Healthy Again!

I'm feeling so much better! Still slightly congested, but it was a brief ailment just as I predicted! Yesterday morning/early afternoon I still felt pretty crappy. I didn't eat a whole lot yesterday but I had ice cream for breakfast-it seemed so wrong but felt so right!

It's made from 1 frozen banana, 3 frozen strawberries, 4 chunks of frozen pineapple, and about 4 tbsp canned coconut milk.

I used Sun Harvest brand coconut milk, it contains guar gum so it was extra creamy, perfect for ice creams or thick smoothies!

Last night I made my boyfriend (who caught the same cold) and I a large batch of whole orange juice.

It's amazing how much tastier this is than regular orange juice, it's sweet, thick, and creamy. It contains just a bunch of oranges or tangerines and ice. My boyfriend finished his two cup serving, then asked for more a few hours later! I'm sure this contributed to our quick recoveries.

I came home today and ate a bowl of Larry & Luna's chocolate and hazelnut Bliss 'ice cream' for dinner. Then a frozen veggie burrito. I made a green smoothie for dessert in hopes of balancing things out a bit!

Mmmmm, I'm so in love with these smoothies. This one is my favorite combo so far: kale, celery, cucumber, parsley, and apple. I find that I prefer my green smoothies and veggies to be at room temperature instead of chilled. I think it's difficult for my body to process cold foods. Or cold anything. I don't much care for temperatures below 60 degrees, I'm lucky I live in LA!

I also want to give a shout out to my brother for buying me these fantastic mugs! I've been using them for everything, smoothies, ice creams, soups, juice, tea, etc. I love them!

Sick again!

I've been avoiding getting sick for over a week now, and it's finally caught up with me! I'm home in bed watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I feel like it's been a horrible season in terms of sickness so far, my boyfriend and I have both been sick multiple times. When I started feeling it come on again I began religiously taking my multivitamin as well as vitamin D and zinc. I kind of pushed myself to the brink at work and couldn't hold it off any longer. I still feel confident that it's going to pass quickly.

Here are some of my healing recipes!

Orange juice made from one large orange and three tangerines, peeled then blended up with a handful of ice. The taste of this is really going to depend on the quality of the fruit, but oranges are in season and mine turned out creamy and sweet. I love that this juice contains the white flesh of the orange you get from eating them whole.

For breakfast I made a healing smoothie made from 1 orange, 1 tbsp fresh ginger, 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, and 1 frozen banana. I should have added 1/4-1/2 cup of ice as well to help with the consistency.

I whipped up another batch of Averie's Vegan Peanut Butter Choc Chip Protein Bars and let them set in heart shaped muffin cups. This time I used the true recipe with peanut butter and raisins, delicious!

Last week, when my throat started to feel a little scratchy, I made raw miso soup. The miso I used is pasteurized, so the soup was not completely raw but close.

Raw Miso Soup

2 cups water

1/2 tsp liquid aminos

2 tbsp miso paste

1 clove garlic

1/2 tsp fresh ginger

1 scallion, sliced

4 tbsp fresh peas

1 tbsp wakame seaweed (dried)

1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped

I blended one cup of water with the garlic, miso, ginger, and liquid aminos. I soaked the wakame in the other cup of water until soft then put the two cups of water together and added the mushrooms, scallions, and peas. I heated it on the stove top using a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature didn't exceed 100 degrees. If there's a better way to heat raw soup, let me know! This makes two servings, or one large serving.

All the ingredients can be altered to taste, and try different veggies! I made another batch of this today for lunch. I used mushrooms, peas, chopped orange bell pepper, and chopped celery.

I'm amazed at how filling this soup is, tasty, healthy, easy to eat and digest.

I worked 48 hours last week and got home feeling completely drained and exhausted. There's nothing like a green smoothie to recharge the batteries!

This one is made from cucumber, kale, parsley, celery, and apple, my favorite combo so far!

Can you see the exhaustion in my face???

My boyfriend has also been reaping the benefits of the Blendtec! I made him an Orange Julius as a healthy dessert.

Raw Vegan Orange Julius

1 large orange (about 3/4 cup)

1-2 tbsp agave nectar (or to taste)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/6 cup raw cashews

1/4 cup water

1 cup ice

I blended the water and cashews until liquefied then blended in the rest of the ingredients.

