Nutrition Tip with Michelle: Turmeric for Winter and Health

By Michelle Brandon

The winter season is an appropriate time for grounding. Grounding is the process of bringing awareness to the body to connect with earth energy in order to prevent depleting your own body's energy. During the winter we need to make sure we are not just surviving but in fact we are thriving! One way to ground yourself is to nurture the body by incorporate plenty of root vegetables in your meals, including yogis favorite spice: Turmeric!

Turmeric is native to Southeast India and needs an abundance of rainfall for optimal growth. Curcumin is the concentrated,  active ingredient in turmeric and is also responsible for the strong orange pigment it contains. Turmeric has been known for its high antioxidant value eliminating free radicals in the body. Turmeric also promotes a healthy response to reducing inflammation in the body. Pain and arthritic conditions within the body often correlates with swelling and inflammation. If inflammation is reduced, pain may be reduced as well!

Turmeric is fat soluble, meaning in order to absorb into the body's system fat must be present. So it is a good idea to eat it along with a meal containing heart healthy fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, grape seed oil, safflower oil or even naturally occurring essential fatty acids from fish. Turmeric is a root with unique flavor, making it perfect for spicing up soups, casseroles, salads or even smoothies! There are two forms of turmeric, ground and fresh. Both work the same. It just depends on personal preference. I think fresh is best!

Never tasted turmeric in a smoothie before? Join me at Community Sanctuary (in Focus Yoga) this Saturday, January 17th at 12:30-2:30 for a Clarifying Cleanse Workshop. We will explore a 7-day plant based meal plan, providing delicious recipes, informative charts, taste testing and much more! Click here for more information. (click the "workshops" tab)

Five Essential to a Successful Meditation Practice

Contributed by meditation instructor Jaci McCarty

There is a lot of buzz right now around the topic of Meditation. It seems like every time I visit my Facebook page, or browse the internet, there is another article on the benefits of a regular meditation practice.  I surely love seeing and reading all these articles, and yet most people I know do not have a regular meditation practice.  Why?

I feel it takes a bit of knowledge and instruction before starting this very natural practice of meditating.  There are definitely misconceptions and a general feeling that it is "hard to stop thinking".  According to my meditation teacher Sarah McLean, there are five essentials to a successful meditation practice.  I thought it would be valuable to share them with you in hopes it will make the practice seem a little more accessible to you!  So here they are.....

Its okay to have thoughts while meditating.  There it is, plain and simple. We have up to 60,000 thoughts a day, they don't just magically stop because you close your eyes to meditate, and they are not supposed to.

Don't try too hard.  No effort is required; just a simple shift in attention.

Let go of expectations.  Don't place goals or labels on your practice: just do it. Just the experience of doing is enough.

Be kind to yourself.  I call this "compassionate awareness". Try not to put words around what you become aware of. Just notice it. 

Stick with it.  Stay for the time you have set for your practice. The only way to benefit from meditation is to do it.

I think these tips will help you when you set the intention to begin a meditation practice. It is such an important tool and the perfect anecdote to stress.

I will be teaching a beginning meditation class  on January 29th at 6:45 where I will expand on these and give more practical tips on how to meditate. Click here to register for this special class.

I wish you peace awareness and compassion,
Jaci

Keeping the Holidays Green

Focus Yoga student Karen Smith has a special interest in reducing waste and practicing smart recycling whenever possible. We were chatting with her last week about Focus Yoga's efforts to be green. Holidays can create a lot of waste, and Karen graciously offered to put together a list of ideas to make the green even greener in this season.

Buy battery free gifts.  According to the EPA, about 40% of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. Discarded batteries are an environmental hazard.  When battery use is unavoidable use only rechargeable batteries, as they eventually find their way into the waste stream but at least they have been recharged various times.  Click here to visit a site that offers a few examples of gifts that have less of an impact on the environment.

Cut down on the waste of wrapping paper.  Use materials like paper grocery bags flipped inside out and decorated, or the comic page of a newspaper for kids. Other great wrapping materials include old maps, sheet music and magazine ads. Shiny, metallic and plastic-coated wrapping paper can't be reused or recycled, but there are lots of wrapping papers and ribbons that are made of 100 percent recycled waste, and gift bags are a great reusable option.

