4 Natural Ways to Protect Your Skin From Sun Damage

By Liz Lindh

I live at a Yoga Retreat and Teacher Training Wellness Center in Costa Rica. Yes, it is amazing. I am exposed to the sun all day, nearly every day, all year long and I love it. I’m not very tan though. I have never been a sun worshiper, I have naturally light skin so I have learned over the years how to protect myself from the sun with out cramping my style or my enjoyment of the great outdoors. When it comes to caring for my skin, I know that what I put into my body is just as important as what I put on my body. I believe in natural, non-toxic products and have not found any sunblocks that I love to use. As an alternative putting commercial sunblock on my skin everyday (did you know that 80% of what you put onto your skin is directly absorbed into your body?) I incorporate these simple techniques into my daily routine to protect, nourish and hydrate my skin while keeping it soft, supple, healthy and beautiful.

Eat lots of Anti-Oxidants

Anti-Oxidants actually repair and strengthen your DNA. The harmful ultra-violet rays of the sun will damage and mutate the DNA of your skin. This can lead to cancer, even if you have dark skin or tan easily. Anti-oxidants are found in brightly colored berries, fruits and veggies. The more colors you eat every day, the better. 

Carrot beet juice is a skin superfood packed full of anti-oxidants. Carrots contain beta-carotene which gives the skin a gorgeous golden hue, and the red pigment in beets, betalain, gives the skin a healthy rosy glow. Drink a glass of fresh carrot beet juice every day for a subtle self-tanning effect.

If you spend a lot of time in the sun, consider taking an anti-oxidant supplement of vitamins A, C, E, selenium and zinc to be sure you have enough nutrients to heal your DNA by quenching those nasty free-radicals.

Stay Covered

 I don’t go anywhere with out my sunglasses and a hat on. Make sure your shades have good lenses, it is worth the extra money. Larger frames cover more area and offer more protection. You won’t find yourself squinting in the sunlight, so you will prevent unnecessary wrinkles from developing around your eyes and forehead, and the tinted lens will block sun damage to the delicate skin around your eyes.

A hat allows you to bring the shade with you. Hats come in all shapes and sizes. I dare to say that there is a hat for every occasion. Find one, or start a collection, to complement your personality and style, and wear it whenever you are outside.

I love sitting on the beach in my bikini, it feels so great to expose my skin to the fresh air. I always seek the shade, though. Bring an umbrella to the beach and use a parasol when you go out on walks. If you know that that isn’t an option, wear light cotton clothing, a sarong or a long sleeved rash guard to cover up. 

Avoid the mid-day sun. The sun is at it’s strongest between 10am and 2pm, it is a must to stay covered during the peak of the day. I don’t worry about it before 8am and after 4pm, even in Costa Rica I can be out in the sun during those times to replenish my Vitamin D supply without getting a burn. 

Use Coconut Oil 

Coconut oil is food for the skin. It nourishes and repairs the tissue on a cellular level, fortifying the cell membranes and organelles. 

I slather myself with organic coconut oil at night before bed and in the morning before I get dressed. I even re-apply if I am at the beach. It protects my skin when I am swimming in the ocean and acts as an SPF of somewhere around 6.

Do not lather up with coconut oil and then sun bathe. If you tend to burn, you will burn even more. If you tend to tan, you will get a deeper, more golden tan, but deep tans cause wrinkles, sagging, discoloration and DNA mutation...not sexy.  The sun will weaken the collagen and elastin fibers that maintain the structure and firmness of your skin. Wrinkles and sagging aren’t the end of the world, but even darker skinned folks are at risk for melanoma. Remember how strong the sun is and the wear and tear it causes on cars, boats and fabrics!

