Yoga on Your Own

This summer I've had a number of my yoga students asking me for recommendations to keep their yoga practices going while on vacation.  I've handed out a few photocopies from my favorite books and manuals, and am expanding and sharing with you some advice for practicing yoga without a teacher.  These recommendations are not for people who have never practiced yoga before, but are meant for those who have listened to the teacher's instructions enough to be generally familiar with the exercises and poses.  This is some help to organize your practice and remember what to do.

My training as a yoga teacher is in the Sivananda style of Hatha Yoga.  So here is a run down for the basic Sivananda class, which I very often use (but not always) as the foundation for the group yoga classes I teach.  The class can be divided into a few main parts.

1.  Centering yourself at the beginning of class, this can be done seated in sukhasana (sitting with legs crossed) with simple breathe focus.  If you have the time, begin with deep relaxation lying in savasana.

2.  Pranayama, or breathing exercises such as Kapalabhati or breath of fire and Anuloma Viloma or alternate nostril breathing (also know as nadi shodhana).  I won't explain how to do these breathing exercises here, but you can read the links to learn more.  Suggested cycles though are three cycles of kapalabhati with 30, 40 and 50 pumps and 10, 20 and 30 second breath retentions at the end of each round.  You should feel stimulated but not uncomfortable.  For Anuloma Viloma 10 rounds will bring a lot of focus and relaxation.  I use the breath ratio of 4 second inhale, 16 second retention and 8 second exhale.  The breathing can be done at the beginning to focus the mind and prepare the body for the deep steady breathing you will manitain for the rest of class.  If it is too hard to sit still at the beginning of class, start with sun salutations and do your breathing instead at the end of class before your final relaxation.  If you do a full pranayama sequence, rest in Savasana for a few minutes before continuing on.

3.  Suya Namaskar or Sun Salutations is our warm up.  Again, this is just a reminder of what to do, not instruction.  If the body is very cold and stiff, do some simple stretching on the floor, like pulling your kness into your chest, before you begin.  Sun Salutations are a complete practice in and of themselves.  If you do nothing more than Sun Salutations, you will work the whole body.  Do between 2 and 12 repetitions, trying to break a sweat on your upper lip.  After your Sun Salutations, rest in savasana for a few minutes. 

4.  Strengthening Exercises are now practiced, first leg lifts for the hips and torso and then dolphin push-ups for the shoulder girdle.

5.  Asanas or steady poses are now held for 5-15 breathes each with 3-10 breathes of savasana in between each pose.  There are 12 basic asanas that stimulate our bodies from head to feet, they are:

Headstand Sirshasana

Shoulderstand Sarvangasanan

Plough Halasana

Bridge (it's not one of the 12 basic, but I teach it here in the sequence
Setu Bandhasana)
Fish Matsyasana

Forward Bend Paschimothanasana

Cobra Bhujangasana

Locust Shalabhasana

Bow Dhanurasana

Half Spinal Twist ArdhaMatsyendrasana

Crow Kakasana 

Standing Forward Bend Pada Hasthasana

Triangle Trikonasana

6.  Relaxation at the end of class is the great joy of yoga, so don't skip it. It's great to set a timer and not get up for at least 5 minutes, take 10 minutes if you can and you will feel rejuvenated for the rest of the day.  Lay on your back in savasana and begin auto suggestion.  You begin with your feet, think about them and repeat mentally (silently) "I am relaxing me feet, I am relaxing my feet, My feet are completely relaxed."  Continue in this way working your way up your body to your face.  Relax also your mind, your heart and your energy until you are very relaxed all over.

7.  Closing by sitting up a focussing on your breathe and your present state of being and awareness for a few moments is encouraged.  It takes discipline and sacrifice to practice yoga and it is nice to recognize your own efforts.  You can also offer up some gratitude to the lineage of teachers that has brought this practice to you, making you the final link in an unbroken chain.  Namaste and good luck!

