Kimberly Snyder, Author at LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health

How to Expand Your Vitality: 6 Essential Tools

Kimberly Snyder — Tue, 17 May 2022 21:30:13 +0000

What Exactly is Vitality? And How Can You Expand Your Vitality?

Vitality is derived from the word vita, which means life. From a yogic standpoint, when we are full of vitality, we are full of life force, or prana. This means that there is strong ojas, which translates as “essence of vitality.”

In our everyday expression, this means that in your life you experience more resilience, strength, energy, inspiration, health and confidence. There is more brightness in your eyes, and a glow in your skin. You feel lighter, and you experience more enjoyment, creativity and fulfillment day to day!

In Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentary of the great text, The Bhagavad Gita, he says that vitality is present as tejas in all beings, which comes from the cosmic fire of Spirit’s supreme consciousness within us all, down the level of the electrons and protons and atoms.

He goes on to say that this Divine Radiance comes forth in the yogi as increasing or expanding your vitality, which is characterized by a natural unfoldment of spiritual magnetism, and a quiet outer expression of deep inner joy.

Are You Excited about building your vitality now?!

Try these 6 practical tools to expand vitality in your life:

1. Regular meditation.

This all-important practice is where we connect to the life force, the fire of Spirit inside of you. Inside you is the light of the True Self, which is beyond the fear and beyond the mind chatter. It is so important to turn your energy inward at least some of the time, as most often your energy is constantly directed externally through the senses, into the world of delusion, the world of ego. Regularity is key here! While you don’t have to be intimidated or feel that you have to sit in meditation for an hour each time (unless you choose to!), I recommend sitting in daily practice for at least 5-10 minutes each morning to connect to the true inner source of vitality and to expand your vitality.

For free guided meditations by yours truly, please check out the free Practical Enlightenment Meditations on our free Solluna app.

2. Finding times for stillness.

Let’s face it, we live in a really noisy world! And if we are always swept up in the chaos of life, we will be pulled in different directions. Confusion, anxiety and/or inertia will build, while focus and equanimity will decline. Consequently, your vitality will start to become dulled down. So I recommend batching time on email texts, social media, and any other sorts of media, so it’s not constantly leaking your energy and attention. Make space between appointments and meetings and carve out time to be still in nature, or in any other ways that feel nourishing to you.

3. Digesting your feelings.

When you hold on to strong feelings, whether it is anger, jealousy, resentfulness, sadness or so on, it depletes your body. Your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being are all intricately intertwined. Emotions are meant to be energy in motion, meaning they are meant to flow through you.. When you hold on to them, it creates resistance and blocks in your body which can result in tightness, tension, inflammation, dysbiosis in your gut, contribute to autoimmune conditions and a whole other host of issues that degrade your vitality. For some practical exercises to release trapped emotions and open up your vitality, please check out my new book, You Are More Than You Think You Are.

4. Direct your will to your purpose.

When we tune in and connect to your “why”, your dharma, which is beyond any one specific thing, but spans to include your purpose, you become ablaze with more of that inner fire. This inner passion directs and expands your energy as it fuels your vitality.

I believe that purpose is combining your unique gifts with how they can be used to serve the greater collective. For specific information on how to distill down your specific purpose, please please be sure to read Chapter 3 in my new book, You Are a Warrior.

5. Eat Sattvic foods to expand your vitality.

These are foods that are centering, grounding, deeply nourishing, and supportive of your vitality. These include the whole range of plant foods, especially fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and nut and seed milks.

6. Preserve your energy by avoiding over-talking and emotional chaos.

A few of the other soul qualities mentioned in The Bhagavad Gita are self-restraint and self-discipline. When you constantly comment on everything, and talk idly, you deplete your own life force. This is also true of getting overly involved in all the drama of everyday life…you deplete our vitality more and more. So pull back from getting so involved, and practice more witnessing.

In conclusion, think of your vitality as tending the fire inside.

You don’t want it to be excessive and create burnout and depletion, and you also don’t want it to become too dim.

Nurture yourself through these practical practices on a consistent basis, and watch vitality grow in your life!

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder is a multi-time New York Times bestselling author, spiritual and meditation teacher, nutritionist and holistic wellness expert. She has authored 6 books, including Radical Beauty, which she co-authored with Deepak Chopra. Her highly anticipated 6th book, You Are More Than You Think You Are: Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life, (Hay House) published on January 25th, 2022.

She is also the founder of Solluna®, a holistic lifestyle brand, Practical Enlightenment Meditation,™ Solluna Circle and the host of her top-rated Feel Good Podcast. She has worked with dozens of top celebrities to feel their best, including Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon and Channing Tatum, and has been featured by numerous national media outlets, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Kimberly resides in Los Angeles and Hawaii with her husband and her sons.

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post How to Expand Your Vitality: 6 Essential Tools appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Practice: How to Effectively Do Affirmations

Kimberly Snyder — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 02:11:06 +0000

“Words saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition are like highly explosive vibration bombs, which, when set off, shatter the rocks of difficulties and create the change desired.”— Paramahansa Yogananda

The Power of Your Words

Understanding that we are all powerful creators is one of the fundamental principles of Yogananda’s teachings. The True Self is always creating. And one of the easiest and most effective ways of directing this energy is through the power of the words you use.

With a world population nearing 8 billion people, words are more copious today than they ever have been. Millions of conversations are happening right now, everywhere around the globe. There are more books, magazines, and movies being produced than ever before. And the internet? Well, there may well be an infinite number of words—good and bad—being used there that contribute exponentially to a never-ending cycle. And unfortunately, with all of this chatter that goes on minute by minute and day by day, it is impossible to comprehend all the words flying at us. It then devolves into a lot of noise and starts to feel like the blah blah blah sounds of listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher.

The phrase talk is cheap is one all of us have heard at one time or another. While it usually means, “I won’t believe what you’re saying until you give me proof,” it also suggests that words have lost their value in many ways. We speak idly, we fill empty spaces with words, we go off into unfocused conversations and just chat away without really thinking too much about what we are saying.

Yet words have awesome, creative power, especially when used consciously and directed toward a goal. “I love you,” “We will succeed,” “Never give up”: these words contain strength and beauty that inspire us and help us grow. And yet, like any creative power, words are a double-edged sword—they can build up or tear down. Most of us unknowingly take this for granted, otherwise why would we so casually declare, “I’m such a loser,” “I’m so gross and fat,” “There are no good men/women left for me,” or “This is all such a nightmare, and it’s never going to work out.” Words help to create your day-to-day reality. I’ve never met a successful person who repeatedly denigrates herself. In fact, when you use negative self-talk, you are sowing the seeds of turmoil and hardship. Bottom line: you speak into existence the words that you think and say.

