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Jill Leslie, Ayurveda Alchemy

COLUMN = HEALTHY LIVING

Jill Leslie is a certified Ayurvedic practitioner, herbalist, wellness chef, and yoga teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who, for more than two decades, has been immersed in the study and practice of natural healing.

The entrepreneur, who has owned her own businesses since graduating from the University of Maryland in 1986, founded the award-winning retail shop Milk & Honey in Sebastapol, CA, in 1999. She sold it in 2006 so that she could dive deeper into her study of yoga and Ayurveda.

As she discovered the life-changing wisdom of these ancient practices, she began sharing her knowledge at wellness retreats, yoga studios, and through cooking classes. Her passion for herbal medicine and nutrition, and her love of sweets, inspired her to found Ayurvedic Alchemy, in 2008.

In addition to hosting classes and events, and providing consultations and dietary advice about Ayurveda, she has created a line of healthy and delicious confections, which are available online at Kitchen Alchemy Treats. “When I learned the adage of Ayurveda, ‘Let your food be your medicine,’ I put on my apron and said, ‘Let your medicine be delicious,’” she says.

Learn more about her services at www.AyurvedaAlchemy.com.

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

– J. Kristnhamurti, The First and Last Freedom

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

– Robert Frost

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

– Charles Darwin

It is to no purpose to turn away from the real nature of the affair because the honor of its elements excites repugnance.

– Carl von Clausewitz, On War

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

Part of your destiny is to live in the zone of maximum satisfaction.”

– Martha Beck

I have spent a good part of my life convincing people that a blank sheet of paper is the greatest opportunity in the world, and not frightening at all.”

– Marty Skler, executive vp, Walt Disney Imagineering

Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask, and that’s what separates the people who do things from the people who just dream about them.”

– Steve Jobs

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”

– J. Robert Oppenheimer

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.”

– Arthur Rubinstein

‎Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

– Booker T. Washington

Destiny is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

– William Jennings Bryan

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

– Mary Oliver

The journey is the reward.”

– Greg Norman

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn

Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”

– Madam C.J. Walker

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

– JFK

He who wants to tear down a house must be prepared to rebuild it.”

– African Proverb

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.”

– Tony Robbins

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.”

– Corita Kent

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.”

– Barack Obama

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

Almost anyone can start a community, but it takes real talent and commitment to get people to show up and keep coming back.”

– Andy Sernovitz

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

Entrepreneurs are willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”

– Victor Kiam

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
 Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

– Ella Fitzgerald

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

– John Quincy Adams

Don’t follow, lead. Don’t copy, create. Don’t start, finish. Don’t sit still, move. Don’t fit in, stand out. Don’t sit quietly, speak up. (Not all the time, sure, but more often.)”

– Seth Godin

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

‎The biggest flaw in our existing theory of capitalism lies in its misrepresentation of human nature.”

– Muhammad Yunus