Forks Over Knives

For years I've been feeling pressure to be a vegetarian.  I have practiced for often months at a time a vegan lifestyle, but my husband was not with me on these lifestyle choices.  I would find myself preparing two dinners, one for him  and one for me.  But six months ago he watched the movie, Forks Over Knives, and it completely changed his perspective on food.  Now foods he wouldn't touch he's reaching for at the dinner table, and dinner without any meat is satisfying him in a way it couldn't before.  This movie follows the work of two doctors, one working with patients and one doing data studies on extensive cancer research done in China.  Both of these doctors came to the same conclusions but separately that a diet consisting of 20% animal protein is cancer promoting, but a diet consisting of only 5% animal protein is cancer inhibiting.  For my husband, this scientifically derived data that still allowed him to eat meat was just the right information to make drastic changes to his diet.  Luckily for him, he had an eager vegan chef in his kitchen!  Six months later and twenty pounds lighter, my husband has more energy, almost none of his chronic headaches and feels socially and culturally more involved with the food he eats.  So I encourage you to give the movie a look, and what we now call the 5% diet, a diet made 95% of plant based foods and 5% of organic and sustainably raised animal products, a try!

Flowers in my Garden

Enjoy the final days of the summer with some photos of blossoms that have bloomed and perished in the summer sun...

Sweet Peas

Happy Filler

Tommy loves to sunbathe

I planted 100 seeds and just got this one perfect carrott

American Beauty

The Sweet Peas love the Sunshsine

Mother's Day Brunch: Spanish Tortilla with(out) Zucchini

Spanish Tortilla with (out) Zucchini

My first food blog love is undoubtably Smitten Kitchen.  The recipes are fabulous and the index is extensive and the photos are clear and delicious.  I have ventured into a lot of interesting cooking territory with these beautiful recipes in the last year.  Earlier this summer I choose a Tapas theme for a small dinner party with my some girlfriends form high school and there husbands.  And what is Tapas with out a Spanish Tortilla?  So I looked on Smitten Kitchen, and sure enough she had a great recipe.  I've made it several times since, adding different quantities of zucchini with different amounts of success.

Ingredients

4 large yukon potatoes

or 3 potatoes and 1 zucchini

1 1/2 cups olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic

1 onion

6 eggs

salt and pepper

You begin this recipe by peeling and quartering your potatoes.  Then slice the quarters into this slices.  I don't have many devices in my kitchen, so I do all this slicing by hand.  Dry off the potato slices by squeezing them with some paper towels. Heat up your oil in a deep non-stick pan, I absolutely use my cast iron for this recipe, it works perfect.  Once the oil is hot, add your potatoes in delicate layers and stir gently to keep from sticking for a few minutes.  Next add your garlic and onion also sliced very thinly.  If you are substituting some zucchini (or green beans or kale or cauliflower or...) add that now as well.  Cook for about 15 minutes more at medium low heat.  Keep gently mixing with big wooden spoon to keep from sticking to the pan.  Once the potatoes have softeneed turn off the heat and let cool a few minutes, then strain the potatoes, saving the oil.  Allow the potatoes to cool for a little while so they aren't too hot when you add your eggs.  Whisk your six eggs with some salt, I add some delicious spanish smoked paprika at this point as well.  Put cooked potatoes in big bowl add pour eggs on top then smoosh it a bit, getting the eggs to soak through the layers of potatoes.  Now you will have needed to clean and dry your pan and now you can reheat it at medium high and add 1/2 cup of reserved olive oil.  When it is hot, pour in potato egg mixture and cook about ten minutes.  Keep sliding a spatula around the edges and gently jiggling the pan to keep tortilla from sticking.  When it has begun to cook quite nicely around all edges and is becoming somewhat firm, sandwhich your pan with a big plate and flip tortilla over onto plate.  I then clean and dry my pan and reheat again with 1/2 cup remaining olive oil.  When hot, gently slide tortilla back in pan and coom for another 5-10 minutes.  Flip onto plate again and garnish with some fresh herbs.  This is great the next day served old with salad and baguette!

