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The Three Pillars of True Radiance

In my personal philosophy I came up with a concept that I call “The Three Pillars of True Radiance”.

Our being is comprised of three elements: the body, the mind, and the spirit. If one of these elements is out of balance, our whole being is out of balance. True radiance is possible when all three elements are in accord and are also in perfect harmony with each other. Only then we truly become radiant beings that are full of light, that are healthy, youthful, happy, and content. Only then we can fulfill our full potential.

These elements are supported by the three “pillars”, which are physical purification practices (Body), positive thinking & affirmations (Mind), and spiritual practices (Spirit).

The Body

According to Yogananda, the author of  “Autobiography of a Yogi”, our body is a physical manifestation of the five vibratory elements, which is entire Universe is also composed of: earth, fire, water, air, and ether (same elements as used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine).

To keep the body healthy you have to address the elements and keep them all in balance.

Guide to Self-Care - 7 Ways to Detox Your Body

For anyone starting on the raw food diet, a period of good cleanse is necessary. As we all know by now, the major diseases and illnesses are diet-related. So detoxification through a raw vegan diet is a major part of a physical path back to optimum health.

The process of detoxification is unavoidable but it doesn’t just happen overnight. To heal yourself will take time: detox usually happens in waves and, depending on your previous lifestyle habits, they vary in length and severity. Typical detox symptoms include: headaches, excess mucus, general feeling of “unwellness”, diarrhea, skin rashes, fatigue.

Just as it takes years to fill up the body with improper materials, so too does it take years to eliminate them from the body. According to David Wolfe, it takes about one month of eating well-balanced raw food diet to reserve one year of a cooked, toxic diet.

The body releases toxins in several major ways: through colon and urinary tract, through skin and through lungs. 

Guide to Self-Care – Supportive Environment

When I first went raw I didn’t know a single soul who was into this lifestyle. My family members thought I was putting my health in danger, my co-workers proclaimed me weird, I felt isolated at friends’ parties, so although I felt all the benefits of eating this way I ended up going back to cooked foods quite often.

It wasn’t until I establish a solid circle of support for myself that I was able to maintain the level of rawness I am at now.

So what are the ways of creating supportive environment for yourself that will nurture you and help you stay raw and enjoy this way of life?

Educate yourself. Read books and magazines dedicated to raw foods, attend lectures and raw food demo classes, go online – there are thousands of website that write about raw foods. The more you know, the more confident you will be in your choice and the easier it will be for you to explain why it is that you decided to go raw.  If you do not know answers to simple questions like “Where do you get your protein?” or “Don’t you need to drink milk for calcium?” it will be very easy for someone to plant a seed of doubt in your mind.

Know why you do it. Of course most of us start eating raw because we have some health challenge to overcome, but when we get rid of it, what’s next? When you are cured, do you go back to eating the old way? If you don’t create a new vision for yourself, a bigger goal, you are opening yourself up to failure.  So what would that big goal be for you?

Always be prepared.  Discover the value of menu planning on your raw food journey.  Personally, I can’t plan a whole week ahead because my moods change, but I know at least 2-3 days ahead what I would like to eat.  Why is that important? When you know what you plan on eating, you create a shopping list, go out and buy all the necessary produce. That way you never face a situation when you open a fridge and an empty shelf is staring back at you, or worse, a Chinese takeout carton (for example).

A Guide to Relaxation

Why Relaxation is Important 

In today's day and age when we are busier than ever it often seems that there are never enough hours in the day to get things done. We spend more and more time at work (every hear an expression “I am married to my job”?); there are chores around the house and garden; we care for our children or parents and have social responsibilities. For people who run their own businesses there is always something demanding their attention, often requiring them to stay at the office for ever-increasing hours.

Sometimes, finding time for ourselves can be difficult, so with added stresses and little spare time our levels of stress hormones raise, which can cause anxiety, high blood pressure, and make our brains behave differently. Too much work and not enough time out for ourselves often results in mental health problems, memory failure, weakened immune system and physical ailments.

Relaxation is vital for a healthy mind and is required to maintain motivation and interest in our lives, our careers and in ourselves each day. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to our body, mind and soul to have quiet time or to participate in an activity that simply enables us to switch off from everything pressing in our life. And you can do it; you just need to start prioritizing.  Make yourself a priority and you will enjoy a much healthier and better life.

Relaxation and Sleep

Sleepless nights can be terrible if your mind's buzzing with information and you desperately need sleep. Relaxation can help you switch off, and you'll be asleep within seconds. Here’s a short exercise you can do before going to bed; it will help your body recuperate from the day and let your mind settle.

¬    Get yourself into a comfortable position in a place where no sounds or lights are going to distract.

¬    Close your eyes and concentrate on how you feel, a relaxing image, a place and a time which you feel comfortable with.

