Towards a Greater Life

This series is inspired by quarantine orders, stay-in-shelter orders, movement control orders, working from home orders, and everything in between, as a result of COVID-19. At times like this, every single thing we are exposed to about the crisis can be very stressful and draining because it simply is very depressing. In this episode, I just really wanted to bring together some happy and positive things that people are doing with hopes to brighten your day just as much as it had brightened my days. Also because during this time, our mental health is just as important as keeping ourselves safe from COVID-19.

If you wanted to check out these amazing stories, I’ve linked them below:
Three amazing friends of 40 years self-isolating together
The Brits pay tribute to the NHS
Mystery man sending flowers to people in Needham, MA
Celebrating her 101st birthday with a parade
6 yo gets her own “Enchanted Forest” parade
TikTok “pub crawl” 22nd birthday
Man shows his love for his wife from outside the nursing home for their 67th wedding anniversary

Connect with Celyn:
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Website: Towards a Greater Life

Connect with Haley:
Instagram: @haleyknauer
Website: Haley Knauer

Funky Energetic Intro by WinnieTheMoog
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5519-funky-energetic-intro
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This series is inspired by quarantine orders, stay-in-shelter orders, movement control orders, working from home orders, and everything in between, as a result of COVID-19. Staying home and working from home can be overwhelming and stressful when you know you just lost a little of your freedom of going wherever you would like to go. In this first episode, Haley and I share five tips on how to stay sane while being at home. We give you some tips and tricks that we've been using as people who generally do the bulk of our work at home. This is most definitely NOT exhaustive and we would LOVE to hear from you! Let us know what you do to stay sane during this time by dropping us a message on Instagram!

FREE mental health resources:
Meditation: Calm meditation resources
Workouts: Yoga, HITT workouts, Crossfit at Home
Journaling: Online journal, Journal App

Blog post by Haley on building immunity

Connect with Celyn:
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Website: Towards a Greater Life

Connect with Haley:
Instagram: @haleyknauer
Website: Haley Knauer

Funky Energetic Intro by WinnieTheMoog
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5519-funky-energetic-intro
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Adversity, crisis, emergency, worry, anxiety, and uncertainty happen to everyone every single day. It could be something huge like how the human race is fighting a war against COVID-19, or it could be something completely relatable and seemingly small like spilling coffee on your shirt before the day has even started. Despite everyone facing hardships every day, there’s always that one person you know who has faced adversity after adversity and yet rises above it all achieving bigger, greater things. We often question how is it that some people are just more resilient than others? Some people can just bounce back after being knocked down over and over again. Walt Disney and JK Rowling are two (among many) of those highly resilient people. But resilience is a trait that we can work on and practice. It’s a muscle that we can strengthen and in this episode, I talk about some steps we can take to gain leverage on building resilience.

Past episodes I referred to:
Spilling the Wellness Tea #1: Matcha & Self-Care
#12 Raw Talk: Finding my Path

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

When did eating become so complicated? When did we all stop listening to our bodies and to random posts online with outrageous claims? When did we stop advocating for our own health and wellness, instead give complete autonomy to someone else? In this episode, Haley and I chat about the ridiculous claims by a “nutrition coach” who hadn’t drunk water in a year. We discussed how we should bring fun back into our lives, be it in the way we eat, move, work, and everything in between. We advocate listening to your bodies, trust your bodies, your feelings, and your intuition- seek answers internally and not externally.

Connect with Celyn:
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Website: Towards a Greater Life

Connect with Haley:
Instagram: @haleyknauer
Website: Haley Knauer

Funky Energetic Intro by WinnieTheMoog
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5519-funky-energetic-intro
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sleep deprivation, poor sleep quality, and insomnia is definitely an up and coming millennial problem that affects our health and well-being. Our culture has evolved into one that champions the lack of sleep while emphasizing that sleep is a luxury. We all know that when we sleep better, we are nicer, we don't snap as quickly but what about our food choices? Often, staying up late means munching on bags of chips or scooping into tubs of ice-cream or attacking bars and bars of chocolate, then waking up to mugs of coffee or cans of Red Bull. Could our sleep affect how our brains decide food choices then? Could these food choices then lead to cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, or obesity? In this episode, I highlight a study published recently (linked below) that answers this question. I talk about the associations between poor sleep quality, having insomnia, and long sleep-onset latency (taking a long time to go from being awake to being asleep) and our food choices. This study also answers the "why do we eat what we eat if we have poor sleep?".

