I suppose it’s never too late to incarnate and transform. Just look at the lowly cicada bug. They spend 13 or 17 years (depending on their genes) lying about underground nibbling at roots before they emerge from their subterranean den, immediately molt their exoskeleton, and head off in search of a partner with which to reproduce. They’re not particularly attractive unless you’re a bug expert and they don’t seem to have any type of baggage keeping them from their mission.
It’s cicada season in Alabama. We have the 13-year variety and this year is one of the big waves. We get a few every year because some get confused, but this year there’s more than I’ve ever seen. They’re currently crawling out of the ground across the yard, porch, my laundry room. I can’t step outside without stepping onto their molted exoskeletons. They leave their creepy husks on the porches, hanging from the plants in my garden and the exterior walls of the house and shed. Some are even molting in the grass and clover. My dogs have taken to snacking on the larvae as they crawl through the yard, but they just keep coming. I am beginning to wonder if the whole swarm of locusts thing wasn’t cicadas.
My mom’s favorite weatherman, James Spann, has become the clearing house for people showing their favorite cicada-based dishes. I think that’s a little too close to crickets. No thanks. Yuck!
Fun Fact!
Cicadas are arthropods and in the same phylum as shellfish. So, if you have a shellfish allergy, best to avoid them. How do I know this? Facebook. Specifically, two really smart guys I went to high school with. One learned the shellfish fact from one of the science teachers he works with. The other one confirms that they taste like a cross between shrimp and crawfish. Being deathly allergic to shellfish, I will take their words for it.
What do cicadas have to do with massage? Well, hopefully not a lot inside the treatment room, but they do seem to be causing quite a bit of stress in my area so that could be a tie in. I find them somewhat inspirational. Stick with me. I think we could all be a bit more like the cicadas, sitting in the top of a tree screaming about what we want and ignoring all the haters.
Do something new, it’s good for your mental health! Just do it inside if you don’t like big, red-eyed flying bugs. Eek! And if the screaming is wearing on you as much as it is on me, why not try some binaural beats music to drown out the noise.
Cadaver studies have never been my thing but working with the human body for the last 15+ years has apparently tempered my squeamishness into curiosity. What an amazing experience and such a gift getting to learn from people who have donated their bodies to science. The reverence Gil has for the people and their families is so heartening and gives me hope that the best of humanity is still out there waiting for us to find them.
Can I say that there was one particular thing I learned that will translate into my work that you’ll recognize as immediately different? No, maybe not yet, but it’s actually the most thorough exploration of the nerve bodies I’ve ever been exposed to. It was amazing how he was able to show the nerves where and how they presented physically inside the body and then tie them to movement, sensory, and even emotions. My explanation doesn’t even do justice to his presentation, you just have to experience it for yourself.
As far as layering this into my current work, it will be another body of information I have access to sift through when making decisions about appropriate treatment strategies. This class also gives me a reference point as to where to start looking with certain issues. Hello, sciatic nerve! And again, this is the most thorough education I’ve ever been through for the nervous system. It’s something I’ve been actively missing and trying to fill in for years. We’ll see how it manifests together.
For Bodyworkers
If you’re here looking for more information about Gil, he was everything I’d hoped for and probably more if I’m being honest. Warm, funny, witty, and of course so, so intelligent. This is not a class I’ll forget any time soon and to be honest, I’ll probably take it again when it’s available on the website. If you’re thinking of taking it, do it! No regrets!
Back in February I arrived home from work one evening and was greeted by a really stinky house and the news that the stove tried to self-immolate while I was gone. It seems the broiler wouldn’t turn off and had to be killed at the breaker. After a bit of troubleshooting and testing the broiler continued to not want to turn off and we decided to unplug Old Crusty forever leaving us to a life with no stove.
He was over 26 years old and had served us well for many years. He helped feed our family breakfasts, lunches, suppers and snacks not to mention other friends and family through countless meal trains, holidays, church suppers, and parties. Old Crusty was a faithful servant. I felt a little bad about his demise.
Technology Changes Were Shocking
When I started shopping, I was surprised to find the dramatic changes in cookstove technologies. It took way longer to research and decide on a new appliance. I thought the job was done when I finally ordered the unit, sight unseen, because no one was carrying the one that would best fit our needs.
