02

Dec

Spirituality within today’s culture

Read a short article on the Rise of the Soul Coach in this morning’s Globe and Mail. It talks about a growing interest in spirituality amongst women in their 20-30s and whether or not some of the branding around spirituality that’s occurring takes away from it’s authenticity. I’ve found myself come across similar articles and discussions as of late around this idea of consumerism + authenticity, especially in the yoga world.

Q: Am I a more authentic yogini if I don’t wear brand name clothes

A: I have yet to find a more functional pair of crops to practice (and live) in other than Lululemon (Astro Wunder Unders = the best). I’m sure there are others out there, but can you please make them more accessible, with free shipping + customer reviews and such. Though the recent John Galt conservative commentary has me questioning my loyalty to the company.

Q: Would practicing at a yoga studio rather than a gym make me a more authentic yogini?

A: There are pros/cons to both a studio and gym setting, but in the end, does it really matter? My mat is my practice space. My mind and body is my practice space. Plus I like to think that some of the idiosyncrasies of the gym setting in which I practice – I’m talking pounding electro music from the spinning class next door, to grunts of the weight lifters dropping 50 lb dumbbells heard through the studio walls – force me to be even more present in my practice as I try extra hard to zone out external distractions.

Q: Is it cliche to sport your mala beads just because you practice yoga?

A: No, I didn’t get my mala beads during a trip of self-exploration in India. I got them right here from an awesome Canadian company (Tiny Devotions), and wear’em with love. I was drawn to them initially for just the jewelry sake, but the more I looked into them the more I learned about energy sources, crystal therapy and what not. It’s cool stuff once you start to experience some of the effects.

Q: I like to go out and have a few drinks and party. Am I a bad yogini?

A: Ya, like I’m supposed to be staying at home in meditation every night? Yoga is about being present…whether that’s savouring a glass (or two) of fine Pinot or dancing your face off at a bar with your girlfriends.

…you get the idea…

As a student, and hopefully one day teacher, I hope to keep the perspective that it doesn’t matter what brings you onto your mat. If it’s because yoga is the “cool” thing to do lately, or because you think it’ll make your butt look better. Good for you. Because once you start to get into the practice, that’s when the transformation starts to happen. And ya, your butt probably will start to lift, but the body is just a by product of everything else that’s going on in the inside. If you feel you need to see a life coach to help guide you towards your purpose in life (dharma), good for you. Because it might just be that one person, or that one book, that will flick that light switch and help you realize that everything you are looking forward is already within.If you’re interested in reading more, I really enjoyed reading a post in Elephant Journal this week called Understanding what Yoga is Not: When in doubt go back to the basics. Don’t be a hater, be a lover ;)

178 days ago Short URL Comments

Yoga thought

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24

Nov

Hearty Vegan Stuffed Squash

Finding new veggie inspiration with this week’s meal roster. Tonight I adapted a recipe from yesterday’s Montreal Gazette. Which really just publishing from Marie-Claude Morin’s book The Best 30-minute Vegetarian Recipes.

Serves 4
1 large butternut or acorn squash

2 tablespoons (30 mL) Earth Balance butter

1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cups (500 mL) diced zucchini

2 cups (500 mL) sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup of quinoa

2-3 teaspoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon (15 mL) Honey Dijon with White Wine Mustard

1/4  cup (250 mL) shredded aged white cheddar cheese (option: substitute with vegan cheddar)

sprinkle of paprika

1 cup of mixed greens

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut squash in half length-wise, scoop out seeds and place in baking pan, cut side up. Place an equal amount of vegan butter in the hollow of each squash half. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes or until squash is tender.

To make quinoa, add 1/2 cup of quinoa to 1 cup of water or vegetable broth (I used water with a touch of fine sea salt). Bring to a boil, then simmer fro about 15 minutes until water is absorbed. While it sits, stir in about 2 teaspoons of maple syrup. Adjust to taste.

Meanwhile, in a heavy frying pan, heat oil over medium-high heat and sauté garlic, onion, zucchini and mushrooms for about eight minutes or until mushrooms have released their liquid and turned golden.

Remove from heat and stir in mustard. Mix in cooked maple quinoa. Spoon the vegetable quinoa mix into hollows in squash halves (or also just pile on top of entire half like I did) and top with cheese. Sprinkle with paprika. Return to oven for five minutes to melt cheese.

Once cheese has melted, cut squash halves into four servings and plate on a bed of greens.

Karlo Estates 2010 Chardonnay

Vino it up with: Karlo Estates 2010 Chardonnay CHOA 

This wine was fermented and aged in CHOA barrels for 3 months. CHOA are slow toast barrels made from mixed woods of Cherry, Hickory, Oak and Ash, all grown in Prince Edward County, ON. The winery itself is beautiful, and only opened to the public this past spring. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area!

