On many your Zen friend episodes, I include a segment called what's Bringing Me More Zen? Well, I've heard from many of you who have enjoyed my recommendations, so today's episode is dedicated to all the things well, at least many of the things that are bringing me more Zen on a regular basis, and when I say Zen, I really mean more life satisfaction. So stay tuned for my recommendations and make sure you stay till the very end when I have a super exciting announcement. Welcome to your Zen friend. I'm your host, Lauren Wolfe. On this podcast, I will share wisdom from working as a licensed professional counselor for more than 20 years. Using storytelling and lighthearted humor. Each episode will explore themes on personal growth, including tips and strategies to boost mental wellness and overall well-being. If you're a perfectly imperfect human like me, who's always striving to do better and feel better than this podcast is for you, let's get started. Welcome, zen friend. I hope, wherever you are, you're doing well. I thought it would be fun to do an entire episode on what's bringing me more Zen. I love getting recommendations in magazines or recommendations from other podcasters, and I've recently heard from some of you, including Nancy, who now uses my favorite hand and body lotion that I mentioned I don't even remember on which episode, but my favorite hand and body lotion, if you're curious, is Alba Botanica's Hawaiian hand and body lotion. I love that lotion. It has a very mild scent and is just super nourishing with cocoa butter. I also recently heard from Jen, who tried one of my favorite Starbucks drinks, the London Fog Hot Tea, and she really enjoyed it. So I thought I would talk about some other products that are bringing me more Zen or more life satisfaction lately, and hopefully you will enjoy it and get some good recommendations. I will have any products or anything that I mentioned, of course, in the show notes, and then I would love to hear your recommendations. So please join our Facebook group. That is a great place where we are sharing and connecting in between episodes. You can find that by just searching for your Zen friend in groups on Facebook.
Speaker 1I have mentioned in recent episodes that I have been on a decluttering mission, so I'm going to start here. I have been on a decluttering mission lately, so much, in fact, that some of the last, most recent episodes I have talked about this in my episode, speaking with Amanda Jefferson from the podcast Good Enough Fish. We talk about decluttering as well as digital decluttering. In my episode that aired last week with Mabesti Laurie Simon, we talked about minimalism versus maximalism that's a mouthful In Home Decor and I talked about how I have been decluttering. I also shared some questions that you can ask yourself when you are getting ready to declutter. Those questions will help you, of course, to decide if items stay or if they go, and those were from a YouTube video I had been watching. So, while, in fact, I am getting rid of many items in my house, the items that I'm sharing with you today are things that I would never think to get rid of. Some of them are, in fact, products, some are beverages, and I also have some podcast recommendations, as well as a book recommendation. These are things that just make my life a lot better and more enjoyable, so I hope they are recommendations that you will enjoy as well, and, as I said in the beginning, I've got a really, really, really, really really. I cannot exclaim how very exciting this announcement is to make, and I will make that announcement towards the end of the episode, so make sure you stay tuned so you hear that let's take a short break and then let's get into all the things that are bringing me more Zen. I love to connect with listeners and I'd love to hear from you. Please reach out, let me know what you're enjoying and let me know what types of interviews and topics you'd like me to cover in the future. You can find me on Instagram at your ZenFriend pod, or email me at yourzenfrenpod at gmailcom. You can also join our private Facebook group by searching for your ZenFriend in groups on Facebook. Let's get back to our show. Welcome back.
Speaker 1I'm going to start off by telling you about an item that I put on first thing in the morning and take off last thing at night. And I'm not talking about my eyeglasses, although that would be true as well. I'm talking about my slippers. I live in a home where we do not wear our shoes. I'm just gonna say our street shoes, but we really don't wear any shoes besides slippers. So as soon as we enter the house, we take our shoes off. This is, in part, because my husband grew up this way. This was really cultural to him. His mother was born and raised in India and his father in Yemen, and this was a tradition that he grew up with. So we started as soon as we moved in, together with taking our shoes off when we came home and we didn't used to ask guests to remove their shoes until we had kids and then, when they were babies and crawling around on the floor, we did usually ask guests. As long as they were people we knew well and were comfortable with, we would give them a heads up ahead of time. But I think a lot of people do that also. I'll be curious You'll have to let me know if that's something that you do in your home. I do think it just keeps it much cleaner.