I tried another face mask this week, made from cucumber and avocado. I didn't realize that it needed to be blended quite a bit more!

I'll have to try this again when I'm feeling better :)

I hope everyone's having a good week and staying healthy!

Rain.

This has been the view from my front window for the past two days, you can't quite tell from the photograph, but not only is it grey and wet, it's pouring.

I only worked for three hours this morning, then came home and promptly put on pajamas. Fortunately a rainy day is the perfect time to play with my new toy!

For lunch I had leftover pesto-lentils. I made a simple pesto with basil, sea salt, pepper, lemon juice, hemp oil, and a little balsamic vinegar. I boiled green lentils and red quinoa together until soft then mixed in the pesto with some more salt and vinegar. I'm disappointed with how sludgy it looks, but it's so tasty. Definitely something I'll be making again.

I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen with my Blendtec. I made oat milk as an alternative to cashew or almond milk. I've always wanted to try it... it's good, very oaty. It'll be good blended with bananas and cinnamon. A perfect breakfast smoothie.

Oat Milk

3/4 cup oats

3 cups filtered water

2 dates

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend until smooth, strain through a cheesecloth if necessary.

As per Jesse's request, I made nacho 'cheese'. I took the original recipe from Raw on 10's Basic Cheeze recipe then altered it to fine tune the flavor.

Basic Cheeze Revised or Nacho 'Cheese'

1 cup nuts (I used sunflower seeds this time, almonds the last time)

1 bell pepper (I used orange this time, red the last time)

juice of two lemons

1 green onion

1 clove garlic

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp hemp oil

5 tbsp nutritional yeast

1/4 cup fresh parsley (optional)

Blend all the ingredients except for the parsley until smooth, then add the parsley and pulse until it's well incorporated, but you can still see green flecks. The last time I made it I added a pinch of cayenne pepper but it was a little too spicy for me, and the fresh onion and garlic gave this version plenty of kick.

For dinner I had veggie quesadillas with Ezekial sprouted wheat tortillas, the nacho cheese, and fresh salad.

For a snack and to bring to work tomorrow I made a green smoothie. I put in kale, cucumber, parsley, celery, and filtered water... it was so good. I'm a drinking my greens kind of gal for sure, I like the flavor, it's easier for me than eating a plate of salad or other raw greens, and getting that much green in so quickly gives you kind of a rush.

I have to say, the best thing I made today was raw vegan cheesecake taken from Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga. I've tried making raw vegan cheesecake before, and come close, but it always left something to be desired. Whole Food's sells a raw vegan cheesecake by the slice that I tried to copy. The crust was made of pecans, salt, cinnamon, and coconut oil, and the filling was made of cashews, coconut oil, agave, and frozen blueberries. It just never quite worked out, I tried twice and each time the consistency and flavor were a bit off.

This cheesecake however, phenomenal. Jesse won't stop talking about how amazing it is, he says it's the best cheesecake he's ever had, including actual cheesecake.

To the original recipe I added a dash of salt and 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the crust. I added a tablespoon of coconut oil to the filling because I was having some trouble getting the consistency right. I think I must have measured everything out incorrectly, because I ended up with way more crust than filling. To make a thicker cheesecake I made a raspberry topping using whatever cashew filling that I couldn't scrape out of the blender, frozen raspberries, lemon juice and a little agave nectar, but I left it pretty tart. I put the topping on before putting the whole thing in the freezer.

I really don't think I can adequately describe how good this is, way better than the stuff they sell at Whole Food's for $6 a slice!

Because it's so crummy out, I had to make soup. It's not raw, but it's healthy and easy.

Creamy Squash Soup

1 butternut squash

1 acorn squash

1 large onion, preferably red

5-7 cloves garlic

1+ cups water

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

I like to cut the squash in half and scrape out the seeds then roast for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees, but you could also boil until soft. In a large pot I saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft. The longer you saute them, the less bite they'll have and the sweeter they'll become. Once they've reached the desired consistency, spoon the squash into the pot, add 1 cup of water then blend. I have a submersion blender, I bought it for $10 and I love it. It's so easy to use and clean. If you don't have one, you can always use a regular blender or food processor. After the whole thing has blended add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add as much water as you'd like to reach your ideal thickness.

