Vegetarian Fajitas with Mango Salsa

For the past few months I have been trying to eat ‘clean’.  If the term is new to you (as it was to me) it’s all about eating whole foods, and staying away from things that are processed. When I started this blog I vowed to dedicate myself to healthy living, yoga, and mindfulness. I committed myself to my practice and meditation, but realized an area I was lacking in was my nutrition. I was practicing mindfulness in all areas of my life, except my diet. So I decided to make a change, and winter being a time where I spend a lot of time indoors, seemed like the perfect period to spend some time creating yummy recipes that would be exciting for my tongue, and good for my belly. I’ve created what I’m calling my Mindful Menu! They are easy, filling, mainly vegetarian, but always good for you recipes!

Starting with fajitas! Growing up in Southern California, ‘salsa’ was one of my first words. Now that I live in London, I find the lack of good Mexican food a bitter disappointment. This recipe gives me all the tasty memories of home, and all the nutrients you could really ask for in a meal!

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes  ~  3 bell peppers (colors of your choosing)  ~  1 courgette

2 red onions  ~  4 cloves of garlic  ~  2 red chillies  ~  cherry tomatoes  ~  1 avocado

1 mango  ~  1 tin black beans  ~  fresh coriander  ~ 2 limes  ~ tortillas

spices: salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, olive oil

Method:

Heat your oven to 200C. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into long strips, toss in olive oil, and spices. Place in the oven and leave to bake until crispy.

Dice half of your garlic and chillies. Then cut into long slices 1 red onion, the bell peppers and your courgette. This will make up the filling of your fajitas.

In a pan, put in a touch of oil and onions. Allow onions to soften, then add the rest of your fajita filling mix, a squeeze of lime, and spices. I like to add in some of the juice from the black beans to give it a bit of sauce.

Heat the black beans in a pot on the stove until it begins to reduce slightly.

For the Mango salsa:

Dice your remaining garlic, chilli, and red onion. Chop up your cherry tomatoes and mango into small pieces. Add your salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper spice mix, as well as a squeeze of lime and freshly chopped coriander. Mix it all together, and try not to eat it all before the rest is ready!

Slice your avocado to serve as a topping.

Heat your  tortillas and then build your fajita! I like to start with the beans, then put the sweet potato and fajita filling with a slice of avocado and generous topping of mango salsa on top. How you build it is really up to you though!

Enjoy and Salude!

Classes in August are on a 2-4-1 special

Classes in August are on a 2-4-1 special! Bring a friend & split the cost! Thats £4 each! #yogalondon #summer #friends http://ow.ly/QKBQt http://ow.ly/i/cjIKm

Studio Review: YogaHome

Yoga Home was recommended to me by a friend. She didn’t tell me much, just that there were ‘a lot of plants’… She was right. When I first entered the studio, the thing that I liked the most was how much it really does feel like a home. You enter through what feels like a garden gate to find buggies and unlocked (gasp!) bikes in an organized chaos on your right. You then come across a sitting room, complete with comfy worn in couches, coffee tables, an office space, and, ‘the plants’. The sky light roof gives it a green house vibe with thriving plants all along the front of the studio. Yoga Home really is what it claims to be – someplace you can see yourself cozying up with a good book and a cup of tea. After a workout of course…

Which brings me to the classes! They have an excellent variety and classes that run at all hours of the day, perfect for my shift work schedule. It’s a bit of a yogi’s yoga studio, and by that I mean, everyone is REALLY into it. It was plain to see the same people were dedicated to the same classes week after week. The instructors knew the students names, and how they had progressed; it was like I had stumbled into an underground yogi community.

I signed up for their introductory offer (30 days for £40) and have gone about 9 times so far. My favorite class would have to be the Vinyasa Flow classes, but I’m a bit biased. The price is as low as I’ve seen for a studio in London, the instructors are knowledgeable, and the best part? They called me a week in to my intro offer to welcome me and ask me how I liked it. I’ve been to friendly studios before, but a personalized phone call really takes the cake. Check them out, hope to see you there!

