Winter Solstice 30 days of a Renewal Sadhana

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice. We move from darkness into light.  It will be a New Moon as well.  This will be a powerful time to cultivate the seeds of the Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox.  If you have planted intentions earlier it is the time to nurture those ideas.  My 30 Sadhana (practice) will be about self renewal.  I look forward to this time to honor my health and well being by taking time to slow down.  My plan is to cut back my spa days from four to three days.   It will be a new experience for me to not always be on.  With all the busy days I yearn for the long moments of quiet and rest.  May you find a 30 day Sadhana that is transforming and enlightening.  Think about what you need to create in your life.  Plant the seeds and allow the days of light to grow those intentions to fruition.  Peace....

Wow!  I feel so grateful that Katie O'Byrne editor for Natural Awakenings AR let me share 5 of my beauty tips in the November issue!

Here is the article I wrote:

Top 5 skin care tips to keeping your face looking its best. 

Your face is the first thing that someone sees and you want it to look healthy and glowing. Here are my top 5 tricks to keeping a healthy glow.

·         Hydration is vital for healthy glowing skin.  When you do not get enough water your skin gets dry.  The dryer your skin the more lack luster, wrinkly and fatigued the skin texture will be.  Plus, drinking/eating foods that support hydration is important.

·         Get plenty of rest.  Have you ever been asked, “are you feeling well?”  after having a restless night of sleep.  You may feel fine, but your skin is reflecting a tired and stressful appearance.

·         The crucial home care steps:  cleanse, exfoliate, and nourish.  These steps are the most basic for healthy skin.  Cleansing and exfoliating removes the top layer of dead skin, so that when you nourish with a serum, masque, or moisturizer the hydration can get to the lower levels of the epidermis. 

·         Stress free living is key.  The more stress you care can damage cells and stress can cause facial wrinkles….think frown lines between the eyebrows.

·         Get moving!  Exercise is great for circulation!  Circulation is great for glowing skin and it is  wonderful at combating tress.  The more oxygen filled blood that you can get pumping will eliminate  dull, stressed, and tired looking skin.  When blood is moving it is rejuvenating your skin from the inside out.  

If you want healthy looking skin just follow these simple steps.  You can come see me for any further skin care questions.  I have been an esthetician for 9 years and not all skin care concerns can be corrected with just these steps above, but they are a great way to start.

Cassandra Benning Aesthetics License Number: 13990


Cassandra Benning is the owner of The Floating Lotus Yoga Studio and Day Spa. Has been sharing her knowledge about skin care since 2005 when she received her esthetics.  Cassandra’s  skin care journey started when she was 12 years old: having Grade 2 acne, she quickly learned the necessity of caring for skin.

AAHHH!!! The Power of Lemon Water!

It is refreshing and detoxifying!  It has a plethora of health benefits that has helped me feel free of toxicity and dehydration.  Below are a few of the many benefits that lemon water can give you.

Lemon Smiles,
Cassandra

• The lemon is high in vitamin C which helps the body's immune system function more efficiently.  
• It balances the pH in the body.
• It helps reduce pain and inflammation in joints
• Dissolves uric acid in the body
• Detoxifies the body 

10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse

 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse

It has been a couple of years since I have done a green smoothie cleanse.  For one year my vitamix blender was in storage while Eric and I lived with his parents.  This coming from a gal that lived a raw food lifestyle for a year.  Talking about clean eating I never knew you could get high from being so pure with food!

Anyway a little over a year ago we finished building our house, got married, and now I feel life has settled down enough to detox my body.  I have been wanting to get back to green smoothies everyday, but once you get out of a habit it's hard to start again.

Since I have been with Eric I have slowly reintroduced meat into my diet.  When I meet him I was eating a mostly vegetarian diet with small amounts of fish and eggs. Adding meat, like chicken and turkey, into my life was new.  I felt like I needed to add some animal protein into my diet because I was feeling like I was missing something.  My body was weak and I was suffering from carb/energy crashes.
  