The only disappointing thing I made today was almond butter.

The Blendtec finally fails, unless I was doing something wrong. I followed the nut butter instructions in the Lifestyle's recipe book the Blendtec came with, and put it through at least six cycles. It just never became anything more than almond meal. Finally I gave up and put it into my coffee grinder which was able to break it into the clumpy mess above. At first I was really bummed... but it's okay. I'll try again, do some research first, and that clumpy mess is going to make some great bliss balls!

The last thing I made, and possibly my favorite (even though I've already declared the cheesecake as the best, this is absolutely on the same level), also came from Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga, her Vegan Peanut Butter Choc Chip Protein Bars, although mine ended up being more Vegan Almond Butter Chocolate filled Protein Bars.

I used almond butter instead of peanut butter, dried cherries instead of raisins (the only dried fruit I have other than dates at the moment), and from the optional ingredient list I included hemp protein powder, flax seeds, chia seeds, and vanilla extract. I also added a scoop of Trader Joe's Super Green Drink Powder. Between that and the hemp powder, my mixture ended up looking pretty mossy.

I planned on using chocolate chips, but I've been seriously avoiding refined sugars. I wasn't, however, willing to give up the chocolate! So, I made a small batch of Carmi's Dark Chocolate from Raw Goddess Healthy adding into the mixture some raw cacao nibs. To avoid getting the chocolate all over my fingers when it came time to eat, I decided to put down a layer of the bar mixture, then spread a layer of chocolate, then topped it with the rest of the bar mixture. You can kind of see the chocolate from this photo.

And, I feel like a broken record, but these were AMAZING! They beat the pants off ANY bar you will ever buy, and almost 100% raw. I had the first two straight from the freezer and then a third at room temperature. It was like I was tasting something else entirely. My goodness, but... wow. I wish I had made four batches!

Thanks Averie, for the cheesecake, and the bars! Two new favorites!

Beauty Day

Last week I worked over 50 hours taking care of a nine month old. I love my job but it can be physically and emotionally draining. Plus I've fallen into the habit of only wearing sweats or work out clothes, no make-up, hair up... then I continue to become dirty and disheveled throughout the day. Long story short, I've been feeling drained, tired, and unattractive. (Eating high raw has caused a HUGE improvement on my energy level this week!)

This past weekend, I decided to give myself a beauty day. Over the past year I've tried to cut out any cosmetics, soaps, lotions, etc. that contain toxins. I use Jason, Nature's Gate, and Tom's for my deodorant, toothpaste, and shampoo needs. They can be expensive, but I've found them all at discount grocery stores, or on sale. For a moisturizer I use coconut oil or jojoba oil, sometimes I'll use apple cider vinegar as an astringent. I use tea tree oil for blemishes, an apricot scrub as a cleanser, and all natural soaps. I'll use baking soda if I run out of almost anything, it can be used as a facial scrub/exfoliator, deodorant, toothpaste, cleanser, and I use it to clean my kitchen and bathroom. Baking soda is amazing.

I also purchased some Rooibos tea in powder form, apparently it's supposed to be good for your skin and hair. Sometimes I'll spray a water rooibos solution on my skin after I get out of the shower (but I honestly can't tell if it's doing anything).

I also use clay masks occasionally, I have this Bentonite clay as well as some red clay I buy in bulk.

I also love to make my own masks and scrubs. Below is a red clay mask and a chocolate salt scrub. The scrub contains coconut oil, honey (can be omitted if you don't use honey, but you'll need more oil or water), a lot of sea salt, vanilla, and cocoa powder. I usually make the scrub with an essential oil instead of cocoa, orange oil is my favorite!

For my beauty day, I put olive oil in my hair, put the red clay mask on my face, arms, and legs. I made a foot soak with warm water, apple cider vinegar, and tea tree oil, then washed everything off with my chocolate scrub. Really heavenly. I wish I had a bathtub, I'd probably spend half my life in there soaking in various foods, oatmeal, olive oil, vinegar, baking soda, salt... I'm big on good food on the inside and the outside of my body.

