Warm and spiced winter foods help to open the airways, for example. A plain vegie broth made from winter staples and greens (spinach, kale, silverbeet, rainbow chard, beetroot beet-top leaves, and in particular, cauliflower and celery, makes ideal sipping to help clear mucous. Citrus fruit is a great mucous liquidator, so pick a plump winter grapefruit for breakfast, and squeeze winter’s lemons and limes into drinking water.

On those weary days, when you feel like staying put and bundling yourself into a woolly jumper and bed socks, try this excellent restorative tea from food-for-healing expert, Sam Gowing. You can feel it hugging you from the inside after everysip.

Sam Gowing’s Restorative Beet-Top Tea

Ingredients:

1 bunch of beet tops (the leafy, red-stalked end of beetroot)

2 stalks lemongrass

1 large piece of ginger

Handful Vietnamese mint leaves

Kaffir lime leaves (crunched)

Method:

Blanch the washed leaves and stems for 5 minutes in boiling water. Add lemongrass, minced ginger and mint leaves. Reduce heat, simmer gently for 30 minutes. Strain and sip as a restoring tea.

You are here.

And we’re all familiar with the self-imposed lunch moratorium. Even though that midday break is a legal clause in your employment contract, it is easily thrown away. It’s also disrespectful to treat the dear body this way, given the optimum role we expect it to perform daily. Lunch is the body’s essential right to “rest and digest”, the mind’s opportunity to clear and reframe. The afternoon can be a fresh, more energised one, if we allow it.

At my part-time job, everyone eats at their desks. There is no lunch room. The stale air is filled with workers’ exasperated sighs and weary faces.  I eat at my desk too, in my 30min break. Then, I whisk myself outside, no matter what the weather. No errands. No particular direction. I keep my mind clear, detaching purposefully from the centrifugal force of thought, to observe the world like some theatre performance to which only I am privy. On return, I feel alert, revived and immediately switched on.

For health’s sake, take a mindful lunch break for a week and see how much easier work is to negotiate.

Learn to:

• identify stress & dissolve it
  

  Peace: It’s all in your mind…

• break the stress habit
• stop mental churning
• develop resilience for Life’s curve balls
• create appropriate responses to challenges
• deep relaxation, for health’s sake

3 main causes of Stress

1. your DNA

2. External influence

3. Internal influence

When you know the origin of your stress, you can begin to dissolve it.

3 true ways to Relax

Find out how, by joining us on a Mindfulness journey. Bring peace, presence and relaxation to daily life.

Here is what past participants say:

 ”The course helps you not only to relax, but provides clarity of mind and shows how to undo the negative programming of the mind built up over a lifetime.”

Richard, academic

”This  course was a wonderful introduction to mindfulness & relaxation techniques. Within the first week I was already catching myself rushing or stressing when it was just not necessary, but an obvious habit.  I now feel more equipped to handle the every day ups & downs with calmness and clarity.”

Julia, Osteopath

BOOK NOW: Lisa 0409 473 162 or info@yogamewell.com.au

When: Wednesdays, from 15 May

Time: 7:00pm-8:15pm

Where: Amber Healing Centre, 599 Dandenong Rd, Malvern

Cost: 185

Here is the current list. Is your health fund on it?

If not, why not give them a call? Look how many funds now realise that people who care about their long-term health are worth supporting.

Health Funds Offering Rebates for Yoga – April 2013

This is not Denise; but she looks like she could be!

Denise is a straight shooter: down-to-earth, a great sense of humour. When she told me she’d been anointed Bowls Club Champion, I knew she would bring as much focus to her bowls as she does to her yoga practice. Her secret weapon? Grounding practice. With yoga on her side – her opposition doesn’t stand a chance.

We spend so much time in our heads that we lose our connection to Mother Earth.  When grounded, we stand taller, which brings a physical sense of strength and foundation, emotional reassurance that we can cope, and mental clarity as we stand above confusion to take in the overview. We’re less easily swayed by the changeability of the day.  Try it.

Stand up.  Close your eyes.