Speaker 1So, because we don't wear shoes in the house, we constantly wear slippers, especially in the winter. Sometimes I'll go barefoot in the summertime, but I love the slippers I'm going to tell you about because they have a really nice support. They are a sturdy shoe so you could actually wear them out and about around town. I know that's a thing I see people out in slippers. You could absolutely do that.
Speaker 1And these are the LL Bean Wool Slipper Clog. Are they sexy? No, they are not sexy. Are they warm? Yes, they are warm. They have great arch support. So if you are someone that wants that arch support, I think you will like these. If you are someone who has cold feet, I think you will like these If you are someone who gets sweaty feet.
Speaker 1It's like sweaty balls, sweaty feet. I can't say it the way they say it on Saturday Night Live. That segment is so funny. Yes, you will probably not like these slippers if you get sweaty feet, because they are in fact really warm. But if you, like me, live in a climate where it gets cold, like our. Winters here in New England are quite cold. We have wood floors, we have throw rugs in some not all of the rooms. These slippers are amazing.
Speaker 1I typically buy myself one pair a year. They will wear out, I will get holes in them, but I wear them really pretty much morning till night. I even wear them often in the summertime, where I know they'd probably be too hot for some people, but I tend to run cold, so they work for me. So that's item number one, the LL Bean Slipper Clog. I get gray ones again. Super sexy, no, super comfy. Yes, I'll be curious to hear from you. Have you tried these? Do you like something else better? Always looking to try new things, but these have been a standby for me for probably I don't even know as you get older, you lose track of time, probably close to 10 years. I've had them for a long time, all right.
Speaker 1The next item that brings me lots of joy, something I have definitely every single morning and something that I've had for a long long time, like goodness, maybe even 20 years, and that is Newman's Own French Roast Organic Coffee. My dad introduced me to this and my husband, mars, he loves this too. This is a really nice dark roast coffee. You can get a bag of it for about $10, you can order it off of Amazon or some grocery stores. Carry it, stop and Shop usually carries it, or the Giant if that's the store near you.
Speaker 1I have just a good old-fashioned drip coffee maker and so I make a pot of this coffee each morning. It is delicious, very flavorful, and in the afternoon I often will have mostly decaf with just a little bit of caffeinated mix stands. So Newman's Own has a medium blend decaf. That's also really good. Now I know $10 for a bag and I don't know how many ounces just like your typical kind of coffee-sized bag. It's nothing huge. I know that's not cheap by any means, but if you go to Starbucks and you get a Grande coffee, which is like the medium size, that's gonna cost you about $3 for just a basic cup of coffee and if you think about it that way, you are saving a lot of money. One bag usually lasts me more than two weeks for those two cups of coffee in the morning and we have big mugs. It's probably like four cups worth of coffee in the morning and then one or two, also again big cups, so probably more like four cups in the afternoon. So that lasts a while. All right.
Speaker 1The next item that brings me more zen is an app, and I am sure I have mentioned this in the past. It's very aligned with this show because it is a meditation app and in case you're a new listener, I'll just mention that I do put out a short guided meditation once a week. This main episode comes out every Tuesday and the guided meditation comes out every Friday. So this meditation app is called Insight Timer I-N-S-I-G-H-T Timer. It is free. There is a paid version that you can get as well. It is wonderful. It has lots of wonderful guided meditations.
Speaker 1You can search for what you're looking for at the time. So let's say you're feeling super stressed or overwhelmed. You could search stress or you could search overwhelm, and you're going to get lots of guided meditations. You can search them by the length that you're looking for as well, or you can just search again by the theme you're looking for and then look for one. That is the amount of time you have available. Then if you really like the meditation that you found, you can bookmark it and come back to it. They also have a timer that you can use and it has beautiful chime sounds. You can choose different ones that will kind of chime or ding in the beginning and at the end of the meditation. You can sit in complete silence, or you can use an ambient sound like rain or a waterfall. I can't think of the different ones they have, but they have lots to choose from.
