Jill's tomato, vegetable and lentil soup

This is a super yummy soup that we enjoyed at the recent Reiki One Attunement Session, courtesy of my Mum.

Over to Mum...

I don't measure the ingredients exactly but I use 2 pans.  In one are just half an onion with chopped up tomatoes and in the other one is about the same volume of chopped vegetables.

So, ingredients:-

Pan 1

Assorted tomatoes - or whatever you have got, chopped very roughly.

1/2 large onion peeled and chopped.
A little olive, veg or sunflower oil

 Pan 2

Your choice of:-

Carrot

Parsnip

Courgette

Celery

Sweetcorn      All chopped to uniform size, about little finger nail size

Calabrese

Sweet potato

Butternut squash

Etc....

1/2 large onion chopped and about 1/2 cup red lentils. A little olive, veg or sunflower oil. Vegetable stock - either home made or powder/cube etc. Large sprig or sprigs thyme.

So, in pan one, fry onion in oil until just going translucent, then tip in all roughly chopped tomatoes and simmer covered until tomatoes are really well cooked (about 20 mins).

Meanwhile in pan 2 fry onion in oil until translucent then tip in all 'hard' vegetables and enough vegetable stock to cover.  Simmer for about 10 mins and then tip in rest of veg, red lentils and sprigs of thyme.  Simmer for another 10 mins ensuring still covered by enough liquid.

At end of 20 mins of tomatoes simmering in pan 1, take off heat and blitz with wand blender until smooth.  Tip in contents of pan 2 (remove sprigs of thyme) and stir well.  Season with salt/pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Healing

It has been some time since I last posted...in fact funnily enough it was just after the Reiki One attunement and just as we were beginning our 21 day cleansing period.  Phew, this some cleansing period, I am feeling it more this time than I have ever done previously, probably not helped by the unsettling nature of the recent full moons, which have well and truly shaken things up and thrown light on the shadow side...there is no more escaping.

Funny how you can be so unintentionally unaware of the fact that you have outgrown the life you have been living, so that it no longer fits.  I mean you know something isn't quite right, but you do not realise what it is, until the moon and Reiki and yoga help to make it clear, let alone the angels who are trying to get your attention along the way.

So the words that have appeared in my life these last few weeks have been alignment - no surprise that my neck has been out of alignment at the same time that my outer life is out of alignment with my inner truth - and nurture, or the need to nurture. And with that the realisation that we can continue to live as we are living, but it will not bring us the feelings of happiness, peace and security that we  are seeking.  It is a bit like that wonderful quote, "if you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you have always gotten".

The process of change, or transformation then, is never easy, and the best thing is to get yourself out of the way.  Only that you have such a vested interest in the process that this is easier said than done.  I like to think that it is an uncasing, that a part of you is no longer needed, the old stuff, a layer can come off, but the coming off is the hard bit, because we have a habit of wanting to hold on.

So I have dig deep and been very fortunate to support the journey with some reflexology, acupuncture, Ayurveda, Reiki and chiropractor work, let alone my daily yoga practice and a powerful Vedic chanting session with  a visiting yoga session.  Plus of course the ears of some good and trusted friends.

So life has been a bit of a challenge this last few weeks not helped with the seasonal virus circulating the family - funny how this happens in Autumn, a release of all that phlegm and helping the transition from summer to autumn.  Elijah is still not sleeping more than 2-3 hours at a time at night either, and the collective 11 months of sleep deprivation does finally feel very heavy on my eyes and indeed spirit...but I am reminded that this too will pass.

It all sounds a little down and out, but really life is full of so many blessings - this healing is a blessing, even though it does not feel it at the time.  But really this is the joy of Reiki, and indeed yoga, but Reiki especially this time, that it helps to bring us closer to our truth, to align our inner and outer worlds, to empower us to make changes so that that which no longer serves us drops off, and so we may grow a little stronger and committed to the path.  And there is a lot of learning in the process - of healing, cells, energy, mind and body. 

I am hoping that the more we can all hold to the truth and to the light, the more this will help to balance the imbalance of darkness and light in this world.  There is so much darkness in the news these days and usually I try to ignore it, put my head in the sand, but it has been difficult to ignore, that I find it distressing, which actually serves no use either.  So I figure all I can do is pray and practice and chant and open my heart and smile and share light where I can and try and make myself a better person so that this can be a better world to live in.  All we can do is try.  And when we fall down, pick ourselves up and try again...and again...and again.

