk, I do a lot of the practices that I might do inside with the birds around me, I can hear some chirping now, with the sunlight, with the grass underneath me, and it feels very natural to be outside and to be more open to the fresh air. It feels more natural to me to be inside during winter and to be cozy and to be inward.

Kimberly: 16:29 So this is the part of our energy, this is the more Yang time of year versus the Yin, the inward. This is where we can feel more elevated and energetic and robust and open. So the practices for me shift in that way where I incorporate the nature more, but I’m still meditating. Some of my movement may shift. I’m feeling the call to do some more asanas, I’m feeling the call to just move around more, just play with my kids. We do live in California so we play outside a lot more in general, but just to explore, to get to different hikes and to get to different places, and to be able to really share that with my family. That feels really good to me.

Kimberly: 17:23 And so spiritually, I would just say to really, the spiritual growth cornerstone is about connection. So I would say to you, Tori, in what ways can you really start to incorporate the seasonal shifts? In what ways can you incorporate the nature around you into your practices? So for me, and I’m looking at my desk right now, I also like to gather local wildflowers from my land, and keep them on my desk, keep them in our kitchen, so I put them on my altar. So I feel really connected to the land around me and to the nature around me. Because ultimately, this concept, the central concept of oneness is that we’re connected to all things. We’re connected to the nature, we’re connected to each other.

Kimberly: 18:17 When I have elements of nature around me, I certainly feel so connected, and I feel it’s a way to honor the nature. And it feels really good. So try that for yourself, Tori, use your intuition. Maybe you might feel called to go to a sacred spot, and maybe ground into the earth, sit down, meditate outside. You may feel called to do some prayers down at some body of water, whatever resonates with you. I personally do believe in the power of prayer. I often meditate first and then I pray. I connect first and then I pray. And that feels really good to me. And again, as I mentioned, it feels very organic for me to be outside.

Kimberly: 19:09 It’s a bit of a tender time right now because we have had this major fire just a few days ago right near my home. I was on my walk today and I could see the flames, I could see the smoke. I was just looking at the birds and it just breaks my heart to think about the wildlife in the land. Thankfully, no humans as afar, no structures have been taken by the fire. But, of course, there’s a tremendous loss of the natural habitat and the environment, and the wildlife. And so, I was praying at the top of the mountain on my walk today and I was just sending love out and it’s just incorporating our energy into what is going around us.

Kimberly: 20:07 So when you’re sitting outside, just taking a moment. We have all the many free led meditations over on the app. I like to really feel into what’s around me. I like to hear the birds and I like to feel the earth. If you live in a city, even the commotion and the traffic and the people, that’s part of us too. So I like to connect with what’s around, I go deep into my practice. And then when I get to the gratitude part of my practice, which is usually how I end my meditations, I’m grateful for all of it, everything around. And that feels really good to me. Connection is the heart of our Feel Good movement.

Kimberly: 20:52 The reason we call this the Feel Good Podcast, feel good isn’t about being giddy all the time, or giggly or feeling hyper happy or fake happy. No. Feeling good is really about connection, connection with the true self inside of us, which is really the divine part of us, the spirit. And then connection stems really healthy connection to all others, and all things I believe stems from that inner connection. So we can continue to foster that self-connection and connection to oneness and all others in the summer by really connecting to being outside and the extroverted energy that’s all around us. And do that in an organic way that feels good to you. So I love this question, Tori. Sending you so much love. I hope you check out our meditations and benefit from them. That’s the intention of them. That’s why I put them out regularly.

Kimberly: 21:48 By the way, guys, I’m going to be putting out two meditations also every month on our website. So you can also locate them there, they’re also going to be in the Solluna app. There’ll be a written explanation on the website. So you’ll get that as well. I feel really passionate about that. Those meditations on the site will also be tied to seasonal shifts. And so that’s a great practice for you, Tori, to work with that and to work with incorporating energy that’s shifting and moving in a dynamic way, in a natural way around us, and incorporating that into your own personal practices. So thank you, my love, sending you lots of love and lots of gratitude.

Break

Kimberly: Okay, Beauties, so we have a short break. And when we get back, we have two more questions for you on this wonderful topic of preparing your body for summer.

Question #3 around the topic of: Preparing Your Body for Summer: I’ve never had issues with seasonal disorder. But I seem to be in a funk, when I should be excited about warmer weather. How can I start feeling better about summer?

