Pilates can help you strengthen your body, with quick results, and also strengthen the mind and body connection. In this post I give you five reasons to start practicing Pilates.

Pilates – Tones Your Body and Provides Mental and Physical Benefits

I’ve worked and practiced Pilates for over a decade now. When I began my practice, I noticed the result almost immediately. With consistent practice Pilates has provided me with a strong body from the inside out that moves with ease. I’ve gained more confidence and a deeper interest in all activies that strengthen the mind and body connection!

Practicing Pilates offers a comprehensive workout that tones your body and provides mental and physical benefits. Here are five reasons why I think Pilates can make a significant difference to your workout routine:

5 Reasons Why You Should Do Pilates

• Core Strength: Pilates focuses on deep abdominal and core muscles, giving you a strong foundation for overall stability. Strengthening these muscles enhances balance and leaves you feeling more powerful.

• Flexibility: Pilates is a full-body workout that boosts flexibility and increases your range of motion. By stretching and lengthening muscles, it makes you more agile and less prone to injuries. Because of this I highly recommend incorporating Pilates with any other type of workout regimen!

• Mind-Body Connection: Beyond physical exercise, Pilates is a mindful practice. Controlled movements and conscious breathing create a connection between mind and body, reducing stress and promoting overall well-being.

• All-Inclusive: Suitable for all fitness levels, Pilates can be adapted to individual needs. It's gentle on the joints yet challenging enough for both fitness enthusiasts and beginners. All you need is a mat, and you're good to go!

• Results: Consistency with Pilates brings results – expect improved posture, increased muscle tone, and enhanced overall strength. Pilates sculpts and defines your body without heavy weights or intense workouts.

Pilates is more than a workout; it's a fitness approach for your body and mind. Roll out that mat and start a journey towards a stronger, more flexible, and harmonious you. Your body will thank you!

Happy training,
Emma

Exercises Online – Pilates with Emma Cowan

Do you want to try out Pilates? Here you'll find selected classes and playlists. You will find all our Pilates classes, in both Swedish and English, in the audio and video library.

• Playlists:
  • Pilates Workout Series
  • Pilates Barre
  • Pilates Athlete Series

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Further reading

• With pilates as a passion – get inspired by our team member Emma Cowan
• How does the breath work & benefits of conscious breathing, by Ulrica Norberg
• Exercise for long-term wellbeing - here’s how you get started, by Tanja Djelevic

Att yoga och träna tillsammans med någon har många fördelar. Ni bygger upp en gemenskap, får tillfällen för beröring och ser tillsammans till att träningen faktiskt blir av. Läs mer om paryoga och träning tillsammans med din partner, vän, kollega eller någon annan – här!

En win-win för både hälsan och relationen

Att träna eller yoga tillsammans med någon är verkligen en win-win – ett tillfälle för kvalitetstid som gynnar hälsan på alla plan, när vardagen kanske inte ger utrymme för antingen eller, samtidigt som ni kan kan ni pusha varandra de dagar som känns motigt och se till att träningen blir av. Det ger ett fint tillfälle för gemenskap – vare sig du är tränar med en förälder, kompis, kollegan, barnen eller din käresta.

Det finns många fördelar med att träna och röra på sig tillsammans. En studie som publicerades i Journal of Social and Personal Relationships visade att träna tillsammans med en romantisk partner gav försökspersonerna ett bättre humör under träning (utöver det lyckorus som själva träningen ger), bättre humör under dagen samt att de kände sig mer nöjd med sin relation.

Även industripsykologen Köhlers princip om den svagaste länken visar på fördelarna. Han studie visade att personer i par, eller tre och tre, klarade av att lyfta mer vikt per person om de samarbetade, än om de lyfte ensamma och att den som tidigare lyft minst vikt var den som ökade sin prestation mest.

Fördelar med att yoga och/eller träna tillsammans:

• Ni lär känna varandra bättre och kanske på ett helt nytt plan – en möjlighet att utveckla förhållandet.
• Ökad motivation – peppar och pushar varandra.
• Ni bygger lagkänsla och tränar på att samarbeta.
• Bygger upp självförtroende som partners.
• Ger möjligheter att upptäcka nya hobbys tillsammans.
• Stötta varandra och var en del av varandras framsteg.

Vill du träna eller yoga tillsammans med någon? Hos Yogobe hittar du bland annat klasser med paryoga och SynEnergy – en kombo av yoga och högintensiv träning. Ett annat tips är vår playlist Träna & yoga tillsammans där ni hittar flera klasser i olika träningsformer att testa tillsammans. 

Ett gyllene tillfälle för beröring

Kroppskontakt och beröring är viktigt för vår hälsa, och när vi tränar och rör på oss tillsammans ges många tillfällen för närkontakt. John och Julie Gottman, som vigt sina liv till att forska om kärlek, skriver i sin bok The love prescription att “Beröring är inte bara bra för din relation; det är bra för din fysiska hälsa och livslängd. För oss människor är det lika nödvändigt som vatten, som mat – till och med som luften vi andas.”

Några positiva effekter av beröring:

• Stärker relationer.
• Får oss att känna kärlek och trygghet.
• Minskar stress då hormonet oxytocin frigörs.
• Bidrar till lägre puls- och blodtryck.

Tips på aktiviteter – träning och yoga i par

• Löptur eller promenad – perfekt sätt att få till motion samtidigt som ni kan prata av er och kommer ut i friska luften.
• Växelträna - växla mellan att en av er tränar och den andra vilar och hejjar på – så får ni intervallträning på köpet!
• Paryoga eller acroyoga – paryoga är mysigt och kul samtidigt som det bygger tillit och ger massor av tillfällen för närhet. Acroyoga likaså, men är lite mer utmanade.
• Träna med varandra som vikter – det finns massor av inspiration på sociala medier och roliga och utmanade partner challenges att försöka sig på tillsammans.
• Turas om att bjuda in till träningsdate – prova en ny aktivitet varje gång. Öppnar upp för att prova ny saker, som du kanske aldrig hade vågat testa själv. Ett roligt sätt att få till träning med din partner, barnen, kollegan eller vännerna.

“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it is a comfort to go hand in hand.” – Emily Kimbrough

Klasser online för er som vill yoga och träna tillsammans

• Playlists:
  • Träna & yoga tillsammans – en skön mix av yoga träning & återhämtning.
  • Playtime – Familjeskoj med Angelica Henriksson.

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Lästips

• Hitta träningsglädje och närhet tillsammans, av Julia Liedbergius
• Sex sätt att ta hand om parrelationen i sommar, av Yogobe
• Träna hemma – 6 tips för att komma igång, av Julia Glutz

Källor: psychologytoday.com, svt. se

Do you know that mindfulness and meditation can have positive effects on our mental health? And that we can alter our mood with meditation? Meditation also teaches us something profound that can be very transformative and shift our way of being.

Coping with life's ups and downs through mindfulness

In the news, we hear about global pandemics, conflicts, environmental crises and wars. The stories we read or hear on the news feed our minds with fear and anxiety and we wander away by stressing about the future or dwelling in the past. It’s only human. Yet it's also an evolutionary fact that we tend to focus on the possible threats rather than what’s good and pleasurable in our lives.

We can’t run away from adversity but we can learn to adjust to it by practicing mindfulness and meditation. I experienced this strongly during the hardships of last summer when I had a miscarriage and my partner got a cancer diagnosis.

Mindfulness – the art of observing

Research shows that people are the happiest when they live in the moment. Jon Kabat-Zinn (the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) describes mindfulness as awareness that arises through purposefully paid attention to the present moment, without any judgement.

According to the University of California–Berkeley mindfulness is “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.”

