I don't know a soul on the planet who didn't know Michael Jackson and love at least ONE of his many songs. I also don't know a single blogger or facebooker or twitterer who hasn't said something about the death of this reclusive, brilliant, tragic artist.
He is without doubt the artist of our lives. There will never be another like him. The world has lost one of its greatest talents. Elvis, Michael Jackson and John Lennon--I'm just beyond words, I feel like I've lost a family member and I know many others feel the same.
If there has been ONE positive thing about this, it is the absolute love that I feel coming out of everyone I know, for Michael Jackson. Yesterday, within two hours of his death, radio stations in Los Angeles were playing the hits, callers were waxing poetic about what Michael's music meant to their lives. EVERYONE has lost someone--everyone loved his music and him. I miss you, Michael. A lifelong friend and fan.
~Victoria
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Still Going Strong!
Calorie counting is not fun. But watching what you eat sort of is. Having a ball park daily goal is what works for me. I try not only to not go OVER my limit but I also try to REACH it. You'd be surprised how difficult that is if you change what you're eating.
Eating whole, organic (when possible) and light, surprisingly, offers a lot of nutrition and not a lot of calories! (This is a newsflash for me, even if it's not for, oh, the rest of humanity.) You can eat like cups and cups of spinach and there's only 50 calories! I thought I was going to have to deprive myself of the things I love, but basically if I want to have that toaster strudel, I try to eat as clean as possible so that at the end of the day I have 200 calories (geez!) to devote to it if I want to.
Paying attention to what you eat, even if you don't change it, I believe leads to inevitable weightloss. Maybe not to the degree that you require long term, but just enough to make those jeans fit again. Holding yourself accountable and letting a little responsibility (not guilt!) leak into your consciousness, maybe you'll just eat one of those pop tarts instead of two!
Right now everything in my closet fits. SOME things are even slightly loose. Since I was sick for two weeks I haven't gotten back into the swing of workouts except for a killer hike at Runyon Canyon on Saturday morning. I'm going to try to fold that back in--it didn't kick my ass as much as it normally does so that's progress!
Looking forward to keeping it going.
~V
Eating whole, organic (when possible) and light, surprisingly, offers a lot of nutrition and not a lot of calories! (This is a newsflash for me, even if it's not for, oh, the rest of humanity.) You can eat like cups and cups of spinach and there's only 50 calories! I thought I was going to have to deprive myself of the things I love, but basically if I want to have that toaster strudel, I try to eat as clean as possible so that at the end of the day I have 200 calories (geez!) to devote to it if I want to.
Paying attention to what you eat, even if you don't change it, I believe leads to inevitable weightloss. Maybe not to the degree that you require long term, but just enough to make those jeans fit again. Holding yourself accountable and letting a little responsibility (not guilt!) leak into your consciousness, maybe you'll just eat one of those pop tarts instead of two!
Right now everything in my closet fits. SOME things are even slightly loose. Since I was sick for two weeks I haven't gotten back into the swing of workouts except for a killer hike at Runyon Canyon on Saturday morning. I'm going to try to fold that back in--it didn't kick my ass as much as it normally does so that's progress!
Looking forward to keeping it going.
~V
Friday, June 5, 2009
Caffeine!
Ok so you know how you find out something and then you can't UNknow it? Let me think of a few examples: nah, that's too depressing. You know what I mean.
I'm counting calories. I'm watching Cook Yourself Thin on Lifetime. I'm struggling not to make myself into one of "those women". You know the ones--the Food Police. They're on Weight Wathers, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig and everything else all at the same time. They know how many points that spinach salad and ice cream pint you had for dinner is worth. They remember what you had to eat three weeks ago and they've been counting your point deficit ever since--and you still haven't caught up. That pizza and beer from Friday night will be worked off about a month from now if you keep yourself on bread and water.
Folks, these are the kinds of posts I write when my brain is foggy from lack of sleep. I'm getting over a cold, I've reduced my caloric intake by half (egads! That means I was eating twice as much as I should be daily) and thankfully last night I got to sleep peacefully albeit pretty late.
