Fri, 24 May 2013 03:55:47 -0800WeeblySun, 14 Oct 2012 23:04:25 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2012/10/nyc-walk-for-farm-animals.htmlPlease join me on a walk for farm animals! You can register for the event in NYC at:
http://events.walkforfarmanimals.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.eventDetails&eventID=569
The walk is this coming Saturday in Central Park.  It is an annual event held by Farm Sanctuary to promote compassion and awareness and raise money for the animals that they work so hard on saving.  Peaceful world starts with us! Lets change it one heart at a time! :))
]]>Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:59:18 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2012/06/joyous-melody.htmlI love walking, wind against my skin, fresh air tickling my nose, road stretching ahead. The tiny drizzles of rain feel good on my face, cooling it off, calming me down.  As I walk, my feet find the rhythm in a seemingly random outdoors - uphill, downhill, around the corner, people, cars, birds chirping… It all comes together and makes music, a melody for my soul as I walk.  I breathe in, I breathe out, take vigorous steps – forward, always forward, and my mind travels in time and space to places I have been to and have yet to go, to things I have done and have yet to do. And I am overwhelmed with joy…

]]>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:50:19 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2012/04/living-outside-the-box.html"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." - Henry D. Thoreau

Henry D. Thoreau was a leading transcendentalist who believed that society and its institutions such as organized religion, political parties and government that stops serving its people ultimately corrupt the purity of an individual. I guess that I have always been a transcendentalist as well for I loathe any kind of authority over myself or my children and feel sorry for those who are not able to think for themselves. I believe that the government was created in order to provide structure for human societies and to look out for the best interest of its people and organized religions might have once been meager attempts to provide people with a tool that helped them cope with a harsh unpredictable reality of life. I say "might have" because of all the holy wars that were started in the name of god and all the people that were forced to practice a religion that was foreign to them or killed defending their beliefs. There is something seriously wrong with any religion that declares a holy war and proclaims that god supports us killing one another and reprimands anyone who disagrees with what it is preaching. And there is something wrong with any government that promotes the wealth and power of the few that are in influential positions while disregarding the welfare of the rest and turns a blind eye on the aimless waste of its natural resources by greedy corporations.   

To my family's disappointment, Russian or Ukrainian culture and Christianity never appealed to me. Being spiritual, I had a lot of questions about nature and purpose of life. The violence and indifference that I saw in the world around me didn’t make sense. Even as a child, I had a different view of how the world should be and deep faith that it was possible to create it, if people tried hard enough.  I longed for a philosophy that would allow me to explore my inner world to a greater extent and after struggling with the cultural misalignment for years as a child and a young adult, I made a decision to seek my own truth. I see life as an endless stream of questions. Answers are found when sought and then new questions are formed from the higher level of conscious understanding. The purpose of our lives is to learn and develop, and that can't be done from the state of fear, denial or obedience.  A seeking spirit should never be confined!

A few disturbing encounters in the last few weeks fired me up to urge people to wake up from whatever dream that they are sleepwalking through as I realized that acceptance in our society is hard to come by. Some people just can't accept when others think or do things that go against their upbringing or choices in life.  Culture is the playground for adults.  It is where children, born with innate ability to recognize that such differences are inconsequential, are taught to discriminate and to exclude.  With time, they too will take pride in being a privileged member of a religion, race or heritage and start living out of habits of their ancestors. They too will become convinced that they are right to the point of trying to strip others of their human rights and liberties. I remember the outrage last summer over gay marriage law that NY state government has finally passed.  A man outside the church in his community was furious that such thing should be allowed.  He said that it doesn’t work for him, but nobody is making him do anything that he doesn’t agree with. It is between people who love each other that now have the right to join in a civil union and has absolutely nothing to do with him.  I wonder where his preoccupation with what others do with their lives comes from and why he is so certain that he’s right and they’re wrong! 

