May 2012

Pear & Quinoa Crumble Recipe (click)

Main Feature - On Meditation & Wine

At the recent www.noi2012.com conference Psychologist Charles Spence presented an overview of an interesting study. In a liquor outlet, on 2 different occasions they played French and German music and found that ~75% of sales of wine, were of the wine of the respective nation. Interestingly when the buyers were questioned about whether they thought the music influenced their selection, only ~7% admitted it may have! If this relates to our general behaviors, we may find we do a lot of things without really being aware of the reasons.

Now I don't want this to trouble your mind unnecessarily, mostly this is a pretty harmless part of life's illusion, but for the times when it's important though wouldn't it be good to be more aware and more conscious in choosing our actions. And meditation is a great skill to develop in order to make a more considered wine selection - I would have much preferred an Italian Chianti or Spanish Rioja for instance - please turn off Bach. Be fascinated further by watching "Is Seeing Believing?"

Touching base with many of my fav teachers recently I have been reminded of the simplicity of meditation on breath and body - in asana; in seated/lying meditation or indeed in our daily life. We just need to remember to be aware and to resist the seduction of our emotions and the intriguing stories in our mind. It' so simple. But the mind and emotions are so enticing.... and even when we are motivated not to listen - we just can't stop them.

And our minds get more disturbed I think because we confuse the process of meditation with the outcome. We all want the outcome of a calm quiet mind and this may happen after many years of meditation. But the process to get to this requires many, many years of being with the mind and emotions - however they are.

The process is the practice of be lovingly present to a busy mind; to be present in a loving accepting way to the difficult emotions that are part of life. We don't need to stop the thoughts, we just need to step back from them and look on with curiosity. And emotions... - just come back to the breath and bodily experience of them without the suffering that the stories around emotions fuel. Meditation practice does not make us impermeable to life - emotions, injuries still hurt, we're just better able to deal with them, by opening up to them.

People that meditate regularly feel less stressed, less pain and get all range of health benefits - low blood pressure, decreased incidence of cardiovascular disease (strokes and heart attacks) and diabetes - just to name a few.

Winter Resistance - The language of resistance

Too tired....... Too restless

Too cold …........Too warm

Too busy …........ Too lazy

Too fat ….......... Too thin

Call resistance, restistance and Just Do It, because you really do want to!

Pear & Quinoa Breakfast Crumble - Sandie Hernandez

1/ 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/4 cup roasted, roughly chopped hazelnuts
a pinch of grated nutmeg
3 pears, cut into in 6 wedges each
large handful of pitted dates
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
2 tablespoons agave or rice syrup
zest of 1 lemon

Mix quinoa with the nutmeg, hazelnuts, oil and pear juice concentrate.
Place the pears in a deep baking dish with the lemon zest, dates, cinnamon
stick, vanilla bean and enough water for the pears to sit in. Cover with foil
and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove foil, check that pears are just tender.
Spread quinoa over the pears and continue baking until quinoa is golden. Serve
with plain yoghurt &/or with milk of choice.