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Last month, we shared some of the highlights from this year’s Yoga Calm Summer Intensive, which included our rave review of the food provided by Kristin and Thomas at Still Meadow Retreat. And we promised to share one of our favorite treats from this year’s menu, Thomas’s low-gluten chocolate cake. For not only is it delicious but, as we wrote earlier this year, summer treats don’t need to be unhealthy. Instead of just saying, “No,” we can provide healthier alternatives and, in this way, be good role models for the children in our lives, showing how making healthy choices can be enjoyable.
With this recipe, those of you who were at this year’s retreat can relive memories, while those who weren’t can get a taste – literally and figuratively – of what you missed out on! (There’s always next year!)
Still Meadow Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup sugar (date sugar or maple crystals)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups rice milk
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl.
- Whip together all wet ingredients separately.
- Mix together dry and wet ingredients.
- Pour the well-blended mixture into 2 greased 9″ pans or each greased or lined mold of 1 cupcake pan.
- Bake 30 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Image by orchidgalore/Flickr
The week of our Summer Intensive – an annual event encompassing all three of the basic Yoga Calm workshops – is our favorite week of the year. Not only to we get to spend time at the beautiful Still Meadow Retreat, but we get to meet and share our life’s work with interesting people from all over the world. All of us come together for one fundamental reason: We care about children and want to give them the tools to be successful and happy in their lives.
While the challenges to children’s health and well-being are significant, we find strength and inspiration from our growing Yoga Calm community. Knowing that there are so many talented and passionate professionals working together gives us hope. And that’s the real gift of our Summer Intensive – finding that we are not alone in our belief that we can create a positive future for our children and ourselves – a future that includes joy, love and beauty. The week at Still Meadow helps us to remember that. Here are a few of the highlights from this summer’s event.
Restoring with Yoga
Daily yoga classes with YogaJim – plus our Yoga Calm workshop sessions – helped participants heal from past injuries, develop new skills and strengths and rest and restore themselves. Here’s what a few of them said:
- “The training was nothing short of amazing. I had a very powerful mental, emotional, and physical shift in my body – very grounding, centering and healing.” – Desiree Gruber, Children’s Yoga Instructor
- “I want to thank you both for a most wonderful experience. [I] had no idea how great the experience was and how quickly the week went by. There is much that I can bring to our clinic as well as the yoga classes I teach. I really did not look forward to leaving. It was so peaceful to be there.” – Tess Kerzner, LMSW, LMHC
- “When I read the flier on Yoga Calm, I decided [that] I really wanted to see what this was all about. I have struggled with group ideas and how to truly involve the middle school students. I want to especially reach the students who on a daily basis cannot focus or organize themselves. I thought this workshop [could] be the answer for what I have been looking for in my practice. I was excited about the experience and it was much more than I expected. I believe that I left there a stronger person physically, emotionally, and professionally. I love the curriculum and came back and read the book from cover to cover. I find my mind exploring the possibilities of the different ways that I can implement this in my school. I am confident that the students who are involved in Yoga Calm will not only benefit from the classes but will develop skills that will be life-long. – Sandra Luecke, Middle School Counselor
Dancing with Lynea
Accompanied by Jim’s percussion ensemble, Lynea got everyone moving with her infectious African Dance class on Thursday night.
Time to Relax
We always include one “rest” day during our summer retreats – part to provide the opportunity for relaxation and processing all we’ve covered over the first few days, but also to take advantage of Oregon’s spectacular environment. Some took the opportunity to hike the old growth forest surrounding Still Meadow. Others headed to the beach.
Some paid visits to the nearby lavender farm or Columbia Gorge waterfalls.
Pretty active “rest” if you ask me!
Eating with Impunity!
With all the yoga and dancing and hiking, we all could certainly afford to have second helpings of the amazing food Kristin and Thomas made for us. (Be sure to check back here for future posts that will include some of our favorite of their recipes – including Thomas’s incredible gluten-free chocolate-raspberry cake! Yum!)
Add to that many enjoyable evenings telling sharing stories and singing songs around the campfire, massage and other health services from Tommy and Leslie, and the general atmosphere of camaraderie as we all got to know each other – all this made for a most memorable week.
In fact, we’re already looking forward to next year – and we hope to see you there. So save the dates: June 25 – July 1, 2011. We’ll be posting the Yoga Calm Summer Intensive 2011 event and registration info on the main Yoga Calm site as we have it available.
Image credits: Alan Vernon., (^_^)wellwin via Flickr.
It never ceases to amaze us, the many talented and passionate educators we meet each year during our Summer Intensive. They come from all over – Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington and Oregon – yet all share a similar commitment to children’s growth and an interest in rekindling their love of teaching.
This year, we met at Still Meadow a beautiful retreat on the Clackamas river in rural Oregon.
Still Meadow Retreat, we believe, is the perfect environment for learning, with inspiring architecture, beautiful landscapes and incredible food.
Ah, yes the food.
For many of us educators, who often have only a few minutes to eat during the school year, a 90 minute gourmet lunch is a delicious indulgence. It’s a great time to appreciate the blessings of summer’s bounty and to actually have a moment or two to digest our food. And as we all know, a leisurely meal is ultimately more satiating and satisfying than one that is mindlessly gobbled and gulped.
We believe the same holds true for teaching. Unlike traditional approaches to teaching, in which the aim seems to be to cram as much information as possible into the minds of learners, our method is rooted in the belief that we all need time to integrate new knowledge. So, for instance, we sequence cognitive learning between physical activity and a relaxation processes. The physical yoga oxygenates and activates the brain, preparing it to learn, just as tilling soil prepares a garden to grow the seeds that will be planted in it. After cognitive learning, we use relaxation stories rich in imagery and metaphor to reinforce key concepts and themes, while also providing the space and time to integrate what we have learned. It’s an effective approach that meets our needs on many levels, witnessed by workshop participants who report over and over again that they can’t believe how much they learned, yet feel refreshed and replenished.
Our teaching method also provides a model for participants to use back in their own classrooms. They learn to create calm and supportive environments for all learners as well as experience new, fun and engaging tools that maximizes students’ opportunities for academic, emotional and social growth – nurturing their students and themselves in the process.