Speaker 1And what else is really nice about Insight Timer? You can connect with friends. So say you're connected to me and I meditate. You're going to get an alert that tells you I meditated. Maybe that's going to be inspiration for you to meditate. You can see what guided meditation I did. I believe that's how it works. I haven't done that in a while with a friend, but it could then be inspiring to you to try the same one. So it's a good accountability partner If you and a friend of yours want to make sure that you're meditating, so that's really really nice. Check it out if you haven't already. Again, you can get it completely for free Insight Timer, or there is a paid option as well. They also have different talks by different people who are in the mindfulness or meditation field or just in the self-help field, so it's a really great meditation app and one that I use quite often. It's okay.
Speaker 1The next item that brings me more than lately is a moisturizer. I mean, am I bringing the excitement today or what With these products slippers, meditation apps, coffee Okay, onto a moisturizer. I have super dry skin, which is so weird. This started in my late 40s. I'm 51 now. Up until my late 40s, I had really oily skin, so it was pretty shocking when suddenly it became just so dry, and I hear from many other women my age that this is pretty common at a certain time of life, usually around perimenopause and menopause. So we've got to keep our skin moisturized. Here's one reason why I have actually been trying to put Skin Foundation on like Makeup Foundation and literally had my face peeling off. Not fun. So I have tried so many different moisturizers. This one is by far my favorite. It is supernatural If you use ewgorg, the environmentalworkinggrouporg, they have a database where you can put in different products and see the toxicity levels.
Speaker 1Bamboo earth products are really inexpensive. It's bamboo earth B as in boy A, m as in Mary, b as in boy U, bamboo earth two words E-A-R-T-H. So this bamboo earth moisturizer is their pettigrain moisturizer. It smells so nice. It goes on in a really nice, like hydrating, silky way. It's a little bit greasy. It's definitely heavy. I use it morning and night, so I just use a little less of it in the morning.
Speaker 1Again, my skin is super dry. So if you have combination skin, this might not be the one for you. But if you have dry skin, especially going into the winter months, if you're living in a cold climate, then this is a really good one. I also think the price point is great. For 1.5 ounce jar it's $32. They say on the website that that will last you four months if you use it twice a day. I feel like mine lasts a little bit less than that. But again, I'm just slathering that stuff on because I'm getting older and I'm getting drier. So yeah, once again I'm really bringing the sexy in this episode, but it's a really great moisturizer. They have.
Speaker 1The bamboo earth company has a product that's a moisturizer. It's a different one. It's called the Intense Hydration Cactus Concentrate. It costs $160 for a 1.3 ounce jar. Yeah, I am super intrigued about this moisturizer and I wish there was a way I could sample it, but I am just straight up too cheap to purchase this. So if any of you out there have tried this, please reach out, let me know. I'm dying to hear about it. Or if anyone has any connections to bamboo earth and can get me a sample, I would love that. But yeah, the Pedagrain Moisturizer is amazing and I just love it. I also put it on my neck because my neck is going south. Things are happening. Gravity is not a friend to my neck, so definitely trying to keep it moisturized.
Speaker 1Okay, two more items that are bringing me more zen, and then my super exciting announcement, which is, in fact, also an item that's bringing me more zen in a way. You'll see, stay tuned. Okay, here we go. The next item bringing me more zen is my heated mattress pad. Yeah, I know, if you're living in Florida or anywhere warm, you probably are finding this just unimaginable, but if you're living in a cold climate, like I am in New England. This product is life changing. My mother gifted the heated mattress pad to my husband and I probably like 10 years ago, and it has been just something that makes my winters so much more bearable. Here's how we use it About an hour before we go to bed, one of us will go upstairs, put the heated mattress pad on.
Speaker 1Here's what's amazing Dual controllers. Make sure you get one with dual controllers. I have one in the show notes through Costco, if you have a Costco membership. I don't know for sure. I don't think actually that this is the same exact model that we have, because you know we got ours a while ago, but it's got to be at least similar. So dual controllers if you've got yourself and a partner sharing the bed is amazing, because sometimes your partner doesn't want theirs on or you want it at different temperatures, and this way it's only heating up your side of the bed. So about an hour before bed, one of us will turn it on and then when we get into bed, we are typically turning it off before we go to sleep. So it's like a preheat situation.
