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  • You are currently browsing the Namaste Nutrition blog archives for September, 2009.

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Archive for September, 2009

« Older Entries

Focusing Inward

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

It’s interesting how like energies send their vibrations and frequencies thru the air at the same time.  I read a lovely blog by my yoga teacher friend, Barrett (http://www.fivepointsyoga.com/blog/?p=555), on a public class in Copley Square in which she taught balancing and staying focused.

water_drop_medI began teaching a restorative class 3 weeks ago at Healthworks in Cambridge.  If you’ve been there, you understand what it feels like to be a goldfish.  Yoga is in a room with a glass wall facing the fitness room.  It’s not that we feel like we’re being stared at – it’s hearing trainers loudly prod their devotee and their disciple talking back; the sound of weights and other gadgets being tossed against the glass window as their user finishes with them, and just the blur of visual activity and stimulation out there.  Then, we meditate. 

A part of being quiet during yoga is being able to translate the ‘noise’ you hear to ’sound.’  It’s less intimidating and intrusive to consider it sound, like white noise, that presents as an invitation to go even deeper into the quiet within.  The benefits of this practice in an invigorating environment is ability to stay focused amidst chaos. As Barrett said about a student learning to focus inward in yoga, “It was a good experience for her to ‘test’ out her concentration abilities outside of the bubble of the yoga studio.’

We can all go out and ‘test’ our ability to focus in this craziness called Life!

Tags: Contemplation, Self reflection
Posted in Yoga | No Comments »

Carrot Soup with North African Spices

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Adapted from Fields of Green by Annie Somerville

Carrot Soup

Cumin and coriander with a hint of red pepper leaves a warm feeling in the back of your throat.  Fresh ginger, orange juice, and red pepper flakes make this soup shine.  Sweet potato creates a silkiness and just a hint of sweet. 

 A swirl of fat-free half and half can be added if you’re not creating a vegan delight! 

 

 

Ingredients:

5 c. salt-free Frontier vegetable broth

1 T. olive oil

1 med yellow onion, thinly sliced (about 1 ½ cups)

Salt

4 small garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ t. cumin seed, toasted and ground

1 t. coriander seed, toasted and ground

1 t. red pepper flakes, toasted and ground

3 t. fresh grated ginger

2 lbs carrots, peeled and thinly sliced, about 7 cups

1 med sweet potato, thinly sliced, about 1 cup

½ c. fresh orange juice

2 T. coarsely chopped cilantro

Directions:

In a dry pan, toast the cumin and coriander seed with the red pepper flakes, set aside.  Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the onion and ½ t. salt.  Saute over medium heat until it begins to release its juices, about 5 min, then add the garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger and red pepper flakes. Cook until the onion is very soft, about 10 minutes, adding a little stock if it sticks to the pan.

Add the carrots, sweet potato, 1 t. salt and 4 c. vegetable broth.  Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until the carrots are very tender, about 15 minutes.  Puree the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth, adding 1 c. vegetable broth.  Return to the pot, add the orange juice, and thin with additional vegetable broth, if needed, to the desired consistency.  Season with salt to taste and for additional heat, a pinch or two of cayenne.  Garnish each serving with a sprinkle of cilantro.

 Makes 9 – 10 cups.

Posted in Nutrition, Recipes | No Comments »

Falling Into the Pulsation of Autumn

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Put your sweater on, take it off, then put it back on again.  Close the windows upon rising in the morning, then open them back again.  That’s the pulsation that takes us from summer to fall.  That sweet period of transition from hot and humid to dry and crisp.  From fresh butter and sugar corn, summer squash and zucchini to pumpkins, carrot soup, and apple pie.  Tree Reflection

Everything in Nature pulses – think of night ebbing away as daylight begins.  The pulse of the tides, changing seasons, the movement of our breath, our heart beating, the cycle of our thoughts and emotions.  Our mind is busy and spinning, then it’s quiet.  We consciously align our body and breath to the pulse of Nature. 