In my experience, the thought of a threat is often more painful than the threat itself. Even in the midst of a health crisis or grieving and loss, when we mindfully bring our awareness to this very moment – which can happen by simply observing our natural breath – we can bring a sense of safety, roundedness and stability into the now, no matter what we're experiencing in our inner landscape or what the outer circumstances are.

Meditation and mental health

Researchers have also found a link between mental health and wellbeing and mindfulness practices like meditation. Studies show that mindfulness and meditation can improve our mental health and that even the people who are not naturally mindful can acquire these benefits through cultivating meditation and mindfulness.

Studies also prove that mindfulness practices, such as meditation, improve attentiveness, emotional stability, compassion, social skills and happiness, even in the face of adversity.

When I talk about meditation I don't mean only sitting meditation but also movement meditation or yin yoga done in meditative way. Explore different meditation techniques and choose the meditation style that resonates with you.

The mental health benefits of meditation

• Develop emotion regulation skills: According to many studies, meditation can develop our emotion regulation skills. Emotion regulation means recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing and regulating our emotions. These skills develop naturally but studies show that we can improve them by practicing mindfulness and meditation.

• We can tame negative feelings: Researchers from Michigan State University have found neural evidence that mindfulness helps to control negative feelings.

• Become calmer: Meditation helps us to stay centered and keep our inner peace and calmness – despite the external circumstances.

• Be aware of what we think and do: Meditation helps us to notice and change harmful thinking and behavioral patterns.

• More positivity and happiness: We can linger in the positive and empowering feelings and emotions with meditation and through that, bring more happiness, hope and meaning into our lives.

• Nothing lasts forever: Last but not least, in my experience the most transformational effect of regular meditation practice – it helps us realize that we are not our social roles, age, feelings, emotions, thoughts or actions. All emotions and thoughts are fleeting, even the most difficult ones. Nothing lasts forever.

In short, we can say that mindfulness and meditation can improve our mental health and that emotional skills are also part of mental health skills.

When we dedicate time to meditation we improve our wellbeing and mental health. In my experience, even 10 minutes of meditation each day can help us to create a significant change to the tone of the day – no matter where you are and what you are going through.

Practical tips for meditation

• Invite an attitude of curiosity. It will help you to sustain your meditation practice when your mind is busy, restless or frustrated.
• Try Metta ”Loving Kindness” meditation to change your negative self–talk. It’s one of my favorites and is suitable for anyone.
• Try mantra meditation to create stability and inner safety. There's a lot of transformational power in words.  Repeat "I am safe" mantra silently to yourself for 5–10 minutes whenever you feel anxious or worried. Imagine that the words are like honey drops melting into your heart space and softening it.
• Explore our online video library and find your favorite style of meditation. Try this playlist to get started.

Further readings about meditation

• Learn more about meditation
• What is metta meditation?
• Mediation as a sacred practice – interview with Elenonora Ramsby Herrera

Meditate with Anna-Mari & others

In the library you can find:

• Meditation with Anna-Mari: All of Anna-Mari's meditations, in Finnish.
• All meditations: All kinds of meditations, in English, Swedish, Finnish & Norwegian.
• Meditation program: Explore Mindfulness

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Up-coming yoga retreats with Anna-Mari

• 27.4–4.5.2023 The Wild Feminine –yoga and movement retreat in Sri Lanka
• 1.2–7.2.2024 Serendipity – yoga retreat for compassion & healing in Sri Lanka

Sources: 

• news.harvard.edu
• berkeley.edu
• medicalnewstoday.com

How can yoga help us to find our way towards restful states and to move our bodies? I will tell you more about yoga’s benefits and what the research says.

Pockets of time where we can catch our breath

Whatever happened to margins, air in the schedule, and our perspectives on tempo? In our modern society, in the chase for efficiency and performance, we quite often find ourselves with packed schedules ready to burst. We seem to somehow have removed the margins, those pockets of time where we can catch our breath and relax. Not only have we built away moments for doing ‘nothing’, moments of physical movement also seem to have gotten lost.

The question I will address here is, how can yoga help us to find our way towards restful states and to move our bodies? I will tell you more about yoga’s benefits and what the research says.

Yoga as a support for physical and mental health (challenges)

Yoga is unique. It is unique in the way that it contains both movement and rest, two things that many of us lack today. This is true from us as individuals, bur also for our society. We have built away getting between places through movement, we have built away the margins in our schedules that would have given us recovery. To mention a few.

Although our health has generally improved over the past 100 years, with increased life expectancy and fewer deaths and infectious diseases, we face other problems. Challenges we face are all the years that we live but with reduced health and function. Today, it is (too) common to be struggling with mental illness such as depression, stress and fatigue, pain e.g. It is easy to think that it does not concern you or me, but most likely you will have already experienced something of the mentioned yourself, or have had someone close to you who has. When challenges like this hit you or your loved ones, it can be very helpful to have wellness and coping strategies at hand.

Fortunately, I think we as communities are starting to realize that many are facing these challenges, and we now know that we can do something about it. But then, what can we do? Yoga might be the answer.

What is yoga?

In order to be able to answer what yoga ’works for’, let's for a moment concretize what we mean by yoga. Even though yoga can take many shapes and forms, within the (medical) scientific landscape, yoga can be described, mainly, as having the following four components:

• Low-intensity form of physical activity
• Relaxation
• Breath
• Meditation

When researchers investigate the reason why we engage in yoga, it is mainly two reasons that come up:

• For wellbeing and to prevent ill-health.
• To take care of pre-existing health problems such as depression, exhaustion, pain, and anxiety.

Reserach shows effects from breathing exercises and meditation

• When you have two minutes to spare:
  Some researchers investigated the effect of slow breathing on a group of yoga beginners. By breathing slowly for two minutes, both blood pressure and the experience of anxiety were lowered. The likely mechanism behind the effect is increased activation of the calming part of the nervous system. Exciting news, as a large percentage of us walk around with high blood pressure, much due to our lifestyles with a lack of physical activity and stress management.

• When you want to sleep better:
  The hours of sleep in the day are your most important restorer. The hormone melatonin is an important regulator in the body to stimulate sleep. Some researchers, therefore, wanted to investigate melatonin levels in connection with meditation. A small group of experienced meditators meditated with different techniques, one group meditated for 30 minutes with one technique and another for 60 minutes with another. The meditation took place at midnight just before melatonin levels are at their peak. Blood samples were taken once an hour to measure levels, between 10 pm and 2 am. Another night the same things were measured but without the meditation to check for any differences in levels. Both groups got increased levels of melatonin the night they meditated. The researchers, therefore, theorized about how this effect can positively affect sleep. Most likely, meditation can be practiced at any time of the day, depending on the effect you want to achieve. So you don't necessarily have to meditate in the morning, or at midnight.

The effects of yoga compared to other physical activity

The calmer components of yoga can thus have a positive effect on things that have a strong connection to our health. However, most research that has been done on yoga involves yoga's physical activity components of some kind.

So how does yoga compare to other physical activity? This is something that is currently being researched intensively. As an example, one of the largest studies conducted on mild and moderate depression was conducted in Sweden, where several hundred participants took part. Three training groups (yoga, and two other cardio training groups) performed their training three times a week for 60 minutes, for a total of 12 weeks. That study showed that yoga produced the same effect as moderate- and high-intensity cardio exercise on lowering the level of depression, in particular compared to usual treatment.

In summary, yoga reminds us to move the body we were given and it can make us aware of how it feels at the moment. Yoga also reminds us to slow down, and pace the outer tempo with our inner tempo.

Yoga in the future

Change is inevitable, but which direction change takes can often be influenced by the actions we and our communities choose to take.

