The practice of letting go…physically and emotionally.

Hi everyone!

It’s Cindy here. As you have noticed, I haven’t written a blog in a little over a month. Not to fear, I am still here! In the last month, a lot has happened in preparation for the new self to develop. I’ve been taking the time to connect with friends, taking small road trips for clearer reflections, healing my energetic and physical body, being surrounded by pure love, my food consumption has turned from “blah” to “WOW”, and the list goes on!

It’s good to take the time out of the  usual “routine”. That is when I start to notice the unfolding of creativity flowering in all parts of my life. Whether it be with myself, friends, nature, the power of the mind and spirit, and joy. I live in a dream of spontaneous adventure; that is when I see the magic happening all around me. Thank you.

I have come into a practice of letting go. Letting go to me is not holding onto fear, releasing tension, transcending old energy that do not serve me, and finding freedom within myself. So I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been letting GO a bunch!!

THE ONSET OF FEAR SETTING:

Physically my body has not been 100% in the last ten months. In March of 2010, I was hit with mononucleosis, a virus that you do no want to bother with. I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up in one day in May with the lingering effects of mononucleosis still in my fatigued physical being. This manifested into a jungle of soft tissue knee injuries to both of my knees. From June to October 2010, I dedicated my life to physical therapy.

During that time, a surge of fear hit my life more than ever before. Who am I now? Why is this happening to me? Will I have lifelong problems? Will I be able to hold my own children in the future? Why does this pain feel so real? Will I be able to run again? Not only did these questions run through my mind every single day, I also had a lot of self hatred, feelings of isolation, frustration, grief, depression, bitterness, and anger. The physical self was in pain and so was my emotional self. Fear of hurting my body again was a new motivation during my days to not do ANYTHING fun.

All this fear was building up a wall of tension and blockages in my body and in my spirit. I knew I had to transmute all these energies of fear to love and compassion in order to fully heal.

By October my knees and my energetic self was doing much better. I also had a month off to go to Thailand to enjoy myself!! Love filled the heart, I felt free. This feeling remained once I got back home to the San Francisco Bay Area…but I still had a lot of tension in my lower legs and fear in my mind. I noticed that the way I walking was like I was walking on egg shells. How am I going to transcend all this? It isn’t an easy task.

So I sit here now, it is March 2011. I am still healing my physical body as my hamstrings are extremely tight and has caused me to experience hamstring insertion point issues and tendonitis. Myself and my physical therapist believe that while my knees were in such pain, the muscles that support the knees were enduring a lot of compensated work as well. I know I am on a forward movement of complete healing…it just takes a lot of time, work, patience, dedication, and love.  I would say I’m at 80% complete.

THE HEALING PROCESS:

I believe in order to heal takes action and there are many steps. Action comes in the form of dedication. My dedication is being a good patient and attending physical therapy three times a week; or finding the avenues for physical assistance. Next comes will power. I must have the will power to not push myself too much in order for me to not go back to square one (re-injury). Action for me also means reaching out for support; whether it be from friends, family, and health supporters. Make sure these people are also willing to listen and not criticize especially when you’re going through a time of challenge. Take the effort to change attitude and thoughts to becoming optimistic. This alone will lift your spirit up and make you feel good instantly. Getting the right amount of sleep is beneficial for energy healing of the entire system. I have to also make sure that I am taking care of myself and not slacking off  ie stretching, supplementing soft tissues with vitamins and minerals, staying hydrated, cleansing, eating foods that don’t add to inflammation, and icing when needed.

LETTING GO:

In order for action and healing to happen…LETTING GO needs to BE in ACTION first. I have had to learn to let go of fear, tension, mental frustration, anger, the past, and letting go of my old self. It takes a lot of work! I have had to learn to physically let go of tension in my body because there was build up blockages. What helped me a lot was frequent massages and getting energy body work done because I had to put my body in the hands of another being. I’ve also gotten into a sensory deprivation float tank where I *HAD* to let go tension in my body in order to FLOAT. Learning to stay ultimately present helps to let go of the events that lead up to my injuries. Breathing exercises while I spoke out-loud  to myself about letting go has helped a lot as well.

