Smiley Retreat

Is it cod out there? Keep warm with herbal teas and spices.

Add flavour and excitement to your life, try something new. I used to love roiboos tea when I lived in London. Rose hip, lemon balm, catnip, aniseed, rosella? Try mixing cardamoms, ginger and cinnamon, warming and comforting at the same time.

Do you want more novelty and excitement in life? Start small, by discovering the wonders of herbal teas and tisanes. This way you'll add beneficial micronutrients, antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds. Every little more helps the body rebalance and keep fit. Tisanes soothes the mind too.

Merry Christmas! A question I asked myself recently: what is the essence of Christmas in 2021?

I always associated Christmas with presents and with family and communion.

This first aspect is much less relevant to me these days as I tend to invest in experiences and personal development more than stuff. This is exactly why the experience of communion is really important to me and in this new world of enforced social distancing, sharing moments with others, loved ones, friends and family becomes even more precious.

My family is far, in Italy and I have been videoing with them a lot more in the past days, particularly my older parents miss me of course.

I will be spending Christmas with my girlfriend Isabella and 10 friends in our home on the 25th evening.

Tonight and tomorrow, over lunches, dinners and what we call in Koh Phangan "conscious parties", we'll meet, hug, dance and share love with many more friends on the island here.

A third element of Christmas is food and feasting on Christmas is good culturally and spiritually.

Of course, the QUALITY of the food matters, a lot! Wholefood, grass fed and healthy living, local or organic, home-made or well-made is key. No industrial junk, "corporate" food please!

We decided to support local businesses, artisan bakeries and the organic farm here for our dinner party tomorrow.

How has the festive season been so far? I wish you a really awesome Christmas, hoping for more unity, less weird stuff in the news and a lot of communion and love in 2022.
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Are you ready for the end of year celebrations? Merry Christmas to everyone from beautiful Koh Phangan.

As we were ready to re-open the Smiley Retreat, fresh restrictions mean quarantine is back to fly into Thailand so we are assessing what's best to do now.

This is a disappointment for me obviously, and I can only find some consolation in the beauty of the island, the beach, the breeze, the sunset and the communion with friends and loved ones.

As restrictions are also imposed in Europe, we can only hope this strange virus crisis will end or can be handled differently in 2022. Whatever you think of what's going on, New Normal has been on for nearly 2 years and it seems any variant of the virus is too dangerous, too "unsafe" to be let pass without restrictions as it once was, in 2019 and every year before that.

Consolation in Nature, a spiritual practice and taking a philosophical perspective helps me keep an open heart and enjoying the fleeting moment.

Wishing you here, much love from Koh Phangan.

I think the energy of sunrise and sunset is magical. Both early morning and late afternoon are considered sattvic in Yoga. It's awesome to be in presence of something or someone that has sattva, which is a Sanskrit word meaning "light," "goodness" and/or "purity." The quality of sattva is said to be life-giving to the body, mind and spirit.

And Nature, particularly at sunset, is a wonder of light and goodness for me.

The current world is, in my opinion, characterised by a myriad of challenges for our nervous system. To keep safe from some of the negativity of media, social media and the stresses of modern life, I practice "Mind Hygiene" more from my blog here: https://www.nutriyogalife.com/mind-hygiene/

Do you expose yourself to beautiful sights, high vibration elements on a daily basis? If you need more ideas on how to relax and charge your vibration with the goodness of Sattva, reach out and ask me - I am here to help :-)

Do you love raw salads, green leafy vegetables? Even in winter, as part of a nice meal containing earthy, warming foods, there is place for a salad starter or side.

I had to go through the process of starting to include more beneficial plants in my diet, more vitamins, minerals and natural medicinal compounds, and it took me a while to get to where I am now. I had to shift my perception of the so-called superfoods too. So I feel for people who are still not eating the greens, it's a bit of an acquired taste but really worth it, so much!

I now regularly, almost everyday, choose from at least 8 or 10 varieties of spinach and brassica plants, mustard leaves, pak choi, gotu kola and Asian kale and some I do not know the English name of. Can you learn to cook and enjoy watercress, cabbage or Brussels sprouts? Your liver will thank you for that.

