Tea Room Cookies

Here is the cookie recipe everyone has been asking for. You know I don’t use white flour, or white sugar. So yours will taste different than mine, unless you use the rice, barley, and spelt, blend of flour, and the sucanat sugar. They are great either way.

Gingersnaps

2 ¼ Cup Flour

1 Cup Brown Sugar

¾ Cup Butter

¼ Cup Molasses

1 Egg  

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

½  tsp. ground cloves

Mix half the flour and all other ingredients until combined. Add remaining flour until combined. Shape dough into one inch balls and roll in sugar to cook.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. tops will be cracked.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                              and Ayurveda Consultant

Ayurveda is an Enhancement of Lifestyle

If you have not been feeling well, have been going to Doctors for years, and  they can’t seem to find anything wrong, remember the six stages of illness (a previous blog). Modern medical technology can only see the last two stages of any illness (manifestation and chronic complications). Ayurveda aims to remove the cause of an illness, with in the first four stages it is very easy to balance the doshas and bring the person back to wellness. Rather than ‘curing’ a specific disease, Ayurveda  science addresses the balance of the whole individual. Along with external causes it always considers the two levels of health: body and mind.

Ayurveda has the unique position of offering a healing process that does not have to make one feel bad before feeling better. I have said this before, but it is worth saying again, in this very cold time of season.
The daily self oil massage (a previous blog) is going to balance your doshas right away, It prevents illness as well as heals them. It is the most important thing you can do for yourself, especially this time of year. When doshas are balanced, illness does not exist. The self oil massage is the first thing I get my clients started on. It calms the nervous system, removes stress, nourishes the body, helps with insomnia, and strengthens the immune system.

I know this sounds way too easy, but what have you got to lose by trying it. If you have been feeling out of sorts, something is not quite right, you are probably in the first four stages of illness. That means you are a little out of balance. Many things cause an imbalance, the wrong food, weather, not enough rest, even too much stimulation from electronics. Even if you are very imbalanced, and haven’t been feeling well for a while, you should start with the daily self oil massage to start to bring yourself back into balance.

Thai Yoga Therapy is not a luxury, it is a necessity. In todays world, with our fast pace life, to little rest and bad food, our bodies accumulate toxins that eventually make us sick. Thai yoga therapy helps to rid the body of these toxins.

People often look for quick, healing, magic-medicine that allows them to return to their bad habits. Illness is a sign that life is not being lived in balance. Herbs are a food supplement and not magic pills that instantly remove discomfort. Some people may be impatient with this ‘gradual’ lifestyle development, but it is an enhancement of lifestyle and not a quick cure that Ayurveda achieves.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

All About Me

Over 20 years ago, when I was a young mother I had a lot of problems with my back. My Doctor gave me a muscle relaxant which I took on and off for years (whenever I needed it). As I got older my back pain became worse. I found it hard to sit for long periods of time, and, it seemed the only relief I could get was being in the water. I bought a pass to a spa nearby and began to swim every morning. After 16 years of swimming I decided the only way I was going to really feel better was to have back surgery, so I did. The surgery helped for awhile, but, after about five years my back started to bug me again.

One day while I was at the pool a friend of mine said “maybe you should try massage”. She knew how much pain I was in, and thought her massage therapist could help me. The massage therapist gave me great advice over the year I saw her, but, the best advice she gave me was to stretch (none of the Doctors had ever told me to stretch). She gave me some stretches to do at home. I couldn't believe what a difference it made.

Next, I went to a bookstore to find some book on stretches. One of the books I found was a yoga book,with the same stretches I had already been doing, I thought, ‘I'M DOING YOGA’? I didn't even know what yoga was. I started to study yoga. I became a certified yoga instructor. During my many years of yoga practice I have grown in ways that I never would have imagined possible. I am not the same person I was--literally. I believe the atoms and molecules in my body are different than they were before I began a life of daily yoga practice.