Word Myths

The idea of affirmations has been floating around in self-help circles for over a hundred years. And unfortunately, they have gotten a bad rap because of the ineffectual way they are often used—casual and not fully directed. If you just sit around and say things like “I’m rich!” with no feeling or focused intention, then affirmations are a waste of time. In the end, you’re just lying to yourself. No one around you believes it, certainly not you, and most importantly, your lukewarm attempt at expanding your life fizzles and goes cold.

Most of us haven’t been taught how to really perform affirmations to their fullest, most powerful form. So, when they fail, we cast away affirmations like old socks that don’t really fit us, and in the process unknowingly cast away a potentially incredibly effective technique that you can use to manifest what you want.

The Power of Properly Practiced Affirmations

Yogananda had a lot to say about the power of doing affirmations properly. He teaches, “That is why all affirmations of the conscious mind should be impressive enough to permeate the subconsciousness, which in turn automatically influences the conscious mind. . . . Still stronger affirmations reach not only the subconscious but also the superconscious mind—the magic storehouse of miraculous powers.”

So properly doing affirmations doesn’t mean you just rattle off a bunch of phrases. Nor does it mean negating the power of your words by saying, “I am healthy and fit” while thinking, “Yeah, right. This doesn’t work. I’m actually the epitome of being out of shape.” When you combine words with a committed intention and powerful emotion, you unite that energy with each word you are saying.

The truth of this is wonderfully exemplified by my friend Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and founder of the Blue Zones, which is an organization that teaches communities how to emulate the five regions in the world where people live much longer than usual. I asked him if he uses affirmations in his conquests, and he recounted:

In a moment of rapture, or perhaps too much tequila, I declared to a few friends that I was going to bike across Africa—an affirmation of sorts. I started researching the trip: crossing the Sahara, traveling parallel to the equator through the Congo, then to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti, and down to Cape Town. And I got very excited. I told more and more people about it and got them excited. Pretty soon, I got three team-mates excited—and 15 sponsors. Finally, we were dipping our rear wheels in the sea north of Tunisia to begin the trip.

But the story doesn’t end here. Two thousand one hundred miles into the Sahara, the road ended, and we faced raw, open desert. The easy thing would have been to retreat. Instead, we pushed on. In the Congo, we found almost no food. We contracted malaria, dysentery, intestinal worms, and giardiasis. We were emaciated, filthy, and defeated. What kept us going? That same declaration that got me started. But now, it had taken on a different type of power. I had made promises to sponsors who counted on us and friends who believed in us.

What had started as an affirmation had now transformed into a resolve not to let people down. And you know what? It pushed us through. On June 10, 1993, after 12,220 miles, we rolled into Cape Town, South Africa, and set the Guinness World Record for cycling Africa. The lesson: Beware of what you declare during a time of rapture.

Bottom line: affirmation plus willpower leads to transformation.

So don’t just recite your affirmations; really live them.

Yogananda was a pioneer in the science of affirmation and began teaching the technique long before it became a modern-day practice. Here is some guidance he gives: “Choose your affirmation and repeat all of it, first loudly, then softly and more slowly, until your voice becomes a whisper. Then gradually affirm it mentally only, without moving the tongue or the lips, until you feel that you have attained deep, unbroken concentration—not unconscious-ness, but a profound continuity of uninterrupted thought. If you continue with your mental affirmation, and go still deeper, you will feel a sense of increasing joy and peace. During the state of deep concentration, your affirmation will merge with the subconscious stream, to come back later reinforced with power to influence your conscious mind through the law of habit.”

This is what happened to my friend Dan. He had embedded his affirmation so deeply inside himself that it began to manifest and influence the decisions he made. Coupled with his will to not renege on his affirmation, he attained his dream. And you can do the same.

Here’s a simple way to get started:

1. First of all, create a clear affirmation.

It can be one or a few sentences, but you should be able to repeat it from memory. Align with your deepest desire that you find to be fully worthy and aligned with your time and attention. I recommend starting with “I am” to tie in the quality of beingness. Say it in the present tense, to enforce that it’s here now, or in the process of coming in. Here are some examples:

I am passionate about my job, which is fulfilling and meaningful to me.
I am love, and I find the matching love of my life.
I am peaceful.
I am the regional manager.
I have a wonderful team to manage.
I am the owner of my own fashion brand.

2. Second, repeat the affirmation out loud, then softer and softer, then to a whisper, and finally silently.

This means you are ideally going to be saying your affirmation 8–10 times in a session. Keep repeating it within yourself, until you feel that you have attained a deep state of concentration with the words you are saying. As Yogananda says, it should feel like a “profound continuity of uninterrupted thought.”

You need to keep merging with the words you are saying by accepting them as truth. It is important to turn off the tendency to rattle off the words mindlessly, or as Yogananda says, as “blind repetition of demands.” This technique requires intense concentration and focus, so it is important to keep your mind on your intention and not on something else, like what you are going to cook for dinner later or a deadline you have to meet.

3. Remember that this is a practice.

While seemingly simple, truly merging with your affirmation takes practice.

As I’ve already mentioned, it’s impossible to practice this technique properly if your mind is racing, if you are right in the middle of screaming toddlers, or if you’re answering a bunch of texts or playing the news in the background. Instead, it’s better to do your affirmations after you meditate, or at least after you put your phone in airplane mode. Once you do, take some deep breaths, and go into a quiet space. Otherwise, just wait for the right opportunity, because if you do it without the concentration required, you are just wasting your time.

4. Look for peace as a marker for effectiveness.

Yogananda teaches that if we find ourselves going into deeper and deeper states, we are indeed allowing the affirmation to go deeper and deeper into our “superconscious realm, to return later laden with unlimited power to influence your conscious mind and also to fulfill your desires.” Feelings of increasing peace are a definite marker that you are going deeper into the affirmation and uniting with it, so that it will manifest as your reality in your life. Feel that the affirmation is becoming part of you, actually merging into your heart and then through every cell and part of you.

5. Move on and believe.

Once you complete the practice, which can take anywhere from, say, three minutes or so to as much time as you want to stay in that state, be convinced that your affirmation has been heard and that what is Spirit’s is also yours. Then move on with your day with that confidence and knowing.

