You must remember this

As wine lovers, we all have special drops that loom large in our memory. There are the exalted bottles we've sampled - an extravagant purchase perhaps, or a lavish gift - and been blown away by. And there are the bottles we hang on to for years, anticipating the taste before finally opening.

But quite often the wines we enjoyed the most aren't the great, expensive bottles at all. Even a modest bottle of wine sometimes lives on in your memory - not because of its taste but because of the circumstances in which it was drunk.

Bottles with memories attached are more valuable than a Penfolds Grange.

Favourite things, March 2012

• It's Spring! The scent and sight of cherry blossoms. Cherry green smoothies. Cherry marzipan green tea. Open windows. Warm breeze on your bare arms.
• Fojol Bros food truck. Each Wednesday the fantastically mustachio-ed, turban-ed chaps pull up at Farragut Square in their silver van and I feast on spicy Ethiopian stews such as beets and greens or beef berbere with a soft slab of injera bread. Alongside the Red Hook Lobster truck, this is the best quick lunch in downtown DC.
• My yoga teacher trainee sangha. I can't imagine weekends without their constant companionship and stimulation. 
• Roost blog. Exquisite photography and recipes.

• One Love Skin Savior on my face. It's a super-concentrated water-free cleanser and a moisturiser, so it's at once both non-comodegenic and very hydrating. Even better, it's all-natural and good enough to eat. A discovery via Birchbox.
• Age of Aquarius by Color Club on my toes.
• The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron. Her accessible Buddhist teachings help me find serenity and clarity.
• This article about foodie-ism as youth culture in New York magazine.

• Canal House Cooking lunchtime emails. Their cookbooks are outstanding (I have numbers 2 - fall/holidays - and 6 - the grocery store) and their name so evocative of a lovely, homey kitchen with a wood stove and a tree-fringed water view, fueled by the meeting of two creative minds. But I must put in a pitch for their daily emails of what they made for lunch that day, which are a true treat. Voyeurism and inspiration in one dose.
• Monoi Tiare Tahiti (coconut oil w/ Gardenia). I am seriously craving summer, having gone from one winter into another when we moved to the northern hemisphere in September. When I smell this I am transported home to our front courtyard in Bronte, sea salt in my hair and my skin slicked with coconut oil and the scent of our gardenia hedge in the air, with a glass of rose in my hand.
• My wonderful yoga students at Whitman Walker Health. Never imagined they would reward me so much
• Yago Hortal's colour-bomb paintings for some springtime sizzle. 

What brought you moments of bliss in March? Leave your favourites in the comments below.

Is Hormone Replacement Therapy worth the risk?

Samantha Jones: poster child for bioidentical hormones in the Sex and the City 2 movie.

Menopause is a normal physical process. Yet many in the medical community believe it should be medicalised and treated with hormone supplementation to ameliorate its undesirable symptoms. Unfortunately the consequences of long-term hormone therapy (HRT) are still not well understood. Research indicates it  increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots, breast cancer and dementia, while alleviating symptoms including hot flushes, low libido, vaginal dryness and insomnia.

I have weighed up the benefits and the risks of HRT, as well as investigated the alternatives to pharmaceutical treatment for improving both the health and quality of life for women undergoing and following menopause. All of my references are included so you can read the research for yourself and make an informed decision.

