Some Words About Worrying

At the beginning of a yoga class I often start with the invitation to come into the present moment.  This transition period is an important part of the ritual of a class - it helps us to pause and bring our awareness to what's going on right here and now, rather than going over the past or leaning into the future. 

Sometimes we can find ourselves rushing to class, worrying about where to park/whether we did that final task at work properly/whether we have enough milk in the fridge/left the iron on/were too sharp when we spoke to a family member... and so on.... delete as appropriate. We end up bringing that drama and anxiety into the class with us so that we are distracted and tense in the very place we want to relax.  When we come into the present moment by putting our awareness on our breathing and the sensations within the body we notice that, in this moment, everything is ok and we can reconnect with who we are beneath the busyness of everyday life.

Here's an article from Om magazine, offering insight into relaxing on the mat.

Stop The Worry Habit by Stephanie Fitzgerald 

You know the feeling. You've reached the end of the week. You've made it to class. You've unrolled your mat, laid down and you're just settling into a bit of pre-yoga relaxation.... when your mind starts racing. Anxieties about the week, life, relationships or even just tonight's dinner start tumbling around your mind and it seems the more you try and clear your head the busier your mind becomes.

You're not alone. Many of the conversations I have with people about stress and anxiety focus on how they struggle to relax. In fact, some people I work with have stopped yoga or any kind of "down time" because they feel they simply cannot relax and enjoy the flow. As soon as they physically stop, their mind starts. It is for this reason that so many of us stay so busy and active at times of stress. The idea is that if we physically keep going then we don't have time to stop and think. Whilst this coping strategy may work short-term, we are denying ourselves much needed rest and relaxation, which is ever-more important in today's busy and hectic world. We are also vulnerable to being overwhelmed if injury or illness means we have to physically stop rushing around, as we lose our coping strategy in one fell swoop.

So if stress and anxiety are crowding your mat, here are some tips to help you manage these thoughts and allow yourself to keep your mat a place of calm just for  you.

Don't Set Expectations

Don't try and force yourself to relax in yoga. After all, nothing is quite so un-relaxing as a little voice in your head saying "You should be relaxed. Why aren't you relaxed? Just relax. Relax. Right Now." The art of relaxation does not lie in the absence of stress and anxiety. Instead, it is about learning to be calm and relaxed in busy situations. You don't need to be in a calm and quiet space to relax. You can relax in a traffic jam with a road drill hammering right next to you. It's all about how you are, not about the situation you are in.

Don't Push The Thoughts Away

Although this may sound contradictory, you don't want to push negative thoughts out of your mind. By trying to force them out you are simply focusing all your energy on them and will be more likely to experience further thoughts. Imagine the walls of your mind are made from the same material as a trampoline. The harder you push a thought away, the harder it can ping back into your mind. However, if you just allow your thoughts to come and go, without judgement or focus, like light clouds drifting across a blue sky, then they hold no power or force. Don't push thoughts away, don't welcome them, just acknowledge them and let your mind move on at its own pace.

Distinguish Between Real Versus Hypothetical Problems

Real problems and hypothetical problems can both elicit high levels of stress and anxiety. The difference is only one of them is real. If you find your mind racing ahead to a lot of "what-if" situations then stop and ask yourself "is this a real worry?" A real worry means you are actually in the situation right now and it needs to be dealt with. Until something actually happens you have as much evidence it may go brilliantly as you have it may be a disaster. Why? Because it hasn't happened yet. So if you are panicking about tomorrow's presentation at work and your mind is racing with "what if it's a disaster? What if I go bright red?" then stop and breathe. Ask yourself, "am I at the presentation right now? Is this a real problem which needs to be dealt with right now?" If the answer is "no" then let it go. Try and ask yourself some balancing questions such as "what if it goes brilliantly?" "What if I don't go bright red?" "What if this is the highlight of my career and I win an award?" Remember that until something actually happens we have no way of knowing how it will pan out, and getting ourselves all worked up with a lot of negative "what ifs" is not going to make the situation better. So let go of the hypothetical worries. Unless you're in the situation right now then it doesn't need to be dealt with. Take a deep inhale and exhale all the hypothetical worry out of your mind and out of your body.