You can make affirmations part of your daily life and daily practice. Or you can weave them in and out as you feel connected to using them. There isn’t a “right” timing and frequency. If you are really focused on a goal, though, I suggest you practice them daily. Try them, wield your own power, and create away!

Note: if you are looking for affirmation inspiration, Paramahansa Yogananda offers hundreds of affirmations for healing, self-improvement, and deepening your unity with the True Self in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons and the books Scientific Healing Affirmations and Metaphysical Meditations.

You Are More Than You Think You Are

Reprinted with permission from You Are More Than You Think You Are: Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life by Kimberly Snyder,

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Practice: How to Effectively Do Affirmations appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

4 Key Ways to Avoid Burnout

Kimberly Snyder — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 19:00:55 +0000

What Does Burnout Really Mean? And How Do We Avoid Burnout?

As we head towards the close of the year, you may notice that you’re feeling more frazzled than usual. Perhaps your energy isn’t exactly where you want it to be, or that you’re feeling more impatient, worn out, stressed out, frustrated…or maybe all of the above!

These are all signs of burnout. With a big B. Burnout is really about energy in your life building up, and not being adequately processed and released. So it builds and builds until you feel like you are about to explode–or about to break down.

Energetic buildup can come from many forms, including from toxins, low-sleep nights, stress, excessively working with little down time and so on…

4 Cornerstones of True Wellness

My philosophy is built around The 4 Cornerstones of True Wellness. These are:

Food
Body
Emotional Well-being
Spiritual Growth

When we nurture ourselves as whole beings and in all of these cornerstones, we feel our best, most connected versions of ourselves. If we continue to deplete ourselves in any or one of these areas, we will feel the very real (and unpleasant) effects of burnout, which unfortunately adversely affect all areas of our lives. Our energy levels start to tank, our skin looks “bad” (we know the difference), our patience runs thin and we feel less creative and more stuck.

The solution to avoiding burnout lies in adding in practical practices to move energy and create more flow in all of these 4 key areas, or Cornerstones.

Tips to Get Started with Avoiding Burnout

Nourishing and Easy Food

Try making bowls for yourself, where you choose each food component based on your intuition to be the most nourishing for you right now. Food is an important want to nourish yourself, and we need to check in always to see what is right for us in that moment.

Bowls are also great because they’re about simplicity. The last thing we need to add to our to-do list is complicated recipes! Try just simply dressing, stir-frying or baking each component with spices and seasonings.

Some great bowl examples include: brown rice, quinoa, carrots, Brussels sprouts, lentils, beans, spinach, sprouts and so on…

Take Care of Your Body

Go for at least a 15 minute walk every day. It’s physical exercise, yes, yet beyond that, it’s a great way to get outside and syncopate to Mother Nature’s powerful balance. It also helps us feel in flow, move energy like stress, improve circulation, and avoid feeling stagnant.

It’s my personal main form of exercise, and a daily practice, and it definitely helps me avoid burnout on a daily basis. I like to walk in silence or while listening to uplifting chanting music, like from Krishna Das.

Cultivate Emotional Well-Being

Emotions are meant to be energy in motion. Check in to see if you need to sit more with something that has not yet been processed, so it doesn’t stagnate emotionally! A great way to do this is to journal in the evenings.

3 Questions for Journaling

Is there anything I need to process right now? If so, what is it? What does it feel like in my body?
Is there anything else I can let go of?
What am I grateful for?

It’s always good to take some time to sit and reflect. And then to end with focusing on the gratitude and seeing the light that is always there if we look for it!

Take Time for Spiritual Growth

Mini meditations are amazing for resetting! Try closing your eyes, taking some deep breaths into your belly, relax your shoulders. Be there for one minute or a bit more, and close in gratitude. Notice the difference just from that!

Of course, longer meditations are wonderful for our daily progress forward in connecting with our True Self. The more we anchor in to that, the less we over-identify with the ups and downs of daily life and take things so seriously, which definitely leads to burnout.

Check out some of the free Practical Enlightenment Meditations that I offer, which are under 10 minutes (you can certainly extend them by sitting for as long as you would like beyond the guidance!).

Try any of all of these tips today!

I do recommend going wider and more holistic in your self-care across all 4 of the Cornerstones to successfully avoid burnout, versus getting too overly focused on just one or two of them.

Namaste and love!

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post 4 Key Ways to Avoid Burnout appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

5 Rituals For Finding Self-Acceptance

Kimberly Snyder — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 18:00:56 +0000

Walking the Lifelong Path of Finding Self-Acceptance

When I was a little girl, I remember the feeling of unfairness rising up in me often. It didn’t feel fair that my last name started with an S, which was towards the back of the alphabet, so I had to be called in attendance as one of the last students and sit in the back of the class. It didn’t feel fair that I looked different than other kids – I’m half Asian, and I grew up an in all Caucasian town. The unfairness list went on and on.

The idea of finding self-acceptance wasn’t taught to me as a child. It wasn’t part of our family culture, and so when I started hearing about it later in life as I started backpacking and spending a lot of time in India, at first it felt revelatory. At first I struggled with my intellectual mind: Wait, doesn’t acceptance mean that I’m giving up? It was the big battle that my mind was trying to wrap around.

Yet little by little, I came to understand the meaning, and the real power of acceptance. Acceptance is the pathway forward to peace, and importantly, inner peace. Acceptance is about finding harmony with this now moment. So whatever’s arising, we accept it. And when we find harmony with we then have more power and more energy to go forward and to create change, if that’s what we want. The openness that comes with acceptance is very magnetic. It’s a different frequency for allowing more that you can attract in and more will start to come to you.

All of this has to start with finding self-acceptance, as our inner connection is what influences and creates our experience in the external world. Self-acceptance, however, is a biggie for all of us. It sounds nice, but it’s not always so easy to embody!

It’s important to have solid tools that are practical, tangible and that you can use to keep fostering and deepening your inner connection, so that self-acceptance starts to build more and more, like a muscle.

Here are 5 practical tools that I want to share with you to help you along the self-acceptance journey, that have also really helped me.

5 Tools for Finding Self-Acceptance

1. Relax your body periodically throughout the day.

When your body is open and relaxed, you will have an easier time accepting things mentally. This is because our bodies, minds and spirit are all intrinsically connected. There is no real beginning and end, for all is energy. Working with your body’s power and wisdom to help heal and restrictive patterns is important.

