Recipe Contest Prizes:

• Limited Edition Savor Tote- a beautiful and sustainable mindful shopping reminder
• A hardcover copy of Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life
• Recipe to be featured on Savvy Vegetarian (top online vegetarian cooking website), the Savorthebook.com Blog, and contest partners’ blogs and Facebooks

Please see Rules & Restrictions for more info: http://www.savorthebook.com/resource/recipe-contest-rules

Start the New Year off with mindfulness. Make a serious pledge to yourself.  Begin writing a Mindful New Year’s Resolution. This resolution is a promise to yourself, and putting it in writing will help you see clearly what you intend to achieve in the coming months.  People who make resolutions are likely to be more successful in changing their behavior than people who do not.

Begin with this New Beginnings Meditation if you’d like help in creating your mindfulness resolution:

Breathing in, I am aware of all nutriments, habits and people who are not supportive of my well-being,
Breathing out, I release and let go of all that which is not helping me toward wellness.

Breathing in, I see wellness in me.
Breathing out, I am determined to change for the better with mindful thoughts and actions.

Print the attached certificate and fill in your name and resolution. Choose a special place to post your certificate, a spot where you will see it often, or where you need the most prompting to remain mindful—say, next to your desk, at the computer, beside your bed, or on the fridge.

Share your resolution and browse those of other Savor Sangha members on the Mindful Resolution Wall.

A Movement to Help Untie Your External and Internal Knots

This movement comes from the traditional Chinese chi qong practice. It is both releasing and invigorating. It can be done wherever you are. It does not require any equipment; your own body is the instrument. It is convenient, since you can do it anywhere, at any time, and it takes only five minutes.

1. Stand with your feet at shoulder width; relax the body with the knees slightly bent.
2. Have your eyes focused on an object or scenery in front of you.
3. Swing your arms up straight in front of you toward the sky or ceiling, as you inhale deeply.
4. Drop and swing your arms back down all the way and behind you, as you exhale completely.
5. Repeat this up-and-down movement continually.
6. Increase the speed of the up-and-down movement gradually throughout the exercise for five minutes.

When doing this exercise, try to feel that you are “swimming” in air. You are one with the air, and you exchange energy with the air. When you move the arms up and inhale, you are taking in fresh energy from all that is around you, and when you swing your arms down on the exhale, you expel all the burdensome energy. Every move is a mindful move, and every move is actively engaging with the air and your breath. You will instantly feel different after doing the arm swing for five minutes continually. Your heart is pumping, and you feel happier. The tension in your head and around your shoulders and back muscles start to release and relax. The movement together with the breathing will take you back to yourself, uniting body and mind. If you have back problems or other physical concerns, please consult your health-care provider before starting this exercise.

This excerpt can be found in SAVOR, on page 175. 

Researchers believe there are several possible ways that watching too much television could lead to weight gain. Sitting around and watching television may take the place of more physically demanding activities, so the “energy out” side of the energy balance equation goes down. Do you watch a lot of television to avoid boredom? To avoid communicating with your family members? Or to cope with stress? What other activities might you do instead?