Occasionally we have the opportunity to interview contributors from websites that share our goals of educating people with cancer about the benefits of holistic lifestyles and wellness. I recently had the opportunity to interview Libby Lowe, Social Media Manager of Yogabear.org.
Yoga Bear is a national 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting more opportunities for wellness and healing to the cancer community through the practice of yoga. They have all kinds of resources on the site for patients, yoga teachers and health care providers that are dealing with cancer such as videos as yoga for pain relief.
Jasmine: Tell us about your background?
Libby: I got involved with Yoga Bear in 2010. I had recently lost my mother-in-law to ovarian cancer and I was looking for a way to give back. I’ve been doing yoga for about eight years and volunteering with Yoga Bear seemed like a great way to honor her memory in a very personal way. Professionally, I have been writing and editing for more than 10 years. I work on a mix of projects including editorial, corporate communications and social media management. I live in Chicago.
Jasmine: What do you think your mission in life is?
Yoga on the Steps: Living Beyond Breast Cancer
Libby: When I think about what I truly love doing, it makes tons of sense that I work on building community within Yoga Bear. I love making connections and helping people.
Jasmine: How has your spiritual practice transformed you?
Libby: Yoga taught me patience. Because of yoga, I understand that being good at something isn’t the goal, being present is. I’m not 100% there, but before yoga I wouldn’t have even recognized those moments of disconnect.
Jasmine: What daily spiritual practices do you do every day?
Libby: I don’t have a formal spiritual practice. In some ways I see emailing friends and connecting our community members as a spiritual practice—and it’s one I find great joy in.
Jasmine: What is the most surprising thing about you?
Libby: I absolutely love feel good sports movies. Remember the Titans, We Are Marshall—if I’m desperate, even Wildcats.
Jasmine: What do you think the government can do to aid in health and wellness?
Libby: This is a huge question, but the short answer is: Make sure that everyone has access to preventive care, insurance, and understandable information about the system—as well information about how to take care of themselves. I also feel very strongly that Planned Parenthood is an essential resource for women. More than 1.5 women received cancer screenings at a Planned Parenthood in 2010, and I believe the government needs to support women by supporting the organization.
Jasmine: What have been some of the most transformation events or milestones that led you to be the person you are?
Libby: In terms of the work I am doing now, my mother-in-law was very inspirational. The determination with which she took on cancer–and won for more than seven years–is truly inspiring. She advocated for herself, educated herself and fought like hell. And while she was living with cancer, she truly lived. I didn’t meet her until after she was diagnosed, and I wasn’t sure how much time we would have together. I’m extremely lucky to have had the time with her that I had–knowing her made me a better person.
Jasmine: Any exciting projects you want to share?
Libby: Keep an eye on Yoga Bear! We have an awesome library of free yoga videos–and we’re always looking for more. I’d like to invite all of the teachers out there to submit.
If you feel powerless to resist these sweet morsels of the devil in a plastic-wrap like I do, then why not make them in a way that is clean, pure but still tummy-rubbing satisfying? Fat-burning brownies? Pizza? Cheese Stuff rolled? Focaccia? Muffins? Crepes? New York cheesecake with raspberries on top? All Gluten-free? I can feel the drool leaving my mouth just thinking of these things…
Author, and diabetes coach Kelley Herring whips up foods for those in a healing crisis such as diabetes, cancer or just overweight with low-glycemic, low-sugar foods for healthy living. At this stage of the game, we all know the culprits are things like blueberry muffins, Dominos, …. anything cheesy or sugary seems to be satan to our butts and thighs. But just imagine a…fat burning brownie!! She includes this in her gluten free desserts book.
Gluten-Free Desserts Book
Kelley Herring is the Editor-in-Chief of many clean-eating cookbooks including: Eat to Fight Cancer, Eat to Beat Diabetes, Eat to Lower Cholesterol and Eat to Boost Fertility. Her books which are available online as downloads are: Guilt-Free Desserts, Better Breads, and Awesome Appetizers.
