I am empty of good posts. I feel like lately I been so busy with work and keeping up with my not very busy social life that I haven’t thought of anything good to write. So, I haven’t written anything, at least nothing worth posting.
But I just started thinking about recent incidents and there is a common denominator happening; it’s like a disease. It’s spreading!!!
Its easier to be a party popper and be the bitch at the party. And with party I mean life. I see it all the time. The lady in front of me at the line in the grocery store screaming frantically because the line is too slow, or “friends” making rude and unnecessary comments, people talking poorly about others, or just people being dramatic.
Maybe it’s you.
You may not even notice yourself, maybe you are too used to it. But you may be the dark energy in the room. Think about it. Nobody is going to tell you. Here’s a tip: analyze yourself. Do people call you to invite you places all the time? Or do you have to call them? Do you have friends calling you or nocking on your door without any particular reason? Maybe and I am just saying maybe, you are the bitch in the room. And slowly but surely people around you are not willing to spend a minute of their time with you. Nobody wants to be around negative energy. It’s important to keep a low level on your bitchiness. Being a bitch is never OKAY. Stop the brat before you wreck yourself. Make the shift and be the lover!
If you are unsure if you are crossing the line ask family and close friends and be open to the response. LISTEN without objecting/refuting/refusing.
There you grow!
Peace.
I have to give a big shout out for a ton of stuff that has happened in my life and the things I have around me, but this week I specifically want to give a big time shout out to Grassroots Natural Market. I am so lucky because I can literally walk to such a cool place. It’s a local store here in Jacksonville and they got their stuff together. They have two locations, and I personally like both locations. But I go to the one closer to my house. DUH!!!!
It’s a small store full of great quality healthy products. The staff is super nice and literally every time I go they just seem happy and willing to help. And I am a pain in the but as a customer so if they’re still nice to me that only means they rock! They also sell some pretty bad-ass smoothies with all organic fruit. Oh yeah, momma is happy!
Oh,oh and if they don’t have what you need, they will order for you. Just like that. I got special protein powder and some awesome organic fresh cranberries. If you ever get to come to Jacksonville, don’t hesitate to stop at Grassroots!
Badass , Brilliant , Hot , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Super Hero , Yoga
I Feel Like In This Post I Wrote The Word -Sankalpa- Like Twenty Million Times, And Of Course I Am Just Exaggerating Because I Just Wrote It Like 9 or 10 Times.
Sankalpas are totally understimated, they are totally cool and super important. Your yoga practice goes to another level when you have a Sankalpa. It’s like you give wings to your yoga own practice.
I usually try to start my yoga classes with a Sankalpa. Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word and basically means Intention. So I encourage my students to set an Intention for each class; it can be anything they want it to be. I always share my personal Sankalpa with my class, to encourage them. Every class it’s usually something different, but for the first time I decided to have the same Sankalpa in every class I teach for the whole month of March.
I decided to make my Sankalpa Surrender – it is not from Diana Ross’s album. Which I like because it reminds me my childhood. Not as much as the Beatles though.
Anyway, surrender can mean so many things and it can apply to so many situations. The word screamed at me after an awesome yoga practice I had last week. My teacher made every movement dedicated to surrender and after that specific class I knew right then it was something I needed to work on.
Sankalpa’s are important to have before the class because it gives your yoga practice a more dense feeling, a purpose. Like you are not just practicing yoga to get super flexible and to show your man you can bring your legs over your head to the sky. Or to impress your friends at parties and say look, look I can do the car wheel and I had 5 shots of tequila in me. Seriously when you have a Sankalpa for your practice you are not just practicing yoga to get a sweat or de-stress your self. It’s bigger than that.
A Sankalpa can be about humanity, or other people, somebody that is sick, a friend that is depressed; maybe you dedicate your practice to somebody you don’t know yet, or it can also be totally about you. You choose what you want to dedicate your practice to.
Next time you are on your mat, bring your hands to your heart and let your heart speak to you. Hear the voice of your bright self, your higher self, God, Angels or whatever you want to call them and listen to what your Sankalpa needs to be.
I love to take random yoga classes from different studios. I have my own teaching style. We all do. But there is always something new to learn from each other. We teachers talk about how sometimes we tend to teach comfortable. It may not be comfortable for the students though, but the poses are poses that are easy for our body and poses we are used to doing. We kind of take advantage of what we know best.
There is no better way to open your self for change and improvement than looking at other peoples work. Obviously I am not just talking about yoga, if you are a painter, photographer, a doctor, teacher, etc., it applies to you, too. If you look at somebody else’s work with true appreciation of what they do, and appreciate them as the maven that they are, then the benefit comes to you; think inspiration baby!!!
You know you are a bad-ass, but to keep being a bad-ass you need to look around. Yeah take advantage of it, and look for somebody else doing what you are doing. If you are a chef, go to other restaurants, try other foods. Don’t compare your self, just enjoy their work and learn. You can learn and get inspired from a good and a bad experience, just be open to learn.
