Advice for Raising your Energy!

So here's my advice on transitioning from low-energy to high-energy. I think what you eat is more important than what you do, so although you asked me about activity, I'm starting my advice with food.

1. Keep a food journal for at least two weeks. Write down every single thing that you consume all day long, try not to leave anything out. When we can be honest with ourselves about what we are actually eating, we can begin to make positive changes. Once you've kept your food journal for awhile, you can start to look it over and notice where your patterns or weaknesses are and make positive plans to help prevent your mistakes.

2. Begin with one meal at a time and try to make improvements on the quality of your nutrition. Breakfast is a great place to start. If you can get that one meal right, you can set a positive tone for the rest of your day. I recommend fresh fruit smoothies, vegetable juice, home made oatmeal (not the instant kind), an egg with a side of steamed spinach, brown rice and some salad.

3. Begin with one weakness at a time and try to make some improvements. Don't over do it, or your body will revolt. Maybe you drink soda, start but cutting your portion sizes in half. Maybe your portion sizes at meals are too big, try using a smaller plate. Do you eat junk food with your kids, maybe you can have more healthy snacks readily available like chopped veggies. It will take awhile for your taste buds to get used to different flavors, so give yourself time.

4. Try to eliminate packaged food and fast food. Avoid diet foods and fat free foods and try to eat natural whole foods instead. Diet soda is not better than real soda, its worse! All this stuff is full of salt, chemicals and not a lot of nutrition. They make your body swell up, clinging to every calorie in the hopes of finding some nutrition.

5. Drink lots of water! First thing in the morning have a big glass of warm water with half a lemon squeezed in it. Before each meal drink a glass of water, this will help you eat less.

As for activity, I recommend walking. Walk anywhere you can. Is it possible to walk your kids to school? Can you walk to the store and carry your groceries home? Start with small amounts and increase your time as you feel up to it. Try to be active in different ways throughout the day. Wash your car, pick some weeds, make some bread from scratch. As far as stretching and getting limber, just do it! Put some music on, roll around on the floor and just put your body in different shapes. If you need inspiration of course there is tons of stuff on the internet and probably some free classes in your community you can find, but I don't have any specific recommendations on this.

You can read this post I wrote on yoga for some ideas. And you can read this post for lots of healthy food ideas from a 30 day cleanse I did last fall. And read this post to learn about an educational movie that will get you motivated to eat healthy.

Good luck, and let me know how you-re doing!

A Swim Competition

The Lead-Up
In the summer I find myself swimming out to the buoys placed at different intervals from La Jolla Cove towards the Marine Room Restaurant.  It's something I mostly do in the warmer months, when the ocean is calm and there hasn't been surf in awhile.  My body will be bored, yearning for some surf, instead I give it a swim.  It can be equally magical.  I usually swim alone and it is the quietest time in my life, just the voices in my head and the slush of ocean and air around me.  I don't go with any regularity, and have no particular course, I let myself be free to swim however far and however often just feels right.  This is much the same as my surf routine, except with surfing I have the motivation of a very enthusiastic surf partner!  Often I'll ride my bike to the Cove, I think of it as my personal triathlon:  I walk my dogs first, then ride to the cove, swim, and ride back.  It's quite a morning!  I'll often swim to a tall yellow buoy that is farthest to the northwest, or you might call it the deepest buoy.  Other times I'll swim towards the white buoys that line up towards the Marine Room, occasionally making it all the way to the sandy beach and back.  When you get to the shallows over there it is not uncommon to see big schools of small sharks hanging out in the warm water, getting to know each other!  Along the way I'll often see sharks as well, dark shadows cruising through the kelp caught in a glimpse as it heads deeper under water.  When I tell others about my swims they often ask if I'm afraid, but really I'm not.  I know that there is risk swimming in the open ocean, but I feel it is no greater risk than walking my dogs along the bike path, driving my car on the 8 or locking myself alone in a room with a stranger to give them a 75 minute massage!  The ocean is my friend, a sometimes angry and cold friend, but if you try to understand her each day, even at different times throughout the day, she will share with you some of her wisdom, and you will feel more safe inside of her!