If you're mailing gifts, think green. Re-use your saved cardboard boxes, and use packing materials like newspaper and cardboard (please, no Styrofoam packing peanuts!).  

Turn down your thermostat before your party. As guests arrive, the room’s temperature will rise to a comfortable level and you will save on heating.

Use real dishes. While disposable plates and silverware are easier if you're hosting crowds, the environment will thank you if you buck up and do the dishes.  If there are leftovers after Christmas dinner, send guests home with extras in pre-saved glass jars instead of plastic wrap.

Use LED (and solar), holiday lights.  They are available in many colors and styles. They consume 10% the amount of energy as the traditional lightings.  Use a timer on them to limit the time they are on.  If you have “old-school” lights, enjoy them until they need to be replaced.  HolidayLED.com sells LED lights, and also has a recycling program that accepts old holiday lights.

Recycle everything possible after the parties are over.

Reconsider your old gift giving habits and make a change.  Talking with friends and family about changing old gift-giving habits before the rush sets in, can ease the financial and environmental pain of the holidays. This year, try buying green gifts (many are under $50), making charitable donations to environmental groups, or buying antiques, vintage items or locally made gifts instead of new stuff.  Re-gifting makes perfect sense too. If you received something you really don't need, look for ways you can reuse this gift by passing it on to someone who can use it!

Emphasize togetherness and people over things.   Music, games & cooking together create memories and teach our children  (& ourselves) that love & friendship are zero-waste.   

Honey in Ayurveda

Honey has a special place in the Ayurvedic lifestyle. It's magic is related to two important concepts: Ojas and Sattva.

Ojas translates to  "vital sap" or "vigor".  Deepak Chopra explains that "Ojas is the pure and subtle substance that’s extracted from food that has been completely digested. Ojas circulates throughout the bodily tissues and heart, sustaining the physical self, bringing clarity to the mind and balancing the emotions."

This is directly related to the energetic quality of sattva, which is pure, balanced energy. Enhancing the ojas in our system helps create sattva, and as Mr. Chopra so eloquently states, "when the body produces ojas, the vital nectar of life, we feel blissful. The cells sing with happiness because both the mind and the body are receiving the nourishment they need."

So, what does honey have to do with these two important ingredients to good health and happiness?  According to Chopra, the most sattvic foods include organic milk, almonds, sesame, rice, fruits and honey.

John Immel, a certified Ayurvedic practitioner and the creator of the Joyful Belly website concurs.  "Consuming honey daily as a food is advocated in Ayurveda to promote good health and strength.

Bees actually pre-digest honey, giving it qualities of heat, astringency, and a little dryness, qualities you won't find in any other sweetener. Yet, these qualities are essential to balancing the normally cold, damp weight gaining properties of other simple sugars."

These heating and drying qualities help to balance the Kapha dosha, which manifests as heaviness and lethargy. The warmth of honey stimulates your tongue, raises your heart rate and metabolism, and warms your entire body. These qualities make it a perfect sweetener for the cold, damp winter and spring seasons.

Dr. Immel notes that the metabolic stimulating effects of honey helps the body burn fat. Honey also has a cleansing effect. Because of these two qualities, he suggests combining honey and lemon juice with lukewarm water and sipping in the morning as a detoxifier.


The heating and metobolic-enhancing qualities of honey make it a key ingredient in many rejuvenating and re-energizing formulas, and it's often used medicinally to enhance the healing properties of other herbs. Try a spoonful of honey as a pick-me-up when energy is low.

Now, all of the above come from the Ayurvedic lineage, and may not yet be supported by western medicine and science. However, honey's benefits as a cough suppressant and a tonic for sore throats is recognized more broadly, and it doesn't carry the side-effects of narcotics. In addition, honey's drying qualities help it function as an expectorant, breaking up mucus in the upper respiratory system. It's one sweetener that won't lead to clogging mucus.

Two notes about honey: it's a known fact that children younger than 1 year should never be fed honey, as their systems cannot tolerate natural bacterias that may be present. Also, honey should not be subjected to high heat or be cooked, as this changes the structure. Ayurveda suggests that this change makes the honey actually toxic to the system.