That’s when we got slapped with delivery a month out from the order date. I panicked a little, but immediately started planning on how we could do this without a fully functional kitchen for a month. It would be a learning experience, I reasoned, and possibly fun in a stressful sort of way. Being fortunate, we have access to a microwave, hot pot, coffee pot, electric griddle, a grill, an Instant Pot, Crockpot, a steamer, a toaster, and a toaster oven. Surely, we could make this work.
The decision fatigue was the first thing that hit. How to boil an egg with all of these small electric appliances? The answer, not very easily. And so it went for every meal, decision after decision after creative problem solving session. After a couple of days, the depression started to set in. I don’t do well with constant change. I need a stable, repeatable environment for certain things. Food seems to be one of them.
Then while we’re still struggling, trying to establish some repeatable processes that will help us put food on the table in a reasonable time frame, I receive another email stating that not only would we not be receiving our new stove as promised, they were estimating a new delivery date six more weeks out from the original delivery date. Some tears were shed over that one.
What I’m Learning
We are eating out way too much from sheer fatigue
The quality of foods we are eating at home has decreased and are by far much more processed than our normal diet because they are no-cook or don’t require an in-depth cooking process
We are generating much more garbage
We are generating next to nothing for the compost bin
Our food budget has increased dramatically while nutritional value has tanked
You can use a steamer to “boil” a lot of things. Rice, eggs, veggies, etc.
Safety issues with small electrics increase the chance of accidents and injuries
I have a perpetual stomachache, brain fog, low motivation, and am overall more emotional than normal
How Do You Deal With the Stress?
So, as you may have guessed by now, this not having a stove thing is turning into quite the catastrophe. The effects of not being able to feed myself and my family in the manner we’re accustomed is turning into a larger discussion in my household about food insecurity and the lack of access to the equipment needed to prepare healthy foods. How do people do it? I literally threatened to build a fire in the backyard at one point just so I could boil a pot of water.
I’ve learned how to use a toaster oven and am happy to say I have a better idea of my strengths when it comes to cooking. I did finally break down and purchase a hot plate because I am primarily a stovetop cook for satisfying the day-to-day nutritional needs of the family. The hot plate eliminated a lot of stress because I could finally cook in a way that made more sense to me than trying to press a bunch of small electrics into a job they really weren’t designed for. It also gives everyone a tool that is familiar enough that I’m not having to do all the cooking.
Through this exercise, I have also learned that I have way too many tools in my kitchen arsenal that I won’t use, even in this semi-emergency situation. I’ll be doing a cleanout of those soon though I will probably wait until the new stove eventually arrives. Just in case…meanwhile I’m trying to manage the stress of a sub-functioning kitchen while dealing with sub-optimal nutrition. It’s a lot.
Have you ever dealt with a lengthy repair process? What kind of stress did you experience and what helped? Drop a comment and let’s talk about this.
Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m not much on the ooey, gooey, lovey, dovey stuff on Valentine’s Day, but I thought I would drop an herbal Love Potion here for your tasting pleasure!
In our recent Love Potions: An Herbal Exploration for the Heart class, we made and tasted this heart-warming elixir that you can make at home any time. It’s a lovely pick me up, sans caffeine, warm and comforting with a little bit of spice to add interest.
Cacao & Roses
A Love Potion for the Heart
1 tsp Cacao Powder 1 tsp Rooibos (a teabag works too) 1/8 tsp of Ground Cardamom ½ tsp of Rose Petals Cream or Coconut Cream (optional) Honey, Stevia, or your Sweetener of choice
Drop the first four ingredients into a brewing vessel (I like a glass jar or single-serve teapot) and top with 8-12 oz. of boiling water. Steep for 5-10 minutes, strain, sweeten and enjoy.
I find this tea creamy and chocolatey all by itself, but some warm cream takes it from lovely to decadent. And if you’re feeling like an extra fancy treat, garnish with a few rose petals.
I hope you love this heart-warming Cacao & Roses Love Potion as much as I do. If you’re interested in a tasting or learning more about ways to use herbs to help support your heart, shoot me an email.
♥
THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
My friend goes on to talk about how to make winter a bit easier on extroverts. I was inspired by her post and here for your reading pleasure are my completely unsolicited ideas about how to make friends with the cold, dark, and rainy/snowy season.
