The Living Yoga Newsletter 15

In this edition you will find:
Events & Announcements
Hot Raw Deals for Local Folks
Making Peace with Fruit Flies
Refreshing Summer Smoothies
My Fasting Story Part VI:  Returning to "normal" life

This month heralds the beginning of summer in earnest, and
it sure does feel earnest with the recent heat waves!  It's
not too late to plant some tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet
peppers, melons, greens, or other favorites, so you'll get
to enjoy the taste and feel of homegrown raw foods later in
the season.  My strawberry patches are just beginning to
burst into full red juiciness, and they always taste so
much better than any from the store!

A new session of my Level I eight week health course is
just getting underway, and will repeat in the fall.  Level
II will begin later this summer. Father's Day is our June
potluck, and the following week I'll be at Arbor Farms
Market demonstrating some simple summer raw pasta
creations, then speaking out in Southgate at the
end of the month.

Events & Announcements

3rd Sunday Raw Food Potlucks - Next one on June 15th,
1 - 3 pm at 1801 Avondale Ave.  Call 995-0875 for details
or visit www.LivingYogaNow.com  under "Services".

Raw Potluck at Rising Sun Yoga Studio in Southgate, MI.
Ellen will be giving a talk on a raw food topic. Details
will follow, but save the date now:  7 pm on Thursday, June 26th.

Making Peace with Fruit Flies

Ahhh . . . . summertime: sunshine, warm breezes, abundant
fresh local fruit, and . . . FRUIT FLIES!
People have invented all sorts of traps and techniques for
controlling the fruit fly population in your kitchen.  I
have tried most of these, with minimal results.  The thing
is, even though the traps may indeed catch an impressive
number of flies, they do nothing to address the cause of
the fly population, so you're really no better off in the
end.  And why resort to killing the flies when there's a
much better, kinder solution?

What you need to do is remove the cause, which in the case
of fruit flies is decaying fruit.   Make a daily (at least)
practice of inspecting your fruit stores, and rotating any
soft fruits.  When you find a fruit with any bruising or
other damage, immediately remove it, wipe up any mess, and
either eat (or discard) the damaged piece, or refrigerate
or freeze it for later consumption.

If fruit stored in a box is swarming with fruit flies, you
can quickly throw a towel over it, carry it right outside,
lift the towel and shoo the flies off.  Open kitchen
screens and shoo as many flies as you can to the outside.
Close the screens, and bring only undamaged fruit back
inside.

Hot Raw Deals for Local Folks

The NEW High Energy Diet Recipe Guide
is now available through Living Yoga!
This is Doug Graham's best recipe book,
boasting "Over 100 Scrumptious Recipes
Made Entirely From Whole, Fresh, Ripe,
Raw Foods!"

"Got fruit? Got vegetables? Got all we need."

My plane lands at Detroit Metro Airport in the middle of
the night, in a snowstorm. Goodbye to warm, sunny Costa
Rica! It is 2 am when my luggage finally makes it to
Baggage Claim (the cargo truck crashed in the storm!), and
3 am when my parents arrive to pick me up (they were caught
behind a snowy highway accident!).  I feel like I'm caught
in a time-warp, sitting in a virtually empty airport
baggage claim at 3 am, adjusting to the shock of freezing
air and falling snow, and also feeling overstimulated,
sensitive, and ravenously hungry.

But I am also decidedly at peace:  having connected during
my fasting retreat with what truly matters, and with what
I'm truly made of, I am just gliding through this current
travel chaos, observing but not getting caught up in the
potential stress of it all.  I am actually amused by the
outraged reactions of some of the other passengers.

Wisely, I create lots of extra space in my first week at
home, keeping my commitments to a minimum and just focusing
on my children and myself.  The kids are surprised by my
thinness, but so lovingly supportive of my journey.  We
tell stories to each other all week, catching up on six
weeks of separation.  So the first week home goes well, and
I hold the world at arm's length and rest a little longer.

By the second week, however, the challenges mount, as the
"real" world starts pressing in.  I begin to feel
overwhelmed, but I make a point of reconnecting often with
the strong center calm I basked in during my fasting days.
This helps - a lot.  I am more keenly aware than ever of
how unnatural all our modern stresses have become, and how
dramatically this stress can compromise health.  I
strengthen my resolve to maintain the courage required to
create a healthy lifestyle, despite the pervasive pressure
to live as others do, in a mostly harried and disconnected
way.

My back continues to feel great, but it is a few more weeks
before my weight and strength begin to return in earnest.
These are the toughest weeks.  My body, heart, and soul cry
out for more rest, and more stillness, deeper healing, but
the world seems to demand something else. I must find ways
to cope with the incongruency. Financial worries loom, as I
must almost start over with many aspects of my business
after letting so many things drop for two months.  It is a
great lesson in TRUST.  I know what I must do, and I just
keep doing it, hoping that the Universe will respond and
that we will be provided for.

I keep my dreams of a more nature-based, nature-paced life
in full color out in front as I step up to the plate in my
current reality, and step back into my roles as mom, head
of household, and small business owner.  I just know it is
possible to weave all this together and create the life of
our dreams.  But oh boy does it ever take courage and
commitment!  Health comes from healthful living, and our
society does not truly encourage this, so we must dare to
be truly different if we are to create health.

I am more determined than ever to stay in my awareness of
the critical importance of honoring my natural human need
for the requisites of health: rest, sunshine, play, natural
foods, clean air, love, laughter, meaningful work, leisure
time, etc.  I am simply not willing to succumb to society's
pressure to conform to the prevalent model.

Unfortunately, it takes a few painful flare-ups of my still
sensitive esophageal tissues to keep me in line with my
healthy intentions.  The stress of catapulting back
suddenly into my world of so much work and responsibility
proves too much for my vulnerable system, and so I
experience some "set-backs".  Fortunately, each incident is
quite mild in comparison to what would happen before my
fast, but I do see the need to heed the warnings
immediately.  So these "set-backs" actually propel me
forward, and I firm up my resolve to honor my need to slow
down my pace of life.

Soon the spat of flare-ups dies down, and I begin to come
into a fuller awareness of my health gains from the fast.
I keep working my sore, atrophied muscles, and they respond
with new growth. I keep steadily offering my gifts and
services to my community, and the Universe responds and
provides for our financial needs.  I keep my mind and heart
focused on what I truly want, and my actions become more
and more congruent with my values and beliefs.

I have been home for four full months now, and the last
three have been flare-up free.  This is a real victory for
me!  I have successfully navigated the transition, and
every day I am making bigger and surer strides into the
healthy life I envision.  I am more gentle with myself, and
more gentle with others. I know who I am and why I'm here,
at least in the sense that fuels my daily actions with
liberating consciousness.  It seems that upon my landing
back at home after my fast, I had to wage one more familiar
battle with society's "demands" before I could bust through
to a new level of trust, assurance, and success - on my
terms.

 To your radiant health and energy, 

 

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