Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle likes to remind whoever is listening that we are not our thoughts, nor are we our emotions. We are the awareness behind these two. However, amid the chaos of life, we can often forget this simple yet powerful statement and allow our thoughts and emotions to run wild. A wild mind can only lead to an imbalance in mental wellness. Anxiety, depression, and panic attacks are some of the negative mental states we can experience when mental wellness is inexistent.

The second chakra, also known as Svadhisthana, or sacral chakra. This chakra covers the region of the reproductive organs and lower abdomen and back. As an intuitive, I see this as the emotional center of the body. This is the chakra that stores the information around how we are feeling, and what is going on for us emotionally.

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross True happiness and beauty come from within and yoga is a powerful tool to help you shine your own light. When the external world feels heavy or hard, it can be easy to forget all the light and strength inside of us. Yoga reminds us our light is always there––we may have to work to shed the layers of darkness to uncover it, but we have the ability to choose positivity, no matter what. We create our own calm within any storm.

One of the staples of the Conscious Cleanse eating plan are great big meal-sized salads! When the weather heats up, standing over a hot stove to cook a meal is not ideal. So we wanted to share some of our favorite summertime salad recipes with you today! We love salads, but it’s easy to get tired of the same old salad day in and day out. The best way to keep coming back for more greens is to get creative with the salad dressing and toppings! All these salads use flavorful dressings plus unique and tasty toppings to upgrade your summer salad experience. This brand new recipe that’s exclusive to our online cleanse program. That’s right – if you become a Conscious Cleanse On Demand member, you’ll get access to recipes that are available just to YOU!

The first chakra is the chakra that most reflects the physical body; also known as the root chakra, or Muladhara. Energetically speaking, the root chakra contains the information that codes how we take care of our physical bodies, what set of experiences have created assistance and resistance to being in our bodies, survival information, safety information, fight, or flight information, and our connection to our mother. Whenever we feel that things are no longer in alignment with us, or could use some mending or transformation, the first chakra tends to be the best place to go within and get curious.

​If you’ve been feeling a bit down recently and are in need of a mood boost, it can be easy to veer towards those vices which might not necessarily be the best for you. That’s not to say there’s not a time and a place for a bit of junk food, or a glass of wine, but one thing you can do everyday to help boost your mood is practicing yoga. Building a healthy habit of practicing a little bit of yoga each day can help to improve your mental and physical health, as well as make you feel happier. Here’s a few more reasons why doing yoga everyday can help you.

Do you ever wish you could pull the plug and reboot your life the way you can reboot your computer? You know those days when your phone or laptop go haywire and you waste hours with minor fixes, but nothing works until you perform a full restart? 2020 has been characterized by dramatic shifts and some unwelcome and shocking changes impacting every single one of us. This week consider committing to a complete reset for your body, mind, and heart with our special Reset Refuge 7-Day Gentle Yoga Immersion with Elise Fabricant. Yoga is one of the most powerful tools we have to navigate the ebbs and flows of change. By concentrating on building our strength and balance from the inside out, we are better equipped to handle whatever comes our way. The definition of “Hatha” is Sun-“Ha” and Moon-“tha.”

Summertime weekends are our favorite times to dedicate to family – we love gathering together with our families for a big hearty breakfast or brunch before embarking on all those warm-weather outdoor adventures. That’s where this recipe comes in! Jo’s daughter Ilse LOVES these pancakes – they’re the perfect special weekend brunch treat. They’re super easy to make and take less than 15 minutes of prep and cook time. A great recipe to whip up for a weekend breakfast in bed or laid-back stay-at-home brunch.

Want to fire up your yoga practice? Here’s how to do yoga with resistance bands. Build your strength with this complete list of yoga poses with bands. Resistance bands can be added to any work-out. They’re an easy way to incorporate a challenge into your exercises, and you can use them in many different ways. Resistance bands make your muscles work just that little bit harder, so you get more work-out for your time spent. And resistance bands are portable – pop them in your yoga bag, and you’re good to go.

Stepping into any yoga class, it’s common to include some music into your yoga practice. Music combined with yoga practices can help the mind to find stillness, and help you get into the mood to get on the mat. It can be hard to take your mind away from your busy life for an hour, and music can help with that transition into a more mindful state. Music can affect the whole brain, and help it relax, in a similar way that meditation does. It can help the mind slip into a state where happiness and stillness is created. Music can help you to get into the groove of your yoga practice, and link your mind, breath and body to a beat.

