Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

A Fruit Feast! I consumed almost all this fruit over the 3 days. Note: the bananas were intentionally purchased unripe. They were perfectly ripe when consumed though. I also only drank 12 ounces of the 100% pure blueberry juice.

Earlier this week, as part of the 40 Days to Personal Revolution program, I did a 3-day fruit fast. As I love to eat fruits, I was really looking forward to this. I considered it more of a fruit feast than a fruit fast!

The picture above shows the entire array of fruits that I picked up for these 3 days. In fact, there was more than enough fruit here to last me over a week! I still have a few mangoes and oranges left in fact.

You might be wondering what I broke my fast with? After teaching a yoga class in the morning, I enjoyed some Idli that my mom made before going to work!

So how did I do on the fruit fast? Here is the scoop. Keep in mind that I entered this 3-day fast after having gone without caffeine or any processed sugar for over 3 weeks. I also have been practicing yoga 6-7 days a week for quite a while and have been following a 100% plant-based diet for many years. As a result of this, I think my detoxing symptoms were a little less severe than others. Your mileage will vary!

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Telling the truth is more than just not lying to others. It is about being honest to yourself. This is the real meaning of being truthful. When you make the decision to be truthful in your thoughts, deeds and actions – you are committing to living an authentic life. That is to say, a life that is based in the reality of this world, and not caught up in the drama of the world that you – or those around you – wish to have or have worked so hard to manufacture.

Being truthful lifts an incredible burden off of your shoulders. For starters, you don’t have to worry about telling people something, and then having to remember what you told them. The truth is the truth and you don’t need to try to remember it.

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What makes an expert and expert?

There are a lot of people that seem to be experts, people who in fact call themselves experts, that have studied and experimented and gathered enough life experience to be really and truly proficient in something.

There are other people who talk and even act as if they were experts, but have never had formal training in the subject at hand.

Given that both of these types of people seem to be experts, what really makes an expert an expert?

I think being an expert is all relative. We are all experts in something. In fact, right now there are dozens of things that you can do (or know) that a group of other people can’t do (or don’t know). To these people you are an expert.

The next time you question your own expertise, whether you can do something or teach someone else to do something, just consider that being an expert is all relative. Even someone at the top of their game, like Tiger Woods, has a coach. There is always another level of experience to be had, but that shouldn’t keep you from sharing what you do have.

You are an expert in someone else’s eyes.

I’m participating in 40 Days to Personal Revolution at my yoga school. This program, developed by Baron Baptiste, incorporates regular asana practice (6 days a week) with regular readings from the book, journaling/writing/reflecting, weekly group meetings with other participants, twice daily meditation and observation of certain dietary restrictions (for the sake of cleansing). For me, I have eliminated all caffeine and processed sugar from my diet for the entire 40 days.

As part of the program, we embark on the fourth week (we just finished week 3) with a 3-day fruit fast. I might as well call this a fruit “feast” since I truly enjoy eating tons of fresh, ripe, juicy fruits! During these 3 days we eat nothing but fruit. This begins tomorrow (Monday) morning and ends on Thursday morning.

I just re-stocked my fruit supply. Here is what my kitchen counter looks like right now. I don’t know if I will finish all of this in 3 days, but it will be fun trying! Most of fruit is organic (except for the berries, papaya, avocado and mangoes).

• 2 large cucumbers
• 4 avocados
• 2 x 2lbs strawberries
• 4 x 5oz blackberries
• 7 kiwis
• 4 large mangoes
• 4 apples
• 2 pears
• 25 clementine oranges (small ones, about 5 pounds)
• 1 navel orange
• 1 huge pommelo
• 3 medium papaya
• 22 mini-banana
• 22 regular bananas
• 1 large pineapple
• 25 kumquats (8oz)

I have written a lot about breathing, perhaps because it matters so much.

We can go for weeks without food, days without water but only a few minutes without breathing. The world record for breath holding is currently held by David Blaine – a famous magician who got his start doing street magic. The time? 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds.

The quality of our breath tells us a lot about our mental and emotional condition. It is something worth reflecting on. What is the quality of your breath? When do you tend to hold your breath without even knowing it? Are you breathing fully?

It is common for people to spend thousands of dollars on beauty treatments every year, and even more money on supplements. Perhaps the more important thing to consider is the quality of air that you breath, and the quality of your actual act of breathing.

It is in our best interests as a society to want others to succeed. If other people succeed, we really are better off. Think about it. If your friends and other members of your community have better jobs, better education, better access to services and better/adequate pay, they would be able to contribute even more back to their communities – wherein they and everyone else (including you) would benefit.

