top of page

The After Care

 

Tools

 

Changing How You View Stress

May 01, 2019

Pillars: Mindfulness, Wellness

Happy May Rubies! In this months After Care blog we are discussing......dun...dun....dunnnn.......STRESS! I bet as soon as you hear or think about stress, all sorts of heavy, negative and uncomfortable feelings and thoughts come to mind. Over the years, we have been taught that stress is bad, causes anxiety,  and can make you sick; even leading to terminal illnesses. Although, to some degree, there is truth in those claims, we would like to offer you another perspective.  

The After Care book recommendation for the month of May is 'The Upside of Stress' by Kelly McGonigal, PhD. In this book, McGonigal explains why stress is actually GOOD for you and how you can get good at utilizing and managing it to your benefit. At the start of the book, we are challenged to consider the following:

  • How you think about something can transform its effect on you

  • Our physical reality is more subjective than we believe (based on the influence of opinions, personal taste and feelings)

  • The effect you expect is the effect you get

Hmmmmm, thought-provoking right!? Listen to this. When the body is experiencing stress, it releases two hormones, DHEA & Cortisol, through the adrenals. Cortisol turns sugar and fat into energy and suppresses some of your biological functions that are of less importance at that time such as digestion, reproduction and growth, whereas DHEA helps the brain to grow, enhances the immune system, speeds up wound repair and counters some of the effects of cortisol. It is the ratio of these two hormones called the Growth Index that determines whether or not a stressful experience is helping you or harming you. 

Did you know that stress can actually make a person more social? Yes! When experiencing stress, the pituitary gland releases a hormone called Oxytocin to encourage social connection and interaction. This part of stress is what gives us the courage to save or protect others during times of stress such as during a fire, burglary or a mugging for example. Oxytocin is actually very good for heart health being that it has its own receptors within the heart which help heart cells to regenerate and repair from any micro-damage. Wow! Isn't it amazing how our creator has built this machine that we call the body to operate to well!? If you would like to learn more regarding this topic, we highly recommend checking our McGonigal's book, 'The Upside of Stress'. Rubies, let's renew our minds when it comes to how we view and handle our stress! 

Add Grit To Your Life!

March 01, 2019

Pillars: ALL

Rubies! March is here! Can you believe the first two months of 2019 are already gone!? Wow! So, in our January blog, we mentioned and discussed how the New Year brings us an energy of newness, fresh starts and new beginnings. Along with that, most of us commit ourselves to come sort of life changing resolution(s) in hopes of bettering ourselves in some way. Now that we are in the month of March, how are those New Year resolutions panning out? Are you still as excited as you were when you made the resolution(s)? Are you on track with accomplishing your resolution(s)? Well, if you're anything like the rest of us out here, that New Year stamina and mojo deflated before we even entered February. (lol, ashamed to admit but true)

Because of this "lack of motivation", I decided to do a little research to figure out and understand why we do this to ourselves year after year after year. During my research I came across a term and concept what has become pretty popular in the world of psychology and self-help. That term is GRIT.

So what is GRIT? In a nutshell, GRIT is the concept of passion meeting perseverance. Per Patrik Edblad in his blog on the Complete Guide To Developing Your Grit, he explains that "Passion gives a person energy and zeal for an activity, but perseverance is the quality that keeps them going despite adversity and plateaus in progress." Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and grit researcher says that "Where talents count once, effort counts twice". She uses this formula to further explain: 

TALENT x EFFORT = SKILL

SKILL x EFFORT = ACHIEVEMENT

She further explains that when you apply effort to talent, you develop skill, and when you apply effort to that skill, you get achievement. Without effort, your talents are just untapped potential for skills. And without effort, your skills are untapped potential for actual accomplishments.

Can you see how this concept of GRIT can have a major impact as to why we start things but rarely bring them to completion and how we can change that by developing certain factors that can indirectly influence our grit and dramatically increase our chances of accomplishing our goals?

Interesting right!? We recommend that you read Patrik Edblad's full article on the Complete Guide To Developing Your Grit and to check out Angela Duckworths book on the subject titled "GRIT: The Power of Passion and Perseverance"  

Would you like to know where you measure on the GRIT scale? Take the quiz by clicking the LEARN MORE button below!