Set Aside Time To Worry

This technique is designed to prevent thoughts "pouncing" on you when you are trying to be still and relaxed. The premise is simple: you pick a time every day where you will deliberately worry for up to 20 minutes. This means you sit down and deliberately think about all the things that bother you or are causing you stress and anxiety. You deliberately focus on them and worry about them. You don't have to try to solve them or do anything about them, although sometimes problem-solving naturally occurs, bu just stop and deliberately worry. The logic behind this is that stress and anxiety respond very well to boundaries. If your worry time is at 3pm every day and you get a worry at 11am you can think to yourself "I won't worry about that now, I'll worry about it at 3pm". This technique means you have more control over when you worry or become stressed, so you can set a worry time for a different time to your yoga class. Anxiety and stress don't like to be ignored completely, but if they know you'll come back to them later then they''ll happily leave you in peace for a while.

The above technique will help you reclaim your mat and allow you to mindfully continue your practice without stress and anxiety hijacking your down-time. Visualise leaving stress and anxiety on the doorstep, as though they are unwelcome guests. Don't invite them in and have a conversation with them in your class. Instead, roll out your mat, stop worrying and become a warrior instead. This is your time and you deserve it.

Your 5-A-Day in 1 Bowl of Soup

You may have noticed over the last couple of years that there has been a growing interest in green smoothies. Green smoothies are a quick and easy way to get large amounts of fruits and leafy greens into your diet. A glass full a day will provide you with loads of vitamins, nutrients and anti-oxidants to boost your health and energy levels (take a look at www.simplegreensmoothies.com for more info and good recipes).

Although green smoothies are a fairly new idea, I got to thinking that really they are just cold, raw soup, and therefore I wondered if I could find some soup recipes which would also be as delicious and nutritious as a smoothie.  Well, yes I did....lots.... and I'm starting to try them out and will pass the recipes on to you once I've "road-tested" them.  

The first one I tried is Spring Vegetable Soup which comes from www.amuseyourbouche.com, a vegetarian website that I use for inspiration.  It was simple and quick to make and tasted really good.

You will need: 

1 tbsp oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
125g frozen peas
140g broccoli florets (1/2 a medium head)
100g asparagus (about 10 spears) cut into 2cm pieces
1 medium courgette sliced (this isn't in the original recipe - I just added it in as I had one in the fridge!)
750ml vegetable stock (use Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder which is available in most of the larger supermarkets and health food shops - it really is the most flavoursome)
Black pepper
3tbsp chives, chopped
50g fresh spinach
2tbsp plain Greek yogurt

Here's how to make it:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Cook over a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, stirring regularly until fairly soft. 
• Add the peas, broccoli, courgette and asparagus and then pour over the vegetable stock. Season with plenty of black pepper.
• Bring to a simmer, and cook for around 15 minutes, until the vegetables are tender but still bright green.
• Add the chives and spinach and cook for a further 1 minute until the spinach has wilted.
• Blend the soup until smooth.
• Stir in the Greek yogurt and top with some more chopped chives. 

Two Antidotes to Anxiety, According to The Dalai Lama From His Book "The Art of Happiness, a handbook for living"

In discussing the antidotes to anxiety, the Dalai Lama offers two remedies, each working on a different level. The first involves actively combating chronic rumination and worry by applying a counteractive thought: reminding oneself, ‘If there is a solution to the problem, there is no need to worry. If there is no solution, there is no sense in worrying either.’

The second antidote is a more broad-spectrum remedy. It involves the transformation of one’s underlying motivation, rather than emphasizing the achievement of worldly success, money, or power. Standing back and simply making sure that you mean no harm and that your motivation is sincere can help reduce anxiety in ordinary daily situations.

For example, if you are feeling anxious about a new job interview, or asking someone that you like for a first date, or giving a speech, ask yourself what is your underlying motivation? Is it only money, power, and fame? Or is it a genuine interest to help others, participate fully, contribute to the world, to love and be loved in return? If this is so, then you will find your anxiety decrease because you know that, regardless of the outcome, your intentions are good and you will find the way to express your values, even if it takes some time.

So next time you are worrying or feeling stressed, take a moment to look at the situation from your deepest motivation and see that you are probably operating from a good and strong source. Then you can examine if you can or cannot solve the problem, and find it easier to take a clear and calm path forward.

