“The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than discovery of a new star.” Anthelme Brillat-Savarin—

Food is a joyful part of holidays and life’s celebrations. But there are many small ways to find joy and happiness in food every day. All we have to do is take time to savor “food moments” each day.  For example, appreciate everything from creating a new recipe to sharing a cup of warm cocoa with a loved one, to joining friends and family at life’s celebration meals. Food is a source of daily joy that contributes much more to human happiness than we give it credit. To quote a famous foodie, the French epicure and gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, “The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.”

Here are five fun and easy ways to find joy in food.

1. Let Go of Expectations

Try a new recipe or add a new ingredient to a recipe that inspires you. Don’t worry whether your recipe ends up looking like the picture on the box or in the magazine. Enjoy the creative process and let it unfold.  Invite a few friends over for brunch and don’t obsess over the souffle. You’ll be amazed at how great the food tastes when you focus on friends, family, and good conversation.

2. Embrace Each Moment

Whether it’s cooking, or pretty much anything else in life, the best results come when we enjoy the moments along the way. Finding pleasure in food means taking the time to enjoy the cooking process and not just the end result. When you focus on the joy of each step of preparing food, the dish always tastes better in the end.

3. Keep It Simple

Sometimes the best dishes are those with the fewest ingredients. Sriracha, peppercorn, garlic, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, are a few tasty yet simple ingredients that can add amazing flavor and zest to dozens of dishes. Enjoy the simple ways to add more taste and zest to foods you eat each day.

4. Make It Pretty

A few cinnamon sprinkles or a dollop of whipped cream can make even the most basic dishes more appetizing. Cooking and baking should embrace all the senses. A lit candle or pretty dish towels are simple, inexpensive ways to make your kitchen more inviting.

5. Share the Love

Food is always more enjoyable when it is shared.  Participating in potlucks, baking for a sick neighbor or donating food to a charity are simple ways to share food, joy, and a part of yourself with others.  When you pour your love into your food, others will enjoy it all the more too.

I hope you try a few of these ways to experience more joy in food each day!

Enjoy and Live Well with Zest!

Bev xo

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“One kind word can warm three winter months.” Japanese Proverb–

One of my favorite Japanese proverbs goes, “One kind word can warm three winter months.” We know kind words can have a lasting impact. But kind words can do much more—they can affect a person’s entire life without our even knowing it. The proverb should probably go, “One kind word can warm the coldest nights for an entire life”.

Kindness Matters

Kindness really matters. It is at the heart of what we need to live happier lives and to make the world a better place.  Kindness invokes positivity in one person that can spread to others like wildflowers. Philosophically, kindness is like an energy or “angel dust” that can ignite positivity and progress across the entire planet. Scientifically there are physical and mental benefits we gain from small acts of kindness.

5 Physical and Mental Benefits of Kindness

1. Ease Anxiety

Feeling anxious is something we all face from time to time. But chronic anxiety is debilitating and needs to be managed. One way to help reduce anxiety is by providing inspiration and motivation to others through intentional acts of kindness. Next time you are feeling anxious, do something nice for someone and see how your mood changes from worry to happy.

2. Illness Prevention

Inflammation is associated with a variety of chronic health problems including cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, migraines, and obesity and many more health problems. In a recent study comprised of adults between the ages of 57 and 85, volunteering equated to lower inflammation levels due to the release of oxytocin (a social bonding hormone) in the body. When we intentionally do something kind for others, such as volunteering for a charity, we are releasing chemicals that can ease inflammation in our own bodies. The power of kindness is one of the keys to living a happier and healthier life–and a more socially engaged life.

3. Longer Life

People who do not maintain a strong network of relatives and friends have a higher risk of heart disease. Kindness is key to developing and maintaining meaningful close relationships with friends, family, community and colleagues. Feeling connected to people we care about gives us purpose and is an essential ingredient to living a happy, healthy life. Being kind and staying connected helps us live longer.

4. Stress Reduction

Many of us are looking for ways to reduce stress in our fast-paced, hyperconnected, but yet more isolated lives. When we choose to do something kind, we turn off the stressful routines playing in our brains and turn on pro social routines that reduce emotional stress. Choosing kindness adds peace and calm and reduces the stress and inflammation in our bodies that makes us sick. A worthwhile goal in daily our lives is to make kindness virtually second nature in our interactions with others–in other words have kindness become a way of life for us. This will be good for our physical and mental health!

5. Kindness Spreads Wellness

When we give kindness, it spreads. It not only helps us live well with zest, it helps our circle of friends and countless other people live healthier happier lives. Spread kindness like wildflowers to improve your health and help improve lives across the whole planet.

Be Kind and Live Well with Zest!

Bev xo

Written by Bev Hope

Reviewed by Board Certified MD

The post Spread Kindness Like Wildflowers! appeared first on Well with Zest.

There’s some debate about this quote: the where, when, and who of it. The quote sounds like something Shaw would say, but it also reminds me of Eliza Doolittle, Shaw’s fictional character from Pygmalion (1912), and also in the musical spin-off, My Fair Lady (1956). I’ve always loved My Fair Lady because Audrey Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses and she played Eliza perfectly. But it’s also one of my favorites because Eliza’s story is so universal–it’s the iconic journey of self-transformation. I’ve always been inspired by people, whether real or fictional, who have radically re-defined themselves, overcome extreme challenges and difficulties, moved past self-doubt or limiting beliefs, to achieve their dreams and find immense joy.

Lessons from Pygmalion: Create Yourself!

