I meant to write about Asian beauty secrets for ages. People often say Asians have good genes that keep them look younger for longer, but I think there is more to it. There are plenty of healthy habits that we pass down through generations of women for maintaining our youthful appearance and optimal health. And so today I am going to share with you something this is sweet and yummy!
Chinese Sweet Soups are usually served as a dessert, but they’re not like desserts in any other culture. They are not bad temptation that should avoid as much as possible,. To us, desserts aren’t indulgent or sinful but a necessary health tonic for the body. Some of these soups are great for ‘moisturizing’ our internal organs; some can lower the ‘heat’ inside of our body and many are said to improve our skin condition and to clear acne. A healthy diet is all about balancing all the right elements. A little bit of sweet will do us no harm but bring us great health benefits. Just remember, moderation is key.
In Hong Kong, there’re many restaurants that serve only sweet soups. A lot of these specialty eateries are packed with people even late at night. Its part of our culture! Instead of going to a pub to socialize, we go for sweet soups!
If you are feeling dull and tired, a bowl of red bean soup will give you an energy boost. If you have acne, then go for green bean soup to lower your ‘heat’ and it is also good for eczema and to lower cholesterol. If you are looking for a smooth, milky white complexion, then traditional almond milk will be your best friend!
Today I am going to share with you a simple recipe of the Asian Pear Almond Dessert Soup.
This is a classic and surprisingly easy to make. It has a delicate sweetness that is nicely contrasted with a smooth gingery zing and aromatic hint of almond flavor. Its sweetness derives from the rock cane sugar and Asian pears which is light and refreshing. This dessert can be enjoyed hot or cold. It is low in calories, fat and cholesterol. It is vegan friendly too! From a traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, this dessert soup is known to nourish and moisturize the lungs and skin. It helps to quench thirst if your throat and mouth are feeling dry. Asia pears are also known to relieve dry coughs and help expel phlegm.
Ingredients:
2 Asian Pears
2 tsp south almonds
2 tsp north almonds
1 small snow fungus, soaked overnight
2 slices of ginger
1 rock sugar, slight larger then a golf ball
4 cups of water
(You can get the almonds, rock sugar and snow fungus from most of the Chinese grocery stores – they are very common and inexpensive)
Prep time – 10 mins
Cook time – 2 hours
Use a ceramic double steamer if you have one, but otherwise just use a normal cooking pot or sauce pan. I like to keep things simple and accessible.
- Wash, core and quarter each pear. Cut each quarter slice in half again.
- Cut the soaked snow fungus to small pieces. If the center is hard, dice it to small pieces so they can cook and soften during the cooking process.
- Wash and drain the almonds, ginger and rock sugar.
- Put all the ingredients and water into the pot and bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.
Enjoy!
Sound is an important awareness when it comes to creating Sacred Space. The brain, the breath and the heart are the major pulse systems in our body and are all important for rhythmic entrainment with a space and clearing.
When we are still in the present moment we go to a deeper awareness of consciousness. When we slow down our breath, our heart and brainwaves follow. If we slow down our breathing and become conscious of the vibrations around us and within an environment we will be able to feel stimuli from the environment. This enables us whether we are a practitioner or a person interested in healing their home space to walk through the home and feel into the areas needing more love.
As we invoke our higher self, and our guidance we can use the sound of the quartz crystal singing bowls to be placed as close as possible to the heart energy of the home . The quartz crystal bowls are powerful tools for transformation as their resonance of pure tone cuts through and transforms the vibrations within any space. The vibration becomes more refined allowing flowing chi to move more easily through a congested area.
I love creating Space Clearing Ceremonies with my clients helping them determine what energy they would like to live in to help create balance and use breath techniques and the synchro alignment™ method to assist them to ‘let go’ and relax in the crystal sound. Affirmations and intentions are created together as we connect together in ceremony which is very powerful. Sensitive people have said that they can feel the sound of the bowls for up to several days after the clearing and can feel their heart focus and crystal sound vibration.