AT ANY RATE, to keep this from getting too depressing today I will say this--a few good observations from attempting to watch what I put in my mouth every day:
1.) Food lasts WAY longer when you eat it in the correct portions.
2.) When you honestly count your caloric intake you realize that portion sizes are accurate and fair. You were just eating too much.
3.) You sleep better when you stop eating earlier in the evening--TRUST ME on this one.
4.) Multivitamins are manna from Heaven. I promise.
I still want to be a crusader for having the foods in your life that you love. Currently, ice cream, soda, fast food, potato chips, soda and white rice are all off my list. But cake remains, my friends, cake remains. If I want to sacrifice 300 calories for cake every day for the rest of my life, I'll damn well do it! Note the date and time, friends. Note the date and time.
~V
I'm counting calories. I'm watching Cook Yourself Thin on Lifetime. I'm struggling not to make myself into one of "those women". You know the ones--the Food Police. They're on Weight Wathers, NutriSystem, Jenny Craig and everything else all at the same time. They know how many points that spinach salad and ice cream pint you had for dinner is worth. They remember what you had to eat three weeks ago and they've been counting your point deficit ever since--and you still haven't caught up. That pizza and beer from Friday night will be worked off about a month from now if you keep yourself on bread and water.
Folks, these are the kinds of posts I write when my brain is foggy from lack of sleep. I'm getting over a cold, I've reduced my caloric intake by half (egads! That means I was eating twice as much as I should be daily) and thankfully last night I got to sleep peacefully albeit pretty late.
AT ANY RATE, to keep this from getting too depressing today I will say this--a few good observations from attempting to watch what I put in my mouth every day:
1.) Food lasts WAY longer when you eat it in the correct portions.
2.) When you honestly count your caloric intake you realize that portion sizes are accurate and fair. You were just eating too much.
3.) You sleep better when you stop eating earlier in the evening--TRUST ME on this one.
4.) Multivitamins are manna from Heaven. I promise.
I still want to be a crusader for having the foods in your life that you love. Currently, ice cream, soda, fast food, potato chips, soda and white rice are all off my list. But cake remains, my friends, cake remains. If I want to sacrifice 300 calories for cake every day for the rest of my life, I'll damn well do it! Note the date and time, friends. Note the date and time.
~V
Thursday, June 4, 2009
It's Been a Year!
OMG it's been a year since I posted. We'll try to do this more frequently, kids. Maybe once I'm consistent I'll get my readership up and I won't have to do this all by my lil lonesome.
So this blog has been (and was initially created) to talk about ayurveda. It's still about that, but I'm also going to start talking about my struggle to lose weight. Like the other 45,907,675 blogs online.
Right now it's day three of me counting my calories. I resisted it for as long as I could. Paying attention to what you eat is essential and I've started to do it and my mind is blown. I almost ate a doughnut today until I discovered that it was 300 calories and I could eat that doughnut or I could eat, I don't know, a MEAL.
We'll see how long I last.
~V
So this blog has been (and was initially created) to talk about ayurveda. It's still about that, but I'm also going to start talking about my struggle to lose weight. Like the other 45,907,675 blogs online.
Right now it's day three of me counting my calories. I resisted it for as long as I could. Paying attention to what you eat is essential and I've started to do it and my mind is blown. I almost ate a doughnut today until I discovered that it was 300 calories and I could eat that doughnut or I could eat, I don't know, a MEAL.
We'll see how long I last.
~V
Friday, June 13, 2008
New Beginning!
It’s Friday the 13th and of course I choose that day to come back to blogging. It has literally been MONTHS since I’ve updated. I went through my “quitting” phase. Now I have five minutes (today) to recommit myself to the effort.