I have officially emancipated myself of all religious establishments because it became painfully obvious that they all, without exception, try to fit people in their view of the world, leaving no space for spiritual exploration.  I have been chased by madmen with “Bibles” enough.  It is now time to stand tall and firm, proclaiming my independence. Only I decide where my boundaries are because I live out of the box. As a free spirit and a citizen of the world, I serve no person and no social or religious organization.  I don't follow any traditions that don't completely make sense to me. And I am yet to find any that do. Therefore, I pledge my life only to the love and peace that is the foundation of the universe itself.  I play in other people's "sandboxes" of cultures. I pick and choose what brings joy to my heart and enlivens my spirit. Tradition can be beautiful and I understand its importance in people's lives. It can serve as an instrument of unity within the cultural group. However, tradition can also become a tool of separation. At first it’s something like "us and them" and then grows further into "us against them". But, in reality, we are all one. We are all sparks of Devine consciousness that in this lifetime chose to incarnate into human form on this planet. A person of one cultural background can potentially become a person of another, it is a choice that we made and continue making on daily basis.  We can be anything that our hearts desire.  And shouldn’t our hearts desire peace, love and freedom above all? 

Through Buddhist practice and meditation I saw that we all carry everything we need inside us and that there are numerous ways to access these treasures.  It is not important what name we give to the higher power, as long as we realize that we are all essentially referring to the same thing and that the higher power is an integral part of each of us, waiting to be recognized and awakened.  A person’s existence on this planet is not confined to a social bubble where he or she belongs, we are all citizens of the world, whether we acknowledge it or not.  There is no separation between us but in our minds!  There will be no lasting peace and happiness in the world until people start caring enough to transcend the differences that they were conditioned to see by their cultures, religions and governments.  The boundaries of separation so carefully built by countless generations of ancestors need to come down so that people can start to think for themselves and live from the perspective and wisdom of their souls. 

]]>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:43:41 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2012/03/ten-days-of-sunshine-at-the-living-foods-institute.htmlLast February I began my journey toward health with an introduction of raw food lifestyle into my life.  I have experienced amazing improvements in health and overall well being.  Now that my awareness was awakened there was no way for me to go back to how things were and I didn’t want to.  Some days it was hard to follow the lifestyle.  I slipped up.  I got frustrated and overwhelmed at time.   I wished there were more people around who sought health by bringing balance back to the body.  At times I seemed at odds with the world as I persisted on this newfound path, step by step, thought by thought, day by day, mostly on my own.  I read one book after another on raw food and natural healing.  Books helped, but I craved human connections, others to share my journey with. 

My desire to connect with people that have similar mindset brought me to Living Foods Institute (LFI) in Atlanta.  I originally came across their website in March or April and right away I knew that I wanted to go.  It was going to be tough to take time off for myself for ten days because that wasn’t something that I was used to doing.  For some reason it felt selfish to dedicate time for healing, but by now I knew better than to give in to negative thoughts of my restless mind.  There is nothing more important than health and taking time off to heal so that I can be a more positive and capable presence in lives of those who I love is not selfish in the least.  And so I made another wishful determination - I was going to go to LFI in the coming year.  By some miracle or law of universal attraction I was presented with such an opportunity in about six months.  I booked for February without another nagging afterthought, it was my wish manifesting.  I took the gift with gratitude and joyful excitement.  

It is funny how future is always so different from what we expect.  I wanted to go to Atlanta to learn more about raw food (in case a tidbit of important information managed to escape my attention after reading a dozen of books), to get hands on experience preparing recipes and, of course, to meet others who were interested in this kind of lifestyle.  Lucky me, I got so much more than I would have ever anticipated.  Let me start by saying that the whole place was physically created with love.  From the moment you walk in on the first morning of classes to the evening of graduation from the program on day ten, you are literally surrounded by positivity and joy.  It is so drastically different from the “real” world that it takes some getting used to before one can let the guard down and take a deep breath.  Worries and negative thoughts dissipated one by one in each one of us who attended the seminar and we relaxed into a mindset of healing. 

About thirty perfect strangers timidly introduced themselves.  Some came in hopes to heal a life-threatening illness and others wanted to learn more about raw living food to prevent illness from ever occurring.  I had tremendous respect for them all - it takes guts to follow your inner voice and to go against what is commonly accepted.  One of the first things we were taught was the importance of positive attitude.  Healing starts in the mind.  It is a thought and a feeling of being healthy.  Thus the routine of daily affirmations practiced at the center to reinforce our positive beliefs.  Our emotions play an integral part in either creating or disrupting the balance in our bodies.  When the negative feelings of pain, fear, regret or anger are held on to for a long time, they produce blockages of energy in our physical bodies and we manifest sickness or “dis-ease”.   Therefore, a path to health is through finding balance on all levels – physical, emotional and spiritual.  

