It’s the end of the month, and we already covered our favourite topics: culture, nutrition and psychology. It feels that the month has been positive, productive and with plenty of opportunities to interact. We thank you for that! To end the month on a more personal note, we wanted to share what made this month special to us.

Ulyana’s September Favorites

Drinks of the month

1. Tea with a dash of milk

It is getting colder towards the end of September, and I enjoy having an English Breakfast Tea with a dash of milk. I usually don’t have dairy as I don’t enjoy the flavour of dairy milk, and I believe that dairy milk was not necessarily meant as a human drink: it’s for baby cows, and it is most beneficial to them. However, now and then, tea with milk feels very soothing and comforting and, above all, so delicious. In particular, I enjoy rooibos tea as it has a milk caramel/vanilla flavour making the tea taste like a warm cocktail.

Tip: if anyone is like me and doesn’t enjoy having dairy regularly, I find tea with oat milk tastes as pleasant and soothing. Give it a try!

2. Matcha Tea

I love matcha very matcha! I HAD TO! I do love matcha, if you ever come over to my house, I will always offer a cup of matcha, and I will reassure you that matcha doesn’t have to taste like grass (unless you enjoy the flavour, which I do). Matcha is rich in catechins, a class of plant compounds in tea that act as natural antioxidants. Antioxidants are important because they help stabilize compounds that can damage cells and cause chronic diseases. Apart from the fantastic antioxidants in every Matcha cup, Matcha improves attention, memory, and reaction time. Matcha also contains L-theanine, which can improve several aspects of brain function. Finally, matcha helps to boost metabolism and fat burning, both of which aid weight loss.

I would also like to share a website where you can purchase matcha with a 10% discount using the following code: BeautifulMind

A very kind, inspiring and loving family owns the website, and they dedicate their time to deliver the best quality products at a reasonable price. I can’t recommend their products enough!

Beauty

This month I had paid attention to dry brush my skin at least 3 times a week. Naturally, I don’t have dense skin, and it will be noticeable whenever I’m not taking the time to massage, dry brush, or exfoliate the skin on my legs. Dry brushing is an effortless way to increase blood circulation, which will make the skin denser as the fat doesn’t accumulate at places where blood circulates. Apart from improving blood circulation, dry brushing opens up the pores and helps detoxify your skin by promoting lymph drainage. Lymphatic drainage is a massage to encourage the natural drainage of the lymph, which carries waste products away from the tissues back toward the heart. Some benefits of lymphatic drainage include:

1) Blood circulation

2) Tissue regeneration

3) Removal of excess interstitial fluid

4) Reduces water retention

I usually dry brush right before I get into the shower, and what I love about this beauty routine is that it takes not more than 5 minutes! The results are visible straight away.

Lifestyle

September has been all about yoga for me. August has been too warm to maintain my regular fitness schedule (around 4 workouts a week 2 of which are cardio-based ), and I let my body rest because it felt like the right thing. I did some pilates or sprints whenever I felt like it, but it was not more than once a week. Therefore, it would be a little unnatural for my body to jump right into 7 km runs in September.

In September, work is setting in, holidays are over, and I need to find a balance that works. For me, yoga workouts are perfect for transition periods. As the core of yoga is physical endurance and mental awareness, it works wonders to prepare your body and mind for what’s ahead of you in a nourishing way.

Some indisputable benefits of yoga are:

1) Yoga improves strength, balance and flexibility – the trinity for both physical and mental health.

2) Yoga exercise manages mood and stress, as breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system and activates the relaxation response.

3) Stilling the busy mind and connecting to the Self. When you’re connected with your Self, it becomes easier to see that all of the changing circumstances around you are not under your control; therefore, it can’t be your concern.

I enjoy Vinyasa yoga the most and do this workout at least once a week. It’s not a piece of cake! My legs are on fire the next day every time I do this practice.

Paola’s September Favorites

Coffee with a Teaspoon of Ghee

Are you one of these people with whom it’s impossible to speak if they are hungry? I definitely am. It sounds funny from the side, but I do not enjoy (even the slightest bit) being overpowered by my emotions and losing control of my behaviour. I also wake up craving food and I have energy spikes in the first part of the day, following which, I crash in the afternoon. Around 18:00, I have almost no energy left to operate. On top of all, it takes one second for me to go from normal to starving. I thought all of the above symptoms have nothing to do with each other, but it turns out that they do. This week, during the Nutritional workshop led by Ulyana, I discovered that I might need to pay more attention to the glucose levels in my system. Ulyana recommended that instead of breakfast, I insert a spoon of ghee in my coffee. The morning ritual became my lifesaver. Why?

• The fatty acids in ghee aid glucose metabolism and balance glucose levels. My energy levels no longer crashed in the middle of the day.
• Ghee is packed with antioxidants. It is a source of Omega-3s and vitamins A, C, D and K. It’s great for gut health!
• Ghee reduces the acidity of the coffee, which makes the drink less harsh on the stomach.

Journalling

Another tip from Ulyana that changed my life. I was very sceptical about the benefits of journaling. It is daunting to sit down and open up on a piece of paper. In truth, journaling helps you process the world in a very structured way. It helped me to better organise my day and it opened up room in my crowded, emotionally-packed world. It is important to write out on a piece of paper, the feeling is very different than typing on a keyboard!

Not sure how to start a journal? Check out our tips here.

Audiobooks

I thought audiobooks are here to fill in the gap while you are walking your dog or driving your car. For me the two never mixed: listening to an audiobook distracted me from driving or walking and at the end, I was exhausted from the multi-tasking. Recently, I attended a conference in Amsterdam and I decided to give one of my long-forgotten audiobooks a try during the flight. It felt very different as the book had my undivided attention. Plus, if you are a visual learner like me, audiobooks are a great way to practise your audio-learning skills!

Second-hand Shopping

Fashion is polluting, in fact, several sources claim that this is the second dirtiest industry. It takes over 2,700 litres of water for the production of cotton for a single, simple T-shirt. We also use many polluting dyes to colour textiles that enter our ecosystem. Many brands are not mindful of the conditions in the factories that they partner with, which means that many workers work for inhumane hours in inhumane conditions. We now own more clothes than ever before. But do we wear most of them?

Studies show that we are quite delusional as to what percentage of our wardrobe we actually use. In particular, research shows that in Belgium people misjudged the percentage of the clothes they wear by 62%! There are so many items waiting to be discovered, hiding in millions of shelves. The most eco-friendly fashion practice is to purchase clothes that have already been produced. The feeling of giving an item a second chance is very fulfilling! I usually go for two websites: Vestiare and Nold (the new old).