by Lara Land | Sep 10, 2018 | COACHING, LAND BLOG, SELF-IMPROVEMENT
As we say goodbye to summer and head into the fall, I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about transitions. Transitions are one of the hardest things for children and we know that we aren’t much different than children ourselves. Here’s what you should know about transitions in order to help yourself and your loved ones get through them more quickly and eloquently:
- Transitions always take longer than we think they will. The first part of a transition is the major break from the past. At this time you may even note to yourself, “I am in transition”. It can feel good, strange, challenging, exciting, dramatic, sad, but usually, even the rough parts are filled with a kind of positive energy because you are so excited for and focused on the thing you are transitioning to. Then things even out a bit. You start doing the work. It’s a little less emotional and more steady. You may think, “I have this. I got through this transition.” Suddenly you are lost, scared, lonely, doubtful of what you were doing, what you thought you were doing, and why you were doing any of it. This is when many contemplate a change of direction, quitting, even going back to the life they had before. Some revert and some persevere, but EVERYONE hits this moment. Hopefully knowing that those who achieve their goals also go through this doubting time will give you more perspective and perseverance when you are in it.
- You almost always have to lose something to gain something new. Why do some make it through a transition to their intended goal and some not? It has to do with how much they want it and what they are willing to give up to get there. This leads to the second thing to understand about transitions. Whether it is a job, a partner, a home, a friend, or a part of yourself, transitions require some sort of saying goodbye. It’s the letting go of one thing that makes space for the next. Sometimes it is intentional and sometimes a loss is thrust upon us surprisingly and we are thrown into transition without a single warning. Often we do everything we can to get our new life without leaving behind something of the old. This almost always leads to an unnecessarily trying and painful transition period. One way or the other, we will be made to let go of some of our past for a greater future. Accepting this and flowing with it will save you all the nagging suffering which comes from the resistance of reality.
- Transitions are a part of a life. Not only are transitions a necessary part of life, they are a beautiful gift from the universe designed to push us out of our comfort zone and teach us something new about ourselves and the world around us. If we remember that life is not linear but instead a series spiral staircase like cycles which build on each other and include ups and downs, our expectations will be much more in line with reality and we will be more likely to enjoy the transition part of life. Recalling past periods of change and how you got through them will help you when in a current state of flux. Use what worked and let yourself grow and adjust from what didn’t. The realization that you can use the memories of your life experience to become a more artful, adjusted person, is one that will give you immense confidence and resolution. Each time you use a memory to successfully avoid a mistake you’ve previously made you become a stronger and more joyful person, filled with the knowledge that life is an experiment. Like a scientific exercise, you can rule out recipes that don’t fit your hypothesis for success and come closer and closer each time to the formula which does. How empowering is that?!
Keys to handling life’s changes:
- Understand that you will have times of feeling low and anxious.
- Remember that there are stages of transition and try to recognize which phase you are in.
- Have a strong why to keep you motivated toward your future self.
- Lean on your core circle and let them remind you of that why often.
- Focus on the payoffs.
- and finally… don’t be in a rush. There is no substitute for healing and harmonizing nature of time.
Enjoy this blog? Please comment below on your experience getting through a transition. Together we can help each other work toward some smoother cycles.
Want more? Join me on National Women in Business Day, Saturday, September 22nd at
Women Who Wow, a charitable brunch for Three and a Half Acres where I will be speaking on goal setting, actions for success, and what to do when you hit those bumps in the road. Your ticket includes a 3-course brunch, unlimited Hendrick’s cocktails, a special live performance, a swag bag, and some serious women supporting women.
I’ll be selling and signing My Bliss Books at the end with 30% donated to the charity.
by Lara Land | Dec 31, 2017 | COACHING, LARA LAND, POSTON BLOG, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, SPIRITUALITY
As we head into the new year I know you are all excited to bring new projects and plans to life! This is the most popular year to work on manifesting and could be a great time if you set yourself up right. Here are the 3 most popular misconceptions and mistakes people make when attempting to manifest.
- Being Too Specific. There are a lot of books out there claiming you should imagine each detail of the brand new car or partner or job you are trying to bring to your life. In fact, too detailed envisioning can close you off to much bigger and better dreams the Universe has out there for you and cause you not to see the greater gift in your midst. While you should be careful to make sure you specify that your car runs smoothly and is in great working condition and that it comes easily and for right purposes to you, you don’t want to get so specific that don’t take the brand new green car your aunt just gifted you because you imagined red! You may also be holding yourself back by not going deeper into the essence of what it is you desire. Is it really the car, or is it easier transport? Is it really the freelance job or is it more time to right and make your schedule. These aren’t necessarily the same things and the Universe will deliver ALL the parts that come along with new car or job including the trouble of parking and the lack of health insurance. Go to the core and always add “for the greatest good” and “this or something better” to keep your visions pure and open. The Universe will surprise you!