To relax your body, simply do a scan from the top of your head to your feet, several times a day, and bring awareness to each area. Relax any areas of tension consciously as you scan down.

2. Gratitude at the beginning, middle and end of the day.

Resistance is when we want something to show up differently than how it really is. In contrast, when can find that expansive energy of gratitude, it can makes acceptance easier, no matter what we’re going through.

Gratitude means we look for the blessings in the here and now, and they are always there! So if you are having a hard time feeling grateful for your life, your body, or whatever situation is at hand, try getting out your journal and making a list of all that you can give thanks for in this moment. It can be the simple but important things we take for granted, like fresh air, clean water, running water, the sunlight, the ability to breathe.

3. Journaling for Empowerment Versus Victimhood.

This relates to what I shared with you earlier, about when I was a child, the prevalent “this isn’t’ fair” mindset. It parlays into: I don’t want it this way. I worked so hard. Why is this? Why is that? Ultimately, it is the disempowerment mentality of the victim. We can turn that into empowerment by shifting our perspective, and looking for the lessons, while also seeing any part that we played in the situation, as well as surrendering to the greater whole, the greater intelligence that we don’t fully understand.

Try using your journal as a powerful tool to shift your perspective. It can help to get things on paper to help create some perspective. First, write out whatever you feel about the situation or your life or whatever is on your mind.

Then try writing out these journal prompts for finding self-acceptance.

What are the gifts of this situation?
Without blame or shame, what can I see are the parts I played in this situation?
What can I let go of in peace, which was beyond my control?
What are the lessons I have learned?

4. Meditation on a daily basis.

This is the ultimate way to connect to your True Self, the formless nature within you, Spirit within you. When you do that, you become less attached and rigid about outer details and circumstances, because you start to transcend attachments. You realize there is so much more beyond what your physical eyes can see.

I’d love to share some of the free meditations I’ve created to help you connect to your True Self, which are inspired by my guru’s work, Paramahansa Yogananda.

They are called Practical Enlightenment Meditations™ and they have 3 components.

First, some physical movement to help still the body.
Second, breath work.
Thirdly, the seed intention of that particular meditation in the I AM form, which is for merging our individual consciousness with the Divine.

You can find these meditations on my site, mysolluna.com or inside our Solluna App.

5. Include simple rituals around natural objects in your home.

Nature just IS. And this is a powerful lesson for all of us in the ultimate acceptance of I AM THAT I AM. Keeping natural objects like shells, crystals, rocks and so on your home altars or places you will see them, like in your kitchen, can help remind you and ground you to that knowing.

A simple ritual is every time you see that rock or natural object is to take a deep breath and come into your body, into this now moment- the ultimate act of finding self-acceptance. You can also hold a crystal and do a mini meditation when you feel your anxiety spiraling or you notice that you are definitely not in the now moment. Use your creativity and make some of your own rituals!

Ultimately, we are all here for a purpose, and we all have a unique essence and energy. The more we connect with that energy, which is the True Self, the more self-acceptance and acceptance in general will flow in our lives. This natural flow state of peace is our birthright.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post 5 Rituals For Finding Self-Acceptance appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Why We Don’t Have to Be “Shiny” to Show our True Nature

Kimberly Snyder — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:00:29 +0000

How We Can Show our True Nature and Find our Inner Shine

A few months ago, I interviewed Krishna Das for my Feel Good podcast, and I was struck by a story he hold me about attending the Maha Kumbha Mela in India in 1989. It was one of those stories that sticks around, that really resonates and that you ponder on from time to time.

In the story he describes how one of the senior devotees of Neem Karoli Baba, also known as “Maharajji”, was an older man called Baba. Krishna Das noticed that some people were being disrespectful to Baba at this enormous event with millions of people, and Krishna Das began getting upset.

It was then that Krishna Das describes:

“Baba grabbed me, and he pulled me into Maharajji’s room, and he closed the door. He unlocked a dresser and down under the back shelf, he pulled out something wrapped in funky, dusty, old newspaper all yellowed with time. He unwraps it, and it’s a lota, a metal pot or a metal cup that you use to bathe, et cetera. He is holding this cup in front of me and he is saying, “Do you see, do you see, Krishna Das?” It was all rusty and dirty and dusty. And I said, “No, Baba, I don’t see.”

He says again, “Do you see? He left this for me. His last time here, Maharajji’s last time in this house before he left the body. When he left, he left his lota.” [This would have been 16, 17 years ago]. He says again, “Do you see? Do you see? “You don’t have to shine.” And he wrapped it up again, put it back under the shelf, locked the dresser and left me standing there.”

Everything we do is designed to make us shine in our own eyes, in the eyes of others. But you don’t have to shine.

We Are Whole and Complete

This story is a very poignant reminder that we must remind ourselves, time and time again, that we are whole and complete as we are. It matters not whether others can see us or not, for we are the ones that can see ourselves. It is from this deep connection to the True Self, what the Yogis describe as the formless essence within us, that we can move through life, with the knowing of our inherent completeness, and our inherent worth.

Often, we may long for others to see us, to validate us, to help us feel “shiny.” We are human after all, and each of us is on this grand journey, where at times we may align with the True Self over the ego, and vice versa. When we are aligned with the small self, the ego, it is then that we try to “add on” to our worth, and we try to prove that we are enough.

In modern life, it’s common to want to be “shiny” on social media, to say something super interesting in a conversation so we stand out, and all the ways it plays out, big and small. When we peer closer though, we see that it is merely the cry of our egos that wants us to feel that we have to keep shining and doing to be enough. It is not the truth.

Sometimes when I recount this story from Krishna Das, it actually makes me tear up. I grew up with the belief that love comes from doing and achievement, and I was definitely chasing “shiny” for a lot of my life. There is a lot of pain in constantly chasing, because we are never okay just being ourselves.

Now, the deeper I get into my meditations and practice, I release this more and more. It still comes up, but the light of awareness and re-centering are strong enough, over time, to reverse these tendencies and reframe our perspective.

