Relaxation

So I've touched on meditation and yoga, but relaxation is another tool to use to calm and center yourself.  Again, I can't stress enough how good this is for children.  One of my favorite aids to use it the Indigo Ocean Dreams CD for children.  It has four stories that guide the children into relaxation and then has a soothing soundtrack at the end.  I notice a huge difference in my children when their energy is so high and all over the place vs. how they feel and act after relaxation.  Even 10 minutes of relaxation seems to do the trick.  I also love how I feel after relaxation.  As crazy as this seems, I actually feel rejuvenated afterwards.

You can practice relaxation just about anywhere, at home, at work or even sitting in your car (you know, when you're waiting on one of your children's practices to end :)    Of course, you want to find as quiet of a  space as possible, but you can drown out any distractions with calming music or guided relaxation CD's.   Make sure you're comfortable, so whatever position that may be, lying flat on your back, on your side or seated.  Make sure you are comfortable temperature wise also, you don't want to be in the middle of your relaxation and get sidetracked due to cold toes.  Depending on my mood, I may also burn incense, but nothing to over-powering.

Relaxation is different for everyone, so find what works best for you.  Some days you may do 5 minutes and others you may want to go for 30.  The goal is to do what makes you feel good.  Start keeping a journal of your relaxation to note how you felt before your session and how you felt after.  You may be surprised at the results.  

Comfort foods

Words cannot describe how good this food is....

Mushroom/nut loaf, "cheesy" potatoes and fresh green beans.

The loaf recipe is from the Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien.  The only difference is, before I added the nuts, garlic and mushrooms to the skillet, I pureed them together to give it a more meat loaf consistency.

For the cheesy potatoes:

about 40 small white and red potatoes boiled for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain immediately and set aside.

For sauce: (this recipe is from my yoga teacher and is amazing!)
1 stick of earth balance (vegan butter)
3/4 C. raw cashews (soaked and drained)
2-3 C. hot water
1/2 C. nutritional yeast (this is not the yeast you use to bake with)
1 package Vegan Gourmet Follow Your Heart Cheddar Cheese
1/4 tsp. paprika
2tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Melt butter over medium heat in saucepan.  Combine water and cashews in blender.  Add cashew mix to saucepan. Shred block of cheese and add it and the remaining ingredients to the saucepan.  Stir constantly with whisk until cheese has melted and sauce starts to thicken.

In large baking dish, lightly spray and add boiled potatoes and cheese sauce.  Cook at 350 degrees until cheese starts to bubble (about 15-20 minutes).

For beans:
Combine 3 C. of fresh beans and 1 - 1 1/2 C. water in saucepan.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer for 6-10 minutes.  Drain, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.

Chickpea lettuce cups

1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
half sweet red pepper - diced
2 Tbs. chopped onion
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup grape tomatoes chopped
salt and pepper to taste
dressing of choice (I prefer an italian or basalmic)
washed and rinsed organic lettuce of choice (iceberg or large romaine works best)
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

Gently mix all ingredients together except rice and lettuce, add spoonful of rice in middle of lettuce, place ice cream scooper size on top of rice, roll up or wrap the lettuce.

Yoga for everyone

Yoga is such a wonderful gift to give to your child.  Introducing children to yoga at a young age gives them such a head-start in life, but it's never too late to start at any age.  Yoga is sometimes stereo-typed into a specific group.  For some reason, people think you can only do yoga if you are flexible.  This notion could not be further from the truth.  Yes, there are some that are extremely flexible and can contort their bodies into amazing poses.  However, there are many that are not as insanely flexible, but still practice yoga regularly.  Yoga may not make everyone supper flexible, but it will make each person more flexible than they were before starting to practice.  Flexibility is only one of the many reasons to practice yoga.  Some of the other benefits are improved balance, coordination, strength, creates a sense of calm, encourages creativity, better health and wellness, positive energy, builds self-esteem, stress management, move at your own pace practice, body awareness, increased focus and concentration, promotes environmental awareness and encourages compassion toward others.  I could on and on, but why don't you try it for yourself for a few days and you be the judge.  There are many yoga poses and practices you can download for free online.  You might want to try yogapeeps.com, click on vidoe's, and click on sun salutation with Lara.  If you don't like this one, try a couple different ones until you find what works best for you.  Just remember to always listen to your body.  If something feels painful, don't do it, your body wouldn't lie to you, just move into a more beneficial pose for your body.  Have fun experimenting!

Meditating

While visiting my sister and dad we all meditated as a large group.  All three of my girls, my sister, her two boys and my dad.  We didn't have the gong or candle that my children are used to so we made due with what we had.  My youngest, who is still getting used to seeing her immediate family meditate, was a little thrown off with the changes.  She missed the gong and candle, so while we all started meditating she went over to my sister and tapped her and whispered "I dreamt you had a candle and gong".  Of course that made all the other children giggle, but she came back to my lap and the others quieted down.  After a few more minutes, she was still looking at each of us and did her usual kisses for everyone routine.  She went to every single person and kissed their cheeks.  Again, this was amusing to the others, but they all composed themselves and we finished the meditation in silence.  I am so proud of all of the children for staying and controlling themselves and the best part was they all seemed to go to bed very easily that night :)

Visiting

Visiting my sister, her family and my Dad.  My sister has two boys, so the three girls in combination with the two boys, makes for a loud and busy visit.  They certainly have fun, it seems at times that it's 24/7, but they do eventually sleep.  The first night my middle one and her two boys thought they would all sleep in the same room.  At 11pm we finally had to separate them so they would actually fall asleep.  You would think that going to bed late would cause them to sleep in but nooooooo, up nice and early.  Tonight we tie-died shirts, they all did a great job and we had no casualties :)  My sister and her family tried one of my favorite vegan recipes and they liked it.  It was quinoa, black beans and tomatoes.  Recipe and picture added to the left, picture is from my phone so I'm not sure how well it will come out.  Sides were salad and fresh green beans.  So good, can you tell I love food!!  We will all be meditating as a big family tonight, I'll keep you all updated as to how that goes.  I have faith it will go wonderfully.

Back from vacation

We had a great time on vacation.  How amazing it was to do yoga looking out at the ocean, it was very peaceful.

The ride home seemed to take forever, as it always does.  I think I frightened my oldest's friend that came with us because I was meditating during the ride home and my daughter said her friend was looking at me strangely.

Vacation is always fun, but it is so nice to come home and sleep in your own bed (and of course I missed our dog like crazy).

Celebrating being home, we had Black Bean-Quinoa burgers from the July/August Vegetarian Times, vegan baked beans, vegan coleslaw and for dessert... "Veganized" Very Berry Shortcakes from the July/August Vegetarian Times (see picture to the left).  Yummy

Meditated tonight with all the kids, my mom and the dog.  My youngest was full of talking and finally said she was going away and left the room.  That lasted all of 30 seconds and she was back again, much quieter, and sat on my lap for the remainder of the meditation.  The girls love the sound of the gong, there is just something so soothing about the sound it makes.  Maybe tomorrow we will be able to get my husband to join :)