WEEK 6: Triumph
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM
Week Six: TRIUMPH

1. Week Six Yoga: Keep up with your glorious practice!

2. Week Six Balancing Diet:

It is time to "gather up all the fruits of your efforts and reap the bounty of all you have learned, revealed and come to appreciate in terms of how you nourish your body."



"As you become more skillful in not getting involved with your thoughts, you realize that all of your thoughts have a natural cycled of rising, lingering, and then melting away. You may notice how the thoughts create strong feelings or bodily sensations: appetites, cravings, sexual excitement, physical pain. But as you sit this week, just watch and see how these seemingly powerful sensations rise, swell, and then dissolve and disappear." This, too, shall pass. Realizing this will help to loosen the hold of outside forces.
Watch the ebb and flow of your thoughts this week. Avoid the voice-over you add to them, the meaning you assign them. It is with a sense of triumph that you realize that your thoughts are not you!
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WEEK 5: Centering
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

Week 5 Centering

When we find ourselves full of "if only" complaints, "If only he or she did this or that, then I'd be happy", we are not centered. We are not living intuitively and present. We are loyal to the victim within. It's our excuse for failed relationships and self-pity. We've learned to externalize control of our lives. Are we the cause or effect? Most of us believe that our world created us, and external events continue to cause our suffering. Guess what? We ARE the cause of our lives, and all it's ups and downs. It is our beliefs about ourselves, about our essence, that lead us to see a happy world or a fearful one. Hopefully, these weeks of yoga and meditation have shown us extended moments of peace and presence. We are learning that it is our thoughts alone that cause us to suffer. So how do we change our thoughts?

"By saying, 'I will become centered', we become responsible people; we own our lives from the inside. We don't have to wait for others to set us free. As we practice staying centered we discover that we have the capacity to be aware of the little gremlin voices in our heads and that we don't have to get caught up in the illusions of our own story."

"This week is about learning to stay intuitively grounded...It is learning to relax and be present with everything in your life, both big and small...When you eat, really eat. Really chew, really taste, really smell, really feel the food dissolve into and nourish your being."

"Make everything you do a practice of meditative awareness. If you can do this, you will see that your meditation practice is not separate from your life. We think that life is a distraction from meditation, but really life is an occasion for meditation."
1. Week Five Yoga Practice: Continue with your practice!

2. Week Five Balancing Diet:
The fruit fast is over. We feel light, clean. Now we need to get grounded. Time for some healthy rebuilding. Baron suggests that we need to give our body minerals this week. He tells us that minerals are from the earth, and therefore grounding. They strengthen our bones--they are our structure and foundation.

Week Five Diet To-Do:
Begin to include some of these mineral-rich foods into your diet:
  • Whey protein
  • Seaweed (hijiki or nori)
  • Leafy greens (organic greens have more minerals)
  • Nuts
  • Fish (especially halibut, mackeral, sardines)
  • Root vegetables
  • Tofu
  • Broths (chicken or vegetable)
  • Fresh vegetable or fruit juice
The following may rob our bones and bodies of minerals...try to cut out or reduce:

  • Coffee
  • Refined sugar
  • Soda and other soft drinks
  • Alcohol
  • Smoking
  • Too much salt
  • Too much protein
  • Anger
  • Fear
  • Reactivity

3. Week Five Centering Meditation

"As we meditate this week our focus is to connect to the symbolic anchors of our hands, body, and breath, thus experiencing the truth that our center is always there, steady and waiting, no matter what swirls up around us."

Week Five Meditation To-Do:

  • 25 minutes morning and evening
  • Close eyes and bring attention to hands
  • Observe gently and anchor attention to them
  • Notice sensations, ignore them
  • Do not strain...right aim and right energy
  • If thoughts arise, don't analyze them...let them go gently
  • Each time you get lost, simply pull back into gap between you and your thoughts
  • Re-anchor to your hands, body and breath.
4. Week Five Excavation Questions:

