My Take: What Would a Mystic Do?

New Venue!

2012-01-23T14:02:00.001-05:00

Hello Mystic Subscribers! I am happy to be at the beginning of this New Year 2012 and share with you a new link for finding The Mystic. I'll be blogging from a WordPress site that has more options for me and better opportunities to connect with more content for you.

Click here > Subscribe to Yokibics Way by Email > if you would like to continue receiving my Blog Post via Email.

I look forward to more opportunities to converse, dialog and play together!
Namaste,
Gael

Pain as a Path to Insight

2011-12-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has ever suffered knows the challenge of finding meaning in the pain. Initially we seek a cause - we blame others - we blame ourselves - we blame inanimate objects or God. It must be someone's fault. Ow!! Once we get tired of that, we resign, man up, bear with it, or get going trying to alleviate the pain without ever recognizing the gift of it's presence - and there is a gift...always a gift underneath.

There is a way to relate to the energy of pain that is far more effective - one that increases our abilities and gives clear meaning to our experience. This interactive workshop will explore the yogic path of the nature of pain as a path to insight.

“Once one has committed to wholeness, all that is not that will step forward to be healed” says the Mystic.

Whether your own experience is with physical, emotional or psychic pain, you can learn new skills and open to insights that offer a clear framework for transformation. If that sounds too esoteric, just think of an ice cube melting into a puddle of water. It is not a mystery because we can observe and understand it.

All energy that is frozen in time and space can be refreshed with the warmth of new light, and that includes pain.

The gift of pain is insight, and we will shift the paradigm of mindless pain relief to one of keeping the baby while throwing out the bath water. You will come away with new and powerful insights for yourself and the world around you.

This is the essence of trauma therapy no matter how big or how small the event. No one is left out of the grace of relief - it's built into the framework as part of your energetic anatomy.

Welcome!

For more information and to register for the day at Yoga Polarity Center in Malverne Long Island, contact Lizzie Ferrara at mzliz@aol.com or call 917-288-6162.

Author and Yoga Therapist Gael Chiarella Alba ERYT is founder of The Yokibics Way and blogs on the topic throughout these posts and at www.yokibics.com.

Please tell your New York friends about this opportunity...Give yourself or a friend this gift of freedom and join us.

Namaste with love...
Gael

Occupy Your Heart in Times of Change

2011-10-21T07:30:00.004-04:00

I'm in the process of planning a Flow with the Yoga of Emotional Freedom workshop for this Saturday (can you meet me in NY for some fun stuff? :) The content is specific to folks who want to connect their yoga mat work to the bigger picture of their feelings and the emotional flows that go with them.

Even as I plan something local, I've been avidly observing the global experience of the Occupy movement starting with Wall Street. I got to recognizing how many of us are starting to pop out of the numbness that our social - economic - political situation has engendered, and we're finding a voice for what ails us.

Whether you're active with the Occupy movement in person, sharing news posts, considering issues that will be coming to a vote, or taking private new steps with life challenges, it is truly empowering to consider current events - as with all events - through the lens of the energetic body system.

Principle centered and practical, one of the first tenets we work with is "as within, so too without."

So let's start with what's going on within.

Have you read the statistics about depression lately??

At least 1 in 10 adults in the US suffers from it says the Centers for Disease Control in their 2011 report - and another 1 in 10 from anxiety. Meanwhile 54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness. That just makes it worse, don't you think?

And check this out - as far back at 2002, the economic burden of mental illness (defined as sustained abnormal alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior associated with distress and impaired functioning) in the United States was substantial—about $300 billion in 2002, with a prediction that nearly 50% of U.S. adults will develop at least one mental illness during their lifetime.

As for the rest of us, according to the World Health Organization, mental illness results in more disability in developed countries than any other group of illnesses, including cancer and heart disease.

Yikes!

The destructive effects of mental illnesses include disruptions of daily function, incapacitating personal, social, and occupational impairment, and premature death. The most common mental illnesses in adults are anxiety and mood disorders.

Well that's sobering, isn't it?

Does that add up to a healthy situation for any of us?

Movement is happening though, and I see the possibility of tremendously positive outcomes. Energy anatomy follows a specific pathway. Watch for yourself and see if you start to notice more and more people changing from the 2nd chakra frame of reference so many have been in (one in which we have gotten sooo tired of caring about things we feel powerless to change that we sink into a general state of apathy) into 5th chakra territory where we collectively learn to find our voice.

The voice itself can be an angry one, but by no means does it need to be. The movement of lifeforce energy expresses through a systematic framework that is predictable if it is allowed to flow. With conscious attention to the 5th chakra of the voice, and to the emotion of anger itself, we can translates that impulse into strong boundaries and the knowledge that "where there's a will there's a way."

This is exactly how, and why, peaceful demonstration works - the kind that was intended by Occupy Wall Street from the start. The more we demonstrate our will to find a way - whatever the way might be - the more energy we are able to access for movement and change.

More energy = more life force and less depression.

The list of nuts and bolts and details of what that looks like isn't here yet. The fact is, there is no specific need to know - nor should there be. That will result from the experience itself and will be discerned as time goes on.

This is good news for everybody, no matter which side of the issue you're on at the moment.

Finding a voice requires upward movement in the energy body, from becoming conscious of having a choice in the first place at the first chakra level, to discovering the power of oneness at the seventh. Onward we go through chakras 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 - ideally arriving at the sacred gift of the seventh as we grapple with the issues each represents along the way.

No matter who we are and what the issue, the flow that moves through the emotions is a sequence that goes something like this ...

Chakra 1 - Belief. What do I believe? Am I strong? Helpless? Supported? Do I feel capable? Do I have a choice?

Chakra 2 - Relating. How can I care properly for myself and those I love? Does my caring matter? Am I burned out from relating to situations with no hope of an honest return and therefore succumb to apathy?

Chakra 3 - Self Knowledge. What do I need to let go of?

(You'll notice with the Occupy Movement that one of the things we hear about is the need to let go of is shame - shame of failure - shame at being one of the 99% - shame in the feeling that there is nothing you can do against the Goliath of corporate greed.) This is classic 3rd chakra territory, and the antidote is nothing less than self-empowerment.

Chakra 4 - Faith. Exploring the heart of the matter. We move from fear to a faith in something different.

Chakra 5 - Will. Finding our voice, creating stronger boundaries, accessing our willpower, and aligning our will to a higher purpose.

(I believe this is where the general movement of the group consciousness is at the moment. We aren't sure yet what that looks like exactly. The time for specifics - for knowledge and thought comes after a strong heart and a willingness to act in the direction of something greater.)

Chakra 6 - Insight, plain and simple. Where are we going? What new processes are being created? What's our guiding light? Now is the time that successful plans are made, after the inspirations of heart and voice and action...

Last - and by no means least -

Chakra 7 - Grace. We are open to the inspiration of light and love in whatever way is "the best possible result for all concerned."

Just to note - no matter what your preference is on the different variations of the American Pledge of Allegiance (see Wikipedia) they do each end with the words "with liberty, and justice for all."
all concerned.

all.

Apparently there's been a bit of a disagreement on what that looks like....

So what have we here?

Nothing short of the impulse to move - not just our own consciousness, but the consciousness of an entire culture from disenfranchised to hopeful, active and connected, with the 7th chakra's "best possible result for all concerned" as the guiding light running the show - if we allow it, for it needs our permission in order to succeed.

The process of life engagement that moves through this built in mechanism called energy anatomy is a natural consequence of living, and noone is exempt. One can simply allow, or disallow, the flow. We each have the ability to move through our very own specific energetic system, and somehow, without even having to understand, when the energy is moving freely it will feel right.

As far as Occupiers are concerned, although many are calling to them for a coherent statement of purpose, seeing through the vantage point of the energetic body we can answer the question "what do they want" very clearly.

It is not just a thing, or an idea, or dollars and cents, which is a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

What "they want" - what we all want - is a way of being that exudes new possibilities.

What is wanted is an experience.

Now depending on your circumstances and where your thoughts about Occupy are concerned, this is either good news or bad news :)

If things have been looking honkey-dory for you and you didn't see that strife was happening all around you, then this kind of movement might not be such good news. But if you have noticed - if you've seen that change was needed - was required - then this is your lucky day.

Either way, just keep the highest principles of the best result for all concerned in the forefront of your mind while we get there.

Now I offer to you my own heartfelt best - If you are a leader, a mover, a shaker, a teacher, an influencer of others and you want to experience the practical and powerful framework of Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom in person with me, I invite you to look into the 6-month Yokibics Deep Dive Program in both New York and Pennsylvania beginning this November. These are exciting times and this is incredibly inspiring work.

Until then -

Blessings and namaste,
Gael

The Language of Emotional Freedom

2011-10-08T13:09:00.000-04:00

I came across this wonderful pledge on facebook through the razzlesdazzles page. Do check out the site for more of the same! All those shares he gets are "not for nothin'"

Not only is this a great message for it's powerful content - take a long quiet breath on that one - in addition it's a literal primer in the use of conscious language.

When I teach the topic of emotional genius, I draw from an innovative series of principles including conscious language - a skill that anyone can pick up once the ears are attuned. I notice words and the way we use them, and the way they hook into our emotional body - the very seat of our powers and passions.

Can words key us into issues of health and disease? You bet!

The words "I choose" are critical to the health of First Chakra territory - physically, emotionally, spiritually - the works. The physical landscape is the base of the body, hips, pelvis, feet, and the legs upon which we stand.

The emotions we invoke through the words "I choose" give us a solid place to make a stand - to plant our flag with consciousness and choice.

Therefore the gift of power we receive through the words "I choose" is the power of consciousness.

To become conscious of oneself - to recognize one's own guiding beliefs - to bring them forward to be newly regarded and committed to OR to be thrown aside, reformed and renewed - this is what makes a human being a being in alignment with his source information...

...and THIS is the basis of health.

When we spend any part of our life in reactivity rather than in choice, we are leaking energy like a sieve. Stop the leaks and you will have more useful lifeforce at your command than all the 5-hour energy drinks you can stand. (Ditto the coffee my loves :)

Just for today, use the words "I choose" in any situation you encounter. See what comes up and notice if you are in alignment with what that is.

Then take a walk or do some yoga, all the while being aware of your choices and conscious of their effects. Get active with your thoughts, words and actions - then get going with all of your parts heading in the same direction and you'll be well on your way to better health all around.

Let me know how it goes.

PS - For more information see Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom, join us in New York for a Workshop on October 22, or consider joining an online Spiritual Warrior group coming soon. I love this work! You will too.

Blessings to all,

Gael

Are you dealing with negativity much?

2011-09-09T09:35:00.000-04:00

Do you have many joy killers in your life? You know, the kind of folks who just can't get with the program that life IS a gift even when they have to make up the fun parts?

What emotion do you think runs their circuits so that in the end these people wind up moaning that every solution has a problem...that happiness looks bleak...that your helpful insight is faulty, or that your parade is headed in the wrong direction? What maddening energy makes them tick?

They might routinely reflect the pain of living. Perhaps they have a perplexing need to focus on the shadow side of everything. Maybe "whateva" is their old favorite catchphrase. Perhaps it's worse than that, and you have become sick and tired of putting up with them.

Some say they are sad - others apathetic, but to me rather than blaming pain, grief, fear or apathy, negativity occurs in the anger band of emotion.

Here we have a variation on a theme:
"I'm pissed and I'm gonna show it by acting out or not-acting...."

"The world is unfair. I have a right to be negative."

"I'm so done here but I have to stay...and that's why I'm so miserable."
"The world is full of donutholes."

Same difference.

It is all ANGER causing a person to create a boundary against the "unfairness" or whatever other term they like to use, and it is the best they know how to be, with little emotional recourse to be otherwise. Anger can either cause boundaries against the flow of life, or get you to make a change - and you get to choose which it will be when you become conscious of what is needed.

What Would a Mystic Do??

Each emotion is stimulated in a different area of the human bodymind. Although all emotion can seem to be a mystery that arises from within, each is quite distinct and quite systematic in the way it stimulates a whole series of very specific energetic responses. You can pinpoint areas of the body, internal functions, descriptive words and phrases we use, and balancing strategies when addressing each one. The energetic anatomy of anger tells us that strategies are to be found in the fifth chakra territory of the throat.

The energetic challenge embraces willpower, boundaries, truth, and voice.

Aside from what you can do for yourself to transform your own negativity, here are a few pointers on how to handle your pesky friends, co-workers and relatives, wherever they may be. They are energy sappers and they will wear you out unless you create some clear boundaries of your own.

Use the color blue, physically in your surroundings, mentally in your visualizations of them, and energetically to protect yourself, then try several of the following techniques:

o Stop trying to fix them. Stop.

o Make super strong boundaries around this situation and yourself.

o Create sacred space away from this person - even a crystal or flower on your desk.

o Separate your mental space from them with a clear distinction of what is yours and what belongs to them.

o Do not engage the negativity.

o Be true to your own word with this person.

o Be crystal clear with this person.

o No backsies with this person - if you say you are going to do something, do it.

o Keep kindness in your tone, with a slight edge of boredom. This will help diffuse the emotional energy itself by eliminating additional emotional fuel.

o Do not try to change this person - the focus is on changing YOU in relation to the person. They will perk up - or they won't.

o Keep communications short and sweet.

o Document communication as much as possible.

o "No" is a complete sentence.

o Clear your throat.

o Open your breath.

o Yawn.

o Hum.

Keep the love - sometimes folks will see the light and get with the program. They will choose to open up, get help, or re-educate their own perspective about the usefulness of negativity. If not, and you cannot control yourself with all of the above, tough love is in order. It is time to leave and make a new plan with people who will not make you sick.

I know that sounds strong - it is.

You are the one who is entrapped if you are saying how miserable something is and you can't get out. Keep your heart open but your choices clear - you can care for negative people from afar. Plan your work and work your plan as you move toward a better tomorrow.

Chin up! Let me know how it goes.

Namaste,

Gael

Astrology Points the Way if We Listen

2011-08-20T16:29:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy using my voice and giving the best value packed experience I can to all of you who stop by my blogs for some food for thought for your mystical minds :)

Here at The Mystic I mean to serve all who have intention to live in the Light. We could all use a little help keeping the faith when we read the news of a world gone mad, whether we refer to the weather, the politics or the inhabitants. If I can make this often challenging journey even a shade less formidable, then I've done what I am here to accomplish.

I recognize that some of you are more engaged in the game plan that's going down here on Planet Earth than others are - and that some are more able to step up and take your place in the natural order before we all "have to" in order to survive - and this is a crux issue if there ever was one.

Generally, we can all improve our relatedness to what we can do to serve, but only those who recognize their own power will choose the doing with freedom verses force.

Here are some simple examples on the physical level: do you eat healthy food out of a natural desire for sustainability and wellbeing - or do you eat well because you had a big scary heart attack and your doctor says you'll be dead in 10 years if you don't. Do you choose to exercise for the inherent health benefits or do you exercise because you were told you better loose 20 pounds "or else"...

These are simple examples that give rise to the question of why we do what we do, and how much NEED is associated with our actions before we are willing to step it up into action.

I have faith that every healthy organism, whether single celled or a massively complex ecosystem, has an inherent wisdom that drives it toward survival. That includes you and I.

