That would be now.
Regardless of where you stood on Tuesday’s election, it’s been a raw and wild ride. Change is certain. I hear many people say they’re scared. In the days leading up to the election, I was anxious. But now, not so much. By Wednesday I’d whipped right by fear and had gone straight to anger. Anger at those who didn’t vote. Anger that instead of traveling around this wonderful and really hurting country on a leisurely 2-year listening tour, Hilary chose to make tens of millions of dollars giving private speeches after she left the state department. I’m pretty mad. I’m even mad at Trump for the way he chose to run, and really pissed that it worked. I’m disappointed in everyone! Exhale, exhale, exhale. OK.
So now what?
It’s an excellent time to get strong – to get physically stronger. Start slow or not so slow, but if you wish you were in better physical shape, now is a really good time to take a step – look to your community center, or a gym or yoga or pilates studio. I recently joined a twice-weekly ‘get fit’ challenge and it’s impressive in what it’s doing to me, and I doing things and working at an intensity I simply would never ever do on my own. It’s a good thing.
It a wonderful time to get clear on who you are and what you mission in this gorgeous life might be. To that end, you might read my friend, mentor, colleague’s excellent book The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. He asks some good questions that I hope help you frame out what your dharma might be. You can also work with plants – they’ll give you the score if you ask them.
Plants can offer healing self care. Herbalists would say it’s a wonderful time for nervines – rose, skullcap, tulsi to name just a few – these are plants that sooth and feed the nerves. Abhyanga oil massage is another nerve soother – I’ve been dipping myself in oil daily just because so many people are so upset, and the news is upset, and as I mentioned I’m pretty mad myself.
Something is on the way, I know not what. So, if you are scared and traumatized by Tuesday’s election. Rest, eat and cry. Get a massage or seven. That’s OK. But as soon as you are ready, there’s plenty to do and plenty to be.
No matter who you voted for last week, it’s time to get active, personally, collectively. May all be blessed.
Be well.
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Are you a dietitian who teaches yoga and uses it in your professional nutrition practice? Well, Namaste dear ones – our numbers are growing!
FNCE 2016: Boston
I have been honored to share on this new (and several thousand years old) field of yoga in dietetics at FNCE twice thus far. My presentation colleagues are Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa from Harvard and Anu Kaur, an RDN/RYT dietitian with the NIH and in private practice. We are delighted that we’ll be presenting again in Boston in October. Our session (#203) is Sunday morning first thing – be there!
Please take 10-20 minutes to complete this survey exploring how nutrition professionals are using yoga in their practice: RDN/RYT FNCE Survey
Please complete the survey by August 1.
This year, as part of the presentation, I am hoping to collect some developmental data on just how many of us are out there, who we are and our range of training and practice experience. I’d also like to get a sense of what this group would like now for support to develop this field. I will be presenting the data from this survey, and will also feature as many of you as I can – your beautiful websites, active communities, training and books appreciated.
Thank you so very much for participating, and for your work in this area. Can’t wait to see how RDNs across the country are weaving their expertise with the wisdom tradition of yoga.
Annie
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What if your dreams are as important and as real as your waking life? What if your dreams are alive?
Leading psychologists actually say they are. Dr. Stephen Aizenstat (as well as many great yogis and thinkers such as the Dalai Lama and Eckart Tolle) says that you can awaken to your dreams, be deeply informed by them, and even change the outer world through your dreams.
This blows my nutritional biochemist’s mind! I want to learn more, hear what he has to say and explore it in my own dream life.
Sing it with me people – you know the tune:
Row, row, row your boat,
gently down the stream.
Merrily merrily merrily, merrily,
Life Is But A Dream!
Are you interested in awakening to your own dream life? I’ll be teaching with Dr. Aizenstat and the great yoga scholar, Stephen Cope, the last weekend of April at Kripalu – Yoga and the Global Dream Initiative.
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Can awakening and tending our dreams help us be creative enough to solve our greatest global issues? And if anyone can and should get involved with constructive dreaming, isn’t it those seekers of transcendence, the yogis? Can dreams help yogis save the planet? Stephen Aizenstat, Chancellor of Pacifica Graduate Institute, thinks so and I have to agree.
