by Lara Land | Feb 14, 2017 | COACHING, LARA LAND, LECTURES
Most people think of Parvati or Radha when they think of love Gods, not Lord Ganesha. Me? I think of the elephant headed boy come to dissolve all obstacles. I think of Him because I know the truth, that love isn’t lost and in need of finding. Love is everywhere and in everything, seemingly lacking often due to our own interference.
Rumi said it best.
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Ganesha is great for this! If you are troubling in love I encourage you to make this one change and see what happens. Instead of asking for God or Goddess to send your match or find your mate, ask Ganesha to help you relax your worries, remove your limitations and quiet your objections so that you can allow the love that is there in front of you to be seen, felt, and accepted within.
Limiting beliefs and deep seeded feelings of unworthiness are common in most of us and keep us from the love we deserve. Use these techniques to overcome those hinderances and get all the love you deserve.
1. Journal all the characteristics you desire in a partner. Circle the three you can’t live without.
2. Sit in meditation and a great sun above you come to fill you with golden rays of “Havingness”. Bask in those rays. Offer up your wish in giant balloon that goes to the heavens.
3. Dissolve any anxieties or objections that come up by giving them over to the elephant boy.
As always, Let Me Know How It Goes in your comments here and SHARE!
by Lara Land | Dec 30, 2016 | COURSES, PAST RETREATS, RETREATS, TRAVELS
Imagine 3280 foot high glaciers, volcanoes, wide land, black beaches, fairies and trolls. Standing there, you are surrounded by gush springs impressing you with their shooting water fountains, healing hot springs and fascinating polar lights. Iceland is less than 6 hours from New York, but there you find a whole different world with incredible nature, myths and such a rare energy.
Made of lava, ice, wind and water – Iceland offers you an unique experience which passes its origin and power onto you. Everyone who has been there knows that Iceland is enchanting.
A few highlights:
Biggest volcano-island (Sorry Big Island!)
Glaciers with Europe’s biggest ice volume
Europe’s most powerful waterfall
Forces of nature and energy describe Iceland most accurately. Thanks to its special geographic position – it’s on the american and on the eurasian tectonic plate – it is connected to hot rock mass from the earth’s core. And this is exactly what you can feel!
If that has not convinced you (yet!) to visit this extraordinary island, maybe the following reasons will! Look and see:
Iceland will seduce you with it’s breathtaking scenery and many surprises.
1. Volcanoes and glaciers
The pairing of volcanoes and glaciers is a rare wonder of nature. Nowhere else will you get to witness such an impressive connection of opposites. Fire and ice aren’t just the elements of the nordic myths, they are still impressing us to this day.
2. Old legends and spirituality
Iceland is a mystical place and its residents believe in fairies, trolls and goblins. Their legends and tales are important and deeply rooted in the everyday life of Icelandic people.
3. Healing thermal springs
Iceland’s thermal springs have several benefits. Whether you jump right into a healing hot spring or bake your bread in the hot powerful earth, you will surely recharge your energy reserves here.
4. A place of confident women who follow their own ideal of beauty
“I wanted to use this opportunity to stand up for myself and the women on this planet, for young women”, said Arna Ýr Jónsdóttir Miss Island 2015 who rejected her attendance on the election of Miss Grand International. The host asked her to eat less. “It is okay to be yourself. If you like yourself, you should just say it.” We totally agree!
5. Stunning scenery you know from movies and tv-shows
Game of Thrones and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty are just two of many international movie and tv-show productions that know and use the beauty of the island.
6. Europe fell head over heels in love with Iceland in the summer of 2016
During the European Championship in 2016 it was Iceland who surprised us all. Their passionate spirit and win over England made the audience fall in love and the legendary chant gave goosebumps to every soccer-fan.
Vacation in Iceland is a combination of sustainability and regeneration.
7. Iceland stands for alternative energies and green tourism.
Iceland is one big role-model when it comes down to renewable energy and decrease of Co2. The energy supply is made by geothermic and hydrothermic energy by 81 percent and provides for electricity, heat and transportation. Starting in the year 2050 Reykjavik wants to stop using fossil fuels.
Geothermic energy is not just supplying all buildings in the city, it is also responsible for heat in the houses and the many greenhouses, as well as street lightning. And of course the thermic heat provides for all the popular outdoor pools. You won’t find a better place to enjoy eco-tourism.
