TAKE ME TO: Events & Workshops | Guest Article
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Dear Friends,
WHAT’S NEW? Following Your Heart’s Desire!
One thing that absolutely wows me about Elaine Dodson’s article below, is not just her deep understanding of Ayurveda – but the way she’s been open to life bringing her opportunities that she could never in her wildest dreams or limited ego mind thought up herself.
I feel honored to know such an amazing woman! I hope you enjoy her story – and based on what she shares, ask yourself how YOU say no to life as opposed to when you say yes. I find for myself that every time I say yes, no matter how inconvenient it seems, the more my life expands and the juicier it gets. How about you?
We’ve got lot’s of new trips on our “Trips at a Glance” page. I’m leaving this list in this week’s newsletter for those of you who did not open last weeks!
Here are some exciting highlights for 2013 in case you did not see them last week:
The Heart Wisdom of Whales & Wild Dolphins: Panama
Various 5-day itineraries running from: July 7-Oct 11th, 2013
Crop Circles and Sacred Sites: Sacred Britain
July 29-August 4, 2013 & Pre-Tour Conference July 26-29th
The Magic of Celtic Country: Sacred Ireland
August 17-28, 2013
Highlands and Mystical Islands: Sacred Scotland
Sept 15-24th, 2013
Reconnecting to Truth through Horse Wisdom: Tucson, AZ
Sept 18-22, 2013 (half-filled register early!)
Journey to Machu Picchu – Authentic Spiritual & Cultural Wonders: Peru
July 17-27th, 2013 + Sept 26–Oct 5th, 2013
A Sacred Pilgrimage to India
October 15-27th, 2013 (Elaine’s trip is already half filled so register early!)
The Nourishment + Clarity Elixir: Uxmal, Yucatan
November 9-16th, 2013
Blessings and love, 
Connect with me: Email | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter
EVENTS, FREE VIDEO-CLASSES & NEW PROGRAMS!
Got a Heart-Centered Business?
Meet me in Las Vegas at Lisa Sasavich’s “Speak to Sell” event
May 16-18, 2013
Join me (Sheri Rosenthal) for a very special speaking training program designed SPECIFICALLY for coaches, authors, speakers, trainers, experts and heart-centered entrepreneurs who are committed to providing amazing content AND ready to enjoy BIG sales results – all without being “salesy!”
At Speak to Sell you’ll learn how to:
- Craft your Irresistible Offer: We start here because your offer is the core of your Signature Talk. We’ll help you get clear on how to articulate the unique transformation you provide which makes putting your talk together very easy.
- Reverse Engineering the Body of Your Talk: Now that we have your offer, we’re ready work on the content to sell that offer AND we craft your introduction.
- The “Secret Sauce”: This is what sets Lisa’s Invisible Close method apart from all the rest of those trainings out there. Knowing how to seed and tell stories is the key for selling without being salesy.
- Transition to Your Offer: Yes there IS a way you can transition to your offer and have it flow easily and effortlessly. Lisa wants you to feel completely comfortable making your offer!
- Maximize Each Opportunity: After all, you’re all dressed up anyway, why NOT get the most out of it? The most money, sales, new clients, leads for your list, JV opportunities, invitations to speak at other events, etc.
If you missed my offer for gifted tickets to Suzanne Evans “Be the Change” event in Orlando in April – you cannot miss this invite. I am only a sponsor at these two events this year and have 8 tickets to gift at each. (Sorry, the tickets to Suzanne’s event are all taken).
This event is normally $997 – so what better way is there to be able to come to this event for just the cost of your flight, room and food? If you do ANY speaking in your profession – don’t miss this. And if you like – listen to Lisa speak in the video on the right a little further up the page –>
Get your ticket for Speak to Sell here!
GUEST ARTICLE
How I Became an Ayurvedic Chef!
Let me assure you that I was not born into Ayurvedic cooking. I doubt my parents, Baptist school teachers, ever even heard the word. I grew up in Texas, most of my life in the Dallas area, but part of my childhood was spent on our 300-acre farm in East Texas.
There I lived amidst nature and ate food we grew ourselves. Nonetheless, Texas was not home to a colony of health-conscious, vegetarian cooks of any kind. Ayurvedic cooking, with its idea that food is medicine, would have been considered bizarre.
After high school I surprised my parents by going to cosmetology school rather than college. They were both educators and felt I needed a “formal” education. I followed my own path, and it proved the right choice for me. I had success in that field from the start. In the 70s, I pioneered in the first ever holistic day spa salons that focused on beauty and health with a preventive approach.
While pursuing that career, I also began expanding my inner world. Early in the 70s, I studied numerous self growth and spiritual topics and became a vegetarian, which led me into Eastern religions. From there I met my guru and joined the Hare Krishna movement, a far cry from my Baptist upbringing. Over the years I made many trips to India to study Ayurveda and Eastern religion.
