Watch the recording below of our 30-minute @root2riseyoga Instagram Live interview with Ayurvedic Practitioner Anjali Deva, founder of www.RootedRasa.com.  She shares practical tips for understanding your dosha-unique (specific to your body composition and energy) stress response and skillfully using your nutrition, sleep and eating patterns, movement, yoga, meditation and more to optimize your mental, physical emotional and spiritual health during stressful times like the pandemic.  Spreading her teacher's message, Anjali elaborates upon the quote: When times get complicated, eat simple.  Derive inspiration from Ayurveda, India's ancient healing system that continues to empower one's listening to the body's innate wisdom and harmony with Mother Earth for proactive preventative self-care.  

Watch a recording of @root2riseyoga Instagram Live Interview with Jasmine Azouz Levi on 4/12/20. She shares her ideas on time and money saving tips for cooking healthy plant-based meals for your family during the pandemic and onward.  

Part 1: 21 min.

Part 2: 11 min.

Art from Instagram @charliemackesy

In globally stressful times, devoting your energy to regularly grounding and uplifting yourself is instrumental to cultivating inner and outer peace and well being. Here are ten ideas you might explore or already practice:

1. Acknowledge how you feel with honesty and compassion through meditation, journaling or stream-of-consciousness writing, movement or painting.  Use the modality that allows you most ease to express yourself and perhaps experiment with one you haven’t tried.  
2. Be in your body through a body scan meditation, conscious breathing or physical movement, such as walking, yoga asana, dancing, running and exercise. Feel your body’s response to, and request for, rest, movement and specific nourishment.  Our bodies never lie, though our minds can interpret the body’s signals in a myriad of ways.  Our bodies give us direct experience with our environment, thoughts and emotions. Trust and cultivate that wisdom, using our bodies as a source of clarity and connection.  Read about the practice of free-flow soul movement here.
3. Make the space and effort to do things you enjoy daily. Play with your dog, be silly with your children, watch a brief comedy on Netflix, read your favorite book for 20 minutes, serve yourself a delicious healthy meal or let yourself sleep an hour earlier to get a full night’s rest.  Seek joy in the smallest things you can and immerse in the appreciation of joy. 
4. De-clutter and create a feeling of sanctuary in your home environment.  The act of cleaning house can channel anxiety, promote focus and feel empowering. If you share space with others, find at least a small area where you can take refuge to sit and savor a cup of tea or meditate.  Relaxing music, calming aroma and words of inspiration hanging on the mirror on a post-it can make a difference, now that you might spend more time at home.  Take a look at your current home, and notice how the objects, colors, sounds and temperature affect how you feel.  Is there a feeling of space where your mind and body can rest in safety and ease?
5. Start and close your day with a grounding and uplifting intention.  The moment you awake, instead of giving your attention to the news or social media, establish your alignment to your inner Self and source of natural well being through whatever modality allows you to connect inward—meditate, practice yoga, walk around your block, journal or move to music. Choose something sustainable and authentic to you that you can be consistent with and look forward to because it makes you feel good.  Just before bed, perhaps list all the things that uplifted you in your day.  If you don’t already, try this for seven days straight, and notice how you feel. 
6. If you’re feeling lonely, reserve a block of time each day to call a loved one, or join our yoga community on Zoom for a chat before or after our online classes.  Take the initiative to reach out and know that others might feel lonely, too, and may find comfort in your connecting with them.  Or, perhaps your added time at home is a great opportunity to finally raise a newly adopted pet that needs a family and can enjoy walks around the block with you and cuddle time to share affection with. The latter was advice from my partner and Founder of Justin’s Dog Services, Justin Hill (JustinsDogServices.com).
7. Eat for health and delight in it.  In Ayurveda, or ancient Indian natural medicine, it is important to know how to balance your mind, body and spirit through what you digest. Notice how the foods you eat, their portions and time of day consumed affect your energy levels.  If you’re already very anxious with your heart constantly racing, you might not add the hot sauce or extra spice to your meal.  Perhaps, lean towards soup that feels nurturing and calming. And of course, remember to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and stay well hydrated.  You might also snack on healthy foods with a crunch, like nuts, to help release stress.  
8. Channel stress through creativity.  “Cooking is a creative way for me to combine comfort and wellness,” shares one of my favorite Instagram Vegan Homemade Chefs, Diane Yen.  Her daily posts of healthy and colorful plant-based meals, often with recipes included, inspire art in the kitchen because you can see the love she details her cuisine with.  (Enjoy her daily inspiration of joyful nutrition by following @luv2bveg.) What’s your modality of creative expression—gardening, crafts, acting in your own YouTube channel?  It might be fun to just play with combining things you love into something that feels cathartic, productive, entertaining or engaging for you, and maybe it will also inspire others.  
9. Be of service.  “ What has helped me (through this pandemic fear) is getting outta myself and finding ways to motivate and help others through this,” shares Caribbean Radio Host and Founder of Island Groove dance fitness, Chinyere. Listen, dance and sweat to her motivating movements, talks and music through her Instagram, @cislandgroove. In another act of kindness, neighbors on my street have laid out their extra harvested fruits from their trees with a heart-warming sign that reads, “Please take some for free. “ 
10. Find ways to practice mindfulness in your daily routines, like walking to the mailbox or brushing your teeth.  Thich Nhaht Hahn is a renowned teacher and author of a myriad of mindfulness practices, like walking meditation.  Breathing consciously as you walk from one end of the block to the other, you might link each part of the breath with a grounding uplifting mental statement: (Inhale) I feel the ground beneath. (Exhale) The sun feels warm on my skin. (Inhale) A new breath is a new moment.(Exhale) In breathing, I feel free.  Friend and fellow yoga teacher, Paola Cardona (Instagram @Luna_Mamma), reminds us of the 3 P’s, “Accept and make peace that nothing is Perfect or Permanent and the best gift we can offer is our Presence. “  