I haven’t left Ayurveda and in fact have been continuing to meet with Mary Alice and practice. But I have been notorious for picking up and maintaining the new thing and abandoning the old, or vice versa, in practices. Now I have made an effort for the next 21 days to maintain all the practices I’ve learned, without picking up any new ones. We’ll see how it goes. Right now I’m trying to do the following for the next 21 days:
Rise at 6am
Morning practices like yoga, meditation, tongue scraping, herbs, oil massage, body brushing
Eating largest meal from 12-1pm
Sipping hot water throughout the day
30 minutes of brisk walking in the afternoon
Eating light dinner between 6-7pm
Yoga and meditation and herbs before bed
Bed at 10pm
Even though that’s a lot of practices, there’s much more to living a completely ayurvedic lifestyle. I’m also trying to eat whole, fresh, seasonal foods as much as possible, and stay in a positive state of mind. It’s only day one, (even though I’ve been practicing since November of last year) but this is the first day that I’ve truly implemented all the practices I’ve been given. The eating is going to be the most difficult thing, but the good thing is there’s this wonderful rule in Ayurveda called the 51% rule. That means if you do ANY part of any practice 51% of the time then you’re being successful. That’s not what most of us define as a success rate, but when considered in this manner, we’re all doing a hell of a lot better than we thought we were—and that is the blessing.
Stay tuned for more frequent updates!!
I haven’t left Ayurveda and in fact have been continuing to meet with Mary Alice and practice. But I have been notorious for picking up and maintaining the new thing and abandoning the old, or vice versa, in practices. Now I have made an effort for the next 21 days to maintain all the practices I’ve learned, without picking up any new ones. We’ll see how it goes. Right now I’m trying to do the following for the next 21 days:
Rise at 6am
Morning practices like yoga, meditation, tongue scraping, herbs, oil massage, body brushing
Eating largest meal from 12-1pm
Sipping hot water throughout the day
30 minutes of brisk walking in the afternoon
Eating light dinner between 6-7pm
Yoga and meditation and herbs before bed
Bed at 10pm
Even though that’s a lot of practices, there’s much more to living a completely ayurvedic lifestyle. I’m also trying to eat whole, fresh, seasonal foods as much as possible, and stay in a positive state of mind. It’s only day one, (even though I’ve been practicing since November of last year) but this is the first day that I’ve truly implemented all the practices I’ve been given. The eating is going to be the most difficult thing, but the good thing is there’s this wonderful rule in Ayurveda called the 51% rule. That means if you do ANY part of any practice 51% of the time then you’re being successful. That’s not what most of us define as a success rate, but when considered in this manner, we’re all doing a hell of a lot better than we thought we were—and that is the blessing.
Stay tuned for more frequent updates!!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
I'm Still Alive
Boy! It's been two months almost since I last posted. I want to let everyone know that I'm still following an Ayurvedic lifestyle and diet, and things are still going well.
My personal life has been such a challenge of late, it's been distracting me from most of the fun and good in my life. But recently I had to remember to bring it back around to the positive, and enjoy (gasp!) living in the unknown and with uncertainty.
There is true beauty in not knowing what lies ahead of you from one day to the next. We are so conditioned to plan out each day, month, year of our life, always planning for that day in the future. Plan for college, plan for a house, plan for retirement, plan for illness and your funeral!
What happened to planning a family dinner--tonight! Or planning a vacation this weekend, or a surprise birthday party for a friend? We do those things, but if we did those things with HALF the intensity we do when planning to buy a house, how much richer each experience would be? It's counter intuitive to consider a birthday party for a friend as important an event as the purchase of a home, but consider the value in sitting down and giving yourself a full afternoon or weekend to decide how best to honor someone you love. You don't have to spend the same amount of money--I'm just talking about giving it the same level of THOUGHT.
So after going through the upheaval of not being able to plan my life, and watching my financial status crumble around me, I had to throw up my hands--not in defeat, but in SURRENDER! Surrender to the fact that you do not know where your next blessing is going to come from. Lifting your arms up ready to receive whatever the universe is going to put in your path is so much better than walking around with your arms locked in worry about what you will do next.
But you all know me--I needed to maintain even the smallest level of control. So I did what I could to change my situation, but prayer, meditation, and sharing my story with others and ASKING FOR HELP WHEN I TRULY NEEDED IT, were what got me through the situation more than anything else I could have done. I will never be afraid to ask for help again. It makes life so much easier when you let others in.
