I love everything coconut! So I was pleasantly surprised to find vegan macaroons at Dr. Tam's in Metrowalk.
P.S. I wasn't able to take pictures of my, um, three-course meal of kare-kare, "chicken" adobo, sweet and sour "fish" because I was so hungry it just slipped my mind to take pictures.
0 Comments
When you practice yoga at the park, you can say things these things and literally mean them:
Look up, see the sky. Reach down, palms down to the earth. Lift arms up to the sky. Feet over your head, on to the grass. Feel your steady joyful connection to the earth. I teach Free-for-All Jivamukti Classes most Sundays 930am at Ayala Triangle Gardens. Come one come all! Read more about Free-for-All yoga, upcoming schedules and FAQs. Dr. Tam's (Metro Walk)
Sebastian's Sorbet (Katipunan and other branches)
Mister Bean (Eastwood City)
Echostore (Serendra), Market Market, Coconut House
Healthy Options (Shangrila and Powerplant branches)
This is by no means a complete list. I only have pictures of ice cream I've eaten in the last month or so. More to come at an indefinite time!
Lunch after Free-for-All yoga.
They were advertising this event I am considering attending.
Swagat is located along Rada Street in Legaspi Village, Makati.
Every so often, I am asked by those who have an inclination towards Jivamukti Yoga: Do I have to be a vegan to become a Jivamukti Yoga Teacher? My short answer is: Yes.
If you ask other Jivamukti Teachers, they may respond differently. But this is the way I see it according to my understanding of Jivamukti Yoga. As a graduate of the Jivamukti Teacher Training program, I was taught that three things make a good teacher: lineage, daily practice, and liking people. Lineage is having your teachers' blessings for you to teach. Your teachers had the blessings of their teachers to teach, so on and so forth. They acknowledge you and you acknowledge them. Jivamukti Yoga co-founders Sharon Gannon and David Life are rights activists, and the Jivamukti lineage is about compassion for all beings, including (and perhaps especially) animals. Honoring this lineage means that I carry out their teachings in thoughts, words, and actions through living and teaching veganism. Honoring this lineage means that I do not betray the trust of my teachers by explicitly altering their teachings according to my convenience or self-interest. They gave their blessings based on this trust, and I do my part in this teacher-student relationship by being worthy of this trust. Daily practice refers to devoting oneself to the physical practice of yoga, the practice of oneness and interconnection with all beings. It requires that we connect inwards as well as outwards. By connecting inwards, it means we are constantly challenging our standards of compassion, constantly checking if we can further expand our circle of concern. By connecting outwards, it means we look into other beings as part of who we are, seeing them as similar to us and as having the same right to freedom and happiness as us. Yoga is a physical practice. On the mat, we come into stretches, bends, twists, inversions, balances. Off the mat, we choose what (and hopefully not whom) we put inside our bodies, what we use to shield our bodies with, and how we deal with the physical connection with all other beings. We all share the same space on Earth, and in this sense, we are all literally and physically connected. The daily practice then necessarily translates to the physical actions we take in our daily lives, not limited only to asana but includes our choices for food, clothing, means to earn our living etc. Liking people in my interpretation means respecting the personhood or individual interests of each being. We may have come to refer to only human beings as persons, but animals are persons too in that they have inidividual interests to be happy and free. To like them is to respect them is to make our intentions not to harm them. Eating animals, wearing them, or using them in any other way harms them, and we cannot like them and intentionally harm them at the same time. We hear it being said all the time that yoga is a practice, not perfection. That is not an excuse not to do everything that we can. On the contrary, practice emphasizes that we look into what it is that we resist and we dig deep into the root causes of why we resist it. Veganism is an intention rather than a standard for perfection. A yogi does not have to be a vegan to take Jivamukti Teacher Training, but during the course of the training, immense amount of information about animal cruelty will be presented. He or she can no longer use ignorance as an excuse not to go vegan. The yogi who has the good karma to take Jivamukti Teacher Training has the resources, means, and time to make the transition to veganism. Also, since we are in the practice to heal disconnection, making vegan choices seems to me to be the simplest and most minimal baseline in reinstating connections. I can understand if my lengthy answer is taken as militant or unforgiving, though that is not my intention. I simply believe that individuals who are drawn to Jivamukti are drawn to it for the same reasons that I am drawn to it. The practice uplifts, empowers, inspires, challenges, teaches, and reminds us that we are whole and holy. It is because of this that we must believe, especially if we want to become Jivamukti Teachers, that our hearts can be so open that there is no need to be stingy with our compassion and no need to undermine our own potential for kindness. Going back to the question: Do I have to be a vegan to become a Jivamukti Yoga Teacher? My answer is: If you are even slightly considering becoming a Jivamukti Yoga teacher, I think it is because your consciousness is going through a deep process, an emotional and spiritual surgery, if you will. You are attracted to the possibility of ending not only your own suffering but the suffering of others. So be brave, take the Jivamukti Teacher Training, and go vegan. Do it in any order that suits you, whichever comes first, but do it. Believe in yourself. You have it in you. I had no idea I could get Gardein anywhere in Manila until Edwina (from PETA Asia-Pacific) posted a picture on her Facebook wall. So here are my vegan food finds at Metro Market Market. Not the healthiest, but good for those too-lazy-to-cook days. Besides, even vegans need instant food in case of emergency. Realized this last time I got rained in!