  • How much do I believe in myself, and how much does this play out in my everyday life? Do I trust my intuition? If so or if not, what results does that produce?
  • When, where, and with whom do I feel the most grounded? With my friends? When I am by myself? With my spouse?
  • How mindful am I of even the the smallest details of my life? Am I present enough to notice all actions I take? Do I remember what I said to the salesperson at the store, what route I took to get to work, how and where I hung my coat, what I told my kids when they asked me a question? Am I truly there in all these moments?
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WEEK 4: Restoration
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

Week 4 Restoration

"As we remove the rocks that block our wisdom and light, we find that we are able to set more and more time aside for the things that restore us: time spent in nature, solitude, meditation, intimacy, having heart-to-heart conversations that heal. These moments spend in restoring ourselves are signposts of our progress in health."
This fourth week, we will begin the three day fruit cleanse. Be sure to find time for yourself this week. Separating ourselves from the hurried activities of our lives will help us keep perspective and give us the healthy detachment necessary for optimal health and well-being. This is the week to get a massage, sauna, find quiet time to read a good book.

"Remember to stay in the moment and relax in all of your activities. Put aside your focus on outcomes and meeting expectations for right now. If you get stuck in tension and toxic behaviors...Realize you are in over your head and unconditionally surrender everything over to God."

Week Four Yoga:
Keep doing what you are doing! Seek a restorative yoga class, gentle stretches, deep breathing.

Week Four Diet:

Three day fruit cleanse. See posts related to the cleanse. Be careful to come off the cleanse gently. Slowly introduce foods back into diet...don't shock your system too quickly.

Week Four Restoration Meditation:

To-do:

  1. Twenty minutes morning, twenty minutes evening.
  2. Our goal is to notice how often we get lured into the activity of our minds, away from stillness.
  3. Get comfortable and anchor your mind to the now moment.
  4. Notice the ceaseless images in your mind and their efforts to distract you from being still and restoring in quiet.
  5. Don't fight these thoughts. As soon as you notice them, step back into the gap between you and your thoughts and let them go.
  6. You may need to do this again and again. That is ok, meditation is all about beginning again.
  7. We are learning to know the difference between thinking and being lost in thought. Our goal is to learn the truth and experience the curative beauty of seeing life through a clear lens of present-moment consciousness.
Week Four Excavation Questions:

  1. What excess baggage am I carrying around with me? What thoughts, feelings, worries, or past situations am I clinging to that drain me?
  2. What do I most need to let go of? What are the things that I would be relieved to finally release? Anger toward someone in my life? Stress about money? Fears that arose from a past negative experience?
  3. Do I really give myself enough time to relax and restore myself? How can I carve out more time for this?
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WEEK 3: Equanimity
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

Week Three: Equanimity

"When we become centered enough, we have the ability to accept the things we cannot change, and are able to instantly and humbly admit that our willpower and ego are ultimately powerless over most of the realities in our lives."

Notice how much time we spend each day in reactive mode. "We spill coffee on ourselves...we react. We hit a traffic jam, we react. The boss takes out his or her mood on us, we react. Our kids act up, we react....the endless cycle of stress, reactivity, and blame."

"Equanimity is the art of meeting life as it meets you-calmly, without drama, or fuss."

Our efforts these last few weeks have prepared us for this next step. By practicing presence and seeking our True Self, our Vitality, we are ready to address our reactive tendencies. What pushes your buttons? Does it change based on how you are feeling? I am more reactive when I have not gotten enough sleep, eaten well, had time for myself, or just plain feel disorganized or out of sorts. I personalize, argue, attack. Baron encourages us to practice staying centered amid the inevitable highs and lows of life.

Baron asks: "Can you see yourself as the same person who maintains composure on a sinking ship, which allows you to help save the lives of others on board? In truth our equanimity is full of courage and can save lives."

This week we will focus on equanimity...when we hit our thresholds...in yoga, work, relationships...lets not fight it, lets learn to stay centered and move through it "The winds of grace will carry you."


1. Week Three Yoga Practice: Keep doing what you are doing! Be sure to create ease, back off as your intuition guides you.

