the most kickinist kapha mat spray ever!

the level of granola i've evolved into is at times too crunchy for even me. that being said, i made the most kickinist kapha mat spray ever tonight!


materials/ingredients

medium to large size empty spray bottle
1 cup water
1/4 cup rose petal witch hazel
30 drops of tea tree oil
15 drops rose oil
15 drops peppermint oil
15 drops rosemary oil

i shudder at my seamless use of ayurvedic terminology, but there is something phenomenal to the orchestra that is know-thyself preventative medicine and holistic treatment. and i need it. all of it. to propel myself forward (at times).

making your own yoga mat spray is not a tall order. you'll need: a spray bottle with an adjustable nozzle; we're aiming for mist, purified or distilled water (love your equipment), and tea tree oil - that's your base. stop right here and your mat is clean (but you should keep reading, it gets way better).

pure tea tree oil is expensive, but you'll be using this same bottle to make many personal aromatherapy mat sprays to come. it's as great a treatment as benzoyl peroxide for zits with way less irritation. and it's your household's ultimate antiseptic, essential oil's version of the miracle aloe plant. even without a bottle of the most kickinist kapha mat spray, it's an added value to your medicine cabinet - so buy some.

aromatherapily speaking, peppermint, rose and rosemary are my rage! scents. i do ashtanga and i'm more at a point in my practice where i need energy when i approach the top of my mat rather than a lavenderific chamomilian soothe. i gotta get through 90 minutes of chataranga dandasanas, it's six a.m., and frankly, i'd rather be sleeping (until i'm done and feel all the benefits, of course). but i digress, how the blend helps...

peppermint is exhilarating. it improves thinking, uplifts and warms you with coolness. what is that? go smell some peppermint, i can't explain it any other way.

le scent du rose - and remember, you're doubled up with the rose witch hazel - is anti-melancholic, uplifting, confidence improving, warmly warm (not to be confused with the coolly warm of peppermint :-) and in most circles, thought to be an aphrodisiac (or ayurvedically speaking, thought to "increase desire").

we're at move, go, get it! already, and then there's the rosemary. it's an unusual one, no? subtle. but rosemary shares some of peppermints properties: inspiring, stimulating, a solid warm warm, definitely an upper, clears thinking and quickens the senses. you are so good to go, earthy girl!

but different strokes for different doshas, right? other olfactory options i love and the rationale behind them are as follows:

peppermint & rosemary (sin rose) - use an unscented witch hazel if you're going hardcore - spray on to get focused!

clary sage, lavender & chamomile - great for evening practice or the more unfortunate (and hopefully rare) exasperated insomnia induced practice. it'll help you sleep, boo. take savasana to a whole new level.

peppermint, rose & orange - dory's k.i.m. (keep it moving) blend - an intersection between "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming," and "ain't got no time for shucking and jiving." (backpackers? anyone?)

orange, rose & lavender - this is extremely decadent and delicious so you should do it for yourself. rich relaxation.

(respiration is critical).

There are some people in this world who suck up all the air in a room while convincing those siting within it that they are the sole source of oxygen. Do not be with these people. They poison the well, at times inadvertently.

Sometimes, being alone is the best agua purificada. So please, drink up.

(you are not a force to be reckoned with or acted upon, you are the source. re member to breathe).

Get off ye Steve Harvey! Happy Radical Love Day.

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"Justice is what love looks like in public just like tenderness is what love feels like in private... Love is a steadfast commitment to the well-being of other people." ~ Cornel West

jolene

Grammy's 2011 Norah Jones, John Mayer & Keith Urban

Jolene, jolene, jolene, jolene!
I'm begging of you please don't take my man.

lady in red

Politics. It's dancing through the rain. You have to be sharp at every occasion. It's the color of your tie; your wife's dress, not american flag red, not red state red - communist red. And that's just how we do.

all hail queen Yashodhara

have you ever thought about the Buddha's wife? 16 years old, left with a two year old, while her baby daddy sat under a tree for 8 years (to find himself)? yes, I think about things like this sometimes.

one doesn't get over it on purpose. it's a process. a cross country road trip of sorts.

uprising

Today Mubarak fell. The 18 days worth of photographs and video footage were phenomenal. We were left inspired and forever changed. It was televised. Take that, Gil Scott Heron and Malcolm Gladwell.

Today was historic. There were people who died for freedom, people who repped the human condition - hard. People who did something not knowing that their actions would spark a revolution. I'm talking go-risk-your-life-for-something-you-believe-in-do-gooders-channeling-a-merciful-God.

This was sparked by a Tunisian man named Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself ablaze because police seized his vegetable cart - an act of defiance so declarative that it ignited revolution two countries over.

And a girl named Asmaa Mahfouz, who took to her webcam to declare the martyrdom of this man who'd rather die than suffer from his inhumane humanity.

Today was the m'n f'n day. We watched David slew Goliath. We saw how a laptop could be more powerful than a fleet of semi-automatic weapons. Facebook and Twitter - mediums we've used to inspire, share information on and piss our lives away with simultaneously became a force to be reckoned with. There was no poking. And when the Internet was censored, these revolutionaries took it offline, old-school community organizing style.

Al Jazeera English, rising from the American ashes like a royal blue phoenix, played the background special interest story to a catalyst of the likes of which most of us have never witnessed or even conceived - and it has only just begun. And it was all live, via the vantage point of any participant's mobile phone from Tahir Square to Mansoura, Assiut, Suez to Luxor.

Civilian journalism.

We have witnessed the best of what technology has to offer, the activist equivalent of stem cell cures, a moral force. We hold the passwords to critical mass which holds the key to change.

I want to finish a Martin Luther King quote being thrown around in light of today's events because it could quite possibly be more applicable today than it was when it was first uttered 54 years ago:

"There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom. There is something deep down within the very soul of man that reaches out for Canaan. Men cannot be satisfied with Egypt. They tried to adjust to it for a while. Many men have vested interests in Egypt, and they are slow to leave. Egypt makes it profitable to them, some people profit by Egypt. The vast majority, the masses of people never profit by Egypt, and they are never content with it. And eventually they rise up and begin to cry out for Canaan's land."

The revolution is calling. What are you willing to give?