In my experience, yoga sheds a powerful light on everything that is going on in your life, often inspiring change. The mat is a safe space to work through thoughts and emotions, putting things in perspective. Really listening to what comes up when you practice allows you to see mental and physical patterns that are no longer serving you. Let’s look at the dictionary definition of catalyst:

From Merriam-Webster: cat·a·lyst

1: a substance that enables a chemical reaction to proceed at a usually faster rate or under different conditions (as at a lower temperature) than otherwise possible

2: an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action

Yoga is the agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action. A regular practice helps us make decisions more in line with our authentic self and not to satisfy our ego or external expectations. What changes has yoga inspired you to make?

I just got British TV chef Anjum Anand’s book Anjum’s New Indian, which is a great read for both inspiration and recipes. I love browsing beautiful cookbooks, bookmarking dishes I want to make in the future. (I may never get around to it, but that doesn’t seem to take away from the enjoyment.)

Anjum has an interesting recipe for a Gujarati dal she calls Sweet and Sour Lentils with Peanuts, which I just tagged with a post-it for the next time I’m cooking. One of the most popular posts on this blog has been my Favorite Masoor Dal Recipe, so I thought you might be ready for another one!

Sweet and Sour Lentils with Peanuts
From Anjum’s New Indian by Anjum Anand

1 cup split pigeon peas (tuvar dal), rinsed well
1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 large tomato, quartered
2 tbsp raw or roasted peanuts
1 1/2-1 3/4 tbsp brown sugar or jaggery, to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4-1/2 pure red chile powder or 2-3 round red chiles or dried red chiles
1 rounded tsp garam masala
Salt, to taste
5-6 tsp lemon juice, or to taste

Tarka

2 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves
1/2 inch piece of cinnamon stick
8 curry leaves

Place the lentils and 3 3/4 cup water in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then skim off any froth and simmer until soft, around 20-30 minutes. Blend to a smooth paste with a hand blender.

Meanwhile, blend the ginger and tomato to a smooth paste. Add the cooked lentils with the peanuts, sugar, turmeric, chile powder (or chiles), garam masala, salt and lemon juice and simmer for 5-7 minutes.

Heat the ghee or oil in a small saucepan. Add the asafoetida and cook for 5 seconds. Add the whole spices and allow to cook for 40 seconds over a low heat or until the mustard seeds pop. Add the curry leaves, let them crackle, then pour into lentils. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Add extra hot water from a recently boiled kettle to loosen, if necessary, then serve.

Official site: Anjum Anand
YouTube: Spinach and Lentil Curry (recipe at the end)
Interview in The Guardian: My nine to five: Anjum Anand

I almost never practice yoga with a mirror in the room, both by choice and because the yoga studios I go to don’t have them. Not having a mirror allows you to focus internally and not be distracted by how the body looks. Last week, however, I practiced in an empty exercise room at the gym that had a mirror. Boy, was that an eye opener!

I think I have pretty decent alignment in many of the common poses, having studied them in detail. But the mirror quickly told me that I have developed some bad habits. While I continued my short practice it almost became a game of “spot the alignment error in the mirror.” A rounded lower back, floating ribs jutting out, uneven hips…it wasn’t pretty!

This was definitely not my most focused practice, but it really made me aware of how easy it is to stop working on a pose once it becomes routine. Especially if you practice a lot at home or in big classes with few adjustments, occasionally try to practice with a mirror or even record a video. It’s of course not as good as a private teacher, but if that’s not possible, a mirror is a great tool for studying poses and self-adjustment.

Now back to work on my chaturanga…

Summer is finally here, and July 9th you can take your yoga outside at the 3rd annual Yoga for Hope event. Yoga for Hope is an outdoor benefit yoga class, this year lead by Jenniferlyn Chiemingo, Dora Gyarmati, Jennifer Isaacson, and Cosetta Romani. Last year they had over 300 participants and raised over $30,000 for City of Hopes cancer programs. Talk about karma yoga!

To read more and register for the event go to the Yoga for Hope website. Hope to see you there!