First, we need to appreciate that in order to have the light, we must also have the dark. We experience this daily as the earth turns us toward the sun and then toward the moon. The arc of the year gives us warm weather and then the cold.
The earth needs to rest and replenish, cold stratification is essential for the germination of many seeds that grow and nourish us during the other seasons. We also need the rest. Our bodies and minds need to slow down, just like the earth does. We need the dark and solitude to germinate the ideas and joy that nourish us as we move forward in our lives. We can’t just skip the hard parts.
Angela’s post put me in mind of the hygge movement we’ve been seeing the last few years, but with a twist. As an introvert, I don’t think of having to make friends with January and the darker, shorter days. I like the concept of hibernation. If I experience stress over it, it’s because the weather is getting bad and I’m not already at home in my safe, warm spot. My friend very directly guided me to think about how this isn’t the case for everyone. I am biased towards winter and everything it stands for because of my deep introversion. So, I stepped back and thought about self-care for someone who struggles through this season.
So…let’s talk about how we make friends with these darker, wetter, more solitary days.
Full Spectrum Light
Get outside first thing in the morning. When I get up, I open the back door and outside I go with the dogs. If it’s sunny or even cloudy I step out from under the porch and face the sun letting it shine on me. If it’s rainy, windy, or just generally nasty, I stand on the porch and look towards the sun for as long as I can stand it. The light is delicious to your eyes, there’s actual science behind the light. The light our sun provides helps regulate the hormones that drives the circadian rhythm and sleep readiness. And by now I think we all know that if you’re not sleeping well, you’re not living well.
If it’s chilly outside, the morning ritual of greeting the sun can be a nice wake up call. Only stay as long as you’re comfortable, but while you’re out there take a moment to appreciate the world around you even if it is sleeping.
What if you can’t get outside?
Many craft lights are now full spectrum. These can be helpful in the afternoon and early evening for extending your exposure to full spectrum lighting. I spend many hours during the winter with mine. I don’t have a diagnosis for Seasonal Affective Disorder, but occasionally suffer the blues. My full-spectrum, craft light helps even if I’m just watching television or reading. I do have to be careful to turn it off a couple of hours before I plan on sleeping as I’ve noticed that it affects my ability to fall asleep.
Warm Drinks
Warm drinks can be really helpful during the winter. Tea, coffee, hot lemon water, cacao, whatever works for your personal taste. When I’m cold or bored or just in the ‘searching for something I can’t identify’ mode, I make tea. There’s comfort in focusing inward to decide what kind of warm drink I want and then appreciating the ritual of making myself something nice, just for me. And then when it’s ready, you have a warm mug to hang onto and sip from.
Visceral Entertainment
Books, puzzles, movies, games, crafts… I’ve seen pictures of some younger people’s homes lately. They struck me as odd and I couldn’t figure out why until I realized, they don’t have books, bookshelves, games, puzzles, physical movies, etc. Everything is virtual for the younger generation. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I’m suggesting taking an actual book out of the library. Something made of paper that you hold in your hands, something you can smell and touch and feel. Same for puzzles and games. Yes, I’m suggesting you get off the internet. Set down your screen-based entertainment and set yourself up with a visceral experience. You’ll still be using your eyeballs, just in a different way and you just might find unexpected changes occur when you spend some of your day offline.
Hygge
I’ve already touched on this, but if you don’t already have a cocoon, make yourself one. Go find a deliciously soft, warm blanket and find your spot. Put the blanket on your spot. Warm up your toe beans and throw it in with the blanket. Change into your most comfy pajamas. Put your books, glasses, phone, journal, pen, a cup of warmth and your companion or pet next to your cocoon, crawl in, snuggle up, and enjoy.
Curate Your Atmosphere
Make a simmer pot that smells like comfort to you. In addition to combating the dry nose most folks get when the heat is blasting, you’ll have a passive comfort in the air. Design your atmosphere to calm and uplift you with every breath.
Learn Something New
Learn something new, whether it’s a class that is primarily book learning or something visceral and touch-based like knitting, painting, or whittling. Learning something new can help the brain stay engaged and focused on a new and exciting experience rather than grinding on about how miserable the weather is. Think about using actual books you can hold in your hands, smell, and flip pages or a sumptuous yarn to run your fingers and hands over. Or enjoy the earthy scent of the wood as you work. Make your learning a multi-sensory experience.