She taught me about a fiber which adds a “cotton-candy” sweetness and creamy mouth feel to desserts that feeds good bacteria in the gut as well as covering the bad side of artificial sweeteners (Equal, NutraSweet might as well be Lysol in a pretty packet that you can sprinkle on your coffee).
She describes an alternative to sugar that have zero calories and no glycemic impact which will be critical for diabetics or anyone that wants to lose some blubber around the middle. In her recipes, you’ll see how to add “invisible fiber” to your desserts that doesn’t change flavor, texture or preparation.
She even substituted the evil ingredients with “metabolic power ingredients” which help to keep your blood sugar stable and even “stoke your body’s fat-burning furnace:. Many conventional comfort food recipes such as chocolate mousse, cheesecake, pizza, muffins, creme brulee and mucho mucho others were given a “total health makeover” while keeping all the taste, texture, moisture and decadent sweetness.
Some of the ingredients will be trickier to find such as non-aluminum baking powder, organic coconut flour, agar agar powder, chia meal, erythritol, xanthan gum, pasture-raised eggs, SweetLeaf Stevia Vanilla Creme Liquid Stevia, Organic Sunbutter and a few others. Most of the other ingredients call for organic ingredients and often will be chemical-free, processed sugar free and they contain ingredients that are minimally refined or processed (if at all) in this gluten free desserts book.
You probably won’t be able to find these ingredients at your local average supermarket and will have to get many of the ingredients at a specialty health food store such as Whole Foods. You might be able to get some of the ingredients at a local farmer’s market such as the pasture raised eggs. She often gives resources for where to get some of the ingredients online.
I chose to make the brownies and there were about 2 sticks of pasture raised butter and 6 pasture raised eggs in there. It was a simple recipe to make and I always love to lick the bowl and beaters after I have mixed up all the ingredients. After about 25 minutes in the oven, my steamy brownies came out and the perfume of chocolate was wafting throughout the house. The texture was like a brownie, mousse and souffle……. light, dense and moist all at once. It is taking every once of my limited will power to just not eat the whole pan right now (If I did that, could I lose a few more pounds?)
Often when I make low-fat or gluten free baked goods, there is something missing in the texture or the sweetness is off. Not so with the brownies…. only problem is that they are TOO yum-yum. When I am God, I am going to make broccoli taste like cheesecake, and cheesecake taste like broccoli.
Probably the most unusual ingredient in a cupcake is organic cannellini beans for the Yellow Cupcakes. (It’s so strange though that it has to be good)
Have you ever cooked a gluten-free, or naturally sweetened (with Stevia or coconut sugar dessert)? If yes, what results did you get? What did your friends and family think?
What yogi doesn’t love reading elephant journal for Yoga articles they have in there. I think I discovered EJ a few years ago when I was starting to do more blogging. I love how there is always a wide assortment of writers, bloggers about all kinds of topics about yoga, spirituality, love, sustainability. Sometimes there is some social activism viewpoint from the writer but more often than not, it is just a refreshing voice on a popular topic. It seems like there list of topics is always growing from having business-centric topics such as 10 Things to Consider before Opening a Yoga Studio, Part II to racier topics such as Sexus Plexus: 20 Ways to Light a Fire which have all kind of intimate partner stretches, moves and scenarios and also topics in Spanish such as Latin Yoga Para Ti.
The city guides are awesome as well since they cover some of the main progressive metro areas in the US such as LA, NY, SF, Portland and Boulder. I think my favorite name for any of their categories is NON NEW-AGEY SPIRITUALITY. I have written a few posts for Elephant Journal – Yoga blogs but they are pretty picky and do have some guidelines you have to adhere to in order to have your submission accepted. Here is another cool article I came across in EJ lately. How to Have a Killer Relationship. ~ Dr. Katy Poolewhich poses many love questions for you and your partners to consider.
