While other people are putting together Netflix playlists, we’re putting together our favorite blizzard-bound yoga classes. Bookmark these for when the snow falls:
Yoga For Being Snowed In
Heat Building Stay warm enough to melt mashmallows. Brand new to YogaDownload, Power Yoga with Dave Farmar 3 is a challenging advanced class with plenty of inversions, arm balances and intensifications to build heat in your inner fire.
Heart Opening When the cold has you all closed in behind scarves, hoods and earmuffs, your heart will still be wide open. Channing Grivas’ Breaking the Heart Wide Open is a slow-paced class to bring balance to the body and let in the winter love.
Snow Shoveling You clear 10 feet of walkway and your body screams for 2 days. Nothing beats Kylie Larson’s Upper Back & Shoulder Opening Flow for releasing tight muscles and getting those snow shoveling muscles warm and bendy.
Cabin Fever If you are feeling stressed, anxious, depressed or STUCK, April Laliberte’s Joy Infusion Meditation will help you break free. Even when you’re stuck in the house, your mind can wander and fulfill your creativity.
I find that it’s really easy to “drop in” when there isn’t anything happening out of the ordinary, you know, like life!
But you know, the reality is, life is always happening and it’s really easy to get tossed off your game of connection if you’re not paying attention!
There’s all these various ways to tap into your intuition and each of us has a sense of what works. Here’s a few:
Visionary experience - you may use your third eye and literally vision things. Audio experience – you may hear things, almost like whispers from the Divine. You can hear it in nature, in waves, wind and the birds. Feeling with entire body – the truth is that we feel other people’s energy all the time; the trick is to notice how you feel. Gut reaction – you just know it in your gut or in our heart. Download from the crown chakra – you experience guidance in a complete statement or sentence. Dream time – sometimes your intuition speaks in your dreams mostly through symbolism. Personally, I use them all on various occasions and when I find them hard to locate, meaning I am scattered, confused or in my head, I get on my mat and plug in. Literally, I plug into the energy that vibrates with my every step. Tap into the energy that swirls around my head with messages of Divine love and guidance. Connect to the internal guidance system that can’t wait to assist me in following my heart.
Intuition is something we feel, it’s not something we do. It’s a nudge, a push, an energy that, when cultivated, can guide us along our most divine path of Being. It’s the synchronicity of events that link together to create a bigger picture of what is.
The problem is we aren’t in our feeling body all that often. And we miss events that actually mean something. In fact,we spend more time in our head trying to figure things out. The ironic thing is, if we let go of the grip and allow the breadcrumbs to lead us along the path, all would flow in an intuitive way.
Here’s a mantra for you: I amplify in stillness. Does that mean you have to sit still to amplify your awareness? Well, no, not really. Messages come in clearer if you do, for sure! But the intention is to find that connection in movement, in chaos, in discomfort … so you can move from a place that is guided and not reactionary.
It’s a practice ... a life long practice. Don’t rush but please, start listening today. The time is now to get on your path and I’m thinking that if you don’t, something is going to push you onto it, whether you like it or not.
This week's blog is taken from my new book, Oms From the Heart. If you like what you read, I encourage you to purchase the book at danadamara.com/shop.
By Dana Damara
“My passion on the mat is proper alignment, powerful breath and effortless flow so you feel that off your mat. Your practice becomes sacred space where you arrive to find more meaning, depth, authenticity and integrity in your life." - Dana Damara: mother, author, yoga instructor, speaker and yogini.
Click here to download or stream one of Dana's YogaDownload classes!
A few short years after school, a good friend of mine started teaching a weekly yoga class at a local community center. I started to go to his classes because I knew yoga would help me stretch my body and maintain the mobility of my youth. Over time, I started noticing an added benefit – my level of concentration improved. I started loving yoga because I felt the difference in my life so I went on to become a yoga teacher. Because I had such a problem being still, I was initially attracted to a moving style of yoga. The kind where you turn the temperature of the room up, and sweat as much as you can. Back then, I told my students that meditation was not crucial to experiencing yoga and that it’s not about being still. (Oh how I wish I could take all that back.) Around that time, I read an article by Sharon and David (Jivamukti) that said that people often mistake their physical highs for spiritual highs, but that the highs or “connection” they are feeling are just physical, not really spiritual. At the time I was irate thinking “How dare they!?” Then, I discovered the truth for myself. In 2001, I met my teacher, Rod Stryker, at his “Tantra Yoga” retreat. It was there with Rod that I learned to meditate and experienced the benefits of finding stillness. The change was not immediate, but over a long stretch of time I came to realize that unlike the hot flowing classes where results were immediate, meditation took patience and commitment. Weeks would go by and I would not feel that connection I was longing for. I remember the first time I truly experienced what I had heard others talk about. I was living on Staten Island and the world had just fallen apart after 9/11. One morning, I was practicing listening to sound and I remember this moment of pure oneness washed over me. In that moment I felt still, serene, perfect, and aware. I tuned out the immediate sounds, and became aware of all the subtle background noise, without being disturbed. As my yoga practice has deepened and I have meditated more, my level of concentration has not only improved greatly, but I am able to accomplish so much more in life. Leading me to feel more fulfilled than I’ve ever felt before. I’ve gone from an unfocused child to being able to find the focus and calm even amongst chaos – which happens a lot when you’re the founder of a yoga retreat center in Costa Rica. I remember a few years ago, I led a yoga retreat and in a seven day period we filmed a documentary and shot four yoga videos, all while I led a yoga teacher training. I truly believe that it was the 20 minutes of deep relaxation, 20 minutes of pranayama, and 20 minutes of meditation that helped me find the focus I needed to get through the week. It was Rumi that said, “As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets cleaner and clearer.” For me, meditation is a way to clean the window in which I look through life. It allows me to live deeper in the heart. It is there that I am able to see clearly and find that focus I have spent my life searching for. Finding that place of oneness in mediation is not always an easy journey, but for me (and many others out there) it is worth it. Meditation clears my mind so that it is no longer preoccupied by all the dirty streaks that prevent me from living the life I want. And that’s how meditation improved my A.D.D. How has meditation helped you overcome challenges in your life?
By Yogi Aaron
Yogi Aaron, author of “Autobiography of a Naked Yogi”,brings passion and adventure to his teaching. Inspired, he guides students to secret and far-flung locales, empowers them to realize their own limitless potential, and makes yoga relevant and accessible for the modern world. Since 2002 he has been traveling and leading retreats worldwide and currently serves as the yoga director at Blue Osa Yoga Retreat + Spa in Costa Rica. Follow Yogi Aaron on Facebook.
If you’re cleansing along with us, you know that this weekend brings the opportunity to uplevel your detox process by taking on what we call Purification.
Purification is all about slowing down and tuning in. Take a brisk walk to soak up the elusive sunshine with your favorite pup, go to the yin yoga class you’ve been thinking about all week, or spend some quality downtime with friends and family.
Weekends can be challenging when cleansing and for that reason we have come up with a bright, tasty, and creative soup. It’s full of phytonutrients, minerals, and fiber. All of these contribute to overall nervous system health while being comforting and a little classy too! The gremolata puts to use the zest of the lemon and reminds us that spring is just around the corner. Use your creativity to swirl and twirl the Coconut Crema on top of the soup. Like a mini art class!
Enjoy! And Happy Purification!
Love,
Green Goddess Soup
Yield: 6 cups
Ingredients:
1 TB. coconut oil 3 cloves garlic, minced and divided 1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets 2 large or 4 small zucchinis, chopped 1 large leek, thoroughly washed and sliced 2 stalks celery, chopped ½ bunch Swiss chard, chopped Juice of 1 lemon ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg 1 tsp. pink Himalayan sea salt 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 4 to 6 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth ½ cup parsley, chopped Zest of 1 lemon ¼ cup olive oil Pinch of sea salt Pinch of freshly ground black pepper Coconut Crema, optional
Instructions: In a medium pot over medium-high heat, warm the coconut oil. After a minute, add the 2 cloves of garlic, celery, and sliced leeks, and cook for 5 minutes or until wilted.
Put the cauliflower, zucchini, and Swiss chard in the pot, add the cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Pour in 4 cups of broth and bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the cauliflower is fully cooked, 5–8 minutes. Add additional broth to reach desired consistency.
Carefully transfer the soup to a blender and blend on high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add lemon juice. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt and black pepper if needed. The soup should be thick but still light. If it is too thick, thin it with a little more broth or water. Before serving top soup with Coconut Crema drizzle and Lemon Parsley Gremolata.
To make the Lemon Parsley Gremolata, in a small bowl combine the parsley and add lemon zest, olive oil, remaining 1 clove of garlic, sea salt and pepper to taste. A mortar and pestle works great for this too.
Jo Schaalman and Julie Peláez are co-authors of the book The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body, and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life. Together they've lead thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They've been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show.
To learn more about “Jo and Jules” and to download a free e-cookbook for a sampling of the delicious food served up on the Conscious Cleanse, please visit their website.
Conscious Cleanse Detox Flow - Jo Schaalman
Heart Opening Forrest Yoga Flow - Jo Schaalman
Traditional Hot Yoga - Julie Peláez
And I’m kind of obsessed with this salad right now. Mostly because it was insanely easy to make.
Multiple times my husband said how amazing this salad is (and he even had a second helping – which is pretty miraculous from a guy who grew up on meat and potatoes). One would think he married me because of my cooking abilities, but when we got married I could barely warm up a can of chili.
Don’t get me wrong, these days he’s a healthy eater and loves to make green food choices, but you have to give me props for getting a guy to transition from Idaho dinners to loving clean eating – not to mention that I now know my way around the kitchen.
So, I have a little secret about this magic salad. It’s pretty much all from leftovers. Sure, I chopped up some romaine lettuce and then used some spinach, but the rest, it was just hanging out in the fridge fearful of being tossed aside in the waste can.
