Comfort Food
Soup is simmering
the ultimate comfort food
a hug from inside
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Comfort Food
Soup is simmering
the ultimate comfort food
a hug from inside
Sunday Morning
Coffee and paper
Sunday morning ritual
reset for the week
A Moment in Time
Hidden in attic
a moment in time frozen
nineteen-eighty-eight
Winter's Nap
Young tendrils of green
stretching from a snow blanket
soon back to naptime
Change of Perspective
What does life look like
through the eyes of a baby
change of perspective
An altar to spring
sweet fragrance, nature's incense
green leaves in prayer
Sound of singing bowl
silence of the snow
woven together
White chrysanthemum
with circular symmetry
balanced harmony
Wintertime Feast
A wintertime feast
table set for snow creatures
frosty picnicing
Snowfall
Snow falling gently
predictions of a blizzard
now just beautiful
Inside Outside
Bitter cold outside
yet inside the cactus blooms
laughing at the snow
Clementine in Winter
Something decadent;
clementine for breakfast when
minus nine outside
A New Year
Open a new year
gift of possibilities
with no instructions
Who wants to start 2018 with a mindful challenge? Some of you may remember that I issued a haiku a day challenge in 2016...let's do it again in 2018!
Want to jump start your mindfulness in the new year? Join me and friends from around the globe in a 31 day challenge! Here are the guidelines:
Write one haiku a day for the month of January. The Japanese form of poetry called haiku is simple yet profound and pares down our observations to the essence. A haiku is a short sensory thought/poem that captures a feeling or image through words. The format is one that you may remember from elementary school...first line is 5 syllables, second line is 7 syllables and third line is 5 syllables for a total of a 17 syllable poem/thought. Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment and so is the writing of a haiku. Please join me and others in this fun challenge during the month of January. To share our haiku, we will be using the hashtag #haikuchallenge18 to aggregate the haiku. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc are great places to post your creations. You may also paste your haiku into the comment section of each day's haiku on my blog. I can't wait to read them!
Holidays are often the most stressful time of the year. Here are some of my favorite tips to rein in the holiday stress machine. What are some of your tips? Share them with us in the comment section below.
Lower the bar on expectations--Our expectations have been unnaturally shaped by sites such as Pinterest and Facebook. Try lowering the bar this year on decorations and holiday preparations and regain your sense of control.
Embrace both gratitude and grief--We often forget that the holiday season is laden with emotions that can comprise grief and gratitude both for ourselves and our patients. Practice self-compassion by engaging in journaling, art, meditation or self-care activities.
Delegate or Delete--Look over your to-do list and choose one item that you can either delete or delegate to someone else.
Practice the fine art of saying “no” -- Demands for our time and energy can derail even the most effective strategy for stress reduction, holidays may exacerbate our feelings of obligation. Remember "No" can be a complete sentence.
Engage in mindfulness--Mindfulness simply means pausing in the present moment to actually notice thoughts, emotions and sensations. Try pausing amidst the busyness to notice the present, not the past or the future.
As I continue exploring the qualities of connection with the ubiquitous comfort food, soup, my friend Wendy gifted me with an extraordinary book. Soup for Syria began as a grassroots humanitarian project to aid Syrian refugees. Acclaimed chefs from around the world have lent their favorite soup recipes to this cause. Since Soup for Syria was published in 2016, more than $300,000 has been donated in the form of aid to directly assist Syrian refugees. In our turbulent times, we often struggle to find ways to make a difference -- here is a one way...with a simple bowl of soup.
I encourage you to check out this amazing book filled with recipes and photographs that span cultures and bridge our shared humanity through the universal sharing of one bowl of soup at a time.
Last month I invited readers to share soup recipes as a way of connection during the cold, darkness of winter. I have been overwhelmed with responses! The process of making soup, the slow cooking, the simplicity of ingredients, the ability to pause and savor, make soup the ideal mindful food. Soup is also part of our collective cultures, it gives us sustenance and connects us when the world feels very divided. I am grateful to my friend Karen for sharing her wonderfully satisfying Chicken and Kale Soup. In the spirit of mindfulness she remarks, "The more you gently simmer it, the tastier it will become" Enjoy mindfully and keep those recipes of comfort and connection coming!
Ingredients for One Full Soup Pot
Olive oil
2 large, chicken breasts, with skin and bones
6-8 Celery stalks, leaves included
1 large yellow onion
Big handful of fresh parsley
Ground black pepper, about 2 teaspoons (we like it spicy, less if desired)
Thyme (2 -3 teaspoons dried), lots, if fresh, remove little leaves from stems
3 boxes of chicken broth
1 1/2 pound of carrots (about) sliced into rounds
Several large bunches of washed kale. Remove leafy parts from thickest stems and chop, not too finely
Recipe
Wash, dice/chop onion, celery, parsley, thyme
Drizzle olive oil into soup pot, enough to cover bottom of pot and a bit more
Saute chopped onions, celery, parsley, thyme, ground black pepper in oil
Stir frequently
When ingredients are thoroughly sauted, add the chicken breasts to pot
Stir the ingredients while continuing to saute, turning chicken breasts frequently to
mix with the celery, onion, herbs
When the chicken breasts begin to brown, add one box of chicken stock, or more, so as to barely cover the chicken with stock
Stir the pot, so chicken stock mixes in with everything else
Bring pot to simmer, add two other boxes of chicken stock
Simmer gently until the chicken meat is cooked and tender
Remove the chicken breasts, let cool enough to removed meat from the bones
Return the chicken meat to the gently simmering pot
Add carrot rings to soup
Add chopped kale to soup
Simmer gently until the carrots are tender
Soup is ready! Enjoy! The more you gently simmer it, the tastier it will become!
Serve with some sort of artisan/tasty bread. We like to have St Andre cheese for the bread, or some type of chedder
A new year is unfolding....
I have been considering how we create comfort during challenging times, apparently I am not alone in the urge to cocoon. I recently read an article in the New York Times on the Danish concept of hygge (pronouned HOO-gah) which is an all encompassing way of embracing coziness and warmth -- body, mind and spirit. In considering this concept, I was drawn to one of the comments I received in November when I asked readers what they wished they had had when they were caregivers to loved ones who were seriously ill...I received a response that was profound in its simplicity and accuracy...it simply stated "I needed soup" (thank you LL). Yes! Exactly! That's hygge!
What better way to comfort ourselves during challenging times than with a bowl of hearty soup. Soup exemplifies the tenants of mindfulness...it does not have to have perfect or expensive ingredients, it can't be rushed, you need to turn the high heat down and let it simmer (as with our thoughts in meditation) and it soothes and warms the body, mind and spirit from the inside out.
So this January to help you get started in the practice of hygge...let's share soup together. While it may be impossible to physically gather around a table in my house or yours, I invite you to join me and others in a virtual sharing of soup. I will be posting soup recipes throughout the month of January and would love your contributions. You may either post them directly in the comment section of the blog posts or you may email them to me (pressler@StressResources.com)and I will post them on the Stress Resources blog. Do you have a story that goes with a recipe...share it with us! I hope that the recipes will connect and inspire us all to practice hygge this January.
To get us started, here is a favorite recipe of mine...enjoy!
1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups carrots, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T extra virgin olive oil
3 T butter
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano
6 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
24 oz egg noodles
In a 6 quart crockpot add in whole chicken breasts, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, olive oil, butter, basil, oregano. Next add in chicken broth, water and season with salt and pepper.
Cover and cook on low hear for 6-7 hours
Remove cooked chicken breasts and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place chicken back into the slow cooker. Now add in egg noodles. Cover and cook just until noodles are tender.