That was a long way from the meat and potatoes and super-sweet desserts of my mother’s kitchen! Little did I know how far down the path of Indian cookery I would eventually go. In 1978, I founded and funded Kalachandji’s Restaurant, which is still winning awards today for being the healthiest restaurant in Dallas.
In the 90s my husband Michael and I moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico. We had a beautiful home with lovely terraced gardens and staff to take care of everything. It was a wonderful life in an exotic locale with plenty of free time.
Then one April evening after we’d been there many years, we got a phone call from our spiritual master. Sri Gurudeva, a devotee of Krishna, asked us to move to Cambridge, England where he planned to study for a doctorate in theology. He wanted Michael to be his secretary and me to be his chef.
What a shock! I never imagined myself surrendering everything material and moving into an ashram, especially not in my 50s! And even though I had studied, practiced and taught vegetarian cooking with an emphasis on Ayurveda, it did not prepare to be an Ayurvedic chef. Sri Gurudeva was a demanding adherent of the Ayurvedic lifestyle and I felt woefully unprepared. Still, when your guru chooses you out of all disciples, you say yes.
As you can imagine, there were many challenges in uprooting our exotic ex-patriot lives in Mexico and moving to an ashram in England. Our first job was to find a six-bedroom house in Cambridge and then remodel it to our guru’s exacting standards. But we found the perfect house, renovated it, decorated it and moved in before Sri Gurudeva arrived in the fall.
I practically lived in the kitchen – I worked from 5:30 in the morning until 10 at night. It was an enormous kitchen with big glass windows that looked out over this magnificent property, though truthfully I spent almost no time admiring it.
I was too busy single-handedly preparing three complete Ayurvedic meals from scratch every day. Many days these meals included Gurudeva’s guests, which were many and frequent – and hungry. I wore a traditional Indian sari at all times.
Gurudeva had me trained by many Indian cooks from different regions of India, each with their own style, and by many of the amazing devotee cooks in our movement. Being a connoisseur of food and understanding the science of eating, my guru had me learn how to cook gourmet vegetarian Indian food that was low fat and healthier than the typical Indian recipes.
In Ayurveda, food preparation is a science that requires a lot of thought and planning. For instance, I had to make everything fresh for every meal – nothing canned, boxed or frozen. Breakfast always included fresh, exotic fruits, hot grains of some kind or Indian “pancakes,” homemade bread, fresh juice and hot tea.
Lunch and dinner typically included handmade chapattis (Indian tortillas) or fresh-baked bread, three vegetable dishes at each meal, a soup, special rice preparations, and a variety of condiments like fresh ginger, chilies and lemon. These are eaten at each meal to enhance proper digestion.
In the Ayurvedic system, all tastes – sweet, salty, bitter, sour, pungent and astringent – are honored and included in every meal. Meals are designed around these six tastes in order to prevent cravings and insure satisfaction and balance. Preparing food this way required a lot of planning!
The things that still inspire me the most about this Ayurvedic system is that it teaches that food is sacred and there is a science for the proper way to eat. The system teaches us to let food be our medicine, as all the spices have medicinal properties.
I also appreciate that food is prepared in a way to enhance the fire of digestion. Everything needs to be prepared fresh so there is vitality in the food, not the dead, empty calories we pretend is nutrition here in the West.
The system takes into account the body, mind and spirit. The science of this way of eating helps the digestive system, which is a prime driver of good health. Stimulating foods are identified and monitored because they speed up the body and create digestion issues, which may lead to other dysfunctions. The mind is taken into consideration as fresh foods from the earth, eaten with little karma, provide more peace of mind, less anxiety and more clarity.
Slowly, through the efforts of Dr. Deepak Chopra, the West is becoming aware of this way of preparing and eating food. I am so thankful that I had the blessing of cooking for my guru, and I am thrilled to pass on this exquisite (and delicious!) science to you. My guru told me it was part of my destiny and my spiritual mission to share this ancient system which is part of the reason I’ve created this very special journey to India for all of you!
Eat in good health … and good karma, Elaine Dodson
Elaine Dodson is an internationally acclaimed expert in natural/organic beauty, wellness and regeneration. She has been leading life-changing Sacred Journeys since 1994. Her passions include empowering women through the sacred power of beauty, teaching beauty and wellness practices for regenerating body, mind and spirit, and, through this work, re-balancing the divine feminine energy on the planet.
Registration is NOW for Elaine’s: “A Sacred Pilgrimage to India ” journey October 15-27th, 2013
OUR MENU OF UPCOMING FABULOUS ADVENTURES!
~ENLIGHTENING APRIL TRAVELS~ |
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Embodying the Heart of the Mystic |
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Soul*Full Women’s Photography Retreat |
~MAGICAL MAY SOJOURNS~ |
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Access your Dreams Retreat |
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Oneness Awakening Wild Dolphin Trip |
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A Women’s Journey to Avalon |
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The Dalai Lama & Tibetan Buddhism in Exile |
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Want to see our whole line-up for the upcoming year?
Visit our Trips at a Glance page.
