Rich Vegetarian Source of Omega 3

Omega 3 are the essential fatty acids for healthy heart, circulation and brain function.
Purslane is a rich non-fish source of EPA also suitable for vegetarians.
It is the richest source of n-3 fatty acids.
Often eaten in salads, like Fattouche!

Our life is essentially our story. It is in fact the story we tell ourselves. Remember when as children, we would tell stories of our dream life… How often have you heard Oscar nominees and athletic champions recount how when they were younger, they pretended their toothpaste was the award or the medal as they brushed their teeth and practiced their acceptance speeches in front of the mirror!

Our vision, our words, our thoughts are all a roadmap that constitutes the co-creation of our life. Moments line up… People we encounter, events we experience, the outcomes are all accompanying that script. Think about how often your words and ideas have lead you along.

I remember moving back to NYC in 2004. It was quite spontaneous and very flowy and I remember feeling great immediately on arrival. For a while before, whilst living in London, I’d talked about moving to Paris a lot. That was the idea… and then, this surprise! I am back in NYC and loving it.  I remember one of my best friends saying to me something along the lines of when I move to Paris with all my paintings and I remember having an intuitive hit that was like ‘No thanks!’ My soul was truly happy in NYC. Sure enough though… I’d so talked and thought about moving to Paris that in a totally unconscious state, I moved to Paris three years later. And the moment I arrived, I realised I’d made a mistake. Still, I stuck it out for the three year term of my apartment lease and when it was time to renew… I knew it was time to be back in the Big Apple. The City of Light turned out to be my very own city of light. It was a very very important moment for me in terms of my own growth. And I absolutely wanted to find my peace there before leaving. I didn’t want to run away. I wanted to reach that place of wherever you are, there you are. I understood there that happiness doesn’t come from the city we’re in. I’d lived in three of the most incredible cities in the world, it definitely wasn’t about geography

In the end, there are no mistakes and our soul will ensure that we grow and learn what we have to learn along the way. The quicker we master the lessons, the gentler the journey. We actually reach a place that’s so flowy that we begin manifesting almost instantaneously. That’s beautiful. When we start conjuring our desires. When we understand the power within.

Life is very clever that way… And so the lessons keep coming. And our willingness to learn speeds us through the struggles. When I know I’m struggling with something, I just keep asking for the lesson. It might be just a limiting belief like a big one I unravelled this week. It had been a rough moment for me – lots of tears involved… And it got tougher and tougher until one night I just couldn’t sleep. That night, I had my aha moment and dislodged the old belief that was causing this struggle.

And let me tell you that Twitter helped. We are what we tweet and I realised the progress I was making with the themes that were grabbing me on the day. And what was truly fascinating was that if I was onto intuition, suddenly everyone was talking about intuition and if I was into being ourselves, all the tweets arriving were about that. That’s the beauty of this process, when we are willing to learn, the answers become so accessible.

When we are being entirely true to our deepest heart’s desire, the universe prepares us to receive. It helps us uncover and deal with every limiting obstacle holding us back. When our desire is in total alignment with our whole being, it can trump anything lurking in the subconscious. It brings it out (sometimes quite painfully, I think usually quite painfully unfortunately) and there is the opportunity to heal and move on and towards everything that we completely deserve.

We are here to be happy. We are here to lead gentle, peaceful beautiful lives. Every struggle is just a lesson waiting to be learnt en route to everything that our heart desires!

Desire away…

The need to be perfect to show up, the need to submit perfect work, the presentation of work only when it is “perfect.” The child who will need a new piece of paper and will go on and on needing new pieces of paper until the paper runs out. This attempt at perfection is paralysing and utterly unnecessary. It’s familiar territory and often seen in classrooms. How many times have we risked it and handed something in that we might have felt was less than perfect and it turned out to be beautifully received.

So, let’s kick out that need to be perfect. Let’s enable children to take risks and discover that life is sometimes a bit messy and through it all, we learn and grow to find our own perfection. This perfection is ours as we connect to Source, to our intuition, to our inner truth. By being real and authentic, we are perfect.

This is a highly nutritious pudding that’s also delicious. It is the perfect ‘come visit the baby’ afternoon tea treat. The breast-feeding mom benefits, as does the baby and the guests are delighted too – healthy and tasty!

Caraway stimulates the flow of breast milk, is antimicrobial and antispasmodic. It also addresses wind and colic in children. Cinnamon is also antimicrobial and carminative, warming and helps digestion.

Recipe:
1 Cup Powdered Rice
1 Cup Sugar
2 Big Spoons Caraway Seed
1 Big Spoon Cinnamon
7 Cups Water

Grated Coconut
Pinenuts*
Pistachios*
Almonds*
Walnuts*

*Soak Nuts Overnight in Water and Peel!

Combine Rice, Water, Sugar and Spices in Pan. Stir until boiled.
Either cover or continue stirring for another 40 minutes.
Place in bowl and decorate with coconut and nuts.
Place in fridge for serving…

Quite delicious warm too! Enjoy

Attachment is a basic need for humans. In order to develop healthily and solidly through life’s stages, we need to form a bond with at least one other. For a child, the other is the significant adult in his life. This adult’s presence is comforting to the child. This adult responds to him and as a result, the child feels safe in this world. Having spent about nine months in the comfort of a mother’s womb, the newborn is suddenly exposed to an unknown, bright and colder world. The adult in the infant’s life would ideally offer comfort, tenderness and warmth, as well as meeting the basic needs of food and hygiene. Everything that a baby needs for his first year is found in the mother’s breast milk. It’s as easy as that. The milk offers the nutrients and the immunity building. Breast milk also contains Omega 3 or DHA, which ultimately contributes to more intelligence and higher IQs (* In some countries, DHA is not added to formula milk as it is an expensive component). Breast feeding also offers a position in which the child feels body warmth and a connection, physical and emotional.

