In early August, I was able to check another item off of my California bucket list - the Gilroy Garlic Festival! If you don't know, Gilroy is the garlic capitol of the world and hosts an annual festival celebrating their beloved herb (is it an herb?). This was the 40th year of the festival, and it truly exceeded our expectations. We ate more food than I thought was possible - we started with the free garlic ice cream, then shared garlic fries, garlic calamari and a drink, and finished the day with garlic bread and a garlic peppercorn steak sandwich. It was a great cultural experience to discover this community event.
Dailey Method & Self Love Workshop
Last weekend, my friend Susannah Anderson hosted a self love workshop at the Dailey Method in Cow Hollow. The Dailey Method is a ballet barre class with a focus on isolating and strengthening muscle groups.
The workshop included an hour long barre class, which was challenging but even more fun than I thought it would be, that then went straight into a meditation and workshop on self love. In the workshop, Susannah taught us about how building self love comes from a process of building awareness, focus and then transformation. She had us assess where our lives were lacking self love and to imagine what life would be like if we built our love and support in those areas.
I have been having a hard time with my inner mean girl (often called your ego, I recently named mine Denise), so exposing all of the areas that I am building self love was very challenging. But by bringing awareness to these areas, I am now able to set an intention to show up in those areas with more love. My favorite tip that she gave was to HALT when our inner mean girl starts taking over, and ask yourself: Am I Hungry? Am I Angry? Am I Lonely? Am I Tired? The ego often takes over when we need to soothe ourselves in one of these areas.
Susannah recently officially started as a health coach at Parsley Health (which I posted about a few months ago), and is also taking private coaching clients. If you're looking to transform your life and health, definitely check out her website.
How are you showing up for yourself today? How could you care for yourself more?
Gabrielle Bernstein at Grace Cathedral
Last week, I went to Gabrielle Bernstein’s book launch at Grace Cathedral. I have been following Gabrielle since her first book eight years ago, and every time I see her I am amazed by her stage presence and ability to speak about personal development.
Her newest book Judgment Detox is about how we block ourselves from our true emotions when we judge others, and reviews the steps to come out of judgment. At this time of so much divisiveness in the world, I hope that this book serves as many people as possible.
- Witness your judgment without judgment. When we notice that we are judging someone else or ourselves, witness it without going into a judgment tailspin. Instead of judging someone at the grocery store and then judging yourself for judging them, stop the cycle and notice that you are triggered and ask yourself why.
- Honor the wound. If we are judging someone else for our own insecurity, come to the core wound of why you are triggered and judging. The book then has three tools for healing the inner wound.
- Put love on the altar. After we have worked to heal the wounds, the book has prayers to offer your judgment to a higher power.
- See for the first time. Once we have healed and prayed, we can see for the first time. Gabby tells a great story about healing her relationship with her father. When we see others for their truth, we understand that we are all one.
- Cut the cords. Every time we judge someone, we create negative energetic cords connecting us. Once we have seen the other person, we can cut the energetic cords and no longer be negatively connected.
- Bring your shadows to the light. In the final step, we practice forgiveness and shining light on the universe.
Have you read Judgment Detox yet? Who are you judging and is there another way?
Meditation and Matcha at Parsley Health
Last week, I got up early on Tuesday morning to attend an event at my friend's startup, Parsley Health. Parsley Health has a whole body practice to wellness, from advanced testing to nutritional guidance. On Tuesday morning, they celebrated the "birthday" of their San Francisco office with meditation and bulletproof matcha at their WeWork office. The meditation was hosted by Within Meditation, a new studio on Sansome Street, and then their nutritionist taught us about the benefits of matcha. It was a perfect way to start my day and I pledged to go to more events like this!
Outdoor Yoga SF
Yesterday I checked another item off of my California bucket list, and yoga on Ocean Beach lived up to the hype. Started by Julie Aiello, Outdoor Yoga SF is an hour long yoga class on the beach followed by a dance party.
Everyone is given a pair of headphones, and there is a DJ playing music to go along with the yoga class. Near the end of class, Julie had us walk down to the ocean and dance with our feet in the water. After class the DJ played more upbeat music and everyone kept dancing until the sun set.
I'm still processing the class, but I will leave it that it was the perfect way to unwind and feel the light of the sun.
Service
Today was super powerful. Today I got to help present more than 700 pieces of recess equipment to a local school on behalf of my employer, Blue Shield of California. It was so heartwarming to see the looks of excitement on the faces of the children, and was so fun to be able to give back in a more tangible way.
I used to do a lot more direct service work, and I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. It was such a great feeling to know that I had impacted someone’s life. I used to do that every day when I worked in City government, but the burnout became too much. But service wakes something up inside of me that is so integral to my identity that I now am planning on finding more opportunities to volunteer and serve.
How do you give back to your community and what does it mean to you?
Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Fest
I did it! I checked another event off of my California Bucket List! And the Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival did not disappoint. Being in Half Moon Bay is always amazing, but the festival even exceeded my very high expectations. There was art for sale, there was food, there were performers and most importantly there were pumpkins! The header photo is of me on the winner of the pumpkin competition. It weighs 2,363 pounds, and is the largest pumpkin ever grown in the United States.
The festival continues tomorrow (October 15) if you are in town, or mark your calendars for next year. I already have!
Mountain View Farmers Market
One of the things that I have loved most about relocating to California is the availability of fresh produce and the prevalence of farmers' markets. I recently finished the book The Dorito Effect, which was about the lack of flavor and nutrition in modern food, so have been trying to buy closer to the source. It is so enjoyable to start the week with a full refrigerator of fresh fruit and vegetables and makes me eat healthier over the course of the week.
We usually go to the Farmers' Market in Redwood City because we can walk to it from our apartment, but with our relocation to the hotel last week we were further south so instead went to the Mountain View Farmers' Market. The market is set up in the Caltrain parking lot, and is one of the largest that I have yet to experience. There were the usual fruit and vegetable vendors, but there was also meat, fish, dairy and flowers for sale. We went back to the hotel with two bags filled with food for the week, and it made such a difference to have delicious and fresh ingredients to cook with.
What are your favorite farmers' markets?
Happy 4th!
Hope that you had a great 4th of July! We spent the afternoon in Palo Alto at the 36th Annual Chili Cook Off. I first decided to go to the event because it was nearby, but my expectations were completely exceeded. Attending the event was free, and then for $5 you could purchase tickets to taste five different chili stations and vote on your favorite. This meant that, for only $10, we got to sample ten chilis and got two ballots. There was also a very fun live band, at least ten food trucks, and bounce houses for kids.
At the end of the event, the Mayor announced the chili team winners both by the popular vote and by the judges. My favorite, the Palo Alto Firefighters, won the popular vote and went home with $500.
It was a great way to spend the holiday afternoon, and we both went home with big smiles on our faces (and very full stomachs).
What did you do for the Fourth?
