 Welcome to the New Year!
The start of a new year is a magical time to embark upon something new—something to bring more joy, wonder, and health into your life. For each of us, that means something different. To find out what you need this year, try giving yourself the space to meditate, journal, take long walks, and listen to your inner wisdom. Some of you may discover that it's time to make that dream you have a reality. Or you might want to commit to a yoga practice, nurture your creativity, or explore a new career. Let this be the year you answer the question poet Mary Oliver puts to us, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Happy new beginnings,
 Jennifer Young, Director of Kripalu Healthy Living immersion programs
PS. What’s new for you this year? We’d love to hear from you! E-mail us at healthyliving@kripalu.org.
nutrition notes wintertime potluck
By Annie B. Kay, Nutritionist
Remember the folktale about stone soup? Three hungry travelers came upon a village carrying an empty pot. The townspeople were unwilling to share their food with them, so the travelers found a stream and filled their pot with water, dropped a stone into it, and placed it over a fire. A villager became curious and asked what the travelers were doing, and they answered, “We’re having stone soup, but we’re missing some garnish to improve the soups flavor.” The villager didn’t mind parting with a little parsley and garlic to help them out. Another villager wandered by and inquired about the pot, and the travelers again described their soup, which they said hadn’t quite reached its potential. The second villager pitched in a few vegetables. More villagers came along, each adding another ingredient. Finally, it became a veritable feast and a delicious pot of soup was enjoyed by all.
There is something magical about gathering to share food, particularly when everyone makes a contribution: It feeds body and soul. This winter, why not initiate an informal potluck, and make an offering of healthy fare your contribution?
One-pot meals are also an easy way to weave the health-enhancing effects of phytonutrients (plant nutrients) into a busy schedule. While there aren’t official recommended intake guidelines for phytonutrients, their role in preventing the initiation and development of disease is clear and strong, and the best way to gain their benefit is to eat plants, and lots of them.
Protein-rich beans are high in fiber, so they have powerful digestive and blood sugar stabilizing benefits. They make a hearty base for a one-pot meal, and adding vegetables and spices further enhances their nutritional content. Try Kripalu’s White Bean Italiano to see how easy making a one-pot meal can be. For something lighter that also packs a phytonutrient punch, vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes, or eggplant can anchor a satisfying one-pot meal. Our Eggplant Stew combines coconut, tomatoes, cilantro, and other spices rich in phytonutrients.
Find inspiration in Kripalu’s recipe collection.
life lessons self-care for body, mind, and spirit
By Aruni Nan Futuronsky, Senior Life Coach
The temperature is dropping, our times of interaction with others tend to lessen now that the hectic holidays are behind us. Things slow down, and now it’s time to take care of yourself—body, mind, and spirit. Here are some quick tips to take care of each aspect of your being.
Body. It’s important to keep moving throughout the winter months. Consider a brisk walk in the afternoon when the sun is at its highest. A comforting yoga class can be just the right combination of meeting yourself where you are, while stretching and growing into a new expression of each posture. Or, put on some music and just dance! Snowshoeing, dog-walking (borrow a dog if you don’t have one!), or hiking with a friend can get you outside. Keep those internal fires stoked through consistent and pleasurable movement.
Mind. Read a book; join a writing group; get to a library and look around; or explore a local museum to immerse yourself in beauty. Reframe the season, letting the cold weather be an impetus in getting your needs met, rather than a hindrance.
Spirit. Connect with a friend over tea; watch a touching movie; let yourself open up in a yoga or meditation class. Find an inspiring poet—read her works, or write your own poems; take on a heart-centered project. What might that be for you?
It’s helpful to actually schedule these plans into your calendar. Make them a priority by legitimizing them in this way. Let this season that organically draws our attention internally be a gift to yourself. You deserve your own attention and your own company.
yoga practice going within to let go
By Janna Delgado, Yoga Teacher and Personal Trainer
Anxious? Tense? Worried? Try meditation. This simple tool for self-care can be done anywhere and anytime to de-stress, and with practice, you can reboot and find inner calm in just a few minutes. A main component of any meditation practice is focusing your attention. By creating a single point of focus, such as the breath, the multitude of distractions that overload your mind and cause stress can be cleared away. Meditation allows your mind to settle and your body to relax, creating a balanced state that benefits overall health and well-being.
Ready to try it? Find a quiet place to practice where you are free of distractions. Get comfortable, whether you’re sitting, lying down, or walking. Begin to breathe deeply through your nostrils, taking slow and even breaths. Focus all of your attention on the flow of your breath. Bring your awareness to the feelings, sensations, and sounds that occur as you inhale and exhale. Continue to breathe deeply and slowly. When your attention wanders, gently return your focus to your breath. Remember, meditation takes practice, so be kind to yourself. It’s natural for your attention to wander. When this happens, simply refocus your awareness on your breath.
healthy living immersion program detox for health and healing
Time for a rejuvenating immersion in health and wellness? Enjoy a jump-start into healthier living in one of our most popular programs taught by leading nutritionists. Learn the science behind detox as you experience an integrated approach to cleansing the body through nutritional food, gentle yoga, and outdoor walks. Detoxification is a natural body process that gets compromised when our system becomes overloaded from a variety of causes, including poor diet, allergies, stress, infections, and toxins such as heavy metals.
Find out more about Detox for Health and Healing and other Kripalu Healthy Living immersion programs.
healing arts highlight positional therapy
A gentle, effective therapy for treating chronic and acute muscular pain and for increasing range of motion, positional therapy is based on careful observation and evaluation of your posture followed by placing your affected muscles in a position of comfort for 90 seconds. In just a minute and a half, the pain usually vanishes from the tender point, as the stressed tissues release, and are at their most relaxed. Positional therapy achieves its benefits by means of an automatic resetting of muscle spindles. Relief is immediate and long lasting. These techniques are effective in the treatment of pain due to injury, stress, repetitive strain, postural distortion, and chronic neuromuscular conditions.
Here, Ashley Winseck, one of Kripalu’s editors, describes her positional therapy experience:
I’d never tried positional therapy before, and didn’t know much about the practice, but after just one session, I now know this: I. Love. Positional. Therapy.
I learned so much during the conversational 50-minute session. Therapist Lee Albert showed me how off balance my hips were and not only helped me bring them back into alignment, but also explained how I could do so on my own, and why the method works. He also explained what kind of physical health issues I might run into later in life because of my poor hip alignment if I don’t tend to it.
Find out more about Positional Therapy and Kripalu’s other bodywork services (and read the rest of Ashley’s experience).
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