Studio Review: Aerial Yoga London

The speakeasy of yoga studios, from the outside Aerial Yoga London looks like any other normal residence. You ring a buzzer with a small gold plaque and wonder if you’ve got the address right. Anticipation mounts as you wait for the door to be opened. A man dressed in yoga garb greets you with a warm smile that makes you think ‘I’m in!” before taking you down into the basement level studio. The studio is bright and inviting with room enough for 4 aerial ‘swings’ – a contraption that looks like a hammock but with more dangly bits. The private intimacy of the class again makes you feel like you’re in a members only club, somewhere only you know about.

I had heard a lot about aerial yoga, without knowing much about it. I imagined it to be a bit like a circus skill’s class, spending most of your time up in the air performing tricks, rather than yoga poses. And while I think I would have liked that, what I got was much better. Being in the swing brings back the sensation of being in the womb – a feeling we have no cognitive memory of, but a feeling our body remembers and feels safe in. Richard, the instructor gently rocks the swing back and forth bringing your sense memory on a journey through early childhood. The sense of calm stays with you throughout the entire class as you surrender your weight to the swing and work through a series of modified yoga poses. It was as if I got to see poses from a whole new perspective. Doing ‘bow’ whilst hanging upside down was fantastic, as it took the work of my body weight out of my legs and allowed my back to bend without this strain. Richard gave clear instructions, and at all times I felt I was safe in the hands of a professional. Once in the pose, he gave us room to play and explore our new surroundings. There seemed to be no rules, no one right way, this was definitely not my ashtanga practice. Being supported by the swing means your body is able to move in total 360 degree motion and frees you up from those pesky balance issues. After a good work out, we returned to the protection of our swings for a final savasana. The effect was so relaxing after leaving class I noticed my mouth was hanging open – my jaw was too relaxed to close properly.

I would recommend the experience to everyone as something to at least try; and I would highly recommend Aerial Yoga London as the place to do it. I wasn’t made to feel like an outsider to the club, but rather an exciting new prospective member.  I felt the effects for the rest of the evening and slept sound as a rock! Needless to say, I’ll be going again!

I Practice Yoga with my Eyes Closed.

So what does practicing with your eyes closed actually mean? I’m not saying every pose in every class needs to be done blindly. A lot of the time you need a visual cue to know what’s coming next (especially if you’re a visual learner!), and there is nothing wrong with that. My suggestion to you is – start closing your eyes when you’re in postures that are being held for a few breaths so you can start to feel the benefits it gives.

The immediate effect of closing your eyes will be, balance. When I make the suggestion in class for people to close their eyes, I instantly notice the wobbles. You were totally firm in your footing and then all of a sudden the lights were turned off and your bodies instinctual reaction is to freak! Yoga naturally enhances your proprioception, or your bodies ability to know where your limbs are in space without having to look, but if you close your eyes this sense is tested even more and therefore strengthened. When people first come to a yoga class they find it hard to know what their foot is doing without looking at it. I’ll say “make sure your knee isn’t coming out past your ankle” in Warrior II and notice that no one has self corrected. It’s not because people aren’t listening, or aren’t interested in correct alignment, they just honestly weren’t aware where their knee was in relation to their ankle. It’s a skill that takes time, but when it is honed it will give you better coordination in everything you do.

So you’ve mastered the balance. Your eyes are closed and you haven’t hit the floor. Now what? Well now it’s time to delve deeper. Tune in to your body and understand the small changes happening within every posture. Make small adjustments and notice what changes. In Parsvottanasana (intense side stretch) really think about squaring off your hips, breath into your lower back, suck in your belly engaging your uddiyana bandha and see how much further that takes you in the stretch; rather than looking at your toes and debating whether or not you should go and get a pedicure after this. Practicing with your eyes closed cuts out the noise and allows you to focus on what you came here to do.

The next step? Not giving a crap about who else is practicing in the room with you. We are all told that yoga is non-competitive, and yet we all know what it’s like to see the person next to you in the full expression of King Pidgeon and think ‘oh my God, I’ll never be able to do that’, and then mentally give up. The green eyed monster who wants to accomplish poses that other people are doing instead of being content with where your body is today is only holding you back. Yoga is such a personal journey. People approach it from every background, and as soon as you start looking outside yourself, you start to form a hierarchy of who’s better than who in the room and that causes you to fail before you even begin. So, close your eyes. Run your own race. You’ve got enough to worry about without busying yourself with others, who all had to start somewhere themselves.