You’ve probably heard that the yogic path is simple, but not easy. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali lays out the eight-limbed path of yoga and emphasizes how it takes consistent practice over time. Just like you vary other types of physical training to keep your muscles and bones in optimal shape, varying the intensity of physical asanas will keep you from over-use injuries. If you practice daily, it’s great to adapt your routine to keep your body healthy. Slowing down can be just as powerful as leveling up. In fact, slowing down offers the opportunity to truly focus on your breathing and the sensations of each asana. The true yoga practice is internal. We use the physical practice to quiet our minds and balance our emotions. Of course, some days you really need to move, to have a vigorous flow to get that yoga buzz. But a gentle practice will also help you approach that place of stillness.

In the heat of mid-summer here in Colorado, no one wants to be spending time in a hot kitchen! So we’ve been looking for more ways to add cooking-free recipes to our meal planning rotation. That’s where today’s recipe comes in. This delicious spicy slaw is the perfect hot weather recipe that features one of our new favorite veggies – Kohlrabi! Kohlrabi is a funky looking veggie but don’t let that deter you – it’s super tasty and easy to eat! It has a sweet-peppery flavor similar to a cross between an apple and a radish and its texture is comparable to broccoli stems. It also has great nutritional value – Kohlrabi is high in fiber, essential vitamins and nutrients, and it can help aid in weight loss, support healthy digestion, and help regulate blood pressure. All in all, this unique veggie makes a great addition to your regular rotation.

How many times have you heard the phrase: “You are what you eat?” Probably enough times that you no longer pay it any mind, but there is actually something to that age-old saying. Research has started to show just how our diets are connected to our overall health and wellbeing. If you find yourself struggling, it may be time to take a look into what foods could be the cause of the negative conditions affecting you. It’s also a great chance to discover more foods that help with positive mental health. Mental Health and Diet: What’s the Connection?

Depending on who you ask, you’ll receive varied answers to whether playing music during yoga helps you get into the flow easier or distracts you. Some people love music that enhances the yoga experience. When teachers offer appropriately energizing songs to boost the students’ mood and complement active asanas or play relaxing, calming music to aid in quieting the mind, the overall class can be just that much more impactful. Of course, there’s an art to creating flow in yoga both in instruction and playlists. Here a few benefits of music and yoga together:

A few weeks ago, I hit a real low point. It happens to all of us, no matter how spiritually advanced we are. Despite the number of Downward Dogs I may have done that morning, I was still not immune to having a bad day. I felt overwhelmed. Anxious. I felt I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other and complete the tasks of the day, because my mind was reeling. The pandemic. The Black Lives Matter movement. The uncertainty of all of it got to me. The tears came with such force I had no choice but to hunker down and let them flow. My attention moved from overwhelm to intense feeling and all I could do was feel my emotions with every inch of me. I didn’t have words to describe these emotions, and I didn’t need that, I just needed to feel it all.

The summer is upon us here in Colorado. We’re looking forward to relaxing at home with small (socially distant) gatherings of friends and family. Summers are notorious for being filled with food and fun (sometimes too much!). It can be tempting to over-indulge in less healthy foods and drinks until you wake up the next day inflamed, hungover, and hurting.

The 7 chakras are individual energy centers in your body. Each chakra holds unique physical and emotional qualities that are part of your whole being. We want each chakra to be in a state of balance, for one to experience optimal balance in these various areas of your life. The chakras teach us that everything in our being is related. Our physical well-being, is connected to our emotional health, and vice versa. Here is a quick look at what each chakra is related to physically and emotionally, and what a state of balance looks like in each of these energy centers. Root (Muladhara)

Want to feel like life is easy and good? Then focus on that desire, more than anything else that might seem in the way of it. While it is easy to focus on one's shortcomings, like anxiety, depression, and things that feel real and impossible to overcome, the truth is we will never overcome them by focusing on them. Where the attention goes, the energy flows. Sure, it might be easy for someone not experiencing any specific issue to say, 'just ignore it', but on some level, we all have the power to choose what we focus on.