*This post respects all copyright laws regarding the video clip and blog to their respectful owners and is shared for educational purposes only*

Begin To Journal!

February 01, 2019

Pillars: ALL

It's February Rubies! We made it through the first month of the year, whew! As many of you know, Amazing Rare Rubies launched the Begin To Be Tour and released it's first book, The Diffusion Process Devotional Journal this past January. Throughout the tour, Meca is really stressing the importance of journaling and how positive the benefits are in contributing to our journey of becoming. A huge part of working with the Devotional Journal is journaling and so we want to encourage you to incorporate journaling into a daily practice for yourself, even if you don't own a copy of the book.

Why journal you ask? Well, journaling has some pretty awesome benefits, some of which help to alleviate and minimize anxiety, stress, depression, and overwhelm. Journaling allows us to get clear with our thoughts and emotions, to strengthen our memory, to better achieve our goals and more. 

One huge benefit of journaling is that your growth is being tracked. When we journal, we capture a moment in time when we had particular feelings, emotions, mindsets and opinions. And as we make changes to our lives and mature, we can go back and see where we started and celebrate the growth we have endured. 

The video attached to this post offers some great ideas to help you get started on your journaling journey. You can find out more about Aileen and her website, Lavendaire, here: https://www.lavendaire.com/ 

Why Begin To Be Indicators

January 01, 2019

Pillars: ALL

AH...................the New Year.................2019 has arrived! The New Year tends to bring us an energy of newness, fresh starts and new beginnings, but along with that also comes the energy the purge, clean up and rid ourselves of people, things, habits and attitudes we feel no longer work for us nor fits our lifestyles. 

This is a great time to consider to Begin to Be with Amazing Rare Rubies. Begin To Be simply means to begin to become the woman God created you to be by beginning, taking the first step. Amazing Rare Rubies teaches that there are no prerequisites required for beginning and taking this first step. The only experience necessary is whatever experience you currently have and have already acquired. Why?​ Because God has already equipped you with every trait, skill and characteristic you will ever need to serve your life's purpose before you were even born.

Doesn't that sound wonderful?! It IS wonderful, and good news for those of us who feel we are inadequate in more ways than one, let alone getting through this thing called LIFE. 

Welp, you know by now that Amazing Rare Rubies is big on the Woman's role as a helpmeet; and this not only applies in our relationship to men but in our relationship to each other, and this is where we Amazing Rare Rubies comes in at. We have compiled a list of indicators for each of our 7 Major Pillars that further explain why YOU should Begin To Be, right now, just where and as you are. Check it out: 

  • Spiritually: Your should be tired of being a lukewarm Ruby 

  • Mentally: You should be tired o not being in a complete state of awareness regarding who you are, where you are and who you are becoming

  • Wellness Wise: You should be tired of feeding your spiritual , mental and physical body "just anything and everything; yet always expecting this trio to be in good health

  • Business Wise: You should be tired of starting and stopping in your career, profession and/or trade; and then placing blame on others for your lack of success

  • Financially: You should be tired of living paycheck-to-paycheck, buying things that you do not need with money that you do not have; leaving a legacy of debt, all the while promising yourself that the next year will be different (failed new years' resolutions ring a bell?)

  • Relationship Wise: You should be tired of taking the people in your life for granted and then wishing you had loved them unconditionally when you had the chance

  • Amusement Wise: Well, this one kind of brings the other six pillars together. You should be really tired of entertaining yourself to the point of destroying  the progress you were making

1 / 1

Please reload

Ruby Traits on Audio Cover.png
Book Cover PNG.png
available-now-on-amazon.jpg

Ruby Trait of The Month

Courageous

Words Of Wisdom

Meca McLendon, CLC

from

Recommended                            Reads

The Upside of Stress

'Why stress is good for you, and how you to get good at it'

By

Kelly McGonigal, PhD

Upside of Stress.jpg
HOW Infographic.png

Webinar

Classes

The 7 

Pillars

bottom of page