I’ve saved the best, and the hardest, bit for last. Closing your eyes will not only allow you to ignore other people, it will help you to let go of wondering what other people are thinking about you. Take a moment and think about how many times a day you alter an item of clothing to make your self look better, or fix your hair. We are constantly adjusting; pulling our pants up to cover our hips, pulling our shirt down to hide our tummy, pushing that piece of hair to the side. The final challenge in closing your eyes is to let go of your own self image as perfect. Once we set up an ideal for ourselves, we set ourselves up for failure. Love your body and the way your belly looks in that top, now and in every moment. The majority of us aren’t superstars – there are no paparazzi inside the studio. Chances are the only one who notices that tiny imperfection, is you. Embrace the imperfections, and get rid of the distractions. It will help you to focus on your practice and give you a sense of freedom.

Practice with your eyes closed because your yoga practice is personal. It’s NOT for the person on the mat next to you, it’s NOT to impress your teacher, and it’s definitely NOT for the mirror – do it for YOU!

Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana (Half Bound Lotus Stretch)

Two weeks in is a bit late to introduce this month’s challenge pose, but better late than never I say. And who better to model it than Mr. Iyengar himself, in his little black speedo. This pose is about as hard to do as it is to say! There’s a lot going on in this mouthful of a posture, and it’s one that I’d really like to make strides in. It comes in the Ashtanga Primary Series, and if you’ve ever been to a yoga class, you will no doubt recognize the pose it is generally modified to – Vrksasana or tree pose. I am not trying to knock tree pose, but I feel I’m ready to grow. The trick to this pose (besides the obvious balancing act) is a warm up of hip openers. If you can get into half lotus, then you’re nearly there. I’ve designed a hip opening sequencing building up to Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana, and my hope is that at the end of this month I’ll be able to show you my progress. I’ll post up my sequence next week, so until then, think hip opening thoughts!

May Challenge Pose Round Up! Astavakrasana

After a month of practice my Astavakrasana is shaping up nicely! If you were doing this as part of the Ashtanga Series, your goal would be to jump in and out, but I am taking it where I am today, so this is how I do it!

Step 1: (As a pre-step, always make sure you are warmed up, and for this pose I would make sure to stretch the wrists before you begin.) Bring your right leg high up onto your right arm (wedged up over your shoulder if possible).

Step 2: Place your right hand on the mat just in front of your right buttock and bend your elbow trying to keep your knee as high up on your arm as possible. Bring your left ankle to hook onto your right. Keeping both feet flexed will help to hold that connection.

Step 3: Lean forward! Strengthen through your core and bend both elbows deeply. Use your right elbow as a shelf for your right arm to sit on.

Step 4: Engage your legs and try to straighten out your legs. Look forward and find the balance so that your body comes parallel to the floor.And that’s it! Remember to have fun with it, and not worry too much if you fall…

7 Reasons Why We Need to Start Listening Again

Photo by Ainhoa Barriola

 

1) Not listening is cutting us off from the world around us.

I’ve been thinking a lot about listening lately. I kind of enjoy the anonymity of walking around with headphones in… it almost gives you a free pass to ignore things around you that would otherwise get in your way. Someone wants to hand you a flyer. With headphones in you can pretend not to hear them. A man on the street makes a comment about the way I look. Not phased, got my headphones in. Should I have to listen to all these sounds around me? Am I selfish for blocking them out? I’m a fan of technology, really I am, but I’ve noticed that constantly looking down at a phone or tablet draws us into a bubble where we can easily miss what is going on around us. It was Ferris Bueller who said ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’ Try putting the phone away at meal time or taking a walk and leaving your phone at home. Being unconnected can be exhilarating! Freeing! I’m not saying go off the grid, but spending a few hours a day away from technology and listening to the sounds of those around you will make you appreciate the moment even more. You can even tweet about it after.

2) Learn more about yourself in moments of silence.

