Your Body is a Temple

Did you know that your body is not the real you? You are not your body. You are the witnessing consciousness peering out of it. When you hold your finger out and look at it, the one seeing the finger is the real you. Your body is actually the temple that houses the real you.

However, you have been entrusted with the upkeep of this temple. How can you take care of this temple, this sacred vessel? If the temple is broken, you can fix it. If it is too heavy, you can lighten it and lift the burden from your organs and joints. If it has low energy, you can raise it with diet, exercise, and positive thinking. If it is not radiant and beautiful, you can love it, nurture it, adorn it, and accept it. Yoga teaches us to nurture our bodies and minds while at the same time giving up identifications we have such as: I am this body, I am these emotions and thoughts, I am this or that baggage/tendency/issue. Then we can begin to live more freely as our true light-hearted selves.

Many people have a contentious relationship with their bodies. I try to remember a simple equation: discipline in my yoga practices + detachment from the outcome = Contentment. When I do yoga with the focus of forcing my body into a certain shape/size/fitness level, I end up unhappy. And if I am too detached and footloose with my practices and intellectualize "I am not this body, I am the witnessing consciousness, my body doesn't really matter so much," I also end up unhappy because I lose fitness and focus. I practice and teach that THE GOAL is to aim to keep up a high level of yogic discipline. For me, that's ultimately the most effective way to be the caretaker of this temple. Detached discipline also builds self-esteem and self-power.

How can you start taking care of your temple? Start with what you know. Swami Rama said, "You don't need to know a lot of things, but you definitely need to practice what you know." If you've practiced yoga before, you love walking, you know that too many carbs are hard on your system, or you see the connection between your caffeine intake and nervousness, then start a daily practice which incorporates this knowledge. You already know a lot about how to take care of your temple...now it's time to put together a plan of practices. In my Yogic Diet coaching, I help students put together a Bee-ing Attraction Plan(TM) to deepen their focus and practices so that they can find harmony with their bodies and minds and healing for their spirits. Let me know if you're interested in creating a Bee-ing Attraction Plan(TM) of your own!

Ahimsa - Love Yourself

Ahimsa is one of the Yamas and Niyamas of yoga philosophy which were laid out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras as essentially a set of restraints and observances to work with as a foundation for spiritual progress. These Yamas and Niyamas are lightly dubbed the "10 Commandments of Yoga." The first Yama is Ahimsa which literally means practicing non-violence or non-harming toward oneself and others. Don’t hurt yourself or others with thought, word, or deed.

Once I was at an ashram studying yoga and I learned about the concept of samskaras. Samskaras are old and limiting patterns and tendencies that are known in modern times as our “issues.” One goal of a yogi is to identify, heal, and release our samskaras or issues so that we can be happy, serve others, and walk our spiritual path. During that stay at the ashram, I asked a swami, “What are the root of our samskaras?” He had obviously thought about this one because he sagely replied, “The root of ALL samskaras is self-hatred.” Wow, so it is ultimately self-hatred that keeps us stuck with anxieties, fears, all negative relationship patterns, self-destructive tendencies like overeating or drinking too much, self-esteem fluctuations, anger, sadness, and feelings of loneliness and disconnection from Source. But I thought it was their fault!

If it's true that all of our issues arise from a level of self-hatred, then the practices of loving ourselves and non-harming or Ahimsa are the logical solutions as the avenue of healing. This is why the Yogic Diet emphasizes nurturing and healing our bodies, minds, and souls. Each practice of the Yogic Diet, including nurturing the body with a pure diet and hatha yoga and mastering positive thinking techniques, are practices of Ahimsa.

What can I do today to practice Ahimsa? Start with making yourself a priority. Set aside some time each day to nurture yourself. Cook nice food, get your body moving, start to change your self-talk (no matter what the issue is) from negative to positive, and begin to see every obstacle as an opportunity for you to deepen your love for yourself. After all, God created you and is pleased with how you are manifesting. Now, become pleased with yourself.

The Yogic Diet for Your Body

One of the classes I offer in my Yogic Diet coaching is "The Yogic Diet for Your Body." This class is about developing body, mind, and soul practices for weight loss, optimal health, and happiness. In my course, clients:

- Create a Bee-ing Attraction Plan(TM)
- Move toward eating a yogic diet as described by the ancient wisdom of yoga and contemporary sources
- Incorporate the practice of hatha yoga exercise into their lives, including steady breathing and relaxation techniques
- Discipline the mind through the practice of Positive Thinking: self-inquiry, contemplation, prayer, gratitude, signs, and affirmations
– Attract the perfect radiant body using the Yamas and Niyamas (5 Restraints and 5 Observances) of yoga philosophy to heal body and self-esteem issues and increase self-love.

Contact me if you would like more information about this class.

What is Yoga?

Many people who practice the Yogic Diet want to know what yoga really means. I've listed a few different ways of understanding yoga.

