Meditation and the Mastery of Concentration.

I have several daily practices that I attend to in order to keep myself physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally healthy. One of those daily practices is meditation. Dhyana or deep meditation is the seventh limb of yoga. What we call yoga here in America is actually ASANAS - the third limb of yoga.

While I practice all of the limbs of yoga, Meditation is the subject for today.  Meditation typically requires a focus for your attention. Your focus may be, amongst others, your breath, a sound such as a mantra, or a candle flame.

Mastery of attention, or Dharana, is the sixth limb of yoga. Dharana translates as immovable concentration of the mind and it involves training the mind to focus on one point or image. This one-pointedness is essential to meditation. Dharana should be effortless and not forced.

When I tell people that I teach meditation, many people say that they can't meditate because they can't stop thinking. It is the nature of the brain to think therefore, it is impossible to stop thinking. We actually average about 60,000 thought per day. Most of our thoughts are on the past or the future.

In meditation, we use our focus to "re-direct" the mind to be present with our focus. In my daily morning meditation, I use a mantra as a focus for my attention. When I find my mind wandering, I bring my attention back to the mantra.  

The mastery of attention takes practice and is rarely "perfected" as it is a practice. However, with the practice of Dharana, the mastery of attention, we will begin to experience Dhyana, deep meditation and the development of witnessing awareness wherein we forget the body and the world.

The results are reduced stress and improved physical and mental health. I am a certified S.E.E.D. (Simple Easy Every Day) meditation instructor and would love to teach you how to meditate. My teacher is Sarah McLean. Check out her website here: www.sedonameditation.com.

 Namaste.

I might be the worst blogger ever. Probably not but, I consider my lack of blogging to be an indication that I am living my life well. I have been living well and, still doing my best to avoid sugar. I have read much about sugar avoidance and addiction lately and over the past 20 years.

My sugar addiction runs deep. It has been with me for a long, long time - my best frenemy. I feel so much better without sugar but I don't always avoid it. I find that the the desire for sugar is about immediate gratification. The pleasurable, sweet taste lasts seconds, minutes if I'm lucky. The short and long term results are the inevitable sugar crash, dark circles under your eyes, weight gain, diabetes coronary artery disease and many other acute and chronic health issues. 

If I can avoid the desire for that immediate gratification; the desire usually passes after 15 minutes or so. This is a great time to meditate. Meditation has been shown to reduce cravings and addictive behaviors. 

Also, oftentimes, my craving for sugar is actually a desire for water or protein. Try a glass of water with some lemon and/or some chicken salad or turkey jerky - that craving may just go away.

If you are trying to avoid sugar and have a relapse, don't beat yourself up about it (we usually treat ourselves with much more cruelty than we treat others). Do, however, take the time to assess what caused the desire, the craving, and how you felt afterward. Self-awareness is your best tool in dealing with this addiction. Be well. Namaste.

DAY 5 - SUGAR DETOX

I was wanting to post daily about the sugar detox but, that is not easy for me. Then, I "threw out" my back for the first time ever and have been lying on ice ever since. 

Sugar detox has not been as difficult as I thought it would be. I have been eating lots of good fat and protein - making it much easier to tolerate. That being said, I am still doing some homemade elderberry syrup daily mixed with a healing herbal tea infusion of ginger, turmeric, mint, green stevia and nettles. There is sugar so I am not completely off of the sauce but the anti-inflammatories and nutrients in the tea blend are amazing.

Below is a link to Dr. Mark Hyman's blog. He is one of the most recent people to write about sugar addiction and detox from sugar. He says to quit cold turkey and not to drink juices except green juices. 

http://drhyman.com/blog/2014/03/06/top-10-big-ideas-detox-sugar/

By drinking elderberry syrup and making my fresh green juices with fruit, I am not cold turkey. But, I am addicted to baked goods - cakes, cupcakes and muffins are my favorite. Sugar provides me with comfort.

Getting the sugar out is not easy. And, you need to have additional nutrients to help get you  through the withdrawal symptoms. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine (see link to article below). The good news is that I, you and anyone can do it.


 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/08/23/is-sugar-more-addictive-than-cocaine.aspx

DAY 1 - SUGAR DETOX

Today was not so bad although my changer have been slight. I had one piece of homemade pumpkin bread today (my rational is that I should finish it), some homemade elderberry syrup (about three tablespoons) and home made juices. There are apples and pears in the juice.

One might argue that I am not really detoxing but I am not in a contest here. I am looking to break an addiction in the best way that I know how.

No real crankiness or severe withdrawal symptoms yet and, I ate a lot of good quality protein and fats today. I believe that this is the key to a sugar detox. I eat avocados daily and, I love these paleo wraps from Julian Bakery:

 http://www.julianbakery.com/paleo-product/paleo-wraps/?gclid=COyPtuHGib4CFclufgodzQ0AiA.

They make a great breakfast burrito and they never break or tear like wheat or rice tortillas.

COLORADO PETITIONS TO LABEL GMOS

I have petitions for a ballot initiative to get GMOs labeled in Colorado. If you are a registered Colorado voter and would like to sign the petition, please contact me and I will bring the petition to you.


Here is a link for: Colorado Right to Know  - the organization that has been working on this initiative for about two years: https://www.facebook.com/RightToKnowColorado.

OPENING DAY OF BLOG AND

So excited to re-start blogging. Blogging (and writing in general) does not come naturally to me. I long to write but I don't feel that I do it well. That being said, here I go.

ALL THE SUGAR THAT I GAVE AWAY YESTERDAY

I am going to start by documenting my detox from sugar. Yesterday, I got to a breaking point with my sugar addiction.  I have been at this point many times before in my life. This time, I want to make permanent changes. I need to treat sugar as an addiction and that I cannot use it EVER. 

I know this sounds drastic - FOREVER is a long time. But, here is the thing, I cannot just eat one bite of sugar or have desert "every once in a while." Sugar, for me, is like alcohol is to an alcoholic. I cannot just have one. One bite of sugar can send me on a sugar binge for days, weeks, months or years.

So, yesterday, I gave away a whole bunch of sugary stuff to my neighbor and the food bank. The healing has begun. I kept a few things - elderberry syrup (I drink it daily), half a loaf of homemade pumpkin bread and some dark chocolate coconut butter. I know I should get rid of those things as well but I will document how things go and try to track progress.

I will be juicing to help me get through this. I find that the nutrition that I get from fresh juicing helps me to feel better and recover from addiction. I just recently bought a Hamilton Beach Juicer. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-67650-Mouth-Extractor/dp/B000FHQJ6C. 

This juicer is great. Prior to buying this juicer, I had a Hamilton Beach that lasted 17 years and, this new one has a much wider mouth so that most things do not need to be cut up. 

So, I still have the pumpkin bread, etc. I am nervous about "failing" yet hopeful that I can kick this thing.