We have been exposed to Ayurveda and cleanses a bit through our teacher. This post on MindBodyGreen seems to nail the initial steps of starting a cleanse. We have been exposed to brown-rice salads (leafy greens, brown rice, hummus, oil/vinegar) as being good base meals before coming into and out of a cleanse.

According to Ayurveda, your digestive fire has to digest EVERYTHING that you’re exposed to: all of the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and exposures through the skin. It also has to digest all the emotions and thoughts that arise from everything that you’re exposed to. This is a tall order, and most of us experience some toxic build-up that leads to blocked channels in the body and imbalances in our health.

A one-week food-based home cleanse can be summed up in the following 5 easy steps:

1. Start a kitchari diet. 

Kitchari is an easy-to-make and easy-to-digest complete meal, made with rice, yellow mung dal, spices, clarified butter and vegetables. For one week, eat this for all of your meals, and you will see the cleansing and simultaneously nourishing effect that it has on your body.

2. Avoid snacks. 

This is the best way to reset your digestion, remove toxins, and even lose weight! But you don’t need to starve yourself. If you’re hungry, have warm, cooked foods that use the same ingredients as kitchari: rice porridge, steamed or stir-fried veggies, etc. Just remember that your digestion will work best if you give it at least five to six hours between meals.

3. Sip hot water and detox tea in the morning and throughout the day. 

This also helps reset the digestion and cleanse toxins. Staying well hydrated is key. If needed, also drink room temperature water to ensure you get plenty of fluids. Be sure to avoid ice, cold drinks and caffeine.

Learn more — Here

Via MindBodyGreen and Premal Patel 

Practice Ashtanga on Moon Days?

Why don’t we practice Ashtanga on Moon Days (Full Moon and New Moon)? You will find that traditional Ashtanga shalas and studios are closed on Moon Days because Moon Days present us with an opportunity to take a break from our asana practice and reflect on the natural, subtle changes we experience on these days.

The human body is approximately 2/3 water. There are gravitational forces exerted on us by the Earth, Sun and Moon. These forces create shifts in our energy. The shifts in energy are most prevalent and powerful during the full moon and new moon. On these days, it is important to take a break from your asana practice to develop an awareness of these natural shifts in energy.

Our friend Quinn the Ashtangi posing at Sunrise, Photograph by Danielle Lussier of Lucid Practice

A Different type of Yoga Practice on Moon Days

Just because you are not practicing Ashtanga on Moon Days (or any type of asana) does not mean that you aren’t practicing “yoga.” In fact, it is very important to be in tuned to the mental aspects of the practice during this time. Meditate on how the full moon or new moon is affecting you, your friends, family, nature (i.e., if you live near the ocean, examine the tidal effects,) and society at large (i.e., on full moon nights, trips to the emergency room and police arrests dramatically increase.)

The lucid practitioner strives to harness their mind’s energy. Once this sense of still — yet keenly aware intuition is developed, you can observe how mother nature (in this case, the moon) has both subtle and obvious effects on all living things.

In my experience, I have felt that the full moon builds a strong and sometimes uncertain energy. On the contrary, the new moon creates a grounded but heavy energy and a sense of a new beginning and a clean slate.

Do you feel and see the subtle effects of the full moon and new moon?

LongTimeMother gives us a lot of awesome tips to reduce our carbon footprint and live more efficiently.

Check them out — here.

“If you practice yoga every day with perseverance, you will be able to face the turmoil of life with steadiness and maturity.” ~BKS Iyengar

When trying to wrap your mind around what Sir Ken Robinson means by “being in your element,” a state he hopes to help people achieve through his workshop How to Find Your Element on Big Think Mentor, it’s helpful to start with a counterexample: middle school in the USA. For those who have experienced this particular circle of hell, its torments are traceable to two basic causes: not wanting to be where you are, and feeling like you’re no good at whatever you’re doing there.

For me, personally, those two factors found their keenest expression at a 7th grade dance. I can’t recall the exact set of circumstances that led to my being at this dance, but it definitely wasn’t by choice. I was fascinated by yet terrified of girls and mortally self-conscious among my classmates. Faced with an impossible situation, I did the only rational thing: make a completely desperate move. I showed up dressed as a character from the early hip-hop movie Beat Street (which few in my Washington, DC prep school had seen or heard of), and started a breakdance circle in the middle of this otherwise sober affair. The thing is, I wasn’t an especially good breakdancer. Also, my approach to breakdancing (by necessity) was more collaborative than competitive.  Almost immediately, a rival breakdancer from another school entered the circle and challenged me to a “break-off.” Horrified, but with nowhere to run, I repeatedly performed my three moves: the Worm, a sort of 180-degree backspin, and a bit of robotic, upper-body “popping.” My rival, however, had the breakdancing zeal in his veins and seemed to have just returned from a 6-month sabbatical in the South Bronx. He mopped the floor with me and I slunk away in ignominy.

