I’ve always looked up to her in some ways as a mentor or big sister. Interesting to find out that actually, I am the older sister. I remember when her show first hit the airwaves back in 1986. I was an immediate fan. I loved how she was so radically honest, empathetic and outspoken and so completely down to earth and real. She was a pioneer, and TV has never been the same.

When I signed in to Facebook this morning, I was immediately intrigued by a post, linking to an article on how Oprah spent her most recent birthday. Apparently Oprah is a huge fan of the music of Snatam Kaur an artist who sings devotional chants and is fairly well known on the yoga circuit.

On the eve before Ms. Winfrey’s birthday bash, as she was chatting with friends, the name of Snatam Kaur came up and apparently one of Oprah’s girlfriends is also a big fan. The gears started to turn, and the following night at the actual birthday party there was a surprise visit and private concert with Snatam and her band. When the band began to play – Oprah of course, got all teary.

I’ve been a huge fan of kirtan (devotional) music since 1990 when I heard Krishna Das live for the first time. So when I heard of Oprah’s love of the music of Snatum Kaur, my curiosity was piqued. I immediately searched for her on Youtube and found some live footage which in my humble opinion is just sublime. I hope you like it too.

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

The fact that I was introduced to yoga before it was mainstream and have stuck with it for over 40 years, is quite unique and definitely sets me apart from others.

In addition to yoga as a fitness workout, my teachings are strongly focused on the mental and emotional benefits of the practice.

I teach people to achieve a high level of physical fitness through the practice of yoga. I also provide people with tools to help them create balanced lives, free of chronic pain, anxiety, fear and worry.

I began teaching yoga in 2003 and am the former owner of Om City Yoga of Cambridge, MA, a yoga studio that I owned and managed for 4 years. My teaching certifications are in Prana Flow (Shiva Rea) and Kripalu Yoga. With a home base in Delray Beach, FL, I teach both private and group classes in South Florida.

My focus is on teaching people how to live balanced lives through the integration of the 3 main pillars of yoga.

Breath – - Meditation – - Physical Fitness

All 3 areas must be integrated in order to reap the full benefit of the yoga practice.

50 Plus Yoga provides the tools to do just that.

Follow me on Twitter – @50plusyoga
Find me on Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/dee.greenberg

The final product is a vegan, gluten free pudding – It has a bit of a chocolate taste with the consistency of pumpkin pie. You’ll get the sweet taste without the high glycemic index. The flax meal will fill you up and the high protein will keep your brain functioning optimally for hours.

You will need an electric blender. I recommend a Vitamix if you have one.
Warning: contains soy – you can substitute anything for the soy if you are avoiding soy.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of vanilla soy milk
2 very heaping Tbsp of flax seed meal
1 heaping Tbsp of hemp protein powder
1 heaping Tbsp of Greens First Berry (powdered drink mix)
¼ Tsp of pumpkin pie spice
a small dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 very heaping Tbsp of Lifetime Life Basics Plant Protein Vanilla Flavor
2 very heaping Tbsp of Genisoy Vanilla Protein Powder

If You Wish to Avoid Soy: You can substitute water, juice or almond milk for the soy milk and double up on the plant protein instead of using soy protein.

Place all ingredients in your blender and blend on high speed for 30 seconds
(time will vary depending on blender)

Check the consistency – - Should be thick like pudding. If it’s too watery,
add more flax meal.

Bon Apetit!

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

But before I formally try to enlist you as an accomplice, here is a bit of history. For the past week or so, I’ve been meditating on ways to attract more visitors to this blog.  So naturally, one question that comes up a lot is, what are people hoping to find when they visit this blog?

Now that’s the million dollar question that any good Internet marketer should be asking herself.  But to rephrase the question, I might also ask myself, since this is a yoga blog, what exactly draws people to practice and study yoga?

And as someone who has been teaching yoga for over 9 years, I think I have a pretty good sense of what draws people to practice yoga.

And please don’t be offended by what I am about to say, because obviously people come to yoga for a huge variety of different reasons. There is not just ONE reason to practice yoga.

But here is a common thread I’ve noticed. People come to yoga when they are in transition. People come to yoga when they are struggling with something. Perhaps the loss of a loved one, a break up or divorce. People often come to yoga when they are feeling down on their luck, lost or alone. Essentially, people come to yoga when they’ve lost their mojo!

And believe me, I know what it feels like to lose that ever precious mojo, that spark, that joie de vivre!

I am sure that was my situation when I stumbled upon yoga back in November of 1997, although I am also  sure that I was not aware of how dismal I was feeling. I was not aware enough to even know that I was miserable!

