Focus on the Exhale
In the yogic practice of breath control (or pranayama), the exhale has a special function. While the inhale is stimulating, the exhale is relaxing. While the inhale is about bringing energy into the body, the exhale is about releasing stress, toxins, and pain.
Because of this, you can use conscious breathing as a break in your day. By focusing on your exhale, you can let go of the past and come into the present with a renewed commitment. Here’s how:
Sit up in your chair with your feet on the floor and a long spine. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Inhale through the nose, feeling your spine get longer and taller. Then exhale through your mouth with a deep sigh. As you exhale, visualize the moments of your day moving away from you.
Try this for a few minutes anytime you need to let go of something. It can have a profound effect on your emotional and physical health. Yoga Journal Sept. 15, 2015
Pose of the Month
Tree Pose = Vrksasana
The Tree Pose strengthens and tones the leg muscles, ankles and feet as well as the groin and inner thigh. To avoid falling in Tree, you need to explore and understand your hip-opening capacity. If your hips aren’t naturally open and you force the lifted knee to point straight out to look like your teacher’s, your entire pelvis will twist in that direction, pulling you out of your Mountain alignment. When this happens, there’s also a tendency to arch the lower back too much, tilting your pelvis out of its most stable alignment.
It helps to imagine that your body is centered on an invisible plumb line dropping from the crown of your head, through the middle of your torso and pelvis, and straight into the ground beneath you. You want to remain centered around that plumb line even though you’re on only
one leg. To do this, strengthen the trunk of the tree—your core—and firm your standing leg by hugging the muscles of your inner thigh in toward your midline. Your standing leg is like the roots of your tree, and your stable pelvis carries energy from your roots up into the spine and torso, creating a strong trunk. Your arms reach up and out like branches expanding into the sky.
Tree Pose is a chance to experience the magic of yoga practice: If you are willing, trying to stand on one leg becomes an inquiry into your own truth. Honoring your truth might mean lowering the foot to a place below the knee or even to the floor, bringing the lifted knee slightly forward in space to align the hips, or gently engaging the abdomen to remove the arch from the lower back. Through honest inquiry, you can discover your true alignment and find your balance, no matter where your knee ends up pointing!
Practice satya in all of your poses by being honest about your own limits. When you align yourself in a way that’s truthful, you create a strong and balanced foundation from which your poses will grow and flourish.
Balanced Tree: When practicing Vrksasana, it helps to think of “balance” as a verb rather than a noun. Instead of trying to achieve a state of balance, focus on the act of balancing. You’ll never be absolutely still and steady; you make countless tiny adjustments to maintain the pose. Just as a tree reacts to the seasons, to light and rain, you are always responding to the subtle changes within your body, refining and rebalancing with every breath you take.
Sea Kelp for Healthy Skin
Article by Laurel Kallenbach August 28, 2007 For Yoga Journal
If you’ve ever touched seaweed that washed up on the beach, chances are you noticed its slippery texture. The gelatinous quality of this sea plant makes it an ideal ingredient for shampoos and creams, as it protects and adds shine to hair and skin. In fact, many marine plants—from tiny algae to giant kelp—provide nourishment and protection when applied to the body.
“Algae are some of the most nutrient-rich life forms in nature, which is why they’re present in so many cosmetics,” says Ben Fuchs, cosmetic formulator for Rocky Mountain Natural Labs in Boulder, Colorado. “They’re full of minerals that can help draw toxins from the skin.”
Knowing about marine herb properties will help you understand their purpose in body care products. In cellulite creams, algae helps draw out impurities and temporarily “tightens” the skin. This firming ability is also an asset in eye gels or wrinkle creams. Sea herbs in facial masks heal, hydrate, detoxify, and re-mineralize the skin. While Fuchs cautions that we still don’t know how much of the nutrients actually penetrate the skin, their amino acids—and slippery texture—do act as conditioners.
To identify seaweed on labels, look for either common or Latin names: bladderwrack (fucus), kelp (laminaria), Irish moss (sometimes listed as carrageenan, the name of the extract), SuperPhycoDismutase (or SPD, the name of an extract of a French coastal seaweed), or simply algae extract. Most of these sea herbs contribute a silky texture to creams and act as natural thickening agents, making it easy to benefit from the power of the ocean—even if you live far from its shores.
Sea algae provides:
Chlorophyll: helps detoxify
Essential fatty acids: improve skin elasticity
Carbohydrates: stimulate the skin’s ability to heal
Vitamin A: an antioxidant, normalizes skin cells
Protein/amino acids: building blocks of cells, skin conditioners
Fall Recipe- Artichoke and Sun-Dried Tomato Focaccia
Be careful not to over bake this veggie-loaded flat bread—the finished color should be a pale golden brown.
· 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
· 2 tsp. instant yeast
· 1 tsp. sugar
· 1 tsp. salt
· 2 Tbs. olive oil, plus more for coating pan and drizzling over focaccia
· 1 Tbs. fresh rosemary leaves
· 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
· 4 marinated artichoke hearts, sliced
· 5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, thinly sliced
· 3 oz. soft goat cheese
· Kosher salt or coarse sea salt for sprinkling, optional
1. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, and 1 1/2 cups room temperature water in bowl of stand mixer. Let stand 20 minutes. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and salt, and beat on low speed with paddle attachment until dough comes together. (It should have consistency of thick pancake batter. If not, add up to 1/2 cup more water.) Add 2 Tbs. oil, increase speed to medium, and beat 15 minutes, or until dough becomes elastic and forms ball around paddle. Scrape dough from paddle, cover bowl, and let stand 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until doubled in size.
2. Grease large, rimmed baking sheet with oil. Scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet, and sprinkle generously with flour. Press dough with hands to cover baking sheet. Cover, and let rise 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 450°F with oven rack in lowest position. Sprinkle dough with rosemary, then scatter with onion, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes. Dot with goat cheese, and sprinkle with kosher salt (if using). Drizzle with oil. 4. Bake 13 to 15 minutes, or until crust is browned around edges. Cool at least 20 minutes, then cut into 16 slices. Vegetarian Times
That’s Life
It always seems impossible until it is done. Nelson Mandela
