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| Photo provided by Wanderlust |
Since I started yoga at the start of this year, I have been looking for a yoga guide book. Wanderlust is exactly what I was looking for. It is so much more than a book about yoga. It is a guide to the yoga lifestyle, a book to further the learning of yoga, to deepen the yoga journey and its lifestyle.
Wanderlust: A Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self is written by Jeff Krasno with Sarah Herrington and Nicole Lindstrom, as well as many contributing authors.
The book is divided into 8 chapters:
- Find your practice
- Find your direction
- Find your core
- Find your heart
- Find your community
- Find your creative your spark
- Find your centre
- Find your true north
Each chapter is filled with inspiring articles by many contributors, from yoga teachers to writers to DJs and so many more! It is full of practical advice, journal prompts, yoga practices with drawings, recipes, meditation...
Whether it's an article about meditating, music, community, or a yoga sequence with stick figure drawings and clear explanations, I always feel inspired and enriched by the reading.
I am so happy that the wonderful people at Wanderlust have allowed me to share with you two excerpts!
The first one is a beautiful guided meditation by Meggan Watterson, author, speaker and spiritual misfit. The meditation starts after the quote by Rumi and the introduction by Meggan.
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| Photo provided by Wanderlust |
Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Love is the bridge between you and everything. --Rumi
"After six months of couples' therapy, my husband decided the summer before our son turned one that we needed to separate. I was at a low I had never reached before. I felt unlovable. And yet, ironically, this heartbreak proved to be a turning point in humbly understanding true love.
Through loss I became conscious of my addiction to the idea that love would arrive from outside of myself. I thought I had to earn it somehow. I had to get one more degree, have one more relationship, cut one more notch in that proverbial belt, and then I'd be ready. Deserving.
I came to realize that any and all outside sources of love were too inconsistent to rely on as a mainspring. I needed me.
But how do we love ourselves?
I started leaving love notes for my soul. With red lipstick, I wrote on the mirror in the center of my wall altar and on the long mirror where I check out my full-length look before going out at night.
Miracles came gradually. Day by day the awe of my own love returned to me. I finally, completely, turned within and found the love I'd been looking for my entire life. It came little by little but the utter transformation was nothing short of a slap on the forehead.
Now I experience myself as love in action.
For me this is the most radical thing I can embody. This is the most profound activism I can participate in, more than any protest I could attend or op-ed I could write: the act of loving myself, fiercely. Because in my experience, everything becomes possible when a person dares to meet with the soul of love inside them.
Now a fire alarm sounds whenever a negative thought about myself enters my mind. I blow it a kiss and let it leave as quickly as it can hightail it out of me. This is the path and practice of self-love.
To me love, true love, means no longer waiting.
This soul-voice meditation can help you discern if there are any places within that still hold a sense of being unworthy of love.
Even the darkest moments in your life have profound teachings to give you, not just more "baggage." Both the happy and the hard moments so far have been opportunities to acquire more of the precise attributes to flex and exercise your capacity to love.
Try the exercise on the following page. It can be practiced daily.
SIT VERY STILL. Let the stories of your life, which often feel like agitated water at the surface, settle so you can see clear down to the bottom of what matters most. Find those stories that have left the loudest, darkest, and deepest imprint on your soul--the stories that allow you to believe you're not worthy of love.
QUESTION THOSE STORIES. Ask your soul to show you what still needs to be healed within you. Resist nothing; invite all of those hard-toreach memories to come back. Trust that you are ready to see and receive them in a new way. You are strong enough. Maybe you see a memory of a bully from high school, or of a moment when you experienced a humbling or humiliating experience that still lives in you somewhere. Maybe you were not there for someone in a time of need and hold regret and guilt. Maybe you have believed all this time someone else's truth about you: for example, that you are not good enough or worthy, or that you are much too much for anyone to handle. One by one, allow these memories to return to consciousness. Invite them in like dinner guests. Be grateful they have shown up.