 
By cultivating our own peace of mind and vibrant wellness through committing to personal practices, no matter the circumstance, we project empowerment and vitality into the world around us.  In sharing a similar hardship, we experience our interconnectedness on this planet. This heightened awareness of our oneness, coupled with our understanding of our true nature as infinite spiritual beings, both teachings from yoga philosophy, might offer some solace as we stay at home to care for ourselves and each other, including the most vulnerable.  In the words of a spiritual teacher, Shunyamurti, I meditated with in an ashram in Costa Rica:
 
At a certain moment, one crosses past the fear and doesn’t let it hold one back, and then one realizes the true nature of the Self that one always was, that the river originally was the ocean that simply took a journey of ascent and then descent and then back to the Source.
​

The Eight Limbs of Yoga are the eight-fold path, as described in The Yoga Sutras by Patanjali, for practicing yoga physically, mentally and spiritually and living with intention for optimal wellness.
Here’s an explanation of each limb, with a translation from Sanskrit, the ancient language from which yoga was translated.   
 
1. Yama

The first limb, yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. Yamas are universal practices that relate best to what we know as the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The five yamas are:

• Ahimsa: nonviolence
• Satya: truthfulness and integrity
• Asteya: nonstealing 
• Brahmacharya: continence and practicing responsible behavior
• Aparigraha: non-greed and nonattachment

2. Niyama

Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. Regularly attending temple or church services, saying grace before meals, developing your own personal meditation practices, or making a habit of taking contemplative walks alone are all examples of niyamas in practice.

The five niyamas are:

• Saucha: cleanliness of mind, speech and body
• Santosa: contentment 
• Tapas: self-discipline 
• Svadhyaya: self-study
• Isvara pranidhana: surrender of all thoughts and actions

3. Asana

Asanas, the postures practiced in yoga, comprise the third limb. In the yogic view, the body is a temple of spirit, the care of which is an important stage of our spiritual growth. Through the practice of asanas, we develop the habit of discipline and the ability to concentrate, both of which are necessary for meditation.  These physical postures are meant to help train the mind.  Asana literally means “a comfortable and steady pose.”

4. Pranayama

Generally translated as breath control, this fourth stage consists of techniques designed to gain mastery over the respiratory process while recognizing the connection between the breath, the mind, and the emotions. As implied by the literal translation of pranayama, "life force extension," yogis believe that it not only rejuvenates the body but actually extends life itself. You can practice pranayama as an isolated technique (i.e., simply sitting and performing a number of breathing exercises), or integrate it into your daily hatha yoga routine.  Pranayama are breathing techniques to balance mental states.

These first four stages of Patanjali's ashtanga yoga concentrate on refining our personalities, gaining mastery over the body, and developing an energetic awareness of ourselves, all of which prepare us for the second half of this journey, which deals with the senses, the mind, and attaining a higher state of consciousness.
 
5. Pratyahara

Pratyahara, the fifth limb, means withdrawal or sensory transcendence. It is during this stage that we make the conscious effort to draw our awareness away from the external world and outside stimuli. Keenly aware of, yet cultivating a detachment from, our senses, we direct our attention internally. The practice of pratyahara provides us with an opportunity to step back and take a look at ourselves. This withdrawal allows us to objectively observe our cravings: habits that are perhaps detrimental to our health and which likely interfere with our inner growth.  