For ten days we prepared and ate only organic raw vegan foods and, contrary to popular assumption, no one was starving.  We cleansed physically and emotionally, and even though some days were painful for some of us, we kept smiling and supporting each other on this journey because we understood that the process of releasing toxins is an essential part of healing.  With each day we bonded with each other more and more as our hearts opened to give and receive love.  We weren’t perfect strangers any longer as we witnessed each other’s pain when feelings bottled inside for years, or even decades, came to the surface with the help of healing foods and therapies.  We cried and laughed together.  We shared without holding back.  We found new ways to let go of the past and to forgive.  We discovered how similar we all are deep down, no matter what religion we followed or didn’t follow, no matter if we were rich or poor, what race we were thought to belong to or how we previously viewed ourselves.  We were there on a mission to heal ourselves peacefully and with respect toward the planet and our bodies, and to discover an even bigger mission called life, which is the process of spiritual growth through giving and receiving unconditional love.

]]>Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:29:50 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2012/01/happiness-to-live-and-to-learn.htmlI finally left behind the dark cloud that was following me wherever I went since the move to the “new” office room at work.   In the wake of the misery I read my own blog and asked myself if I am a coward.  How can I write that people should leave jobs and relationships that make them unhappy (and mean it from the bottom of my heart) and then hesitate when my own job had such a negative effect on my health and emotional well-being?  For a few days I felt like a big fake.  I pride myself for being able to walk the talk, so to speak, and when the situation arose where I had to make a decision, I felt insecure, useless and vulnerable.  My thoughts were going back and forth from being determined to quit and starting something new to settling for much less than I deserved for the sake of a decent paycheck and financial security.  It is alarming how close I came to quitting my job.  It is alarming how close I came to losing my center, my inner peace.  The whole time I knew that I had to do something to get in a better mood and start seeing things clearer and brighter, but I just couldn’t do it.  I took turns between feeling like a fraud and a self absorbed human being who just wanted to prove to the world that she was brave enough to quit and be successful no matter what risks were involved.  As a cautious person, I don’t have a habit of walking out on my job if I have a bad day or two.  I usually give it a lot of thought and then at some point recognize the fact that everything in life is constantly moving and that whatever problem is bothering me at the moment will pass like all the other problems that bothered me in the past.  Most problems are insignificant in a great scheme of things and aren’t worth losing sleep over.

On Sunday night I decided to stay home the next day in order to take the kitten to the doctor and to clean up myself and the house.  I was a mess and my house reflected that like a mirror.  While I cleaned and ran around catching up on my errands, I made an inner compromise.  Instead of continuing to see myself as selfish or cowardly I came to terms with the reality that I wasn’t superhuman and decided to work on being patient and to give the office environment a chance without depressing or angry attitude.  I also decided that I didn’t need to have a set mentality of what my main job will be until I retire.  I am free to do whatever I want, to follow my heart and adjust my plans any time I see fit.  I was going to take it a day at a time until it became easier and then I was going to take it a week at a time, but by the end of the day I was able to hold a year, two and even three in my positive projection of the future without frustration.  I don’t have to work for the city for another twenty something years!  Why did I ever think that I did?  I locked myself in that image and then, when placed in the room without windows, air flow and in major need of a paint job, I freaked out because I saw myself trapped in that “dungeon” until retirement while in reality even a day was unbearable.  Sometimes we are upset, but we don’t have a clear understanding of why.  To find the answer to the problem we need to seek its roots.  Here were the roots of my anxiety - the image of myself sitting in the room as it was for years to come, miserable and depressed.  However, when I let go of the projection that this is something that I am tied in to, I was able to change the image of myself to being happy, buoyant and upbeat out in the world doing things that bring me joy.  I am where I choose to be and every moment is a chance to make a different choice.  If someone is in an abusive relationship, they should let go and leave.  But if someone is in a place that is not perfect, they should evaluate the situation and either work to make it better or find a different path.  The decision shouldn’t be impulsive.  Take your time and make sure that it was made for the right reasons and if it was, you will know because you will be at peace with yourself and the rest of the world.

