Wellness – Britt Skrabanek

Capturing the Magic Hour to Save and Savor Our Lives

How you start your day is how you shape it. If you don’t start your day the way you want to, someone else will shape it for you. This applies to anyone: a student, a professional, an entrepreneur, or a parent.

The term “golden hour” defines this fragile moment in time. The golden hour is a critical time for saving a life and savoring a life.

In the medical industry, it is “the first hour after the occurrence of a traumatic injury, considered the most critical for successful emergency treatment.” In photography, it is roughly the first hour of light after sunrise, and the last hour of light before sunset, when the quality of light produces optimal photographs.

Photographers sometimes call it the “magic hour.”

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Natural Ways to Treat Migraines Using Life Knowledge

Many of us stop and think about our health only when things go wrong. By that point the body forces us to stop and listen. As a lifelong migraine sufferer, I’ve learned to listen attentively to my body.

If I ignore what my body is saying…I’m out of commission for 1-3 days. The pain is so unbearable that it makes me nauseous. I can’t keep anything down. I can’t move. If a three-day migraine episode happens, I get the happy privilege of visiting the emergency room for a life-saving butt shot.

Genetically this was the hand I was dealt, since migraines occur on both sides of my family. The debilitating effect of migraines has been my Everest all my life. Changing my lifestyle was the only way I was going to win this battle.

A decade ago I went on a natural migraine treatment mission, and I’ve lived a life with less pain ever since. Here’s how.

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Look at Life and Love Instead of Your Phone

My heart warmed when I saw them from a distance. I was on my weekly run through the city when I spotted the couple holding each other by a stoplight at a busy intersection. They were young and in love—it was only them and nothing else existed.

As I approached them, the gap closing quickly between us as I ran, the warmth slipped away. My eyes had played tricks on me. Despite the sunshine beating against my sweaty skin, I shivered. They weren’t holding each other. They were looking at their phones.

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Stop and See

I was on my usual power hike through Forest Park on Saturday. I caught up with my sister on the phone on the way up to the view on top of the hill. It was a lovely conversation, one that ended with a pep talk to each other…a reminder to take the time we need for ourselves.

My sister is a mother of four. While I don’t have kids, I’ve gone through quite a few changes these past months that I didn’t know were coming. And, it has made the time both challenging and wonderful.

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Why Having Less Goals is Working for Me

I think many of us mean well when we start a new year.

Whether you’re into that whole goal/resolution/intention setting thing or not, when we turn our calendars and write the wrong damn year on everything for at least a month, we know that it’s a different time. And that in itself can move us to change.

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