Author: Nicole.Eva

Video Journaling : Brilliant or Cringe

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There’s a “new” trend being talked about within the wellness spaces as of late. I say new with the quotes because although it’s not a new concept, it’s becoming popularized within a new niche. Video journaling, the act of setting up a camera, usually one on your phone and talking to yourself about yourself has been gaining a bit of traction as a great way to connect with yourself, potentially more so than paper journaling. In a video journal you may discuss your day, your feelings about something that happened or someone you encountered. You may talk about an issue you are having or something that makes you excited, there are no rules and no limits, you are simply documenting yourself for yourself. I am of the general understanding that the intention behind video journaling is to be able to not only express yourself, but to be able to go back at a point in time and reevaluate your video. Maybe check and see if things have changed, if you still share the same views, …

Top 4 Alternatives to Running for Heart Health

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I’m sure you’ve heard everyone talk about how running is great cardio. And, to be honest runners make it look and sound so easy. (I might be a little jealous that it’s not my gifting…just a little bit). Between the marathoners, triathletes, 5k-ers and the casual morning joggers, running looks cool. Plus it’s a great workout! And the runners, they actually enjoy it. They love the moment adrenaline takes over and it’s just them and the sound of their feet hitting the pavement, or treadmill. Sometimes, I enjoy it, kind of. It’s a really great way to raise your heart rate and get a little sweat going, plus, it’s free.  But sometimes I just can’t do it. Sometimes running hurts me. Running is what is classified as a high-impact exercise. That means that it places a high level of impact on your joints. For some people that can cause pain either during the exercise or afterward. For me, I usually feel it a day or two after in my knees, hips, and ankles…not fun.  If …

3 Helpful, Healthy Habits to Begin This New Year

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Hey everyone!  Welcome to 2022! While waiting for the new year to come, it seemed like time couldn’t move fast enough, but now that it’s here I feel like 2021 kind of flew by.  I’m sure that as you’ve thought about what you wanted for yourself out of this year, you may have created some sort of list of ways to achieve those goals. Maybe, you want to rest more and spend less time focused on  things you can’t change. Maybe you want to change jobs this year or start a new habit. Whatever your goals may be, I hope you get all that you can out of this year, you deserve it.  To kick off the new year here at Nicole-Eva.com, I wanted to talk about 3 helpful, healthy habits I belive everyone should start this year. These are healthy habits that are important to make a part of your everyday life regardless of what your big goals are. These are things that will help you to feel better on the inside, and therefore …

Image of a raven zz plant against a white wall for the blog post by Nicole Eva keeping self care simple

Keeping Self-Care Simple

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A big thing I find myself needing to remind myself of lately has been how truly simple it really can be to practice self-care. I think today we make it complicated. There are so many different routines and products that end up being a part of these routines promoted to us by different influencers and businesses that we start to believe that it’s not really self-care if it doesn’t involve the latest face mask, body oil or facial tool. We’ve created, and fallen into a kind of “consumerism” version of self-care. A brand of self-care where we require more and more things to do to create an image of being cared for instead of actually caring for ourselves. I’m here to tell you gently that it doesn’t have to be this way. Now, there’s nothing wrong with making purchases and building an arsenal of things to help you with your self-care journey, but these things aren’t necessary for self-care, that’s the point I’m making today. What Simple Self-Care is not Simple self care is not …

Is self care selfish self care or selfish images of selfceare

Self-Care or Self-ish?

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Is self care selfish? This is a question that has plagued me whenever people have asked me what my passions revolve around. I’ve said things like wellness, and health and people as a response, which is true. But I’m also passionate about self care, but aware of how others seem to interpret it. It’s taken me a while to figure out my thoughts on this, and maybe you have also asked yourself this question and come to your own answers, maybe ours are the same, and maybe they’re very different. I guess we shall see. My answer: Self care is not selfish. It’s actually the complete opposite, but we’ll get to that in a second. What is selfish though, is burnout. Working yourself all the way until you no longer have life in your bones for anything or anyone around you is not only selfish, but I’ll take it a step further and call prideful. To understand why burnout is selfish, you have to understand how we get there. The Miriam Websters definition of burnout …