The difference between acting on knowing what we must do, and acting like we don't know what to do is, to me, a matter of recognizing what is true versus what is convenient. And this we can learn with greater ease when we tune in our emotional genius and move from apathy to a true ability for caring.

I refer again and again to the words of Paul Hawkin who says "do not be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."

Very simply, it's time to be far more mindful about what is going on, both within ourselves and in our world, and address the fears that we will inevitably encounter as we really, really look.

A person who is emotionally free to progress WILL find a way to engage.

We can all keep doing what we're doing well enough, but if you know that there's something more, you can learn a language of emotions. That you can do.

Experienced through seven energetic centers of human energy anatomy, this content is not behavior modification, mechanical intervention or hypnotism, although I am a hypnotherapist.

The work of emotional freedom is more practical than you might think and it is accessible to all who reach for it because it is a system. You will recognize the territory and the language itself in a way that is simple yet profound.

Eric Francis is an astrologer and activist in investigative reporting (and you know how I like activists!) whose insights I both appreciate and enjoy. He works from a broad body of knowledge, and you can find him Daily at PlanetWaves.net or purchase his full year in review at Light Bridge from the same website.

Referencing this Year, 2011 - he speaks of what we are experiencing:

"Chiron is about to arrive. Where Chiron goes, we tend to focus awareness and invoke a healing process. We get the option of mustering some maturity and directed intention, or courting serious problems. Chiron moves slowly enough to be a collective influence; it's one of those concepts at the meeting place of individual experience and shared experience. But mostly, Chiron calls on us to focus on our healing needs and to respond to the reminders that we hear and feel.

Chiron in Pisces will call us to focus on our emotional injuries and to seek ways to bring them to healing. I've noticed in myself and others...a tendency not to seek healing until the pain is too great to bear.

Working with Chiron, I have noticed it helps a lot to respond to our needs sooner rather than later -- no matter how long you may have waited."

Like astrology, we are connected to more than the eye can see. Just because we can't see a blockage that stands in our way doesn't mean it isn't there (as we have learned throughout history over and over again.)

So...it is time.

I agree with Eric that one of the things that keeps many people from embarking on a healing process is an awareness of how much they must face, and how much they will need to change. It can all seem so daunting that there is no point in starting - or - the starting is delayed or postponed. However, much like doing the dishes, it's easier once you get the process in motion.

Now is definitely the time to take the first necessary step in being honest about what you want and need, and about what may be hurting you.

If you are one who resonates with learning more for yourself to pass on to your clients and your community, join us for an upcoming Healing the Energy Body Certification Weekend August 27-29, 2011. It will be held in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. I welcome your presence.

Coming soon is a six-month Spiritual Warrior Training deepening the subject of Yoga and The Emotional Genius which will be offered both in New York and PA. Guaranteed to be powerful and uplifting.

As for what you can do right from where you are, go back through the blog archive and reread posts on the subjects of "chakras" or "emotional freedom" or listen to a CD or download program. Learn to navigate your emotional landscape and you will be a powerful force for good. The mystic says "desire is the software of the soul" but we can only access the result of that desire when we remove all the rest that stands in it's way.

May you be blessed this day and in all the days to come,
Gael
www.yokibics.com

Creation and Vision

2011-07-16T15:03:00.000-04:00

Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom is on Playaway!

As I generally favor process over outcome as the content of this blog, I wanted to share this launch with you because it taps into the process of visioning - and of recognizing the moment when a dream has come true.

It is said that we often see what we need, or desire, or have a longing for.

It is also said that we are just as often aware of what we DON'T want, or desire, or have.

In the midst of this, do we always actually recognize when a vision or desire has become real?

Do you??

It is a funny thing - we humans continue to progress toward our desired outcomes and it is rarely a straight line. As we move and grow and new desires appear, with inherent new challenges, how often do we really stop and recognize the appearance of our previous goals and creations?

I notice that for the normal person the answer is - not often enough.

Years ago (September 11, 2001 to be exact) while in NY, I witnessed the surreal chaos of the towers going down, and I observed a clear and present vision on the inner screen of my mind. At the time my spoken word CDs were just taking off - the variety of topics expanding by the minute - and my routine thoughts about how to do business were inventive and creatively practical.

Yet on this day, I saw something in my mind's eye that was a future of sorts - my voice recordings in self-contained players I wasn't even sure existed, that would be available in airports, healthcare facilities and hospitals. It seemed a natural result to my own inner longing asking "what can I do with my own particular skills and talents to add a measure of healing to the world?"

I had no plan per se - nor did I immediately put one into effect - just noticed the vision of these little audio players as having already occurred.

Life has progressed in the decade since these events, with opportunities, losses and gains no one of us could have imagined, but here I am today with one of my visions made manifest - a spoken word program on a self-contained player being distributed through various channels all throughout the world.

Time has passed. I see my vision in present time. It was not without effort of course, nor was it a big surprise, for many steps and preparations got us here. More to the point it has been a series of synchronistic events and choices moving in a direction that felt right so that the eventual outcome matched my vision - almost a surprise - and now I am called to notice it.

This is the ah-ha of visionary and vision meeting up.

You can find many such stories if you study Napolean Hill ("Think and Grow Rich") or listen to the work of Ester and Jerry Hicks (Abraham and The Law of Attraction.

This happens all the time - but do we notice?

We are so apt to notice what we have failed to create - literally - that we loose our ability to recognize, validate and celebrate what we do !!

How often have you heard someone say "boy I just realized my headache went away" when they were totally aware they had it but somehow missed the occurrence of it departing. Or when you yourself mourn the "having" of a relationship, a job or a bank account, all the while sitting in the vision of what you have created without ever really noticing how it all managed to get there.

You are a creator!

I am a creator!

Today I am celebrating the awesome appearance of one of my creations, from vision through birth, even as the process itself was not as conscious at all.

Think about how this occurs for you.

What can you celebrate about your own creations?

Blessings on you and them, and thanks for taking the time to share mine with me.

What say you?

Namaste,

Gael

#6 Fear of Aging

2011-07-11T16:29:00.001-04:00

"I am luminous with age"

Meridel Le Sueur

I am perhaps misleading you in the title of my post. You may hope for some advise on staying young - fighting off the old boogy man - handling wrinkles - keeping healthy - or any other secret recipe for keeping our deepest fear at bay...for after aging, is not death that much closer??

No, my take here is, as always, from the view of the Mystic who asks the question from the perspective of light - or enlightenment - and so it will sound unusual in our culture that values the practical and pragmatic.

The energy center that brings this energy home is the 7th crown chakra of enthios and joy - or lack thereof. Navigating this territory requires that we die to our former smaller self and embrace the SELF realization that is waiting to be born. In order to do this we must die to what holds us back from it's presence...

Which brings me to how we might do that.

My heart breaks for the common "practicality" of taking drugs to handle our anxiety. The side effects alone are enough to give anyone pause, let alone the complete bypass of addressing the reason for their need.

So I came across the following treatise on Theism, Athiesm, Yoga and Fear by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati and I think I'm on to something here that clearly relates.

Bear with me. Read the article for yourself, but do not get mired in who is athiest and who is theist and who is what and why.

Rather recognize that there is a pervasive fear base in our world - one that takes sides - one that presses on you to be somewhere - anywhere - besides deeply embedded in the flow of life and death and all that is or will be.

We reach for this new place through the state of meditation, which is a state of being rather than an ideology.

The author speaks about the fear of a yoga meditation practitioner who seeks independence from the cultural mind and actually finds himself "going against" the subtle pressures of the human environment, which in itself causes undiagnosed fear, and so he butts up against the unexpected. The author says:

"If Theist or Atheist polarities are present in your family, social and career worlds, the unspoken (or spoken) pressure to conform, follow, or convert to their views can be a tremendous threat to your sense of well being, both in terms of emotional response and the realities of functioning in a world of such people.

This fear can have a devastating effect on ones feelings of safety in family, community, and professional life, and, in turn, on spiritual life. It can cause hesitancy, timidness, reluctance, mistrust, self-doubt, and other such emotions and reactions, which are often projections of an underlying fear.

These, in turn, are antagonists to the tranquility or peace of mind consistent with meditation and other spiritual practices.

The effect of this fear can be an unconscious reticence to pursue the deeper teachings, or to explore and surrender into the subtler processes such as with advanced meditation or contemplation. Or, the fear may be strong enough to completely stop you on your inner journey of enlightenment, even though it may remain undetected by the conscious mind."

I find I agree. If we do not pursue the deeper teachings - if we will not surrender into the subtler processes - what are we left with? I see the fear of aging everywhere as I myself age. I see the unbelievable resources we spend - millions, billions, trillions - keeping it out and away with the fear of looking at it or feeling it or embracing any part of it.

As deeply as we are scared silly of aging, so too are we refusing to enter the 7th chakra territory of surrender and death, and so how can peace exist in us when all we do is resist?

When all we do is resist.

You do not resist you say?

Ahhhh...how willing are you to meditate then? Deeply, truly, really meditate...

"The fear often manifests as feeling you "do not have time" to meditate or do other practices, as if some invisible force is blocking the path in front of you. It can manifest as feeling you are "not ready" to go ahead on the journey.

It can feel like you are "not worthy" to have the joy of direct experience of your own true nature. It can leave you "deciding" to follow the inner journey later in life, maybe after you have a different circle of friends, after you have moved to a different city, after your children are grown, after your relationship with your spouse has changed, or after you retire from your job."

What is the answer then? I agree with our author who says:

"If you are a sincere seeker of direct experience, it is imperative to see the nature of this fear so that you can develop the will power, the sankalpa shakti, the determination to move forward, right through the middle of these obstacles, regardless of the opinions and actions of your fellow humans, whether Theists or Atheists.

This is done by cultivating an active, passionate conviction to seek that for which your heart longs. With this awareness and commitment, and an attitude of loving perseverance, the fear is ultimately seen as a phantom and gradually dissolves into just one more past habit that no longer binds, or blocks the finer realization being sought."

We are shapeshifters you and I.

We have all the tools at hand.

We have the possibility and the charge to move beyond the stops and blocks of fear thoughts. Just think - the entire subject of delving deep into self-realization is a NEW one for our culture! We are just beginning to embrace age old practices of meditation and concentration and make them our own. In years gone by the student would have had to prove themselves to be worthy to study. The subject itself was considered so powerful it was reserved for the few.

Now - today - we all have the freedom to shape our minds and open our hearts to what is true and enlivening without the spectre of fear running our circuits. There is work to be done, but this kind of work is love made manifest.

Make the plunge! Take charge! Be self-realized. If you are the "different one" in your family, workplace or group, I salute you. Keep going. Trust your heart. Believe in yourself. You will find the way.

If I can help you I will. Check yokibics.com for many opportunities to listen to guided meditations on many topics, or come join me or another teacher for meditation training via skype or in person. Whatever you can do - do it. You are a necessary part of new world thought and new world mind.

Let me know how it goes!
Namaste,
Gael

#5 Fear of Success

2011-06-23T13:50:00.001-04:00

The more I listen for the voice of fear, the more I hear it through the denial we have of our own success - our our innate greatness. Contemplate again the famous Marianne Williamson quote "it is not our darkness we fear most, but our light..."

I have another reminder that came from Mystic teacher Carolyn Myss when she told a story about how she got started. As a medical intuitive working with Dr. Norm Shealy, people would ask her all the time if she could teach the "art" of intuition. She decided she could indeed - there was a system, a rhythm and a reason to it all, and she proudly put the word out that workshops were forming.

Lo and behold her conclusion was that more people came to find out how to control their intuition than how to enhance it.

They wanted to learn how to have things their way rather than the way.

Mostly I have found the same thing after years of observation, so I ask you these questions: do you really want to know what you can tap into? Do you like the answers you receive? Are you willing to make the changes necessary when "intuition" or your higher knowledge of truth comes knocking at the door of your consciousness? Do you give yourself real time to listen? Are you willing to act to make change happen now?

If the answer for you is an immediate "yes" then congratulations and kudos galore! This is the very core of the message in the program Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom (which can be yours with this simple click into downloadland.)

Whether you know it or not, you have mastered the ability to move energy as divine inspiration from insight through your will, past fear into faith with true Self-regard, giving active relatedness to a new life generating belief that supports your life choices.

THAT, my friend, is an awesome synopsis of successfully moving energy through the seven chakras and allowing life's blessings to fully inform and activate your experience. The colors represent the guiding light of each vibration, and knowing how to navigate the territory brings speed - and ease - to the journey.

For many of us though, the answer to big insight is some variation of NO! And why should it be otherwise when so much in the World is in such an unbelievable state of turmoil? And so we say no - I don't want to change my life. I'm not ready to leave my job. I can't handle moving my location. I'm afraid of coming out to be who I am...and on it goes.

So be it.

We argue for our limitations and they are ours.

Each of these arguments has one thing in common. A belief that triggers fear. Fear that we won't be accepted. Fear that we won't be part of our group. Fear of loneliness and disapproval. Fear that we won't succeed. Fear of innate survival diminishing. Fear of loss. This is 1st chakra territory, the area of belief and unconscious resistance in the energy body.

Until we are able to look at our beliefs and challenge our assumptions it will be close to impossible to move on without fear dogging us every step of the way. The "no" doesn't really keep us safe (or happy) - it just keeps fear from activating. No amount of behavioral change will really work because the underlying belief will continue to run our circuits, and all manner of successful reasoning and procrastination will result.

Now if we can move beyond a flat out "no I can't" to "YES (but not yet)" or "I will when I'm ready" then this is a frame of reference I can address successfully today. This attitude is more about relatedness than it is about belief, and moves us to the governing body of the 2nd chakra and conscious choice. Now we have the opportunity to discern how we can relate to our fears, and changing our behaviors can be a successful path.

Do you want to be the change you seek? Then you can do this.

Remember that fear fuels itself through the 4th chakra of the heart where faith also lives. If we are to transform fear into faith, we must look at the system of actions that bring us into the 2nd chakra activities of relatedness, then look through the 3rd chakra power of Self referral so that we can arrive at the possibility of transformation that exists as the gift of 4th chakra faith.

There is a path to this system and it is neither esoteric nor beyond reason.

For today let's focus on the 2nd level of relatedness. The following is some copy from my Spiritual Warrior Coaching Manual. I use it as an appendix of helpful information when addressing individual areas of action - or lack of action - once the possibility of change is firmly agreed upon. So let's say you know something's got to give, but somehow you are still in a flummox about beelining toward your intuition about change.

What's needed is some clarity about how to relate to what it takes to get from your intention to your action.

These are relational tips you can employ in the process of successfully navigating territory that may seem vast or overwhelming, and they address...

The 10 Robbers of Time

1.    Floundering. Too much going on.

You need to be specific.

2.    Wheel spinning. Busy work.

Stop and re-access what is truly important from what is convenient.

3.    Fire fighting. Crisis management.

Begin today to orient toward fire prevention.

4.    Vacillation. Can’t decide?

Get tough and do something…anything to create action in one direction!

5.    Dawdling.

Keep your goal in mind and make a deadline. Write it down.

6.    Spraying.

Focus on one task like a laser beam and stop spreading yourself too thin.

7.    Switching.

Have persistence and develop a passion for closure.