Then one day last week for a completely inexplicable reason, I woke up from a nap, ready to go to work for the night, but feeling like it was the last day of school! For a day and a half I walked around, as if on a cloud, feeling as though I had nothing but the rest of my life in front of me with endless possibilities! (And that is the true reality for us all if we'd open our eyes to it!) It reminded me of the last day of school. You know, not the day after or the morning before you go into school for the last time, but the moment the last bell has rang, you are leaving this building and know that you need not be accountable to anyone or anything academic for the next three months. When you're young, that's an eternity.
Every decision you make that summer is based on how you feel at the moment. Stay up late for that old movie? Why not? You don't have to be anywhere. Stay on the phone with a friend for another hour. Go have that late dinner, sleep the day away with no regret--we should live every day with this fluidity! I'm not advocating throwing away responsibility and control of your life, I'm just suggesting opening yourself up to getting rid of so many deadlines and responsibility, and allowing more FLOW. Find the beauty in the unexpected.
In a moment of panic, I woke up in the middle of the night trying to "control" my environment. There was nothing I could do to fix a particular problem at 5am, but I couldn't let go of it enough to fall back to sleep. So I got up, paced the floor, talked out loud, prayed, called my mother, listened to gospel music, yoga and meditation mantras and nothing. Finally I sat down at my computer, turned the music down a little, and started writing my thoughts. Those thoughts turned into an exciting project that I'll share in the coming months. But that project was born out of NOTHING short of the panic and dread that came from the experiences I had over the past seven years, but especially over the past seven months.
Beautiful, inexplicable results, out of a place where nothing good should grow. Surrender to the struggle and the rat race, open yourself up to the possibility that you may not be bound to the path of others around you and before you. The freedom in that, my friends, is so so WORTH it!
My personal life has been such a challenge of late, it's been distracting me from most of the fun and good in my life. But recently I had to remember to bring it back around to the positive, and enjoy (gasp!) living in the unknown and with uncertainty.
There is true beauty in not knowing what lies ahead of you from one day to the next. We are so conditioned to plan out each day, month, year of our life, always planning for that day in the future. Plan for college, plan for a house, plan for retirement, plan for illness and your funeral!
What happened to planning a family dinner--tonight! Or planning a vacation this weekend, or a surprise birthday party for a friend? We do those things, but if we did those things with HALF the intensity we do when planning to buy a house, how much richer each experience would be? It's counter intuitive to consider a birthday party for a friend as important an event as the purchase of a home, but consider the value in sitting down and giving yourself a full afternoon or weekend to decide how best to honor someone you love. You don't have to spend the same amount of money--I'm just talking about giving it the same level of THOUGHT.
So after going through the upheaval of not being able to plan my life, and watching my financial status crumble around me, I had to throw up my hands--not in defeat, but in SURRENDER! Surrender to the fact that you do not know where your next blessing is going to come from. Lifting your arms up ready to receive whatever the universe is going to put in your path is so much better than walking around with your arms locked in worry about what you will do next.
But you all know me--I needed to maintain even the smallest level of control. So I did what I could to change my situation, but prayer, meditation, and sharing my story with others and ASKING FOR HELP WHEN I TRULY NEEDED IT, were what got me through the situation more than anything else I could have done. I will never be afraid to ask for help again. It makes life so much easier when you let others in.
Then one day last week for a completely inexplicable reason, I woke up from a nap, ready to go to work for the night, but feeling like it was the last day of school! For a day and a half I walked around, as if on a cloud, feeling as though I had nothing but the rest of my life in front of me with endless possibilities! (And that is the true reality for us all if we'd open our eyes to it!) It reminded me of the last day of school. You know, not the day after or the morning before you go into school for the last time, but the moment the last bell has rang, you are leaving this building and know that you need not be accountable to anyone or anything academic for the next three months. When you're young, that's an eternity.
Every decision you make that summer is based on how you feel at the moment. Stay up late for that old movie? Why not? You don't have to be anywhere. Stay on the phone with a friend for another hour. Go have that late dinner, sleep the day away with no regret--we should live every day with this fluidity! I'm not advocating throwing away responsibility and control of your life, I'm just suggesting opening yourself up to getting rid of so many deadlines and responsibility, and allowing more FLOW. Find the beauty in the unexpected.
