Saturday, August 29, 2015

Yoga Today- Neutrality











In yoga our ultimate goal is to become one with the spiritual force of the universe. This is a place of complete balance. The closest we can come to this here on earth is through meditation. But this requires that we clear the mind of all thought. The body and the mind exist in the material world. They are tethered to the world by the ego.

The spiritual world is beyond the material world, so as long as we have thoughts we are bound by the forces of karma to the material world. Thought are material- they manifest.

When you meditate pay careful attention to the thoughts that arise. All thoughts are like strings that keep us tied to emotions; both positive and negative.

 Ultimately we are striving for a state of complete neutrality. But we are humans here on earth living an earthly life which is full of emotional states such as anger, fear, hurt, greed, misperceptions and pride. So the first thing to do is move away from negative emotions and focus on positive emotions. Because it is positive emotions that neutralize negative emotions. The second step is to remove even the positive emotions and simply observe. Emotions throw us into action and action creates karma. Ultimately we are striving to become the observant one. Simply observe life and you will find a state of peacefulness and this state of peacefulness will bring contentment to your soul. With contentment comes happiness and then your soul is free to open the doorway to spirituality.

The sitting Zen is the closest we can come to experiencing this neutrality. So let’s begin our practice today with a sitting Zen. Close your eyes, clear your mind and simply focus on three deep long breathes.

Pay attention to your emotions as they arise. Observe them and you will notice how even the positive ones disturb a state of peacefulness. However, if negative emotions arise quickly change them to a positive emotion. If you feel anger, observe,and then change your thoughts to that of compassion. Remember we are all humans and we are all here doing the best we can.

The goal of yoga is to bring balance to your life and thus attain happiness. You cannot become happy until you balance your life. So seek balance in all things and in all things find balance.

Doctor Lynn


 

 

Thursday, August 27, 2015

What are we?


 
 
 
 
We are an expanding energy force made up of seven layers of energy and eight chakras. The first layer of energy is your physical self. It is the densest and heavy layer of energy. It is the manifestation of the material being. The second layer is your aura or the energy that gives presence to you. Today we are going to focus on the physical and the aura.

We will work the physical today by doing yoga and yoga dance. This in turn will affect the aura. But likewise the aura affects the body. Think of the aura as a shield of energy that surrounds your body. It picks up vibrations from the universe. When you walk into a room or meet someone you immediately pick up vibrations about the energy that permeates that area or that person.

The aura protects the body. Disease and negative energy attack the aura first and then is transferred to the body. A healthy aura is balanced, flexible, strong and peaceful.

Ever notice a person with positive energy? It doesn’t matter what they look like or how much money they have- they just give off an air of positivity. Ever notice how when you leave an exercise class you feel lighter, energized and an improvement to your balance, flexibility and strength? That is because your aura and your body are in balance with each other.

Pay attention to what you do with your body and how it affects your energy shield or your aura. In order to maintain good health you must resonate with positive energy. If the body is strong enough when outside influences try to disturb your health the aura and the body will work together to maintain your balance, your strength and will give you the flexibility to flow and move with life with a sense of grace and ease.  Pay attention to your energy field. It is you!

Doctor Lynn

Spiritual Fitness

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

A Recipe for Health, Sex, Happiness and Love – “Muster the thyme”













We’ve got one food that can delivers all four recipes ,as well as, provide other health benefits and is an easy spread for serving and cooking. There is one sauce that is versatile, low in calories and packed with health benefits; its mustard and it’s been around a long time.

Health wise, you’ll recall from a previous chapter that mustard seed is rich in omega 3 fatty acid. Mustard is one of the oldest spices dating back nearly 3000 years ago. Mustard has been used since ancient times as a medicine and a liniment. The word mustard comes from the Latin word “mustum” which means “must”.

As well as, omega 3 fatty acid, mustard is a good source of selenium, a nutrient that has been shown to reduce the severity of asthma, decrease some of the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and help prevent cancer. Mustard seed is also a good source of magnesium, which has been shown to lower blood pressure and to restore sleep patterns in women having difficulty from menopause. Mustard seed is good for the heart and helps to reduce the frequencies of migraine headaches. Mustard seed is also a good source of iron, calcium, zinc, manganese, protein, niacin and dietary fiber.

This all adds up to make mustard a pretty good recipe for health. It’s low in calories and fat and packed with nutrients. It makes a great sauce or spread. The Romans were probably the first to experiment with mustard as a condiment, but it was the French who perfected it. Adding mustard seed to wine and making it into a paste the French would sell the mustard out of mustard carts on the street. The well refined homes would have a mustard pot usually made of silver and glass with a spoon for serving. Mustard has been made  in  many variations by adding honey,  herbs and fruit.

