365 Inspirations—284: Friday

"Relax. It's Friday!"

 It's Friday and I don't have much to report tonight. I went to yoga this morning, walked around Greenlake with my husband, cleaned my office and now we are housesitting on Puget Sound.

I bought Udi's gluten-free pepperoni pizza and added grilled onions, mushrooms, orange peppers, fresh basil and rosemary, kalamata olives, salami and a little extra mozarella. The result was amazing. Almost like a homemade pizza.

I will definitely make it again.

My husband is watching Men Who Stare at Goats in the basement  on the big screen and I really want to join him. We love housesitting here and taking care of the cats. It's such a retreat for us and it's right down the street from where we live. It's like going on vacation in our own neighborhood.

Friday night signals the start of relaxation time and that's exactly what I'm going to do tonight!

Hope you all have a happy Friday.

What are your plans for the weekend?

365 Inspirations—283: Korean Spa Day!

This is a repost. I think the Korean spa deserves TWO spots on my inspiration list for this year! Have you been yet? This was Inspiration 66 of 365 Inspirations. I went to the Korean spa back in March and I was long over due for another spa day. After a short, but intense week of teaching, my best friend came over this morning at 10AM and we drove together to the spa. What a great way to start the weekend and what good company too....here's the post about the Korean spa I did back in March:

"Take care of your body.  It's the only place you have to live."—Jim Rohn

 This quarter, I promised myself that I would visit the Korean spa between my classes. I have a split shift on Tuesdays and Thursdays and there is a Korean Spa called Bella Luna Spa just down the street from the college. I'm lucky to have all the things I loved about living in Korea right here near the Seattle area.

 For some reason, I kept postponing it. Finally, while I was getting ready for my morning class, I instinctively started gathering my shampoo, soap, scrubby and other material for the spa. Today was the day! I hadn't really planned for today to be the day, but given that there is only really one week left of school, I thought it was perfect timing.

Have you ever been to a Korean spa? They are wonderful and fairly inexpensive. $20 gets you in for an entire afternoon of pampering. If you want to pay a little more, you can get the body scrub or massage. I like to just go to the spa.

Korean spas, called mogyoktang, are an important part of Korean culture. Long ago, many Korean homes didn't have bathing facilities, so people often went to their neighborhood spa or bath house to bathe. Now they are really more like spas which still have some of the original features.

For example, the spa I go to has several hot pools and a cold pool in the women's area. There is also a dry and hot sauna. Upstairs, there is a jimjilbang. A jimjilbang has different sauna rooms that vary in temperature and have different healing elements in each one. For example, there's a charcoal room, a salt room, a clay room, and a crystal room. They are typically more like caves. Some of the rooms have medicinal herbs inside. Each room is known to heal a certain part of the body depending on what the room contains.

I love the charcoal room. Charcoal is what is in our water purifiers. Charcoal is known to extract toxins from air and water, leaving only a clean, pure air and water. I always feel like my lungs completely open up in that room. I feel so refreshed upon leaving it.

Another thing I love to do at the Korean spa is walk on the pebble circular walk. You walk in a circle on stones and it is extremely good for the body—a kind of reflexology.

There's even a restaurant inside the spa and I often get a cold drink. Today I had an iced coffee and read a magazine while sitting on the sofa between sauna rooms. While sitting and enjoying the serenity of the spa, I rolled my feet back and forth on a little foot massager.

If you've never experienced a Korean spa and there is one in your area, I highly recommend visiting. It can do wonders for your body and peace of mind.

Have you ever visited a Korean spa or another kind of spa? Have you ever given your body and mind a special treat?

365 Inspirations--248: A Day of Rest in a Peruvian Home

Today I woke up with traveller's diarrhea. It was my biggest fear about coming back to Peru! And here's my fear sitting with me today. In my 20s, I did not eat well while traveling overseas and as a result, became very ill and even ended up in a Thai hospital while traveling through India.

The others went to Cusco for the day and I have this huge house and garden all to myself. This house we rented in Urubamba  in Sacred Valley is one of the best parts of our trip! It's walled in and has fruit trees and lots of flowers and you can see mountains all around and a million stars!

The living room and dining room are huge and there's a lovely kitchen where we cook together or the caretaker cooks with us. In about 10 minutes, I'm going to the market with the caretaker to buy ingredients to make Saltado de Carne. I may even help to prepare the meal.