All this self work is very tedious… you’ll notice that there are a lot of people out there who just let their pain take over their life and not do anything about it. It takes energy to be in pain… transmute that same energy into love.

You have to keep the ball rolling in order to see light.

LETTING GO in the BIGGER PICTURE:

I know when fear and blockages are moving  is when I feel this surge of relief come into my body. I feel the process of healing immensely physically and emotionally.

The last ten months, I have had to learn to really love myself unconditionally. If you don’t love yourself, energetically I believe pain will manifest into your body somehow. Letting go of tension and fear will also respond positively without having to endure additional pain and suffering Knowing that THIS process with my body is only a hiccup…perhaps a big bump in the road…has helped me move forward to self healing. This is not permanent. I have to BELIEVE I’m going to be okay. It is also a reminder to me that I am not my body and I am not my diagnosis; though I have to take care of my body because it is my vehicle in this lifetime.

I have also learned while going through with this process that letting go and just BEing can flourish many things to happen miraculously! When we DIVE into the moment of NOW and not having our minds be filled with so much clutter, you start to see beauty, there is joy, there is love, and there is compassion.

For example, even though I am working with my new body and new self to becoming healed and strong again… my life around me has spun many great moments. Meeting new people from all walks of life that share the same interests as I do,  being invited to places like Hawaii, friends gathering around a dinner table full of excitement, I’ve been offered many gifts of more body work to add to my healing, work is fun,  food seems to be more abundant than ever before, and overall… life is just PERFECT right now.

All I have to do is maintain this vision and attitude.

A reflection to you all that what you put out…is what you put in. What you put in…is what you put out. Learn to cultivate your life and your own self healing. Learn to love yourself, learn to be free. It takes time..and if you need support I am here to back you up 100%.

I am free in the sense that I am not in suffering of my own mental game anymore. I am now in a 200 hour yoga teacher training that is adding to my healing and self love. I will continue to heal myself…and it is in my power.

I have to cut it off right now. But I will be back…

My next challenge for you is:

What do you need to let go of that isn’t serving your highest good? Say it out-loud.

Loving you all,

Cindy

What the heck is an antioxidant!?

Hello everyone!

In today’s health and wellness , you hear a lot about antioxidants being good for you. You go into a smoothie shop and read the ingredients for the Morning Sunrise smoothie . It says it is “loaded with antioxidants”. Sure you’ll go ahead and order it since it seems like it’s probably the best thing for your body.

But what exactly is an anti-oxidant!?

Well first of all, what does “anti” mean? Anti usually means to act against something. To counter-act. Do the opposite. “Oxidize” is the process of interacting with oxygen or to combine with oxygen. Look up oxidize or oxidation under Google or a dictionary.

Therefore, antioxidant means to counter act against the oxidation process.

Here’s an example:

You open a banana or cut an apple. You leave it open for awhile and the color of the fruits begin to turn brown. That is the result of oxidation. That is basically what the skin is for; which is, to protect the fruit from being oxidized. When something is oxidized, damage occurs.

Taken from Wikepedia:

“An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions.”

So when you hear that there are antioxidants in your food or vitamins, the antioxidants will help you fight against/prevent damage from free radicals.

“Free radicals, also known simply as radicals, are organic molecules responsible for aging, tissue damage, and possibly some diseases. These molecules are very unstable, therefore they look to bond with other molecules, destroying their vigor and perpetuating the detrimental process. Antioxidants, present in many foods, are molecules that prevent free radicals from harming healthy tissue.” Here is a list that Adam, founder of SuperFood Snacks, put together to get an understanding of the levels of some foods that are considered high in antioxidants. Cranberries               —————————-8,272 Blueberries               ————————- 5,660 Blackberries              ———————— 5,374 Rasberries                ———————– 4,609 Almonds                  ———————- 4,053 Red Wine                 ——————– 3,373 Incan Berry              ——————- 3,032 Goji Berries              —————— 2,994 Apples                     —————– 2,775 Pomegranate Juice    —————- 2,440 Oranges                   ————— 1,651 Spinach                   ————– 1,379 Green Tea                ————- 1,140 These results are based on 91 grams of each food. Results are courtesy of the Agricultural Research Service and the USDA.