A Lecture on Meditation with Swami Sitaramananda

In my life I have received so many blessings, not least of which has been learning Vedantic Philosophy and the deeper practices of Yoga from Swami Sitaramananda, or Swami Sita.  A few weeks ago I was in Los Angeles taking another course in Touch for Health, and by divine intervention Swami Sita was visiting the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Los Angeles for the weekend.  Most of the year she lives at the Sivananda Yoga Farm in Grass Valley and she is director of the Sivananda Organization on the West Coast.  She is a fascinating character, a Vietnamese refugee who moved to Canada with her family as a teenager.  As a young adult working as a social worker she discovered Swami Vishnudevananda and the Sivananda Organization.  She know dedicates her life to teaching others about meditation, the nature of the mind, Vedic Astrology and other yoga topics.  Recently she has begun to travel back to Vietnam to teach yoga there.  I would like to share with you some of the insights from the question and answer session on the topic of meditation at the Los Angeles Center.

For me, the most important statement of the evening was, "Self acceptance is the basis of all yoga practice."  Often when we practice meditation, our expectations of the experience are very lofty and our judgements of ourselves are very harsh.  She talked about releasing our expectations of the experience of meditation, in a sense lowering this concept we have set up in the clouds.  There is no particular experience we should be having in meditation, instead she recommends being open to outcome and experiencing meditation (and life) as a wonderful journey and to be happy to be on this adventure.  Having expectations is filling the mind with thoughts about who we think we are and what we think we should be doing.  But Meditation is the opposite of thinking through your problems and your life.  Swami Sita says "You cannot find solutions for your life from your mind...Mediation is the journey of letting go and opening up to grace..the continuous flow of the presence of god. You cannot open to god if you are too full, full of yourself."  We cleanse this fullness of thought and expectation through devotion and love, love of everything and everyone.   This includes loving ourselves, and she talked about treating our own selves like a young child that needs encouragement and compassion, elevating our concept of our own selves.  In this way we begin to bring these two things, our concept of meditation and our concept of our selves, on a more even level.  

Someone asked a question about detachment versus indifference.  She described detachment as coming from deep understanding and indifference as coming from ignorance and fear.  Equanimity, or detachment, means to remain in yourself no matter what, to not get distracted by the variety of names and forms and experiences, to remain grounded in your spirit and detached from the cycles of pain and pleasure constantly present in this life.  In detachment, half of the problem is letting go, the other half is moving towards the right thing.  As she often does, Swami Sita used a metaphor to illustrate the concept.  She spoke of a hot air balloon rising up, it must throw weight overboard in order to rise. 

So too we must detach from what holds us back if we wish to elevate ourselves through yoga. 

In a line of conversation that felt directed at me and my own experimental yogic journey, Swami Sita urged us to remain diligent with a single practice.  She explained that we must follow the instructions for our meditation exactly each time,  giving our mind specific instructions, like training dog.  Repeat the simple steps, don't worry about where it takes you. Give clear instruction and be very simple.   Yoga is not about choices or varieties of experiences, but instead you must develop a single practice, one path, one method, one teacher.  Don't mix it up with different practices.  And again a great metaphor, You can't be married to ten men...you have to choose one!  Transcend your likes and dislikes so you can go to the core.  And she gave a great technique to develop your will power, do something you don't like and refrain from something you do like. 

I wish my summary could have the power and organization of Swami Sitas talk, but hopefully from my attempt you can recover some gem to help you in your practice.

Namaste!

Mother's Day Brunch: Chile Relleno de Polenta

Chile Relleno de Polenta

I love Chile Rellenos, they are such a wonderful culinary gift from Mexico.  But, I find it very difficult to batter and fry the chiles without the insides spilling out and the delicate roasted chile falling apart.  So I decided that step can be skipped, and you end up with a much healthier chile without all that batter and frying.  I also don't eat cheese any more, and wanted to find a way to make a delicious chile not stuffed with meat or cheese, and Polenta was my brilliant substitution.  So here's the recipe.  I made this dish a few months back, so it's an approximate recipe.  It will be more of a general how-to, but quantities will probably be a little off.  Give me a few months of this food blogging thing and I'll get it together!

