Jag har flyttat!

Hej på er!

Den här platsen i cyberrymden har varit min länge. Jag har bytt namn några gånger på bloggen men adressen har varit densamma. Men nu har jag flyttat och jag hoppas att ni vill följa med mig dit :) Mitt nya tillhåll finns numera på jessicaisegran.com.

Ni hittar allt under samma tak: min hemsida och min blog. Jag har även, tillsammans med Jenny Larsson startat en podcast: The Game Changers Podcast där det övergripande temat är en hållbar kropp, själ och planet. Du hittar den där du hittar dina andra favoritpoddar! Om den inte dyker upp i din sökning så testa att söka på 'Jessica Isegran'.

På JessicaIsegran.com hittar du också numera de tjänster jag erbjuder i form av privatlektioner i Yoga och Meditation. Jag coachar dig även om du vill äta mer växtbaserat i ditt liv! Jag erbjuder också retreats, vi har ett nu på fredag och nästa retreat är 12-14 oktober. Du hittar all info på JessicaIsegran.com .
Vill du komma direkt till bloggen hittar du den här.

Till sist vill jag säga ett varmt TACK till alla som har följt mig här genom åren. Jag hoppas att ni följer med och skriv gärna en kommentar på nya bloggen så vet jag att ni hittat dit :)

Do I want to live alone?

Do I want to live alone?

Are you like me? A person who crave time totally alone from time to time to thrive? A person who loves your family and struggle within because you almost die because of lack of time on your own?

I think this is an issue really important to address. This has nothing to do with the people around you. This is a part of your personality.

Firstly, drop the guilt part. This is who you are. There is nothing wrong with this personality trait. On the contrary, I believe it is very important to accept and honor this part of ourselves. To explore it deeper, to really go within and curiosly watch it. Because if you shut it down you will probably become frustrated without knowing what's wrong with you.

Involve the people around you. Explain to your partner, friends and family how important this is to you. How much you love them but how important it is for you to have your space. I once talked to a couples counselor and she sad that one of the hardest things in relationships is to express our own needs. But when we don't express our needs we will most certainly be unhappy.  Some of us will be bitter, others angry or frustrated. And honestly, is that the person you want to be in a relationship? Isn't it better to be honest and express your needs and desires? Expressing our needs and desires doesn't mean that we always can fulfill them. But if we never express them we will certainly never fulfill them.

When I was a child I witnessed myself 'leaving' my girlfriends because I felt suffocated when they wanted to spend all their time with me. Instead of telling how I felt I cut the bond and ran away.

There is an accepted idea around that men need time on their own but women don't. That women wish to be taken care of. That misunderstanding can create problems in a relationship. I know that I'm not the only woman who feels that she is desperatly longing for time on her own. To recharge. To be able to give again. Especially when she has become a mother. Because honestly, if we never recharge we will  not be able to give.

And another important thing to be aware of is that this need for time on your own might trick you into believing that you shouldn't be in a relationship. This thought has crosssed my mind. What is wrong with me? Who wants to be away from her partner if she loves him? But these two things have nothing to do with eachother. It is totally possible to want time on your own when you are a part of a family. To nurture yourself. To fullfill your own needs for a while. Not everybody elses.

And if you are the partner of a person who craves time on her own? The wisest thing is to give him or her that. Because the more you attach yourself to your partner, wanting for her to spend more time with you the less she will enjoy your company. But if you provide her with as much space that she needs she will bounce back to you. And yes, this might sound scary. What if I let go and he or she doesn't come back? I want to spend more time with my partner, not less. This letting go scares me! Well to you I would love to say, give it a try. Give him or her the space. Be clear in your communication. Okey, I will give you some time on your own. How much do you need? How can I support your needs?  If this doesn't work you can always go back to the old way but unless you try you will never know, right?

So the answer to the question is: I do not want to live alone. I thrive in relations but I need my space within.

I hope this will encourage everybody out there to respect and honor your needs.

Morning Pages.

I feel I need to share about morning pages. Morning Pages was created by Julia Cameron and you can read about it in her book "The Artist's Way". I first heard about morning pages on the Rich Roll Podcast a couple of years ago. I bought the book and started doing morning pages. At that time I dealt with lots of anger so it was perfect to let that out and release it from my system. For some reason I didn't continue but a couple of weeks ago I opened the book again and got inspired and added morning pages to my morning routine.

