The Re-alignment | 4 YOGA POSES TO CORRECT POOR POSTURE CREATED BY YOUR DESK JOB

By Dominick Hiddo

We all love yoga. The practice is remarkably amazing as it provides a number benefits both mentally and physically: and in some cases, spiritually. The unfortunate part is that it can be a big undertaking to make that time for class on a daily or weekly basis. If class is one hour long, there is usually a lot time to factor in for pre and post yoga class: 20 min to get there and get ready, 60-90min in class, another 20 min to shower and change. Easily a two to three hour process. Ugh. Long, I know. Having worked on a financial trading desk many years ago, I know that we may not easily be empowered to go to class and practice yoga at the end of a long and intense day.  So what to do when you can't make class? Keep practicing of course. However, not all of us have the privilege of enjoying a liberated schedule or have the privilege of creating our own schedule. The end result is that many of us end up sitting at a desk for work: crunching numbers, plugging in data, creating presentations, doing research, writing programs, you know what I mean. The average person working in the 9-5 corporate world (really 9-7 or 8) is in most cases sitting at their desks all day in an oddly cramped position that usually keeps us in our seat for long hours during the day. And when we sit in these weird positions, our body suffers over the days of doing so. Our body really suffers in more ways than you could ever imagine. We have to correct that. And yoga can help with that. 

Main Squeeze | THE BEST GREEN JUICE TO BOOST YOUR ENERGY

By Katie G.

Do we even remember a time before green juice? We all know that there are undeniable benefits to drinking green juice. In fact, we wrote about all that here. But, what if we told you that there was a way to reap the health benefits, and boost your energy levels so you don't have to reach for that second cup of coffee? Oh, there is, and we've been on a mission to find the perfect combination of greens to do the trick.

Superfood Sunday | WHY AVOCADOS MUST BE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF YOUR DIET

By Dominick H.

Superfood Sunday is a weekly series where project: CLEAN FOOD features the absolute best foods to nourish – and naturally heal – your body.  To help you start each week right, we reveal the one must-have food to add to your diet. Enjoy, and share your inspiration with us by tagging #projectCLEANFOOD on Instagram.

Oh, avocados. This amazingly healthy–and very unique–fruit is filled with all sorts of vitamins, minerals and nutrients. It's different from other types of fruit in that it's not high in carbs (major plus), but it is high in heart-healthy fats that are very purifying, therapeutic and revitalizing for the entire body. It's also one of the most versatile foods, best eaten raw, and super-effective in oil form. So we're dedicating our Sunday to this amazing little plant.  And here's why.

Slim Pickings | MAKING A QUICK, HEALTHY, & DELICIOUS APPLESAUCE AT HOME

By Katie G.

By now, it’s safe to assume that you’ve been apple picking this season. If you’re anything like us after our recent trip to Demarest Farms, you wind up with a surplus of apples, fresh-picked and ready to be eaten. Only problem? After about two days, you feel like you’ve had enough to last a lifetime. Rather than using your pickings to make sugar-packed cookies or pie (or letting them go to waste altogether), we’ve got a quick, easy, and healthy alternative for you to try: homemade applesauce.

The Seductive Fix | WHY A LITTLE COFFEE CAN DO THE BODY GOOD

By Dominick H.

It's #NationalCoffeeDay, which has us thinking about this national obsession of ours. Coffee in its purest form is a bean said to have Ethiopian origins dating back to the days of the ancient civilization in Africa. The stories are often told of farmers witnessing their goats eating the beans and becoming excited from the affects of the coffee bean (hence the the transition to human consumption) Some of us are proud of our "cup'a joe".  Some of us feel overly bad for craving it: let alone drinking it. Some of us have way too much of it. But everyone could use a little bit of it.  

Before & After Yoga | THE ULTIMATE DIET FOR ENHANCING YOUR PRACTICE

By Dominick H. 

Nine years ago, I walked into a yoga studio here in NYC to begin my journey towards flexibility, better breathing, spiritual connection, and healthy living. I initially got into the practice with much resistance. I didn't know much about poses or how to do them correctly. I felt like I would never advance. But, I grew a liking towards the practice. I would sweat and stretch. I felt like I was getting some work done and that my body was becoming healthier and more flexible. But, after about three months of practice, something strange started to happen. I would notice that after the intense yoga showdown, I would feel good but not amazing. I would start nodding out and getting super tired an hour or two after class. I felt groggy in the mornings and never wanted to get up for work. In the middle of the day, I always felt like I could fall asleep. Needless to say, for an avid yoga practitioner, I felt pretty sluggish and very low energy, which seems counter-intuitive. And then, I discovered something that would change my practice forever.

Lovely Lavender | RELAX AND RECHARGE FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

By Dominick H.

As the last weekend of the summer comes to a close, we're often faced with pre-work jitters – that looming sense of anxiety mixed with a touch of melancholy. Our mind races, deadlines seem to pile up, and we just can't let go of those lazy summer days. Luckily for us, there's an amazingly simple (and beautiful) cure for those end-of-summer blues. Aren't you ready to feel refreshed and ready to take on the fall?