Fun partner stretches
If you write for elephant journal on Yoga then you want to keep it very personal, casual and grass-roots sounding but don’t mistake any of that for meaning that it should not be well-researched, well-written and well-thought out. There are also certain stylistic guidelines that they post that you will want to adhere to as well. Bob Weisenberg is one of their main Editors and he contributes meaningfully to online conversations that are not just on elephant journal.
Their mission, which is stated on the site ” is dedicated to bringing together those working (and playing) to create enlightened society.” Most of their articles are not “How To” articles but rather are about someone’s opinion, viewpoint or personal journey that often elicits the response, hmmmmmmm and you can pause and reflect for a bit.
Most of the article make me smile or chuckle… occasionally laugh out loud…. for example in this post 10 Things I Will Never Do In Yoga. I love how the writer talk about “yoga porn”, where is where some yogia is doing some ridiculous balanacing pose while teetering on the edge of a cliff. He also mention how he will never get in a ” yoga competition” since yoga is about letting go of striving and if he did enter a yoga competition he would probably just “kick your ass” anyway. I’m sure he could kick my yoga ass, metaphorically speaking…. I’m not one of those yogis that can be super gumby like and do things like hyper extend into a backbend where my head almost touches my butt in a backbend. I almost want to laugh when I am in an “intermediate” yoga class and the teacher casually says, ” Ok. let’s do the splits now”. (When I look around the room only 6% of the students are in a full split and most of them are about the same level of unflexibility as me (despite doing yoga for almost 18 years) Just so you know, yoga is not about who can bend their joints the most and show that off to a group of people.
This kind of writing style is indicative of the other insightful, witty, personal, grass-roots, hmmmm-invoking writers that elephant journal draws on. Thank you Waylon Lewis (Editor-in-Chief and self-titled Errand Boy)
For yoga and weight loss, what are the best simple poses( asanas) and exercises to do?
Are you sick of seeing that muffin top peering out of your tank top? Do you feel powerless to change your eating habits? I had never seen a yoga system specifically targeted towards weight loss so I was curious to see how Charry Morris’ Yoga Weight Loss System would work. The e-book is 58 pages long and peppered with pics and illustrations showing you how to do the yoga poses for weight loss and even an illustrated sequence guide is in the back.
One of my favorite things about this guide is the omission of sanskrit terms. I always thought it was intimidating to use the Sanskrit and not the English terms to describe poses. I have gone to more yoga classes than Lindsay Lohan has gone to rehab and I probably can only understand about 10 sanskrit terms, besides having heard them hundreds (some maybe thousands) of times.
Watch this video testimonial
I think the free report that Charry offers is incredibly pointed. Her suggestions are in simple but powerful language aided with illustrations and photos to help you understand yoga poses and how yoga works on different systems of the body to help you with weight loss (such as the musko-skeletal, endocrine, digestive, nervous etc). Even if you don’t buy her training manual, if you are committed to changing your health and body and want to learn more about how to take control over your level of vitality and wellness, then get the free manual. Have a buddy to practice with and check in on your new habits and practice to help make you more likely to stick to it. Give yourself a reward for every goal you get to (make the reward a facial and not fried chicken).
Yoga poses for weight loss
I think the questions at the end of each module are great for dealing with people’s emotional attachment to food. I think these questions would be even more powerful if you had a group or buddy who you could check in with and be accountable to.
One of Charry’s movement sequences
I like the simple diet modification suggestions. Her style of eating is very much in line with my philosophy. Eat foods in their natural state. Substitute water for soda and juice (which will end up saving you a lot of money as well) If you read the ingredients and don’t understand what Sodium Diloryll Dichromate is then it probably is a fancy word for pure toxic crap – so avoid ingredients that sound like your 9th grade lab project.
Yoga is ultimately a state of attuned inner awareness. By heightening our awareness of how we feel when we eat or avoid certain foods, we have more mastery over our diet. You can’t control what you have no awareness over. She doesn’t try to make you eat a raw, vegan or vegetarian diet, she just emphasizes cleaner ways of eating our meat, dairy and eggs.
