Beauty!

What makes you feel beautiful? Is it putting on your favorite little black dress and going out for a night on the town? Is it taking a walk on a soft sandy beach, feeling the salty breeze run it's fingers through your tangled hair? Is it when you are flowing through a peaceful yoga class, feeling your body through the rhythm of the asana? Beauty is so important to have in our lives.  Without recognizing beauty in the world and within ourselves, life can seem dull, and lacking passion and inspiration. Without beauty, both inner and outer, life quickly loses its glow and sparkle and we are left with a deep feeling of emptiness.

Part of recognizing beauty is accepting all in life as it is.  Accepting all the imperfections, uncertainty, surprises,  and possibilities.  Interesting how we are so quick to accept the beauty of nature and all it's imperfections.  When taking a walk through the woods, I would never look to judge trees as being too skinny, or too tall, or to skimpy.  I don't pick apart each divet or bump in the muddy path, wondering why nature couldn't have made it look more groomed.   With nature we tend to accept all of its imperfections.  As humans, even though we are part of nature, why is it that we can not accept our flaws and see our imperfections as a part of nature's beauty as well?

One reason I believe we make it so difficult to appreciate, see and respect our own beauty and the beauty of others is, because many times, we are in a state of judgement, a mental state rather than a feeling state.  When we are in constant judgement, it is impossible to see and feel the magic of our own inherent perfection.  Until we can let go  and respect the beauty of imperfection, the uniqueness of asymetry, and the beauty of our inner world, we will never be able to love the beauty within us.

When you embrace beauty in your life, you will attract beautiful people and experiences into your every day. When we are hoping, wishing and wanting to feel beautiful and inside we are hating ourselves, and talking negative self talk, punishment and disgust, it will be impossible to reach true self love, beauty and acceptance.  It can feel like taking the wrong road to get to your own house.  To begin embracing the beauty of imperfection, and naturalness in your life begin to explore what truly makes you feel beautiful.

Beauty is fun, exciting, pleasurable and expressive.  It is so important to carry it within us and to spread our beauty into the world.  When I feel beautiful, my life seems to sparkle, glow and shine! The sun shines brighter, the sky appears bluer and every person I meet glistens. So, what is it that makes you feel beautiful?  Nurture, love, take care...

February: Your month of pleasure!

"It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and, justly, and it is impossible to live wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably."  Epicurus

February strikes me as the perfect month to put my focus on personal pleasure for my mind, body and soul.  Since our culture is expressing its love of pleasure in the way of celebrating Valentine's Day, why not use this loving and celebrational energy to put towards pleasuring ourselves and our greater health ? It is so easy to get wrapped up in our day to day life and completely push pleasure to the side.  This may be because we feel guilty for spending time and energy focused on ourselves, because we are too busy caring for friends and family, because of certain "rules" or beliefs we have decided upon for ourselves, or simply because we don't make time to bring pleasure into our lives.

Pleasure can be listening to your favorite song, soaking in a steaming bubble bath, fully enjoying a piece of dark chocolate or setting an hour aside to focus inwards at your favorite yoga class.  Let it be fun to explore the different pleasures that you enjoy. Recognize the reasons why you deny yourself pleasure and for this month, let those reasons go, and allow yourself to focus on giving your body exactly what it desires in the form of pleasure.

We don't need to search outside of ourselves to find what is pleasurable for us, because our bodies are born wired to desire pleasure and avoid pain.  We simply need to listen in to our bodies inherent wisdom.  A great place to begin adding more pleasure is to practice with food and the sensations your body experiences with mindful eating.  Each time your feel your body hungering, really take the time to listen to what it is your body desires to eat.  Try to set old food patterns and habits aside, let go of your food rules and regulations, and fulfill your bodies desire for pleasure tuning to each physical sensation in each moment. Choose to experience the joy of eating more and more often.  Thoroughly savor the food you put into your body, recognizing the nourishment, health and pleasure your body is receiving.

Lets not pass up anymore opportunites for pleasure.  Trust your body to tell you what it truly desires and you will find yourself becoming an expert on pleasuring your body, mind and soul. Your health will improve, your radiance will shine, and you will be an example for others to follow. Simply by bringing more pleasure into your life, you are likely to find yourself feeling more connected and trusting or your own body's wisdom and desire.  Not only will you feel more joy and bliss in each day, but you will also deepen your relationship with the most important person... you!

"No other nutrient can restore the radiance to body, heart and soul as pleasure does. It is time to welcome pleasure back to the table."  Marc David

Feel the rhythm of the beat!

The drum beat, steady and sound.

A raging Native American pow wow, moccasins and feathers pounding into the frozen earth, to the rhythm of their sacred past.  Creative yet contained.

A young drum circle, beating, thumping, tapping to the rhythm pulsing through each young soul.

