Yes my friends, the Grand Dame of ALL endorses the humble neti pot. It seems like the neti pot is having 15 minutes of new found fame with Oprah singing its praises.
For yogis and practitioners of Ayurveda, the neti pot has been an all-around life saver for those who suffer from sinus troubles, colds, and any upper respiratory issues. For those who haven’t tried it, I know the neti pot seems a bit funky – salt water in a little tea tea pot like vessel that you put up one nose, tilt your head and it comes out the other nostril. Believe me, I know!! But once you’ve tried it, AND if you suffer in the cold months from dry over heated quarters then extreme cold out of doors, you will be surprised. I also found that it helped my dry eyes after Lasix surgery. To purchase a neti pot and get great instructions on how to use, go to the Himalayan Institute’s website.
Also, if you purchase from the Himalayan Institute, a percentage of your purchase goes to their humanitarian efforts worldwide. So just try it – hey, Oprah endorses it!
Aside from the changing weather, I can always tell when cold and flu season is approaching. I’m usually down 2-3 players in my fantasy football league due to injuries and people on the street start coughing and sneezing.
With Adrian Peterson’s and Larry Jonson’s injuries and the coughing/sneezing crowds on the streets of NYC, it’s officially the beginning of the cold and flu season. Like most people, I hate being sick.
This week I want to highlight Gary Null’s entire Seven Steps to Total Health series because it help you avoid a cold and the flu! Step 5 stands out the most, with the grocery shopping segment:
HealthyLife.net is an online health/wellness radio station. They have all sorts for programs including: Way of the Dreamer, Spiritual Awakening and Linda Mackenzie’s Creative Health and Spirit Show, which recently featured beYOU.tv!
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There was a time when I did all my meals in a wok. At that point in my life, it went like this: one pan, throw a lot in it, combining cheap fixings of broccoli and chicken, copious amounts of brown rice and you were living large. But now with my yogic lifestyle, which includes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which utilizes acupuncture and herbs, and my following of an Ayurvedic lifestyle as well, I decided to reinvestigate the healing aspects of Chinese cooking. Of course, my wok days were not really Chinese cooking at all. I found this site: http://www.dhyansanjivani.org/chinese_food.asp that breaks down the role of food in traditional Chinese culture entitled Chinese Food Therapy. Like in Ayurveda, knowing your body’s constitution and the nature of the food in order to eat optimally is what it’s all about. Eating well in Chinese culture is their nirvana. Also eating seasonally is key in Chinese cuisine. And the deeper I dug in my research of Chinese Food Therapy, the more it linked it back to TCM.
There is the yin and yang of Chinese cooking that reinforces balance: balance in color, flavors, and textures. And the yin yang theory extends beyond balance to food properties: some foods are yin – having cooling properties, while others have warm, yang properties. The challenge is to consume a diet that contains a healthy balance between the two. Bottom line, we are what we eat and anyway we can achieve balance through food plus exercise is truly beautiful.
No not that bottle! I’m sure after my last post on organic wines you might think that’s the bottle I’m referring to (alas – all in moderation), but I’m talking about aromatherapy and essential oils. I promised I’d keep passing on to you stress reducing tips and ways to stay balanced in our ever changing, hectic lives. Using essential oils is a vital part of my every day holistic health. I pretty much grab some form of essential oil when I’m not quite feeling myself. My must-have, favorite oils are lavender, tea tree, geranium, eucalyptus, and sandalwood. These 5 are always in the house and travel with me as well. Lavender is just a great overall soother: soothes headaches, frayed nerves, even nausea. It’s also oil you can use “neat” meaning straight – it doesn’t have to be diluted with carrier oil. Tea tree is THE antibacterial oil. This oil is great on cuts, ingrown hairs, and athlete’s foot. Tea tree is also really inexpensive. Geranium is one of the rare oils that’s an upper and a downer! If you’re feeling lethargic – 20-40 drops of geranium in a lukewarm bath will perk you up; 6-7 drops of geranium in a diffuser helps you sleep. Eucalyptus is essential in the winter months. Have sinus issues? Eucalyptus needs to be your mainstay. Steam with it. Finally, sandalwood is highly beneficial for enhancing meditation, in healing work or in your yogic practice. I found this really interesting kit: Twelve Essential Oils of the Ancient Scriptures – and sandalwood is one of them. My favorite site for essential oils is definitely Young Living Essential Oils – organic and they make amazing blends. http://www.youngliving.us/ To learn more about essential oils in general, I love Aromaweb’s site: http://www.aromaweb.com/
If you’ve got some favored essential oils you swear by, let me know.