After teaching a 630am Jivamukti class at Yoga Plus Ortigas, I was choosing betwen taking a yoga class at Bliss Greenhills or going home for self-practice. Teaching at three studios in five locations gives me the benefit of taking any of the classes for free, so I figured I'd go take class and enjoy being a student. It was definitely the right choice. Not only did I enjoy Isabel's class, I also bumped into Carmela (one of the two super vegans behind The Superfood Grocer) and she invited me for lunch at her home. How can I refuse? As it turns out, this is Carmela's idea of "impromptu lunch" with "having nothing prepared".
I love that she used real vegetables. As an advocate of healthy eating, she prepared the meal with whole foods and fresh ingredients only. Even the ice cream that she whipped out on the spot was largely unprocessed. It was a combination of frozen strawberries, raw cashews, vanilla hemp rice powder, and soy milk! I ate a lot, but that's not surprising at all.
She organizes her superfood ingredients in mason jars. They look pretty! I am so happy with The Superfood Grocer raw cacao nibs that she gave me as a birthday gift! So if you see me devouring something that looks like chocolate, I am really just getting my dose of antioxidants, iron, magnesium, happy hormones and whatnot. I'm healthy that way, you see!
The Superfood Grocer is the place to get your Maca Root, Malunggay Leaves, Coco Cacao Nibs, Coconut Sugar, Camu Camu Berry, White Chia Seeds, Vanilla Hemp Rice Protein, and Spirulina. The prices are competitive and they deliver right to your doorstep! Also ask about health and nutrition seminars with full-course meals that they hold upon request. Trust me, the food alone is worth it!
I have a fixation on young adult books. I think it is because the internal struggles of coming-of-age are complex. It is at that time that we seek our identities and our insecurities are easily ignited by a pimple on the face, a few extra pounds, or by something a peer thoughtlessly said. I remember being very insecure about my weight. It was like I had no compass and needed somebody else's approval for me to understand who I was. So yes, it is fragile enough to be a "regular" kid, and I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to grow up having extraordinary struggles.
The book Wonder by R.J. Palacio takes us to additional layers of struggles that the central character Auggie goes through. Auggie has a genetic condition that makes his appearance unusual, to say the least. The beauty in reading such a book, or reading the voice of anybody in general, is that we take away any conscious or unconscious biases we may have towards how people look and just get to know the soul inside. Wonder is at times heartwarming and other times heartbreaking. And it makes me wonder how I would react if I knew someone like him when I was at that age. Would I be able to see past outward appearances and know that his internal struggles are a lot like mine, and yet they could never really be just like mine? It is beautiful how Auggie feels that all he is doing is just trying to be a kid, and only the distance of the reader could comprehend how brave he is simply for being who he is. His sister Via is a sweet character, flowing with love and affection towards Auggie while struggling on her own to find acceptance and a normal life. Reading the book makes me want to seek out every adolescent like Auggie and give him or her a hug. It is a reminder for us to look inside and see who we are, how we see beauty, how we measure kindness, and how capable we are of empathy. "Shall we make a new rule of life... Always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" - J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird Download Wonder by R.J. Palacio in Kindle Edition ($10.45) to read it in a few minutes.
The first hour of January 9, 2013 I watched Scrappy eating a chunk of cucumber (on my bed) while I wrote my class for the day ahead and created my playlist.
After a good night's sleep and a 2-hour walk with Scrappy, I self-practiced to my new playlist. It is the first self-practice that I truly enjoyed- perhaps ever. Lately, my self-practice has been focused on being dry-runs for classes that I teach, and I find myself unable to stay in the present moment. I'd stop to take notes or would just be lazy and not hold the same length of breath counts. Today, though, I was really feeling it and I sang along to many of the songs on my playlist. Chanting Om Namah Shivayah during the 5-minute headstand felt quite powerful. I was inspired to hold poses according to the rhythm of the songs than manual counting. It felt right.
Poolside self-practice view.
View when I look up.
Listened to Manorama to learn how to chant YS III.38 properly.
te samādhāv upasargā vyutthāne siddhayah By giving up the love of power, you attain the power of love. Power breakfast. Vegan meat rolls with brown rice and green smoothie made with peaches, bananas, celery, flax seeds, and maca powder.
Taught a 1pm class where I had to practice what I preach (Let Go) on the spot. My iPhone battery got drained in the middle of the playlist which I planned my class around, the clock was not working, and it turned out to be a very different class than I planned. It was supposed to be a really fun, let-loose kind of class. Let. Go.
Late lunch/ early dinner at Agico which lasted about 6 hours. Thank you Andrew, Ali, Marie, Bianca, Carmela, and Ralph for being such great company! So grateful to have a group of kind and compassionate non-9-to-6 vegans to share my day with. What we ate.
Not only that, Marie brought vegan cheese too!
It was a beautiful day. That said, I still don't feel like I am 34.
I ordered the falafel burger without the mayo-based sauce it usually comes with, and asked them to replace it with barbeque sauce instead. I like it and I will be back for more!
Burger Bar is located in Greenbelt 2 Makati and is currently on soft opening. |
Archives
March 2020
|