2. Week Three Balancing Diet: "In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires." Benjamin Franklin
    1. What is your comfort food? When do you reach for it? Stress is the perfect trigger for overeating, indulging in unhealthy foods. Then add the guilt we pile on when we indulge. It's a no win situation. There is nothing wrong with enjoying good foods, as long as we are conscious. Most of us tend to deny ourselves and then overdo it when stressed. We crave sweets and then feel guilty when we indulge. Bad combination.
    2. Baron also suggests that we overeat as a reaction to a deeper, spiritual emptiness. We shovel food in, without awareness, the moment an uncomfortable feeling arises. We are too afraid of riding out the storm of discomfort. What are we afraid of? With the mindfulness that comes with presence we should learn that our worst fears will not be realized if we feel what we feel. In fact when we step out of our comfort zone, without fear, we are more likely to start to feel our true selves, the person we know we are deep inside. The one who doesn't run and hide. The one who knows God and knows that this is enough to ride out any storm safely. Let's give ourselves this gift this week.
    3. Week Three Diet To-Do
      1. Continue to choose fresh, whole food to balance your body.
      2. What does sweetness mean to you? When do you crave sweets? Do you resist what comes up in life, and fail to meet it as it meets you?
      3. When you have a craving for sweets, take a moment to be still, breathe, and seek the truth of what is really going on.
      4. Interrupt your habitual pattern and ask yourself honestly what is causing it. Did you get bad news. Trying to numb out?
      5. This is a study in the art of staying...you won't die if you don't have that chocolate bar. Stay and breathe.
      6. Craving for salt is different than sweet cravings. We crave sweets for energy and comfort. We crave salt for minerals and grounding. If you crave salt, incorporate more mineral-rich food such as fish, seafood and green leafy vegetables into your diet to bring you into balance.

3. Week Three Equanimity Meditation:
"The greatest challenge to our equinimity is our reactivity."

"A calm, equanimous mind does not react to circumstances or sensations around it and cn turn a poison of distraction and aversion into nectar for growth."

Meditation To-Do Week Three:
1. 15 minutes twice a day.
2. Set intention to sit with strong determination.
3. Simply and gently notice resistance to meditate, desire to stop or get up.
4. Notice the urge to fidget, move your posture, scratch an itch.
5. Resolve not to give in to these feelings.
6. Stay present, stay conscious, just STAY.
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WEEK 2: Vitality
Author: Unknown
•12:00 PM

WEEK TWO: Vitality


"Vitality is very simply an energy that comes from living a life of enlightened knowledge and action. When we do what we know to be right and true, we are revitalized and renewed right where we live."
I think about this in terms of the glow, or radiance we project when we are living honestly, gently. You know the feeling, it is without ego or insecurity. It is the condition of whole joy. By staying present we will begin to notice that we are right-minded in our thinking and we will be guided to right-action. This must lead to an increasing sense of peacefulness and joy. That is our heritage of Vitality, which we have forgotten in our hurried lives.

We do not have to try to, or pretend to be Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, or Mother Teresa. With an open mind and heart, our true paths will be revealed to us. Not everyone is called to give up all worldly possessions and minister to the poor, or take on great causes. All paths are valuable and essential if we are to play our part in guiding the world home to its rightful place of perfect peace.
The Buddha’s wife noticed:
“You radiate a different light. Your presence is totally new and fresh; your eyes are pure and clear....(but) could you not have attained it right here at home in your palace? Did your home and family somehow prevent you from finding truth and transformation?”
And the Buddha learned:
“I could have done it right here at home...There was no need to go to the mountains, no need for me to go anywhere. I had to go inside myself, and that could have happened anywhere.”
1. Week Two Yoga Practice:
See pp.103-117 in the book. Most of us are practicing 5-6 days/week, so we do not need to review this section.
How did you feel in your practice last week?
2. Week Two Balancing Diet:
“The chief pleasure in eating does not consist in costly seasoning, or exquisite flavor, but in yourself.”
Let’s seek Vitality in our food this week.
Last week we identified our current dietary tendencies, hot or cold excess, a need to cleanse or build. How did you do? If anyone needs support related to last weeks ideas, please post here contact Joan.
“The nutritional equivalent of Vitality is Fresh Food.”
This week we begin to look at our food choices. Are we seeking the quick and easy (usually processed foods), or are we carefully preparing our meals from non-processed whole foods. The further removed our food is from it’s source, the less it has retained it’s nutritional value.Baron cautions us that this may take a little more time, but this is not a sacrifice...it is a joy!. That could become an excuse. I challenge you to look at your schedule. I’m sure that we all could find those extra 5 minutes to create meals that nurture us “wholly”. If you are interested we could share recipes and ideas.