For natural make-up, check out Monave, not only do they have a wide variety of colors, but it's very reasonably priced. For all their powder cosmetics, they offer sample baggies for $1 each. I bought ten sample baggies almost a year ago and am no where near running out. I also love their concealer, it's thick, creamy, and smooth.

I wasn't able to find a powder from Monave that matches my skin tone, so I went to Whole Foods and bought Mineral Fusion powder. I've tried both their setting powder and their concealing powder, I really love both... but I'm not so crazy about the price! I also like their mascara, but again, pricey. I just bought powder and mascara from a company called Larenim, it's much less expensive, but I don't like it quite as well. The powder is much dryer (which is sometimes a good thing) and the mascara smudges a bit throughout the day, but I still use both frequently.

I figure if I'm going to put so much effort on what goes inside my body, I should pay attention to what's going on the outside of my body as well :)

Blendtec!!!

I just bought a Blendtec, I'm so excited!

I've been doing research for the past two weeks trying to decide between the Vita-mix and the Blendtec. The reviews were comparable, both seemed to have slight advantages but nothing that pushed me one way or the other. In the end, it came down to price and convenience. I found the Blendtec at Bed, Bath, & Beyond (so I didn't have to pay for shipping) and I was able to use their 20% off coupon saving me over $100.

I've had it for about two and a half hours now, and I've absolutely fallen in love with it. I've already made the thickest, creamiest nut milk I've ever had made from cashews, agave nectar, vanilla, and filtered water.

A spicy tomato soup (a little too spicy) made with tomatoes, celery, carrot, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and sea salt, garnished with avocado, scallions, and pumpkins seeds.

And pineapple, banana, ginger ice cream made with frozen banana, frozen pineapple, fresh ginger, and a splash of nut milk. Healthy, creamy, delicious, and EASY.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to my Birthday and Holiday fund, this is the best gift I could possibly have received! I'll be drinking green smoothies, making healthy deserts, healthy veggie soups, fresh bread, dressings, sauces, etc. This purchase will allow me to make the next step in my health evolution!

I've also been continuing my raw food exploration, sprouting my own chick peas below:

I soaked them for two days then layered them in a glass container between wet paper towels. I then covered the container with a dish cloth and let it sit on the counter for three days.

There's something so satisfying about bringing food to life, especially in an apartment where it's difficult to grow plants.

I'm not crazy about salad but it's important to me to eat lots of greens! I find the more flavors I use, the more palatable. This salad is made from romaine lettuce, kale, a spring green mix, carrot leaves, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, tomato, avocado, and scallions (I always buy my greens organic).

I used the chick peas to made a raw hummus and paired it with raw pesto. I made mini wraps using the small Ezekiel tortillas, hummus, pesto, and left over salad. They were delicious and satisfying, I ate them for lunch three days in a row. I'm going to attempt to make some raw tortillas, but I'm kind of in love with the sprouted grain ones!

I'm also back to eating five servings of raw veggies, lots of water, no refined sugar, and little to no soy. I'm feeling good!

Rethinking Raw

Okay-

So I've been doing raw for three days now and I've got to be honest... I don't feel very good.

I think part of the problem is sugar. I don't consume much sugar generally and since going raw I've upped my fruit intake from 1-2 servings to 2-4 servings. Also, I've frequently felt dissatisfied with my meals and thus ended them with a date or two. I'm feeling a sugar highs, lows, and sugar cravings coming on.

Another part of the problem is fiber. Nothing is running smoothly if you catch my drift and I've been miserably constipated. I shifted from eating a diet high in vegetables and whole grains to a diet high in fruit, nuts, seeds, and veggies. My system isn't taking it well.

Finally, after every meal I feel like there's a big lump in my stomach and I've had heartburn which is very rare for me.

Yesterday I made several foods that I also ate today, so I've been eating more or less the same foods for the past two days:

Mango Chutney from http://rawon10.blogspot.com/

Nut Cheese made with cashews, Brazil nuts, water, hemp oil, nutritional yeast, red bell pepper, paprika, tumeric, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, miso, tahini, liquid aminos, and pepper. Unfortunately I don't have exact measurements because the lid got stuck half way through making it and I had to wait for my boyfriend to come home and open it before I could finish. As a side note, it turned out really good-similar to nacho cheese at 7-11 (and I mean that in the best way possible).