When is the last time you tried something different on your yoga mat? We all have our favorite styles of yoga and it’s easy to find your routine has morphed into a rut. This week, we’re here to offer some variety to help you avoid a practice plateau. There isn’t an identical path for any of us. We’re all unique. Why not branch out and experience something new? Some people claim that their yoga is the “true” yoga and everything else is not yoga. Whose path is the right one? Is there a right one? If the end result is that you uncover your best self, you shed the layers weighing you down and shine bright, isn’t that actually the “right” path for you? What really matters is how you feel during and after your yoga practice.

Salads have a reputation for being bland and boring. This is not how it should be because, in reality, they can be juicy, crispy, vibrant, and delicious – very far from boring. This bright watermelon salad here is a perfect example of an exciting salad. It is juicy and sweet from the watermelon, crunchy from the toasted pumpkin seeds, zingy from the lightly marinated red onions, and has enough substance to stand out as a main meal from the halloumi. In fact, I would never serve this salad as a side dish; it is way too perfect for giving it a supporting role instead of being a hero on its own. In case you wish to keep the salad fully vegan, feel free to swap out the halloumi to firm tofu, the dish might need a little more salt in this case, because tofu tends to be bland compared to salty halloumi. Watermelon Salad with Basil and Halloumi

Listening. It sounds so simple and yet is my hardest challenge in life. I interrupt myself, my thoughts, my actions, my progress and so yes, I interrupt others. By doing so it says to them, I don’t care or value your way. I believe my way is superior and better suited to you and your situation. This most certainly is not my intention, quite the opposite in fact. My eagerness to speak, is a direct reflection on how much I want to help, humor or praise them. However, it redirects attention, from them to me. It steals their chance to process and evolve and be present with their feelings. Let people cry, don’t tell them it will be ok and try to change the moment. Be in the moment, the rawness of the emotion and let it run it’s path. When people turn to another person, it is to be seen and heard, not necessarily to be given a solution or advice. By just being there and indulging them time to explore their emotions, you have given them the gift they want and initiated the path to healing. Silence is golden. It holds space and heals. It speaks louder than any well intentioned words and is received on a cellular level beyond that of the ears.

Restorative and Yin Yoga are often confused and assumed to be the same style of yoga. Some yoga studios even use the class names interchangeably. They are, in fact, different styles of yoga that employ distinct techniques and philosophical approaches. While some of the benefits of these practices are the same, the aim and methods not only differ, they are complete opposites. Why do they get confused? At first glance, they appear to be similar practices because they explore mostly poses that rest close to the ground and often use props to support the body. Like most yoga practices, both Yin and Restorative Yoga can promote relaxation and stress relief.

"Don´t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try." - Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. In order to grow, we must continue to take chances and try things outside of our comfort zones. Now we’re not suggesting you need to go bungee jumping or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro tomorrow! Well, unless it’s on your bucket list. Until you attempt something new, you’ll never know how it could turn out. Yoga can appear intimidating if you’ve never tried it, but with appropriate instruction, it is actually much more accessible than you think. Maybe in the past, you’ve tried some different classes and the teacher didn’t resonate with you or you suffered an injury or illness and are hesitating to return to the mat. Or maybe you are a true newbie and are finally ready to try yoga.

Have you ever made ice cream at home? I have. All kinds. Since I don’t have an ice cream machine and there is definitely no more space left in my kitchen for another gadget, I have tried all kinds of different machine-free versions. I have a recipe that calls for sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream – the consistency is nice, but it is way too sweet for my liking. I have another method, which uses traditional crème anglaise and taking the mix out of the freezer every half an hour to whisk it through, but this one requires way too much effort, and I always forget to mix it at the right time and by the time I remember it has frozen solid. For at least five years now I have not experimented with any of those complicated, overly sweet and fatty ice creams, because it only takes 5 minutes to whip up this genius recipe that:

There are many benefits to practicing yoga regularly. Some are more obvious than others, like more flexibility, strength, and balance. However, yoga’s benefits can also extend off of the mat, and into other areas of our lives as well. For example, yoga can make you more productive and better at your job. Yoga can also increase your energy levels throughout the day. And yoga can also make you better in bed, whether you’re gay, straight, or anywhere in-between. Really? Yes really, and here’s why: