If you love the taste of butter without always eating a large amount of fats you can make your own Ghee this weekend!!  Ghee has a more intense flavor, a high smoke point (485* F)and does not need to be refrigerated.

1. Cut two sticks of unsalted butter into chunks and put in a sauce pan on med, low heat.  It is easy to burn the fat so don’t go do other chores, watch this and stay in the kitchen!  Take it from me 🙂
2. Let is boil and foam, it will dissipate and foam again.  This is a 10-15 minute process.  After that second boil/foam, turn heat off, let is cool slightly and pour through a fine mesh strainer.  There should be solid fats at the bottom and or in your strainer.
3. What is left -is Ghee! A healthier butter with a nutty, rich flavor.

Ghee is considered “liquid gold” and revered in Indian culture (and has been for centuries).  It is quite expensive in the store and so easy to make.

Benefits:

• a great source of fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin K and is great for teeth, hair, skin and nails.
• Rich and Fat soluble Vitmain A, D, E
• Milk proteins are removed in this process. (Casein free)
• Contains Butyrate, an Essential Short-Chain Fatty Acid.

Open and strong posture can be a key piece to feeling positive about the day ahead.  First thing or throughout the day try these simple stretches to begin and refresh the approach to what lies ahead.

1. Use a Yoga Strap, belt or piece of clothing: hold this taut between each hand behind your hips.  Inhale your chest lifted and exhale your shoulder blades down, inhale your hands away from your body behind you, exhale your belly button toward your spine.  Hold this chest opening for a few breaths or let it rise and fall with 4-5 breaths.
2. Hold this strap overhead taut, hands about shoulder width apart.  Draw your upper arms away from your peripheral vision as your shoulder blades reach toward your spine and exhale down toward your sacrum.
3. Find a tall stance with grounded, broad feet.  Soften your knees and swing your arms from one side to the other.  With each swing, bend your knees and find a rhythm with your breath.  20 breaths.  Stand still, grounded and tall – shake your hands, arms and shoulders as if to ‘shake off’ any extra heavy energy from the following day or hour.

Lengthen your collar bones, lead with your sternum, take a deep belly breath and GO!

Placing a smile on your face, even when you may not feel like smiling can be the fastest path in spiraling upwards.  Lift yourself and others with a smile!

Looking around for constant blessings is a personal practice toward Happiness.  It can become a habit to be aggravated and ‘put out’ by nature, people and the flow around us. It can also become a habit to see the web that is weaving constantly just for YOU.  Things are always working our for us!

Watch the bright web being spun everyday so that your life flows well and happily.  The more you SEE the good that is being collected just for YOU, the more it will happen.

 

 

Nature is offering so many pieces to focus on at the moment. Color is opening, birds are singing and organizing, trees are leafing, and colorful life is being born.  Sitting outside for 15 minutes to notice all of the changes that are happening in this season is a beautiful meditation.

Sit. Quiet. Observe.

Soak it in. Try not judging any of it, the pollen that brings about allergies or one bird call versus another.  Simply notice what is there.  10-15 minutes of witnessing, is time powerfully spent.

In loving, we offer trust and space.  Letting go of control and practicing patience are acts of love.

A short meditation for love felt as space:

I breath in, and with this breath loving space fills my lungs.

I breath out, and this loving breath spreads into the space around my body.

-repeated until there is a quiet loving presence surrounding you and occupying the space of your body.

 

Reflect on the way you speak to yourself.  Does the internal conversation you have with yourself offer the same kindness you would give to a friend?

I used to speak to myself in an incredibly critical way, but have found that it’s much more productive to talk to myself as I would talk to a friend.  If I need to take time before I’m ready for something, instead of, “what’s wrong with me – why am I not ready to take an action here”  I’ll now say, “that’s OK, take as much time as you need and movement will come when you’re ready”.  Another example lives in picking apart interactions with others. I might have specifically focused on worry over how something I did or said may have been interpreted. The difference between how I feel speaking to myself as I would speak to a friend is worlds away from the analytical and anxiety ridden past.

Why not be your own friend?  Speak kindly to yourself.  Whatever it is that’s going on, isn’t worth beating yourself up over or letting an unfortunate pattern get the better of you.

Photo by Rachael King

Make a list of everything big and small that is a blessing to you…   It’s worth the time and reflection to recognize the joy surrounding you everyday.  See the beautiful blooms opening around you, inhale the crisp morning air, thank your body for allowing you the experience of existence, and anything else that comes to mind!

Most have heard the the old parable about the two fighting wolves within us, one angry, jealous, resentful and one peaceful, kind and hopeful.  The Child asks the Grandfather which wolf wins and he answers, “the one you feed.”  This speaks largely to the present and how we live our lives and make decisions.  It also may speak to our past – something that many people churn, regret, and actively pile on shame and anger.  We could be feeding the wolf within us now and feeding wolves of our past.

Sometimes with certain themes in our lives there is a choice to focus on the negative experiences and fill our cups full of all that we did wrong, or what was done wrong to us. Within these certain themes there could be contradictions that we conveniently ignore to feed the angry wolf, because we know him and we are used to his vicious treatment, and we are used to our shame and resentment.  The peaceful, positive, and kind wolf in our past is sitting there starving.  This one exists too, and can be woefully neglected.

The past has good and bad.  When there is a bad theme in our past that effects our lives now we have a choice: which wolf within those times is fed, groomed, and befriended. There was bad, yes, and was there good?

I am wanting to feed the peaceful, hopeful, kind wolf of my past so that my perspectives of NOW can look just a little different than the monster that sneaks in at times.

People are at various points in their understanding of others and situations.  We cannot force others to change; we can only meet people where they are. Challenging people may be a less effective tactic than offering words of wisdom that have come from your own experience. Observation and time are excellent teachers.  Words do not teach.  Experience teaches.  Yet, here I am offering words that I hope will be applied to experience and felt later for their worth.

In general, people respond to gentle allowance with acceptance.  A porous path gives way for a natural immersion of what is and what is coming.   Likening yourself to this kind of stone feature we use to designate spaces and possibly direction, is a note in letting yourself and letting others.  Hold your space and allow for that of others.

What will you be for the interlacing of experience and truth?  Can you allow yourself to tolerate others at whatever place they are in a given situation or perception?