Nanci

Photo by Isha Foundation

Dr. Prathap Reddy, founder of Apollo Hospitals Group, asks Sadhguru if there is a key to good health.

 Prathap Reddy: I have seen some of the impossible things you’ve done for people when they weren’t well. Is there something else to staying well beyond doctors and medicine?

Sadhguru: If we look at our body, we were not born the way we are right now. In your mother’s womb you started as two cells, then you came out as a baby and now you have become so big. How did all this happen? Whatever is the fundamental force that is creating this body – the basis of creation, which you refer to as the Creator – is functioning within the body every moment. The manufacturer of this body is inside. If you have a repair job to be done, would you like to go to the manufacturer or the local mechanic? If you had access, you would go to the manufacturer. If you’ve lost access, you go to the local tinker. I am not trying to belittle medical science, but if you had access to the source of that which creates this body, definitely every problem that you generate within the body could be handled.

If people are willing to do a certain amount of sadhana to balance and activate their energy body, they can definitely be free of all chronic ailments.

There are two kinds of ailments: infectious and chronic. Infectious ailments happen because of an external invasion. You must go to the doctor. Don’t meditate on it! But 70% of ailments on the planet are self-created. Why I say self-created is because it happened from within you.

This body is essentially programmed for health. So why would it turn against you? Because somewhere, you are not keeping it happy. You must pay a little more attention. There is a systematic way of paying attention to this, because everything in this body was created from within. When that is so, you can also easily fix it from within.

For the things you create from within, running to the doctor is of no use. The medical profession can only help you manage chronic ailments, they can never rid you of them. When you are creating it, how can they rid you of it? Every day, they will put more chemicals into you but every day you will doggedly create more disease within yourself. Unless you change that basic pattern, health will not happen.

When it comes to a chronic ailment, the root cause for it is always on the energy level. As you have a physical body, you also have an energy body orPranamayakosha. This is the energy infrastructure over which the physical substance comes together as a human body. If your energy body is disturbed – whether because of the atmospheres you live in, the food you eat, the relationships you hold or because of your emotions, attitudes, thoughts and opinions – this naturally manifests physiologically and psychologically.

The basic premise in yoga is that if your energy body is in full flow and properly balanced, there can be no chronic disease. If people are willing to do a certain amount of sadhana to balance and activate their energy body, they can definitely be free of all chronic ailments. Yoga is a means to build a pathway to the manufacturer so that health is not your business, it is his business.

 Blog from isha.sadhguru.org

Editor’s Note: In a world of hectic lifestyles, desk-jobs and pollution, health seems a faraway thing. In this video, Sadhguru gives us the unique yogic perspective on health. By paying attention to a few simple fundamentals, you can ensure good health for yourself.

Photo by Jon Chiang

For Suzanne’s upcoming Refine to Reveal 300hr Teacher Training in London, each faculty member was asked to answer a few key questions about them; here are her answers.

Why do you teach yoga?

The teachings of yoga have taught me to embrace every aspect of myself and humanity, which has been incredibly healing and empowering. As a result, there is a deep yearning inside for me to guide people into their own innate strength and healing power. Teaching yoga requires an expression of my highest: the seat of a teacher commands an openness, humility and integrity. Therefore, teaching yoga requires me to be a committed student. Finally, teaching yoga is incredibly comprehensive and multidisciplinary, which has allowed me to integrate my background within education, biomedicine, psycho-social research, spirituality and counselling.
 

Who are your teachers? 

My husband and children are my primary teachers as they stand next to me with an unwavering love reflecting back to me areas that lack awareness. My personal practices and interactions with others also provide potent awakenings. Sally Kempton is currently my primary meditation and philosophy instructor, along with Dr. Douglas Brooks, Kabir Helminksi and Thrangu Rinpoche. From an asana perspective, I have studied with BKS Iyengar and many of his masterful teachers, all who have been primary influences. I also studied extensively with John Friend and a few of his senior instructors, including Noah Maze and Sianna Sherman. Full pranams to each of these teachers and to the countless souls who have helped me peel back the layers – you know who you are.

What are your top 3 books? 

Too many to list…I am a book junky. Here are a few that have been in my hand the last month:

• The Power of Myths- Joseph Campbell
• Bless the Space between Us – John O Donohue
• Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine ~ Dr. David Frawley
• Anghora~ Dr. Robert Svoboda
• The Sacred Path of a Warrior – Chogyam Trungpa
• Take your pick of yogic texts: Upanishads, Mahabharata, Shiva Sutras, Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, etc.

 

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? 

‘Look for the good ~ in every situation’.… You will find it if you look long and deep enough. This advice is my primary motto, and it lifts me up (on many levels) every time.