Our sexual health is dependent upon circulation and a list of nutrients to support hormone production. Mustard delivers zinc and magnesium to support hormones, manganese for female hormone support, selenium for male hormone support, niacin for circulation and sensation, iron for energy and omega 3 to feed the sex hormones. All that sex packed in a little spread across your sandwich! That’s why the ancient Chinese considered mustard an aphrodisiac.

Happiness is tied to faith. Eternal truths and strong beliefs are the gateway to happiness. Things that we learned to do because they were the foundation of our values are now things we believe in and do because they expand our strength and happiness. Doing good makes us feel good and feeling good makes us happy. When we focus on good things we feel energized and enthusiastic. This leads to feeling of satisfaction and happiness. It is grounded in our values and our faith.

The mustard seed is a symbol of faith. When I was a child my Aunt gave me a necklace with a small pendant attached that contained a mustard seed. She told me it would protect me. The mustard seed symbolizes the power of faith. In the Bible Jesus refers to  faith as being the size of a mustard seed. All you need is a little faith and you can move mountains. Actually it means that to have faith like a mustard seed is to be the smallest seed in the garden, but when planted it will grow larger than the other plants, becoming a tree and producing large branches for birds to nest in. It is not the size of your faith, but the power of your faith that brings happiness.  

People always have always will had a love affair with mustard. It is one of top traded spices in the world.

 

American’s love their mustard on sandwiches and pretzels; but mostly on the American hotdog! The use of mustard as a condiment was first seen at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, when bright yellow mustard was introduced by R.T. French Company and thus French’s yellow mustard was born. On average American’s consume about 60 hot dogs a year and each of those hotdogs is usually smeared with mustard. That’s a lot of love for a tiny seed.

Phrases such as “cut the mustard” which menas being able to handle the job, baseball pitchers applying “mustard “ to their fast balls, and “as keen as mustard”, all refer to mustard’s ability to deliver a strong and bold taste, distinguishing it as a  delightful way to stay healthy, sexy, happy and in love.

Let’s make mustard! Use it as a spread and a condiment. I’m going to add a little thyme to the mustard. Thyme is an herb that stands for courage. The Romans used thyme to flavor cheeses and liquors. It has a strong aroma, yet it does not over power other spices. It blends well with meats and can be found in most all cuisines throughout the world.

Medicinally, thyme was used as a sleep aid. It is a good source of iron. Before the advent of antibiotics thyme was used in bandages as a sanitizer. Interestingly , in ancient times, thyme was used for respiratory purposes, including coughs, bronchitis and chest congestion. Science has now discovered volatile oils in thyme, called carvacolo, borneol, geraniol and most notably, thymol (which is where thyme gets its name), that act upon the respiratory system for relief from coughs, bronchitis and chest congestion!

The thymol is thyme is an antioxidant and has the ability to preserve food. It has also been shown to increase the omega three fatty acids in the cells of the brain, kidney and heart. Thyme is an excellent source of iron, manganese, and vitamin K. It is also a very good source of calcium and a good source of dietary fiber.

Use thyme in pasta recipes, mixed into an omelet or scrambled eggs. Season soups and beans with thyme and when poaching fish place sprigs of thyme on top of fish. Thyme is also an essential ingredient in bouquet garni; a French bouquet of herbs that is used to season soups and stews.

Because this herb is also healthy, sexy, happy and loving it is added to our mustard. All you need is a little “thyme” and “muster” and you too can make your own mustard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Recipe for Health, Sex, Happiness and Love - Mustard

2 cups of dry white wine

1 cup of onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped

4 ounces of dry mustard

4 tablespoons of honey

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of salt

3 sprigs of fresh thyme remove the leaves from the stem

Combine wine, onion, garlic and heat to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour mixture into a bowl and cool. Strain wine mixture into dry mustard in a small sauce pan, beating until smooth. Add remaining ingredients. Heat slowly, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Add thyme. Cool. Pour into a non-metal container and cover. Chill at least 2 days before serving to blend the flavors.

Extra bonus: Mustard seed – take any vegetable(Swiss chard works well) and sauté it with a little olive oil and shallots. Throw in a sprinkling of mustard seed. Adds flavor to vegetables in a healthy manner without calories!

*** Put the mustard in cute little jars or pots and give as gifts***

Mustard is hot and spicy. It’s a great rub on meats, chicken and fish. Now that’s ,”cutting the mustard!”

 Doctor Lynn
 

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Concentration- Taming the Ego







What you focus on is what you become. This is the law of Karma yoga. Sit quiet and concentrate on only one thing. Focus on the glowing warm light that is centered in the heart chakra. It is the light of compassion.