In a moment of panic, I woke up in the middle of the night trying to "control" my environment. There was nothing I could do to fix a particular problem at 5am, but I couldn't let go of it enough to fall back to sleep. So I got up, paced the floor, talked out loud, prayed, called my mother, listened to gospel music, yoga and meditation mantras and nothing. Finally I sat down at my computer, turned the music down a little, and started writing my thoughts. Those thoughts turned into an exciting project that I'll share in the coming months. But that project was born out of NOTHING short of the panic and dread that came from the experiences I had over the past seven years, but especially over the past seven months.
Beautiful, inexplicable results, out of a place where nothing good should grow. Surrender to the struggle and the rat race, open yourself up to the possibility that you may not be bound to the path of others around you and before you. The freedom in that, my friends, is so so WORTH it!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Side Benefits!
Hi everyone! I’m still going strong on this “Ayurveda thing” as most of the people in my life are now calling it. I had another follow up visit with Mary-Alice on Friday, and learned some more practices.
Since I’ve last updated this blog, things have been pretty much status quo. I’ve been taking my herbs pretty diligently, both before eating and once before bed. In general, I feel better; have more energy, and better digestion, which means better, prolonged deeper sleep and better rest over all. The tongue scraper every morning has been a revelation. (If you don’t believe me, just pick up one, they’re very inexpensive ($5-$10) and see for yourself after just one day!)
It was a good thing that my follow-up meeting was last Friday, because I had it in my calendar for the following week. I’d had a pretty difficult and emotional time earlier this week, and having to go another week without the therapeutic benefits of sitting in Mary-Alice’s office, I would’ve back slid a lot further than normal.
I may have shared in an earlier post my ‘food phases’ that I go through. I usually want a certain treat (usually something sweet) every day for several weeks and then I won’t have that item again for months or even years. Some of my food phases have been shrimp, cinnamon rolls (the kind you bake at home!) Oreo cakesters (if you don’t know about this phenomenon, get thee to your local Ralph’s pronto!), apple pie and ice cream, chips and salsa, etc. The current food phase is cinnamon rolls and canned peaches. I’m not pregnant, I swear.
Anyways, my food phases are absolutely dictated by my emotions. If I’m having a great day, that’s a wonderful reason for a batch of cinnamon rolls. If I’ve had an awful, tiring or stressful day, bring on the canned peaches! Drinking that syrup is like a shot in the arm! My roommate had to go and bring home some of that lemonade iced tea from Trader Joe’s as a strong, strong temptation for me. Mary-Alice calls it crack juice. I think she’s right.
So as I was about to spiral backwards after a particularly rough day, I emailed Mary-Alice some random question and she wrote back that we’d speak in detail about it the next morning. What luck! I’d completely gotten the week wrong, and now I would get some positive reinforcements immediately! When I went in for my consultation Mary-Alice let me know that I’d be taking the Agni Churna for the next six months at least. Apparently it takes more than just 2 months on an herb to regulate your digestion and metabolism.
Now I’d like to say a brief word here about the cost of Ayurveda and holistic medicine in general, over traditional Western medicine. I could be paying $100/month for health insurance that is so crappy it doesn’t cover the few things that I’d normally seek medical treatment for such as a prolonged cold or an ob-gyn appt. And it doesn’t cover those big things like needing an ambulance ride or something. So at this point, without shelling out more money, traditional health insurance policies do not serve me. They also don’t serve most of my contemporaries. We can’t afford mega bucks policies and being young and in general good health we just plain don’t need to be at the doctor too often other than routine check ups. So it seems silly to throw the money away on services we barely use. (I wouldn’t make this same argument if I were 35, married with kids, I promise.) So I’ve decided to make an investment in perfect health rather than an investment in potential illness.