The other piece of advice that changed my life:  ‘You need to ask in order to receive’. Your needs and longings are more likely to be nourished (satisfied) when you send out the request, prayer or intention. My advice with the request: be specific.

 

What do you do for fun? Relax? / Let loose? 

Yoga – of course. I also cuddle & read books with my children; cook and prepare food in the kitchen with friends & family; play my guitar; sing from the depth of my belly; telemark ski in the winter and hike in British Columbia mountains.

 

Thank you for inspiring us Suzanne! We are incredibly grateful for you.
Continue the interview and learn more about Suzanne’s upcoming trainings on her website www.suzannefaith.com

Are you unable to sleep well? Changing the quality of air in your bedroom can help. These five plants will help create a refreshing environment and get you peaceful sleep every night:

1. Aloe Vera

An indoor plant that requires less maintenance, aloe vera emits oxygen at night, help you combat insomnia, and improve the overall sleep quality. It has been listed by NASA as one of the best indoor plants to improve air quality. It reproduces easily, doesn’t need much direct sunlight, and does not need much watering.1

2. Lavender Plant

It is a plant well-known to induce sleep and reduce anxiety.2 The lavender smell slows down your heart rate and reduces anxiety levels. Studies have also revealed that the smell increases light sleep and decreases rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and the amount of time required to wake after falling sleep. It has also shown to reduce crying in babies.3

3. Jasmine Plant

The smell of jasmine has been been shown to improve the quality of sleep and increase alertness and productivity. This plant may also help to reduce anxiety. Its smell has a soothing effect on your body and mind. Studies have shown that it reduces anxiety levels, leading to a great quality of sleep.4

4. English Ivy Plant

This one is another favorite of NASA. English ivy is easy to grow and is a good air purifier. It may be beneficial for those who have breathing problems and asthma. Studies show that English ivy can reduce air molds to 94% in 12 hours. You can hang it from a pot inside your house or place it on a ledge where the leaves can trail down.5

5. Snake Plant

A popular indoor plant choice for many, snake plants are very easy to keep alive and great for interior decorating. They improve the quality of air and overall atmosphere at home. They are easy to grow and care and one of the most recommended plants of all. A snake plant emits oxygen in the night while you’re asleep, taking carbon dioxide from the air inside your house. It also filters nasty household toxins from the air.Blog by Cure Joy

Upon arriving in the capital city of Managua, you will immediately be whisked away to your private residence on the Pacific Ocean beach of Playa Escameca in Southern Nicaragua just a few miles from the Costa Rican border. Here you will spend 10 days practicing yoga twice a day and eat healthy live food near an empty soft sand beach that offers perfect surfing waves, incredible sunsets that colour the skies, lush tropical vegetation, freshly prepared organic meals and hot heat everyday! You and your fellow yogis will live together as a family in Escameca in a beautiful house with cabins nestled up on the hill over looking the beach. You will practice yoga together, swing in hammocks alongside one another and create the perfect environment for serenity.

Each morning we will engage in a Gentle Hatha Yoga practice, pranayama (breath work) and meditation followed with gourmet, rejuvenating raw foods and nutritional education to give you the tools to enhance your wellbeing. Evenings, we will dive in at sunset to a nurturing Restorative Yin practice. All practices will be threaded and infused with Traditional Chinese Medicine wisdom to help remind the body to return to its natural state of being and invigorate the shifts that have been waiting to happen.

Leave with recipe package, nutritional insights, and a yoga experience to not only remember – but to return home with as your newfound self.

To sign up visit breatheinlife.com

It is a month of paying attention to the signs, of acceptance of what is and what is showing up, of choosing your own reality vs the reality of others, and of allowing your intentions to align with right timing. Emotional clarity confirms your right reality and synchronicity and ease of action confirms you are on the right track.

We take a break this month from instability, chaos and change, and have a chance to take a breath and confirm what is right for us at this time in our lives. And with that, we have an opportunity to anchor good practices for paying attention to signs and working with our allies. Many of you may feel inspired to look ahead and to imagine an expanded next step for your life.

It is truly a time to be nurtured into the full bloom by allowing the signs of your reality check to guide you. Especially in the first few days of this month, if your path includes elements that are not “right”, you may experience a swift break down or dissolving of those elements. Take this as a gift from spirit and trust in the intelligence of your higher-self whose purpose is to keep you on the right track of your own intentions.

On the other hand, what is “right” will manifest in synchronicity and ease of action and you will experience a great flow of alignment. It is time to learn the lesson that growth does not need to include suffering and to be grateful instead of suspicious when life seems “too easy”.

This is the “reality check”. What do you feel? Is it yours? Is it right? Is it unfolding with ease? What is showing up? What are the signs?

