Being Mindful

This is my third attempt at writing this post. It started out somewhat differently because I've been thinking aloud as I tap away on my laptop trying to get to what I wanted to say and I have no doubt that it will evolve and change as I write. You see things have happened recently, 'life has happened' and it led me to the following thoughts.

Sometimes things happen in life and you get dragged along in the tide unable to change what's about to unfold. There's no point in 'what ifs' or 'what you could have done' because it will all ultimately happen as it is meant to happen. You simply have to sit back and let it!


The difficult part is to allow even the painful things in life to unfold without resistance and somehow in the process find some peace by being able to shut out the internal chatter that ultimately causes anxiety. The kind of chatter that defeats you.

In the last couple of years I've been exploring the practice of mindfulness and I have been finding it really helpful to shut out the internal chatter and find a peaceful place within.

I'm constantly on a journey with this, but I find as I get older and the more I learn it's easier to be mindful and find a peaceful place in the middle of my thoughts, even if just for a few minutes. 

It's essentially about being present, in the 'now', finding a moment to breathe and that being all there is in that moment. Just focusing on the sensation of breathing. When you focus on your breathing its easier to shut out the noise of your thoughts. 

It's a practice that also helps you be aware of the internal chatter because we are so used to it simply being there and we dont realise that we don't need to listen to all of it. Mindfulness teaches you to not only quiet your thoughts but enables you to choose which ones you want to listen to. And it enables those of us who suffer from anxiety to identify it and and avoid the descent into the pit.


In my quest I've found that there are so many amazing resources online for this including countless guided meditations on YouTube. As well as lots of articles and great books. There's loads of practical exercises you can do too, but ones others find great don't really do it for me, they're not my thing. I kind of like to keep these things simple and uncomplicated otherwise I lose interest!. A while back I found a 10 minute Guided Meditation on YouTube and I've stuck with it.  It's saved to a play list and when I need to be still and quiet my mind, which is usually when I feel myself descending into an anxiety pit, I open the YouTube app on my phone and hit play.  

I could keep writing but I'll leave it there for now. In the process of writing the post above I've learnt more yet again. Part of the journey of my life has been to overcome anxiety and sometime in the near future I'll share some of the other stuff that's helped me. In recent years I've found some really helpful natural therapies, but it's important to remember that we're all wired a little differently and what works for one may not work for all, but maybe bits of it will. It's simply a matter of finding the unique combination that works for you.

And for those that are fortunate not to suffer anxiety, mindfulness can simply offer a few moments of peace in a noisy world.

For now in my mind my goal is to be a bit like the boat in the picture, just floating along on a calm sea. Breathing in and breathing out.......

In the Raw and a little Fermented!

I've been more than a little fascinated with the benefits of fermented foods for quite some time now. There have been a few attempts at making sauerkraut in the last year but the results have usually ended up being consumed by my best friend. But in recent months the whole fermenting fascination has been rekindled by chef Pete Evens 'Paleo Way'. I eagerly awaited the release of his culture for life fermenting kit only to find that it was a little out of my price bracket. So I decided to order some vegetable starter culture online at healyourself.com.au and go back to the good old fashioned way of fermenting in air lock preserving jars. 2 days after I received shipping notification for the starter culture an email appeared in my inbox from The Raw Chef, Russell James, offering the fermented vegetable module of his online Fermentation course at a ridiculous price... so I snapped it up.

The particular course I purchased offered 10 recipes plus access to a bonus 4. They include not only a downloadable pdf version of each recipe but also a video showing either Russell or his colleague Amy demonstrating how to make each one. The trick to creating fermented vegetables that don't grow mold is all in how you pack it into the jar! So simple yet so easy to mess up. Fortunately in my previous adventures I managed to create without mold but didn't have the confidence to eat it hence my best friend being my guinea pig. 

My first attempts in the last week were using Himalayan salt on it's own as a catalyst to ferment then later in the week after my starter culture arrived I started using that. The advantage of the starter culture is that it creates a ferment with a much higher pro biotic content than you would get using salt alone.

Here's some of what I've made so far. It's still all in the fermentation stage but I have sampled and it's already delish and  that's coming from someone whose taste buds previously found sauerkraut to be totally undesirable

The other thing that's happened as a result of this is that I've also rekindled my love of raw food eating and have taken the dehydrator out of the cupboard and started creating again. The Raw Chef has recipes on his blog and I've taken a few of these and run with them. So far this week I've created zucchini tortillas, buckwheat bread, marinated mushrooms, dried tomatoes, cashew mayonnaise and raw macadamia cheese.

