We are devouring the new release, The Healthy Deviant – A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World. The book is filled with hacks for creating well-being. I am certain that if you incorporated 10% of the book’s suggestions into your life, you would experience a significant uptick in your health and well- being! And we are so honored that the author is a user and fan of our breathe me remedies! We’ve shared her daily incorporating high vibration aromatherapy rituals below.
About The Author
Pilar Gerasimo is an award-winning health journalist, founding editor-in-chief of Experience Life magazine, and the creative force behind the popular mobile app, “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy.” Gerasimo previously served as the top editor of Healthy Living for Huffington Post, where she was also a longtime blogger. She co-hosts The Living Experiment podcast with Whole30 founder Dallas Hartwig, which earned a top-five spot on iTunes in its first week. A frequent speaker, workshop leader, and expert guest for radio and TV, Pilar knows her stuff! Learn more and connect with Pilar at www.pilargerasimo.com.
The Healthy Deviant’s Renegade Rituals
Pilar Gerasimo (@pgerasimo) | Twitter
Morning Ritual:
I like beginning my Morning Practice with her “Energy, Mood-Boost” blend (citrusy).
-Pilar Gerasimo
The Healthy Deviant's Renegade Rituals
Pilar recommends: First thing on rising, before you do anything else (especially looking at your phone, computer, or TV) choose a calm, feel-good activity and enjoy it for a minimum of three minutes. It could be meditation, stretching, reading poetry or wisdom literature, journaling, prayer, looking out the window, or stepping outside to see the sunrise and hear the birds. Before you begin your practice, take a deep inhale of Energy, Mood-Boost.
Mid-day Ritual:
I often start my Ultradian Rhythm Breaks with her “Focus, Brain-Boost” blend (spearminty)
-Pilar Gerasimo
Pilar recommends:
Ultradian rhythms are characterized by extended “peak” periods (about 90 minutes) of high-output focus and productivity, followed by shorter “trough” periods (about 20 minutes) of lower-energy, reduced-output recovery time. Plan for a couple of Ultradian Rhythm breaks a day to maximize your energy output, one in the morning and one midafternoon. A 20-minute break is ideal, but any pause, even 5 or 10 minutes, is much better than nothing. The longer your break, the more your body can restore and repair itself. I often start my breaks with “Focus, Brain-Boost”
Evening Ritual:
[ I like beginning] my Nighttime Wind Down Ritual with her “Sleep” blend (lavendery).
-Pilar Gerasimo
The Healthy Deviant's Renegade RitualsThe Healthy Deviant's Renegade Rituals
Pilar recommends: Having a nighttime ritual encourages a proper balance of pro-sleep neurotransmitters and hormones. It helps nudge your brain waves from frenzied toward sleepy, and it sets your body up to make the best use of its overnight-repair window. Observe a nightly routine where you let go of the day. This could include jotting a positive reflection in a gratitude journal or sharing one with a partner; taking three deep breaths; repeating a mental mantra (e.g., “this day’s done and now it’s time to rest”). You might also try a relaxation exercise like this one: Progressively tense and then relax your entire body, working downward from your head to your feet.
“Sleep” is a great blend to smell at the beginning of your nighttime ritual and just before you close your eyes.
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The excerpt from “The Healthy Deviant, A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World,”
Chapter 15, page 207-208
Smell This
I am a big fan of plant-based aromatherapy for reasons both scientific and sensory, so I encourage you to consider using this powerful mind-body tool as an adjunct to all your Renegade Rituals.
Our olfactory sense evokes instantaneous responses in the limbic centers of our brains prompting quick, measurable shifts in mood and mental state. If you’re interested in science, there’s plenty to review. (32) But even if you’re skeptical, I would invite you to give aromatherapy with organic, plant-based oils, essences, or infusions a try.
I have used most major brands of oils and flower essences at various times, and have enjoyed them all. I have, for many years, used and loved Katie Hess’s Lotus Wei products. And I have recently fallen in love with Jenny Pao’s Nectar Essences “Breathe Me” blends. I like beginning my Morning Practice with her “Energy, Mood-Boost” blend (citrusy). I often start my Ultradian Rhythm Breaks with her “Focus, Brain-Boost” blend (spearminty), and my Nighttime Wind Down Ritual with her “Sleep” blend (lavendery).
Both Lotus Wei and Nectar Essences integrate vibrational healing strategies and combine flower essences with essential oils, something I find elevates these remedies over many other essential oil and aromatherapy products. But you can use whatever products you enjoy in any way you like. For the purposes of my Renegade Rituals, I tap just a drop or two out of an oil or essence blend into one palm, rub my hands together to release the formula, then cup them in front of my face and inhale deep and slow. Ahhh.
My whole body-mind responds with an immediate focusing, enlivening, or settling response, depending on what I’m after. The combined experience is one of amplified pleasure (a great savoring practice). And with repeated use and association, I’ve found the aromas alone become powerful triggers for the ritualized responses I’ve trained my body-mind to expect. I can use that to my advantage for a quick sniff before a stressful meeting or as an alternative to an extra cup of mid-work session coffee.
More about the book:
Part manifesto, part whispered wake-up call, The Healthy Deviant is a modern-day survival guide for being healthy in an unhealthy world. Combining fun infographics and well-researched insights from evolutionary biology, positive psychology, and the school of hard knocks, The Healthy Deviant helps you …
Create a healthier, happier, more gratifying life that reflects who you really are — not what others expect you to be.
Reframe your health challenges in an empowering, exhilarating new way
Radically upgrade your energy, focus, resilience, and self-regard
Escape the downward cycle of repeated, demoralizing “diet and exercise” attempts
Adopt renegade practices that revitalize rather than deplete you
Overcome stubborn obstacles, including chronic depletion, anxiety, and distraction
Address the root causes of unhealthy cravings and unwanted weight gain
This fun, category-defying book also invites you to embark on your own 14-Day Healthy Deviant Adventure, so you can experience for yourself — through experiments, reflective exercises, worksheets, progress trackers, and more — just how rewarding Healthy Deviance can be.
Learn more and connect with Pilar at www.pilargerasimo.com.