Kia ora everyone,
How are we all doing during this COVID – 19 lockdown period? Firstly I would like to say that you are resilient and have done an incredible job to stop the spread of COVID -19!! We must not get complacent with the importance of keeping moving forward not only with fighting this virus but also looking after oneself. We all have resilience in us, but from time to time, we get sidetracked by the stresses of life. Two years ago, this owner and creator of Notion Fashion were made redundant from Cadburys in Dunedin by Mondelez International. I decided to start my own Fashion business during the Cadbury redundancy process, and it wasn’t till after being made redundant that some of the wheels began to come off, and I started suffering from depression and anxiety. Building Notion has been incredibly hard as I faced increasing amounts of bullying from other boutiques. They never wanted Notion Fashion to exist, why because we are competition trying to provide you the most influential people in the world our customers with a more competitive price and to design a new level of service. When there is no competition, the price will stay high. In the middle of last year, I started to self-love and work on me more. For 17 years of my life was dedicated to Cadburys; honestly, the staff lived, breathed, and dreamt Cadburys. The world talks about bubbles nowadays and staying inside your bubble, and this is old talk to us Cadburys Kids of Dunedin because we spoke about the incredible bubble that we were in during the Cadburys redundancy. Our Cadburys bubble was full of kindness, respect, laughter, and love. It was a family, a community. Our Cadburys bubble popped, and we need skills and tools to help support our staff through a challenging time, so now it’s our turn to show up and share our resilience learnings bubble grown from our Chocolate Factory culture.
You know that healthy habits, such as eating well, exercising, and avoiding harmful substances, make sense, but did you ever stop to think about why you practice them? A healthy habit is any behavior that benefits your physical, mental, and emotional health. These habits improve your overall well-being and make you feel good.
Healthy habits are hard to develop and often require changing your mindset. But if you’re willing to make sacrifices to better your health, the impact can be far-reaching, regardless of your age, sex, or physical ability. Here are five benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Getting the Balance right
The first resilience learning tool is about balance, and the world feels like it is tipping one way right now with COVID – 19, but the most important thing is to look after you. Do you have a Sam? We are talking about Samwise Gamgee, Frodo Baggins’ best friend in Lord of the Rings. Someone you can talk to and who is trustworthy. You will find when you go through struggles, and there will be the same people who turn up to help you no matter what, and it is ok that they are not family or close friends. I have learned on the business journey that strangers become friends and family sometimes become strangers, don’t waste your time beating yourself up about this either, you know your worth and how hard you have worked. You will find your Sam, don’t rush it, the right person will be there when you need support, and the struggles will highlight these people.
Install some happy habits!! Small habits that you do every day affect how content you become in yourselves wellbeing. I have five little practices to increase your happiness. Your challenge is to choose 1 to 3 of these habits each day and notice how they improve your satisfaction in life.
Morning Gratitude – Each morning, when you first wake up, think of 3 things that make you grateful.
Daily Meditation – For 2 minutes, close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Exercise Daily – Do 15 – 30 minutes of exercise every day to improve the chemical balance in the body.
Random Kindness Act – Do a small random act of kindness for someone. You could buy someone a coffee, right now, send them an encouraging text or do a favor for someone.
10 Pages Daily – Read ten pages of a personal development book every day. On average, this means you will read 16 books each year!!!
Post Positive Reflection – At the end of each day, spend 1 minute reflecting in detail on the most positive experience you had that day. What went well today?
Credit: Colin Boyd
In between your happy habits, there’s room for lots of baking!!! Here’s a couple of my favorite recipes to share. If you would love to share a recipe email me at megan@notionfashion.co.nz
CARROT CAKE
1 1/2 cups oil
3 cups of sugar
3 tsp vanilla essence
Six eggs
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
4 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups crushed pineapple
Mix oil, sugar, and vanilla together. Add eggs and combine well. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Spread in a 30cm x 30cm greased tin and bake at 170 deg C for 45 mins or until cake springs back.
Icing
250g cream cheese
100g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and well combined. Add vanilla essence and icing sugar, mix well. Decorate your desire!! 💜
BERRY SMOOTHIE BOWLS
One serve of Dose & Co. protein powder
One banana
½ cup of fruit frozen or fresh
¼ of milk
Blend and decorate as desired with your unique toppings.