Hey there! I’m so excited to bring you a few of my easy & quick laundry room DIYs to help you ditch and switch all those nasty chemicals out of your laundry room. Head over to my previous blog post all about “Airing Out your Dirty Laundry” to learn more about why it is so important to be aware of what’s in your laundry products.
But today, I’m going to make it super easy on you and teach you how to make a fabric softener, a stain stick and wool dryer ball Spritz to get those clothes smell and yummy, without all those yucky fragrances. Make sure to read until the end because I have a super fun surprise for you to make your DIY bottles Oh. So. Cute!
Feeling constantly overwhelmed, like you can't get ahead, that there's never enough? I know exactly how you feel, for years I felt the same way. Fear was a big part of my life, like even when things were good I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. What a shitty space to be in, overall life is good but you still have an underlying feeling of stress and worry.
The one practice that really helped to pull my mind out of that space and as I started practicing them my energy started to shift and I noticed more flow and ease in life. As the saying goes "Where focus goes, energy flows" When we are constantly focused on the negative that's where our energy goes, to the negative and we start to manifest all the negative shit we don't really want.
So what did I do?
Well it was pretty simple it fundamentally started with gratitude. Yep that simple, really cultivating a grateful heart. How can such a simple thing have such a big impact? Well it literally shifts your energy. Everything is made of energy, everything has a frequency which is why our thoughts and mindset have such a big impact on our lives. What gratitude does is it raises our vibration. It may sound a little woo-woo but its true. There have been many studies done to show what we think has a direct impact on the world around us and our lives. Dr. Masaru Emoto did an experiment where he wrote and spoke words over water and froze the water to see how it crystalized. The results were crazy and the water's crystallization was so different for each word. Here's a quick YouTube Video showing the impact of our words:
So yes words impact the vibration of the world. Living in gratitude is one of the fundamental ways you can shift your mind which will shift your life.
Where do you start? I started with a simple gratitude practice where every morning while I'm drinking my cup of coffee I write down 10 things I'm grateful for. These things range from very simple like being able to take a hot shower to the grand like expressing gratitude for the dream life that I am in the process of creating. I show gratitude to the things that have already manifested and to the things that I have not yet manifested on the physical plane but I know are coming to me.
In addition to my gratitude practice I also choose to send love to 3 people each day; a loved one, a neutral person, and someone who challenges me. This practice helps to open your heart and increase your receiving muscle. When we learn that the challenging people in our lives are still worthy of love we in turn learn that we are worthy of whatever it is that we want out of life.
If you need help starting your own gratitude practice download my free one page gratitude journal here
You can also purchase the full version where I walk you through 21 days of gratitude prompts and a Metta Meditation to practice while sending love to the 3 people in your life. Click on here to get both for only $5.55.
Practicing gratitude for 21 days will help instill this practice into your being and you will find yourself walking around throughout the day finding things to be grateful for, even the challenging stuff! When we show the universe that we are grateful for what we already have it bestows more amazing blessings into our lives.
In Gratitude,
Mallory
The other day I had to tackle cleaning up our laundry room. It’s been on my do-to list for WEEKS but it finally got moved up to top priority when my son and I were in there putting a load in that morning and ants started crawling all over our legs. (insert eww emoji!)
While I was spending my time cleaning out our laundry room and finding of the source of attraction for the ants (turns out it was the old half eaten granola bars in our beach bag, oops) I got to thinking I how many laundry products are on the market that mess with our bodies.
Watch the video below to learn more about how to ditch and switch your laundry products or keep reading!
Here’s the thing, unless you live in a nudist colony, laundry is a part of life. And even if you do live in a nudist colony you probably still have sheets and towels to wash! So, here's the thing, there’s a lot of junk in commercial laundry products. A lot of the “big name” brands have stuff that you will be shocked to learn is in their products. And this is why I always felt so important to buy from a company that you trust, a company with integrity, a company with your health and wellness in mind.
Here’s a BIG tell if what you’re using in your laundry is suspect to have a bunch of hidden junk in it… can you smell your laundry going outside? Does your laundry hold on to that “fresh laundry” smell for days after it has been washed… taking words from Jeff Foxworthy… then you might have toxic chemical laden laundry products.
Let's talk a little government stuff. Many of us would think that our government would not allow these companies to put harmful chemicals in our consumer products, but the fact is the U.S. government has no regulations over what what the companies are able to use in their products they also take it a step further, they don't even require them to disclose all of the ingredients in their products. Like WHAT???
Full discloser and transparency is important to me! That is why I only buy all of my laundry and cleaning products from one company because they tell me EVERYTHING that in their products. If you are scared to tell me everything that’s in your product, that’s a big red flag, in my mind.