2011 Seattle Yoga for Hope
Saturday, July 9, 2011 9:00am
Seattle Center North Fountain Lawn

Lift your arms and stretch for the sky at the third annual Yoga for Hope, a 90-minute outdoor yoga class to benefit cancer research programs at City of Hope, one of the nation’s leading research, treatment and education centers for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Four of Seattle’s top yoga teachers will lead participants of all levels on an inspiring journey for the soul.

Yoga promotes mind, body and spiritual relaxation and well-being, and has been shown to manage the side effects of medical treatment and improve quality of life for patients with cancer, according to researchers at City of Hope.

After class I started thinking about how yoga can help us live life with more awareness, and how great it is that we come together and share this in yoga class. But wouldn’t it be great if we also shared our thoughts on the practice, read books about different paths, and supported each other in our work to live more authentically outside the classroom? Kind of like a yoga class / spiritual book club / creative support group? With lots of chai, of course

Does anyone know of such a group or belong to one?

Send me a note if you know any teachers you’d like to see profiled!

Q & A with Yoga Teacher Lisa Steele

How did you decide to become a yoga teacher?

I was doing work study to be able to afford yoga at Cyndi Lee’s Om Yoga Center in NYC. I was there a lot, and I would see how excited and intense the trainees were during their teacher training, and how they would be practicing Sanskrit in the elevator, and their adjustments in the hallways. I wanted to be doing that! That’s really what drew me to the teacher training…to learn all the names of the poses in Sanskrit. And to deepen my practice amidst community. I didn’t think I’d be any good at the actual teaching part

Who have been your main teachers and influences?

The AMAZING Cyndi Lee and Jennifer Brilliant headed the program at Om, and supplemented the training with other teachers. I can never be grateful enough for that training; it was life-changing, and challenged me in so many ways I never could have imagined. Cyndi and Jennifer, Susan Orem, David Nichtern, Amy Ippoliti, Elena Brower…so many insanely terrific teachers at Om that inspired, humbled and influenced me.

What’s your personal practice?

I think it’s important for teachers to have a home practice, and also to support, learn from, and experience the classroom environment and other teachers. I meditate and practice in the mornings, and take classes as often as I can. I have a blast making up and figuring out different vinyasa sequences to play with in class when I practice and explore on my own. When I roll out my yoga mat, my dog Sandy always steps on it and does the most perfect downward facing dog you’d ever want to see.

Favorite pose? Least favorite pose?

I’m leading the Yogalife teacher training this year, and during one of our first meetings I had invited other teachers who’d also be in the training to attend. We sat around in a circle, and went around the room saying which pose was our current “conundrum” pose and which pose currently “delighted us”. One of the teachers responded with,

“My favorite pose is any asana that brings me closer to my Self. My least favorite pose is any asana that takes me away from my Self”. I think I’ll crib that answer.

What inspires you?

My dog. My family. The Yogalife Sangha. My students, who are my teachers. My friends. Springtime in Seattle. Poetry. Gardening. A good book. A perfect cup of tea. Yoga.

These days my inner librarian is living a suppressed life, and to appease her I’m going to let a few more book recommendations seep into this blog. Here we go:

Seth Godin’s blog and books – his new little book Poke the Box is amazingly inspiring. If you feel like you need some motivation to start a new project, read it! I also love his blog, and the new publishing project with Amazon.com, The Domino Project.

A Discovery of Witches – did you love Twilight and need something new to read? In this book a witch and a vampire have a conflicted love affair, and they do yoga with humans to create peace between the species. (We all spring from the same source…)

Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses – new mom in Seattle’s Phinney neighborhood does yoga and muses over life, work, and motherhood. Loved the life stories, but the yoga descriptions can get a little long.

Blood, Bones & Butter – just started chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s awesome memoir, and can’t wait to read more. She jokes in an Elle magazine interview that she’s to busy to do yoga, and this book is more Anthony Bourdain than Elizabeth Gilbert.

Have fun reading!

I love this short article by Sadhguru Vasudev, co-author of the book Midnights with the Mystic (written with Cheryl Simone). I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s on my reading list. Vasudev is an interesting figure in the spiritual community, a motorcycle-riding mystic, writer and world traveler. Check out his blog hosted by The Huffington Post!

(Article reprinted with permission.)