This is Part I of a two-part series about sleep and our food choices. Stay tuned for Part II, highlighting some tips and suggestions on having better sleep!

This is the resource I used for this episode:
Zuraikat F. M., Makarem N., Liao M., St-Onge M., & Aggarwal B. (2020). Measures of Poor Sleep Quality Are Associated With Higher Energy Intake and Poor Diet Quality in a Diverse Sample of Women From the Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network. Journal of the American Heart Association, 9(4). https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.119.014587

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

As a very soon-to-be graduate, it's super unsettling to not know my path. I want to be honest about my journey in moving towards a greater life- I'm sure everyone knows life isn't always about rainbows and butterflies. This is my first raw talk on this platform where I share my thoughts about being unsure about my path in life, about finding inspiration and motivation to keep creating and keep going, and reminding ourselves that sometimes despite knowing what we want to do, we have to always do what we don't want to do to get there. This is me being super honest on this episode with hopes that if anyone out there who is listening feels the same way, or feels lost and/or stuck, I hope you know that you are not alone.

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

The Novel Coronavirus happening right now greatly resembles SARS and just like many others, it is giving me the dark and sad memories of 2002-3. As much as this podcast aims to bring positivity and inspiration every week, I do think it is highly important for me to talk about some of my alternative views about this crisis. This episode isn't about the number of deaths and cases that are slowly creeping up, neither is it about how to prevent the disease or what you should do to keep you and your family safe. I think that al that information is out there and accessible. What I do think is important to talk about are some alternative views- (1) how freedom of speech is so important in a community, society, and country, (2) could nCoV be less of a crisis with true freedom of speech (3) how racial discrimination is happening because of nCoV and how we are so much more similar than we think, and (4) the longer-lasting effects of nCoV. It is a grim time affecting everyone, globally but I truly think that it is in faces of adversity that the human race surprises us by being more resilient than ever.

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Find out what Haley and I have been up to since we launched Spilling the Wellness Tea. This episode is super casual and chatty- we caught up on what we did for the new year, our travel experiences, and the novel coronavirus that is spreading as we speak. Our main wellness trend in this episode is yoga and nut milk. We answered so many questions through our conversation; What does it mean when you cry when you're practicing yoga? How and why yoga can be dangerous for you? Why nut milk isn't really milk? Is nut milk really better for the environment? Is it even healthy? Should you be feeding your children nut milk? I hope you enjoy this casual chat!

Connect with Celyn:
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Website: Towards a Greater Life

Connect with Haley:
Instagram: @haleyknauer
Website: Haley Knauer

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Porch Swing Days - slower" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Just like sugar and fat, cholesterol has really been trashed over the years and given such a negative connotation. What many of us are not aware of is that behind this negative halo and tremendous marketing effort by the food industry (i.e. food products that are low in cholesterol, food product that “sucks/absorbs” cholesterol) is more recent evidence. The current evidence shows that cholesterol from food is not associated with all the diseases we thought it was. In fact, cholesterol is a big part of being human- we simply need cholesterol to survive. In this episode, I talk about cholesterol and its association with HDL-C, LDL-C, and triglycerides in a fun way, using taxis (yes, I mean cabs) as an analogy. I also highlight what is more important in the food we consume- hint: it is not cholesterol!

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Movement can be so difficult when life gets busy, exercise just has to sit on the back end. However, physical activity or movement is of ultimate importance- low levels of physical activity is in fact a major risk factor for early death. So to try and tackle this problem, we can try to create habits so that movement is incorporated and folded into our everyday lives. I came up with 9 different suggestions on how you can move more while not hindering life (too much). This list is in no way conclusive but they are just ideas on how you can start- be creative and feel free to explore ways that work for you.

CDC Infographic on physical activity guidelines: https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/downloads/PA_Fact_Sheet_Adults.pdf

Connect with me
Instagram: @celynng
Email: [email protected]
Towards a Greater Life website

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Carefree" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incomptech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)