Thank all so much for all your lovely comments here, on Facebook and on Twitter about my bicycle related tumble yesterday.  All is well.  My bike has been fixed (it needed a new front wheel and a new back tyre – impressive no?), and I am back in the saddle this morning.  I feel OK too, a little nervous of bollards, cycling a little slower than usual and rather achey in the hip, knee and neck.  But OK.  And you should see these rainbow bruises!

So things I love this week?

*  Avenue Cycles – the best bike shop in the world.  It was 4pm by the time I managed to get my bike to the shop and by 9.30 this morning it was fixed (bar a dodgy brake cable which is going to get fixed this weekend).  So if you’re in the Cambrige area, take your bikes here please!

*  Himself, for picking me up and dusting me off, literally and emotionally.

*  Mum, for picking my bike up in the car when I couldn’t push it any further and taking it to the bike shop.  Sometimes cars are a necessity.  Although I think that we should all have bikes and then there would be a few little electric bike “ambulance” vans that come out and rescue you and give you a hire bike while yours is being fixed.  That’s my utopia anyway.

*  My amazing body, for not breaking when it hit the tarmac yesterday.

*  The fact that it’s my birthday on Sunday and on Saturday we’re going to London and the weather is going to be awesome and we’re having dinner with Phil at Manna.  On my actually birthday I’m teaching yoga but I don’t care because it’s The Best Job in the World!

Have a great Thursday my lovely readers!

Whoa!  I came off my bike this morning.  I mean flew off.  I hit a bollard at speed and skidded along the cyclepath (thank the gods for cyclepaths although not for bollards).  Four people passed me.  Only one stopped to see if I was OK so a big big thank you to that guy if he’s reading!

An even bigger thank you to Himself who came and sorted out my chain so I could at least wheel the bike to the bike shop to get the flat tyre sorted.  I am exhausted, and it’s only now when I stop that I realise how many different parts of my body hurt.  I’m going to have a rainbow of bruises tomorrow!

(Oh and mum, if you’re reading I’m fine, honestly )

Anyway, on to nicer things.  Recipes, yay!!!

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The English asparagus season is very short lived.  We only get local asparagus in our veg box for a few weeks and I like to make the most of it.

It is delicious just gently steamed for a few minutes and served with a poached egg, or in a salad.  Sometimes it’s best just on it’s own (but seriously folks, just steam it for a tiny minute, it should still be crunchy).  One of my favourite ways to eat it is in this risotto though.  This can be made with tinned asparagus out of season but, y’know, it’s just not as good.

Now before I begin with the risotto recipe I did a very unvegan thing as an accompaniment to this dish.

As you know, I eat vegan about 90% of the time, and then I get egg cravings.  And then I get fish cravings too it seems!  I’ve learned to listen to my body over the years so every now and then it gets a salmon fillet.  Hurrah for Omega 3.

So if you want salmon too, wrap your fillets up with a little lemon in tin foil and put in a hot (350*C/Gas Mark 7) oven.

Then let’s get on with the risotto.

Finely chop some onion and garlic…

…and saute it in a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil.

Then add about 200g of risotto rice (this will serve 4 for a side dish and 2 for a main).

Have your vegetable stock ready – about a litre of it, which can be made from fresh (and I really need to do a quick recipe for vegetable stock, I thought there was one but, alas, no) or from a stock cube.

And then I have a little stock secret.  Add a teaspoonful of this to give your stock some pizzazz!!

I promise it makes all the difference.

Now, here’s the thing with risotto.  You have to keep stirring.  Do not be tempted to leave it cooking and go off to watch Eastenders because it will burn.  In fact if you so much as turn around to put the mustard away it will burn.  Keep watching it.  Keep stirring it.  Think of it as an exercise in mindfulness, in being in the present moment.  A meditation if you will.

So pour about half of your stock on the rice.  Stir.  Keep stirring.  Add the rest of the stock little by little as the rice starts to absorb it.

After about 25 minutes put in a bunch of asparagus chopped into inch long batons and keep stirring as this cooks for about 4 more minutes.  By this time your aspragus should be still crisp but the rice should be… well, looking like risotto.

Did you put salmon in the over half an hour ago?  Yes.  Well get it out now and enjoy your dinner!

Introduction

The Yamas

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Unwholesome thoughts can be neutralised by cultivating wholesome ones
– Yoga Sutras 2:33

If the Yamas are guidelines for living with, and our attitudes towards others then the Niyamas are guidelines for living with, and our attitudes towards ourselves.  There is no point living an externally “yogic” life if, when we are with ourselves, we throw it all out of the window.

So what are these five Niyamas?

1.  Shauca (Purity)

2. Samtosha (Contentment)

3. Tapas (Auserity)

4. Svadhyaya (Self Study)

5. Ishvara Pranidhara (Surrender to the Lord)

(I try my best not to mention “God/god/goddess/the Lord” etc on this blog or in my teaching.  I know what I believe and that is very personal to me and I like to give other people that personal space when it comes to their spirituality as well.  But when stripped down to it’s bare bones Ishvara Pranidhara is about trusting in the flow of life a little bit, surrendering some of our worries and trying not to obsess over minutae.  I once read some wise words from the Dalai Lama that went a little bit like this (I’m paraphrasing I’m afraid).  When worrying about a situation ask yourself if you can do anything to change it.  If you can, do it.  If you can’t why worry?  That, to me, is Ishvara Pranidhara)

Apart from Ishvara Parnidhara I haven’t written about each individual Niyama this week because I want you, dear reader, to notice what springs to your mind about your life when you read each of the five words.

I think each of the five Niyamas are open to individual interpretation, just as the Yamas are.  They are also works in progress for each of us.  We can’t beat ourselves up every time we feel we’ve “broken” one of them; each time we eat “unpure” food, each time we think bad thoughts about others, every time we buy something we probably don’t need.  In fact we can’t look on slip-ups as “breaking rules” or we’ll never get over the guilt.

What’s important is to watch the way we behave towards ourselves, observe whether these behaviours fit into the guidelines of the Niyamas, and if they don’t, just think about how we can change those patterns of behaviour the next time.  Sometimes it can take a lifetime to change patterns of behaviour.  And that’s OK too.

Living life in accordance with the Yamas and Niyamas isn’t going to suddenly bring spiritual nirvana.  Instead an observance of these ten guidelines can give us a place in which to practice all 8 limbs of yoga together as best we can.  The Yamas and Niyamas are a foundation, not an absolute.

Think nice things, be kind to yourselves and others, smile a lot and you’re well on your way!