Overflowing with Goodness

It's holiday time!  I have an array of cookbooks, magazines and printed recipes spread out on the dining room table.  I've ordered the turkey and the shopping list is nearly completed.  Tomorrow, armed with my reusable grocery bags I'll make my way to the big market where I'll insert myself in  the endless  throng of others all doing there holiday grocery shopping as well.   Every other year our little home has two Thanksgiving feasts.  One on thanksgiving, and one the following Saturday, this is because logistically we travel in different directions for the holiday.  We enjoy a good home cooked holiday feast so this is our compromise.  It tricky and consist of a lot of meal planning, shopping and cooking.  Added into the mix, I don't eat meat, so the vegetable dishes, at least for me, are the most interesting part.  I can't stand Tofurkey.  I have tried it on several occasions and I just don't like it and either does anyone in our house, so its better to have a nice selection of vegetable dishes.  I have a few new recipes I am looking forward to trying out, including a cranberry relish from December 2008 and a vegan pumpkin pie, November 2011 Yoga Journal Magazine!  I'll let you know how it taste.  So here's to holiday madness but with a celebratory tone as things are much more peaceful and grounded this year.  Many blessing, much to be thankful for this year.  

Jai, peace and love to all!

Fall and Foward bends

 

This Autumn I have been deliberate and careful in my energy expenditure.  Every year around this time I begin to feel worn down, fatigued and usually take to my bed with a thermometer and box of Kleenex.  As Summer faded to Autumn I began to see tell tail signs, the leaves began to fall off the trees, peoples movements became a little more harried and the sneezing and sniffling has started all around me.  My calendar has been filling up fast and I'm feeling a little tired and overwhelmed.  

I have no intention of repeating last years fiasco of a life.  I'm all about self preservation these days, but even with the best of intention, deadlines approach and projects must be completed.  Added to change of season madness is the fact I am still working on some of the things I let go for so long.  I have made vast inroads in organization and ticking things off the list, but there's still stuff lingering  while embarking on new deadlines brought on by a thesis, and at the moment boatloads of papers to write. 

I'm not entirely sure what the best game plan is for keeping sane and healthy but I am working on a plan for some type of  healthy living schedule.  In the meantime I have a few ideas what I can do now to help me out and perhaps increase energy levels a little.

Neti Pot:  I find the neti is an excellent defense against cold and flu season. 

Echinacea golden seal:I have been using echinacea since I was a graduate student.  Echinacea bolsters the immune system and pushes out whatever might be trying to invade the system.  This one is full proof if I use it over the course of several days. 

Emergen-c:  It's a vitamin mix in powder form.  This is a popular one in the winter in our house.  I like to put it in hot water and have it as tea. Others pour it into water and drink it throughout the day.  I think of it as a little energy drink to help with boost levels throughout the day. kind of healthy alternative to Red Bull.

Vitamin C : There's very little proof vitamin C helps with the common cold, but I find it useful.

Paschimottasna or forward bend: Seated forward bend  can calm the brain and help relieve stress and mild depression. Paschimottanasana is also touted for soothing headaches, reducing anxiety and lessening fatigue.  It's an excellent asana for change of season and when the weather cools down. 

Other important tips include staying hydrated, slowing down, getting to bed earlier and staying warm. 

Be well and good health!

Kates Mystery Book Store and The City Life Left

My Dad loved mystery books.  Kate's was a funky, funky mystery book shop located on the first floor of an old Victorian house.  Birthdays and holidays I would rumble around looking for something unique and interesting he might enjoy.  later when his old lion eyes needed a little help, I would go to Kate's and dig through old piles of books looking for large print mysteries, which she sold to me cheaply in generous portion. Kate was good people.

Quirky and a lot of fun, she had a thousand cat chachkas placed happily around her book store.  There was probably a real cat or two padding about somewhere, but I don't remember and I definitely didn't see any real felines the last time I was there.  On my way to a seminar today I passed her old Victorian which has been sold and she herself has moved on to a new life somewhere far away from the madding crowd.  I last saw her a couple of years ago.  It was the holiday season and she looked a bit tired with a diminished life drive. I must say we were in a similar place.  My Dad was very ill and I too was tired and had zero interest in celebrating the holidays.  She and I spoke briefly, I knew she had been trying to sell her old Victorian and my gut told me this was our last visit.   She talked about not feeling present in her urban living environment. She was not going out exploring restaurants, or attending social or cultural events. As she put it she wasn't taking advantage of what the city has to offer.  She packed up her life and moved away shortly after.  I myself moved out shortly thereafter, having found myself with zero interest for all things urban.  As I drove past the sign, which has been neatly painted over and now blank, I began to think about what I knew as a city when I lived there and what city meant to me.  Partly it meant what every city means, crowded, expensive and always moving.  But then there were individual aspects that were perhaps generational.  Things whose time has come and gone but made the urban experience special and fun. Places like this little book shop, or a Wiccan store I used to find herbs and esoteric books,  the acupuncturist whose office was in a funky old arcade next to a sex shop, the guy who rewrote my resume for a fee on an old typewriter when I was a newly minted undergraduate, the big all Latino grocery market, the lady who rented a room to one of my graduate students who supported herself teaching tap dance classes.  All special, all gone.  I don't need to list them all, but just as an example, the Latino grocery market is a whole foods store now.  I think that about says it all in a nut shell and perhaps explains in part why I have moved on. 