Karen will be hosting a talk about Sound, The Chakras and providing an experience with her Alignment meditation at the upcoming Embrace Life Live Life Festival in Newcastle on 18th October. Upstairs in Chevals Lounge at 2pm at the Newcastle Jockey Club.
For more information please go to her website www.karenquant.com.au about events, retreats, labyrinth walks and crystal sound meditations.
We each came here with a purpose and a mission, a role we promised to fulfill before our souls took this physical form we are now in. The fact that you are reading this is validation that you have a recollection of this soul contract. It’s like it’s out there in our peripheral vision, yet every time we turn to focus more it eludes us further, teasing us to actually find it.
Connecting people with their life purpose is my passion. Since I connected with mine I feel so much joy and happiness in my life, I feel it is unfair to keep this to myself. I am going to share with you that there is a Google equivalent of your soul, somewhere you can type in any question about your life and get answers.
You can ask questions about life purpose, soul gifts, relationships, money, work, health and even about past lives. And you can get answers to these questions. The good news is that this is not an imaginary place and the even better news is that it’s easy to access. It’s called the Akashic records, or ‘Book of Life’, and it’s been known of for centuries, just kept secret from many.
The Akashic records are a hidden library in space, a secret hall of records, on our individual and collective soul journeys. You often visit this place in your dreams, I am going to help you access it whilst you are awake.
I started purposefully visiting the Akashic Records and asking questions about my life purpose about 2 years ago and the downloads of information I have received are profound.
I now know without a shadow of a doubt that my purpose is to help others to connect with theirs. I want to help people awaken to the beauty of their soul and to remove any blocks or fears inhibiting them from doing this.
Since I accepted this life purpose things have taken off at speed for me. I went from a place of being afraid to tell anyone I had psychic abilities to where I am now, featuring regularly on Psychic TV, having a dedicated space for sessions with clients, through to conducting workshops helping people connect with their life purpose. I also do work with an awesome charity that helps young people connect with their purpose. Life is good, actually it’s great.
Now it’s time for you to start your love affair with visiting the Akashic Records to get downloads on your life. Trust me it’s an awesome place to visit, I highly recommend it. Here are some quick tips on how to access the search engine of your Soul:
- Ground yourself. Switch yourself off from distractions and find a quiet space where you cannot be disturbed for 10 minutes.
- Put some background music on, preferably with headphones, to help block out outside noises. I like this track.
- Start to breathe deeply. Breathe in for the count of 3, and out for the count of 4. Repeat this throughout this exercise.
- Set the intention in your mind to invite in Archangel Metatron (Guardian of Akashic Records) to be your guide and help you safely visit the Akashic Records. You may see, sense, feel or hear him, depending on your own intuitive gifts.
- Allow him to guide you to energetically enter the biggest library in the universe you have ever seen. Know this is a safe and special place. Once you enter you have déjà vu, you have been here many times before.
- Ask Metatron to direct you to your Soul’s own individual record. Take 5 minutes to sit with this huge book. It has the answers to all the questions you have.
- Ask a question around one area of your life. For this exercise use Life Purpose, however know you can revisit and ask for another area of your life.
- Acknowledge the thoughts and sensations that come to your awareness, do not dismiss them, as this is the voice of your intuition and your soul. The more you accept what you are receiving, the more downloads you will receive. You can ask more than one question about this life area. Spend a few minutes here in this dialogue.
- Return the book to Metatron when you have received the answers. Thank him for his guidance.
- Begin to return your awareness to your physical body, bringing with you the insights you received from the Akashic Records. Take a drink of water to help ground you back to earth.
The more you practice this guided process, the quicker and easier it will be for you to connect and receive significant downloads. It is a beautiful place to visit.
In my sessions with clients, I delve deep into their Akashic Records on their behalf, exploring for information to help align them with their life purpose. I love doing this, it’s an amazing job to have.
There is much to be grateful for. Waking up alive is one. Waking up alive next to somebody lovely is another. Waking up alive next to somebody lovely, surrounded by birdsong and reflections of shimmering water on my ceiling is a third.