And finally, a video to make you smile. Don't worry, be happy.... and you might learn something too - I didn't know sloths could swim!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssa7LMeC_Bw

Slowing Down for Better Health and Productivity

How to Uni-task To Meet Your Goals

by Catherine Roscoe Barr via Lululemon's blog

It's an old cliché; jack of all trades, master of none. But there’s something to it—especially in the 21st century. For business coach Marie Forleo, one of the things lying between her and success was multi-tasking. “I realized that I could be a successful and multi-passionate entrepreneur if I committed to single-tasking with excellence in each moment,” she’s said.

Single-tasking or ‘uni-tasking’ isn’t just a great for business. Practicing it can help us to be fully present with friends and family, as well as fully engaged in our self-nurturing rituals and creative endeavours. Unitasking “uses less energy than multitasking and actually reduces the brain’s need for glucose,” says neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of The Organized Mind. Multitasking, on the other hand, can raise the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which he says “burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time.”

So we need to focus more. It all sounds good, but how? When? What happens if we don’t? We went looking for more intel.

The multi-tasking myth

There’s a growing science behind multi-tasking, and it turns out that dividing our attention isn’t necessarily the answer to accomplishing all of our goals. Our tendency toward multi-tasking isn’t entirely our fault, though you might point a finger at Darwin.

“We evolved novelty detectors in the brain to seek out new information,” believes Dr. Levitin, but “a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century: we can now encounter so much novelty that we can short-circuit those detectors.”

Ever notice that little kick you get out of scrolling through your social media feeds? We all scratch that itch by looking at our Smartphones a whopping average of 1,500 times a day and completing 221 daily tasks with them (according to a study by UK marketing agency Temark) This action releases dopamine, a highly addictive neurotransmitter that’s implicated in gambling and drinking problems. We’re literally addicted to our Smartphones, but only because we’ve learned to be. And we can un-learn this.

“Multi-tasking doesn’t actually exist,” says Dr. Levitin. Actually, our brain’s natural inclination is to focus on one thing at a time. “Instead, we’re rapidly shifting from one task to the next. Trying to juggle all these things at once fractionates our attention, and impairs our ability to think clearly.”

The costs of multi-tasking

1. Decreased cognition and productivity
“Multi-tasking has been compared to smoking marijuana in terms of cognitive decrement, but without the more positive aspects,” says Dr. Levitin. All of this constantly dividing our attention decreases our awareness, memory and concentration. On the flipside, “People who uni-task, or ‘single-task,’ get more done at the end of the day, and their work is judged to be of higher quality and to have greater creativity.”

2. Impaired decision-making
“Neurons use up almost the same amount of nutrients when making a trivial decision as an important one,” says Dr. Levitin. In The Organized Mind he shares that neuroscientists have discovered that unproductivity and loss of drive can result from decision overload. “It’s as though our brains are configured to make a certain number of decisions per day and once we reach that limit, we can’t make any more, regardless of how important they are.”

3. Activation of the stress response
Jumping from one task to another in a short time span stresses our brain. “Each time we switch our attention from one thing to another, there’s a metabolic cost—we use up neural resources,” says Dr. Levitin. This can cause cortisol, the stress hormone, to be released, which triggers the stress response, downgrading our immune, digestive, reproductive and growth systems, mobilizing more energy to fight or flee. “This in turn can cloud your thinking, and the irony is that you don’t even realize your thinking has been clouded because it is too clouded to notice.”

Tools for single-tasking with excellence

Knowing that multi-tasking decreases our productivity, impairs our decision-making, and activates the stress response, “we can make a deliberate effort to uni-task,” says Dr. Levitin. Here’s how, he says:

1. Unplug
There are plenty of ways to consciously kick divided attention to the curb. “Hit the neural reset button in the brain and get out of the novelty loop,” says Dr. Levitin, who suggests practicing yoga, exercise, meditation, listening to music, and surrounding yourself with nature.

Periodically unplugging by using a time management technique, like the Pomodoro technique, “is very useful,” Dr. Levitin says of the practice of turning off all distractions, setting an alarm, and working for an uninterrupted period of time. This philosophy also applies to quality time with friends and family. Put distractions out of sight and give presence.

2. Download
Write down everything you have to do. “This clears your mind of all the chatter and then your ‘to do’ list doesn’t replay in your head endlessly while you try to focus,” he says.

3. Prioritize
“That way, you know that whatever you’re working on now is the most important thing you could be doing. That makes it harder to get distracted,” says Dr. Levitin.