Take a Walk
Get outside in the cold and weather. Don’t spend too long, some places are dangerous in the winter without proper preparation. Here in the southeastern U.S., it’s usually pretty mild so when I’m feeling really out of sorts and overwhelmed, I just go outside and be in it. I revel in the cold as it seeps through my clothing and hair to press its ambient weight against my skin. This last winter solstice I went out barefoot and danced on the soft, moist earth under the moon. I was frozen when I came back inside, but the joy of just experiencing the weather as we turned toward the light again was so uplifting and energizing.
January Journaling
This is probably the part of my friends Facebook post that spoke the loudest and what ultimately led me to write this tome on making friends with the dark. Find a journal, use it just for January, write in it every day for thirty-one days, then put it away. Next January, take out your January Journal and read it. Remember how you felt and know that you lived through it feeling perhaps the same way you’re feeling currently.
For those of you who don’t write or journal, it can be as simple as writing down the best thing of the day, the worst thing of the day, and something you want to remember or appreciate about the day. Even if you’re not a writer or journaler, this is a totally doable project. And when you’re finished not only do you reap the psychological rewards of journaling, but you now have a resource to help you through future winters.
If winter is hard for you, design your environment to passively support you. Work on your mindset and keep your mind busy. Reach out to a friend if you need human contact and can’t get out of the house. Most of all take care of yourself, stay warm and hydrated. If you use any of these techniques, I’d love to hear how they worked out for you. Drop a comment and let me know what you think.
THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Shampoo, dish soap, lotion, cosmetics…we are constantly bombarded with chemicals that saturate into the air, our skin, or both (don’t get me started on what they’re doing to the food chain). Some chemicals are safe, like water, yes, it’s a chemical called H20! Others, like many found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets, not so much. The only way to avoid the bad and questionable stuff is to be extra aware of the products we are using in our homes and on our bodies.
It Was Time for a Change
In order to practice what I preach, I made some changes I want to tell you about. You might not know, but I do all the laundry for my massage practice. It’s a cost issue as well as a control issue. Because so many people have so many allergies I try to keep the detergents effective as well as allergen-free. In my travels I have also learned that the chemicals that make up fabric softener are really not the greatest thing for us to be rubbing against our largest organ (the skin) all day long. So I quit using it years ago. In its place I sometimes do a white vinegar rinse, but I found something that works even better and in the long run is way cheaper than even vinegar.
In the winter, while pulling flannel sheets out of the dryer I noticed that there was a tremendous amount of static electricity and the shocks were getting uncomfortable from the sheer force and frequency. I started looking into natural methods I could use to reduce the static. Dryer sheets were out because even though they smell amazing they are notoriously bad for polluting the air in your home.
Enter Wool Dryer Balls
I decided to try wool dryer balls. I had seen them several years ago, but just couldn’t believe that something like this would work. After reading some reviews from other massage therapists who had tried them I went to the craft store, bought some wool yarn, and promptly made my own. There are lots of tutorials online that show you how to make your own. I don’t recommend the pantyhose in the washer method…just trust me on that.
Then I bought some wool dryer balls. I’m currently running 6 wool dryer balls to a load and just that has drastically decreased the amount of static in the sheets. It is also cutting 5-10 minutes off the drying time for every load, which doesn’t seem like much until you consider that I average 9-10 loads of laundry per week. 45-100 minutes of drying time adds up! I don’t have to pay for so much electricity AND the sheets are softer than when I used fabric softener in the wash. Win, Win!
Small Changes Add Up!
While it doesn’t seem like much, these are the small kinds of changes that can add up to help you achieve bigger wellness goals. Switching to wool dryer balls has not only cut out dangerous chemicals from rubbing against our skin, but it’s helped to clean up the air inside my home and the water that flows out to my septic tank. It also reduces our collective carbon footprint by reducing energy usage.
And remember, there’s no judgement here. I’m just giving you information on small changes that might make an impact. Not everyone is ready for change when I write about it, but it’s here when you need it.
Psstttt… I’ve recently seen suggestions on social media about further reducing the static in your dryer by putting safety pins in your wool dryer balls. Please don’t do that, it will put holes in your clothes!