I believe that we have to start to rethink how we construct our schedules in the present moment, and for the future. In politics, at workplaces, at schools, in our residential areas, and at home. Building sustainable practices and communities means bringing back the margins and pockets of space in our schedules to do nothing, as well as for opportunities to move and relax. To create opportunities for yoga. As individuals, we must show that we want change through the choices we make on a daily basis. We must be the role models we want others to be for us. For ourselves, but above all, for others. It is something we can do together. Every small change matter, because it accumulates into something bigger. Our vision about the future begins right now, in this exact moment, through action. I guess next question is: what will your next step be?

Foto: Malin Wittig, copywright Bonnier Fakta (top image)

Playlists and more to read about science and yoga

• Evening routines – how to end your day feeling relaxed
• What i s trauma yoga?
• Yoga och forskning (in Swedish) with Sara Hoy

Videos to get you started

• Playlist: Yoga & Vetenskap (in Swedish), by Sara Hoy
• All videos in our library:
  • Breathing exercises
  • Yoga classes

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Refereces:

• Prevalence and patterns of adult yoga use in the United States: results of a national survey.
• Cardiovascular and Respiratory Effect of Yogic Slow Breathing in the Yoga Beginner: What Is the Best Approach?
• Acute increases in night-time plasma melatonin levels following a period of meditation.
• Training fast or slow? Exercise for depression: A randomized controlled trial.

Curious about the breath, how it works and the benefits of conscious breathing? Here I'll introduce you to the basics and inspire you to start to add breathing techniques into everyday life. 

Conscious breathing as a way to battle stress and tension

A great step to a healthy attitude about stress is to realize our ownership over our brain and learn to engage our brain intentionally to manage the consequences of the fight and flight response.

It is actually very simple for us to learn to intentionally engage the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the relaxation response in our body. The relaxation response returns the body’s resources toward the digestive system but also the brain balance needed to maintain a healthy brain wave. We have the power to educate our own brain to do so intentionally. Once the overstimulated fight and flight response returns under control, the true potential of our brain becomes accessible, our learning ability is enhanced, and our executive reasoning functions become strong again.

Hence, the more we can learn conscious breathing the better. We enhance our quality of life via how we breathe.

About the breath

• The breath is one of only two functions of the body that is both voluntary and involuntary (the other function is blinking). If we can master breath consciously, we can control other functions in the body like heart rate, blood pressure, and breath. Through the breath, we can access the parasympathetic nervous system and activate the relaxation response in the brain, which results in stress reduction for our entire system.

• Most people are not breathing to their fullest capacity, which actually means that the nerve cells do not get fully activated, which chokes the life force in us. Through conscious breathing, we can mindfully generate more oxygen for the body.

• Tightness or stress in the body often creates tightness in the breath. Think of wearing a body suit that is too tight — it is hard to breathe. When your body is tight and tense, you can’t breathe fully. You can be tight in your breathing body just like you are tight in your physical body. Some of this is physical strain impinging on the breath volume; some is an emotional or mental blockage preventing us from breathing fully.

• Our breathing patterns are closely linked to our emotional states. We breathe differently when we are angry, excited, tired or when we are nervous. Yet, it works the other way too. We can calm or energize ourselves by changing our breathing patterns. Even by just taking time out to consciously become more aware of our breath we can help to start to alter our emotions.

What is pranayama?

Pranayama is a form of breath gym. It is where you go when you want to conditions yourself from the inside. In relation to asana practice if you are a yogi, it will enhance the effects of your physical practice. If you exercise, you will not only perform better in the whatever sport or fitness regim you have, it will give you greater focus, concentration and body awareness. You will notice how much better you sleep at night, that your posture has improved and that you are less stressed. Pranayama is a bridge between you and anything. For those of you who meditate, this is the path to help you quiet those disturbing thought and emotional patterns.

When prana, the life force within us in the yogic tradition, is spread evenly throughout the cellular body, compassion and equanimity arise and the fluctuations of the mind cease. This phenomenon can be achieved by cultivating the art of listening intentionally to your breath. To let go of the need to maneuver and control the breath. Pranayama and meditation are acts of letting go. With these practices, you learn how to let go of psychological blockages and attachments. They will over time help you to free yourself from who you think you are and get you in touch with the essence of who you really are.

The practice of pranayama takes us beyond our skeletal, muscular and circulatory systems, even beyond the nervous and endocrine systems. In its essence, this practice aims to attain mastery over the life force itself. And in that pursuit, your body heals, your mind gets strong and focused and your spirit free and happy.

Learn more about the breath – online course with Ulrica Norberg

Join Ulricas online course here at Yogobe – The art of Breathing – where you get to explore the power of the breath and learn how to balance your body and mind through different breathing techniques.

Read more

• Exploring the breath – part 1, by Eleonora Ramsby Herrera
• Exploring the breath – part 2, by Eleonora Ramsby Herrera

Breathing techniques & pranayama online

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Learn how eating according to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can benefit your health! This is our third blog post in the series about vegetarian, healthy food.

Feed your body and wellbeing with TCM

We eat every day, and it is such a beautiful opportunity to do something good for our body, mind and spirit.  When I was studying shiatsu massage – a type of Japanese massage that works with pressure points – I also learned about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Food and herbs have an important place in this tradition. It was so inspiring! To me, it was such a new way to look at food.

While Western medicine focuses mainly on the content of the food – like vitamins, calories and minerals – TCM focuses more on how the food works energetically in the body. We look at how food can support our physical and emotional well-being during varying times of the day, different seasons and even during different phases of our life. It is all about creating balance, harmony and a natural flow.

5 tips from Traditional Chinese Medicine about food

• Keep your stomach nice and warm: In TCM we look at whether foods are more Yang (warming or even hot), neutral, or Yin (cooling or even cold). Our stomach is seen as a little soup pot and our spleen as a fire that heats up the ‘soup’ (food) in our stomach. When the ‘soup’ is nice and warm, we can extract the nutrition well from our stomach, and we also digest and process the foods well. If the ‘soup’ doesn’t warm up well, we can eat a lot, but still lack nutrition.

• Hydrate yourself with ‘wet’ meals and warm water: In TCM, the best way to hydrate is considered through ‘wet’ meals, like warm soups, stews and sauces. This way of hydrating is the most gentle on our stomach. Water in itself, besides being physically cold (if not heated) – is also considered energetically cold. On a summer’s day some more cold water won’t hurt you, but the general advice in TCM is to drink preferably warm or hot water. Coffee and tea are not recommended in large quantities: They are considered medicine due to their strong qualities (and thus be taken in smaller amounts). Their ‘bitter’ nature also makes us dehydrate and pee.

Photo: Elaine Lilje

• Choose the right ingredients – neutral or warming as the base

1. Neutral and warming ingredients are generally those that have a mild and slightly naturally sweet flavor. Think of grains such as rice, oats, wheat and quinoa, but also of mild sweet vegetables, like carrot, pumpkin, beets, cabbage, potatoes, corn.  Proteins that are warm or neutral are eggs, beans, peas, old hard cheese.
2. Cold food: Lettuce, spinach, celery, cucumber, zucchini, pack choy, tomato, eggplant. Basically, lots of leafy greens and also some fruits. Many fruits are cooling or cold: like bananas, melon, pineapple, apples, pears and plums. Eating fruits on a hot day, is therefore a nice way to cool down (not all though, as we'll see later).
3. Hot foods! Think of chocolate, coffee, ginger, chili, raw onions, avocado, lamb, pungent cheeses, garlic and shrimps. Also, certain fruits, like mango, pomegranate, lychee and cherries. It’s important to keep the balance. If you have a tendency to have lots of ‘heat’ and much upward energy – like in the form of headaches, red face, tensions in the upper body, then it can be good to reduce the hot foods. Even more so on a summer’s day, when it’s also hot outside.
4. To a certain extent, we can influence the cooling and warming effect of foods by the way we prepare them. Grilling and drying foods, brings a hot and warm quality. The other way around, making a mango into an ice cream or a smoothie will make its effect on our body colder. In essence, the quality of the ingredient stays the same, but we can nudge them a bit further down the Yin-Yang spectrum.

