Monthly Archives: March 2014

Why Yoga?

Laura Mary • March 26, 2014

Purpose

The purpose of stepping onto your yoga mat is to feel good. Yes, there is also the mind-body challenge, but ultimately the hope is that when you roll up your mat after practice – you feel better. It’s really that simple.

Hope

The hope is to leave your mat feeling better, lighter, and happier. Your practice puts those heavy problems in your life into perspective because for 75 minutes of your day (or however long your practice might be), you can’t think of them; you are focused on much more important things like how to balance on one foot or float from down dog to crow. You know you can get through whatever it is you are going through because you just held a handstand for 60-bleeping-seconds.

How often is it possible to completely clear your head of the frenzy of thoughts, to-do-lists, and worries that generally take over your mind? Well, if you are breathing deeply, in the moment, in a handstand, I assure you – your to-do-list will be waiting for you when you are done.

This is why, initially, the postures are so important. You learn the alignment and postures, so that you can arrive to the place where thoughts and worries are no longer holding center stage. Only after the postures are learned and this space and freedom in the mind is felt can you find the space, calm, and focus to surrender in savasana or find a seated mediation.

In essence, your yoga makes you feel strong, whole, beautiful, and full of love, from the inside out. Starting from wherever you are today, you know that in one week’s time, however small the progress might be that it is there. Breath by breath, posture by posture, you are healing, growing, and nurturing your entire body, mind, and soul.

All at once, you face head on your toughest critic and your biggest advocate. And as the weeks pass, you really do begin to feel lighter. You walk with a little more pep in your step. You stand a little taller. You begin to see more love around you and feel even more love within you. Your practice transforms your life. Your practice becomes more about nurturing your trust in love, kindness, and acceptance. Your practice builds trust from within. And as months pass, you begin to realize, to know, from the bottom of your heart, that you yourself are a gift. No one else in this world is exactly like you, and for this reason alone - find a smile and run with it.

Enjoy your next practice, because you can!

With Love,

“So become more and more loving, and you will become more and more joyful. And don’t be bothered about whether your love is returned or not; that is not the point at all. Joy follows love automatically, whether it is returned or not, whether the other is responsive or not. If you are loving, you are joyful, and that is more than enough, more than one can expect. That is the beauty of love – that its result is intrinsic, its value is intrinsic. It does not depend on the response of the other. It is totally yours.” -Osho

Reflection

Day after day, flowers share their beauty with the world. They blossom full of grace and love, regardless of whether or not we stop to admire their perfection. Their scent smells just as sweet, even if their presence is taken for granted.

Trees continue to do their thing even if we forget to bow down in gratitude for the oxygen they provide (because we all bow down, right?), and stars shine bright even if we fail to gawk at them.

Similarly, we share this unlimited capacity to love. The good news is that you can love just like a flower. Your love is not dependent on the admiration of others. Yoga invites the practice of opening your heart completely, celebrating, and living joyfully, without expectation or reciprocity from others. The experience of love, of joy, is yours and yours alone. So why hold back?

There is no such thing as offering too much. Writing this even makes me smile, today make a point of not holding back in this department. Share smiles with strangers, tell your family, your friends, your boyfriend/girlfriend how you feel about them. Offer up lots and lots and lots of love, start NOW! 🙂

My Life These Days

Pretty flowers in unexpected places...

My <3...

<3 is all around you...

Just <3...

With Love,

Recipe: Rainy Sunday Tofu Scramble!

Step One: Wash all of your farmer's market veggies. And if you have an awesome "farmer" boyfriend who grows rosemary, tomatoes, and bell peppers, wash those too!

Step Two: Slice baby portabella mushrooms in half.

Step Three: Add one tablespoon of extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil to your pan.

Step Four: Chop your zucchini and broccoli and add vegetables to your large pan.

Step Five: Add the spices 🙂

...and your organic kale!

...add your tomatoes and rosemary last!

Step Six: I cooked the tofu in a separate pan with coconut oil, only because I have no pan large enough to fit the veggies and tofu. Make sure you add plenty of turmeric (color and taste) and course pink himalayan salt!!

Step Seven: Bon Appétit! I add nutritional yeast to everything, sprinkle some on top to taste!

Enjoy! If there is anything you would like me to write about related to food, yoga, or life, please let me know!

Now, let me tell you a bit about me.

I have been wanting to get a blog started for years. Mainly because I feel I have something to share, but the timing has never quite been right. I feel now, more than ever, that I not only have the time to maintain a blog, but the ideas, and a beautiful setting, Hawaii.

When it is raining in Honolulu, no one really knows what to do. If you are anything like me, your free time is typically spent outdoors, either hiking mountains, swimming in the ocean, spending time at the beach or yoga-ing in the park; however, many people choose to stay inside, watch movies, and veg out in this "guilt-free" manner because the sun isn't shining. On Saturday, I chose to visit the KCC Farmer's Market, make a scrumptious breakfast, do laundry, practice yoga, and spend time with Derek. And most importantly, I chose to take these photos of my tofu scramble ingredients, so that I could share this post with all of you lovely people.

I adopted (I cannot even believe that is the term) a vegan diet in 2008, at the end of my junior year of college. It was not easy, but it just felt right for me. At the time, I was learning about how to eat a well-balanced diet and still maintain enough quality nutrition to play soccer and lacrosse; there sure was a learning curve. While vegan cookies and muffins are certainly delicious, let me tell you, if you are an athlete, you need to eat way more than these sugary-salty treats to stay healthy. Thankfully, there was a wonderful shop in Saratoga Springs (Four Seasons Natural Foods) where I was able to eat healthy vegan meals almost daily. Also, it helped that I went to a hippy-dippy liberal arts school in upstate New York where an entire section of the d-hall (Emily’s Garden) was stocked with plenty of vegan options. Six years later, I can say that I have finally figured out how to eat and feel great as a “vegan”.

Which brings me to my next point, I despise the term “vegan”. I really dislike that we have to label everything in our society, particularly because there is a stigma attached to being “vegan”. Please allow me to clear the air and say, that I do not and will not judge you for eating what you eat. I eat a vegan diet, because it is the food I want and crave. By ALL means, continue to eat what makes you feel happy and healthy. However, I plan to share lots of yummy vegan recipes on this site, which I hope appeal to both meat eaters and non-meat eaters.

In addition to my hippy diet, I am a lover of yoga. I love yoga for the mind-body benefits. Eckhart Tolle said it best ”Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.” Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness play a huge role in my life. My blog will share bits and pieces of my thoughts on life and yoga. I plan to write the blog, as somewhat of a stream of consciousness, where the ideas, the flow, and the content will be similar to what I write in my journal.

I wear another hat, as a researcher at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. Science plays an important and necessary role in our society and in my life; I will try my best to incorporate scientific research findings into my blog posts, though many of my thoughts on life, love, and happiness are not found in published research papers. My thoughts are felt, observed, experienced, and perceived truths that I hold.

Without further ado, here we go! Now, go get your tofu scramble eat on... 🙂

With Love,