The techno beat that drives the energy of rhythm, pressing my body into a relaxed dance,  following not only the rhythm of the thrusting beat but the rhythm of my body, and her's.

The flowing creek.  Steady, calm, cold and collected... rushed, excited and loud.

The stream of energetic rhythm.

Flowing through me and flowing through you.

Some days I feel the need to sway.  To move my body in a way that dances with the day's natural rhythm. To get down on the floor and roll around.  To feel my body's organic rhythm, is one way I feel a deeper connection to the collective.

Whether you have recognized it or not, the world has it's own pulsation.  The rhythm is constantly changing, slowing down, speeding up, throwing you a sexy salsa spin on some days, an electronic thrust on some, or edgy, sharp and masculine on others.  When we are in tune with organic pulsation, we can feel a deeper connection to ourselves, to everyone and to everything around us.  Energy begins to move freely, releasing emotion, stagnation, and creating more space, more bliss.

Life seems to flow in an indescribable way, within us and around us.  The rhythm may be sharp or smooth, but when you are aligned with it, it doesn't matter whether life is throwing you for a spin on the dance floor or taking you for a gentle walk in the sand.  Quite honestly, what a blessing it is to have this rhythm pulsing through each one of us, guiding us, offering us teachings about our selves.

What connects you to your own organic rhythm?  Is it taking a few minutes to lie on the floor and move your body slow and sensual, is it finding a place of stillness to listen to your own inner voice of truth, or is it nourishing your self deeply while moving in sync with another?  There is always another opportunity to deepen your connection with your own inner bliss and freedom,  dancing with the divine....

Celebrate Life!

"Become more and more innocent, less knowledgeable and more childlike. Take life as fun - because that's precisely what it is!"   Osho. This new year is truly feeling like the year to lighten up, let go of the seriousness and bring more fun into our lives!  More than ever, I have been hearing the "need to have more fun" as an important and common intention being set by my friends and family this year, and I'm all for it!

Lets have more fun! Lets celebrate more often, lets dance, skip and sing! Lets be true expressions of ourselves in every way!  It is extremely important to incorporate in our lives the things, actions and people who make us feel happy and give us fun, and to find ways to make our day to day tasks more fun and pleasurable.  It is so easy to slip into a daily pattern and routine that can soon become robotic, lifeless and empty of joy and fun.  Life then becomes serious and we forget how to  have fun.

We also forget what is fun for us. The things that were fun a day, week or year ago may not be fun for us now. Maybe it's time to try an anusara yoga class instead of going to your flow class every week, or it's time to eat a blissful bowl of steaming oatmeal with grated apple, walnuts, brown agave syrup and almond milk instead of toast or cereal for breakfast.  By exploring the new you and the feel of the new year, you can find what truly is fun for you.  Is it time to plan a trip to a foreign country, or learn a new language? What is fun for your best friend may not be what is fun for you. Would it be fun for you to go out salsa dancing on a Friday night, or groove to your favorite cd while passionately cooking a candle lit dinner at home?  Re-ignite your passion for life by exploring all the possible ways to incorporate and intrigue fun in your life.

This is your year to glow, sparkle and shine from the depths of your  yearning soul outward into each dark corner in your life. So let loose! Explore, inspire and re-create fun in your life.  Get to know the authentic you, and express your beautiful being in every way that is fun for you.

If you are interested in joining a group of women supporting each other in creating more joy and passion in your life please visit the link below!

In Health

Sue

http://bouldernutrition.com/pillars-of-womanhood

2010: How can we make it the best yet!

The start of a new year is here!  Many people begin the new year hoping and prodding this year to be their best year ever, but they aren't quite sure how to make this new year their best yet. I find the month of January to be the perfect time to set an intention for myself in the new year.  I enjoy reflecting on the past year, looking at what worked, and what didn't work so well in order to see how I could change or improve what I am doing or creating.  These simple reflections can lead us down a road to really evaluating what we want, and how to take the visioning process from dreaming to living!

In yoga class today, my teacher said to us, "Oftentimes we forget that we are free, and we search for freedom from all that we are bound to.  But it is important to remember that we are born free and are continuously searching for something to bind to."  That something can be positive or negative.  It can be our life purpose, a friend, a job, a house, a town,  a pet, or a  food...  Sometimes we find ourselves bound to things that don't support our hearts truth, even our very own thoughts can be a source of either positive action, or negative action.  As women, this is common in abusive thoughts about food, movement, or how we relate to our bodies.

When searching for an intention or a positive something to bind to for the new year, it is important to find an intention that is true to ourselves.  I find the questions, "What is life calling me to do?" and "What is the year feeling like to me?", "What have my greatest challenges taught me this past year?" are all great questions to ask in order to find an intention that will be supportive and bring one closer to a higher vision, and deeper self connection.