Ingredients

4-8 Roasted, seeded and peeled Chiles, choose from Pasilla, Poblano or Anaheim Chiles

2-4 servings of cooked Polenta

Onion

Jalapeño 

Garlic

Corn

Tomatoes

I will add a separate post soon explaining in more detail how to prepare the chiles. To prepare the stuffing, cook a few portions of polenta.  You don't need a lot, about a third cup of cooked polenta per chile. To Jazz the polenta up, heat some oil in a pan and add a teaspoon of cumin seeds.  After two minutes add 1/2 cup of diced onions.  Cook for a few minutes then add two diced garlic cloves and half of a seeded and diced jalapeño.   Sauté, stirring occasionally for a few minutes till everything gets a bit soft and brown.

Next add your corn, you can cut the kernels right off the cob, or use some fresh frozen corn.  About two cups, or two cobs should be enough.  Cook for 2-3 minutes then set remove pan and let cool a bit so you can handle the polenta without burning yourself.  While you are waiting you can begin the tomato sauce.

For the tomato sauce begin by heating a little oil over medium flame in a pan then add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and cook for about 2 minutes till they begin to crackle and smell toasty.  Next add 1/2 diced onion and cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally.  Next add 2 diced garlic cloves and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano and stir a bit as you cook for a few more minutes.

Now add a few tomatoes, turn the heat to low and cover for 10-15 minutes until tomatoes are soft and splitting open.  Turn off the stove and let sit, cooling, while you stuff your chiles.

Scoop polenta into the chiles and arrange in a baking dish.

Blend your tomato spice mixture in your blender, adding a teaspoon of salt then return to the pan and simmer.  Add a sliced zucchini and simmer a few minutes to soften zucchini.  Then pour this beautiful sauce over your chiles.  I put a little cheese over half my batch which is delicious if you like cheese or can be skipped if you want to stay vegan.  You can refrigerate or even freeze this dish to bake and serve at a later time, which will increase your baking time.  If you've filled your chiles with warm polenta and poured hot sauce over the top they'll only need 10-15 minutes in an oven at 350F.  Delicious with rice and tortillas!

Mother's Day Brunch: Mexican Rolls Three Ways

Mexican Rolls Three Ways

For my Mother's Day brunch I wanted fresh bread and I found a great recipe for Bolillos at Holy Cow! Vegan Blog.  I' ve since used the recipe a few more times and will explain a few variations I've tried. 

Ingredients

2 cups Warm Water

1 teaspoon Sugar

1 package active dry Yeast

2 1/4 cups White Flour

2 1/4 cups Wheat Flour

1 teaspoon Butter or Veggie Oil Spread

1-2 teaspoon Salt

I use a small quick read thermometer to check my water is about 110* then add yeast and sugar. Whisk it till dissolved and let sit 5-10 minutes. Set1 1/2 cups of flour aside.  Mix remaining three cups of flour with salt and butter cut into tiny pieces.  Rub together in a big bowl, breaking up butter then pour the yeast water on top. Mix together and then begin to knead with hands gradually adding more flour until a soft dough forms. Continue to knead the dough for ten minutes,adding more floras needed so the dough does not get sticky. To knead you push the dough away from you're fold the far side in and give the dough a quarter turn, always moving in the same direction.  Lightly oil another big bowl, drop the dough in and turn it so it gets oiled on all sides. Cover bowl with a towel an let sit in a warm place for about an hour, it should double in size.  Flip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a minute.  Divide into two sections then divide each section into 6 so you have 12 sections. Work each piece of dough for a minute, tapering the edges and flouring as needed so it doesn't get sticky. Place on oiled pans, or I use parchment paper as my oven tends to burn the bottoms of my baked goods.  Cover these dough boys witha dry towel and let sit another 30-45 minutes.  During this time preheat your oven to 350*. When rolls have risen again, cut a slit on the top of each and brush with a little oil if you'd like and bake 20-30 minutes depending on he heat of your oven. When they are done you can tap the bottom with a butter knife and they should sound hollow.

The next time I used this recipe I made two baguette shaped rolls instead. One was cut into thin pieces and toasted in the oven with a cauliflower delight on top.

The third time I made this recipe I made half the batch plain and half the batch I added about 1/4 diced onion, a few sprigs of diced fresh parsley and a tablespoon of dried oregano.  I kneaded these seasonings into the dough after its first rise when shaping into the rolls.  It was delicious and made some fantastic avocado and sprout sandwiches.