When I did my yoga teacher training we spent every morning in silence until about 1pm (and when you are up and around people from 6:30am, that can start to feel like a VERY long time to not interact). The point of the silence wasn’t to torture us, it was to allow us time to digest our own thoughts and feelings about the day before or just anything we were going through. Many people, including myself, found this really difficult. It’s amazing the feelings and memories that can well up when you’re left alone with your own thoughts. As soon as those feelings start to well up it is natural to try and break the silence and not confront them. To distract yourself with small chat and other people’s lives. If you stick with the silence, however, and listen to what kind of thoughts you are having you start to key in to the way your mind works. You find out what your emotional triggers are and can start to deal with them rather than pushing them away.

3) Go deeper in your asana practice.

Our mind is very good at compartmentalizing, setting aside what makes us anxious or upset and containing it within its recesses. Our body, on the other hand does not lie. But it can be very easy to ignore the warning signs our body tries to send us, mainly because our mind is working against our body trying to protect us from pain. When you practice yoga, the aim is to align your body and mind and get them to work together. Listening to what your body needs, and where it is today will open you up to the full effects of an asana practice. While you may be limited to what you can do physically in yoga, some postures come with mental barriers; going upside down, balancing poses, etc. When your mind and body are on the same page you learn to break down the barriers of what you think you can’t do.

4) Start to know your physical and emotional limits.

Pushing yourself comes with limits! I’ve read many articles on finding your ‘edge’ and letting your practice come up to that point without going past it. But how do we know where this magical edge is? Patabi Jois famously said “all is coming.” The best way to learn your limits is to test them. Slowly. Carefully. If you come to the mat on a day when you’re not feeling great, take it easy. If you come to the mat and are feeling adventurous, go for it! Try out that pose you don’t think you can do. Surprise yourself and have fun with it. Once you’ve discovered how to listen to your body, the fear of I can’t do it will be removed. If you can’t do a pose already, think about the steps you might need to take to get there. Get advice from a trusted teacher, read up on the pose online. The key is mental and physical patience. Your body will only move at the pace it is ready for. If you listen to it, you’ll not only find your edge, you will continue to move that ‘edge’ further and further than you thought possible.

5) Give value to yourself and to those you listen to.

This point was given to me by a good friend. A friend who is amazing at listening whenever I have a problem. I said I’m working on a piece about listening, and this was the first thing that came to her mind. I love that. It is so true. Listening is one of the best ways to show someone that you care. It gives you a feeling of self-worth knowing that someone is ready and willing to listen to the things you have to say. Listen with the intent to really hear what the other person is saying. It is a great gift to give to the ones you love, and costs you nothing.

6) The words you do say will carry more weight.

I’ve always appreciated movies, or pieces of theatre where there is no talking. Where everything is portrayed through small physical gestures. If you’ve seen the first 15 minutes of Up and cried at the wordless retelling of a couple’s love story then maybe you know what I’m talking about.  We say a lot of things that just don’t need to be said. If I learned anything from being in silence for all those hours in India, it’s that you don’t have to spell things out for people to know what you mean. It was very tempting to break silence and ask for someone to pass the salt, but you came to terms with the fact that these interchanges weren’t needed. When we were given the chance to speak again, I started to think about what I was going to say a lot more. Am I saying this thing for a reason? Will it add value? It’s easy to get caught up in listening to our own voice, but when you stop to think before you speak, what comes out tends to be more meaningful.

7) This will lead to contentment.

All these steps will help you find contentment (or what yogis call santosha), you will be at ease within your body and mind. Engage in your community, listen to loved ones and to yourself. The more you listen, the more you will learn and be able to give back.

Tapas – Igniting the Inner Fire

Reblogged from Eckhart Yoga. I wanted to Write a little something about Tapas, but after I read this I thought, well that pretty much says it all! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! If the article doesn’t get you going, try listening to Fire, by Arthur Brown! Sure to heat up any Tuesday evening.

The second of Patanjali’s 8 Limbs of Yoga; the Niyamas are moral codes or social contracts which guide us towards positive behaviour, especially towards ourselves. This article looks at one of the Niyamas – Tapas.

By practicing these Niyamas, or observances, we cultivate a deeper understanding of how to live our yoga practice off the mat and begin to make real changes to our lives.