If you are eating processed food, you are taking in a lot of calories, inflammatory compounds, pro-oxidants and very little beneficial micronutrients. You are burdening, hurting the body and you gotta know why you are doing it.

Knowing something rationally is worthless if you don't actually act upon it, actually do it, make it part of your routine.

Nutrition, Yoga & Lifestyle - The YouTube Channel
I started a YouTube channel over a year ago to give teachers, holistic healers and interesting people a platform to introduce themselves and share some of their experience.

Some of the subjects covered in these 10 to 20 minutes interviews:

Healing, wellness, healthy eating, fasting, detox, wholefood, yoga, meditation, philosophy, inspiration, motivation, travelling, lifestyle.

Inspire yourself into a healthy, balanced lifestyle through nutrition, yoga, holistic & smart thinking. Associated Blog NutriYogaLife.com

What are sound healing, shamanic ceremonies and ta**ra? Many inspiring teachers live in Koh Phangan and feature in the channel. Emotional release, myofascial massage? Craniosecral, reiki, energy healing?

Koh Phangan is well known for the variety of healing modalities and holistic classes available. As I am in Pai now, I started interviewing people here too, see in the pic my interview with Tony Tan, CEO of 180 Sanctuary.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5C_BeUkeyOCGTf7W6f2WnA/

Do you buy organic when you can?

My nutrition approach is based on wholefood and the first step is to go whole. Further steps, alongside refining the balance of macronutrients depending on individual specifications and adding more beneficial superfood, fermented food and preparations, is to go organic as much as possible.

Compared with conventional agriculture, organic farming uses fewer pesticides, reduces soil erosion, decreases nitrate leaching into groundwater and surface water, and recycles animal wastes back into the farm.

Despite yielding less crop than conventional farming, organic is much better for the environment and for ourselves.

Many pesticides and chemicals used in agriculture end up inside our organism and the body deals with them through the liver and detoxifies them out of the organism. Without being dogmatic about organic food, obviously we want to have as much of it as we can while limiting produce from conventional agriculture.

If you are on a budget, I'd say spend a little more on your animal products, also to avoid or reduce heavy metals and antibiotics. Then check out the "Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen" to see what produce should be bought organic and which is OK to buy conventional.

Lonely is what I fear the most. Not being alone, but feeling lonely for sure.
Do you feel lonely sometimes and how do you cope with it?

My life’s choices, or karma, depending on whether you think there’s such a thing as “free will”, made me share a lot of life with myself. I left my family home at age 19 to live in Milan for university, moved to London in my early 20s and relocated to Thailand at 38. I have always been fiercely independent and outward looking in my youth, lusting to see the world, travel and discover the new and the unexplored.

Every time I moved to a new place, I started from scratch, adapting to new social norms, culture and lifestyle and it can take a while to meet new friends, feel grounded, secure, established in a foreign or novel environment. While retaining a zest for life, a strong desire to learn and experience, I also naturally crave to feel part of a community of like minded people, secure in a social identity of sorts, sharing life moments with friends and connection with like hearted and like minded people.

Are fellow human beings, friends, family and a special one the real one a huge source of meaning, support and sweet time?

Read it all here: https://www.nutriyogalife.com/lonely-alone/

If you think balanced nutrition is important as part of a healthy and happy life, there is no shying away from cooking, the art of transforming raw, natural ingredients into tasty, filling and nourishing meals.

Cooking is culture. Cooking is fun. Cooking is meditation. It can be relaxing, a creative channel for one’s expression. If we want to make amazing dinners and lunches, good energy needs to be created, and love. You’ll be eating it and maybe your family or friends with you, so that’s paramount.

Switch off the TV and love each onion, carrot, drip of olive oil, grain of whole brown rice. Each spice and herb. Love it for 25-30 minutes with some chillout music and eat it slowly.

Are you open minded? Would you like to try something a bit different? Line up 4-5 simple ingredients on the kitchen counter, look at them intensely for 2-3 minutes. Observe the shape, colour, smell them.

Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight, close your eyes and feel you breath, gently inhale and exhale through the nose for 5 more minutes. When you are ready, start peeling, chopping, steaming, boiling or gentle frying, in coconut or olive oil, keeping a sense of connection, a heightened awareness. Serve and season to taste, eat slowly and you have already doubled up: 45 minutes, your dinner AND daily meditation are done… Happy evening!

The only way to make nutrition a long term habit is to learn to love the sourcing and preparing of food. Loving it as a hobby a passion.

I wrote this blog post in meditation 4 years ago and it started like this:

"The world is beautiful. Much more beautiful today than in the past because we can really see and experience it now. We can catch a plane and for a relatively small amount of money go to the Amazon or the Himalayas. We have the choice to spend an afternoon looking at the sky from a mountain top if we want to. There are no constrictions, no regime or other evil that forces us to be inside a concrete building 10 hours a day." Well..

After 1 full year in Koh Phangan I am in Chiang Mai, a beautiful city, rich in culture in northern Thailand. It feels good to be travelling again, albeit within the country. I am a big traveller and have been to 60 countries and, recently, the only travel I have done has been internal.

What is me? Me is my thoughts, Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am. My personality, what people see, what I do, where I live, who I go out with. Me is different if I am talking to my uncle, when I am at work or with friends. Me is constantly changing, mutating and assuming different forms and shapes.

Well, according to Yoga, me is the opposite of Cogito Ergo Sum, it’s I don’t think therefore I am. The true me is not the thinking me, the moving, talking, working, living everyday life me. The real me, not relative to anything else, is perceived when the breath stops when the thinking mind stops, when the rush of activity stops and the awareness goes inside. The real me is experienced through meditation.

More here: https://www.nutriyogalife.com/meditation-dream-or-reality/

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Choose when to start and let's do it!

Do you love vegetables? In the Smiley Meal, my own balanced wholefood meal method, fruit and vegetables make up more than hallf of the meal. Raw veg and cooked veg!

In Koh Phangan there are some 20 different green leafy vegetables available in the market and yet, I used to always cook morning glory, a type of spinach, and Western broccoli, how boring! I now regularly, almost everyday, choose from at least 8 or 10 varieties of spinach and brassica plants, mustard leaves, pak choi, gotu kola and Asian kale and some I do not know the English name of. Can you learn to cook and enjoy watercress, cabbage or Brussels sprouts? Your liver will thank you for that.

My green tea comes fermented in the form of kombucha just before breakfast and I have jiaogulan tea in the evening after dinner. I regularly skip lunch and drink a green juice instead with celery, parsley, kale, fresh ginger and fresh turmeric, which makes it really bitter and a bit of an acquired taste. Often in late afternoon, I chop a garlic clove and swallow the pieces with water together with 4-5 grams of spirulina and a k**b of fresh turmeric. I like to chew the turmeric slowly and it ends up colouring my tongue yellow.

Fall in love with plants, fruit, berries and natural sources of antioxidants. Your body and mind will say: THANK YOU!

More here: https://www.nutriyogalife.com/micronutrients-vitamins-minerals-phytonutrients/

The world is changing at a faster pace than before. Change can be good and bad, which are value terms and subjective. Change is inevitable and resilient and adaptive people are going to do just fine, no matter what, so I am trying to embrace it the way I can.

There are two realms of action I like to distinguish, the microcosm and the macrocosm. I am fully responsible for the manifestation of the microcosm or at least for my behaviour towards my immediate environment. The relationship with my girlfriend, parents and close friends. The way I treat my body and mind. Beside practicing meditation, I stopped reading the news regularly some 5 years ago and I very much control and limit exposure to social media and popular media. I feed my mind with smart and useful or thoroughly funny and high quality stuff (I love comedy). My way of eating and how much I move the body is awesome now and it took me quite a few years to reach this level of health and wellbeing. It is a pleasure and source of satisfaction in itself.

As for the macrocosm… What can I do against the manifestation of populism? The huge, media induced, politicisation and polarisation of the masses? The increasing power tech companies and governments are currently claiming on the human race? The effects of climate change or indeed the draconian measures of Covid?

Short of being an activist, and I am not, Eastern philosophy suggests a healthy measure of detachment.

