Epic Self-Care Gift List Part 1

When it comes to gift-giving, my preference is to focus on gifts that won’t gather dust. I want them to be usable.

Actually, let’s go beyond that. I don’t just want them to be usable. I want them to be CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER gifts. 🦋

Wouldn’t you like to give (or receive) that kind of gift? 🎁

Since I’m the enthusiastic type, I have all sorts of recommendations of items and experiences that will indeed change your life forever. These gifts could be for your loved ones or they could even be for you!

Behold 🎺🎺🎺

Part 1 of the Epic Self-Care Gift List That Will Change Your Life Forever

And BTW, none of these are affiliate links - just things I adore and/or use every day

(You have no idea how long it took me to make this image… Probably just as long as writing this entire piece!)

1- For the supplement consumer 💊

I LOVE my Zeal supplement organizer! Say goodbye to supplement bottles taking over your countertops and cupboards and say hello to your new fancy supplement briefcase.  Oh so easy to use and comes in super-handy when you’re travelling. I always feel so professional when I bring my Zeal case to the table at lunchtime. 

Who knew professionalism and supplements could go hand-in-hand? Well they can, thanks to Zeal. 

Click here for supplement organizing awesomeness

2- For your daily lemon water 🍋

If you’re into having a healthy liver, you’ll know that drinking lemon water in the morning is a powerful habit. And yet, juicing a lemon everyday can be a pain, right? Not anymore! (Do you feel like you’re witnessing an infomercial?)

I’ve raved about this lemon juicer before and I’m doing it again. As far as lemon juicing goes, this handy tool will change your life. Lemon juicing becomes a pleasure. It’s so revolutionary (in terms of ease, storage - it’s flat! - and clean up) that we had to get the orange juicer too because we juice those babies everyday into our morning detox smoothie. 

Click here for your new favourite juicers (fluicers because flat + juicer)

3- For your daily smoothie (without chunks!) 🥤

I suspect you’ve heard of the Vitamix. If you’ve toyed with making the investment, I have to say Go For It! It pays for itself quite swiftly. 

We use ours everyday - for our morning smoothie and then for sauces, dressings, and even hot soup (it heats up right in the blender).

If you’ve already got a Vitamix, then I must also recommend the dry container. I make oatmeal flour in there on the regular. I also grind flax seeds, spices and other kinds of flour. So worth, plus I feel so pioneer-like, grinding my own flour (minus the hard-labour, so I guess I’m like a hipster pioneer). 

Click here for the blender that does it all

4- For the perfume lover who rejects toxic chemicals 🦨

I come from a lineage of perfume-wearers. My grandmothers both had their signature scents, as does my mom. 

As a young adult, I experimented with perfume and learned that it makes me feel rich to wear it. 

Then I learned about all the chemicals in perfume and stopped wearing it. (Yet, I still have the half-used bottles under my sink because what do you do with it? Pour it down the drain and have your drain smell forever more like Laura Ashely fragrance? Or do you crash it into recycling bin so that it breaks in there but at least can be recycled? Or do you throw it into the garbage? That doesn’t seem right… I’m still not sure what to do about that - and so they sit under my sink.)

Anyways, the great news is that I found new fragrances that I love (like I sniff my wrists dozens of times everyday) that are clean with no toxic chemicals. 

Beautycounter is a company that is devoted to dramatically reducing the toxins in beautycare products and creating legislations that support their mission. 

They have 5 new fragrances and I can’t get enough of them. I mean, have you ever loved every fragrance in a set? I haven’t. Ever. Until now. 

There’s a perfume discovery set that is making me so very happy every morning when I choose what the day’s scent will be. 

Click here to smell amazing in the healthiest way 

5- For sprucing up your inner world 🌲

This gift won’t gather dust. In fact, it clears out the inner cobwebs and so much more. 

I’m talking about breathwork and I feel like you couldn’t give a better gift (to yourself or your loved ones). 

Imagine resolving the residue of childhood trauma so that it no longer impacts you in obvious or subtle ways on the regular. 🦋

Imagine dramatically reducing big heavy emotions. 🕊

Imagine giving the gift of consistently overflowing energy, joy, and vitality. ⚡️

Well, you’d be giving all that and more with online 9D Breathwork sessions. 

To make it extra-appealing, this month, we’re doing even better than BOGO. 

Get two sessions for $97 CAD or $72 USD. It’s wild!

