take care of this moment. lack of awareness and attention in the present moment affects your future moments. there is nothing more real than this moment right now.
find out why I love ANJALY Eco-friendly, Organic Yoga Inspired Collection!
(and if you order online, and enter ‘Grace5‘ while making a purchase, you get a FREE €5/£4!)
upcoming Gracious Living Yoga Adventure Retreat in Nicaragua: click here
honoured to be sharing the Gracious Living yoga & nutrition love in Canadian SWEAT EQUITY magazine Summer Issue 2012…..a magazine dedicated to a yoga & fitness lifestyle.
breathe in. work out. love life. do yoga.
click here to read my articles in the SWEAT EQUITY online magazine:
page 27: Gracious Living Tropical Detox Smoothie
page 53: Gracious Living Detox Yoga
Page 67: Aqua Nicaragua Wellness Resort where I teach & live
whoooooooohoooooo! i came across my photo in Oxygen Magazine at the airport!
OXYGEN MAGAZINE June 2012 page 22/23
I used to dream about being in this magazine in my fitness days over 10 years ago…actually more like 20 years ago! What an honour and unexpected surprise after all these years….especially because my passion is now yoga!
click here for the full spread: Gracious Living in OXYGEN MAGAZINE 2012.
**stay tuned for summer issue 2012 of SWEAT EQUITY MAGAZINE coming out this week featuring Gracious Living recipes and yoga poses for detoxification!
upcoming retreat at Aqua Nicaragua Wellness Resort
you are what you eat. you are what you think. GRACIOUS LIVING.
Detoxification & Healthy Eating for BODY, MIND, and SPIRIT
by Grace Van Berkum, R.H.N.
We don’t think twice about cleaning our house, car, clothes, washing our hair, or cutting our nails….. but what about cleaning the inside of our bodies? This is something that is often neglected or not even considered, but so imperative for a healthy AND happy life!
Detoxification is a process that rids the body of harmful pollutants improving our immune system and our entire functioning. Detoxing the body by going on a juice fast is a great way to flush out toxic germs, bacteria, and waste to slow down aging and help prevent disease.
Who Needs to Detox?
Everyone can benefit from juice fasting! Regardless of how healthy one’s lifestyle or diet might be, we live in a toxic world. We are regularly exposed to harmful chemicals in our environment. Many foods contain pesticides, preservatives, additives, and metals that are difficult for the body to eliminate. Pollution is in our air and water. Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and other drugs clog the liver and contaminate the blood resulting in an unbalanced body affected on many levels. Moreover, negative or stressful thoughts have injurious effects on the body and mind. Our advancing world and fast-paced lifestyle that we are becoming accustomed to are disrupting our internal eco-system and taking a toll on our body, mind, and spirit. A juice fast can help remove these harmful substances and recalibrate the body and mind toward a healthier lifestyle and a more positive outlook on life
How does detoxing work?
Our bodies naturally detoxify everyday as part of a normal body process. Detoxification is one of the body’s most basic automatic functions of eliminating and neutralizing toxins through the colon, liver, kidneys, lungs, lymph and skin. Most bodies cannot sustain the demands placed on them, which results in imbalances, diseases, and a decreased capacity to function optimally. When our bodies become overloaded, elimination processes are not efficient, organs become overworked and are unable to finish their duties, and toxins keep circulating in our systems. Body systems and organs that were once capable of cleaning out unwanted substances are now completely overloaded to the point where toxic material remain inside our tissues.
Common symptoms of toxic overload are:
A juice fast can help the body’s natural cleaning process by:
In simplest terms, juice fasting allows the organs to rest and speeds up the detoxification process by focusing on the removal of toxins, acidity, and hardened deposits in the cells and body. Fresh juices are rich in live enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and alkalinizing nutrients for speedy absorption, helping to boost the immune system and improve digestion.