Speaker 1Your bed is toasty and warm, especially when it's so cold out and we let the temperature really get down to the low 60s at night in the winter, which is really nice for sleeping. So I don't want to make the bed too warm and I feel like it tends to just warm up as you're in it and as the night goes on, or not. To get off topic, but if you're a woman of a certain age, like myself, sometimes you might be having hot flashes or night sweats. That's another episode for sure. Luckily, that's been better for me lately. I don't think I used my heated mattress pad at all last winter, but I'm back to Really enjoying it again this year. So as the temperature is getting cooler it can be kind of cold in our bedroom if I'm sitting up and reading for a little while. It's so nice to get into my cozy, warm bed and I'm always sitting up and reading for at least a little while at night. So that makes oh my gosh, so much more than that, makes my life so much nicer. It's such a luxury for me in the winter time. For a king-size bed the heated mattress pads are about a hundred dollars, so not super cheap, but they're gonna last you a while and I think it's really. If you can afford it, of course, I think it's worth it. It's really quite delightful. All right, the next item that's bringing me more than is actually a membership.
I know I've talked to you in the past about how, for fun on the side, I like to teach yoga classes and bar classes bar, as in B a R R E, a type of fitness class that really combines ballet and yoga and Pilates. Well, I know I've mentioned also that I love to exercise, which I think some of you relate to and probably some of you find kind of weird, but I do. I love to exercise in the ways that I love to exercise. I'll say it that way. I'm not an organized sports kind of girl, so I like to do bar and TRX and like strength training, yoga, that sort of thing. There is a wonderful local bar studio where I will sub classes, be a substitute teacher Sometimes in my area, but I also have a membership. That is amazing.
Speaker 1There is a wonderful fitness instructor named Lauren George and I have had the privilege of training with her and Taking some of her trainings. There was a bar summit some years ago. I got to meet her in person, but I had followed her Instagram accounts and social media accounts before that. She would always put these really fun-looking classes that she was teaching on Instagram and I would be so jealous because she lives very far from me. She used to live, I believe, in South Carolina. Now she is in Mississippi. I'm in Connecticut, so certainly couldn't make it to one of her classes.
Speaker 1But one good thing that came out of the pandemic is that Lauren now offers a Fitness membership where you can do her classes at home from the comfort of your own living room, gym, whatever and Her membership is so affordable it's, I believe, 12.99 a month, or you can get it for it Even a little bit less expensive by paying for it for the year and what she offers is amazing. She's got bar classes, kickboxing, step, aerobics I'm not even going to remember all of these, I bet hit classes, strength training, yoga classes, pilates classes, and I love how she will have different challenges that you can sign up for. It really keeps you motivated. You can connect with her and other individuals who are doing her program on her private Facebook group and people are just lovely and encouraging, and I am doing one of Lauren's videos almost every single day. It really beats Back in the day where you had to put the VHS tape in the player and do one of the same three Exercise VHS tapes that you had over and over again. I used to kill the Cindy Crawford workout and then she finally had a second one, but I was literally doing the same workout all the time, so that is no fun. This is great. Lauren keeps it fresh, she keeps you challenging your muscles in a different way and she has all different lengths. You just can't beat it. She's really upbeat and positive and I encourage you to check out her membership. I think you'll love it. Okay, so now I'm ready for my exciting announcement.
Speaker 1I'm gonna give you a little background. I know I have mentioned that I love the author and podcaster, gretchen Rubin. Gretchen Rubin has a podcast called Happier. If you haven't listened, check it out. Well, gretchen has a sister. Elizabeth Kraft sometimes goes by Liz and Liz is Gretchen's co-host. So Liz is on Happier with her sister Gretchen Rubin. Liz also has her own podcast where she is a co-host with her best friend from high school, who's also been her writing partner for many years, and that podcast is called Happier Than Hollywood Really, really interesting. It's all about her writing for Hollywood. She's a TV writer and, even though that sounds like why would that at all be applicable to me who works as a therapist. She really makes her content relatable. It's really interesting to hear what it is like to be a TV writer and she's just someone that I feel is really easy to connect with. And her writing partner, sarah Fain, her co-host on Happier in Hollywood, also great.
Speaker 1Okay, some years back, probably about six years ago, liz on her podcast, happier in Hollywood, made a recommendation for a podcast called Satellite Sisters and I quickly, when I was done listening to that podcast, decided I would check out Satellite Sisters. It was great. I loved it right away, made sure I followed it and started listening to it on a weekly basis. So Satellite Sisters is a podcast hosted by three adult sisters. They live in different areas. Two are in California, one is in Texas.
