OM_Yoga_UK_-_February_2017_

How cacao can take your yoga practice – and your love life

• to the next level. By Jo De Rosa

T

here are a lot of people out there who think that

they are a chocoholic, when the fact is they are not

addicted to the cacao at all...it’s the sugar they crave.

Give a ‘chocoholic’ 100% cacao, with nothing added,

and they will recoil from the bitter, mature taste,

which is totally different from what they are used to. Fortunately,

there is nothing wrong with eating the right kind of chocolate. In

fact, I eat it most days.

So, I’d like to share with you my chocolate journey and why I

love to have it for breakfast. Yes, for breakfast! The cacao that

I am talking about here has been acquired for its meditation

properties - the fact that it tastes good is only an added

bonus. The beans have been sourced in Guatemala from the

tropical rainforest that ancient Mayans would have used in their

ceremonies throughout millennia. It’s true, chocolate has been

used for centuries to focus the mind, but was overlooked in the

1960’s love revolution because it was not very ‘psychedelic’.

The facts

Sadly, most of the chocolate on the supermarket shelves just

doesn’t cut it. Cow’s milk inhibits the absorption of theobromine,

one of the many active compounds in cacao – with 99% of these

active compounds missing from most brands of chocolate that

we see in the shops. What with the procedure that it goes through

in the factory, the very high heat of the process and then the

Chocolate for breakfast

addition of milk, the original cacao is stripped of its goodness

with just bad fat, milk and sugar remaining.

Even the raw cacao we find in health food shops has a lower

amount of active compound than ‘ceremonial grade’ cacao

because most South American cacao is from hybridised beans.

Some say that cacao originated in Central America whilst others

say that it travelled from Ecuador or Peru north into Central

America with the shamans. Perhaps only 10% of the world’s

chocolate supply comes from the smaller non-hybridised beans,

and there are not many suppliers in the world producing it for

global shamanic ceremonial use, rather than flavour.

The spiritual uses of chocolate

I first experienced a full cacao ceremony three years ago and to

say I was blown away by the chocolate and the whole experience

is an understatement. From that moment on, I began to use the

chocolate regularly during my yoga retreats and in classes - and

now hold regular cacao ceremonies myself.

Eat or drink alone or before class, savouring the taste as you

begin to notice changes in your body and mind. The chocolate

opens you up, connecting to the heart chakra, and enhances

whatever you are doing, whether that’s yoga, meditation, writing,

teaching, speaking – everything. You will feel a deep connection

to self and surroundings and experience a doorway opening

within you and an opportunity to walk into another dimension of

The yoga
of Love