On that note I am off to bed...sleep is indeed the greatest cure of all.

With much love and light

Emma x

Scrummy raw and dairy, wheat and sugar free cheesecake, yum, yum!!

I finally made (well sort of finally made) this most scrummy raw food dairy-free, wheat-free and sugar-free cheesecake that my brother's girlfriend introduced to me in the summer.  Very easy to make, even for me, although Mum did take over as she gets very impatient with my efforts in the kitchen!!!

Yummy indeed.  Although I guess we should remember that while it is dairy, wheat and sugar free, it does contain a lot of fats and while these may be deemed "good" fats, they still put a lot of pressure on the liver (read Barbara Wren and her fabulous books on cellular awakening/into the light" for more on this) so save as a treat.

Happy making and eating!

x

Raw ‘Cheesecake’

Makes one 7” cheesecake

Crust

½ cup Brazil nuts
¼ cup almonds
¼ cup dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon cacao or carob powder (both hard to find in Gsy so used 85% plain choc)
Pinch salt
2 – 4 dates (stoned) – depending on size
1 teasp raw agave nectar or honey

Blitz in food processor until crumbly – the mixture should stick together when pressed between your fingers. If it doesn’t either add a little water or more honey. Press into bottom of 7” springform tin or similar container.

Filling

2 cups fresh or frozen fruit (the original recipe called for blueberries but I have also made it with mango and loganberries. I think apricots, nectarines etc would work as well)
1 cup cashews, finely ground
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
2 tablespoons melted cacao butter (hard to find in Gsy but internet gave good quality white chocolate as an dairy alternative or more coconut oil if non-dairy)
¼ cup raw agave nectar or honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Large pinch salt

Blitz in blender until smooth and creamy. Pour over the crust and chill until ready to serve.
Sauce - Optional
You could make a sauce to go with it using perhaps one cup of the same fruit and a small amount of honey – blitzed.

Decoration 

I have used some of the fruit to decorate the top i.e. whole blueberries on the blueberry one and sliced mango washed in lemon juice on the mango one etc.



It doesn’t take long to set and seems to keep for several days. However, keep in the fridge until just before serving as, because the coconut oil is the setting ‘agent’ it becomes less solid if allowed to get too warm.

Taking time out

It has been a while since I have last written here.  We have been away, taking a much needed time out, albeit much resistance on my part to taking time out, but a necessity I now realise!

Two weeks ago, I flew up to Edinburgh with Elijah for a little more than 48 hours to celebrate my best friend's 40th, which was fabulous but exhausting - travel with a baby on your own certainly brings a whole new perspective to travelling!!

So I cannot say I was relishing the idea of yet more travels with Elijah, and indeed Ewan, only a week later, more packing and unpacking and washing and organising and catching up with work and friends, and preparing for more time away and all that comes with this when you work for someone else and for yourself and have a cat and a house.

But anyway, we were going away regardless and despite my resistance - which is always an indication that whatever is happening is necessary - it was indeed all meant to be...

Initially we stayed with one of Elijah's spiritual parents in Brighton and enjoyed our first swim in the sea at Hove as well as much ramblings along the coast, easing us into our holiday, never easy to switch off, especially with WIFI available!!

From there we headed back to Gatwick on the train and flew to Geneva before another train to Neuchatal, where Ewan's Swiss family live.  Now I had it in my head that hereI could indulge in hours of yoga practice and catch up on all the work I have not yet done with websites and articles and manuals and information packs and all sorts of things that happen in the background with Beinspired. 

But alas, this was not meant to be as we were instead too busy entertaining Elijah and visiting family members and swimming in the Lake and walking instead.  I noticed myself getting a little wound up about this - which was an interesting observation, not least this conditioned need to always be "doing" but also the feeling of things not being as they should be.  Which is of course utter rubbish, because things areas they are meant to be - but more often than not, not how our ego wants them to be.

So I finally gave in to it and realised that this was indeed a necessary break, enforced then, because if you do not take time out like this, there is no space for integration, and this is essential, especially with one's spiritual practice.  You have to lettings settle.  A little like in a yoga practice itself (which of course, on the mat, is a reflection of one's life in any event) it is essential to rest and allow the effects of the practice to integrate into the cellular memory, to literally let things settle in.  So in our lives too, there is a need to allow things to settle and integrate.