Bend your knees a little.  Feel the weight of your body pool into your ankles and feet. Notice how the weight is distributed – more to the front, sides or heels? Find centre.

Gently straighten your knees, keeping your mind in your feet, grounded.

With shoulders and arms perfectly relaxed, lift tall through the very tip of your head.

Notice all the space in between.  And how you breath more easily, more openly.

Ah; that’s better.

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/dfb_photos/

“When this project finishes… When I go on holiday … When Gemma exits her teens … When the mortgage is lower …Then I’ll be happy”.

When-Then scenarios create that irksome feeling of straining to reach a far-away place, don’t they.

Take a moment right now to linger in the Present.

When we realise that in this moment, everything is ok – you’re safe, warm, well fed, a roof over your head, you have eyes that see, legs that walk – and set free gnawing thoughts of future “what-if” and past “I-wish-had” scenarios, those feelings dissipate.   It can be a mighty weight lifted when you suspend yourself in Present time.

Allow the next 5 minutes to unfold in front of you as though each task and person were before you for the very first time; especially the thing that most tries your patience! It’s why early childhood is such a wonder-full time. Children understand the joys of being Present.

You’ve heard it before: the definition of Peace is accepting Life as it is, not as we wish it to be. Presence and Peace are true friends.  May you cultivate them with ease.

Add boiling water and steep a few minutes.  Drink on an empty stomach and wait another 15 minutes before eating breakfast.

Benefits: Cleanses your digestive tract and kick-starts your digestive fire for the day. It also stimulates bowel movements.  If you are menopausal, or have too excess body heat, ease-up on the ginger (slice instead of grate, or use none at all).

 
Tip: Cold drinks before/during meals cool/contract your digestion.  We need to heat to cook, and your body needs heat, or “fire”, to digest.

More time here please…

The ancients drew a bold circle around 21 December (the Mayan, Egyptian and Inca calendars, seers like Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce). You can choose between the doomsayers’’ “apocalypse!” prediction, or the uplifting take that humankind is set to up-end its evil ways and raise consciousness sky-high.

Life, as we know it, is changing

The signs are everywhere: we’re working to save the planet, greedy institutions have collapsed, technology allows the global Group Hug, yoga is on every street corner. A crescendo of depression, heart disease and obesity shows people fighting to find purpose, love and meaning in life. Some of us have to bottom-out before gliding up.

Create the year-end you deserve

If you’ve succumbed to the thunderous gallop toward Christmas that leaves you feeling lead-heavy and brain-numb, if it’s all chaos and guitar-strung nerves, take 5 mins today to imagine how you’d like year-end to be and take small steps toward that outcome. As one of my luminous teachers says: “If you don’t have 5 mins for yourself, who is running your life?”.

Have those conversations about limiting or increasing the number of pre-Christmas catch-ups you’ll have; about consolidating (or alternating bi-annually) the number of families visited on special days; about excessive gift-buying (limit the spend per person; nominate 1 gift per family member, get the whole family to give to Sacred Heart; write what you appreciate about each other); or consider going your own way and creating the connections you need if family time brings more harm than good.

Reflect. . .

Above all, make time (by the beach, at a café, in the St Kilda Botanical gardens, a night walk) to reflect on this busy year past – what worked, what didn’t, what needs to change? – and look forward to living the life you intend.

At the November Gawler Conference, Profound Healing: Sustainable Wellbeing, here is what folks on the cancer journey say becomes startlingly clear:

• Importance of Me Time, Free Time, We Time (intimacy)
• Importance of family, friends, loved ones
• To be more expressive of feelings
• Listen to body and respond
• Rekindle enthusiasm and passion for life
• Slow down and live in present
• Contact with Nature
• More fun lightness and humour
• More peace, develop spirituality

May you enjoy good company, lightness of heart and a relaxed, happy time this summer.