• Dairy is special in TCM: Think of milk, soft cheeses, yogurt, butter, cream and so on. Most dairy belongs to the cooling foods. But beside being ‘cool’, dairy is said to create a dampness and slime in the body that makes us more slow, it can make us tired, a bit phlegmatic. No worries! TCM doesn’t say not to eat it, but to eat it with the right measure, in smaller amounts. Dairy that is fermented, like kefir and yogurt, are also considered more beneficial.

• Play with Yin and Yang foods and find your way: We are all different. Some of us have a tendency to be more cold and slow, and some of us are more warm and maybe fast. What we eat can help us find a comfortable and happy balance.

Nice summer salad

Well… lots to play with! I hope you enjoyed these insights and principles. I will add a nice summer salad to this recipe that has a beautiful balance between warming and cooling elements, so it’s refreshing, yet nicely supportive to our digestion. Millet salad – with roasted veggies, orange and almonds

Mundekullas Gröna Kök – want to buy Stephanie's book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here

The series about healthy vegetarian food

• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?
• The most important ingredients for creative cooking – love & curiosity!
• Recipe: Panzanella with fennel, orange & plums
• Recipe: Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon

Breathing & yoga online to cool you down

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Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core. Find out more at mundekulla.se

Photographer: Elaine Lilje

How do we sustain inspired and healthy cooking and eating in daily life? It’s not always easy! In this blog post, I'll give you tips and inspiration for healthy, creative, and wholesome eating.

Cooking to let go of the day

Sometimes for me, it helps to see cooking not just as something that needs to be done, but rather as a way to unwind. A moment to let go of the day. Especially when I sat behind the computer for a long time or when I had many meetings with people, cooking could be a beautiful way to calm down. It’s a way to work with all my senses and to be in the moment, enjoying the smells, colors, and warmth.

It requires a little mind shift, but it can really bring a more calm and more enjoyable quality to cooking, especially on busy days. Of course, it helps when we have some practical pillars that can help support this.

Tips for healthy, creative and wholesome everyday eating 

• A good mix of easy and more challenging, creative recipes.
  It’s good to have a whole bunch of easy and fast recipes for daily life, that take under 30-minutes of preparing time. These are the go-to meals on a daily basis: think of vegetable soups, salads with good grains and nuts in them, a simple curry or Indian dal with lentils. We can save the more challenging or time-consuming recipes for weekends and special occasions. You can make the daily recipes more festive by adding some easy but wonderful toppings, like sunflower seeds, sesame, dried cranberries, nuts or fresh herbs.

• Have easy healthy and yummy ingredients and snacks always available.
  Some of my favorite go-to ingredients for easy and good eating, are: canned butterbeans, dried fruits, frozen tempeh by Bärta, hazelnuts and walnuts, frozen green peas, apples, cucumbers, red paprikas, baby spinach and other lettuce, good olive oil. The great thing about many of these ingredients, is that all you have to do is to combine them on a plate, and you are ready to go.

• Make extra’s!
  While you are making a soup, a curry or a salad, just make extra! Then you immediately have a good lunch (or another evening meal) for the next day.

• Food excursions!
  Make the Farmer’s Market, visiting a local farm or buying at REKO-ring (regional networks and markets for local farms) part of a fun (bi-)weekly excursion. This way, you can combine exploring local, healthy and seasonal ingredients, with a nice day out with family or friends.

Photo: Sara Vitale

• Foraging and walks in nature.
  I have a puppy that needs to go on a daily walk. Since I am out every day, I have discovered the amazing amount of edible plants that grow in the Swedish countryside. Not only is it really fun to pick wild plants for eating, it is also very tasty and healthy! So if you love nature walks, I would highly recommend studying edible wild plants, such as berries, herbs, mushrooms, leaves and flowers. Some of my favorites are wild pea (gökärt), sorrel (ängssyra), lingonberries, pine sprouts (granskott), ramson (ramslök), parasol mushroom (stolt fjällskivling), lilac (syren) and dandelion (maskros).

• Grow your own!
  For those of you who love to also work with plants, you can grow your own food! Why only grow decorative plants? There are so many plants that are both beautiful and edible. Only have a window to grow in? Then go for sprouts and herbs. Especially sprouts of mung beans, lentils, and yellow peas are east to grow. If you have a garden, the sky is the limit (and the climate ;)). Lazy gardener? Go for berry bushes, fruit trees, rhubarb and edible weeds. These take care of themselves.

• And… last but not least: Be kind and patient.
  It’s not easy to change eating habits! It takes time to find new ways, discover what works for you. And sometimes that frozen pizza is the best option for you that day. Don’t be discouraged when you don’t get it right every time. You’re on a journey, enjoy the ride!

Recipe – easy, tasty and healthy 

The recipe of the month is one of my favorite and easiest recipes to go to:
Creamy tomato soup with lemongrass and lime leaves! So easy and yet so tasty, as well as delicious. Guaranteed within 30 minutes on the table!

Mundekullas Gröna Kök – want to buy Stephanie's book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here.

Read more: Inspiration & recipes from Stephanie Verstift

• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?
• The most important ingredients for creative cooking – love & curiosity!
• Salutary qualities of cooling foods on a hot summer's day

• Recipe: Panzanella with fennel, orange & plums
• Recipe: Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon
• Recipe: Millet salad – with roasted veggies, orange and almonds

Videos for creativity and healthy living

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Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core. Find out more at mundekulla.se

Photographer: Sara Vitale

This soup has quite a few flavours in common with a Thai red curry, yet it stays mild and doesn’t go ‘all the way’. It is a great soup for a lazy day, as you can put this soup on the table in less than 25 minutes. It is an all-round, affordable and loved by all recipe, and therefore very suitable to make for large groups.

Ingredients

Serves: 3-4

• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 big yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cm fresh ginger, grated
• 0.5 tsp sambal oelek or freshly chopped chili
• 5 lime leaves
• 2 stems of lemongrass, sliced once over the length
• 0.5 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 50 ml tomato paste
• 500 ml canned tomato
• 500 ml water
• 150 ml coconut
• Splash of agave syrup
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Optional: Handful of fresh coriander
• Optional: Bean sprouts, garlic sprouts & sesame

Preparation

• Glaze the onion in sunflower oil in a soup pot on medium heat.
• Once it starts to get some colour, add garlic, ginger, sambal oelek, lemongrass, lime leaves, a little salt and coriander seeds.
• Stir well for about 1-2 minutes and add some extra oil if needed.
• Now add the tomato paste and fry together with the spices for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add water and bring to a boil.
• Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes just with the water to let the flavours truly extract.

• Add the canned tomato and bring to a boil again and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
• To finish, take the soup off the heat and remove the limes and lemongrass.
• Add the coconut cream and blend the soup smooth with a stick blender.
• Add more salt, pepper and sambal oelek to taste.
• If the soup is a bit sour or ‘flat’ add a little splash of agave to make the flavour more rounded.
• It is lovely to garnish with fresh coriander and sprouts.

• Alternative: The soup combines well with chili, limes, ginger, and sesame seeds. Replace the tomato paste and canned tomato with butternut squash for an Asian pumpkin soup. Also, very yummy! For extra protein, you could top the soup with black lentils, cashews, or peanuts.

Mundekullas Gröna Kök – want to buy Stephanie's book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here.

Read more: Inspiration & recipes from Stephanie Verstift

• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?
• The most important ingredients for creative cooking – love & curiosity!
• Salutary qualities of cooling foods on a hot summer's day

• Recipe: Panzanella with fennel, orange & plums
• Recipe: Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon
• Recipe: Millet salad – with roasted veggies, orange and almonds

Yoga online to unwind and relax

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Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core. Find out more at mundekulla.se

Do you want to learn how yoga can help you with trauma and PTSD? Read more here!