For many people, they are working on their New Years resolutions to eat healthier or workout more, or in my case, be more patient. But what I am truly focusing on this year is watching my consumption and waste.
I spent time this week prepping food…and we ate it. In fact, we were eating it everyday. But in the end I over prepped a little and we had lots of little bits of foods left.
With that I was provided the opportunity for the creation of this magical salad. I really should have named it “Healthy Food Saved From The Trash Can”. Somehow Superfood Probiotic Vegetarian Protein Salad seemed to be more appropriate and one you might actually want to eat.
So here are instructions from the ingredient list.
Prep lots of healthy goodness at some point during the week. I chose to make Sprouted Bean Trio, Roasted Root Veggies, Quinoa, Pickled Beets and Pickled Radishes. Keep other healthy goodness on hand. For me that was a couple options for greens (romaine and spinach) + avocados and hummus. Grab a big platter and dish it all up. I didn’t even need dressing because of the hummus and pickled beets – but if I’m being honest I did drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over my entire salad. Enjoy this amazing superfood probiotic vegetarian protein salad.
So, I’ve mentioned the protein a few times (or a dozen). That’s because I have three different proteins in this salad. 1. Hummus – I love the roasted garlic! 2. Sprouted bean trio blend 3. Quinoa – it’s a complete protein and has all 8 essential amino acids. Did you read that – all 8!
If you are looking to eat clean and need loads of new recipes, check out my new eBook, Eat Like A Queen.
It’s less than the cost of a venti mocha big sugary drink at your nearest drive thru.
Plus you can’t be 40 Clean Eating recipes from some of the top health coaches! Just click here. Even dudes are loving these recipes.
By Adam Hocke
Adam has been practicing vinyasa flow yoga since 1999 and has trained extensively with Jason Crandell. He offers precise, strong, and accessible classes to physically awaken the body and develop mindfulness both on and off the mat. His teaching is down-to-earth and direct, exploring traditional practices from a modern perspective. A native of South Florida, Adam spent ten years in New York City before becoming a Londoner. He teaches studio classes, workshops and courses throughout London, and retreats across the globe. As a writer, Adam contributes regularly to magazines and web publications on yoga. Visit Adam at www.adamhocke.com
If you haven’t read them already, start with Yoga and Your Hips, Part I and Part II . The model of the “5 Muscular Compartments of Your Hips” in Parts I & II is the same approach that I take when I teach anatomy live and online. (And If you want to learn even more about yoga anatomy and yoga sequencing, you can join one of my ongoing e-courses.)
The sequence here contains my three of favorite postures for each compartment of your hip. I practice this sequence several times a week and I still love the feeling of space and mobility it gives me. I hope it helps you feel good in your body!
Hip Compartment #1: Hip Flexors
Pose 1: Anjaneyasana Keep your back thigh vertical here. Why? Because keeping your back thigh vertical and stacking your pelvis and spine directly over your thigh helps stretch your quadriceps and hip flexors.
Pose 2: Anjaneyasana Lower your hips forward and down to isolate and stretch your hip flexors, especially your rectus femoris.
Pose 3: Anjaneyasana Leaning into the side bend from Anjaneyasana helps stretch your obliques and quadratus lumborum along with your hip flexors.
Hip Compartment #2: Adductors
Pose 1: Malasana Malasana provides a thorough, inner leg stretch while also flexing the knees and hips deeply.
Pose 2: Prasarita Padottanasana with bent knee Bending one knee and pressing your forearm against your thigh allows you to create a deep, sustained stretch on the entire adductor group.
Pose 3: Bound Side Angle The action of binding in this posture provides you with a shoulder opener in addition to the adductor stretch.
Hip Compartment #3: Hamstrings
Pose 1: Parsvottanasana This foundational standing pose allows you to focus on stretching one set of hamstrings at a time. This may be more effective for students with tight hamstrings than stretching both sets of hamstrings at time like you do in Uttanasana.
Pose 2: Prasarita Padottanasana In addition to stretching your hamstrings, this pose also stretches your adductors.
Pose 3: Standing Split / Warrior III Hybrid While similar to Parsvottanasana, this one-legged standing posture provides a deep, isolated hamstring stretch.
Hip Compartment #4: External Rotators
Pose 1: Pigeon Pose This bittersweet posture uses the weight of your entire body to stretch your external rotators.
Pose 2: Ankle-to-Knee Placing one ankle on the opposite inner knee externally rotates your thighs even more deeply than Pigeon Pose.
Pose 3: Reclined Pigeon Clasping your leg and reclining in Pigeon Pose stretches your glutes, external rotators, and abductors.
Hip Compartment #5: Abductors
Pose 1: Reclined Gomukhasana Reclining in Gomukhasana allows your entire body to relax and settle, while providing you with a deep abductor stretch.
Pose 2: Gomukhasana This classic seated posture provides efficient leverage for opening your abductors.
Pose 3: Gomukhasana with sidebend Including a sidebend in this posture gives you a deep abductor stretch while also releasing tension in your obliques and quadratus lumborum.
Are these self-aggrandizing opportunities to satisfy our ego, or do we yearn for the limelight to serve the higher good of others? This is a key question in this matter, as reflecting the higher-side expression of Leo and honoring the highest in all through your gifts is the best way for us to shine. As we tune up our leadership roles, it’s important to make sure we are not burning ourselves out, as the candle that burns to hot and too fast quickly leaves us in darkness.
In order to find the balance here, I think of the Hermit from the Tarot, who stands cloaked as the wise elder, shining star in hand, ready to guide those that need a light to escape from the dark. The Hermit is similar to the figure of Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, whose mission is to serve the highest good, even while serving the individuals in the fellowship. However, the role as a leader also requires us to rest and recharge, and few things are better to aid us in this than the light of the full moon. The ritual below helps you utilize the Leonine Moon’s energy to fuel your own inner light.
Along with this lunation, we have a tight relationship with Chiron, the wounded healer, who further amplifies this moon’s encouragement for us to step forward into our leadership gifts. Now is the time both to shine and create balance so that you may shine more brightly and more consistently. This aspect may stir things up within you that prevent you from stepping easefully into you power. That’s okay! Chiron calls us to look at our challenges in order to learn from them. Because we cannot teach others what we have not yet already learned for ourselves.
Another aspect here with Mars, Juno & Venus suggests a shakeup in love relationships…but only if the shake up is meant to occur. If it seems like a surprise that things are going awry, draw back and gain some perspective. You might see that this has been brewing for sometime, and it just took an energetic nudge to burst loose. Do your best to soften around the issue (Mars often hardens us, which doesn’t help in these situations), and see how it resolves in a way that ultimately is for the best.
Ritual to recharge & reignite:
As a fire sign, Leo burns hot and bright. In order to fuel this fire while avoiding burnout, the key is to stoke a quiet flame with consistency and the right fuel. This ritual brings this energy to life, allowing you to show up as a leader or mentor, own your power, and remain in alignment with the highest good.
Gather crystals (topaz, citrine, yellow jasper and clear quartz are good choices), sage, sweet grass or palo santo for burning, and find a symbol that represents your role as a mentor. This full moon is showering us with Leonine limelight, and as such, make sure you have a candle (or several) on hand to burn during the ritual. Set your items in an organized way within your space (perhaps in a circle, with you in the middle) and light your candle. As you sit quietly amongst the fire light, allow it to recharge you. It also charges up your symbol at the same time. Consider your leadership role and say the following invocation out loud:
Chiron & the Moon, light my inner fire so that the flame may burn off the impurities that block my power, allowing me to step fully into my role as mentor, shining light on others.
Quietly reflect on this invocation as you continue to feel the light shining upon you. Use your hands to “take in” the candle flame, by brushing your hands (at a safe distance) over the flame and drawing it’s energy toward you. Allow it to wash over you and take as much as you need during this process. Finally, hold your symbol in your hands, and bring your hands to prayer as you give thanks for this super-charged symbol that reflects your goals as a leader. Close the ritual by cleansing yourself with the sage, sweetgrass or palo santo (encircling your body three times with the smoke). Chant Om three times and offer a moment of gratitude. Snuff the candle.
By Alanna Kaivalya
Alanna believes Yoga is for everyone and each student can develop the self-empowerment needed to embark on a personal journey to meaningful transformation. On this principle she founded The Kaivalya Yoga Method, a fresh take on yoga emphasizing the individual path while honoring tradition. Teaching students since 2001, teachers since 2003, Alanna has written and developed teacher trainings worldwide for top studios and independently. In January she debuted a comprehensive 200hr-online teacher training with YogaDownload. She holds a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, has authored numerous articles and two books: Myths of the Asanas, an accessible practitioner’s guide to stories behind beloved poses; Sacred Sound, a yoga “hymnal,” illustrating the role of chant and mantra in modern practice. Look for her third book, Yoga Beyond the Mat, in Autumn 2016.She lives in New York City with Roxy the Wonderdog.
Click Here to learn more about Alanna's 200hr Online Teacher Training with YogaDownload.com
Garlic Caesar Salad
Yield: 2 salads
Ingredients for Salad:
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped 1 cup celery, chopped 1/2 cup fennel, chopped 1/4 cup Garlic Caesar Dressing
Ingredients for Dressing:
1 cup cashews, soaked for in water at least 20 minutes and then drained 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1/4 tsp. sea salt 2 TB. freshly squeezed lemon juice 3 soft dates, pitted 3/4 cups water 2 large stalks celery, chopped Freshly ground black pepper
Directions: For the salad, combine romaine lettuce, celery, and fennel in a large bowl. For the dressing, combine cashews, garlic, sea salt, lemon juice, dates, water, celery, and black pepper in a high-speed blender and blend until creamy. Toss salad with desired amount of dressing and serve. Leftover dressing can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days and makes a great dip for veggies.
