July Newsletter - Calm

The Calming Issue

June certainly gave us the jitters, but look at this amazing and healthy way I (Mindy) started my day - with a beautiful and easy, fresh berry smoothie bowl.

All you do is:

Pour about a cup and a half of cold coconut milk into your food processor, and add frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and/or acai. I get this organic frozen fruit brand, but you can use a different brand that you prefer or is easy for you to obtain. Blend on high for about a minute until you get a smooth, thick, soft ice-cream like concoction. Pour the mixture into a low, wide bowl and cover in sections with fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries, or banana slices - whichever suit your fancy - just be sure to make it colorful and appealing! You can then sprinkle a section with ground nuts or seeds. I can’t eat nuts, so I used ground tiger nuts, which are actually tubers and not nuts, and they have a sweet but nutty flavor that Larry and I love.

Then make sure to set out your beautiful homemade smoothie bowl on your favorite placemat, take out a lovely book, or enjoy your garden view if you have one - or both! Get out a big spoon, and dig in!

Below is also a short video clip of our front garden view from our dining room. Turn up the volume if you can so you can also enjoy the sound of the birds singing. We have so many birds in our garden - and they often sing along with us when we rehearse! (I know what some of you are thinking - The Yardbirds, right?? Lol! ☺️)

We both try to exercise at home at least 5 days a week, sometimes 6 or 7. We usually start our day with a morning walk around our kibbutz, but we didn’t want to do that during the “Twelve Day War.” However, we did continue our other exercise routine, which for me (Mindy) is Yoga. We really recommend this wonderful yoga app that we use - it’s called Down Dog and it’s quite inexpensive, user friendly, and super worth it. (There is also a free version that has less features, but there are certainly enough to do wonderful yoga sessions!) It has all levels from beginner to super advanced, and it has a range of all different styles of yoga to choose from, as well as different kinds of music to play with your routine. I usually stick to Restorative Yoga lying or sitting on my mat in our living room with Rainforest Sounds as my music (I’m all about calm!), but you can change it up and do a different style of yoga with different music every day if you like. It’s a really flexible app.

Larry, on the other hand, likes something a little more invigorating for his routine. He loves to do Qigong practice, which he finds to be both energizing and helpful for any back pain he may be experiencing.

Even though I don’t take part in the Qigong, I do enjoy watching sometimes as a really sweet and amusing guy named Lee Holden teaches the online classes Larry does, and I like seeing how much Larry enjoys and benefits from them. (You can do a trial period of two weeks for free through this link. And no, we are NOT affiliates of either the yoga or Qigong programs!)

And yes, we do watch some television on evenings that we’re home - but we stick to only NICE programs - no violence - just programs that warm the heart and soul. Some of our calming recommendations:

·       Anne of Green Gables (“Anne with an E”)

·       All Creatures Great and Small (the new series)

·       Sweet Magnolias