If You Can’t Avoid the Sun, use a Mineral Based, Non-Toxic Sunscreen

There are times when it is necessary to wear sunblock. If you are an athlete, on a boat or in any

situation where there is no way around it, than find a product you like and use it. There are many products on the market today that are mineral based and offer amazing sun protection. Mineral based products create a physical barrier of protection between your skin and the sun and are generally non-toxic. I recommend the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit public health organization, as a great source to refer to for researching your products. They even have a mobile app you can use when you are out shopping. Educate yourself and make informed choices about the products you use. Make sure you aren’t coating yourself in poison on a regular basis if you have other options.

When you join us on a yoga retreat or yoga teacher training certification program at The Sanctuary at Two Rivers in tropical Costa Rica, keep in mind that the sun here is probably much stronger than what you are used to. Enjoy the sun in a healthy way. Spend time outside, love your body, respect Nature and take good care of your skin now, no mater your age. I promise, you will thank yourself someday.

Relaxation Makes Life Amazing...Here's Why

Relaxation Makes Life Amazing...Here's Why

By Liz Lindh

In order to live a rich and meaningful life, to be fully alive, aware and happy, we need to relax and recharge...to tap into the fertile place where inspiration, connection and sustainable energy come from. 

True relaxation is more than sitting back and watching tv, surfing the web or having a cocktail. Relaxation is a psychosomatic phenomenon of integration. Relaxation shifts the way your brain works, improves the way your body functions and evokes positive feelings with no adverse side effects, absolutely no down side. To relax is to rejuvenate on all levels.

Relaxation can happen anywhere at any time. Relaxing resets the nervous system so that you function in an optimal way. The more you really relax, the better you will look and feel, you will be efficient and effective at work and more present in your relationships. You will have greater access to insight, intuition and imagination.

So how do you relax? Here are 4 techniques that work for me...

• Begin where you are. Begin now. Without judgement, without analyzing, without excuses. Close your eyes. Inhale deeply as you count from 1 to 8, exhale completely as you count backwards from 8 to 1. Repeat as often as you like. It's that easy.
  

• Get outside. Take a walk. Enjoy the fresh air. Be quiet in Nature.

• Treat your self to a massage, acupuncture or some other type of bodywork. The healing power of touch will restore you.

• Go on a retreat. Dedicate a weekend, a week, even a month to simply being instead of constantly doing.

Nourish yourself with relaxation. Make it a priority. Soften into the present moment, create a little space for your Self and expand your concept of reality.  You will be amazed...you will be amazing.

Costa Rica Yoga Retreat Featured Teacher - Jessica Proulx

Exciting news Yogis! We have our first guest blogger this week, Jessica Proulx! Jessica is hosting a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training with us this August 3-23. Read about her deeply transformational experience on retreat at The Sanctuary at Two Rivers.

That Moment 

by Jessica Proulx

There is a particular moment that you miss as a practiced yogi. When you spend years peeling back the layers, moving, meditating, discovering, and learning, you miss that moment in savasana of utter release. You miss the choked up feeling, that lone tear that runs down your cheek at a song lyric or a flutter in your chest when you really and truly take a deep breath.  There are times when you first start to practice and delve deeper and deeper that you are shocked by the things that come up for you- and even more by the way in which they come up. I am someone that doesn’t like to cry in public, that will choke back a tear and try my best to be strong, and yet in yoga, I was always able to just be ME;  to let whatever comes up come up for me. If ya can’t feel it ya can’t heal it, and in my practice I never shied away. 

In recent years, the deeper I got into my practice the less and less I had those moments. A good thing I thought, I have let those layers go, but there were times I was almost envious of the teary eyed yogi next to me putting her shoes on after a practice of sheer emotional release. My practice changed in a great way. I instead had practices of being so present that nothing could come up for me because the moment was perfect. Times where savasana ended, and I knew, and I continued to lay there because the bliss of the moment was too beautiful to pass up. The practice was different and wonderful and yet I still missed “that moment”.