So, I started adding a little bit of chicken and then it snowballed into all varieties of meat with the exception of beef.  I eventually did a low carb, high fat, and high protein eating lifestyle.  Eric does great with this lifestyle diet.  I do not.  I tried it along with many other forms of eating habits through the years.  By detoxing all the meat I consumed over the last two years,  I have finally become aware of what works best for me.  This is the whole point!  I am so grateful for the green smoothie detox.  It has shown me that I do better with green smoothies and I can balance them with veggies, salads and a little meat for optimal health.  This is what works for me.  I wish you the best journey in finding what works best for you.

Know your body, listen to it, and your body will guide you into the perfect balance.

Happy Eating!

My journey with Eminecne skin care

I have always been a skin care junkie.  My skin care obsession started with my mom showing me how to care for my skin in my early teen years.  In my teens I had Grade II acne.  I do admit it is not as severe as some people I see today with high grades, but as a teenager you always feel self-conscious and acne is right there for anyone to see.  Anyway, I started taking antibiotics regularly to clear up my skin.  This was the only option since accutane was not around.  Eventually my acne cleared up, not to say I didn't still have occasional breakouts...I still do to this day.

Now fast forward to my mid-twenties where I had worked and sampled several over the counter department store cosmetic companies.  I will attest to using these products and I enjoyed them all.  I even found a few skin care lines in my early thirties that I liked from a couple of days spas I visited or worked.   As I stated I appreciated a few of the skin care lines, but my biggest love for a skin care line came when I had my first Eminence facial.  This amazing facial was provided by Turtle Cove in  Mt. Harbor Resort.  It was love at first sight.

I didn't started using the Eminence line regularly until I brought it into my spa in 2010.  At the time I was having a hard time with hyperpigmentation, the dreaded dark spots.  As I was now in my mid thirites these pesky spots were making a grand appearance on my forehead  and cheeks.  It was my teens all over again.  I was becoming self-conscious again.  I remember someone asking what was on my forehead, like I had something on there that needed to be rubbed off.  Below you can see the difference Eminence has made on my skin in the last four years! The time sequence is top left 2010 to top right 2012 and bottom left 2012 to bottom right 2014.  I look young as I have gotta older AND the dark spots are barely there.

Hooked for life!


 

Mirrors

It has been some time since I have written on our blog.  I have wanted to share my papers I wrote for teacher training with Shiva Rea, but I have always felt shy about sharing such intimate areas of my life.  Well no more, I am starting today by sharing my first paper that involves mirrors.  My love/hate relationship with mirrors has been a journey and I proud to share with you my story surrounding mirrors since we now have them hanging in the studio.

This is a paper I wrote for our teacher training that was called the embodiment project.  I was asked to take photos of 10 asanas that were listed and at the end of teacher training I was to take the same photos of the same poses and review how I had grown in the asanas.  Enjoy.

Embodiment Project

Long ago when I first started my yoga practice, I practiced in front of mirrors.  There were mirrors at the yoga studio I attended and there were mirrors in my practice room at my home.  Having the mirrors really helped me to “see” and understand the correct alignment.   Then, after teaching in gyms for many years, I noticed that mirrors are helpful, but they can also encourage the ego.  It was then that I began to not use mirrors in my personal practice.

When I attended my first two week training with Shiva at Exhale, we were asked to take photos of ten key asanas.  I felt at the time that my asanas were a great reflection of correct alignment.  This was not the truth.  Since I was no longer using a mirror for my own personal practice, I noticed that “feeling” my way into an asanas did not necessarily get me into the correct alignment.  I needed both.   The embodiment project provided me the knowledge that you can feel prana energy in your body, but it still might not be a true reflection of correct alignment.

Teaching yoga is about finding one’s own individual balance in any given asana or life situation, but without proper technique or form, you will be doing yourself a disservice.  We can look at chaturanga dandasana as a great example.  This pose could be providing a strong foundation for the wrists, arms, chest, and core but if taught incorrectly, it could be damaging to these areas, especially the wrists and shoulders.  Correct technique starts from the instructor.  You are a mirror to the student, so if your asanas are not properly aligned, this will be reflected back by your students. 

Mirrors….I have come full circle with my appreciation for them once again!

                                                    Studio Before                Studio After