Rediscovering the Ancient Science of Yoga
By Sadhguru J. Vasudev,
Co-Author of Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss

The word yoga literally means “union.” When you experience everything as oneness in your consciousness, then you are in yoga. To attain that unity within you, there are many steps. Hatha yoga, for example, is one step. Hatha yoga means you start with the body; the body itself has its own attitudes, its own ego, its own nature. For example, you say, “Starting tomorrow, I will get up at five in the morning and go for a walk.” You set the alarm. The alarm rings. You want to get up, but your body says, “Shut up and sleep!” It has its own way. So we start with the body. Hatha yoga is a way of disciplining the body, purifying and preparing it for higher levels of energy.

All of us are alive; all of us are human beings. But all of us do not experience life at the same intensity because our energy levels are not the same. Our pranic energies are not the same. Different people experience life in different levels of intensity. Take, for example, a tree. A tree is just a tree. Most people will not even notice it, but one person will see the tree in great detail, an artist may see every shade of it, and somebody else sees not only the tree but also the divine in it. Everybody sees, but seeing is not the same because the level of intensity with which we experience life is not the same. So we start with the body because that is something that we all know.

The whole process of yoga is to take you from something that you know to the next step — the unknown. If we talk about something that you do not know, either you have to believe it or disbelieve it. Suppose I start talking about God. You either have to believe my God or disbelieve my God, which will only take you into flights of imagination, not into growth. So we talk about the body. This is something that you know — you know you have a body — so we take the body to its peak. Then we talk about the breath and then the mind; that is also something that you know. You can only grow by taking the next step from where you are right now. Realizing where you are right now and taking the next step is growth.

The science of yoga is almost like a physical science. Suppose you mix two parts of hydrogen and one part of oxygen; you will get water. If a great scientist puts it together, it is water, and even if an idiot puts it together, it is still water. Similarly, in yoga, if you follow specific practices, only a certain result will happen. Whether a great yogi does it or an ignorant person does it, it does not matter. If one does the practices and spiritual disciplines properly, the results will arise.

These yogic systems have been identified for thousands of years, throughout the history of yoga. To start with, you work with the body, then you move to the breath, then the mind, then your inner nature. Many systems have been created that focus on just one step, like the body or the breath. But these are only different aspects of yoga. There is really no such thing as different branches of yoga. It is important that, in a very balanced way, all of these aspects are addressed as one unit. Otherwise, if you work with just the body, it is only preparatory in nature. So there is really no division as such. Yoga is a union of all steps — cultivating the body, breath, mind and the inner nature.

© 2011 Sadhguru J. Vasudev, co-author of Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss

This week I had some red quinoa I needed to use, as well as a can of black beans. I cooked the red quinoa with some light coconut milk and fresh ginger, adding broccoli, cauliflower, and chopped carrot to the pot as it boiled. When the quinoa was done I added a handful of black beans, slices of avocado and cucumber, and a few fresh mint leaves.

It was a nice light dinner, and the leftovers were great for lunch the next day. In our house this kind of dish usually has several incarnations, and it was finally finished the next day with some Thai curry.

Don’t forget to enter the Yoga International subscription give away! I’ll accept entries through Saturday January 29 at 11:59pm, and will let the two lucky winners know on Sunday.

Coconut Quinoa with Black Beans and Ginger

1 cup red or white quinoa
2 cups water
1 cup light coconut milk.
2 cups chopped veggies (like carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower)
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger

Bring everything to a boil, cover and cook for about 20 minutes. Stir in:

1/2 cup black beans
Salt and pepper to taste

Top each bowl with:

Cucumber slices
Avocado slices
Fresh mint leaves

Yoga International, the magazine published by the Himalayan Institute, has offered two Chai & Yoga readers free one-year subscriptions! Yoga International (formerly Yoga+ Joyful Living) has been around since 1991, and is a great resource for learning more about yoga practice and philosophy. I also love their website, which has a large free article archive.

To enter the subscription give away, leave a comment below with your name and email address or send me a quick email at heidi at chaiandyoga dot com. I’ll randomly pick two winners a week from today!

While you wait for the drawing, check out the article by Gary Kraftsow in the winter issue, A Living Healing Tradition.