Kimberly Parsons - 24 Jan

CONTENTS

Welcome to The Yoga Kitchen Plan and way of life! This is your seven-day yoga lifestyle and four-week vegetarian meal plan which will take you on a personal and spiritual journey as you transition through the chakras each day.

You will cultivate daily yogic habits through the seven-day lifestyle regime to further your inner yoga practice and live the yogis way of life. You will also nourish your mind, body and soul with your choice of three easy-to-prepare daily meals using my healthy-eating principles for optimal calm, clarity and energy.

You will delve deeper into a traditional way of yogic eating, following a sattvic (pure) food model. The food is lacto-vegetarian, meaning fruit, vegetables and dairy predominate in the diet, while you exclude stimulating foods, such as eggs, garlic and onion and foods containing caffeine, because these unsettle the mind.

It is my hope that this book will bring you closer to an authentic inner connection with yourself and complement your yoga journey to help you find true inner peace and freedom.

What I have come to realize about yoga through my own practice is that living a yogis life is the real yoga challenge. All the effort I pour into my asana practice on the mat is just a testing ground for the way I act and how I apply these yogi values in my life. I have come to accept yoga as a physical discipline with a spiritual intention, because the art of being kind all day, speaking only truthful statements and remaining calm when faced with difficulty can sometimes feel impossible. But these objectives are worth the challenge in more ways than one.

From a physical point of view, yoga lowers stress and improves posture, circulation and digestion while keeping joints fluid and muscles toned. It can help you lose weight and alleviate symptoms of depression, and it may also be the best anti-aging regimen we have. Yoga also eases everyday pains and frustrations and increases kindness and compassion. It tones the body while stabilizing the mind.

In the ancient language of Sanskrit, the word yoga is used to signify any form of connection. When applied to the human experience, it can be used to celebrate the union between the mind, body and spirit. At its most practical level, yoga is a process of becoming more aware of who we really are. Through its practices, we can still the mind and merge into oneness with the divine, to act with truth and authenticity.

Over the years I have had the privilege of witnessing first-hand the positive changes that the daily combination of asana practice and healthy eating can achieve in our lives. The guests on my many yoga retreats have been my teachers and shown me just how powerful this combination really is when put into practice. It is my mission through The Yoga Kitchen Plan to help as many of you realize this powerful union and reach the same state of blissful calm, clarity and wellness that my guests achieve while on retreat.

The seven-day lifestyle plan is based on the chakras the wheels of energy throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head. To visualize a chakra in the body, imagine a swirling wheel of energy where matter and consciousness meet, with the wheels perfectly aligning up and down the spinal column. I often help others to visualize the energy pulsing through their body by using the lymphatic system as a physiological comparison. The lymphatic system covers every part of the human body with vessels that sit just under the skins surface. Imagine energy pulsing through these vessels, travelling to the chakra wheels, which you can imagine as the lymph organs or nodes. The chakra wheel for each of the seven chakras is where the energy for that particular chakra accumulates and is processed just as our lymph fluid is within the lymphatic system.

The invisible energy pulsing through this system is vital life force, chi or prana, which keeps us vibrant, healthy and alive. Each of the seven chakras has an important part to play in our overall energetic balance and has long been the traditional method for yogis to understand the anatomy of the subtle body. To translate and help us better understand the practical benefits of the chakras, I have outlined three main areas here:

ACHIEVE BALANCE

By focusing your attention on one or more characteristics of each chakra, you can subtly encourage the qualities it stands for into your life. By devoting your awareness to the subtle energy of each chakra, such as security, power, love or insight, you can activate this potential.

DEVELOP ENERGETIC FLOW

Traditionally, chakras are the known gateways through which our life force, chi or prana energy is able to move through our mind and body. This energy gets transformed into mental, physical and emotional expressions such as support, which is a key characteristic of the root chakra, and is associated with feelings of independence, belonging and stability.

A practical approach towards feeling in flow with your energies is to examine your relative strength or weakness for the individual chakra characteristics, so you can improve where you feel weak (physically, mentally or emotionally) and expand where you feel strong.

ENHANCE WELLBEING

The chakras allow us to organize our life and body into an all-inclusive and whole being. From this space we can gain access to the subtle levels of life where hidden potentials can be activated and greater fulfilment is born.

During the plan I have created, you will move from chakra to chakra each day, starting at the root chakra where you will focus on finding your earth and a stable base, i.e. who you are at your essence. Then, over the seven days, you will ascend to the crown chakra where true connection with your consciousness awaits you.

THE INDIVIDUAL CHAKRAS

As well as its individual characteristics, each chakra is associated with a colour. See for more information.

	ROOT CHAKRA Survival / Grounding / Stability Security / Safety / Support / Family A Sense of Belonging / Community	When you need to feel safe, secure, passionate, energetic, balanced, vibrant; for a sense of belonging and community; to create a sanctuary for you to feel home.
	SACRAL CHAKRA Relationships / Sexuality / Empathy Pleasure / Wellbeing / Connection Change / Feelings and Emotions Creativity	When you need to feel confident, connected to everything around you and yourself; to deal with change and develop relationships with others; to help you move your body, feel pleasure, express your sexuality.