Vegetarians Live Better

It's official! According to Dietitians Of Canada, “Appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” (Numerous studies show that soy helps prevent cancer.) They also have a Vegetarian Food Guide that focuses on nutrients of particular interest in vegetarian and vegan diets. [See highlights]

To Learn More, Take This Course:

Curso de Cocina Vegetariana (Super useful, I took it 2 years ago.)

4 sabados, desde el 2 de Julio

Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand, Casimiro de Moya #7, Gazcue

Tels. 682-7153 y 472-0102

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Baby Talk Again

Funny! Quite funny how they keep bringing up the baby talk. Not everyone was born to make babies.

Babies are beautiful, babies are fun, innocent, loving, tender, awesome beings, yes. Hey, I blossomed out of a baby- I know. :P

But, let's be serious, there's also that aspect we don't all want to deal with. It's also a lot of trouble.

Thinking of it, it's really like everything else. There's that enchanting and that unattractive side.

It all depends on your preferences and priorities, etc.

Things I Like

Inspired by Gaby, who was inspired by Gina...

- Walking shoeless on warm sand, and having the waves crash at my feet.

- Chocolate flavored Silk soy milk in gallons!

- Falafels & Hummus & Tabouleh

- Fresh, natural fruit juice

- Indian incense (sandalwood, rose, nag champa, super hit, vanilla...)

- Buying my own things (food, furniture, clothes, etc.) It's like an expression of self-care.

- When I'm patient and loving with myself, and switch my internal dialogue in a positive direction

- Doing the automassage with almond oil in the mornings

- Veggie cooking get-togethers with my friends

- Singing

- Watching movies sometimes all by myself- zero interruptions, sometimes with friends- especially comedies, since laughter is contagious

- Applying the "What can I do to help?" instead of "What's in it for me?"

- Reading an excerpt of the Baghavad Gita and reflecting upon it

- Meditating, and being a witness of it's profound impact in my life

- Like Gaby said, the feeling right after doing hatha yoga

- Listening to music on bus rides

- Travelling by myself to meet with friends

- Emailing! I love keeping in touch and writing real letters.

- Working- I sooo prefer it over having nothing to do

- Laughing

- Feeling cool breeze in my face with my hair completely tied back

- Getting a haircut

- Seeing funky hair colors on others or me

- The RAINBOW, and everything with rainbow colors

- Practicing being happy despite obstacles

- Adidas shoes

- Adidas perfume

- Eating. I love eating. Yummy, healthy, veggie food.

- Resting

- Volunteer work at the yoga center and with the Shriners

- Writing with my left hand

- Putting songs I love on Repeat

The Phantom of the Opera is Here... Inside My Mind

My how I enjoy musicals! I've seen the Phantom before, I knew the story, but this version was very well done in numerous aspects. And seeing it now, at this age, gave me a new perspective on the life of the Phantom... it made him seem less crazy and more hurt and desperate... but my favorite part was in the end... when he breaks free from his mental prison... which he thought was physical.

And Emmy Rosum... whoever saw her in The Day After Tomorrow wouldn't imagine her capabilities... much less her beautiful singing. I've heard other Christine interpretations before, but I find that I like hers more than I have others.

My mother always asks if musicals are at all popular these days. They seem to be popping one up from time to time, but she wonders if the general public actually prefers them.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I love 'em.

CURSO DE RELAJACION

Cuando: Sabado 25 de junio

Horarios: 9am-12 o 4-7pm

Donde: Centro Cultural Yoga Devanand

Mas Info: 472-0102

No pierdan tiempo! Se llenan rapidismo!

(Pero llamen con calma.)

THEY'RE BACK and Better Now!

This is my absolute favorite band! I had been waiting for something after their awesome Blender album (I didn't get 7 Year Itch because I have the albums of the songs it compiles.) But they were on vacation. I checked their site, checked for concerts and nothing. So after a while I sort of thought they had retired.

A few days ago they popped into my head, I went to their site and YES! They're back! Not with one, but two albums: Youth, and From the Ground Up (an acoustic compilation of their most awesome songs.) Isn't that lovely?

This is from their site:

After four years out of the public eye, Collective Soul singer Ed Roland has a message for the world. “Let the word out/I gotta get it out. Whoa, I’m feeling better now,” he declares in “Better Now,” the energetic rocker that launches Youth, the Georgia rockers’ first studio album since 2000’s Blender.

