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One morning, I noticed that yoga guru, author of The 21-Day SuperStar Cleanse, actress, mother, businesswoman and innovator Rainbeau Mars followed me on Twitter. A week later, I was sitting with the incredibly inspiring Rainbeau on a rock in Central Park, doing a chakra meditation with a side of colorful superfood smoothies (21 DSC-approved!). Here are a few things we talked about – from choosing healthy food without being obsessed with it to ways to tune into your intuition, following your heart and being totally enlightened (but only until you get into a relationship.)
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How did you get started on this transformational path of connectedness?
It started way before I could think about it – I was born under a double rainbow in a teepee. But speaking of a more conscious times, the path to the heart started with food and fitness [Rainbeau created ra’yoKa fitness, a blend of martial arts and yoga that fuels different chakras, and has sold over one million DVDs worldwide]. With time, I realized how much more there is to that. I never talked about God or the heart, but I ate well, because I wanted to feel and look better. This path is going to be completely different for each person. Be where you’re at and only look one step further.
“Connecting back to our hearts should be our main goal.”
What’s your food philosophy?
Eat as good and as low on the food chain as you can, eat from the Earth, know where your food comes from, try to eat organic, eat all the colors of the rainbow. We all know what the right thing is. The reason why we don’t follow through goes deeper – it’s out disconnection with our selves. That’s why connecting back to our hearts should be our main goal.
The 21-Day SuperStar Cleanse breaks down into three phases (or three weeks), with the ultimate goal of cutting out most cooked food, processed food, and animal materials and motivates you to eat in a raw, vegan fashion. Tell us more about this program!
Doing something 365 days a year is impossible, but 21 days is doable for everyone. It takes 21 days to make or break a pattern, and that said, you get certain things that you keep with you. Maybe you’ll keep drinking Apple Cider Vinegar water with honey every morning, or go for tea instead of having eggs, pancakes and bacon.
I do feel the decrements in how I feel when I eat bread or cheese, but I always have the [21 DSC] program to go back to 3 weeks or even longer to feel my most radiant glowy self. I feel the flexibility, strength and openness come back. Know about food and health, study it, try to eat healthy as much as you can, but I don’t obsess over it.
“What kills people more is anger, jealousy and hatred, not eating cheese.”
Sometimes being flexible and connecting with people and their cultures over food is more important. If someone offers me cake that they just spent putting hours of love into, you know what, I’ll have it. Maybe they’ll then try my raw cake after and really like it. The most important thing is the love that goes into preparing, eating and sharing your food. I agree with your [Breakfast Criminals] concept that when you start your day with something amazing, you’ll feel great, and also you’ll tend to eat more healthy throughout the day.
Once you start on the healthy food path, how do you not become obsessed with it? Known as “orthorexia”, it’s become a new phenomenon widely talked about in the media.
What comes out of your mouth is more important than what goes in it. It’s not all about the food. I’ve seen how raw foods can heal most diseases, our minds and energies, but not that alone. It was an evolution for me to go from a live foodist [a person who eats 75% or more living/raw food] to a flexitarian [plant-based with the occasional inclusion of meat products], and it is now that I have more connection and peace than I’ve ever had. Just look at some of the masters – from Jesus and Buddha to Gurumayi and the Dalai Lama – they’re not live foodists.
“The most important thing when it comes to food is love that goes into it.”
Yes, we should be healthy to do what we’re passionate about. What kills people more is anger, jealousy and hatred, not eating cheese.
How do you approach healthy living when it comes to parenting? I don’t want to be that parent who tells her daughter that we’re only going to eat raw vegan. It’s a matter of balance.
“In the end, what comes out of your mouth is more important than what goes in it.”
What are some simple things everyone can do to get started on the healthy path?
Step 1: Fitness. It’s a great access point. No matter what, commit to 30 minutes a day of the kind of fitness that works for you. After 21 days of doing that, you will have a blueprint of how it makes you feel, that will serve you as a powerful reminder.
Step 2: Yoga. When you do yoga, it’s working in instead of working out. You’re getting a workout and at the same time really tuning into something deeper inside. Yoga is different from any other sport – there’s something about the vibration of the postures and the peace that the alignment brings.
Even though I’m known for yoga, I’ve now pulled away from it in favor of story telling, filmmaking and acting [Rainbeau is working on a film at a TV show]. I still love yoga and it really helped me to go deeper with what I eat, what and how I do in my life, and what fears drive me. Allow yourself to experiment and see what feels best for you.
Step 3: Eating foods that help you live rather than eating just to eat.
Step 4: Think thoughts that serve the way that you feel.