It is important to point out that the provision of food is not the ultimate goal. What the baby needs, even more than food, is the emotional and physical connection. They are in need of a reliable source of love. Psychologist Harry Harlow conducted research on baby monkeys offering two ’surrogate mothers.’ One mother was made of hard wire whilst the other of terrycloth. The monkeys always went to the soft terrycloth mother, even when the hard wire one had the food!

This is what Erikson called Hope – the trust versus mistrust stage. After the warmth and comfort of the womb, out here in this big world, will my needs be reliably met? It is a child’s first experience with pain and it is his introduction to love. It is the definition of unconditional love. There are two aspects to this stage: the warmth and the reliability. The infant needs to know that you will warmly and reliably respond to his crying. In the absence of such attachment, the child is insecure. The child might become a clinger if the adult has been warm but unreliable. Or the child may become a loner if the adult has been reliable but distant(* for more on this, read Harville Hendrix). It has been shown that children who lack healthy attachments tend to be devoid of empathy. Many crimes in the world are conducted by those who feel no remorse.

When adults go into therapy at a later stage in their life, it is often to correct this basic unmet emotional need. It is through work with a therapist that one re-builds trust in another and the world and is capable to then develop through the later stages.

When we find mothers exacerbated by a child who won’t sleep the nights or a child who doesn’t respond, it is often linked to that basic attachment issue. Through Art or Play therapy, one is able to observe the missing link. With remedial work, where the adult corrects this default and reconnects with the child, the child returns to a state of peacefulness.

Babies who sleep too much or who cry upon waking might be giving us an indication that they are not enjoying their waking hours. They have come out from a warm, comfortable, soothing environment into a world that does not feel safe and comfortable to them. Maria Montessori noted that these babies were preferring to regress back to their state within the womb.

This is when the baby first realises that he is a separate entity and it is up to the adults to offer him an enjoyable experience of interconnectedness. For ultimately, life is interconnected. We are not separate. We are meant to care and be cared for. We are meant to work together towards a better world. We are meant to be in sync with nature and to be involved. We are connected to others, to nature. We are born interconnected, naturally caring for others and our surroundings and we learn how to not get involved. Yet involvement is caring, caring about others and the world we live in.

Tour Eiffel

Let’s have a walk through Paris together.  Let’s start at Concorde and gently cross the bridge to the Assemblee Nationale.  Now we’re in my neck of the woods!  We’ve just crossed from the more classic Rive Droite to the more artsy Rive Gauche.

On Saint-Germain, making a right to Place Bourbon and around to Rue de Bourgogne, we reach Rue Saint-Dominique.  Here we have two options and we’ll discover both.

Let’s start on the Right.  Right on St-Dominique leads us to the Esplanade des Invalides. Crossing the big avenue, St-Dominique is a fun very local stretch of shops with the view of the Tour Eiffel all the way down.  Left on Rue Clerc and we will be on a pedestrian stretch with everything from organic produce to street cafes.  All sorts of cute shops and delicious food!  And all very kid-friendly along the way

When Rue Clerc reaches Avenue La Motte-Picquet, turn right and head straight to the Parc du Champs de Mars, where the Tour Eiffel sparkles!

Now let’s do the other side of Rue St-Dominique…  If you’d like to just walk back from there, you might try crossing the Invalides at Grenelle – my favourite cafe is right there Cafe de L’Esplanade, it’s a perfect combo of delicious food, ambiance & service.  By crossing the Invalides at that level, the Musee Rodin at Rue Varenne is also worth a visit, beautiful house and gardens.

Either way, Varenne will lead us to Rue du Bac.

And Left from our original Rue St-Dominique/Rue de Bourgogne would also lead us there via charming  Casimir Perier with its cute little and super kid-friendly Park.  Continuing on Rue Las Cases (usually described as Paris’ most beautiful street) we arrive at Rue de Bellechasse.  Taking a left we are on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, right from there all the way to the Saint-Germain action (6eme)!  Or crossing Saint-Germain we visit the Musee d’Orsay.  On the right at the river there, it’s a nice stroll to Rue du Bac.

Rue du Bac is a very Parisian experience.  Some of the best shopping around, very French. The whole street is so charming.  Starts at the river and goes to Le Bon Marche, the chicest store in Paris with the BEST foodhall, La Grande Epicerie, often called le Paradis!

Walking around Rue du Bac all the way to Cherche-Midi is wonderful. Rue du Cherche-Midi is very ecclectic. The best bookstore (with all sorts of delicious concoctions, candles and incense) is there: Librairie de L’Inconnu.

Tea at Mamie Gateaux on Rue du Cherche-Midi is perfect for all ages.  And Synie’s Cupcakes is also around the corner there!

Dinner at Apicius on Rue d’Artois – charming and delicious.  Relais & Chateaux.

Enjoy!

Oh, and my favourite Chocolates at Chapon on Rue du Bac.

Best Market:  Marche Bio on Raspail every Sunday morning.

Best Florist: Adriane M on Rue Saint-Dominique

Charming boutique hotel:  Hotel Duc de Saint-Simon

+Fun Outing to Giverny, Monet’s home & water lilies!

Giverny