To learn about honey produced in our own local area and ecosystem, and to experience some helpful recipes using this honey, join us at the studio Saturday, 11/23 from 9:00 - 11:00am. Frank Saballus will be there to discuss his bees and hives, and Judi will be sharing uses of honey. This is free.

Yogi Warrior Weapons for Cold Season

Before every class, I ask students how they feel. Clearly, from their responses, cold season is upon us. Feel that familiar swelling in the back of the throat that tells you a cold is coming on? Seems like everyone in your family is snorting and sniffling except you....yet? Lost time due to illness is something we all want to avoid. I thought I'd share a few products Focus offers in our boutique that can help.

Thieves  This was a favorite last year. The legend surrounding this essential oil blend focuses on an unruly band of medieval
thieves that would rob plague victims. They wore a special blend of herbs for protection. This essential oil blend contains cinnamon, rosemary, lemon and eucalyptus. A drop on the tongue taken orally at the first sign of illness can be effective.  Drops can be added to hand soap and cleaners for anti-bacterial properties. Gargling with Thieves mixed with water can sooth a sore throat. Put a little in sesame oil and lubricate the insides of the nostrils before boarding a plane. Click here for a list of 101 uses for Thieves compiled by fans. If you are looking for a natural way to fight illness-causing bacterias, consider this oil. A little pricey, but since it's used by the drop, a bottle goes far.

Defense Elixir  This little bottle packs a punch.  Taken at the first sign of a cold, this powerful blend will wake you up and warm you up at the same time. Orange, ginger, cayenne and echinacae, taking small shots throughout the day can help knock out or reduce cold symptoms before they take root. Keep a bottle in your freezer in case an itchy sore throat catches you too far from the studio to stop in.

Now, what about if that cold has already taken hold, and you are struggling with congestion? Here are a couple of remedies to ease the pain.

RC essential oil blend/Eucalyptus essential oils  Mixed with a little sesame oil, these oils can be inserted into the nostrils to lubricate and help open congested airways. When students come into class with congestion, I offer this. Combined with the movement and deep breathing of yoga, they generally leave feeling much more open. Also, a few drops in a pot of hot water makes a steamy inhalant.

Respiratory Tea  In addition to the Defense Elixir, Earth's Healing is supplying Focus with bags of
this tea blend. Our students are enjoying cups of this blend after class, and buying bags to take home. It contains mullein, horehound, Irish moss, and eucalyptus. We've gotten rave reviews from our students.

Focus Yoga Monthly Membership

Recently we put out a survey and got a great response, with ideas of what types of classes and class times would be good additions to our schedule. We added many of them, and hope that you will back up your good requests with your attendance.

However, one or two of the supportive comments really had me thinking. One stated how a couple of other local studios have offered several Groupon and Living Social-type discounts in the past year. I think the suggestion was that we should be following suit.

Let me explain something about these internet promotions: when a business offers a deep, deep discount to customers through one of those promotional companies, the business receives 50% of the total receipts. That means, on our last promotion, we received exactly $2.50 for each class sold on that promotion. Focus pays our instructors more than that to teach our students.

I understand that there is a cost to advertising. And, students that use the coupon to try a business may become loyal customers. But, with abundance of deep discounted classes available, I suspect instead of instilling loyal customers, businesses trying these discount deals as a way of promoting their studio have inadvertently set a new price point for yoga. With a local studio offering a promotion at any given moment, many students simply follow the promotions to determine where they practice.

If studios are expected to continuously offer deep discount promotions to keep students who become used to this new price point, exactly how long will they stay in business?

Now, I understand how tough the economy has been for many people. And, at Focus, it’s never been about the money. We need to stay financially healthy. But, we want students who need yoga to be able to learn and practice, regardless of finances. We’ve worked to find ways for many of our students to continue practicing when facing financial limitations. That’s called community.

So, that brings me to the point. Community. What we really want, more than anything, is for each person who wants to practice with us to become part of our community.

We will continue to create a studio that supports our community, local food producers and grassroots vendors sharing their passion. We will support our students with instructors who really care about each individual that walks through our doors. Our studio will continue to offer creative special classes and workshops each month, for as many age and ability levels as we possibly can, supporting healthy lifestyles for all. And, we will do our best to offer that in a way our students can afford. We do that in the hopes that each student will become an interactive, supportive member of our yoga community.