8.    Acquiescing to arm-twisting.

Practice saying NO! “No” is a complete sentence.

9.    Rehashing. Reminiscence and regret.

Make today count and stay in the present moment.

10. Perfectionism. Avoiding the risk of failure.

Strive for excellence rather than the illusion of perfection.

ok - now you've got the skinny on some 2nd chakra strategy. It's not as esoteric as you might think.Go for it...and contact me if you want some personal guidance. The system can be learned and will offer you gifts beyond measure.Next time I'll readdress where to go from here...ps "like" our Yokibics facebook page for updates and more opportunities to connect.

Have fun!
Gael

#4 Fear of The Unknown

2011-06-13T17:42:00.000-04:00

Today I was musing on our long history with the emotion of fear - how taken we humans are with it - and I swiped some old quotes to give you food for thought...

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark."
---- Francis Bacon

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."
--- H.P. Lovecraft

"In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly."
---- Coleridge

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
--- Frank Herbert, Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

"A man who has been in danger,
When he comes out of it forgets his fears,
And sometimes he forgets his promises."
---- Euripides - Iphigenia in Tauris (414-12 BC)

"He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That puts it not unto the touch
To win or lose it all"
---- James Graham - Marquis of Montrose

"I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
The time has been my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night shriek, and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
Cannot once start me."
---- Will - Macbeth

"Being frightened is an experience you can't buy."
---- Anthony Price - Sion Crossing (1984)

"What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope."
---- Publilius Syrus - Moral Sayings (1st C B.C.)

"Solitude scares me. It makes me think about love, death, and war. I need distraction from anxious, black thoughts."
---- Brigitte Bardot

"Why are we scared to die? Do any of us remember being scared when we were born?"
---- Trevor Kay

"A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice."
---- Edgar Watson Howe - Country Town Sayings (1911)

Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."
---- Lt. John B. Putnam Jr. (1921-1944)

Whatever fear is for you, and however it shows up, for the Mystic fear is a doorway into the question of faith. Big one that is. Governed by the 4th chakra of the heart, the quest is alive for each of us. Do not get stuck in the details of your fear of things unknown, as if finding the answer to spiders, and death and all things dark will provide the answer.

What deserves your faith is the larger question.

What -

deserves -

your -

faith?

Fear and faith...they ride the see-saw of energy anatomy together, and once recognized you have a process for addressing fear that will continue to be gold for life.

Just for today, get away from the scary stuff. Stop looking for the answer to the thing you fear and write yourself a list of five principles you can put your faith in instead. It is a worthy exercise, and one that speaks to your own truth rather than some form answer from someone else.

Find what it is that you can put your faith IN, and you are well on your way to taking mental, emotional and spiritual energy OUT of fear based worries and concerns.

Let us know how it goes.

Namaste,
Gael

#3 Fear of Feeling

2011-06-09T11:48:00.000-04:00

I believe that emotional freedom - the sister topic of emotional genius - is the new frontier in human consciousness. Daily we are gifted with new ways of knowing the body - and our investigation into the realm of the mind has fascinated us for eons whether through investigations of the unconscious, conscious or super conscious mind, the study of psychology and the intellect, or the delving fascination we have with psychic and intuitive abilities. But recognizing the source and purpose of emotions? In my experience we have misunderstood their role more completely than all of our misconceptions about body and mind put together.

Emotions are the gateway into how our energy circuits are running - a soul connector - and there isn't a bad one among them. There is plenty of inappropriate or misguided response though (response-ability) that gives the emotion itself a bad name.

Here are a couple of examples from my work in the territory of the emotional genius...

Feeling angry? That's a popular one to misunderstand. One might be coached to "get over it" or sided with by friends who are on your team with "yeah you're right! The rest of the world is against you/me/us!!" But here is where anger is your guide and teacher. Where are your boundaries about the subject? Really.

Are you doing all you can to create clear words and a strong will in the area? Are you willing to make the changes you are being called to make in order to co-create a different outcome? So much easier to be "angry at the boss" than to get up and out and create a different life. Yes, the answer to the presence of anger might be that drastic.

No wonder we don't "understand."

Anger serves to tell us change is required. Listen to it well. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with others. Be willing to be the change you wish to see.

The emotion of anger will always involve your will and your word.

What about grief? There is indeed great reason for the expression of it in the world - more than enough to go around. Death itself has been built into the program of life. There is no escaping the powerful appearance of grief in your life at one time or another. Yet like all emotions, grief is meant to ebb and flow. Deep sadness when caged is like sinking into the bottom of a well. It serves to bring us deeper and deeper into awareness of what we really value - and it holds the potential of letting go. A more authentic version of our former self becomes the gift.

How many survivors of even the worlds worst atrocities have come out on the other side helping mankind in a way that only they could when fully embodied and fully charged?

Grief stimulates the 3rd chakra and is the harbinger of a more genuine you.

Fear? A natural request to place your faith wisely.

Pain? What insights are you being given?

Apathy? What get up and go is necessary for you to care about something greater than yourself?
How about the emotion of joy?? Ahhhh....

Joy is inherent in the system just like all the other emotions. It is not reserved only for the special few, yet joy too is meant to ebb and flow - to rise and fall - to sing it's song in your life - in every life! It doesn't do well if you try to hang onto it. It was never meant to sit static like a crown jewel. Joy arrives unbidden as a result of transforming the entirety of your emotional body into a functioning alive system - not despite it.

What practical key then can I leave with you? What wish for your success?

allow yourself to change outdated beliefs about how miserable things are

stop brushing off your feelings as if they don't matter. They do.

be willing to learn to identify what feelings you have.

become able to develop good discernment about what choices are available to help you transform your emotions rather than stuffing them away.

become able to pause when a feeling arises and recognize it without judgment.

validate validate validate yourself.

be willing to let go.

recognize that the joy you seek is already there.

know that becoming an emotional genius is an inside job unrelated to circumstances outside your control.

and the most important one: be willing to be new.

We are all destined to become masters in this life. Whether or not we can achieve that destiny depends upon the clarity of our objective.

May you be blessed in yours.

#2 Fear Defined

2011-06-07T08:00:00.057-04:00

Fears. What do they look like? How do they show up? Are they the same for everyone?

Apparently not, but that doesn't mean we don't all have them.

I researched our worst fears and found everything from a to z...

snakes
being alone for the rest of my life
ants
not being able to raise my family in this financial climate
death
cancer
clowns
big dogs
being on a plane and getting sick (if you can relate, see the My Fearless Flyer Audio Program. I created this one just for you...)
being in a house on fire
getting lost
heights
getting old
spiders
deep water
the dark
being without emotion for anything in life
losing my children
getting a disease
losing respect for myself
mice

Read more here for a full selection from some folks who submitted their top five.

Lest you think any of this is marginal compared to your own fears, or that fears get more - or less - "real" with age, I came across this study on a website called Building Church Leaders that cited 10 of the worst fears of today's youth:

Fear # 1: "Something bad may happen to my family."

Fear # 2: "I can't get a good education."

Fear # 3: "I will not be able to make it financially."

Fear # 4: "I (or someone I know) will be a victim of violence or crime."

Fear # 5: "Peer pressure scares me."

Fear # 6: "I can't tell right from wrong."

Fear # 7: "I cannot find time to do everything."

Fear # 8: "I feel like I have to have sex to be accepted."

Fear # 9: "Someone I know or love will die of AIDS (maybe me!)."

Fear # 10: "I will never have a happy marriage and family."

It's heartbreaking. And that's the point. These fears tap into the deepest well of human experience. When looking for solutions, I know we are most able when we see the mind-body-spirit connection in everything we experience. No fear is trite. None are meaningless. Each has a deep message in the journey of self discovery and in our search for authenticity.

As with any journey, we must know where to begin - how to take the first step. We can start by identifying fear even - especially - when we have no solution. Our own particular fears are the gateway to our experience of faith, and that is a matter of the heart.

Just for today - spend a moment with your journal...what do your fears look like?

Once you have your list, consider this insight from the wise teacher Pema Chodron:

“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”

Ahhh...truth.

More from me on that idea as we continue this series. Meanwhile, what does facing fear look like to you?

In service,
Gael

photo credit: Bob Alba

June Series: #1 Facing Fear

2011-06-01T16:25:00.002-04:00

We wrapped up the May Blog Series on Conscious Eating with posts containing plenty of tips on coming back to dining at home versus fast grabs, and some of the ways you might make it easy and sustainable.

Recent statistics on food waste in the USA, combined with increasingly shocking stats on hunger inspired me to get with it and share some ways to bring it back home and keep what you eat cycling from fridge to table to tummy. Have fun going back to the May posts if you missed it!

June brings me to another topic, perhaps less joyous but just as practical and necessary for a sustainable future - facing fear. I'll share my own take plus resources for you from several vantage points.

For today I offer you some material from the Mystical point of view.

The Center for Sacred Sciences says this about the fear of "being on the path":

"Almost everyone who walks a spiritual path will experience some form of fear.

Initially, we may be afraid of what family and friends will think of our spiritual interests. We may be afraid of our teacher, or the teachings, or of certain practices, or going on retreat. Later, we may develop a fear of losing all interest in worldly affairs, going insane, or finding out something about ourselves we don't want to know. We may also become afraid of such things as impermanence, death, or even God. But all these different kinds of fear are actually rooted in a single fear, which is the fear of Enlightenment itself."

For more on this, go to the article Facing Fear on the Path. It's short but meaningful and well worth the read.

Noting the Christian mystic, St. Teresa of Avila in Interior Castle, who compares what happens on a spiritual path to a silkworm turning into a butterfly, she additionally warns:

Note very carefully, daughters, the silkworm has of necessity to die, and it is this which will cost you most.²

The necessity to die. I quote Marianne Williamson who speaks from the perspective of Course in Miracles as she reminds us "It is not your darkness you fear but your light."

So if we put these two ideas side by side, what then is expected to die exactly, and why are we afraid of it?

For starters we must die to the idea of our former self.
We must die to the belief that we are "alone" on the journey.
We must die to our smallness.
We must die to our need to blend in, stay safe, not stick out.
We must die to our plan and open to what is planned for us.

We can find ways to do this - we must. The journey is ongoing, but I remind you how very necessary it is, and that you are not alone. Each and every one of us must cast off the ties that bind us and rise to the occasion of our biggest self and our truest vision.

Whether the way you do this is deeply personal in the quiet of your own soul, or live out loud "look at me now" stuff, the breakthroughs are what will enliven and sustain you, and me, and us together.

Each step you take toward the most authentic expression of your deepest longing will give you greater presence and a deeper connection to fulfilling your dharma - the reason you are here. Once in alignment with this, you will not be afraid.

May it bring you great joy.

More to come in upcoming posts - what's your take?

namaste,
Gael

Eat! #11 Ingredients Galore

2011-05-27T16:51:00.000-04:00

Today I've been chatting about conscious eating with a wonderful teacher and soul brother Ben Briggs, senior pharmacist and owner of Lionville Natural Pharmacy and Health Food Store, a family owned and operated business providing professional pharmaceutical care to the Chester County PA community since 1979.

I've wondered what was different about Lionville Pharmacy since I moved into the area. Everyone seems to know about it - and it's reputation as the "go-to" holistic place intrigued me.

You can tell right away that something is different here. First of all, Lionville is a compounding pharmacy.

Compounding combines an ageless art with the latest medical knowledge and state-of-the-art technology, allowing specially trained professionals to prepare customized medications to meet each patient’s specific needs.

Second it's a health food store. Reminded me of Rising Tide, another of the originals started in NY back in the 70's carrying aisles of goods that represent food as healing.

Third it's a holistic health and healing arts center with practitioners of all sorts available to help guide you through your choices.

Ben spoke with me about the positive effects of families eating together, without the TV, in harmony with their meal and their digestion and what a positive effect that carries.

It got me thinking about the way we are naturally wired to know what our body needs when we really tune in and listen. People ask me about calorie counting, adding or deleting specific foods from their diet, or "watching their weight" and I say "watch your relationship with nourishment and let it inform you what you need." Your body wants to be in balance. Your body wants health. Your body wants energy in and energy expressed.

Conscious eating means pay more attention to what's right in front of you.

Some guidelines that seem simple but remain frequently disregarded:

Know when you are thirsty and DO take a drink! Water is preferred. This one choice can influence you in many positive ways. If you do not drink enough water or other fluids, you might experience signs of dehydration. You may feel lightheaded, dizzy or nauseated. If you do not drink any fluid to correct this situation, your body temperature will begin to rise, which can lead to heat stroke.

According to the National Academy of Sciences in their recommendations for total water, the amount of fluid we need from beverages daily is 9 cups for females and 13 cups for males over the age of 19. That's right - DAILY!

Other things you can do:

DO recognize what hunger feels like. Eat when you are hungry.
DO eat little bits at regular intervals.
DO recognize when you are full. Stop.
DO respond to the need for salty, sweet, or pungant foods and choose healthy options.
DO love every bite.
DO appreciate and validate healthy choices.
DO respond to your body clock rather than the time clock.

Sage advise for the day:

Listen to what your body needs.

Today's recipe? Let's hear from you. What's on your plate?!

Bon appetit!

Gael

Eat! #10 Yogini Style

2011-05-24T20:41:00.000-04:00

What's up in our series on Conscious Eating: simplicity!

As a yogi who teaches all eight limbs of yoga, again and again I encourage folks to take your yoga practice ("yoking the powers of body mind and spirit") off the mat and into your life in deliberate and meaningful ways. Conscious Eating is a perfect avenue for the embodiment of all those intentions you have to nourish yourself, engage with the world, and appreciate the simple pleasures of all that is good about food!

The natural grace and nourishing attitude of the yogi is a therapy for everyday living. To get more insight into the message why yoga is therapy, take a look at this short video posted by IAYT, one of the teaching and research organizations I belong to. You'll get a better understanding of how the whole picture pulls together to give you the best preventive health care available.

How we relate to food is a big part of any yogi's practice. "You are what you eat" said the sage to the student. So why do any of us think that a diet that is devalued in nutrition doesn't matter? Time to help ourselves and the others in our lives to be more vibrant.

So with that, on to our conscious eating tips for the day!

My subject today is the humble side dish, and as always my style is to give you fabulous ideas to run with rather than recipes you must learn.

So why are sides humble? Do you hear mothers all over America calling their kids home for dinner with the lure of applesauce? Not really - but put enough interest and diversity out there and the shift from main meat to diverse sides is hidden a treasure. Like time honored "tapas" or any multiple appetizer main meal, you can create more interest for yourself and your family by getting creative.

Main Meal

Some humble choices to remember! Mix, match and highlight the simple things...

Try using a large round tray with multiple small dishes filled with several of the following:

applesauce (yup) with cinnamon and toasted almonds
crunchy pickles
beans of all sorts, baked or crockpot
hard boiled eggs (deviled are delish)
sliced tomato, mozzarella and basil
chick peas and scallions vinaigrette
sliced cucumber with cracked black pepper
rice crackers or whole grain crackers or flatbread
fennel with EVOO + vinegar dipping sauce
stuffed baked potato
olives
celery with yogurt dip
mixed nuts
salad greens topped with whole grains, nuts, dried or fresh fruit, or cheeses
peanut butter or almond butter as a dip
cherries dipped in yogurt then in toasted coconut
skillet yam slices
avocados with salsa
tuna/tofu/egg/your favorite - salad
pears with goat cheese
cut fruit

You get the idea.