Kimberly: 22:56 Our next question comes from Corey who lives in Michigan. And she writes, “I’ve never had issues with seasonal disorder. But I seem to be in a funk, when I should be excited about warmer weather. How can I start feeling better about summer?” So again, I heard this should word, which we talked about in the first question with Bethany. And so I’ll say, first of all, Corey, first of all, so much love to you out in Michigan. I’ve been to Michigan lake and it’s beautiful. So I hope you’re getting to experience some of that beautiful summer weather starting to come in.

Kimberly: 23:39 Listen, this past winter, and this past year has been a challenging one in many ways for most all of us. So please be compassionate with yourself. Please know that on many levels, beyond even our conscious mind, we are all still processing a lot of what has happened. And that may take time and our bodies digest things in different ways and in different timeframes. So I think that what’s important here is to really, first of all, honor where you are in the present moment, instead of resisting it, instead of trying to change it, or wish it were different, just to really be okay with acknowledging that you’ve been through a funk and maybe you are still in a funk and that’s perhaps due to the accumulation of all these factors, all this stuff that has gone on for all of us over the past year.

Kimberly: 24:42 So I encourage you to just give yourself a break. What came up for me spontaneously when I was reading this question is really encouraging you to do self-care practices with your body, soothing your nervous system. When we’re feeling the funk, there’s often a lot of unprocessed emotions. And there’s a lot that can create disorder in our nervous system. So we’re like held in this suspensive, the state of suspense, where our bodies are a little bit heightened, a lot actually reactive and just not soothed, not relaxed, not where they ideally would be, if we were in a state of complete calm and complete relaxation.

Kimberly: 25:36 So what I would encourage you to do, Corey is from the four cornerstone perspective, I’ll start with body here. I would encourage you to get some massages, or at least one massage, maybe splurge on a massage, if that’s possible. If you feel comfortable doing that right now, or even some self-massage, take a warm bath. This is the time to use those bath salts and to take some deep breaths and let go of any tension in your body. This is a great time to bring in stretching, to bring in yoga.

Kimberly: 26:14 Touch is so healing. So if you have a partner, if you have a friend or a family member, even if they’re not professionals, you can give each other a little shoulder rub, just a little bit of touch. It sounds to me that, this funk, it starts in the mind, it starts with fear, but it ends up getting stored in our bodies. So just touch soothing practices. Like I said, maybe a relaxing facial, again, if it feels safe and good to you right now, anything with touch, or with your body. Ayurveda is still big on that as a primary [inaudible 00:26:51] of practice. Rejuvenative practice is to really work with the skin and to work with a body.

Kimberly: 26:57 I actually had my first massage last week in over a year and a half, I want to say, because, for me, I stopped getting massages pretty early on in this whole thing, or even before it started to get out so much because I was pregnant. So when I had this massage, I had this experience of so much release. Listen, I do meditate, I do all these practices, but the body still stores so much stagnant energy. So I really encourage you to try that, Corey. And food wise, I would encourage you, I mentioned raw food in the first question that we had to Bethany. I would encourage you to try some elixirs.

Kimberly: 27:50 Try some intention with creating beverages for yourself that have active compounds, that have wonderful adaptogens. A turmeric latte could be a wonderful idea right now as a clearing effect, it helps to cleanse the blood, it helps to cleanse out stagnation. So you can try warm almond milk or oat milk or whatever feels good to, hemp milk and a little bit of sweetener, whichever one feels good, optional. I say that because turmeric can be a little earthy, but just a simple elixir like that with the intention of, “I love myself, I’m bringing in, I’m calling in, I’m clearing. I’m calling in some purifying here, I’m calling in some blasting through some stagnation that I’m working with in my body.” And that could be such a beautiful practice and really help when we bring energy and intention to ritual. It is activating, it puts our energy there. And so I’ve seen some really great results with that.

Kimberly: 29:00 Of course, the raw foods and the other foods and practices I’ve recommended to Bethany apply here as well, Corey. Emotionally, ask your body, “What am I holding on to? What can I let go of?” Journal, breathe, find stillness. I think it’s such an underrated practice to just lay on your yoga mat. I do this. I don’t really do any poses, but I just roll around. And I reflect on things and sometimes things come up. I always keep my journal nearby. Sometimes I’ll write about something that came up for me when I had that space to just stretch and roll around and sometimes it doesn’t come when we just are in the flow of a busy day or a busy life. But if we give ourselves a little bit of extra space, sometimes the feelings start to come up. They rise up in the body. So journaling, processing our feelings.