Long before there was George Bernard Shaw’s Cockney flower girl turned into a Fair Lady, there was the original Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor, who carved the perfect woman out of stone. He named her Galatea, and then he fell so deeply in love with his creation that he begged the Greek goddess Aphrodite to give her life. Myths are stories that teach us universal lessons. Pygmalion teaches us we are all a work in process, we are creating our own Galatea. It’s up to us to sculpt ourselves and to love ourselves. We are our own creation to love!

Every day, we have decisions to make about who we are creating. We can allow the tragedies of life (deaths, loss, illness, disappointments all kinds) to harden us and turn us into cold stone. Or, we can follow the old adages and choose to live a vibrant full life:I can allow the tragedies of life harden me and make me into stone. Or I can Create My Dreams… Live Well with Zest!

• Create Your Dreams!
• Live Your Dreams!
• Be You!

For me, Shaw’s quote is a reminder to wake up every day and choose how we sculpt our own lives, how we create ourselves. It’s up to us to make the choices that will help us become our best self and live our best life. 

Be You! And Live Well with Zest!

Bev

xo

Written by Bev Hope

The post Be You! – Choose to Live Your Best Life appeared first on Well with Zest.

Laughter is no joke! I first learned the seriousness of laughter when my late husband was dying from cancer. Friends and family brought us piles of funny movies. Whenever he was in the hospital, the nurses kept the TV in his room on the comedy channel. I remember we watched his favorite comedies “Oh God” and “Dumb and Dumber” over and over again! Laughter was good for all of us.  It helped us communicate and focus on the joy in the moment.

Looking back, our caregivers were very intentional about including humor in Paul’s cancer treatment journey. In the many years since Paul passed, I’ve learned a lot about the science-based, therapeutic benefits of humor. Humor affects the biochemistry in our bodies. It affects our mind, body and heart. Laughter is a powerful natural medicine we can give ourselves every day to live Well with Zest!

My Top 7 Reasons to Keep Laughing

I’ve gathered up what I’ve learned about laughter. Here are my top 7 reasons to keep laughing!

1. Laughter Strengthens the Immune System

Building a strong immune system is necessary whether you have a chronic illness or you’re a professional athlete in training. A hearty dose of laughter each day can do wonders for your immune system. Laughing can help prevent getting sick in the first place. This happens because laughter actually helps reduce stress hormones and inflammation in your body. Stress is a major trigger that contributes to many types of chronic illnesses. It’s great to know that you can help relieve stress and inflammation in the body with simple laughter.

2. Laughter Releases Endorphins 

Endorphins are the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. They are also natural painkillers. This means that regular laughter may be able to reduce chronic pain. Releasing these types of chemicals into your body may also reduce depression. There are at least 20 different types of endorphins in your body.  The sooner you start laughing the sooner your body can release these feel-good hormones.

3. Laughter Reduces Stress

Our fast-paced culture tends to produce a lot of stress and with it anger. Whenever you’re frustrated or angry at another person, a little bit of humor can go a long way. Laughter helps diffuse a negative, tense situation. It’s hard for people to stay mad at each other when they’re laughing. Reducing anger is one of the most important mental health benefits of laughter.

4. Laughter Helps the Heart

Laughing can provide a great cardio workout. If you’re not able to do a regular workout, try laughing. Laughing increases blood flow to your heart, which can help lead to overall good health. Laughter can make your heart pump at a rate that will burn calories similar to walking at a slow pace. Laughing can also lower your blood pressure. That can help keep your heart healthy and prevent a heart attack or stroke.

5. Laughter Boosts Resilience

Humor can help us spring back from a painful situation. Humor helps us boost our psychological resilience. When we learn to laugh when we are facing a difficult situation, we strengthen our ability to master the challenges in life. When we learn to change our mental channel to the “Comedy Channel”, we learn to change our outlook and use the power of positivity to help get through the tough times in life. Laughter is like continuing education that helps us become a master at surfing through the everyday challenges of life with a smile on our face.

6. Laughter Improves Memory

Laughing can help lower cortisol levels in the brain which helps with higher recall ability and learning ability.   Scientists continue to study the link between humor and memory. So, when you are watching funny videos, you are actually working on your memory skills too.

7. Laughter Makes Life Fun

One of the most important reasons to laugh is that it’s enjoyable. It can reduce stress and make life more fun. Laughing is something that regardless of age, culture, or background is innate to all humans.  We are born with a built-in sense of humor and all we have to do is use it to live a healthy, happy life. Many people remain unaware of our innate sense of humor and of the importance of using it for health and happiness. Whether it’s with family, friends, a co-worker, or that person you just met in the grocery store line, sharing a laugh will make your life healthier and happier.

Laugh Every Day!

If an apple a day can help keep the doctor away, then laughter every day can help keep chronic disease away (or at least diminished). With so many health benefits of humor, it’s time to turn up the laughter in our lives. Get those comedy videos out. Read (and save) cartoons. Listen to humor podcasts. Go to your stand-up comedy theatre. Watch children playing in the park–and see how they spontaneously hop, skip and laugh. Look at funny pictures of animals.  Visit to the zoo and watch the funniest animals in action, just being themselves. Or hang out with your funny human friends. There are endless ways to stimulate more laughter to help relieve stress, reduce anger, boost immunity, release those wonderful endorphins that make us feel good, and strengthen our hearts and minds both physically and figuratively.

Laugh and Live Well with Zest!

Xo

Bev

Written by Bev Hope

Reviewed by Board Certified MD

The post 7 Ways Laughter Improves Your Health appeared first on Well with Zest.