As I was pondering what to share with you this week the little bell on my computer rang to let me know that an email had been delivered. It was this article.... perfect synchronicity and beautiful words for you to enjoy...
To Find What’s Beautiful
Sometimes, when we least expect it, life holds us a little closer and loves us a little bigger.
These are not loud and obvious events, but rather tender moments of vulnerability, clothed in the silence of bittersweet serenity and born of unforeseen grace. They’re the times marked by our first steps into unabashed existence and our release of every fear to the winds, the minutes that immediately follow what felt like an eternal uphill battle—and by that I mean a gut-wrenching, totally vertical, ruthless climb against the odds.During that climb, it’s likely that we stumbled upon some truths. It’s also likely that, if we gave them enough time, we cultivated the means to blossom past the limits of even our wildest dreams, watching in disbelief as these truths unfurled into the miracles that were destined to fly by the strength of our own wings.
That does’t mean that we’ve never crashed and felt lower than we care to describe; it just means that we got through those parts. Simple as that.
It just means that time happened.
It means that even when we asked more questions than we could ever imagine answering, even when we didn’t know what to do because everything felt so wrong, even when every known became unknown within the breaths between frantic words, we survived. (Somehow.)
It means that time passed and we chose to go with it, to let it carry us through. And along the way it taught us countless lesson, most importantly teaching us what’s beautiful and where to find it.
Time teaches us that to find what’s beautiful is to enter a world of our own—the one we create with our heart songs and stories, the moments of realization that the present is much too sweet for us to want to be anywhere else.
And the best part is that what’s beautiful to each of us can be anything, found anywhere.It can be found in the radiant souls who show us unconditional love and would do anything for us, whether we’re separated by endless miles or tightly wrapped in each other’s arms. It’s those who nourish our souls with heartfelt words, spoken, written or felt; the ones who have known the climb because they helped us on our way up, or because they’ve done it themselves.
It’s living in a place that inspires us, surrounding ourselves with those who share and respect our glorious quirks through a sacred recognition—an honoring of universal truths and unique rhythms alike. It’s that we are all inherently connected, yet entirely individual, one among many.
What’s beautiful is being who we are and loving others for who they are. And sometimes, that’s hard. But we (try to) do it anyway.
It’s immersing ourselves in the electric calm of what it means to be inspired, being as loud as we please but always ready to listen. Perhaps it’s running wildly in some moments and being completely still in others, relying on our inner knowing to guide us.
What’s beautiful is doing what we love to do. It’s waking up to a promising sunrise knowing that our day will be filled with the joy we’ve always dreamed of living. It’s closing the final hours of an adventure to an opulent sunset, realizing that everything we’ve ever desired has come our way.
At the same time, what’s beautiful is that we usually don’t get what we want, but we often find that what transpired instead was exactly what we needed. And to find that, we’ve probably experienced varying degrees of sadness, from minor disappointment to unspeakable pain.
But pain doesn’t last forever, and it’s a brilliant teacher.
It shows us what we truly want before we realize we want it, before we understand why we need it. And when things falls into place, we find what’s beautiful about pain—that it tells us exactly what we need, if we remember to listen.
And what’s most beautiful is that our hearts are always listening, ever armed with the courage to find what’s beautiful if we let them.
Our hearts know better than our doubtful minds; they trust that things will work out, even in the darkest moments of a harsh reality. In the midst of blind chaos, our hearts can be brave despite the terrors of our heads. With every pulse and rush of blood, they acknowledge our journey in all its unpredictable glory—honoring it, loving it, living it.And because they do this, because they know and feel everything there is to know and feel, they always find what’s beautiful. They always lead us to those moments when we’re held a little closer and loved a little bigger.
These moments don’t tell us that everything is perfect, nor that it ever will be; they tell us that we’re alive, awake, searching, finding, experiencing.
They tell us that we’re still going, no matter how steep the climb has been and undoubtedly will be.And whether we’re falling down or flying, they give us the courage to stumble upon life and find what’s beautiful about it, to let time do its work—to harness the courage of our hearts and let it take us wherever it may.
And that’s beautiful.
5 Great Yoga Books to Inspire your Practice
Sometimes you need a little inspiration when you unroll your yoga mat at home. Sometimes you can't quite remember how to do a pose, or aren't sure whether to do your forward bends before or after your backbends (it's after). A good yoga book can guide you and provide you with step-by-step instructions, pictures for you to follow and wise words to motivate you to get on your mat and move your body.
There are so many good yoga books out there, some of which I've read and some I haven't... yet. Here's my personal top 5 that I'm always referring to and that I think you'll find helpful, plus an amusing extra.
Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit by Donna Farhi This book is beautifully written with very clear instructions about how yoga can be a holistic practice. Within its 271 pages it has 3 sections - Groundwork, The Asanas and Practice. The first section has detailed explanations about how the body moves, and how the asanas affect each part of the body. The Asana section is a comprehensive guide to the different postures with photographs showing correct and incorrect versions of each pose. The final section helps you to sequence the postures to create a home practice. This book is a complete guide to yoga and, if you are looking to enhance and advance your practice, it will give you a new level of understanding when read cover-to-cover.
