4 Day Cleanse

You'll be ready for anything your yoga teacher will throw at you. Thank my yoga teacher in Bend, Sundari (Heather Lucey) for this :-)

Day 1: Clean up and Throw out the Garbage

Eliminate caffeine, alcohol, soda and drinks with sugar. Eliminate all processed foods made with white flour. Eliminate all refined sugars. Eliminate mucous building grains like wheat and crackers. Start by waking up and making a glass of warm water with squeeze of half a lemon. Breakfast: Put one pat of organic butter and cook to organic eggs any style. Eat with half a piece of rye toast. Drink either: a glass of water with 1 tbs "Just Cranberry" juice or a cup of Raspberry Leaf Tea. Wait 4 hours until lunch, drink water!! Lunch: Prepare and eat mindfully, enjoying the Prana and extracting the nutrience. Silently observe it moving into the body's temple. Create a salad (here are some ingredients you can use): celery, cucumber, radish, onion, red/green leaf lettuce, sprouts, walnuts - with a squeeze of a whole lemon and tbs flax oil + either 2oz firm tofu, half a cup soy or lentil beans, or 4oz wild salmon. Wait 5 hours until dinner, drink water moderately, drink a cup of Raspberry Tea in the the afternoon. Diner: Eat a load of light steamed vegetables: kale, zucchini, green beans, asparagus - with 1 tbs flax oil + 2oz firm tofu or 4oz grilled chicken + brown rice. Drink of cup of Raspberry Lea Tea and take a greens supplement. Take full yogic breaths and sleep well!

Day 2: Nutrient Filled Blessed Day

Start by waking up and making a glass of warm water with squeeze of half a lemon. Breakfast: Eat half a cup of organic yogurt with any of these fruits: cantaloupe, honeydew, green grapes, raspberries, blueberries, papaya, kiwi. Drink a cup of parsley tea and take two psyllium husks (found at Whole Foods) or a cup of decaf coffee. Wait 5 hours until lunch, give intestines a rest. Drink water to flush. Lunch: 2 cups leafy greens (steamed or raw) 4oz wild salmon, turkey, chicken, tuna, or tofu or 2 eggs + half a cup of quinoa or brown rice. Drink 1 cup of organic mild. Drink a cup of parsley tea with honey. Wait 6 hours until dinner, drink water moderately, drink parsley tea in the afternoon. Dinner: Eat a load of light steamed vegetables: kale, zucchini, green beans, asparagus with 1 tbs flax seed oil + 4oz chicken, tofu, or salmon with a squeeze of lemon and some fresh chopped ginger (steer clear of salt and pepper), take a greens supplement. Hurray! You are doing this and your half way there! Practice 20 min of silent observation. Rub lavender oil on you and take a long hot bath, have a good nights sleep and make this your special week!

Day 4: Jiva Mukti - Soul Liberation!

This is the day you feel strong and light. Make sure you eat and drink well even though your feel life a super hero! Wake up, practice break work and do 5 rounds of Sun Salutations.

Start by waking up and making a glass of warm water with squeeze of half a lemon. Breakfast: Put one pat of organic butter and cook to organic eggs any style. Eat with half a piece of rye toast. Take a psyllium husk supplement. Wait 4 hours until lunch. Drink water! Lunch: 1 cup of Cucumber Salad: cucumber, celery, sesame seeds, white onion with 1 tbs flax oil, a splash a vinegar and a squeeze of lemon + 1 cup brown rice or quinoa + 4oz of wild salmon, chicken, turkey. Drink a cup of Raspberry Leaf Tea and take a green supplement. Wait 5 hours until dinner, drink water moderately, drink a cup of Raspberry Tea in the the afternoon. Take a 20min walk in the afternoon. Dinner: Eat a load of light steamed vegetables: kale, zucchini, green beans, asparagus with 1 tbs flax seed oil + + 4oz of wild salmon, chicken, turkey or you can throw a butternut squash in the oven for 45min + 1 half a cup of quinoa. Drink Raspberry Leaf tea and water. Read some inspiring literature, listen to relaxing music, take another bath with lavender oil, wear cozy clothing, do full yogic breath and have a good nights sleep!

Day 4: Walking on Sunshine

Enjoy the benefits, drinks lots of fluid. You made it!

Start by waking up and making a glass of warm water with squeeze of half a lemon and tbs of "Just Cranberry" Breakfast: Put one pat of organic butter and cook to organic eggs any style. Eat with half a piece of rye toast. Take a psyllium husk supplement. Wait 4 hours until lunch. Drink water! Lunch: 1 cup of Cucumber Salad: cucumber, celery, sesame seeds, white onion with 1 tbs flax oil, a splash a vinegar and a squeeze of lemon + 1 cup brown rice or quinoa + 4oz of wild salmon, chicken, turkey. Drink a cup of Raspberry Leaf Tea and take a green supplement. Wait 5 hours until dinner, drink water moderately, drink a cup of Raspberry Tea in the the afternoon. Take a 20min walk in the afternoon. Do Standing Forward Fold and Standing Back Bend (2 hours after food). Dinner Eat a load of light steamed vegetables: kale, zucchini, green beans, asparagus with 1 tbs flax seed oil + + 4oz of wild salmon, chicken, turkey or you can throw a butternut squash in the oven for 45min + 1 half a cup of quinoa. Drink Raspberry Leaf tea and water. Have a good night's sleep knowing that your body is purified, stay clear of caffeine, sugars, and wheat and be compassionate with yourself.

