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Cooler mornings, chillier nights, and blessedly balmy days, ah, autumn! We turned the seasonal corner just last week on September 22….can you feel the shift in energy?

I was noticing the beginnings of the shift at the end of August: leaves were starting to fall and the heat of summer was waning. Now that we’ve reached the end of September, I can really see the change. The leaves are turning colors, the weather is brisk, the days are shorter and energetically I am slowing down.

I wasn’t always so tuned in to the season’s slowdown. In fact, as a Real-Life Superwoman I’ve spent many years resisting autumn’s shorter days and darker nights, because they meant that winter was on the way.

Why should that matter? At the time – like many Superwomen – I didn’t even realize that I was in conflict with the energetic flow of the year…but I was, and it was taking its toll.

In traditional Chinese medicine, autumn is the start of the Yin time of year: a time to slow down, reflect, and replenish your body, mind and soul. Time to sleep more, meditate, and eat foods that are grounding.

Problem is – when you’re enmeshed in this Yang culture, you aren’t willing to surrender to this kind of slowdown; you want to keep charging full speed ahead!

So this Busy Professional Woman spent years fighting the Yin energy of autumn and winter…and as a result, often felt depressed, had a compromised immune system from constant activity, and was more vulnerable to colds and flu as a result.

Now, however, I have learned to appreciate the autumn season. I love the vibrant, warm colors of fall foliage and the vegetables that ripen at this time of year – winter squash, pumpkins, beets and other root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, turnips and parsnips. Not to mention the warm fragrance and flavor of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg…

Feeling hungry yet (smile)?

So today I want to share a couple of my favorite autumn foods and how they nourish your health, well-being and chakras.

Beets – From their gloriously red root to their leafy top, these veggies offer a ferocious number of benefits. According to Mercola.com , beets help to lower blood pressure, boost stamina, fight inflammation, support detoxification, improve nerve and muscle function, boost bone strength, stimulate the production of antibodies and white blood cells, and ward off cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. They’re packed with fiber to keep our digestive track healthy and nutrients – vitamin C, potassium, manganese, and folate. On an energetic level, as a deep-crimson root vegetable they help to ground us by nourishing the root chakra.

Butternut squash – With its hard shell and firm flesh, this is an easy food for long-term storage, providing our ancestors with a stable source of carbohydrates and fiber when fresh veges were scarce. Today, these winter squashes do more than their share in boosting your health: according to WholeLiving.com , it’s loaded with potassium, B6, folate, and carotenoids – essential for the functioning of your skeletal, cardiovascular, nervous and immune systems. Its high antioxidant levels help to reduce risk of rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and other inflammatory disorders. With its high level of beta-carotene, butternut squash can help to protect against breast, colon, and prostate cancer and macular degeneration…as well as supporting fetal and newborn lung development. Its high levels of Vitamins A and C help to support the production of collagen, essential for healthy hair and skin. Finally, as a bright-orange food, it helps to nourish the sacral chakra, which helps keep us in the flow and connected with our creativity.

Sweet potato – This is my all-time favorite autumn food…in fact I could eat this delicious vegetable any time of the year! And sweet potatoes are another nutrient-packed autumn veg: in fact, according to Mercola.com, they hold the record in their levels of Vitamin A – at 769% of the recommended daily value, only beef liver provides more. They’re also loaded with beta-carotene, Vitamins C and B6, and the antioxidant enzymes copper/zinc superoxide dismutase and catalase – boosting your immune system and all-over physical functioning and helping to fight cancer – as well as the protein adiponectin, which helps to regulate your body’s insulin production. As root vegetables, with their deep orange color, sweet potatoes support both the root and sacral chakras.

Do you want to know more about how certain foods help nourish the chakras and as a result improve your health and well-being? If yes, I invite you to join my free 7 Day Autumn Chakra Smoothie Challenge, starting Oct 3!

Tweet: Need ease and flow? Eat butternut squash.@zestandharmony

If you’ve been wandering through the Farmer’s Markets lately (as you know, my favorite activity!), you’ve probably been seeing the explosion of colors as we move deeper into harvest time. Between the red grapes, tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, blueberries, and eggplant – just for starters –  there’s something to nourish every chakra, not to mention every taste!