6. Dharana

As each stage prepares us for the next, the practice of pratyahara creates the setting for dharana, or concentration. Having relieved ourselves of outside distractions, we can now deal with the distractions of the mind itself. No easy task! In the practice of concentration, which precedes meditation, we learn how to slow down the thinking process by concentrating on a single mental object: a specific energetic center in the body, an image of a deity, or the silent repetition of a sound. We, of course, have already begun to develop our powers of concentration in the previous three stages of posture, breath control, and withdrawal of the senses. In asana and pranayama, although we pay attention to our actions, our attention travels. Our focus constantly shifts as we fine-tune the many nuances of any particular posture or breathing technique. In pratyahara we become self-observant; now, in dharana, we focus our attention on a single point. Extended periods of concentration naturally lead to meditation.  Dharana strengthens control over the mind through concentration.

7. Dhyana

Meditation or contemplation, the seventh stage of ashtanga, is the uninterrupted flow of concentration. Although concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana) may appear to be one and the same, a fine line of distinction exists between these two stages. Where dharana practices one-pointed attention, dhyana is ultimately a state of being keenly aware without focus. At this stage, the mind has been quieted, and in the stillness it produces few or no thoughts at all. The strength and stamina it takes to reach this state of stillness is quite impressive. But don't give up. While this may seem a difficult if not impossible task, remember that yoga is a process. Even though we may not attain the "picture perfect" pose, or the ideal state of consciousness, we benefit at every stage of our progress.

8. Samadhi

Patanjali describes this eighth and final stage of ashtanga, samadhi, as a state of ecstasy. At this stage, the meditator merges with his or her point of focus and transcends the Self altogether. The meditator comes to realize a profound connection to the Divine, an interconnectedness with all living things. With this realization comes the "peace that passeth all understanding"; the experience of bliss and being at one with the Universe. On the surface, this may seem to be a rather lofty, "holier than thou" kind of goal. However, if we pause to examine what we really want to get out of life, would not joy, fulfillment, and freedom somehow find their way onto our list of hopes, wishes, and desires? What Patanjali has described as the completion of the yogic path is what, deep down, all human beings aspire to: peace. We also might give some thought to the fact that this ultimate stage of yoga—enlightenment—can neither be bought nor possessed. It can only be experienced, the price of which is the continual devotion of the aspirant.

(Derived from Get to Know the Eight Limbs of Yoga, by Marra Carrico in Yoga Journal)

As Thanksgiving 2018 approaches, our Root 2 Rise Yoga community has been asked to contribute to our accumulating potluck of healthy, vegan and delicious recipes to support each other in self-care and ahimsa (yogic virtue meaning non-harm) for our planet and families.  As the great Hippocrates stated: Let food be thy medicine and they medicine be thy food.  

Please email Root2RiseYoga@gmail.com to add your contribution to the healthy potluck favorites. The only requirements are nutritious, vegan and taste-tested delicious :-) Thank you for sharing in community wellness!  Below are our first two finds...

​--Recipe by Jill Fergus at feedtheswimmers.com (featured on Blue Zones)

Steps:
1. Bring a pot of well salted water to boil.
2. Cook cauliflower in it with inner leaves intact until barely fork tender.
3. Remove and pat dry.
4. Brush generously with olive oil and season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
5. Choose your favorite toppings, like those listed in the title, to taste preference.

Ingredients:
- 1 carrot
- 1 cellery stick
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 small onion (red or white)
- 3-4 cloves of garlic 
- 1 large potato or two small
- 1 cup of mushrooms 
- (welcome to add pieces fall squash or pumpkin too)
- 1 cup of sproured lentils (3-4 days sprouting or more if you'd like a longer tail on your lentils....will need less time cooking)
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper (to your taste)
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (to your taste)
- 2 large bay leads
- herbs (time, marjoram, or oregano)
- also can add 1/4 of turmeric

Instructions:
Sauteed onions & garlic with herbs. Then add veggies. In separate pot with 1 liter of water, bay leads, cook potatoes with lentil (try not to bring to boil to maintain live enzymes in sprouts) let cook in low temperature. Soutee veggies until well marinated also in low heat. 
Once potatoes & lentils are cooked add sauteed veggies & let simmer together. 

This makes about 8-9 servings

Stay tuned for more contributions!

