2007 EVENTS

• Australia Yoga
Wellness Retreat •

• 2007 YTT Recap •

• This Vibrant Life •

• Vibrant Kitchen Tips •

• Astrological Tidbits •




UPCOMING EVENTS

• November 1-7, 2007 •
Wellness Retreat,
Western Australia

• May 18 - June 15, 2008 •
Vibrant Living Yoga
Teacher Training,
Anahata Resort, Bali

More events to be added soon. Visit our website
for updates.

IN MEMORIAM

Stephanie Caracena was a sweet friend, a dedicated mother and an ambassador for so much of what we share in Radiantly Alive. Her abrupt death this July shocked us – we knew her so recently shining bright, full of life. She collapsed following cardiac arrest in a mineral pool in Northern California. I met Stephanie and her son, Eagle, first in Hawaii, and then she later graduated from our 2006 Yoga Teacher Training. As much as she’ll be missed, her love of life, optimism and gratitude will live on as inspiration.

Astrological Tidbits Neptune opposite Saturn: Farces to be reckoned with

For a couple of years now, these two polar energies have been dancing, orbiting closer and further from exactly opposite each other. The ethereal muse of Neptune forever (as there is no time) beckons us to vision, to imagine, what could be. It counsels that what seems real is not, that the unseen world is more true than that which seems to stand before us. Across the solar system, staunch Saturn shakes his practical head. ‘Ya, ya, time for a reality check.’

Where’s the truth? At the moment, here on this planet, it’s in between. To paraphrase Jesus: ‘Our mission is to live in the world yet not be of it.’ Twisted a little further toward our own optimistic realism, it’s to thrive, even when (especially when), the mire seems to be getting higher (not quite where Jim Morrison went with the same phonetics, though not far off either).

An astrological axiom is that of all the aspects (angular relationships between planets), the opposition (180 degrees) is the one that produces awakening - it’s the one where the forces (farces) that are apparently in conflict now can see each other clearly and work out the steps to a harmonious dance.

Fancy phraseology aside, it means that for the last couple of years we may have seen our dreams and reality as mutually exclusive. As this energy is coming to it’s final phase (the last exact was June 25, 2007), we have an opportunity to make our dreams come true in entirely new ways.

“If you advance confidently in the directions of your dreams, and endeavor to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. You will pass an invisible boundary: New universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within you and you will live with the license of a higher order of beings. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.” -Henry David Thoreau

All things being equal – which they never are (meaning that what I’m talking about here are general astrological trends that apply to everyone, and each individual’s particular current and natal astrological configurations are more powerful and palpable) – from now through September are especially potent times for building foundations as Saturn beneficially interacts (trines – 120 degrees) with Pluto, the volcanic fueler of transformation.

“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.” -Douglas H.
Everett

I was sitting here at my desk considering what I would like to say to you, when every writer’s best and worst friend – procrastination – came to me in the form of a wise voice suggesting I go downstairs to the kitchen to see how today’s chocolate project is developing. Then it hit me, even before I descended the cacao-scented stairway: the thing I want to say is thank you.

Certainly thanks to you who are reading this (I realize you could have hit delete by now), to you who have supported me and Radiantly Alive in our ventures, and to you/us who are doing something, in ourselves or in the world, to make it a juicier, yummier, brighter place for us to live.

How did it hit? Here I am typing while breathing beautifully clean, alive air, in the midst of green trees with prehistoric size leaves, with roosters crowing mid afternoon; and to distract myself from writing I get to check in with Kadek, the diligent woman who assists me, who advises when the raw chocolate’s too sweet or too bitter, who is double boiler melting cacao butter as I type. Life is so good: healthy chocolate, friends, yoga, writing, coconuts, astrology, and tropical sun.

Now, I don’t mean this to be a ‘rub my good fortune in your face’ kind of thanks. I hope you’re creating the movie of your life exactly as you wish. You can. Below you’ll find our news, good news, of recent endeavors and some soon coming. I hope you find inspiration. Once again thank you to Kadek, the Gods of Chocolate, the nature that provides us with everything and to you. May you prosper and shine. May we meet in the dream of a bright reality and may our reality be that dream.