That’s it for now everyone!!

My challenge for you is: Look in your kitchen to see what kinds of fruits and veggies that you have that are considered high in antioxidants? You will be surprised at what you find! =D

See ya later!!

Loving you all,

Cindy

Resources:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-free-radicals.htm

http://www.healthcastle.com/antioxidant.shtml

Living well is our primary world instinct..

To fully understand the human body one would have to read several books, take classes in human health, go to Medical school, talk to a personal trainer or nutritionist, talk to their doctor, be active in sports, seek a reiki healer, or suffer pain to learn how the human body functions through recovery. There are unlimited avenues to gaining knowledge. No matter where or how you seek information of the human body to stay in tip top health, I feel there are endless connections to new information being discovered every single day. We are ALWAYS striving for optimal health; and as we evolve through our modern life, the awareness of health and wellness is growing rapidly in our society. With modern western medicine, eastern medicine, integrative health, yoga, sports, improvement on organic agriculture, the growing of green practices in and around our cities, and with people waking up to the ideals of living healthy, I feel we are moving forward in a positive motion of overall wellness as a collective community.

(Pictured above: Yoga teacher Michael Carpenter assists a practitioner with a restorative healing pose. Taken by Cindy Manit at Hanuman Center, San Francisco)

For ages, humans have always been very open about sharing information on how to feel better and live better. The use of apple cider vinegar as a folk health tonic has been around since the 1950s (1). Yoga, developed in India about 5,000 years ago between 900 to 500 BCE (2), is now taking on its’ own trend in the Western world for health and wellness. If a friend finds that drinking coconut juice helps them with dehydration, they will share that information with others. Doctors as well have been passing down information on how to care for patients for hundreds of years, therefore we have Medical Schools.

The advancement of health and wellness never stops. It is ALWAYS developing and more people seem to be getting informed. Stem Cell research is a new technology that takes human cells and then are developed into other cell varietals in the human body which can hopefully cure some diseases (If someone would like to explain this better, you’re more than welcomed to). Organizations like The Water Project (3), are reaching out to places as Africa and India to promote and build better ways to providing clean water for better health. We are constantly seeing new health and wellness centers opening up, new power bars on store shelves, people getting certified in massage  therapy or yoga,  more organic food sections in grocery stores, and this trend is not going to stop.

Look back at our ancestors; about 1.9 million years ago, the homo erectus began cooking their food with fire. In theory, cooking food gave the homo erectus more energy without having to aggravate their digestive track nor chomp on poisonous foods all day, grow bigger brains, and created more time to convene in social gatherings which added to their wellness (4). I believe the cooking of food boosted the human evolution to where it is today.

So where am I going with this?

I wanted to bring the awareness to everyone that as humans, we are CONSTANTLY building waves of living better enriching lives and the core to that is through community building. I believe we are all here for the same reason on this planet, though have all different paths, but collectively we are supporting each other through health and wellness. This support is growing stronger and becoming more wide spread while we all become more educated and aware of the potential we have to being happy healthy humans. I am grateful for the wide advancements of our education, health practices, communication, and overall efforts of continued research to providing better lives for everyone.

We TRULY are UNITED as ONE. We need to support each other. I am definitely looking forward to the next five years of where our world community will be heading towards and how it will look. Perhaps in ten years there will be even more advancements in health research, and hopefully have discovered the ultimate cure for treating AIDS and cancer. I do believe that globally we are becoming more aware of our basic human needs, our values towards health, recovering destruction, helping those who are suffering, and understanding that we all just want to live happily. WE have been getting stronger and better as a species from the beginning of our time. Lets continue to share and live well together.

I do have one advice: Please do not criticize other people’s health practices. If it works…it works!!

My challenge for you is: Ask yourself in what way has your awareness grown and how it has made a positive shift in your life.

See ya!

Loving you all,

Cindy

Resources:

1. http://www.webmd.com/diet/apple-cider-vinegar

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

3. http://thewaterproject.org/

4. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/06/invention-of-cooking-drove-evolution-of-the-human-species-new-book-argues/

You don’t have to be a “YOGI” to do yoga?