If there are issues needing your attention, they will make themselves known. Pay attention. If the universe is handing you a new opportunity, pay attention. Take advantage, stay present, accept what is and allow yourself to have, to release, to change.

Reality Check also includes separating delusions and ideals from what is real. This is tricky as we need to find a good balance between dreaming our future and staying grounded in present physical reality. We are encouraged to keep a good pulse on both, being careful not to get stuck in the cynicism of what we perceive to be trapped in, or too far into dreamland with the danger of becoming irresponsible and ungrounded.

Being able to discern between a reality congruent with your own emotional truth and other imposing reality that is non-congruent is essential. There may be disappointment, judgment, confusion, a sense of betrayal and even fear when you separate yourself from a reality that no longer fits, but that is the consequence. Good boundaries, courage, and not taking other people’s reactions personally is required if you are to navigate this successfully.

This is a beautiful month with amazing gifts. Allow yourself to receive, to grow, to change, to love, to accept, to be loved, to create, to complete, to begin, to bloom, and to live!

How the month shows up:

YOU PERSONALLY

This is a month to work on anchoring your personal reality in a way that works for you. It may require resetting your emotional compass and even eliminating some old patterns of allowing another’s reality to inform your own experience of life.

The attitude plays a big role in this investigation. If you are an idealist or a pragmatist and you are around a lot of cynicism or skepticism, you need to be conscious of how it affects you. Sometimes it can serve to bring you back to reality from being too idealistic, but sometimes it can drag you down into believing that life is worse that it is. It is helpful to know what your attitude is so you can understand how it affects how you view your reality as opposed to how others see the world.

This is also a month of opportunity to work on separating yourself from family and ancestral patterns of creating reality that no longer fit who you are. Your reality check should always include how you feel. If someone says the weather is awful but you happen to like a dark stormy windy day, then your reality is different from theirs. It is all about being OK with your reality, embracing it, and allowing others to have theirs without judgment.

This is also an important time to anchor good practices for staying present, observing signs, listening to your own inner guidance, using your allies, and keeping yourself clear of unwanted intrusions from other people’s ideas, thoughts, attitudes and non-congruent realities.

RELATIONSHIPS

This month is a time of sorting, much like the sorting hat at Hogwarts (for those of you that are familiar with the Harry Potter series). The reality check in this sorting process will weed out relationships that are compromised in ways that are no longer necessary unless they are karmic. There is a need to look at where you have compromised yourself based on fear or convenience and you it may be time to check on the reality what the relationship is really based on. Are you living your reality or someone else’s?

This is an opportunity to separate yourself from the ball and chain of your ancestral patterns than no longer serve you as well as your family imprinting that does not support you. If you were raised in a reality where fear was a primary motivator for your actions, you have a chance to shift that reality to one of action based on healthier motivations. Sometimes separating yourself from the family icon and family patterns from your childhood may cause reactions from other family members and even feelings of abandonment and betrayal. Their reality is not your responsibility and if you have a different reality it is time to honor it and give yourself permission to have it and to live it.

This goes for other intimate and close relationships as well. If you are not on the same page and your realities are veering off from each other, it may be time to part ways. Again, the attitude plays a big part not only in understanding where the reality of another is coming from, but also giving you a choice of whether you wish to accept and accommodate that reality or not.

HEALTH AND THE PHYSICAL BODY

Reality check is a big issue when it comes to health and what that really means for you. There are so many realities and containers for identifying what is happening with the physical body and defining them as specific conditions, diseases and syndromes with set realities about treatment, success and what is possible. Some of this is cultural and some of it is based on the reality that is part of our family history.

This is the month where you can personally make great strides in separating yourself from the reality you were born into, both in family and culture. Some of this includes beliefs about longevity, vitality, responsibility, self-care, where you give your power away, your experience and measure of your limitations and what you expect of yourself and of others.

Your reality will definitely inform your health and your sense of empowerment around your health and well-being. It is a good month to set intentions about shifting your reality to a more positive one if you have felt restricted and powerless around your own well-being and health. On the other hand, if you have ignored real health issues due to delusion or idealism, your personal reality check may be to face the truth about what you need to do to stay healthy.

Either way, it is a powerful time to reset intentions for your self-care so that it reflects the reality you want for the best experience of life.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS PROJECTS

It is both a month of expansion, ease, and seeing the results of a reality that is congruent and supportive to your emotional compass, as well as a month of possible reality checks that lead to important and sometimes unavoidable change in business, partnerships and projects. You will see very clearly if something is not “right” or if you are struggling along the wrong path.