I was passing by a booth at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market this past Sunday (as you know, my favorite happy place!) and noticed a display of squashes….and all I could say was WOW! Did you realize there are eight varieties of summer squash? And all of them in glorious shades of green and/or yellow…

So today I want to celebrate three of my favorite summer vegetables: zucchini and yellow squash, and eggplant, and see how they can give us Busy Professional Women more Zest and Harmony.

First of all, both zucchini and yellow squash pack a multivitamin’s worth of nutrition into a slender, tasty few inches. According to the George Mateljan Foundation’s website, they’re high in carbohydrates, protein and fiber, as well as vitamins A, B1, B6, B2, and C; potassium, magnesium, manganese, folate, copper, and phosphorus; along with omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, niacin, and calcium, as well as the antioxidants alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. It would be hard to find a more nutrient-rich squash.

And that’s not all! With their high levels of magnesium and potassium, both the yellow and green summer squashes reduce high blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke, while their high levels of vitamin C and beta-carotene may also help to prevent the oxidation of cholesterol which can cause atherosclerosis, and their high folate levels help to remove homocysteine, which may contribute to the factors causing heart attack and stroke.

The beta-carotene and vitamin C in summer squash have anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce inflammation and ease the symptoms of arthritis and asthma, while their high levels of fiber and water help to keep the gut functioning smoothly and prevent the onset of colon cancer. And diabetics get a special benefit from these powerhouse veggies: summer squash contains a unique polysaccharide structure that research demonstrates may promote better regulation of insulin and protection against diabetes.

And what about the energetic level?

Yellow squash helps to nourish the solar plexus chakra, coming into ripeness just at the turn of the seasons, when we need a strong power center at our core to help us set boundaries. How many Real-Life Superwomen I know (I used to be one!) who are giving a lot and don’t set limits to protect our energy levels! Then we wind up wondering why we’re stressed, exhausted and irritable – all symptoms of an unbalanced solar plexus chakra.

With its green color, zucchini supports your heart chakra…perfect for supporting you through the emotional challenges of season’s change, whether you’re walking your teen through the end of a first summer romance, or entering new emotional adventures of your own. That heart-chakra support can also bolster you against the stresses of work, and gives you the extra “oomph” you need to make positive changes when needed.

And then there is my other favorite summer vegetable, eggplant!

Technically, eggplant is neither a squash nor a vegetable – it actually a fruit and belongs to the nightshade family of fruits and vegetables, which also includes tomatoes, bell peppers and potatoes – but I use it in a lot of recipes with summer squashes (ah, ratatouille! Eggplant/zucchini/tomato tian! Grilled veggie kebab!). But like summer squash, eggplant packs a powerhouse of nutrients into that glossy purple or blue/black teardrop: fiber, copper, vitamins B1, B3, B6, and K, manganese, potassium, and folate, according to the George Mateljan Foundation’s website. It also contains a important phytonutrients, including phenolic compounds such as caffeic and chlorogenic acid, and flavonoids, such as nasunin.

So what does this do for you? First, some of these compounds are powerful antioxidants, protecting your cell membranes from damage by free radicals. So eggplant is a potent ally against cancer, microbial infection, “bad” cholesterol, and viruses…as well as high blood pressure! One of these phytonutrients, nasunin, also acts as an iron chelator, removing excess iron from the bloodstream, thus reducing free radical damage to joints, which can cause rheumatoid arthritis; and preventing cellular damage that could lead to cancer.

On the energetic level, since eggplant is a blue/purple color, it nourishes the third eye chakra, helping us to listen to our inner wisdom and trust the process of life…key skills which are many times forgotten or undervalued by us Real-Life Superwomen.

Below are just a few ways to incorporate these nutritional powerhouses into your diet!

• Make a smoothie using frozen zucchini
• Make “pasta” with zucchini and yellow squash. You can either make it with a Spiralizer or Julienne Peeler.
• Roast these vegetables on the grill for Labor Day
• Sauté all three vegetables or just one of them such as eggplant with onions, garlic and tomatoes.

 What is your favorite summer squash and summer squash recipe?