And let's face it, what an amazing environment within which to allow this to happen - Switzerland, with all that clean living and clean air, wow, it is quite amazing, the resonance that is with all the greens and blues and the huge Lake.  Ewan and I were fortunate to swim the Lake each day too, it felt like swimming in silk after the coarseness of swimming the sea all summer.  I found it healing, truly.  And while Elijah slept poorly, which meant we had very little sleep, I felt energised just by being in this environment.

On our last evening we walked in the most glorious forest,  before visiting family for pre-dinner drinks and here we were treated to marvellous views of the Alpes, which always helps to put things into perspective - what marvellous mountains, majestic, powerful, steadfast.  Amazing.  See, it is all about timing.  A million times thank you to the Swiss family and Auntie Anne in particular for such fabulous hospitality and introduction to Swiss living.

My time in Switzerland was interesting though, because on the one hand the healing and integration and feeling of being held and healed and energised by nature like this (and very lovely people and yummy seasonal foods) and my interest (for want of a better word) in the current chaos of the world and in particular the actions of the extremists in Syria and Iraq.  As fear worked its way out of me - the effects of the Ayurvedic herbs I have been taking and the opportunity for this release and integration - I could feel the fear that these people are creating through their barbaric actions and hatred.

And this has led me to wonder really what is going on in this world.  Which is fitting in rather well with where I find myself now, here in London, attending a (so far) fabulous yoga workshop with the West's leading authority on the Chakras, Anodea Judith, who believes that we are transitioning from a world in which we love to have power, to a world which is powered by love...

So perhaps the world is going through the healing crisis that will enable this enlightening...

Let's see.  I have two more days of the course to gain more understanding/awareness of this.

On that note, time to go and get myself ready.

Keep well.

Love and light

x

Yummy immune boosting soup for the seasonal transition

So here we are, September, and with that the hint of autumn in the air.  The summer has simply flown by but what a wonderful one it was this year with all the visitors and Elijah's naming ceremony and beach days and swims in the sea.  We are very blessed and indeed lucky to live on an Island like this.

There is a certain heaviness that comes with letting all this go and welcoming in the new beginnings that autumn brings.  You have to let go to let in.  And today the children return to school and we are back into the usual routine with peak traffic, and the nights drawing in.

Plus of course there will be the usual seasonal cold and sniffles circulating, the change in season often brings this, and especially the transition from summer to autumn, as if it is clearing you out from the inside, and releasing all that excess phlegm!

I crave soup at this time of year, packed full of vitamins and minerals to support and help boost the immune system.  Now I am sure I have probably shared this before but it truly is yummy and everyone should have a stash in their freezer for when they are feeling energetically challenged.  Admittedly the photo does it no justice - I challenge even the best of food photographers to make this look yummy by photograph!!!

Immune boosting soup

3 cups of sweet potato cut into cubes
1 leek
2tsp cooking oil
1 garlic glove minced
1 tbsp. grated ginger
1.5 ltrs of vegetable stock
1 medium broccoli head, small florets and thin stalks of tender stalk
2 cups of seasonal leafy greens such as kale or spinach
1/2 cup cashew nuts (I often leave this out)
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 large bunch flat leaf parsley (if using curly parsley add more)
fresh cracked peppercorns
high quality extra virgin oil

Pre heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius

Toss the sweet potato in oil to coat, place on a roasting tray and roast for 25-30 minutes, or until the potato is tender inside and golden outside.

In a large, heavy-based saucepan sauté the leek in cooking oil for 8-10 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the garlic and ginger; sauté another 2 minutes. Next add the stock, dislodging any brown bits at the bottom. Add the broccoli pieces, leafy greens, roasted sweet potato (whenever it is ready, it can be added later if necessary), cashews and salt. Simmer covered for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add 3/4 of the chopped parsley (it will cook almost instantly in hot soup).

Turn off the heat and purée the soup either with a hand held blender or a food processor. Reheat, then mix in a few grinds of peppercorn and taste for seasoning. Garnish each serving with the remaining fresh parsley and a glug of olive oil.

Enjoy!

x

Yummy and energising chocolate fridge cakes

These are just amazing...healthy...and yet kind of amazing to think that we can have "healthy" bars like this, still compared to Cadbury's...

I am told by Medicinal Chef (Dale Pinnock) that these bars are good for preventing depression and stress, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and constipation...