This means meditation, yoga, walks in nature and a daily dose of beauty. Nature is my muse, my mother. my inspiration and a healing touch of gentle joy and wonder.
More on this post: https://www.nutriyogalife.com/change/

Weight loss is much more than just losing weight. I work in wellness and nutrition and one of the most common goals my clients express is weight loss. Often this is just a symptom, being overweight, of something deeper, something I always strive to understand. It’s a sensitive job, one of balance, care and love even. Connecting with the individual in front of me and grasping what might be her lifestyle, what challenges he might be facing.

To me food is a lot more than just something you use to fill your mouth and stomach with. It is culture, philosophy, art, pleasure, life itself. That’s what I want my clients to appreciate, this message of beauty behind eating.

Sometimes it is purely a matter of education. I see people trying to follow the official guidelines who get trapped in the marketing offers of low fat, diet foods. Margarine and sunflower oil, fake vegan cheese, a ton of refined carbohydrates and diet cola. Opposing and misleading voices in the media make the picture confused and awkward to navigate. And many companies are able to take advantage of the vulnerability of people who struggle with weight. Fad diets, wonder pills and magical solutions that don’t work for very long. The fascinating world of nutrition is made of science and tradition, marketing and many idiosyncrasies too.

I sometimes see people who are overwhelmed by life, maybe in the wrong careers, maybe struggling to connect with family and friends, or are masking depressive or anxious states, old traumas they haven’t yet dealt with. Many have a history of eating junk food, are seriously addicted to sugar, caffeine and other stimulants, they are emotional eaters of some sort.

I see a myriad of health conditions that add further complexity. Thyroid and hormonal issues, heart problems, eczema and many signs of inflammation. At the resort clients can get some real sleep and de-stress, gain renewed energy, push back inflammation and relieve a bloated, congested digestive system, turn down pain. It is a great opportunity to get some mental clarity and perspective. Calming the busy mind and getting closer to your true self is one of the benefits of fasting.

Food has a remarkable impact on brain chemistry, even when you think of it, see it, smell it or make up your mind you want to eat it. As soon as it is in your mouth, more potent chemical reactions are triggered. The hormone Insulin is so important to be called a Master hormone, which means many other hormones up-regulate or down-regulate depending on insulin.

Any carb or protein in your food will affect insulin, glucagon, leptin and ghrelin, neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Fat acts within specific brain regions to regulate a number of processes, such as neurotransmission and signaling pathways, which ultimately affects emotional behavior.

It is clear that someone constantly exposed to junk will have a hard time keeping positive emotions and a healthy nervous system. In the junk (or low quality) category, I include dumb media, worrying news and clickbait entertainment, uninteresting or soul consuming work, toxins laden processed food and drinks.

This psychological and chemical environment will create emotional and physical stress, leading to inflammation, pain, a jumpy, nagging inner voice and the ultimate desire to numb, escape, retreat or shut down. As brain plasticity adapts and reflects the lifestyle, it will embed unhealthy coping behaviour, bring back negative patterns and hinder progress towards more harmony and peace.

How do you break the cycle and start moving towards more positive emotions and a healthier, happier existence? In a holistic system we could start from different aspects of our lifestyle: get psychological support from a therapist, start moving the body more through sport or dance, actively relax or meditate, cut back on junk media and crucially, improve the way we eat. Once on a virtuous cycle, things might start to fall into place more harmoniously.

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Are you creative, artistic or a music lover? Moments of deep connection with oneself, others or Nature, a feeling of belonging, being present and in the moment, are very precious and highly beneficial states we seek to experience and cultivate. Spiritual development brings many gifts, more inspiration and for some, the appreciation or creation of art.

Human beings can be reduced to machines, doing the same simple task over and over again, slaving away in a sweatshop factory or in front of a spreadsheet. Man can be forced to animal status too, commiting brutalities in the many wars that stained history. Or can be elevated to the highest standing, when painting The Creation Of Adam, singing soprano or playing the violin in an opera house.

We might not have the same level of fine art and performance where we live but that doesn’t matter. The making of art, the cultivating of creativity and the appreciation of its many fruits, is healthy beyond the outcome.

I write my blog NutriYogaLife.com practice improv theatre and I am part of a musical.

How do you express your creativity?