I’ve always been a pretty good sleeper (well, until menopause but that’s another story). For most of my life, I’ve slept the dream-free sleep of the dead. Close eyes, relax, zzzz, open eyes, off we go. However, as I’ve journeyed through life with a sleeping partner who truly struggles (he’s inspired by my ability to go offline so quickly and completely), I’ve become more curious as to what is happening during sleep consciousness, and if I am as dream-free as I think. So just what are dreams and why do we have them?
It’s great to be human. For so many reasons. One is that we can change our consciousness. We can go through our day be our beloved distractable selves, but then we can slow down, shift and drop into a meditative state – we can and do change our state of consciousness. Waking, sleeping, dreaming, meditating. While just what dreams are and why we dream is still a bit of a mystery, those of you who join us end of April for Yoga & The Global Dream Initiative, will be in the know after a weekend with some of the nation’s foremost thinkers on dreaming, yoga and consciousness.
I am endlessly curious as to what helps us realize who we truly are, and what gives us the clarity and courage to move toward that life. When I met Dr. Stephen Aizenstat at Pacifica last year, and heard him speak about the possibilities that waking up to our own dream consciousness has for our own and global healing, it was a “this is it!” aha for me. I have been concerned with how challenged we are with the global environmental crisis, and how even the most engaged vacillate between despair and delusion. Might this be a practical way for us to shift from despair to creative action? Don’t you want to find out?
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Much gratitude to those of you who answered my reader survey over the past month. It is deeply inspiring to learn about who we are, to hear what you value, the aspects of lifestyle that can be challenging for you, and how I do and can support you. I’ve contacted the lucky winner of books – yeah. Our path forward is clear, thanks to the results of the survey.
I’ll share the results of the reader survey in two charts. The first focuses on who we are as a group. 45 of you responded to the survey (great for first-time-out), and 97.78% (or 44) who responded were women. We scale a wide age range, and 2/3 of us are over 50. This feels right to me; I have been focused on integrative health through our lifespan and while that’s interesting to women in their 20’s, as life progresses interest in just how we live well, feel well, and be well throughout the journey tends to intensify. My life’s work is offering insight and mentoring to those interested in lifestyle as a spiritual path to wholeness. Seems we have found each other.
Next we asked what areas of lifestyle you find most challenging. Now, survey design aside (the 4 areas I chose do overlap, particularly when you get into resiliency, stress management, rest and relaxation), but I found the results interesting and informative. Here’s a summary chart:
When I look at how you listed your first, and your first two areas of greatest challenge, physical activity ends up on top. I hear you on that – maintaining an active lifestyle in today’s screen-centric sedentary culture can be a challenge for sure. It is for me, and I love to move! It’s a practice! I will be focusing on what science says about the role of physical activity in health and happiness over the next months, and giving you lots of ideas to weave it in. As we go through life, the type of physical activity that works for us changes, and our needs evolve. We’ll be talking about that, too.
The dance of stress and eating, which shared a second-overall-but important place on your priorities list, again give a nod to the way these two areas of lifestyle interact. I have been fascinated lately with the neurobiological science of the reward system and epigenetics (how our choices and thoughts influence gene expression, which ultimately determines how well we function for the rest of our lives), and just what stress does to our ability to eat well and feel well (so, our ability to be well).
Again, thanks for your input, and I hope you find knowing a little more about other readers of this blog and newsletter interesting and perhaps even, like me, the whole community feels more like a community.
Be well.
Annie
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For those of you who stop by from time to time, and who are looking for inspiration for leading an integrated healthful life, let me know what you want!
Of course, there’s a prize for participating – I’ll be randomly drawing a winner and sending along a signed copy of BOTH my books to anywhere in the US of A.
Please give 5 minutes to let me know what you value and what you value not as much. It will make the blog more effective and interesting for you. I will be publishing results from the survey here, describing our little community.
The survey will be running the month of February, and you’ll be hearing about results (and who knows…getting a call with books) in March.
Warm Regards,
Annie
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