Friday, May 11, 2007

Are You Feeling Beautiful? (Plus: FUN DRINKS!)





Photos: sun beverages

(1:57 AM)
I still have this funky cold. Mish suggested I drink veggie juices with lots of ginger and garlic. It sounded like a good plan, so I went to the store and picked up a few things. I've never been a big fan of ginger, but for the sake of health, I want to have more of a friendship with it. I got the idea to cut it up, put it in water with some minced mint and stick it out in the sun to make mint/ginger tea. I've never made tea or any beverage in the sun, but what the heck, right? I also put out a jar with just minced mint and another jar with some decaf green tea (my usual of late). I sweetened the mint/ginger tea with honey and it was fine, but it didn't seem painfully strong. So I got more ambitious and blended some lemon, water, honey, and a LOT of ginger and then strained it. Here is what I got....



Holy cow, that stuff was HOT HOT HOT!!!! I hope it was worth the pain.

I went to a yoga class at the New Orleans Yoga Center a few evenings ago. I don't think I am very good at yoga, but I do like it. I want to start doing more of it. I try practicing "Audry Yoga" at home, but its pretty goofy stuff. The people near me in the class the other day were so good, I wanted to just stop and watch them. Maybe I should have...Yoga is so beautiful! I even like just saying the word "yoga"....yoga....yoga...

I have been feeling a bit tom-boyish and not in touch with my femininity and beauty the last few days, so I have been putting some energy into feeling pretty. I haven't shaved my legs or armpits in a while, so I did that yesterday. Then today, I piled my hair up on the top of my head in a nice pretty bun. These things helped and I will continue to put more energy in these directions.

I've been thinking lately about women and our body images. I think most women (and perhaps men, also) have a strong sense of body image. I'm beginning to have a greater and greater respect and appreciation for this concept of Body Image - of one's perception of his/her body's beauty or lack there-of. Regardless of my beauty or nonbeauty perceived through the eyes of others, I am realizing that my own perception of my body/beauty can serve me as a very useful tool . I am beginning to see that when I am feeling not-so-beautiful it is only an opportunity for me to pay attention and use that energy to work on myself in some way, be it coming up with creative ways to keep improving my diet, making time for some form of exercise, or just simply doing something - anything- that I think will lift my mood. Inner messages relating to my body image have proven to be a resource for improving myself and my life in general when I accept and pay attention to them. I think many people suffer from negative body images. I like to think that our negative body images and thoughts are really only messages from within, our body/mind's natural way of urging us to do something, change something or work on something within ourselves so that we can become more of who we truly are.

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***NOTE: the comment section for this post disappeared somehow when I went to insert the photos. I don't know how to get it back. Dan: I hope you are having some luck and fun with mint tea concoctions:)