ADVENTURE

The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure "
— Joseph Campbell

Five days into my January Juice Adventure.  Several things I imagined would be challenging aren't at all.  Like not having a lovely glass of wine with dinner. I actually don't miss it a bit, but I guess that makes sense because you're drinking dinner anyway.  Several things that I didn't imagine would be difficult are.  Like remembering and actually being hungry enough to drink four quarts of juice a day.  Interesting.   Some of this process is second nature to me because I prepare juice blend cleanses several times a month for clients and already consume about a quart of green juice daily most days.  Yet just five days in and even I am astonished at how at ease I feel not only with the process, but most importantly in my own skin again. It reminds me how much we can anesthetize ourselves in so many small (and not so small) ways each day.  Just consuming juice for one's nourishment takes away everything that you can hide behind.  Very Clarifying.

So far I've been following through on my intention to practice each morning and suddenly what I came to feel was so daunting; waking up at 5:30 to practice before Victor, my trusty RASA Cleanse and Food prep assistant, arrives, has actually been seamless.  When did waking up to practice, a cornerstone of my own self care, become so difficult?  Well somewhere between the last juice cleanse I've done for myself and our weekend, bleeding into weekday habit of enjoying Il Buco or Terroir or some other such place that beckons.

Most importantly, so far, I AM REMINDED that life is about BALANCE.  There is nothing wrong with the glass of wine or enjoying gustatory pleasures.  Trouble begins to brew when we become unconscious about when and why we are choosing to do, go and consume.  So for me this JUICE ADVENTURE is as much about reclaiming Consciousness as anything else.

BLOOD ORANGE-POMEGRANATE BLEND

simple, refreshing and delicious

yields about a quart (amounts are approximate)
3 blood oranges, peeled
seeds from one pomegranate
1/4c goji berries, soaked for about 15 minutes (optional)
a couple of clove buds (the spice)
a dash of raw honey, if desired
a splash of flax or hempseed oil
pinch of Himalayan salt
filtered water

Place all ingredients, (including the goji soak water) except filtered water, in blender.  Cover with filter water (plus a little more if you don't like it too thick).  Blend from low to high, strain and drink up!

SHAPE SHIFTING IN 2011

2010 has been quite a ride.  I almost think that's enough said, but I do like to blather on so: 2010 was the year of letting go.  Lot's of what let go was necessary, but isn't always easier to walk away first?  That way at least you feel like you had some CONTROL.  Well ladies and gentleman maybe I will finally begin to wrap my mind around the truth that there is nothing to control.  We don't control our lives and in fact the more I try to do so the less my life seems to "work", by that I mean flow.  This year I said goodbye to friends, colleagues and clients, savings and LOU.  A clean slate.

 

This year instead of writing resolutions,  I am focusing more on what my intentions are for the year ahead.  These intentions will shape the year of 2011, but also reflect how I want to anchor the bigger vision of my life path.  These intentions arise from the understanding that I can no longer try to manifest the MAHA or BIGGER -THAN-ME reason that I am on the planet unless I step back and take some time for RADICAL SELF-NOURISHMENT.  Simply said, in 2011 I want to take really good care of myself.   Instead of making a list and checking (and ignoring it) twice,  I’m going to focus on three intentions geared toward radical self care. THREE: BODY, MIND and SPIRIT.  Rather than burying my intentions in one of my many journals (that way if I slip up no one will "know"),  instead I’m sharing them here and I am also planning a to spend a good portion of New Year’s Day creating a super-powered Vision Board.  This is something I’ve been wanting to create for a while and as I am learning from my reading of the WAR of ART (Big Holler to James Abel), “procrastination is the most common manifestation of resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize”.  This way I’ll be reminded of the three pillars that will serve to  uplift my life each and every day, in 2011 and beyond.

BODY : There are two intentions here, but they go hand in hand, and I need one to kick start the other.  First I have committed to undertake a juice feast, for at least two weeks and up to the full month of JANUARY.  I prepare and guide cleanses for people several times a month, so many people think this will be a natural for me, but I have found (as I believe many people in the healing arts do in one way or another) that it is actually much easier to care for others than it is to care for oneself.  The more ongoing intention, one that will be carried through 2011 and beyond is that I am recommitting to my own personal asana practice and (gasp) I am actually going to hold that paramount to booking clients.  It’s not that I am going to let it get in the way of my teaching, quite the opposite.  These commitments to myself will help replenish the well from which I can draw and share my teaching from.

MIND: This one goes hand in hand with the Juice Feast I am embarking on. (So I didn’t really slip an extra one in, as many of you know I do like to take on a little too much).  I am not going to go this journey alone, so I have engaged the guidance of a very experienced Juice Feast coach.  In fact he is the “creator” of the JUICE FEAST process.  This gentleman is David Rainoshek, MA.  David and I will speak every day to support not just the process of the juicing, but more importantly, how this process will peel back extraneous layers of ideas I have held about myself (who I am /what I do) and how those concepts may be keeping me back from shining more brightly in my life.  This MIND part and these coaching sessions are about the intention of deep self reflection.

SPIRIT: This is the intention to saying “YES”.  Saying Yes to my life and saying Yes to leaning into things that might not feel entirely comfortable, simply because I don't identify with them.  Instead of digging the same groove (samskara) more deeply I want to choose to lean into the possibilities that life is presenting. So saying YES to the letting go so that I can say YES to the opportunity that reveals itself in the space that the "letting go"created.  If I am going to learn anything from 2010 it’s that life really does REQUIRE that we "let go and let GOD".  Above all saying “yes”  opens me up to my life and all the people and experiences that remind me that LIFE IS MAGICAL.