She give suggestions for lots of viable substitutes for dairy. One thing that I wish was stressed more here was to avoid more refined
yoga poses for weight loss
sugar, although she does mention the evil HFCS (High fructose corn syrup). If you are going to eat soy milk and yogurt if it is loaded with sugar then you aren’t doing your body many favors. Eating something with Stevia or some other kind of natural sweetener (evaporated cane juice and corn sugar are just marketing terms for highly processed toxic white sugar or HFCS) so stay away from them. Also equally toxic are thing like Equal and NutraSweet…these things have been proven to cause cancer in mice. You’re not doing your bod any favors with these either.
If you are confused about all this you might want to read the book “Sugar Blues”. If you don’t think that refined sugar has any strong negative effects on you then go three days without any refined sugar. You’ll have to read ALOT of labels at the grocery store…sugar likes to make it’s way into all kind of non-dessert food like ketchup and potato chips . You’ll probably feel a huge shift in your level of calm and awareness. Or you can do the opposite if you are not good at impulse control. For two days, eat nothing but Fruit Loops, Dunkin Doughnuts, Ben N Jerry’s Wavy Gravy, Starbucks Double Frappacinos with extra whipped cream, Diet Coke for every meal and snack and notice how crappy you feel (and probably look).
I think the exercise about examining your food habits is quite illuminating. Every day around 3 pm I have to have something sweet….these days I usually just microwave a small bowl of dark chocolate chips. It’s not a health tonic though.
The simple step by step instructions with pictures are so helpful. I like how she shows what your hands and feet should look like in certain poses…makes a huge difference in how the pose feels and the benefits you get from it.
What I really appreciate about this yoga training manual that is not often found in others is the modifications and suggestions for people that have certain injuries. When you are in table pose you should not hinge your neck back if you have neck issues.
Charry doesn’t assume everyone can physically do all the postures so the variations are very welcoming for beginners or for the stiff and inflexible. For the balancing poses, I think it is very helpful to have the close up of the feet and toes. It’s great to see a more challenging balancing pose and also an easier modification. You’re not auditioning for Cirque Du Soleil, you just want to get in balance health-wise.
If you do buy this manual, I would recommend going to a few traditional hatha yoga or vinyasa class so you can really learn the poses with expert supervision and the teacher can help you get into proper alignment so you get the maximum benefits from the pose.
After you feel comfortable with the basic poses, then you can use this guide to help you develop and refine your own personal practice. I was too poor to pay for classes a few years back (and the time it takes to get to classes was a drag) so for many years I just did my own practice at home, sometimes with a tape or a book or sometimes with no written or visual aids.
Before you start saying you don’t have time, money, space or privacy to practice just reflect on your excuses. Are you committed to your excuses or are you committed to changing your life? What will your life, body and health be like if you continue on the health path you are now on? Take on this program for one week and see what a difference you feel. If you regularly practice yoga already, what changes in your life did you notice when you started to make this a part of your life?
I set out to create a representations of the top spiritual sites for yoga, spirituality, meditation, holistic health and wellness. Over these subjects overlap and so many of the yoga sites I reviewed had all kinds of great content about health and wellness. Many of the sites were promoting teachers, products or places that I had a personal connection or experience with. I included many yoga teachers, studios or retreat centers that I had been to.
Top Spiritual Websites
Some of them of them were aspirational. I have never been to Rancho La Puerta in Mexico right near San Diego but since I used to work at SpaFinder and my parents have been there a few times, I feel pretty well acquainted with what they have to offer and the value they provide. When I used to work at SpaFinder, almost every single day I would come across a destination spa somewhere in the world that I just absolutely “had to go to”. I looked at so many pics and videos of the most luxurious properties and was just drooling all the time over these incredible sanctuaries of luxury and beauty.
