Astonishing Thirst Quenching Smoothie

Okay I just made the most thirst quenching smoothie ever.
You HAVE to try this!

1 cube** of Celery
1 cube of Spinach
1 cube of Cranberry
1 frozen apple***, thawed (only take about 15/20minutes!) cut in half, cored & squeezed into cup
1/4 cup lemonade flavored Gatorade (leftover from yesterday's workout)
~Blend really well. Its going to look disgusting and somewhat frothy but give it a try. I was surprised enough by it to tell YOU about it!

**I pre-prep most of my smoothie ingredients so I can throw them into my Bullet and go.
To prep fruit & veggies into cubes you will need an ice cube tray you don't want to use for ice anymore. This is because once you use it for spinach or kale or anything green, there will forever be a green malady on the tray even though you will scrub and scrub... anyhoo...

Trim away any parts of the veggies/fruit you deem unworthy for consumption and wash thoroughly, then chop up roughly. Shove it into your Bullet or blender, add a teensy bit of water to get the whole thing going. I usually get a tray of cubes using about 3/4 of my Bullet cup worth of blended veggies/fruit. Freeze! I store the cubes in an old mixed nuts container in the freezer so I can use the tray for the next batch.

***I mostly make cubes out of veggies - mostly because I dislike chopping, but fiberous items like Rhubarb need the extra effort and are SO worth adding to your smoothies!  Other items like apples and bananas are great to freeze whole. There is something miraculous about the freeze/thaw process that mushes the fruit pulp and releases every ounce of liquid goodness. More than you expect, I bet!
Banana Bread & Apple Crisp is so much less work with this!

The Heart Moving - a poem by Neal Goshal

The Heart Moving - a poem by Neal Goshal

Scratch your left ear with your right foot by all means

But show me how your heart moves
Stand on your head til the cows come home
Or show me a thousand different points of view
Flip flop and drop back
Another 108 sun salutes just like that,
But I’d rather know if you can meet every edge in your body with kindness
If you have the courage to uncover and tolerate the truth about yourself
And lift your neighbor across fields of muddy waters
Bending over backwards to offer out whatever you have left.

The absolute gift of breath flowing with consumate ease through every joint
The moment to moment knowledge of how each beautiful step initiates, transfers and completes
Gliding quietly and smoothly, transition after transition
The quiet grace of the wild cat
Each dawn awakening fresh and vibrant
And the night, not a collapse in a heap, but a presence to the wonderful art of resting
Liquid pouring onto the earth
Facing the end with a breathing center
And be held with great love

And turn and wonder, “My beloved, how does kindness move here?”

Neal Goshal of Sacred Moves, a New Zealand-based yoga, dance and bodywork center hosting yoga teacher trainings at Kawaipurapura in north Auckland.

The Forest, River and the Mountain

I was sent a link to this really great story on Reddit.com . I'm going to share it with you.

Inner peace comes from acceptance of what is. The bills may be looming and the miney barely trickling in, but those are simply facts, parameters of your situation. Make a plan to address them, commit to it, and move on.

Two monks are walking, and come across a destroyed wagon. The rider is beaten and bloody, and warns them of a pack of bandits in the area.
After bandaging the man, they continue on.
The younger monk says "What if the bandits come upon us?"
The elder monks replied "Surely our martial training will keep us safe" and kept walking.
The next day the younger monk asks "What if the bandits have guns and swords?"
The elder monk says "Surely our sharp minds will prevail" and kept walking.
The third day the young monk asks "What if there are so many bandits they overwhelm us?"
The elder responds "Then we shall meet our end with grace."
They arrived at the monastery that evening, and met with the high monk there.
He asked "Three days of travel, tell me what did you see?"
The younger monk says "We saw a beaten man who warned us of bandits.
I spent the whole trip with my eyes and ears strained, listening for them."
The older monk says "We walked through the Old Forest and I enjoyed the vibrant life there. We passed the Winding River, and I meditated on the fish that fight the current. We walked around the Blue Mountain and I beheld the splendors of creation."
The high monk smiles and says to the younger monk "A bandit steals gold and food. Who then stole the forest, the river and the mountain from you?"

Shape of summer

Amazing blog post from an amazing yoga teacher.

