The art of making

Three wellness practices to help you live your best life…

…and show up for your business resourced and ready to go.

This is the first in a series of occasional articles in which I’ll share practices, recipes, and more from my vast wellness toolbag. My health journey has been a big invitation for me to be more and more present to the choices I make. Maybe something I share will be useful to you. You don’t know unless you try. So, bubbeleh, try.

We choose all the time.

• You choose what you eat and how much.
• You choose the content of what you read and what you watch.
• You choose how you spend your time.
• You choose how you move your body, and for how long.
• You choose the people in your life.

It’s your choice what you do with every minute of your precious life. Fill each moment with the things and the people you love and cherish. Change yourself and by doing so, watch how it ripples out. You will change your family, your clients, your friends, your community. You will change the world.

Today I’m sharing with you three game-changing practices (okay, two practices and one recipe) that can help you maintain fitness and flexibility and a positive outlook.

Make time every day for self-care.

Put it in your schedule.

The only way to sustain a self-care practice is to actually put it in your schedule. (You do use a calendar, right? If you don’t, we should talk. Seriously.) When you elevate self-care to a commitment, and put it in your calendar, you are much more likely to be a Yes to your own precious self.

I have made a big shift here. Since my health crisis last year, I now begin my workday at 10:30, three hours after I get up. I use those three hours for a bath, my daily walk, my tai chi practice, my lifting and yoga workouts, my art journal, time in the garden, and whatever kitchen activities might be on the agenda. Sometimes I invite a friend along to walk with me. Sometimes I connect by phone with a friend. Sometimes I get a massage.

To make up for my later workday starts, some days I work a bit later, and I often work on one of the weekend days. Totally worth it!

You may not be ready for three hours a day of self-care time. But I know you’re ready for some time every day to honor your body and your sacred self. Give yourself this gift.

Walk for 30-ish minutes a day.

Honestly, it can be that simple.

I started this practice last autumn, when I began to wonder if I would ever get my strength back after the two hospitalizations and the long weeks on the couch or in bed processing serious infection and medications through my body. I started by walking around the block. Or maybe just to the corner and back. But I kept at it daily. Now I average 25–35 minutes each day. I walk in my gritty urban neighborhood most days, and love the wide streets and big sky available to me just a few blocks away. Some days I get in my car and drive to the bay. Some days I walk by Lake Merritt. Some rare and precious days I actually walk in the redwoods or at the seashore.

I love that my phone tracks my movements, tells me how long I walked, how many steps I took, how many stairs I’ve climbed. Many people say that 10,000 steps is ideal; others say that a 30-minute daily walk will prolong your life. I’m not near the 10,000, and I don’t know how often I will make that number of steps, but I am near the 30-minute mark nearly every day, and that is such a gift to my body!

It’s said that your body is not yours, that’s it’s just borrowed. That at the end of your life, you have to leave it behind. Treat it with care, yo. It’s precious. Treat it generously and impeccably, so that it will serve you well.

Nourish your gut with bone broth.

Vegetarians get to skip this one (although I know some vegetarians who make this one exception).

I’ve been a daily drinker of bone broth for quite a while, and have really perfected my recipe. I’ve had a serious chronic digestive situation for over three years, and bone broth is one of the first remedies suggested to me. It’s healing, and strengthening, and delicious.

I use three vinegars, because why not? I use brown vinegar (brown because there’s molasses added; this should be available in Asian markets, I get mine at Berkeley Bowl), raw apple cider vinegar, and kombucha vinegar that I make (if you’re a brewer, let a batch of kombucha overbrew by a week or so and you will have vinegar!). You can do a fine job with just the raw cider vinegar. The vinegars help extract all the goodness from the bones.

Quantities of everything depend on the size of your soup pot. I buy 3–5 pounds of bones, I use a spaghetti pot for my broth, and I end up with three quart-size canning jars of broth when I’m done. Your mileage will vary.

• Buy marrow bones, gelatinous bones if you can get them, tendons, and a piece of inexpensive meat for the pot. The more grass-fed the better, of course.
• Roast the meat at 425 for 25 minutes.
• Boil a pot of water. Add sliced ginger and 1–2 T of brown vinegar. Add the bones and meat. Simmer a long time. I do 1.5–2 days.
• Remove the bones, ginger, and meat. I keep the meat in a separate jar for adding to the broth, or I just eat it. Decant the broth filling jars halfway or a bit more. Refrigerate the jars.
• Put the bones and ginger back in the pot with new water. This time I add 1 T cider vinegar  and 1 T kombucha vinegar and simmer again for a day or two. Get rid of the bones and ginger (this time for good), add the broth to the jars. ***If there’s a layer of solid fat at the top of the first batch, break that up so the two batches mix. Keep the fat that rises to the top until you’re ready to have that broth; it helps retard spoilage.***

I’d love to know what practices are at the top of your own best life list, and if you have any questions. Please join the conversation in the comments. I love to hear from you!