Following a tumultuous four years, Ed says, “There were a lot of things that just kind of slapped us upside the head and told us it was time to take a break” – the band is indeed back, reenergized, thanks in part to co-producer Dexter Green and new guitarist Joel Kosche, and, in the words of both Roland brothers, “Starting over.”

Which makes Youth a very fitting title for the new album. “Youth to me is a mindset, not a number,” Ed says. “We’ve been doing this for ten years and we’ve never felt more youthful and more ready to be in the position that we’re in.” “Even the music represents that starting over to some degree. We switched gears and went to more of our roots on the music level and production level,” Dean adds. “It does feel like a 10-year cycle, we were just starting out, playing similar venues and seeing people that we’re seeing today. Yeah, it definitely feels like we are starting over on many levels, but starting over with a big head start.”

Read full article.

The Benefits of Mantra Yoga Meditation

* Elimination of psychosomatic disorders
* Increased stability and wellbeing
* Achievement of real peace and tranquility
* Helps nervous tension and sentimental problems disappear
* Adaptation and understanding of yourself and others
* Increased security and self-confidence
* Development of all individual levels of consciousness
* Anullment of depressive states
* Obtainment of a renewed creativity, allowing you to solve all kinds of problems, crime, negative behavior, which cause humans' unsatisfaction
* Realization of the highest educational ideal
* Improved memory and concentration
* Purification of the nervous system, solving drug, alcohol, or tobacco problems
* Quick solution to humanity's economic socio-cultural problems
* Realization of the world's spiritual ideal
* Knowledge of God

FOR MORE INFORMATION 809-472-0102

"World peace can be achieved through individual peace, in each of our hearts, through the practice of Mantra Yoga Meditation." -Swami Guru Devanand Saraswati Ji Maharaj

excellent post

A hair dyeing partner of mine has opened her own blog. It is the color of our favorite hair dye, and upon my first visit I stumbled accross a much appreciated post: With Myself, Not By Myself. Do read! (Thanks Amz!)

It reminds me of once upon a time...

I was at a party standing away from the crowd, with myself. A friend of mine came over and asked, "Are you lonely?"

To which, smiling, I replied, "No, I am alone."

He shook his head and intended to correct me, "No, you mean lonely."

But I did not, so with the same warmth I insisted, "No, I am just alone."

And it went on, without him being able to grasp the concept that by being physically and apparently alone, by default I did not surely have to be lonely. At that time he did not seem capable of understanding that one can be happy and full with oneself and nobody else. He believed that this had to equal a feeling of being cut off and needing to be with other people. I was at a party- there were enough people if that were the case. And if it were that I would have been lonely, we all know that you can feel this even if you are surrounded by the largest of crowds. Now, why is that?

Because being lonely or not does not depend on other people. It does not depend on external appearances. We are not an empty container waiting to by filled by others, or expecting others to define our reality or feelings. WE decide what we want to feel or fill ourselves with, or whether we wish to be happy or not. We choose either to enhance or sabotage our own bliss.

Learning how to be alone and with oneself is precious. I have found that having become better at this has allowed me to appreciate and manage better my time with others. I can only share what I have within me, and if I do not know how to care for and be with myself, how will I ever know how to care for and really share with other people?

I'm really grateful for having discovered this, and I invite you, as does my pink-loving friend, to give it a try. Spend some time with yourself! Do so in private, and, yes, even in public.

You know what? Forget the invitation; I dare you to. :P

X-centric Gathering

We had a high school reunion last night at Outback Steakhouse. Even though a few of us were kind of skeptical of how it would go due to past occurences, it ended up being such a wonderful time!

It was so nice to see how everyone's grown. Now, I don't mean this in a physical, material, professional or any such external way. I'm referring to our inner realms, our personalities. It was great to perceive that the general feeling was of positive, open, and honest sharing. There was a genuine interest in each of us for the other, and the night lacked that exaggerated "oh I've missed you so much, we should never grow apart again" detail. Of course, this sentiment was present to a degree, but in a natural, comfortable, calm way, without the accustomed fakeness which generally leads to broken promises. On this occasion, we exchanged our contact information and began planning a second meeting to take place in a couple of weeks.

I'm glad it turned out to be an expression of healed hearts and forgiven egos. At least it was that way for me. I even got a chance to give the finishing touch to a situation that was slightly unmended for years. Oh, I very much enjoyed it! It will sure be a night to remember for those of us who were present. And luckily, a pleasant one.