Of course, I had to include places like Kripalu in Western MA in the Berkshires since that is where me and my hunky, Hellenic hubby saw our friendship blossom into romance and we met at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY in the Hudson Valley just outside of New York City almost 4 years ago. Even if these places didn’t play such a pivotal role in my own personal life history, I think they would have been included anyway since they both offer so many outstanding spiritual and personal growth seminars and workshops in idyllic locations.
Spiritual Sites for Mind-Body-Spirit, Yoga and Holistic Health
This top 100 spiritual sites listto be a great gateway into the holistic world of wellness and well-being, with lots of juicy yoga-centric links since I’m a yoga teacher. We, Yogis need special clothes, training, props, mats, music and equipment so I included some of my favorite sites to buy all things yogic-ally.
If you have been involved with the yoga community for a while you will recognize some of the sites on here and likely find a myriad of awesome resources. I encourage suggestions for other top spiritual websites that can be included in next year’s list. Some of the sites are just loaded with all kinds of free tips, articles, downloads and videos. Like yogadownload.com where you can get your down-dog on at home (or out and about on your mobile phone). I had to include Yogajournal.com but recommended the little know community section which is like YogaJournal’s own little Facebook where you can post pics, videos, blogs and comment on other members content.
While we all value directness and constructive criticism, please be professional and refrain from disparaging comments… no trashing anyone on this list or that will disqualify you from being considered for next year.
Ideally, you would nominate another company but I do accept self-nominations. I reached out to the webmasters
of most of the sites and if something is in quotes, then it is in their words and not mine. So this is my list of the top Spirit Mind Body Websites. I also include resources for yoga DVDs, books, clothing, retreats.
Yoga and Counselors help your with love questions to ask not only your significant other but also yourself. Many counselors that I have met recently recommend that you have a spiritual practice to help you become more mindful of negative thought patterns. I actually know quite a few counselors who I have gotten connected to recently and almost all of them tell me how they would love their clients to have a practice that helps them to center, calm and to relieve anxiety. There are some that have a yoga and counselors special seminars where they teach mindfulness or meditation. I think when a professional also has a background in human psychology that can make a hatha class even more powerful.
I actually know one holistic doctor that also was certified as a yoga teacher and she often recommends to her patients to do yoga in order to manage certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. Yoga and counselors seem to go pretty well together and having a personal practice, either at home or at a studio can be a great adjust to any therapy program that you are a part of.
I know for me when I was going through trauma I would often using my intense yoga class as an emotional detox… even crying as I was doing the poses. I was crying not because the poses were physically demanding but because I was just feeling so much release in the poses. When you are sweaty and straining in a yoga class then if you start to tear up , as long as it is a very full class with some loud music no one actually notices. In these kinds of vigorous classes, everyone is so focused on their own struggle and their own practice that they are not tuning in to what is going on with their neighbor so it ends up being a safe place to release pent up sadness.
For those that work with couples or with couples before they are getting married, they stress how important it is to go over love questions to ask your future husband or future wife. I wish I had done that before some of my significant relationships. There are so many critical love questions to ask that help you both examine your values, beliefs and what kind of lifestyle you want together.
Questions can range from asking about pets, what kind of vacations to take, how much you want your in-laws to be a part of your life, how clean you want the house to how late or early you go to sleep or wake up, how many children you want to have, how much to spend on going out or household items, the role of religion or spirituality in your relationship and literally hundreds of other questions. The one I have looked at is “1000 Questions For Couples” which is a comprehensive list of 1000 questions to ask before marriage.
What questions about your values, beliefs and lifestyle did you ask your partner before marriage? Post your thoughts on our Facebook page.
Yoga and Counselors help your with love questions to ask not only your significant other but also yourself. Many counselors that I have met recently recommend that you have a spiritual practice to help you become more mindful of negative thought patterns. I actually know quite a few counselors who I have gotten connected to recently and almost all of them tell me how they would love their clients to have a practice that helps them to center, calm and to relieve anxiety. There are some that have a yoga and counselors special seminars where they teach mindfulness or meditation. I think when a professional also has a background in human psychology that can make a hatha class even 
more powerful.