There are different events and organizations related to this beautiful activity, swimming at the Cove.  One such venue is the La Jolla Rough Water Swim, a competition held every year at the start of September.  For a while now I tell myself, This Year I'm going to Do IT!  But I chicken out due to cost, my perceived fitness, anti-social attitudes, who knows?  But this year I did it!  I had been swimming a lot recently, due to crumby surf and warm tranquil oceans both at home and recently in Spain.  So about ten days before I become definitive and took a few extra swims that week.  I am fortunate to have a neighbor who is a world famous open ocean swimmer and she graciously accompanied me a few times and offered up a few suggestions and strategies.  The days leading up to the race I got very excited and visualized the race many times in my mind.  The day before I signed up for the race and got my number, wristband and anklet with computer chip to record my time, I was ready to go!

The Swim
It was a beautiful day, blue skies, calm and warm waters.  The swim was exciting.  I felt nervous waiting on the staircase for our time to step on to the beach.  I was swimming one mile with women from the ages of 19-39.  There were many college and university swim teams there gathered together in groups and I was impressed at the idea of swimming with them all!  At the start of the race I was excited to be amongst so many fast swimmers and I found myself swimming faster than I was planning on and needing to breath at a much faster rate with my strokes.  It felt like being in a school of tuna, so much splashing all around.  And I could get a sense of my space in the pack by the view of the splashing of the group extending in front of me.  The first buoy was much farther away than I expected and I was glad I had swam all the way to Marine Room the week before, that gave me confidence over the distance.  I did the best I could to keep up and keep going!   I finished the race in 32:26, finishing 7th in my age group and 102 out of 280 women who competed in the mile race.

The Vision
The race was exciting and only a positive experience.  I'd like to swim again next year and I would like to improve!  If I could get a little faster I might place in the top five and get a trophy!  I'll use this blog to record some of my swims.  Maybe you'd like to join me?

The Community Effect

 When I decided with my husband to become backyard chicken raisers, it was a decision that we mostly made for our own personal benefits and for the distant benefit of metaphorically liberating from bondage all those factory chickens that were providing us with eggs.  I did't think my decision to raise chicken would have an effect on my immediate community, at best, I was hoping not to be a nuisance.  So far we haven't gotten any eggs, our chickens are still purely in the realm of pets, not yet supplying us with nutrition, so I'm still waiting for that benefit in my life.  Instead it is the effect the chickens have on the community that has been the most profound experience so far.  We don't have a backyard, instead we have a nice garden in front of our house on a fairly busy intersection across the street from a high school.  The chickens have their protective ranging area right along the fence, and people walking by have a close up encounter with the chickens if they choose.  All day long I witness people stopping to interact with the chickens.  If they see me in the garden they'll let me know "I love your chickens."  People tell me about how there dogs are connecting with the chickens, that they refuse to walk past on the other side of the street, they want to visit the chickens!  Many young families walk past me house, strollers and toddlers and elementary school kids whose loving parents walk or ride on bikes past my house to and from school.  The kids get really excited, they love to see the chickens.  It's exciting to connect people, especially children, to this beautiful animal.  Many of us utilize chickens for our sustenance without considering the chicken as a living creature with a dharma and a personality, I know I have.  Every day my chickens bring me more joy and I am grateful for this unexpected effect they are having on my neighborhood....now if they would just start laying me some eggs!

Swami Sivananda on Bhakti

Photo taken of me by Eileen Escarda during an early morning sadhana, with Snatam Kaur at Blue Spirit in Costa Rica, 2011.