In this month if things are not lining up around a project or work and if you do not feel like the path is open before you in a supportive and positive way, perhaps you need to accept those signs and go back to the drawing board. There is no shame in that. It is better not to waste your time on something that will not bring you joy and satisfaction or where the timing is off for some reason. This is where you ask for help from your allies, trust the signs you are receiving, and check in with yourself about your own reality. It is important not to “stick it out” just because another person’s reality has an attachment to it. You will never please everyone.

The reality check on projects always includes the questions that pertain to beginnings and completions. Should I start this? And if so, when? Is it finished? If there is confusion in these areas, ask for clarity. If the timing is right to begin something, you will feel the support of synchronicity and alignment. If it is complete, you will feel an absence of energy around it.

Because of the expansive and blossoming quality of the energy this month, it could be a very prosperous time especially around things that line up nicely in your life. Pay attention so you can take advantage of opportunities that show up suddenly and unexpectedly.

ENVIRONMENT

Here is probably the best opportunity to evaluate your reality against that of others. You can do this regarding all environments by assessing how you feel. It is a good practice to pay attention to the environment you happen to be in and to notice how you feel. What is your reality in this environment?

It is similar to a person’s individual taste. Some feel at home in a small cozy space while others need more room or they feel claustrophobic. Some have a higher tolerance for extreme weather or noise levels or density of humanity than others. Beware of judging what is “normal” or “preferred”. Some view their experience of life one way and others another way.

This is true for any measure we give to religion, politics, health, responsibility, success, accomplishment, ambition, relationship, love, intimacy, happiness, productivity, expectation, and the list goes on. There is a chance to learn to appreciate the diversity and differences of our realities as well as not to buy into everything we hear or read about. Always check in with yourself. How do you feel?

DATES AND TIME FRAMES

June 1-8: This is a good time to revisit your intentions and set or reset them for the next 6 months. Because this is also a time when the reality check on what is appropriate will be very clear, you will be able to see what is an intention worth keeping and what isn’t. It is also a time when what is not right will have trouble aligning itself and could possibly even fall apart making room for something that does.

Acceptance and flexibility are good things to practice especially as you are receiving insights into your personal reality and refining your actions and intentions accordingly. Pay attention to signs and your inner compass. Follow your intuition and remember that you will never please everyone.

June 9: Full Moon is Friday June 9, at 7:10 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). Pay attention to what is unfolding with ease, support and inspiration. Your reality check at this time needs to include what inspires you. If you are not inspired in your life you are probably playing out someone else’s reality. You should feel as a blossom ready to unfold and be in full bloom. Be around something or someone you love so that you can anchor that feeling into your personal reality and make it so.

June 9-15: This is a time of slowing down, giving yourself time to breathe, to reflect, to re-evaluate, to think before you act and feel into something before you decide. Everything has been moving at top speed that we haven’t had the time to reflect on recent downloads, uploads or even life in general. It is the most perfect time to go on retreat, commune with nature, get good insights, clean your house, go through your stuff, really look at your environment and be inspired by what you have or what you see fit to change.

To honor this time frame, make sure you leave lots of room for contemplation, a walk in the woods, tea on the porch, or a longer conversation with a friend. It is also a good time to catch up with small projects that have been on your “to do” list forever like fixing the handle on a door or gluing a broken pot, as long as you do not get trapped into too much “doing”. Be present and pay attention. Keep some discipline against encroachments of the “I should be…” during this time. Take the time, slow things down, and receive the gifts.

June 16-23: As we approach the midpoint or the year and the time of the solstice, we go into gratitude. Gratitude is a frequency, an important vibration that can powerfully reset our reality from one of lack into one of abundance. The themes we should be working with in this time frame which includes the New Moon as well as the actual Solstice, are Fertility, Manifestation and Abundance. The energies of Creativity, Action and Inspiration are the trio that will get things moving in the right direction.

Acknowledge the Fertility you always carry within you to seed new life adventures. Believe in your own ability to Manifest what you desire. Receive the Abundance that is all around you and exemplified by nature. Have Gratitude for it all.

Be Inspired, do something Creative and take Action even if it just to move your body. This is an energetic time and one that can support a new reality for you so stay positive because it is what you focus on that gets fed and grows.

June 20: Summer Solstice is Tuesday, June 20, at 10:24 PM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). This is a beautiful day with loving aspects that support the beauty of your own blossoming. Work with the sun and its life-giving energy. It is said that the sun is what is driving change and accelerating evolution. You can harness this power and use it for your own transformation. Infuse the reality with which you want to be aligned with the power of the sun. Focus on expansion and gratitude.

This is a lovely community time so spend it with people you love, perhaps even doing a ritual of renewal, shifting from one reality to the next. Let nature be your temple.