Variation: Top with a sliced grilled portobello mushroom for a hearty option.
As I step back and look at the challenges my hips presented, I finally realize that the issue wasn’t just hockey and skateboarding. Part of the problem was that I didn’t understand the joints or muscles that I was working with. I didn’t have a “map” of the region to make sure that I was stretching and strengthening all the muscles involved in the hip joint. I was overly focused on my outer hips and hamstrings, while ignoring my hip flexors and adductors. I didn’t understand the nature of the hip socket and that truly “opening” the hips requires a more intelligent, comprehensive approach.
I’m creating this guide because I know it would have helped me practice and teach more effectively years ago. This is the approach that I stick to when I’m working with my students and trainees—and, when I teach anatomy live and online. I’m hopeful that it will give you a simple framework for understanding your hip muscles. Make sure to check out my Illustrated Guide to Yoga and Your Hips, Part 1. It describes the structure and ligaments of the joint and will help you understand the hip joint more clearly.
And, remember, understanding the joint structure and muscles of your hip will make you a better sequencer! When you’re aware of all the muscles that comprise your hip, you can make sure that your sequences target all of the muscular compartments instead of focusing too heavily on the outer-hips and hamstrings like I did for so many years!
The Five Muscular Compartments of Your Hip
Quick caveat: I’m going to describe the muscular compartments of your hip as though they are each separate and solitary. I’m doing this because it provides us with a simple, foundational “map” of the hip muscles and their functions. In reality, there’s a lot of crossover between the muscular compartments. The compartments often help each other out and work together. For example, the adductors–especially the adductor magnus–assists the hip-flexors. Similarly, your external rotators often work with your abductors to adduct your hip. So, as you learn these compartments, keep your understanding basic and simple. But, remember that these muscle groups are often helping each other out.
Hip Flexors: Your hip flexors in include the psoas, illiacus, and rectus femoris. These muscles connect the front of your pelvis to the front of your thigh (the psoas also connects to your spine). In simple terms, these muscles rotate the front of your pelvis and the front of your thighs toward each other. They are actively contracted in forward bends and core-focused work. The hip-flexors are often the most limiting factor in backbends. If your hip-flexors or tight, they will inhibit your pelvis from rotating backward over the femurs. This often requires the lower back to extend too much and become overly compressed.
Adductors: Your five adductors run from your pelvis (pubic rami) down the inside of your leg. Only one of them, your gracilis, crosses your knee. In yoga, these muscles limit postures that require your thighs to separate widely such as Baddha Konasana and Upavistha Konasana. All of the wide-legged standing postures like Warrior II, Triangle Pose, and Side Angle Pose do a good job of creating range of motion in this group. The adductors are strengthened in core-focused work.
Hamstrings: Yes, your hamstrings are hip muscles! Your hamstrings attach to the back of your pelvis (ischial tuberosity) and run down the back of your leg. Their job is to extend your hip and flex your knee. It’s obvious that hamstring restriction limits forward bends because it keeps your pelvis from rotating forward in these postures. What’s less obvious is the role that these muscles play in backbends. Contracting your hamstrings in backbends helps rotate your pelvis backward over your thighs. This allows your spine to move more deeply—and more comfortably—into backbends.
External Rotators: Beneath your gluteus maximus, your six external rotators run from your pelvis to your thigh bone. The most familiar name in this group is the piriformis. As the name implies, these muscles primarily rotate the thigh bone laterally. The external rotators are the main muscles that most students feel when they do Pigeon Pose, Cross-Legged Forward Bend, and Ankle-to-Knee Pose. Restriction in your external rotators makes it difficult to sit cross-legged and can reduce your ability to do forward bends and seated twists. Strengthening this muscle group can help keep your sacroilliac region stable and maintain optimal alignment in this joint.
Abductors: Your abductors include your entire gluteal family (maximus, medius, & minimus), tensor fasciae latae and sartorius. These muscles run from the outside of your pelvis to the outside of your thighbone. When they contract, they either stabilize your pelvis, or pull your thighbone out to the side. Although they derive their name, “abductors,” from the latter (to take away), they’re usually working to keep your pelvis stable while you stand and walk. Outer hip openers like Pigeon and Gomukhasana stretch this muscle group. Standing postures—especially the top leg in Ardha Chandrasana—strengthen this group.
Hip Flexors: Psoas, and Iliacus This drawing illustrates the pathway of your psoas. Ignore the fact that “major” and “minor” are both listed. These muscles contract strongly in postures like navasana and bakasana. They stretch in all of your backbends and lunges.
Hip Flexors: Your Rectus Femoris The rectus femoris is a “double-duty” muscle. It works with the other quadriceps (technically, it is considered one of the four quads) to straighten the knee. And, it works with the other hip flexors to flex the hip. Like the psoas and iliacus, the rectus femoris strongly contracts in most core strengthening postures and lengthens in all backbends.
Your Adductors I included this illustration in my Illustrated Guide to Yoga and Your Core due to the adductors relationship to the core. Check it out here if you haven’t read it. This 3-D cutaway shows the adductors running between your hamstrings on the back and your quads in the front. You contract your adductors in core-strengthening work and you stretch them in all the postures where you separate your thighbones such as Bound Angle Pose, Malasana, and most standing postures.
Your Hamstrings Your hamstrings include the semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris. You strengthen your hamstrings in backbends, especially prone backbends like Locust and Bow. You stretch your hamstrings in countless postures, including all standing forward bends and all straight-leg seated forward bends.
Your External Rotators and Gluteus Maximus This is my favorite illustration in this series. The left side shows the gluteus maximus. On the right side, the gluteus maximus is removed from the illustration revealing the external rotators that live underneath the gluteus maximus. You can see how layered and dense this region is. You strengthen your external rotators by engaging them ion standing postures and backbends. You also strengthen them in some of the transitions between postures in vinaysa yoga. You stretch these muscle groups in all Pigeon Pose variations and cross-legged forward bend variations.
Your Abductors You can see your glutes, tensor fasciae latae, and sartorius in this illustration. In yoga, we have to make a concerted effort to strengthen these muscles since they don’t automatically engage in most postures except for standing balances. In Part III of this series, I’ll provide you with some cues that will help you work these muscles. You stretch these muscles in all outer-hip openers, like Gomukhasana and Pigeon.
Thanks again for checking out this series! Be sure to keep in touch with me by signing up for our newsletter!
By Jason Crandell
Jason Crandell and Andrea Ferretti are a husband and wife team who have been teaching, writing about, and living their yoga for nearly two decades. Andrea is the former executive editor of Yoga Journal and is now creative director for Jason Crandell Yoga Method. Jason is an internationally recognized teacher known for his precise, empowering, down-to-earth approach to vinyasa yoga. They live together in San Francisco with their full-time boss, Sofia-Rose Crandell, age 3. To read their blog or to learn more about Jason's upcoming teacher trainings, please visit their web site www.jasonyoga.com
Additionally, If you want to practice arm balances, it is essential you have a strong chaturanga. It’s a heat builder of course and I like that. I like cranking it up and getting the body warm enough to dive into some of the more flexibility oriented shapes later on. And, yes, it’s a hard pose that demands strength in the upper body and core and is hard to do repeatedly with integrity. For me, the fact that it forces you to pay attention, slow down, and move with clarity and meaning is part of its charm and necessity. Because if you do it a bit too fast, too many times, with too much machismo, it might eventually fuck you over. And that’s life, isn’t it?
After a pretty fiery class sometimes I have temporary regrets about all the chaturangas and go back and count how many we’ve actually done. On a particularly big day in my class it may be somewhere between 20-30. I may be being bit of a bully but I think most people can survive 20-30 triceps presses, which is essentially what it is, especially if given ample opportunity to do them slowly or with knees down, or when strength fails, to find other comparable transitional movements to get to the next bit of flow. So, for now it’s staying in and we’ll have to pony up and meet its demands.
Quick Tips
Fundamentally, remember that it’s a pose, not just a transition. Don’t rush and actually take the time to make the shape! Most of my in-class adjustments involve stopping people mid route, slowing them down, and reminding them to actually do the pose. To that end here are some quick tips to improve your chaturanga.
Remember the Shape
Chaturanga Dandasana translates to four-limbed staff pose. Visualise the long stable staff supported by four points, not just some crazy roller-coaster ride into upward-facing dog. To that end, forget knees-chest-chin as a preparatory movement. It patterns a downwardly sloped action into the shoulder joint that may put too much pressure into the front of the rotator cuff group of muscles and ligaments that line the front of the joint.
Knees-Chest-Chin patterns a downward force into the front of the shoulder joint that is potentially injurious.
Think Forward
When moving down from plank come forward on to your toes and think more of moving forward rather then down. You can visualise a plane landing slowly and steadily. Similarly, hopping back into chaturanga is more efficiently achieved by thinking of bringing the chest forward. Both are so because it helps bring the arms into 90-degree angles with a bend at the elbow joints, providing a strong muscular support between the front and the back of the arms, the arms in external rotation within the shoulder joints, and the shoulder joints supported and stable.
If you think and practice moving straight down instead of forward you may decrease the angle between forearm and upper arm, lose your strength and crash down into the front of the shoulder joint, which may be potentially injurious over time.
Elbows in, shoulders back
With the elbow moving back and holding tightly in to the ribs, you keep the arms in a plane of movement that most efficiently uses the arm muscles to sustain your downward trajectory, and helps the arms stay in slight external rotation with shoulder blades down and head of the arm bone placed without risk of pressing against the front of the joint. This is ideal for stability and perfectly set up to bring you in to backbend in the following pose. With the shoulders drawn down (try pressing firm into the mat like you’re trying to slide it back) and together, you bring in the support of the back-body to help stabilise the arms and the shape, rather than a sloppy crash forward. To keep this support in place, don’t go too low. Stop around elbow height.