Speaker 1These sisters had a radio show more than 20 years ago that later became a podcast, so they were really some of the first podcasters that were women podcasting for women. Their podcast is fantastic. Definitely check it out. They talk about current events and topics in the news, but it's more often late. Even if it's a serious topic, it doesn't feel really heavy. I always feel uplifted when I listen to their podcast and especially when I finish it. They just use a lot of humor. It's really fun to see the dynamics between the sisters during COVID when we were all in that awful pandemic lockdown. One of the sisters, liz, started a cooking show on YouTube called Cooking with Liz. It was really fun because she has super limited cooking experience and was just kind of winging it a lot of the time, or cooking without the proper equipment and then on the podcast each week her two sisters would give her a hard time and it was just so funny Definitely was a bright spot during that tough time of the pandemic.
Speaker 1One of the sisters is named Leanne. I know you think it's probably Leanne and I'm mispronouncing it, but it's not. It's Leanne. L-i-a-n. Dolan and Leanne is a bestselling author.
Speaker 1She has some great fiction reads. I think I've read all of her books. Now there might be one that I haven't read, but I've read at least three of them. I'd have to go back and check. Love them all. They're just great books to cozy up with with a cup of tea. They move along at a good pace. They've got characters that you will like and I just have really enjoyed her books.
Speaker 1Probably her favorite, or my favorite, book that she wrote is the Sweeney Sisters. That is a book about adult sisters who live in I think it's Southport, connecticut, right near Fairfield, connecticut. Leanne and her sisters actually grew up in Connecticut and that area is only about half an hour away from me, so that's kind of cool. She wrote another book that came out I think it was just last year called Lost and Found in Paris. That was really really great. That was really just a page-turner of a book Again, likable characters and there's mystery with art that gets stolen. So that was a really good one. I love a mystery. Really enjoyed that too.
Speaker 1Well, leanne has a new book coming out called the Marriage Sabbatical and it's coming out on April 2nd and maybe you're already guessing. Here's the really exciting announcement Leanne is gonna be on our show. Ah, I'm so excited. I cannot even tell you what a big deal this is. Leanne and her sisters are just so inspiring to me as podcasters who have been in this industry for a long time. They are absolute pros at what they do and Leanne is also a really talented author. So for me to have an opportunity to get to talk with her and have her come on this show is such an honor and I am so beyond excited.
Speaker 1I, of course, will have where you can buy her book and the show notes. You can buy it on Barnes Nobles. You can pre-order it right now. Pre-ordering is a wonderful way to help support authors. So I encourage you all to go and pre-order the Marriage Sabbatical on Barnes Nobles. You can also get it on Amazon. I'll again have those links. Then I will give you a date closer to the time that Leanne's coming on the show. We're thinking mid to late April. So I don't have that date yet, but I will keep you posted.
Speaker 1What I would love is for any of you who enjoy reading to read this book ahead of time. I will have you send in your questions or comments and could very well read them on the air talking with Leanne, and that way I think it'll make the interview even more fun if you've read the book ahead of time. So, yes, I am so, so, so excited. Their podcast is huge. They get well over a million downloads a year. I mean amazing, it's just, it's so exciting. So, yeah, go check out their podcast If you haven't heard it before. Satellite Sisters, I know you will love it.
Speaker 1Well, I think that's it for my recommendations of what's bringing me more Zen. I hope so much that at least one or two of those things are things that are appealing to you and that will bring you more Zen in your life as well. If you haven't followed or subscribed to your Zen front, please do that and please go over to Apple or Spotify and rate and review the podcast. That really helps others to find it. You could also share it with a friend. That would make my day as well. Word of mouth is another great way to help the podcast grow and as the podcast continues to grow, it helps me to bring you really fun. Exciting guests like Leanne Dolan can't wait to speak with her, so I hope you'll connect with me. I mentioned that private Facebook group earlier. You can also find me on Instagram at your Zen friend pod, or send me an email at yourzenfrontpod at gmailcom. I'm so glad you joined me here today. Until next time, friend. I hope you'll take some time today and every day to do something kind for yourself.