What is it about the word “juicy” that inspires us?

It’s the antithesis of dry and uninspired.

We get thirsty…inside and out. We want a life that’s biting into a ripe nectarine with juice that escapes the corners of our lips and runs down our chin. We want it, and if we want to get it, it’s something we need to cultivate.

These two weeks as Bryonie Wise and I share ways to nourish and calm ourselves internally and externally, we’d love to hear from you about the things you add to your life that make it juicier.

Kate says:

For me, a big part of the tenor of my day is how I start it. If I start with hitting snooze on my alarm clock three times and then scrambling out the door, it’s going to be frantic, dry and anxious. If I start the day with meditation, asana practice and some green juice, my day is calmer, more centered, and I have that energetic hum rather than a fever pitch. In other words, it’s juicier.

Today, I took my time easing into the day, as is often true for weekend mornings. Before launching into some work I wanted to get done, I made some juice and snuck back into bed with my journal. If writing on my laptop has that electrified, caffeine-rush feel to it at times, journaling is my creative juice time. There is a different space we tap into when we have that embodied connection with what we are creating. Putting pen to paper adds an element to writing that computers and tablets can’t quite replace.

If you look around at wellness and spirituality articles, so many of them are focused on what we need to remove from our lives than what we should add. I find it’s often better (and more sustainable) to add things than to take away, and in time what we’ve added edges out the things we want less of in our lives. If we add more water, we’ll naturally drink less coffee. If we add more time out in nature, we’ll have less plugged in time. When we add more juice and whole foods, we’ll eat less processed food. And this applies to the bigger stuff too.

When we add more love, we have less room for fear.

A juicier life isn’t one that’s devoid of all the hard stuff; it’s what we’ve added in that makes the hard stuff easier to master.

Today, I added more juice, more rest, more laughing with friends I love, more patience (with myself as well as everyone else).

Today’s juice: Blueberries, Field Greens and Lemon.

While greens of all types are a perfect first ingredient for morning elixirs, it’s important to vary the greens we include in order to get a variety of nutrients.

Always grabbing baby spinach? Try watercress. Feeling overheated and have been eating too many salty foods? Add dandelion greens. Changing it up will only increase your benefits. Blueberries and lemon add a wonderful boost of vitamin C, lutein and anthocyanin—that super-anti-oxidant we only see in dark blue and purple fruits and vegetables. Plus, it’s delicious.

Bryonie says:

Finally, a weekend off.

Time to play, explore, sleep a little longer and take things one at a time—I needed this.

I’ve become so caught up in the pace of busy and with the universe moving the way it has, I didn’t realize that settling into a slice of freedom would do my heart and brain so much good. That, and a commitment to juice daily and write with Kate, have me feeling more grounded then I have in the past few weeks.

My brain, about to combust the other day, has simmered down. The sparks of ideas and creativity have been giving room to flow, and rather then sitting in front of my computer on a sunny Saturday or Sunday, while the entire city is outside adventuring, I’m actually outside too, drinking in the beautiful light (well, not right this minute but as soon as I’m done here I will be!).

I think what  has most resonated with me these past two days is that it’s ok for me to put things down; thoughts, feelings, to-do’s, to-go’s—I can pick them up at any time (or not, if they no longer serve me).

Natalie Goldberg says in her book, Writing Down to the Bones:

“The problem is we think we exist. We think our words are permanent and solid and stamp us forever. That’s not true. We write in the moment. Sometimes, when I read poems at a reading to strangers, I realize they think those poems are me. They are not me, even if I speak in the “I” person. They were my thoughts and may hand and the space and the emotions at that time of writing. Watch yourself. Every minute we change. It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out of our frozen selves and our ideas and begin fresh. That is how writing is. Instead of freezing us, it frees us.

The ability to put something down—to tell how you feel about an old husband, an old shoe, or the memory of a cheese sandwich on a gray morning in Miami—that moment you can finally align how you feel inside with the words you write; at that moment you are free because you are not fighting those things inside. You have accepted them, become one with them.”

These practices we choose to sculpt our lives with enable us to move with change; they hold us and ground us through difficult and intense times, like Mercury Retrograde, when we feel that we’re falling through space with no safety net in sight.

They also have the ability to strip away the stickiness and discomfort we all feel.

The truth is, we are each our own safety nets; our awareness to this fact comes in waves, and sometime we are knocked down and other times we stand, feet firmly rooted, while the waves continue to crash over us.

Here is the juiciness of my weekend (these two juices electrified my heart center and took me out of my hot brain):

1. lime, orange, cherries, raspberries, banana, mint and peach

2. raspberries, cherries and lemon

And lastly, three things that made this weekend so damn juicy for me:

1. Waking with the sun (and the cats), warm sleeping bodies, the smell of my love’s coffee in the morning.

2. Dog walks, water gazing, sun kissing and the breeze on my skin.

3. Flea markets, family time, meeting a hairless cat, finding new eco + sustainable + locally-made yoga clothes…and laughing with friends.

 

Follow the moment-by-moment details of our juicing adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter with #kandbjuicecleanse.

Have any great juice recipes that make your heart beat quicker? We’d love to hear them!

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{Photo: via Pinterest}