Me working to bring it all together in a strong chaturanga
It’s not just upper body
Some students mid sections can start looking like sad over-worked pack horses in a lazy chaturanga with a belly crashing to the mat and a lower back in a dire dip. Remember that the core has to stay slightly lifted and engaged to maintain the support from belly to thighs to maintain the staff shape through your descent. Additionally thighs stay engaged and although I’ve asked for weight to be shifted forward in the shape, even to the point of being on your toes, there is energy also moving back through the heels – a sort of dual current of energy moving in both ways. If you forget the core and power of the legs, the pose will get top heavy and you’ll continue to crash downward.
Keep it real
Chaturanga is hard for nearly everybody so be kind to yourself. If it just ain’t working out, scale back and do less of them, or do it on your knees, or skip it and just find another way to transition with movement and breath or build strength in your body and in your practice. Most likely doing a combination of alternative poses like locust pose or cobra pose or knees down chaturanga will in time yield the same positive results as a well aligned, aware, and embodied ‘full’ pose.
See more Practice Tips
Videos to help strengthen your chaturangas
Discernment is defined as the ability to judge well. What does that mean anyway? To judge well? I’m not sure I agree with that definition. In my humble opinion discernment can be best described as:
a moment in time where we are offered an opportunity to know what is right for us. A moment in time when we choose what resonates deep within our heart. A moment in time when we make a choice that best suits the evolution of our soul.
I like to think of it as the space between breath and reaction. The quiet stillness between the conflict of the ego and the soul. An internal knowing of what is elevating us and what is contracting us. It’s the emotional time out we take before reacting from a patterned, triggered place.
The issues with discernment, as I see it are instant gratification and old triggers.
We have this appendage we call our phone, and it can get us the information we need right when we need it. The question is, do we really need it? And do we really need it in that moment? If we can find what we think we need, in a moment when we think we need it, are we offering up space to evaluate if we really even need it or not?
Maybe not. Then we’re left with information taking up brain space that we really didn’t need.
Old triggers … yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Something happens that is not really in alignment with your “chi” and you fly off the handle. You say something that feels “old”, react in a way that is less than love and then you’re left standing there wondering “who the hell was that person?”
How to remedy this? You take a breath. FYI, it’s free. And it feels good.
In that one breath, space is infinite, presence is palpable, love is emanating, and the soul is ignited. In that moment, that one moment in breath, we are offered a second to discern what is really happening. And we are better able to act from a place more in alignment with our soul.
Discerning what is real, not judging what is right. This one simple act can change the world.
This week's blog is a excerpt from my new book, Oms From the Heart. It and its sister book are now on sale. If you love what you read, I encourage you to purchase your copy today.
For more inspiration and to purchase Dana's new book, Oms From the Heart, visit www.danadamara.com
We all become creatures of habit since familiar actions and experiences can provide us with a certain amount of comfort and security.
Many of these habits can be positive and serve us well; however, we often develop negative patterns that may be hard for us to even notice unless we create space in our life to cultivate more self-awareness. The more we repeat the pattern the deeper groove we create and the more challenging it can be to alter the habit.
We need to polish our gems in order for our true brilliance to shine forth.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. -Aristotle
The good news is that it is completely possible to reshape the groove into a healthier habit. Yoga, including meditation and breathing exercises, can provide us a safe space to slow down, turn our attention inward and observe ourselves as we truly are with less judgement.
In our physical yoga practice our samskaras may play out as a tendency to push too far in the poses or maybe even give up on poses too soon. Maybe we have a tendency to ignore our bodies and act in a way that society has made us feel we ‘should’. For example, I ‘should’ be able to chatturanga (yoga push up) with my knees off the mat.
The ‘should’ trap is often an unhealthy mental samskara and with regular mindful yoga practice we can develop greater wisdom and trust in ourselves so we begin to listen to the ‘true’ self and not the ‘ego’ self that may tell us we aren’t good enough or if we just work a little harder we’ll be happy, etc. Let’s just let ourselves be happy now!
So, how exactly do we cultivate new healthier habits?
Some samskaras may hide deep in our subconscious and our entire life may be an ongoing process of polishing them so our inner light can shine through. For others we may be able to purify them within a few weeks or months of practice.
Let’s say for example you have a habit of overeating when you feel stressed (like I do). Here are some steps you can take to begin breaking that cycle. Please remember, though, the beauty of the yogic path is that it involves our own personal investigation. Use yoga as your own personal laboratory to experiment with what works for you.
Here is a good starting point:
1. Cultivate Vidya (Awareness)
Carve out time each day for a practice of being present and looking inward. It could be yoga, meditation, breathing, walking, journaling, being in nature…anything that connects mind, body, and spirit. Listen to the thoughts and the tone of the thoughts that arise in the mind; create a healthy distance between you and your thoughts so you are less likely to judge or critique what shows up. Self-deprecating thoughts, blame and guilt are very counterproductive to establishing healthier habits.
2. Create a Sankalpa (Intention)
Create a potent ‘I AM’ intention by first considering exactly what it is that is hindering you from achieving your goal and purifying the samskara. For example, if I tend to overeat when stressed, I must have forgotten that I am already full and complete. I don’t need anything external to soothe me. I have simply lost touch with my inner state of satisfaction and wholeness. My sankalpa could be ‘I AM WHOLE’ or ‘I AM COMPLETE’.
3. Set Micro Goals
The Zeigarnik Effect, shows that we have the tendency to want to accomplish and complete things we have set out to do. If we don’t finish them we are left dissatisfied and unmotivated to continue. Set small accomplishable goals that build naturally to larger goals. For example, if I’m not able to completely avoid eating when stressed, perhaps I begin by allowing my self just 2 bites and I commit to eating them mindfully and joyfully. Eventually I move on to one bite and so on. If I can accomplish these small goals and win small victories, I’m more likely to continue on my path and not give up.
Give it a try and let me know what you discover!
By Jennifer Meek
Jennifer Meek is a Certified Yoga Teacher (RYT 500) specializing in Yoga Therapy for common conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and back pain. Utilizing her 25 years of movement experience as a dancer in combination with the tools of yoga and mindfulness she teaches people how to tap into their innate potential for health and happiness. Read More from Jennifer at jennifermeek.com
What’s your love-hate craving?
Is it sugar? (that’s mine in case you couldn’t tell by the photo!) Salty snacks? Coffee? Wine?
For many of us cravings feel like a never-ending spin cycle. Our innocent “I’ll just have one bite” turns into a daily indulgence. Before we know it, that sneaky food sinks its claws in us, holding us hostage. Eventually that one little bite turns into a full-blown addiction and starts to take its toll on our health.
Sound familiar?
Cravings are tricky because we want to learn how to listen to, trust and honor our body and its messages. But cravings can be very deceptive.
We may think, “I’m craving a glass of wine so therefore it must be what my body needs.”
Not so fast.
Sadly, it’s often the foods we loooooovvve, crave and feel that we wouldn’t want to live without that cause the most damage in our body.
So how do we know when are cravings are an insightful signal from our body trying to help us get back into balance versus a sabotaging little beast?
Therein lies the fun. We have to be willing to deconstruct our cravings.
When venturing into this endeavor we like to start with the physical body first, and then move into the deeper inquiry where we ask, “what am I really craving?” Ask the question and then be willing to hear the answer. You may be surprised to find that a sugar craving is actually masking a craving for deeper meaning in your life or more spiritual connection.
Cravings get a bad rap, but they’re not all bad. We just have to learn how to work with them. Below are some of my favorite strategies for deconstructing cravings – because the more tools we have in our toolboxes the more likely we are to become our most healthy, vibrant selves.
Check out the tips and then leave me a comment. Are these helpful? What are your cravings trying to tell you?
With sweet love for cravings,
6 Tips for Dealing with Cravings
1. Start with a big glass of water: Sometimes when we’re craving something sweet or salty we’re actually just thirsty. The feeling we get from being dehydrated is actually a very similar feeling to being hungry, so a good place to start is to stop and drink a large glass of purified water.
2. Eat some protein: Before you give in to the craving, ask yourself how much protein you’ve had today and when you last ate it. Try noshing on some homemade trail mix or some sweet chia pudding for a quick protein boost. Protein helps to control blood sugar patterns, which in turn can help diminish our cravings.
3. Increase healthy fats: Healthy fats help keep us satiated longer. Load up on wild-caught salmon, trout,avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and seeds and you won’t find yourself as hungry in between meals.
4. Take magnesium: Chocolate is a common food we hear about when it comes to cravings. This craving can be linked to magnesium – and up to 80% of Americans are deficient in it. No wonder so many people are craving chocolate! Our favorite magnesium supplement is called Natural Calm by Natural Vitality, which gives you 325mg in one dose. You also get a good dose of magnesium each time you take a hot Epsom salt bath.
5. Address your emotional state: Ask yourself the question, “What am I really craving?” Explore what’s happening in your emotional body. Are you sad, anxious, and stressed out? Write about it daily in your journal and let those emotions bubble to the surface. Be loving and kind with yourself. Nurture yourself with a walk in nature, get a pedicure with a girlfriend, treat yourself to a facial and a massage.
6. Do a cleanse: A whole-foods based cleanse is an excellent way to recalibrate your taste buds and tackle all of the above at once – stopping gnarly cravings in their tracks. It also provides you a time to slow down, tune in, and get to the real root of what else you may be craving from your life. Also, eating a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods can be helpful in correcting any nutritional deficiencies that might be contributing to your cravings.
I'm just going to say it: I have a screen addiction. I often check my phone needlessly, even compulsively. I know that there is no real need for me to be on my phone while I am doing it and, yet, I still do it despite myself. I know that I am not the only one who is finding easy escape in the black rectangles that we hold in the palms of our hands. At the same time, these words with which I hope to delve and share are also being captured from my imagination and soul by the very same means.
I owe my livelihood to the internet but my heart wishes for more.