June 23: New Moon is Friday, June 23 at 8:31 PM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT). A good time to revisit the intentions you refined at the beginning of the month. Take an inventory of your reality checks; of what opened up for you, what is still in question, what you eliminated, what you committed to, and where you are now different in your experience of your reality.  If you have gone through a painful separation in your relationships ask for and set an intention for healing. If you are experiencing great openings, opportunities and abundance, have gratitude for it but at the same time focus on setting up the details of how you will support this new reality on the physical level.

Where will you use discipline? What practices will support you? Take some time and explore your new reality, fill in the blanks with details of your intentions and your commitments to the actions that will make them so.

June 24-30: Follow the bread crumbs on the trail. Trust that they have been put there by a higher wisdom and that all you have to do is notice the first one and put one foot in front of the other and follow your nose. The false personality is very uncomfortable with this creative way of letting life unfold and wants to set forth a plan, a manual, a blueprint written in stone. It will try and convince you that you need to Know. It will also try and convince you that life really is hard and full of suffering. If you find this to be your reality, do some work to change it.

Ask spirit for help, work with gratitude as a higher vibration and don’t give into the voice of ego. Look to your heart as the compass of your reality and listen to the voice of your essence instead. Ask for signs to keep you on your path and check in frequently with what is real to you as opposed to what you have been told should be. Misery loves company and there will always be people who are suffering for a variety of reasons, some of the karmic. But that does not have to be your reality at all. Even with what you witness out there in the greater world, you always need to ask yourself, “What is my reality right now, right here? How do I feel?”

Have a wonderful month!

Blessings,

Lena

Blog by Power Path

More and more people are being drawn to living a more spiritually empowered, authentically grounded, intuitively guided, positive, and peaceful life these days. We’re generally becoming much more willing to accept the idea that we are spiritual beings who create our own reality and aren’t simply victims of circumstance, as evidenced by a huge surge of interest in such things as Quantum physics and mind body connections in health matters.  We’re more willing to explore and even speak with others about our rich inner life and our ever-expanding intuitive experiences. And yet, in spite of these encouraging signs, we’re still suffering with, and causing some of, the worst personal and worldwide violence and earthly destruction that humankind has ever known.

So even though the idea of spiritual awakening and personal empowerment sounds appealing and even possible, the actual shift in consciousness most of us need to make in order to go from victim of circumstance to Divine co-creator has yet to be made. We all must take a big step forward—if not an actual leap—to actually jump-start the transformation that everyone speaks of, desires and the world so desperately needs. Your inner peace contributes to the world’s peace.

Listening to your intuition, your Spirit instead of the voice of your fears and other peoples’ wishes and instructions is such a big step. Tuning in to and following your intuition relaxes your mind, puts your body at ease, and opens your heart because you eliminate inner conflict as you become more at one with your Spirit, being your Self. Following your Spirit brings about an inner sense of peace, relieves distraction, and helps you be more open to life. With such a big load off your shoulders, you can begin to fine tune your awareness and expand your creativity, gaining a more graceful, fulfilling, and productive rhythm in your life. With your Spirit firmly at the helm, you flow with the deepest, most authentic truth of your being and experience each day as God designed and intended you to experience it: perfect, beautiful, connected, and filled with joy.  Because you are aligned with your true Self, you feel less and less compelled to seek approval or self-worth in how others view you. You stop feeling out of sync with yourself, and that’s a huge relief.

Honoring our inner voice and allowing our Spirit to lead is the inevitable choice we must all eventually make in this great transformational time we find ourselves in. In the end, we must all allow our greater selves to take the lead and live as spiritual beings if we hope to live together in peace on this planet. Choosing otherwise keeps us battling our own fears and battling others. This choice hurts us, each other, and our planet.

Those who refuse, for whatever reason, to surrender to their intuition, their heart, and their Spirit will continue to suffer, to struggle, and to miss the joy of life. Like a battery running out of power, unless we stop fighting and start trusting our Spirit for guidance, our limited ego energy dwindles and dies.

Start tuning into your intuition by following these four steps.

Be open to your intuition. Being open helps you turn your attention to your heart, where your intuition is centered. It shifts your awareness to receive intuitive guidance.

Expect your intuition to guide you. The more you expect intuition to guide you, the more it will.

Trust your intuition when it does guide you. Don’t let your ego argue or struggle against your higher wisdom. A good way to help you trust your intuition is to voice it out loud when you feel it.  By voicing your intuition it gives it value.

Act on your intuition. By acting on your intuition you begin to shift away from fear and into flow. Acting on your intuition allows your true nature to lead. It puts you back into contact with your most creative nature.

This is good for you and good for the planet. Simply put, always trust your vibes.