The Niyamas

•     Saucha
•     Santosha
•     Tapas
•     Svadhyaya
•     Ishvarapranidhana

Tapas

The third of Patanjali’s Niyamas is ‘Tapas’, which often translates traditionally as ‘austerity’ or ‘discipline’. The word Tapas is derived from the root Sanskrit verb ‘tap’ which means ‘to burn’, and evokes a sense of ‘fiery discipline’ or ‘passion’. In this sense, Tapas can mean cultivating a sense of self-discipline, passion and courage in order to burn away ‘impurities’ physically, mentally and emotionally, and paving the way to our true greatness.

Tapas doesn’t have to mean being solemn and serious though, this fieriness is what gets our heart pumping, heightens our desire for personal growth and reminds us of how much we love our yoga practice! Just as with all aspects of the Sutras though, Tapas has relevance both on and off the yoga mat….

Tapas on the mat

First of all, ‘discipline’ doesn’t strictly mean pushing ourselves harder in a physical sense. Sometimes just actually making the time to get on the mat and meditate, or practice for 10 minutes every day is difficult enough! For some, Tapas will mean making time to be still and observing the mind, and for others it’ll mean working on strength and practicing that arm balance we’ve been putting off ….

Tapas is an aspect of the inner wisdom that encourages us to practice even when we don’t feel like it, even though we know how good it makes us feel! It’s that fiery passion that makes us get up and do our practice for the love of it, and by committing to this, the impurities are ‘burned’ away. Making the decision to go to bed a little earlier so you can wake up early to practice is Tapas; not drinking too much or eating unhealthy foods because you want to feel good in your practice is Tapas; and the way you feel after an intense yoga class, a blissful Savasana and deep meditation? That’s Tapas too – ‘burning’ away the negative thought patterns and habits we often fall in to.

Cultivating a sense of Tapas in our physical practice could mean practicing poses we usually avoid or find difficult, or leaning mindfully in to our edge within a tough asana. Realising that it does take time to get in to a more ‘advanced’ version of a pose doesn’t have to be discouraging at all; having the discipline to practice consistently and the humility to admit when we’re not perfect are both essential to reaping the rewards that ‘discipline’ has to offer.

As Pattabhi Jois famously said; ‘Practice and all is coming’….

Taking Tapas off the mat

The discipline we learn on the mat is a fantastic lesson to take off the mat and in to every day life. When we breathe through challenging situations in a yoga practice, such as a difficult balancing pose, or when we find the strength to lift up in to an arm balance we previously thought was ‘impossible’, we can take these lessons with us and learn to be strong when facing challenging life situations.

Having the courage NOT to listen to the voices in our head that tell us we’re ‘not strong enough’ or ‘not good enough’ to attempt a more demanding pose or go for that new job opportunity is also an element of Tapas that ‘burns’ away those ‘impure’ thoughts, and leads to more self trust and inner strength.

Igniting the inner fire

Working with core strength is a surefire way to tap in to that sense of ‘fieriness’ stoking the ‘agni’ or inner fire. The core is where our Manipura Chakra lies, and this energy center governs our sense of self confidence, inner strength, willpower and self discipline.

The element of fire – which both the Manipura Chakra and Tapas link to – is also the element of ‘transformation’, and we can see this for ourselves as we take on those challenges we’re faced with. Transformation generally happens when we allow change to happen; stepping outside of our comfort zone and practicing poses we’re not confident with or may be a little afraid of is when we begin to grow and learn about ourselves. If things are too easy all the time, we don’t tend to learn the life lessons we need to make us stronger and more rounded people.

Traveling a bumpy road is well worth it when you eventually find a place of peace and freedom. The lessons we learn from facing challenges and fears are the ones that tend to have the biggest positive impact on us.

When we work with the element of Tapas, it’s important to make sure we’re acting from a place of positivity and love, and not from fear. When we push ourselves a little further, we should do it not because our ego tells us to, but because we really truly feel we can go just that little bit further.

What does Tapas mean to you? The next time you’re faced with a challenge in a yoga class, practice facing up to it and igniting your inner fire – you’ll soon notice big changes on and off the mat!