Now you may be thinking, well the washer rinses all of those chemicals out anyhow right, so why be concerned? Well two reasons… 1. All of those yucky chemicals are being washed right into our eco system creating harm for ourselves and the planet and 2. The commercial laundry detergents have chemical binders that keep them locked onto the fabric of whatever it is you’re washing.
Alright, so let's talk about some of the chemicals.
- 1-4 Dioxin
dioxin is a known carcinogen. Remember I wrote earlier that the government doesn't require all these companies to disclose all the ingredients in their products. You probably won't see this on the ingredient list, but it's there. There was a study conducted by a woman at the University of Washington. If you Google, University of Washington toxics toxic laundry detergent, study, it'll pop right up. So go do your own research, don't just trust me. Do your own research. 1-4 dioxin is a known carcinogen. That means, it can lead to cancer. Yep, I said it… the “c word”
- Fragrance
Remember I wrote about how a lot of commercial laundry products have very strong smells? Those are all fragrances. Here’s the thnk about fragrance…. That is listed as a ‘trade secrete” so companies do not have to disclose what makes the fragrance. So basically, what they can do is shove all of the chemicals that don't want us to know about under this fragrance umbrella. Lesson here: if you pick up a product and it has “fragrance” listed under the ingredients, Please put it down, walk away, I don't care how good you think it smells. Not worth, your health is your health is worth caring about what's in your products and you know what it's really not hard, because you know, I have the answers for you. You know I have great suggestions and you know I'm going to save you tons of money, because that's what I love to do.
- Chlorine
Chlorine is found in many laundry products especially bleaching products. We want to stay far away from chlorine because it messes with our hormone function. If you want to get science-y with me, chlorine attaches to the binding sites on our thyroid and pituitary glands. So many of us suffer from hormone issues and making sure to cut out the chlorine is important!
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and need a little help with what chemicals to stay away from download my “Ditch the Chemical Dirty Dozen Guide” for a reference to keep on hand while shopping.
Please feel free to share this blog post because this is “need to know” information for all of us! I’m here to help educate; when we know more, we do better!
Also if you watched the video above I spoke about how I use Young Living’s Thieves products for all of my laundry and cleaning. Young Living is a company of integrity, transparency, and they care for my family’s health and wellbeing as much as I do. If you’d like more information and my guide to the Thieves line send me an email Mallory@MalloryRiess.com
When you join my team you get tons more oily education, resources, and a community of people on the same journey as you!
Our Thyroid does so many amazing things; it regulates how we burn energy, helps with the production of proteins from amino acids, and is the driving force behind how much hormones our other glands send into the body.
There are so many ways you can take care of and support your Thyroid! Three of the biggest ways are
1. Ditching the chemicals from your home (snag my "Chemical Dirty Dozen guide here if you don't know where to start)
2. Drink Purified Water (Fluoride and Chlorine is commonly added to tap water, both have major negative effects on how the thyroid functions)
3. Do a cleanse! My personal favorite is the Master Cleanse.
Along with the 3 physical things above there are a few yoga postures that can also support good thyroid function. Keep reading to learn how these yoga poses support the Thyroid and flow with me at the end.
Now, let's get flowing!
Starting in Sukhasana (easy sitting pose) do some gentle neck, this opens the neck and creates space for energy and blood to flow to the thyroid. When the muscles are tense and tight it makes it harder for both energy to flow with ease, when energy is stagnant that's one of the ways dis-ease starts to develop in the body.
Anahatasana or puppy pose gently opens the front of the body and shoulders. You may start with the forehead down then as the body opens work towards bringing the chin to the ground. Bringing the chin to the ground helps to open the throat chakra physically as well as energetically which has a healing effect on the Thyroid. Again we are opening the energetic pathways to the thyroid through opening the physical body.
Urdhava Hastasana with arms wide and slight back bend again opens up the energetic pathways through the physical body. We spend time working to open the front of the neck since the thyroid is located on the front of the throat.
Here is Salabhasana we are working the muscles of the back, this strengthening helps to the the body upright when we are flowing through our everyday life. With the muscles of the back strong and stable we are able to stand with better posture, keeping our head and neck in better alignment and again allow energy to smoothly flow in the body.
Ustrasana, camel pose, is another back strengthener as well as deep opener for the front of the chest and shoulders. This also brings energetic alignment back into the body to help balance out any tendency for hunched shoulders. Again when we are able to stand up straight with ease energy is able to flow through the thyroid, supporting it proper function.