What is a trauma?

It is an extraordinarily stressful event that often involves a threat to life or safety, but it can also be caused by situations that left you feeling overwhelmed and isolated, even if it doesn't involve physical harm.

That means that it is not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event.

Trauma can affect your body in different ways

• upsetting emotions
• memories or memory loss
• anxiety that won't go away
• problem with sleep
• tired vs. hypervigilance
• feeling numb
• disconnected
• difficulty trusting other people

Yoga as a support while healing from PTSD

There are studies that show yoga as a more effective treatment for PTSD and trauma than traditional medicine. 

Even if the experience is individual, you see common denominators where unresolved traumatic stress affects the autonomic nervous system and our ability to handle stress. It changes the chemistry and structure of the brain by triggering hormonal changes, increasing the production of adrenaline and cortisol, and reducing neurotransmitters and hormones that make us feel safe and happy. This is where you can go through stages of feeling trapped in your own stressed body. While doing yoga there is a process going on that will help you reown your body, according to psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk. Trauma-informed yoga is an evidenced-based yoga practice that can support people who are suffering from triggers caused by traumatic stress.

“At some point, the story often becomes an alibi. Many traumatized people, tell the same story over and over again. Instead of feeling things very deeply, they go through a recital of misery, which is not the same thing as psychotherapy.” – Bessel van der Kolk.

Trauma-informed yoga online – program in Swedish & English

Yogobe has together with our yoga teachers Heather Mason and Josefin Wikström, created a 6-week program to help you learn more about trauma and PTSD, and how trauma-informed yoga can support you with your trauma reactions in your everyday life.

Who is this program for?
For anyone who has gone through a trauma and is now experiencing PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms, even if you have not yet been diagnosed but recognize a lot of the symptoms within you.

You can also find a 9-week trauma-informed yoga program in Swedish with Josefin Wikström and Eleonora Ramsby Herrera.

Read more about PTSD and trauma

• Om traumaanpassad yoga.
• Traumaanpassad yoga – lindring på vägen med Josefin Wikström.
• Möta sig själv i överväldigande känslor – Del 1: Trauma & PTSD.

Classes & lectures online – trauma-informed yoga

See all classes and lectures in our library: Trauma-informed yoga

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References:

• Bessell van der Kolk:
  • Overcome Trauma With Yoga
  • National institute for the clinical application of behavioral medicine.

Instant happiness on a plate! This salad balances hot and cold and taste wonderful! 

Millet salad & TCM

Millet is a great gluten-free replacement of couscous. In traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), millet is considered a cooling food that nourishes yin in our body (good in summers!) by building fluids and moistening dryness. It clears heat and eliminates toxins from the body. The zucchini and orange also have cooling qualities.

Yet, by roasting some ingredients and adding some warming ingredients like cayenne, paprika, ginger and cinnamon, we have a nice balanced salad that’s refreshing on a summer’s day, yet supportive to our digestive system.

Ingredients

2 servings

• 50 g dry millet
• 200 g carrots, peeled & chunky
• 1 red bell pepper, chunky
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• 1 small onion
• Handful of almonds
• Optional: 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Handful of flat parsley, chopped
• Handful of rocket/rucola

For the dressing:

• 1 orange
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp caraway
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 orange, juiced
• 2 tsp paprika powder
• 1 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Preparation

• Roast the carrots and bell pepper with olive oil and salt in the oven at 220 degrees. Ensure that each vegetable is on its own tray, so they each have their own baking time.
• After 20 minutes, check to see if they are golden, with a little burn here or there. Stir and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees until they are fully roasted.
• Grill the zucchini in a hot grill or frying pan.

• Meanwhile, boil the millet in water with salt until done.
• Strain and rinse the excess starch out. Let the millet cool down.
• Peel and cut 1 orange into equal wedges without the peel. Keep aside for later.
• Squeeze the juice of the other orange into a bowl and whisk into a dressing together with the apple cider vinegar, sunflower oil, caraway, honey, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon and salt.
• Roast the almonds for about 10-15 minutes in the oven at 160 degrees with some sunflower oil, salt and optionally smoked paprika.

• Mix the dressing into the millet and add the vegetables and orange pieces.
• Taste if the salad is juicy and flavorful. Add some more oil, vinegar or salt to taste.
• Garnish with parsley, rocket and the roasted almonds.

Serving:
Very nice on a summer buffet with different salads, a vegetarian grill party or for a picnic in the park. Make sure you store the almonds separately and only add them just before serving. This way, they’ll stay nice and crispy. Combines well with fresh counterparts, like a green salad with butter lettuce, spring onions, herbs and cucumber.

Want to buy Stephanie's book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök, won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here

More recipes and inspiration from Stephanie Verstift

• Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon
• Panzanella with fennel, orange & plums
• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?
• The most important ingredients for creative cooking – love & curiosity!

Yoga classes online to do before the lunch

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Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core. Find out more at mundekulla.se

Photo: Elaine Lilje

Tips and inspiration to prepare a radiating vegetarian Midsummer buffet!

Prepare a beautiful and delicious Midsummer Buffet

To me, a beautiful meal holds a balance between adventure and little surprises on the one hand, while being comforting and harmonious on the other hand. When you eat it, it makes you excited and curious, but it also feels like a warm blanket.

So how to bring this curiosity and care into making a great buffet? Here are a few tips!

• I love working with flavor groups.
  In different parts of the world, certain flavors have been combined for centuries because they are soooooo good together. These classic combinations are really fun to play with. You find three example groups in the illustration, to get an idea. Including of course a Nordic flavor group, to stay in the spirit of midsummer.

• Create a twist!
  Instead of making a traditional meal within the flavor groups, you can take the same ingredients and make something quite different instead! You can use different techniques or be inspired by different types of meals from other places in the world. For example, instead of baked potato, you could make a creamy potato soup topped with chips made from the peels and combined with glazed leeks and fresh herbs. Or a Swedish panzanella: with grilled plums, rye bread, hazelnut and fennel, instead of the Italian panzanella with ciabatta, tomato, paprika and cucumber.

• Align the different recipes.
  For dinners with different courses or a larger buffet, it can be very helpful to use a flavor group as a red thread through the different meals. This way, you can make sure that all dishes are friends and logically fit together. You can also keep in mind the nutrition pyramid we talked about in the first blog post.

• Care and love for the little details.
  Think of who you are cooking for, what kind of occasion it is, maybe even the weather.

• Make recipes in your head!
  When I see all those yummy ingredients listed, I love to imagine different ways I could use and combine them: What recipes could I make with this? What can I add (or take away) to make sure it’s nutritionally complete? (Proteins? Healthy fats? Fresh ingredients?). And: What can I add to make this even more celebrating? (Wooohooo! Bring in those nuts, seeds, berries, fresh herbs, spices, fruits and edible flowers!)

Photo: Elaine Lilje

Get a bit adventurous in the kitchen

Alright! I hope this gave you lots of ‘food for thought’ and starting points for creating a beautiful Midsummer buffet! And as a final inspiration, here are some thought experiments that give a little twist to the traditional Midsummer Table:

• Tomato Strawberry gazpacho (cold soup) topped with tarragon and homemade seed "knäcke".
• Oven baked smashed potatoes and apples with a gremolata of chervil, chives and capers.
• Whole grilled radishes and spring onions with fresh salad and maybe even some wild picked leaves and flowers (like dandelion, kirskål, ängssyra, gökärt)
• Fried and pickled tofu with apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds and dill flowers.
• Pickled eggplant in creamy mustard sauce with dill, spring onion and rye bread.
• Beetroot carpaccio with thick yogurt and a pesto of roasted walnut, garlic and parsley.

