The Ultimate Gift List for Mind, Body, and Spirit.
To help take the stress off of your gift giving, I’ve put together the ultimate gift list for mind, body, and spirit. You deserve a little treat too, so don’t feel guilty about grabbing something on sale for yourself.
I like to shop all year. The holiday season is stressful enough with coordinating schedules and trying to fit everything in. It also gets super expensive to buy all of those gifts in a 30-day period. Every year, I try to be shopped and wrapped by Thanksgiving so that I can simply decorate my house and enjoy the holiday season. Normally, I really enjoy shopping, and manage to grab the perfect things throughout the year for my friends and family. It helps to spread the cost over the entire year, rather than simply a month or two. This year has been tricky since I haven’t been out and about. I bet it’s been tricky for you, too! So, here you go…the ultimate gift list for mind, body, and spirit.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases. However, I only recommend items that I truly love! Thank you for your support!
Sweet Freedom Living is all about reinventing yourself in mind, body, and spirit. So, I’ve compiled a list of items you might want to support you on your journey to your best self.
Mind
The mind portion of mind, body, and spirit is the intellectual or mechanical part of the equation. People feel that their cognitive skills decline as they age, but this doesn’t have to be true. Mental acuity is a practice, as much as any other skill we master. I like to think of it in three steps, Mental Focus/Intentionality, Learning/Retention, and Good Habits.
Without getting all technical on you, Scientific American reports that maintaining mental and physical abilities (“staying active”) is the best way to avoid cognitive decline in adulthood, especially older adulthood. But increasing knowledge is even more important. AARP did a survey and it is a stunning statistic that 50% of adults over 40 don’t learn something new each week. This includes Googling for new information!
Learning new tricks is critical to living independently in this world of fast-moving technological advances. If you want to be able to continue to do things on your own, you have to be willing to learn new advances in technology and information, such as how to do a virtual doctor’s appointment, how to order medications online, or even how to transfer your money from one account to another.
So how do we do that? Check out this book from one of the few International Grand Masters of Memory, Kevin Horsley. This best seller provides the tools to help you learn faster and to remember more. As with anything, you really do have to practice the skills to make improvements. Give it a try!
399 Games, Puzzles…
If you enjoy games and puzzles, you might want to check this out. It’s one of several books by Nancy Linde designed to keep your brain young. This would be a great gift for every “over 50” person on your gift list, including yourself. For the creatives on your list, add a collection of colorful gel pens to the package.
Body
When we think of the body, we think about our weight and fitness, but it’s so much more than that! This complex system of functions drills down to one key component, energy. So how do you keep your energy up? You will improve and maintain your energy with a concerted maintenance schedule of sleep, nutrition, hydration, weight management, and fitness. (Mindset is so important that I’m addressing this under “spirit”.) Then throw a little fashion in there to dress it all up and you’ll feel great!
Yeti
My former functional boss gave me a 30oz Yeti cup (just like the one in the above link) for Christmas 2018. It has become like an extra appendage. I carry it everywhere. You can buy the straw lid to go with it, which I use because for some reason, I feel like I drink more water when I use a straw. I have several other popular brands of insulated cups, but this one is BY FAR the best of any. I can fill it with ice and water right before bed, and it will stay cold well into the next day. In fact, I haven’t refilled it yet today, and it’s still icy cold. It’s noon!
I try to drink 3 to 4 of these full glasses a day for at least 100 ounces of water in addition to my tea and other beverages. This alone keeps my energy up. When I’m starting to drag, I simply drink up! Try it, it works! These Yeti cups come in different sizes and shapes, so check them out. They make great gifts! It’s not on the Prime Sale, but you can still order it with Prime shipping.
Fitbit Aria Air Scale
This Fitbit Aria Air Scale is a great way to track your weight and body fat percentage. It updates the Fitbit App via Bluetooth, and it integrates with the Lose It App, if you (like me) like to track your meals. I find that mindful eating and daily weighing helps me stay on track.
By the way, if you haven’t discovered the Lose It App, you should! I’ve used it for years, and it is so comprehensive. I use the free version, and I find it has all of the features that I need to manage my healthy weight journey. But they also have a Premium version with upgrades to manage micronutrition, and other great features. You can use the app, and also the website interface, interchangeably. Check it out! You can grab the app on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.
Fitbit Inspire 2
Along those same lines, is the new Fitbit Inspire 2 tracker. My hubby gave this to me for my birthday and I love it! You can wear it on a band around your wrist, but you can also buy a clip that will allow you to wear it on your clothing. I particularly like to wear mine clipped to my bra. Nobody can see it, but I get the benefit of tracking all of my activity. This little tracker has lots of healthy features such as a heart-rate monitor, a sleep tracker, and a hydration tracker, in addition to tracking activity. If you want to increase your energy, start with getting enough sleep and drinking lots of water! This little baby will help you keep track of everything you need to keep your energy at its peak.
Spirit
The anchor for total wellness is our spirit. It’s the heart of the matter, right? If our heart isn’t in it, it’s probably not happening. So how do we get our spirit aligned with our mind and body? It’s so easy to become disappointed and exhausted by the many distractions in our day. It’s up to you to guard your heart, but not toughen it up. We want to remain open and unguarded yet develop skills that enable us to look past the pain and be thankful.
Daily Gratitude
These fun little sticky notes are a great way to record the things you are grateful for and what you are looking forward to. If you keep a paper planner, then these can stick right there so you are reminded of them throughout the day. Or complete your daily gratitude page at breakfast and stick it on your bathroom mirror, or on your desk, or your dashboard in your car. The only requirement is a daily reflection on your blessings. It’ll make all the difference in your outlook. These would make great stocking stuffers, or small gifts for friends or coworkers. That’s why they’re on the ultimate gift list for mind, body, and spirit!
Voctave’s New Album
A great way to sooth the savage spirit is to flood it with beautiful music. This is a shameless plug for the new album of one of my favorite groups. If you love a ‘Capella music, and Disney, and Broadway, you will love this album. It’s not a Prime Day special, but it’s an inexpensive bargain that will lift your spirits.
Positive Affirmation
What could be better than a little bling that reminds you or a good friend that you are enough? An Ultimate Gift List would not be complete without some jewelry, now would it? As I wrote in my article, Affirmations – We Are What We Believe, your brain remembers what you tell it. So, tell it good things! Listen to positive music and podcasts, watch uplifting shows. We get enough negativity without adding to it with our own self-talk.
We’re BIG Amazon Prime fans in our household. It’s completely worth the fee because we buy a ton of household items to be delivered free, and we buy a lot of gifts to be shipped free directly to the recipients! With kids and grandkids, it’s easy to justify the expense. This is a no-brainer to me. If you aren’t a Prime Member, you can try it out FREE for 30-days using THIS LINK.
There are many, many more things available on Amazon, including TVs, phones, earbuds, laptops, vacuum cleaners, kitchen appliances, you name it. You can even order groceries through Amazon Fresh! Just click on over using any of the links above and shop to your heart’s content. I’m serious when I suggest you get your Christmas shopping started. Just think how smart you’ll feel come Thanksgiving!
Take good care of your mind, body, and spirit.