But the yoga practice was like having a huge dose of prana mainlining into my veins! It woke me up out of a deep slumber and I remain ever grateful towards the teacher who got me back to my practice in 1997.

So, I had this idea today about a contest I would like to host on this blog. It starts with a question.

Has there been a time in your life when you’ve lost your mojo? And would you be willing to share about it on this blog? I’m asking people to contact me via email with stories about losing and / or finding your mojo.  The story can be short – just a few paragraphs, or it can be as long as you like.

I will take the best responses that I receive and post them to this blog (with your permission of course.) If you do not wish to go public with your story, you can still send it to me and I will not publish without your full consent.

So here is the question: Have you ever lost your mojo? Have you ever found your mojo? And what were the circumstances?

Send your entry in the body of an email to dee@50plusyoga.com

And to help keep you inspired to continue to find your mojo on a daily basis (because let’s face it – a mojo can be a fickle thing – It’s not always easy to hold onto it . . . . . ) so here is my offering to you. This is just one way that I’ve found to keep my “mojo workin’. ”

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

When I turned 30 in 1983, my digestive system started to go wacko! Not wanting to be graphic, let me just say there was a lot of bloating and constant pressure in my colon and on my bladder. But let me focus on the colon for a moment. In case you are not sure, that’s the large intestine running down the left side of your lower belly.

Anyway there was a near constant sensation of having to have a bowel movement.  After using the toilet, usually within an hour I would have to go again. And I will not go into details but my elimination was very abnormal. It was quite scary.

This situation went on for months. I had no idea what was causing it. My first line of defense was to see an MD. I still remember her name – Dr. Wanger – and this was almost 30 years ago!

You might say the situation was acute. My life felt completely out of control due to these crazy digestive symptoms which were occurring 24/7 with no breaks. I was totally at the mercy of Dr. Wanger. I remember my surprise and a bit of fear when I first saw her in her office. She was significantly overweight which made me uncomfortable. I was mildly overweight at the time and I wondered if there was a  correlation between my over eating and these digestive symptoms.

Anyway she gave me every possible test and finally concluded that I had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and she prescribed some drugs. I remember being completely shocked that this MD had not asked me what I was eating on a daily basis.

I’ve always been skeptical of drugs. I was into yoga and  holistic health and so her treatment plan seemed somehow wrong to me. But like I said, I felt like I was at her mercy, so I took the drugs for about 2 days and said ” NO! I can’t do this!”  The drug, Belladonna, which I later found out was in the barbiturate family, gave me a severely dry mouth. The dry mouth made me very uncomfortable and I instinctively knew to stop taking this drug.

This was the mid 80′s and there was no Internet. But I just Googled the term “Belladonna” and found out it contains phenobarbital. Apparently they are still prescribing it to patients complaining of digestive symptoms.

Since I had refused to take the drug, I was now on my own to seek a solution to my problem. The symptoms showed no signs of letting up. I did some research and learned about colonic hydrotherapy. I also sought out a holistic physician.

There was a very new holistic medical center that had recently opened in Cambridge, MA (This later became the Marino Center) and I became a patient of Dr. Michael Janson. Unlike Dr. Wanger, Dr. Janson was very personable and caring. He got to know me as a person and asked me many questions about my lifestyle. He eventually put me on a yeast free diet, which turned out not to be the answer either but at least it was a step in the right direction. Trying to follow this very strict diet, I was forced to eat less food and this had a beneficial effect but still did not solve my problem.

I eventually gave up the yeast free diet because it was too limiting and I had a lot of difficulty sticking to it. Next I sought the help of Brenda Albee, colonic therapist. The colonics were the first thing I found that would alleviate my symptoms but the relief was unfortunately only temporary.

Over the years, I began to pay more attention to my diet and gradually transitioned to a healthier vegetarian diet, but I continued to eat cheese and eggs. I also began to deal with the compulsive overeating which was clearly contributing to my IBS. I was an emotional eater and I believe this was the main contributing factor to the IBS.

In 2003 I discovered Laura Douglas an Ayurvedic Counselor and Yoga Teacher who took me on as a client in her Ayurveda practice. It was her counseling that really got me motivated to take the necessary steps to overcome the debilitating symptoms of the IBS.

Ayurveda is the sister science to yoga. It is an ancient Indian naturopathic healing system which shares many of the same philosophical beliefs with yoga. According to Ayurveda, our lifestyle and daily habits are the greatest contributors to our state of health or disease. Therefore by adopting healthy daily habits we can overcome most chronic illnesses.

There is one thing that Laura shared with me, which has become the mainstay of my healing journey. She told me that my agni was weak (agni = digestive fire) and that the time of day and size of meals is a critical component of health.

