Monday Moods with a Tuesday Influence
Published: Tue, 12/01/20
We apologize in advance if you are receiving this email for the fourth time. :) Mondays never seize to amaze us! They are indeed moody. Yesterday, living up to its reputation, decided to mess with our newsletter software. Earlier this morning, after customer support told us it was all fixed we tried sending it yet again. Unfortunately, it did not work. So after switching mailing list providers, we are sending it yet again! Please, let us know if you received it and how many times. Thank you so much and Happy December!!
A few months ago we talked about Mondays being completely untrustworthy days. :-)
This is why you got to love them! Their ever changing nature means you never know what to expect from them! In the spirit of Mondays, we would love to share with you, our not so random and relatively trustworthy "moods" on a weekly basis, from eating and drinking to playing in the dirt. So every week, we'll give you the latest and greatest from what we are reading to what Tim is cooking, to any new toys we are using, and maybe even a little bit of the behind the scenes of our podcast. Thank you for sharing in our love of Mondays!
I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency -Plato
As you probably guessed from the quote, this week we are reading an excellent book on the highly under rated and mostly misunderstood practice of fasting. Fasting is the oldest, simplest and most inexpensive form of cleansing as long as it is practiced properly.
Ayurveda recommends 12 consecutive hours of no caloric intake within a 24-hour period. Hippocrates said that the best of all medicines is resting and fasting. Of course, never undertake a fasting practice without checking with your medical professional first.
And now for one of the ways Tim and I like to break a fast. Coffee and chocolate mousse. According to Ayurveda Outlaw Chef Tim:
1. Place the mixing bowl and mixing blade in the freezer for 10 minutes. We use an immersion hand blender.
2. As soon as you take the bowl and blade out of the freezer, add 1 cup of organic heavy whipping cream into the mixing bowl, along with 2 tablespoons of cacao powder.
3. Pulsate on and off until the cream becomes smooth and is no longer liquid. Should take 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Place a serving in your favorite bowl and enjoy with a cup of your favorite coffee. You will notice how the sweetness of the mousse complements and showcases the boldness of the coffee. We like to enjoy the chocolate mousse with either Greek coffee or french press.
5. We use the Addictive Wellness cacao powder and we like it so much that we became affiliates with them. So if you buy the cacao powder through this link, we might make 25 cents. 😊😊
In the spirit of Hippocrates, rest does not only mean sleep. We have to be able to rest our mind while awake, in order to even be able to get good sleep. To that end, Tim and I like to observe nature any chance we get. However, we don't always get to observe nature, out in nature. In that case, we have found that even virtual nature will do.
Here is Passing Storm Meditation - A Forest Bathing Technique. You will be surprised at how great it works! By the way, the video is from the Yogi Bear Shack in North Georgia.
Behind the mic - Last week's podcast episode was part 1 of us answering the most common question we get. What is an Ayurvedic diet? Even though we try to answer this question referring back to the ancient Ayurvedic text as much as possible, Tim brought up one of his most favorite cultures of all times, the Vikings. The Vikings used to make something similar to a stew called scouse. A short video that gives you the significance of scouse in the Viking cuisine is this one (go to 3min 01sec) https://youtu.be/ikCoIj34QNE
Speaking of the Vikings - Did you know that the Vikings used the Icelandic spar calcite (a clear-ish transparent variety of calcite) as a navigational aid? They were embarking into the unknown trusting that nature would show them the way. The reason that the Icelandic spar calcite works as a navigational tool is due to Mother Nature's ultimate intelligence.
Even on a cloudy day, the sky still forms a pattern of concentric rings of polarized light with the sun at its center. If you have a crystal that depolarizes light, you can determine the location of the rings around the hidden sun. Calcite is such a crystal. It has a property called birefringence: Light passing through calcite is split along two paths, forming a double image on the far side. The brightness of the two images relative to each other depends on the polarization of the light. By passing light from the sky through calcite and changing the crystal's orientation until the projections of the split beams are equally bright, it is theoretically possible to detect the concentric rings of polarization and thus the location of the sun.
Next time you are at the studio, ask us to see the Viking stone. :-)
And now for something off the wall - Did you know that the month of December gets its name from decem, which is Latin for “ten"? This is because December was the tenth month of the Roman calendar.
Have a marvelous week! Na'maste Kala!
- Tim and Vie