With each breath we take in the positive or the negative of our surroundings and most of the time we aren’t even aware that we are doing it.  Because I have experienced and therefore came to expect highs of peaceful awareness I am very sensitive to being disconnected from it.  I compare the state of awareness to an immaculately clean room and the mind infiltrated by negativity to a messy room where the addition of more dirt or dust will go unnoticed.  When the bright clean room is exposed to dirt, its soiled parts will be easily noticeable because they are at odds with everything else.  We all have the bright clean room within us, but if we don’t work on keeping it clean, it will become the messy room of negative thoughts and destructive patterns that deprive our lives of joy.  Pursuit of happiness is a never ending practice.  I live and I learn.  And then I live some more and I feel the need to find my ground, my balance in this hectic, often unenthusiastic world.  Once in a while I feel the need to escape to a brighter, warmer place where sun shines, wind caresses and instead of traffic noise you can hear children laughing.  I want to be surrounded by gardens and fields and seemingly endless roads that invite my feet to explore them…  But for now I am making a conscious choice to stay where I am and improve my surroundings by bringing positivity out from within me and making the world around me a better place.  I live for inspiration, to be inspired and to inspire.  I live for joy of being alive.

]]>Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:44:03 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2011/12/pet-therapy.html

Ever since I can remember I was surrounded by plants and animals as a child.  My grandparents lived in a house with a big yard where we grew grapes, strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and herbs.  We had fruit trees scattered all over the yard.  As far as the garden was concerned, life was organic and full of taste.  And there was always someone to pet, someone to love who needed caring affection.  When my family moved from Ukraine to the US, we were separated from my grandparents and from that kind of life.  My mom often yearns for a piece of land to plant something and make it grow.  She loves the smell of soil and the muddy earth on her hands.  I miss being close to the land as well and sometimes wish that I owned an apple orchard.  I would get lost in the fruit paradise on a cool summer afternoon and find that peace once again, one with nature, eating my favorite fruit right off a tree, juicy and nurturing, its nectar - the cleanest water on Earth.  One day I will plant dozens or maybe even hundreds of apple trees, but for now I am content with one enormous cat tree that’s taking up a corner of the living room in my small apartment… well that, and my two amazing cats that I get to pick off it as if they were fruit. 

Cats, amazing – I know, not everyone is a cat person, but they truly are wonderful little creatures that light up my life.  My son and I got our first cat four years ago from North Shore Animal League as a birthday present for me.  It was a very hard time for both of us because I just got separated from my then husband.  I was sad, angry, anxious about the situation and worried about my son who wasn’t taking it very well.  He loved his dad and being five and a half couldn’t understand why all of a sudden his parents weren’t living together anymore and why they were fighting any time they were around each other.   All the yelling and crying of the pervious few months has also taken a toll on him and he was very sad and apathetic.  I don’t know what was hurting me more - things that were going on between me and his father or seeing my son this way.  I only knew one thing, it was going to get worse for all involved if I didn’t get my wits together and ended that unfortunate ordeal.  Time heals everything, they say, so I just took deep breaths and did my best.  It was a natural progression of thought, a knowing of a kind that whispered in my ear one day that we needed a cat.  My son loves animals and was thrilled when I told him that we are going to adopt a kitten.  And so we went to the Animal League with intent to find a perfect kitten to be a part of our small family. 

There were cages full of dogs and puppies, cats and kittens.  It was heartbreaking to see them locked behind metal bars, unable to run around as animals should, but these were the lucky few that had a chance of staying alive and being adopted and loved.  My son and I picked up and petted different kittens, there were so many to pick from that our heads started spinning.  We walked around wondering how we were going to choose.   Just then I kneeled down to see a kitten in one of the lower cages, she was a skinny little thing, a tabby with big ears and intelligent eyes.  My son and I asked to hold her and when we did she purred loudly, selecting us to take her home and be her family.  I haven’t seen my son smile so much in a long time.  Even though the kitten made herself comfortable without hesitation in our apartment, he followed her everywhere as she walked around with her tail up, purring and sniffing, sniffing and purring.  And when he went to sleep, she nestled close to him and stayed there all night, occasionally grooming his hair.  She did that every night until he notably cheered up and started smiling not only at home (both of us couldn’t help but smile when around her), but in school and out when playing with friends.  It is amazing that one little kitten had the power to bring joy to our injured hearts with her mere presence.  But that’s what pets do - they extend our hearts, heal us, show us the way to brighter more joyful lives.  They are our companions and our friends.  They teach us to love deeper, without selfishness, without holding back our affection and by that they fix the parts of us that were broken.  They feel when we are sad or in pain and they comfort us.  It is not a coincidence that Kisa chose to sleep next to my son when he was upset and that she still does that whenever he has a bad day. She cuddles next to my stomach when I have a stomachache and purrs my discomfort away.