¬    Relax all of your muscles, starting with your feet and working up the body. If a particular part of the body feels tense, tighten those muscles then release.

¬    If a part of the body still feels tense, stay there for a while and repeat tensing and releasing.

¬    Now focus on your breathing. Inhale slowly and deeply, couting 4 seconds in your mind. Hold your breath for another 4 seconds, then exhale slowly. Feel yourself relaxing as you do this. Feel your shoulders and back sink into the floor as you exhale. Repeat this exercise 10 times. After this, breathe normally, concentrating on the feeling of your breath. Feel the air entering your body, feel your diaphragm expanding as you breath in.  Notice a small pause between breaths. Feel the air leaving your body, feel how your lungs and stomach get emptied of air, your diaphragm relaxing. Continue breathing deeply and evenly.

¬    When distracting thoughts enter your mind, try to put them to the back of your mind for later, and return to your breathing. Continue for about 10-15 minutes.

 

Radiant on Raw Guide to Self-Care - Rejuvenation

I know you sleep, but do you sleep well?

No matter how much raw food you eat or how  often your exercise, if you are not getting enough quality sleep you are missing out of one of the most important rejuvenators for your body.

Unfortunately, we became so busy in our daily lives that sleep is the first thing we sacrifice when we pack too many activities in a day. As a result, we become dependent on coffee and energy drinks to give us energy boost when we are constantly tired and sleepy.

Lack of sleep effects our energy level, as well as our mental and social functioning. When sleep deprived, we become less alert, more confused, irritable and fatigued.  We lose patience quicker, become less interactive in our relationships and also become less productive at whatever it is we do for a living.

Why is sleep so important?  First of all, a good night sleep gives our body a change to relax, recharge, repair itself, take care of digestion and detoxification, and other functions that our body cannot do during waking hours.  Second, our brain uses this time for sorting and reorganizing our memories and helping us work out issues and problems that we might have been thinking about during the day.  And metaphysical folks say that during sleep our spirit gets a change to travel to other worlds and dimensions expanding its horizons and getting new experiences or even re-visiting our past lives (ever get those strange, surreal dreams?).

Here's how to ensure you get good quality beauty sleep:

1. Cut back on caffeine, sodas, and chocolate – they are very stimulating and even if you drink a cup of coffee in the morning it may still affect you in the evening. The effects of coffee may take up to eight hours to wear off.

2. Alcohol is another sleep disturber so don’t drink it late at night if you don’t want to be awake half the night.  Alcohol may make you sleepy and help you fall asleep, but it will diminish the quality of your sleep dramatically.

3. Don’t watch TV right before going to bed. TV is too stimulating and if you are watching nightly news your mind will be bombarded with negative messages and images and you will be up half a night thinking of how bad the world is getting. Get a DVR and record those late night shows you cannot live without and watch them during the day. Better yet, remove the TV set out of your bedroom completely – Feng Shui teaches that TV’s energy, even when it is turned off, influences us negatively and disturbs our sleep patterns.  The same goes for using your computer or discussing emotional issues with your partner – leave it for the daytime. 

4. Create a relaxing atmosphere in your bedroom – burn candles, play some soft music (natural sounds are great).  Keep the room temperature between 68 and 74 degrees Fahrenheit, colder or hotter temperatures than that can disrupt your sleep.  Keep your room dark by using dark curtains, blinds, and low light settings. 

5. Relax before going to bed – take a hot bath, meditate, or do a guided relaxation.  Journaling is a great way to unload your mind of daily worries and problems and letting go of what might be troubling you.

6. Have your last meal at least 3 hours before bedtime. Eating before bed will keep you awake because your body will still be trying to digest the food and you will wake up feeling tired.

7. Your body thrives on routines – try to go to bed and wake up around the same time. Sleeping late on a weekend, although sounds like a fabulous idea, actually is not so great because it kicks your body out of its normal cycle. Better solution? Take an afternoon nap, 15-20 minutes and you will feel much better rested (but no longer than 30 minutes). Napping is my personal favorite and it does wonders to how I feel throughout the day.

Chronic lack of sleep contributes to stress and stress is one of the major factors of early aging.  If you want to be healthy, energetic, keep your youthful looks, then make sure you get plenty of rejuvenating sleep every day.

And if you have more helpful tips, please share them here. I always enjoy reading comments and suggestions from my readers.

To Your Radiant Health!

Are you in touch with your food?

One of our most important connections is actually with our food. Not only do we get everything our bodies need from food – from essential minerals to amino acids, from vitamins to energy - but we also get a lot of emotional satisfaction from it. Food was how our mothers showed their love for us, we connect with our family and friends over a meal, and we eat when we are stressed or depressed.  For many the closest relationship is with food and quite often it’s quite dysfunctional.