Blog by Sonia Choquette

 Let’s be honest, tofu is kind of…not good?? I first experimented with Tempeh a few years ago and wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Thank you to the Indonesians, I have come across hundreds of ways to prepare and eat this forgiving and delicious protein alternative! My favourite? Peanut butter/soy sauce marinated tempeh, friend and ground up for fresh lettuce tacos!

If you don’t like the taste and texture of tofu, there’s something much better — Tempeh. Like tofu, it’s made from soybeans, but there are some big differences in taste, texture, and nutrition.

Tempeh is made by fermenting cooked soybeans with a mold, usually Rhizopus oligosporus, and mixed with other whole grains. The process creates fine white filaments that cover and bind the mixture into a firm cake.

Tempeh’s health benefits

This vegetarian superfood has all the same health benefits as Tofu. It . .

• Reduces cholesterol

• Increases bone density

• Reduces menopausal symptoms

• Provides faster muscle recovery

• Satisfies hunger, and

• Has the same protein quality as meat

Plus, the fermentation process adds even more health benefits.

More vitamins

Studies show that the fermentation process increases the amount of riboflavin, vitamin B6, nicotinic acid (niacin), and pantothenic acid.

Pantothenic acid.

• Plays an important role in the release of energy from fats, protein, and carbohydrates

• Is well know for keeping skin healthy and preventing it from premature aging, and

• Helps keep hair from turning gray prematurely

Vitamin B6

• Helps the body make neurotransmitters (chemicals that carry signals from one nerve cell to another)

• Is essential for normal brain development and function

• Helps the body make melatonin (a hormone that regulates sleep patterns), and both serotonin and norepinephrine (mood influencers)

Nicotinic acid. Raises HDL cholesterol levels, reduces triglyceride levels, and lowers LDL cholesterol. Good news for heart health.

Riboflavin. Four ounces of tempeh provides 23.5% of the Daily Value forriboflavin, while Tofu provides none. Riboflavin plays an important role in producing energy, and regenerating a critical liver detoxification enzyme, glutathione.

Better nutrient absorption

A big negative with soybeans, grains, and legumes, is they’re high in phytic acid. Phytic acid interferes with the absorption of zinc and other essential minerals, including calcium, magnesium, and copper.

Soybeans have the highest levels, but when they’re fermented to make tempeh, the amount of phytic acid decreases significantly. One study shows the fermentation process reduces the phytic acid content by one half. When it was also fried in peanut oil, less than 10% of the phytic acid was left.

Less Fat

Four ounces of soy has only 3.7 grams of saturated fat and less than 225 calories. The fermentation process has been shown to lower the fat content even more.

Easy to cook with and more versatile

Tempeh is great to cook with. It absorbs other flavors quickly, has a mild, nutty flavor, and is easy to digest.

What’s more, it crumbles easily so it’s perfect to use in place of chopped meat in any recipe. Or, you can slice or cube it for frying, stir frying, and sautéing.

Tempeh is not a new vegetarian food. In fact, it’s been a staple in Indonesian diets for the past 2,000 years. It’s now growing in popularity in the U.S. and is becoming a favorite for vegetarians. Once you try it, you’ find a lot of ways to incorporate it into your recipes.

-Wellness Wednesday Wisdom by Breathe in Life guide and holistic nutritionist, Meghan Trompetter

In life there are two distinct paths, the left and the right. The right is the path of restraint, self control, discipline and purity. This is often thought to be the only path toward clarity of heart an mind. But the left path is another, very interesting and curious approach. This is the path of exploration, of pure experience for the sake of our existence. Living without laws or rules, wide eyed for the pursuit of the heart and love of the moment. This is seeing God in a brownie, a cigarette, a yoga practice, in making love or making toast. Everything goes, everything is Holy. This is the path of Tantra.

This path does not care at all for what you do, but only for the context in which you do it. My teacher Amit was speaking to our class in Dharamsala about how we are only here to realize our own true selves, how we are not capable of making mistakes because we are all a part of God and all of God’s actions are simply a beautiful unfolding. ‘Everything you do is a blooming flower, a rising sun’ he would say. I started to wonder, is this permission to indulge in all of our vices, and take all of our actions as work and worship? It was an exciting thought, but something didn’t add up.

One girl spoke up, ‘but my father ate as much brownies as he wanted and he died because of it. How can you say that is a path to clarity?’ Amit responded, ‘if you eat the food with grace, with God in your eyes and heart, then the food itself will be healthy and nourishing because of the pure joy you find in it. This joy will fill you up and you will naturally in time through this perspective begin to take only what you need.’