There is an overabundance of animals in shelters and on the streets needing a home and a loving family.  It is a distressing reality that many animals are killed simply because nobody wants them, as if it is their fault that they were born and haven’t found someone to love and protect them.   There are plenty of families that could use some healing and an infusion of hope from feeling compassion.  Why not adopt a pet and help each other?  As people give love, so they shall receive.  As people let themselves feel affection, their hearts grow stronger, bigger and brighter.  And with that physical and emotional healing occurs and their spirits are set free from the suffering of the past.  

]]>Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:03:48 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2011/12/embracing-change.htmlThis year has been keeping me up on my toes. One significant change in how I live, think and function has followed another in a roller coaster of happenings and realizations. At work, I am moving to a different office location yet again. An office co-inhibitor that has to move as well was seriously upset. She has been sitting there for a decade and all of a sudden there is an announcement that she will be relocated within a week. I haven't grown any roots to the new desk so my only regret is that the new office will be devoid of windows. Natural light is like food to me and I sure am going to feel its missing presence.  But I am not the one to insistently complain, if I hate something I am free to find a different path.  It is important to always remember that we do have a choice.  No one is making us stay in a bad relationship or a job we dislike.  We choose to stick around.  Whether it is fear, guilt or lack of optimism that is stopping us from achieving that freedom, the cause is internal. And that is great news because once we realize that we are empowered to create our own future, we obtain the power to do so.

Sadly, people tend to gravitate toward complacency. Once a comfortable place is found they would resist with all their might to abandon its familiar feeling. The fact that future is uncertain is one of the reasons for this.  Another reason is that people don't want to do more than necessary - being proactive is a rare trait in today's society. Many are content with life as long as they know what to expect. Unknown is feared and familiar is worshiped unjustly. It is hard to talk to people about things that aren’t widely accepted by surrounding society.  It is almost impossible to get a person to think for themselves.  One step toward the unexpected and a few words of caution from “helpful” friends and everyone is back where they started.  The vicious cycle continues and people are powerless to initiate change on their own. However, doing nothing doesn’t bring stability, life keeps moving either forward or back, progress-wise. The change will either be initiated by us, in which case we have better control of the outcome, or be sprung on us with or without warning.

It is important to notice the positive in situations that we find ourselves in and to embrace the change - after all, life is constantly moving. Buddhism teaches that change is life's inevitable reality. It is a catalyst for opportunities that present us with chances to evolve as human beings. Physical exercise develops the muscle, learning exercises the brain and life challenges forge a strong unbreakable spirit. It isn't always easy and sometimes we can't see why we have to encounter certain problems until after a solution is found. There are lessons to be learned from every person and situation. A great deal of lessons are loud and clear – don’t give up on yourself, you are stronger than you think.
]]>Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:39:07 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2011/12/about-health-and-sacrifices.htmlIt’s often said that people can't appreciate something or someone until it is gone. Probably one of the most taken for granted treasures is health. Most of us are born with it and are unaware of any other way of being until we discover that sickness is truly a state of suffering. I was born with the wonderful gift of beaming health, but almost died in childhood of pneumonia which kept returning over and over again. All through childhood I have struggled with colds and flu. At twenty nine I had a surgery to remove a benign growth off my small intestine. Five days in the hospital and twenty pounds lighter, I came home with a new outlook on hospitals and sickness and an attitude of gratitude for still being alive. My time at the hospital when I was a child is forgotten, but the few days I spent there about four years ago are fresh in my memory. I remember waking up from surgery to blindingly bright light and nausea so overwhelming that I thought that I surely would vomit all over the nurse that was checking on me in the ICU. I probably would have, but I lost consciousness again and don't remember anything until I was woken up by two other nurses and asked to move myself from the stretcher to the hospital bed. I vividly remember the pain that seemed to infiltrate every single cell of my body with agony. I remember the state of hopelessness that filled hospital air and its smell of sickness and death. Coming back home was a celebration and a breath of fresh air. I truly believe that there is only so much progress that can be accomplished at the hospital before it starts getting to you and depressing you back to illness.

