Author: Lindsey (Page 20 of 88)

Gratitude Sunday * August 19, 2012

August 19, 2012 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

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– Having Sunday nights not be anxiety-inducing and filled with dread, as they were when I was in school and then later working a 9-5 job. Sunday nights are now restful…peaceful…

– Having a hang-low weekend at home with my Honey, F, simply enjoying our new home together. It felt great. ♥ We love it.

– Doing my moneymaking work outside on the back porch in the shade of our pole beans, on the most gorgeous evenings of the year! This is something I’ve dreamed of doing, and I can’t believe I’m actually doing it!

– Practically living outside. Going inside only for food, water, and bathroom! This makes me so happy 🙂

– Cooler weather, and hints of autumn. It’ll get hot again but this break has been great.

– Solar cooking so much stuff! We haven’t turned on the oven or stove since we moved in, apart from heating water for tea and a couple other small things. All cooking has been done in the solar oven, with a few things on the grill. I completely love it!

– Crickets. I can’t imagine a summer night without crickets!

– My Honey. I love him so ♥

– Hanging out on our lush, private front porch together, reading. This is all such a contrast from the apartment we moved out of; what a gift.

– A couple of rest days and a good night’s sleep to help me fight off a cold I was getting.

– Taking a little walk at dusk yesterday. And feeling safe while doing that. A huge and wonderful thing. This neighborhood is so much better!

– The smell of fabric after it’s been on the clothesline in the sunshine all day.

What’s on your gratitude list from this past week?

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Philosophy Friday: The Most Valuable Thing You’ll Ever Own

August 17, 2012 / Lindsey / 6 Comments

Yesterday I was telling you about the resting day I had. How often we all need these rest days and don’t take them! What if, when our bodies insisted on them, we actually rearranged our schedule to accommodate?

What if we treated our bodies as if they were the most valuable thing we will ever own? Because, they are!

I think our culture is too mind centered. We think we can heal our bodies with our minds, while simultaneously disrespecting them and driving them into the ground by continuing the frantic pace we set for ourselves. Positivity of thought is part of it, but I believe it’s not the only part; if we just give it a minute, our bodies can heal themselves in near-miraculous ways, without any mental intervention at all. Sleep, as I’ve discovered over and over and over through my life, is the Number One Healer. When we have the flu, we don’t get rid of it by repeating “I’m totally healthy! Totally healthy!” whilst ignoring our body and maintaining our frenzy even though we feel awful. No. We get rid of it by going to bed and sleeping and letting our body do its thing.

Let’s respect our bodies and work with them. They’re not pitted against us. They love us. We just have to learn to listen and heed their message better, I think. They’ll tell us what we need to do. We have to shut off our brains and listen, though!

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That rest day I took felt so wonderful. To not struggle against my tiredness was a relief. I’m naturally a doer… I don’t sit still very long before I pop back up and am doing something again. There’s so much I love to do and am interested in, that I find it very hard to rest! — partly because resting can feel boring. So if you don’t want to sleep, you might look through a fun magazine (Sunset, Coastal Living, Martha Stewart Living, and Mother Earth News are all faves of mine). Or draw. Or sit on your front porch and watch the world go by. Or read. Or listen to music. Or load an audio book onto your MP3 player if you’re too tired to read. Or close your eyes and just think, and allow your mind to go wherever it wants to (I’m a big fan of this one; maybe that’s a post for another day).

I’m still learning. It can be a tricky mental shift to tune in and work with my body instead of ignoring it in favor of the activities my mind wants to do.

Are you still learning, too?

What are some of your favorite restful activities?

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A Resting Day

August 16, 2012 / Lindsey / 1 Comment

My plans for yesterday involved the doing of many things needing to be done, but the day unfolded on its own into something so much different — nicer and more appropriate for this moment in time. I woke up awfully tired, so instead of going back to bed, I transferred outside to the front porch with a blanket to rest in the cool morning air with some nettles tea. And as it ended up, nearly the whole day was spent lounging on the porch. What a shift from my usual! And how delicious to just let go and allow myself the time to rest.

I’m feeling quite good but I still tire easily, and my antibiotics do contribute to that (they contribute nausea too). I’d overdone it the day before (and the day before that, and I’m sure the day before that, too), and my body was forcefully insisting on a rest. I’d been needing to get some moneymaking work done, but it just wasn’t happening and I couldn’t focus. So instead of struggling, I gave in and decided it would not be a work day, but an all-around rest day.

I savored being in the lounge chair, hearing the morning begin — finches singing, clinking dishes from a neighbor’s open kitchen window, the whir of a lawnmower, blue jays calling in the distance, a dad jogging by with a stroller, a car passing now and then.

How peaceful.

And then later in the afternoon when I was feeling more alive, I packed up a picnic of nausea-friendly foods and met my parents at an outdoor venue for a little concert that was happening. After treating my body to a whole day of nurturance, I treated my spirit too.

Homemade Arnold Palmer, cucumbers and vinegar, peaches, and pasta with tomatoes and basil.

What a gift to give oneself!

I did nothing that was on my list, but who cares anyway because it was a very-much-needed pause.

I hope you’re able to do the same for yourself, to rest outside in the summer air, and to take a picnic to a local outdoor concert. Do! While it’s still summer!

I hope you’ve been enjoying your week~

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Kelp Noodles!

August 13, 2012 / Lindsey / 1 Comment

Have you tried kelp noodles? I just tried them for the first time this week and I like them! They have an unexpected crunchy texture and, somehow, a completely neutral taste. They’re also a raw food, and made only of seaweed. I mixed them into my solar-cooked “stir fry” for breakfast this morning, yum. I like the fact that they’re made from kelp, so they add iodine and trace minerals to my meal. My still-delicate tummy also gave them a thumbs up, as far as digestibility goes.

They cost about $3.50 at our local health food store.

Have you tried them? How do you like to eat them??

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The stir fry was delicious by the way — I love making those because you can toss anything in and it always comes out great. This time it was: Bean sprouts, yellow squash, onions, garlic, Nama Shoyu soy sauce, and a tiny bit of sesame oil…steamed in the solar oven…and served over kelp noodles…topped with more Nama Shoyu, fresh Thai basil, culantro (or you can use cilantro which is similar), and chopped green onion tops.

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