I embrace the worldwide web and could never be doing what I’m doing without it. Previously, I may have been able to carve out a little niche for myself, but the success of my small local business has largely depended on the reputation I garner from my online voice. When someone moves to the neighborhood they don’t walk around to see where the closest yoga center is and stop in to talk to the owner. They do a google search, check out the website, and read the yelp reviews. While my friend and follower lists are not particularly extensive, I have offered original content and been consistent about the sort of things I post, so that the impression people have of what I do is largely accurate.
When it comes to being ahead of the curve and utilizing the new technologies, I got in early and have done well enough to survive. But it is a lot of work. And it has very little to do with my real passion for connecting with people through teaching yoga. Furthermore, the time I spend in the virtual world has an impact on the experience of my life and the relationships I have to others. Not just because more of my time is occupied by many different-sized screens but because of the subtle implications it has on my person and the way I interact with the world.
There is no predictive value to magic.
I got into yoga because the world felt disempowering. As a young man just trying to figure out who I was, I was utterly dismayed by the seeming lack of humanity at work in our modern societies. In yoga practice, I found a way to discover and identify myself with the wonderment and beauty of nature as it is in my own system, which is generally undervalued and had been missing from my perspective. After developing some skills in this regard for myself, I began sharing my process as a way to facilitate others doing the same.
Thus, yoga became my profession and my business. In order to make that viable over time, I have had to develop a range of web and marketing skills. As I have become more educated about e-business, some disturbing things have become clear. Mostly, it’s all about capturing data generated by users and mining it for predictive value. The problem is that, when it comes to yoga, the value of what I am offering can not be predicted. In fact, attempting to do so easily undermines the means by which we would bring it about.
The power of my imagination and will is critical.
If what some economists predict proves true about the “postcapitalism” we are entering into, then yoga is going to become more valuable than ever. For where our educational system was developed to teach us the skills of being good factory or office workers, yoga teaches us the skills of harnessing our inherent talents from which we can forge new possibilities. The skills of yoga were less important to an industrial economy. But in the information or “sharing” economy, my ability to think out-of-the-box and create of my own resources is worth everything.
Long-held models of how we are meant to live and work are beginning to crumble. That is scary. It means greater uncertainty. But the pendulum needs to swing back some. Our ability to access information has gotten ahead of us and we have sacrificed important aspects of our existing. We are all going to need to get a handle on the new place that technology holds in our lives. Let us not be in denial. There is no doubt that it is affecting how we interact.
Most importantly, the role that my phone plays in my life must be considered and determined by me. I need to ensure that I am utilizing the technology in a way that reinforces the person I want to be and the life I want to have. The internet can’t have the best of me. My inbox and feeds may be vital to my work but can never fulfill my spiritual needs. What is most cherished in me requires nourishment that can’t be found online. Only through the non-digital world may I know the truth of myself.
By J. Brown
J. Brown is a yoga teacher, writer and founder of Abhyasa Yoga Center in Brooklyn, NY. His writing has been featured in Yoga Therapy Today, the International Journal of Yoga Therapy, and across the yoga blogosphere. Visit his website at jbrownyoga.com
I mean, sure, I lead classes, workshops, trainings; facilitate retreats and sincerely enjoy mentoring and coaching people. However, at the end of the day, I am actually up leveling my own knowledge and devotion to this practice. Not only that, but I’m constantly learning about relationships, spirituality, connection, and business just with my “work”. And this is because everything I am experiencing is a reflection of me. Every person I am privileged to meet and discover has something to share with me.
Remembering this simple fact, by the way, takes a TON of discipline.
And, to be completely transparent, the real discipline for me is what I do with all that stuff I say and share on my mat. With discipline I take it off my mat and into my own, real world - the one that is riddled with adolescent girls, tasks that never end, creation and connection, and a new commitment to daily self-care and empowerment.
So I feel like the word discipline could almost be synonymous with commitment, but with complete awareness. Meaning that if we really looked at our life and what we “want”, we have to ask ourselves, are we disciplined enough to not be distracted by every ding, ring-tone, notification, and message we receive that is not on our path of teaching/learning? Can we really discern that for ourselves? And, if so, how long does it take?
I use the word like this: I am disciplined in my practice. I am disciplined in my thoughts. I am disciplined in my desires.
More than anything though, I think it is vitally important to discipline our breath. And that is the simplicity, the sacredness, the ease and practice of yoga. Here’s the deal: if you can discipline your breath, meaning teach yourself to focus only on a rhythmic cadence of your breath, you can begin the practice of creating your life in just the way you desire.
How?
Well, when you discipline the breath, you take a moment to focus on nothing but the breath. And in that nothingness, there are countless thoughts. And you, in that one breath, are offered the opportunity to “stick with it” or “distract.” And what’s so very important about this is that we are fed so much information in a second, in an hour, in a day… that we can’t possibly keep up with it all. Not only that, but we really don’t even need it all.
And in that one breath that we take, very consciously, we are offered a nano-second to discipline our thoughts so they are more in alignment with who we are and what we desire. We can notice before we react; before we fall into a pattern; before we go down the “wrong” path.
So, when I begin sharing this practice or this discipline, I like to ask:
How serious are you about your practice? What are your intentions? Are you disciplined enough to stay focused? To the end? To find the joy in learning, falling, growing?
Because this discipline, this practice, this journey of yoga is not for the faint of heart. It is for those individuals ready to wake up to it all. And, mostly when it gets difficult, they are the ones that sit in a pose that is uncomfortable, breathing into the tight spaces of their body so when they experience that constriction off their mat, say in relationship, they can breathe into that, too, with the same grace, awareness and acceptance.
That to me is discipline.
Or, maybe you’re looking at the finish line to go home and want to get the last 3 items done on your to-do list and then you can leave. Just push a little more, a little harder. The problem is, it’s taking forever. You’re re-reading lines, you’re slumping into your seat, and you’re attention is all over the place.
Here’s what we know about that: our pre-frontal cortex (PFC), our “thinking brain” is a very limited resource. For any activities involving understanding, deciding, recalling, memorizing or inhibiting, we need our thinking brain. Unfortunately, the brain’s energy gets depleted very quickly. When our brain’s energy is depleted, we resort to our mental maps (habits and shortcuts) to get us through the best we can without the PFC. This is when our work suffers, things take longer than we think they will and the end of the day leaves us with no energy to spare for loved ones.
And don’t we all want to do our best work and have energy to spare for loved ones (or ourselves) at the end of the day?
Yes, yes we do.
Enter the Office Breaks on Yoga Download. One of the things both your brain and your body need to refuel is oxygen. So when we get to that place where our brain is fuzzy and we feel the urge to push through… stop. Seriously, stop. Instead of taking the 30 minutes it will take you to finish up without your PFC, take a break and it will only take you 5 or 10 minutes to do even better work.
These Office Breaks are specifically designed for common moments in our work days like when your brain is fuzzy, you’re low on energy, or you’re overwhelmed (among others!). Workplace Evolved (WE) deliberately structures these breaks to give your brain the oxygen it needs, give your body the movement it needs, and give your mind an invitation to shift your experience towards something better.
The result is that you do better work, are more efficient, your body feels better, and you have energy to spare at the end of the day.
So taking little breaks throughout the day is the easy choice, right?
We wish! None of us make good decisions when our brains are already depleted. So don’t rely on your brain—make it a literal no-brainer. Scheduling a calendar reminder every 90 minutes to try an Office Break. This will give you a reminder at just the right time, and relinquishes your brain of needing to make any more decisions when it’s already exhausted. Wouldn’t that be nice!
Try the Office Breaks. Track the results for a few weeks. Let us know how it goes.
Workplace Evolved offers 5, 10, and 20-minute office breaks designed for common situations we encounter in the workday. If you have any requests, just let us know. We’ll use feedback, requests and your results to fuel this segment of YogaDownload.com and hope to have many more breaks available online over time.
Curious about Workplace Evolved? Check out their website here.
By Dia Draper
Dia left the practice of law to shift work cultures and improve lives. Dia believes work is most fulfilling when employees are engaged, valued and trusted to work towards a common goal. As the owner and CEO of Workplace Evolved, Dia is an experienced certified executive coach and she runs powerful programs for leadership development, and employee wellbeing and engagement in large organizations. Her mission is to improve people’s experience of work while simultaneously improving the organization’s profits, a true win-win.
CLICK HERE TO STREAM OR DOWNLOAD ONE OF DIA'S OFFICE YOGA CLASSES!
That being said, I’m the least likely person to be writing a blog post on chicken but since I live with two growing boys and a hubbie who says, “salad is what dinner eats,” I’ve had to (and continue to) educate myself on all-things meat related.
We always encourage our participants to become label detectives and this skill is never more important than when it comes to shopping for meat. Unfortunately, these labels can be the most confusing–causing the best of us to become a vegetarian! (Wink, wink.) Although these labels can guide us into making healthier decisions, they can also be misleading because the regulations behind the stickers are often vague.
So let’s demystify some of these marketing claims!
Let’s start with the term “Organic.” Just as with produce, buying “organic” chicken is always solid choice. Organic poultry means that the birds were raised on feed containing no antibiotics, hormones, artificial ingredients or preservatives. Yet unless the labels reads “100% Organic,” the chicken feed likely contained GMO-components, like corn and soy.
Next option is “Vegetarian-Fed.” This too can be misleading because a normal chicken diet is omnivorous, since chickens naturally eat grubs, insects and worms, in addition to grasses and grains. In fact, the omission of bug protein usually means even more GMO corn and soy!
Stickers that read “Free-Range” or “Cage-Free” are widely used and sadly, generally useless. These terms do imply that the chickens are not tightly compartmentalized and that they have access to open air, yet there are zero requirements ensuring that the chickens actually spend time outside. “Pastured” or “Pasture-Raised” may be a more transparent term because it has been widely adopted by small farmers who insist that their grass-fed chickens actually see the light of day. Unfortunately, it has no legal definition and, therefore, can be applied without consequence.