Forleo recommends marking each task on your to-do list with an I (for important) or a U (for urgent, i.e. email, texts, social media), then to do the important stuff first. “Things that are urgent often relate to other people’s goals, not our own,” says Forleo. “The urgent stuff is always going to get done because it has to, but this method ensures that your important tasks don’t fall to the wayside.”

In defense of multi-tasking

Sure, there are obvious times when dividing our attention is necessary (we’re talking to you, parents), but it’s good to be aware of its costs and take time to prioritize, download and, especially, unplug, so that we can recharge our battery and continue to bring our best (productive, present) foot forward.

When you direct your full attention to one thing—work, friends, family, hobbies—you do it better, give more, and get more out of it. “It’s important to really get that now is all there is,” says Forleo. “Make it your life practice.”

I find it's easy to get stuck in a rut at mealtimes. I have those reliable old favourites, which although healthy and nutritious, get a little boring when I roll them out week after week. The following article shows 3 week's worth of breakfast ideas which are nutritious and quick to make. Can't wait to get started tomorrow.... which one to choose first...?

21 Ideas For Energy-Boosting Breakfast Toasts

Tashween Ali via Buzzfeed

Photos by Macey Foronda

Graphics by Tashween Ali and Chris Ritter

1. Sliced Avocado + Crumbled Feta + Pomegranates + Olive Oil

2. Raspberries + Blackberries + Basil + Light Cream Cheese

3. Ribboned Cantaloupe + Chopped Walnuts + Agave + Goat Cheese 

(use a sharp vegetable peeler to make cantaloupe ribbons.)

4. Sliced Banana + Almond Butter + Chia Seeds

5. Thinly Sliced Celery + Raisins + Peanut Butter

 

6. Refried Beans + Salsa + Cilantro + Fried Egg

7. Goat Cheese + Sliced Strawberries + Shelled Edamame + Balsamic Vinegar + Sea Salt 

before adding them to the toast, in a bowl pour balsamic vinegar over sliced strawberries and macerate them. This way the bread won’t get soggy.

8. Sliced Pineapple + Cottage Cheese + Chopped Cashews

9. Sauteed Kale + One-Egg Omelette + Grated Cheddar Cheese

1. Heat oil in a frying pan until pretty hot and saute chopped kale (center ribs removed) for 2 minutes with a little salt. Set aside kale and wipe out pan.

2. In a bowl, beat one egg and season to taste. Add oil to frying pan. Pour beaten egg into pan and let it spread thinly. Lower the heat. Once the omelette is cooked, use a rubber spatula to gently fold the omelet into quarters.

3. Stack kale and egg on toast. Grate cheese on top. Place toast back into warm pan and cover for 30 seconds to melt cheese.

10. Sliced Dried Figs + Ricotta Cheese + Sesame Seeds

11. Sliced Mango + Sliced Fresh Mozzarella + Lime Juice & Zest 

Use fresh mozzarella. Sprinkle with lime zest and sea salt to finish.

12. Mashed Avocado + Shelled Edamame + Sprouts + Lemon Juice 

Let’s call it Green Monster toast, because it’s the deconstructed version of your favorite green smoothie. I used alfalfa and radish spouts, which is a great mixture because it adds a horseradish-y spice, but you can use whatever’s your favorite. Smash the avocado and spread evenly; the other ingredients stick better to the toast this way.

13. Sliced Pear + Ricotta Cheese + Honey

14. Hummus + Chopped Walnuts + Pomegranates

15. Mashed Chickpeas + Tomato Slice + Fried Egg

Rinse canned chickpeas in a mesh sieve, then mash with olive oil, salt, and pepper. After you fry the egg, use the same pan to gently heat up a slice of tomato. Then stack up!

16. Chopped Mejdool Dates + Sliced Feta + Sliced Almonds

17. Sliced Plums + Sunflower Seed Butter + Flaxseed

18. Sliced Apple + Honey + Blue Cheese

19. Marinara Sauce + Poached Egg + Parmesan + Basil

20. Kimchi + Sliced Hard-Boiled Egg + Black Sesame Seeds

21. Smoked Salmon + Ribboned Cucumber + Light Cream Cheese + Scallions

Use a sharp vegetable peeler to make cucumber ribbons.

Finally, here's a great video for you to watch - Andy Puddicome from Headspace, explains why slowing down is so helpful for mental health in our fast-paced modern world. Invest a few minutes of your time to watch this - it might inspire you to start a daily meditation practice, which might change your life.