Outreach Yoga Challenge - Day 5 Open your gob!

A late night with my 3^rd guest (and lovely new friend) to my new crib, Claire Baker who is a lead singer of a cool band called Hollystrangers, you can catch them gigging in the Media club in Gastown. We talk shiatsu and men, nourished ourselves with the last of the seasonal soup I made (see previous blog update). I added fresh organic kale leaves to ‘beef’ it out, kale is flourishing in season right now in BC and is so good for you, with lots of antioxidants and anti cancer benefits, good for fiber and its been around since the Greek Hippocrates proclaimed 'Let food be thy medicine'. All washed down with a chamomile tea and honey. I say ‘washed’ but really we consciously chewed the delicious veggies in the soup, aswell as the chunky kale and really took our time appreciating the wholesome food and mindfully eating, it tastes so much better when its made and eaten with love! This takes practice for a HungryMoose. We may eat quality food, but the way in which we eat can be very imbalanced, under-eating and then over-eating.  Not eating a sufficient brekki/ lunch and snacks to accommodate your lifestyle and needs, and then being so hungry by dinner, we eat too much and eat it way too quickly. What this does to your body is, firstly, not register that you are full, so you eat more, too much more, and feel bloated and tired, uncomfortable. Also, eating so quickly normally means we haven’t chewed our food enough if at all, we may have just inhaled it!

Digestion starts in the mouth and it starts by chewing, it actually starts with cooking as the enzymes in your mouth start to produce with the fantastic smells cooking produces, also known as SLOBBER GOB! These enzymes will breakdown the proteins, carbs and fats in our food and help us absorb the nutrients more efficiently. Chewing our food to a paste, not only helps us taste our food it also breaksdown food enabling the stomach to continue the next phase of digestion without having to work overtime trying to break down whole carrots and half an apple floating around your belly for hours, starting to ferment and becoming toxic (out of your bum!) You won’t absorb the nutrients, minerals and vitamins properly, and you will tire out your digestion system which will result in organs starting to not work anymore, so CHEW YOUR FOOD! Mindfully eat and enjoy food, hey you might even turn off the TV ;-)


I started the day with a Kundalini class with another new lovely friend of mine from school, Erica who works as a chef in Gastown. I've only been to a couple of Kundalini classes before and it is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline for developing strength, awareness, character, and consciousness. Practitioners call Kundalini yoga, the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on the practices which expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual consciousness. Considered an advanced form of Yoga and meditation, its purpose is to cultivate the creative spiritual potential of a human to uphold values, speak truth, and focus on the compassion and consciousness needed to serve and heal others. Oh and did I mention you dance your ass off? Well you do in Gloria's class :) The class is taken to non typical yoga music, with blues blues and dance tunes, the focus is on repetative movements using the breath, and a lot of them, did I mention you dance and shout out too?? And you're sober??? What can I say, from zillions of squats with 'breath of fire', to kicking out legs and waving your arms in the air like you just don't care with 40 other women feeling empowered, all smiling and dancing and sweating and its not even 9.30am?? What a way to start your day! Its an amazing work out, enlightening, you can tune into your silly side, your nuturing side, your love inside and just BE! It was a fairly emotional class for me. 'Heart of sadness' is what they teach at Shambhala medidation class, the feeling of immense joy, so much so it brings tears to your eyes. Yeah, I guess I was taken there, what brings that joy to you? Look up at the trees changing colours in the autumn, play with children and feel the innocence of their joy, LOVE. Unconditionally. After an amazing savasana to words singing about a magnificent ocean, and waves lapping my attention can't help but think of Costa Rica, and the sound of the waves from the treehouse on Playa Hermosa Beach. After a quick smile I return to the present moment and realise its just as blissful right here on my mat in Vancouver, making new friends and loving YOGA! For the rest of the day, I intend to smile, study, laugh, love, sing, and then love some more. Take note!


I taught myself a lesson on controlling the ego, by bragging to my costa rican surf pal in crime Kathrin Huber (miss you girl!) when she informed me she'd been attempting lotus in what I thought read 'headstand'. She said she'd been a little wobbly at first but had managed to get some support getting the legs crossed over and balancing. I couldn't wait to tell her ME ME ME ME ME ME ME I CAN I CAN I CAN I CAN ME ME ME ME ME ME. Cringe. In class yesterday I was attemping dolphin, or peacock which is coming to your forearms into downdog and then pushing the hips  up and feet closer towards your nose until your balancing on your forearms. No I can't do even a mini bit of it yet, Im still hopping with one foot :) Annnyhow, as Im hopping away, a 'knowing' feeling spread over me as I realised how difficult this pose is, and how amazing Kathrin is...and laughed :) I reread her email, and nodded as I read 'Lotus in Handstand' My ego was soooooooooo eagar to talk about me and that I could do lotus in headstand, I didn't even read the mail properley. URGH....and HA! What a great lesson to me, and Kathrin YOU ROCK! Thanks for listening and not telling me to go screw myself :) But my ego wants to just settle one last thing. 'I can do lotus in headstand!!' And put a camera on 10 second timer, and get into the pose! Hahahahaha its too funny :)

Some free yoga music thats available for everyone can be found here; http://www.spiritvoyage.com/friday-download.aspx?id=88#

Thanks again for following the challenge, make a difference and make a donation and use Yoga in your life to bring joy and happiness for others :)
Nameste!
http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=14769