“This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
― Dalai Lama XIV
“This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
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"Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further."
-Rainer Maria Rilke In life, joyful experiences move us easily to create beautiful things. When we have painful experiences, we can turn them into beauty also. We do not have to be limited by our sorrows. Many of you can probably see that my theme for the past week is learning to accept change and letting go of attachments that prevent us from moving forward. I have felt that this is something many of us are dealing with during this time of year as our bodies and minds prepare for the change in the seasons. Today I am going to share my recipe for mango coconut rice, which is a rejuvenative and healing recipe. Coconut milk soothes inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract and mango contains enzymes that aid digestion. This is a recipe that I ate during the rejuvenation week after my cleanse. Cleansing and rejuvenation helps us to let go of physical and emotional toxins so we can embrace the new season and all it has to offer us. The ingredients you need to make this are: -2 mangoes (see photos below) -1 cup of rice cooked in 2 cups coconut milk -4 pinches cardamom -4 pinches cinnamon -2 pinches nutmeg -2 handfuls of shredded coconut -ghee Directions: 1. Cook rice in coconut milk. I recommend melting about 1 tablespoon of ghee in a pot then adding the 1 cup rice and stirring to coat. 2. Add the 2 cups coconut milk, coconut, and spices to the ghee-coated rice. Bring to a boil. 3. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed. 4. While rice is cooking, cut mango into squares (directions below). 5. Just before all the rice is done, add the mango to the pot and stir it in. 6. This tasty dish will be ready when the rice has absorbed all the coconut milk. Place one hand on top of the mango to hold it in place. No fingers on your non-cutting hand should be anywhere but the top! Cut horizontally along the top of the mango pit to remove the top half of the fruit. It may take some practice to get used to finding the pit with the knife. If you start to cut and feel resistance, you are too close to the pit. ©2013 Michelle Dexter
"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."
-Anais Nin People often suffer because we refuse to acknowledge that change is an essential part of life. Just as the beaver must cut down trees to make its home, so we must also be willing to let go of some things we love in order to move forward to new levels of joy. Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction.
-E.O. Wilson Today I am going to write about the Ayurvedic approach to exercise. In America we tend to think of exercise as something rather unpleasant. It is something we do because it is good for us, and we don't tend to consider an activity as being exercise unless it feels like hard work. If we are breathless, highly sweaty, and miserable, then we must be getting a good workout...right?
Wrong. When we exercise, we should be working with our bodies and not trying to beat them into submission. Exercising is something that our bodies are built to enjoy. Our bodies are built to walk, lift, climb, dance, and sprint. Looking at our ancestors and their lifestyles, we can see what we are built to do. Hunters walked great distances to track animals, sometimes sprinting to catch them. Humans are not built for marathon running. Our ancestors built endurance through a lifestyle that included physical movement from a young age. When we exercise, we should also be building endurance gradually, which naturally occurs as we listen to our bodies. As children, we cannot instantly climb trees. We try again and again, each time getting a little bit higher. We develop our skills as children by listening to our bodies and trusting the messages they give us. As adults we develop the fear that our bodies limit us. We view our bodies as enemies that we must control through disciplined workout programs. We usually do this to maintain some type of physical image rather than just to be healthy. What if we just exercised because it was fun? The disconnect between mind and body is our first problem with the way we exercise. If we are not being kind to our body, how can we expect it to do what we want? When we are working out and begin to breathe through our mouths, our body is telling us we need to slow down. We often ignore this message, thinking we need to push to improve. This abuse of our physical body creates stress, which triggers the release of hormones that limit our physical function and work against our fitness goals. When we exercise, we should be patient with ourselves. We are not going to stop ourselves from improving if we don't push hard. Our bodies develop endurance with slight increases each time we exercise. We don't have to make ourselves hate exercise in order for it to be beneficial. We don't need to run miles each