"Bhakti is resting on God.  Bhakti is flow of devotion like the flow of a river.  Bhakti is continuity of devotion, just as there is continuity in the flow of oil from one vessel to another vessel.  Bhakti is attraction of the Jiva to the Lord, juist as there is attraction of the needle to the magnet.
"Bhakti is love for love's sake.  The devotee wants God and God alone.  There is no selfish expectation here.  There is no fear also...He feels, believes, conceives and imagines that his Ishtam is an ocean of love or Prema.
"Bhakti transmuts man into Divinity.  It intoxicates the devotee with divine Prema.  It gives him eternal satisfaction.  It makes him perfect.  It weans the mind from the sensual objects.  It makes him rejoice in God.
"Emotional excitement is not devotion to God.  Devotion is pure love.  Fanaticism is not devotion.  It is frenzy.  It is mere excitement.
"Bhakti is not emotionalism, but is the tuning of the will as well as the intellect towards the Divine.  It is supreme love of God.  It blossoms afterwards into Jnana.  It leads to immortality or God-realisation.
"Bhakti is the direct approach to the ideal through the heart.  Love is natural to everybody."

"Bhakti is open to all.  Bhakti can be practiced under all conditions and by all alike.  Learning, austere penance, study of the Vedas and brilliant intellect sre not needed for the attainment of Bhakti or devotion.  What is wanted is constant and living remembrance of God, coupled with faith.  That is the reason why the path of Bhakti is available for everyone."

"The easiest approach to God.  Bhakti is easier than any other way of approach to God.  In Jnana and Yoga, there is the risk of a fall.  In the path of devotion, there is no risk as the devotee receives full support and help form God.  Those who tread the path of Jnana and Yoga are liable to become proud of their powers and wisdom.  Bhaktas are humble.  Humility is the foundation of Bhakti Yoga.  Jnana Yoga is the Yoga of wisdom.  It is the path of analysis and rejection. It is the path of endless negation.  This is a very difficult path.  Raja Yoga also is difficult.  It is like stilling the waves of the ocean.  You will have to still all the thought-waves.  Karma Yoga also is difficult.  It is like climbing to the highest peak.  You need tremendous will-power.  Bhakti Yoga alone is easy.  The Lord is stretching his hands to lift you up from the mire of Samsara.  You will have to grasp his hand firmly.  But, one thing is absolutely essential here.  You should not have any other thought than that of God and God alone.
"The child thinks of the mother alone.  A passionate husband thinks of his wife and wife alone.  A greedy man thinks of his money and money alone.  Even so, the devotee should entertain in his heart the picture of his Ishtam and Ishtam alone.  Then he can have Darshan of God easily.
"Objects are enemies of God.  Sons, wife, property, cattle, houses, friends and relatives are enemies of God.  You must cherish perfect indifference to these objects.
"You must not think of the body and its wants too much.  Thought of body, thoughts of food, thoughts of wife and children make you forget God.  You cannot have thought of God if you have thoughts of Anatma things."
"Desire obstructs the growth of devotion.  Devotion to the Lord increases when mundane desires are renounced.  Renunciation is the very essence of devotional love.  Divine love has no element of desire in it."
"People put a question: 'How can we love God whom we have not seen?'
"Live in the company of saints.  Hear the Lilas of God.  Study the sacred scriptures.  Worship Him first in his several forms as manifested in the World.  Worship any image or picture of the Lord or the Guru. Recite His Name.  Sing His glories.  Stay for one year in Ayodhya or Brindavan, Chitrakuta or Pandharpur, Benares or Ananda Kutir.  You will develop love for God.
"Every act must be done that awakens the emotion of Bhakti.  Keep the Puja room clean.  Decorate the room.  Burn the incense.  Light a lamp.  Keep a clean seat.  Bathe.  Wear clean clothes.  Apply vibhuti or bhasma and kumkum on the forehead.  Wera rudraksha or tulasi mall.  All these produce a benign influence on the mind and elevate the mind.  They generate piety.  They help to create the necessary Bhava or feeling to invoke the Deity that you want to worship. The mind will be easily concentrated.
"Practice of right conduct, Satsanga, Japa, Smarana, Kirtan, prayer, worship, service of saints, residence in places of pilgrimage, service of the poor and the sick with divine brave, observance of Varnasramaduties, offering of all actions and their fruits to the Lord, feeling the presence of the Lord in all beings, prostrations before the images of the saints, renunciation of early enjoyments and wealth, charity, austerities and vows, practice of Ahimsa, Satyam and Brahmacharya--all these will help you to develop Bhakti."

