Morning Yoga

Morning Yoga
Originally uploaded by Peter Bowers

Yoga in the morning...what a delicious way to start the day. I am an admitted sleepy head in the morning, so sometimes I sleep too late and I do not have enough time to squeeze in a morning practice. On the days I do get up and leave at least 45 minutes for a well rounded practice - I feel like singing all day! Good Day Sunshine! I have more energy sans the caffeine, and I am more peaceful throughout the day.

Your morning yoga practice should be different than our evening yoga practice. In the morning I typically to do more standing poses, some sun salutations, and more back bends than I do for an evening practice. This is because back bends, standing postures and dynamic series like sun salutations tend to be more stimulating.

I follow up my asana practice with some pranayama (breathing exercises) and a short meditation...short only because I know I need to let the dogs out, get in the shower and get on with my daily routine. Evening tends to lend itself more to a longer meditation time.

Morning yoga makes the grind of a typical work day a bit more peaceful and centered, tempers do not flare as quickly, the day seems to move at a reasonable pace, and the mind is sharp.

If you practice yoga at home regularly, I recommend you try getting up a bit early and do some morning yoga. See how this practice influences the rest of your day.

Tiny Closet

new apartment.closet
Originally uploaded by theprototypicalbird

In my old monster house I had a master closet that would make most women and some men drool. I could do a cartwheel in it. I had visions of turning it into a diva-esque space complete with a chandelier and a jewelry cabinet. The diva closet never came to be, but the point is I had room for it.

The hubby and I went to check out our new casa again over the weekend and we took a hard look at closet space...or lack of it. I am going to need to purge even more in order to make this work. This time I am going to take clothes to Plato's Closet and see if I can get some $$$ out of it. So far, I have donated so much to the clothing closet at our church, he said that he will not get to all of it for a month or two.

Do any of you live in houses with smaller closet space? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to keep it organized? Also, we do not have a linen closet, and the full bath is tiny, so no room there for a towel rack or storage shelf. Any ideas on what to do there?

All suggestions are appreciated!

Love and Light
H

Down Dog

Down Dog
Originally uploaded by Allen81

Lets talk about yoga.
Specifically, lets talk about the posture called down dog. If you have ever taken a yoga class or watched a yoga DVD, you have seen down dog because it seems like every yoga teacher on the planet thinks that this is the "base" pose for yoga. I tend to disagree with this theory because it is a difficult pose to do, much less master and it's very challenging for beginners. This leads to frustration and can make someone just check out of yoga for good when a student hears "now your heels should be touching the floor." Wait, what? Are you kidding? I can't do this yoga stuff! Argh! Then the mat and video they purchased is sitting around with dust bunnies gathering because they have been told by someone that they are not doing it right.

Let me set the record straight if I may...
Your heels do not have to touch the floor in down dog. Actually, your legs do not even need to be straight. As a beginner, you can practice down dog at the wall, with a chair and then move to the mat. The trick to this pose is to get a light feeling in your hands and take the pressure off of your wrists. How do you do this you ask? By lengthening your spine and lifting your hips!

If you can not picture what I am talking about, just watch your dog stretch in the morning. They do down dog and up dog several times a day - and there is hardly any weight on their paws. All the energy is going into their hips and spine.

Also, for those of you who know me and my pooches, that picture (believe it or not) is NOT Blue Girl! It was the first picture that came up on flicker when I typed in down dog...how funny! :) I love the universe!

Can mass produced food be healthy?

production line for veg food.
Originally uploaded by gocefbn

I have a confession to make, I eat lots of mass produced food, mass produced, frozen "healthy" food. I also cook a lot, but most of the time that includes something from the freezer and maybe some fresh veggies. The question that has been rumbling around in my head lately is: can mass produced food be healthy? I am a vegetarian, so I eat a lot of frozen veggie burgers, "chicken" patties, protein bars and the like...and I love them. However, even if its vegetarian and marketed as "good for you" is it really?

I could easily spend an afternoon and make delicious homemade veggie burgers in a big batch and freeze them, I could also make my own protein bars for when I am on the go. This is another one of my goals, to start making the mass produced stuff I normally eat myself.

What are your thoughts?

And you thought oregano was just for spaghetti...

oregano ----
Originally uploaded by rbyers_nc

Since I have been cleanising my outside world, I thought it was time to do the same for my insides. I am starting a month long cleanse today. I could shorten it to two weeks if I wanted to double up on the doseage, but I think I will wait to see how it goes for a week on the 1/2 dose. This cleanse targets candida in your gut. Symptoms of having too much candida in your gut can range from craving sweets, headaches, cold hands and feet, bloating, sinus problems, panic attacks, depression, chemical (smells) sensitivity, hives and much more. I know that this covers a lot, and sounds like we could all have this issue, and I bet most of us do. The treatment is either a diet where you don't eat anything that causes yeast to grow and that includes: sweets, simple carbs, vinegar, dairy and any fermented products including alcohol and soy sauce...I have actually done this one before and I do NOT want to do it again, so this time I found a cleanse that includes herbs that get rid of candida such as oregano oil, pau d'arco bark and lots of other good stuff.

Hopefully I will not be too cranky or tired, but the pay off will be worth it! I gurantee I will feel MUCH better and have lots more energy. My tummy will be happy and my mind will be clear. Speaking of the tummy and mind...did you know that over 90% of seratonin lives in your gut? Its true! So if your tummy is not happy, you will not be happy.

Wish me luck.

To microwave or not to microwave...

Microwave incident
Originally uploaded by celestehodges

In our new casa, we do not have a built in microwave, or a dishwasher...

So, Mike was at Target yesterday (he has not taken the no-shopping pact with me) and called me to say we needed to get a new microwave for the house. Well..he hates the microwave, so it struck me as kind of funny that he would be the one to bring this up. He is convinced that it causes cancer and will burn out your eyes if you stare at it too long...and he may be right...

So, I said lets try life with out one for a bit...what are your thoughts on the microwave? Is it a good thing, or a bad...or neutral???

The Invisible Children

www.invisiblechildren.com



Wow, just wow. And I am worried about not having a dishwasher in my new house...

I highly recommend that you watch the rough cut of this movie on google videos, it is well worth it.