So how do we stop playing chicken with our chicken?!
The best way to find out where your chicken comes from is to go right to the source. If buying from a local farmer, ask about their practices for feeding and raising their birds because even if they’re not “certified organic,” they might be doing everything right. If you’re unfamiliar with your local agriculture, use a farm finder such as LocalHarvest to find fresh produce and meat. Participating in a local farm’s CSA program is another way to hone in on clean poultry sources.
Using a grocery delivery service like Door to Door Organics, can also help you weed through the options and their customer service department is available to answer any question about the products they carry. Use the code “detoxdelivered” for $10 off your first order now though the end of August.
The bottom line when shopping in your everyday health food grocery store is to look for “100% Organic” poultry.
Now that you’ve done your research, we bet you’re expecting a pretty great chicken recipe.
Well, you’re in luck! This week, our natural chef extraordinaire and Conscious Cleanse certified health coach,Jessica Bartlett, helped us create a spin on a favorite finger-licking dish: pulled pork!
Instead of pork, we’re using our well-sourced chicken and a BBQ sauce that isn’t tomato-based. Just like the original dish, we’re slow cooking the meat (in a slow cooker so it’s easier) and the result is spicy, sweet and downright comforting!
Enjoy and please be sure to leave us a comment below. This recipe was a request by one of our readers so we’re ready and listening. What other favorite comfort food can we make cleanse-friendly for you? Be sure to tell me in the comment section below.
With 100% organic grass-fed love,
Sweet ‘n’ Spicy Pull-Apart Chicken
Yield: 5-6 cups Ingredients:
1 large onion, peeled and sliced thin 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 5-6 breasts) 1 ¾ cup chicken or vegetable stock, divided 2 tsp. sea salt, divided 1 tsp. paprika ½ tsp. ground coriander ½ tsp. ground cumin 2 ½ tsp. garlic powder, divided ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper 4 large carrots, peeled and sliced into discs (about 2 cups) 1 cup water 2 TB. blackstrap molasses 2 TB. pure maple syrup (or honey) 1 TB. apple cider vinegar 1 ½ tsp. smoked paprika ¼ tsp. black pepper 1 head Bibb lettuce or romaine lettuce 1 small cucumber, chopped 1 bunch cilantro, chopped Juice of 1 lime Green onions, chopped (optional) Red cabbage (optional) Brown mustard (optional)
Directions:
Place onion slices on the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with whole chicken breasts. Pour ¼ cup stock over the top. In a small bowl, stir together 1 teaspoon sea salt, paprika, coriander, cumin, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Sprinkle these spices over chicken and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
After chicken has been cooking for about 4 ½ hours, begin the sauce by adding 1 1/2 cup stock and water to medium saucepan. Add carrot slices and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until carrots are soft enough to skewer with a fork.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix together molasses, maple syrup (or honey), apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon sea salt, smoked paprika, and black pepper.
Being careful to reserve broth, drain softened carrots. Add cooked carrots to a food processer fitted with an S-blade, along with 4 tablespoons of carrot broth. Blend until creamy. Add blended carrots (about 1 cup), as well as 1 tablespoon carrot broth to large bowl with sauce ingredients and mix well with a spatula or spoon.
At the 5-hour mark, check to make sure the chicken is cooked (there should be no pink flesh and an inserted thermometer should read 160o – 165o). If chicken needs more time, allow it to cook for another 30-45 minutes. If the chicken is cooked, add sauce to slow cooker and use two forks to shred the chicken and mix in the sauce. Let cook for another 10 minutes.
Spoon ½ cup filling onto 1 lettuce leaf and top with cucumber, cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice, or any optional topping. Roll or fold in half, and serve.
Store in refrigerator for up to 5 days or in freezer for 2 months.
Variation: For more heat, add ¼ – ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes to chicken while it cooks.
Looking back at last year’s round-up, Brave New Yoga World, my optimism proved to be warranted but did not account for unforeseen difficulties and trends that only time can reveal. The move away from coveting an idealized notion of a “yoga body” towards more intangible and profound benefits is where my intuition and hope most held true. But as the industry has adapted to economic shifts, the opportunities for this new direction to find its financial footing is being undermined by external forces.
People are over being boot-camped by yoga.
I’ve been touting a Slow Yoga Revolution for the last decade but this is the first year that I actually felt like it wasn’t just my own wishful thinking. For as long as I can remember, whenever I’d write something that called into question the convention of overworking our bodies in group classes, the majority of responses would be derogatory. I was generally viewed as a “hater” who was bashing opportunities to expose people to yoga who might not normally be interested. This still continues to be a line of reasoning, often to justify many common hypocrisies and misgivings. But in the last six months, I have come across a range of other voices that are also saying as much, and the comment threads are marked by a chorus of amens.
Of course, there are plenty of folks who are still in it for the sweat and don’t give a lick about anything that I or anyone else might have to say. And more power to them. There are enough people coming to many of the same conclusions I have that the old entrenched debates are becoming irrelevant. The more that people are applying yoga practice to contexts and populations beyond the physical fitness model, the greater public knowledge is being gleaned as to the distinctions and purposes behind different approaches. The end result is that those who want to do poses for fitness still have ample opportunity and those who might be looking for something more are finding alternative avenues.
Where things have begun to unravel is that, more and more, financial survival requires yoga teachers to obtain skills that don’t have anything to do with teaching yoga.
Last year, I was talking about the fall of the old guru- and brand-based models. I suggested that the future was going to be about individuals, value and personal integrity. This has borne itself out in many ways. People have become largely desensitized to coercive click-ads and email campaigns. The only thing that is able to pierce through the white noise of our many different-sized screens is something that feels authentic and human, something that can strike a chord in us loud enough to trigger an undeniable emotional response.
Yoga teachers are creating experiences and content that are marketable in ways that have never been seen before. But in order to turn that skill into a livelihood it needs to be marketed. The marketing gurus have read the tea leaves and are exploiting this for all its worth. And the workshops that claim to help folks become “Yogapreneurs” tend to be more of a bait-and-switch that plays right into the hands of the hidden movers. It’s not just a matter of having a website and a Facebook page and a Twitter account but knowing what to do with those media outlets. Yoga teachers are ill-equipped and loathe to develop marketing prowess because it is an entirely separate skill that is largely in conflict with the process of teaching yoga.
Like in other sectors of the economy, the ability for small business to compete with larger scale is diminishing. However, all is not lost.
It's understandable that yoga teachers are not good at marketing. It's disheartening that they need that in order to be able to teach — thus, the appeal of portals and services that seek to take the burden off them. But what might be gained in outsourcing the marketing needs can never match the kind of scale that Yogaworks and CorePower have in their favor. Not to mention the insidious nature of e-commerce that requires independent businesses to willfully allow the likes of Amazon to co-opt their hard-earned wares or become invisible.
For so many years, yoga professionals worked tirelessly to bring yoga into the mainstream. Succeeding in doing so has also brought with it repercussions. Yoga no longer exists on the margins. Yoga is no longer counterculture. Yoga business is subject to the same market forces that it once operated outside of. It has to be faced whether we like it or not.
But despite this somewhat bleak prospect for independent yoga teachers to thrive, there is one thing we have going for us: As the scaled operations continue to grow and overshadow the lone players, there is no way that they can provide the same kind of experience. The pendulum is going to swing back. When it regards personal needs and health, trust in the humanness of the provider easily outweighs the illusion of security that ordering from the big box gives us. What has become devalued in the swirl of our new digital universe will once again become cherished.
When you are awake to your life and you really look at what you’ve done, where you are, and where you are going, I hope there will continue to be a sense of awe, reverence, and gratitude for every step along the way.
This will be the only way to head into 2016 – with gratitude for it all. Not just some of it but all of it. And I’m telling you, 2016 is going to be big for ALL of us! Why? Because it’s about:
· Transcending beyond what you think is possible – getting past your head and into your heart
· Allowing something new to come through you – whether it’s divinely guided or been brewing in you for awhile.
· Releasing all old patterns in finality, but in the honor they deserve for the purpose they served.
· Not negotiating or compromising your desires in this life; accepting nothing less than your soul’s calling.
· Massive openings into the heart and the depth we can reach when we are courageous.
· Creativity, truth, depth, meaning and passion in ALL areas of your life.
I spent the last couple weeks of 2015, “sort-of” offline. Meaning I didn’t respond to a lot, I didn’t post a lot, I minimized my output of energy, and really dropped into what was real for me before galloping into the New Year. I observed myself in relationship, in the doing, in the being, and in the planning. I asked for help and received it graciously.
I observed old patterns and detected negative situations in my life that needed cleaning up (and cleaning out really). And I learned to say no to what wasn’t resonant and opened my heart to what was.
On a daily basis, I took photos to capture a memory, not to post it somewhere. I called people on the phone and had real conversations. I turned all the notifications off my phone so I could be present with the moment. I told people how I really felt even if it was scary. I looked my children in the eye, listened intently to them, let go of a lot of control, laughed a lot, and drank champagne long after my bedtime on a few occasions. I didn’t write any blogs, OMS or posts and you know what?
It felt so good.
It offered me so much space to truly SEE what was happening and what was real and what was not. Because it’s so easy to get caught up in illusion isn’t it? To get caught up in other people’s lives, old patterns, ancestral beliefs, and sabotaging behaviors that just don’t serve. The ride of this life is going so fast, it’s almost impossible to not get caught up; but I’m telling you, we must NOT! We must “stay the course” for better or for worse.
Because that is the only way we will truly distinguish between our reality and our illusion. To stay in tune with who we really are and where we are going. And I can promise you, this New Year is big and I want you to experience it in it’s fullness – always.
