Yoga and macrobiotics

I have been practicing yoga for  about 15 years and. Both the practice of yoga and following a macrobiotic lifestyle  have changed my life for the very best and I see them as complementary in my search for health, balance, happiness and greater awareness. 

Both are precious tools to reach the harmonization of the yin and yang energies, ida and pingala as they are known in yoga, which together regulate the various glands and organs of the body influencing the emotions and states of consciousness.

This is post intends to be some food for thought for people that like me practice yoga or some other kind of exercise that helps them find balance and enhance life force such as Tai Chi, Chi Kung, etc., but have not yet become aware that the  energetic and healing  work they are doing with such practices can be enhanced or diminished depending on the way they feed themselves. My point is that whatever practice you choose, it would be contradictory to feed yourself in such a way that would create in your organism the contrary effects to those you are looking for. Just a very simple example: it would not make sense to do breathing exercises to open and clean your lungs and eat foods that would contract or generate fat and mucus deposits in these organs.

So I invite you to discover the energetics of food, how they affect your physical, emotional and mental bodies and how they will help you reach the goals you have set for you with your yoga practice.

Here is a link to an  article of yogi Swami Gaurishankara Saraswati  talking about the common  features  of yoga and macrobiotics.

Sweetness and emotions

When  emotionally out of balance, many people resort to the chocolate bar, ice-cream or any other very sweet "treat" looking for the comfort they are missing. The effect they create is the contrary of what they were looking for: a sudden rise of the glucose levels in the blood unavoidably followed by a sudden fall which  makes you crave for the next sugar shot in a never-ending cycle of  euphoria and misery that creates a lot of unhappiness. Let alone the fact that sugar demineralizes you, makes you lose the strength, brightness, mental clarity and magnetism you need to attract the affection you are looking for when looking for that sweet taste.

It is important to stop and reflect on the way we create sweetness in our lives, whether it be through food, life style or mental attitude. We need sweetness for our brain to work well and our emotions to be balanced and the best way to get it through food is with whole grains, sweet vegetables and seasonal local fruits.

And now that cauliflower, red cabbage and apples are in season, here you have  the link to a delicious millet and cauliflower pie with red cabbage and apple recipe that will satisfy your body' s need for sweetness.

Cook and enjoy!

A pinch of salt

There is a lot confusion regarding the consumption of salt. We have heard plenty of times that salt is no good for our health and there are people that take pride in not using salt at all. Probable this confusion has to do with both the quality and the quantity of what we consume.

Unrefined sea salt has been a source of life and health from the beginning of times. It was considered so precious that people were paid in salt- hence the word salary. It is simply the result of the evaporation of seawater. Its composition is almost up to a 90% chloride and sodium, the rest being sulfate, magnesium, calcium and potassium also elements of extraordinary qualitative importance.  

But this   excellent ally to our health can become poison if refined and processed with chemicals and additives. Commercial sea salts available on the market today might vary in their chemical composition, but none has the same composition and proportion of elements found in sea water. Common refined table salt is 99,99% sodium chloride plus added iodine and dextrose (a kind of sugar). So we should take only unrefined sea salt  and avoid the refined ,  iodized one.

Another thing to bear in mind is that we have to use salt in cooking, never raw and that we can add the salt to our recipes using shoyu  or  tamari (see my blog on shoyu and tamari http://www.macrobioticscyprus.com/uncategorized/soy-sauce-shoyu-or-tamari/) , which also need to be cooked.

About the quantity, about half tea spoon a day is sufficient. We need to take salt because it contributes to a good drainage of toxins, allows life energy to flow and so boosts our vitality, improves our sexuality, favors concentration and stimulates digestion among other benefits. However, an excess of salt provokes stagnation of our life energy which manifests in hardening and contraction of the blood vessels, premature white hair, pain in the knees and kidneys, menstrual cramps, dry skin, liquid retention, hypertension, impatience, short temper, tension and mental rigidity. 

Salt?  Yes, unrefined and in moderation.