day to be healthy. Each person naturally is suited to different types of exercise, and by respecting our natural talents, we can begin to enjoy exercise and look forward to it. Vata type people have smaller framed bodies and less endurance. They will enjoy dancing because they love music, sprinting because they are light and quick, and light weight training because it is grounding. Pitta types have a natural heat that makes them enjoy winter and water sports and swimming. These types are also highly competitive and will become imbalanced if they engage in too many solitary sports like tennis or martial arts. Kapha types naturally have high endurance and large muscles, so of all the types these are the most suited for marathon running. However, being dominated by earth, Kapha types want exercise with a purpose. They are very social and tend to enjoy team activities and exercise classes. All types can benefit from Yoga, as long as Pitta types stay away from hot Yoga. Many studies have been done comparing the health benefits of walking to running and weight training programs, and comparing Yoga to other exercise programs. In one study, researchers found stress markers indicating heart attack conditions in marathon runners. Another study found that walking was just as beneficial as a medical fitness program including weight training for preventing heart disease and complications from type 2 diabetes. In order to exercise effectively, Ayurveda teaches us that we should be able to breathe in and out through the nose. If we must breathe through the mouth, our body is going into emergency mode and we should slow down, take a break, or stop. Exercise can be any movement we enjoy. It doesn't have to be an hour at an indoor gym doing a weight training or cardiovascular circuit. It can be gardening, yard work, home renovations, hiking, walking, or dancing in your kitchen. Look for activities you like to do and exercise will be fun instead of just a "workout". Since this is a blog and not a research article, I have given information without citations. If anyone is interested in the research studies I discuss, feel free to ask me for the references and I can provide them. I can be reached at [email protected]. I am writing today about a way to rethink the way we shop for food. In this country, the norm for grocery shopping has become this: people make a list, then go to one store or more to find the items on that list. Often, people become angry if the store is out of items. This anger arises out of an expectation that the grocery store should always be in stock on every item. We spend emotional energy running from store to store to check off all the items on our list. We also spend money and fuel to get to all these different places.
Now this new norm of shopping completely ignores the actual factors contributing to our food supply. These factors include crop shortages due to droughts, blights, and flooding. There are also issues that can arise as the strawberries we have come to expect year-round on the grocery store shelves are on their way to the Eastern US in winter from Mexico or California. Truck drivers have accidents, get stuck in traffic, and run into bad weather. There is also the consideration of the huge amount of fuel required to fill our insatiable needs for year-round supplies of foods that are out of season in our area. By ignoring the cycles of food that we are given from nature, we miss out on the gift of seasonal eating. What would happen if we decided to turn grocery shopping on its head? What if we just looked at what was available from our local farms or stores and then decided what foods we would make for the week? This type of seasonal eating is the basis of an Ayurvedic diet. Nature gives us the foods we need to balance during each season. Winter squashes provide us with warming and grounding in the cold months, while bitter spring greens help our bodies to clear out congestion from the winter. When we approach shopping by allowing our meals to be guided by the food supply, we also open ourselves up to creative experiences cooking and tasting new dishes. Today, I went to the Waverly Market in Baltimore seeking leeks. What I found was even better! I found local scallions grown at Big City Farms. Big City Farms is an urban farming group that appropriates blighted urban lots to grow food for local schools and businesses using sustainable methods. I am passionate about supporting these efforts because they improve the environmental and air quality of the city and empower local farmers. I believe that these types of urban farms are also crucial to teaching urban children about what it means to eat whole foods. I would like to thank the guys at Big City Farms for letting me photograph them for this blog, as well as for playing such an important role in revitalizing our community. I am not a fanatic. I want to be clear that I understand that winter offers slim pickings in terms of fresh produce. That is when we can take advantage of freezing and canning! I will buy mangoes now and then. Fanaticism about anything creates stress, which is just as unhealthy as anything else fanatics are usually trying to avoid. However, I do create my weekly meal plans according to what I see at the market, and I feel lucky to live in a city where local farmers have greenhouses and there is a year-round outdoor market! We should all support these local growers who are enriching our city and making our dinners more tasty. "As the lotus leaf floats above the water, so [man] flowers above the world of his birth." -Ravidas
