When you open your eyes in the morning, do you want to get your day going with vigor and excitement? Are you joyful about what you’re going to do? Or are you cursing the fact that you have to get up? Maybe you didn’t get enough sleep last night, or you’re going to a job where you can’t stand that boss.

​It’s important for us to feel excitement about our day. When we feel excitement and joy, we are aligned with our spirit and our purpose in life. When we don't, we are out of alignment with our higher good.

So what do you need to do, today, to bring excitement and joy into your life? The kind of joy that, when you wake up in the morning, you’re looking forward to what you’re about to do.

Today I am taking time out to be at the beach - Stinson Beach, California. I love the beach! I love the warmth of the sun, the sound of the ocean waves, and the feel of the warm sand on my feet. I even love the beach in the winter for it's magnificent nature. 

VITAMIN D
Lately I've begun to realize the health benefits of being outside in nature. The sun provides us with vitamin D - something most of us are deficient because we don’t get outside enough! Just 10 minutes of sun on your skin a day, without sunscreen, can provide you with 10,000 international units of vitamin D. This is such an easy way to supplement our diets. I’m convinced that the sun has other nutritional benefits for our bodies that are absorbed through the skin, that we just aren’t aware of yet.  There is talk in the alternative medical community that lack of Vitamin D can contribute to cancer.  As always, it's about balance.
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Another health benefit of being at the beach is that it is loaded with minerals! Our primal ancestors used to get their minerals from the soil. They ate off the land, didn’t have soap or antibacterial agents to wash their hands and kill the organisms in the soil. These organisms were pre- and probiotics, so their guts stayed healthy with beneficial bacteria that most of us do not have. They also didn't use antibiotics which kills bad AND GOOD bacteria.

So being at the ocean, walking in the sea salt water, and playing in the sand, gives us minerals from the environment that we're in so desperate need of.

ENTRAINMENT
When we are around an energy, we entrain to that energy. There’s plenty of research talking about how that happens. You can find YouTube videos about entrainment.  In this one, several metronomes are started at varying speeds, and they eventually entrain to the same frequency.

Nature works for us in this way. We as humans are a part of nature. When we’re in nature, like at the ocean, our systems will slow down and and entrain to the energy around us. This energy more closely matches our circadian rhythms than the technology and machinery that most of us are around every day.

If you’re feeling drained, more than likely you are feeling stressed from the mismatching technology energy around you.

As a sensitive person, going to the beach by myself has been highly therapeutic! I get away from having to deal with the energy of other people, and can do what I want, when I want, without worrying about someone else. It feels like I'm feeding my soul. 

When was the last time you went out in nature to rejuvenate yourself?

​As Empaths, people who feel more, intuit more and see more naturally, we can take on energy around us without realizing it. Very few of us have had role models to help us with this, so when we're walking through the energy of everyday events, we often absorb it. On top of absorbing it, many of us may have genes that cause our bodies to process slowly, so it can build until we feel well. 

Let's take a peak at biology. Methylation is a chemical process that occurs in our cells that is vital to keep our bodies working properly. It is one of our body’s most important chemical processes. When we have genetics that struggle with methylation and process more slowly, I believe we can be prone to hold onto energy longer, and we may experience it as anxiety, depression, or overwhelm. We don't know how to, or we're not taking the time to, detox and release the stresses of each day. When the next day rolls around, guess what? We are still dealing with what happened yesterday. We can see how this will add up to ill health over time.

So one very important thing we can do to stay balanced is to be mindful of the energy around us, and to release it everyday.

BECOME MINDFUL
We can start by being mindful of our habits.

1. Do we pay attention to what we say to ourselves - what thoughts we feed ourselves?
2. Are we taking a positive approach?
3. Are we allowing our emotions to come and go, or are we creating stories around events that just happened, adding to the stress or event that just happened?
4. What kinds of foods are we eating - foods that clog and slow our bodies, or natural, whole food alternatives?
5. How are we moving throughout our days - are we?
6. Is our exercise relaxing, energizing, and fun?
7. Are we feeling accepted, loved, and supported by ourselves and our tribe?
8. Do we play?
9. How do we slow down - or do we?

ENERGY INCREASERS OR RELEASERS
What we do can either be energy increasers or releasers. We already know as Empaths, increasing energy in our systems can inadvertently be a no-brainer. So how are we releasing energy - which isn't as automatic? Releasing energy means anything that slows life down, which in turn slows our nervous system, and allows our bodies to return to balance.