If you, like most of us, have been watching our national political conventions, you’ve probably been cycling through a whole gamut of emotions – I know I have! And from what I’ve seen, some of the strongest emotions on display have been anger….chaos….frustration…separatism…and fear.

Let’s skip all the political reasons why voters are feeling these emotions so strongly this year…that’s a whole other discussion! What I want to look at right now is the energetic reason.

 As a nation, I feel energetically our root chakra is totally out of balance, and has been for centuries. There have been pockets of time when it seems to be more out of balance than others. Such as  the last couple of months. There has been struggles for equality, innocent people being killed, Black Lives Matter protests, the argument over gun control, terrorism….  and much more.

What are the giveaway signs of an imbalanced root chakra? You guessed it: all of the emotions we’ve been seeing – and feeling – during the the last couple of month as well as the two conventions, and the primary elections leading up to them.

In fact, the campaign talk, on one side more than the other, seems to be aimed at aggravating this imbalance, triggering deep-seated concerns about safety and survival which can show up either as excessive fear or as aggression and defensiveness.

Not pleasant feelings to experience….and they lead to unpleasant – even tragic – outcomes.

So what can we do, as Busy Professional Women, to balance our own root chakras and avoid getting caught in this chaos and election-year spin?

During chaotic times it is important to do things that nourish your root chakra and ground yourself so that you can remain rooted in the present moment. Your groundedness can have a ripple effect on your friends, family, community and the nation.

Believe me, I’m right there with you in this! My heart has been feeling tender, and I have been feeling highly sensitive….so I have been taking proactive self-care actions to remain focused, grounded and present despite the crazy energies of these times.

Every morning, I meditate and rub essential oils such as as Frankincense, Lemongrass, or Cedarwood on my hands, feet and spine. My root chakra has been calling for root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes and beets, and so I have been listening to my body and adding these to my diet. To nourish my heart chakra to withstand the ugly political talk, I have been eating more kale and spinach. Cucumbers have also been nourishing my heart and cooling my body and emotions.

Because the stress of current events can help to cause more inflammation and risk of illness and dis-“ease”, it’s particularly important to make sure our meals are filled with nutrient rich foods: these help to boost the immune system which in turn nourishes our root chakra.

Imbalance in our root chakra also throws other chakras into imbalance, and I see both my clients and myself becoming more emotional over the tension and chaos in our nation. This indicates imbalance in the sacral chakra, where emotions are held.

Because, as women, we tend to hold our emotions in our hips (which also hold the stress of long-term sitting jobs), I’ve been recommending and doing exercises that move and open the hips and release those emotions and stresses. Bellydance is a wonderful practice for this purpose, with its wealth of hip shimmies and circling. Depending on the nature and strength of the emotions you need to work out, and your own fitness level, other options can range from yoga to barre exercises to kickboxing.

Bottom line? It’s easy to feel helpless, caught up into the emotions that are sweeping the nation. But as Busy Professional Women, we have a responsibility to ourselves and others to claim our own power and autonomy and manage our emotions rather than letting them control us. Ultimately this helps us to remain clear-headed and make good, positive choices, for ourselves and for the nation!

Do you need some support in reclaiming your energy, vitality and power? If yes, allow me to support you with my 90 minute Jump Start Your Energy and Vitality Session. Click here for more information.

How many times have you done it – stayed up till the wee small hours on a must-do project, or catching up on important correspondence, then just zoning out on social media (decompressing, or catching up on news, you tell yourself)?

I don’t think there’s one of my Busy Professional, Real Life Superwomen clients who hasn’t done it at least once – twice – or maybe more in the past week. Or, when they get to bed, they can’t stop thinking and worrying, and so have difficulty relaxing enough to sleep!

March 6-13 was Sleep Awareness Week, and on Sunday March 13  we pushed our clocks forward. It got me started thinking…sleep is such an important aspect of our health and wellness, but much of the time we just don’t see it as a priority.

In our society, staying up all night to complete tasks or work on projects is celebrated. It goes back to the Puritan work ethic and the notion that busy-ness is a badge of honor. Sleep looks like a shameful waste of time that we could (and should) be putting to better use!