Don't miss this month's recipe: Panzanella with fennel, orange & plums.
Wish you all a beautiful month and a joyful Midsummer!

Warm greetings,
Stephanie

Mundekullas Gröna Kök: Want to buy the book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and has 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here!

You can follow Stephanie’s kitchen adventures on Instagram: @stephanie.verstift

More from Stephanies blog series at Yogobe

Next recipe and blog post will be published in July. 

• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?
• Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon

A couple of meditations after the Midsummer Buffet

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Photo: Elaine Lilje

Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core.

Find out more at: mundekulla.se

Get a tasty variation of the classical Italian panzanella – with plums and orange to give it a twist.

Ingredients 

(4 servings)

• 200 g yesterday’s bread, preferably sourdough
• 300 g fennel, thinly sliced
• 1,5 orange, peeled and cut in wedges
• 0,5 orange for juice
• 4 plums, pitted and halved
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 150 g rocket
• Optional: Goat’s cheese or vegan cheese
• Handful of fresh dill
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Handful of hazelnuts

Preparation

• Cut the bread in cubes of 2-3 centimeters. Toss around in a bowl with some olive oil and salt.
• Roast them in the oven at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
• Roast the hazelnuts at 160 degrees, also for 10-15 minutes. Both are ready when golden, allow them then to cool.
• Make a dressing with the juice of half an orange, white wine vinegar, olive oil, pepper and salt. Mix well and add the thinly sliced red onion.
• Put the croutons, fennel and orange in a bowl. Mix in the dressing and let it stand for 10-15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat some oil in a frying pan, grill the plums on their cut side until they are golden.
• Serve the salad with rocket, the plums on top and some drizzles of olive oil.
• Optionally, you could add a creamy mild goat or vegan cheese.

The flavors mix wonderfully as you toss the whole around and let it rest for the bread to soak up the flavors of the juices from the added vegetables and vinegar. Enjoy!

Mundekullas Gröna Kök: Want to buy the book?

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and has 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table. Buy the book here!

More recipes and inspiration from Stephanie Verstift

• Recipe: Lukewarm gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish & tarragon
• The most important ingredients for creative cooking – love & curiosity!
• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?

Next recipe will be published in July!

Meditations to digest and rest

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Photographer: Elaine Lilje

Mundekulla retreat center

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food! Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core.

Find out more at: mundekulla.se

Curious about healthy, sustainable and plant-based foods? Let me guide you through the basics of healthy and sustainable food and give you my best tips for cooking tasty, and healthy, food!

Inspiration to healthy eating

Many of us love to live a life that feels healthy and balanced, with care for ourselves and the environment. That is joyful, inspiring and nourishing to our wellbeing. Food can be such a beautiful way to work with all of that, and at the same time it can sometimes feel challenging too! May this blog series, where you'll get recipes and learn more, be an inspiring contribution to your personal journey and exploration. Whether you are new or seasoned on this topic.

Food that help you to a sustainable and healthy life

What to eat? How to cook for ourselves and others? How to make sure you’re getting all the nutrition you need? For me, when I first started cooking vegetarian and vegan, a whole world of possibilities opened up. While I expected to feel restricted by a more plant-based kitchen, it rather felt like the opposite: it was a doorway to a whole new world of ingredients, flavors and ways of cooking. Did I mess up sometimes during my experiments? Sure! And still do occasionally. Did I discover delicious and sustainable jewels along the way? Oh yes! Majority of the time. Before we dive into more in-depth topics, let’s start with some basics.

Healthy and sustainable foods

• Plant-based meals: Whether you choose vegetarian or vegan, eating more plant-based meals is good for our bodies and for the environment. Filled with minerals, fibers and vitamins.

• Organic ingredients: Grown on healthy land and soil, with limited or no use of pesticides, artificial fertilizers or genetic modification.

• Local and seasonal produce: Working with local and seasonal produce is a great way to reduce transport emissions, support local farmers and eat in line with the season.

• Fair trade: Products that are made with dignity and a better income for the people who produce them. Especially important in certain sectors like cacao, coffee, banana, etc.

• Ecological products: Ecological products can include being organic, however ecological points more towards how the products are produced, processed, and packaged. For example, with recyclable packaging, green energy, no waste policies, and so on.

Photographer: Elaine Lilje

5 tips for creating nourishing and delicious plant-based meals

• Get the full picture.
  For a healthy plant-based meal, look at the full picture of all ingredients. I usually like to take the raw food pyramid as a base (also for cooked foods): Vegetables and greens as the base, grains or starches as the next level, followed by proteins. Then fats and herbs and spices in the top. Don’t forget those healthy fats! They also play an important role. You could think of seeds, avocado or extra virgin olive oil.

• Become friends with plant-based proteins.
  Proteins are important building blocks for our body, and they help us to feel satisfied and full after a meal. Good protein sources are legumes such as beans, lentils and peas. You can also use nuts, almond and seeds. sprouts, tofu, tempeh and quinoa. If you eat vegetarian foods, you can add eggs, thick yogurt and cheese to the list. With ‘becoming friends’ with your ingredients you’ll know better how the ingredient responds, what other ingredients they like and what brings out the best in them.

• Experiment!
  Many of the plant-based proteins are either dried or frozen, and therefore easy to store and use when you feel inspired or when you need them. What happens if you use the ingredients a little differently than before? White beans to make a humus? Tofu in a creamy tomato sauce?

• Discover the wonders of umami.
  Umami is considered the fifth base flavor in the Japanese kitchen and i s often associated with meat, however, there are many ways to bring umami into a plant-based meal. Through ingredients such as fermented vegetables like sauerkraut or kimchi, soy sauce, sun-dried tomato, mushrooms, miso, smoked paprika. But also through cooking techniques like smoking, grilling or making pickles. At best, umami is subtle and well-balanced. It should be used in moderation, same as with a good perfume.

• Be prepared to eat a fantastic meal and also be prepared to fail!
  I love to think up new ideas in my head and then see how they work out in the kitchen. Whether it turned out delicious or not, I learned just as much! A bit of laughter, compassion and curiosity are some of the best ingredients.

Recipes & inspiration

I wish you beautiful cooking! In the blog her at Yogobe you'll also find one of my favorite recipes for early spring: Lukewarm Gnocchi with broccoli, spinach, radish and tarragon. The next part of the series is coming in June – stay tuned!

Book (in Swedish) – Mundekullas Gröna Kök

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and has 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table.

In May, you find a great price for the book – buy it here! 

You can also follow my kitchen adventures on Instagram: @stephanie.verstift

Photographer: Elaine Lilje

Mundekulla – what kind of place is that?

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside, in Sweden. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food!

Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core.

Read more at: mundekulla.se

Meditations to appreciate the food even more

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Photographer: Elaine Lilje

Gnocchi is one of my favorites. The mushy starchy texture is delicious and has more flavor than pasta. You can make me happy with gnocchi any time of day or year! This recipe has spring and summer vibes with lots of fresh greens and roasted radish.

Ingredients

Main dish for 2 persons

• 200 g gnocchi
• 10 radishes, in halves
• Bunch of spring onions, whole
• 100 g green peas (fresh or frozen)
• 1 broccoli, in chunky pieces
• 100 g fresh baby spinach
• Salt and fresh black pepper

Dressing

• Olive oli
• Sea salt
• Zest and a little juice of 2 lemons
• Handful of fresh tarragon, chopped

Preparation:

• Grill the broccoli in a grill or frying pan for 5-10 minutes until golden and a little charred edge here or there. Also grill the radishes and whole spring onions (or add the spring onions thinly sliced).

• Boil the gnocchi and the green peas in water with some salt. Whilst that is cooking combine some olive oil, salt, lots of lemon zest, a tiny splash of lemon juice and freshly chopped tarragon to make a lemony sweet herb dressing.

