yoga and digestion

Aryuvedic medicine practitioners say that our digestion is like a fire.
You want to stoke the fire and give it the wood that it needs to keep burning, but if you put too much wood on, the fire smothers.
They say you should have 1/3 food, 1/3 water, 1/3 god(whatever that may be for you!)

Familia and Buddhism

I was just scooping my homemade version of the tasty swiss cereal Familia (recipe below!) from its mixing bowl, into a jar and feeling impatient.
It was taking a while! I was dropping oats on the floor and my hand was cramping.
Then I thought, how would I be scooping this Familia if I had to fill one thousand jars?
How would I go about scooping if there really was no end in sight?
If there were 1,000 jars I wouldn't, or couldn't think about the end. And as a result, I'd probably move more slowly and have more awareness of the grains falling from the little red scoop into the glass (really quite pretty!)

From that moment on, my scooping became much more enjoyable.

I think about this with food and eating sometimes too ~ Like what if this chocolate-chip cookie I am eating was the size of of the borough of Brooklyn!? Would I still be devouring it as quickly? I really can't imagine that (both a bklyn sized cookie, plus devouring).

So there you have it, a Buddhism inspired kitchen experience, and a Familia recipe.
Enjoy! :)

Eva's Homemade Familia~
(all of this is very approximate!)

6 cups rolled oats
10 dates, chopped fine (may be mushy its ok!)
handful of dried apples, chopped fine
handful of raisins or currants
1 cup almonds
1 cup roasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup wheat germ
1 packet (about 3/4 cup) dried milk powder
a little salt
sugar (optional - I like to leave it out so eaters can choose their own sweetness)

Toast the oats in a 350 deg. oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
Add the dates and apples to the oats and mix well
Turn the oven down to 200 and bake oat mixture 15 minutes longer, take out from the oven and let cool.

While the oats are toasting, grind the hazelnuts and almonds. A food processor helps, or you can be very yogic/buddhist about it and chop them mindfully until they are teeny-tiny.

In a big bowl mix the almonds/hazelnuts with all the other ingredients and add in the oat mixture.
Stir well.
Scoop, with awareness and love and a never ending sort of feeling into glass jars.

Serve with cold milk (better if you let it sit 5 or 10 minutes), or with hot water, a little milk and maple syrup - yummmmm