 And then…The Sanctuary. The journey started as I walked down a short path to the river’s edge. The moment my toes touched the water- THAT MOMENT happened. A flutter in my chest, my face warmed, my eyes widened, my lip quivered, a tear and my practice there began. During my first class teaching, I laid in savasana (abnormal for me while teaching) with my eyes wide open. This was a moment unlike I had ever experienced. I was lying on this expansive yoga pagoda that felt like it was floating in space in the middle of the jungle. I could see and hear monkeys and birds and there were so many shades of green I couldn’t imagine being able to name or count them. That night in child’s pose, I cried. The first tears of release and joy I had cried in recent memory. On a day off, my co-teacher and friend Jimmy and I went to lunch at a beach side restaurant- both in tears for half the meal. As I was teaching a class, I let it all go and broke down, something I would have never allowed to happen at my home studio. I cried in gratitude, I cried in acceptance of myself and my countless perceived flaws, I fell in love with myself and with my students, with my fellow teachers, with the staff at the Sanctuary, with the land, with the water, with the people of Costa Rica… I FELL IN LOVE.

I was unsure if that moment would ever come back to me, and in the Costa Rican jungle I found it in everything I did, every bit of food I ate, every yoga pose, every breath, every hug, everything. I did and saw and accomplished and achieved so many things while I was there- but “that moment”- that was the best part!

For more info about Jessica, visit her website www.noplacelikeomcenter.com

The Yoga of Positive Change

by Liz Lindh

Yoga is a process of de-conditioning, of breaking down the unnecessary on a physical, mental and emotional level, to create space for true understanding.  All of us are born into families and cultures with certain habits and traditions. These habits and traditions create the lens through which we perceive our life experience. Sometimes these ideas about the way the world works are beneficial to our growth but more often they limit, restrict and hold us back. 

In yogic philosophy, we call these notions samskara. Samskara are mental impressions that result from past actions (karmas). They are unconscious reactions and inclinations that override our intuition and ability to act mindfully.  Samskaras distort our perception and cloud our ability to comprehend our own true essence and the pure nature of reality.

Each of us has our own personal collection of samskaras that we have been accumulating from the moment of our birth right up to this precise point in time. They are inherited from our ancestors and carried over from past lifetimes. Every thought and every action (conscious or not) creates a vibration which we subconsciously store as samskara. Our thoughts form the ideas that are the framework of our reality. That which we focus upon becomes stronger. Tendencies and beliefs will remain as they are until we shed some objective awareness on them. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things that our thoughts and belief systems cannot change, and there will always be things that are beyond our control. We can, however, control our relationship with what is. The sun will rise and set every day, it will rain, it will snow, there will be earthquakes and hurricanes, people will cut you off in traffic, take your parking spot and loose your luggage. How you handle it is up to you. You can change your mind at any time. 

The way that we move (or don’t move) our bodies on the yoga mat is a metaphor for how we move through life. What do you believe is possible?  Are you present?  What are you judging? Where are you restricted? What are you resisting? What are you thinking about the other people in the room? Are you acting or reacting?

Your yoga practice is an amazing tool for taking a good, honest look at yourself and observing the vibe you have created, the world that you live in. It is an opportunity to notice what patterns and attachments are actually working for you and what needs to shift. Your practice (on and off the mat) is the laboratory in which to recognize, question and change certain samskaras. Simply and deeply believing that you are strong, kind,  resilient, worthy and amazing will change your life. Giving yourself and others permission to fall and permission to soar is liberating. Make peace with the resistance by accepting the things you cannot change and make the best of them. As new beliefs and habits become established, the old ones get weaker. This is called growth and evolution.

Growth and evolution are seldom pretty, but why do things have to be pretty? The idea that life requires attractive packaging is an example of a cultural samskara that is completely fiction and detracts from the richness of life itself. Fall down, fall apart, get messy. Listen to the wise ones but question everything. This is how to discover the authentic truth as it presently exists and to create positive change in your own life. As Rumi says, “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you, don’t go back to sleep.”

Join us at The Sanctuary at Two Rivers for any Yoga Retreat or Yoga Teacher Training Certification Program to re-evaluate your habits and patterns. You will return home as a more vibrant, aware and alive version of yourself!