Step 5: Choose compassion instead of anger. When you’re conscious of your thoughts and your actions, you are present enough to stop yourself from going towards something negative.
These steps might not come together all at once, but it’s a great start.
We think we’re perfectly enlightened until we get into a relationship. You can be living alone and thinking that you’re having a great life. But connecting with others makes you realize there’s more to work on.
“Yoga is working in instead of working out.”
Do you have tools for tapping into your inner guidance system that you could share?
Meditation. Yoga is meditation in action. That’s why asana and sun salutations are a great access point into feeling your mind, body and being. For some, it’s chanting. For others, it’s service – you can clean out your mind through service. When you’re stuck, doing charity can be a really good pathway into opening up inside yourself.
I do a 7-part chakra meditation, and if there’s only one thing I have time to do, it’s this. I visualize color and expansion of each one while saying affirmations, it takes only a few minutes, but takes me right in. Do you want to just go through it?
Start by anchoring yourself on the Earth and spreading your sit bones.
- Inhale into your root, visualize red and earth, saying “I’m supported and grounded by the earth on which I’m founded.”
- Imagine orange light in the womb, or your lower belly area. The element is water. Breathe into that area above the pelvic floor, saying on an inhale: “I surrender in devotion to the motion of the ocean and I celebrate as I create.”
- Think of sun behind your navel point, expanding in all directions inside your body, and the mantra is: “I connect in harmony and power at my core, so I can be more of what I’ve come here for.“
- Shoulders up, back and back down. Green light, element is air, runs through the shoulders, the wings, the hands. The element is forgiveness, compassion, love. Mantra: “I breathe, believe and receive from gratitude, and my heart is where I start.”
- Imagine blue light in your throat. The element is ether. Inhale into the throat area to help communicate freely. Mantra: “I communicate so I can liberate and I am free to be me.”
- Breathe up through the the third eye, indigo light through both brain hemispheres, expanding evenly. The element is mediation. Mantra: “I let go of all I know so I can realize with my real eyes.”
- Inhale into crown on the head, purple into white, “I open and align with guidance of the divine, I am open with the most high.”
BC: Wow, that feels incredible! How did you come up with this?
I was sitting the Korean bath with waterfall pouring on my head, and all mantras came during this moment. I never changed them since.
How do you find the courage to tap into your intuition and do what you love?
Imagine that someone is giving you a present. Look at it, appreciate the gift, and the more those gifts will start to come into your life. I wasn’t so spiritual growing up, and I never used the word spirit or heart, but I’ve always been guided and I’ve been told that we’re all guided. We’re often so clouded, blocked and overstimulated that we’re not listening to that guidance.
You have to strengthen your connection by purification. If you’re drugging yourself with coffee or drugs, it’s going to be really hard to hear the words. Guidance can be strengthened through yoga, meditation and giving thanks. For me, I can feel it in my heart. It starts to beat faster, it can even feel a little scary. It’s all about the heart. When we open it, we have more room for understanding.
Meditation, yoga, chanting, prayer are all great way to receive guidance. Ask for it. The more your practice, the more clear and direct it will be.
We’re at a time on our planet where there’s a fundamental shift and an urgent red flag where whether we continue to destruct, or wake up to the goodness that’s universal and exists in all of us. Do we want to wake up and be part of the solution? And if we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem. Each person has a choice.
When did you know you want to be part of the solution?
That’s a good question. I was raised with flower children and was incredible preppy because of that. It’s been a gradual process that came out of a necessity to heal myself in a very toxic world. After years of trying to fit in and be “normal”, all of a sudden I realized that it’s not about just me, but about working collectively. I was on a path to know myself first, and from the beginning people were asking me for guidance and tips, and as I shared and woke up myself, it just happened naturally. It’s an infinite journey, because there’s always more to learn. My goal is to be a servant of this bigger shift. When you always go back to being a beginner, there’s always room to grow.
What teachers inspired your journey the most? The ones that come to mind first.
The Dalai Lama, Gurumayi, Juan Ruiz (creator of the Pneuma Breath System).
What have some of your favorite books been?
The 21-Day Superstar Cleanse – it’s great for everyone! The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho with the message “if you follow your heart your heart will keep talking to you”. Autobiography Of A Yogi.
What are some quotes you can leave me and my readers with?
I let go of who I’ve become so that I can be who I am.
What is in the way is the way.
Rainbeau Mars’ book, 21-Day Superstar Cleanse is available now.
I love this vegan banana buckwheat pancake recipe from the 21-Day Superstar Cleanse! This book is definitely worth checking out if you’re ready to reset your system and get new habits that will make you feel amazing.
Connect with Rainbeau: www.rainbeaumarslifestyles.com, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.