So what is morning pages? It is a super simple tool to find out what you want to do with your life. Or boost your creativity or release emotions you are holding on to that no longer serves you. I believe it is multi-functional. All you need is some papers and a pen and then you start writing 3 pages the first thing you do in the morning. And at first you may not know what to write. Then just write: "I have no idea what to write, I'm sitting here with theese empty pages and a pen and my usually active mind is just quiet". The thing is to just start writing, whatever crosses your mind. Don't censor yourself, don't judge yourself. Don't show these writings to anybody. It is even not recommended for us to read them ourselves the first couple of months. The goal is to listen to ourselves without judgement. Just let the words flow out and dance on the paper. Some mornings I feel so creative I just can't finish after three pages so I just continue.

They are called morning pages for a reason. The morning is the best time to start writing because your chatting mind hasn't started going nuts yet. That makes it easier to find out what's really hidden inside and needs to come out.

I use a beautiful notebook for my pages. To me that is a way of showing respect for this process. But any notebook will work. The most important thing is to start writing! Keep it simple!

What I eat in a day.

Sometimes people ask me how much fruit I eat during a day. The answer is, of course, that it depends on how hungry I am and how active I am.

At the moment I start my day with a glass of water with some fresh lemon juice. After that I juice a whole bunch of celery stalks.

After this routine I make my breakfast smoothie. It often consists of:

• 5 bananas
• About a cup of frozen berries 
• Some sort of leafy greens. I rotate. I can use kale, spinach, romain or some other lettuce.
• 1 tsp of barley grass powder
• I often vary between nettle powder, rose hip powder, mesquite powder and raw cacao. I let my intuition guide me here.
• And water

For lunch I always have smoothies during the week. They are similar to the breakfast smoothie but I might add some more bananas or dates or hemp seeds or add some other fruit like pears to make it higher in calories. And if I have spinach for example in the breakfast smoothie I try to have some other greens in the lunch smoothie. 

When mangoes or persimmons are in season I might exchange one of the smoothie meals with whole fruit. During the summer I often have water melon for breakfast. 

I love having whole fruit but it's easier to bring a bottle of smoothie to work. At least that's how I see it. 

In the afternoon I often snack on grapes, oranges or dates. And some leafy greens.

For dinner I enjoy eating the same as the rest of the family so then I eat a plant based cooked dinner. Unless I'm feeling a cold is coming then I switch to fully raw until my body is feeling ok again. In this way I rarely get ill these days. 

This is a cauliflower curry I cooked the other day which is a typical dinner for me.

Throughout the day I try to drink about 2 litres of water. 

I hope this gives you a clearer picture of how I eat and hopefully it inspires you to perhaps replace one of your meals in the day to a healthier one. 

Vegan cookbooks I recommend.

I got the question what vegan cookbooks I recommend and here are some of my favourites:

"Maten är min medicin" by Janesh Vaidya. This book is actually vegetarian but it's super easy to modify the recipes to be vegan.
"VÅR KOKBOK vegan"
"Vego Hela dagen " by Mattias Krisstiansson.

The first three ones are Swedish. The "VÅR KOKBOK vegan" is not the fanciest looking and not filled with beautiful pictures of the dishes but the recipes tastes sooo goood! I highly recommend it and please don't let it down because of the not so fancy design. It contains one of the favourite recipes in our family.

The book "Vego hela dagen" is actually for teenagers but I think it's a perfect source for day-to-day recipes. They are simple and delicious and contains a beluga bolognese that we often cook in our family.

These too I recommend for my international readers. They are sooo beautiful and inspiring. "This cheese is nuts" is a book on how to make vegan cheeses and the warm cheese sauce to put on your home baked pizza that you find in this book is a go-to in this family.

My final tip is actually not a book but a Swedish Magazine. It's incredible inspiring and I recommend anyone who is curious to try the vegan diet to buy this magazine and start cooking!

Sprouting time again!

I missed having my sprouts yesterday so I took some alfalfa and broccoli seeds and put them in bowls to soak over night.

This morning I rinsed them well and put them in the sprouting box:

From now on I rinse them twice a day and in three to four days we can enjoy fresh sprouts! 
Do you sprout to? What are your favourite sprouts?

Back on Facebook again.

Yesterday I posted on my Facebook page again. It has almost been 4 years ago since I last posted! I realize how much I miss the beautiful community there. I'm not very active on Facebook myself anymore, I'm hanging around on Instagram instead but I miss the questions and the interactivity that I used to have on my Facebook page. I love to get some response otherwise it feels like I'm not talking to anybody.

We had a very sunny morning here today and even the cats enjoyed the sun. I started with a celery juice:

After that I had a fruit, berry and greens smoothie.

For lunch we enjoyed chickpeas and spinach served with rice.