Snowy Day

 

It's a snowy day this morning.  Time to pack up summer clothes, beach blankets and flip flops and take out the Winter coat, hat, mittens and scarfs.  Although its going to warm up later this week we're on a trajectory toward Winter so I suppose it's time to embrace it.  Time for hot herbal tea in the afternoon, sun salutations, inversions and grounding poses, and longer meditation.  New season, new discoveries to be made.

 Jai bhagwan and be well.

Vote!

It's time to vote!  Every vote counts, Every vote matters!  Tuesday November 6th is election day, a fine time to get out and meet your neighbors.  Head on down to your local voting pole and make your opinion official! 

The Desert

 

This big guy resides in the back of my sisters house.  So peaceful and such beauty.  I found myself staring at a lot of cactus, just peacefully drifting off in quiet meditation.  This was a sad yet very healing visit.  My siblings and I gathered together to say goodbye to my oldest sister.  It was a journey back in memory and a healing for the soul.  It felt good to be with my siblings, anchoring.

The dessert is a quiet place and the mind and body slow down a bit, long enough to take a look around and wonder why life moves at such a fast pace back East.  I first began to notice how harried and sickeningly fast life moves after I finished my first yoga teacher training.  I no longer wanted to be involved in city living and slowly began to extract myself from an urban lifestyle.   This has been process and at times quite difficult.  Obligation and necessity have not allowed my to fully remove myself from city life, but slowly I have managed to bring my involvement down to a minimum.  I do not live in the city and I do not work in the city full time.  I rarely go in for arts and entertainment or shopping and most of the people I know no longer live in a city, so I have little reason to travel in other than work.  The lure of life calls me elsewhere. 

Spending time in the dessert was very healing and a few things came up during my visit.  Earlier this year I ran across a colleague at work.  She looked, felt and radiated health.  She had been out West on a soul journey of sorts and made many discovery's.  One was cactus juice, she was sold on its health benefits.  This stayed with me and I decided to look for some while in the dessert.  Not so easy to find.  If anyone has used cactus juice I would love to hear your story and even where you found it.  Other holistic discoveries unfolded during this visit, caster oil packs, Mayan abdominal massage and ways of looking at my body from a health perspective I had never considered. 

It was a healing visit.   I experienced a view and appreciation of the dessert I have never had before.

Jai and shine on brothers and sisters, shine on.

Change

The leaves are changing and falling off the trees. Its a beautiful time of year in the Northeast to stop and take in the magnificence and splendor.  I am also reflecting on the major changes that have taken place in my personal life.  Having finally made the initial leap and re calibrated the direction I am going, the realization of how important and necessary this change has been is settling in.  These days I am filled with gratitude and hope, but not so long ago I was depleted and in a constant state of stress and exhaustion.  My health had slipped from a place of vitality to a bundle of ailments with anxiety always hovering under the surface.  I had no time to address or problem solve any issues in my daily life, no matter the size, and this continually culminated into emergency situations which could have easily been averted.   People can be very nasty, and I was surrounded by toxic attitudes, which darkened by soul and left little room for joy. 

The summer allowed me some time to rest and heal.  I was so exhausted, there was little drive for much else other than just getting a baseline of energy back.  I really had no idea how much I had beaten up my body, mind and spirit until it all finally all collapsed.  The journey back is a slow one, and it's going to take a full year to recover.  My days are now far more meaningful and slowly the grip of stress and anxiety is loosening, and with it my alignments are receding.  

This change took a good year of planning with a lot of dead end roads and hopes dashed along the way.  I have a few suggestions if you are in a situation that needs change, but seems overwhelming:

• Consider not only what you are leaving but what meaningful piece you are planning to add.
• Work out your finances and take some time to see someone with financial acumen about your options.  You don't have to go to a financial adviser, but if you can, it's recommended. 
• Understand you will be living with a lot less money and will have to make changes in your lifestyle.  Once you have figured out the smallest amount you can live on, cut everything else out and see how it feels.  This was hard in the beginning, but as time has gone by I have cut out more and more.  There was a lot of waste and unnecessary spending I wasn't aware of.
• If possible put a small stash of money away for emergency only.  I have already had two major unexpected expenses since my financial lifestyle changed.
• If married or in a significant relationship start talking about these lifestyle changes with your partner.  The changes will affect everyone in your household, more so than you or anyone else will realize till it happens.  Talking about it not only brings awareness, but makes the initial shock understandable and less stressful.
• Once you've set a course and have something in place, things will fall apart a little and have to be re-worked.  It all part of the process, frustrating, but not the end of the world.  Something else will present itself which is better, just have faith and keep working the problem, you will find a solution.
• Slow down!  Make stable decisions that serve you.  A certain amount of panic occurs when you have been living with an income you have become accustomed to and it is no longer there.  Temptation for the money is always a lure.  Don't!  You'll be back in a similar situation you just worked so hard to leave behind.  
• Network, network, network.  Every contract I have been able to secure since making this lifestyle change came from my networking circle, not from a job board.  
• Give yourself time.  Once on the course of change things will evolve but rarely at the speed of light.  Decide on what you consider an acceptable amount of time you will need.  My change is significant, I have given myself four years. 

Be well, follow your heart and serve your highest good.