 When you focus on compassion you remove pride and when you remove pride you tame the ego. Taming the ego is your biggest challenge for it is the ego that keeps you separate from the entire universe. It is the ego that makes us feel righteous and important. It also makes us feel inferior. The ego is how we get hurt, angry, fearful, disappointment and experience emotional pain.

The mind is like a tree. If you let it the mind will branch out in many directions. Life energy gets scattered and the ego overrides understanding.

If you could focus solely on the light within, you would extinguish the blazing heat of the ego. The ego is the force of all destruction. So what we want to do is purify the mind and the best way to purify the mind is to focus on one thing like the light of your soul because the soul is pure. It is the body and the mind that get us into trouble.

Let’s practice yoga for it is only through continual practice that we can hope to achieve a state of peace and serenity.
 
If you put a red flower near a clear crystal the crystal will take on the color red. Likewise, whatever you put in the mind you become. Life becomes what life does, so focus on one good thing such as compassion and take on the light of your soul.

Doctor Lynn
http://www.doctorlynn.com

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

A Recipe for Health, Sex, Happiness and Love


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Let’s heat things up. This is a hot chili meal followed by a light and creamy dessert. Make the dessert ahead of time and set aside.

Creamy Rice Pudding

1 cup of cooked white rice

1/1/2 cups of butter milk or regular low-fat milk

1/3 cup of sugar

1 egg beaten

½ cup golden raisins, currants or any other dried fruit

1 teaspoon of butter

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

Cinnamon stick and ground cinnamon

In a medium size sauce pan combine rice,1 cup of milk and the sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thick and creamy; about 15-20 minutes. Stir in remaining milk, egg and raisins. Cook two minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into a serving bowl. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and push a cinnamon stick into the middle of the pudding. Serve warm. Serves 4

 

Chili Corn Bread

½ cup of flour

½ cup of corn meal

1 egg beaten

½ cup of buttermilk or skim milk

¼ cup grated low fat cheddar cheese - sliced

¼ cup of whole kernel canned corn

2 teaspoons of finely chopped green chili

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and stir just until flour is moistened. Spread evenly in a loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-fat cooking spray. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Serves 8

 

Chili Relleno Casserole

1 cup evaporated milk

4 egg whites

1/3 cup all purpose flour

3 - 4oz cans of whole green chili

1 pound of low fat jack cheddar cheese

1-8oz can of tomato

Preheat oven to 350degrees. Spray a 1/1/2 quart casserole dish with non-fat cooking spray.

Beat milk, eggs and flour together until smooth. Split open chilies and remove seeds. Rinse and place on a paper towel.

Line the bottom of the casserole pan with half the chilies. Top with half the egg/milk mixture and then top with half the cheese. Place the remaining chilies on top, cover with remaining egg/milk mixture and top with remaining cheese. Spoon the tomato sauce on top spreading it to cover the top of the casserole. Bake for one hour or until center is firm. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes and then serve.

 

Papaya Salsa

½ ripe papaya cut into small bite size pieces– I prefer Hawaiian papaya because it has a richer taste

1 plum tomato chopped into small bite size pieces

½ small green chili with seeds and white pulp removed, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine and chill

On a plate arrange several leaves of fresh lettuce. Top with salsa. Place a square of corn bread on the plate and a square of the Chili Relleno on the plate.

Serve with a sauvignon blanc, a light beer or sparkling water. Toast to health, sex, happiness and love.

Finish the meal with the warm and creamy rice pudding.

Comida Buena!
http://www.doctorlynn.com

 

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Yoga for a Successful Life- Concentration


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Today lets’ practice concentration.  What you focus on in life is what you become. This is karma yoga; cause and effect and Bhakti yoga; devotion. What you devote yourself to is what you become. Sit in easy pose with your eyes closed and your hands resting on your knees. Envision a brilliant globe or glowing lotus flower in your heart.  This brilliant divine light is beyond all anxieties, fears and worries. Make that supreme light you.

This represents your divine consciousness. Take some deep breathes and practice letting your mind get absorbed into this divine consciousness and enjoy the moment.

Now let’s continue our yoga practice. Stay present and remember nothing is achieved without practice

 

Sit quiet and breathe. Focus on the inner glowing divine light that is you. In the beginning you will need to practice focusing and concentrating on your inner light, but if practiced enough this glowing divine light will become your reality.

Namaste

Doctor Lynn

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

A Recipe for Love – Eat, Throw, Honor


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rice has fed more people and for a longer time than any other crop. Rice has a long history dating back to around 2500 BC as a valuable food and a cultural tradition. Beginning in China and then spreading throughout the world rice was an easy crop to grow due to its versatility and ability to grow in many different climates.