With the study of yoga, came the study of Aurveda, India’s ancient way of healing. In India they believe yoga cleanses the body, keeping it from everyday toxins. They also believe if your body gets overloaded with toxins and becomes ill, you should have some kind of bodywork like Thai Therapy, I believe this as well. I used to think that yoga could fix anything, now I think, Thai Therapy can fix it, and yoga can maintain it.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

You are what you eat

Food is amazing, we don’t realize how effective food can be in our overall health, not just physical, but also mental, social, and psychological. Chef Brad say’s “eating foods high in fiber plays the most significant part in keeping our bodies strong and healthy”. I know there is a lot of controversy about grain, but you really do need grain in your diet. The best fiber comes from eating grain, beans, legumes, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Most people only get 4 grams of fiber a day.The recommended amount of fiber needed to maintain a healthy functioning body is over 50 grams a day.

you can see why such diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, colon problems, are so prevalent in our society.
Recent studies have confirmed that a diet high in fiber can be a major factor in keeping us healthy.

You have heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’. if you eat healthy, whole, fresh, foods, 3 time a day, you will be healthy, whole, and full of life. Nutritional Psychology has found that the foods we eat affect the chemical processing of the mind as well. Studies have found that when junk food is replaced with whole foods, teens in trouble with the law became law-abiding citizens.

One example is white sugar. The body makes glucose from carbohydrates in our food. Glucose is what builds our brain cells. Certain foods contain either simple or complex carbohydrates. Whole grains and fresh fruit are complex carbohydrates, it takes more time for complex carbohydrates to digest therefore they enter the bloodstream more slowly. White sugar is a simple carbohydrate, the body is shocked when it instantly enters the bloodstream. The sudden rise in glucose causes the body to produce more insulin to remove the excess glucose from the bloodstream. The glucose is removed to the point of deficiency. This drop in blood sugar causes the area of the brain called cerebrum (responsible for thought learning, moral and social behavior) to shut down to allow the body’s remaining energy to control the basic or primitive functions (drives for food, sex, aggression/defense, etc.).

Many psychological disorder such as some forms of ADD/ADHD, and depression are misdiagnosed; some of these conditions have been found to be healed through simply changing to whole foods.

The food we eat greatly affect how the brain functions. This simple change in food behaviors requires no purchasing of drug, vitamins, or herbs, and improves our quality of life. Nature does give to us abundantly, so chose wisely.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

Positive thought patterns heal the body

Just believing you will get better can make you better. Unfortunately, many conventional scientists believe that if something works by eliciting the placebo effect, it doesn’t count. but most patients just want to get better, so if chanting a mantra--like you might do at the beginning or end of yoga class or throughout a meditation or in the course of your day--facilitates healing, even if it’s just a placebo effect, why not do it?

The mind is very powerful. It is the mind that causes illnesses, it is also the mind that can cause  wellness. It doesn't matter how long we’ve had negative thought patterns. We can begin to make a change today. The thoughts we’ve held and the words we have repeatedly used have created our life and experiences up to this point. That is past thinking. What we chose to think and say, today, at this moment, will create tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month and the next year, and so on. The point of power is always in the present moment. I almost always give my thai therapy clients a thought pattern to help with their healing, it is powerful.

It is true “Whatever you say, you speak into the existence”, whether it is positive or negative.
I have a friend who’s mother had dementia. All his life, his thoughts were, I don’t want to have dementia, or, I hope I don’t have dementia like my mom. “Whatever you say, you speak into the existence”.  He is now in his sixties and was just diagnosed with dementia. I have another friend whose father has high blood pressure, he has spent his whole life telling himself he will probably be like his dad and have high blood pressure. I could go on and on with people I know. I counsel my thai therapy clients to change their thought patterns to  “I am strong and healthy”, “it is normal to feel good”, “I am safe at all times”, “I am loved”.

Positive language heals the body, negative language brings illness. Dis-ease can be reversed by simply reversing our mental thought patterns. The word incurable, which is so frightening to so many people, really only means that the particular condition cannot be cured by “outer” methods and that we must go within to effect the healing. The condition came from nothing and will go back to nothing.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

“Ultimate Forgetting”

Occasionally  I put together a yoga class that is amazingly invigorating and inspiring. Everyone’s mind is totally focused on our breath and body during the whole class. When class is over we are all so relaxed, we just sit and bask in the quiet. Then slowly we all start to roll up our mats, not wanting to say anything for fear of losing the peace that is permeating the room.