Just like that rusty, dusty old lota that Baba showed to Krishna Das, the surface will never and can never really reveal our real shine. The real shine comes from the True Self, from the Divine part of us that is Spirit within. We do not need to try to shine superficially, for the more we meditate and connect to that great power within, we realize that we are already shining, whether we try to or not.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Why We Don’t Have to Be “Shiny” to Show our True Nature appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Four Cornerstones for Feeling Your Best This Summer

Kimberly Snyder — Fri, 02 Jul 2021 18:40:43 +0000

What I’ve found in over a decade of working in wellness is that if we focus just on one area of our life, we’re not really well. For most of us, our wellness journeys start with food and improving our diet, but then once we do that and lose the weight or get more fit or whatever our goal is, we still feel that something is off.

Maybe we still don’t feel peaceful, we’re still anxious and have insomnia. Maybe we just don’t feel happy. Maybe we don’t feel confident or are still feeling over-affected by what anyone around us says or does. This is why it’s key to take a holistic approach to wellness, one that honors and nurtures all aspects of us, because our power lies in our wholeness.

The way I talk about this wholeness is through the Four Cornerstones of True Beauty and Wellness that is central in my philosophy. When I’m talking about beauty, it’s not just the way your hair or skin looks (though that’s part of it). I’m talking about beauty in a deep, mystical, holistic way as well, the way the ancient mystics like Rumi and the great yoga guru Yogananda described the beauty of the soul.

When you follow this holistic approach, you will feel centered, empowered and clear. You gain more confidence, you have more energy, and you have this “what is that?!” magnetism that is hard to pin down. And you look radiant and de-bloated to boot! Everything starts to feel like it’s flowing across your life.

Our Four Cornerstones are 1) food, 2) body, 3) emotional well-being and 4) spiritual growth.

When you work on nourishing all of them in your life, you regain balance and start to thrive. If you ignore one or two, you tend to get obsessed with one of the other areas.

For instance, when I had eating disorders and beat myself up mentally every day over my body (which I was obsessed with making skinnier), it was because I was ignoring my emotions and feelings, and I was not connecting with my real self/soul/spirit. I didn’t like myself and wasn’t comfortable with myself. And how could I be? I didn’t take the time to get to know myself yet, because I didn’t have any kind of stillness or meditation practice. And it wasn’t until I started working on my emotional, mental and spiritual well-being was I able to feel beer in my body- and across my whole life- once and for all.

Let’s focus on applying this Four Cornerstone philosophy to summer, to look and feel our best.

1. Food Choices for Feeling Your Best

We need to nourish our bodies. Because we eat every day, and food is tangible as we can see it and pick it up, it’s where we begin. What you put in your body; the foods you choose to eat have powerful healing qualities. Food integrates into your body and profoundly affects the way you feel and look.

Summer is a wonderful time to eat more raw plant foods: especially greens, other vegetables, and fruit. We take in the optimal amount of vitamins that way, as well as antioxidants, fiber, minerals, and more. Salads and smoothies are great daily staples. For summer I opt for simplicity. Often, I make a big plate with cut up a bunch of cucumbers with a little sea salt and snap peas and leave it out for my older son, who is five, and he chomps away. Kids can teach us the simple, basic nature of great eating!

It’s important to maintain balance with lots of room temperature water (as tempting as icy beverages always are!) for optimal hydration, as well as coconut water. (One of my personal favorites is the Harmless Harvest brand.)

2. Body Practices for Feeling Your Best

Our bodies can offer us so much wisdom. When we care for our bodily temple properly, we feel revitalized, flexible and centered. Summer is a great time to move your body outside in nature, to take advantage of the benefits of grounding and getting some Vitamin D from (safe) sunlight practices. If you practice asana, it’s so beneficial to practice outside when possible. In the summer, the sun sets later, of course. And it’s great to try to eat dinner outside when possible, and still strive for eating 3-4 hours before bedtime, so you don’t end up with sluggish digestion from eating too late.

3. Emotional Well-Being

Emotional well-being is often a missing piece of one’s wellness journey. Imbalanced, it can manifest in emotional swings, ongoing relationship drama, guilt, shame, chronic anger and resentment, constant cravings and desires are all indicative of unresolved emotions. Unresolved emotions can increase inflammation, bloating, gut imbalance, even weight gain, lined skin and of course, unhappiness.

This summer, create an intention to create some stillness and space to really feel your feelings. I find that feelings can build up, similarly to undigested food. There’s a lot of research now about the power of intention. Use the slower weekends or times in the evening to meditate, journal, and then lie back and feel. I do this periodically, and it’s amazing how much can come up to be felt, before it can fully be let go. I lay very still, and feel, feel, feel for as long as the feelings cycle through—which could be anywhere from 30 minutes to far longer. It’s a wonderful practice for fostering more lightness this summer.

4. Spiritual Growth

Spiritual growth isn’t about organized religion or dogma, it’s about spirit. Spirit, energy, life force, pure intelligence, the Tao—whatever term you prefer—flows through you and me and everything else. I define spirituality as being in touch with your true self, your true essence. You are a completely unique soul and expression. Therefore you are completely worthy of love just as you are- but the problem is that we so easily forget that! And when we do, life starts to feel a lot harder and more complicated.

This summer, commit to dialing in, or really doubling down on your meditation practice. Better still if you can get up a bit earlier. The Yogis used to teach about the magic hours of the early morning as holding great spiritual potential. Even if it’s only 5-10 minutes every morning, it’s a great start. And you can continue to build from there on the path to feeling your best.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Four Cornerstones for Feeling Your Best This Summer appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Getting Comfortable with Being out of Control

Kimberly Snyder — Tue, 25 May 2021 22:33:34 +0000

I’m learning right now just how fragile life really is.

My husband and I watched in terror from our bedroom window as enormous red flames rose high into the sky. Started by an arsonist, the Palisades Fire jumped from 100 acres to 750 acres in just a few hours and, at the time of this writing, has engulfed more than 1,300 acres.

Local areas around us were forced into evacuation, and I knew we might be next. The firefighters’ helicopters roared overhead, dropping water on the inferno around us. It was hard to tell if it was just my heart beating quickly or if my whole body was trembling in fear. I had never experienced a threat like this before in my life. With our 11-month-old baby cradled in one arm and our five-year-old playing with his Legos next to me, completely unaware of the imminent risk, I had to start packing our bags. I instinctively grabbed our passports, laptops, a few sentimental items, and some essential clothing for all of us.

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After I did all the basic prep, I knew where I had to go: inward. I went into another part of the house, shut the door, and meditated (while hubby stayed with the kids).

As I meditated, I started to center. I realized we might have to leave soon–our house and neighborhood here that we love so much might burn to the ground–and there wasn’t anything I could do to control the fire and the destructive trail it was leaving behind. Yet, as I meditated more, I could feel a sense of tranquility in the chaos.