In love and service, Daniel Aaron Radiantly Alive Ubud, Bali, Indonesia www.radiantlyalive.com

This November sees Radiantly Alive’s first venture into Australia. The Yoga Wellness Retreat in Western Australia, November 1 - 7, includes Vibrant Living, Astanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar-style classes, and will be led by Daniel Aaron and feature Perth-based Cameron Coutts, Regi Clarence and Amber Spear.

Just a few weeks after our second Vibrant Living Yoga Teacher Training, and still flying high. Thirty-three participants from Europe, Australia, the US, Jakarta, and SE Asia joined the four week immersion into yoga and raw foods at Anahata. Highlights included our outstanding supporting faculty and decadently raw gourmet cuisine created by Elaina Love and assistants.

Plans for next year are already underway, and the 2008 Training will be on May 18 - June 15, 2008. More details, including 2008 Faculty bios, pricing and registration information, will soon be posted on our site. Please contact us at ytt@radiantlyalive.com with any questions.

I looked to my sides, across the picnic table, to see if my answer made sense. The other diners chewed, smiled, nodded and looked from his face to mine. He began to explain: “Because what cooking does is cause a chemical reaction in the food. That’s what the heat does. And you can cause chemical reactions without using heat.” He went on deeper into the science of his train of thought. We talked about the raw food axiom that enzymes are destroyed at 118 degrees Fahrenheit.

My first meditation teacher said the same. “Meditation is very simple. You just sit. Instead of thinking, you pay attention to your breath.” Yes, simple. Easy? Not for me (or anyone I’ve met). Yoga’s simple too. It’s the art of standing up straight. It’s one of the most common nags I heard from my mother when I was a kid, way before I spent thousands of dollars to hear yoga gurus say the same thing in very technical and complex ways.

Occasionally we stumble across an inspiring raw food chef or yoga class, and commit ourselves to revamping our lifestyle, whether by immediately becoming 100% raw vegan, taking 12 yoga classes per week or meditating for one hour a day. While the goal in sight - healthy nourishment and overall wellbeing - is valuable, they way we decide to get there has a huge effect on if we make it, or if it quickly falls apart on us. Often, it’s the smallest changes - and our continual commitment to them - that have the greatest impact. Here are a few ways you can kickstart your nutritional intake: • Drink lots. One of the major causes for lack of energy is dehydration. Drinking green juices will give you more nutritional power for your punch. Bringing more life to a glass of water - squeeze of lime, mint sprig, cucumber slice - ups its value for you even more. Best to drink a large glass first thing in the morning. • Upgrade your greens. Congrats on your daily salad habit. And you can greatly increase your vitamin intake by adding shredded kale, microgreens, sprouts, etc. • Choose your nuts and seeds wisely, if you use them. Find out what nuts you digest most easily. Macademias, pine nuts, and cashews are fattier and easier to digest for many people. Denser nuts like almonds, hazelnuts and brazilnuts have higher protein content and benefit more from soaking before eating. Soaking nuts a few hours or more before use is hugely beneficial for your digestive system and nutrient absportion. When soaking nuts for more than a few hours, refrigerate to keep them from getting moldy. Always thoroughly rinse them after soaking to make sure any residual mold and enzyme inhibitors are

cleansed and discard the soak water. Harder nuts like to soak for longer, while some fatty nuts (cashews, macademicas) might not need to soak at all. Adding ground flaxseeds to salads, dressing, smoothies adds a subtle nuttiness and creaminess to sauces as well as essential fatty acids that are terrific for hair skin nails. Best to buy the whole seeds and use a coffee grinder to grind amounts as you need them. Store ground seeds in the fridge - the oils quickly go rancid. This is why self-ground (or better yet, cold-pressed oils) are better than preground seeds in the stores. • Cultivate a smart sweet tooth. While honey is loads better than the white stuff, consider using agave nectar if its available. Agave has the least impact on blood sugar levels (a diabetic friendly sweetener), thus minimizing the crash and burn that can come after sweets. Agave is also a great substitute for dried fruits used as sweeteners in smoothies, which are much more dense in fruit sugars than fresh fruit. If the dried fruit is what you’re after, upgrade to goji berries - rich in vitamins, antioxidants and an incredible superfood. For a healthy trail mix, toss soaked nuts, cacao beans and a handful of dried goji berries, adding spices or shredded coconut to taste. -Gabrielle White Wolf