LOVE THEM. I know I'm asking you to do something really hard. I know from experience. I do this practice daily. Initially, it felt like moving through stone. But over the years, it has become far more light-filled.
If you are having a hard time bringing love to a memory or a moment, if some limiting belief is just too convincing for you to find a way to shower it with love, then work in a more general way. Focus on conjuring a feeling of unconditional love within. If you're a writing type like me, write out all the excuses and stories you have held tight that have blocked you from love. Let them exist now in your journal rather than within. Let the journal hold them. You don't need to anymore.
Ask yourself if there is anything left you can still learn from these stillloud moments. And ask if there is anything left for you to forgive. What are you keeping, holding silent inside you? What stories are still held tightly sealed inside your heart?
Open them all up. Let your love reach where it never has before. And then, see if you can sit in silence. This is the very peace that allows you to hear a voice of compassion that wants to lead you, real and trustworthy as the earth beneath you."
The second excerpt is a recipe for Roasted Root Vegetable and Farro Salad by Sarah Copeland, food expert and cookbook author. This dish sounds delicious and refreshing, I will have to try it since I love beets!
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| Photo provided by Wanderlust |
Roasted Root Vegetable and Farro Salad
SERVES 4
8 red or yellow baby beets, scrubbed and trimmed
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
6 young heirloom carrots or baby turnips, scrubbed, trimmed, and halved lengthwise
1 tablespoon honey
1 sprig fresh thyme
8 ounces farro
6 radishes
DRESSING
1/4 cup full-fat plain yogurt
Juice of1/2 lime, plus more as needed
2 tablespoons finely chopped assorted fresh herbs
1 tablespoon hazelnut oil
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 heaping handfuls arugula or baby leaf lettuce
Small handful toasted hazelnuts
Flaked sea salt
3 ounces aged Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino cheese
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Drizzle the beets with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Wrap them tightly in aluminum foil and roast until they can easily be pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the foil.
Combine the carrots, honey, thyme, and 1 cup water in a medium skillet over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are fork-tender and the broth has reduced to a glaze, about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm.
Meanwhile, put the farro in a medium pot and add enough water to cover by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce to low heat, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain.
When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel the skins with a paring knife and quarter. Slice the radishes as thinly as possible with a mandoline or a very sharp knife.
To make the dressing: Whisk together the yogurt, lime juice, herbs, hazelnut oil, olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Taste with a leaf of arugula; adjust the salt, pepper, or lime juice as needed.
Divide the farro among shallow bowls. Drain the carrots. Combine the beets, carrots, and arugula in a large bowl; toss together; and arrange over the farro. Top with the radishes, drizzle with the dressing, and sprinkle with hazelnuts and flaky salt. Generously grate or shave Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top with a vegetable peeler. Serve warm.
You can also read an excerpt by Gabrielle Bernstein "The Universe Has Your Back".
If you are curious, you could also download the Wanderlust 14-Day Self-Discovery Challenge for free, by contributing author Kevin Courtney, yoga teacher.
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| Screen capture of Wanderlust website |
Wanderlust is also a series of festivals that combine yoga and wellness with art, as well as Wanderlust 108 which is a triathlon that combines a 5K run, an outdoor yoga session, and a guided meditation through nature.
I now am dreaming of attending one these festivals! There will be two Wanderlust Festivals in Canada this summer:
Two Wanderlust 108 are scheduled, one in Toronto, Ontario on June 27 and one in Edmonton, Alberta on August 29.
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| Reading Wanderlust poolside while youngest is at swimming lessons |
One last share with you, a quick book trailer to hear more about Wanderlust from Jeff Krasno:
You can find Wanderlust: a Modern Yogi's Guide to Discovering Your Best Self at:
and check your local bookstore!
Disclosure: I received a sample book for review from Raincoast Books. All opinions expressed are completely honest and my own, based on my personal experience. Your experience may differ.
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