Easy access foods that are interesting in combination can make a meal out of "nothing."

I purposely kept it simple here to celebrate the idea that cooking and eating at home doesn't have to look like "three squares a day."

Use your own creativity, and most important, use what's in the fridge!

Add-ins

Most everything looks better, tastes better and is better with fresh herbs. Use liberally and creatively.

The addition of toasted nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries and the like can make any salad more interesting to even the most jaded anti-salad eater. Healthier too.

Fruit - cut up - will be polished off with more gusto than a bowl of apples any day. Why is that??
Serve drizzled with honey or a lemon squeeze for special goodness.

My list here is just the tip of the humble iceberg. What would you add?
Let us know!

Namaste,
Gael

Eat! #9 Buzz Juice

2011-05-20T18:56:00.000-04:00

"If I'm trying to eat more consciously and want to add more of the good stuff into my daily bread, do I have to consume the entire produce aisle?"

Good question!

Just in time - after my own recipe in our last post for a green breakfast smoothie, I received an email from my friends at MacroLife Naturals with more good ideas for simple pick me ups that pack a one-two punch and deliver the goods. You can check their website for more info on the products.

Greetings Goddess Sister;
Love your blog- thank you greatly!

Here’s my newest favorite….I call it buzz juice. You can do with Greens or REDS but I like best with my macro greens.

Buzz Juice

1 Scoop of Macro Greens®
1000 mg Vitamin C powder
1000 IU's liquid vitamin D-3
(Capful of ACV - Apple Cider Vinegar)
Dash of stevia, or a little organic maple syrup
Fresh lemon juice
4-6 ounces of water or fresh juice

WHEN I’m in a rush I just add the Capful of ACV - Apple Cider Vinegar- Very alkalizing.

Reds Tea

Also on those days, when you just need something smoothing and comforting make up a hot cup of Miracle REDS® Soothing Tea

8-oz Boiling Water add,
1-2 Cinnamon Stick cover and steep for 5 minutes.

Once cooled to warm add 1 Scoop Miracle Reds®

Enjoy the calm. Sylvia Ortiz, founder

Sage advise for the day

Whenever you create a new intention for greater health, and commit to acting on it in some way, you set a whole series of energetic responses in play. Your choices need not be big ones as much as they need to be heartfelt ones, with clear intention for health, nourishment and enlivening. In this way each small step activates the whole intention. You will be amazed at how far that intention will take you.

Bon appetit!

What's on your plate?
Gael

Eat! #8 Orange Smoothie

2011-05-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

In a hurry? No breakfast again?? Feel a deli stop coming on??

How can you bring it home when life is in a hurry and you need to get out the door?

Many of us rely on oatmeal or natural cold cereals for breakfast - both good choices I believe from the standpoint of health, and definitely in alignment with knowing what's on your plate. This is one of the missions of the Eat! series. The further we are from the source of our food, the easier it is for fats, preservatives and foreign ingredients to make their way into that tasty treat you're eating without even seeing it coming.

My topic today is your first meal of the day (after latte of course - see previous post ;) and my own comes out of a blender most days.

Main Meal

Fruit Smoothie with Super Greens

You'll need a regular blender - nothing fancy or uber-powerful is required.

Mix:
one cup or so of orange juice
one banana - I like mine frozen :)
one scoop of your favorite greens mix
scoop of flax seed
additional fruit of choice
ice

Blend till smooth and you like the texture. Modulate with more or less of the fluid or ice.

Voila! Yummy healthy jump start to your day.

Add-ins

Fruits that go well with this banana - orange blend include berries (fresh or frozen) mango and pineapple.

Use a different juice altogether and invent what goes with it.

Some people add protein powder to shakes...others like to add yogurt.

Feel free to play with healthy alternatives, and with one press of the blender button you've got a great start to the day.

Sage tips:

Frozen bananas are great to have around. You can eat them right out of the freezer - tastes like a frozen ice cream treat - and they are always ready to toss into your smoothie.

As for the greens, I like MacroLife Naturals Macro Greens. In general, you don't need a blender to enjoy them, but I like the whole effect of my recipe. The greens taste delish all by themselves and I know the fantastic formulator Sylvia Ortiz. I vouch for her integrity and awesome mission to help heal the American diet. Try them out - you won't be sorry!

Bon appetit!
What's on your plate?
Gael

Eat! #7 Boulder Latte

2011-05-18T16:55:00.002-04:00

Even though I live on the East Coast, I love - really love - camping out west. If I had my druthers, I think I might have moved to Boulder Colorado long ago. (Some obvious clues that give me away include the tent, the hat, and the home-made latte I'm gripping in the midst of a camp-out. Tres chic!)

On the subject of chic, Boulder's own Elephant Journal online always offers me good reads, and I like to go for the funny stuff. I get enough of the serious yoga/buddha/mystic side of things on my own time, but Ele has it all...and the particular post I've linked you to below says plenty about our subject of food: Joe Yeoman discoursing about his change in eating habits.

Too funny!

And wise... It's worth the read ... Enjoy!!

How Elephant Journal turned a leather jacket wearing Mustang driving corn-fed beef Iowa hick into another flower child of Boulder

Now onto the rest:

Main Meal

My hubby's recipe for livin' the good life: Soy-almond latte (and he serves me every morning in bed!! Yup...unless I'm in a tent of course...)

I am categorizing this as a main meal - first because it is my daily breakfast staple - and second, although it is liquid, the amount of soy and almond milk adds up to a hearty belly full.

You will need:

Cappuccino machine or milk steamer
vanilla soy
vanilla almond milk
honey
cinnamon
English Breakfast tea
Roobios tea

To top it off:
dark chocolate to sprinkle over the top
a little sugar in the raw if you want a sweeter variation

Here's a video clip of the entire operation

Add-ins (or tag alongs in this case)

fiber bar
granola
fresh fruit

Sage advise for the day

You know the part about getting served in bed? Sometimes I'm awash in challenge and responsibility, and that latte is the best part of my day.

Love the one you're with. It really does mater.

What's on your plate??
Gael

Eat! #6 On the Road

2011-05-15T12:04:00.001-04:00

I've been on the road this week and I'm focusing on just a few conscious eating tips.

The first is water, water, water.

After that, remember to eat regularly. Don't wait for the big restaurant date. Overeating and ordering due to hunger rather than nourishment will ruin your healthy intentions.

Buy nuts, fruit, hummus, yogurt, rice crackers and tea and keep it on hand for between meals.

Add more veggies to your meals...same intention as at home.

Keep active - get out and on your feet.

Best advise? Use the "lucky space" whenever and wherever you can! What's lucky? Park FAR from your destination and walk. It's just a shift in consciosness but it has lifetime benefits for a more fit mindset. You can also get off a train or bus one stop early, and always use the stairs.

Keep your trip on track for healthy eating and even more physical activity than usual and you will come home truly refreshed.

Bon appetit!
What's on your plate?

Gael

Eat! #5 In Praise of the One-Pot

2011-05-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

Soups and stews and one-pots oh my...

So here's a pic of the sriracha sauce I've been talking about, and it's just one of many sources of heat. For me just a couple of drops can make all the difference. There are lots of chili type sauces in bottles and jars - and sometimes I just use dried chilies and throw them into the pot to change the personality of what might have been somewhat banal before.

So why change it up?

My mission today is global!

I'd like to see a place for all those leftovers that get thrown into the garbage in hundreds of thousands of households across the world. It seems so negligent and unthinking that we can't do better than that, at least in our own homes.

I don't know if bringing an enlightened attitude to the nasty habit of food waste will help feed "the starving children in China" (clean your plates kids) but it will surely make a difference in the wasted time, effort and expense that so many people complain about with the rising cost of food.

Besides - I think it actually will help the starving children of everywhere when we become more conscious of our relationship with the cycles of food delivery period.

Here's what to do whenever you look in the back of the fridge and think "what am I gonna do with that??"

Think soup.

Every soup or one-pot meal has it's own charm, so I'm just going to give you a few of my own basics, and I'm only touching the surface! Cooked leftovers go in at the end.

What's good and good for you:

I can't sing the praises of the humble crock pot enough.
start with water or use any broth of your choice. I like the organic broth that comes in boxes in the supermarket as a starter. One box gets stretched into many times it's size in this household...
buy fresh herbs, cut them up and use liberally in any one-pot.
you can use any and all veggies, snippets of meat or tofu, every grain imaginable, legumes, beans, spices, and all your pre-made ingredients are fair game.
the box of whatever you brought home from the restaurant last night that had that fabulous sauce on it is fair game. Five bites of a favorite dish might not seem worth taking home, but once added to a soup concoction it can make all the difference.
freedom to explore = good use for almost every type of leftover in addition to a marked reduction in those throwaways from the back of the fridge.
put items that do not need more cooking in to the pot at the end or you will pulverize them especially pasta, rice, pre-cooked grains or dumplings...these all go in the pot at the end just to cook through.
don't eliminate unusual additions such as cooked potato or yesterdays yam.
feel free to add just one or two substantial ingredients from a previous dish skipping other items (like soggy bread etc. :)
most everything is fair game.

Main Meal

Simple Soup

Here's where I went today, this soup as simple as it gets:

During passover when the markets were jammed with all things kosher, I picked up some jars of matzo balls - a comfort food from my childhood since I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood and was given matzo ball soup by a number of kindly neighbor mom's who seemed to lovingly dote on their children with it.

Into my crock pot went a box of organic chicken broth (use veggie as desired), all my fresh herbs on hand (rosemary, parsley, bay leaf, thyme) chopped carrot, peas, kernels from corn on the cob, celery, a small potato, and a few hot drops. Cook.

Shredded cooked chicken cutlet can be added. So can tofu. Keep the whole thing on crock pot simmer till ready to serve.

Add the matzo balls in toward the end.

I also added pre-cooked egg noodles. (Use soba noodles, angel hair pasta, orzo as well, cooked separately and reserved.)

Voila!

Add-ins

I have found you can cook all beans and legumes "as is" after rinsing, no mater what the bag or recipe says about pre-soaking, but do get them going first. Black beans, white beans, split peas, lentils - right into the broth or water! Cover and they will cook nicely. Add herbs in the beginning - veggies according to hardness as you go - cooked foods near the end.

You have probably noticed I work with the philosophy that any and every meal can be enhanced by adding more of the stuff that is already nutritious on it's own. If I can find space for a veggie in any meal for any reason at all, in it goes! If you are not already a high-veggie type, this one conscious shift toward the creative use of veggies (whether typical in the dish or not) can be a dramatic benefit to your overall health.

Grated cheese over the top of soup is a time honored tradition. Most hard cheeses work.

Crusty bread rounds out the meal.

Sage advise for the day

Mantra: repeat daily...

"What veggies do I have on hand...how can I add them to this meal..."

Bon appetit!
What's on your plate?

Gael

Eat! #4 Marney Soup

2011-05-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

In time for Mothers Day. May happiness be in the heart of Earth Mothers everywhere. May we nourish and be nourished through our offerings.

This week my friend and colleague Chef Marney White offered one of her healthy (and awesomely easy) recipes for Mystic blog readers to enjoy, and I scooped it up!

This is Marney's lead in:

"It’s got 5 ingredients, is high-fiber, high protein, and very low fat. It’s also ready in about 45 minutes! Freezes great, if you want to make a double batch and freeze ahead in 2-portion servings, as I have always done. Enjoy..."

The experience of sharing food is one of the most powerful communications we humans can indulge in. How we create our meals is just one way of doing it.

Thanks Marney!

Main Meal

Pumpkin Red Lentil Soup
By Marney White, from her 1999 cookbook, “Healthy Body, Happy Life”

3 qts vegetable stock
1 lb. dried red lentils (which are actually orange in color)
1 16 oz can pumpkin puree
¼ c onion, chopped and pureed
¼ c celery, chopped and pureed
Salt & pepper to taste
2 Tbl olive oil

Warm a 6 qt stock pot, and add oil. Add onion and celery and sauté. Add lentils, then vegetable stock. Cook over medium heat until lentils have broken down and become soft. If necessary, add up to a 4^th quart vegetable stock until soup is at your ideal consistency. (It’s better when thicker.) In the last 10 minutes of cooking, now on low heat, stir in the can of pumpkin puree and add salt and pepper to taste.

Add ins

Soups are amazingly versatile. Do you have a cooked grain on hand? Using the soup as a "sauce" can make a substantial meal for a hungry appetite. Legumes and grains go well together! Use your imagination...

Sage advise for the day

Healthy home cooking can be easy - let all thoughts of kitchen drudgery dissolve.

Hearty soups = less pots and pans = easier still.

Make one pot meals a kitchen mainstay and you'll save all sorts of time and effort, plus you'll have many more reasons to stay close to hearth and home where your own good nourishment lives.

Bon appetit!

What's on your plate?

Gael

PS - visit Marney for more good things to eat - and check out the the desserts from this award winning chef. Awesome! www.marneycakes.com and www.marneycakes.blogspot.com

Eat! #3 Tomatoes

2011-05-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

This is the third in our Conscious Eating Series for the month of May, the time when Moms delight in the prerogatives of Mother's Day, and families get the nudge (or kick in the butt as the case may be!) to create opportunities to appreciate each other and home values.

For me this includes more eating together - more picnics and outings - and more awareness of the relationship we have with the green Earth and new things growing.

May reminds me of the blessing of all this.

All through my 20's I was fortunate enough to have a food mentor - Vincenza Scarcelli - who let me watch, and help, and simply absorb what she knew about food...and she knew plenty.

Particularly memorable was the time we went out on the lawn (the LAWN mind you) and picked dandelions, then went out back and scooped a net through the water of the Long Island Sound catching bunches of lowly minnows for what was to become a simple and delicious fried pattie of sorts made from stuff I thought I'd never even go near much less EAT!

I was fortunate to have an authentic role model from the "old country" when the place I came from was Brooklyn.

I hope you've had a food mentor somewhere along the line - and if not, it's never too late to find one. Food and love, once connected, can make a huge impression. We all respond to that.

Use this blog to know you are loved through the connection to foods I offer you here.

For details on cooking exactly what's in this post, you may want to reference the first post in the series and review either the lentil stew or the chicken in simmer sauce, but if you don't need specifics and merely want a mind-bending recognition of gourmet simplicity from leftover goodness, then here it is raw and uncensored...

So imagine you're hungry for something fabulous. Long, loping strands of pasta sounds good and you've got some tomatoes on hand, and bits of the dishes you cooked from the past couple of days.

ok, super. Here's what you do...we are going to make your leftovers (ingredients, remember??) look like a king's ransom in 10 minutes...

Main Meal

cook up a box of linguine
cut up two or three fresh tomatoes into chunks and put them into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of lentil soup and 1/2 cup or more of the simmer sauce gravy from the chicken dish of the day before (shred and add some of the chicken too if you'd like).
cook and blend everything together for 5 minutes or so until the tomatoes soften ever so slightly.
pour over the linguine - and sprinkle liberally with some of that fine grated locatelli romano you bought the other day. Top with some pricey pignolis, or the more routine but still delightful toasted pumpkin seeds, and fresh basil if you have it.
salt and pepper to taste, or add a dash more hot sauce (like sriracha) for some bite.