Kimberly: 30:04 And then from a spiritual standpoint, Corey, getting some sunlight on your skin and getting outside. Of course, I encourage you to do that in a completely safe way. So, using adequate sun protection. I always wear a big hat when I’m outside. I wear non-toxic sunscreen on my face. If you can hear that noise right now, that is a helicopter right over my house dropping water for the fire. So I welcome that noise. I send so much love to these firefighters. There’s a lot going on in the world at any time and for all of us, and yeah, these practices are so important and so grounding as we go into summer and really for all the moments of our life, all the times, all the ups and downs.

Kimberly: 30:57 So yeah, spiritually, I recommend I was saying to use adequate sun protection, but to start connecting with the essence of summer, which is about rising sunlight for a lot of us. It is about the flowers opening and leaves coming out. So, I would encourage you to be outside and to breathe and to get some of that sunlight on your skin, and to just integrate with that energy more.

Kimberly: 31:36 There’s a crystal that I work with sometimes. And I like the intention that you bring to crystals, whether you believe that they have healing properties or not. I believe that everything is energy. And so crystals are believed to be the energy of light in a physical form. They have a perfect structure that doesn’t get distorted with stress and sugar and inflammation and all these different things. So they can hold space for us. So when I hear your question, I also feel called to recommend citrine, which is golden. It reminds me of the sun, it’s beautiful. We’ve had Solluna events where we hand out citrine to represent the sunlight and the sun aspect, the soul, the solar. And for the lunar aspect for the moon, we have this beautiful black rock that we also work with called Tourmaline.

Kimberly: 32:33 But anyways, going back to the citrine for a moment, I think it’s beautiful to maybe, if you feel called to it, get a little citrine stone, a little rock, it doesn’t have to be expensive, it could be a few dollars or a Citrine necklace. I’m a big believer in jewelry and wearing pieces that make you feel good and elevated and support the energy that you’re working to call in. So I like Satya, I love Asha Patel designs, these are two jewelry brands that I wear a lot and work with, and just over the years really have accrued a lot of their pieces. And I certainly do wear a lot of Citrine myself.

Kimberly: 33:18 So I would also lastly, encourage you, Corey, to just be really gentle with yourself. Again, I think this should and pushing ourselves into places which we are authentically are not yet it just doesn’t really feel fully empowered to me. I think true empowerment is being okay where we are and honoring that. And at the same time, we can have intention and we can work to pull ourselves out and make shifts and energetic shifts and support that in our bodies. But we don’t want to push ourselves or shame ourselves or should, again that should word, should all over ourselves. Because that just… this more resistance and instead of being in the flow or doing that pushing energy, which isn’t really organic.

Kimberly: 34:05 So I send you so much love, Corey. Thank you so much for your question. Thank you so much for being part of our community. I’m so grateful for our connection and I send you so much love.

Question #4 around the topic of: Preparing Your Body for Summer
: Feeling SO insecure about the weight I’ve gained this whole past year with COVID. How do I do a mindset cleanse so I steer clear of a downward spiral?

Kimberly: 34:17 Our last question here comes from Kirsten who lives in New Hampshire. She writes, “Feeling SO insecure about the weight I’ve gained this whole past year with COVID. How do I do a mindset cleanse so I steer clear of a downward spiral?” Listen, my love, of course, there has been, I’ve said this whole podcast, we’re going to be talking about this probably for a while. It’s almost like post-traumatic stress syndrome. It’s post-traumatic pandemic syndrome, really because there’s been so many different emotions and, of course, we’ve been home more. We’ve been in and out of the fridge more. Some of us have relied on food more to shift our moods, to deal with stress, to combat anxiety and uneasiness, and all of these different things.

