Get Active, Nourish & Be Grateful Ebook: A big thank you!

Firstly, I just want to say a MASSIVE thank you! 

Thank you to everyone who has supported not only my yoga and SUP yoga career but also my partnership with Nicole De Valter (nee Kropp) in creating a global community that is Active, Nourish, Grateful.

Without your support and eagerness to be part of the information sharing, the ideas, the movement and the soul nourishing goodness we would not be here today releasing our first ever Ebook. 

Get Active, Nourish & Be Grateful aims to inspire and provide an easy to follow guide to living your best life. The practical tips and guides in each of the three chapters will give you options to nourish your body and your soul and to try something new. There are no hard and  fast rules in this ebook because Nicole and I believe that everything should be done in moderation, this is something we've learnt over the years and it works - both before and after you make lifestyle changes. 

As part of this I've included a meditation mini guide which is a starting point to living a mindful and present life. You can incorporate this with your very own pranayama (or breathing) practice because let's face it, our ability to breathe is our ability to live and yet we very rarely sit down to focus on it. Better yet, use your meditation mini guide, pranayama tips and the yoga flows in the Get Active chapter to really step it up a notch. 

Nicole has done a wonderful job on using her Holistic Health Coach knowledge to provide you with guides on super-foods, your very own shopping list that you can print and some absolutely delicious recipes for any time of day that are easy to make and simple to understand. This is something that she has taught me so much about and is always able to provide an answer to all of my questions (even the ridiculous ones). 

These recipes have been developed so that there are no surprises when you read the method. This is one of the things we both felt very passionate about as we are too often disappointed after spending hours shopping and prepping our food only to find we don't have a dehydrator or spiralizer! 

Most importantly, we wanted to share this information with you because we want to continue to follow your story as you work towards your best and most beautiful self (inside and out). 

You can invest in our ebook by following the Active Nourish Grateful links on both of our websites or simply CLICK HERE. 

View fullsize

A very brief introduction to Meditation

Check out my very short introduction to Meditation as part of the Active Nourish Grateful Challenge. This was the theme for Day 29 (so it’s a couple of days late in being uploaded). 

Hopefully it provides a brief insight and starting point to meditation especially for those who feel that they simply won’t ever be able to still the mind. 

If you want more information about Patanjali’s 8 Limbs of Yoga you can find it online, I reference Limbs 4,5,6,7 – breathing, withdrawal of the senses, concentration and finally meditation (the eight is  enlightenment, so you get where I’m going). 

The Eight Limbs of Yoga is something that was fundamental in my yoga practice and then my teacher training. Asana, or the physical element of yoga, is only one very small part of the ultimate goal, but when combined with some or all of the other limbs it can be an incredible experience for those who practice. 

Breathe in presence, Breathe out Gratitude - Guest Blog

We all hear it. Be more grateful, be more present. But do we truly understand why it is important? Do we have a tool that can directly and almost immediately bring us into the present moment? Or is it just something we think is beneficial for our health and happiness but we don’t know how to integrate.

Do I even need to state that our breath is more important than healthy food, alkaline water, green smoothies and daily exercise. Why? Our breath is our life force, with out it we die within minutes. Our lungs are our life support, and our breath is always there to nourish our body with oxygen, cleanse our body from toxins and with little or no effort at all.

Anytime we feel scattered when making choices and “big” decisions, anxious about the future, stuck in the past, or nervous tension, our breath is here to anchor us. Ground us in the present moment where we can feel, connect and find clarity. Like a life long companion waiting for you to reconnect, with open arms and abundance of energy to share. When living in presence we feel truly “here” in every situation, whether we are walking, hanging the washing up or in conversation. Like we have no where better to be than where we are at this present moment. It gives us time to appreciate what is really going on “now”. Our days don’t feel as rushed just to get to the end. We stop racing to death and start living at our full potential right here, right now.

The problem is, it is too simple. Therefore hard to see the point in just taking a few deeper, slower, longer breaths per day. Human beings breathe 21 600 times per day so by changing 3 of these each day we are changing a massive pattern, which is life changing. The best thing is, correct breathing is free. Now there is something to be grateful for.
Bodhi.