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window."
-from The Sound of Music

lovefool

there's a song i used to love (the cardigans' lovefool) which goes:

love me, love me
say that you love me
fool me, fool me
go on now fool me-

uh, wait a second. if i want someone to love me, it's not to fool me, it's to love me. i don't want anyone acting as if they do, telling me they do if they don't, or anything of the sort. why would i? why would i want to live a lie like that? or devalue my self worth? como que jeva, chequeate.

i would want the real thing- wouldn't settle for imitations. ni que yo estuviera super profunda e inmensamente enamorada de otro. vivir una mentira es peor. yo sentiria asco.

a mi dejenme con mi compartir real, con mi amor por mi misma, aun en relacion o soltera. y de otro amarme a mi y yo amar a otro, que tambien sea de verdad. y ese coro. y si no va a ser de verdad, pues que ni mire para este lado ni yo para el suyo.

lo primero es que aunque amar y ser amado es muy cul y bonito, etc. realmente no necesitamos a otro ser humano para ser completos. de ser asi, fuesemos una mitad de persona. y ese no es el caso, verdad? nada de eso de medias naranjas. dos naranjas completas.

aun asi, la cancion me encanta. el ritmo, la inocencia, es linda. solo estoy en desacuerdo con ese mensaje. para mi, say that you love me if you really love me, and that'll be great. don't say that you love me if you don't really love me, and that'll also be great.

NEVER SAY NEVER

My gosh... uno nunca debe limitarse. And I just said never. But you know what, that first sentence is false. Hay momentos en que SI hay que poner limites bien claros si quieres salir bien de una situacion.

Bueno, pero tambien este post is about the opposite- about times when you say to yourself nope, I will never do that again- y de verdad, que tu sabes? A mi me esta pasando ahora mismo que estoy considerando algo que no pensaba que iba a hacer. You simply never know. La vida da MUCHAS vueltas, y los intereses cambian. Claro que uno debe tener sus parametros y estandares y firmes decisiones, pero sin dejar de lado la flexibilidad y la posibilidad de que esto puede cambiar. Que va a cambiar.

I thought I'd never wear pink before... and then I had pink HAIR.

Y es que los arboles que mejor aguantan un huracan, cuales son? Los que son super duros que hacen tanta resistencia que la presion los quiebra y los saca de raiz? O los que son flexibles y se mueven con la brisa para distintos lados y cuando se calma la cosa, ahi estan, desflecados y cansados, pero parados? Las especies que han sobrevivido en el planeta a lo largo del tiempo, cuales son? Las que eran tan testarudas que ahora les llaman extinct? O las que se han ido adaptando y evolucionando para poder seguir viviendo?

Y esto no significa que uno deje de ser uno. Los humanos hemos cambiado muchisimo y seguimos siendo humanos. Yo he revolucionado mi interior, y sigo siendo Michelle. Le das un upgrade a tu computadora y sigue siendo tu computadora. Know what I mean?

El punto es que si son cambios que te ayuden a mejorar quien tu eres, que te abran a experiencias positivas, que aporten a fortalecer una parte de nuestro constante crecimiento, pues palante. Ademas en este plano relativo TODO CAMBIA. Lo unico que se queda igual, constante, eternamente presente es Dios. Despues de ahi, nuestros gustos, cuerpo, estatus, amistades, trabajo, musica preferida, pareja, hair cut, major life goals- todo eso va a cambiar. Y eso es normal.

Por eso es que el apego no deja. (Which reminds me of one of my favorite Deepak Chopra quotes, "Attachment is not love.")

La vida... la vida es muy interesante. The best rollercoaster I have been on, and I'm still on.

Sigo writing later.

David Letterman in Sto. Dgo.

Hey! I know, I haven't been warming up the blog too much. Took a vacation. I've been thinking, that's all. Reshaping my life. Beautiful artwork, I must say- I love free will.

Last night I had so much fun. I laughed so much my throat hurt.

Where was I? Right, viendo a Carlos Sanchez en Casa de Teatro.

Resulta que hay en nuestra hermosa ciudad un very funny stand up comedian! Quien es el? Asi pregunto un amigo mio y otro le respondio: What? You don't know who he is? He is to Santo Domingo what David Letterman is to New York!

I thought that was a cool way of putting it. Y la verdad es que hace reir. Thanks E!