I don’t know about you, but I get a really dry nose at the beginning of winter. Every year when the heat kicks in full time, my nasal passages dry out and start causing a lot of discomfort. When I was a kid, it was a surefire recipe for a sinus infection.
The mucous membranes in your nose are designed to trap environmental dust, debris, and pollens and keep them from reaching the lower respiratory tract and lungs. When you have dry sinuses, the potential for those molecules to reach the lungs increases. Not to mention, dry sinuses can crack and tear making another entry point for infection into your body.
As I’ve gotten older and learned a bit more about taking care of myself, I’ve figured out a thing or two about how to keep the sinuses moisturized until my mucous membranes adjust to the new environment. Read on for five tips on how to help your sinuses feel better naturally!
Check Your Beverages
The first tip I have for you is to check your drink. Are you drinking enough to keep yourself hydrated? And, please don’t hate me, are you drinking a lot of caffeine? Caffeine is a diuretic (it’s dehydrating) so it can be difficult to adequately hydrate if you’re having more than a token cup in the morning. I love black tea in the morning so I know how hard it can be to give up your morning ritual. Try to cut back until your body adjusts to the lower humidity caused by the heat.
As far as tasty herbals that might be helpful, I find red rooibos comforting as well as energetically moistening to the system. It’s also naturally decaffeinated and hosts more health benefits than I have time to list here.
Add Steam to Your Environment
A lot of people use vaporizers. I’m not a fan. A hot shower can be helpful, but at 3 gallons of water per minute, plus a water heater that takes money to run and probably won’t keep up well after a while it can get expensive.
I prefer simmer pots. Have you ever done a simmer pot? Do you know what a simmer pot is? A simmer pot is a big pot of water you put on your stove. If you’re old enough and lucky enough to have known your grandparents, you may have seen a large pot sitting on their wood stove. That was a simmer pot.
At a minimum, it’s just a pot with water on low heat that is sending moisture into your environment. You know I can’t leave anything alone, so I like to add herbs, spices, and sometimes fruit to make the house smell yummy while raising the humidity levels. What you add (or don’t) to the pot can be strategic. Maybe you just want the house to smell good, maybe you’re also suffering with some congestion.
I recently read about someone starting a simmer pot that ended up being an immune boosting, scratchy throat relieving tea. The whole house was sick with a respiratory bug and instead of mom-ing everyone individually she told them to hit the simmer pot for a cup of wellness. I thought that was brilliant! Unfortunately, I can’t find the article anymore…
Simple Simmer Pot Recipe
Water Orange Slices, dried or fresh Rosemary Sprigs or a Tablespoon of dried rosemary Place water in a pot over a low heat, add in orange slices and rosemary and wait for the steam.
Enjoy! And remember to turn the stove off before you go to bed. Safety is important!
Steaming Your Sinuses
I’ve already mentioned taking a big inhale of the steam coming off your soup or tea, and who could resist a good sniff over a simmer pot, but we can be a lot more intentional by creating a steam inhalation station for a specific treatment for your dry sinuses. It’s a pretty simple setup that you can do with things you already have around the house. Find a heat friendly bowl (think a big soup bowl), boil some water, and grab a bath towel. Place your bowl on a heat safe surface, pour in some boiling water, bend over the bowl with your face close enough to feel the steam (but not burn), drape your head and the bowl with a towel and breathe in through your nose. You could add moistening or demulcent herbs appropriate for helping ease the nasal dryness.
Herbal Neti Rinse
Do you use a neti pot to rinse your sinuses? It’s a pretty polarizing piece of equipment. Most people love it or hate it. For nasal dryness I find the neti pot to be an essential tool. Especially since I started integrating herbs into my neti rinse. Mullein tincture + saline water = almost immediate relief from dryness (for me) in a sinus rinse. Check the Helpful Articles section for more information on selecting herbs for nasal dryness to use in a neti rinse.
What if you don’t have herbal tinctures? I’ve brewed teas and used those diluted in my sinus rinse for different things. I don’t recommend getting wild and crazy with what you’re pouring up your nose without further study and some experience actually using a neti pot. If you do want to use a neti pot just getting the saline solution into your sinuses can help and the herbs aren’t required.