Bodhi’s passion for breath and yoga is contagious, his presence as a teacher is uplifting, joyful and deeply encouraging. A dedicated surfer, psychosomatic therapist, yoga therapist, Energetic healer and lifestyle specialist.

Getting Grounded and Grateful - Guest Blog by Pip Herbert

I am just loving connecting with so many self inspired women, who are real, authentic and living and breathing their passions.  Today's guest to the blog is the incredibly talented spiritual coach Pip Herbert from Grounded Guidance.  

Pip is going to share some insights on how to get practice mindfulness through being grounded and showing gratitude.  Pip take it away...

Each morning, I get up, go outside and ground myself, I usually exercise at this time too, and I get present.

But what does this mean and what difference does it make?

By stopping to listen to the sounds around me, tune into my body, my breath, notice my emotions, I am fully present in the moment.  It is very challenging to maintain this level of mindfulness, of presence throughout the entire day, as of course we lead busy lives filled with distractions… doing several things at once, day dreaming, or thinking about what to cook for dinner.

If I’m ungrounded, I am clumsy, my head is in a haze, I feel scattered and may try to put the milk away in the cupboard, I am certainly not feeling empowered by what I want to create in my life.

 Like anything, mindfulness takes practice and getting grounded takes intention. Remembering to stop for a moment and BREATHE. Plant your feet on the ground and send all that buzzing energy into the earth, let go of the exhaustion. Be in that moment.

 

Allow yourself to be fully present with the person you’re listening to.  To feel what your body needs, and be connected to your soul-essence, your intuition.

 In this space of grounding and mindfulness, I find what naturally arises is gratitude.

I am present enough to notice the beauty around me and appreciate how lucky I am. You do not have to be feeling particularly optimistic to allow the blissful feeling of gratitude to envelope you. If you are struggling to think of something, simply remember how privileged you are, that there is always someone worse off than you.

When we are focusing on the many wonderful things in our life, we create more of this thanks to the universal law of attraction. Often we are thinking about what’s yet for us to achieve, to buy, or what we don’t have yet. When we shift our attention to what we DO have, the universe conspires to give you more of that. In the space of gratitude I experience joy, happiness, thankfulness, peace, love, excitement. Hell yeah to more of that!


So – try it. Each day, think of or write down 3 things you’re grateful for. Really connect to the emotion of it when you do this. You may be surprised how great it feels.


 

Set your intentions, be deliberate

By Kat Harding

As I was sitting on the beach I decided to finally pull out my Mi Goals diary and put pen to paper on what I was going to do to make my dreams become a reality.

This is something that I sat down to do at the start of the year but couldn’t seem to vocalise what exactly it was that I was going to do, or achieve this year. That being said I knew broadly what it was but I just didn’t know how I was going to make it happen.

So I started to test the waters, I started to put myself out there, to write, to take pictures, to experience, to network, to meet, to research, to consider. The emotions I’ve gone through have been insane and incredible but it’s helped me get to this point, where I finally have 5 or 6 very clear ideas and I know exactly what I need to do to make it happen. In addition to that I have met and have rekindled friendships with people in my life who want to make their dreams come true, or make a change, or take a leap like me, so we are sticking together and we are doing it. It’s so scary but so exciting at the same time.

I sat down and looked at the goals section which I really should have done in January and within minutes had 6 short and medium term goals written down including to do lists and the overview of what I want to achieve. 

After watching some inspirational talks by Vegie Head and Robyn J Law on Thursday night at Rock Your Bloggy, it became even more apparent to me that setting your intentions and being deliberate as well as networking, meeting, and working hard are the key ingredients for success in any career choice in life. Being passionate about what you do is the starting point, channelling your ideas and creativity are the ingredients and success is the product.

And you know what, from where I was at the beginning of the year, returning from England to home, being completely lost, gaining qualifications to teach and share things that I love and then not knowing if I would ever be able to make any sort of living out of it, I can safely say that your dream, whatever it might be is 100% achievable!

Be deliberate, set your intentions, we are half way through 2014 and the best is yet to come! 

JUL. 21 2014