Check out my recent post on Kripalu’s blog, Thrive. It’s called Observing Weight through Witness, and it’s about how we can use the power of pause to help us deal with those nasty food cravings (it’s never spinach and tuna fish we’re after, is it?), and other tricky times for the natural healthy weight seeker.
I know I’ve been away from my blog – it all began with a vacation where we didn’t have internet, then I got the plague which I am now recovered from. So, back to the conversation!
Blessings!
Yes there are more and more…I’m on the verge of stuck in eating affirmation mode. I think I’ll just let it run it’s course. I’ve expanded beyond eating, which is good – I’ve included some wise sayings from other beings as well as my own affirmation-musings. Please enjoy, spread around the big wide web of a world, and add your own.
I am unapologetically affirmation driven!
I am developing quite a collection of eating affirmations and I’m on fire with them! So, here is my first installation.
I want to honor the incomparable mother of affirmations, Louise Hay, whose work has inspired me for years. These affirmations are my creative expression, but are also an homage to her and the thousands of people I have had the honor to work with over my decades of service as a yogini – dietitian – nutritionist. One affirmation – I digest my life with ease – is v close to one she has in her book You Can Heal Your Life. My intention is to honor her work and copyright, then reach deeper into my own creative space.
What’s your eating affirmation? Please share!
Please feel free also to share these images, just give me credit and link back to this site. Blessings! Go forth and prosper!
– Annie
Here is the article from my January newsletter, which was sent to my newsletter tribe a couple weeks ago. Read this and all my key monthly articles first by signing up for my newsletter.
The inward season
Nature’s movement stills now, and moments of deep quiet are most plentiful. It’s as if you could inhale stillness and feel the coolness inch through your being. Why not go with the flow this month and spend more time in silence, taking a cue from mother earth and rest, look inward and listen?
Lately I’ve been writing and thinking about intention and our ability to clarify and energize our intentions for our lives. This auspicious first month of the year is a natural to reconnect with, clarify and deepen this powerful energy of intention.
One way of weaving your intention into your life is through ritual.
This is a season where daily routines are helpful, and it’s a lovely time to launch a daily morning ritual. Taking even 5 minutes to set your intention for the day, to give thanks to the divine for these fascinating lives we get to live, and saying good morning to the nature around you can take you into the day in a relaxed and positive way. I find in my own experience and with others, that the details of the morning ritual are less important than the power of daily repetition. So, beginning with something easy that you can stick with tends to bear the most fruit if you are just getting started.
Here are a few tips for launching your morning ritual:
Make the intention to commit to a morning ritual. Can you commit to 5 minutes each day for a week? If not, make it easier. If you have the fire for a bigger commitment, or already have a morning ritual, is there an invitation to recommit or deepen it? What might that look like?
Create a bit of sacred space. Making a space or marking your time as sacred can be a simple process. What’s important is your intention to be open to spirit. You might light a candle, pull together a few objects that have meaning for you, spritz some water or plant preparation (I use things like rose geranium o tulsi hydrosol). Put on some quiet music that you like.
Create your morning ritual. Again, this can be simple. It can be 5 minutes of conscious breath work or meditation. It can be the chanting of a mantra (shanti shanti shanti is a place to start). It can be a sun salutation yoga flow in each direction. It can be 5 minutes of unstructured conscious movement with the intention of checking in with your physical body.
The power of practice. As the days go by, if you skip or forget, forgive yourself and get back to practice. Get fascinated with your practice. Get fascinating even with missing your practice: why was it too difficult to maintain or just how did you let yourself off the hook? How might it be easier or more appealing? Resist the temptation to be hard on yourself, and instead get curious and learn, coax and invite.
What is your morning ritual and how does it impact your life?
Be well!
Annie
This recipe is spicy-sweet, ridiculously nutrient dense, and is easy but takes time, so it’s a great soup if you are hanging around the house for a half-day. It entails making a base of sautéed vegetables and spice, then cooking and blending the base with sweet potatoes, and stirring in a blended cream of coconut, cashews and fresh ginger. Yum – sweet and spicy and creamy and healthy.
Ingredients
4 medium carrots, chopped
4 large stalks celery, chopped
7 scallions, some separated whites from greens, diced
1 large red pepper, seeded, chopped
3 tsp (heaping!) turmeric
1 Tbsp coconut oil or cream
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
5 cups clean water
2 sizable (med-large) sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 – 15 oz cn coconut milk
1 cup raw cashews
3 Tbsp fresh ginger (about 4 thumb-sized pieces)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste
sprig or two of fresh cilantro
Directions
In a heavy soup pot, melt coconut cream or oil, and add carrots, celery, and 4 chopped scallions. Sauté over medium heat until soft. Add turmeric, a few twists of the mill of black pepper, and continue sauté until this ‘base’ is soft and smells flavorfully roasty.
Sweet potatoes and water are added to the sautéed base veggies.
Add sesame oil, water, and sweet potato to the vegetable mixture. Simmer over medium heat until sweet potatoes are soft, 30-40 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine coconut milk, cashews and ginger in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour this delicious mixture into a small bowl or cup.
Blended coconut milk with cashews and ginger. Yum.
Then blend sweet potato mixture – use a blender on the cooled soup, or use an immersion blender. Return to pot. Top with chopped scallion greens and sprigs of cilantro.
Stir the coconut mixture into the sweet potato soup. Season with cayenne pepper to desired heat. Top with chopped scallions and cilantro.
- Serves 4.
- Freezes well.
- Takes about 2 1/2 hours start to finish.