Add-ins

Toss a small amount of the greens from your salad in with the tomatoes when you start the sauce until just wilted.

Add peas right from the bag - run through a strainer under hot water for a minute. No cooking required, and peas go with everything. My brother told me that.

Sage advise for the day

A word on tomatoes - always get the best of the season. Good looks does not always = best. Some of the sweetest tomatoes are plain ugly. Be brave and taste the bounty.

Farmers Markets rock :)

In a fancy restaurant, this dish would be on the special menu due to all the prep time for the lentils to cook...and the simmer sauce to absorb the flavors from the chicken and fruit...and the presence of awesome freshness like vine ripened tomato and the fine grated cheese.

You can do it all yourself by being open minded and creative in pulling things together from leftovers you've already prepared.

Bellisimo!

What's on your plate??

Eat! #2 Dumplings

2011-05-02T12:50:00.001-04:00

Next up in our series on Conscious Eating - quick and easy Dumplings. Good and good for you! Is there anyone out there that doesn't love fat juicy dumplings stuffed with all sorts of goodies? My Japanese friend Felly used to make them - from scratch. That was awesome.

Me? I go to the supermarket and stock up from the frozen section for a fraction of the cost of my restaurant favorites. Shrimp, chicken, pork or veggie filled are common varieties.

My intention with this series is to highlight healthy, diverse, make at home meals..staying with and keeping our connection with real food.

Here's the part that makes it all worthwhile: 15 minutes for the whole meal. No kidding. Here's the deal...

Main Meal

Use a large saucepan. Cut up a head of broccoli, place it in about 2 inches of salted water and cover till boiling. Lower heat and add a can of water chestnuts and a bag of frozen dumplings right over the top. Close the lid and steam about 5 more minutes tops. Drain and plate.
Meanwhile put up some jasmine or basmati rice cooked according to directions.
Make a dipping sauce: combine 2T soy sauce, 2T water, splash of rice vinegar, pinch of sugar and a few drops of seseme oil.
Serve with fresh chopped green lettuce and tomato salad, fresh lemon and EVOO.

Add-ins

Top dumplings with sesame seeds, scallions and/or strips of toasted nori seaweed. (I used all three.) Add ground pecans, walnuts or almonds to the salad.

Bonus

Treat yourself to some ginger water - great for digestion and tastes delicious! Just use a piece of fresh ginger root in a pitcher of cool water. Either grate it and drink up - or strain if desired - or better yet freeze the ginger root in chunks. When you take it out of the freezer it will defrost into a softer version of its former self and you can squeeze the juice right into your water.

Sage advise of the day

The investment you make in condiments that delight your tastebuds will repay itself many times over. Sesame oil is one of those things. Use sparingly.

Bon appetit!

What's on your plate??

Namaste

Eat! #1 Vegi Face

2011-04-28T16:44:00.003-04:00

One of the first books I remember reading on yogic lifestyle referred to food. Right up my alley! Written by the controversial Da Free John it was called The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace.

I've since come to my own philosophies and guidelines for living a spiritually driven life, but never moved one inch from the recognition that a relationship with food IS spiritual and the way we approach it, embrace it, embody it and appreciate it is a spiritual discipline meant to be enjoyed.

I was recently asked to write a regular column for the holistic magazine Vitamin - the premier issue will be launched in August. My column will offer tips, philosophy and examples of Conscious Eating and it got me thinking - how can I make the juice of this fabulous topic come alive in simple ways that can make an everyday difference to busy multitask-loaded people (like myself :)

I decided to take the next several posts here on Mystic blog and devote myself to the subject through a series called "Eat!" I'll post some gorgeous pix of fresh fruits and vegis to get you in the mood - then go into tips about how it works for me in my household. I've literally devoted my kitchen life to thrifty, healthy, time saving ideas, and I definitely speak from experience. We've all been through hard times and some of mine are doozies. My friend Heather reminisced with me the other day and made me laugh out loud. She said "you can take a nickle, stretch it into a dime and make it look like a quarter." I didn't realize it was so obvious!! I do have a passion for food though, especially whole grain, organically grown, feel good, great smelling, fabulously nourishing, awesome tasting food - and I can't remember a time when I wasn't devoted to it.

I have also been a busy multitasker since...forever...and some of the go-to qualities I take for granted in slinging food around the kitchen and having it turn out well might be a hard won victory for someone else, so I've decided to share some of what I do.

Comments are totally welcomed!! I'm here to offer some thoughts and share with you what my own Spring menu is looking like as we go. I've also got some travel on my calendar, so that will be an interesting perspective...

To get started, these are just some of my own ground rules:

mixing prepared foods (canned or jars) with fresh food makes sense
always read the labels; if you see preservatives in there, put it down.
mixing cooked food with raw food (like salads and fruit) also makes sense
mouth feel and texture do matter
so does color - the more the merrier!
buy a crock pot
add veggies whenever and wherever to whatever you can (called "add-ins" - more on that as we go...)
if you eat meat, make it the side instead of the main event
keep it to fish and fowl for the most part, or consider going veggie for a while
educate yourself about complete proteins
if you do go veg... I did for 16 years and I was happy, healthy and strong...check out the attached article from Saavy Vegetarian and others like it: "Vegans and vegetarians can't help getting all the essential amino acids, through eating different combinations of grains, legumes, nuts & seeds, vegetables & fruit several times throughout the day. Read more...
buy fresh - make plenty - freeze liberally
forget the concept of "leftovers"... pre-cooked food = "ingredients for the next meal"
think like a sous-chef and prepare lots of ingredients at one sitting
there is always enough time, enough choice and enough in the budget to eat extraordinarily well
if you can make it yourself, you can probably make it better :)

Once you give up the nasty habit of semi-nutritious eating, or plain old bad food eating (God forbid!) your body actually does know what it needs to nourish itself with.

Ok so here are my bon mots for today illustrating the "some prepared/some fresh concept"- as well as the add-ins which boosts interest, nutrition and variety.

Note - never turn on the oven for just one thing. Scout around for what else you can prepare while the oven is on.

Main meal:
Chicken pieces marinated in a jar of Trader Joes Curry Simmer Sauce. (This sauce is particularly good - but you can find your own version most anywhere in the Thai section of your grocery - or your own cookbook.)

Add-ins - pineapple chunks, green peas and water chestnuts. Cover and bake.

Brown jasmine rice. Make enough for more than one meal, divide and freeze.

Green salad with pumpkin seeds and raisins. Oil and vinegar dressing.

Extra in the oven:
Frozen corn with a dab of butter, salt and pepper. Bake until slightly browned. Unbelievably sweet.

Bonus meal:
Crock pot lentil soup - or stew - depending on how much water you add.

Rinse a bag of lentils, add twice as much water, can of tomatoes, any number of green fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, basil) chopped potato, garlic, salt and pepper, and a squeeze of sriracha hot sauce. Pass the EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) over the top and go. Add a splash of red wine vinegar when it's all done and stir around. Serve with a good fresh grated locatelli romono.

Sage advise for the day:
Know what you can skimp on. Don't make it the cheese :)

Bon appetit!

What's on your plate??
Gael

Handling World Events

2011-04-12T18:11:00.000-04:00

I love scanning the New York Times online in the morning and taking in whatever dose of world news is tolerable to me at any one sitting...

Today the article I am reading is Japan Nuclear Disaster Put on Par With Chernobyl.

No surprise really. It is one month and one day since the earthquake and tsunami that started it all. Risks are escalating. Conditions are worse than previously reported. The whole world is affected. Not looking good. I don't mean to add to your freak out quotient - but rather to ask a powerful question...

What can we do? What can YOU do?

I know we all feel the same challenge tolerating news of worsening conditions. How much bad news - how many challenging events - and what new world catastrophe can be absorbed without going into overwhelm or deep sadness or anger or hopelessness or - something.

Why do we react - or push it all away in helplessness or apathy?

We react because we care.

We shut down because we care.

We are bewildered and upset - or vague and apathetic - because we care.

You might hear a world of difference in opinion making regarding what should be done, who should be doing it, how stupid - or smart - we are, who is the villian, who the hero, and whatever else looks a diversity of approach. Yet I guarantee you from the deepest part of the soul of mankind, we do care, each and every one.

If you are active in relief efforts - sending donations, writing letters, finding a passionate outlet - you may have diffused your own personal agony.

For most of us who are not wearing the hat of President or Minister or Billionaire though, it might seem like our offering is too small...too insignificant to even matter, or try.

Yet I tell you it is necessary that you offer something anyway... and that there is something we all can do successfully.

So what is that you ask?

Big windup with drumroll...

Activate your sixth chakra and get on board with a simple solution to your own stuckness - and perhaps save the world in the process.

Here's the cliff notes on how the human energy system reacts to stress when viewing life through the lens of energy anatomy - and btw you can practically apply this mini-lesson to any circumstance or issue:

As communal beings dependent from birth, we inherently reach for the idea that somebody will rescue us, and when our beliefs get crushed we feel betrayed. First chakra of the tribe is not the answer to what we can rely on with issues that are out of our control.
We move to "apathy" when caring becomes overwhelming. This is second chakra movement away from nourishment and relationship when the nourishment of doing something significant about caring isn't available - therefore we say we "can't care so much anymore."
We look to ourselves for action and find we are individually powerless to make a difference. Third chakra of Self and the concept "I am able" is distorted into "I am not able."
We activate fear as faith in our surroundings breaks down. Fourth chakra of the heart.
We switch to active anger when boundaries are crushed and when we feel powerless with our will to have life be different than it is. Fifth chakra territory activates, spins and spins and burns us out.
We go back again and again to one or more of the above.

It is exhausting.

We are playing energy anatomy pinball with the chakras.

It is exhausting.

Are you exhausted??

Something new must be activated so that you yourself will have some grace and freedom to continue to create and breathe and smile.

Time to send in the special ops - onward to the Sixth Chakra!

On The Monkey Blog, a forum I created for discussing higher consciousness, quantum physics and other fabulous topics, I wrote about the work of Dr. Masuru Emoto and his dynamic water crystal research in the post Healing The Waters of Japan. Even if you read it, follow me on this one...

You will find exquisite Sixth Chakra work in action.

Read the post and connected links to get more of the back story if you want some interesting mind food, but for now do tuck the exercise below into your Daily Bread Basket...

Dr. Emoto suggests that each of us engages in one achingly simple exercise.

It is a prayer that opens the door to the sixth chakra of insight and connectedness. It affords individual and communal movement in the direction of healing. It may seem too simple. You may not recognize the power of something so mystical as a simple prayer - or you may say yes with all your heart!..yet skip the regularity of the action.

My post today is a reminder that this requires action in addition to awareness.

Continuous heartfelt action.

Routine action.

Bigtime action.

I know, I know - if you're a regular reader you have seen me post this prayer on The Monkey, facebook, twitter, my Newsletter, my emails, and now here again on The Mystic - yet this is the venue that explains why the action itself is so important - and freeing.

Will you do it?

"To all people on the earth, we are water.

Let’s become one by offering love and gratitude to Water...

Water is what connects everything.
(Say to yourself)
I’m sorry,
Please forgive me,
I thank you,
And I love you."

The brilliance of this simple action is stunning if you recognize the energy anatomy conversation and directional flow that marks it's foundation. Not only does it activate the Sixth Chakra of insight and focused mind, effectively eliminating the pinball game I described above, but it leads us squarely to the seat of the Seventh Chakra where LOVE is all there is - not just in theory but in practice.

Get onboard kids!

Samadhi here we come!

For whatever support I can give you on the framework of the Chakras and a deeper explanation of the emotional territory, see Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom. For a greater insight into the energy body pinball game I described, check out Anatomy of a Trauma. Commission a unique Personalized Audio Program scripted and produced for your own individual care and co-creation as the journey unfolds.

Whatever you do, we are all at the point where we must do what we can.

Love and blessings to each of you! May you feel the relief of movement and energy expressed.

Give a comment and let us know how it works out.

Namaste,
Gael

Photo credit: Bob Alba

Nourishing Ourselves

2011-04-04T14:33:00.000-04:00

Another installment on the blessings of a meditative mindset...

Last week I led a retreat on Long Island on the beautiful grounds of Planting Fields Arboretum. The picture above is just a tiny slice of life from their main greenhouse. Before we gathered in the room I'd set up for our yokibics movement and meditation program, we opened our day in the greenhouse, quietly moving through the different rooms, observing the blooming orchids, the shedding dahlias, the thorny and majestic cactus...feeling the humidity and breathing in the smells that surrounded us. We participated with conscious awareness in the knowledge that our retreat had begun in the simplest of ways, and it could be nothing special without our full participation and awareness.

It was grand!

Lately I've been noticing more and more of what isn't so grand - weird expressions of "guilt" about being able to stop and smell the roses, as if we are stealing time from more important endeavors - as if we need to do it in secret. This seems to be combining with an increased amount of pressure from the outside world to get going lickety split!

I wonder when the pendulum swung so definitively in this direction that it feels normal to be stressed?

I especially love to watch the folks who play the "green light game" as if their lives depended on it. You know the ones. You're in your car stopped at a light and your attention wanders out the window for just a moment as you take a breath and look around. The light turns green and as you bring your gaze back and begin the action to accelerate ... BEEEEEEEPPPPPP!!

Not quick enough apparently.

Perhaps we need more coffee. And 5-hour energy drinks. And don't forget the Pepsid...

For those of us at Planting Fields, each one described a feeling of deep satisfaction through the simple act of receiving fully what was already there.

Once out in daily life, we continue to have the opportunity to nourish ourselves every day through what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell - for nourishment truly is the issue at hand.

One of my favorite topics for illustrating this is to consider the experience of conscious eating.

In order to get a feel for conscious eating, try the following exercise as you imagine yourself sitting down to a delicious meal...

Relax your body. Unclench and unwind your legs, arms, belly, jaw, neck, back and face.

Deepen your breath…

When you slow your breath you slow down time. The meal in front of you is here for you to savor and enjoy.

Notice if you feel rushed, “starved”, or ready to get going. Focus instead on your readiness to nourish your body, mind and spirit. Only your mind says “hurry now and eat…”

You need not have a lot of time; merely the sensation that you have all the time you need. Slow your inhale, and enjoy this pause in your day.

Exhale, and let go of all the thoughts and stresses you brought into this moment. … If there is some aggravation you need to release, do it now before your meal.

Focus your attention on the ease, family, and friendship surrounding this meal. It doesn’t matter if you are alone or with others. You are the favored guest!

Center on what pleases you. Treat yourself well. Allow yourself to generate a feeling of appreciation…relax even more deeply.

Lastly, feel your connection to the food you are going to eat, and acknowledge the nutritive value of your meal.

Take another deep breath, and smile.

Approach the nourishing moments in front of you with this frame of reference and you will be well on your way to a happier, more loving, more self-fulfilled you.

How can you find more roses in your day??

Meditate Schmeditate!

2011-03-10T14:28:00.000-05:00

That's what I often hear when people who are so, so busy start to talk about their priorities.

Meditate?? Are you kidding? Who has time for that?!

I have a different take. I think meditation is the biggest, grandest, most effective and efficient time saver in the Universe.