Natural Medicine Power | 3 WAYS TO START HEALING YOURSELF NATURALLY AND EASILY

Natural Medicine. Yes. A natural to heal yourself. Imagine? Does it exist? Is it a farce? Or is it simply something we have forgotten about? There are so many medicines, pharmacies, doctor's offices, hospitals, and insurance companies out there in this wonderful world that have contributed to our "forgetting" that there are natural ways of healing and curing ourselves from various ailments, illnesses, and diseases. That is not to say that anything is wrong with the healthcare industry. Many of us need our headache medicines, vitamin supplements, sleeping pills, sinus pills, and many other forms of medicines to heal our bodies. Without the studies and practices of ancient healing doctors like Imhotep and Hippocrates, the western medical industry as we know it would not exist. 

You Are Your Valentine | 9 STEPS HOW TO LOVE YOURSELF AND THE TRUE MEANING OF IT ALL

Many men and women alike are gearing up to express the greatest affection for their lover, their partner, their spouse, or their latest winter-time fling. We get all dolled-up. We make reservations and plans. We buy expensive gifts. We create amazing monumental experiences for our loved one that will hopefully last longer in our memory than the evening's glass of wine, or a cognac-filled chocolate: or even longer than the blissful high of that naughty bedroom behavior that may follow. We want our mate for this particular evening to truly connect to us and the moment being experienced as one of the greatest waves of bliss our lives have ever seen. And we do this because we crave a connection. We do this because we crave a united oneness with the other person. We do this because we crave to be loved, and to feel loved. I mean, let's be honest: it is such an amazing feeling to be loved, cherished and cared for. Male or female, it is one of life's greatest accomplishments to feel and experience love exchanged between ourselves and another person in a natural and pure way. I know I love that feeling.

Mankind's Greatest Gift | THE ANCIENT HEALING POWER OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Oh Love. Love, love, love. Why love? And Why unconditional love at that? Why should we love someone, a group of people, animals, creatures, or an environment unconditionally? What does that even mean? And is it even possible to love unconditionally? The emotion of love pertains to the feeling and expression of deep admiration, affection, and fondness of an external thing: and that thing can be a person, a place, or some sort of object. Love can be expressed towards anything and anyone. Love itself is a force and power that naturally and organically lays dormant in the human body. Most of the time, it is quietly asleep in our mental and physical bodies. The expression of love is the expression of that force. Love is not something that is emitted out of our bodies naturally. The expression of love requires a stimulation of various chemicals and subtle forces; it requires our awakening of that energy and that force. It requires a deep-seated connection to the source power of the body that has the innate ability to express itself in any way possible: and that connection will allow for us humans to manifest that force as love. According to the ancient esoteric philosophies of yoga, this force and power of the body was referred to as Shakti. In the olden days, people were obsessed with the cultivation of this internal power. They believed that if they were able to harness such power and control it, it could grant immortality, enlightenment, healing and purification of the human body. But how to awaken it? How to awaken it, and control it? And more importantly, how to awaken, control and transmute that forceful "Shakti" into unconditional love? It is relatively easy to express love towards those that move us, inspire us, placate us and dote over us. But what about those that challenge us or anger us? What about those that upset us or disappoint us? Or how about those that hurt or offend us? And how about those that intentionally set out to harm others physically or psychologically? And what about those that incite fear in us? How is it even possible to direct our internal power of love towards such challenging and resentful people? Those challenging, resentful people are the obstacles and hurdles that we must conquer: both internally and externally. They are the wall that we must rise above in order to unleash our unconditional love on the world.

We all have relatives. We all have friends. We all have colleagues and peers that we must interact with on a daily basis. And, it is completely natural to express dislike and disgust for different people at different times. We live in a world where people will not always say or do things that we like. We live in a world where the people that we have held in high regard may disappoint us. The various political and business leaders around the world are constantly making decisions, passing laws, and conveying opinions that will irritate us and antagonize us. Are we wrong for getting upset and angry? No, not at all. After all, one of the great beauties of human nature is the expression of emotions. The key thing is, those dissenting emotions don't necessarily have rule or dominion over us.  In the same moment we get angry, we have the potential to turn that aggressive energy into something else: quite possibly into love. But if we choose not to turn that energy into love, that resentment and bitterness can live in our body: like a destructive virus. That anger and hatred can take hold of us mentally and physically. That disgust and dislike can penetrate our entire existence and weaken our beautiful and amazing lives. By living in a negative space, we can become sick; we can become hurtful towards others as well as towards ourselves. By living in that negative space, we can become destructive to our unlimited creative potential. But by shaking off that negativity and by shaking free from those destructive binds, we can revitalize our entire existence. By not being attached to our hatred, our anger, our resentment, our fear, and our destructive emotions, we tap into a new potential: a higher potential. If we can truly shake free from disgust and dislike, we can really experience the beauty and magnificence of unconditional love. Because that same energy we use and expense in disliking or resenting someone or some thing, we can manipulate and direct that same energy towards the supreme cultivation of unconditional love. 