What makes me “Worthy”

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As you know I’ve kind of taken a break from writing. I’ve been journaling and such, but I haven’t been documenting my moments publicly. I’ve been enjoying time out of the spotlight and away from the pressure to create for an audience. It’s been nice.  Lately though I’ve felt the pull to begin again, to share my thoughts and aspects of my life with others but to be honest, I’ve been kind of burdened by the question “what makes me worthy”?  If you are someone who also creates, whether in the form of writing, photography, music or another art form I would assume that you’ve at some point asked yourself some variation of this same question. “Why is my life important to others?” “What about me is so special that I feel I deserve a special platform to talk about the mundanities of my existence?”. My very simple answer to myself, would be, it’s not and absolutely nothing.  I don’t say this to degrade myself, but i’m simply being honest. I don’t think there’s necessarily …

Rebuilding Your Self-Confidence

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I don’t know if this is apparent, but I am a highly sensitive person. I do a pretty good job at pretending I’m not simply because the world can be a bit harsh, but, it’s who I am.  Like most people who are highly sensitive, I’ve grown up always assuming this to be a bad thing. I grew up around labels such as “too sensitive”  or “too quiet” which to me, indicated that this trait was a negative one.  As I grew into adulthood I went through phases of acceptance of myself and my sensitive nature; it made me exceptionally good at the personal aspects of my work in every job I’ve ever held and it made me a pretty good friend. But along with the phases of acceptance, I also went through phases of rejection of this part of me; it made me a target for ridicule in spaces where this trait was viewed as a weakness.  Recently, I had an encounter that sent me spiraling. My “me” was again under scrutiny and I …

Why Working Out Isn’t Working For You

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Working out. We know we need it.Whether it’s in the form of taking a walk, going for a bike ride, cardio at home, or lifting heavy in the gym, we all know that working out should be a decent part of our lives. But sometimes, we hate it. Fitness was a part of my life from a young age. By the age of 10, I was a competitive swimmer and a gymnast. I played soccer, did tae kwon do, ran 5ks, and whatever else I could get into. Maintaining an active lifestyle was all I knew. This lasted up until my freshman year of college, it was just something I did and never needed to think too much about…until I stopped. Once I slowed down, as people do when they get older and take on more sedentary roles at work and school, I started to gain a bit of weight here and there. That weight gain combined with “grown woman” weight, combined with the slowing of my metabolism took me for a ride emotionally and …

Caring For Yourself After A Binge

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We’ve all been there. You’re doing really well eating what you should, when you should, you feel great, and feel like you look great…then it happens. For whatever reason, you have a terrible eating day. For me, these usually look like me not eating breakfast till about 1 pm, and then instead of eating something nutritious I run to the fastest, easiest thing available and eat way too much of it, because, well, I’m hungry. This may be bread, chips, bagels, chicken nuggets…literally anything I can get my hands on. By the time I catch up to myself I’m full and bloated and bracing for the regret that’s going to come any minute. This moment is an example of binge eating. Not to be confused with binge eating disorder, an episode of binge eating is really as exampled above. A moment where you consume more food than you normally would, in a shorter period than you normally would. These days, although not great, are normal. And your reaction to such days (frustration, disappointment, and maybe …

Spring Cleaning | Wellness Style

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Spring is here! Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and it’s finally starting to be warm enough to where we want to open our windows and let in the clean air. Spring signifies a fresh start to many people. It’s the time of the year where we like to clean out our old and make room for our new. We donate old clothes and home items, deep clean our closets, and just overall make sure that our space is nice and fresh. A clean home is great, but it’s not the only thing we should be focused on cleaning out and freshening up this season. What I’m talking about is spring cleaning for your mind and overall wellness.Just as we sweep out the dusty crevices of our homes, we need to make a habit of doing so with our minds and bodies as well. Here’s how we can do some spring cleaning of our own, wellness edition. Clean up those thought patterns What does your inner voice sound like? Is it overly critical? Is it …