Kindness Kitchen Journey
How we choose our food is one of the biggest ways to positively affect Climate Change and help the planet and our bodies heal and stay well. This is a privilege we can use wisely, stating our values of conscious and caring choice.
I have always been deeply connected to nature, open spaces, and the simple joys of silent sitting—especially when soaking in hot springs. And, of course, I have an enduring love for delicious, wholesome food that nourishes both body and planet. My approach to food is a balance of cooked and raw, mostly plant-based meals, infused with vibrant flavors and thoughtful sourcing.
I’m not a nutritionist, nor an extremist. Instead, I strive to walk the middle path of balance, recognizing that finding what truly works for you is a journey of simplicity, self-discovery, and mindful choices. My culinary journey has been largely self-taught, enriched by training and inspiration from different food traditions and cultures. As Michael Pollan famously says, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” That simple wisdom has shaped the way I guide others. I hope to inspire you to become an explorer of your own well-being, to make choices that nourish both you and the world around us, and to witness the incredible ripple effects that mindful living can create.
I look forward to sharing more with you!
Warmly, Alaya
Zoom and In-Person Retreat
Mindful Eating and Nourishing Practices
Transform Your Relationship with Food and the Earth
This nurturing program invites you to gracefully transition away from foods and beverages that challenge your body, mind, and our planet's wellbeing. Together, we'll explore and cultivate supportive practices that deepen your presence and enhance your ability to meet life's joys and challenges while caring for our Earth in simple yet empowering ways.
In a world where it's not always clear how to address immense suffering, our food choices and loving presence offer concrete, immediate opportunities to alleviate harm and reduce toxic impact on our shared home.
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This will be a loving, non-judgmental space to explore the internal and societal beliefs, biases, habits, conditioning, and emotional attachments that shape our food choices. We'll gently investigate what it might look like to shift these patterns in service of our health and the wellbeing of all life on this precious planet. We will also be exploring other ways of nourishment through mindfulness, meditation and movement; expanding our creativity and peace.
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The 4 Principles of Rites of Passage Ceremony
The Wisdom of the Five Elements
Buddhist Teachings of the 4 Nutriments and 4 Foundations of Mindfulness
Guided & Silent Meditation and Movement Meditation
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Gentle Cleanse and Food Reset for a more vital body and clear mind. Create new healthy habits!
Discovering what foods work for you through gentle elimination, healthy additions and curiously mindful reintegration for deeper listening and embodied presence!
Easy and Diverse Meal Plan to follow! Easy to follow Recipes! Discover the joy of creative food preparation!
Hydrate and Celebrate! Learn to make fulfilling drinks and elixirs with no caffeine or alcohol!
Activism through Conscious Shopping and Food Choices makes for a happy planet and heart!
Learn how to Stock your Kitchen for successful self care and bulk buying to reduce your impact on the planet and pocketbook.
Learn Mindfulness Practices and Deep Inquiry to support present moment awareness, work with attachment and cravings, inspire curiosity and deep listening skills to meet yourself and the mystery with more grace.
Expanding Nourishment with Guided Meditation *Conscious Movement *Breathwork *Silent Sitting *Medicine Walks, are a few of the body-based practices we will explore to cultivate a wider spectrum of fulfillment.
Exploring what inspires you and makes your heart sing and your belly full of joy?!!
3 Day In Person Retreat we will dive deeper into the cleansing process, mindful practices, community and processing material arising as we let go deeper together.
Optional herbal support for you cleanse from HealthForce Superfoods
Remember! We Are Nature
Come reconnect to the truth of this inseparability and join a compassionate community supporting healthy, conscious change. Find your way home again through this transformative nature-based retreat where healing yourself becomes healing the world.
This experience is meant to be an inspiration to incorporate more plants and less meat, dairy, quick carbs, caffeine and sugar for 24-days rather than all-or-nothing. I will encourage you to explore how it feels to let go of these foods for a time to receive a clearer body felt sense of what really supports your wellbeing.
More about the principles that will support our journey
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Decision Road: The conscious choice to embark on transformation and recognize the need or call for change!
Severance: Time of naming and letting go of the foods and habits that are not serving our well-being.
Threshold: Stepping into unknown territory, a time of being tested and deeper patterns revealed. We will explore new ways of eating and cultivating deeper embodiments that support our well-being. Here we face the challenges of our beliefs, our identities, and our attachments with love and compassion. Creating new pathways of self, community and planet care.
Reincorporation: Here we slowly explore reincorporating foods we have let go to see if they support or deplete our wellbeing. Choosing from a clearer and more sensitized place in ourselves, we can make decisions that support the wellbeing of all, compassionately noticing our cravings and patterns and choosing not to act from that place. We will explore how to take what we have learned into our daily life and share with our families and community what we have discovered, being a living example and inspiration.
“Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.” –Dan Millman
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Each session we will be exploring one element, beginning with Earth, moving through water, fire and air, building our foundation to meet the expanse of Ether with a grounded presence. Experiencing how each element moves through us in stillness and movement, ending with a time of silence and sharing what we learned. Re-membering that we are the elements that make up this planet.
When you wake up and see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
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In Buddhist teachings, the four kinds of nutrients are edible food, sense impressions, volition or aspiration, and consciousness, which are essential for the sustenance and growth of both physical and mental well-being for all the planet.
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness include, body, feelings, heart/mind and consciousness.
These four foundations work together to develop comprehensive awareness and insight into the nature of experience, forming the basis for deeper meditation practice and wisdom development.
“We need the determination and strength of the warrior to cut through and claim our freedom, but we also need the patience and kindness of a meditator and the openness, tolerance, and creativity of the artist” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Featured Recipes