If Life is wearing you out, or you’re ready to deepen your existing yoga practice, Yoga Me Well’s classes are a small, safe, friendly environment in which to explore yoga in a reflective way.  We move slowly, breath matched to movement. We take time to pause, feel and reflect on what bubbles up during class, so we move into the week open to observe behaviours more consciously.  Deep rest is an essential part of each class to restore you.

Reserve your spot, or trial class, now.  With only 9 people per class, places fill quickly.

I’ll look forward to sharing this wonderful, progressive inner practice with you.

See the side bar for more information or click here.

For more specific information on Term 4, read on.                                                                                                                                                                                                

Term 4 ~ Reflections on Light

To keep your practice fresh & engaging, we’ll begin by asking: “Are we allowing our Life potential to greet us?”,  in line with the growth energies of Spring. Then we’ll head into Surya Namaskar, Salute to the Sun, to begin embodying the qualities of Light that inspire, nourish & strengthen us as we seek greater clarity & connection to our inner Light. Toward the end of term, there will be a stronger focus on relaxation/visualisation/meditative practice to replenish year-weary bodies and minds.

Australia’s thousands of yoga practitioners are listening  ̶  to body, breath and mind  ̶  for better health. According to RMIT’s 2006 Yoga in Australia survey of 4,000 practitioners, many “self-prescribed” yoga to address specific health issues such as back pain and stress management.  But with the number of osteopaths tripling in Australia between 1996 and 2006 according to Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data, plenty of us still seek intervention for issues that might be managed through lifestyle change.

There’s loads to be learned from sitting with discomfort  ̶  I don’t mean dribbling sleeplessly into the pillow with toothache, or enduring a javelin-behind-the-eye headache  ̶  I mean the familiar pains of office-induced back aches, stiff necks, tension headaches, irritable bowels, tired vision, RSI.

I had a physiotherapist of spectacular patience ‘release’ me as his client because he could no longer support my tension headache habit (what did I expect, working 15-hour days?).  But one day, a chiropractor (and provocative philosopher), suggested I “sit” with the all-consuming clump gripping my spine, for one week. Mysteriously, the knot morphed, then softened. I began observing the shadows of countless back/knee/neck/head/gut pains moving through my physical landscape. My costly reliance on health professionals dropped away. I’d spent adulthood as a strung-out worker bee landing on one practitioner’s table before buzzing off to the next.

Talk about Revelation.  When I actually sat with my dis-ease and learned my body’s language, each discomfort signalled a collapse under stress, underpinned by some errant belief system  ̶  “If you work hard enough, you’ll find purpose in life”; “You’re only interesting because of your job”.

Beneath my tension headaches was a perfectionist slaving rabidly for acknowledgement in the iron-eating media machine. Chronic tiredness was remedied by more protein, lighter exercise and fresh air.

Lower back instability and a plague of boils unleashed the anger suppressed in a toxic relationship. Chronic RSI became the antidote to undue angst over money while freelancing.

One night, while teaching back-to-back yoga classes, my gut squirmed in an entirely new way. My body whispered calmly: “Cancel the next the class.” And I did. Within hours, I was in hospital with appendicitis.

By listening to my body’s language, I’ve been able to manage my health largely with diet and yoga, seeking advice from savvy health practitioners when necessary.

But perhaps the most valuable lesson came from my dear mentor and friend, Marie-Therese, who, after 11 years of studying the body-speak of her breast, lung and bone cancer, taught me that despite all discomfort, vitality can be found in every day. Marie-Therese simply focused on what was going right, not what was wrong.

Sure, there’s pain you can’t ignore, and drugs are useful for that, sometimes you need a break to catch your breath. But if you observe closely familiar discomfort, and even chronic pain, it can dissipate when we explore whatever load we’re carrying and start to engage with Life in a meaningful way.

READ THESE YET?

Back in Action, Sarah Key – Aussie specialist shares excellent back-care knowledge for beginners.

You Can Heal Your Life, Louise L. Hay – beginner’s guide to moving beyond physical causes to heal.

Ageless Body Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra – ditto, but more technical & scientific.

Why People Don’t Heal & How They Can, Caroline Myss – exploring your energy systems to heal.