8. On the trail of Jules Verne
“The journey to the center of the earth” begins with the entrance to Iceland’s volcano Snæfellsjökull. This is a story we all know of since childhood and it will clearly be the travel-read when you start the adventure of visiting Snæfellsjökull volcano yourself.
9. Wales, Iceland horses and puffins
Another fascinating aspect about Iceland is its animal kingdom. You get the chance to be with and ride on Icelandic horses, explore beautiful puffins and observe fascinating mink whales, porpoises, dolphins, finbacks, blue- and humpback whales. And maybe even the black and white marked grampus.
If you are thinking about visiting Iceland and experiencing its amazing landscape and archaic original power – 2017 is the perfect time to do it!
Because the numbers of tourists, media attention, and word of mouth are striking, Iceland is getting more and more popular which means the time is limited to explore its raw uniqueness free of mass tourism.
The best time for an extraordinary journey is NOW!
FIND YOURSELF IN THE LAND OF CONTRASTS: ICELAND RETREAT WITH LARA LAND
by Lara Land | Sep 7, 2016 | COACHING, LARA LAND, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, SPIRITUALITY
Did you think vision boarding was January? I bet some of you thought right before the new year. You aren’t off, but you could be even more ON! Reworking, writing, seeing your life’s vision is an ongoing affair. As we change (and we change a lot) doorways for new potential open up for us. If we don’t take a moment (or two) to re-evaluate outside our linear minds, we may miss that something has shifted.
Can you feel the shift?…
The air has changed. It’s fall. No matter how old you are the memories of slick smelling school books, freshly sharpened pencils and clean journals live inside your every pore.
Don’t fight it! Be a kid again!
The child’s instinct to play, to create, uninhibited, is within you and is bursting out with the autumn sun.
Get on the ground!…
Children are low to the ground and have their hands in things. That’s where you want to be for your best creations. Get yourself heaps of magazines, scissors, crayons or markers, and some glue and a large board or my preference blank journal. I use an extra large beautifully bound journal to flesh out sections of my big picture vision in a way you can’t do on a large board. I’ll get to that in a minute!
My highest recommendation is that you actually collect and cut out from magazines all year long and keep a large envelop of your cut outs handy for that day when you have both time and inspiration. Then you can toss them all out on the floor and pick the ones that speak to you on your vision boarding day and save the rest for later.
Most people don’t know what they want! Most can’t see the VAST and UNBOUNDED nature of what they could be, because of deeply routed and passed down (through generations!) assumptions. That is why I HIGHLY recommend guided meditation before vision boarding to get beyond the prison of the 10% brain and into FEELING, POSSIBILITY, & WONDER. Register for my mailing list where I’ll have new very soon about recorded meditations and other offerings that will be for SUBSCRIBERS only or email me to request my Train Your Brain program where we discuss how this whole process works to REWIRE your brain and actually GET YOU WHAT YOU DESIRE!
After mediation you may want to JOURNAL automatic-writing style where you stay as close to your meditative state as possible as you write what you saw. You’ll want to make sure you’ve prompted yourself with a list of categories such as Career, Travel, Home, Health, Education, Creativity, Pastimes, Family, Friendships, Relationships, Etc, because otherwise you are bound to do all your imagining around the subjects that come EASIEST to you. (Not the plan at all!)
From your journaling you can then create your big picture VISUALLY. I’ve recently started using the feng shui bagua pictured below to inform my vision boarding and I find it really working!
Add affirmations, personal photos, even three dimensional tokens that mean something to you.
Don’t stop there though! The road to your BIG PICTURE vision has lots of BIG MOMENTS within it. For example: Let’s say your big picture has you as head Veterinarian at a new clinic, but you haven’t completed Vet school. You may want to draw that picture separately including all the people who’ll be standing around you. Get it?! Livening up your plan brings the ACTION element into it that is so often left out. The more excited and passionate you get about your vision, the faster it cooks, so draw all your colors in and add words which make YOU moved! Don’t worry about any one else’s vision of themselves and release yourself of all others dreams for you! Even those that have your “best interests” at heart. This is the deep and important work we do at Train Your Brain to make sure you aren’t manifesting someone else’s vision of who you are…
Rinse, Wash, & Repeat cause like I said, vision drawing and dreaming is never done! I don’t believe you need to look at your board each day, which is another reason I prefer a journal. Keep it available. Have it by you when you light a candle. Don’t harp on it. Keep it childlike, creative, and fun!