Raw sweet potato cookies made from 3 sweet potatos peeled and pureed, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and chopped dates. I dehydrated the mixture for 8 hours until the natural sugars from the sweet potato browned a bit on the outside. They made me feel sick, but tasty nonetheless!

Chocolate almond butter balls made from 1/4 cup almonds, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 tbsp agave nectar, 5 dates, and 3 tbsp raw cacao

I've also been eating raw carrots, cucumber, green beans, hemp seeds, flax seed crackers, watermelon, tangerines, avocado, and some raw nuts.

And yeah, I feel kind of crappy. I'm not giving up yet! I still see the value in raw living and want to incorporate more raw meals into my life even if I'm not ready to go all raw yet.

There are a few things that I only want to consume raw: nuts, seeds, at least 3 servings of veggies per day, nut milk, fruit, any dessert and I'm sure I'll be adding to the list as I go. I'm also going to try stop purchasing anything that comes in a box and continue to eat a high nutrient, high organic, whole food vegan diet. I may do a juice cleanse, we'll see how it goes.

And what better way to celebrate cooked foods than with soup! My boyfriend is just getting over a mild flu so I made him a hearty miso soup to ease into solids.

Loaded Miso Soup

6 tbsp white miso paste
12 cups water

1 tbsp hot chili sesame oil or plain sesame oil

1-2 tbsp liquid aminos

4 oz mushrooms, chopped

4 scallions, sliced

3 large swiss chard leaves, shredded

1 zucchini, diced

1/3 cup green beans, sliced

10 oz organic firm tofu

2 tbsp dried wakame seaweed

1/4 cup brown rice, uncooked

Before I began chopping the veggies, I put the rice in the water to begin cooking along with the miso, liquid aminos, and sesame oil. When the rice was almost cooked I added the veggies with some pepper. I added to tofu last to keep it from falling apart. I love putting rice in miso soup and enjoyed experimenting with some different flavors to make the whole thing interesting. The next time I make it, I plan on adding more garlic and maybe some ginger!

Food, Inc.

I just finished watching Food, Inc. and need to pour my heart out a bit. I've been meaning to watch it for some time, but have been emotionally apprehensive. The American food industry breaks my heart. From the abuse of farm animals & farm workers, the poisoning of the earth from over use of pesticides, a rise in disease, and major corporations controlling our justice system. It's depressing to say the least.

I kind of hate the part of myself that doesn't want to look because I know what I'll find and I understand that's why people don't look. It feels overwhelming, frightening, like we have no control. To me, I feel like I'm being physically, emotionally, and spiritually poisoned (even if I eat a high organic, vegan diet, I'm still affected by the economy, pollution, chemicals, and illness).

This isn't to say that I haven't done research and have a basic understanding of what is going on, I just tend to do it in small doses instead of engaging with it on the level that comes with watching an entire film.

That being said, I'm so glad I watched. Despite the negative subject matter, there was a sincerely hopeful message that left me feeling empowered with a sense that change is possible. The message is simple: every time we purchase a product we cast a vote, as consumers we hold the power.

I'm proud to live a high organic, vegan lifestyle. I feel good about what I put in my body, and what I choose to do with my money. I know it feels impractical for most people to go vegan, and as humans we tend to participate in an all or nothing mental state. This is the biggest danger in my opinion. If we were all able to cut down on processed foods and meat, or buy organic occasionally, or go vegetarian one day per week, or occasionally purchase more expensive specialty items that are sustainable etc. etc., we could make an impact.

I'm still at the beginning stages of my own research and knowledge. Right now I'm operating at a personal level, eating and buying what feels good and right to me. The best advise I have to offer is to do your own research, read food labels before you buy, and know that there are many alternatives to denial. Acknowledgement of what's happening is the first step towards changing it.

Here are a few interesting links I encourage you to check out!

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches.html

http://www.farmforward.com/farming-forward/food-choices

Raw Beginnings

Ever since New Years I've had little appetite and have been craving watery foods like citrus fruits and cucumbers. I think my body is telling me it's time to stop indulging in carbs, sugar, salt, and soy. I had planned on beginning my transition into high raw this month, but had anticipated a challenge. Instead of opposition, my body and cravings have met this transition with insistence!