It’s in the space between the breath, our heart beats, and the quietness inside where we find peace.  That’s the place of timelessness, where sequence has no beginning and no end. Where the unfolding of everything as we know it exists.  Spanda – the pulsation of life, the throb of deep longing to know more, feel better about ourselves, enjoy our body, feel full and sated with all the gifts we’ve been given. 

We begin with the breath, just checking in with our body and mind.  Then move to the kitchen and scrape the carrots, fill the soup pot with broth, peel the sweet potato and measure out the cumin, coriander and red pepper.  We stir, in quiet, and watch supper simmer.  A piece or two of crusty bread that melts the ghee we spread on it – we sit, and eat, and enjoy the nourishment of fall.  That’s contentment.

Tags: Carrot soup, Nature
Posted in Nutrition, Yoga | No Comments »

Apples are Falling

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Green Apples in a Row

Autumn brings apples – lots of them.  Tree limbs are weighed down with a rainbow array of green Granny Smiths, red and golden delicious, deep red macoun, Jonathans, winesaps, pink lady, gala, and Arkansas black.  Abundant in the fall, they arrive just as the air is crispy and dry, and the smell of freshly baked apple pie announces the transition from summer to winter. 

In Ayurveda, apples are abundant in the fall for a reason – they move the heat of summer out of your cells in time for winter; in so doing, your immunity is higher.  You have less chance of infectious stuff like the flu and common cold.  Yet, how they are prepared before eating can have different effects – according to this thousands year old medicine system of yoga.

If you tend toward dryness – as in dry skin, dry eyes, constipation – eating a raw apple will add to the dryness.  So, cook it – core and bake apples with soothing ghee (clarified butter) and warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in the center.  Make applesauce (leave the skins on).  Cut an apple, microwave it for a couple of minutes, then top it with plain yogurt and maple syrup.

If you have a strong appetite, eat them raw.  Or with a caramel coating, like I find offered as treats in the apple orchards of New England (I can’t wait to get there).  For fun, place them in a large barrel filled with water and see who can bob for the most apples.

As they say, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  The sages have known this for years.  Grab your jacket – let’s go apple picking!

Tags: apples, applesauce, Ayurveda, caramel apples
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Museum of Negativity

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Joy is the abundant gift of life.  Yet, I was reminded this week-end of the 8th anniversary of 9/11.  I recalled the intense shock and despair felt by our country.  A few months ago, a dear friend lost her job and another friend lost his.  A month ago, I lost a friend suddenly – she was 55 years old and living in the happiest moments of her life.  My sister is struggling with her weight.  Saturday, I was honored to assist my teacher in a yoga teacher training – it was Day 1 of an year-long training.  In the 7 years since my training, I had forgotten the anxiety, self-diminishment and lack of self-confidence with which we all greet that day.

Amid the joyful days, some days are sad, painful, full of grief, fear, lack of self worth.  Those days we do not feel inclined to roll out our mat.  We have a hissy fit, resort to childlike tendencies to soothe ourselves - feeling fearful, angry, jealous, small and unworthy.  And these experiences are unpleasant.  Who are we to practice yoga at this moment? 

In Anusara, everything belongs.  We are welcomed to the mat in all of our humanity.  In the total sum of our experiences.  In the brightness and darkness, happy or sad, fearful or brave.  We are invited to just sit and feel our body; to breath and feel the aliveness of the sweet movement of our breath.  To take refuge in that flow of energetic awakening.  Through the powerful energy of the breath, we slowly feel our body move.  We step into the unbroken wholeness of our experiences. Fogg Still_Rembrandt

And, as we sit, in what I am borrowing from poet Michael Palmer ’the museum of our negativity,’ we see images, feel emotions, hear thoughts. As we continue to be quiet in that museum, we note the feelings are feelings and the thoughts are just thoughts and they become the art on the walls.  We own the experiences, we even cherish them in time, but we do not own the art.  As we feel the quiet calm of acceptance, we stand up, pick up our umbrella and coat, and walk out of the museum.

Tags: Meditation
Posted in Yoga | 2 Comments »

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