Sasangasana, rabbit pose, so far we've done a tone of lengthening out the front of the neck, now it's time to work on flexion. We start with Sasangasana after balasana (child's pose) as a natural progression. The gentle flexion of the neck starts to trap some of the fresh blood we have allowed to flow up to this point and helps to bring more oxygen into the thyroid. Also we start working on opening the back of the neck and allow energy to flow there to support the throat chakra.
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana, bridge pose, again has the trapping effect of the blood into the thyroid region. Again with the pathways open it to safe to allow the blood to pool in the thyroid for a few breaths and deeply nourish. Having our heart above the neck also allows the blood to flow a little more easily since gravity is now working with it instead of against.
And finally the pinnacle pose of our practice, Sarvangasana, shoulder stand. As B.K.S. Iyengar states in "Light on Yoga" it is the "Mother" of all asanas. I'll let Iyengar explain how important this asana is in his own words, an excerpt from "Light on Yoga" (page 213):
"There are several endocrine organs or ductless glands in the human system which bathe in blood, absorb the nutriments from the blood and secrete hormones for proper functioning of a balanced and well developed body an brain. If the glands fail to function properly, the hormones are not produced as they should be and the body starts to deteriorate. Amazingly enough many of the asanas have a direct effect on the glands and help them to function properly. Sarvangasana does this for the thyroid and parathyroid"
Hopefully you are now inspired to get on your mat and show your thyroid a little love, set your mat up and flow with me!
My story of how surrendering to the process of birth taught me to surrender on my yoga mat and now applying those lessons to my life & business.
When I made the decision to home birth my daughter after a traumatic birth experience with my son I knew I had a lot of work to do. Dealing with my emotional shit was first, then I dove into the physical work of opening my pelvis, and finally getting my mindset in the right place to truly surrender to the process of birth. Little did I know how much this lesson would impact my yoga practice and life.
Surrender is HARD for me. I do not like to let go. I’m a keep going and keep pushing towards what you want no matter what, but honestly this constant pushing is more of a forcing and it ends up exhausting you and ultimately not getting you to where you want to go. I did all that during the birth of my son and it ended the complete opposite of what I wanted. This time around I knew that mindset would not serve me and that I HAD to let go and surrender to the process no matter where it took me, even if that was to the hospital.
For me to have a successful homebirth I knew I had to surrender to the process, no matter how long it would take. During my pregnancy I had to let go of my Ashtanga Yoga asana practice because honestly I was very attached to the physical outcome of the practice, but during pregnancy and labor I knew this would not serve me. I also had to learn to let go of Mulabandha because my pelvis was over worked tightening in just one direction.
Surrender takes practice. It was an active practice for me every day during my pregnancy with my daughter. I surrendered to my growing and changing body. I surrendered to the discomfort of pregnancy (I am not one who loves being pregnant). I surrendered my ability to be fully independent and ask for help with simple things like putting on my shoes (insert eye roll here). I even surrendered to growing out of even my maternity clothes at the very end. And ultimately I surrendered to intense contractions, allow my pelvis to open, and did the work of breathing my baby down. Pregnancy, labor, and birth were NOT easy, but the process was oh so worth it when our baby girl came into the world in our dimly lit room surrounded by people who loved and cared for her.
Now 6 months later, I am finally getting back to my Ashtanga Yoga practice I am learning how to surrender all over again. I am learning to surrender and have faith I will gain my strength back. I am learning to surrender and allow my body to open. I am learning to surrender into the poses balancing strength with ease. I am learning to surrender to any type of time line or goal in the practice. I am learning what it truly means to practice yoga on the mat so that I may take those same lessons off the mat.
Here’s the amazing thing, with all of this surrender I am truly learning my body. I have learned that the pain I feel in my wrist is because my forearms and hands are very tight. Now most days that pain is gone since taking time to stretch my hands and forearms before practice. I have learned that the reason my external hip rotation is limited is because my back is tight from years of doing forward folds incorrectly. I have learned that I need more mobility in my hip flexors to get into the three poses at the peak of primary serise. I have learned that I don’t breath into my upper back where there is so much tightness. This surrender stuff has giving me the blessing of truly learning my body.
On a deeper level learning all of this surrender stuff is teaching me to detach from the outcome of the poses that I used to cling to so intensely. This practice of surrender is taking me so much deeper into my yoga practice. It is now my intention to start integrating these lessons into my parenting and life off my yoga mat because it’s where I really need it most.
So mama, if there is something that you are clinging to so tightly, open your hand, loosen your grip, and surrender to the process, because if is supposed to be yours it will be and if not there is something so much better for you. Have faith.
With love, peace, & healing,
Mal