An amazing superpower we humans possess is free will.  It’s enabled us to transform the darkest challenges into inspiring miracles, like when poet friend and guest speaker at our retreat, Marshall Jones, chose at the last moment not to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and take his life but instead transformed his words into inspiration to uplift thousands of lives on TEDx and more.  When we train ourselves to utilize our free will, we can surpass others’ and our own limiting beliefs and create the so-called impossible.
 
What are the limiting beliefs that get in the way of using our free will to realize our potential? “I’m too old” influences our choice to not pursue something we love or take a risk that will empower us.  “I don’t have time” can lead us to choose to deprive ourselves of what we know inside is more important use of our energy. “They’ll think badly of me” directs our choices to muting our self-expression and undermine others’ capacity to be compassionate.  
 
What are we here for if not to use our free will to elicit our fullest expression of our uniquely talented and gifted selves to help raise the vibration of our planet so that we all thrive together?
 
So, how’s yoga related to free will?
The Yoga Sutras describe yoga as the calming of the fluctuations of the mind. It also delineates the obstacles to peace and self-realization that cause humans to suffer:

• Ignorance of self
• Egoism
• Attachment
• Hatred
• Clinging to bodily life

 
In our asana (physical posture) practice, we train in steadying the fluctuations of the mind by focusing on our breath and the present moment constantly.  We seek to study our self and limiting beliefs we all have that blind us of our superpower--free will.  We practice discernment from our ego mind in choosing when to modify a pose by honoring what’s honestly good for us.  We attempt challenging physical feats to let go of our attachment to fear, familiarity or comfort and practice endurance with our free will.  Lastly, we use our free will to view ourselves with loving kindness and compassion as we remember we’re on a journey of learning and not everything comes at once. Sometimes a lesson needs to repeat itself until we fully integrate it into our being.  By repeatedly awakening to our superpower, we can align our actions, thoughts, words and everyday being with our highest, and resiliently peaceful, Self.  

This past June, I had the honor to actualize my dream of creating a space where diverse individuals could come together to let go of their separate conditionings—as we all have—and simply play and be.  The physical location I chose for this is where I learned how to reconnect with my own inner freedom while living there years ago and where a childlike innocence still pervades a culture that deeply values harmony—having no military and living with respect for Mother Earth: Costa Rica.  In my eyes, travel is about opening your perspective and cross-cultural sharing of our loves, values and gifts to bridge gaps in our understanding as humans who together inhabit one home—this planet.  While this past month completed the fifth consecutive year of our Costa Rica Yoga Retreat, I’m inspired and invigorated like it’s the first.
 
The itinerary that’s evolved through the years included group gatherings of all sorts: horseback riding to magnificent waterfalls, practicing Hike + Yoga at waterfalls and the beach, zip lining over the rainforest, mingling through silly and more reflective games and activities, sharing meals both home-cooked and restaurant-hopping to connect with locals, walking on safari at the national park and much more.  After rural village eco-living in the mountains the first two nights, we landed at our second home for the week in Manuel Antonio beach town, where our traveling tribe unleashed more independence to live like a local choosing activities for their free time, like riding a bus to the local Farmer’s Market, lounging and dancing at the beach with Costa Rican locals, taking a surf lesson, parasailing in pairs, or rafting down the local river. As nature in the tropical jungle showered heavy rains intermittently, we learned to adapt to whatever circumstance arose and literally go with the flow of life, pure life, or as Costa Ricans call it, pura vida.  That is the essence of freedom, living in a state of inner calm no matter the situation. 
 
And, as we learned to live together as different personalities under one roof for a week and as global adventurers visiting another culture’s home, we practiced peeling layers from the illusion that we are separate from each other.  Sharing the massive heart of Source or Divine Intelligence or Higher Consciousness (or whatever you like to call it), we all celebrated joyfully to witness our tribe members’ marriage proposal at the waterfalls and our group’s escalating boldness while braving one longer and higher zip line after another.  Tears blessed the earth as we connected, soul-to-soul, sharing our memories and wishes for each other on our last night in Costa Rica.  What’s truly amazing to realize is that the freedom and love we filled our cups with in one week overflows into the next chapter of our daily life journey, whether seeking happiness abroad or sitting in our cars driving to work and choosing happiness within.  Every moment we are breathing, we have a choice to free ourselves to live in the present and see the beauty of our interconnectedness, that gifts us the free will and responsibility to live in joy and spread love.  
 
Retreat or not, remember you always have a choice to be free.

