Nutrition: Squash: During October the farmers’ markets, farms, and stores seem to be bursting with an array of squash varieties. With so many varieties it’s not surprising that squash has been cultivated in the Americas for over 10,000 years. Columbus brought back squash from his famous voyage, and like many other foods it spread throughout the world by Spanish and Portuguese traders. It is a member of the Cucurbitacea family and is a relative to the melon and cucumber.

Squash is an excellent source of vitamins A and C, folate, magnesium, potassium, and copper. Actual research is minimal specific to squash, but one study revealed that a juiced squash had the same antioxidant and immune boosting qualities as juice from garlic and leek (which are both powerful health tonics)! Squash is great eaten fresh in salad, stuffed with a variety of veggies and cheese and baked, or grilled.

Yoga: This past month I took an Anusara Workshop with John Friend. Through out the weekend, John mentioned dharma many times. Reflecting on the weekend, I realized I only have a surface concept of dharma. This realization inspired me to pull out some of my books on yoga philosophy and revisit the concept and practice of dharma. I quickly came to find that, like all yoga concepts, dharma has a long, beautiful history and complicated philosophical application for living a healthy life.

Dharma translates into “that which holds or supports,” but most define it as righteous duty, aligning with the divine, or the cultivation of worldly contentment or joy. The Manusmriti, written by the ancient sage Manu, shares the ten rules for cultivating dharma in your own life. Manu suggests that to truly know dharma, we must first live these ten rules. I thought I’d share them this month and then slowly delve into each as the winter unfolds. The ten rules are: patience, forgiveness, self-control, honesty, sanctity, control of the senses, reason, knowledge or learning, truthfulness, and the absence of anger. Lots to delve into…let them sink in and we’ll start with patience next month.

Stress Management: Lately, for me, stress management is all about letting there be space for faith, divine, spirit, and magic. Even as I type that last sentence my intellectual mind wants to challenge such concepts, but on a deeper level I know I can’t do it all. There must be space around my goals and intentions. My practice has simply been…each time I catch myself trying to force a situation into how I think it should be, I soften, connect to my breath, and surrender to what actually is. It’s not a giving up, but an opening up to the present. This opening begins to give me information and knowledge on how to move ahead. Some days I find this practice to be much more challenging and other days quite simple. Try it for an hour, a day, a week and then let me know how it effects your stress level

Suggested Reading: To come along on the dharma journey with me pick-up Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita by Ram Dass.

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