WEEK TWO DIET TO-DO

  • Make fresh, whole foods the focus of your diet this week. Incorporate whole fruits, vegetables,lean meats, fish, and whole grains into your diet.
  • Avoid the middle aisles at the grocery store, stick to the outer aisles.
  • Begin to give thanks for your food, it’s source and it’s strengthening power for you.
3. Week Two Vitality Meditation: (10 minutes twice a day)
It often happens that we backslide a bit as we begin to see and feel our True Self, our Vitality, emerging. Just when the yoga practice, diet, and mediation start to have a noticable affect on us, physically and emotionally, bad habits, behaviors may start to tempt us. Now we are ready to run. Let’s stop and think of this, instead: We merely feel that the light is too bright, and we are scrambling to shut the door. It is actually our beliefs about our worthiness that are getting in our way.Our beliefs are rearing their ugly heads.
This week we will begin to change those tapes or beliefs that seem to start swirling around in our heads just when we start to feel good! Or they appear when we are down to “prove” to us that we got what we deserved. Let’s confront those tapes directly and see if they can stand up to our honesty!
“These tapes are programs and conditioning from our past, and holding on to them robs us of our vitality and energy.”
Meditation-to-do for this week:
· 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the evening.
· As you sit, begin to notice the top 10 themes that play in your mind.Simply observe them, without judgment. Be lighthearted.
· Label them if it is helpful: “the victim tape”, “the worrier tape”, “the people-pleaser tape”, “the blame tape”.
· Meet these tapes with an open heart.
· Gently let these labels, patterns go.
· Begin to notice how draining these tapes can be, and how much more vitality you experience when you let them fade away.
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Act as "if"
Author: Anne
•3:05 PM
I've been struggling recently with keeping my anxiety at bay. One of the key things I've been working at is this: even if you feel like complete shit, act as "if" you don't. This is all from William James, but you can see the influence in lots of contemporary self-help manuals, blogs, articles, therapies, etc.

Do one small thing to counteract the negative voice inside that says, "No, no you can't. You're a failure already. No." Act as if your inner voice always says, "Yes." Act as if. And when you act as if, your brain will follow your body. Your action is a physical, bodily movement that ignores the doubts, the worries, the fears, the hurts, and just says, "I do. I act. I move." If we act as if often enough, we begin to build habits that structure our brains away from the doubts and toward something better: a world where we can say "yes" to ourselves.

It's an Emily Dickinson kind of day, so I'll just close with this:

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
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A Sharper Mind
Author: Anne
•1:17 AM
This 40-day challenge comes at a perfect time for me, since I recently began taking a class on mindfulness and meditation. I've also been reading a biography of William James, one of the American scholars who founded the discipline of psychology here in the U.S. One of his big ideas was that mind is activity. I really like this idea, and it's been something I can't stop thinking about lately. I'll try to explain more about why I think this concept is so fascinating, but for now, let me say that it's a big reminder to me that when I'm feeling down, I need to do something. The brain needs movement/activity/exercise as much as the body. And at the same time, the brain needs very particular kinds of movement and enough rest to counter the stresses of the world. I hope that meditation fits well into my plan to make my mind healthier and happier.

I've just begun practicing meditation using a 10-minute meditation CD that I got from my meditation teacher. My goal is to practice with this CD once a day for the next week. I was glad to see my recent issue of Cooking Light emphasize the importance of meditation in an article called "5 Mantras for a Sharper Mind":

Studies of Buddhist monks gave the first indications that meditation--deep breathing, focusing on the moment--can help change brains for the better. There's evidence that as little as half an hour a day of meditation can increase gray matter density in areas of the brain associated with learning.


I'll let you know how it goes, but for now, I'm working on building meditation into a habit. I'll be thinking about you Rhode Islanders doing your downward dogs and sleeping on the yoga mats. Tonight at my meditation class, we did 30 minutes, and aside from my foot falling asleep, I didn't notice how much time passed.
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