New practices: I’m going to start concentrating on having my noontime meal be the largest meal of the day. I’m also focusing on having the serving of food be one offering to myself (remember holding your two hands together, palms up?) and I’m focusing on meditation 5-10 minutes at least once a day. Meditation is something that I naturally started to become interested in when I began practicing yoga earlier this year. I haven’t been able to afford going to the classes regularly, but I bought some DVDs and every now and then I supplement my practice with private instruction once or twice a year. Mary-Alice’s description of meditation, however, was different and more helpful than what I’d heard or experienced before. She said “the goal of meditation is nothing! Nothing at all! Don’t try to see the clouds part and transcend lifetimes in the space of five minutes. The goal of meditation is to quiet the mind. Even trying to force oneself to ‘think of nothing’ is a thought process in and of itself. Instead, focus on your breathing, the slow in and out through the nose, deep breathing will allow your mind to naturally quiet. Thoughts will pop up over and over again. Allow it, and then gently guide your mind back. Before you know it, the time has passed. With practice you will discover how easy it is to get centered and you’ll find yourself needing and wanting to do it several times throughout the day.
Instead of trying to become a master at it though, just try for 10 minutes before bed, every night for a week. That’s some time everyone can carve into their schedule. I find that meditating and sitting quietly for a few minutes before I drive, before I get out of the car to walk into work, before I eat and before I go to bed, has had startling benefits. I’m slower to anger (those of you who know me know what a challenge that can be sometimes!) and I’ve got more patience—I’m more understanding, and that brings more peace BACK to me.
The food addictions are much harder for me to get a handle on right now, than adopting these different Ayurvedic principles, but I am already so many light years away from where I was when I first heard Mary-Alice speak back in October. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing more of the “Side Benefits” that Mary-Alice introduced me to a couple of weeks ago.
In Western medicine we call something that you feel or experience as a result of medication or behavior, a “side effect” as though it’s something we hope doesn’t happen. You know, like those commercials for medicine we’ve been seeing so heavily for the past five years or so? “Side effects may include upset stomach, heart burn, diarrhea, heart palpitations, stroke, dizziness or headache? Women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant should not…” OY! Who wants to deal with all that when all they’re trying to do is stop a tremor in their leg? Ayurveda doesn’t have any of these “side effects.” But what they do have are SIDE BENEFITS. When I experience something as a result of the herbs, it’s positive, even if on the outside it might seem negative. The nausea I experienced was a sign my herbs were working, and it was eliminated immediately, as I continued the practice. Some other side benefits have been completely positive, like clearer skin, better vision and memory, more successful rest and sleep—and I haven’t had one prescription to achieve any of that. I’ve achieved that with changing my diet and behaviors.
We’ll see where we are in the New Year—I don’t see Mary-Alice again until the 2nd week of January, so we’ll see how I get through all those holiday cookies and New Year’s drinkin’ on my own! Happy Holidays to all of you and thanks for reading this blog and supporting me!
Since I’ve last updated this blog, things have been pretty much status quo. I’ve been taking my herbs pretty diligently, both before eating and once before bed. In general, I feel better; have more energy, and better digestion, which means better, prolonged deeper sleep and better rest over all. The tongue scraper every morning has been a revelation. (If you don’t believe me, just pick up one, they’re very inexpensive ($5-$10) and see for yourself after just one day!)
It was a good thing that my follow-up meeting was last Friday, because I had it in my calendar for the following week. I’d had a pretty difficult and emotional time earlier this week, and having to go another week without the therapeutic benefits of sitting in Mary-Alice’s office, I would’ve back slid a lot further than normal.
I may have shared in an earlier post my ‘food phases’ that I go through. I usually want a certain treat (usually something sweet) every day for several weeks and then I won’t have that item again for months or even years. Some of my food phases have been shrimp, cinnamon rolls (the kind you bake at home!) Oreo cakesters (if you don’t know about this phenomenon, get thee to your local Ralph’s pronto!), apple pie and ice cream, chips and salsa, etc. The current food phase is cinnamon rolls and canned peaches. I’m not pregnant, I swear.
Anyways, my food phases are absolutely dictated by my emotions. If I’m having a great day, that’s a wonderful reason for a batch of cinnamon rolls. If I’ve had an awful, tiring or stressful day, bring on the canned peaches! Drinking that syrup is like a shot in the arm! My roommate had to go and bring home some of that lemonade iced tea from Trader Joe’s as a strong, strong temptation for me. Mary-Alice calls it crack juice. I think she’s right.