So, we are raising the curtain on new pricing option, our Focus Yoga Monthly Membership. It won’t be for everyone. If you take class less than 5 times a month, it may not be your cup of herbal tea. That’s okay...we will continue to offer our individual, 5 and 10 class options.

But, if you want a cost-effective way to increase your practice, consider our membership. The base plan is unlimited regular classes for $79/month. That’s our way of helping you manage your yoga budget. It’s that simple. If you practice an average of 1.5 times a week, the monthly membership becomes more cost-effective than a 10 class pass.

And, we plan to have fun with this! Several times a week there will be fun perks announced through our newsletter or Facebook page.  Freebies and special discounts on products and workshops. Ways for you to further benefit from your support to Focus, and for us to show our appreciation to you!

There is one thing this membership asks of you: 3 months commitment at the onset, and an auto-renewal set up. However, after the first three months, you can cancel with one week’s notice. That’s it. But we have high expectations that you won’t want to cancel!!

To join this membership now, click here!

Evan Bartlett Travels to Tanzania!

Evan Bartlett

We were tidying up after a Wednesday evening Open Yoga class recently when one of the regular
students, Jennifer Bartlett, and I were chatting. She mentioned that her daughter, Evan, was hoping to travel to Tanzania in East Africa soon to do some outreach work. Evan graduated college in December and is working hard to earn money to support herself during the 12-month trip. Even though she'd be working, it would be no free ride. I was intrigued, and thought there might be a way our Focus Yoga community could help Evan. So, today I had a conversation with Evan about this project.

Me: Where exactly are you traveling, and when are you leaving?
Evan: I'm leaving August 19 and traveling to a village in Tanzania called Bombo Majimoto.

Me: And what sort of work are you doing there?
Evan: I'll be working with the villagers on agricultural development. The villagers tend to live season to season, subsisting only on what they grow on their land. We will be helping them develop projects to increase their economic security, such as selling their crops to bigger markets. This will help them develop security in case of a bad growing year, and help them expand their communications so they can benefit from the exchange of products and ideas.

Me: From where did you graduate?
Evan: I graduated from Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. I have a degree in Political Science and History, and a minor in Business Administration.

Me: Why did you decide to offer a year of your time and energy, unpaid, to this project instead of hitting the pavement for a full time job?
Evan: For years I've had a strong desire to give back, and this gap between graduating college and starting a professional job seemed perfect to offer a full year of my time to do so.

Me: What is the organization you are working with on this project?
Evan: It's called "2Seeds Network". It's a non-profit. I really like this organization, as it offers more of a partnership with people, rather than a hand-out. It's a young organization, and doesn't have the resources to pay all the expenses to send people to Tanzania. But, we feel that the fundraising efforts we do helps to involve others in our mission.

Me: What are you raising funds for, exactly?
Evan: My flight and transportation while there, food, housing, health insurance, seeds, and equipment. A full year's worth of living expenses and items I'd need for my work.

Me: How much do you need to raise?
Evan: The organization suggests we raise $8000. This would cover my expenses for the year. However, I do not need all of that immediately; right now I have enough for my plane ticket and the first 6 months of living expenses.

Me: How did you decide on this project?
Evan: Well, I really decided on the organization. I really like 2Seeds Network, and I feel that even though I'll be working hard, the benefits I'll receive will far outweigh the investment. 2Seeds Network gave me personality tests and had me take surveys to help find the project they thought would be the best fit for me. I'm really excited about being able to do this.

Me: Focus also is always looking for ways we can give back, and helping you with your project seems perfect! On Wednesday, August 14, right before you leave,  Focus will donate the income from our evening Open Yoga class toward your project. We'll even put out a donation jar, in case this speaks on a deeper level to a student, and they'd like to offer a little extra to your cause. This is the class your mom usually comes to. Can you take class with us that night so we can meet you?
Evan: Yep! That's sounds wonderful, and I really appreciate the help!

Come support Evan and the farmers of Bombo Majimoto on Wednesday, August 14 at 7:15pm. Here is a link to 2Seeds Network, so you can learn more about them. Click here
We hope to see you in class!