Holistic Tara

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Smiling is a pain reliever, blood pressure reducer, stress reliever and immune system booster. I rhymed because I’m cool like that. Smiling also makes your brain happy. Waitwhat? You must mean that when our brains are happy, we smile. ... Yes, that’s also right. But smiling for no reason can make you feel happy. And not only because you’re laughing at yourself for being super awkward. Your contracted facial muscles (smile) fire a signal to the brain, activating its reward centres. This releases endorphins and happy hormones like dopamine and serotonin, which make us feel good. These signals are then sent through the cerebral cortex, the brain stem and then back through the cranial muscles in your face, producing a real smile. Boomerang! The chemical cascade happens again, the brain’s reward centres light up because you are smiling and then you are smiling because your brain’s reward centres are lit up. It’s a feedback loop of health and happiness. No negative side effects.

A very simple and straightforward way to calm ourselves and find a sense of peace is through meditation that connects us with our breath. Taking a few moments for conscious breathing can make all the difference in how we feel and how we approach our day or a situation. Even just 5 minutes of focusing on our breath, a couple times a day is an easy and effective way to de-stress. I think of it as a peace booster and equalizer that can increase energy and bring focus throughout the day. I wrote more about this and included a conscious breathing meditation from Buddhist Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, in my new blog.

Today’s Medicine Card is Salmon. Inner Wisdom. Salmon is the sacred keeper of wisdom and inner knowing who, despite strong river currents, will always return to the place of its creation. Its determination is driven by the wisdom of instinct and inner knowing, which yields a sense of purpose that cannot be thwarted by external forces. Salmon medicine sees all of life’s experiences as opportunities to collect wisdom. Even when the journey is challenging and the currents o...f popular opinion are not agreeing with you, you can look to your own wisdom and intuitively choose the right path. You can be open to listening to others, but trust your gut and the small, still voice within. When this pandemic started, I was really engaged in the conversation, but after a while, it was too much. Highly stressful times seemed to be causing people to divide, choose a ‘side’ and just plain argue with anyone and everyone. Even though information was scattered, unclear and full of nuance, it appeared that many saw things as simply black and white. I unplugged. I deactivated my social media accounts and just focused on what was real and in front of me. I read healing books about buddhist philosophy and spirituality, I meditated, practiced mindfulness, and just slowed down. I was grateful. Though some spiritual types would say that I was ‘spiritual bypassing’ by not engaging with the madness, and others may see me as having my head in the clouds, I knew I was doing the most important thing that I could at that time; tending to my own inner being. ‘Returning to the place of my creation’ as Salmon would say. I needed to get centred and find my own balance and truth before I could be of any use in the world. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right to swim with the current and that’s ok. Sometimes you have better thoughts to think than vox populi, and that’s great. You instinctively know what you need, how to get there and that you will learn what you need to learn from YOUR journey. What helps you hear your inner wisdom? #mondaymedicinecards #mondaymeditation