Sunday Funnies

Yoga Nugget

Last Minute Mindful Gifts

What to get the yogi that has everything, or the yogi that is boycotting the commercialization of a holiday and the downward spiral of materialism running rampant through our country? Here are a few suggestions that you can make in the name of your yogi and also get a nice little deduction on your 2012 taxes:

Heifer International: They give live animals to families in developing countries as a source of income and/or renewable food source.

http://www.heifer.org/give/tax-deductible

Your local public radio station: Helping you keep current on local issues and presenting unbiased news. This link will take you to NPR's website were you can enter your zip code to find you local public radio station:

http://www.npr.org/stations/donate/index.php

 

ASPCA: For the prevention of animal cruelty.

http://www.aspca.org/Home/Donate

Nature Conservancy: Protecting Nature and People.

https://support.nature.org/site/Donation2?10401.donation=form1&df_id=10401&10420.donation=form1&df_id=10420

Yoga Aid: Distributing finds to charities whose goal aligns with the teachings of yoga.

http://www.yogaaid.com/usa/Charities.aspx

Sunday Funnies

What A Yogi Eats...

...when she is on the mend.

Breakfast of champs, eh? Let me explain. See I don't really eat breakfast; I get up pretty early so my body isn't ready for food but I do need a little something.  What you see here, I like to think of as a nice balance of eastern and western medicinal treatments, are the following:

Coffee with cinnamon and cardamom

Rice milk

2 crackers

Chywanprash

Uber Vitamin

Antibiotics

One Half of an antidepressant

Let’s start at the start, the Coffee (western). I love coffee, straight up, strong brewed coffee. I could drink it all day, it's a like a comfort food for me and I don't even care about the caffeine, in fact I prefer decaf because I'm jumpy enough. However this coffee here has caffeine so it also has cinnamon and cardamom in it (eastern). It's an Ayurvedic was of lessening the effects the caffeine has on your system. Also it's a nice extra cozy flavor when it is cold and snowy outside. 

Rice Milk (eastern): I don't like milk, maybe a little in my cereal or to dunk an Oreo in but other than that no thank you. Really I just have the rice milk there because I don't like taking pills with hot liquids that I need something to help wash down the Chywanprash.

Chywanprash (eastern, on a cracker) is a sort of medicinal jelly you eat in the morning. it is chock full of good things like

Amla fruit, Indian kudzu root, Long pepper fruit, sandalwood, Mysore cardamom seed, Malabar nut tree leaf, Spanish pellitory root, arjuna bark, ashwagandha root, shatavari root, bacopa leaf, holy basil leaf, chebulic myrobalan fruit, Ginger, European grape fruit, Licorice root, Sacred Lotus flower, Jatamansi root, Neem leaf, Tribulus fruit, Bael tree fruit, Indian tinospora stem, Phyllanthus herb, Zedoary rhizome, Cyperus rhizome, Indian Elecampane root, Heart-leaf sida root,  Himalayan pistachio fruit, Leptadenia leaves, Boerhavia root, fig, Clove bud, true cinnamon, Indian Cassia leaves, Mesua flower, True saffron stigma with sugarcane, Ghee (clarified butter), Honey & Sesame oil

All good things but to me the taste is a little odd and the texture is that of a very thick jelly. I tried the first few times just eating the jelly but couldn't do it so to help with the texture I added some sesame seeds to the jelly to give me something to "chew." But by and large the best things I've found is the sesame mixed jelly made into a cracker sandwich, it’s almost enjoyable.

Mmmmm, Chywanprash!

Uber Vitamin (eastern). There is so much research out there about vitamins; they are great, they are crap, they have to be vegetarian, it’s fine if they are chemically produced. This is one area where I have stopped listening to basically everyone. I take a whole food derived vitamin that turns my urine bright yellow! It doesn’t make me puke which most vitamins do and I just feel better when I take them. Placebo effect or not there are worse things I could choose to believe make me feel better.

Antibiotics: Amoxicillin (western). I am on the upswing of a wicked flu virus that is sweeping the Midwest. It was killer; it started out like any old winter cold then it morphed into a 4 day long pressure headache, which lead to an ear ache which was actually an ear infection which decided to start bleeding out all of the side of my face. If you've never walked into the bathroom to see blood seeping from your ear trust me, it's TERRIFYING! and if you have or if you have ever had an ear infection that I would like to hug you because those things hurt, a lot! So I am on a high dose of medicine to get this nasty infection out and gone! even as a yogi I know sometimes we have to lean on western medicine to help us heal, that's why it's there, because it's valid. I can't imagine what kind of pain not to mention what kind of other fluid my body would have started oozing if not for those pink little (not so little) pills my Doc prescribed me. And speaking of leaning on western medicine...

Half an antidepressant (western). You might remember this post: 5 Things I Don't Like, when I talked about going on antidepressants. Well you can see there's only half a pill there which means *sounds of trumpets* I’m dosing down. I'm back on my mat and I’ve eliminated quite a few stressors from my life so my body is back producing hormones that make me happy again.

Sunday Funnies

Frosty the Yogiman