"Kindle love divine in thy heart, for this is the immediate way to the kingdom of God.  Pray to the Lord.  Sing His glory.  Recite His Name.  Become a channel of His grace.  Seek His will.  Do His will.  Surrender to His will.  You will become one with the cosmic will.  Surender unto the Lord.  He will become your charioteer on the field of life.  He will drive your chariot well.  You will reach your destination, the Abode of the Immortal Self."

God by Swami Sivananda

Excerpts from the book, Bliss Divine, by Swami Sivananda.

"Who is God?  What is God?  Is there a God?  Where is God?  How to realize God?  Man wants an answer to these eternal questions.  Certainly there is God. God exists. He is the only reality. God is your creator, savior and redeemer.  He is all-pervading. He dwells in your heart. He is always near you. He is nearer to you than your jugular vein or nose. He loves you. He can talk to you. You cannot find God by the intellect. But, you can find Him by feeling, meditation, experience and realization."

"The jasmine does not speak, but it wafts its fragrance everywhere.  The lighthouse sounds no drum, but sends its friendly light to the mariner.  The Unseen beats no gong, but Its omnipresence is felt by the dispassionate and discriminating sage.
"Behind all name and forms is the one nameless, formless Essence.  Behind all governors is the one Supreme Governor of governors.  Behind all lights is the one Light of lights.  Behind all sounds, there is the soundless Supreme Silence.  Behind all teachers is the one Supreme Guru of Gurus.
"Behind all these perishable objects is the one imperishable Absolute.  Behind all these motions is the one motionless Infinite.  Behind time, minutes and days is the one timeless Eternity.  Behind hatred, riots and wars is the one hidden Love.
"God is the totality of all that exists, both animate and inanimate, sentient and insentient.  He is free from ills and limitations.  He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.  He has no beginning, middle or end.  He is the indweller in all beings.  He controls from within.
"God is all in all.  God is the only reality in this universe.  The existence of things is by the light of God.
"God is ever living.  All depend on him.  He is not depending on any.  He is the Truth.
"God is the end or goal of all Yoga Sadhanas.  He is the centre towards which all things strive.  He is the highest purpose or highest good in the world.  You have the urge of hunger.  There is food to appease the hunger.  You have the urge of thirst.  There is water to quench the thirst.  There is the urge to be always happy.  There must be something to satisfy this urge.  This something is God, an embodiment of happiness.  God, Immortality, Freedom, Perfection, Peace, Bliss, Love are synonymous terms."

"What is God?  It is hard to tell.  But, when I look at the Ganga, I know it is God.  When I see jasmine, I know it is God.  When I behold the blue sky, I know it is God.  When I hear the chirping of birds, I know it is God.  When I tast honey, I know it is God.
"The Supreme is indefinable, though scholars give intellectual accounts of It which are not absolutely true.
"Every man has his own conception of God...The greatest and most important thing in all the world is to get a right concept of God, because your belief about God governs your entire your life."

"Is there a God?  God is beyond human imagination, but he is a living reality.  Brahman is no metaphysical abstraction.  It is the fullest and the most real being.  The existence of God cannot be proved by scientific experimentation.  The Absolute baffles the mind of even the greatest scholar.  It eludes the grasp of even the mightiest intellect.  It is experiences as pure consciousness, where intellect dies, scholarship perishes, and the entire being itself is completely lost in It.  All is lost, and all is found...Though you do not see the stars in the daytime, yet they do exist.  Though you cannot see the sun during a cloudy day, yet it does exist.  Even so, though you cannot see God with these physical eyes, yet He does exist.  If you get the divine eye or the eye of intuition by the practice of meditation, you will behold him."