One definition from the Bhagavad-Gita is that yoga is the dissolution of our union with pain. Dissolution means: disintegration, termination, disrupting, breaking down. So the practices of yoga can work to end our union with physical, psychological, emotional, and/or spiritual pain.

Yoga means union. It comes from the Sanskrit word yug which means yoke. Yoga helps to yoke or connect the individual consciousness to the universal consciousness, or Source. However, yoga is not a religion. Instead it offers techniques (like the Yogic Diet) such as proper diet, exercise, relaxation, steady breathing, positive thinking, meditation, selfless service and so on that can take one more deeply into his or her own religion or spiritual path. Yoga is suitable for people of all faiths and for the secular as well.

Our true nature, our inner self, is like the sun – it is luminous, radiant, cheerful, bright, and full of happiness. Our minds are like the clouds that sometimes blocks the sun. We tend to focus on the clouds and forget that we are truly the sun. Sydney Solis of Storytime Yoga says, “The discipline of yoga can help us move the clouds out of the way, so we can again identify with the radiant self and all its possibilities.”

What to Eat

In the book Yoga, Mind and Body, Sivananda Yoga Vedanta says “The Yogic diet consists of sattvic [pure] foods that calm the mind and sharpen the intellect. These are pure, wholesome, and naturally delicious, without preservatives or artificial flavorings. They include fresh and dried fruits and berries, pure fruit juices, raw or lightly cooked vegetables, salads, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole-grain breads, honey, fresh herbs, herbal teas, and dairy products such as milk and butter. A sattvic diet is easily digested and supplies maximum energy, increasing vitality, strength, and endurance. It will help eliminate fatigue, even for those who undertake strenuous and difficult work. Yogis believe that people’s food preferences reflect their level of mental purity and that these preferences alter as they develop spiritually.”

In general, I recommend a mostly vegetarian diet filled with phytonutrients for optimal health:
¼ plate – protein (best sources: yogurt, beans, seeds, nuts, tofu, cottage cheese, feta, milk)
¼ plate – whole grain (brown rice, rolled oats, barley, sprouted breads, and quinoa are good)
¼ plate – lightly cooked vegetables
¼ plate – raw vegetables, salad, and/or fruit

Reduce intake of:
- Animal Products
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Sugar
- All processed food
- White rice or white flour (whole grains are best)

Weight loss and maintenance depends upon how the food/drinks we consume raise our blood sugar levels. Some carbohydrates have a high glycemic index (GI) which raise blood sugar like: table sugar, white flour, alcohol, refined white rice and noodles. Whole grains like brown rice, beans, low sugar fruits like apples, high fiber cereals, and sweet potatoes have a lower GI which help to keep blood sugar stable. However, even when eating low GI carbs, we should surround the carbohydrates with protein, healthy fat, and fiber.

Too many high GI meals cause a carbohydrate addiction which causes us to crave and consume more and more sugar even if we feel otherwise full. This leads to weight gain, lethargy, and blood sugar problems such as diabetes and even high cholesterol.

One of my yoga teachers, Sivaram Scott Orton, said, "Most important is gaining awareness of how we’re affected by what comes into our bodies and making adjustments based on direct reason and experience.” Start to notice how the food and drinks you eat affect you and gradually make changes for improved health, greater energy, and peace of mind.

Yogi, Tear Down that House!

A long time ago in Japan, there was a seeker who went to an enlightened master. The master told him to build a house. He worked really hard on it for a long time and finally it was finished. Then the master told him to tear it down. He was crushed and confused, but he tore it down. Then the master told him to build the house again. He put his whole heart into it and made it much more beautiful than before. The master came to see the house and told him to tear it down again. This went on and on until the 10th house was built. When the master told him to tear it down, he refused and ran away to find a new master. After some time, the new master found out what had happened and sent him back to his old master. When he met his old master, he begged to know why he had done this to him...asking him to repeatedly build and destroy the houses. What had been the purpose? The master said, "You are the houses. If you would have torn down the 10th house, you would be free."

I can really relate to this story. Over the past 13 years of practicing yoga, I've been able to heal several major samskaras, which are those old patterns, tendencies, issues that limit us in life. My yoga practices help me to first become aware of what my tendencies are: such as negative patterns in relationships and old food/body and self-esteem issues. Then I have to start building the house. I have to put forth the self-effort to do my yoga practices. And there are always obstacles, life happens, I dismay at my attachment even though my understanding deepens, and then the practices or the learning arena changes. The house that I had built was gone and I have to start over again and again. Then, finally, one day I realize the problem that had bothered me for years is GONE. Self-effort in yoga attracts the Grace to free us of those old patterns.

The Yogic Diet is all about taking a positive approach to releasing those deeply embedded samskaras. The body, mind, and soul practices of the Yogic Diet increase one's awareness of those old patterns so that latent fear, anger, anxiety, lack of focus, difficult relationships, food/body addictions and ailments, and feelings of separation from Source can be healed. Practice the Yogic Diet to start building the way toward a life of freedom.