I know I got you all thinking about an organic, artisinal, slow, kind of Thanksgiving. But now the pressure is on! Thanksgiving is just a week away and you think you have to succumb to a Butterball. You don’t. Turkeys are still available at Caveny Farm, located in Monticello, IL. These heritage turkey breeders ship Bourbon Red turkeys (considered by foodies to be the best) and American Buff geese. (Buy both and freeze the goose for Christmas.) These birds are only corn and soybean fed and allowed to graze. www.cavenyfarm.com. Another great site is Local Harvest. You can find organic farmers and farmers markets near you. http://www.localharvest.org/ And since we’re all about being YOU at beYOU.tv, I would not be ME if I didn’t give you some information on organic wines. Here you go: http://www.candidwines.com/index.html
Books have their seasons, right? Ever so often, you find a time when folks are all reading the same thing. In my wellness community, here and abroad, the two books everyone is reading, downloading and loving are Eckhart Tolle’sThe Power of Now and Elizabeth Gilbert’sEat Pray Love. These books are great for seekers of spirituality information. Everywhere I go I see these books, and a nod of recognition when you’re reading them and someone else is too. Tolle’s message of being present is nothing new. It’s a main tenant of a yogic and spiritual lifestyle. It’s ALL about being present: Ram Dass’ famous book Be Here Now; Bhagavan Das’ memoirs, It’s Here Now (Are You?) But even as a yogi, sometimes this all felt a bit too surreal, heady or too personal journey-ish for me to totally grasp. Then I read The Power of Now and it just broke it all down to a doable, actionable read. Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love is a must read too. This memoir chronicles a several year span where post divorce, the author learns how to find passion in food in Italy (eat), find true spiritual devotion and peace in meditation in India (pray), and true love that might not look like the love you thought you needed or wanted in Bali (love). To hear more about this beautiful story in the author’s own words, check out this interview on Belief.net.
I bet most of us are in the same boat. We lead stressful, busy lives, running from this appointment to the next, while trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s hard, and it takes work. And no one has all the answers for staying in balance, but last week after clocking in 6 subway trips in one day, and that day starting at 8am and going straight through until 10pm, I thought I’d share with you some things I do to keep me from losing my mind:
Meditation/Centering: find 15 minutes before you start your day to sit quietly and center yourself. If you have a mantra, use it. I keep my prayer beads by the bed as a reminder to make meditation a morning priority. If you need motivation, check out this video on our site. The chanting in this video is a nice way to ease into it.
Eating well and vitamins: sometime I’m running from class to class and miss out on eating properly. If I start my day with a high protein, low carb breakfast, I feel SO much better. Then I pop my vitamins and feel like it’s just an extra bit of insurance. I like this line of supplements, New Chapter Brand. The company is based out of Vermont and Costa Rica (what’s not to love there…) and the supplements are organic and probiotic.
My on-the-go balance maintainer/stress buster is by far, Dr. Bach’s Rescue Remedy. A few drops of this homeopathic tincture under the tongue soothes frayed nerves and keeps me in check when I’m feeling generally stressed out and overwhelmed.
I’m going to keep putting together tips for YOU as they come to me and hopefully you’ll pass on some to me, too! Stay cool and be YOU.
It’s Friday again and you know what that means - Friday Favorites! You spoke and we listened, beYOU.tv has lots of new Pilates and Tai Chi videos for you. In this Friday Favorites, I’ll highlight two of my favorite videos and give you the links to the rest. If you’re looking for more info on Pilates, check out my previous post Friday Favorites - Pilates and Yoga - What’s the Difference?
Pilates Plus takes the Pilates method for a spin. You will find many of the traditional Pilates Method techniques, but in Pilates Plus there is a strong focus on the exercise band and exercise ball. Introducing this equipment is a great way to increase resistance, which is used to tone and build muscle. Remember, for every pound of muscle you gain, your body will burn an extra 50 calories per day.
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