Belly-warming detox soup!

Autumn is officially starting to take hold in Sydney. The days are still sunny and warm but the mornings and evenings are definitely getting colder.

And these cool, dark evenings coupled with a little bit too much indulgence over easter (mmmm hot cross buns!!!!) inspired me to cook up a huge pot of belly-warming vegetable soup for the week. 

I cook this up almost every other weekend during winter. Because I work full-time plus now with teaching yoga on the side, it is so great to have my dinner sorted out - a massive batch will last me for most of the week. I just come home, heat it up and I have got a nutritious, warming and filling dinner. 

And because it has nothing but good stuff in it, it is great for those times when you have been eating too many crappy foods and want to detox. Nothing but vegetables and legumes with a little coconut oil and lots of spices! 

And it is stupid easy to make. Like, ridiculously easy.

Ingredients:

- Lots of vegetables 

Can't make vegetable soup without 'em! I don't really have a set recipe for my soup and the veges change each time I make it. Other than that, I just chuck in whatever vegetables I felt like buying that week (or what I can find/ what is on special!). Last week this included carrots, celery, cauliflower, butternut pumpkin, broccoli, zucchini and a leek. 

- 2 brown onions 

- 2 cloves of garlic

- Coconut oil (about a tablespoon)

You can use any oil, but as you will be using it for browning the onions and leeks, I like to use coconut oil because it has a high smoking point so won't oxidise when heated at high temperatures. It is also has many other great benefits that have been written about extensively. Here is a starting point though if you are curious.

- Tumeric (2 teaspoons)

- Chilli flakes (1 - 2 teaspoons depending on how spiky you like your food)

- Cumin seeds (1 heaped tablespoon)

- Vegetable stock powder (3 teaspoons) 

- Dried lentils (3/4 cup)

You can use any kind of lentils that take your fancy - brown, green, red, yellow - it is all good. Or even swap them out for dried beans like navy beans.

- Split peas (1/2 cup)

Make it happen

Chop all the veges into bite sized chunks. If you are going to blend the soup (you can leave it chunky if you prefer), the size of the pieces doesn't matter that much but they will cook quicker if they aren't too big. Finely slice the onions and leeks (if you are using them).

Heat the coconut oil in a really big-ass pot. Once it covers the bottom of the pot, chuck in the onions. Keep stirring them until they go a nice golden colour.

Add in the turmeric, cumin seeds, chilli flakes, leek and garlic. (I just use a garlic crusher on mine but you can just as easily chop it finely with a small, sharp knife.) Keep stirring until the leek goes nice and soft.

Drop in all the veges, the lentils and the split peas and pour in enough water to cover everything with about an inch of water above it. Add the stock powder.

Give it a quick stir, take it to the boil and then allow it to simmer over a low heat with the lid on the pot.

And then you just wait! Leave it on for an hour or so, giving it a stir now and then to make sure it is all looking good.

Enjoy!

Once it is done, you can serve it straight up if you want it chunky or otherwise put it in the blender for a few seconds to make a smooth, thick soup. Add a piece of heavy, grainy bread if you want or just enjoy it as it is.

It will keep in the fridge for about a week and freezes well too. And the best thing is - it tastes even better the day after you make it.

YUM!!!!!

How to deal

Something happened in my life last year that probably should have caused me to have a major emotional meltdown. And, if I am honest, for a few days it kinda did.

It was one of those knock-you-on-your-arse, punch-you-in-the-guts kind of ordeals that shakes your confidence and really makes you start to question your self-worth.

Nasty.

And it probably would have totally flattened me for months - maybe even years - if it had happened any earlier in my life. But instead, I bounced back incredibly quickly. Like - in less than a week.

This is because, lucky for me, it all happened while I was in the middle of two things:

• My yoga teacher training (in fact, the day after it happened, I spent the weekend in intensive training with my gorgeous fellow yogis); and 
• Reading the book "Spirit Junkie" by Gabrielle Bernstein.

Source: www.amazon.com

So instead of falling into a down spiral of funky badness, when I was confronted with this moment, I was prepared for it. Instead of letting this thing that was happening to me, however crappy, take me down, I was able to deal with it in a way that left me feeling ok. Look - I am not over the moon about it and I would have preferred if it hadn't happened at all - but have moved on. In fact, a lot of positive things have happened as a result that make me think that it was something that just *had* to happen so that I could move on to the next stage of my life. 

Aside from recommending that you undertake a yoga teacher training and reading Gabrielle's book yourself (ok - maybe reading the book is more doable in the short-to-medium term - but BOTH have changed my life for the better so it will be a great start).

I thought I would share some of the key insights that these gave me though to help me recover so quickly and to actually come out the other end feeling stronger and more sure of myself.

1. Let yourself feel
With life moving so fast, it can be really tempting to just shut down your emotions when something bad happens so that you can just keep going. We seldom have the luxury of time to allow ourselves to be absorbed in how we are feeling about a negative situation. Whether you tell yourself to "keep your chin up" or to "harden the f**k up", these are all ways that we tell ourselves that our emotions should be pushed aside.

