Mountain Views News          Saturday, October 24, 2015

13

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

 Mountain Views News Saturday, October 24, 2015 


THE JOY OF YOGA


MEDITATION VS. MEDITATIVE


GIVE YOUR HEALTH A BOOST 

WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH

There was a funny 
blurb going around 
about two dogs who 
were talking about 
meditation. One dog said to the other, “The trick is 
that you have to STAY...” Ha! 

 For many years, I considered meditating as an 
activity I could do anywhere, anytime. I’d be driving, 
for example, and place all of my attention on the 
Divine. I thought this was “meditating”. Or I’d do 
something I loved to do, golf, attend a yoga class or 
hike. I felt serene while doing these things. My heart 
was full. I’d call this my “meditation”. You may have 
your own activities that you love--gardening, hiking 
or possibly knitting. The stress relief can be amazing 
and healing. These activities can be called meditative. 
They put you closer to your inner self, with conscious 
placement of your energy. 

 It was not until learning actual meditation 
techniques, and experiencing a number of sessions of 
seated meditation did I feel and know the difference. 

 Meditation, or devotion to the Divine, is sustained 
concentration on a single object, mantra, or simply 
hearing the breath. It’s usually done while seated 
comfortably. Meditation also involves stillness and 
steadiness, or what’s called Kaya Sthira. You may 
reach a point when the mind becomes one pointed 
and enters the state of Samadhi, or total bliss with 
complete spiritual absorption. This experience could 
last a few seconds or longer depending. Getting still 
in meditation is important and part of the learning 
process. It’s hard to stay still! Even sitting with a 
sustained internal focus (head busy or not), just 
breathing is meditating. 

 One of the many great things about meditation is 
its availability! Rain or Shine, injury, no injury, it’s 
available and free. You still get to enjoy and love doing 
all the wonderful active things that make life full and 
rich. A great setup in fact, for some time sitting in 
Meditation. 


See you in class! 

Namaste friends, 

Keely Totten 

Yoga Madre 

Butternut squash is a 
variety of winter squash. 
However, winter squash 
is grown in the summer 
and harvested in the 
fall so how come it is 
called winter squash? 
That’s because winter 
squashes have a hard 
thick skin making 
them ideal to be stored 
for several months and 
eaten during the winter 
season. 

 Butternut squash, 
called butternut 
pumpkin in Australia, 
is a great vegetable to add to your diet this time of 
year because it is in season. If it’s in season then it’s 
going to be fresher, tastier and less expensive than 
any other times of the year. Butternut squash is full 
of potassium and vitamin A. It is also fat free, low in 
calories and high in fiber. A big push in my practice 
is to get my clients eating more plant foods like 
butternut squash because vegetables are associated 
with decreasing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart 
disease and overall mortality. You get all of those 
benefits from increasing your intake of high fiber 
vegetables plus a healthy complexion, increased 
energy, and overall lower weight.

 Butternut squash has a naturally sweet, nutty 
taste but as it ripens, it increasingly turns a deeper 
orange and becomes sweeter and richer. It provides 
significant amounts of potassium, important for 
bone health. It is also high in vitamin B6, essential 
for the proper function of both the nervous and 
immune systems. 

 Hopefully you have heard that you should eat a 
rainbow of colorful foods. That is because there 
are benefits to all the different colors. In the case 
of butternut squash, its orange color provides an 
abundance of the powerhouse nutrients known 
as carotenoids, shown to protect against heart 
disease. In particular, it has high levels of 
beta-carotene, which your body automatically 
converts to vitamin A. The vitamin A derived 
from butternut squash helps to produce sebum 
which helps keep your hair moist. 

 So if you have never bought a butternut squash 
you are missing out. Try it baked, roasted 
or mashed with cinnamon, maple syrup or 
balsamic vinegar …it’s all good!

Dr. Tina is a traditional 
naturopath and nutritionist 
at Vibrant Living 
Wellness Center


SCAM DU JOUR: CHIP CARD SCAMS

by Colleen Tressler 

Consumer Education Specialist, FTC 

 Recently, I told you about the new credit and 
debt chip cards designed to reduce fraud, including 
counterfeiting.

 Now, I’m reporting on scammers who are trying 
to take advantage of the millions of consumers who 
haven’t yet received a chip card.

 Here’s what’s happening: Scammers are emailing 
people, posing as their card issuer. The scammers 
claim that in order to issue a new chip card, you 
need to update your account by confirming some 
personal information or clicking on a link to 
continue the process.

 If you reply to the email with personal information, 
the scammer can use it to commit identity theft. If 
you click on the link, you may unknowingly install 
malware on your device. Malware programs can 
cause your device to crash, monitor your online 
activity, send spam, steal personal information and 
commit fraud.

 So how can you tell if the email is from a 
scammer?