Fun fact about saline
Saline is a salty water designed for use internally or on/with mucous membranes. The salt used in saline water can be very drying to the skin. But used in a neti rinse it can actually help moisturize the mucous membranes in the nose. If you wear contacts, you probably have a bottle of saline contact solution in your bathroom cabinet that you use to maintain your contacts and moisturize your eyes when they get dry. And if you’ve ever had surgery or spent any time in the hospital it’s likely you’ve been given an IV drip of saline to combat dehydration. Also, those hydration powders everyone seems to be dumping in their water bottles right now are full of salt. So, salt is good for hydrating internally, but is drying externally.
Dry sinuses can be aggravating and painful and I hope this gives article gives you some simple techniques to add to your arsenal of self-care tricks. Drop a comment if you have other suggestions for simple, at-home techniques to relieve dry sinuses.
THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
So there’s a really old article on my blog about getting your Alabama Massage Therapist License. Unfortunately for that article, the process outlined for getting a license is no longer correct. Licensing applications and renewals finally went digital! The mindset advice in that article remains relevant so I’m going to leave it up and make it point to this post.
For years I grumbled as I filled out my paper license renewals, slapping a sticky note to the front of the paperwork reading, “Please put this online!” before shoving it in an envelope. One day they made not only the license renewal, but the initial massage therapy licensing application a virtual experience. As with all things, there are positives and negatives about going digital, but overall, the slow, steady progress and keeping up with the times is good. I think it makes the application and renewal process a lot easier: no trips to the post office or the bank, just a credit card and some electronic documents and it’s finished.
Keeping up with the times is good
Because there seems to be so many questions about all things dealing with the code that governs the massage therapy industry in Alabama and how that applies to our initial Massage Therapist application process, I wrote an eBook about how to get that initial Massage Therapist License for Alabama. It’s free for the low, low cost of your email address. I’ll use that email address to send you a monthly newsletter about my continuing education courses or you can just unsubscribe later.
Click this link to go to the sign-up page for my eBook, So, You Want to Get a Massage Therapist License: A Guidebook to Getting Your Alabama Professional Massage Therapist License. And I’d love to hear your feedback about the eBook!
I have a story to tell you about learning a hard lesson. It has to do with protecting your virtual assets and averting catastrophe before it happens. To be honest, I’m firmly in the, “I never thought it would happen to me,” camp on all of this which is why I’m choosing to share it.
It’s been a long time since I created my virtual, online presence. When I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy in 2008, I used trusted online providers that did the security part of website protection for me. As this website matured and moved platforms to accommodate Alabama Barefoot Massage Training Center, I again used trusted sources with built-in protection, so I didn’t have to worry.
Around the same time I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy, social media exploded. I made myself a Facebook account because that’s what we were all doing and FOMO. In 2010 I created what was then referred to as a “Fan Page” on Facebook for Harvest Moon Massage. I remember thinking it would be a great place to advertise my little micro-business for free/cheap. And it was. I was so excited about it that I was asked by AMTA-AL Chapter to teach other massage therapists to do what I had done with this tiny, little Facebook page. They also recognized the value of an advertising platform that worked rain or shine, 24/7 for free.
One of the things I never thought too hard about was how a Facebook Business page could be considered a capital B, capital A, “Business Asset”. Maybe because of the slow, creeping growth of social media, what started as a small business presence had grown into a significant part of how I marketed my business to the public. I had loosely in the past considered adding an extra admin to the Facebook page, but I didn’t know anyone who would want to fool with all the extra notifications and such so I put it off. Hold on to your hat, cause here it comes. BAD MOVE! Colossal mistake…probably a rookie mistake too.
Catastrophe Strikes
I got hacked, my Facebook profile got hacked. Well, technically I got scammed, then hacked, then deactivated by Facebook. It was horrifying, terrifying, a really, really bad thing. If you didn’t already know, Facebook support is crap. I talked to so many bots and automated responses it wasn’t funny and brought me to tears a few times. Getting an actual person to respond to my appeals and emails wasn’t much better. I experienced for the first time ever the circular email of never-ending confusion.
It was bad enough that my personal profile had been hacked, but I also lost control of my Facebook pages, aka, Business Assets. Keeps getting worse and worse, eh? Yeah…I filed admin appeals and requests and went around and around and around for more than six weeks.