Fabulous fridge cakes are sweet, delicious ad so dense in nutrients that one of these (or two in my case) will keep you going for hours.  They are super yummy and I am eternally grateful to my Mum who makes them regularly for Ewan and I!

Makes 8 pieces
8 tablespoons mixed seeds (such as flax, pumpkin, sesame or sunflower)
3 handfuls of goji berries
1 handful pitted dates
4 tablespoons cacao powder
1 teaspoon desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon nuts, such as brazil nuts chopped
1 tablespoon dried fruits, such as dried apricots or cranberries, chopped.

How to make

Okay so place all the ingredients except the coconut oil, nuts and dried fruit in a food processor, reserving about 1 tablespoon of the seeds and goji berries, and pulse a few times to start creating a stiff, coarse mixture.

Place the coconut oil in a heatproof bowl, then sit the bowl in some freshly boiled water. The oil will melt in a matter of seconds.  Add the melted oil to the rest of the ingredients in the food processor. Process the ingredients at full speed until they have combined thoroughly into a firm paste.

Line a 20cm rectangular cake tin with baking parchment, turn the mixture into the tin and press down firmly to completely fill it. Sprinkle the reserved seeds and goji berries over the top., along with the chopped nuts and fruits, press down lightly. Place in the fridge for 3 hours, or until set firm. Slice into about 8 even pieces.

And then enjoy!!!

xxx

The nature of relationships

I have just read the most fascinating book by Stephen Cope called "Yoga and the Quest for the True Self", which has so many pages I would like to share with others, but this bit is particularly interesting.  Quite a few times recently I have found myself talking to people about relationships - are they here for a season, a reason or a lifetime?  Obviously there is far more to it than that, we are mirrors after all, and I like what Stephen writes about this...

"Freud's most brilliant work was in discovering how to bring observing ego to these areas of unconsciousness. Over the course of his career, he explored three different strategies to accomplish this. His first strategy was to work directly with memories of traumatic events that had been "forgotten" or repressed. he understood these "forgotten" areas to be pivotal to curing neurotic symptoms.  Freud found that he could, to some extent, open these areas of repression through the use of hypnosis, which bypassed the ordinary defences and brought the repressed material into awareness. This dramatic early psychoanalytic work of Freud is still locked into our contemporary cultural imagination, through a whole host of novels and films. Many of us are still think of psychotherapy as the process of searching for that one crucial memory that will unlock the puzzle of our lives. In fact Freud's thinking evolved far beyond this stereotype.

Freud soon found that the defensive structure of the self offered a formidable amount of resistance to his direct probing, and he moved on to explore other techniques for penetrating the unconscious. His next explorations were with the use of free association, dreams, and slips of the tongue, working with the very language through which the unconscious communicates. Instead of assaulting defences directly, through hypnosis, he found that he could wait for the unconscious to reveal itself.  This strategy proved to be extremely effective. It also, however, proved to have its limitations...

...There are certain aspects of our experience, then - usually the most painful and conflicted - that can only be seen within the field of relationship. Indeed, they don't exist only within us, but within the relational fields we create. When we carry a heavy load of repressed, hidden, and unintegrated experience, we are constantly seeking out relationships that will help us hold this experience, to reveal it in the actual dramas if our lives, and, hopefully, eventually to bring it to a more successful conclusion - to heal it. Much of our manoeuvring in and out of relationships is driven by these very needs - strivings for wholeness and completion that are for the most part completely out of our awareness.

Freud unwittingly made an important contribution to our contemporary understanding of witness consciousness. He saw that consciousness is sometimes a "third force", the creative product of two individual awarenesses working together to understand and integrate experience.

Matthew Arnold makes precisely the same point in his poem The Buried Life in which he attempts to wrestle with precisely those "hidden" incognito aspects of the self.  In Arnold's rendering, the voices of the "buried life" only reveal themselves with utmost clarity when opened to the consciousness of a loved other...

...It is a point that mariners and explorers of all kinds discovered: reality must be, in a sense, triangulated. It takes two sets of eyes, not just one, to accurately locate the third point in space. The "third", becomes a powerful still point, constructed out of the interaction of two minds and hearts.

This really does help to explain the nature of the "mirrored" aspect of relationships, and the comings and goings and the various encounters we have during our lives.  Really it is a rather fascinating world in which we live!

x

What a beautiful summer we are having

What a full moon - we really are supported by the Universe, even if it doesn't feel like in the midst of life's challenges.