Check out the Recommends section below for details. ⬇️

6- For the LGBTQ+ young adult in your life 📚

Books can change your life, right? Especially for marginalized groups, it can be transformational to feel a sense of belonging. 

My daughter, Zoe, is a fantastic writer. This year, we published her first two books.

Book #1 is called Follow Me All the Down and it’s so good!

Here’s the blurb:

Hidden away in a heavily guarded home (prison) in New York City, Unusually Gifted Youth and Children are kept secret. But Ezra Colton… well. He’s unusually normal. He can’t do anything special and (San)tiago Grey makes sure he doesn’t forget it. But when their world is flipped upside down, Ezra disappears. When three unlikely co–operators (reluctantly) join together to find him, they discover that their world is not how it seems. And the only way out is through the wild.

Click here for the book on Amazon.ca or search the title. It’s also available at Barnes & Noble, Chapters and other lovely places.

Book #2 The High Schooliad - also SO GOOD!

Zoe is passionately obsessed with the epic poem, The Iliad by Homer. She read over a dozen translations. Then she decided to write her own version, updated for the modern young adult called the High Schooliad.  

She read the prologue at a local author’s night recently and a woman came up afterward to tell her how excellent it was. Turns out she was a classics professor at a local university so her praise was extra-inspiring. 

The blurb:

Paris didn't know better. He was so young when he offered the golden apple to Aphrodite. Years later, many people are left reeling from his actions long forgotten, spurring into motion an unchecked rivalry between the Football teams of Mycenae Academy and Ilium Academy. The repercussions of romance, privilege, lies, emotions and violence escalate to a dangerous climax in this modern retelling of the Trojan War and Homer's Iliad, exploring the lengths we're willing to go to for honor and the ones we love.

Click here for the Amazon.ca link or just search the title and Zoe's name and you'll see the many other options

7 - For the Acoustic Indie music-lover 🎸

Of course, I have to mention my son, Oakley’s, album that he published this year, being the fair-as-possible mom that I am. 

It’s an EP of original singer-songwriter music that Oakley wrote over the past year and worked very hard to record with a professional producer. 

Oakley performs most weekends at our local farmers’ markets and women often come up to me with tears in their eyes, asking if I’m his mom. (They can tell because I’m radiating pride.) They ask indredulously about his training (he’s self-taught), how he comes up with such heartfelt music (that’s just who he is), and tell me that he has something special.

Of course, I agree. If you want to give the gift of heart-melting, this is it. 

His album is called Auburn and is available on all streaming services. 

Here’s a link to it on Spotify and you can search it up on your preferred platform. 

That wraps up Part 1 of the Epic Self-Care Gift List That Will Change Your Life Forever list. I’ll be back next week with more sensational ideas.

With legendary love and monumental courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>loving the Christmas markets! up next: Market Collective

>working diligently for some exciting and fresh new offerings for 2025! I'll keep you posted.

PS - Bonus gift and this one's free. Our last complimentary Remote Group Healing Open House is happening soon - on Tuesday Dec 17. Get your body out of fight or flight, balance your entire system and experience healing on all levels. Click here to sign up. Can’t attend live? A replay will be available for 48 hours.

As mentioned above, this month I’m doing something special to wrap up the year.

For the past many months, there’s been one 9D Breathwork Journey offered on 2 different dates.

This month, in honour of the Solstice and the desire to release all unnecessary energy before starting 2025, I decided to host 2 separate journeys for one amazing price. 

Journey #1 Reconnecting with Your Inner Child Dec 21

Our Special Solstice Event to maximize the sacredness of the darkest day of the year by going within and healing the unhealed

Journey #2 Full Reset Dec 30

Our Almost-New-Year’s Event to clear out any lingering stagnant energy and create a fresh, squeaky clean start for the new year

If you want to attend just one event, it’s $75CAD/ $60USD but if you want to do both, it’s just $97CAD/ $72USD.

Epic! (Is it overkill that the word epic appeared 6 times today? You be the judge.)

Click here to see all details and to get the special deal

I’m finding my tolerance for Christmas music waning now that I’ve had 48 Christmases. (How many more times can do I need to hear what Mariah Carey wants?)

That low tolerance was decreased even more when I had to listen to Christmas carols at the dentist. Not pleasant. Not pleasant at all. 

However, I never tire of Loreena McKennitt’s Midwinter Night’s album. It has a decidedly Celtic flare and feels special and sacred. I especially like the Coventry Carol. If you’re up for something different, I send along her music with many blessings and rave reviews.