No joke.

All my life I've made use of the opportunity to create and teach what most inspires me - and at this point the inspiration list is pretty long! Sometimes a great teacher can trigger a need in me to simply explore new territory and exchange results. Sometimes a world event - like the recent oil spill - informs my choice of a workshop topic or audio program as I relate to the deep societal call to find our power amidst disempowering events. Then there are other times when the simplicity of a fabulous piece of music inspires an entire block of new Yokibics moves and ways to co-create with the bodymind energy we have all been graced with.

Always and ever though, does one single concept come round and round as the motherlode of all teachings for me, as the quality of life gained from the experience is literally beyond explanation. Meditate.

It's one of those "you've gotta experience this one for yourself" kinds of things.

Part of the Eight-limbed tree of Yoga, meditation and it's pre-cursor concentration are called Dharana and Dhyana, with epic volumes devoted to their care and practice.

I remembering hearing Marianne Williamson speak on the subject and she smilingly ticked off all sorts of examples where "meditate" was the prescribed balm. The seeker goes to the top of the mountain to hear the word of God. God says "meditate." The student goes to the guru to ask the meaning of life. The guru says "meditate." The anguish of a mother who, while mourning the loss of her child goes to her spiritual guide to ask why life contains such sorrow, and the guide after consoling her says "meditate."

My own exerience informs me every single day why the answer "meditate" is so very powerful. Primarily meditation is a PROCESS rather than a fixed answer that can change and vanish as life evolves - and life is a process of ever moving and unfolding moments in a wave we can ride successfully or get trounced by.

Last week a student asked me how I came by the name "Yokibics" and after owning it for almost 30 years, I had the vision of it as clear as the day it came - a double seater airplane crossing the screen of my mind while in meditation, followed by a banner proclaiming the name. I didn't "think it up" but rather I received it while waiting for it to arrive.

Ahhhh - waiting for it to arrive.

There is ease in that...

and a sort of patience demanded.

A couple of years ago I had a nasty keritosis on my back - the kind of "pre-cancerous" itchy thing that can worry the life out of a person and usually get cut off, which I have already had happen to others spots just like it. Sinking into my deepest self I literally "knew" that a blend of essential oils would be benificial to me. I heard the list inside my mind like directions.

This time it was not a vision, but rather a voice.

My body received the mixture of oils like the perfect antidote - and 5 weeks later no more spot. Others have asked me for my recipe - many others at this point - and with some tweaking and a fair amount of research on how to create a base creme for delivery, it has become a Yokibics Monkey Creme Personal Care Product - "use it to get those monkeys off your back!"

What a gift!

I have had many more like these two pivotal experiences in meditation... many more.

Sometimes the gifts are dramatic. Sometimes they are so subtle as to be almost missed. A quiet moment of insight can shift everything...a reflective moment of caring can open the floodgate of tears withheld, and bring the refreshment of new beginnings.

The certitude of a path that feels like a slippery slope when the worry mind is at work can apprears as an oasis of calm in meditation.

These are the gifts of meditation that cannot be bought or demanded.

There are plenty of places where you can get information about techniques and styles and support for the journey. I will write about more of them here on this blog in my upcoming posts.

For today it is my simple intention to share some of the gifts of the journey. Once embraced, the "how-tos" will simply fall into place.

I invite you to close your eyes for a moment when you finish this post, and stay for a minute - or five - before you move into your next activity or thought. Stay a while and feel the quiet place of your own receptivity.

This is a powerful place, and it already exists inside of you.

Befriend it now and you can rely on it forever.

blessings and grace to you,
Gael
Author and Spoken Word Artist

Photo credit: Bob Alba

Come join me!

2011-02-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Are you eager to participate in a live Yokibics workshop? I am grateful to offer the opportunity and happy to begin my "year of the road trip" as I embrace opportunities to flow and travel. The offerings here and now are just the beginning - I'll keep you posted as we broaden our range!

Our website at Yokibics

offers information and easy registration in the

EVENTS Sign Up link (left sidebar)

Florida, Pennsylvania and New York are on my schedule now. California and the West Coast in the fall. Costa Rica after that with information coming soon. Is there a special location you would like to see me create a training or an event? Come play...

Meanwhile, contemplate this from the wise one Rumi, who believed of the mystical path:

"In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations."

May this be so for all of us as we grow in wisdom and knowledge. I greet you on the path.

Namaste

Gael

Forgiveness

2011-02-06T19:26:00.001-05:00

Recently a student asked me if yoga can help a person forgive toxic people - harmful events - the inadequacies of others - and ourselves.

I started teaching yoga in 1977, and if you simply count the years - and imagine, then you must know I have had plenty of opportunity to demonstrate through a lifetime of experience if yoga is even remotely helpful to such a heartfelt - or heart-breaking topic, and if, after all these years, I can say that the answer is yes.

I do.

To me, since yoga embodies the essence of "yoking the powers of body, mind and spirit" it is a philosophy, a practice and a way of being. I remember the intention "to yoke" each time I engage in any one of the practices, whether an asana, a breath, a yama or whatever.

Here's a really good payoff - a wonderful result - and I'm relating it to forgiveness. My body may not like the idea of forgiving one single bit. After all, it naturally responds to stimuli ("What?? I'm gonna just walk away from this one? Where's that eye for my eye - that tooth for my tooth?") and so my body may be reactive, sick, queasy, humiliated, shamed... just awful.

Now my mind may not be that much help on the forgiveness front either ("What?? {same initial reaction you will notice} - I'm gonna give in? Let go? Ease up? That's not fair! Not right! Not... not."

So what will save me from myself?

Ahhhh...my spirit of course, that sits like a bird on the limb of the tree - the observer watching the observed, and says "look at you all wound up. Remember who you are. This cannot hurt you. Remember who you are. Bliss of the blissful is your way of being. Bliss of the blissful is what you strive to experience - and in yoking your powers, do you not want this for the "other" as well?"

Right. I forgot... :)

Then yes, for-give. Give to the other the ability to handle their own life consequences as you handle yours. Give to yourself - and to the other - the freedom from recurring karma. Let us return to the desire at hand - to live the life of peaceful intention where holding out on forgiveness just doesn't work.

Well then! Now I must go to my practice, which yokes my powers of BodyMindSpirit and Spirit informs Body and Mind through the routine. Each asana demonstrates "you ACT as one with this intention." Each breath embraces "you LIVE as one with this intention." Each conscious thought says "release all that is not this intention."

And so it goes...

Now some of the practices I have found most valuable here might seem contrary to the state of peaceful zen I just described...but it is true that the kind of hurt that demands forgiveness is usually married to anger at the unforgiven, therefore addressing anger is numero uno on the list.

The energy of it sits at the throat chakra and demands boundaries and proper alignment of will. So then - go get upset - get in touch with it - safely and in a way that will not harm. Write it out, yell, pound that pillow, wail, scream, yell, throw yourself on the ground and pound if you need to! Again and again RELEASE the energy into the field of all possibility!!

...then... breath... in...

Fill yourself with the blessing of new breath - new openness - new possibility - new freedom - sparkling energy - radiant prana - freedom from the demands of the anger itself. This is the essence of non-attachment, not some round about saintly oblivion, but rather a straight beeline into and through the anger itself until we can get up and dust ourselves off on the other side.

Now get up and go to your mat and let BodyMindSpirit take care of the rest :)

A final reflection for this short post - there is a difference between simple and easy. Simple means uncomplicated. Easy means "it's a snap." This may not be a snap. The challenge of arriving at the place where you can actually BE the forgiveness you intend can be a long and arduous journey of self-discovery and self-care. Yet knowing the territory and the pay-off is like having a light shine bright at the end of the tunnel. You can. You must. You will...succeed.

The simple part is don't get off the train. Your practice will inform you again and again.

If you want to explore the eight limbs of yoga in a practical way, click the label "Simple Steps" on this blog. There are 40 of them in previous posts reaching out to you like little jewels for the taking.

If you would prefer the steps consolidated you can go to 40 Simple Steps on our website and you'll find the eBook version ready to download and able to print.

Blessings to you in your journey,
namaste

Does anyone know the meaning of yoga?

2011-01-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

Have any of you been following the huge new (ish) movement to redefine yoga these days? I'm seeing all sorts of folks changing it up at will and fighting for the privelige - and others hanging on to traditional systems like their lives depended on it. Leave it to us Westerners to take something sacred and ancient and make it our own. This is the one thing that perhaps we can all agree on if you start looking at all of the dissention about what "it" actually is. Innovators innovate, that's for sure!

In my role as Yoga Therapist and founder of Yokibics Mindbody Fitness, I am currently being interviewed for an article on some of the new yoga fusion programs. The writer wants my expert opinion on what's what. Oh boy. She has been re-contacing me to tweak this comment and that - and to tell you the truth I find I am actually delighted to enter the fray on such a broad and timely subject since I've been taken with reading much of the hubbub and controversy that arrives in my daily news feed.

Here's what I commented to the question "what is the meaning of yoga in a yoga-fusion class - and who qualifies and who doesn't?"

(cue up the theme from Jeopardy...)

OK - my take on it is this - the good news is simply that the topic itself "the meaning of yoga" is so controversial it is sure to get a rise from readers - which brings attention to the subject of yoga at all.

If you haven't tuned into elephant journal (out of Boulder CO - birthplace of all things new age and hippie :) that's one place where you too can subscribe and see what their bloggers are constantly arguing about - some tongue in cheek, some just cheeky - in addressing who is right and who is wrong and who is full of the most hot air...and what a modern definition of yoga might be. The conclusions are allllll over the place from hot-body-sexy-chick-never-say-ohm types, to Bikram and his tribe, to traditionalists who are surely moaning as I write.

Given that - for me - and I am certain of what "for me" is - the meaning of yoga would signify the essence of "to yoke the powers of body, mind and spirit."

If one or another of the parts to that three legged stool goes MIA in anyone's class, then perhaps it's time to find another definition. "Asana" is one of the eight aspects of yoga and signifies the purely physical part of practice for example and nobody has to imagine it to be anything more or less - but the essence of yoga itself includes and addresses body-mind and spirit as part of the equation.

Another question was "how is meditation related to yoga?"

According to the ancient texts of Patanjali there are eight limbs (aspects) to the practice of yoga. Like a tree, yoga embodies each of the eight limbs equally. Meditation ("Dhyana") is the aspect of yoga that invites the practitioner to witness the difference between their ego self and their essential self - and to be in contact with the essential self through observing and stilling the wandering mind. Wiki says " In Dhyana, the meditator is not conscious of the act of meditation (i.e. is not aware that s/he is meditating) but is only aware that s/he exists (consciousness of being), and aware of the object of meditation."

A practical example exists in my classes as we continually breathe through the presence of meaning in every action we create. We allow meditative moments to flow throughout our physical practice. Being brought to conscious awareness in this way allows the mind the actual experience of observing - and releasing - negative self-talk, comparative thinking, one-upmanship, imperfect body "stinkin' thnkin'" and all manner of upsetting mind filling junk.

Just like a good teacher needs to correct someone who is butchering an exercise movement - hopefully so they don't kill someone, especially themselves! - so too will a good "yoga" teacher bring attention to the thought processes that don't belong through the discipline of a meditative mind.

Well, my interviewer is off to write what she writes - and I'm sure she's having a heck of a time putting it all together with what everyone else is coming up with besides.

For more of My Take check out my new e-book 40 Simple Steps to The Eight Limbs of Yoga online.

Now I want to know - what do you think?

Cheerio!

Emotional Freedom for Everyone

2011-01-05T18:03:00.000-05:00

My friend and fellow mystic writer Edie Weinstein just published an article in Wisdom magazine that features an interview with Dr. Judith Orloff on the topic "Emotional Freedom" and I realize more clearly every day how very significant this information has become - and will continue to become - for all of us as we evolve into the people we are growing up to be.

I think you'll love Edie's interview (read it here) and the clear awareness that Judith Orloff has on the subject can only benefit your own deepening instincts about who you are and how you are becoming.

I believe that emotional freedom - the sister topic of emotional genius - is the new frontier in human consciousness. Daily we are gifted with new ways of knowing the body - and our investigation into the realm of the mind has fascinated us for eons whether through investigations of the unconscious, conscious or super conscious mind, the study of psychology and the intellect, or the delving fascination we have with psychic and intuitive abilities. But recognizing the source and purpose of emotions? In my experience we have misunderstood their role more completely than all of our misconceptions about body and mind put together.

Emotions are the gateway into how our energy circuits are running - a soul connector - and there isn't a bad one among them. There is plenty of inappropriate or misguided response though (response-ability) that gives the emotion itself a bad name.

Here are a couple of examples from my work in the territory of the emotional genius...

Feeling angry? That's a popular one to misunderstand. One might be coached to "get over it" or sided with by friends who are on your team with "yeah you're right! The rest of the world is against you/me/us!!" But here is where anger is your guide and teacher. Where are your boundaries about the subject? Really.

Are you doing all you can to create clear words and a strong will in the area? Are you willing to make the changes you are being called to make in order to co-create a different outcome? So much easier to be "angry at the boss" than to get up and out and create a different life. Yes, the answer to the presence of anger might be that drastic.

No wonder we don't "understand."

Anger serves to tell us change is required. Listen to it well. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with others. Be willing to be the change you wish to see.

The emotion of anger will always involve your will and your word.

What about grief? There is indeed great reason for the expression of it in the world - more than enough to go around. Death itself has been built into the program of life. There is no escaping the powerful appearance of grief in your life at one time or another. Yet like all emotions, grief is meant to ebb and flow. Deep sadness when caged is like sinking into the bottom of a well. It serves to bring us deeper and deeper into awareness of what we really value - and it holds the potential of letting go. A more authentic version of our former self becomes the gift.

How many survivors of even the worlds worst atrocities have come out on the other side helping mankind in a way that only they could when fully embodied and fully charged?

Grief stimulates the 3rd chakra and is the harbinger of a more genuine you.

Fear? A natural request to place your faith wisely.
Pain? What insights are you being given?
Apathy? What get up and go is necessary for you to care about something greater than yourself?

How about the emotion of joy?? Ahhhh....

Joy is inherent in the system just like all the other emotions. It is not reserved only for the special few, yet joy too is meant to ebb and flow - to rise and fall - to sing it's song in your life - in every life! It doesn't do well if you try to hang onto it. It was never meant to sit static like a crown jewel. Joy arrives unbidden as a result of transforming the entirety of your emotional body into a functioning alive system - not despite it.

What practical key then can I leave with you? What wish for your success?

allow yourself to change outdated beliefs about how miserable things are.
stop brushing off your feelings as if they don't matter. They do.
be willing to learn to identify what feelings you have
become able to develop good discernment about what choices are available to help you transform your emotions rather than stuffing them away.
become able to pause when a feeling arises and recognize it without judgement
validate validate validate yourself
be willing to let go
recognize the the joy you seek is already there
know that becoming an emotional genius is an inside job unrelated to circumstances outside your control.
be willing to be new.

If you are a conscious journeyman into the subject, read Edie Weinsteins' interview, buy Judith Orloffs book Emotional Freedom or download one of my audio programs Fundamentals of Emotional Freedom or Meditations for Emotional Freedom to help guide you. You can achieve more clarity, greater ease and a deeper connection to your own interior through the process of honoring your emotions than you might ever have imagined.