How do you do that?
· Meditate – be still
· Daily pranayam
· Be real
· Move your body
· Get into nature
· Limit screen time
· Live in 5-D
Why? Because there is no other way.
· We are not perfect
· We are not above anyone else
· We ARE projection
· We ARE flawed
· And we ARE love
But we must stay awake. When we show up as THAT, as love, in all our vulnerability, in all our realness and imperfections, THAT is where the healing happens. And in that healing, that is where transcendence and magic occurs.
When we act in forgiveness and acceptance of our wounds, we heal not only ourselves, but others as well. It is time for us ALL ALL get real, stop the distraction, the competition, and the not-enoughness, and show up.
FULLY.
So I’m stepping deeper into what is uncomfortable for me. I’m stepping into a space where I must practice the art of balancing approachability with boundaries. Where I must be intimate and real. Where I must be grace and strength in action.
You will see a lot of new things this coming year, but my career will be in balance with my life because I will continue to operate from a place that is fine tuned to the resonance of my soul. And my soul enjoys it ALL – my mothering, my femininity, my relationships, my career, and my ability to be still with Mother Gaia.
As far as work, you will see so many new offerings and collaborations with new people.
I AM A TEACHER OF TEACHERS - AND I AM A STUDENT
meaning that I enjoy witnessing people wake up to who they are through this practice of yoga. Holding space for a student in this way is why I get up every morning. It brings me immense joy when people recognize that this art and science of yoga is more than just exercise; it about elevating the soul to it’s highest resonance. And I know that this learning is a life-long path and mastery. So my intention is to share this knowledge with teachers who are ready for this type of offering in the world. Because I believe when there are more yogis – there is more connection. But the connection HAS TO BE REAL … nothing about this can be inauthentic – not one single thing. You’ll see all of that in the Embody Truth Yoga Teacher Training,Mentorship and Apprenticeship for teachers who want to share Embody Truth as their career.
I AM AN AUTHOR AND SPEAKER.
In both of my books, Oms from the Mat and Oms from the Heart, I share intimate stories about life. The devotionals come through as a resonance to you and your path. My hope is that these books get into the hands of anyone interested in seeing themselves as they are – Divine Perfection. Not only that but I desire for these books to be on the shelves of as many yoga studios as possible. Why? Because they can be a tool for any teacher to guide their class on a path with a theme – with a simple dharma talk to open class.
I AM A THOUGHT LEADER AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT INTUIT
I have always been blessed with a deep connection with the Divine and this year, for me, is about bringing that fully into the light. This has always been an uncomfortable admission for me but I know, that now is the time.
On an intimate level you will continue to see that in private gatherings, Shakti Circles,Astrology/Intuitive Readings, Reiki Sessions, and Coaching sessions.
You’ll experience this in the retreat to Tulum in February, all the courses included in the Embody Truth 300 Hour Advanced program, and then finally, a collaboration with a dear friend of mine in Costa Rica where together, we guide you into Embodying the Feminine Mystery.
ON-LINE OFFERINGS
You must know that THIS is my MOST UNCOMFORTABLE way of being EVER! Put me in a room where there's music and a mat and lots of yogis, I THRIVE! Put me in front of the camera ... biggest fear EVER! But ... it's time to go on-line! I'm kicking this off January 9th with my very first 21 day Sadhana. Shakti Circles will go online every New Moon, as will other programs listed in the 300 Hour Advanced Training Program.
REAL LIFE
Besides all of that, I plan to be a conscious mother to my two lovely daughters; to continue to nurture a home for us all based on love, appreciation, and acceptance of each other. To attend as many volleyball games and martial arts sessions that I can. To lay on the floor and play with our new kitties – Shiva and Shakti. To be an intimate partner to myself while remembering that through all of this, I am enough.
All of it … every single bit of my life … is and will be dedicated to the breath of the Goddess, to the Divine Feminine - in all her forms. Let’s see what shows up shall we?
Let’s face it, no one goes out seeking a hangover. But the reality is, with NYE parties in full swing, drinks are likely going to taste extra delicious and go down a little too easy.
The fact of the matter is, whether you’ve had one drink or ten, the effects can still feel the same the next day. You know what we’re talking about – headaches, dizziness, dehydration, and nausea to name a few.
It’s hard to pinpoint one definitive reason why we feel hungover, and why no two hangovers are the same, but we do know that dehydration, irritation of our stomach lining, and the fact that our blood alcohol levels drop sharply after a night out, sure don’t help the situation.
We look at a typical hangover much like we do detox on the cleanse. Flush your system with water so you can get the good stuff back in. While we can’t promise rainbows and sunshine, we can tell you that with these tips, you’ll be back on your dancing feet in no time at all.
Check out our favorite five hangover cures below, and be sure to cherish the time spent with your friends and loved ones this New Year’s Eve.
Cheers to a happy and healthy 2016!
Jo and Jules Favorite 5 Hangover Cures
Hydrate. This means be sure to be drinking plenty of water, before you go out, while you’re out (chase each cocktail with a glass of water) and definitely the next day. Your body is likely to be dehydrated and the sooner you can rehydrate and flush out those toxins, the better!
Grease up! There’s a reason typical greasy bar food can seem so appealing during (and after) a night out. The idea is that the grease helps to line the intestines, making the alcohol take longer to absorb. Our take? Try shooting 1 teaspoon of olive oil before going out and skip the pepperoni pizza after. Your stomach will thank you, and you can thank us later.
Got charcoal? If you’ve cleansed with us before, you know how much we love activated charcoal to help alleviate detox symptoms. A hangover is no exception!
Move your body and rest your mind! No need to run a marathon, but gentle movement will do your body good. Think yoga, a brisk walk and mindful meditation. Trust us, don’t knock it until you try it.
Ginger that. Long used to help with nausea, ginger is a force to be reckoned with. Grate a tablespoon or so and steep with a cup or two of water, adjusting to suit your taste. Add a drop of honey or even fancy it up with some cinnamon, turmeric, or cayenne. Sip leisurely and revel in last night’s memories. Clearly, you’ve still got it.
Ingredients: 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 serving of high quality Vanilla Protein (I use Nutrimeal by USANA Health Sciences) 1 cup chilled chai tea 1 tsp cinnamon tiny pinch of ground clove 1/8 tsp vanilla 4 ice cubes
Directions: Add all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. It’s as simple as that. Then enjoy!
Note: I make a pitcher of chai tea every couple of days, so for this recipe, I just use 1 cup from there. You can easily make a cup of tea and then just use that.
By Jessica Wyman
Jessica Wyman is a Certified Nutrition Coach and Yoga Teacher at Jessica-Wyman.com. She has authored two books available on Amazon, Finding Your Foxy and Girlfriends Organic Kitchen.
She believes that women are created by everything they eat, drink, breathe and believe and that concept is the cornerstone of the Wildly Nourished programs she co-created. As a clean eating foodie and wellness maven, she teaches healthy living without the complicated rituals by focusing on simple ingredients to create your ideal life (and meals).
Join Jessica’s FREE 5-day lifestyle program at Jessica-Wyman.com
Connect with Jessica at:
Facebook: facebook.com/jessicawymanwellness Instagram: Instagram.com/wymanjessica Twitter: twitter.com/wymanjessica Pinterest: pinterest.com/jessicafwyman
Many of us get so overwhelmed during the holiday season that we quit our yoga practice altogether only to find ourselves toasting to new year’s goals focused on getting back to a healthier way of living. Trust me, I’m guilty of succumbing to these first-world problems too, but found myself simply wanting more!
While I felt dissatisfied with some recent theming in yoga class, I reflect on how grateful I am to be connected to a spiritual practice like yoga that encourages regular intention-setting. When planning my New Year’s Resolution class theme, I want students to think beyond resolutions like needing to hit the gym and eating more kale. In fact, the University of Scranton research says that only 8% of people achieve their new year’s goals. The sanskrit term Sankalpa means “divinely inspired intention” and helps us align on a deeper level with our God-given gifts and life mission. Perhaps we can get away from focusing on our shortcomings or quitting something, and consider a deeper, lasting resolve in 2016.
One of my favorite authors Brene Brown wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Creating a Sankalpa statement, helps you root into your authenticity and gives perspective to your day-to-day circumstances. Brown says, “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”
Consider these questions when setting your divinely-inspired intention this year. What are your gifts? What drives you? What makes you come alive? Then write a short mission statement that defines your true aim. When your yoga teacher asks you to set an intention for class, go back to your choice to “show up and be real” and align with your deeper Sankalpa. Cheers to swimming in the deep end in 2016. Cheers to you!
By Kristin Magill Gibowicz
Kristin started practicing yoga after a doctor told her she should expect a second back surgery on her lumbar spine. An outdoor enthusiast and a young mom, she refused to accept the diagnosis. She stepped into CorePower Yoga and committed to practicing to see if she’d see any improvements in her condition. With a consistent practice, yoga healed her by strengthening her core physically, giving her body awareness, and reducing stress in her mind and body. Kristin started teaching yoga in 2003 and knowing that 80% of Americans suffer from back problems, felt moved to learn everything she could about the anatomy, breathing techniques to reduce stress and how to transform other’s lives through teaching yoga. “Power yoga brings this exhilarating, cardiovascular yoga practice to “everyday Joes” like me. My goal as a teacher is to share my passion and improve the quality of people’s lives. In each class I hope to help liberate my students both mentally and physically, and leave them in a better place.”
Click here to download or stream one of Kristin's YogaDownload classes!
This week I’ve been teaching winter solstice reflection themed classes – sensual yoga flows that cultivate lunar, calming, yin energy. I invite you to create that same type of energy this week in your practice.
This energy comes at such a ripe time. Right when life starts to get super chaotic, it’s nice to remember that now is the time to look inward, reflect, let go, and start anew.
