On Indulgence: Chocolate, Smoothies, & Tantra

Holidays are the time for overindulging on cookies, chocolate, and candies that every neighbor, cousin, and co-worker bring you by the bundle. Even knowing that it's not nourishing your body to eat a plate of peanut butter cookies and candy canes for lunch, our resolve sometimes falls short of our goals.

Don't get too down on yourself!

Tantra yoga teaches a practice of indulgence with awareness. Life is beautiful and filled with amazing things, and vehemently ignoring gives them undeserved power that causes suffering and can disallow us to be thankful for what the universe has to offer. Whereas some branches of yoga demand suppression, tantra suggests that we fully interact with the world by very mindfully enjoying all the beauty that surrounds us. In the new age, a practice that acknowleges ALL our desires and needs is appropriate when fulfilled respectfully. We can be spiritual and enjoy wordly pleasures - and when we supress one or the other, it results in an internal struggle that brings about self-condemnation and confusion.

So when you are presented with a cookie, root down and listen to your unmovable inner witness: Do you want the cookie out of mindless craving or can you indulge in the luxury with awareness?

I'm entirely subject to the lure of the Christmas Cookie, but I'd like to offer another option for an indulgence: Smoothies! Here are a couple of my favorite concoctions that really pack the nutrients into a tasty beverage. I use a Vitamix so I can essentially blend anything I want. These recipes make enough for 2 really big servings and should be altered however your heart desires.

Super Sludge
2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 apple, half a lemon, 1.5" peeled ginger root, handful blueberries, handful pineapple/mango/strawberry, handful spinach, handful kale with stalk, 2 tsp chia seeds, 1 Tbs coconut, 1 Tbs raw honey, soy yogurt, water to blend

Ginger Pear
1 pear, 1 apple, 2" peeled ginger root, 1 celery stalk, 1 tsp raw honey, 1 Tbs goji berries, water to blend

Choco Peanut Butter Banana
2 or 3 frozen bananas (or 2 bananas and one ripe avocado), 1 cup soy milk, 1 Tbs raw cacao, 1 Tbs hemp hearts, 1 tsp flax, 1 tsp raw honey, 2 Tbs natural peanut butter, 1 tsp coconut, 1 tsp coconut oil, splash of vanilla or almod extract, few shakes of cinnamon

Share your favorite smoothie receipe or must-have ingredient in the comments :) How do you handle your winter-time comfort food or cookie cravings?

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