186 days ago Short URL Comments

Food

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13

Nov

Beautiful people do not just happen

Source: Uploaded by user via Angela on Pinterest

197 days ago Short URL Comments

Quotes

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10

Nov

Shiva kicks ass.

Been laying low the past couple of evenings trying to fight this pesky cold. One thing I learn time after time, is that my body knows me. And I think with the more I get into yoga, the better my body gets at leading me in the right direction. I always abided by mind over matter (which is still true for most things), but can a continuous practice of mind over matter eventually lead to a better “matter” or “body” guiding mind?

The month of October was go,go, go..and I just carried that into November. Low and behold, my body strikes with a cold, forcing me to slow down. And tonight, I’m kind of enjoying this slower pace as I finally start to find breath through the sniffles. My boy came over to see me with some wine by the fire and I allowed myself to just lounge and surf the web and watch some YouTube vids like this awesome TedTalk featuring the one and only Shiva Rea.

I would’ve love to have been in Nevada this past summer at the Burning Man. Definitely not your average festival. And Shiva just rocks it. What a party that must have been! Check it out and hopefully inspire some of that creative fire inside of you.

200 days ago Short URL Comments

Travel/yoga/Yoga events/yoga teachers

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03

Nov

Wild Wakame Salad

A quick lunch when you have some leftover wild rice in the fridge. I steamed the rice for a couple of minutes just to puff it up a little. Rounded off the meal with a handful of unsalted mixed nuts and a plum.

Wild Wakame Salad
Serves 1
Ingredients
1/4 cup wild rice
2 cups of spinach
handful of broccoli florets
1/3 cup of wakame salad

Directions
Steam spinach and brocoli florets. Toss with rice and prepared wakame salad.

Sea Vegetables

Sea vegetables such as wakame offer us the broadest range of minerals of any food. They contain all of the minerals from the ocean which are exactly the 56 essential minerals and trace minerals that are necessary for the human body. They are a rich source of iodine, folic acid, and magnesium, and a good source of iron, calcium, and the B vitamins riboflavin and pantothenic acids. Seaweed also contains good amounts of lignans (plant compounds with cancer-protective properties). Other common sea vegetables include kombu, hijiki, arame, nori and dulse.  

Source: The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook (Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre)

207 days ago Short URL 2 Comments

Food

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29

Oct

Continuing to look back on the past month, one of the highlights was an afternoon spent along side a room of Ottawa yoginis. A women’s only class followed by a screening of the Yogawoman documentary (trailer above) was held as part of Journey of the Yogini‘s (JOY) charity events.

The event fees were donated to Because I am a Girl Canada. $750 was raised in total from the classes + screenings at Rama Lotus and Bodhi Tree. With the donations 7 girls latrines were bought. Did you know that a lack of girls-only bathrooms is one of the main reasons adolescent girls in the developing world stop attending school? For teenage girls privacy is essential, and this gift is a simple solution. Bathrooms for girls make a school a more welcoming and safe place and that helps girls stay in school to pursue their dreams. Nine baby chicks were also bought with the money raised. This is a gift that carries larger possibilities with it. Once they start laying eggs, chickens become an instant source of income, often for women, who sell the eggs, breed the chickens and help provide for their families. They are also an important teaching tool for young girls to learn livestock management skills that they can use to make a living.

Have you seen Yogawoman? What were your thoughts and impressions?

212 days ago Short URL 1 Comment

Yoga events

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27

Oct

So much has happen in the past month. And all of it feels so linked. Like one is supposed to happen after the other. So I thought I’d start at the beginning…

October started off with a week in Toronto doing some excellent training for work. I was able to visit some of my closest friends and family while in the city. I tired an “authentic” Bikram class at at an apparently hardcore studio downtown. That 90 minutes was quite the experience. Really provided me with some perspective on how others, I guess, treat, or use, or perceive, yoga. I want to learn more about Bikram now, because there was so much of the class that was “against” what I consider asana practice. It might have been the teacher, because I have friends back here in Ottawa that love the Bikram practice. But teachers guiding with words like “reach,reach,REACH, go to your limit, now go past”…and pointing out students by name in front of the class as “cheaters” because they use a towel as a prop = not v. yogic to me. Oh ya and being guided into Virabhadrasana 3 (Warrior 3) with the sole cueing of “real calorie burner coming up here” just made me want to scream in this silent, militaristic sweat box. To top it all off, after class vibe in the studio was cold and standoffish. Not the feeling of unity that I usually find at yoga studios, no matter what the city.