I had a beautiful experience the other evening that is a Releaser. 

As I sat outside on a warm summer evening chatting with our kids and grandchild, the sun set. It took about 45 minutes between the sun disappearing over the horizon until total darkness with the sky lit up with twinkling stars.

It was amazing going barefoot in the backyard and playing with our grandchild. We did a little slack lining and checked on the garden. We told stories and laughed. It was fabulous having that sense of our tribe with us. 

As the light waned, the final flights of the birds took place. Our neighborhood owl began his cooing. And the local mocking bird started his night time calling. Stars and planets, one-by-one, decorated the evening sky.

I notice that I felt increasingly relaxed and tired. Which felt remarkable to me because I am typically a night owl.  Yet I know from my Primal health coaching that this event released and increased my melatonin, which naturally happens as the sun sets and prepares us for sleep. I wasn't bombarding my senses with screens from TVs, tablets,  or phones - which, by the way, have f.lux installed on them to match the time of day. And it felt so peaceful and calming.

So here's an easy challenge for you to stay balanced. Sit outside and enjoy the sunset with your tribe. In the US, we are in summer, so this can be easy to do. If you're in Australia and enjoying winter, sit in front of a fire with friends and enjoy the warm, red relaxing hues as you prepare for sleep.

It's a good beginning to releasing that day's stress.

Empaths often describe feeling fragile and weak as they can get zinged around by the every day energies of people and places. They can react easily to foods and beverages even though they believe they eat healthily. They are often sought out by others as they are good listeners and know how to create a good experience for others.  ​They can pick up on other's emotions and struggles, often thinking that the sensations they are feeling are theirs instead of realizing they are picking up information from the person across from them, in the next town or across the country. 

Since Empaths feel more, see more and intuit more, they can feel exhausted by the end of each day.

Empaths need a superstructure to stay grounded, peaceful, and balanced. That's why a Primal Health lifestyle is so important for Empaths.  It's a way of life based on our ancestors - that's why it's call Primal. It is grounded in selecting foods, activities, and movement that is perfect for our bodies, and is designed to keep our systems working optimally.

I believe our ancestors used intuition throughout each day without judgement or shame. In fact, their survival depended on it. They had to know where the danger lay. If they didn't sense that saber tooth tiger in the next field or valley and chose another path, they were in a sprint for their lives. If they chose the wrong plant to eat or consumed a sick animal, they could wind up dead. They didn't have doctors to run to or hospitals to save their lives. They had to rely on their gut instincts, their intuition, to keep them alive and strong.

Here are a few tips to get you started on the Primal journey, which will leave you feeling strong and nourished:
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1. Get outside. Breathe in nature. This syncs your system, or entrains you, with nature which is calming and at a slower pace than most other aspects of life.
2. Eat whole foods. And really listen to what your body says about what you eat. Sugars, grains, caffeine, fake foods - they over-excite the body and confuse it. 
3. Slow life down. Minimize stress. Don't try to fit too many things into a day. Listen to what pace your body needs day-by-day and follow it. Some days you may be able to get 5,000 things done (or it feels that way), and other days you may get a couple done, then spend time playing and relaxing. 
4. Balance your food nutrition with minerals and supplements that keep you grounded and nourished. Magnesium is very calming and the general consensus in the U.S. health field is that most of us don't get enough magnesium and minerals because our farming soils have been depleted due to our farming practices. So add mineral drops to your water. Take mineral baths. Use magnesium lotions. Sprinkle Himalayan or Celtic sea salt while cooking and eating. Find creative, easy ways to put this in your routine.
5. Stay active to release the built up stress. Empaths notice more, so they have the tendency to feel more stress. And typically Empaths are slow oxidizers so we can be prone to fatigue, cravings, and low blood sugar. We may crave caffeine, sweets or carbohydrate rich foods to give us energy. Yet this is only a short term effect and will actually plummet our energy in an hour or two. Getting out for a brisk walk daily, playing disc golf, going for a jog, playing frisbee, sprinting, swimming, cycling and a host of other fun activities where you move is a much better way to detox stress and create energy. 
6. Un-isolate! Get out with friends and have some fun. Build a tribe that feels good and wholesome to you. 
7. Make yourself the priority. Most Empaths put themselves last all day, so make a conscious effort to put yourself first, and release any guilt associated with doing it. It's like putting our oxygen mask on first so that we can be there for others in a fulfilled and strong way.
8. Take time each day to be by yourself, in your own energy, so that you don't feel like you have to listen to, take care of, or sit in anyone else's energy. Empaths gain balance, strength and energy from regular and dependable alone time.