Fasting for Spiritual Evolution
Fasting is also conducive to spiritual evolution. It helps bring clarity, peace, and a feeling of interconnectedness. Meditation, yoga, and spiritual discussions at satsangs offer the opportunity to enhance the journey of self-discovery and expand consciousness. Some of the indispensable benefits of doing a 10 Day Detoxification Juice Fast at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram is that participants are in a supportive group setting with qualified health professionals and spiritual teachers in the gorgeous, sunny Bahamas, making this life changing experience very enjoyable and empowering.
The 10 Day Detoxification and Juice Fasting Program starts with 2 days of raw food to prepare the body for detoxification, 6 days of juice fasting with additional cleansing powders, herbal supplements, and special teas, and then re-introducing 2 days of healthy, raw food to break the fast.
Revitalize yourself with the upcoming 10 day Juice fast in the Bahamas to cleanse the body and mind! click HERE for more info on how you can detox with me!
Maintaining Healthy Eating After The Fast
Immediately after the juice fast is done in May, I will be teaching a 3 Day Raw Food Retreat in the Bahamas. Learn how to create wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, soy-free alkalinizing, energizing meals in the kitchen while also learning about how vegan and raw foods help to heal on physical, spiritual, and ecological levels.
Wellness is not just about nutrition. What’s on our plates and what’s happening in our bodies is a direct correlation of what’s happening to our planet. Heal the body, heal the planet!
click here for info about my upcoming 3 DAY RAW FOOD COURSE in the Bahamas.
I am also assisting with a YOGA & SPORT course in May 2012
that explores how the application of yoga practice and philosophy can dramatically improve athletic performance.
Grace Van Berkum is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Sivananda Yoga Teacher, Personal Trainer, and Recipe Creator who currently lives in Nicaragua teaching people about health, yoga, nutrition, fitness, and the importance of staying connected to nature.
There are still spots left for my upcoming Gracious Living Empowerment Retreat with co-host Randi Smith in 3 weeks in Nicaragua!
When we approach children with the awareness that they can teach us, we automatically become more present ourselves. www.dailyom.com
As grown-ups, we often approach children with ideas about what we can teach them about this life to which they have so recently arrived. It’s true that we have important information to convey, but children are here to teach us just as much as we are here to teach them. They are so new to the world and far less burdened with preconceived notions about the people, situations, and objects they encounter. 
They do not avoid people on the basis of appearance, nor do they regard shoes as having only one function. They can be fascinated for half an hour with a pot and a lid, and they are utterly unself-conscious in their emotional expressions. They live their lives fully immersed in the present moment, seeing everything with the open-mindedness born of unknowing. 
This enables them to inhabit a state of spontaneity, curiosity, and pure excitement about the world that we, as adults, have a hard time accessing. Yet almost every spiritual path calls us to rediscover this way of seeing. In this sense, children are truly our gurus.
When we approach children with the awareness that they are our teachers, we 
automatically become more present ourselves. We have to be more present when we follow, looking and listening, responding to their lead. We don’t lapse so easily into the role of the director of activities, surrendering instead to having no agenda at all. As we allow our children to determine the flow of play, they pull us deeper into the mystery of the present moment. In this magical place, we become innocent again, not knowing what will happen next and remembering how to let go and flow.
Since we must also embody the role of loving guide to our children, they teach us how to transition gracefully from following to leading and back again. In doing so, we learn to dance with our children in the present moment, shifting and adjusting as we direct the flow from pretending to be kittens wearing shoes on our heads to making sure everyone is fed and bathed.
*photos taken from Gracious Living kids yoga/meditation classes and chocolate making classes in Nicaragua.
WHAT IS YOUR FOOD DOING TO YOU???
is your food energizing you, or slowing you down??
is your food cleansing you, or clogging you??
is your food enhancing you, or depleting you??
WHAT YOU EAT DETERMINES THE PERSON THAT YOU ARE.
BE THE BEST PERSON YOU CAN BE BY MAKING BETTER FOOD CHOICES. WHAT YOU EAT AFFECTS ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR LIFE.
*upcoming Gracious Living Yoga Nutrition Retreat in Nicaragua
*upcoming Spring Detox & Juice Fast in the Bahamas
*upcoming Raw Food & Yoga Wellness Retreat in the Bahamas