The shape of summer classes has been irregular - and though I hope to be brought on regularly by studios/facilities that appeared enthusiastic when they first brought me on, I may have to make my own classes for this fall.
I will keep you all posted as best I can: Facebook being my best resource for advertising at this time.

An Edge Worth Redefining.

I found this outstanding essay this morning, something worth reading for sure. Here's a snippet:

While the ancient texts are valuable and interesting for some, they can often be interpreted in a way that serve more to confuse and confound rather then be of any practical use. Going about the activities of ones daily life is spiritual practice. Performing asana or studying ancient texts is only so good as it helps us in the effort of living. Reality is spirituality.

An authentic practice of Hatha Yoga takes place only in the context of ones life. The process of doing an asana is indicative of the process by which we live. In a pose, there is an amount of working the body that, with the breath, is appropriate in the given moment. The asana, and its benefit, will come about gradually without any injury or negative repercussion. If one is doing more then enough, the body will strain, the mind will tense, and the desired result is actually impeded. If one is doing less then enough, little or no action takes place. The same is true in Life. There is an amount of doing: jobs, apartments, relationships, all the things we do to make Life what we want it to be. There is also an amount of not doing, of just leaving it alone and not trying to make it any different then it already is. When we can find the balance between doing and not doing, Life is progressing and we are able to enjoy the endeavor. Some days you do more, some days you do less. It all depends on how you are feeling and what is happening in your life situation. “Advanced” practice is having the awareness to determine when enough is enough.

I cannot agree more - in fact, I was having a conversation online with members of my World of Warcraft guild about the recent success I had just yesterday teaching at the local Lululemon.
(Yup, I play WoW.)  One fellow described how he wasn't very good at all because his hamstrings are chronically tight and painful. I told him that pain is a warning, and that any instructor worth beans would encourage him to be gentle in any area prone to chronic injury, and that it is vital that HE HIMSELF not do anything to hurt himself. You can't put responsibility for your own body in someone else's hands - they can guide you, but if you are not ready to climb the mountain, then don't. You are the one in power.

I then described the idea of playing with one's edge - the place where stretch of exertion works right at the edge of your limits but not pushing past it into pain. Dabbling along the edge is where we seek growth past our current boundaries, but to maintain integrity of the whole, you must still care and defend them. Those edges are not just contained in our physical world but also emotional and mental.
I reminded him that he is not deficient as a person because of the limitations of his hamstrings - and while he LOLed, it is something that I have seen too often among my peers on the mat, practitioners who get down on themselves for not being able to do this or that pose. The same struggle happens with people getting motivated to workout or be active - they get down on themselves for not doing it before and so they feel bad and don't get themselves out the door at all. It too is an edge worth redefining.

So I encouraged him to seek a teacher in his city that he trusts (because one simply cannot assess somebody over WoW chat),  and reminded him to be gentle with himself and his body as he explores new territory.

Safe journeys!

Words to a fellow hooper, teacher and friend

Its no accident that this "revolving" that we do changes us, and how we interact with the world. We are evolving, we are growing, dreaming and doing. It is part of that great circle - as one part moves into the light, another retreats in shadow.

Stay in the center of the circle
and let all things take their course
-Lao Tzu-

Swadharma

Some great thoughts from Kate Mak, teacher at Yoga Santosha.

One of the biggest lessons I continue to learn for myself is letting go. As
many can relate, this is not easy and sometimes we would rather accept
living in states of extreme emotions such as fear, sadness, anxiety, anger,
disappointment and so many more than to let go.
Swadharma – the next right step.
No matter how many missteps you take… one, five, ten, hundreds,
thousands… the next step you take can be the right one. Do not worry
yourself about the past. Perhaps, you embarrassed yourself in acting in a way
that was unlike you. Perhaps, you said something in a situation that you did
not mean to say. Perhaps, you continue to hold yourself in the harshest of
judgments. It does not matter… swadharma… the next step you take, it can
be the right step and that is all that matters. Even if you stumble back, as
we will, do not be discouraged and continue with swadharma.
The yoga practice helps, your friends help, your family helps, your
community helps and deep in your heart of hearts… you know you are
capable and deserving of the next right step.