In the past 100 years our relationship with food deteriorated.  The birth of agriculture almost destroyed organic farming, turned meat and dairy industry into greedy murderous conglomerate whose sole purpose is to make profit, most of our food now comes from boxes, cans, and bottles.  Most people these days have no idea where they food is coming from, how it’s made, and how it actually affects their bodies. If you are curious about the “dirty secrets” behind food processing, I recently stumbled upon a really good article on the subject.

 If we desire to be healthy and live a long and happy life, we need to re-think our relationship with food. Not only do we need to move past our food obsessions and addictions, but we also have to create a new healthy relationship with food, based on love, care, and respect. So how can we do it?

1. When you shop at a supermarket, spend a little more time in the fresh produce section. Don’t rush, walk around, see if you can find a fruit, vegetable, or herb that you haven’t tried before.  When buying your weekly staples (like tomatoes, cucumbers, salads) pay more attention to what you are picking up.  Imagine if you were in nature hunting for the best food, how would you find it? Would you smell it, hold it in your hand, squeeze it, and pay attention to how deep and rich the colors are?

2. If you are lucky to have a farmers market nearby then get to know the local farmers there. Not only will you be supporting local economy but you also will be sure to get the freshest food that is in season. Most supermarket foods are picked unripe, travel thousands of miles (and have to be waxed and sprayed for protection), and stay on shelves for days and weeks, therefore losing up to 40% of their nutrients by the time you buy them.

Small time farmers sometimes can’t afford an organic license but they may still grow their crops organically and with love. Talk to them, get to know how they grow what they sell, and you may develop new appreciation for a wonderful selection of food on your dinner table.

3. Do you want to know a secret to adding more nutritious and delicious greens to your diet? Grow your own herbs and sprouts! This is a very easy and inexpensive way to add variety to your diet, and you also become in control of your food – you know what you put in the soil and what kind of water you use; your sprouts will be organic, super fresh, and grown with love and care and in return they will enrich your diet and bring you great health.

 And if you would like to learn how to prepare delicious and healthy recipes and how to sprout and grow indoor greens, you can do that at my upcoming Raw Food for Beginners class on August 9^th. 

Radiant on Raw Guide to Self-Care - Connection

Among many tools that my raw food coach Karen Knowler developed, The Wheel of Natural Beauty, Glowing Health & Dazzling Radiance is my favorite.

Although the raw food diet is crucial to optimum health, just eating right is not enough. There are many other factors contributing to one’s overall well-being and if we only concentrate on food we are setting ourselves up for a failure.

Karen’s Wheel of Radiance consists of 12 spokes, each indicating an area of a well-rounded lifestyle.  When all 12 areas are addressed and at least one corresponding practice is implemented, our life becomes one of balance, radiance, and joy.

So every Friday I will address one area (“spoke”) and will explore it in greater detail and offer you easy practices that you can bring into your life.  I encourage you to choose at least one simple practice, implement it and see how it works and then report back to me.

Connection

Feeling connected is one of the basic human needs.  We are social beings and need to feel like we belong, like we are a part of something (a family, a group, a nation, the Universe). The yogic texts teach us that in reality there is no separation, that we are one with the Universe, God, the world around us, each other.  The separation exists only in our minds created by our egos.

Centuries ago humans were much more in touch with their true nature and more connected with the world. Religious beliefs were less rigid, everything in nature had divine qualities and was worshiped – the Gods of Wind, Earth, Fire, Water, and many more. Men had much more reverence for the world around them. Healers used such natural remedies as herbs, flowers, mushrooms, sounds, colors, and body’s natural healing abilities, to cure diseases.  People ate more naturally, locally, and according to season.  Even when animals were killed for food, there were rituals performed and the animals were thanked for sacrificing their life.  Nothing was used to access, nature was preserved, and the animals were not mass-murdered.

But the more “civilized” we became, the more disconnected we got from everything.  These days we have reached the heights of separation, in my opinion: neighbors barely speak to each other, children kill each other at schools, animals are killed in massive numbers and are treated most cruelly, wars are ragging everywhere, environment is destroyed in record speed.

It didn’t happen overnight, of course: hundreds of years of religious brainwashing, social programming, consumption of heavily processed and de-natured foods - no wonder the world is in such sad condition.

So re-birthing of the raw food diet (aka natural way of eating) is indicating a change coming. I believe people are slowly beginning waking up, coming to see that the old ways of living no longer work.  People are getting tired of being sick, miserable, living in fear and limitations.  The raw food offers them a change to awaken, restore health and bring positive change into their lives.  Eating naturally gives us a change to re-connect with nature, re-discover the abundance of tastes, colors, and shapes available to us.  When we stop clogging our brains with harmful substances we begin to think clearly, we become more aware of our choices and are more capable of making decisions that not only benefit ourselves but the world around us (hence eating raw goes hand in hand with green living and spiritual practices).

Here are three simple ways to experience connection: