Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) + Vegan Overnight Oats= Fear Fighting Oats

Happy Monday Yogi’s.  I have missed you all! This past month has been quite a whirlwind of exciting and life changing experiences.  Level 2 Yoga training with Baron Baptiste, Facilitator training with Shakti Rising (an organization dedicated to empowering women and young girls) , forming new friendships and letting go of old friendships, seeing my dad go through major depression, feeling joyous and on top of the world at times, and  feeling sad and unsure of what is happening next at others… I feel like I have gone through a giant tube of frosting and been squeezed out, raw and awake;  waking up to old ideas and beliefs of who I thought I was and experiencing more and more each day what it feels like to live in the full expression of me…heart, body, and soul.

One of the biggest realizations I have had over the past month is I have a fear of being seen as less than “perfect” and losing control.  I realize it comes from my fear of not being liked, being judged, and being left alone at the end of the day.  I am really good at “holding” myself and all the pieces of my life together, yet what I end up feeling at times is exhausted, drained, and not even living the outcome I was trying to “control” and create in the first place.  What has been really freeing for me is acknowledging out loud to myself and the world that I have this fear; for what I learned over the past month is, “that what you do not own, owns you.”  By owning the fact that I have a fear of being seen and needing to control a situation, I am releasing it’s grip on me, and I am allowing myself to live so much more freely. For I realized I don’t have much control over experiences that are happening on the outside of me anyways :)!

This weeks yoga pose, handstand, and recipe is all about being willing to fall, being seen just as you are, and losing control.  Handstand is a pose that is pretty scary for a lot of people when they first start practicing Yoga.  I can remember my first experience with handstand and how deathly afraid I was to go upside down. I realized it was not that I had a fear of going upside down, but rather that I had a fear of falling and losing control.  What handstand has taught me is that it is okay to fall and lose control, and that I am actually OKAY.  Trust me I have fallen plenty of times, but what I have learned is that it is not about the falling and losing control, but rather it is about how I choose to get back up after I fall.  It is inevitable that we are all going to fall in handstand and in life at some point, and the power is in how we get back up when we get knocked down.

The recipe I chose this week is a “perfect” pairing with a la Handstand. The recipe is an oat-meal that is truly extraordinary, not your mom and pops oat-meal for sure.  I chose this oat-meal recipe, which was actually inspired by another blog I recently read, because at first glance it definitely was way out of my comfort zone in term of the ingredients that it brings together. My first thoughts were that of control (hehehe), and is this really going to taste good???? Yet after letting go and making the recipe it ended up being one of the best oat-meals I have ever had.

This week live outside your comfort zone, let your hair down, and play around in handstand and eat some oats…allowing yourself to fall, get right back up, and be seen for exactly who you are…Which is always ENOUGH!

Playing and losing control with you,

Fear Fighting Oats Recipe:

Adapted from Ohh She Glows.

PM Ingredients:

* 1/3 cup regular oats
* 3/4 cup almond milk
* 2 tablespoons chia seeds
* 1 tiny ripe banana, peeled and smashed
* 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: Mix together the above ingredients in a bowl and place in fridge overnight.

AM Ingredients:

* 1 tablespoon nut butter
* Pure Maple Syrup or agave nectar

Directions: Serve nut butter in a spoon and drizzle Maple syrup/agave syrup over top.

Serve overnight oats cold and Enjoy!