Badass , Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Insane , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Shocking , Super Hero
Therapy Is For Crazy People
There are a lot of things in life nobody teaches us how to deal with. In school we are taught how to do the technical stuff, but nobody teaches you things about relationships; how to be a husband or a wife, a friend, how to be a parent, or how to cope with our super mega busy life. I mean unless you are majoring in psychology, you are kind learning those things on your own at your own pace.
Some of us learn some of that stuff by making mistakes. But sometimes we don’t learn the lesson it all. And we keep making the same mistakes.
There is a stigma about asking for professional help.
For me the stigma of therapy wore off at a very young age. I was sixteen and I found out my parents didn’t have money and I was starting to take on some big responsibilities in my life. I was mad about it. I lived my entire life getting everything I wanted with out deserving it. Silly reason to go see a therapist I think now, but it helped me. I figured things out in like one visit. Seriously!
Ever since then, I’ve seen therapy as something that I can go back to whenever I need it. Not because I need to fix something but because therapy is how I grow, how I figure things out, how I learn about myself, and how I access all of the parts of myself that I need in order to become the person that I want to be.
There has been times I had to go to see somebody because I was truly suffering. And I healed. There is some truly awesome help to be found out there; no matter the nature of your distress.
It is okay not to know, but there are professional people out there that can help you figure things out. We are all complicated human beings and we are a combination of millions of layers. And it’s your responsibility to be the best you can be. Your kids, partner, and friends deserve it. An of course YOU deserve it, and basically you owe it to yourself to step up to the plate.
Have you ever done yoga? You know that high, loud breathing that everybody is doing? That is called pranayama and if you are not doing it when everybody is doing it, it can be distracting and annoying. Pranayama can be done in different ways, it depends on one’s technique. Breathing that loud is obviously not normal. So you better not be doing it unless you are in yoga or meditation room or at your house. Seriously, don’t try it at the grocery store, or at school, or at work, and for sure never ever at the library. You will be kicked out, quick.
In yoga, pranayama is so hard to do, because like I said, it doesn’t come natural. It takes practice to acquire that wonderful habit. I believe my number one constant challenge in my classes is to teach my students to breathe while they are moving through the poses (asanas) in their yoga practice. I can teach them how to get to any pose, but it seems yoga-breath gets forgotten while they are trying to get their head under their legs. My students seem to be more focused on getting the pose right than the breath.
For my classes, I try to put a lot of emphasis on the breathing because I know for a fact it has tremendous benefits. When I do my personal practice I am focusing on my breathing, not on the pose. I don’t care if I have the perfect pose. As competitive as I am, when I am on my mat it doesn’t matter if I get to stand on my hands, or how much I sweat. I let go of the accomplishment of the movement to focus on my breathing. I know eventually I will get there. My body will get to where it is supposed to be.
When I get to my mat I know I am there for A REASON BIGGER THAN ME and to find out the reason I have to still my mind to be able to hear it. Deep breathing people, deep breathing!
Our normal breathing is too shallow and too quick, so we are not taking sufficient oxygen and we are not eliminating sufficient carbon dioxide (I can’t say dioxide with out it sounding funny). So obviously our cells are like anorexics starving for some oxygen and our lungs are like depressed people and just being lazy because they are not working to their full potential. So we end up losing some of our v i t a l i t y. That means we are getting older sooner and as we get older, we are letting some of our body parts become inept.
“With our ‘normal’ sedentary way of living, we only use about one tenth of our total lung capacity. This is sufficient to survive and just tick over, but not sufficient for a high vitality level, long life and high resistance to disease.”
Additionally, deep breathing is also good for your mental health. Which if you know me, you know I have some serious breathing to do. I get tired of my mind. Like sometimes I want a break from all the thoughts running around. I am completely serious, my mind has a life of it’s own. It’s like I have constant clips from different movies made from personal and outsider’s experiences and perceptions running all day long. So annoying. But can you imagine no thoughts running around in your head? Just present in the moment doing yoga, putting your energy towards the breathing, NO thoughts and then at the end the gift for pausing your internal loco-motora; a sense of peace and love.
I must get some of our politicians to practice some yoga.
Badass , Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Rock My World , Sexy Life , Super Hero , Vegan
For The Ultimate Bitch-Totally Inappropriate To Write Bitch* In a Title
A couple weeks ago my blue-eyed man and I were browsing through the book store like we do almost every other day. I seriously think in an imaginary world we probably would actually live at book store. We love books! Anyway, the man found one of the best recipe books I have read in the last couple of years and you know how excited we get when we find recipe books with pictures. So we just had to buy Skinny Bitch, The Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. This book has me giggling and clapping in the kitchen. Kim Barnouin is the co-writer of the very famous book Skinny Bitch and last year she threw down an amazing cook book.
This book is for anybody; for people like me, a complete idiot in the kitch, or for the pros that have some mad skill abilities with the spatula and want to get inspired from another bad ass. So yeah run and get this book right now. You actually don’t have to run because you can just order online, but totally go for the run because I will be so proud of you. Actually I would be proud of you even if you don’t run.
Anyway, when I was reading some of her recipes I could totally sense she wrote the book thinking about all of us diagnosed with huge cooking-mental blockages. Every recipe is explained to the most minute detail and the ingredients are all things we are familiar with. My favorite part from every recipe is the break down of what each portion has; like the calories, fat, sat. fat, etc. I think that is pretty darn cool.