Reflections on Being out of Control and Finding Comfort

Being in out-of-control situations is something I’ve experienced before (as I’m sure all of us have at one time or another). Four years ago, my mom found out she had cancer. Six weeks later, she left her body. Looking back, that month-and-a-half is a complete blur, but I remember how helpless I felt. My mom was dying and dying quickly, and there was nothing I could do about it.

My mom’s passing was a turning point in my life when I went from practicing meditation to living it. Prior to that event, I would do my practice when it fit in, and I would sit after my asana practice and it would feel nice. Yet after that event, it was a whole other story. I leaned on my meditations not just in periods of the morning and night, but to connect in deeper all throughout the day when I was drowning in grief on the surface. Even if for a minute or so, mini-meditations started connecting between my morning and evening meditations until my whole life felt part of my practice. Since that time, mediation has become the core foundation of my life; going inward, deep down beyond the external, has saved me time and time again.

While not everything in life is as dramatic as a raging forest fire or the death of a loved one, much of life is still beyond our control. In small ways and significant ways, including losing a job, relationship failure, a social media post that falls flat, we are all reminded that we don’t have the kind of control that our egos would like for us to believe we have.

Sure, we can intend, we can plan, we can take all the proper action steps, but we are never truly in control. There are much larger forces at play–call it fate, call it destiny, call it rotten luck; we are humbled time and time again when we think we have more control than we actually do. Yet, when life goes awry, we can always go inward, and there we can find order in the chaos.

Six tangible tools to cope with feeling out of control and to shift to getting comfortable:

Pay attention to your body and mind.

As soon as you feel your heart race or observe your mind going off into a dark place, realize that you are in some triggered state. When this happens, it’s time to reset.

Get still.

Prioritize going into a quiet place, putting your entire focus on calming your breath and recentering yourself. Try doing nadi shodhana breathing or another pranayama practice that resonates with you.

Descend.

The ocean’s surface is choppy, but underneath the waves there is stillness (which those of us that have gone scuba diving have experienced!). After finding some peace in your breath, go deeper, and observe. If you can, observe who is observing the fear, discomfort, pain, or uncertainty moving through you.

Go wide.

Look at the larger picture. Life doesn’t always work out as we plan it. If your business proposal fell through, take a step back. Often, we are so close to something that we don’t see the whole picture. In this instance, maybe the timing isn’t right. Maybe there was a flaw in your idea. Maybe there is something better for you. And perhaps you can’t see any of these things because you need to take a step back.

Stay present.

When things don’t go our way, we tend to fantasize (negatively) about future scenarios. After a breakup, many of us become fortune tellers, “I’ll never love again” or “I’ll never find someone I connect with.” Never? We can’t deal with a future that isn’t here yet. When your mind starts coming up with “what if” scenarios, call it back in. Take a breath. Take a few. Focus on the present moment. Focus on your present breath.

Call on community.

Love and connection endure. Going inward is essential. So is going outward. Reach out to a friend or lean on a trusted family member. The people we love and respect around us are like roots–we can hold on to them when the storms of life rage.

Find a Safe Harbor for Getting Comfortable

In the end, life is unpredictable. Our days may be choppy, but we can find safe harbor–and a vital lifeline–by putting our practice to the test. Yes, we practice meditation to calm ourselves and find center, but most importantly, we meditate to allow our True Self to safely guide us in all that we think, say, and do. When the world turns upside down, let the real you take a deep breath and meet life with a sense of balance, acceptance, and sometimes, even a little bit of humor. Ultimately, you are going to be okay.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Getting Comfortable with Being out of Control appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Curing Self-Judgment

Kimberly Snyder — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 14:48:44 +0000

Recognizing and Addressing Self-Judgment

Have you ever noticed how much judgment infiltrates conversations and the world around us? Instead of simply observing what we see in front of us, we often feel compelled to cast an opinion and verdict over it. Here are some examples:

Wow, that dress is really not very flattering on her. It makes her arms look huge!

She never cooks for her family. Isn’t that so selfish?

His life is so unbalanced. It’s all about his career, and he doesn’t care about anything else.

She is so obsessed with herself. I can’t believe how many selfies she posts.

That couple is so clueless about what is actually healthy. They say they are “into” wellness, but did you see what they ate at dinner?

Tuning into Judgment

You might hear, or say, such comments casually throughout your whole day—at brunch, in a moms’ group, at work, or on talk shows and morning programs. When we tune in to judgment, we will see that it is pretty much everywhere. And we’ve all had our share of participating in it, too.

A few years ago, I was complaining to my friend Justin about a trip I had recently taken. I was staying with some acquaintances and it was a difficult experience. These people were so controlling! I felt like I had been interrogated with fifty questions in a row and was being judged left and right. Justin said to me, “You must have that same trait in yourself, and that’s why they bug you so much.”

At first I balked at the idea and vehemently denied that could be a possibility. I couldn’t fathom at that point that I might actually be like these people. Yet deep down, this provoking idea hit a nerve. And when I really peered inside myself, I could see that I, too, sometimes try to control situations by repeating myself over and over again, instead of trusting I was heard the first time.

Seeing the Shadow

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung taught that we all have an unconscious drive to move toward wholeness and realization of the self. According to Jung, contained in our unconscious is our “shadow,” which is the repressed thoughts, feelings, and ideas about ourselves that we push down rather than confront. Our judgment of others is a way of acknowledging disowned traits and behaviors within ourselves without having to face the pain of knowing the imbalance is actually within us. It’s often agonizing for us to admit qualities or parts of us that we don’t like, so our minds project outward and pick up these very qualities in other people.

We are not inherently negative or bad. Don’t believe that for even a second! Yet we all do have areas for improvement. This isn’t possible until we first see and admit that the qualities we gripe about in others (being catty, self-centered, moody . . . you fill in the blank!) can also exist within us.

Of course, we may not express the quality in the same exact way. Let’s say you find a coworker narcissistic; she always brings up personal stories at staff meetings. If you get annoyed in the moment and then let it go, that’s natural. Yet if you become obsessed with someone else’s flaws and then feel the need to gossip and comment about it any chance you can, that’s an issue.

Let’s turn it around. How might you be narcissistic? Sure, you might not talk about yourself at staff meetings, but perhaps you talk on and on with your parents about your life and never ask them about theirs. Or maybe you always insist on eating at your favorite restaurants over those that your friends prefer.