A Miracle
One day about 5 weeks out from the hack, I got an email from Facebook asking didn’t I want to review all these 714 notifications from my old account. So, with almost no hope that this latest appeal would work, I clicked the link and went through yet another appeals process. I literally had so little hope I just went about my day. Three days later, I opened my computer and suddenly Facebook is in my face asking do I want to log in to my old account. Wait, What? WHAT? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?
And wonder of all Christmas miracles, I was in my old account. Things had changed, I won’t go into it, because my only order of business at this point was quickly adding as many new admins to my biz pages as I possibly could. Because this couldn’t actually be real, could it? Could the Facebook botgods have actually given me my account back with all related privileges and permissions? I fully expected at any moment for a bot to take over and lock me out again because this doesn’t happen. Anyway, cut to why I’m telling you this big, long story.
Protecting Your Virtual Business Assets
Before we can protect our virtual business assets, not just your website, we need to figure out what and where they are. Now that I’ve been through this experience, I would define a virtual business asset as anything online that represents my business, drives people toward my business, and/or I use to manage my business assets. Social media accounts definitely fit into that definition and it’s pretty hard to miss where that stuff lives online. So how do you protect these business assets that live on social media platforms? Especially when every single one of them are individual platforms with different rules and logins and security systems. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and those are just the ones at the top of mind.
Here is a general list that I hope will help you start designing your own virtual business asset security plan.
Strong Passwords
Make sure you have strong passwords and a different one for each account. Seriously, don’t use the same password for every account you have. Each platform has different rules for what makes a strong password in their system. Follow their guidelines and then make it a bit stronger. Also, consider using a password vault app. They will help you keep track of all your different accounts and passwords and can add another layer of protection.
2-Factor Authentication
2-Factor Authentication is where you first enter a password, then have a secondary piece of information you provide to prove you’re who you really are. Did that make sense? You might know it as where you get a text message and then enter the code from the text message to log into an account. There are other ways that second part happens. Sometimes it’s your fingerprint, face scan, or an email with another code. If your platform has the option for 2-factor authentication, turn it on.
Administrative Redundancy
Find someone or multiple people to become backup admins for your business accounts. Unfortunately, every platform has different policies and methods to add backup admins. AND you’ll need to be careful that you don’t accidentally violate the platform’s terms of use and get banned.
Security Checkups
If you’re like me, this sounds like torture. I sure didn’t know I was signing up for this when I signed up for that first little Facebook account. But if it keeps me from getting into a mess again, I’ll figure out how to review each of these platform’s latest security changes and make sure my account is safe. I don’t know yet if this will be a yearly, quarterly or monthly exercise.
Here’s a list of articles I found helpful while trying to figure out how to design a security checkup plan for my business accounts.
I hope this has been helpful and given you enough information to get started with a plan to make your virtual assets more secure. Don’t wait like I did, and if you find something really cool and helpful on this front, let me know!
Have you heard of decision fatigue? Since I’ve heard of it, it seems to be around every corner and in some way part of every issue that keeps popping up. Maybe you’ve heard of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or some other high-profile individual wearing the same thing every day. Or maybe you’ve heard of capsule wardrobes or people who eat the same foods every day because it’s what works for them. All these odd habits are actually steps to combat decision fatigue.
The first time I became aware of decision fatigue was in January of 2019. I was in San Antonio, TX, for a Center for Barefoot Massage Instructor Training. It was very exciting, I was getting trained to teach Fijian Barefoot Massage, I was finally getting to meet almost all of the CBM instructor team, and I had never been to San Antonio or seen the Alamo and good golly, I was there for it! I was also getting a sinus infection.
I hope you can tell that while a lot of good things were happening to me, I was making a ton of decisions while learning in addition being in strange surrounds, and there was a lot of stress. As the training ended, one of our “tour guides” set up a float experience. And in true ‘Sharon knows she’ll have FOMO’ style, I was there for it. A new experience AND something I’d been wanting to try out for years. I tried it, the float was awesome, and while it didn’t cure my sinus infection, I’m pretty sure all that magnesium beat it back enough that I made it home before it got ‘go to the doctor’ bad. I look back now and think I wouldn’t have been allowed on the plane these days with that terrible case of the sniffles.
