If there is anything in my life, besides the food that I eat and the love that I'm given that sustains my health, it is yoga. I once said to my husband as I came into our bedroom one morning with a song in my heart and my feet barely touching the floor, "I wake up like a dying fish out of water until I get a little yoga." And it's the truth. I wake into this world with the all too familiar hue of dreariness. I'm scattered and cannot see past the cloud of my unrelenting self. Until there is union I am dying. Yoga, for me, is a pathway to that union, the union that rubs the sleep out of my eyes so that I might truly see.
and I can't help but let the poet in me speak...
the release of freedom in the cells of my very being when i step through that invisible doorway out of this world and into one where the scenery is the same but what I see glistens with bliss. It is the movement that hastens the merging of me and life, it's the path, the destination, the union of all parts-body mind spirit. But here, here is the kernel of something so sweet that collapses my house of cards and evicts all the fear filled tenants, yoga is the realization that these three parts-body mind spirit-spread beyond the confines of this flesh. My entirety yokes and soon I begin to see the boundaries dissolve and I'm merging, all three facets, with this thing called world until I'm not quite sure where my feet stop and the buoyancy of the grass begins.
Here is wholeness, here is health vibrant. For what is health but the degree of uninhibited life in a person? And what could be more exuberantly full of life than this?
Just as with a plant based diet the benefits of yoga seep in and through the body, out the mind and thus lift the soul. Yoga was created as a spiritual practice, one that would aid the practitioner in clearing away all the clutter of ones self so that the truth of what really is might be seen clearly and experienced directly. This is still it's purpose and it's real gift. But, the glorious thing about yoga is that it's benefits just cannot be contained! If you're in it to find health in one of these three: body mind or spirit, you better expect the other two to get one hell of a makeover too.
For your physical health there is nothing like yoga. I mentioned before that I used to struggle with asthma, but since I've developed a steady yoga practice I don't anymore. As a little girl I was on a steroid inhaler, a regular inhaler and a liquid and pill form of the inhaler medicine everyday! But now I'm free! If I ever begin to feel a bit constrained in my chest these days, I simply become very present and focus on my breath (what I learned in yoga class) and soon enough I am free to breath again. That's major. To be able to breath should not be a luxury. Yoga can help heal.
The strengthening of your respiratory and cardiovascular system, increased flexibility, lubrication of the joints and ligaments, toned muscles, detoxification and massaging of the organs are just a few of the benefits. Don't it feel good too? It feels wonderful to be able to touch my toes! Finally! There really is something to be said about the flexibility in a body. For, if in fact we are an interwoven unit of body mind spirit, then the flexibility in one would affect the flexibility in the others. When I open my heart in a back bend I truly feel as if I am opening my heart. This reminds me of these words...
"Man at his birth is supple and tender
but in death he is rigid and hard.
Plants when young are sinuous and moist
but when old are brittle and dry.
Thus suppleness and tenderness are signs of life
While rigidity and hardness are signs of death."
-Tao Te Ching
True in body as it is true in mind. The space created when I stretch my limbs is creating a stretch and openness in my mind.
Plus, where else does a grown woman get to stand on her head and, maybe, fall on her ass just because? I'm telling you there is nothing more healing than tumbling to the ground out of a pose. My goodness how liberating it is to not take yourself so seriously. Kids fall all over the place all the time! They're still fascinated with their bodies and how far they can take them. In my yoga practice I get to be with my body in that same way. "Oh my gosh crow pose! I did it! I'm a crow! I'm a crow! KAH KAH KAH!" boom. smash.
And where else do we get encouraged to explore ourselves? We never ask ourselves what am I? what's this leg thing do? what exactly is breathing? We just assume we know. What has that cost us? We think we know it all and the mere suggestion that we don't is met with rolled eyes and a sad layer of cynicism that kills all sense of wonder, awe and consequently joy. But, on my mat I get to reclaim that wonder. I get to rediscover myself, just as I am. And, if only for an hour and a half, I am awed at what I am. I am awed at what I can do or can't do. What's that curious feeling that floods in when I am present there on the mat? Oh, yes, it is love. I am learning to love myself right where I am just as I am, and if that ain't healing I don't know what is.
Yoga is where I practice accepting all of life's challenges, stiffness and sore spots as blessings with the miracle that is my body. And when I do I leave my mat happier, healthier, with an open heart and a curious ambition to love deeper and more freely.
My dear friend Eric gave me this cookbook for Christmas.
It's majorly yummy! Lots of spices and garlic, cooking with healing water and a complete absence of traditional measurements. It encourages you to use your intuition and cook not with just ingredients but with intention and love as well. It's mostly vegan with some cheese thrown in here and there. The yogic tradition encourages a vegetarian diet. Why? Non-violence. :)
My husband had some friends over the other night so I thought I'd make them some kundalini yoga munchies...
handful of chickpeas
4 garlic cloves
few pinches of baking powder
olive oil
cumin
paprika
sea salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Add all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend.
(I just smashed my mix up myself. Boy did I go to town on those beans!)
Roll into small balls about the size of a walnut
Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet and cook for about 30 minutes
I drizzled mine with olive oil and a bit of Braggs liquid aminos and served it with a delicious dip, my mom says it tastes just like a sour cream and onion dip. If you've never tried veganaise, please do and be amazed. It's a dairy free, healthier version of mayonnaise. Incredible for vegans and non vegans alike.
DELICIOUS DIP
Veganaise
garlic powder
onion powder
dried parsley
A scoop or two of veganaise a shake each of the rest and voila!
VAND CHAKNA GUACAMOLE
"Vand Chakna" means to sit together and eat.
3 avocados
chopped onion
2 handfuls fresh parsley (I went with traditional cilantro)
1 small green chili diced
1 tomato diced
juice of 2 limes
2 large green bell peppers
Place all ingredients together except bell peppers
Again it calls for a food processor but I just mixed it with a spoon
Cut off tops of bell peppers, deseed, fill with mix and serve
Served it with tortilla chips. Happy healthy fun food.
If you're at all inspired and jonesin for a yoga class check out this studio
www.risinglotusyoga.com
The most amazing community. Wonderful teachers. It's a sanctuary on Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks. Tell them Ciera sent you!
namaste
You're totally f*ing amazing!
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