Only a few weeks ago I realised that it had taken me a whole 8 months or so to fit into my new role as a mother, and another few weeks on top of that to realise that of all the people in the world, my little boy and his Dad should be the ones I serve the most.

I knew something was going on, because I have noticed over the years that I have been working on myself, that before every new realisation comes the breakdown of the old and with that a dying of the part of the ego that holds on so tightly.  It is hard work at the time though, because you are right in the middle of it and cannot see the wood for the trees and have no idea what is happening, only that something isn't quite right and there are lots of tears.

And then something comes to mind and then there are signs everywhere - in my case last week, an article in a magazine that my Mum handed to me, the words of wisdom of a yoga teacher at a class at Indaba Yoga in London, a studio I have not visited and a teacher I have not met previously, the chapter of a book I have been reading and the arrival of a wonderful Jivamukti DVD (with transformative in the title, funny that!).  Funny too how these things come together at once - it is true that the angels leave signs all over the place, you just have to notice them (and I probably missed a few!).

So I have now come through the other side, so that there is clarity about the niggling sense that something was afoot and with that a change, that seems rather natural now (and yet how I have fought it that last few months, despite praying for it!).  You see this is the problem - us, we are the problem, sometimes we don't know when to get out of our own way.  So desperate are we to control a situation or try and create an outcome that we don't allow grace to enter...the Universe works in much more fluid and magical ways that we can ever imagine (and that really is the problem, we think too much!).

We loved London last weekend.  It was my parents' treat, and for Mum and I especially as we got to go and watch the Mariinsky Ballet's rendition of Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.  Wow.  Such a joy to witness such grace in action, and such poise and strength and stability and balance and patience.  I am in awe if these ballerinas.  Incredible. 

We did some other cool stuff, we walked from Regent's Park along the Canal to Little Venice and then took the boat back along the canal to Camden. I have visited Camden a ton of times but this was my Mum's first visit and as a shopper she showed me a whole new side to this wonderful place, wow, it really is a shopper's heaven (it made me into a shopper, albeit for 40 minutes!).

I managed a Yoga class at Indaba Yoga studio in Marylebone, a first for me in both studio and location, and indeed teacher, Erik, a Jivamukt teacher.  I just LOVE Jivamukti and Erik is wonderful, such great adjustments and practice, so that I was present in my body and in the moment, it is true that the body offers a gateway to the soul, I floated out and enjoyed a much needed lunch with the family in the wonderful le Pain Quotidien in Marylebone (this chain of eatery is wonderful, just love the green juice and the goat's cheese salad, let alone the chocolate brownie!!).

We walked a ton too, I just love this about London, that you get to walk so much and see so much in the process.  And one of the highlights was spotting my first Banksy (Ewan LOVES Banksy) before Ewan, in its original state, just literally opposite our lovely hotel in the City, just amazing, Ewan was fairly happy too!!!

Back here in Guernsey life has been action packed, as the realisation tried to break through, we managed Elijah's 8th trip to Herm since he was born, with my friend Jo who was visiting from the UK.  I lived with Jo at Uni for 3 years and while I have not seen her for about 4 years it felt like only yesterday - true what they say that friends come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime!  Strangely one of our other Uni housemates gave birth to her first child while Jo was visiting - congrats to KTQ and Sim on the birth of Roan Finn.

We have swam in the sea a lot too.  It is so warm, just amazing, so good for the soul.  We have walked on the cliffs as well - nothing like spending time in nature to process whatever is going on in your life - those cliffs work it out of you!  We went for swim down at Divette with Jo, a first with me, so too a swim at Albecq this evening,.  What a blessed life living in such a beautiful place like Guernsey, I am eternally grateful.

And now, well the realisations find me working with Elijah and Ewan to finally attempt to establish a routine, something I have been fighting from day one, and yet now find myself very much enjoying, so grounding, I hadn't realised.  The added bonus that Elijah sleeps better, what a revelation.  See, should have gotten out of my own way.  It is all very well praying for change, trouble is you have to change to allow the change to happen - it comes back to that fabulous quote, "if you have always done what you always do then you will always get what you always got".  Ha, of course!!

So on that note I am off to bed and taking a much needed two weeks off to spend time with the family, to practice Jivamukti yoga and to allow the dust to settle - oh and to get in the sea and down the beach as much as possible!

Om shanti.

Much love, gratitude and light

xxx