We feel centered, balanced, in touch with ourselves. We vow to never let this feeling slip away. But then we get busy with work, with the kids, and we completely lose the connection and the composure we had. Even more disturbing, we have no idea how to get it back.

In the midst of doing, there’s a sense of enjoyment, fulfillment, and alignment with a deeper current of aliveness. But as soon as you position yourself behind the wheel of your car or sit down in front of your computer, you  tense your shoulders, hold your breath, and lose touch with yourself. What happened, you wonder. How did I lose my balance.

We all do this, we read books that help center us, we meditate, we do yoga, and we vow to implement it all into our lives. And then without realizing it, we return right back to our old habits and routines: Over booking our schedules, filling our time with texting, and other technological devices, completely forgetting to stop, and breathe, and be present.

There seem to be powerful inner forces at work that induce this “Ultimate forgetting” and sabotage our genuine attempts to create balance and peace. I find this even in my own life. I put off my morning meditation, thinking I will do it later, then I “forget”. then the next morning I have lost my balance already, and I forget again. Then everyday gets busier and busier because I have forgotten to center myself with meditation, and instead, I hit the ground running like it is a race to see how much I can get done.

I pride myself on being able to take care of myself, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, so when I start to feel my neck tense up, and my shoulder start to ache, I know I have lost my balance emotionally. All physical pain starts with an emotional pain. The physical pain is the nervous systems way of giving our body a wake up call, that all is not well emotionally.

In today’s world there is an enormous incentive to work harder and faster but hardly any encouragement to slow down, do less, and enjoy life more. If we really slowed down to a more balanced pace and took time to enjoy life, what would happen? I find when I take the time to start my day with a meditation, I feel more connected to what I am doing during the day, I get more done, I feel more peace, relaxation, and a pleasant current of energy. life becomes more enjoyable. I feel balanced emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

Find Stillness in the moment

Can we learn to be and do at the same time? If you are flowing down the river, you are just being, yet you are moving downstream. the present moment is like that. If you concentrate your attention in the moment, you are totally present, yet it is not stagnant or fixed. The stillness is the state of mind that observes the movement. Where do we discover this stillness? In the timeless moment, the eternal Now.Time is merely a creation of the mind, only the Now exists. Usually we are so caught up in the doing, that we don’t pay attention to the Now.

Yoga and meditation is the continual refinement of staying present with the mind so time stops, when you are just being, you lose the aspect of time, but you don’t lose movement. when the mind stays steady of the moment, there is no time.

Sometimes we hear meditation called “just sitting.” There is no attempt to achieve some particular state of mind, but merely a steady presence in the Now. You do not need to be confined to sitting, you can be “just walking,” “just eating,” “just driving,” total absorption in every activity without separation.

During this busy month of December, treat your family to a walking meditation, the idea is to pay attention to the walking itself. This sharpens your awareness and trains the mind to concentrate, pay  close attention to the physical act of walking, the way you take one step after another.
I teach the 10 and 11 year old girls in our church. I took them for a hike this past summer, during the hike I had them stop occasionally  and listen to their heartbeat, I had them pay attention to the way their breath changes. When we got to our destination, the place we had planned to have our lunch, I asked the girls to sit and just listen to all the different sounds, with their eyes shut. After about ten minutes I asked them to open their eyes. As they opened their eyes they all sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction, and one girl said “that was awesome.” Even children can discover the stillness, in the timeless moment, the eternal Now.

Walking meditation encourages the development of mindfulness in ordinary daily life. If you can learn to establish awareness during walking meditation--that is, while you are physically moving with your eyes open---then it won’t be difficult to awaken the same awareness during other activities, such as washing dishes, and of course practicing yoga,

If, while walking, you become aware that your mind has wandered away, clearly note the distraction and gently but firmly bring your attention back to your steps. Experiencing the simplicity and peace of being with one step at a time--with nothing else to do and nowhere to go--can be liberating.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.