(Highlights from the PBS documentary, Happy for No Reason, with brief commentaries by Michelle Chua)

Our common human goal of happiness is a choice we make through daily habits. The following are seven habits of happiness evidenced through research by experts in psychology, spirituality and neuroscience in the PBS documentary, Happy for No Reason.  I've added a personal elaboration of each.  See what resonates with you.

1. Take responsibility for your own happiness.  
Let go of myths that make your happiness contingent on something or someone else, as exemplified by the self-talk , “I’ll be happy when/if…

2. Practice forgiveness.
In forgiveness, you release yourself from the anger, resentment and holding to allow peace of mind.

3. Focus on gratitude.  
Genuinely feel appreciation as a state of being.  Transcend feeling grateful because you have this or that or because your life situation isn’t “as bad as” the other.  Without condition, feel the beauty of your existence.  

4. Don’t believe everything you think.
Remember that you are the one who thinks, and thus, are not your thoughts, as much as the ego may want to identify itself as the mind, in all its worries, fears and fluctuating tendencies.  When we think about a possible situation, whether it’s joyful or petrifying, our bodies feel it as reality, affecting our heart rate, breath quality and sensations. We can empower ourselves by dis-identifying ourselves with thoughts that do harm, and choose those that are of service to our highest good.  

5. Practice meditation and mindfulness.
Meditation enables us to connect with ourselves as witness to the mind and have control over it. Scientific studies of the brain during compassion meditation have shown activation of the insula, the deep center of the brain connected to emotions and attributed to linking body and mind.  Through mindfulness, our whole being rests peacefully in the moment, savoring it without anxiety of multi-tasking, worrying about the future or feeling stuck in the past.  In this practice, we free ourselves from judgmental thoughts.  

6. Live a life inspired by purpose.
Believing in something greater than ourselves that we are an essential part of empowers us to unwrap our unique personal gifts to this world, knowing that our existence is of great value.  

7. Cultivate nourishing relationships.  
​We take on the habits and mindset of those we are frequently near, so choose which environment and levels of vibration you want to affect you.  Honoring your values, engage in relationships that support your living in alignment with your truth.  

A bright smile in our Root 2 Rise Yoga community since 2013, Tanya Cohen, shares her perspective through her 9-year evolving yoga journey, “I thank myself a thousand times that I did something for me.  I learned to listen to myself and remember that I have a choice.”
 
Yoga has not always been a happy place for Tanya, as she reminisces why her physical therapist, doctor and caring friend adamantly prescribed it for her healing in 2009.  She woke up one morning and literally couldn’t get out of bed. She suffered a badly injured spine and a plethora of accumulated medical issues.  It was her body’s protest after enduring 11 years of rigorous physical labor in multiple jobs to sustain her family after her relocation from Uzbekistan while caring for her husband who was suddenly left paralyzed after a stroke.  In the early years of yoga, her practice was a necessary medicine, which Tanya swallowed reluctantly because she knew it was somehow helping her body.  She admits that her approach was diligent, competitive and sometimes forceful to the point of pain.  From 2-3 times a month then, to several times a week now, she shows up to her mat in class.  She reveals in our interview, as we sit in her warm car on the gym parking lot:
 
I don’t know when it started that I wanted to go (to yoga class).  After, I feel freedom in my body.  Small details make a big difference. You bring people to believe in themselves.  You teach us how to listen to ourselves.  If it’s uncomfortable it’s okay.  But if it hurts, don’t push.  I feel full of life, a lot of energy after yoga. 
 
Laughing playfully about her body’s inflexibility as a young child of 3 or 5, she proclaims, “I believe it doesn’t matter what age.  I’ve never been stronger and more flexible (than I am now).  Now I know to breathe and my body listens to me.” Smiling radiantly, Tanya reminisces her first Root 2 Rise Yoga community event she attended outside of our weekly classes in 2013-- a Candlelight Yoga + Live Music + Wine at a studio in Northridge.  She says she fell in love with her practice and joined other community events, exploring hikes for her first time ever during our yoga-in-nature excursions in Malibu.  She claims, “ I started to enjoy myself completely.  Yoga became not just exercise, but it helped my mind, soul and body.  A new world opened for me.”
 
When not practicing yoga in class or sharing her lightheartedness at our community Hike + Yoga events, Tanya works full-time as a Special Education Teacher in LA and treasures her family time. As a former professional piano teacher in her native country and fashion designer during her early years in Los Angeles, her heart and style continue to revel in creativity, infusing passion into her yoga practice of self-kindness and human connection.