Feeling Hot? Just Breathe.

A friend recently sent me an article stating that June 2010 was the hottest June on record.  Well, at least I'm not going crazy!...it really has been as hot as it's felt.  Not surprisingly, the focus of my blog and newsletter topics of late has been staying cool and feeling refreshed in this summer heat.  I've written about cooling summer foods and staying hydrated naturally, and here's one more: you can also cool down by breathing.  Yup, it's true.  Here's a breathing technique that you can use to feel cooler right now.  Keep this one in mind for easing all kinds of heat: summer heat waves (the hottest July ever?), hot flashes, or even that hot feeling that can accompany frustration.

Breathing to Stay Cool (Shitali Pranayama)

• Exhale completely.
• Before you inhale, place the tip of your tongue between your upper and lower front teeth, so that your mouth does not close completely.  Curl your tongue in a U-shape between your teeth if you're able; if not, simply place the tip between your teeth.
• Inhale deeply, feeling the cool air as it passes across your tongue, to the back of your mouth, down your throat, and beyond.  Try closing your eyes and imagining the cool air traveling throughout your body.
• Before you exhale again, pull back your tongue and close your mouth.
• Exhale completely through your nose.  The air exiting your body will be warmer, so exhaling through your nose will keep your mouth and throat feeling cool.
• Continue to breathe this way -- alternate inhaling through your mouth and exhaling through your nose -- and observe your body as you cool down.

What are your tricks and tips for staying cool?  Please share.

Have you tried the Shitali Pranayama (above)?  Let us know how you like it.


Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.  Breathe Well.

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How Will You Celebrate the Summer Solstice?

A Solstice Meditation for Transformation.

Good Morning!  Today is the Summer Solstice - the beginning of summer, the longest daylight of the year, the beginning of a season of active energy, growth, and maturation.

We are coming off of spring, which is a time of intentions and ideas, of cleansing and clearing out the clutter.  Whether you did it consciously, on paper, or simply in the back of your mind, during spring you probably found yourself with new ideas about what you want to change or bring into your life.  Now (summer) is the time to make those changes happen.

Whenever we arrive at another solstice or equinox, I try to celebrate in some way.  I come up with a special event or ritual to acknowledge and harness the power of the seasonal shift that is taking place.  This year, this morning, I decided to start the day with some outdoors, sunny meditation.  I walked down to the river behind my building (with Keeley the dog) and sat next to the river, facing the sun.  The sun was already blazing and it felt warm and powerful on my shoulders.  I took a few minutes to mentally gather the major ideas, intentions, and changes I've been contemplating throughout spring.  I sat there, feeling the sun on my shoulders and face, feeling the light breeze off the water, and silently repeated those intentions to myself several times.  Then I took five or ten minutes to seal those intentions by breathing.  What a rejuvenating, powerful, and seasonal way to start the day!

Here's the step-by-step on how to practice my 2010 Summer Solstice Transformation Meditation:

• Find a place that feels right (and Solsticey) to you -- ideally this will be someplace outdoors.  If you can't get outside, then at least find a comfortable spot where you can sit facing out a window.
• Take a moment to jot down (mentally or on paper) your intentions.  This could be as simple as one thing you have been hoping to change or do, or you may have a list of changes.  Either way is fine, but it may be easier to focus on one or two of the biggies.  For example, one of my intentions went something like this: I will let go of the old stories I tell myself that hold me back and make room for the new realities that move me forward. (Your intentions can be more specific than this, but for me this intention had specific meaning.)
• Review your intention, or your list of intentions, several times so that it fills you up. 
• Once you feel that your intention(s) is strong and clear, close your eyes (if they aren't already) and begin to breathe in and out through your nose.
• At first just observe your breathing.  Are your breaths short and quick or are they long and fluid?  Just observe this for a minute or two.
• Then, when you feel ready, intentionally deepen your breathing.  Breathe fully into your belly.  In fact, you may want to imagine that you are breathing in and out through your bellybutton, rather than through your nose.
• Once you feel that you're in a nice deep rhythm with your breathing, add these silent phrases to accompany your exhalations and inhalations.
• Exhale.  Say silently to yourself, "Let go of the old" (habits, patterns, behaviors, stories).
• Inhale.  And say silently to yourself, "...to make room for the new" (habits, reality).
• As you sit and breathe your intentions, feel the warmth and power of the sun on your face, on your skin.  You may want to visualize harnessing that warmth to power your transformation.
• Repeat this guided breathing for a few minutes, or for as long as you like.