However, we don’t naturally act like this is real life. The Ultimatum Game was an experiment that studied the willingness of people to contribute to a common pool of money over time, in return for everybody getting a specific and favorable payout.

Everyone contributes and everyone benefits.

In reality what happens is that people begin to realize that even when they don’t contribute they still reap the rewards. A classic example of this is the effort people make to evade taxes, while still benefiting from public services and infrastructure that other people’s tax dollars provide.

As a result of this, people feel cheated because some members of their community are getting more than their fair share. They then stop contributing to the overall pool even though they would be better off by doing so.

Primates have been found to do the same thing. A story from a recent book I read, The Wisdom of Crowds, pointed out a study conducted with Chimps. The researchers had chimps trade pebbles for small pieces of cucumber. One pebble = one cucumber. After some time, the rules changed and some chimps were given a grape (a much tastier snack!) instead of the cucumber. The other Chimps, upon seeing this…would react in disgust, either throwing away their cucumbers or in some cases even refusing to turn in their pebbles at all.

They would forgo a modest payoff just because someone else got something better.

Think of how this unconscious pattern plays out in your own life and in your own community. Think about the improvements we could make in the world by letting go of greed and jealously and really acting in our own best interests – which often are in the best interests of the community as a whole – and not getting sucked into the Ultimatum Game.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of uncertainty that you are able to let into your life and accept, and the quality of your overall life experiences. The best things that I have ever experienced in my life were born from situations that were to a large extent highly uncertain. A few example….there was a huge amount of uncertainty around:

• how I would finish my first marathon
• how I would finish my first Ironman triathlon (and make it to the start line period!)
• how I would swim across Puget Sound (3.5 miles in 50 degree water!)
• how I would do on my honors chemistry final in college
• how I would complete numerous challenging work projects
• how I would fare in that longshot job interview
• how I would find my way back the trailhead after getting lost in the woods for a bit
• how I would navigate the streets and cultures of those foreign countries
• how I would have the courage to teach my first yoga class
• how I would manage my finances in a challenging economy
• how I would fare in throwing a party for a bunch of friends
• how I would get everything I need to get done in an incredibly short period of time

The list could go on and on.

Life is full of uncertainty, but sometimes it is exactly when you want to quit that you should stay and push through. Uncertainty is not a bad thing, it is reality. The better you are able to handle these situations, the more new and expanded possibilities will open up in your life – and the more fulfilled you will feel.

I’m a big fan of smoothies in the morning. A while ago I wrote about my Raw Power Smoothie, an all vegan and mostly raw concoction that would keep me going most of the day.

Nowadays, I’m in the groove of doing more fruits, mostly bananas, with some maca powder and a heaping tablespoon of vitamineral green. I forgo the protein powder and other things. I find that sticking with more of a fruit base and going lighter on the protein actually feels better in the morning.

The key to making this smoothie work and taste great is to get high quality organic bananas. Most people eat bananas when they are still “raw” and green and totally spot-free. Eating bananas like this will give you problems….gas and other digestive issues. They also don’t taste as sweet!

I like my bananas nice and spotty, there might be a touch of green near the stems, but the rest is deep yellow with plenty of brown spots on the peel. The peel should also come off very easily. If you have to hack away to open your banana, it isn’t ready yet!

Note: if you need to ripen bananas, stick them in a closed bag in a warm place.

Now I am off to drink my post yoga class smoothie! (4 large organic bananas, 20 ounces water, vitamineral green powder and maca powder).

What is your favorite smoothie? Let me know in the comments!

No matter how good things are, it is human nature to wish that things could be better.

Similarly, when things are not going so well, we miss out on the things that are working out well.

At challenging times, like what we are living in right now – when the economy is going through a “reset” of sorts, it pays to keep things in perspective.

This video has been making the rounds on Facebook, and it is just so perfectly timed.

When I listen to someone breathing, I know everything I need to know about their mental and emotional condition in that moment. As a yoga teacher, I spent a lot of time listening to people breathe.

Fast and quick breathing is indicative of an unsettled mind. A mind that is still thinking about the workday or the commute to the yoga studio or what they are going to eat for dinner or what they are going to do over the weekend.

An even and steady breath is indicative of a balanced and calm mind. A mind that is at peace with the current moment, and probably is well rested, nourished and present.

If the breath is such a strong indicator of one’s emotional and mental condition, could it not work in reverse? Could one bring about a more balanced and supportive mental and emotional state by simply focusing on the breath alone?

Absolutely.