When again faced with illness in the beginning of this year I spent one night tormented by half woken nightmares and anguish. I saw a thousand different ways that I could possibly die, and even though I can smile about it now and say that it was silly because there can only be one way to die and therefore I would never have to suffer through the remaining nine hundred ninety nine, it was a very gloomy dark night. I couldn't imagine not only living through another surgery and hospital stay, but being drugged, cut and experimented on. And this is coming from me, a person who had a natural childbirth and considered it to be one of the most beautiful inspiring experiences of my life. There is nothing natural or magical about being sick and operated on. There is no fervently anticipated reward for suffering through pain. There is, however, a sense of deep disappointment and regret that usually accompanies a serious illness. So, once I found out that I can do some surprisingly simple things to prevent a great deal of possible future suffering, I made major shifts in my diet and lifestyle practically overnight. I am one of those people who don't need to be warned twice and therefore I am not going to wait until another health crisis to make the move. People are surprised. They keep asking me what I use for protein, whether I missed meat and comment on how extreme of a sacrifice it seems to be to live this way.

"What sacrifice?" I laugh to myself. A sacrifice is when you give up something dear to you without getting anything in return. I, on the other hand, haven't given up much beyond some acquired tastes and habits and gained a whole lot of benefits. The situation is a win-win if you ask me. I gave up pleasing my taste buds with harmful foods and in return found other pleasant tastes, clarity of mind, spikes in creativity, inner peace, more energy and stamina, and stronger health. Did I miss meat? - No!! Where do I get my protein? - Everywhere!! It's in nuts, seeds, legumes and grains. It's even in fruits and vegetables. Is it complete protein that contains all the essential amino acids? - It doesn't have to be because protein has to be broken down into smaller units which are then either used or stored in the amino acid "storage bank". This storage bank is there to be drawn from when proteins that are needed by the body are reassembled to their usable form. Moreover, as pointed out by Doris Lin in her article on animal rights, sacrifice, by definition, is surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim. She writes, "The implication is that the prized or desirable thing being surrendered belongs to the person making the sacrifice. It can't be a sacrifice to surrender someone else's prized or desirable possession." She makes an excellent point!  She says that veganism is not about giving up, it is about not taking.  

]]>Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:46:21 GMThttp://sunsalutationsforlife.com/1/post/2011/12/awareness-walk-anyone.htmlOctober is a breast cancer month.  There are a number of walks sponsored by big corporations to draw our attention to the problem and to raise more money for finding a cure.  As great as it is that money is raised and women are reminded to self examine their chest for early detection, it really is not enough.  Early detection is not prevention, by any means.  And although it greatly increases the chances of survival, the person still has to go through an incredible amount of suffering.  There must be a better way!  And there is - multiple studies have been done on relationship between diet and health, and diet and cancer specifically.  It has been shown that a person has a huge say in the matter, even though we are led to believe otherwise.  Genetics play a small role in causing cancer.  It is said that in reality only about 5 percent of cases are related to inherited genes, all other cases are connected to environment and behavioral patterns. 

As a society, we are conditioned to think that we need meat and dairy to be healthy.  We are bombarded by endless commercials of fast food, junk food, frozen dinners, milk for calcium ads, cleaning products, makeup and such.  The companies pay a lot of money to make sure people buy their products, and it works – most of the people spend their money on the things that look desirable on TV.  But, if you think about it for a second, it is easy to realize that people are not the ones benefiting from consumption of those products.  Most cleaning products contain highly toxic substances and we seem to be proud of that.  In our obsession to get rid of germs and dirt and attempts to make life easier for ourselves we are willing to overlook that the substances are harming us as well.  We inhale the toxins as we breathe.  They enter our bodies though our skin.  I was surprised that even something as innocent as makeup often contains cancer causing chemicals and substances that damage our nervous and reproductive systems.  I think that once we realize that primary reason of advertisements is to make profit for the manufacturer, it will be easier for us to take them with a grain of salt and question whether something will or will not benefit us. 

As a first step, I started with eating consciously, meaning that I was aware of what I was putting in my body as food.  I looked at each item carefully, read the labels and determined if my body will benefit or be harmed by my choice.  It is not about calorie counting and it is not about fat content or sugar content or how much the food was artificially enriched with vitamins.  The easy way to determine if something is good for you is seek foods that haven’t been processed at all, like fresh raw fruits and vegetable and to eliminate foods that contain over processed ingredients such as white flour, sugar (choose an occasional dried cane juice, honey or dates instead), salt (choose sea salt or just go with extra lemon juice which is an excellent addition to a salad), white rice, fructose corn syrup, oil that has been heated (heating oil molecules breaks their structure converting them to something that is not only indigestible by our bodies but also to something that can harm us), frozen dinners and foods that have been microwaved (the process of heating foods in the microwave also breaks the molecular structure of the food making it toxic, even carcinogenic).