Rice is a cereal crop that feeds more than half the world’s population. It is a good source of energy, good for regulating bowel movements, stabilizing blood sugar and providing a source of B1 to the human body. B1, also known as Thiamin, plays an essential role in the metabolism of carbohydrates. If you increase your daily intake of carbohydrates (and junk food) you need more thiamin in your diet.

The cells of the nervous system are very sensitive to carbohydrate metabolism.  That is why the brain and nerves are the first to show a deficiency in thiamin. Nervousness, constipation, insomnia and headaches may be some of the signs that you need more thiamin in your diet. The richest source is organ meats followed by rice, beans, peas, egg yolks, poultry and fish.

Rice has a long cultural history. In China the word for rice means to eat. In Cambodia a sweet rice dish is offered to the female deity to guard valuable resources.  In Japan it is believe that social harmony is a result of families pooling together resources to grow rice. Eighty-five percent of the farms in Japan grow rice. And did you know that Toyota means “bountiful rice” and Honda means “main rice field”?

The world loves rice. It is traditionally thrown at weddings to symbolize long life and fertility, as well as, lasting love. It is the first dish an Indian woman feeds her husband. Its diversity and cultural influence makes rice a crop for sharing and a crop for love. For what is love, but the ability to give and share with a deep caring for the welfare of another?

Rice resonates with the energy of the earth and the sun. Believing rice to be female in nature, in Asia, rice spirits are honored as mother-type entities.

Rice can be used in spells for blessing, money, prosperity, fertility, protection, rain, wealth, security and to find treasure.

An old superstition claims that certain evil spirits are obsessed with counting. A container of rice near the door will cause any that try to enter the house to be distracted so much by counting the individual grains that they will forget to enter. Keep a jar of rice near your door to distract evil spirits while bringing blessings of prosperity and love to your home!

Eat it, toss it, honor it and  place it by the door; any way you use it, rice and humans have always had a great long love affair.

Doctor Lynn
 

Testing the Blog


 
 
 
 
 
This morning I had problems posting to my blog so I am trying a test post. Perhaps you can relate. Today my blog did not post, my IPhone would not shut off shuffle while I was teaching and the microphone was broken! Some days no matter what you do things just seem to mess up? So I’m asking my web guy for help, off to the apple store for help and left a note to the fitness director about the microphone.

They say things come in threes- hope mine are done for the day! How’s your day?

Doctor Lynn

A Recipe for Love – Eat, Throw, Honor


 
 
 
 
 
 
Rice has fed more people and for a longer time than any other crop. Rice has a long history dating back to around 2500 BC as a valuable food and a cultural tradition. Beginning in China and then spreading throughout the world rice was an easy crop to grow due to its versatility and ability to grow in many different climates.

Rice is a cereal crop that feeds more than half the world’s population. It is a good source of energy, good for regulating bowel movements, stabilizing blood sugar and providing a source of B1 to the human body. B1, also known as Thiamin, plays an essential role in the metabolism of carbohydrates. If you increase your daily intake of carbohydrates (and junk food) you need more thiamin in your diet.

The cells of the nervous system are very sensitive to carbohydrate metabolism.  That is why the brain and nerves are the first to show a deficiency in thiamin. Nervousness, constipation, insomnia and headaches may be some of the signs that you need more thiamin in your diet. The richest source is organ meats followed by rice, beans, peas, egg yolks, poultry and fish.

Rice has a long cultural history. In China the word for rice means to eat. In Cambodia a sweet rice dish is offered to the female deity to guard valuable resources.  In Japan it is believe that social harmony is a result of families pooling together resources to grow rice. Eighty-five percent of the farms in Japan grow rice. And did you know that Toyota means “bountiful rice” and Honda means “main rice field”?

The world loves rice. It is traditionally thrown at weddings to symbolize long life and fertility, as well as, lasting love. It is the first dish an Indian woman feeds her husband. Its diversity and cultural influence makes rice a crop for sharing and a crop for love. For what is love, but the ability to give and share with a deep caring for the welfare of another?

Rice resonates with the energy of the earth and the sun. Believing rice to be female in nature, in Asia, rice spirits are honored as mother-type entities.

Rice can be used in spells for blessing, money, prosperity, fertility, protection, rain, wealth, security and to find treasure.

An old superstition claims that certain evil spirits are obsessed with counting. A container of rice near the door will cause any that try to enter the house to be distracted so much by counting the individual grains that they will forget to enter. Keep a jar of rice near your door to distract evil spirits while bringing blessings of prosperity and love to your home!

Eat it, toss it, honor it and  place it by the door; any way you use it, rice and humans have always had a great long love affair.

 
Doctor Lynn
http://www.doctorlynn.com