Luckily, my experience was redeemed at the end of the week with an awesome early morning class “Power Sweat” class at Some Like It Hot studio in Oakville, Ontario. If anyone is looking for a studio to go to when in the area, I would totally recommend hitting this up. A beautiful place, which from my understanding just opened up at the end of Spring 2011. Only met a few staff, but they were friendly. And Maureen, who taught the class I took, led it beautifully. It wasn’t a big turnout on an early Friday morning, so she gave a lot of personal attention. And the rates are better than most of I’ve seen, something like $10 drop in anytime. The list of interesting workshops offered made me want to make the drive back down to Oakville just to take them. It also helped that I was introduced to this studio by a childhood friend who has recently taken up yoga. She’s determined to do 75 yoga classes by the end of 2011. Just another inspiring initiative amongst the many she’s constantly developing.

I’m so grateful for the number of inspiring people that touch my life daily.

I’m also grateful for the yoga community where visiting a studio while on the road makes me feel more at home.

214 days ago Short URL Comments

Travel/Yoga styles

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10

Oct

Pumking Beer

Spoiled with a beautiful weekend of sun, family and friends. Currently enjoying a pumpkin ale while doing some hOMework for yoga teacher training. Next round of classes this weekend! Lots of reading to do, few presentations to prepare for, and anatomy to learn. This ale is definitely aiding in the process ;) Some people look forward to pumpkin chai lattes when Autumn rolls around. Me, it’s trying any pumpkin ale I can get my hands on.

This one here is from Southern Tier Brewing Company of Lakewood, New York. Lovely orange hue, with a clean pumpkin pie scent. Not a lot of head. Savoury without being too heavy, even with 8.6% alcohol. The label sold me – aside from the catching pumpkin/king..get it (? ahhh!), I like how they clearly listed the ingredients: water, barley, hops, yeast, pureed pumpkin. Simple, and satisfy…pretty telling of the past few days and a good feeling to stick with as we jump into a new season.

Happy Thanksgiving to all y’all Canadians out there!

231 days ago Short URL Comments

Yoga teacher training

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04

Oct

Sex and Yoga : Have you found your mula bandha?

A read-worthy article on yoga and orgasms – or yogasms as this reporter coins them.

237 days ago Short URL Comments

Yoga thought

01

Oct

Mindful Travel

Connected with an article in this morning’s Globe and Mail Travel section by columnist Bruce Kerby called ‘A trip doesn’t stop when we return home’.

I love to travel. Be it a weekend away in Prince Edward County or a month in Greece. For me, the experience goes beyond the exploration of sights, sounds and tastes with fellow trip-goers. Each trip out of your “normal”, routine, everyday space is a chance to learn and grow and Kerby’s take on the experience reads well to me.

We tend to view travel as everything that happens between departure and return. But the magic that comes with stretching our minds and horizons doesn’t end the second we step in the front door. It lingers, and if we pay attention, such moments often provide the most pertinent insights of all.

It’s the paying attention part that’s sometimes easy to miss. Between rushing home on a Sunday night to get ready for work the next day, it’s sometimes tough to hold on to that outside perspective gained on your travels.

In the days after returning home – whether from years of vagabonding or a summer at the cottage – our hearts and minds remain, at least in part, on the road, still lightened by freedom and possibility. And it is on this cusp, between vacation and routine, between exotic and familiar, that for a brief moment, we glimpse our home through the eyes of a stranger. For just a moment, we see, with atypical clarity, all the beauty and perils, the frailties and the wonders of the world we inhabit.

My mind and spirit were filled with freedom and possibility after my last summer vacation. I was able to spend much time by the ocean, practicing yoga, cooking, reading, running, and reflecting. Without anywhere to be but to enjoy the fresh ocean air and sunshine, the mind can start to relax, and that’s where creativity and possibility start to resurface.

Of course, we have changed. Whether intended or not, anonymity, freedom and time have reshaped us. We have shed skin, hopefully jettisoning the unwanted, tired and sick parts of who we had become, in the process revealing a deeper, truer self.

And amid the whole swirling experience, this question: How do we weave all this, all the ephemeral moments and all we have seen and felt and learned, into the starched and unbending routines of home?

If such seeds are to take root at all, it happens during re-entry, during the short period of clarity upon our return, when the dreams and plans borne on the road are projected against the unvarnished view of home.

~

While not ocean-bound, I am packing my bags for a short week of travel. Depart tomorrow morning for some training in Toronto. The training’s for work, and I’ll likely be spending more time in a conference room than walking around the city, but I still want to be mindful of every experience. Hope to learn lots, maybe meet some new faces, and be sure to scout out a local yoga studio to keep that little bit of “home” with me over the next week.

Whether your weekend travel brings you to a nearby pumpkin patch, or a stretch back home this weekend, I hope you have a lovely one and enjoy every minute of it.

240 days ago Short URL Comments

Travel/Yoga thought

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