For many of us, adult life is an extension of that middle school awkwardness, mitigated only by a cultivated apathy. Sir Ken Robinson says it doesn’t have to be that way. Finding your “element,” he argues, is a matter of systematically identifying your talents and passions, then seeking or creating opportunities where these two factors overlap. “It’s not enough to be good at something to be in your element, says Robinson, “because there are plenty of people who are good at things they don’t really care for.” He cites the example of a talented concert pianist he met who realized mid-career that she was born to be a book editor. One day she closed her piano forever and took a job in publishing. “I’ve never been happier in my life”, she told him; “never poorer, by the way, but never happier.”

Via Big Think

How to Know Which Fruits and Veggies Have the Most Pesticides

When shopping for groceries, as consumers, we’d like to know which fruits and veggies have the most pesticicdes. Most consumers would buy organic produce if the prices were the same as non organic produce prices. If you have the money, always buy organic. If you’re cash strapped, I recommend purchasing organic produce for fruits and veggies that are most contaminated. Then, to save money, buy non organic fruits and veggies for the produce items that are least contaminated.

In order to know which foods are safe, there are several lists you can rely on. The Dirty Dozen Plus and The Clean Fifteen is a great way to educate yourself.

Based upon this information, a price conscious consumer’s grocery purchases might look like this:

Organic Blueberries (Dirty Dozen)

Non Organic Sweet Potatoes (Clean Fifteen)

Organic Kale (Dirty Dozen)

Organic Spinach (Dirty Dozen)

Non Organic Avocados (Clean Fifteen)

Non Organic Cantaloupe (Clean Fifteen)

Regardless of money, you can always create your own organic fruit and vegetable garden which we view as the best option. You’ll save money, you’ll know exactly where your food comes from, and you’ll have fun! We’ve been documenting our first year gardening on our blog and we’re happy to answer any questions from our readers. Read more about our garden here: First Steps in Creating an Organic Fruits and Vegetable Garden

Green Pepper, Italian Parsley, & Australian Basil from our latest harvest

Much of this post is based on the information provided in the helpful guide below. The guide depicts the cleanest (Clean Fifteen) and dirtiest (Dirty Dozen) non organic produce items for 2013.

The Dirty Dozen Plus and The Clean Fifteen

Share this post with everyone you care about!

~Stay Lucid

Interesting article on our attention habits, click here for full article

JF: When people talk about attention problems in modern society, they usually mean the distractive potential of smartphones and so on. Is that connected to what you’re talking about in early-childhood development?

LS: We learn by imitation, from the very start. That’s how we’re wired. Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl, professors at the University of Washington I-LABS, show videos of babies at 42 minutes old, imitating adults. The adult sticks his tongue out. The baby sticks his tongue out, mirroring the adult’s behavior. Children are also cued by where a parent focuses attention. The child’s gaze follows the mother’s gaze. Not long ago, I had brunch with friends who are doctors, and both of them were on call. They were constantly pulling out their smartphones. The focus of their 1-year-old turned to the smartphone: Mommy’s got it, Daddy’s got it. I want it.

We may think that kids have a natural fascination with phones. Really, children have a fascination with what-ever Mom and Dad find fascinating. If they are fascinated by the flowers coming up in the yard, that’s what the children are going to find fascinating. And if Mom and Dad can’t put down the device with the screen, the child is going to think, That’s where it’s all at, that’s where I need to be! I interviewed kids between the ages of 7 and 12 about this. They said things like “My mom should make eye contact with me when she talks to me” and “I used to watch TV with my dad, but now he has his iPad, and I watch by myself.”

Kids learn empathy in part through eye contact and gaze. If kids are learning empathy through eye contact, and our eye contact is with devices, they will miss out on empathy.

JF: So can people find ways to “disconnect”?

LS: There is an increasingly heated conversation around “disconnecting.” I’m not sure this is a helpful conversation . When we discuss disconnecting, it puts the machines at the center of everything. What if, instead, we put humans at the center of the conversation, and talk about with what or whom we want to connect?

Talking about what we want to connect with gives us a direction and something positive to do. Talking about disconnecting leaves us feeling shamed and stressed. Instead of going toward something, the language is all about going away from something that we feel we don’t adequately control. It’s like a dieter constantly saying to him or herself, “I can’t eat the cookie. I can’t eat the cookie,” instead of saying, “That apple looks delicious.”

Thanks to James Fallows and the Atlantic for this article

50 Life Tips and Secrets

Ryan Calvert first shared this literature with Brian and Brian shared it with me.

Jordan’s 50 Life Tips and Secrets changed my life. I shared it with hundreds of my college friends and friends and family from home too.  The result was always overwhelmingly positive and often times “life changing.” I printed this and plastered it to my wall and asked everyone to read it when they came over. I printed out multiple copies and handed them out to people I didn’t even know.

Why was this shared with 1,000,000 people? Because it’s insanely great work. Powerful yet concise pieces that challenge assumptions and provide value are inherently shareable.

Jordan is a friend of ours and we respect and admire the path he’s taken in life. He’s an outstanding guy and a thought leader for the coming generation. Check out the link below and browse his website for inspiration and thought provoking content. Their mission is bold. And simply put: they’re changing the world.

Now, we’re sharing it with the Lucid Practice Community. Who will you share it with?

50 Life Tips and Secrets