Prescription for Joy: Radiate Love and Light – 40 Day Practice

Prescription for Joy: Radiate Love and Light – 40 Day Practice

B and I started a 40 day practice this month. Usually we have our own activities we like to do in order to feel good: mine would be yoga, Pilates, watching old TV shows, and his would be basketball (REAL and XBOX). This month we decided that the New Moon would be the perfect time to start a shared daily practice for 40 days to boost our energy and spirit levels.

We are STILL doing our favourite activities, naturally!

Everyday we practice a set sequence of yoga postures, followed by mantra meditation and we drink a green drink that I labelled our ‘Elixir’. This last part is major because B has never been on board with drinking anything green although I feel like that’s being very picky since he is slightly colour blind anyway? For all he knows it could be pink? SUDDENLY he can tell it’s green. I mean.

Anyway.

The mantra we chant is personal to each of us but I’ll share mine with you below. We chant out loud and with confidence, 11 times and then we sit quietly and let things marinate.

Somedays we do our practice in the evening like last night when we came home from a wedding party. We showered, changed and stepped on our mats. Then we had our green drink. We slept like babies even with both of us recovering from the flu.

It feels wonderful!

To go along with our 40 day practice we also cut out coffee. I typically drink a lot of coffee, alarming amounts even, but I’ve never had any issue with stopping. I never even get headaches if I go without coffee but it’s that comfort factor that I like. I love comfort! So when I want a warm drink I’ll make myself a Coconut Maca drink. I’m having one righttttttt now. 

 
I’m very lucky I’ve never enjoyed soft drinks and I drink a lot of room temperature water. Even warm water in a mug can be comforting. I make a ritual out of heating the water up, choosing a favourite mug (B and I both like to hog the same mugs) and then enjoying the steam puff up. It’s all about the ritual and process! Aren’t humans funny?

We started out as a very small community of just two, but in just over a week a few of our friends have started to join in. One of my girlfriends asked for a shopping list so she could run out and grab all the ingredients for the ‘elixir’ the very next morning.

Which is great! The more the merrier, and slowly little by little we generate more good vibes. If you would like to join us (we’d love to have you!) feel free to come up with your own mantra, or use mine:

RADIATE

Be well and be radiant! xoxo

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A Well Spent Sunday

brings a week of content.

Quite so!

Actually I had a lovely time on Saturday as well so I’m in for a fortnight of wonderfulness. How grand would it be if each day we spent well gave us a credit for the week ahead? Like a sort of happiness coupon.

The more pragmatic of us would point out that we could alternatively just live each day well and forget the coupons already. Yes. Of course. That would be an easier way wouldn’t it? So how many of us do that?

Hmm.

If I had to say what exactly it was I did over the weekend that filled me with such bliss and contentment, I’d struggle to mention anything super exciting. It’s always been those tiny little moments that sort of creep up on me. Which is such a relief because that means during the weekdays I can just keep myself open to more of such treasures.

The heroine of a favourite book of mine had a ritual with her best friend called “White pebble or black pebble”. Each day they would fill an imaginary jar with white pebbles for anything wonderful that happened and black pebbles for anything not so. At the end of the day the women would ring each other and announce whether it was a white pebble type of day or a black pebble one. Ever since reading that book I keep a jar in my mind, a tad dusty as I don’t tend to it all the time, but I take it out more and more these days and check how many white pebbles I found during the day. The occasional black pebble shows up but I try to be less diligent with those.

Here are some of my white pebbles this weekend.

Usually I teach during the weekends, which I adore, but it was nice for a change to have my entire morning to myself to awaken very lazily with a coffee. After a huge yawn whilst shuffling these cards I drew (I kid you not) the Awakening card. Do you believe in coincidences? Or destiny? Can we have both?

Awakening
It’s important to be yourself!

I’ve gotten really fascinated with geometry, I’m always seeing these fancy circles and squares showing up on weheartit and so on. So I gave it a go this weekend. Let me tell you, there’s more than one way to join the dots. Like a zillion ways. Figuratively and literally. Aside from getting a little cross eyed at certain points it was really absorbing. An interesting way to meditate if you can’t stand not doing anything at all. I think there are still more dots to join.

More than one way to connect the dots

The power went out in our building, so we were trapped for a while. Luckily I had already made a coffee so fine by me. No harm at all. Until I felt ready for a second coffee. But then we figured out that the power inside the bedroom worked. We’re problem solving people. Hehe.

No I did not care to check if the washing machine had any power. Priorities.

Would you believe I have not had rice crackers until now since I was at uni?  The first time around? If you want the math for it, that would be almost 15 years ago. Far out. And after I merrily ignored the serving suggestion and made my way through just about the entire packet I realised why I didn’t buy rice crackers anymore when I wouldn’t stop bouncing off the walls afterwards. And then I was insanely thirsty for hours. No original flavour for me thank you very much. Gimme the BBQ. It weirded B out to see snacks in the house AND to see me eating them. I don’t buy snacks because that was how I was brought up. We only got them if we were having a party. I think I will revert to that rule. But it was a nice treat x 4 serving sizes.

Serving suggestions are not serving rules.