Let us know how this meditation felt for you. 

Or, do you have your own Summer Solstice ritual that you can share with us?  Please do.

I hope you enjoy this Summer Solstice Meditation.  And I wish you a happy and powerful summer of action, transformation, and fruition.

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.  Be the Change.

Tea for Daytime and Nighttime Relaxation

If I haven't already hinted at it in previous posts, I LOVE tea!  I love everything about it... filling my beautiful, orange Le Creuset tea kettle with clean, filtered water, choosing a special tea cup or mug, the anticipation of comfort while the tea is steeping, holding a warm cup in my hands, the aroma, the tastes, and the way I can use different herbs and different blends to achieve a desired result (calm, energy, clarity, headache relief, soothed stomach, and sleep).  Yes, preparing and enjoying tea, whether alone or with a friend, is such a simple luxury!

"Suppose you are drinking a cup of tea. When you hold your cup, you may like to breathe in, to bring your mind back to your body, and you become fully present. And when you are truly there, something else is also there -- life, represented by the cup of tea. In that moment you are real, and the cup of tea is real. You are not lost in the past, in the future, in your projects, in your worries. You are free from all of these afflictions. And in that state of being free, you enjoy your tea. That is the moment of happiness, and of peace."
~Thich Nhat Hanh

See there?  Do you see what just happened?  All I intended to do was fire off a quick post about one of my favorite packaged teas and it turned into a love letter to herbs and a plug for the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh.  Well, my good friends are surely not surprised by that. 

Clearly I will be returning to the topic of herbs, teas, and tisanes.  For now, though, I want to recommend one lovely tea in particular: Nighty Night Tea, produced by Traditional Medicinals.  When I can't blend my own relaxation/sleepytime tea (my "Relaxi-Tea") for whatever reason, I turn to TM's Organic Nighty Night tea.  Traditional Medicinals is a wonderful company and their ingredients are Organic and Fair Trade Certified.  The Nighty Night tea is marketed for nighttime relaxation and I have found it very useful for helping me get relaxed and sleepy in the evenings (on really tough, wired nights, I've taken 2 cups).  But you can also drink this tea in the morning or during the day if you're feeling anxious, on edge, or overcaffeinated (you know when you go 1 cup of coffee too far?).  This tea is safe and caffeine-free, but teas with a heavy chamomile component are generally not recommended for women who are pregnant or nursing, so use your best judgement there.  Also be warned that I have recommended this tea to friends in the past and they were instantly hooked!

If you want to try out Nighty Night tea and can't find it at your local grocery or health food store, I've included a link to purchase it at Amazon.com.  If you end up going that route, check out some Thich Nhat Hanh books as well: Peace Is Every Step is a great place to start.  Makes for some really peaceful morning or bedtime reading.

Do you have a favorite tea or relaxation ritual?

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.  Relax Well.

A Sense of Place and a Scarlet Tanager: Two Reasons I Got Up at the Crack of Dawn!

Yes, it's true...today I woke up at 4:45am.  Early for me.  Early for anyone!  Why, you ask?  This morning I headed down to Plum Island, Massachussetts, for a half day of birdwatching and picnicking on the beach with some colleagues from the University of New Hampshire. 

It was wonderful to smell the salt in the air as we approached the ocean.  We quietly piled out of our cars and began to test our memories -- which olivey-yellow warbler has the white eye ring? (yep, the Nashville Warbler)  We walked down the road and through the woods for hours, looking for new birds to identify and admire, and enjoying the beautiful, warm and breezy morning outside.  Lately I have been making a renewed effort to practice mindfulness meditation throughout my days, and I thoroughly enjoyed being present and mindful of every aspect of our walk: all of the gorgeous birds (including one of my favorites seen here, the Scarlet Tanager), the way the sun warmed my hair, the way the trail felt under my feet, and walking barefoot on the beach during lunch.