I didn't eat much today because of my lack of appetite but I'm still counting it as my first mostly-raw day!

Today I ate:

1/2 pomelo

1/2 pear

2 small cucumbers

3 tbsp spirulina with water (trying to maximize nutrients and get some protein in)

1/2 cup tomato basil soup (cooked)

1 oz raw vegan cheesy kale chips (to die for)

1 avocado with braggs

2 sheets raw nori to eat with the avocado

1 vegan chocolate chip cookie (cooked)

1 raw organic kombucha (my boyfriend and room mate have the flu... I'm making sure to get in probiotics and enzymes!!!)

So roughly-ish 80 percent raw, which is my ultimate goal. I kind of feel like I was cheating, everything was so delicious! I find that raw food can be much more filling and satisfying than many vegan foods. Last week I made raw hummus with raw pesto using sprouted chick peas and basil I purchased at the farmers market. Oh man-I have never had hummus so good! It was buttery and nutty... and wonderful. I'm going to attempt to sprout my own chick peas to make it again.

Despite my recent adverse reaction to a liberal vegan diet, I have to share my New Years treats.

My boyfriend and I did a spread of appetizers: guacamole served with corn chips; zucchini, sweet potato, and potato french fries served with a 'mayo' pesto sauce, and a 'mayo' bbq sauce; mushrooms stuffed with 'cream cheese' 'bacon' breadcrumbs, garlic, and chives; home made hummus with sun dried tomato spreads and pesto served with garlic pesto pita and veggies; a tomato basil bruchetta with garlic 'butter' baguette slices; and not pictured chocolate cupcakes with rich chocolate frosting.

Every dish was simple to make, contained few ingredients while tasting fresh and flavorful. Nothing I plan on making again for a long time, (I think I ate enough Earth Balance and corn chips in 2009 to last me through 2010) but I'm still proud to fill a table with delicious, easy, and festive vegan foods.

Surviving the Holidays and Heart Centering

I feel like I've emerged back into real life after the craziness of December. In the past 40 days I've celebrated Thanksgiving, my mom's birthday, Chanukah, my anniversary, my birthday, Christmas, my boyfriend's mom's birthday, and New Years.

Not only am I proud to have made it through in one piece, but I'm so proud of myself for the health choices I made this year. January 2009, I was at least 10 lbs. heavier than where I feel comfortable in my body, I felt sick all the time, tired, lazy, and depressed. This year I definitely bent many of my personal diet rules, eating more soy and sugar than I feel is appropriate for me, but have still come out feeling light, energetic, happy, and excited to start eating a higher raw food diet.

I tried to take physical and emotional care of myself this year compared to past years. I made my own Christmas cookies, holiday meals, and ate high raw on my birthday as a gift to myself. Setting healthy boundaries with my diet has also paved a path for me to set healthier boundaries with my family. I'm still far away from my goals, but I'm consciously working on my relationship to my family dynamics and not being pumped up on sugar makes the process much easier on my emotional state!

My other strategy for staying grounded was spending a great deal of time working around the heart chakra this season. This year I decided to give the people closest to me a heart centering meditation kit including instructions, candles, and a burned copy of my favorite meditation music. Not only was I able to feel good about what I had to offer my loved ones, but I spent much of the month sewing hearts, doing research and writing out the instructions, a great deal of which came out of my own meditation.

I was disappointed to find little information about heart centering meditation, looking both online, and in specialty book stores. I was taught to heart center by Dr. Nicki Monti based on the teachings of Dr. Brugh Joy. I incorporated what I learned from them, what I have learned through heart centering, as well as some channelled material that came through while in the writing process. Thus, the instructions I've written up are very personal, and I am no expert beyond my limited learnings and my personal experience (which has been powerful indeed!)