If you celebrate Christmas, this year will be the first time in 38 years that there will be a full moon on Christmas Day! Such a wonderful time to reflect and practice peace with ourselves and toward others.
Winter Seasonal Check-In
If you’ve never done a seasonal check-in with me before, I’m diving even deeper this time to give you some reflection questions and prompts to think about as you look back over the past 3 months and the past year.
I find it’s easier to set intentions and goals for three months at a time vs. setting New Year’s Resolutions. Committing to one goal all year doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for growth and change. The reality is our minds and lives change quite frequently and it’s impossible to know what’s going to be happening 6 months from now. Checking in every season is more in tune with nature and much more manageable when it comes to tracking and accomplishing goals.
If you didn’t tune in for last year’s Healthy Habits Series, I suggest you read my blog on setting intentions. Setting intentions is a nicer way to live in the world then chasing countless goals. Goals don’t always serve the bigger picture of our lives whereas intentions are malleable and can easily be applied to anything we choose to pursue. Intentions can also help us align our decision-making process with our truest values. Before I give you some reflection questions, I’ll share with you my year.
My 2015
My 2015 was VERY FULL.
On January 1, 2015 I became a full-time yoga instructor! Since then I’ve added 9 private clients to my list, taught hundreds and hundreds of hours of yoga, became e-RYT certified through Yoga Alliance (this means I’ve taught over 1,000 hours of yoga since my original 200-hour certification in 2011), graduated from the Yoga Tune Up® Level One Teacher Training, taught 5 workshops, coached, led, and taught in 3 rounds of 200-hour Teacher Trainings, completed Conscious Business Design with ideas to increase my programs and yoga offerings online, launched my yoga nidra CD, taught at a women’s leadership retreat in Delaware, and enrolled in a 500-hour yoga training with an emphasis on teaching therapeutic yoga in private settings. Whew! That’s a lot of training :)
I spent lots of time with family in Ohio.
I got married!!!
My husband and I bought a house and moved down the street!
My parents bought a house and moved from my childhood home — down the street :)
I vacationed in Hilton Head Island, Costa Rica, and I’ll end the year in Montreal.
When I write it all out it seems like a lot but I’m most proud that through it all I’ve been able to stay relatively grounded.
My intentions for 2016
Expansion: In 2016 I want to expand my practice – both personally and professionally.
Connection: I want to expand connections with friends, family, and the yoga community at large.
Adventure: I want to travel more.
Abundance: I want to stay calm and grounded and bask in abundance and be grateful for the wonderful people in my life.
Confidence: I want to strengthen my commitment to this path I’ve chosen and see self-doubt diminish.
Self-care: I want to be more intentional about taking time off and being present with the people around me.
Your Turn
Now it’s time for you to grab your journal or a piece of paper and start to think about your year. I actually had to take out my calendar and go through it month by month to remember everything I’ve done! In the next week or so, make sure you take some time for yourself to really reflect and get some ideas about how you want 2016 to go.
What did you accomplish in your personal life in 2015? What did you accomplish in your professional life in 2015? What accomplishment are you most proud of? How did yoga play a part in your life in 2015? What do you wish to expand in your life? What do you wish to shine more light on? What is your intention for the next 3 months? How does that intention apply to your goals for the first 3 months of 2016? What can you let go of? What are you ready for? How do you want yoga to fit into your life in 2016?
If and when I ever have employees, my rule will always be that everyone gets to take off the last 2 weeks of the year. It’s this time of year when we really get the chance to rest before gearing up for the year ahead.
So, I’m off to rest for the next week or so. There will be no new blog or Wellness Wednesday Newsletter next week, but I’ll be back again in 2016!
Happy Holiday! Happy New Year! Happy Solstice! Happy resting :)
By Ashley Josephine
I started practicing yoga to stay in shape and release stress. What I learned was how to love my life. How to have faith. How to find your community of people who support you and love you unconditionally. How to get back control. Today, it is my mission to help busy Type-A overachiever women like me gain back control of their lives, live pain-free, and love the life they want to live through yoga lifestyle practices. Visit www.ashleyjosephine.com to get free yoga lifestyle tips to help live healthier, happier, and pain-free.
You have to do the work and build the discipline on a daily basis. Sure, practice can sometimes feel really really good and worth it. Sometimes it only feels good afterwards. But the good news is that with time and consistency your body changes, your brain changes, your mind and your experience of life changes.
One of my homework assignments for the advanced teacher training I’m on was to create a practice inspired by a sutra or two from the yoga sutras of Patanjali.
Immediately I gravitated towards the following:
1.14: Practice is the repeated effort to follow the disciplines which give permanent control to the thoughtwaves of the mind 1.15: Practice becomes firmly grounded when it has been cultivated for a long time, uninterruptedly, with earnest devotion
I couldn’t find anything more inspiring for me than acknowledgment that it is practice and discipline that keeps you on the path. Because it is hard to keep it going. I know that the minute I get a bit lazy about the consistency and duration of my practices, I can go down a slippery slope of letting my stress levels creep up and becoming a pretty unhappy and moody person, not to mention that I almost always start to get sick.
This doesn’t mean that I have to practice intensely every single day. It is pretty much the simplest stuff done consistently that makes a difference. For me that means pretty moderately paced sun salutations and a bit of regional stretching and strengthening depending on how I’m feeling, what I’ve done earlier and what I’m going to do later. Layered on top of that a few practices a week leading up to some challenge poses (that change every few months or so) to keep me interested and focused. It does help your daily discipline to have some targets. Currently I’m working on balancing my handstand in the center of the room and the flexibility around my left hip which hasn’t quite caught up to the right. If next week I was doing handstand while in lotus with the left leg in first would I be a happier person? Probably not. I’d have to find a new challenge to keep myself engaged with my practice.
Sometimes practice is heaven. Sometimes it’s just part of the daily slog of living. It is constantly changing as I change. It meets the demands of my life and teaches me to live more freely and joyfully. I know that it is essential for me to feel my best. And by the way, I need to go practice now.
Check out more of what I have to say about this at one of my workshops or courses.
Adam has been practicing vinyasa flow yoga since 1999 and has trained extensively with Jason Crandell. He offers precise, strong, and accessible classes to physically awaken the body and develop mindfulness both on and off the mat. His teaching is down-to-earth and direct, exploring traditional practices from a modern perspective. A native of South Florida, Adam spent ten years in New York City before becoming a Londoner. He teaches studio classes, workshops and courses throughout London, and retreats across the globe. As a writer, Adam contributes regularly to magazines and web publications on yoga. Visit Adam at adamhocke.com
Now I’ll explain how meal planning happens for me most weeks.
Hopefully it will make all those of us feeling like Pinterest fails feel a little better because somehow despite my lack of proper planning I still feed my family 80-90% healthy foods and we are a busy family
. Just because you don’t have binders of recipes and pretty little calendars with perfectly planned meals doesn’t mean all is lost. I used to wish I was like that, but in the end I’m me and I totally dig my free-spiritedness and structured meal plans just aren’t my style – so I decided to ditch the guilt around it and figure out how to eat clean, easy and without a plan.
Once per week I do the majority of my shopping, the wash, cut and store all kinds of good foods in my fridge. Then each day I assess what I have in the fridge, pantry and freezer and make up meals.
Most times they work out and other times we are tossing it and scrambling for something else. Tonight’s meal was one that really worked out. My kids loved it! My husband loved it! I loved it!
We rarely eat pork at our house but this last weekend at the farmers market I met the loveliest little farmer that sold pork, goat and lamb. All of which I enjoy but purchase infrequently. I could see my husband eyeing the pork sausage. All the while I’m thinking WTF do I do with pork sausage (remember I rarely cook with pork).
I had loads of sweet potatoes and know my family loves baked sweet potatoes, so that decision for dinner was done. But what to have with it. My family loves chili with sweet potatoes but I was out of most beans and proteins.
That is when I remembered the pork sausage purchase. I can substitute that for ground beef. I was out of all beans besides one lonely can of kidney beans. I’m getting creative now and also realizing that I need to restock the pantry. I was also getting nervous for this meal.
So, I’m thinking pork sausage and kidney beans. I see a pile of peppers and onions. I now see the beginnings of a meal.
My husband sweetly suggests I incorporate barbecue sauce. At this point I’m thinking why the heck not?
So let’s get to this scrumptious recipe created on the fly with some creative suggestions from a house full of boys. P.S. – to make this Paleo-ish ditch the kidney beans. To make it vegan ditch the pork sausage and add more kidney beans.
Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the sweet potato skins and lightly spray with coconut oil (I get this at Trader Joes or Whole Foods). You can substitute olive oil. I scrub the potatoes because we often eat the skins at our house. Place the potatoes evenly space on the middle rack and bake for approximately 45 minutes, until they are tender when pierced with a fork. Baking time will vary based on oven temp, altitude and the size of the potato.
For the chili: When you have approximately 15 minutes left for baking time of the potatoes, put the pork sausage in a large pot over medium to medium-high heat. Brown all the sausage while stirring with a spatula. Add in the onion, bell pepper and jalapeños and sauté until they soften. Add in the kidney beans and barbecue sauce. Add water as needed for desired consistency. Simmer over medium heat for a few minutes.
When the sweet potatoes are tender remove from the oven and let rest for a couple of minutes. Cut a slit in the top and open up so you can top with the BBQ Pork “Chili”. We had enough left over chili for my oldest son to take it for lunch.
Remind your family to slow down while eating. It’s beneficial to their digestion and they’ll have more time to enjoy the meal. If your family is like mine, they loved this recipe so much that it was gone before I could blink. I wondered, did they even chew?
About the pork sausage. I know many of you are thinking does that count as clean eating? My answer, that depends on where you buy it. I like to think that since I purchased it from a lovely local, organic and small scale farmer with good practices and processing that it’s a go to have it sometimes. Remember that sometimes doesn’t mean all the time.