According to Ayurveda the digestive fire is strongest between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM and this is when we should eat our largest meal of the day. Dinner should be a very small meal. And for optimal digestion, one should eat nothing after 6 PM.

Obviously, refraining from eating after 6 PM is not practical for most people. I can’t say that I am sticking to this routine to the letter of the law. But I do know that if I eat late at night, I always suffer the consequences. There is much intelligence behind the Ayurvedic system.

And so for the past 9 years, I have attempted to integrate the Ayurvedic teachings into my lifetstyle as much as possible.

I will now outline some of the steps I have taken that have helped to minimize the IBS symptoms.

• Mainly vegan diet – I eat fish usually once per month.
• I do not eat bread and stick to a mainly gluten free diet
• No dairy
• I do not over eat
• I do not eat heavy foods after 8 PM
• I eat my largest meal as early in the day as possible
• I avoid fried foods as much as possible
• I add a lot of flax meal to my diet
• I avoid most raw vegetables and fruits
• I eat a lot of vegan protein smoothies
• Pureed fruit is generally better than whole fruit
• Strawberries are great in smoothies
• Whole apples can be problematic but in smoothies they are OK
• Never mix whole fruit with other foods
• I make gluten free pancakes with buckwheat flour
• I avoid stress as much as possible
• I practice yoga breathing daily
• I practice yoga daily
• I run 3 times per week for 20 minutes
• I watch my weight and stay physically fit
• I eat slowly and practice conscious eating
• No junk food or highly processed foods

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

Is this any way to run a country? I don’t think so. I’ve never understood the logic behind the two party system, as it creates division rather than unity. Is a sense of divisiveness and hatred for your neighbor really going to help us in the long run?

These are troubled times we are living in. We have a big presidential election coming up and many people, both Democrats and Republicans are scratching their heads and wondering if any of the current pool of candidates has what it takes to be the leader of the free world.


Personally, I tend to be apolitical. Although I understand that politics is a necessary evil, I continue to be amazed at how arrogant, opinionated and rude people have become, in the name of democracy. I refuse to be involved in any debate where name calling and bashing your opponent with absolutely no shred of respect, has become the norm.

All you have to do is hang out on Facebook for a little while and you can see this type of banter happening on a regular basis. It’s the “I’m right and you’re wrong mentality” and “why should I even bother listening to you?”

We’re becoming a nation of “haters.”

And it starts with the ridiculous labels – “Obamacare”, right wing, left wing, liberal, conservative, redneck, kumbaya, tree hugger . . . you get the idea.

Why can’t people just be people?

As a practicing yogi, I see things from a very different perspective.

So here is my view that has emerged from countless hours of yoga practice and meditation, accrued over a long period of time.

I will follow the candidate, who leads with “love.” I will follow the candidate who speaks with love in his heart. I will follow the candidate who shows love and appreciation for others. I will follow the candidate who openly expresses love. I will follow the candidate who takes loving actions.

Any campaign that is based on the continuous bashing of your opponent, completely disqualifies you, in my eyes. Without love and without heart, positive change is not possible.

This is a view of politics, seen through the eyes of a yogi. There is an energy in the Universe that transcends all the name calling, violent communication and hate speech. This energy is more powerful than the richest politician . . . . and there is nothing more powerful than this all powerful force in the Universe – the energy called LOVE.

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

Please check out my free gift to you now

So how is it that some people can decide to lose 20 pounds over the course of 4 months and they just go out and do it? And you on the other hand, in spite of  your best intentions, can’t seem to get your act together?

Well, fear not! I have good news for you. You are not alone! As a former yoga studio owner, there was an interesting phenomenon that I just could not help but notice.  Often times I would run a membership special, like maybe a 1/2 price sale and many people would purchase this low priced membership package, and then they would never end up showing up at the studio to utilize the membership. In other words, in a flurry of initial excitement, people are eager to pay with a credit card for something they never end up using!

Similarly, every year at New Years the studio would be flooded with new memberships during the first week of January. By Feb. 15 most of those new members started dropping out in droves. By the end of February, many had quit altogether, simply allowing their memberships to expire.

What this tells me is that many people have trouble staying motivated, with anything that involves maintaining consistent effort over time, to overcome an obstacle. Does this sound like you? If so, read on!

Part of the problem here is that we live in a throwaway society (think about the popularity of disposable cameras) where instant gratification is the norm. People have become accustomed to getting results with little or no effort and perhaps there is a culture of laziness happening right now.

But let’s put that aside for a moment. Blaming the culture or the society is not going to solve our problem.

