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| yes, this is a silly web photo - I promise to take some of my own... |
My friend Rebecca Briggs - who is SUCH a good friend... she used to work right next door to my store in our local Co-oP and I would come in every day, she is one of my first friends when I moved to this town more than 10 years ago. She has a rain-man-like genius when it comes to anything about natural healing, the knowledge that she holds from life-experience and teaching (she is a certified RYT, CN - certified nutritionist, she is also a Thai massage therapist and a yoga instructor) the part I like is that she has lived all over the place and her life-experience in natural living is her some 40+ years - she calls her yoga and natural family health adventure hOMnaturale (I don't want to call it a business because it's peoples lives she is dealing with). Most of all, she is the most gorgeous person and a few years ago she got into juicing and every time I see her she looks younger. So when she told me she was doing a week-long juice cleanse I said "Sign me UP!".
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| Rebecca with her son |
We started with a day of smoothie cleansing - we met the night before and she gave us a bit of an introduction and everything we would need to make our smoothies, we had a talk, tasted some juice and did some yoga (well it was a LOT of yoga). I have never made green smoothies, but that is not to say that I have not bought them just about everywhere; my favorite is Organic Avenue, but I have also tried BluePrint, Moon Juice in California (YUM) and well... I'm sure there is more, if I see green juice I get it (if I can afford it!!). I say this so that you know Rebecca helps me along like a first grader. She gave us recipes and the way to go. My first smoothie - I went eliminated and cleaned out an hour later, I'd say that's a nice cleanse.
I will follow along with more blogs - but on day two, we got some yummy juices for the day and I am all set. My favorite part is Rebecca thought about the whole person. The first night when she explained what was ahead of us, she gave us ways to think about it in an energetic way (because she's like that) - changing our lives to be more uplifting. I went into this quickly, saying to myself, GREAT! I so need to do a cleanse, just thinking I will drink some juices for a week and *boom* done... by day two this thing has totally rearranged my mind and my life. She reminded me to get back to oil pulling, she has introduced me to a meditation that I think I can actually DO each day, she just changed my whole outlook. I took the opportunity to shift everything I am doing into a ray of light positive, and I am enjoying it! She reminded me that there is a light in our lives but we need to nurture it and keep it burning.
There is so much that is overwhelming these days, it brings me to tears each day what is going on, instead I had instagram to make me inspired and my work which completely consumes me - my only extra moments I let go and hang with my kids. BUT I think there is a better approach, thanks to the light that Rebecca brought to my fire - with her yoga, chants, knowledge and chakra inspiration - I feel that I can take another path. There is so much discussion of war and weapons (I'm happy to say I didn't even know how to spell that word) but if we bring power to that it will consume. Instead my thoughts will be to power the love and kindness on the Earth - that little thought of mine will grow and envelope us. I am trying to bring this to all parts of my life in hopes that most of them will survive, not that I can't listen to the news, I feel it's ignorant not to know what is going on. But while I am in my car I will take the opportunity to sing and chant, when I get up in the morning I will pull-oil in my mouth while I water the plants, when I have to get up early with the kids I will take a minute to stretch and meditate. It's small but grand for me and my happiness.
Have a terrific day and let's see what tomorrow brings... as far as the cleanse that is...
if you want to learn more about Rebecca Briggs and her Cleanse take a look at her website here
