Clarity Wellness

  I don't know about you, but I've got lots of plans for this summer.  The fact that it's going to be a shorter break than usual makes things a little more complicated, but still, I'm excited to get out of the normal routine and use the time off for some personal growth projects, some household projects, and some long-awaited travel. Many of us, emerging from our Covid cocoons, have big plans for self-improvement.  We want to implement exercise programs, eat healthier meals, and shed the Covid pounds that crept up on us while keeping us comfortably insulated from the outside world.  Making the plans is the fun and easy part.  Keeping up on our plans and actually making them work is the not-so-easy part.  Here are some ways to help you stick to your plan. 1.  Write it down.   This seems obvious to most people (ok, maybe just to me), but I like to write things down as the first step in any process I undertake.  Make a list of things you want to...

  The term " self-care " gets thrown around a lot these days, but how many of us really know what that means, and even more importantly, how many of us actually do that?  With all the stress in our lives it's so important that we give ourselves a break from time to time to stop and recharge our systems.   Even the things we don't normally see as stressful are enough to raise our cortisol and adrenaline levels, adding to a baseline level of stress that our bodies and minds are not meant to handle.   Watching the news?  Scrolling through Facebook?  Sitting in traffic?  Staring at a computer screen all day?  Feeling a lack of purpose in our lives?  The pandemic has not helped things with the underlying anxiety we are feeling on a regular basis.  It all adds up and affects our mood, our sleep, our hormones, and our overall health.  We need to build daily self-care routines into our days, and every once in a while we need to ta...

Here in Arizona, allergy season is in full swing.  Trees are blooming, grass is growing, yellow dust is flying everywhere, and noses are itching!  I've dealt with allergies all my life.  I had the cute little crease in my nose when I was younger, I had sinus polyps removed at 18, and I spent years of my life in doctors' offices waiting to make sure I didn't react to allergy shots.  I've had allergy testing done several times, but I've never had better results and better data than when I took matters into my own hands and figured out where the problems were coming from.  Years of allergy shots didn't change a thing, but years of self-testing have made a huge difference. The first thing any allergist will tell you is get rid of the offenders.  I know that I'm allergic to most types of pollen, so I avoid those as much as I can.  If I need to do yardwork I wear a mask, and try to do the best I can to keep my house clean. I avoid synthetic fragrances, and m...