Wilderness

...my most cherished moments are spending the night in the wilderness, curled up in my small backpacking tent or even just sleeping under the stars. I call it my “wilderness therapy”. ....sacred silence to be experienced that does not exist anywhere else, that makes me drink in the oneness with all, the interconnectedness of all beings, trees, mountains, air, water, space. Here it is where I find my happiness...SSP  (excerpt from "Living an Inspired Life - a personal journey of transformation through yoga)

Publish Post

Italian Amaretti Cookies...

without sugar (stevia instead)

Amaretti are little cookies that are light as a feather, yet have an intense sweet almond flavor. They're airy, delicate, and oh so simple to make. The recipe takes no more than 4 minutes to put together and they bake quickly.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups of almond flour -or- 3 cups of blanched slivered almonds, finely ground up
• 1/4 cup of Stevia (natural plant based sweetener, suited for diabetics)
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract
• Extra stevia for dusting

1 Preheat oven to 300 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2 In a food processor mill together the almond flour and stevia. Add the vanilla and almond extract and pulse for a few seconds. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to process until the dough is smooth.

3 Place teaspoons of the dough on the parchment paper and dust with sugar. Bake for 24-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before serving. They will be slightly chewy at first, but they will be nicely crispy as a day or two goes by. Store in a cool, dry place. Makes about 30 cookies.

Living an Inspired Life

It's official now - I am writing a book.
  

Living an Inspired Life/A personal journey of transformation through yoga


 It's not about putting your foot behind your ear :)!!!!!

Drawing from a rich colorful tapestry of life experiences there is an urgency to share my story with the reader. This book is about dispelling the myths about yoga being only for the young, fit and flexible as well as that one has to become a Buddhist/Hindu or that one will be converted into a different belief systems in order to benefit from yoga. I want to encourage and inspire other people, to step out of their comfort zone and try something new -  that weird thing called yoga - then see for themselves how their lives will almost miraculously change. This is my personal inspiring story how it all started, how it helped me through some of the most difficult times in my life, leading me to taking yoga teacher training (at the time only to advance my own practice, never wanted to be a teacher ), to becoming a vinyasa yoga teacher and loving it; I started in my 20ties, sustained my practice through my pregnancies, to now being in my 50ies and feeling young, flexible, alive and vibrant and still teaching 8-9 classes per week. The last two legs of my yogic journey are very exciting! Based on my 30 years of experience practicing and teaching yoga I developed my own yoga clothes line (OmShanti Yoga Wear) which is based on organic/sustainable soy/cotton/bamboo material and the design is semi-custom, tailored to the specific size/shape/need of the yogini wearing it. The reviews speak for themselves. The highlight of my career of course is this book that has captured me for a long time now and I am very excited to finally being able to actually writing it. This book is a testimonial of my personal life story, development and transformation through the practice of yoga with all its components, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.It is a story from the early beginnings and discoveries through the life saving benefits of yoga during some major challenges in my life to my personal journey of becoming a certified yoga instructor. Throughout all chapters I am sharing yoga success stories from some of my students who never believed that yoga was for them only to discover that in some instances it turned their lives around 100%.

 (read more)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Living-an-Inspired-LifeA-personal-journey-of-transformation-through-yoga/177861362265874

Soul Connections - Part 2

While talking to a close friend last night I realized that there is a part 2 to my earlier email about Soul Connections – (thank you my friend -  for inspiring me to delve into this topic a little bit deeper)

Soul Connections Part 2

Very few people have the privilege and honor to have a deep soul connection to another the way I described earlier; but those who do know exactly what a profound feeling of trust, love and belonging emerges from it.

Those very special friendships that we have need to be cherished, nourished and celebrated even if we do not live close, see each other on a regular basis or even talk for years in some instances. I KNOW that some of these very sacred connections in my life will be there forever and the moment we do reconnect we pick up exactly where we left off days, weeks, months or in some cases many years ago -  it is as if we just had spent time together yesterday. There is a deep knowing, understanding and yes, a  “soul connection” that make this possible. I believe that some of us are connected on/at  a different level of frequencies where time and space don’t exist, where we realize that all there is is the present moment that is to be lived, loved and utilized to its highest and best ability.  SSP

Why worry now...

Soul connections

Have you ever met someone and instantly you feel a deep connection with them, you discover similarities in your lifestyles, likes/dislikes, the way you think and act and you KNOW that you know this person, although it’s the first time you ever met?

Sometimes there is an “atmosphere” that feels charged, ripe with energy that you cannot explain. Sometimes it feels like you have known this person forever or they even feel like family to us.

It has been said that before we incarnate, we make agreements with certain souls for the purpose of exchanging energy, to learn from our experiences and sometimes to resolve unresolved Karma from previous lives.

These encounters can be wonderful or not so wonderful; of course when they are pleasant we are happy and enjoy the experience, however, when we feel that we are dealing with unpleasant situations we will try to move away from them. It is to our benefit if we work through them though and the learning experience we find will bring us to the next level of our life path. There is something that we have to learn/teach from/to each other and it is a valuable lesson for both people involved if we use the opportunity to grow.

We have “soul”families that we “agreed” to re-incarnate with but there are also unfulfilling or empty attachments when we feel drawn to someone in an unhealthy way based on some kind of a contract in a past life that is still tying us together; this is called a “negative contract”.

The most important is to keep our compassion towards the other person, no matter if it is a negative or positive experience in our opinion, there is a reason for what is happening and we have our part in it.

True Friends

 We discover true friends when we face life's uphill climb. They may have disguised themselves as cranky, always complaining how slow we walk. But not once did they entertain leaving us behind. Well ... perhaps just once (to keep us going)! ~ By Dodinsky's - Garden of Thoughts

It's ironic how people adore those who ignore them, ignore those who
adore them, love those who hurt them and hurt those who love them. (Author unknown)