We are all destined to become masters in this life. Whether or not we can achieve that destiny depends upon the clarity of our objective. May you be blessed in yours.

Namaste,
Gael
.
Photo credit: Bob Alba
Exiting Mammoth Cave, Kentucky

Retreat Yourself

2010-12-10T18:31:00.000-05:00

Busy days...

30 years of taking and teaching yoga. Memories of retreats in scores of places, both attended and facilitated. Some of my personal favorites? My home venue - solo. I worked it out no matter how - kids at grandmas - hubby on a trip with friends - whether 1/2 day or more, give whatever you can (I've been fortunate and routinely give myself seasonal multi-day silent yoga staycations.)

Some high points to share for an awesome experience:

* clean your home and have all fresh linens * turn off the computer and phone and feel your home like a peaceful breath. * fetch your all-time favorite music out of hiding and play it day and night. * go to the library and fill up on sacred books that are calling your name and have them ready to peruse. * scrub your tub or shower and have all your self-care stuff set out and available. * plate fresh fruit and have pitchers of fresh ginger water just waiting for you to enter the room. * roll out your mat and keep it out * candles * journal * quiet evening walks * views to ponder * letters to friends * meditations...

* create a collage of your highest vision as you re-member who you are in the simplicity of where you stand...

hoooooommme.

There's no place like it.

love, blessings and namaste :)
gael

Solstice Quotes

2010-12-07T13:02:00.000-05:00

I've spent a lifetime collecting quotes...I think they are like gems of understanding that bypass the long winded explanations and be-causes we usually rely on. Quotes are like friends who can whisper in your ear and set you straight - or remind you of what you already know - only they say it better :)

As we enter this holiday-holyday time of year end, here are just a few thoughts for you as we go into the darkness and seek what is true.

Wisdom Across Ages

“Never be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
-John D. Rockefeller

"Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit."
-Napolean Hill

"If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self."
-Napolean Hill

"It is always your next move."
-Napoleon Hill

"Adversity is preparation for greatness"
-Andy Andrews

"The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today."
-Les Brown

"Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds."
- Albert Einstein

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
- Winston Churchill

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
- Maryanne Williamson

"Do not be afraid to give”

- Albert Einstein

"Think on these things" as the Mystic Krishnamurti said.

May the words of the wise lead you through rich territory as you dive deep this season. May you surface with more light than you ever imagined.

Blessings to you!

Namaste,

Gael

photo credit: Bob Alba

Remember When Waking

2010-11-26T12:44:00.000-05:00

My Thanksgiving gift to you from poet David Whyte

"In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,

coming back to this life from the other, more secret, movable, and frighteningly honest world where everything began,

there is a small opening into the new day...

which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your sleep.
To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.

To remember the other world in this world is to live your true inheritance."

Fundamentals of engaging your energy anatomy tell us the 6th chakra of insight and grace will help you enlarge the awareness of who you are and what you are here for. Slow down...pay attention. Meditate now. This is the time for harvest in all ways and between all worlds.

There is noone - noone - quite like you.

Listen to your dream. Live your unique pattern.

May we all be blessed by your creation.

Namaste

From Farm to Garbage Can?

2010-11-02T13:27:00.002-04:00

During this time of Thanksgiving, check out the New York Times article below about how much food we (who live here in America) throw away! Yup - right into the garbage.

From-farm-to-fridge-to-garbage-can

It highlights a study in Tompkins County, N.Y., that showed 40 percent of food waste occurred in the home. Another study, by the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, found that 93 percent of respondents acknowledged buying foods they never used.

My husband and I were just talking about this the other day when I observed that our joint commitment - and skill set - around cooking, eating and cycling through our food seems to be an anomoly these days. A lost art perhaps? Certainly in places where food is scarce, I can't imagine people "forgetting" where they put their remaining precious grains of rice. So I decided to write about it and perhaps the skills we share can be shared by others too. Here's what we do...maybe you'll find something here too.

just for today - clean out your fridge and do GET RID of the obvious junk, old ketchup, jelly jars, creepy stuff in the back etc....just for today throw out what's in the way of your obvious enjoyment so you'll never have to throw away again.
ditto your freezer
wash off sticky jars and such that you are keeping and arrange what you have left.
ok - now you have a clean plate and it's a new day :)
go shopping! Enjoy! It's a culinary adventure!
buy lots of stuff you love that you know you can cook with in a variety of ways
buy zip lock freezer bags
take time to arrange you new stuff when you get home.
divide and repackage foods you love that you know can be frozen...some for now and some for later. If Birds Eye can flash freeze their vegis, so can I.
divide bread loaves in half and freeze
add regular address labels and a magic marker notation to insure you will remember what's inside... seriously.
keeping vegis fresh in plastic with a paper towel seems to help longevity
every couple of days rearrange your food and pull the back stuff up front.
remember - you are enjoying yourself! this is a privilege not a chore so rearrange your thinking if you must and have fun!
when it's time to cook, go for it!
think "ingredients" not leftovers. Rice, pasta, beans, lentils, grains...all can be made now, divided, labeled and frozen.
when you prepare full meals like casseroles, stews, soups, create multiple dishes and freeze some.
whenever you turn on the oven review what's in your storehouse and add multiple items. Don't allow oven time to go to waste. Get that squash, baked potato, red pepper or casserole into the oven, even if it's not for this meal. Big secret: cooked and prepped food that is ready to eat is far less likely to get jettisoned than stuff that looked great at the market and sits and waits for the right opportunity at home.
get a crock pot and make friends with soup for a daily - weekly - easy breezy payoff with little effort.
read cookbooks like novels to absorb their pleasure rather than just fishing for last minute recipes, notice what foods go together well and be prepared to let your creative side show.
everything you ever need to know about preparing or storing any kind of food is a click away online
you'll probably recognize by now that your freezer is stocked - but most of it is with food you bought fresh and divided or soups you made or casseroles or beans or grains you spent time cooking once not multiple times.
poke your head in the freezer every morning and take out what you need for the next day to balance what you have fresh on hand.
notice that you are beginning to "cycle through" food rather than having each meal stand alone.
I find we cook "large" - that is full kitchen in high gear - about twice a week and quickly create with fresh food daily.

I guarantee you will have an overall healthier profile - both physical and financial - doing this than you will with a freezer stocked with boxed prepared foods or a fridge filled with smelly stuff in the back. And that's not even addressing all that eating out because "there's nothing to eat at home."

Last, but not least - the key ingredient here is nourishment...your nourishment! Forming a conscious relationship with how and what and when and why you nourish is an abundant gift you give yourself. Being out of touch with any aspect of your food system - from purchasing to storing, preparing and eating - means you are out of touch with some aspect of your own nourishment.

There is more healing for us to do in this realm than words can describe.

Begin now with your fridge and see where it goes for you. Don't be surprised if all sorts of issues clear up.

There are plenty more bullet points to be had than just mine. Do you have something to contribute? Please do! Your comments are the result of shared purposes. Together we can shift to a healthier paradigm and change those abysmal statistics while giving ourselves full expression of the abundance that truly does surround us.

May you have faith in this season of Thanksgiving.

May you feel the gorgeous opulence of home through the care and conscious relationship of what you prepare and eat there.

May our world be better tomorrow through the choices you make today.

Blessings, love and namaste,
Gael

PS - If you want some help with the concept of becoming more conscious or desire some meditative work and guided imagery around this topic, check out The Conscious Eating Kit on our website.

Return to Paradise Day

2010-10-27T13:48:00.001-04:00

Have you noticed how many people are starting to get fit these days? Others who are taking decisive action on their food choices? Still more who are educating themselves like mad on global initiatives that create wellbeing for the planet? I am amazed at what that looks in my world. Even the most resistant of us (and you know who you are :) are finding inspiration to improve these days.

Yet...yet...

Did you know?

• In 1980, less than 50% of Americans were

overweight; today that number is more than

65% and growing

• 80% of preventable disease risk factors

are influenced by behaviors like smoking,

over-eating, poor diet and lack of exercise

• 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese

• From 2005 to 2008, type 2 diabetes doubled

in American children

• By 2025, it is estimated that nearly half of all

Americans will have a chronic disease

Sources:

World Health Organization; fightchronisdisease.org;

CBSnews.com; dosomething.org

Yikes! How do you feel when you read that? I know responses will vary even if you didn't know the exact statistics.

I know it's not really "news" to any of us either (just look around.) The doomsday familiarity of our current direction can actually cause yawns. It's as if it is all too much - too big - too complicated. I don't like scare tactics and at the same time I won't condone keeping our heads in the sand. That's just plain silly because we already have all the power we need to change this picture and create a healthy profile for ourselves and our children as we move forward into the future.

We shift individually and the world shifts with us.

So what's a person to do?

Here's a thought for today - just for today and see how it goes. Plan to set the bar just a little higher for yourself.

Choose a day within the next 7 and designate it

your "Return to Paradise" day!

Do and be all that you can do to return your own world to the highest state of health and happiness you possibly can.

Some simple suggestions to include or improve upon:

Plan an organic home-cooked menu
Add in some way to your daily exercise quotient.
Wherever you go by car, park in the "lucky space" (the furthest space from the entrance) and walk.
Take whatever stairs you can
Participate with an online exercise video.
Skip the extra coffee
Take periodic breathing breaks - 3 minute intervals of deep breath and/or fire breath.
Eat as a family - no distractions.
Watch that documentary or read that periodical that educates you further.
Share your strategy.
Begin a new journal.
Honor your Spirit.
Get to bed early.

These are some rudimentary suggestions but you get my drift. Step it up a notch for yourself and do it consciously. Can you imagine what change we could create by doing this for ourselves just once - then just once a month - once a week?

Start there. Start with us. Start with you.

You are the world.

namaste

Reach out baby, reach out

2010-09-28T13:05:00.000-04:00

Today this dreadful article appeared in my news feed - another heart sinking piece of information highlighting the result of imbalances we ourselves create in our handling of the world around us.

The full article can be found here on Walletpop, and the heading proclaims Meat tainted with deadly virus is being sold to consumers; government forms 'work group'.

Highlights from the article include:

Investigative reporter David Kirby, has hit a brick wall when trying to get answers from the USDA. Kirby is the author of Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment, in which he says the meat lobby enjoys unrivaled access to government.

"I don't think the USDA wants to touch this. They know if they start testing for MRSA, they're going to find infected pork and that will force them to make a decision, one that would hugely impact the meat export industry,"

The article goes on to say:

Scientists and animal advocates agree that the presence of MRSA and other drug-resistant "superbugs" in large-scale feeding facilities spring from the routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock. About 100,000 Americans die each year after struggling with antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, a public interest think tank.

Which leads me to The Hundredth Monkey (again :)

I'm just being honest here - about myself mostly - but perhaps you can relate, or see yourself somewhere along the spectrum of active to inactive, or caring to apathetic. Years ago when I saw posts and petitions and shout-outs for "we the people" to rise up and DO something to inform our government of our wishes for better safeguards, higher consciousness, greater consideration, I felt completely inept, or maybe it was that I was separate from the power of my voice in some way. Who am I? Does my signing a stupid petition matter? Really? Who are these people anyway? Don't they have a job?

Ahhhh. The president/senator/government agency/safety board/ professionals/people we pay etc.are supposed to take care of this! (and yes I did actually say this to myself...does it sound at all familiar?)

There simply must be a higher authority I thought...

MUST I get involved??

This my friends is 2nd chakra territory at it's finest. 2nd chakra problems regarding intimacy and power live here at the energetic level of the naval point in the physical body and effect the procreative function of the bodymind as a whole - physically, mentally and spiritually - regardless of the topic of conversation.

So this territory governs not just what we care most about but the way we care most effectively. Big doin's here...

Perhaps in addition to effectively caring, we need to challenge one of our own cherished beliefs - or maybe just reevaluate an opinion we haven't really looked at in a while. Unexamined beliefs exist inside all of us! We think we have chosen them, but have we really examined and created discernment around everything we think? Beliefs can sound like "those petition wielding people must be fringe lunatics!" for example, or "that hippie stuff isn't my thing" or even "I like my (meat in this case) way too much to even go there! (so I'll voluntarily stay ignorant and refuse to "know" and then I can not care all the more easily...)

ahhh - the "not knowing" syndrome. 1st chakra problems live here...in abundance (Bodymind stresses show up in the adrenals, legs, hips, seat, systemic disorders, learned helplessness, and hopelessness. Then in walks the pharm industry with the antidote and we are lambs to the slaughter.)

When we can't - or won't - look at beliefs we effectively muzzle our deepest and most inherent human power - the power of choice.

We. do. it. to. ourselves.

So here is what I have come to know - and act upon.

Yes I must get involved.

This is my world, my planet, my humanity and every vote I take gives ME a greater degree of empowerment to know I have a place in this Universe - and that I matter. Does my one signature mean that the Powers That Be will fall into my view? Good luck!!

Does it mean that I myself have done my best and thereby empowered myself to live with more conscious choice? Yes yes yes!

The action itself DOES matter.

Our own evolution happens one step at a time...one moment at a time...one choice at a time...one breath at a time.

In addition, if I join my best with the best in others what might we then accomplish?

This is the principle of The Hundredth Monkey Effect. You never know which signature - which vote - which petition - which choice - will make the difference and tip the scales.

Are there still fringe lunatics running around looking for doom and gloom attention? Of course! More healthy discernment on your part ought to take care of that issue, but when you are feeling powerless and overwhelmed with the degree of challenge in the world, I invite you to really look at what you CAN do now.

Sign a petition? Then do it.

Vote with your dollars at the supermarket? Then do it.

Stop and think for a minute to make a more wholesome choice? Then do it.

Tell a friend? Then do it!

I may be preaching to the choir here. I am daily amazed at the quickening we are all going through. We are rising up fast and furious and our souls are coming alive as never before! If it feels uncomfortable you are not alone. The planet itself is awakening to a new level of participation, and you dear one have as big a part as any.

The awareness of the work itself is the domain of the Spiritual Athlete. I have posted a ton of information for you to digest and I welcome your committed participation with me if it serves you. Why athlete? Because we draw on all the skills a true athlete represents. Practice, dedication, higher values, desire to accomplish, participation, team allegiance and the deep intention to do your best.

There is actually a systematized approach to how we can all uncover our higher skills of perception, and tap into the truth of our human potential. By the time you get to your 7th chakra potential you will know the truth of the experience of Mystics who say "bliss of the blissful am I."

For now start at the 1st chakra by dusting off your power of choice and let me know how it goes :)

Much love and blessings galore as together we shape our world.

Namaste

Napolean Hill Quote

2010-09-22T13:43:00.000-04:00

"Who said it could not be done? And what great victories has he to his credit which qualify him to judge others accurately?" Napolean Hill

Great quote.

I bumped into Napolean many years back with his work Think and Grow Rich. It struck me because I was also reading the mystic Krishnamurti who famously said "Think on These Things."

hummm...it all sort of made sense to view them both, but the outcome wasn't - and still isn't - the party line I have found. Thinking and doing and being get all mixed up.

We think we can think one way and act another, and all is well.

We think we can think apart from our essential way of being, and squish and squash the song of the soul with no negative effect.