But just telling yourself that you are fine doesn't actually make the feelings go away. And until you acknowledge how a situation has made you feel, it is impossible to get past it.

This isn't to say that you should drop everything in the middle of the office and chuck a total wobbly or disintegrate into a blubbering mess. But when you do have the time and space (and if this isn't looking likely make the time and space), let yourself feel all the emotions that have bubbled up. Cry. Be angry. Vent your frustrations out in a journal or to someone you can trust. Just let it all out.

But don't stay in this place too long. This ceases to be useful if you just dwell in a place of self-pity. So get it all out and then start to look at what you need to do next.

2. Recognise what is true
This is crucial to help you avoid a total downward spiral. Once you have allowed your emotions to appear and sat with them for a while, take note of those thoughts that keep coming up over and over. Meditate on them Write each one down on the top of a piece of paper. Underneath each one, jot down any thoughts that come up around them. Really deconstruct each one. And once you've got it all written out, read it back and try to read it as though a friend had written it all out. What would you say to a friend who was having these thoughts?

Chances are, you would tell your friend that a lot of these thoughts aren't real. That they are based on false assumptions, catastrophising (giving too much weight to worst possible outcomes, even though they are unlikely to ever eventuate) or negative thoughts about your self-worth. Which is totally normal when you are going through something bad - but if you don't get a handle on these thoughts early on, it can be hard to regain perspective and they start to seem like your reality - and may even become your reality if you give them too much attention.

Once you get a hold of what is real and what is not, whenever one of the negative thoughts comes up, resist the urge to ruminate on it and start to challenge what it is saying by using the words that you would say to your friend in the same situation. Eventually, the thoughts will lose their power until they stop showing up at all.

3. Surround yourself with good people

This is great advice at any time - but is especially important when you are going through a tough time. First of all, they will help you fight the negative, untrue thoughts that come up. They will also remind you how awesome you are and how whatever it is you are going through is just temporary. They will let you cry, let you get angry, give you sage advice, distract you, make you laugh - all those good things.

But for the time being, maybe say "no" to meeting up with that overly negative or competitive friend (or maybe, more accurately, "frenemy"). Trust me - you might feel a twinge of guilt when you turn them down, but now is the time to be there for yourself. So ditch the guilt, and put yourself first. Seriously.

4. Forgive - no matter how ridiculous that seems

While the other steps all helped me a lot, this one was probably key to me getting back up again after being smacked to the ground. And this is the one thing that I had never thought of doing before. Usually, I would blame myself or I would blame someone else. And I thought that was a good thing. Because it has to be someone's fault, right?

Well, maybe. And maybe not. But most importantly, it just doesn't matter. I'm going to repeat that because it is super important: It. Doesn't. Matter.

Gabrielle Bernstein swears by forgiveness to help you move forward. In her own words: "Rather than continuing to play the role of victim, we can forgive and be set free. With each choice to forgive, we shift our perception from fear to love."

Being angry or blaming someone else doesn't actually bring you any peace or make you feel better. And it has zero impact on the person that you are angry at. So what do you have to lose? Instead of holding on to these negative emotions, just release the person from your anger. You don't have to do it in person (that might actually be counterproductive). In Spirit Junkie, there is a meditation that you can use to help you visualise the person (or yourself) and start to breakdown the emotions that you are feeling towards them. You start to accept the situation for what it is (you don't have to take on the blame if you didn't do anything wrong - it is about releasing the other person, not saying sorry) and just let it go. Again - you might have to work on this for a while, but by shifting the way you think about the situation, you can actually start to heal and move on.

5. Shift your focus to the rest of your life

When something bad happens in our lives, it tends to suck up all of our energy. And while this is fine for a while, it you keep feeding the situation with all of your time and attention, it can be difficult to find a way out. So once you start to heal (using the tips above), start to refocus on all of those amazing things in your life. Don't think they exist? I am betting they do, but until you are in a place to see them, why not create something amazing in your life? Take a course, try a new sport, book a holiday, paint, dance, write - whatever will make your heart sing will also start to heal your pain.

I hope the above tips are helpful. I don't mean to make it all sound so easy - I know that it isn't. And it sucks!!! But by taking control and having a plan to get yourself back on top, you will be in a much better place than if you just let yourself get swept away by sadness and/ or anger.

Namatse my lovelies xox 

Losing my identity

So I am slowly starting to lose my identity. And honestly, this is a good thing.

Say whaaat? Let me explain.

For many years, I was "the angry girl". I am pretty sure it started off just as a defence mechanism, carefully constructed so I could survive high school. And it was successful in achieving this. Basically, I would respond to my detractors - some bullies (including some teachers) but also I am guessing a few kids who may have been genuinely nice but who I hastily assessed as being hostile - with bitchy, acerbic comebacks. And to avoid them bothering me at all, I took on a generally a moody/ angry disposition. I had some friends, but even they were kept at a bit of a distance and treated them with suspicion - because I never fully believed that they actually liked me. I figured I must have served some secondary purpose for their own high school survival. And that was fine by me.

High school can be a tough time. And just getting out the other end in one piece is a sign of success. But, unfortunately, I started to forget that I had created this identity (angry, sarcastic, depressed, dark etc etc) and it became a big part of who I thought I was.