"Where is God?  There is nowhere where He is not.  Just as one thread penetrates all the flowers in a garland, so also, one Self penetrates all these living beings.  He is hidden in all beings and forms, like oil in seed, butter in milk, mind in brain, Prana in the body, fetus in the womb, sun behind the clouds, fire in wood, vapor in the atmosphere, salt in water, scent in flowers, sound in the gramophone records, gold in quartz, microbes in blood.
"God dwells in all beings as life and consciousness...Feel his presence everywhere...God pervades the entire universe.  He walks in the garbs of a beggar.  He moans is pain in the guise of the sick.  He wanders in the forest clad in rags.  Open your eyes.  See Him in all.  Serve all.  Love all.
"Feel the Divine Presence everywhere--in every form, in every thought, in every feeling and in every sentiment, in every movement, in every emotion.
"God, seen through the senses, is matter.  God, seen through the intellect, is mind.  God, seen through the spirit, is Atman or the Self.
"Thou art indwelt by the Lord.  He is the inner ruler, Antaryamin, guarding and controlling your life.  He is in you and you are in Him.  He is quite close to you.  He is not very far, but is nearer to you than you are to yourself.  You were thinking in the beginning that He could be found only in Mount Kailas, Ramesvaram, Mecca, Jerusalem, sky or heaven.  You had very vague ideas.  This body is His moving temple.  The sanctum santorum is the chamber of your own heart.  Close your eyes.  Withdraw from the sensual objects.  Search Him in thy heart with one-pointed mind, devotion and pure love.  You will surely find him."

"How to realise God?  God is a question of supply and demand.  If you really yearn for His Darshan, He will reveal Himself to you in an instant."

Satsang from Swami Sivananda

Tonight I lead an event/class at my shop called Satsang.  We begin with silent meditation for about 20 minutes.  Next we sing the Daily Chants  which takes about 15 minutes.  If we are in the mood for song, we might sing some more chants at this time.  Next is the study or philosophy part of our gathering where we will either read form a book by Swami Sivananda such as Bliss Divine or Swami Vishnu Devananda or maybe from the Bhagava Gita.  If we are blessed with a wise soul, we might be given a lecture by a swami, doctor or scholar or on a special day enjoy a performance by a dancer or a musician.  At the conclusion we sing a variety of chants and prayers (maha-mrityunjaya, universal-prayer, arati)and then share in the prasad.  At the first of the recent Satsang gatherings I read from Swami Sivananda's Book, Bliss Divine, the chapter on Satsanga, and here are some of my favorite quotes.

Swami Sivananda 1187-1963

Swami Vishnudevananda

"If the dust is in the company of the wind, it soars high in the sky.  If it is in the company of muddy water, it becomes a dirty mire.  If the air is in the company of jasmine, it wafts a sweet aroma.  If it is in the company of offal, it disseminates a foul odour.  Put the parrot in the company of wicked men.  It will start abusing.  Put it in the company of Sadhus.  It will repeat, "Ram, Renga, Renga."  Even so, if one is in the company of a sage, he attains knowledge and soars high in the realm of eternal bliss."

"In the East, students are always advised to seek the company of holy men and listen to their conversation, thus fanning into flame a little spark of love and earnestness.  Only a strong soul can keep itself glowing in isolation, and the beginner will do well to take the opportunity that comes in his way to strengthen his own aspirations by communion with others who share them."

Lakshmi, Ganesha and Saraswati

"If you cannot get the Satsanga of living Mahatmas, you can take recourse to the study of books written by great souls.  When you study them you are in holy communion with the authors.  If you study Vivekachudamani, you are really having the Satsanga of Sankaracharya for the time being.  If you read Yogavasishtha, you are really having Satsanga with the sage Vasishtha.  In the evening, four or five people can assemble together in a temple or a quiet room and can study for one or two hours either the Gita or the Upanishads or the Ramayana or the Yogavasishtha or the Bhagavata.  Slowly your mind will be purified.  You will get the real taste for the spiritual path."