Discover daily actionable tips and insights designed to lead you towards a healthier, happier, and more mindful lifestyle. From foundational principles to practical switches, this guide is your roadmap to sustainable well-being for yourself and the planet.

Welcome to my accidental obsession!!

When I discovered that I was creating a transformative journey towards a healthier, happier, and more mindful life I didn't fully understand what I was doing until more people began to ask me questions about the changes I was making. That's when I realised I was removing toxins and toxicity from each area of my life one simple switch area at a time. Today, we'll explore the principles of lower tox living, offering you some daily actionable tips and insights to guide you on your path to holistic well-being. Working towards a lower-tox lifestyle not only benefits you but also contributes to a healthier planet.

Build your Foundations without them nothing stays up!

Our lower tox living journey begins with understanding the fundamentals. Small changes can have a significant impact, and the initial days focus on laying a solid foundation for the shifts to come. Explore the power of mindfulness in your daily routines and appreciate the collective influence of seemingly simple alterations.

Decide what area is going to be the easiest one for you to begin to make changes in first.

• Mindset (I recommend everyone work on this with all other areas)
• Physical Body and moving well
• Physical Health- Gut Health and Mental Wellbeing
• Home- from the products you use to the design, layout and decluttering of the spaces you live in.
• People- who you are spending time with or not.
• Environment- considering your impact on the environment in your purchasing and living habits
• Community Charity- giving back and being part of a community with aligned interests/goals.

I don't want to overwhelm you all with too much detail today, so for now, I will share a maximum of 2 options for each area you can look at.

MINDSET:

Commit to reading or listening to one book this week for your personal growth.
I recommend one of the following:

1. What I Know For Sure, Oprah Winfrey
2. No Brainer- It's all in the mind, Ruby Wax
3. The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins

Commit to identifying 3 things you are grateful for each night before bed, yes a simple addition like this can help rewire your brain! This is why I created The Simple Switches Series to provide simple, actionable tasks and tools to help you transform your life step by step.

PHYSICAL BODY AND MOVING WELL

Take 5 minutes morning and evening to do some simple stretches, here are 2 that I enjoy as they are simple and easy to follow:
Morning Stretched in Bed
Evening stretching for sleep 

Consciously breathe- this might seem bizarre that I am suggesting you 'breathe' as that's not exercise right? Wrong! When we consciously take time to work on full deep breaths we are giving our bodies an internal massage, allowing our organs to move, and stretch, helping with digestion, mobilising our spine, and increasing oxygen to our brain, our blood and so on. It is a movement for all of our body!

How amazing is that concept??

PHYSICAL HEALTH- GUT HEALTH MENTAL HEALTH

Eating well is one of the simplest ways to have a massive impact on our physical and mental well-being as well. This is for many reasons. To read more about Food and Mood see my past blog here on ZZ.

The gut and the brain are like a couple and they need to be communicating well for both to flourish and work together positively.

Reduce inflammatory foods in your diet such as processed gluten, dairy and caffeine.
Increase the amount of plants you consume daily! What?? Think about it like this there are over 200,000 edible plants on this earth and in Western society particularly, we are eating only about 200 of those across the world. (Source Fibre Fuelled) but if we are conscious and aware of it we can fit lots of plants into our diet quite easily.

For example
Breakfast: Veggie omelette with salt, pepper, parsley, spring onion, and mushroom (basic), add in some peppers and peas for colour and flavour. 7 plants.

Lunch: a Brocolli salad- broccoli, peppers, carrots, apple, olive oil, salt, pepper, mustard, honey, lemon juice, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. 12 plants.

Dinner: A curry and rice- Curry sauce- turmeric, ginger, garlic, onion, tomatoes, coriander, cumin, paprika, coconut milk, rice with curry leaves, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and cloves. 15 plants and if you have it as a sauce over meat great, but if you are doing a veggie curry you can have chunky cauliflower, sweet potatoes and lentils in the sauce you have made bringing this to 18 plants.

That's 35 plants in one day (not counting portions just the variety), I think we tend to forget that herbs and spices are plants too and they count toward helping us with variety and nutrients.

HOME

Step one- choose your very own 'Zen Den' space. Ok, so this one requires a little more consideration, work and commitment!! Choose one space that you will use to spend time with yourself. It can be as simple as a chair in a corner of your bedroom with some nice plants, lighting and cosy furnishings, maybe with a diffuser and essential oils or a candle, some crystals maybe? Whatever will give you peace and calm and spend at least 10 minutes of your day there enjoying a cuppa, reading a book or meditating. Committing 10 minutes of peace to yourself is so powerful and to have a dedicated space makes it even more special.

Switch the plug-ins and processed perfumed candles for homemade potpourri or a diffuser with clean - unperfumed- essential oils. Remove those toxins from the air you breathe daily!

PEOPLE

Become more conscious of who you spend time with and the conversations you are having. This sounds very simple but actually can be one of the hardest areas to ultimately change if you realise that someone you truly love is harmful to your health.
I recommend that every time you have had a phone call, zoom, WhatsApp chat, face to face catch-up with someone you take a minute to record in your diary how your energy is after that interaction.

ASK:

Are you energised and motivated? Are you exhausted and need a break? Are you feeling good about yourself or are you nitpicking at yourself?

Sometimes we get into patterns with certain people and it is hard to break out of them this is about bringing your awareness to this and allowing you to reduce exposure to those who drain you and put measures in place to protect your energy when you do interact with those people or you cut them from your life.

ENVIRONMENT

Shop with local makers, growers and crafters where you can, grow or make your own! I have a short ebook on making your cleaners and a few YouTube videos reach out of you want to check those out and Yup... it's a simple one!

Make the switch to more BCorp-certified brands- what the heck is Bcorp? Well, B Corp-certified brands have undergone a review of at least 2 years to assess how they balance People, Profit and the Planet. They have to show transparency in all aspects of their business and that they are doing their best to be a positive force for good in this world and contributing to changing how we do business with purpose.
You can find out more on their YouTube channel here in just 2 minutes.

COMMUNITY CHARITY

Review your values and seek a community with similar values so you can surround yourself with those behind you, beside you and ahead of you on your journey so you can be inspired, motivated and supportive of yourself and others. Community is powerful and a key factor in longevity of life (Blue Zone Study)

Charity, the old adage 'What goes around comes around' or Karmic impact is one many give great weight and credence to and rightly so. Everything is energy in this world and how we use our energy and resources ultimately impacts our everyday lives. Where you can, even when you are finding things hard, try to contribute to charity- this can be through your time, your voice, sharing a cause or through actual donations of supplies or funds.

Excerpt: Your brain's pleasure circuits are stimulated by acts of charity and release "good feeling" chemicals such as endorphins, which give you a sense of euphoria, and oxytocin, which promotes tranquillity and inner peace. (Cone Health 2016)

I am running a fundraiser currently to fill handbags with essentials for survivors of DV, if you are feeling in a giving mood today a few pounds or euros is massively appreciated!
I can donate something x

Begin your lower tox living journey by incorporating simple switches, that work for you, into your daily life. Start with a simple switch in each area, share your progress with our community via the free BETA Love Life Community App and join us in making a positive impact on our well-being and the planet.

Explore more lower-tox living tips and connect with like-minded individuals on our platform through my guided Simple Switches Series which takes you on a journey over 6 weeks to tackle each of these areas in more detail so you are empowered to take empowered action for yourself, that fits with your desired lifestyle, this does not look the same for everyone and that's how it should be! Kicking off on January 29th 2024.

Please comment and share if these tips were helpful to you and what you would like me to cover in more detail.
Aisling x