by Lara Land | Nov 19, 2015 | POSTON BLOG
Happy Holidays everyone! With Thanksgiving and Holiday time coming up I wanted to share three of my favorite personal tips to keep from overeating. I hope they help you to stay balanced and gorgeous during this hectic time of year.
1. Eat Breakfast. Many of you get in the mindset that you’ll counter the damage of your afternoon feast by saving on the AM calories. This actually backfires. You’ll end up eating so much more if you starve yourself during the day, so, even if it seems counterintuitive, eat a sensible breakfast though you know you’ll be eating a lot later.
2. Crunchy Healthy Snacks. If your family is like mine, there is a whole period of hanging out munching before the main meal even happens. I keep tons of crispy vegetables out so that if I’m tempted to snack, it’s on something healthy. My favorite are organic baby carrots which really take some time to bite into and have a fully satisfying crunch factor. When it’s time to dip, I do it in my super simple Yellow Pepper Guacamole.
3. Sleep. Do Yoga. Meditate. We all have the tendency to eat to fill a void emotionally. This kind of eating is certainly exasperated around holiday time which can be stressful and pull us into old habits. (What can make you feel more like a child than being back in your parent’s house, right?) Prepare for these natural inclinations by getting enough sleep, practicing yoga (or some endorphin producing physical activity), and doing a bit of quiet reflection and centering before your meal. You’ll thank me for it later!
What are your best tricks to staying balanced during holiday season? Tweet them out to me at @landlaraland
by Lara Land | Oct 26, 2015 | COACHING, POSTON BLOG, SPIRITUALITY, Yoga
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” -Anais Nin
If we want things to change we have to change ourselves. Then, suddenly, the world around us appears different. But how can we change ourselves? First we must become aware that there is an option to change. Most of us spend a good deal of our lives adhering to certain decisions about our preferences and characteristics, never questioning where those labels came from or if they are indeed permanent and true.
For instance, I may appear a loud and bossy type. When I come into a room, I let my thoughts be known and assert my desires. Perhaps my whole life I have behaved this way and from this behavior enjoyed much success. I may become known as “loud and bossy” to the point where others around me adjust to take supporting roles and even choose me for activities where those traits appear helpful to the group. I may not realize there is another role I can take. I may have been told that this personality comes naturally to me, but it may just be well practiced, or it may be that I subconsciously feel a need to play a role I was assigned, worried no one else will take that part or that I won’t be effective in another position.
Eventually I will likely be awakened to the malleable nature of personality. I could be faced with a similar personality type across from me and find my usual responses ineffective. I could experience a loss. I could read a book or blog like this one and realize I do have choice. Then I might decide to allow different aspects of myself to come forward until my personality wouldn’t be described as bossy at all. Part of the yogic journey is making better, more artful choices and finally arriving at no choice, but as an experience of our perfect, non-personality touched souls.
The self-help guides tell us to be ourselves, but who are we? Personality is a strange and fluid thing. Most of us have many; Sometimes they war inside of us. Other times they know their roles. Mom comes out at bedtime with the kids, but becomes a shy student in her night classes, hardly recognizable to her mother self. On date night, with girlfriends, with parents, all different personalities emerge.
Sometimes parts of our personalities remain buried for a long time. Suddenly I arrive at a situation where I want to use an archetypal energy but I can not access it. That’s where the costume comes into play. If I’ve been demure for a long time I may need some help expressing my authentic assertive self. In this case I can wear heals, and suits, and certain kinds of colors and hair styles until she comes out. Through the flow or restrictions of her clothing, movement becomes dictated. Through the eyes of those who witness my transformation I access her spirit. She was always there inside of me. Never false. Just hidden. Suddenly the world around me looks different. New possibilities emerge.
Choosing to transform through costume may have to be subtle on the day to day if we don’t want to shock our friends and neighbors, but on Halloween we have the opportunity to go all out. This one day we can access our superhero, magical, sexy, silly, even dark, vampire selves. Each of us has a chance to play a part not allowed to us normally and access a layer of our personality that is hidden away. As we expose more of ourselves we gain more choices and open ourselves to seeing the world around us in a different way. This is a healthy and important part of the journey to self-realization, so be sure to use your societal pass this Halloween and be whoever you most want to be. Don’t be shy. I know I won’t be!