My post-cleanse rejuvenation is almost done! I have been taking my herbs for nerve and digestive support, I have contined to eat mostly vegetables, and I have had my grape juice drink or date shake daily. An unintended consequence of this cleanse has been that I have lost enough weight that all my clothes are now too big. I have no intentions of keeping it off, but I will continue to eat healthy foods and let my body adjust to the weight it wants to be. It is normal for people to gain about 10 pounds in winter, so possibly my body shed its "winter coat" with this cleanse! I have gotten many requests to continue my blog, so I am going to transition it to different topics in Ayurveda: health topics, spiritual wisdom, recipes, healing herbs, new research, meditations and the like. Today I am going to talk about a famous Indian poet who wrote devotional verses. Ravidas was a poet in Benares, India who lived during the 15th or 16th century (records are not clear). He was born into the untouchable caste and became a leatherworker, which was generally considered to be a polluting job by strict Hindus. Despite his low-caste position, Ravidas became a renowned poet and singer, respected even by members of the priestly caste. Today he is considered a saint. The poems of Ravidas provide insight and inspiration to people worldwide. We can learn much from his poetry and his life. No matter what the obstacles may be, follow your heart to its truth. This mandala was made tonight by myself and my graduating wellness coaches! For our graduation ceremony, we chant while making a mandala of dried grains and beans. Each time I do this ceremony, I am amazed at how we all work together without speaking to one another. Each time a distinctly beautiful creation is the result.
The mandala is a lesson in impermanence. Traditionally, Buddhist monks will make elaborate mandalas from colored sand, then sweep them away when they are finished. This lesson teaches us to enjoy what we have while it is there, but not to hold on too tightly because things change. Nothing is permanent, but that doesn't mean we cannot find joy in temporary occurances. In our class, we shake the mandala to the center of the cloth on which it was constructed. Then we divide up the mixed beans and grains for everyone to take home. This way, everyone gets to make mandala soup with the foods we all blessed through chanting. It is a ceremony that leaves me feeling joyful every time I do it. Thank you to all my lovely students: past, present, and future! Today was a strange day. School was closed and the federal government too, so everyone was home in our house. Closed for snow, but we had no snow to speak of here in Baltimore. I had planned to visit the Buddhist stupas at KPC peace park in Frederick with my friend, Dana, but Mother Nature had other plans for us. Instead, we made multigrain pancakes for breakfast and Dana came over to enjoy them with us. It was a very relaxing morning, which drew into afternoon with three of us talking and playing with the dogs. I drank my grape juice with cardamom, saffron, and ginger this morning instead of the date shake.
Dana brought over a piece of key lime pie (not the typical kind) which was made with dates, almonds, coconut, avocado, maple syrup, and lime...perfect! All the foods I am eating for my rejuvenation! I did eat that with lunch and it was delicious! I am going to share the recipe I made for dinner tonight, which was amazing! It is best with a wild rice that is sweet and nutty. Wild Rice with Sweet Potato and Cranberries Ingredients: -wild rice -1 yellow onion -3 leaves sage -1 sprig rosemary -1 large sweet potato -3 handfuls dried cranberries -1 clove garlic -ghee or butter -iodized salt -extra virgin olive oil -2 tablespoons vegetable broth Preparation: Cook wild rice according to directions. Each type has its own ratio of water to rice. Add salt and 1 tablespoon ghee or butter. Cut sweet potato into approximately 1-inch squares. Dice onion. Chop sage. Chop garlic. Cooking: 1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. 2. Add garlic and onion. Sautée until onion is soft. 3. Add sage and cranberries. Stir to coat cranberries with oil. 4. Add sweet potato and stir to coat them with oil before adding the vegetable broth. 5. Stir to moisten everything with the broth. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring halfway through. 6. When sweet potatoes are soft enough to pierce easily with a fork, it is done. 7. Serve over wild rice. |