That was always my issue. I personally have never had problems with falling asleep. I actually love to sleep and can sleep for 12 hours at times. But I’ve always had lots of things to do and felt as though I didn’t have enough time to do it all, so I’d stay up trying to accomplish more. The less I slept, the more I could get done… but this was a very unsustainable way of living. I learned eventually that when I push myself this way, it’s only a matter of time before I get sick.

In his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg Mckeown writes:

The best asset we have for making a contribution to the world is ourselves. If we underinvest in ourselves, and by that I mean our minds, our bodies, and our spirits, we damage the very tool we need to make our highest contribution.One of the the most common ways people – especially ambitious, successful people – damage this asset is through lack of sleep.

So my question for you is: how many hours did you sleep last night?

Studies have shown that the less sleep you get you are more prone to impaired thinking; major health issues such as heart attack and stroke; reduced sex drive; depression; and increased risk of fatal accidents:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that fatigue is a cause in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in the U.S. The problem is greatest among people under 25 years old.

In fact, I was surprised to find out that studies show that there is an increase in both heart attacks and road accidents in the days after clocks are set forward one hour in spring.

And it works the other way, too: just as a sleep deficit reduces your health and performance, getting seven to eight hours of sleep has shown to boost your health, youthfulness, productivity, focus, and creativity.

So what can you do to improve your sleep habits?

First of all, create a healing sleep environment:

• Evict the Electronics

Scientists are now finding that light from electronics – televisions, laptops, tablets and smartphones, as well as energy-efficient bulbs – has the potential to disrupt sleep by slowing the release of melatonin. According to The Sleep Foundation, The circadian rhythm seems to be especially sensitive to light with short wavelengths—in particular, blue light in the 460-nanometer range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• Clear the Bed

I have many clients who tell me they have books and papers on one side of their bed, or on the floor next to the bed (I’m sometimes guilty of this, too). Why load your sleeping environment with the reminders of work? Instead, surround your sleeping space with pillows, sheets, blankets and comfort.

• Indulge in a Good Mattress and Pillows

Do you have a quality mattress? Do you know what kind of mattress your body needs? Some like a soft mattress others do well with the support of a firm one. This goes the same with pillows. What does your body prefer?

• Remove Indoor Air Pollution

Air quality can directly affect sleep. According to the Harvard School of Public Health indoor air pollution increases the risk of sleep disorders, including sleep apnea. This can also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Here are some suggestions to clear your bedroom air:

• Get an air purifier
• Spring clean your mattress to remove dust mites, skin cells, pet hair, and other allergens.
• Consider hypoallergenic bedding : mattress cover, comforter, and pillows, to protect against allergens, dust mites, and bacteria.
• Add a couple of plants to your bedroom: Boston Fern, Spider Plant, Peace Lily, Philodendron and other species thrive indoors while purifying the air
• Inexpensive ways to improve indoor air are: Salt Lamps, Beeswax Candles, and essential oil diffuser.

Once you have created a healthy outward environment, it’s time to change your psychological environment.

• Make your bed off-limits to anything but sleep and lovemaking. It will be easier to relax into sleep if you don’t associate your bed with other activities.
• Shift your mindset about sleep. Every night before bed, affirm that “Sleep is an effective use of time that leads to success.”
• Don’t eat a heavy meal or drink alcohol  or caffeine (surprise!) right before bed. Other than a small, melatonin-stimulating snack or a cup of chamomile tea, it’s best to avoid stimulating your digestive system when you’re trying to sleep.
• Reduce Stress by creating a bedtime ritual – a shower or bath, 15 minutes with a relaxing book, a gentle yoga routine and my favorite is writing my to do list for the next day.
• Use music to relax: Gregorian chants, New Age meditation music, Native American flute music, and other compositions are excellent for winding down.
• Take counting sheep to the next level and practice visualizations! Record Yoga Nidra meditations and play them back as you’re settling in for sleep.
• If you’re really stuck and can’t get to sleep, gentle, natural sleep aids can help: homeopathic tablets such as Calms ; valerian capsules, or melatonin can all help you to relax.

When you approach sleep intentionally, recognizing and taking care of your body’s need, you’ll be surprised at the ease with which you can doze off!