Yoga, the Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness by Erich Schiffmann Written in a clear and concise manner, this book would be suitable for someone who is new to yoga. It focuses mainly on the Asanas, giving extremely good step-by-step instructions plus a photograph for each one. There are chapters on Meditation and Breathing too which makes this book a complete guide.
Light on Yoga by BKS Iyengar This book is considered by most yoga teachers to be a classic work and it is for this reason that I have included it in my list. Be warned though - it is a challenging read. The difficulty is, I feel, due partly to the language and translation and partly to the fact that it shows mainly the advanced postures. I remember buying this book at the start of my yoga training course and only being able to do about 5 of the postures! I was quite downhearted! However, if you view this book more as a yoga dictionary rather than trying to read it cover-to-cover it is very valuable and the pictures are as informative as the instruction. Others may disagree with my views on this book - I know it is beloved by many - and I guess the only way you'll find out is to read it and form your own opinion.
The Yoga Bible by Christina Brown This is the book I most frequently recommend. It focuses mainly on the Asanas and provides very good instructions and photos. It shows a wide variety of postures (170 to be exact) which are divided into groups - Standing, Seated, Twists, Backbends etc which is very helpful. Following each posture instruction it also tells you the counter-pose to do afterwards and how to adjust the pose to make it easier if necessary. I recommend this to beginners and to those more experienced too - it deserves a place on every yogi's bookshelf.
1001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom by Liz Lark I have included this little book in my favourites list because it is easy to dip in and out of. It contains 1001 numbered snippets of information about such things as the origins of yoga and relieving anxiety, as well as inspiring quotes and yoga poses. Its different colour pages and little drawings make it a pleasure to look through and it makes a nice book to have on your bedside table so you can read a 'pearl' as you wake and before you go to sleep.
Yoga School Dropout by Lucy Edge This is a funny account of one London executive's travels in India as she tries to discover her inner self. Although light-hearted and frivolous, one of my favourite quotes of all time has come from this book:
Lucy has been in a class with renowned yoga master Kausthub Desikachar who tells the class:
"Today asana has been made into a photograph. There is no difference between this and gynmastics... but asana is not a performance, asana is what happens in the posture and afterwards".
He encouraged us to guard against this by cultivating the qualities of 'sthiram' - stability, alertness and attention, and 'sukham' - remaining light and comfortable in the posture.
All of these books are available on Amazon. Happy reading!
This Week I'm Visiting... a Bluebell Wood
I'm off to visit the bluebell wood at Hatchlands in East Clandon, Surrey. I think they'll be fully open and wonderfully fragrant this weekend as we've had such glorious sunshine. Here's a link to this and some other bluebell walks in Surrey... don't miss them, they won't be here for long.
http://www.surreylife.co.uk/out-about/places/best_places_to_see_bluebells_in_surrey_1_3476749
This Week I'm Making... Mini Grain-Free Apple Crumbles
These were delicious and so, so easy to make - much easier than a traditional apple crumble. They only have a few ingredients, and no sugar! They are from the deliciouslyella blog I visited last week which has some great recipes. I'm going to try the grain-free bread next... I'll let you know how it goes!
- 1 red apples
- 1/3 a cup of almonds
- 4 medjool dates
- 1 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon of chia seeds – these are optional, I add them for all their insane health benefits, but if you don’t have any omitting them won’t change the taste or texture
- 3 teaspoons of cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons of raw agave syrup (I used maple syrup instead)
Start by peeling the apple, then slice it into pieces, discarding the core. The size of the slices isn’t especially important, I normally chop mine into about 10 pieces.
Place the apple in a sauce pan with a shallow layer of boiling water. Put the lid on and boil for 10-15 minutes, until the apple pieces are really soft. Then drain the water.
While the apple cooks, place the almonds and pumpkin seeds into a food processor. Blend for a minute, until they break down. Then add the pitted dates, agave, cinnamon and chia seeds. Blend for another minute or so until a sticky mixture forms.
When the apple is cooked put it in the bottom of a small baking dish, sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with half a teaspoon of agave, before placing the nut mixture on top.
Then bake at 180C for about 10 minutes, until the crumble is wonderfully hot and your kitchen smells like heaven!
Enjoy!
This Week I'm Growing... Calendulas - Part 2
The Calendulas seeds that I sowed 4 weeks ago (see blogpost of 3rd March here) are big enough to transplant now. This process is called "pricking out". It allows the seedling more room to grow on and form a bushy, healthy plant without having to compete with its neighbours for water, light and nutrients. I'll let them put down roots and fill out in their new pots for a few weeks before I plant them into the garden.
Here's how to do it:
- Fill some small pots with multi-purpose compost.
- Pat the compost down and, using a pencil, make a small hole in the centre of the compost.
- Gently hold one of the lowest leaves (the seed leaves) of your Calendula seedling.
- Use a pencil to carefully scoop the seedling out of the tray.
- Drop the roots into the ready-made hole in the new pot and press the compost gently back around the stem.
- Water them and remember to label them.
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