So what is “motivation”? Where does it come from? How do we get it and how do we keep it?
That last one – how do we get it and how do we keep it is the million dollar question.

Motivation can be defined as a feeling that gives you the impetus or propels you to move forward towards the achievement of a goal. Or that which propels you to take action. Motivation is like a catalyst. Without this feeling of motivation, we often find ourselves in a state of inertia.

We can break motivation down into 2 distinct categories: External and Internal.

External is like money or a reward. It could be less tangible such as notoriety, or gaining the respect of your peers, family or friends.

Internal motivation could be a sense of satisfaction, self acceptance and a marked improvement in self esteem. Many people look to God or religion and spirituality for motivation.

What is the difference between motivation and inspiration? My understanding is that inspiration is the initial spark that gets us motivated to take action.

Here are some ideas that may help you gain and maintain the necessary motivation that you are seeking:

• Let go of black and white thinking. Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a workout, skip yoga or cheat on your diet. Acknowledge the mistake, forgive yourself and then get right back on the horse!
• Find a mentor. Having a mentor or idol (someone you look up to) is probably the single best thing you can do for inspiration. Always keep this person in the forefront of your mind. In those moments when you find your motivation waning and you feel you are about to jump ship – - ask yourself how this person would deal with these same thoughts you are having? What is it that separates the “winners” from the “quitters?”  Often the main difference is mindset.  Embody the same winning mindset that you see modeled by your mentor.
• Dedicate your practice or your discipline to your mentor. If you jump ship, let it feel like you are letting that person down. This mentality of wanting to shine in someone’s eyes will go a long way towards keeping you on track. If this mentor has encouraged you in the past, know that you will be letting them down if you quit.
• Remind yourself why you are practicing your discipline – create a mantra and repeat the mantra silently in your head every chance you get. This will program your mind for success.
• Write the mantra on an index card and hang it on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator and on your computer monitor.
• Find inspirational photos of your mentor. You can also use any objects or symbols that will remind you of your mission and keep you inspired. In yoga there are many statues and symbolic artwork that serve this purpose.  Keep such objects close at hand at all times
• Do some creative problem solving and create some personal tools that will keep you inspired and motivated on your path. Spend some time on this. Ask yourself what it is that gets your juices flowing? Only you know the answer to this question!
• If you are trying to create a new habit – cut yourself some slack. Remember the goal is progress not perfection

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

Can we talk? Or as Joan Rivers would say: Can we tawk?

But seriously,communication is the bedrock of relationships among humans. I’ll repeat that for emphasis. Communication is the bedrock of relationships amongst humans.

So if you think relationships amongst humans are important and if your relationships could perhaps use a bit of tweaking, please read on. You just might find some little gem of wisdom that can potentially turn things around for you 360 degrees.

What is our main mode of communication? Words. obviously there is touch and sex and gesture and body language and facial expression and eye contact and smiling. But for the purpose of this piece, I will focus on verbal communication, with the main tool being words.

If you are feeling like your relationships are sub par, perhaps a good question to ask yourself is this: How can I improve my communication skills?

In order to fully understand a process,  it’s  helpful to break that process down into it’s component parts.

For communication to happen there must be a minimum of 2 people involved. We can describe these 2 people as a speaker and a receiver or listener. I prefer to use the word receiver because it invokes the idea of radio waves literally being transmitted and received electronically. Something similar must happen between 2 people, using words as the medium, in order for communication to happen.

So how can something so seemingly simple, go awry? Obviously there are a million ways to screw up communication. I’m sure everyone reading this has been there and done that. There is no need for me to spell it out.

I prefer to focus on one small but critical area of communication, the role of the receiver. And I have a question to throw out at you for your contemplation.

Imagine the following scenario between a speaker and a receiver. Imagine how communication would change if the receiver engaged in the following behavior:

Every time the receiver was not fully understanding what the speaker was saying, the receiver would interrupt the speaker and say: “I’m sorry but I am not fully getting what you are saying.”

Just imagine for a moment, if this were to happen globally, how it might change everyone’s communication.

And obviously there are many possible reasons why a receiver of words may not be fully absorbing their meaning.  I will outline a few of these reasons”

• Defensiveness – Cannot take it in for some reason
• Denial – This is similar to defensiveness
• Non-comprehension – This may take place if the speaker is speaking over the receiver’s head on a subject in which the receiver has little or no knowledge
• Boredom – The receiver is bored to tears and cannot follow the conversation
• Fatigue – The receiver is tired of listening to this person drone on and on and has literally fallen asleep
• Lack of focus – The receiver is pre-occupied at the moment and cannot focus on what the speaker is saying
• Can’t hear – The speaker is mumbling or slurring words or speaking way too fast and the receiver is not comprehending the words

OK, so I’ve outlined some of the pitfalls that may occur as seen from the receivers point of view.