Me as a teen - getting my angst on!

When bad things happened in my life, it reinforced my negative outlook and my general distrust of people. When good - even great! - things happened to me, whether in my relationships, study, work or whatever, I always assumed they were flukes and they were temporary.  I actually believed if too many good things were happening, then something really bad was coming just around the corner. So I could never enjoy the good. It just made me feel even more uneasy and anxious about my life.

As weird as it might seem, I wanted to stay feeling this way. I wanted to feel sad, depressed, angry or dissatisfied. This was what felt comfortable and familiar. Even though it wasn't serving me, I always found ways to bring me back to the same place.

While this might have been familiar and comfortable for me, as I am sure you can imagine, it was not a happy way to live a life! But I told myself, and everyone else that is just who I am. And so I continued.

Until I finally I had enough. I didn't want to be miserable anymore. Or anxious. Or bitchy. I wanted to be happy, damn it!!!

To begin with, I searched for happiness in the usual ways - looking for quick-fixes through self-help books, food, excessive exercising, buying shiny things, searching for "success" at work. But the problem with quick-fixes is that their effects are quick too - they never created a permanent state of happiness and always lead me to searching for something more. And always searching outside of myself.

I was lucky enough to find my way to yoga while sifting through all of these happiness solutions. I originally looked to it as a form of exercise that was kinder to my body than the abuse I had been putting it through at the gym. It also happened to make me feel better too. Pretty soon it was the only kind of exercising I was doing. Taking all these yoga classes, I saw all these beautiful, blissed-out yogis teaching all my classes and I wanted some of what they had. I wanted to be a blissful, glowy yogi too!  So I decided to go further with my yoga practice - to start understanding and applying the more spiritual aspects rather than just the physical.

Me on yoga - all the happy!

And this is when real change started to happen. When I started setting aside some of my attachments to who I thought I was -  the stories I told myself and the world to explain why my life was so hard - I was nervous that I would lose who I *really* was. Which I thought was the sad girl that I had become so comfortable being. But instead of losing an essential part of myself (which is what I had convinced myself all this misery and anger was), I started to look at where this identity had come from. And I began to realise that none of it was my true nature - these parts of my personality were all external to who I really am. Through yoga - especially meditation - I was able start seeing things as they actually are, not how I had just always assumed they are.

This is the real magic, and arguably the purpose, of yoga: self-realisation through looking inward - not to those things that are external to us - and, ultimately, attaining an infinite state of peace.

Obviously, I have a long way to go on this path. I am only just beginning to move away from identifying myself with my limitations and from trying to find happiness through external means. But I am already noticing positive shifts. I am calmer. I am able to deal with change without as much anxiety. I don't obsess over the negatives and dismiss the positives.

Things are looking up, and my journey has only just begun!!

Namaste xox

Yoga as therapy

My new year exercise regime of daily yoga and occasional jogs hit a few road blocks this week.

The first was that I started a new job. I like to do yoga in my lunch break during the week but my new work is further away from my gym. The extra distance means I will be hard-pressed to fit a 45 minute class into my lunch hour (and I haven't yet worked out whether I have the flexibility for my lunch "hour" to be a lunch "hour and a bit" so long as I make up the time elsewhere).

But that is easy enough to fix - there is always before work or after work to fit in some yoga goodness. And given that I use YogaGlo, I can do great classes at home whenever it suits me.

What isn't as easy to sort is my stupid lower back. It has been giving me grief for a few days now. Kind of a dull ache across my sacrum. I ignored it for the first few days in hope that it would just sort itself out and I kept up my usual routine, including strong, vigorous vinyasa classes and bouts on the treadmill.

Imagine my surprise when this kind of just made it a little bit worse.

Have I seriously learnt nothing?

Once I came to my senses though, I gave my body and my poor achey back a nice break from all forms of exercise. And that certainly improved things.

I was concerned, though, that maybe there was something that I had been doing wrong that had caused the pain in the first place. (Although, it is also very likely that it was just a sign that my body was tired and wanted me to just stop for a little while. Bodies are so wise - I should really listen to mine more often!) So I Googled my symptoms to see what the likely causes could be and, more importantly, what I could do differently to avoid it in the future.

Apart from a few nasty causes that I quickly dismissed (spinal stenosis or herniated disk anyone?), the most likely cause was a strain from overuse. Oh, and let's not forget that I am getting old. And what did most of the websites I looked recommend to prevent it from reoccurring?

Yoga!

I had been so caught up in thinking of yoga as a workout that I had forgotten all about its amazing therapeutic effects. Unlike most of the other things that you can get up to in the gym, a yoga practice actually has the ability to heal your body and to prevent injuries.

This was such a brilliant realisation as, after two days rest, I was itching to get back on the mat. So that I didn't run into the same problems though, I have done a couple of classes that have been specially designed to care for and strengthen the lower back. The great thing about these classes is that they usually set you up with some great tips that can then be applied to any class so that you can get your alignment right and prevent any future aches and pains.

Yoga IS therapy. You just need to adjust your approach slightly to address whatever concerns your body is telling you it is having.