Kimberly: 35:05 So I encourage you, first of all, as I was literally just saying to Corey, to be gentle with yourself, and to remember that this has been an unprecedented year. And we, instead of feeling angry at ourselves or guilty, the way forward is to nurture ourselves and to be gentle with ourselves. So I encourage you, Kiersten to take a deep breath, first of all, and to remind yourself that this will balance, you can balance yourself, and you will get back on track. And to take a survey, see where you may have fallen off from a food perspective. Maybe you can go through, do an inventory of your fridge and your closet, your cabinets, and see, “I’ve been eating so many of these chips right now,” or, “I’ve been eating so many Beyond Burgers,” which are great, by the way. I’d eat Beyond Burgers, I don’t eat them all the time, but I work them into the rotation. We have some in the freezer.

Kimberly: 36:18 But whatever foods, maybe you’ve been overly relying on, or maybe you’ve been eating takeout a lot. Just see where you can dial it in without judgment, without beating yourself up for the past, you can start to make a little bit of a plan. I encourage you to take at least one step forward in that area. One to three steps maximum, and then you can start to incorporate that and integrate that. So one step could be, we did this in the circle, there was one of our beauties in the circle, she was saying, “I don’t know exactly where to start or what to do. I’m so off.” And I said, “Just eat a salad for lunch every day for seven days.” And that’s your goal.

Kimberly: 37:01 So you could pick something like that, Kiersten. You could say, “Okay, I’m going to have a salad-based lunch every day for the next week,” or whatever feels good to you, “I’m going to get back into my glowing green smoothie flow. I’m going to make it every other day, I’m going to drink it every day.” Small simple things, it doesn’t have to be this complete overhaul or, “I’m going to eat a raw salad dinner every night,” whatever, I would pick one to three steps, as after you do your survey of yourself, and you know what you’ve been doing, Kiersten. I don’t know exactly.

Kimberly: 37:45 But maybe it’s, like I said, the process food or the packaged food or the takeout food, cutting back on that it’s always a great idea to cook more at home. It is always a good idea when you can to simplify your meals and to make simple meals at home with your own energy, and your own ingredients. You can control the oil and the type of oil and so on and so forth. So take one to three steps.

Kimberly: 38:10 And then body-wise, I was such a big believer in walking, I mentioned it earlier. But I think it’s a great idea to go outside and to walk to move your body, to get into a dynamic flow, and to really honor any other movement practice that feel good to you right now. Dancing is great. Biking is great, it’s all great. It’s like whatever feels good to you. But to find some real enjoyment and to find a love that you love to do, you love to move your body in a certain way.

Kimberly: 38:46 Emotionally, so much weight issues has to do with our emotions. It’s really the stem of it, isn’t it? Because on its own, food is just a source of nourishment, but our minds and our emotions get caught up in the ways that food tastes and can shift our moods and give us comfort and can make us feel grounded, and all these different things. So we want to take a look, Kiersten. I would just sit with what have you been processing over the past year? What fears have come up for you? What’s going on for you over the past year that maybe you need to put some extra love and attention into right now? Sit with it and let it go through you.

Kimberly: 39:37 In the similar vein that we digest food, emotions and fears have to be digested. What I’ve seen over the past year is a lot of clinging to the news, looking for updates, just a lot of outward external information coming in and trying to get better news, but a lot of it’s not been so great. There’s a lot of unrest in the world. And politically, there’s just a lot going on. So we need to pull back from that and see how that’s affected us. I’ve done that in junctures of time, and really pulled back and said, “Oh.”

Kimberly: 40:22 Especially with the recent fire, and again, I hear another helicopter, which is still raging on. I’ve been praying so much for this fire, you guys. It’s a big one, it hits close to home for me, it literally is close to my home. It’s a few miles from my home. With the pandemic, there was a lot. I had a lot of fear around just what was going on when I was pregnant, especially. And there was a lot of unknowns. So I had to really sit with that. I had to let the fear be digested and processed. I did call on my husband, who is one of my anchors, and community, loved ones, ones that can reflect back to you, and ones that you feel good speaking with. I encourage you to do that, because we need emotional balance to have body balance. We need emotional balance to balance our weight for the long term. And that is absolutely true, I wholeheartedly believe that.

Kimberly: 41:23 That’s the reason we see so many people yo-yoing with their weight. We can use our willpower and cling and try to change our diets for a period. But ultimately, we need to get to the root of what is causing the over reliance on food, what is causing so much addiction to food, or unhealthy practices around food. And that often does come from our third cornerstone, the emotional and mental health one. And also the spiritual growth one here, Kiersten.