The word unconditional means 'without condition'. When something is unconditional, that simply means that it occurs or takes place without any sort of condition. A condition is a state of existence or  state of being: or even a state of expression. Conditional love would connote love that is based on a particular state of existence, being or expression of an individual, a thing, or an environment. For example, to love someone conditionally would imply that we love them because of a particular and unique expression. If that condition does not take place or fails to take place in a consistent format, the love is likely to be retracted: simply because the love is based and connected to that particular condition. If the condition disappears, love disappears.  Examples: "I can only love and marry someone that is good in bed" or "I can only love  people that of the same background / belief as me". These are conditions. Should the person "not be good in bed", love and marriage might not exist. Should the people "not be of a particular background or belief", love might not exist. Unconditional love on the other hand would be the exact opposite: "I can love and marry someone irrespective of whether or not they are good in bed" or "I can love people of any background or belief". These are non-conditions (or the unconditional, rather). In light of these non-conditions, love and marriage will take place regardless of sexual prowess; love of a people will take place regardless of their background or belief. So what's the point of unconditional love?

The ancient healers, prophets, sages and wisdom keepers of the various traditions have always believed strongly in the almighty power of love. They believed that love is the most transcendent of all emotional expressions. There are many fairytales and stories abound where love has healed and transformed entire nations. In many indigenous traditions, they believed love to be the force necessary to keep away evil spirits and pestilences. When the expression of love was at a low, it is said that societies and civilizations are more susceptible to diseases and destructive evils of the world. But the love that these people believed in is not the "hug and kiss for our faves" kind of love. It's not the "I love you so much that I'll accept your friend request" kind of love. The sort of love that they believed in extended its reach well beyond their immediate comforts and surroundings. The sort of love that they felt and expressed was directed towards each and every living and creeping thing upon the Earth. The sort of love that they felt and expressed was directed towards the evil doers: that they may not continue to live in their hateful and resentful ways. Unconditional love was the question and the answer for them: for all things.  It is unfortunate that various belief systems have placed love on a scale to be balanced in order to see and justify who is more qualified a people to express love. The decline of love started because it was believed that certain people were more qualified to express it. Ignorance has taught mankind that in order to feel and express love, there is a requirement of a particular set of skills and aptitude; it required a particular education and experience. It was (and still is) believed that one person's love was more powerful than another person's love: and that one belief system's understanding and expression of love is more powerful than another belief system's. A psychological battle has ensued upon society that has left us thinking, believing, and feeling that love is tailor-made: and that one garment of love is more superior to another. But, we can end this battle with unconditional love: true love. 

True love has no category. It has no reign or hegemony over another form of love. It cannot be contained or manipulated. Love in its purest form will generate and stimulate the same beautiful feelings in all creatures and humans alike. It is so powerful and forceful that it will bring in everyone, and keep out no one. When we become beings of supreme almighty love, everyone comes toward us. Even the evil ones have to surrender and do away with their terrible thoughts and actions in the presence of love. Evil is just another expression of that same force (remember Shakti?). That force can also be used for evil. However in the face of love, the force has no choice but to recognize itself and bow to itself. The force is simply oneness. With the mask of love on, evil then has no choice but to mirror what is in front of it. So if love is revealing itself to the world, the world must turn around and mirror that same love. Evil can only live if their is more evil around it. A virus can only survive in a host if it can successfully implant itself in the specimen it wants to take hold of. If it cannot assimilate itself successfully into the host, it will grow weary and die. When the vibration of true unconditional love penetrates and pervades our entire being, no evil or virus can take hold of us. That is why we must choose unconditional love. We must protect our environment. We must protect ourselves. We must uplift and inspire ourselves. We must purify ourselves. We must heal ourselves. We must love ourselves. We must enlighten ourselves. 

Yes, unconditional love enlightens.

Pretty cool huh?

the Power Of Yoga | MASTER YOUR BODY. MASTER YOUR MIND. MASTER YOUR LIFE.

Whitney Richardson / New York Times

Yoga. A word that has its history buried deep into the fabric of this world. Today, yoga has come to be associated with the various exercises, stretches, and purifying techniques that can be found in most gyms and yoga studios. In the past, yoga was mostly associated with people of the various religious orders and sects, secret societies, and ascetics that roamed about the Earth: and it is still associated with these groups. However in our western society, yoga is not secret. It is practiced openly and freely. It is practiced in parks and field grounds in the summer time. It is practiced on television for talk shows and the respective audiences. It is practiced at big conferences and seminars abound in order to introduce new practitioners to the beautiful practice, and to impress upon the advanced practitioners the advancement and the evolution of the practice itself. Every bookstore, supermarket, and airport terminal has books and magazines on yoga. Ancient texts