Beauty, Wellness, Recipes, Food
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I love Kasia. She is the woman who has shaped my teaching more than any other. One of her first lessons was fully inhabiting joy. She didn’t teach it, but I saw it in her. Good news she would yell in joy, raise her arms, and smile the most sincere, childlike expression of joy. Good news via text - she answered me like she was girl tween. I began to experiment - pleasure research as I call it - with joy.  As an emotion it moves up and out. It makes our chest big and full. Our arms and legs want to move, dance, jump. We get the urge to shout out.
What happens to us as adults? How did joy get reduced to a high five, to a happy contained smile? How did it become a simple thumbs up? What stops us? Do we think it’s not “grown up” to be truly joyful? Do we fear being laughed at or that something bad will follow? We stop up our joy. Robbing ourselves of joy, we rob ourselves of fully feeling alive, celebrating the triumphs - we miss fully feeling every ounce of the moment. Do some pleasure research with me? Next time you see a happy, joyful kid - study them. See what joy looks and feels like without “adulting” it. THEN, do the same thing next time something great happens! Just try it once. I guarantee you will feel soooooooooo good!! When you are in the good feeling - it will delete the negative, it youthens you, and you feel the rush of life which makes this crazy world so worth it. Love, Julia xo P.S. To get you in the mood, use this free meditation to pump up your joy!  watermelon, cucumber, & feta salad
Dice equal amounts of cucumber and watermelon. Mix together with crumbled feta to taste.Voila - an awesome summer treat! easy gazpacho Finely dice ripe tomato, cucumber, bell peppers, a clove of garlic, and chives. Mix everything together including the juices from the vegetables with salt and a generous portion of olive oil. Allow to macerate for several hours. Chill and enjoy.  Can meditation help when you're facing a challenge like cancer?
I have a dear friend undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Alternative cancer treatments have been my obsession lately to help support conventional treatments and make them less painful. Mindfulness meditation, the practice of focusing on the present moment, has helped cancer patients experience less pain, more calm, and increased happiness according to a 2011 study. Mindfulness also helps the body to heal by helping cancer patients sleep better and feel less stress. By concentrating on compassion and the present moment, meditation is an alternative to the anxiety and worry many people experience. Through mindfulness, we become more aware of our thoughts and emotions. This allows us to create more space so we can choose to enjoy the present moment and not race towards future what ifs. We can choose more healing thoughts and appreciate what is - positive mindset has been documented over and over as a non-medical key to healing. Experiencing a health challenge? Try developing a meditation practice. My Learn to Meditate course offers instruction in mindfulness and using meditation to promote calm and relaxation. Also, experience our mindfulness and compassion meditations as well as singing bowl meditation to help you cope with the stress of illness. I wish all health and healing. Love, Julia xo Recently, I've been feeling heavy. It is from all the end of school activities, not eating right by eating on the run, and everyday going until I hit that wall which short circuits my brain and drives me to bed. After my son's middle school graduation, I was talking with a group of moms feeling the exact same way.  So, how to feel light now that summer is here?
1. Schedule in time to do nothing. Create a buffer that allows you to partake in unexpected pleasures like having a latte outdoors with a friend, sitting at the pool with your kids, or reading a magazine. I am putting daily time at our pond club in the late afternoon. 2. Eat more raw foods. Going to the farmers' market inspires good, light summer salads with fruit and raw vegetables which fill you up and are satisfying without making you lethargic in the summer heat. 3. Take life outside. Being outdoors reminds us the world is large and limitless. It inspires and calms. Eat outside, Camp in the backyard with the kids. Swim. Hike. Garden. Bike. Let me know what you think! Love, Julia xo 1. Fill half your plate at every meal with vegetables and berries.Powerful antioxidants and synergistic nutrition found in berries and vegetables heal your body by fueling the mitochondria. Strong mitochondria equals strong cells which equals recovery.  2. Take a Coenzyme Q10 supplement daily. It increases energy production in the mitochondria giving you and your body more energy for less fatigue and more healing.
3. Provide your body with high quality protein daily. Protein is necessary for the repair which has to be done throughout the body to curb the symptoms of autoimmunity. Tell me how it these changes impact you. Love, Julia xo |
Words to Live ByI am not a heroine, but I have chosen the person I want to be. Categories
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