“Get out own town! That sounds too good to be true!” I hear you saying. My mindread of course. You mightn’t be saying any such thing. That’s precisely what I did. I got out of town.
Now settled in beautiful Ballina – the picturesque nothern NSW coastal town of milk and honey, where smiling faces of passers by greet you and the bath tempered water is graced by sharks with their own free will.
This place is bliss! Or is it?
If it’s bliss for me it might be hell for others. Let’s flip the coin.
“Ballina – the home of retirees in caravans, where one can’t get a moment to oneself without shallow greetings, and the ocean is infested with life threatening beasts.”
Sounds to me like gratitude is in the attitude. I’d like to quote someone here, but I’m not sure where I picked up this wisdom.
A place is just a place. It is our attitude to the place that carries whether it is bleek or beautiful.
“A place can’t be bleek” my darling partner Glenn said to me the other week, coming to an understanding of an old meaning he had given his hometown of Nambucca Heads, which in my mind’s eye is a gorgeous seaside paradise. And as he explained to me then what now makes perfect sense, that a place can’t be ANYTHING, except for what we make it to be, I too had a penny drop moment.
A place is just a place. It just IS. Until we dress it in words of description and other meaningful garnish. It doesn’t mean anything. It only means something to US. We create the meaning about the place.
“I grew up here and had a pretty awful time, so now this place is a dump” some might say, meaningfully.
“My mother loved to holiday here, and I miss her so much. It means a lot to me to come here” says another. What a contrast. And these two might be talking about the same place!
I make meaning into matter a lot of the time. Sometimes so much I give away my personal power in the process.
“I really wanted this job and felt I was meant to have it, but didn’t get it so it must mean something bad. It must mean I’m rubbish at what I do!”
And then come the feelings of self doubt as I make gigantic meaning into gigantic matter, and off I roll, snowballing down in an avalange of my own mind’s creation.
Wow. I’m powerful.
I tend to manifest things pretty accurately as I go about life. Something I wished for came true. More than once. More than twice. Most of the time this happens in total oblivion. I read an old journal entry worded “I really want to… “ and as I read it, it’s already happened, more or less like I wanted it to.
I got served.
Perhaps it’s for the best this magic happens unknowingly. If I knew what superpowers I possessed I’d be sure to need a larger bicycle helmet.
Since I have occasional awareness of my manifesting superpowers, I’d like to use my powers for good, and spread love and joy as I go along. And what brings on feelings of love and joy for me, starts with gratitude. The more gratitude I feel, the more love and joy radiates from within me, and more often than not attracts MORE feelings of gratitude. Like a wheel of good fortune.
As some may relate to, I don’t feel grateful all the time.
How can I? If the opposite of gratitude didn’t exist, how would I know to feel gratitude?
Everything has a polarity. Love / Hate. Yes / No. Gratitude / Resentment.
How can I have one without the other?
The trick for me personally is to be okay with occasional resentment. With absolutely no judgement attached to that. A step back into awareness that they are each other’s polar opposites, and one isn’t without the other. And that’s okay.
I’m human.
Perfectly imperfect.
And oh so grateful for that.
Some of this article’s content is inspired by an Apex Attention Practice birthed by The Coaching Room.
Photo credit: Chakramindset
Carmen is participating on our current 21 days of Gratitude project, and has offered wonderful gifts of her Element5 Perfume, natural perfumes from pure essential oils, to cater for health conscious lovers of perfume.
Check out her website, www.element5perfume.com and register now to participate in the online event which runs from 1st to 21st September.
Maitreya is a sublime teacher, powerful healer, an inspired sacred musician and a living embodiment of compassion and joy.
With immense joy in his heart and through deep devotion, Maitreya’s songs open the heart, restore peace and illuminate the soul with gentleness and great compassion.
Maitreya will be joining us at the upcoming Central Sydney festival on Sunday 6th September.
