Breakfast

I like sleep because it is like a time machine to breakfast. - unknown

Breakfast is a great way to start your daily adventure.  

 Many of us are pressed for time in the morning. Yet, a wholesome high protein, high fiber, animal free breakfast is quick and easy!

My favorite brain boosting breakfasts.........

• Non-dairy yogurt, granola with nuts, blueberries *
• Sprouted toasted bread with almond butter, preserves, banana slices
• Smoothie with soy milk, vegan protein powder, frozen fruit *

* Add a tablespoon of flax seed oil for omega 3 fatty acids to rebuild brain cells. The best ever is made by Barlean’s, specifically, Essential Woman chocolate mint (both chocolate and mint activate the brain).

Use only ingredients that are organically grown for the highest nutrient content, finest taste, and to promote environmentally responsible farming - you are so worth it!

Sleep Well

         Eat Well

                 Be Well

The building blocks that form the foundation of your great and successful future, are the actions you take today. - Topsy Gift


The term foundation may be defined as the infrastructure, substructure, understructure, and support. Literally the pelvic floor muscles are foundational for our  voluntary elimination process.  You may have heard of kegal exercises. They are mentioned in childbirth classes and suggested by Occupational Therapists for urinary stress incontinence or ordered by physicians to male patients who had prostate surgery or female patients after childbirth. Actually, everyone  needs strong pelvic floor muscles, they are imperative in the prevention of urinary and bowel incontinence in aging (weakened musculature is common).

You know WHY and now HOW

To locate theses muscles  - squeeze and stop the flow of urine  (that’s half of them) and tighten your anal muscles (to stop the expulsion of gas at inopportune moments). 

Easy. 

Once you know where these muscles are - tighten both areas together and hold for 5-10 seconds - relax - and repeat at least 30 times.  Taking action today will prevent embarrassing moments tomorrow!

Water is the driving force of all nature. - Leonardo da Vinci

By definition water is a clear, colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid (H2O) - REALLY?!? 

Water - wonderful life-giving wetness – makes an arid land lush and cleans our perfect bodies.

Yet water sometimes devastates with tsunami strength. 

In mythology, water frequently represents the subconscious.  The meditative music of “Liquid Mind” is like a musical bath that  conveys me to a place 

of peaceful exploration.

Bodies of water draw us into themselves. Diving, swimming (or splashing), surfing, water skiing, all manner of boats beckon us into and around the unsurpassable clear, colorless, tasteless thing we call water!

Cherries

Life is just a bowl of cherries. – Traditional proverb

     Summer is cherry season, another reason to love summer. The sweet redness of fresh cherries is unmatched by any other fruit. Even the eating experience is an exercise in awareness – notice how your tongue finds the pit and pushes it to your lips, and then juice stains your fingers as you reach to your lips to retrieve it – the ultimate fun food! You cannot absentmindedly munch these scarlet treasures, you may choke and croak.

     A serving size of fresh cherries (1 cup) provides 3 grams of fiber, 1 gram of protein, and 22 grams of carbohydrates (energy fuel). Cherries have been implicated for their positive health benefits relating to the brain, heart, and sound sleep. (If you are like me, you are asking how). Cherries are a source of melatonin which helps regulate our sleep cycle and protect brain cells from age-related damage. The red pigments in cherries have been found to decrease inflammation and inhibit plaque formation, both attributes that keep our hearts healthier.   

     Why is life a bowl of cherries? Life is seasonal. Life is colorful and leaves its stains on us as we journey through. Life is sweet but has pits and stems in the mix. Life should be lived with intention, not inattentively walking without minding the details. Then there’s the bowl – community – we do better together. 

Get yourself a bowl, fill it with organic cherries, invite a friend and take a walk under the open skies and relish the fact that you are alive.

All paths end

When another walker leaves this earthly path it is as if the sun withdraws its guiding light. When our path darkens our pace naturally slows and our head bows forward painstakingly choosing our steps into uncharted darkness. We stumble on with swollen eyes and cheeks dampened with tears – feeling lost -even though the path itself has not changed. 

As our eyes adjust to the darkness, our heads rise to gaze into the night sky, that providing more secure footing. The constellation Capricornus illuminates such darkened paths with promise – according to Greek and Roman legends, it is the gateway to the Gods, through which souls pass to life eternal.  Although our individual path may be unchanged – we are changed forever by those who walked with us.

Dandelions

“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun” – H.B. Stowe

Dandelions are vibrant, hardy, soft, and whimsical – a perennial, herbaceous plant that shares its brilliant yellow color, nutritious green leaves, and healing roots with us. 

Dandelions grow all over the world, like a tangible uniting sunshine. 

Although it has many attributes, my favorite stage of the dandelion life cycle when the flower changes into its white globular seed head – 

who of us has not made a wish and blown the tiny parachute seeds into the future?

 – this is childhood innocence at its best. 

Enjoy each dandelion that lines your path, allowing memories of carefree times carry you, as a seed in the breeze, toward your dreams.

Red Bud and Wisteria

All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.
George Santayana

The Red Bud tree is the designated state tree in Oklahoma. Having lived in the Tulsa area for twenty-six years, each Spring the reddish-pink blossoms of the small deciduous tree prompts a cascade of memories from my time as a stay-at-home mom to my four children. It was a time in my life when I focused on providing a foundation for healthy living for my little family and little else mattered to me.

Now, in another stage of life and another geographical state - I remember the Red Bud as I embrace the Longleaf Pine. Yet it was the wisteria that welcomed me to my changed role. As I was walking along Jones Ferry Road, to a class at Carrboro Yoga, I was greeted by wonderfully fragrant air – looking to my right I spied the source of such an aromatic gift - cascading purple flowers, which I discovered to be wisteria. The encounter  instantly brought a smile to my face while simultaneously easing the tightness that had settled in my body from my admittedly frequent worries characteristic of a move away from the familiar to the unfamiliar. 

One of my treasure books, Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The Hidden Language of Flowers   by Peter Loewer confirmed my own feelings about Wisteria; the flowers send a message of welcome and stability.  The purple-lavender color is one of grace and beauty, respect, and admiration; it is no wonder just walking by and stopping to inhale the aroma of the wisteria propelled me on my path as a happier traveler … forever going toward a healthier body, mind, and soul.