Summed up tips for vision boarding:
1. Keep your visions alive by working on them seasonally.
2. Meditate before you create.
3. Go big and bold with colors, images, and words that excite you.
4. Create pictures of your story along the way!
5. Make it all your own!
by Lara Land | Jun 29, 2016 | LARA LAND, LECTURES, POSTON BLOG
You may think it’s hard to practice in the beginning when the body is tight, but it’s easy compared to what happens when the growth spurt has past and it seems like nothing is happening. That is why a strategy for long-termed practice is so important. I spoke on this topic for Land Yoga’s Five Year Anniversary Chai Talk. These are the notes from that talk.
Patangali says in yoga sutra 1.14 “sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih” that in order for practice to be effective it should be long termed, without interruption, and devotional.
Long-Termed means for the course of the life-time (and future life-times) until Enlightenment is attained. Any practitioner will tell you it’s the accumulation of years of practice that brings the immense benefits. It’s widely recognized that the base of the practice is the first ten years and I’ve even heard Sharath say that’s how long a student should wait before teaching.
Uninterrupted means of course without starting and stopping. The point of the practice is the practice which means we put our whole energy in and let go of expecting any specific results. Understanding and accepting this concept of non-attachment helps with not taking a “break” from practice when we aren’t getting certain expected results. We invest in the process.
Most people take their first break from practice due to illness. One shouldn’t practice the physical aspects of Ashtanga yoga if one has fever. (Other issues like colds and injuries can be practiced around.) It’s important to know that your physical practice may need to be modified or shortened during certain periods because of life circumstance. This shouldn’t stop you from getting on the mat.
The danger around taking a break even for fever is that the pause from practice causes that little window of dullness to open, sending us down a dangerous cycle. It’s amazing how even a short break in routine can knock years of habit off course! Patanjai explains it well by listing the predictable obstacles that get in the way of practice:
Illness – Dullness – Doubt
Negligence – Laziness – Cravings
Misperceptions – Loss of Resolve – Instability
You can see how these lead one to the next until the practitioner finds herself moving backward.
The antidote to the obstacles is one pointed focus. Knowing about them in advance will also help the practitioner be prepared and be able to identify when then they are activated sooner. This will help her to avoid a long slump. Patanjali suggests cultivating faith, putting great energy toward your goal, using your memory, having deep concentration, and developing crystal clear discrimination to help you to avoid obstacles. (y.s. 1:20) These characteristics will make it easy for you to know when you are not in practice because your mind has cunningly taken you off track verses because you are truly ill.
Starting practice over and over is painful and much harder than cultivating an ongoing habit. To help avoid interruptions of practice, understand early on what kind of practitioner you are: mild, medium, or intense, and practice accordingly in respect to your energy expenditure and time. It’s much better to commit to a medium level, short daily practice each day that you can promise to maintain for a lifetime than to go full force and burn out in two weeks. Think long term and know yourself! That is what the practice will teach you anyway.
Devotional means offering up your practice in service to the Highest Good, and knowing that it isn’t about you at all. You’ve been called to the practice and so you must do it. Once touched, a practitioner will always hear the call to come back. It’s much easier to know and remember that and never stop than to stop and start again. If it isn’t feeling great or looking great, that doesn’t matter because the goal is to be unattached to the results of the practice and focus only on the energy we bring to it. Each day is a new day and I look at my arms in wonder as they lift up over my head and give thanks. Finding and remembering that feeling of gratitude that came easily early on will help you too when challenges arise later.
Just like we shower, sleep, and brush our teeth each day, so do we practice, because it is what we do. The practice is like an internal shower, releasing unprocessed emotions and setting us free to experience the now without forgone conclusions. As we move through our practice year after year the distractions will change and different challenges will arise, but as long as we know we are in till the end, we will never take those hurdles too seriously. Just knowing you are committed makes each challenge not even a blip along the way to enlightenment.
by Lara Land | Apr 26, 2016 | COMMUNITY, EVENTS
The Taste is the Ultimate Harlem Grand Tasting event! Enjoy UNLIMITED food from 35 Harlem restaurants plus a large variety of wine, spirits and beer. Your Taste ticket includes access to The Harlem EatUp! Market and the EatUp! MainStage where you can watch cooking demos from Harlem and National Chefs, and much more.
To purchase tickets and use the 20% off code, HEUp2016a4, go to Second Annual Harlem EatUp Festival -… and click on Enter Promotional Code just above the Order Now button!
Get 20% off tickets for “The Taste” on Saturday or Sunday May 21 and 22 with ourDiscount Code: HEUp2016a4