This work is not food related, but I believe is integral to ones personal health and happiness. Despite my lack of concrete resources on the subject, I would very much like to share what I was so happy to share with those who are closest to me. This is a simple offering, I hope you are able to find something you feel good taking from this :)

Over the past two years, heart centering meditation has helped me feel relaxed, empowered, loved, whole, and connected to the collective consciousness. I can think of no better gift to give to you, my loved ones. I give this guide to you with the knowledge that this will not be for everyone. Please do not feel that I expect you to do this, it is only my offering to you. Take what feels right to you.

With Love,

Tess

Heart Centering Meditation

Meditation has become a widely accepted tool for the healing of emotional and physical wounds and illness. It is a valuable tool to have on our belts in a world where grounding and connecting are increasingly difficult. Traditional meditation is characterized by clearing the mind and deep breathing. Heart Centering meditation is a chakra meditation focusing solely on the fourth chakra, the heart center. “This chakra is the most important of them all because it contains the ability to feel divine, pure love for everyone and everything... ...Pure love is the most important quality in a human being, everything else is subordinate.” - John from The White Brotherhood, channeled by Birgit Klein.

Awakening your heart center will allow you to connect back to the divine love from which we were all created. It allows you to heal and gives you the tools as a divine creator to bring happiness and fulfillment into your life. It ultimately leads us to a place where we can engage in selfless service, service free from power and personal gain. It allows us to fill our community with love and light, to light up the world with divine love.

In this kit I gave four candles, each for one of the four attributes of the heart center, instructions with several exercises, and a disc of music to help connect with the heart center.

Music is not necessary for this or any meditation but it is a useful tool for several reasons. Like most things, meditation takes practice and can be difficult and frustrating. Music gives you something to focus the mind on, to distract from any other thoughts you may experience, and to ground you in the intent of the meditation. Also, after practicing with a specific piece of music, the meditation will be triggered by it, instantly bringing you back into the heart center. This will make each meditation stronger and easier.

I have included several pieces of music. The first two were written with the intent of being used to heart center. It is the music I learned the meditation to and it triggers my heart chakra when I hear it. However, I know it may seem a little too hokey or new agey so I’ve included a few other songs written by modern bands that my heart also resonates with.

My favorite right now is “The Highest Journey”. Not only is it a beautiful and powerful piece but eight minutes is a satisfactory and practical time period for my meditation, although thirty minutes is ideal. If you find you don’t resonate with this music, feel free to select your own or you may choose not to use music at all. If you choose your own music it should be positive and cause you to feel a swelling in your chest.

Before You Begin

There are two important things to remember during meditation. First, be sure to breath into your diaphragm so your breath passes the heart center into the lower chakras and then back up past the heart center, being released through the upper chakras. Second, to stay grounded you do not want to leave your body/disconnect from your physical self during meditation.

If you feel light headed or like you’re spinning or floating, try a grounding visualization:

Picture roots of light growing out of the base of your body and your feet. They grow down into the earth, through the floor of your home, through soil and rocks, then lava, becoming bigger and stronger the further down they grow. Eventually they envelope the earth’s core and you are fastened down like a tree.

Another way of grounding is to simply be conscious of your breathing. Control how quickly or slowly you release each breath until you feel yourself connected to your body.

You can also eat something whole (veggies, a piece of meat, beans or grains), put your hands into soil, walk barefoot on grass, stretch, or imagine doing any of these things. These techniques can also be used whenever you are feeling overwhelmed or powerless.

Instructions

Find a comfortable quiet place to sit or lie near a table or other surface where it is safe to light candles. If you choose not to light the candles, try to keep the four heart center attributes in mind while preparing your meditation. Arrange the four candles in an invisible square, one candle in each corner. Light the candles clockwise, one after the other. Each candle represents a different attribute. As you light the candles put the intention of the attribute into each by saying the attribute aloud or thinking about it and what it means to you. Remember that what we say aloud carries a stronger vibrational current than our thoughts do, but it’s most important that you do what you feel comfortable with.

The four attributes of the Heart Center are:

Unconditional Love: love without condition, before there was anything, when there was nothing. When there was no thing, there was unconditioned, Unconditional Love.

The Healing Presence: from Unconditional Love came forth the Healing Presence by which all wounds may be healed.

Innate Harmony: that which makes the heart lighter than a feather,

calm in the midst of chaos, our birth right, Innate Harmony.

Supernal Compassion: recognizing the self as other and the other as self.