21 Day Cleanse

Week 1

Clear the slate this week with super good for you and super delicious food!! It may be time to invest in a food juicer; you can borrow mine for now (or use a blender). from WholeLiving.com

Breakfast Grapefruit and Carrot Juice Beet and Apple Juice Green Machine Smoothie Green Juice! Lunch Spiced Butternut Squash Soup Kale Salad with Red Gabbage and Carrot Sweet Potato, Celery, and Apple Salad Avocado with Bell Peppers and Tomatoes Dinner Broccoli and Squash with Tahini Sauce Roasted Garlic Beet Soup Roasted Peppers, Cauliflowers, and Almonds Snacks! use for all 3 weeks Kale Chips! + more

Week 2

Your body will feel light and renewed; bring more enjoyment in!

Breakfast Vegetable Soup with Chickpeas and Miso Baked Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Nuts and Orange Lunch Watercress with Anchovies (I love them!), Tarragon, and Clementines Kale Salad with Pomegranate and Toasted Walnuts Red Lentil Soup  Dinner Roasted Vegetables with Cannellini BeansSalmon with Bok Choy and Avocado Salsa

Week 3

You've made it this far, your awesome! Keep the momentum going this week.

Breakfast Toasted Coconut Muesli Salmon with Herbs and Lemon for Breakfast! Avocado Vanilla Smoothie Lunch Chickpea-Brown Rice Veggie Burger Rice Noodles with Broccoli-Almond Pesto Kale, White Bean, Potato Stew Dinner Shiitakes and Brown Rice Quinoa with Poached Eggs, Spinach, and Cucumber Roasted Beets! Halibut with Sweet Potato Fries and Lime - Yes!

Aparigraha .. Apariwhata?

Rolf Gates, in his beautiful and practical book Meditations from the Mat, says of the yama Aparigraha (aka non-hoarding, non-covetousness, non-greed) ...

Aparigraha embodies the idea of good things to come. Once we realize that we can actually part with whatever it is we have been holding on to - the 10 year old t-shirts with sentimental value, the receipts we never turned in, the clutter of our lives - we begin to understand that we are clearing a space for something (else), better. The past is dead, and we are making room for the living. I like to think of this kind of housecleaning as analogous to the preparations an expectant couple make for their baby, transforming the office, guest room or storage space into a nursery. There is the same sense of potent expectancy as we embrace aparigraha and set out to audaciously clean house.

One of the ways I'm learning to let go is with bills. Somewhere along the way, I came to understand that the money I gave to my creditors wasn't really mind in the first place, and by paying the minimum each month was just a way to prolong and unsatisfactory relationship. The yamas are simply a means to reclaim our own energy. Oftentimes when we believe that we've been holding on to something we need, we find that the reverse is actually true. The real loss is the the emptiness, the soul sickness, that we feel around any form of fear disguised as greed or hoarding. The symbols of our fear block us from the light of our own spirit. As we step away from these symbols, the phantoms, a wind catches our sails. Lighter, freer, we look up and glimpse the far shore, and suddenly we are filled with the joy of absurd good news.

I have another series coming up ...

Shine Your Chakras - March 25-29 Daily 7:30-8:45am at Shine Studio. Learn more ...

Love Like Water

Here is what I read in class this morning. More from Mark Nepo's The Book of Awakening.

Only love, with no thought of return, can soften the point of suffering.

Water in it's clear softness fills whatever hole it finds. It is not skeptical or distrusting. It does not say this gully is too deep or that field is too open. Like water, the miracle of love is that is covers whatever it touches, making the touched thing grow while leaving no trace of its touch. True, the faces of shores and the arms of cliffs are worn to bone. But this is beyond the water's doing. This is the progress of life, of which water is but an element.

Most things break instead of transform because they resist. The quiet miracle of love is that without our interference, it, like water, accepts whatever is tossed or dropped or placed into it, embracing it completely.

Of course, we are human are easily hurt if not loved back or if love poorly. But we waste so much of life's energy by deliberating who and what shall be worthy or our love when in the deepest sense, these choices are not in our province, anymore that rain can choose what it shall fall upon.

Certainly, we need to make decisions: Who will I spend time with? Who will I learn from? Who will I live with? Who will I marry?  But beneath all that, the element of love doesn't stop being elemental. It does not stop covering everything before it. And over a lifetime, the pain of withholding this great and quiet force is more damaging that the path of being rejected or loved poorly. For love, like water, can be dammed, but toward what end?

In truth, the more we let love flow through, the more we have to love. This is the inner glow that sages and saints of all ages seems to share: the wash of their love over everything before them, not just people, but birds and rocks and flowers and air.

Beneath the many choices we have to make, love, like water, flows back into the world through us. It is the one great secret available to all. Yet somewhere the misperception has been enshrined that to withhold love will stop hurt. In truth, is it the other way around. As water soaks scars, love soothes our wounds. If opened to, love will accept the angrily thrown stone, and our small tears will lose some of their burn in the great ocean of tears, and the arrow released to the bottom of the river will lose it's point.

The Way Things Are

A reading from class by Mark Nepo from The Book of Awakening

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao-Tzu

Beyond what we need to survive, to better ourselves has become to mean having as much as one can store. and as such has turned into an addiction in our modern world. Such a want to have things comes from a sense of scarcity, and anxiety that something is missing, which owning will somehow soothe.

But to better ourselves inwardly is another matter. The closer to the heart we take this, the more we find ourselves trying to inhabit what we have carried since the beginning. This want comes from a sense of abundance, a yearning to unlock the mystery of what is already there.

• Feel the reality of your life right now.
• Let the breath take you, for the moment, beneath your dreams of betterment.
• As you exhale, feel the soreness around all you want.
• As you inhale, feel the mystery at center where nothing is lacking.