Favourite things, February 2012

Image: Sanjay Patel's Big Poster Book of Hindu Deities

• Really enjoying reading The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi, one of the set texts for yoga teacher training. I'm dipping my toes into yoga philosophy, and can already feel the pull of the vast ocean of wisdom and its transformational effects. I see that I haven't been fully practicing yoga up until now, merely the physical aspects of it, although appreciating its powers to calm the mind and balance the emotions. Now its spiritual potential is slowly revealing itself to me. I've never had a spiritual practice before, not being raised Christian or following any faith (other than Dawkinsism), so it's mysterious and I'm naturally cautious - but inquisitive to learn more. First task? Defining what a spiritual practice even is.
• Birchbox. I'm a makeup gumby and one of my aspirations for 2012 is to learn a bit about it. For a small monthly subscription, Birchbox sends a box of cosmetic, skincare and haircare samples (and sometimes full-size products) tailored to your preferences. It's a fun way to find out about products - I never go to shopping malls or department stores and don't want to read beauty mags or blogs - and it gives a frisson of excitement when each box arrives. Love a cheap thrill! Now I'm looking for an excuse to try these stick-on eyeliner strips. Also enjoying the Jouer tinted moisturiser from February's box which gives subtle coverage and a glow without being too heavy for work. I'd been using my powdered mineral foundation but it's just been too heavy for daytime (see, told you I was a gumby).
• Mac and cheese at farm-to-table DC restaurant Founding Farmers. Ticks all the wrong boxes nutritionally, but it's so good. A very occasional treat. 
• Asian slaw at Teaism. I visit their Dupont teahouse at least once every weekend during our lunch break for yoga teacher training at Tranquil Space and often pick this up in lieu of a heavier meal. I love the crunch of the raw vegies and the heat in their dressing. I'm not a fan of mayonnaise but I love this. Their teas are also excellent but only if you dine in - my takeout green jasmine tea was made from a teabag, not loose leaf tea, boo.
• Pixar animator Sanjay Patel's illustrations have appeared in Toy Story 3 and the video for Bjork's I Miss You. Loving his illustrations of Hindu deities.
• Lately I've revived the homemade body scrub of rolled oats, brown sugar and olive oil routine. Smoothes away all the nasty bits on elbows and heels, softens my central-heating parched winter skin without being greasy, and there's no risk of toxicity since it is literally good enough to eat. You could scent it with essential oils but I don't - some oils can burn or sting the skin so unless you know what you're doing I would exercise caution. I don't add honey either, which plenty of recipes found online do include, but I imagine that would smell heavenly and be both softening and soothing.
• Paddywax's Jane Austen candle, part of their Library collection. A soy candle intensely scented with gardenia, tuberose and jasmine - can you imagine a yummier combination? Packaging is divine in a card file-like box and it's adorned with the message "there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort", taken from Austen's Emma.
• Baked quinoa patties by Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks. Studded with fetta and onions, and toothsome with shredded kale, chives and dill. They pack up great for office lunches.
• My go-to quick dinner for the month: lightly-wilted greens (such as kale, rainbow chard) with a handful of cooked puy lentils, cubed pear, pecans/walnuts, and goats cheese, with an apple cider vinegar-dijon mustard dressing. Yum.

What brought you moments of bliss during February 2012? Leave your favourite things in the comments below.

How To Be Happy #1: You Are Not Your Job

With the hemisphere shift and pressing the pause button on my career, it's no secret I've been thinking a lot lately about the different ways of measuring success, and recognising there IS a different approach to achieving happiness.

Do watch this TEDtalks vid from Alain de Botton -- the author of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.

"One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. They’re sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that we’re truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because it’s bad enough not getting what you want, but it’s even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isn’t, in fact, what you wanted all along.”

What makes a good yoga teacher?

Image: Lululemon Athletica

Some thoughts:

• Receptivity and responsiveness to where their students are
• One who teaches to all levels of a class
• Compassion for their students
• Enthusiasm for transmitting the subject
• Technical knowledge and experience
• Flexibility to alter a class when necessary
• Skill and thought behind their explanations and teaching
• Creativity in their lesson plan to excite learning
• Constant growth and building of knowledge in the subject area
• Attention to when a student is out of alignment or just needs a loving touch

We discussed this question in small groups on the opening day of Yoga Teacher Training Level 2 at Tranquil Space. It was unanimously agreed that while some yoga teachers can have enviable technical knowledge, their classes can at times lack heart - that special "fairy dust" a great teacher knows how to sprinkle throughout the class which contributes to you leaving on cloud nine, and feeling in love with the world. John Friend, in his Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual, puts it this way:

"... it is possible for a teacher to have minimal yoga experience or knowledge of postural technique and still be effective in inspiring students about their divine greatness."

He further describes the three interpersonal qualities he feels are essential in a great yoga teacher: soft heart, sharp mind, and vibrant body.

"The teacher's soft heart quality encompasses compassion, sensitivity to others' feelings, friendliness, kindness, patience, and respect. Sharp mind includes being articulate, creative and innovative, while vibrant body includes being enthusiastic, charismatic, positive, humorous, and inspiring. These three categories represent the most important qualities of a good yoga teacher - they form the soil in which the seeds of technical knowledge and teaching experience can root and grow vigorously, bearing fruit for a lifetime."

An encouraging idea to contemplate as we begin our journey as yoga teachers-in-training - the notion that the vast amount of theory and philosophy we don't yet know isn't as important as the qualities we intrinsically bring to teaching.

Siobhan also shared a few thoughts of note:

• You can teach a pose even if you can't do it (a relief for those of us who thought we needed a stronger practice before entering teacher training)
• Think of all the skills and jobs you have done throughout your life; you bring all of those to yoga teaching
• You can still weave yoga philosophy into your classes without using the Sanskrit words and frightening students off