The harmful food list can go on and on.  In fact, it seems that most of the supermarket foods should be on the taboo list, that’s how low we have scooped where it comes to nutrition in this day and age.  Food doesn’t mean nutrition to the most of us - it means taste and convenience instead.  But can you nourish your body in any way solely on taste and convenience?  Of course not - and that is why there are so many overweight and malnourished individuals in the US today.  There are no advertisements that tell the public that animal products such as red meat, poultry, eggs and dairy greatly increase our chances of suffering from heart disease, cancer and diabetes (among other things).  There is no fast paced monologue that follows a burger commercial listing potential side effects as in case of an advertisement of a new drug that is being introduced to the market.  There is no requirement for it, no profit to be made from such a disclosure and a great deal of money spent by the meat and dairy industry to deny the facts found in research. 

So, since we cannot expect the entities that benefit from selling those items to acknowledge the role they play in harming our health and to spend some money informing the public of remarkable findings of various research studies, we need to rely on our own judgment and on sources that are trustworthy and don’t have vested interest in what we consume to provide us with this information.  One of such examples is John Robbins, the person who was supposed to inherit Baskin Robbins and who walked away from the family business and its fortune to be true to himself.  Early on he recognized the connection between diet and health and has worked hard to educate people about proper nutrition.  It is easy to see that companies that make millions and sometimes billions of dollars from sales have a conflict of interest and that people who willingly walk away from fortunes have a sincere goal to improve the lives of ordinary people. 

Bottom line is that people need to know and I am willing to be scoffed at and hated by the companies that might lose potential profit.  If that’s what it takes, so be it!  From more places we hear about products that are harmful to us - the better.  The more people stand up who are aware of the benefits that a healthful diet can provide - the better.  Sometimes a piece of information has to be presented to us from countless sources to convince us that there is something to it and worth looking into, even if it means that one has to go against what is widely accepted by our society.  I think that we can all greatly benefit from an awareness walk, a walk that will truly contribute to preventing and possibly healing cancer.  What is more beneficial - a walk for early detection of one cancer or a walk that significantly reduces our chances of getting a whole spectrum of cancers as well as other sicknesses that cause countless deaths which could have been prevented if people had the knowledge and weren’t so afraid to step out of the norm? 

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It is impossible to not feel more peaceful after a sincere yoga practice, after all its very principles are built on integrating all the aspects of life and its focus is on bringing our true, wise, more compassionate sense of selves out and into the world.  Sadly, there are a lot of places now that forget the yogic roots and associate the practice solely with physical appearance.  My yoga body is a great benefit, but it is only a tip of the iceberg, so I believe that people whose sole desire is to acquire a yoga body of their own are missing out on the rest of the benefits that it provides.  Of course, some of the deeper benefits of yoga will still be felt even if they are not what the person strives for.  Many report a sense of calm after a workout because yoga is a natural stress relief tool.  

When I started to practice yoga eleven years ago, I wanted to condition my body and to improve my balance and flexibility.  Stress relief was not something that I have expected, but I noticed that even on the most stressful of days I felt anxiety relief practically few minutes into a workout.  It worked faster than running!  With time I came to expect that serenity from yoga without knowing much about its roots.  I have continuously done yoga, mixing it with the other workout routines, instinctively seeking it on days when I needed to find my inner center.   In the beginning of this year I wasn’t feeling that well. Going for a run was the last thing on my mind, some days I struggled to get off the couch after a minor activity around the house.  I felt drowsy from the lack of energy and gentle beginner yoga seemed all I could manage at a time.  

After February and my switch to raw food vegetarian and then vegan lifestyle, I regained all my energy and then some.  However, most of the days, I choose yoga over all other possible forms of exercise.  I don’t need to work hard to burn fat anymore as my body naturally maintains its ultimate weight.  I work out more days a week than I previously had because I have more energy to do so, but yoga doesn’t feel like a tedious task.  It has become a part of my daily routine and an integral part of my life.  A reach for a yoga mat first thing in the morning is like taking a deep breath and doing sun salutations is my saying hello to the world.  I have awoken from sleep.  I am here with the start of a new day.  I am devoted to creating peace on my yoga mat and taking it everywhere I go. 

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