This approach doesn’t encourage you to go overboard and drive yourself over the edge, but it will love you just the same if you do. What it really offers is an allowance for when you do move through the ebbs and flows, highs and lows of life. Rather than creating a resistance to habits we wish to break it welcomes them and explores exactly what they have to offer. It is not a path of ignorance, but of absolute awareness.

Through allowance, self love and understanding this path is meant to connect you to with the seed of your heart, your destiny, which will open you up to your true needs and desires. The most interesting thing is that for most of us the more we connect with this seed, this true self, we naturally want less and less of those things we were resisting. Through cutting out resistance and self loathing we find that we actually only craved these things because we were trying not to.

So, in your pursuit of health begin to explore these ideas of allowing yourself to pursue what calls to your heart. Drop the negativity associated with things you resist and enjoy them with love, awareness, and understanding. View yourself as an incredible being floating through a divine experience with nothing expected of you but for you to simply unfold exactly as you are. Practice gratitude for the opportunity to explore; not only mountain tops and foreign lands but any and all experience offered in this sacred and miraculous life we live. From there, watch how love nourishes your soul and leads you naturally toward what this is all about; simply finding more and more happiness in your life.

Written by Jordan Ross Dore of Breathe in Life

Sarah has taught yoga for 6 years and is well studied in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture; She teaches and lives for the Art of Healing.

A poet and philosopher at heart Sarah is often buried deep in a book with a cup of something steamy; her loves are Alan Watts, Rilke, Hafiz, Rumi, Marianne Williamson, and David Whyte. Though known for being a bit sassy, super geeky, a dancer, a laugher, and a lover of music, Sarah spends a lot of time in silent solitude harnessing the capacity for a deeper intimacy with life. Having a chameleon and sponge-like quality she can fit into any scene and pull information from all sources, combining them together into mystical love, anatomical, physiological, and energetic magic.
 
Her yoga classes hold a steady energetic pulse, while shifting the rhythms of the physical body to begin peeling the mind open to the understanding that we choose how we feel and experience each moment. Sarah’s intention is always to aid in the healing process and her understanding of the energetic body creates a space for deep release and a return home to the vibration of Truth.
 
Check out her website – www.sarahzandbeek.com
Follow her on instagram – @theszee
 
 

Giant retailer Target and two collaborators have developed a handheld scanner that’s designed to scan and “read” foods instantly. A Target executive says the device promises “better freshness, quality and shelf life” for its products. (Target)

I have seen the future of food transparency, and it is optical. Also, it fits in your smartphone.

Imagine a scanner the size of a grain of rice, built into your phone. You go to the grocery store and point it at something you want to buy. If it’s an apple, the scanner will tell you what variety it is, how much vitamin C it has and how long it has been in cold storage. If it’s a fish, you’ll learn whether it’s really orange roughy or just tilapia being passed off as something more expensive. If it’s a muffin, the device will tell you whether there’s gluten in it.

Tamar Haspel writes Unearthed, a monthly commentary in pursuit of a more constructive conversation on divisive food-policy issues. She farms oysters on Cape Cod. Find out more about her at www.tamarhaspel.com.

Although you won’t be able to do it tomorrow, this isn’t some kind of distant Jetsonian vision of the future. I’ve held the rice-size scanner in my hand; it was built for only a few dollars. I’ve seen bigger, more robust versions of the scanner do the things that your smartphone will be able to do, probably during the administration of the president we’re deciding on right now.

As cutting-edge as the applications are, the technology dates to Isaac Newton, who first separated light into its constituent wavelengths, through a prism, back in the 1600s. Fast-forward to when you went to high school, and Mrs. Weiss (or whoever your chemistry teacher was) had you identify a mystery chemical based on the light that reflected off it.

Every substance reflects (and absorbs) light in a different way, and the graph of that reflected light is a kind of optical fingerprint. Except it’s better. Although the whorls and lines in our fingertips don’t say anything inherent about their owner (See that swirl? Doesn’t mean you’re smart.), the peaks and valleys of the optical fingerprint do. That peak there is vitamin C. That other one is sugar. This pattern means gluten.

Identifying a food and its characteristics based on the scan is a twofold job: First, you simply match the optical reading to a library of known objects; second, you read the topography of the graph to zero in on specific characteristics. The two together can tell you an awful lot about what you’re scanning. The Mrs. Weisses of the world are rejoicing.

As am I. Because the implications of this technology are enormous.

I checked in with three companies now working on bringing optical scanning technology to the food supply. Two of them, TellSpec and SCiO, are working on handheld scanners designed for consumer use. The third, Target, is already starting to implement optical scanning in its supply chain.