- Having a Completion Date. While it’s fine to say that you want to move out of the city within the next year, giving the Universe an unrealistic complete by date like tomorrow or next week for a big move will only discourage you when it doesn’t happen and stop you growing in your manifestations. While it’s true that nothing is impossible for the Universe, we are still works in progress, learning how to work with these mysterious energies for our greater good and the good of those around us. As you materialize more and more the life you imagine, you will build confidence and the ability to make bigger and bigger dreams come true at a faster and faster pace. This is what I will teach you in Bliss Book, my daily manifestation planner, out this spring! Message me to pre-order this year long guide for making dreams your reality.
- Believing it Should Just Happen. Forgetting that YOU are an intricate part of turning your hopes and desires into life actualizations is a major mistake. You can visualize, dream board, and pray all you want, but if you aren’t willing to do the work, the Universe will not respond. The flip side is, She responds rapidly and strongly to even the smallest of steps done with a full heart and complete trust in Her workings. You don’t have to know how things are going to happen. You just have to trust that they will and make sure your actions aren’t telling the Universe that you really don’t want what you’ve asked for. Don’t keep dating Player Boy if you are asking for true love. You are telling the Universe that you don’t really want it, trust in it, or believe you deserve it. Our actions, however small, must support our deepest desires. Do this and all and more are coming your way!
For more on New Years Resolution, Manifesting, and Winning see last year’s blog here and follow me on facebook, instagram, and twitter where I’ll continue to share my tricks and tools.
by Lara Land | Dec 31, 2017 | COACHING, LARA LAND, POSTON BLOG, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, SPIRITUALITY
“I’m not flexible” is the number one excuse I receive from people as to why they can’t do yoga. First of all, yoga is not something you do. It’s something that happens when the breath, mind, and body come to oneness. Being flexible is not important. In fact, being too flexible can be a hinderance.
Can vs. Should is about flexibility to stability equivalence radar. Just because a student is flexible, doesn’t mean they should go into the deepest most bendy expression of each pose. When arching and contorting compromise strength and stability, alignment, breath, and equanimity, the student has gone too far.
I often see new students looking around at longer practicing ones and whispering that they will never be able to do whatever it is they are doing, or giving a nod to affirm that the visual example they see is one they will start moving toward. This is such a dangerous and unhealthy approach. Each expression of a posture will be unique to the make-up and the needs of the student. Let the teacher be your eyes. Let your feeling body be your guide to repeating your teacher’s adjustments.
We are so eye-centric, leading with the visual in almost all things. Yoga time is a chance to quiet our gaze and awaken the nervous system. Instead of looking with the eyes, try to inspire an awareness of your whole being.Ask your body where it is in space and what it feels inside. If you hear nothing, don’t worry, just keep asking. Over time your body will start to build awareness you never knew it had.
This field of awareness is the start of yoga. It will inform all you do and all you are on and off the mat and the question of what you do with it and all your new abilities is a very important one, especially as your influence grows stronger. (Yes, one of the impacts of yoga is an increase of prana, magnetism, influence.) You may find people, objects, and opportunities coming toward you like never before. These are the instances to use your on-the-mat Can vs. Should practice in the real world.
Can vs. Should is an almost obsolete question here in the US. We seem to have decided as a culture that if it can be done, we should do it, and if it can’t we should try harder. Especially those of us with power and privilege must question the assumption that we should do everything we have the power to do. In fact as our power and influence increase we must be more mindful of each and every action.
The upheaval in Hollywood is a real reminder about using power wisely and about the choice we have to not do all we can do. For our personal practice we can start to look at this question with regards to our energy. As aspiring yogis we know that we don’t need to drill everywhere there may be oil, but we often forget what that means for ourselves. Do we have to do and be it all or is there perhaps a more equitable way to treat our energy and impact in this world? Can we, should we do less?
As you go into the world approaching this difficult Can vs. Should dilemma remember the soft gaze of your practice, and look for answers with your whole being awareness. This is the route to right knowledge. As we experience the wholeness of self, we drop into the wholeness of being which we are a part of and we come to know the ripples and we make mindful choice.
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 | 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 | Mar 8, 2016 | COACHING, LECTURES
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