I know looking at this stuff can be really hard for some of us! So why deal with the pain? Because as Jung would say, when we bring “our shadow into the conscious,” it starts to lose power. And as it loses power, negative patterns of reacting melt away.

Start to notice when even a twinge of judgment comes to mind or out of your mouth. Whenever we are strongly critical of others’ bodies, weight, skin, and other aspects of physical appearance, achievements, work, parenting, and so on, we are the most disapproving of ourselves. Check in with yourself. Judgment does not feel good, so pay attention to changes in the way you feel physically. Maybe you routinely experience a hollow feeling in your gut or even a dull ache around your chest or heart area. Start to tune in with the signals your body is giving you.

The cures for judgment are self-acceptance and living from a place centered on kindness and compassion for ourselves and others. When we open our hearts and stop judging ourselves, the need to judge others naturally drops away.

Recipes for Your Perfectly Imperfect Life

Excerpted from Recipes for Your Perfectly Imperfect Life, published by Harmony Books. Used with permission of the publisher.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Curing Self-Judgment appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Family Friendly Power Food

Kimberly Snyder — Mon, 02 May 2016 21:35:06 +0000

Nutritious Family Meals Made Easy

When we’re jugging multiple responsibilities, caring for ourselves and our families, negotiating work, trying to fit our yoga practice in, and any number of other obligations, we need our food to have enough power to fuel us effectively. Fortunately, even fun and easy food can be nourishing and support our wellbeing. As a new mom who is passionate about healthy eating, I’m always looking for dishes that are easy to eat and to share. Salads and finger foods can be a centerpiece for a meal, snacks for a busy day, or packed for a picnic in local parks or the backyard on a sunny day.

These days, I find that nourishing myself with the best whole foods, prepared in simple ways to fit into my busy life, is an important part of maintaining my own vitality. Simple is often best! In addition to my staple Glowing Green Smoothie?, I find ways to include vitamin-rich greens throughout the day such as Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and green peas. I like to begin with seasonal fare and mix flavors and textures to keep it interesting. When developing family friendly dishes, I look for combinations that are easy to assemble, colorful, and packed with flavor that kids and adults both enjoy. If we start with amazing food, we end with an amazing day.

Kimberly Snyder prepares one of her signature salads

Here are a few recipes I’ve created that are family-friendly, packed with nutrients, and ready to eat on the go. These recipes, like all Beauty Detox recipes, are vegan/plant-based, gluten-free, soy free, and are properly food combined to support digestion.

Spring Bounty Gluten-free Pasta Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 ounces gluten-free pasta, your choice of shape
(spaghetti, spirals, wagon wheels, small shells, etc.)

1 Tbsp first cold pressed olive oil

1 cup green peas (in season in spring so you can readily find them fresh now)

1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves or chopped regular spinach leaves

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk

½ cup raw sliced asparagus

1 Tbs. thinly sliced spring onions

¼ cup diced raw carrots

¼ cup chopped Kalamata olives

Sea salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the pasta in boiling water according to package directions, being sure not to overcook and keep more on the al dente side (especially important with gluten free pasta, which can turn mushy quickly). Drain and set to the side.

Cook the peas and spinach in a saucepan in some water, until softened. Be sure not to overcook, and keep the green color.

Combine peas and spinach with the nutritional yeast and coconut milk in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour over cooked pasta and mix well. Add in asparagus, spring onions, carrots and olives. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Raw Brussels Sprout and Walnut salad

Raw Brussels Sprout & Walnut Salad

Serves 4

Because Brussels sprouts are so high in Vitamin C, I like to eat them raw, which most people rarely do. Roasting will denature much of that precious vitamin C , although they will still be beneficial for their mineral content,. This is a great pre-dinner salad, an accompaniment to something heavier, or made more substantial by adding in more walnuts per serving.

This salad is best left in the refrigerator for at least three hours before serving, so that the raw Brussels sprouts leaves can marinate and be somewhat softened by the raw apple cider vinegar. Try to make it in the morning sometime, so it will be perfect for your picnic!

Ingredients

1 pound Brussels sprouts

¼ cup very thinly sliced spring onions

1/3 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

1 tsp. finely grated ginger

1 ½ Tbs. parsley, coarsely chopped

2 Tbs. raw apple cider vinegar

Splash of olive oil

High quality sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Trim the ends from each Brussels sprout deeply, about half an inch each. Peel the leaves off individually and add to a large mixing bowl, until only the inner, compactly grown leaves are left. Discard this inner part.

Add spring onions, walnuts, ginger and parsley, and the raw apple cider vinegar. Add a splash of olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper and adjust seasonings, to taste.

Jicama, Avocado & Blueberry Lime-Herb Salad

4-6 servings

Ingredients

3 cups peeled and cubed jicama

1 cup blueberries

1 medium firm avocado, cut into two-inch squares

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp coconut nectar or maple syrup

1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped finely

1 Tbsp fresh mint, chopped finely

1/4 tsp lime zest, freshly grated

Directions

Mix jicama and blueberries in a large bowl. Place avocado in a smaller bowl, pour lime juice on top and mix gently to saturate the avocados completely. This will ensure the avocados don’t brown if stored for a bit.

Add the avocados to the jicama and blueberries, leaving the extra lime juice at the bottom of that bowl. Whisk in the cayenne pepper, coconut nectar or maple syrup. Add to the fruit bowl and mix gently with the basil and lime zest.

Cilantro Lime Cauliflower “Couscous”

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower

1 Tbs. coconut oil

2 small garlic cloves

1/3 cup spring onions, thinly sliced

¼ cup chopped cilantro

¼ cup chopped watercress or microgreens

Sea salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

¼ cup fresh lime juice

Directions

Wash and let the cauliflower dry completely (this is very important!). Chop into florets, removing the stalk. Place half into the food processor and pulse until the cauliflower has the texture of couscous, being very careful not to over-process. Repeat with the rest of the cauliflower.

Heat the coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat, and add garlic and spring onions and sauté for about three to four minutes or until soft.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the cauliflower “couscous” to the sauté pan. Cover and cook approximately five to six minutes, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is slightly crispy on the outside but tender on the inside.

