foraging

Spring Detox

/ Self-Diagnosed Yogi / Leave a comment

He, friend!

I am enjoying the last few weeks of Spring and I wanted to share my detox plan that works for me to get my body boosted with fresh spring nutrients and slowly challenge my digestive system to digest fresh nettles and dandelion greens. I love all the spring herbs green onion, cilantro, parsley, garlic mustard. The best morning juice is green and spicy and gets my digestion fired up and ready to digest lunch. I also get to re-evaluate what I’ve been doing the past season and analyze what needs to go and what can stay or be tweaked. I include things I’m reading, listening to, and watching on TV. I absolutely adore my much-needed Spring detox.

Alëmatae- flower beginning to bloom🤩

Morning Routine

I find the morning time to be the best time for me to get my heart rate up and my body moved. I also get my daily steps completed before 8am. For my morning nutrition, I get the kettle going and make a big 32 oz hot tea with lemon and ginger. I will sip on this throughout the morning. I typically make 2 big batches of juice, one is a green juice with cucumber, celery, green apple, spinach, kale, ginger, lemon. The 2nd juice is beets, oranges, turmeric, ginger. I will choose either juice for my breakfast while I work and get through my morning. I make sure I get moving during my morning break if I’m working. Or get outside and water my garden.

Fresh green juice beams me up with nutritional power and gets my tummy grumbling💝

Lunch

I love a green lunch! My body craves the bitter greens and I even allow a small, sweet dessert when my digestion is at its peak. I have been loving a good buddha bowl. The Sunday before my work week, I will cook lentils or beans that have been soaked for 24 hours. I roast a mix of veggies I am craving that week. I love a good lemony tahini sauce and/or a pesto (garlic mustard, mustard greens, or beet greens). I will see what herbs I have ready in my garden and place them in my fridge in a plastic bag covered jar. This is the quickest throw together lunch that keeps me in check and temptation to eat processed foods at bay. I even make big batches of Spring soup with nettles and freeze leftovers in individual bags I can defrost in a pinch.

I make sure when it’s time to eat that I am centered and focused on me eating and tasting every bite and fully chew, chew, chew. Mindful eating is amazing. I mean, when is the last time you ate in silence and ate intentionally? Try it on and see what changes for you.

This is not my typical meal, but I sat under this oak tree and ate in silence, enjoying the view🥹 mindful eating wins every time!

Dinner

I like to make sure I am eating while it’s still daylight. I also make sure I am eating small. I know, I know. It’s so different how Americans are taught to eat. We have a huge dinner meal and make sure everyone is seated to eat at the table. Iced drinks, wine, beer, too much water. We get stuffed and watch TV or find something to run to instead of allowing our body time to digest. I get it, I have so much I love to do but I have to honor myself. What isn’t completed by dinner time can wait, if not, see what you can do before the sun goes down and eat dinner outside while watching the sun disappear. I enjoy a salad or soup or both! I just limit the portion and eat until I’m content. I like to eat around 5pm. I used to run straight to yoga but since my yoga is done in the morning recently, I have time to slow down.

I like to connect with my plants I water at night. I love to enjoy my backyard and read in my hammock swing. I find nature to cure me from my typical boredom of not doing anything. I allow myself this time to do nothing. I schedule it and find comfort in my backyard.

Yogi Outro

I feel the heat of the summer getting closer. I will be busy moving my body and keeping my mind in check. Digesting thoughts and experiences of the day are crucial to keeping me open and flowing in a flourishing state. I have fell off my daily journalling and I plan on getting my habit back in motion. I find as the seasons change, so does my digestion and what I need to eat. It’s always best to eat in season and that is exactly what my body craves. I feel my digestion kick start and I can feel when the food leaves my stomach! It’s amazing to be so intune with my body and learn what happens when I slow down and digest. Happy Spring cleaning!

Namastè!

All pictures by Lenape Spiritual Yogi Awakened.