Oh, and I also had a visitor drop by during the afternoon to see how my drawing was going. Birds drop by from time to time and I always feel like it’s a good sign. My mood always lifts when I see the flutter of wings even for the briefest instant.

Eventually the power came back on and we watched a bit of The Other Woman. More than anything I think we like Leslie Mann’s voice. And I like the expressions Kate Upton makes, she seems so goofy. Oh and I felt really happy about the dinner I threw together. To counter ALL the rice crackers I ate. When everything is really fresh, not a lot needs to be done to make a delicious meal. And a cool salad is so good for balmy nights. And minimal clean up!

It’s pretty straightforward you just need to mix together a dressing, tear up some leaves, and add anything else you want to make it a filling meal.

Teevee Dinner
“What is up with your hot brother?” Yeah, Leslie, tell us.

So how was your weekend? I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a week ahead filled with magical white pebbles. xx

 

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Weekend Feels!

How are you feeling? How has your week been? And WHAT are you planning for the weekend?

I started my weekend early after feeling pretty crummy on and off yesterday. I’m trying to fight off a cold that keeps trying to creep up on me. It’s like sending off an unwanted admirer, “I’m really flattered by the attention, no really, but I just don’t have time for this. Maybe another time. Another place. Maybe if we were different people. Neither of them being me.

Not that I have much experience in that realm. But that is how I feel about this sore throat, which reminds me I need to drink water.

*Cue water break for you, Dear Reader*

This weekend, which I have already given myself a huge headstart on, involves activities that never fail to make me feel better, like scoping out new crystals; painting my nails; checking out the markets; watching Youtube videos; having LOTS of coffees; Yoga-ing; long walks; visiting a loved one; maybe watching a movie at the movies and discovering new not so new but new to me music.

Like this one down below. I just heard it, whilst watching a Youtube video whilst I was painting my nails. Just listening to it and I can feel the good vibes taking over from the sore throat feels.

That’s sound therapy right there.

 

 

Eh? What do you reckon? Feeling the happy?

What have you got planned for the weekend? Tell me! I’d love to know! And can we all agree that Youtube videos are oddly addictive? And that one can never have enough crystals?!

x

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First Things First. Hello! But Firstest, Coffee.

Firstest? What.

Hello. Hi. Welcome to my world! So nice to meet you! It’s about to get even nicer for me as I’m about to get started on my pot of cold brew coffee. Have you ever had any? Give it a go! And then we can have a chat over our mutual love of cold brew. You just need filtered water and good coffee, soak the coffee for 12-18 hours and then strain, pop the liquid in the fridge to keep. It’s less acidic than the traditional method of brewing but it takes longer. I feel like this method can make even the worst quality of ground coffee I may come across taste pleasant. It’s not a miracle method but it certainly improves a situation of disappointing coffee. There’s a sweeter, rounder tone to cold brew and it keeps in the fridge for ages. Unless you finish it all. Then, no, it does not keep for long at all. I make a batch at night and by morning all I need to do is strain, pour and drink. That plus ice cubes and a dash of milk equals a really smooth ice coffee. Too easy ✌️let me know if you give it a go! xx

Precise recipe below.

It’s pretty straight forward, click on the photos to enter gallery mode if you’d like to really get in close!

It was only a matter of time before I discovered cold brew coffee. After I lugged my espresso machine all the way over here from Sydney first. That’s how I do. I’m all about taking the scenic route in life.

1 Hurl ground coffee into glass jar (I use my plunger but you can use a jar), I use about 3 heaped scoops plus 1 extra whattheheck scoop for good measure. Scoop away! Precision, precision, precision.

2 Fill her up with filtered water and stir the coffee enthusiastically so every coffee ground gets coated. Best to use wooden utensils not metal. There’s a fancy science reason for that. I guess, if you made me, I could go into that. (Your call! Let me know in the comments below!)

3 Option to wipe up mess, sip existing coffee.

4 Cover (I used a ziplock baggie, although glad wrap works too) and let stand for 12-18 hours. I leave my jar out on the counter overnight.

You could pop it in the fridge but I did some research and it doesn’t make much difference and not everyone has that kind of real estate in the fridge just hanging out. Certainly no such room in my fridge anyway. Would you like a tour of my fridge one day? I love peeking inside fridges. Oh, and wardrobes too. 

Confession: I haven’t always waited the full 12 hours. Hee. I was THIRSTAY. I’d say try to hang in there for at least 8 hours. You should be sleeping a minimum of 8 hours anyway so.. just stir, leave it alone and go to bed! By the time you roll out of bed, everything is ready!

5 Strain the liquid from the grounds, using a paper coffee filter or paper hand towel to line the strainer, although at this time of the morning I don’t always line the strainer. (I can’t lie, by that I mean I never line the strainer, it’s metal. In my mind the stirring with chopsticks is plenty of effort) So I just push down on the plunger and pour into a jar for storing in the fridge or straight onto a glass of ice for drinking. Usually the second thing.

6 Those with willpower can put the strained liquid into the fridge to chill whilst the rest of us can serve immediately over ice cubes, with rice/almond/soy/cow/goat milk or no milk at all.

Tadaaaah!

SOOO good, right? Let me know what you make of the cold brew method if you give this a go and tell me a little about yourself!

So nice meeting you! x