Category: Healthy Living

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Healthy Food

Indian Dinner in Tokyo

Oddly, despite all that eating I did in Tokyo, I actually lost weight which goes to show how healthy Japanese food is and how portion control is important. I ate Japanese food at every opportunity – sushi, onabe, oden, etc. – at every meal except when my girlfriends took me to (at my request) a delicious Indian restaurant near Tokyo JR station. Indian food in Tokyo is very good and when I told the chef that I was from Silicon Valley and thought his food was better than the Silicon Valley Indian food, he was beaming – and it wasn’t a flattery – it was true. The flavors were delicate and well spiced…(but portions small – the Japanese standard). I am always so impressed with Japanese baked goods and here at Indian eatery as well. Best Nan and dosa…

Last to leave being last to get seated… late dinner is not my thing but:) making exceptions…chefs are waiters are cleaning up so … a hint that it’s time to go.
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authentic chai with shared sweets… petit sizes…
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The place was packed and could not get a reservation until 8:30pm… Here’s the link to the restaurant site – menu in English as well … Click the restaurant name: Dhaba India
Or you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner – all Japanese, everyday:) but so much variety in mega-city, that is, Tokyo:)

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Ganesha greeted us! Felt at home – weird isn’t it? A Japanese coming back from America, at Indian restaurant in hometown, Tokyo and feeling at home?

In case you were beginning to wonder…

“I’m not so weird to me.”

― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Categories
Healthy Activities Healthy Living

Happy New Year !

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Chinese and classic Japanese calendar is based on a lunar calendar and therefore,
it’s New Year, an auspicious day.

As we celebrate the New Year, I am just filled with deep sense of gratitude.
So blessed to have kind students – this morning, I had a student who gave me a good feedback to put me back on track- thank you – I don’t drink coffee early in the AM but maybe I should?
and after last Sunday evening class, a lovely student sweetly says something like:

She: “I know I have a name for you in Spanish!”
Me: ?
She: “You are a CURANDERA.”
Me: ??
I do not know Spanish – wish I had studied it – so absolutely – ??? lost.
So, she translates “Curandera” to mean in English … “Healer”… “HEALER“?
Me: me? what?
I am so flattered and honored. Thank you – Arigato – Gracias!

We all need positive reinforcements especially when faced with a dilemma or trying to choose a path.
I don’t think of myself as a healer – that’s just too tremendous a responsibility but I think she read my intentions – that I desire that kind of a magic potion that heals all wounds and pains, I wish I could be a healer and my mind is full of how-to’s to accomplish it and I study the how’s (alternatives to Western medicine) out of that desire. How I wish I had that magic tincture… an elixir… to dispense that remedies all.

I think most people I see as being “spiritual” – not religious but “spiritual” all experienced or faced some significant loss or even death in some ways (that pretty much covers everybody eventually) – if not your own loss (health, innocence, belief system, strength, will – all things material and not) or near death experience, someone or something near or dear to you… and that makes one a bit more aware, call it spiritual – or conscious and AWAKE – as in that sign that says
“Life is Short; but Eternity is Not…” Yes, don’t we know it.

So if appreciation of Life makes me a Curandera, hope we can all, each of us find the Curandera spirit within us.
That is how I hope to serve… for everyone to be empowered to be one’s own Curandera… with a little help from a friend:) dispensing that technique.
We are all, each of us, a “Curandera”. It made me think of a medicine man in Native American culture I once read about and felt an affinity towards…

Native American Shamanism… actually has some parallels to Shinto tradition in Japan… hope it’s okay to say that…anyway,
Thank you again for such a special compliment that humbles and inspires me, Dearest T.

Happy Lunar New Year and enjoy the Oscar party – will miss you but, even a Curandera cannot replace vibes from such a party:-)

Categories
Beautiful Rituals Healthy Activities Healthy Living Yoga

Grey Matter Grows:)

Here’s a recent article with the heading “Harvard Unveils MRI study proving meditation literally rebuilds the brain’s grey matter in 8 weeks.”:

“Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University. The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team’s MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”

Sue McGreevey of MGH writes: “Previous studies from Lazar’s group and others found structural differences between the brains of experienced meditation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation, observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.” Until now, that is. The participants spent an average of 27 minutes per day practicing mindfulness exercises, and this is all it took to stimulate a major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection. McGreevey adds: “Participant-reported reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time.”

“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. You can read more about the remarkable study by visiting Harvard.edu.”

Guess it takes Harvard name drop to convince people of modern times but yogis and monks have known this for couple of thousand years…