White Clover Tea

/ Self-Diagnosed Yogi / Leave a comment

I don’t know about you but I feel like this has been the longest Spring I’ve ever encountered. It’s been rainy and mildly cool days and nights. I was looking for grounding on a particular misty day and decided to forage some newly bloomed white clover buds. I grabbed a basket and headed out to the backyard under my maple for cover and started my tedious task of picking.

I picked for an hour or so and got a lot of clover flowers. I decided to dry them and create a nice, refreshing glass of tea…in a few days. LOL!

Update: I never finished my post!

White Clover tea is delicous and tastes like honey and sweet flowers. I highly suggest it cold with no extra sweetener. I hope you remember to find some the next time you’re enjoying Spring in nature. Just make sure it’s away from car exhaust and animal or people pee.

Top: The clovers are washed, spin dried, and placed on a clean towel to dry a few days. Bottom: My dried clovers and tea💖
This is the most refreshing non caffinated tea. Oh yeah! There’s also added medicinal benefits😃

Enjoy!

All pictures by Lenape Spiritual Yogi Awakened.

Rain Dancer

/ Self-Diagnosed Yogi / Leave a comment

Happy Monday friends!

I love weekends! I feel that the more self-centered I am, self-focused, the most healing happens. I am literally still vibrating over my beautiful weekend. I had a great Saturday morning at the farmers market and I’m so grateful the rain held off. Since there’s been so much rain lately in my area, I had been hiding inside but during a particular rainstorm last week, I was driving and pondering about how to enjoy my new gloomy, wet environment and at that moment at the stop sign I saw 2 girls kicking at the street rivers gliding towards the storm drains and they started dancing. Wow! I’m going to learn how to dance in the rain again!

Squishy muddy clovers.

I love how situations play out right in front of you and it’s only if you’re paying attention and asking the right questions that you get your answers in real life. Seek and you will find…. literal chills. So, you see two kids dancing in the rain. What do you think? I guess it depends on what situation you came from. Did you just hang out with a friend you haven’t talked to in a while, and it made you think of your childhood memories? Did you just get in an argument with your family, and you don’t even notice the kids dancing and splashing?

My dogs didn’t even notice this frog, so it lived.

I find myself so curious into this new ability to enjoy myself in any weather. I can weather any storm. So, on Sunday I craved to dig in the dirt but guess what…yup, rain. LOL! It was a mist, so I grabbed my basket and decided to take cover under my maple tree and pick white clover flowers. This was so rewarding in the sense of me literally grounding my whole body to the earth but knowing I am collecting medicine to keep me sane through this wet Spring and into the hot summer days.

My new grounding therapy.

I also did get a chance to play in the garden and pull weeds and plant my herbs and tomato plants. I cannot wait to harvest my summer tomatoes. Right now, my kale and lettuce are great to harvest, and we’ve been enjoying all the salads. I also planted daikon, turnips, and radishes. Yum! I decided to take all the daikon, turnip and radish greens and cooked them down with bacon, onions, and garlic with a splash of cream and boy were they delicious!

My Spring garden treasures.

My yoga practice is going to be more consistent because I rejoined my favorite calorie torcher hot yoga class. I am ecstatic because it starts this morning and I’m probably going to die and take forever to come back to my body. Why would I do this to myself, you ask? Well, I enjoy the heat and how limber I become. I enjoy the sweat and I know it’s clearing out toxins and it seriously glows up my skin. We hold our poses so long our minds are telling us to get out of the pose, but we focus on breathing and keeping our Drishti focused. I love this class!

I hope you had good medicine from your weekend healing. Or maybe you work weekends, but I really hope you find the messages hiding in everyday life. I found that learning to cope with uncontrolled circumstances and finding a way to be ok with things I cannot change to be powerful. I do not like the rain only because it hinders me from the sun and being able to dig, take a walk with the dogs. I am learning to find ways to enjoy the rain and be in it, so far, my list consists of picking white clovers and dancing 🙂

Namaste!

All pictures by Lenape Spiritual Yogi Awakened.