You got to love the first 69 pages of just pure fun information. I love facts. Give me some accurate facts and I would believe you, and then I would love you, because there is nothing sexier than a smart persona.
The first recipe we made was the Orange Scones, and then for breakfast The Man made Crepes with Raspberry Sauce. Both dishes are very easy to make and so delicious, so it’s a win-win. I will be making some more of her delicious food, so keep posted for more recipes or maybe just go get the book so we can try to make her dishes together.
Badass , Brilliant , Fresh , Hot , Mexico , Sexy Life , Super Hero , Vegan
the most important meal of the day
I sometimes feel I am an experiment. Like some other dudes from another universe are experimenting with my life, and yours, too. I don’t think this all the time, just sometimes when I start thinking about why am I here on this planet. My mind goes to trippy thoughts. I sometimes think the planet Earth is like a lab and there are some “scientists” that we obviously can’t see, testing things on us just for fun. Like we do with rabbits and mice.
Every negative incident that I had in my life I think somebody is testing me. Some people call it God, maybe it is him or her. I don’t know yet.
Anyway, there is a lot of information out there about eating breakfast, so I decided to be my own scientist. There are a ton of benefits if you have a healthy breakfast every day. I usually have a small some-some but my biggest meal of the day is dinner. Traditionally it should be lunch because in Mexico the biggest meal is lunch. But I am totally copying the Americans and I am digging those french fries a couple hours before going to bed.
There is a saying eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. But does it really work? I know I usually have breakfast like a pauper and dinner like a queen, but reading different articles all over the web may have me changed my mind.
Since there is a ton of information about the positives of having a big breakfast I decided to test myself and have the biggest breakfast ever for 3 days. I went super healthy, you know, my mind was thinking fiber, fiber and more fiber. And I was looking for any positives or negatives in my mood and my eating choices throughout the day.
First day: about a cup of brown rice, two cups of blueberries, two cup nuts and 1/2 of a cup of vanilla light soy milk (I wouldn’t usually use so many nuts, instead I would probably do half of a cup).
Second day: a mega sub from Winn-Dixie (like subway-but better) loaded with veggies, I think it was about 8 inches long (I will usually just eat the vegetables with out the bread).
Third day: a peanut butter sandwich with a smoothie made from one scoop of Vega protein powder and two cups of vanilla light Silk soy milk (I unusually will just have the smoothie).
So I had my big breakfast around 8am and for the 3 days I did not need any snacks between breakfast and lunch. I am usually eating lunch by 12 and this time I was eating lunch almost at 2!!!! WOW, I was just not hungry. For lunch I had a normal meal, but for dinner I was fine with just making a smoothie or a pb&j.
I think I like eating a big breakfast better because I didn’t feel as hungry through the day and when I was going to bed I felt light like a feather. Not really but I always wanted to say that.
So if you are not so sure about going big in the morning, just test your self for a couple of days to see if that would work for you. For me it definitely worked. I guess my grandma and my mom where right after all “a big breakfast will keep you smiling through the day” AMEN!!!!
Every time we talk about Veganism we think about vegetables and other thoughts may come to your mind like “those people have pale skin and yellow teeth, they look sick.” I know this because when I first presented the idea of becoming vegetarian to my parents, my mother was like always very accepting when I presented a new idea, but then once she has time to think and analyzes the idea and with out any research she would make random comments, like:
Mother -“You know Aidee, my friend Manue had a friend that was vegetarian and her skin looked yellow and she died three weeks after becoming Vegan.”
Sarcastic me – “Oh really mom?”
Mother – (very secure and affirmative voice with out a clue about my sarcastic ways) “Oh yeah, and your dad’s cousin, the one that was really thin, was vegetarian, too, and her teeth where very yellow, almost brown.”
Purely random. I think my mother doesn’t like the color yellow.
Now my mother has a better understanding of the reasoning of becoming Vegan and she has seen a positive influence on me since I stopped eating meat. Now she is trying to stop eating beef and she is also trying to stop eating dairy. Very impressive. I must say, I am proud of her.
I have found that the word Vegan or Vegetarian can bring negative thoughts to most people. When we think Vegan food, we think vegetables, vegetables equals healthy, healthy equals not fun and tasteless. I get it, but whatever! A vegetarian meal is good and good for our planet.
Do some research and come up with your own conclussions and have a veggie special meal. These days there are a ton of great Vegan and vegetarian products that you can find anywhere. Vegan food is healthier and also very tasty.
Shoot me an email and I can tell you what to make, what to buy and where to go for the best prices. All you need to do is ask. I sound like a cheap commercial now. Fuck, I was just trying to be nice.
My man and I are foodilingos or foodies or whatever you call the people that adore food. We just purely love food. We are those people that clap at a restaurant when our food comes to our table. We would not eat it if it wasn’t blowing our mind. It has to taste amazing. Vegan food does, I promise. So let’s give a crap about the planet and your body and embrace one meal. Come on! You don’t have to make it Vegan, I know that sounds crazy. Just go Vegetarian. I promise it would be fun.
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