 There’s no reason your card issuer needs to 
contact you by email — or by phone, for that matter 
— to confirm personal information before sending 
you a new chip card. Don’t respond to an email 
or phone call that asks you to provide your card 
number. Period. 

 Still not sure if the email is a scam? Contact your 
card issuers at the phone numbers on your cards. 

 Don’t trust links in emails. Only provide 
personal information through a company’s website 
if you typed in the web address yourself and you see 
signals that the site is secure, like a URL that begins 
https (the “s” stands for secure).

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


WHY ESTATE PLANNING 
IS FOR LIFE, NOT DEATH

No one likes to think about death, especially their 
own. That’s why many people procrastinate when 
it comes to estate planning. Because after all, 
estate planning is for when you die, right? Wrong! 
When done through the right lawyer, creating an 
estate plan is actually much more about life than 
it is death.

 Here are some of the things that estate planning 
does for you while you are alive:

- Gets you thinking about the real meaning of 
your life, what you want to pass on beyond your 
life, and what’s most important to you now;

- Makes you think about how you want to be cared 
for at the end of your life and lets you name who 
you want to make decisions for you if you become 
incapacitated;

- Gets you thinking about your money, who you 
want it to go to, when you want it to go to them, 
and even what you want them to do with it;

- Names guardians to care for your children in 
case you can’t;

- Helps you minimize taxes;

- Lets you provide for a child, or other loved 
one, with special needs without disrupting their 
governmental benefits;

- Protects your assets from divorce, creditors, and 
lawsuits – yours or your children’s;

- Enables you to gift portions of your estate to 
your children or even charities while you are still 
alive in a way that provides tax advantages and 
inspires wealth creation, not wealth depletion;

- Helps you plan for your own long-term care in a 
way that won’t diminish your estate.

 Of course, having an estate plan also offers you 
peace of mind knowing you have done what you 
could to protect loved your ones and pass your 
assets to them after death. Having an estate plan 
in place before you pass guarantees:

- Your personal property and financial assets will 
go to the people you want to have them;

- Your family won’t have to deal with the expense 
and pain of going through the probate process;

- Your minor children are provided for in the 
way you choose, by whom you choose, with your 
values, and a trusted adviser in place to manage 
their finances until they come of age;

- Your assets are protected for your heirs with 
distributions made at certain ages (or other 
milestones of your choice);

- Your beneficiaries are named on retirement, life 
insurance, and other financial accounts so they get 
the assets in those accounts;

- The financial privacy of your family is protected.

 If you know you need an estate plan but have 
been procrastinating, now is the perfect time to 
create a plan that spells out how you will pass on 
your values, beliefs and money to your children. 
In fact, pick up the phone right now and our office 
today to schedule a time for us to sit down and talk.

 Dedicated to your family’s wealth, health, and 
happiness,

A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is on a 
mission to help parents protect what they love most. 
His office is located at 49 S. Baldwin Ave., Ste. G, 
Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Schedule an appointment 
to sit down and talk about ensuring a legacy of love 
and financial security for your family by calling 
626.355.4000 or visit www.GarlettLaw.com for 
more information.


WHAT’S YOUR STRATEGY FOR CYBER MONDAY? 


Cyber Monday is right around the corner (Nov. 30, 
2015). It’s a great opportunity for business owners to 
leverage the biggest on-line shopping day of the year. 

 Strategy is everything! Here are a few ideas to get 
you started:

 What will you offer? Start working on the offer 
and how you will get the word out now! What would 
be the most valuable to your audience? Determine 
price, discount codes and set up a special page on 
your web site. Will you run Google ads or Facebook 
ads? Do you have a good email list you can promote 
the offer too? 

Leverage Cyber Monday to build your email list. 
Let people know something big is coming. Make it 
exclusive; only those people who are subscribed to 
your email list will receive the official offer or early 
access. Constant Contact has great tools to help you 
build and manage your offer.

Use Social Media Channels for real-time offers: Some 
retailers use real-time delivery and offer a new deal 
every 10 minutes. Is your offer for the whole day or 
one every hour? Make sure to let people know what 
channels you will announcing your offers (Facebook, 
Twitter, Email, your web site etc.). Schedule your 
posts in advance using Facebook’s scheduling tool, 
Hootsuite or MarketMe.

Make your offer easy to share. Make sure the emails 
you send out about Cyber Monday include a “share 
with a friend” link or “share on Facebook” so you 
can cash in on social media referrals.

 About MJ: MJ and her brother David own 
HUTdogs, a creative services business that 
specializes in Internet Marketing strategies and 
Social Media. They offer social media management 
services and help their clients build a strong on-line 
presence. “Like” them on Facebook for trending 
news in social media, internet marketing and other 
helpful tips, www.facebook.com/hutdogs.

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com