Self-Care Practice: Nature Therapy

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Self-Care Practice: Nature Therapy

Prior to lock-down, I walked regularly, often with Sally, our Jack Russell/Australian Shepherd mix. I enjoyed our walks (and Sally always enjoys her walks!), often leaving my phone at home, the better to enjoy our time together. Although I was never rushed, and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of nature, there was always “something” to get home to do, a “next thing on the list”, My appreciation and enjoyment were of the “walk-thru” variety, and my mind might often wandered….

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Two Ears, One Mouth

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Two Ears, One Mouth

In today’s world, listening is undervalued. We talk over each other, shout each other down, or simply wait until someone is done talking so that we can share a similar experience, thinking we are listening, when we were really just preparing a response…

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Marcia's Musings: Float Like a Butterfly

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Marcia's Musings: Float Like a Butterfly

It wasn’t always easy to recognize positive outcomes in the age of the pandemic, given the brain’s preference for negative thinking. Especially in the darkest days our community faced together, all I focused on was absorbing the shock of the “unseen enemy” and its relentless assault…

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A Slow- Cooker Starter Chicken Recipe for Quick & Easy Meals (And Some Recipes to Use It In!)

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A Slow- Cooker Starter Chicken Recipe for Quick & Easy Meals (And Some Recipes to Use It In!)

This recipe is one she shared with me that I used often then and still do now. It is a flavorful option to use as a starter to a quick meal and has only three ingredients.

This recipe is just as good reheated as it is the day it is made, maybe even better. Best of all, it is simple and easy, the way life should be. Try it in tacos, enchiladas, burritos, salads, burrito bowls, or try it in one of the recipes from our e-Book.

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Marcia's Musings: The Conservation of Energy

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Marcia's Musings: The Conservation of Energy

My mother’s younger brother died a few weeks ago at age 88. One minute he sat chatting from his chair with his daughter, seeing her on Facetime, and the next he slumped over quietly. He left this world on the long, last exhale in an instant without noticeable stress or pain. In what certainly stands as a sign of these times, my cousin virtually witnessed her father passing, his energy moving from one dimension to the next in full digital view.

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Late Summer Farmer's Market: Abundance

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Late Summer Farmer's Market: Abundance

Nothing sings of summer more to me than walking the aisles of a farmers’ market. No matter where I am in the world, anyone who knows me knows my not-so-secret passion is to go to the market and check out what’s happening. This year I’m thinking about making a yet untested recipe for a tomato chutney once my plant comes into its own in a couple weeks; for now, though, what’s on my mind is Armenian Stuffed Grape Leaves or Summer Dolma.

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Sound Healing

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Sound Healing

Sound Healing is a modality that utilizes frequencies produced by instruments to support participants in altering their state of consciousness for an intended purpose such as reaching deep state of relaxation or working through suppressed emotions or simply the release of stored stress.

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What Is EFT?

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What Is EFT?

Did you know that there’s a self-help tool that’s quick and easy to learn, that you can use anytime, anywhere, and that you can use with just about anything that is challenging you?

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Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

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Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

I assert that pranayama is the single most accessible, practical, and effective tool available to reduce stress, energize, bring about calm, and improve our overall well-being. Period. We can go without food for weeks, without water for one to two weeks. We start to hallucinate three to four days without sleep, yet the lack of breath becomes fatal after only a few short minutes.

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The Torrent of Grief, Its Pain and Its Value

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The Torrent of Grief, Its Pain and Its Value

Grief arrives for many reasons. We often identify the death of a partner, spouse, friend, child, parent, or colleague as the deepest form of grief – and rightfully so. We’ve witnessed the pain of this kind of grief etched on survivors’ faces.

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The Power of Uncomfortable

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The Power of Uncomfortable

At the appointed time, I wobbled up to the podium, took a deep breath, and opened my mouth. Gack. Nothing came out. I tried again and emitted a feeble squawk followed closely by an impressive dry-mouthed cluck.

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Marcia's Musings: When We See Each Other

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Marcia's Musings: When We See Each Other

In the days when we teachers taught face-to-face in the studios, the bond with students was close, in distance and in energy; the ability to see each other and learn how bodies step into poses, breath, and meditation apparent with immediacy; and feedback written on students’ faces and in teachers’ words. With the emergence of virtual classes, caused for the most-unbelievable of reasons, a pandemic, much has been lost in this bond. Without being able to see each other in person, or at all with so many at-home computers muting the video, both student and teacher reach for each other in a halting way, similar to the childhood game when we blindfolded one player who had to haltingly find the others.

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What Is HaloTherapy & How Does It Help?

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What Is HaloTherapy & How Does It Help?

HaloTherapy, also known as Dry Salt Therapy, is a treatment of finely ground, medical-grade salt that is distributed in a room or chamber from a specialized machine – a halogenerator – in small puffs of air.

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Marcia's Musings: Bone-Tired, Still Moving

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Marcia's Musings: Bone-Tired, Still Moving

I asked myself this question: What is the truth of this shared generational trauma? What is the role of truth-telling, or satya, as we understand it from the 8-limbed path of yoga? How am I to recognize truth? What am I to do with it?

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What Is Thai Yoga Bodywork & Massage?

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What Is Thai Yoga Bodywork & Massage?

Thai yoga bodywork and massage focuses on improving and balancing the flow of energy throughout the body and combines dynamic-assisted stretching influenced by yoga with physical pressure applied along energy lines influenced by Chinese acupuncture and Ayurveda.

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Vegetarian Tortilla Lasagna

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Vegetarian Tortilla Lasagna

This recipe comes courtesy of Sumaya Sol Café Cookbook. We feasted on this and other delicious melas at the Green Lotus Guatemala retreat.

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Xinilani Chicken Enchiladas and Fresh Guacamole

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Xinilani Chicken Enchiladas and Fresh Guacamole

On virtually every retreat Green Lotus leads, we arrange a cooking lesson. Cooking together in distant lands or other parts of this country creates bonds and breaks down barriers. People who chop together say together! This recipe - from Chef Mario at Xinalani, a spectacular, tucked-away paradise north of Puerto Vallarta, GL retreat to Mexico - pleased everyone.

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Tortilla Chicken Soup

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Tortilla Chicken Soup

Nothing warms the belly and the soul like a nice bowl of soup. This is a family favorite that is quick, easy, and easily scaled for large gatherings. Use an already cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, leftovers, or leave out the chicken altogether and enjoy the flavors vegetarian-style.

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Acupressure to Balance Screen Time

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Acupressure to Balance Screen Time

Tai yang is one of the points along an energy meridian. Self-massage that includes this point increases blood flow to the eyes and can help reduce the pain of headaches. It is easy, without side effects, and safe to do.

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A Fat Cat Gets Busted (and what it means to me and you)

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Cats slink. Cats connive. Cats ponder, purr, pretend. They meow their way into our hearts and play with our emotions. These are the reasons we love them (and sometimes why we do not).

Gracie, my cat, found herself to be two pounds overweight late last fall. In consultation with her veterinarian, we cut her portions and mixed her yummier food with another kind – called metabolic and really meaning diet. Oh, the shame of it.

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