• Once the gnocchi is ready, combine all the ingredients together. Add the dressing and grind some black pepper over the dish.

• Put on your summer hat, find a nice spot in the sun and get ready to enjoy!

• Tips: Instead of tarragon you can also use flat parsley, dill or chives. A wonderfully tasty and colourful add-on are caramelized or pickled chioggia beets. Instead of gnocchi this dish also works well with pasta or on top of a creamy potato mash with chives.

• Serving: For extra protein you could add a butter bean dip, roasted almonds or a simple salad with beans or sprouts on the side. Vegetarian add-ons could be soft-boiled eggs, parmesan or goat cheese.

Book: Mundekullas Gröna Kök

Mundekullas Gröna Kök won the Gourmand Cookbook Awards 2021 for Best Vegetarian Cookbook in Sweden and Best Hotel Cookbook in the World. The book features more than 70 vegan and vegetarian recipes and has 10 chapters on playing with flavors and textures, how to design and plant-based meal or buffet, the love for cooking farm-to-table.

In May, you'll get to buy the book to a reduced price – buy it here!

Read more from Stephanie and Mundekulla

• Back to Basics – How to eat sustainable, plant-based and delicious?

Yoga classes to enjoy before the lunch/dinner

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Photographer: Elaine Lilje

What is Mundekulla?

Mundekulla is an ecological course and retreat center in the Småland countryside, in Sweden. At Mundekulla, people meet for courses, conferences and festivals, focusing on personal development, mindfulness, creativity, nature and of course beautiful nutritious food!

Since its start over 20 years ago, the center has been built on sustainable principles. With traditional building methods and green energy, as well as with a focus on social justice and promoting various peace projects. The whole idea with Mundekulla is to create and co-create learning, art, music, community and health. The best thing is all the wonderful, meaningful encounters with other people. That's the core. Read more at: mundekulla.se

What exactly is endurance and what does it mean for your body? Endurance and cardio training are connected to different systems in the body, and we train them in different ways – keep up when I sort out the concepts!

The difference between cardio and endurance

Many people think that endurance and condition are the same but this is not true, you also train them in different ways. Endurance is tied to the nervous system and muscles, while cardio training is primarily tied to the heart. A combination of both of them is fantastic for the body – being enduring and having good condition makes you both fast and enduring/tough.

Endurance training is often specific, when for example a cyclist needs to train endurance, they must train close to the branch – ie cycling. So to be persistent in an area, you need to train in the area where the right muscles are trained.

Cardio training, on the other hand, can be trained in different ways and with different exercises, which train the heart and lungs.

Build strength and endurance

When I talk about being strong and enduring, I mainly mean being able to work for a long time without feeling that you run out of energy. When I do strength training or run intervals, I want to be able to perform the entire workout without feeling the need to take a break. For me, this is to be strong and enduring.

Benefits of exercise & movement

• You feel more alert and overall healthy. As the body becomes more relaxed through physical activity, your experience of stress decreases.

• Job, school, yes the whole everyday life usually works better as the ability to concentrate is improved during physical activity.

• Regular loads and shocks improve the skeleton and make it easier for you to stay injury-free, etc.

• The effectiveness of the immune system improves and you become less susceptible to infections.

• I experience that I feel happier and as a better version of myself when I move regularly. Try and find out what it means for you!

Finally, all the movement that is actually done is good. Movement should be fun because then it will be done. Becoming strong and enduring does not happen in one day – it requires continuity of training. Let the process take time and enjoy the journey. I hope you want to try my classes and give yourself a gift of movement!

Exercise online – for endurance in everyday life

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Do you think about the past and the future, more often than being here and now in the present moment? You are not alone! This is how our brains are evolutionarily created. But to be happier, we also need to be more present. Therefore, I will give you five tips on how you can become more present in your everyday life!

Feel better by practicing presence

From an evolutionary perspective, it has benefited us as a species to have a mind that not only focuses on the present, but that also wanders between the past and the future. In this way, we have been able to anticipate dangers and learn from mistakes.

Today we know that the ability to be in the present moment is linked to positive emotions, while living too much in the past or the future creates feelings of for example anxiety, stress and depression. By practicing mindfulness, we can become calmer and feel better.

Tips for more mindfulness and presence in everyday life

• Do not use your mobile phone as an alarm clock. When we start the day with the mobile phone in our hands, it often leads to a reactive behavior. We start to react and act on the flow on social media, the notifications, the email and other inputs we received during the night. Starting the day like this, it is unfortunately easy for us to continue the reactive patterns for the rest of the day.

• Create pleasant morning routines. How we start the day often affects how the rest of our day will be. Try to have some activity in your morning routine where you consciously try to be present with your attention and your senses, for example in the shower, when brushing your teeth or when you drink your morning coffee.

• Do one thing at a time. Doing many things at the same time is impossible, so what we do when we multitask is that we change focus, which makes us inefficient and stressed. Switching between different focuses makes us feel divided and not present in what we do.

• Pay attention to your surroundings or your body. To consciously direct attention to trees, plants or the sky can, according to studies, create a feeling of presence, reverence and space. You can also choose to consciously direct your attention to your body, such as your feet, how it feels to stand or walk, etc.

• Pay attention when you have a nice moment. "Ah now I have a good time." It is easy for the gold nuggets to pass in everyday life without us noticing them. But they are far too precious to pass unnoticed!

Mindfulness program at Yogobe – Explore mindfulness

Want to practice mindfulness more in depth? Join our Explore mindfulness program. Yoga and mindfulness teacher Eleonora Ramsby Herrera guide you through six weeks of different kinds of mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness online to stress down

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How do you stay alert and happy during the dark season? The American psychology researcher Kari Leibowitz traveled to Tromsø in northern Norway to find out how they could be so brisk and not particularly low on energy at all. Here are her best tips!

Mindset for health and well-being during the winter

Kari Leibowitz is a researcher in psychology, studying which mindsets that increase health and well-being. She was interested in how it could be that seasonal depressions were lower than one might have imagined in Tromsø – which is so far north that the sun is never seen from the end of November to the end of January. Kari belongs to Stanford University in California, where many people go to get the chance to see the sun during winter. What was it that made the Norwegians stay alert and happy without fleeing the country?

"Why would we be depressed during the winter" she got as an answer when she asked the residents. She realized that the most important factor was the mindset. Not that you trick yourself into liking winter, but that you actually appreciate the season and all that it entails. Kari's research answers are from her studies between 2014 and 2015, but surely they are just as relevant to us, even here in Sweden?

Why the people of Tromsø feel good in the darkness of winter

• They see the winter as something to appreciate and enjoy, not something to endure. In other words, they have a different perception of the cold weather and dark times than Kari first thought.

• They celebrate the things they can only do in the winter. They cannot wait for the ski season to start.

• Being outside is always good for the mood, and the people of Tromsø continue to get out, regardless of the weather conditions. The old cliché "there is no bad weather just bad clothes" is definitely applicable here.

• The Norwegian word "koselig" (cozy) is a health promoter! Kari saw that peoples' ability to "have the best part of Christmas all the time, but without stress" did well. That is, they lit candles and fires, drank hot drinks and cuddled in soft, comfortable blankets. Kari emphasizes the social aspect of the coziness too. So enjoy cuddling up with your family or friends on the couch watching movies, playing games, talking or enjoying good food.

• Tromsø has several festivals and activities that create a sense of community.

• Finally, Kari was amazed by the fact of how beautiful it could be in the middle of winter. Personally, Kari thought that everyone loved summer the most, but she heard the inhabitants talking about the beauty of nature and she saw it with her own eyes. Appreciating the beauty of the moment became an important key of feeling good even in the darkness.