An intention is something to be lived through each day.  It should be something that resonates with your heart and makes you feel joyful, inspired, and true each time you come back to it.  Setting a realistic, nourishing and self loving intention that ultimately brings you closer to your truth is a powerful way to set the new year off as your best year yet. How can this year be the best year of your life?  What does it take for you to find joy, contentment, and passion right here and right now?

Harvest Time

I love this time of year!  As we notice the hot days cool off, the winds change and the leaves beginning to rustle beneath our feet we begin to root down and pull inward.  This inward and downward movement comes with more cozy nights, more time to reflect and more time to notice the warm aromas coming from everyones crock pots, as we fully endulge in the abundance of natures harvest time.   This year we are blessed with an incredible harvest.

As we enter the fall season, we encounter many changes in the weather, in our bodies, and in our lives.  Fall is a time for letting go, and for shedding unwanted layers that do not serve our greater purpose.  Cleansing is an incredibly beneficial way to release layers, both physically and emotionally, by detoxifying harmful toxins, resetting the digestive tract, increasing energy and vitality and connecting to natures organic rythms of the harvest.

Fall is the time to purify the lungs in the traditional Chinese medicine system.  This years Fall Harvest Cleanse is designed to work with the season, as we dive deep into tonifying the lung chi and increasing immunity for the winter.  The lungs are a vital elimination organ, as they facilitate the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the blood, which is then carried through the cells to be used as fuel.

With fall being the time of the harvest, we incorporate warming seasonal foods, recipes, menu plans, lung tonics, and yogic lung strengthening breathing into our program.  Some of the most extraordinary benefits of fall lung cleansing include increased lung chi and strength, deeper sleep, increased immunity, increased energy, radiant skin, a grounded mind and heart, and overall holistic fortitude for the whole being.  For more information and registration, visit please contact sue@bouldernutrition.com.

First: Do no harm

I have recently been writing an article for Yoga Journal.  It is focused around ahimsa ~ one of the eight limbs of yoga defined as compassion and non-violence to self and others ~ and the yogic path towards food, health and deeper levels of self-love.  As I go through the writing process, digging deep into my own well of ideas, I find myself of course, working with my own path, my own triggers and especially my own self judgement. I asked for help and support from a dear friend who is a wise healer and teacher of mine.  We agreed that we all struggle at times and wrestle with our minds so to speak.  We also agreed that if we were truly practicing the very first pledge in natural medicine "do no harm" which perfectly parallels with the practice of ahimsa, we would open and love ourselves without out all the bullying we so often are guilty toward, yes, ourselves.

If we truly lived in an energy that was all embracing, all accepting, and recognizing our own inherent value, the value of what we offer to others in our lives, and the value of each of our purpose, would our energy be abundant, our enthusiasm for life high and energized, and our manifestation abilities infinite?  We both agreed that yes, that would be true!  It has to be true.  This is a universal law...

The saying "the only thing that is in your way is you" has a lot of power.  If we can journey into the heart, sit and find compassion, that may just be us getting our of our own way.  Freedom is available in each moment.  Freedom from the junk that is in our way to finding divine love for ourselves...

When we re-connect back to our hearts, our own endless well of self-love that is the strongest healing power known to humankind, and use this power to truly awaken into each moment and each challenge, our health is aligned at a deep level.  Our daily choices moving from this heart place will always be for our highest good.  Aaahhh, thank-you....

The spark that lights your fire ~ Living with Purpose

What is it for you that gives you inner fire, passion, and connects you to your inherent purpose.  How do we infuse every area of our lives with this?  When the light feels dim, what brings the fire back?  These questions are all important keys to overall health and happiness.  Each of us may have our different passion and purpose, but what is the common thread we all share in connecting to this place within? I have been observing, witnessing and studying this phenomenon in hopes that making sense of these common threads will not only unite us more as individuals sharing connection, commonality, and human-ness, but also when we find some of these keys to overall health and happiness it is like making a collective jump in the joy in the world.

Some of the theories that seem to hold true for me are:

1.  Self care:  If we learn and listen to what our bodies need to be nourished as far as food, sleep, quiet time, creativity, we feel more energized, vital, and free to live in our purpose completly.

2.  Movement:  When we find the kind of movement that works for our individual bodies, the energy is moving, and we are strong, revitalized and awakened.

3.  Service:  If our purpose is infused with a sense of service outside of ourselves and is difused to every role we play in our lives, the power and momentum is increased.  Our vision becomes one that can move mountains!  How do you serve in your life?

There may be some magic that I am missing, or maybe, just maybe the magic is found in the simplicity that is so often over looked.  Something to ponder, explore and find out for ourselves .....

much love

Sue Van Raes

Holistic Nutritionist, Health Coach

www.BoulderNutrition.com