Happiness & The Benefits of Light Therapy

It’s a bit more work stay my sunshiney self during the winter. Today we had freezing rain that looks and feels like kosher salt. The last few weeks have involved a lot of staying inside and I wrote about a few ways to boost your mood here. Today I had my first Light Therapy session at MOCA Toronto. It was cool!  Light Therapy is included with your museum membership unless there is a private session booked. I had purchased a membership because I thought it was only open to members. I booked weekly sessions for the next few weeks and today I found out I have the room ALL TO MYSELF for each one! There’s a cafe on the first floor and drinks are permitted inside the installation. There’s parking across the street and coat check on the first floor. If you are interested in coming to check it out, please let me know. I have the room booked weekly and can bring a few people each time. We can chat or you can do your own thing! What is Light Therapy? Light therapy involves exposure to intensive light under controlled conditions. The installation is designed to simulate a bright, sunny day with LEDs generating 5,600 K of low Ultraviolet, full spectrum daylight-balanced light. Everything in the room is white and you’re encouraged to wear a lab coat and white shoe covers to maintain the brightness. I am very into the lab coat. Light therapy can help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). In winter we lack vitamin D from the sun, our skin is dry, and sometimes, depression sets in. This installation is an experiment as part of the Art in Use project and Light Therapy is by Apolonija Šušteršič. History of Light Therapy Light Therapy was originally produced for the Moderna Museet in Sweden in 1999, to…

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Money Mindfulness

Last week I went to a wellness workshop hosted by Capital One for Credit Education Week. This year’s theme is ‘Money Mindfulness’ and at the event, we meditated, did yoga, and learned that being mindful about our everyday expenses can help related stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety are all too often experienced in this day and age so it’s no wonder people search for the best CBD oil in the UK and around the world to help them deal with it. The event was held on the top floor of the Broadview Hotel and included a joga class by Jana Webb. We enjoyed a Smoothie Station and were sent home with a Mindfulness package. It was very relaxing! The location was perfect for a gloomy day with huge skylights to brighten the space. It was nice to spend the morning with a bunch of the blog gang doing something other than being on our phones. I don’t know about you but money stresses me out on a regular basis, waiting for cheques, people not paying on time, bills, taxes, rent/mortgage. Life is expensive and if you don’t have a handle on your finances, your other problems seem much bigger. Even if you have money, mo money, mo problems! To get a better handle on your personal finances, you may want to start reading articles that cover topics like banking, credit cards, and loans, etc. to help you equip yourself with the knowledge to become a money master! You might find sites like this useful – https://myinforms.com. According to Capital One, 44% of Canadians say credit, debt, and finances negatively affect their mental health. Capital One Canada organized a session on mindfulness with the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, where we slowly ate a strawberry, thinking about how it felt to…

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High Tea: You Can Roll With Us

You walk past a group of beautiful, stylish ladies outside a cute and classy coffee shop in a quiet neighbourhood. Everything looks normal until you get a little closer and see a cloud of smoke big enough for a rap video and realise what’s up! ? So much so you might be tempted to grab your TONIC rolling papers and join us! The other week I had a really cool experience of attending an event called ‘See You Next Tuesday‘ hosted by the fine ladies of the High Tea podcast (listen here). It was a rolling salon and flower side chat where we had an in-depth lesson on rolling the perfect joint and talked about cannabis. As you can imagine we also spoke about some of the lesser known cannabis infused products out there such as moonrock canada. We each took home a few goodies and fresh cut flowers. It was fun! The High Tea podcast was started to create ‘high-vibe entertainment, for women who also love weed‘. Each episode is a ‘blunt and thoughtful exploration of pot and its magic‘. I love the play on words you’ll find in everything they share including the name of the event series. Thanks for hosting a fun night! Over the past few months, I’ve spent more time having great conversations with amazing women over cannabis vs. late nights with too much wine. It’s so much of a healthier lifestyle, I’ve cut down my drinking significantly and even lost weight. The side effects of cannabis are much more positive including increased creativity and less pain/anxiety, instead of a hangover. When talking about the effects of cannabis, many often wonder, “are cbd terpenes important?” When it comes to people’s experience with the drug, it does look that way. There are lots of different reasons…

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Head in the Clouds: Altavie & The Art of Now

Not long I went to an event at Only One Gallery featuring a reading by NYC poet Cleo Wade hosted by MedReleaf‘s brand, Altavie. It was one of the first cannabis-focused events I’d attended, it stood out with its classiness and the incredibly cool group of mostly women in attendance. The night started with a guided meditation where everyone closed their eyes to take a few minutes for themselves. The panel was hosted by Briony Douglas who’s art was displayed around the gallery with a few other artists (Alpo Snow, Tahsin- The Good and Enzee Creative. Briony is one of my favs I have couple pieces from her recent show MOUTHPIECE in my room. AltaVie by MedReleaf aims to help make mindfulness more attainable Altavie is a high-end cannabis brand with a movement towards mindfulness, being present, and living in the now. Cannabis products are becoming more and more well known for their mental health benefits, for example, in helping with anxiety, depression and insomnia, and there are many different kinds of products out there, from CBD vaping cartridges (check out this CBDFX discount code if you’re interested in those) to products like Altavie. I was there thinking, ‘wow this weed brand is so ME right now, how is this really happening‘. Life is such a dream. It’s amazing how so much has changed – now there are more cannabis brands reaching customers with the help of an SEO agency specializing in the cannabis industry which once upon a time, not too long ago, would have been totally unheard from. How times have changed, and for the better too, I would say! The only product currently on the website is a cannabis-free a nut bark that looks pretty good called Cannabis Crunch. It’s infused with cannabis inspired flavours (toffee, cinnamon,…

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DONT KILL YOURSELF

Don’t give up. Don’t quit over your job. Don’t die over money. Don’t bottle your feelings up. Don’t stay inside and hide. Don’t give up. Don’t hold it all in. Don’t put on a smile and act like everything is fine when it’s not. Don’t write your last letter. Don’t plan your exit. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Don’t be selfish. Don’t kill yourself.  PLS ASK FOR HELP. Yesterday I posted the suicide hotline after hearing about Kate Spade. I felt sad. Her death was a reminder that no matter how much money, fancy clothes, cars, businesses, health, family, no matter how much you have, you can still have dark thoughts. None of us are immune to feeling like we’re backed into a corner. We all go through love, loss, money, no money, jobs, no jobs, depression, anxiety. Life is hard. No matter how much it seems like someone has a perfect life, THEY DON’T.  They might have an even more fucked up life than you think you do, trust me! We all go through it. We all have days, weeks, months, years when we wonder why we are still doing it, or not making it, or are we just faking it? Life is hard. We’re constantly bombarded with challenges, tests, to see if we can make it to the next level. We all have the strength to deal, to fight, to call on each other, to make it through. You are never alone. There are lots of people around you even though you might not feel like it sometimes. It’s easy to isolate yourself, to put on a smile and act like everything is a-ok when you feel like dying inside. Reach out to someone around you. People care, people at work, home, on Facebook, and right on the other…

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