And now again, I ask you to imagine, if every time the receiver stopped receiving the speakers’s message, what would happen if the receiver interrupted for a moment and said, “I’m sorry but I am just not getting what you are saying.

How many of us actually take the time to do this? Or do we just pretend to be listening, pretend to be  absorbing or even worse we pretend to be hanging on every word! Meanwhile we have completely zoned out!

Although my short essay on communication has only just scratched the surface of what might possibly be going wrong in your current situation, I believe it’s worth taking a bit of time to reflect on what I’ve said and see if any doors open for you, in your mind.

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now

I guess it really comes down to a question of your goals and how you expect to reach them. The biggest challenge that most humans face as a species is the “addictive mindset.”  Plain and simple. I’ve decided to just “tell it like it is” and put all my cards on the table. If you’re alive and breathing air and living on planet earth, chances are – you’re addicted to *something!*

To be fair, let me just say that I use the word “addicted” quite loosely. In my eyes, attachment and addiction are one in the same.

So when I say “addiction,” I am not necessarily talking about heroin or alcohol or nicotine or food or gambling. By the way, you don’t have to weigh 300 pounds to be considered a food addict. I believe that if your relationship with food is self destructive, you’re a food addict – meaning you have an addictive relationship with food.  We could say the same for television or pornography or Coca Cola or your boyfriend or husband or wife.

If the relationship is destructive, I believe it can be classified as an attachment or addiction. Many people shun this idea that “attachment” must be bad. They will say something like – -”but I love my dog or my Mom or my kid or my husband and I am attached to them. How can that be bad? People need people. How can that be bad?”

And I don’t disagree! Yes, people need people! That’s human nature. We are social beings, dependent on interaction with others in order to stay sane. This is a given. So let me qualify. In my eyes, there is “healthy attachment” and there is “unhealthy” attachment. My guess is that if you are an adult and you are reading this post, you have some familiarity with what I speak of. I call this part of the post “Co-dependence 101.”

But I digress. So getting back to the original question:  Why YOGA? And why daily practice? I can only speak from personal experience on this.  And my guess is that they’ve never done a large enough double blind study to ever really prove what I am about to propose.  And personally, I don’t give a flying (you know what) if something has been proven scientifically or not. If it works for me – that’s proof enough. And that’s pretty much how I live my life. This ability to “trust my gut” is what makes me a yogi. There is a certain “self confidence” that comes with daily yoga practice and this my friends, is the essence of yoga.

In November of 2011, I just celebrated my 14th anniversary of daily yoga practice. That’s right, it was in November of 1997 that I made the commitment to make my yoga practice my highest priority. And I have not wavered from that promise that I made to myself.

People wonder how I stay motivated. That’s a subject for a whole other post. But let me cut to the chase. Yoga keeps me sane. There! I’ve said it! Yoga keeps me sane!

I guess that makes me part of the “sane minority” and I’m proud to be a card carrying member of that club. My guess is that most people who practice daily yoga or meditation (and I see them as one in the same) are doing it for this very reason – to stay sane.

If I gave you a choice between sanity and insanity – which one would you choose?

There, I think I’ve made my case for daily yoga. And I also understand that yoga is not the drug of choice for everyone. But I must say, in yoga’s defense, I’ve found the side effects to be quite attractive.

I believe that yoga may soon qualify as an addictive substance. Perhaps there will be a mandatory sign posted in every yoga studio worldwide:  Warning – Yoga May Be Habit Forming. With continual daily practice you can expect the following side effects: Proceed With Caution and Check With Your Physician if you have any of the following side effects:

• Over riding sense of serenity and inner peace
• Feeling love towards all of man kind
• Finding your bliss for extended periods throughout the day on a daily basis
• Seeing the good in others – finding fault with no one
• Treating others with respect and kindness
• Letting go of anger and feeling appreciative even when others disappoint you
• Total acceptance of the outcome of every situation
• Appreciating each moment and living fully in the now
• Free of anxiety, worry and fear
• Healthy body weight without dieting
• Loss of cravings for junk food
• Deep appreciation for Nature and a love of the outdoors
• Supple, flexible, strong, energetic body
• Calm, relaxed demeanor
• Ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• Feeling energized, vibrant and fully alive

So remember to check with your physician if after practicing yoga for a few days, you begin to experience any of the above side effects. This may indicate a strong attachment towards or addiction to yoga. Proceed with caution as you may be heading towards heaven on earth!

And if  you’re serious about making changes . . . . .
Please check out my free gift to you now