Add to a mixing bowl, and mix in the cilantro, watercress and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Glowing Green Smoothie®

Yield: About 60 ounces (3-4 servings)

Greens nourish your entire body and have so many life enhancing qualities and nutrients. I generally recommend starting out by consuming around 16 ounces of the Glowing Green Smoothie daily and then working up to 24 ounces or more (depending on your size, appetite, metabolism and activity levels). I personally drink around 24 to 32 ounces throughout the morning, along with eating some fruit. Use the best blender you can to ensure that your GGS is nice and smooth.

Making a full blender of GGS, as in this recipe, means you can share it with your family or roommates, or you store it in the fridge and drink some in the afternoon or over the course of the next day or two. It can be stored, covered, for up to three days. Just be sure to give it a stir, shake, or reblend before serving as it may settle. You can also freeze individual portions and thaw them out the night before.

Note: I encourage you to rotate your greens and fruit regularly, based on what looks good at the market. Vary this recipe by using kale, chard or arugula or other greens in place of the spinach and romaine, and pineapple or mangoes or other fruits in place of the apple, pear and banana. Just avoid melons, as they digests better on their own.

Ingredients

7 cups chopped spinach (about a medium bunch)

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce (about one small head)

2 cups cold filtered water

1 1/2 cups chopped celery (about two medium stalks)

1 medium apple, cored and coarsely chopped

1 medium pear, cored and coarsely chopped one medium banana, peeled and cut in thirds

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Optional Ingredients

1?2 cup minced fresh cilantro (stems are okay)

1?2 cup minced fresh parsley (stems are okay)

Directions

Combine the spinach, romaine, and water in a blender and begin processing on low. Gradually move to higher speeds and blend until smooth.
Next, add the celery, apple, and pear, and the cilantro and parsley (if using). Lastly, add the banana, lemon juice and ice (if using), and blend until smooth. Serve at once or refrigerate, covered, for up to 2 1/2- 3 days.

Glowing Green Smoothie® (single serving)

Yield: About 24 ounces

If you don’t want to make a whole pitcher of the Glowing Green Smoothie and just want to make enough for yourself, try this recipe! Sip this throughout the morning, or have a second serving in the afternoon.

I always encourage you to mix and match your veggies and fruit.

Ingredients

2 cups chopped spinach or kale

1 cup chopped romaine lettuce

1 cup cold filtered water

1 small pear (or 1?2 large pear), cored and coarsely chopped

1?2 medium banana, peeled and cut in thirds

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

1.Combine the spinach, lettuce, and water in a blender and begin processing on low. Gradually move to higher speeds and blend until smooth.

Next, add the pear, banana and lemon juice and blend until smooth. Serve at once or refrigerate for up to 2 1/2- 3 days.

Vegan Purple Potato Salad

Serves 4-6

1 pound small purple potatoes
1 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons diced red onion
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup cucumber, diced

Directions

Cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Steam them in a steamer for about 10 minutes, or until tender (but not overly soft).

Meanwhile, combine the avocado, Dijon mustard, red onion, cucumber, dill, lemon juice and salt in a medium bowl, and mash well with a fork.

Add in the potatoes and cucumber, and mix again carefully. Adjust seasonings as desired.

Poppy Seed and Date Energy Squares

10 small squares

These little squares are packed with protein, essential omega fats, minerals, vitamins and more…but are delish and easy to pick up so that your kids will also love them!

Ingredients

7 large Medjool dates, pitted

2 Tbs. poppy seeds

2 Tbs. raisins

1 Tbs. raw pumpkin seeds

1 Tbs. hemp seeds

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Directions

Process all ingredients in a food processor into a chunky mixture.

Line a small square glass dish with clear wrap, pressing the mixture down evenly into the dish with enough wrap hanging over the sides. Use the hanging wrap as a “handle” to lift the plastic out of the dish and invert the square mixture onto a cutting board. Cut into 10 even squares, and pack into a container for your picnic.

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Chia Pudding

Serves 4

This delicious kid-friendly pudding is packed with antioxidants, brain-nourishing omega-3 fatty acids, complete protein and minerals. Easy to make and pack for a picnic, this extra yummy but healthy treat will make no one miss the “regular” pudding!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond or hemp milk

3 pitted dates

2 1/2 tsp raw cacao powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp coconut nectar or maple syrup

1/4 cup chia seeds
3 Tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut
2 Tbsp. mini non-dairy chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

Blend together almond milk, dates, raw cacao, vanilla and coconut nectar. Add to a container and stir in chia seeds. Cover and move into the fridge, allowing to set for a few hours (this can be made the morning or night before your picnic). Stir again after a few hours to mix evenly, then move into a BPA-free container to pack for your picnic. Top with shredded coconut and chocolate chips.

Raw Zucchini Hummus

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 organic zucchini

½ cup tahini (preferably raw if you can source it)

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 garlic clove

¾ tsp. sea salt, or to taste

Raw cut up spring veggies, for dipping

Directions

Blend together the zucchini, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and sea salt until smooth. Place into a secure container and pack for your picnic, along with some freshly cut veggies for dipping.

Middle Eastern Gluten-Free Wraps with Sun-Dried Tomato Pâté

4 wraps, or about 1 cup of pâté

Cumin and astringent greens like arugula and parsley and great cleansing foods for spring to help purge out any leftover stagnation from winter.

Wrap

½ cup arugula

½ cup julienned cucumbers

½ cup julienned carrots

¼ cup diced spring onions

2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 medium clove garlic, peeled and minced

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp sea salt (or to taste)

4 gluten-free tortillas (I prefer brown rice or teff, a gluten-free grain that is grown in Africa)

1 medium ripe Hass avocado, peeled, pit removed and cut into slices

Sun-Dried Tomato Pâté

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (use dried, rehydrating them in warm water for 30 minutes; avoid those packed in oil)

½ cup filtered water (or a bit more)

¼ cup diced Kalamata olives

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

½ tsp smoked paprika

Directions

Prepare the veggie mixture for the wraps. Toss together the tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, parsley, lemon juice, garlic, cumin and sea salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Prepare the pâté. Combine all the pâté ingredients in a food processor and blend well. Adding a bit more water during the process to keep the mixture going, if necessary. Set aside.

Assemble the wraps. Arrange a tortilla on an individual plate and spread ¼ cup of the reserved pâté on it, leaving at least two inches uncovered at the edges. Top with a quarter of the reserved veggie mixture and three avocado slices. Roll the tortilla up carefully burrito-style. Repeat this process until all the tortillas are filled and rolled.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post Family Friendly Power Food appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.