SCiO says its scanner will tell you the percentage of fat, carbohydrate, protein and water found in cheese, yogurt, milk, meat, fruits and vegetables. (SCiO)

Target, one of the nation’s largest retailers, is collaborating with MIT and business design firm Ideo in a venture called Food + Future coLab, based in Cambridge, Mass., which has the broad mission of helping consumers better understand their food. Greg Shewmaker, a Target entrepreneur in residence (yes, that’s a title!), leads the lab and took me on a tour.

Exhibit A was Brent Overcash, whose job is to investigate interesting technologies that might have a food-related application. The interesting technology he’s focused on is optical scanning, and he showed me how they’re doing it.

Scanning something is the easy part, as easy as taking a fingerprint. What’s tough is figuring out what that something is. The library the researchers need is huge. It’s not like they can take an apple, scan it and just file it under A. They have to scan Fujis and Honeycrisps and Jonagolds, and know what their scans look like when the apples are just-picked and when they’ve been sitting in a warehouse for a year. (Some of the nutrients deteriorate.) They have to know that the side of the apple that didn’t get sun will have less vitamin c than the side that did. They have to know that Grower A’s Fuji will look a little different from Grower B’s Fuji, but they’re both Fujis. And the only way to learn to read the scans, to determine things like sugar and vitamin and calorie content, is to physically test the apple for those things. In a lab. Using expensive equipment and scientists with PhDs.

It’s not an undertaking for the faint of heart, but Target is stepping up. The company is putting industrial-strength scanners in its distribution centers to start building that database. And it’s doing it because it hopes to gain a competitive advantage. According to Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, “We’ll deliver better freshness, quality and shelf life,” because produce that’s old or inferior — or not what the label promises — will never make it to the floor.

That’s the motivation for Target, and its effort is beginning with the fresh fruits and vegetables that come in to its centers. But the possibilities are almost literally endless. TellSpec and SCiO, both of which have had hiccups in their crowdfunded efforts to bring these scanners to market, probably will be successful with problems that don’t require extensive (and expensive) physical testing: TellSpec is working on detecting gluten; one of the developers working with SCiO is focused on identifying adulterated spices. What else? How about answering such questions as:

■Are there pesticide residues on this strawberry?

■ ■Is the calorie/fat/protein/vitamin information on the label accurate?

■ ■Is there dairy in this salad dressing?

■ ■Has my beer been watered down?

■ ■Is this really a 2004 Caymus Cabernet?

■ ■Is that beef, or horsemeat?

■ ■Is that scallop, or shark?

■ ■Does the organic spinach have more vitamin A than conventional spinach?

■ ■Is there E. coli on this cantaloupe?

■ ■Is this honey, or gold-colored corn syrup?

A researcher uses a handheld scanner to assess a strawberry at the Food + Future coLab in Cambridge, Mass. Stronger versions of the device are being used to scan produce in Target distribution centers to build a database of information. (Target)

Some of those questions — the ones about E. coli and pesticide residues, for example — will be harder to answer than others — the ones about horsemeat and honey. But all will be answerable. (This technology may even be able to detect whether some foods are genetically modified; it depends on whether the modification changes the optical fingerprint.) Today, out of the box, the $249 SCiO scanner will tell you the percentage of fat, carbohydrate, protein and water found in cheese, yogurt, milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, according to SCiO chief executive Dror Sharon. The technology has come far enough to give credence to the idea that it will go much further.

Imagine what happens when it does. When consumers can see what’s in their food, we no longer have to lobby Congress to make suppliers disclose it. When consumers (or consumer protection groups) can test for pesticide residues, we no longer need governments to do it for us. Just as caller ID virtually ended prank calling, optical identification will go a long way toward stopping fraud, adulteration and contamination.

“This is the ultimate lie detector,” says Overcash. “Strip away the branding, labeling and messaging: What is this thing?”

Information means accountability. We won’t have to worry about legislation to make sure fish is labeled properly, because every fish market in America will have a scanner and the FishID app; the problem solves itself. There will no longer be cellulose in the Parmesan. The amount of legislative action and taxpayer money needed to ensure transparency will drop dramatically.

I believe this technology will change our relationship to food, and to the people and companies that grow it for us and sell it to us. It won’t happen tomorrow, and it won’t happen all at once, but the companies involved in bringing optical technology to food will gradually build up the fingerprint library and the algorithms to use it. Before it comes to consumers, it will probably be implemented higher in the food chain, weeding out mislabled, fraudulent and over-the-hill products. Then, as prices come down, it’ll be a more realistic choice for consumers. We’re likely to see some of the more straightforward uses this year, as TellSpec and SCiO ship their devices (both due out toward the end of summer), and some of the more complicated tasks are a couple years out. But this is imminent, and it has the power to change much of what ails our food supply.

This story has been updated.

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By Tamar Haspel Columnist, Food