I personally love the ocean, especially up North.  I have always felt soothed and grounded when I smell the salty air, watch the constant flow of waves hitting the shore, or feel the ocean breeze.  Northern coastal areas are where I truly feel a sense of place.  I was purely happy being there today, and that feeling stayed with me all day, even once I found myself back in my office at the university.  And I never got that tired feeling in the afternoon!

So why am I sharing all of this with you?  To illustrate the point that good health depends not only on the food that we put into our bodies, but also on the other things in our lives that nourish us -- our environment, hobbies, relationships, physical activity, career/education, and spirituality.  In fact, my teachers at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition have asserted that these other lifestyle factors ('Primary Foods') can be even more important to our overall health than the foods we eat ('Secondary Foods').  I will return to the topic of Primary Foods in many future blog posts.  For now, I urge you to take a moment and reflect on the ways, other than eating your veggies, that you nourish yourself.

• Where do you find a sense of place?
• How do you practice self care?
• Are your relationships serving you well?  If so, give gratitude.  If not, how can you change this?
• What is the role of physical activity in your life?
• Do you love the work that you do?  If so, give gratitude.  If not, can you find new work that you love or can you find a way to love the work that you currently do?
• What is the role of spirituality (meditation, nature, religion) in your life?

 Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.

A Belated (Borrowed) Beltane Meditation.

I subscribe to an e-newsletter, called Nourishing the Teacher, about living on a yogic path. On Sunday, I received the latest newsletter with a story written by Anjali Budreski and Danny Arguetty. I really enjoyed reading their thoughts and wanted to share them with you. I feel that the best way to share them is simply to offer you their full story, rather than my interpretation of it. Here it is. Enjoy…

"And the day came, when the risk to remain tight in the bud, was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
-Anaiis Nin

may.2010.the choice to blossom

May 1, May Day, or Beltane as it is called in the British Isles, is a sacred cross-quarter holiday that marks the time between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It is the time of the blossoming. Beltane is a celebration of the return of the light and green plants, abundance, blossoms, the first flowers, fertility, frivolity and sensuality. It is also a time to celebrate the return of the Sun God, Bel, signified by large bonfires lit on the hillsides in Ireland.

At this sacred holiday we each have the opportunity to reflect on what is ripe to blossom and unfurl in the rich, warm soil of our souls. We can choose to stay tight in the bud, or we can choose to bravely begin exploring, pushing and opening toward the warm light of spring. The choice is really ours so there is no judgment around our own ability to blossom. It is important to recognize that most of us, all the time, are in various stages of blossoming, just like the spring ephemerals in the forest. This compassionate approach to opening is how we might approach a delicate new wildflower in the woods. Patiently we wait, through days of sun and cold, only to go out one day and see that our favorite flower is in full bloom. We offer gratitude and appreciation, but we could not have forced this unfolding. There is a mystery to divine timing, and we can only assist things through self-inquiry, patience, and faith in others and ourselves.

The time of the bud holds such beauty and promise, but at some point, the bud needs an inner impulse to reveal more of what is inside. The other day, as I was hiking up my favorite mountain path, I felt deeply awed and touched by each flower's willingness to open, despite the fact that it had been a really cold night the night before and that a late spring snowstorm was in the forecast (not uncommon in Vermont). I feel this same awe and appreciation when someone I love demonstrates courage and takes the risk to reveal more of their authentic selves. This might come in the form of sharing their truth, even if it’s painful, a change of life’s direction even at the risk of other’s not understanding, or showing a part of themselves that is wanting to be seen and to ‘come out’ into the light of day like a new hobby, passion or pursuit. What the flowers taught me, and as Anaiis Nin points out, is that there is inherent risk in the blossoming. The flower can’t go back into the bud once it has opened. It is undefended and unprotected, yet for that short time that it is blooming, it offers as a gift its outrageous beauty, sweetness, and intoxication. Invite the blossoms of spring to inspire you to open up to more of who you are. And, if you are anything like me and the courageous little flowers, you might just find that it’s worth the risk.

Joy!

Anjali Budreski (& Danny)

How will you choose to blossom this spring?  What, for you, is worth the risk?

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.  Be Authentic.