Kimberly: 41:55 The clients that I’ve worked with, that I started meditating with that started to connect down are the ones that kept the weight off. Because we are so much more than the surface. The surface is choppy, the surface is always changing, the surface, I mean the way we look, what’s going on outside, what we’re doing. And so, that includes our weight. So if we’re just hyper fixated on our weight and our bodies, it almost becomes like re-feeding the energy of it, and it becomes this high-pressure situation. And then next thing we know we’re actually creating stress hormones or creating cortisol and belly fat and you’re doing all sorts of things to our other hormones.

Kimberly: 42:41 So in contrast, what we want to do is just breathe down and connect to that beautiful true self, that is Kiersten. Kiersten is not just this body, she’s not her weight, she is not what she looks like, there’s a whole lot more to you than that, Kiersten. So I encourage you to breathe into that space and to honor yourself and to find that connection with the beautiful self, the beautiful true self, the essence of you.

Kimberly: 43:18 The more you do that, the more you become less and less attached to food, you become less and less attached to numbers, like what you weigh yourself every day, which is a practice, this horrendous practice that I used to do to myself every day literally totally throughout numbers, you’ll notice I never talk about numbers, because I feel free of them. And it feels so much better to me to be in a wide-open space of energy than to be defined by all these different numbers.

Kimberly: 43:48 So when you do that, and you really start to feel free in your body and you start to feel free in your mind, then you will be able to balance your body and your weight in a much easier way and it’s just amazing when that starts to kick in. So try all these different practices, don’t beat yourself up, Kiersten. A lot of us have gained some pounds over the past stressful year, totally common and it’s okay and you will rebalance now. But please don’t be harsh with yourself, please don’t be rigid. It’s not the end all be all, you will rebalance. And so ultimately, it is okay, we go on and we go off. We are not perfect. We are all perfectly imperfect and I myself am very much included in that.

Kimberly: 44:35 I have had times during this COVID experience where my one thing that still bloats me if I eat too much, but I love it is the fresh-baked sourdough bread from the farmers market. So the beginning of the pandemic, I was like, “Yeah, sourdough bread doesn’t get me bloated because it’s pre-digested and it’s fermented and so a lot of the gluten is digested already.” But then there were periods during this pandemic where I ate a whole loaf to myself. Could have been the weeks where I just was feeling a little bit low, and I was just eating the bread [inaudible 00:45:14], “Holy crap, I just ate the whole loaf.” And then I felt bloated. And then I didn’t feel so great. And so I had to re-correct.

Kimberly: 45:20 And so I shared this with you because it just shows that I’ve been working on this stuff for a while, and it still happens to me, I still go off sometimes. I try not to beat myself up. I know I’m at a point where I’ve been through this so much, I’ve beaten myself up, and gone down that road before. So instead of doing that, I just say, “Hey, take a bunch more, digestive enzymes, and I’m going to try better next time.”

Kimberly: 45:47 So sending you so much love, Kiersten, and thank you so much, my love, for your question. Thank you all beauties, all of you listening, and all of you in general, I’m so grateful for our connection, truly. Before we end the show, we wrap up the show today, I want to leave you with a quote of the week. I pulled this based on the topic because I think that this reminds me, this idea of wildness reminds me of summer. It reminds me of the energy of summer which is to get out and to be free and to be a nature and we have the part of us that’s inward, reserved, sits back, and then we have this part of us that sometimes just wants to dance in the moonlight and go outside and run into the ocean.

Thought of the Week

Kimberly: 46:35 And so this quote comes from Rumi, and he writes, “Be wild and crazy and drunk with love. If you are too careful, love will not find you.” So let me say it one more time. “Be wild and crazy and drunk with love. If you are too careful, love will not find you.” So be free in yourself, my love. Leave out all the shoulds and the regrets. Just go forward. Be present. Do your best. Learn from past errors. Learn from the stumbles, re-correct, come back to your center. But enjoy and be in your heart and love freely and love yourself, and be compassionate with yourself and be compassionate with your body. Don’t take everything so seriously.

Kimberly: 47:31 I send you so much love. We’ll have these show notes as always over on the website, mysolluna.com. Please check out all those different meditations that I mentioned to you earlier and our app. I’ll see you over in social as well @_KimberlySnyder. Sending you so much love and I will see you back here Monday for our next interview podcast. Big kisses, big virtual hug, and again, so much love.