"What was she thinking!" we exclaim. "Who does he think he is?"

Think think think.

Then we all hear about passion these days. Studies have clearly shown that people get better jobs, make more money, become more popular, get the girl, sell more widgets and keep more customers when they just show their PASSION!

Yeah yeah - let's just think that we can mock up the emotion, speak the words, act the part and all will be well with that. What I have noticed is that half of these passionate people are passionate about the wrong item! Influencing people to buy your story because you are so passionate about it only matters when your story is in alignment with who you really ARE.

Kids - there is a difference.

And if your ego is in the way, you've found a big clue that your passion is taking you away from your soul's desire not toward it..

Slow down!

Pause...

That's it. First we must quiet the thinking altogether. Listen. Listen well. Listen to your heart rhythm...the sensations of ease that accompany a quiet breath. Sigh...

Now observe your true desire - the thing that draws you to it with grace and light and love. What is the song of YOUR soul? You probably knew it when you were a little kid. Remember your connection to your true passion. The one that makes you unique in all the world.

Take your time. Allow the embodiment of this passionate reminder as you breathe...

Who are you...really? Find that and be passionate about that...

Some questions for you:

How can your authentic self serve the world? Find that and think of ways to offer that.

What do you think of your neighbor, your friend, your enemy, your competition? Be the change you wish to see and think about that.
What greater good can be accomplished through the thoughts you send out to the world?

Think on these things as Krishmamurti said. Then think and grow rich as well.

May we all be blessed by your thinking :)

namaste

You are the Monkey. Really.

2010-09-15T18:37:00.000-04:00

This is an invitation to you to join me in an initiative that matches nicely with The Mystic and balances the way of being with the actions taken.

I started the Mystic blog to offer lessons, principles and good advise for living life fully as a mystic without walls - which is the strange arrangement many of us find ourselves in these days as we juggle spiritual goals with a householder status. I love the body of work it now contains, and I'm excited to keep it growing and serving.

Over time I felt I needed to broaden onto another category to create balance...and highlight the action centered awareness of doing that arises when the Mystic grows into a solid citizen of the world and demonstrates through simple actions. He then becomes the Monkey - the "Hundredth Monkey" to be exact...

This is the person who has the potential power to tip the scales by adding his wisdom to the group to be seen. In this way he changes the World and his/her wisdom is made manifest.

I invite you to join me at The Monkey Blog and participate there as we address fun, soulful, sometimes challenging but always meaningful things to do to make the world a better place. I ask you to think about what you might post on the monkey blog as you look around and see what makes a difference in your own life. Comments and post additions are welcomed! Let us all see the good things and the calls to action that you know about.

Mystics and Monkeys serve to heal the world one person at a time :)

Thought for the day: what was your contribution to the world this day?

If you are reading this blog there were probably many. Acknowledge your importance. You do make a difference...a difference indeed.

Namaste and love...

The Five Tibetans

2010-08-25T12:39:00.000-04:00

Call to action! Join us if you can - or perhaps there is a group endeavor here for you...

Called the “Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth”, my initial meeting with the Five Tibetans was in California in the early 80’s in the strangest of ways.

As the story goes, years ago, after enduring an arduous journey, a seeker of the famed “fountain of youth” wound up in a monastery in Tibet. There he stayed participating in the lifestyle of the monks – which included five “rites.” After a time he came back to his modern world announcing “I have indeed found the Fountain of Youth!” Not a thing but rather a way of being, rejuvenation is found in the affect of the movements themselves.

Advised that I was called to “spread the word” by the teacher that found my whereabouts despite all odds and gave them to me, I began adding them to my teachings there and then. I have found them to be a lifesaver at times, and always a welcome addition to the variety of physical and energetic disciplines in my life.

Original classes were taught to seniors (you had to be 65 to sign up) and all were successful in adapting and completing the movements. Today I teach to all ages and conditions, and I know from my own experience that anyone and everyone truly does benefit.

You can use the guide below in addition to the books suggested to flesh out the material, and if you are available come visit me at The Soul Center in PA to participate in our opening party on Sept.11, or join our intrepid group as we begin the journey together this fall.

Yokibics® and The Five Tibetans

Movements for Energy Balancing and Restoring Health

Rite Number 1

Standing with your arms outstretched, palms facing downward, spin around in a clockwise direction while keeping your focus on a single point. Spin 21x.

This is done for the express purpose of speeding up the energy vortexes of the body.

Rite Number 2

Lie flat on your back with your arms by your sides. Bring your chin to your chest while lifting your legs to a vertical position. Keep your knees straight and breathe rhythmically throughout. Release to start position and work your way up to 21x.

Further stimulates the vortexes and strengthens abdominals.

Rite Number 3

Kneel on the floor with your trunk upright, and your hands against the back of thighs. Exhale and drop your chin to your chest. Inhale, and lifting your head arch back as far as you can go. Repeat 21x.

Strengthens and liberates back and thighs.

Rite Number 4

Sit on the floor with legs outstretched, feet 4 inches apart, hands by your sides on the floor, palms down. Keeping your torso upright, bring your chin to your chest. Now keeping your arms straight and your hands and feet in place, bend your knees and raise the trunk of your body to a horizontal tabletop position. Let your head sink back. Breathe rhythmically as you ascend and descend 21x.

Opening for chest, heart, throat, hip flexors.

Rite Number 5

Begin by lying face down on the floor. Support your body in a cobra-like sagging position with your straight arms supporting you, hands planted on the floor, toes curled under. Gently move your head back as far as it will go. Keeping your hands and feet in place, bend at the hip and bring your body into an inverted V position (dog facing down but remain on the toes). Breathe rhythmically and repeat 21x.

Back release, arm and shoulder strength, and weight bearing advantages. Maintain abdominal support throughout.

Conclusion

It is said that the Five Rites are helpful for stretching stiff muscles and joints and improving muscle tone. Yet this is not their primary purpose. The real benefit of the rites is to normalize the speed of the spinning vortexes or energy centers of the body. The rites work hand in hand with each other, and each are equally important.

If you could observe the seven vortexes of an aging person, you would notice the slowing speed of some, or all, of the centers. They might each be spinning at different rates of speed and none would be working together in harmony. The slower ones would be causing that part of the body to deteriorate, which the faster ones cause nervousness, anxiety and exhaustion. It is the abnormal condition of the vortexes that causes abnormal health, deterioration and premature aging.

You can begin by practicing the rites 3x each daily for the first week. Then, each week that follows increase the daily repetitions by 2 until you are performing each rite the full 21x. In ten weeks time you will be performing the rites regularly and completely, with about 20 minutes needed until you are fit enough to complete them all in 10 minutes or so.

The Five Rites are for the express purpose of restoring health and youthful vitality to the body. The other factors, which will dramatically affect your progress, are mental attitude and desire.

References:

The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth

Peter Kelder

The Five Tibetans

Christopher Kilham

Namaste!

The Power of Conscious Eating

2010-08-20T16:22:00.000-04:00

So here's some good news on the home front...

At three health centers in Massachusetts, doctors are handing out vouchers to their patients to subsidize their shopping at local farmers markets. You can read the full article here. Their purpose is to help combat obesity by offering affordable natural choices to readily available, high fat, cheap fast food.

How great is that? I'm a fan.

Once a month, my husband and I set up what I fondly call our "big red tent" to participate in our own local Farmers Market., and our time is coming 'round again tomorrow.

I've come to love these Saturdays! Everyone is open and friendly...it feels good to be close to farmers and growers, and to observe people who have a relationship with the food they sell...to see smiling faces, eye the abundance of the changing harvest and listen to the musicians that come to entertain the rest of us. And the bread...yummmm...did I mention the bread??

Our purpose at the Market is to offer products and education on enjoying a healthy lifestyle, and to promote our Conscious Eating Program. which embraces the whys and wherefores of our relationship with nourishment and our power of choice. We are a perfect fit for those choosing to support local farmers and organic growers.

This is an abridged version of one of the short meditations from the program - one that you all can enjoy. Just take a moment before you "dig in" and get centered on your own intentions for health. Think of it as grace before meals...

You need not have a lot of time;

merely the sensation that you have all the time you need.

By slowing your breath, you slow down time. This is a moment to savor and enjoy.

Slow your inhale, and enjoy this pause in your day. Exhale, and let go of all the thoughts and stresses you brought to this moment…

enjoy the awareness that this meal is an oasis in the midst of your day.

As you slow your breath, you gentle your heart.

Accept this meal as a gift of nourishment, and be aware of the foods you choose. See yourself savoring each and every bite…

May this day hold all the time and energy you need to be all that you can be.

Enjoy...enjoy!!

Namaste

Live the Questions

2010-08-02T17:16:00.000-04:00

There is a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke that I keep near my desk. When I stray it brings me clearly back to the journey - and the journey itself is where I am, and where it's at, in times of ease or struggle.

Take a minute and see what his words mean for you...and may you find some grace in them.

i beg you...

to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart

and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms

or books written in a very foreign language.

don't search for the answers,

which could not be given you now because you would not be able

to live them.

and the point is to live everything.

live the questions now.

perhaps then, someday far in the future,

you will gradually, without even noticing it,

live your way into the answer...

blessings and namaste

The big OM

2010-07-30T20:44:00.001-04:00

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step.

Georgie faces the big OM at Being Five. He's always got something worth checking out ;)

What a riot! George Sfarnas frequently hits the nail square on the head through the voice of his little friend.

I'm going to leave it at that for you with just one reflection. All the really good stuff is like this.

Seems too easy - too boring - too ordinary - too, well, who has the time?? to make much of a splash.

So we go outside and play (or work, as the case may be) searching for better answers than the ones that are right in front of us.

Don't be fooled my friends.

The single step is gigantic. It is important beyond explanation. The rewards are great.

May you enjoy them all.

Carry on then...

namaste

It's Heeeere!

2010-07-08T19:12:00.000-04:00

My treasure map.

20 years ago today my trusty astrologer told me that good things were in the stars for me. Yup - clear sailing ahead! I was overjoyed at the possibility. After all, at the time I had no idea how to protect my 13 year old and 10 year old from the doomsday I saw mounting around the family-run business we were a part of, the pile of bills that made my head spin, a marriage that held only the promise of my imagination, and talent in a new age field that was called "pioneering" at best (code for bleeding edge) and fringe at worst.

"Gonna be good for you someday..."

ok, great! When? Next year? Two years? 5 years?

Nooooo....not that soon...

"Somewhere in your late 50's you will begin to feel like it's all clicking."

Yeesh. Not good.

I kicked.

I screamed.

I disavowed her insight and clearly created a path for happiness NOW.

That was forever ago, and life happened - lots and lots of it - rich and full - oh so very full - inspiring and challenging, but not for one minute was it easy.

I did learn however the skill of creating happiness right where I stood.

Now here I am.

Finally.

Today is my birthday - always a time of self-reflection, contemplation and gratitude - along with a healthy dose of reassessment of circumstances and readjustment of strategy where needed.

Today I am at the end stage of my 50's and everything - everything - about those previous times has changed. Different home. Different state. Different husband. Different life.

I look at my interior and ... I ... feel...it is true. My astrologer was on to something.

Does everyone feel like this at this stage of life? Or did I just outlast all the drama and trauma until finally I could see the light of day from the mere fact of my longevity?

Ha. I don't think so actually. I believe to everything there is a season, and the season of my own harvest is here.

What a wonderful world! (I always loved that song)

And the lesson? The takeaway? ahhh..the takeaway.

Hang tough.

Don't give up and don't feel sorry.

Be your authentic self and always do your best.

Mostly... recognize that there is a time for everything and everything in it's time.

If you are railing against your circumstances today, I say "gonna be good for you someday..."
May you do your best with what you have as you live the moment and look forward with great anticipation to what is yet to be.

Many blessings to you along the way.

Namaste

My Take: What Would a Mystic Do?

New Venue!

Pain as a Path to Insight

Occupy Your Heart in Times of Change

The Language of Emotional Freedom

Are you dealing with negativity much?

Astrology Points the Way if We Listen

Creation and Vision

#6 Fear of Aging

#5 Fear of Success

#4 Fear of The Unknown

#3 Fear of Feeling

#2 Fear Defined

June Series: #1 Facing Fear

Eat! #11 Ingredients Galore

Eat! #10 Yogini Style

Eat! #9 Buzz Juice

Eat! #8 Orange Smoothie

Eat! #7 Boulder Latte

Eat! #6 On the Road

Eat! #5 In Praise of the One-Pot

Eat! #4 Marney Soup

Eat! #3 Tomatoes

Eat! #2 Dumplings

Eat! #1 Vegi Face

Handling World Events

Nourishing Ourselves

Meditate Schmeditate!

Come join me!

Forgiveness

Does anyone know the meaning of yoga?

Emotional Freedom for Everyone

Retreat Yourself

Solstice Quotes

Remember When Waking

From Farm to Garbage Can?

Return to Paradise Day

Reach out baby, reach out

Napolean Hill Quote

"Who said it could not be done? And what great victories has he to his credit which qualify him to judge others accurately?" Napolean Hill

Great quote.

I bumped into Napolean many years back with his work Think and Grow Rich. It struck me because I was also reading the mystic Krishnamurti who famously said "Think on These Things."

hummm...it all sort of made sense to view them both, but the outcome wasn't - and still isn't - the party line I have found. Thinking and doing and being get all mixed up.

We think we can think one way and act another, and all is well.

We think we can think apart from our essential way of being, and squish and squash the song of the soul with no negative effect.

"What was she thinking!" we exclaim. "Who does he think he is?"

Think think think.

Then we all hear about passion these days. Studies have clearly shown that people get better jobs, make more money, become more popular, get the girl, sell more widgets and keep more customers when they just show their PASSION!

Kids - there is a difference.

And if your ego is in the way, you've found a big clue that your passion is taking you away from your soul's desire not toward it..

Slow down!

Pause...

That's it. First we must quiet the thinking altogether. Listen. Listen well. Listen to your heart rhythm...the sensations of ease that accompany a quiet breath. Sigh...

Now observe your true desire - the thing that draws you to it with grace and light and love. What is the song of YOUR soul? You probably knew it when you were a little kid. Remember your connection to your true passion. The one that makes you unique in all the world.

Take your time. Allow the embodiment of this passionate reminder as you breathe...

Who are you...really? Find that and be passionate about that...

Some questions for you:

What do you think of your neighbor, your friend, your enemy, your competition? Be the change you wish to see and think about that.

What greater good can be accomplished through the thoughts you send out to the world?

Think on these things as Krishmamurti said. Then think and grow rich as well.

May we all be blessed by your thinking :)

namaste

You are the Monkey. Really.

The Five Tibetans

Yokibics® and The Five Tibetans

Movements for Energy Balancing and Restoring Health

Rite Number 1

Rite Number 2

Rite Number 3

Rite Number 4

Rite Number 5

Conclusion

The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth

The Five Tibetans

The Power of Conscious Eating

You need not have a lot of time;

merely the sensation that you have all the time you need.

By slowing your breath, you slow down time. This is a moment to savor and enjoy.

Slow your inhale, and enjoy this pause in your day. Exhale, and let go of all the thoughts and stresses you brought to this moment…

enjoy the awareness that this meal is an oasis in the midst of your day.