Recently I re-encountered a novel that I was fascinated by when I was a teenager. It is an enchanting novel called Like Water For Chocolate by Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel. It is a book with monthly instalments of recipes, romances and home remedies.
The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life to marry her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her mother’s upholding of the family tradition of the youngest daughter not marrying but taking care of her mother until the day she dies.
Tita has a love of the kitchen and a deep connection with food. Her love for cooking also comes from the fact that she was born in the kitchen. Tita is only able to express herself when she cooks and her strong emotions become infused into her cooking. She unintentionally begins to affect the people around her through the food she prepares.
Two particular incidents kept me reading all night. First is about one particularly rich meal of quail in rose petal sauce flavored with Tita’s erotic thoughts of Pedro, her oldest sister Gertrudis becomes inflamed with lust and leaves the ranch with a revolutionary soldier on the back of a horse. (Remember I was about 16 years old and that really got my attention.) Second incident was about the meal she prepared for her second sister Rosaura and Pedro’s wedding. She was so sad that all the guests felt the sorrow from the food and vomited after.
Leaving the dramas aside, few things really touched my heart, especially when I came across the book the second time. It may sound odd to you but I am a reader who really invests my emotions in the story and mind you I have an overactive imagination as well.
I was really grateful that everyone in my family is kind and loving, unlike Tita’s mother and sister, both often act from their wounds and inflict pain on others. I’ve learned that every relationship is a divine assignment for our soul to grow. But oh boy some of the family dynamics are just tough lessons to get through. I think many people can identify with that too.
Secondly I was stunned with the connection between food and emotions. We had a cook back then, her name was Rose. She always knew what we wanted for dinner. Her food was so good that our friends & family often self-invited themselves to come over during festival times, the happy times.
Rose passed away few years ago, after cooking for us for nearly 2 decades. Her signature dishes are hers, even they are just common Chinese dishes, no other restaurant could make them taste quite like hers.
And the point is, I really miss her.
I miss her food and her presence in our family. We didn’t pay as much attention about how wonderful her cooking was nor realize how important her presence was until we could no longer taste her food and see her at home.
Tita reminds me of Rose. My memories of Rose are so attached to her food because that was the medium where she infused her energy with.
By re-encountering this book, it brought back so much memories and the reflection that we got to express our gratitude to those who are important in our life. Not just over Christmas or at birthdays and special occasions, but be more mindful and thankful in our everyday life as well.
Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for. – Zig Ziglar
On Sunday 9 August, we opened up to the first Penrith Embrace Life Festival and wow! what a day!
The morning kicked off with the Embrace Families program of kids yoga, drumming, hula hooping and mandala drawing, and it was so beautiful to see our kids enjoying the time with us.
Our wellness businesses made such a beautiful display and connected with over 650 people throughout the day, many conversations bubbled over in our virtual marketplace, while interactive workshops and beautiful stage and musical performances were held.
The experiences of the OM cafe with sound healing and meditations, our indoor labrynith, the quite ambience of the L’Embrace Spa and the heart felt connections of the OM cafe all added further dimensions, with many people staying the full day to connect.
At the onset of Spring the weather gets warmer, the daylight stays with us a little longer and our energy lightens as we anticipate and rejoice in all the new sprigs and blessings that we will begin to enjoy. What does Spring really offer for us and how does this relate to Gratitude, Meredith Wilson explains.
Spring Equinox is traditionally on the 21st September, around the time when the Earth’s poles are the same distance from the Sun. The Sun rises due east and sets due west.
Astrologically for 2015 it falls on Wednesday, 23rd September at 6:22pm (Sydney time). In this 24 hour cycle there are roughly 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.
At the Spring Equinox we are at the midway point through Spring, the time of equal day and equal night, the balance of light and dark. So at this time we have the chance to invite balance into our lives.
We had the first stirrings of Spring at the beginning of August with the celebration of Imbolc. The Spring Equinox is the 2nd celebration of Spring which is also known as Ostara or Alban Eilir. The third spring celebration is Beltane (1st November) where Spring is at her fullest and begins to give away to Summer.