Have you amped up your self care until you're feeling strong? How?

It’s really important for Empaths to have a strong superstructure of self-care. It should be a system of many daily habits designed BY you just FOR you. The basic superstructure should be there, incorporated into your routine at an early age as possible, and updated as you go through life.

And when we take the time and commitment to feel strong and balanced, it pays off. We can walk through our lives, our families, our grocery stores and farmer's markets knowing we are strong. We stay balanced. We know how to be there for others, but, more importantly, we are there for ourselves first.

​I often hear it said that Empaths “absorb” other people moods, energy, and feelings. That statement, in itself, may be true - for SOME Empaths. But you don’t have too. You have a choice.

Empaths sense extra information from the people and places around them. That’s how we are wired. We don't’ have to try to do it - it just happens.

As children, this may have caused quite a problem for us. With our inability to discern information with our cognitive brains, which doesn’t fully develop until the ages of about 24 to 25, we may have felt sick, overwhelmed, and scared throughout our childhood. To top it off, most of us didn’t have parents or caretakers that helped us manage this energy when we felt it. So we ended up ‘absorbing’ the information by thinking it was ours, and not realizing that we were only noticing things around us.

So now that we’re adults, it’s time for us to make sure we are no longer absorbing the energy of people and places. We need to learn to discern what is, in fact, our energy, and what belongs to others.

I have had a great opportunity as a part-time cashier in a natural grocery store.  In my check-out lane, I have a constant flow of energy from the general public, as you can imagine. 

I have learned that I am a physical Empath, so I feel the energy that I notice in my body, often as a symptom of some kind. So a person may enter my lane to pay for groceries, and I suddenly feel nauseous. I used to get immediate anxiety because I thought that it was my symptom. I would then create a story around it - it must be something I ate, am I going to have to go home sick, what is wrong with me?

I often notice that I feel the energy of others when they are unaware of how they are feeling. When my daughter was in high school, a generally stressful time for most teens, she would plop in the car after school, and I would immediately feel a fuzzy head and loads of stress in the form of anxiety and overwhelm. I began to realize that my body was just interpreting her energy that way. 

As I’ve learned to discern energy, I now say to myself “oh, I am noticing that I feel nauseous suddenly. I must be picking up on the energy of this customer.” Typically the sensation dissipates when I say that, confirming to me that I am picking up on another person’s symptom. For me, this can come in the form a physical symptom, or an emotional symptom; I can feel a sudden sadness or anxiety I didn’t have before and I don’t have a situation that provoked it. 

Does that happen to you? In what ways?

No matter how you intuit energy as an Empath, there are some basic strategies that you can learn for yourself to feel grounded and healthy as you go through your day.

1. Ask yourself, “Is this mine?” particularly if it comes on suddenly when you enter a room or get a phone call from someone.
2. Treat the sensation as feedback or information. Avoid creating a personal scenario around the symptom that will have you thinking it’s yours. If it is yours, you will know soon enough.
3. Take a deep, slow belly breath, concentrating on the exhale. Repeat this a few times to rebalance your body.
4. Make sure you have a superstructure of care in place. 
5. Eat whole foods (proteins, vegetables and an occasional fruit). Processed foods contain a lot of fake ingredients that confuse our bodies and make it harder to stay grounded and feeling good.
6. Avoid grains and sugars in any form, as they are inflammatory and stimulate our bodies in ways that make it harder to stay grounded around energy.
7. Avoid caffeine and stimulants because they are just plain ungrounding!
8. Practice energy balancing techniques which fortify your energy and clear away energy you may have taken on as your own.
9. Exercise with exertion every day. The deeper breathing and movement will help you stay grounded and balanced, releasing any stress you happen to inadvertently absorb as your own.
10. Get plenty of rest and sleep. Without enough sleep, the chances of you staying grounded go way down.
11. Stay humorous. We may end up realizing we absorbed energy that wasn’t ours later than we had hoped. And we can take things oh so seriously. Try to have a little humor about being an Empath as that will keep us feeling more balanced.