Later tonight a Peruvian band is coming to the house to play for us.....

More soon.

Have you ever gotten sick while traveling?

365 Inspirations—143: Fasting

"The best of all medicines are resting and fasting."—Benjamin Franklin

I love to eat and never skip meals. In fact, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it's also an important ritual my husband and I take part in. We always sit down and eat slowly. We listen to peaceful music, eat fruit, eggs, toast, coffee and/or tea. Sometimes Yoon walks up the street to get a paper. It's a very relaxing part of our day and it's never rushed.

But right now I'm fasting.

It's not really by choice. I have to have a medical procedure tomorrow that requires me to fast (I can only have clear liquids like broth, apple juice, tea, etc.). I don't think I've ever done it for more than a day, but it will be almost two days with no solid food by the time I'm done.

However, it doesn't seem like a chore to me. In fact, I am noticing some of the benefits of fasting and am thinking of trying it again in June just for an experiment.

Here are the benefits I've noticed:

• I feel alert and clear-headed
• I don't feel heavy, weighed down or tired
• I have noticed that digestion is quicker
• I feel a tingling sensation throughout the body
• I am listening more to my body and am tuning in
• Suprisingly, I do not feel hungry
• I feel peaceful
• I feel that my body is getting more time to rest rather than digest!

For this procedure, I'm also required to drink a lot of liquid (quarts of it). It's hard to get that much liquid down. It's making me realize that I probably don't drink enough water/liquids on a daily basis.

In ancient cultures, fasting was part of life. Many of my ESL students fast on a regular basis as part of their religion or culture. They always tell me that they feel very good when they take a break from food. It gives the body a time to rest and it's often a nurturing, introspective time.

During a silent meditation course I attended for 45-days, I did not eat anything after 12 noon. We could have tea or lemon water, but no solid food. However, there were exceptions for people who need it for health or medical reasons. 

For me, it is very helpful to my meditation practice to not eat after 12 noon on courses. The body is not moving much in deep meditation and I feel that it requires much less food. I have never felt hungry during a course.

I'm near the end of a quarter at school and I feel a very introspective time is coming up for me. I'll be going on a personal/writing retreat to my family's lake house in June where I plan to write, cleanse, do a little fasting, exercise, practice yoga and meditate. I so look forward to this time that is coming up soon. I will, however, continue to blog here!

Have you ever fasted? Have you ever done a cleanse or any other program specifically designed to nurture your body?

365 Inspirations—119: Sleep

"Sleep is the best meditation."—Dalai Lama

Last night the bright moon woke me up. It filled my entire bedroom with light and I couldn't sleep very well. My mind was overflowing with ideas while I was soaking in the moonlight!

Tonight, after teaching a long stretch of classes, I'm pooped.

Time to get a bite to eat, take a bath and settle into bed with a great book. Sleep is my inspiration today. The idea of laying horizontal after being on my feet all evening teaching sounds oh, so lovely.

I made it through Monday! I enjoyed the day, but now it is time to rest.

Do you get enough sleep? How many hours do you sleep per night?

365 Inspirations—68: Sleeping in the Sun

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."—Buddha

The weather has been warm and sunny in Seattle. When we see the sun around here—that mysterious orb in the sky—we want to be out with it.

Today Yoon and I had the day off, so we both woke up late. We had breakfast at around 9AM, relaxed a bit and then headed out to Richmond Beach, a beautiful spot near our house. People were out with dogs, kids, picnic lunches, frisbees, balls, beach stuff—it was crowded!

We found a spot away from the crowds and both of us fell asleep. For a moment I swear it felt like I was in the tropics. It felt so good to be in the sand with my head on a log listening to the sound of waves. I just melted into it.

I fell into one of those deep sleeps where you wake up and don't know where you are. I was happy to discover that I was on the beach.

I climbed up on a log and Yoon took a few pictures.

 I also got a shot of him resting on the log. He looks like he's in perfect peace in the picture above.

We had Thai food for lunch and then went to see Oz the Great and Powerful in 3D. It wasn't the best movie I've seen this year, but it was entertaining.

Now we are back at home and resting again! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Is it typically sunny where you live? How do you like to spend a sunny, weekend afternoon?