Social contexts important for well-being

Kari considers that there are other aspects of the culture that may be behind the health benefits, which you may not have in other places that are dark most of the fall and winter. She saw that the small Norwegian municipalities have strong social ties, something that is important for our health regardless of the season. 

This is what we can do today to feel better during the dark season

What Kari brought home to the States, is that it can be difficult to get the same good feeling in the dark part of the year when there are no ski tracks outside the window and when people talk in negative terms about the darkness. When it is dark and grey, and not white of snow and coziness, can we still keep our energy up? We can all find things we appreciate, like taking a walk with a friend, drinking something hot wrapped in a cuddly blanket or if it's snow outside – going out and playing like a child.

It may not look so tempting at first if it is stormy or biting overcast, but put on warm weather-resistant clothes and get out to get fresh air, it makes us more alert. If you have the opportunity to go outside when it is still light, if you do not live in the far north, do so, but otherwise it is good to get out regardless of the circumstances.

The most important of all according to Kari is not to follow the negative spiral of weather talk, but to focus on what makes you feel good.

The text is inspired/facts from Fast Company: "The Norwegian Secret To Enjoying A Long Winter" and Karis' own text on The Atlantic: The Norwegian Town Where the Sun Doesn't Rise

Read more about what makes your mood in balance

• What is metta meditation
• Design your life – create good habits with the help of yoga and meditation, by Emma Öberg
• How to face anxiety and stress this Christmas, by Mona Drar

Stay cozy and energized in the winter – online classes for your wellbeing

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November has a lot to give at Yogobe! All of the courses are on 50 % sale and we have a lot to read about in the blog!

Maintain healthy routines this fall and help yourself feel good

In September and October, we offered routines as a theme to feel good about as well as life hacks that simplify your everyday life. Now we step into a month where we focus a little extra on mental (un)health in general, women's health and how we can keep the energy up as the dark hours increase every day.

In the blog you can read about feel-good hormones – how we can get these up in a completely natural way and how we can awaken our motivation. You'll also read about how you can stay in good mood during the fall and winter – read about the American psychology researcher who went to Tromsø to study how Norwegians keep up the joy of the dark season.

Four tips to get a natural energy boost

• Get out! Fresh air is good, how often have you heard it? So just do it, take a short walk or a longer one and you will probably cope with the rest of the day with a head feeling refreshed. If you manage to get some sun, it's a bonus (serotonin boost).

• Set achievable goals. That feeling you get from checking the to-do list, or the childish rush of coping with something you weren't really sure if it would work, gives you a dopamine boost! Let yourself have a lovely effect of completing important tasks, and – bring out the playfulness and feel the effect of at least getting halfway up a handstand or getting a flicked pancake to fly in the frying pan as if you were a master chef for a while. More fun guaranteed. Be sure to do it with pleasure, not performance and stress!

• Laugh, excersise and do it with good music! Yes, if we want extra endorphins, we can bring three boosters at the same time! Training, laughter and music. For example, you can joke while doing a core exercise. Your friend may think you're super weird, but you'll both get extra stomach training. Well, if it sounds a little too advanced, you can pick one of the stuff. If you only feel performance in training – think about the endorphins instead. Everything's better than nothing. If you are short on time and have the opportunity – take a break five minutes per hour for movement and you will also work or study better afterwards.

• Get cosy! Now we're going to reveal something that the American scientist came up with, the one who went to Norway and wondered how they could be so happy in the dark. One of the ingredients is in the Norwegian "koselig" (cozy). Pet an animal (or a human if you have one who wants to get cuddled with), book a massage or just hang out with people you like! Restorative yoga is also really lovely, hugging the bolster, relaxing and cuddling yourself in blankets, can't it be one of the best autumn activities ever?

News for this month

• Pre- & postnatal pilates – Pilates complete release a new series the 9th of November.

• Heat – heart rate & training joy – on November 3, we release a training program for lovely, powerful energy that challenges your heart rate and strength while at the same time lifting the energy and training joy! A 21-day exercise boost for your physical as well as your mental strength – three weeks is just as long as it is said to create new habits.

All courses on 50 % discount in November-December 

Yes, you read it right! From November 15 to December 20, we have a 50% discount on all online courses! Why not give yourself an early Christmas present, or advent treat, or just reward yourself for something good you've done (for motivation's sake, and the dopamine, which we'll highlight in the blog!) Or give a present to someone you love.

Videos to boost your sense of feel-good and energy

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The app has a lot of new updates that make your usage easier and smarter – curious about what we've done? Read more here!

Cast to the TV and better search function in the Yogobe app

With the help of you, we have created improvements of various kinds in the app. First of all, we want to draw your attention to the fact that you can now cast to the TV on any device (yay!) – so bring your phone or computer and cast the next class ✌️ Unfortunately some of you still can experience some issues related to video streaming and casting, due to changes from our video provider. We work hard on it! Thank you for your patience 🙏.

Other updates in the app

• Slightly redesigned the main search experience

• Added a search feature inside My Library screens so that you can search your favorite sessions/playlists and playlists you created

• Improved the recommendations in My library

• Fixed a bug related to fullscreen video on some devices

• Fixed a few more bugs and optimised the overall app performance

Remember to update the app through the App Store or Google Play – unless it's done automatically through your settings!

Give us feedback for better online training

We want to make your experience with us the best. If you have more feedback about the app, please leave it through the app, or fill out our survey here.

Read more about the app here

• Yogobe launches a new app for Android and iOS

Enjoy new classes from the video library

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Interested in pilates that encourage and challenge you? With joy and strenght, Emma Cowan teaches all-levels practitioners. Learn more about Emma and her pilates classes on Yogobe here!

Fun and challenging pilates classes – from Arizona to Gothenburg

Emma Cowan a Pilates instructor originally from Arizona, USA, now living in Gothenburg with her Swedish partner and a gorgeous amstaff named Snoop.  Emma teaches both private and group classes and runs the Pilates Studio Pilates Complete in Gothenburg. We had a little chat with Emma:

How did you begin practicing pilates?

– I was 19 when my best friend found a pilates course at our community college. The course allowed us to take classes twice a week while studying for a Pilates Matwork certification. I never did anything with that certification, but the course lit a fire in me and led me to work in a high-end Pilates Studio in Manhattan and Redondo Beach, California, as a receptionist.

– When I moved to Sweden in 2014, I found Jasmin and Linda at Pilates Complete. I worked reception and admin for Pilates Complete until I was ready to move on to teaching. I started teaching in 2016. I have received my entire Pilates certification through Stott Pilates at the Stockholm Pilates Center.

What inspires you to continue practicing and teaching pilates?

– Passion! The more I learn about pilates, the body and movement – the more engaged I get with my clients and my own practice. I love learning and expanding my practice.

Is there any difference in how pilates is practiced in the US compared to Sweden?

– Pilates is world renowned and has a huge international community. The foundation is always the same. I think the magic and variations of pilates come from the instructors! The foundation is always the same, but every instructor is different.

– For example - one instructor may be more inclined to lead a more flowy practice while another can choose to have more strength and conditioning. Both classes can be very similar in form but if one instructor has more emphasis on strength and conditioning, while the other focuses on grace and flexibility - you will have two completely different classes.

What can we look forward to in your classes on Yogobe?

– You can look forward to having fun and getting a great workout. I like to lead fun and lighthearted classes. I like to challenge participants while also giving them the space to modify if an exercise is too hard. All levels are welcome, and all levels will be challenged!

See all classes with Emma Cowan here!

Pilates classes online with Emma Cowan

• Playlist: Pilates Barre
• Playlist: Pilates Workout Series
• Playlist: Pilates with a resistance band

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Further reading

• Find your inner motivation, by Satu Tuomela
• Exercise for long-term wellbeing - here’s how you get started, by Tanja Djelevic
• Design your life – create good habits with the help of yoga and meditation, by Emma Öberg