Top left: zucchini wrap ready to dehydrate. Top right: assembling the wrap with grated

carrot, lettuce, marinted adn dehydrated mushrooms, macadamia cheese, dried tomatoes 

and cashew cheese. Bottom left and right:all wrapped up and ready to eat 

I'm still eating cooked foods but this has been reduced and I have to say I'm feeling better for it. I'd started eating more processed foods again and as a result my sugar cravings had come back. In the last week I've noticed a distinct decline in my sugar cravings. I'm hoping these will go completely once I start eating the fermented veg and krauts

If you want to experiment yourself and need a little inspiration or guidance the Raw Chef offers a free 10 Recipe eBook, there's a link in the side bar.

Looking for inspiration

I haven't had a lot to say lately so I thought would take the time to introduce you to the new blog of my dear friend Trudy. She has an amazing insights into inner peace and joy. You can find her wisdom at Wisteria Wellbeing.

Photo by Oliver Berghold via Unsplash

  (I found this photo on Unsplash a website that offers free high resolution stock photos.)


Libby :)

Random Thought #1

Sorry I’ve been AWOL, I’ve been busy contemplating life and sorting through some of the dilemmas that remained from the disaster that was 2013. And I’m happy to report that on the important bits I’ve come out on the happier side of life. 

This leads me to a random thought inspired by a post I found on Facebook

 courtesy of The Dog Buddha 

 

 

  

Sometimes the things we see as imperfections or flaws in our character can actually be hidden blessings. 

 A negative is not a bad thing when we grow from it. 

 

Gluten Free Tuna Piadina

Earlier this week I found Jamie Oliver's "Save with Jamie" on sale in a local shop. I'd watched a few episodes of the TV series and the book was a must have. Tonight I attempted my favourite recipe from the episodes I watched, Jamie's Tuna Melt Piadina, but with a few variations. 

A Piadina is a toasted flat bread, and being gluten intolerant I thought I'd give it a crack with some gluten free self raising flour and I made a few adjustments to the filling according to my taste.

The Piadina is basically self raising flour and water. Next time I'd be inclined to add a little oil as the gluten free flour made it a little dry.  Once combined the flour mix is kneaded and rolled into a ball then flattened to fit the base of an 18cm non stick fry pan. It's cooked for several minutes on both sides until puffy and golden brown. Once cooked its sliced thru the middle to create 2 discs. 

This is the flat bread in the pan, sorry the photos a little blurred! 

For the filling I used tuna, cannellini beans, brown onion, cheddar, smooth feta, garlic chives and thyme. These were all mixed together in a bowl.

I put a light coating of organic Dijon mustard on one side of the flat bread before adding the tuna mix and putting the whole thing back in the pan until the cheese in the mix was melted. 

Served with a side salad of grape tomatoes and lettuce the only thing left to do was enjoy..... 

For Jamie Oliver's version of this you'll need to buy the cook book which is full of some amazingly simple but tasty recipes. 

Thanks for the inspiration Jamie. 

in my garden

I've been spending a lot of time in my little vegie/herb patch lately. It's kind of my respite from the world, when I'm out there it's just me and the greenery. 

A few weeks back I sowed some lettuce mix seeds into a take away container. 

Yesterday it was time to plant them out into pots and see which ones would survive.

It was also time to transfer the Mizuna that I had been growing soiless on my window sill into some soil. 

With a bit of love soon I'll have lots more tasty treats for my salad bowl.

Gardens are a lot like people and relationships, with a bit of love and some nuture they flourish. It's not a new thought or concept but it's good to be reminded.....

basil

I love the smell of fresh basil and it's even better when it's home grown. This is a bunch I picked earlier

I threw it in the Thermomix with a handful of organic cashews, garlic, Himalayan salt and some locally produced olive oil and voila.....

Chunky Basil and Cashew pesto. This little dish of yumminess was the perfect condiment for my dinner

Crispy skinned Tasmanian salmon fillet with native lemon pepper seasoning, cucumber, home grown lettuce and chard, and a cherry tomato sauce that I made the other day. And of course a couple of dollops of my fresh pesto......It was delish