After the last candle has been lit, place your hands over your heart

center like so:

The right hand is placed under the left hand at the base of the heart center, your hands should be located at the base of your pectoral muscles and your thumbs meet at the middle of the breastbone. As a woman, it is important to wear a comfortable bra in order to fully access this chakra. Remember to touch your body with awe and reverence, with love free from judgment. If you’d like to use music, you may start it before or after lighting the candles. I tend to start the music after, making the candle lighting its own ritual.

For the meditation you can choose to focus on the music and your breathing, freeing your mind from any other thought as in traditional meditation, or you may use one of the following techniques. During the meditation you may experience profound insights and emotions. I even sometimes experience a physical ache in my heart, similar to the feeling of a muscle ache after it’s stretched or exercised. Take a few moments afterward to write about your experience. At the end of each exercise I recommend that you give thanks, in the form of a small prayer or a simple ‘thank you’ either to The Source, The Universe, your idea of God, or to yourself for taking time out of your busy life to do something loving for yourself.

1. Visualization I

Close your eyes, imagine a golden pink light surrounding your heart center. The light pulses either to the beat of the music or to your heart beat. With each pulse the light grows. Soon you are entirely enveloped in a ball of light. It continues to grow until the room you are in is filled with your light which seems to become brighter and denser the larger it becomes. The light soon covers the house or building you are in. You see it from above, still pulsing and growing. The light envelopes your neighborhood, then the surrounding neighborhoods then your entire town. You have to keep pulling back in order to see it grow. Come back to yourself occasionally, seeing yourself immersed in glowing light, and then continue to watch the light grow from a distance. It surrounds other nearby cities, over the ocean, the desert, forests. You pull back into space and see the earth before you with your light shining like a growing beacon overtaking your state and the surrounding areas. Suddenly you see thousands of other lights like yours growing all over the earth. Yours, and all the other lights grow and grow until the earth is a huge glowing ball. You can stay with this image as long as you would like. To finish the meditation imagine all the light coming back into your chest, slowly so you do not feel overwhelmed. Breath for a few moments and open your

eyes. Give thanks.

2. Candle

Light a candle, (separate from the four representing the attributes) and imagine that your heart energy is embodied by this flame. Watch the flame burn and dance during the meditation. Allow all other thoughts to drift by but do not try to focus on or control them. If you feel an important insight drift into your consciousness feel free to pause and write it down. Take a few breaths before ending the meditation and give thanks.

3. Visualization II

Imagine yourself with your heart center light in the past, present and future. You may see yourself as a child, baby or even a fetus surrounded by this powerful light. Imagine yourself at school or work with the light. Imagine doing things you have done, or would like to do. If your image of yourself includes other people, imagine them with their own light. If a painful image comes forth, do not try to control it or shut it out. Just remember to keep breathing and maintain the image of the light until the sadness passes. This will help to heal old wounds. When the painful image passes imagine yourself happy and fulfilled in a place you feel safe and loved. Take a few breaths before ending the meditation, open your eyes, and give thanks.

4. Yam

Sit comfortably and focus on your heart center, this may be best practiced without music. Take in deep breathes and upon exhaling, say ‘yam’ aloud. Yam is the sound of the heart chakra, it is pronounced ‘yauhm’. As you say it, it should resonate in and around the heart center. Use a deep powerful voice projected by your diaphragm, drawing out the “auh” sound. It should become stronger and clearer as you repeat it. You can continue to repeat throughout the meditation or stop once you feel satisfied and simply continue to breathe until you are finished. Give thanks.

If you don’t have the time or energy to prepare and visualize, just breathing for a few moments with your hands placed on the heart center can help open the heart chakra. I often do just that before falling asleep. Meditation can be an extremely creative process. Find out what works for you, what you feel most comfortable with and what you get the most out of. Create your own exercises, rituals, and visualizations. Use whatever combination of candle lighting, music, exercise, or none of the above. The most important thing is the intention around what you’re doing. I do recommend that after you find what works for you that you do it consistently as repetition will make the meditation easier each time you do it.

I hope you may be able to use this or any other means to find peace and happiness. With all my heart, I wish for you to experience profound joy and unconditional love. Namasté.