However, at the Spring Equinox, we have travelled from the deep dark depths of winter when night reigned in power. We dove into the deep recesses of our minds, hearts and souls to bring up that which needed to see the light of day. We have sat in solitude; we have sung in silence; we have seen all of who we are ~ well, all that can be seen this cycle at least. We have worked the soil, we have dreamt of our seeds. Now we seek to plant them, nurture them and tend to the growing creation and manifestation.
It is with the energy of Spring we find we have the opportunity for new growth, fresh starts and new beginnings. This time is also known to some as Promise ~ in anticipation of the fulfilment of that promise which will occur with the harvest in the Autumn.
So what will you plant that you will reap in months to come?
Be sure to consciously ‘plant your seeds’, in other words, give thanks for what you want to see grow in your life.
The emphasis cannot be strong enough now on what you sow so shall you reap both physically and metaphorically.
Now that spring is blooming, and mother earth’s pulse is pumping through, giving sound to new growth and life, we are granted an amazing opportunity to consciously align with this energy and ‘use’ it to fuel whatever new beginnings we are creating in our lives. Whether you realise it or not you are being influenced by this energy. Pay close attention, you will feel it, practise flowing with it.
With the vibration and energy that Gratitude invokes, take time to contemplate what is developing around you, is it what you truly want?
Are you listening to the growth that is happening in you? Do you need to get out the ‘fertiliser’ to help what’s growing to be stronger? Do you need to do some ‘weeding’?
Remember so much will grow from now on, headed toward full bloom at the Summer Solstice in three months time.
Meredith Louise Moonsoul Wilson ~ a spirited woman
“Taking spirit with me wherever I go, Bringing spirit to you wherever you are”
This month we welcome you to honour World Gratitude Day on 21 September and to join our online event around Gratitude in our personal and business lives, if you want to join us please register today via http://bit.ly/1hChNL1
Below is a wonderful poem on Gratitude, giving us all the opportunity to perceive those times that we may find challenging, through its gift.
Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don’t know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you’re tired and weary
Because it means you’ve made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown
After many years of being unable to manifest any experiences I wanted (and many I didn’t) I realised the secret missing ingredient: You must believe you deserve what your heart desires.
You can spend endless hours visualising what you want, feeling how it would feel to have it and trusting the universe will bring it to you. But if you do not feel worthy of what your heart yearns for, you will never allow yourself to receive it.
And here is another secret I want you to know: you do deserve whatever your heart desires.
Why? Simply because your heart desires it. Your tender, precious heart knows what experiences are meant for you. With its endless capacity for love and joy, it knows far more about your greatest good than your mind ever could.
The heart does not yearn for things that are harmful to you or others the way the mind or body might. It wants whatever experiences will move you closer to the best version of yourself. The experiences that will open you, move you, expand you and make you grow. Your heart does not give long justifications as to why it wants what it wants, and it does not broadcast its desires surround sound. It simply whispers to you in quiet moments with a steady, certain “Yessss.”
Perhaps your heart desires an epic romantic love in which the passion never fades, or work that fills you with such joy that you jump out of bed on a Monday morning, or flowing financial abundance that gives you the freedom to travel the world and wake up without an alarm clock.
Okay, I’ll be honest: these are three of my biggest desires. And my mind has come up with a million different reasons as to why I can’t; shouldn’t; won’t have those things. But deep down I knew I could not keep settling for jobs, relationships, or finances that were far less than what my heart truly desired. And as my mindset began to shift to one of worthiness, my external world has quickly started shifting towards making these desires real.
So next time you feel your heart yearn for something, remember that if you really truly desire an experience from the very depth of your being, then you are meant to have it.
As Rumi says, “What you seek is seeking you.”
You do not need to be more of anything – more intelligent, more attractive, or more evolved. You are enough, exactly as you are. You are worthy of all the love, joy, adventure, comfort, connection and creativity you yearn for. All you have to do is trust your heart knows what it’s talking about when it whispers “Yesss.”