So as I was about to spiral backwards after a particularly rough day, I emailed Mary-Alice some random question and she wrote back that we’d speak in detail about it the next morning. What luck! I’d completely gotten the week wrong, and now I would get some positive reinforcements immediately! When I went in for my consultation Mary-Alice let me know that I’d be taking the Agni Churna for the next six months at least. Apparently it takes more than just 2 months on an herb to regulate your digestion and metabolism.
Now I’d like to say a brief word here about the cost of Ayurveda and holistic medicine in general, over traditional Western medicine. I could be paying $100/month for health insurance that is so crappy it doesn’t cover the few things that I’d normally seek medical treatment for such as a prolonged cold or an ob-gyn appt. And it doesn’t cover those big things like needing an ambulance ride or something. So at this point, without shelling out more money, traditional health insurance policies do not serve me. They also don’t serve most of my contemporaries. We can’t afford mega bucks policies and being young and in general good health we just plain don’t need to be at the doctor too often other than routine check ups. So it seems silly to throw the money away on services we barely use. (I wouldn’t make this same argument if I were 35, married with kids, I promise.) So I’ve decided to make an investment in perfect health rather than an investment in potential illness.
New practices: I’m going to start concentrating on having my noontime meal be the largest meal of the day. I’m also focusing on having the serving of food be one offering to myself (remember holding your two hands together, palms up?) and I’m focusing on meditation 5-10 minutes at least once a day. Meditation is something that I naturally started to become interested in when I began practicing yoga earlier this year. I haven’t been able to afford going to the classes regularly, but I bought some DVDs and every now and then I supplement my practice with private instruction once or twice a year. Mary-Alice’s description of meditation, however, was different and more helpful than what I’d heard or experienced before. She said “the goal of meditation is nothing! Nothing at all! Don’t try to see the clouds part and transcend lifetimes in the space of five minutes. The goal of meditation is to quiet the mind. Even trying to force oneself to ‘think of nothing’ is a thought process in and of itself. Instead, focus on your breathing, the slow in and out through the nose, deep breathing will allow your mind to naturally quiet. Thoughts will pop up over and over again. Allow it, and then gently guide your mind back. Before you know it, the time has passed. With practice you will discover how easy it is to get centered and you’ll find yourself needing and wanting to do it several times throughout the day.
Instead of trying to become a master at it though, just try for 10 minutes before bed, every night for a week. That’s some time everyone can carve into their schedule. I find that meditating and sitting quietly for a few minutes before I drive, before I get out of the car to walk into work, before I eat and before I go to bed, has had startling benefits. I’m slower to anger (those of you who know me know what a challenge that can be sometimes!) and I’ve got more patience—I’m more understanding, and that brings more peace BACK to me.
The food addictions are much harder for me to get a handle on right now, than adopting these different Ayurvedic principles, but I am already so many light years away from where I was when I first heard Mary-Alice speak back in October. I’m looking forward to learning and experiencing more of the “Side Benefits” that Mary-Alice introduced me to a couple of weeks ago.
In Western medicine we call something that you feel or experience as a result of medication or behavior, a “side effect” as though it’s something we hope doesn’t happen. You know, like those commercials for medicine we’ve been seeing so heavily for the past five years or so? “Side effects may include upset stomach, heart burn, diarrhea, heart palpitations, stroke, dizziness or headache? Women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant should not…” OY! Who wants to deal with all that when all they’re trying to do is stop a tremor in their leg? Ayurveda doesn’t have any of these “side effects.” But what they do have are SIDE BENEFITS. When I experience something as a result of the herbs, it’s positive, even if on the outside it might seem negative. The nausea I experienced was a sign my herbs were working, and it was eliminated immediately, as I continued the practice. Some other side benefits have been completely positive, like clearer skin, better vision and memory, more successful rest and sleep—and I haven’t had one prescription to achieve any of that. I’ve achieved that with changing my diet and behaviors.
We’ll see where we are in the New Year—I don’t see Mary-Alice again until the 2nd week of January, so we’ll see how I get through all those holiday cookies and New Year’s drinkin’ on my own! Happy Holidays to all of you and thanks for reading this blog and supporting me!
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