But goodness was I sick when I got home, and I stayed sick for a good, long time because I had overextended myself and now in addition to trying to get back to work, I was trying to heal and not giving myself the time or grace I needed and I ended up just trudging through a month or so of life not being able to do much of anything except get through it. And for those of you who know, that is not who I am and I expect if you’re still reading this, it’s not you either.
This experience really made me evaluate how I was organizing my life and what was causing a lot of hidden stress on a daily basis.
What is Decision Fatigue?
Decision fatigue is a type of exhaustion that results from making too many decisions within a period of time. How much time? That’s unclear and I think probably depends on the individual. How many decisions are too many? Again, unclear and probably depends on the individual. Here is what research is starting to suss out though, when a person makes an excessive number of decisions (~35,000/day is “normal”), their ability to make further decisions becomes impaired. Impaired could look like procrastination, putting off making a decision, impulsive or seemingly irrational decisions, avoiding making a decision altogether, or indecision where you just can’t make up your mind.
Apparently, our brains only have the capacity to make so many decisions each day and when you surpass that number of decisions it leads to what is called decision fatigue. Ever get tired of trying to figure out what’s for dinner? Could be decision fatigue. How about what to wear to work? Could be decision fatigue, especially if you’ve waited until bedtime to try to decide on tomorrow’s outfit. Trying to call in a prescription for your medicine, but just can’t dial the number? Could be decision fatigue and low-grade anxiety about the possibility of having to answer even more questions.
Decision fatigue is something that can lead to burnout. I have a theory that the stress of this ongoing global pandemic, changes in family structures, workplace changes, continuing losses of all kinds, and incomplete grieving, has led to an overall heightened sense of stress. More chronic stress leads us closer to burnout and we all know burnout makes even seemingly simple decisions more stressful and difficult. All of this points to decision fatigue for many people.
Why is decision fatigue a problem?
What if you’re a doctor or a lawyer or a meteorologist with a tornado bearing down on your community and it’s really important that you make the right decision? You can see pretty quickly where someone’s life could be at stake and you’re out of bandwidth because you’ve spent the last six hours making decision after decision and there’s no more decisions left in the tank. Most of us aren’t making life or death decisions every day, but most of us do drive somewhere every day. I’m betting money decision fatigue plays into your ability to deal with traffic and the laws. I know it does mine.
Streamline Your Life
So how do we protect ourselves from decision fatigue? The literature doesn’t have succinct answers for that other than to reduce the number of decisions you make daily. Makes sense, but how do you do that when you have so many responsibilities? I’ve put together a few suggestions for you:
Make important decisions first
Stack your day so that the most important things you must handle get done early.
Remove distractions
Turn down the noise, turn off ringers and notifications, give your brain a break from all the distractions while you’re trying to get things done. And when you’re off-duty, be off-duty. Don’t check email or answer the random text message, let calls go to voicemail and check them tomorrow. Figure out the biggest offenders and do what you can to mitigate them.
Take a break
This one is important. If you’re already in burnout and suffering from decision fatigue, then taking a vacation and really getting away from it all might be your best bet. If you can’t do that then it’s time to start scheduling shorter, regular breaks and adding in something that recharges you. Not there yet? Make sure you’re scheduling breaks, moving around in nature, and getting some type of mental enrichment regularly.
Capsule wardrobe
This is the one I was talking about earlier where you wear essentially the same thing every day. I’ve seen people who literally buy 5 of the same outfits and wear them every day to work so they never have to decide what to wear. I’ve read about people who only wear black slacks with a white shirt. The style of the slacks and the shirts can be different, but it’s always white over black. I’ve seen made for you capsule wardrobes where everything goes with everything else. It seems like a pretty versatile option for folks who don’t want to spend a lot of time scratching their head in the closet searching for something to wear while still allowing for individualism.
Leverage technology
Use GPS instead of struggling to figure out where you’re going, use alarms and reminders to free up the constant monitoring of the clock, use an app to make, order, and schedule grocery and supply deliveries/pick-ups. Use automatic bill pay. Leverage all the technology we have access to in order to make your life easier and cut down on constant and unnecessary decisions.
While scientists are still duking it out in the literature over whether decision fatigue actually exists (some think because they can’t figure out how to measure it or its consequences, it must not exist) I’ll be over here figuring out better ways to deal with it. I’ll update here occasionally as I discover ways to automate those niggling decisions of daily living that can easily be done without my attention.
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