A yogi or yogin (Sanskrit: yogin-, nominative yogī (Devanagari योगी; feminine yoginī) is a term for a male practitioner of various forms of spiritual practice – Wikipedia

I love going to yoga classes. I love getting into a pigeon pose. I love breathing and balancing. I love the sound of “OM”. And I love seeing all the beautiful people in my life practice yoga with me too. Yoga has enhanced my life immensely.

Though I’m not exactly sure what it means to be a “yogi”. I feel the term can mean so many things. I do believe it means one who practices yoga. If you eat, sleep, breathe, and live as yoga, I might consider you a complete yogi. But how exactly do you define someone who is a yogi?

I do understand that yoga is not only a physical practice, but it is also a way of life. The union of myself and my world greatly impacts my well being into a reality of dreams. Yoga is a union allowing your soul, your body, your spirit, your mind, and your universe to become one balanced vehicle of high life altering enhancements.

What I have realized while practicing is that yoga has been my guide to allow me to become AWAKE. Yoga has allowed me to become AWARE of what there already IS. It is the unfolding of layers, boxes, and structure that opens my mind to see and feel how abundant and beautiful my life is. The opening of my body is interlinked with the opening of my mind; which results in a fulfillment of wellness. If I did not practice yoga, would I be able to get to this point of fulfillment? Perhaps.

I also do understand that within the culture of yoga, a lot of people connect their practice with the way they eat and the way they maintain heath.

Ayurveda (Sanskrit: आयुर्वेद; Āyurveda, the “science of life”) or ayurvedic medicine is a system of traditional medicine native to India^[1] and practiced in other parts of the world as a form of alternative medicine.^{[2] -Wikipedia}

Ayurveda and yoga is a common union for many people who associate themselves in the yoga community. Not everyone practices auyervedic living though. Some people will be inspired to eat much healthier in other ways that works for them. Good food does help with the overall health of your well being.

What about yoga clothes? I’ve noticed that brands like Lululemon and Hard Tail are making a scene into all the yoga studios. You’ll see a lot of women showing off the latest gear in the prettiest of colors, accentuating their curves of beauty. Nothing is wrong with that, it’s just a trend I’ve been noticing. The fashion world of yoga is coming into play.

A few months ago, I was talking to a woman in a tea lounge in San Francisco about hiking and yoga. She was really amazed that I practice yoga, hike, go to the Buddhist temples in the area and eat pretty healthy. The remark she made surprised me, “WOW you don’t seem like a spiritual person, you look like a hipster!” What surprises me is that there are a lot of expectations and stereotypes developing within the yoga and/or conscious community from my point of view, especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Of course, there are MANY modules of practices out there available for us human beings to feel alive! Yoga just happened to be one of my vehicles to get me to that destination.

Now, do I have to eat like everyone else does? Do I have to follow what other yoga practitioners are doing? Do I have to look like how everyone else looks? Not at all. I have learned to accept myself the way I am a long time ago. I do not need to conform to other people’s ideals nor do I have to conform to anything I think may be “better” than who I am right now. I really don’t mind wearing shorts that I’ve had since I was thirteen years old in a yoga class. I don’t mind that I wear baggy pants and a t-shirt every day. If I look like a “hipster” to you, then great! I will still continue doing what I am doing. Being me.

I don’t classify myself as a “yogi” because I’m not someone who uses my practice of yoga to make me who I AM. I used to be a touring tennis player. Some people used to call me “Tennis”, as if that was what I was. Just tennis. I don’t want to label myself as anything. Yoga is a part of my daily practice. My daily practice is allowing myself to flow naturally. I do yoga, but I’m just Cindy. Cindy Manit.

My challenge for you is: Ask yourself what area in your life you feel you aren’t being your natural self? How does it make you feel? And what can you do to change that?

Always remember to be yourself! Your full natural self! And you are loved. =)

Loving you all.

See you soon!

-Cindy

Picture: Myself with Shiva Rea. Wanderlust Festival July 2010. Lake Tahoe. http://www.wanderlustfestival.com/