LYT

Tag: personal growth

  • 647. Essential Aromatherapy Knowledge with Amy Anthony

    647. Essential Aromatherapy Knowledge with Amy Anthony

     

    Join Lara for a fascinating conversation with The Aromatic Gardner, Amy Anthony.

    Amy is a certified clinical Aromatherapist and Aromatic Gardner, aromatherapy educator, herbalist, certified master composter, artisanal distiller, and host of the Essential Aromatica podcast. She is listed as one of America’s most influential aromatherapists.

     

    In this episode, listen in as we discuss:

    • what is aromatherapy
    • the critical, genuine, and authentic role essential oils may play in supporting overall health and recovery
    • how essential oils can support our health, connect us with nature, enhance mental clarity, and help us cope with life’s overall challenges
    • key essential oils for supporting wellness and vitality

     

    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

     

    Guest Resources:

     

    Connect with Lara Heimann, The Redefining Yoga Podcast, and LYT Yoga

     

    Sponsors:

    • Visit almondcow.co/shop and use code LARA for a discount off your purchase!
    • Shop my favorite 100% Science-Backed Amino Acid Supplements. Enter code “LYT” to save 30%. aminoco.com/LYT

  • 544. Shifting Away From Internal Conflict with Adele Spraggon

    Adele Spraggon is an award-winning author, thought leader, international trainer, and a fearless speaker. Her book “Shift: 4 Steps to Personal Empowerment” is making waves for its powerful message of inspiration and hope and transforming how people are setting and achieving their goals. 

    After years in the personal development industry, Adele realized that she was struggling herself to meet her goals – and when she got real with her clients, many of them were as well. She went back to school to learn everything she could about how people make decisions and she realized that the vast majority of self-help advice was coming from the wrong operating instructions. 

    We talk about the difference between habits and patterns, balancing the hemispheres of the brain to avoid internal conflict, and so much more.

    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

     

    Resources:

     

    Redefining Yoga is produced and published by Crate Media.

  • 542. Getting Yoga Happy with Hannah Barrett

    So much has changed since Hannah Barrett’s last appearance on the show. She moved from her hometown of London, underwent shoulder surgery, and published her very first book, Yoga Happy.

    In it, she’s assimilated the different aspects of yoga and her own practice to develop a wonderful toolkit for anyone to move and feel better – while deepening their understanding of meditation, yogic philosophy, and mindfulness along the way.

    We discuss how yoga can be accessible to anyone, how it can help balance the nervous system, and make you feel more vital and joyful in life. 

    No matter what time or space you have in life, Hannah wants you to know that you can find ways to increase your energy, reduce stress, and sleep well – all things that are going to make you a little happier.

    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

     

    Resources:

     

    Redefining Yoga is produced and published by Crate Media.

  • 538. Tribute to Caregivers

    May is a month for celebrating and recognizing mothers. Along with mothers, there are many others that share the role of caregiving, taking care of people in their lives, whether they’re parents, a spouse, or otherwise. In this Monthly Motivation episode, we explore the deeply emotional and important topics of mothering and caregiving and how to ensure you don’t lose yourself in the act of caring for others.

    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

     

    Resources:

     

    Redefining Yoga is produced and published by Crate Media.

     

  • 537. Parents are the Change-Makers of a New Generation with Kanika Chadda-Gupta

    In this episode of Friday with Friends, we chat with Kanika Chadda-Gupta, a born storyteller and master of reinvention. Starting off as a television anchor in India, she pivoted her life by moving to the United States and becoming a digital marketing strategist – then reinvented herself once again as a podcast host and parent. We talk about parenting, organization, entrepreneurship, and trying to balance it all.

    To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: lytyoga.com/blog/category/podcasts/

     

    Resources:

     

    Redefining Yoga is produced and published by Crate Media.

  • Feedback Friday with Margaux Delemasure

    Feedback Friday with Margaux Delemasure

     

    Margaux is an experienced LYT practitioner and teacher who wanted some feedback for fine tuning her practice. I first noticed that when she went to walk back into plank, her shoulders were not aligned over her wrists because the hands were a bit close to her feet. That positioning then set up her plank and Down Dog to be slightly less aligned. In Down Dog, her forearms were releasing a bit toward the floor, indicating that she needs to lift more in her front body to give the shoulders more support. With the slight repositioning of the hand placement, the Down Dog will have more energy. I also noticed that Margaux’s SCM (sternocleidomastoid muscle) was popping out a bit, indicating her head is slightly forward. The SCM is a superficial neck flexor that is shortened when our skull shifts forward from its neutral postion on the first cervical vertebra. I recommended focusing on lifting the front of the throat to help her neck more neutral.

     

    In her side lunge, Margaux needs to move back into her hip to acquire a deeper hinge and greater hip mobility. For modified side plank, I saw a slight disengagement in the scapula of the grounded hand. Pulling the scapula into the body will help the pose feel more integrated.

     

    Overall, Margaux’s form is wonderful; the hot spots are the neck alignment as she has a tendency to release the deep cervical flexors, which are a direct connection to the abdominal core. Finally, setting the hands slightly forward in a folded fold will better align the shoulders in plank and Down Dog.

  • Personal Productivity

    Personal Productivity

    by Tim Bantham

     

    We live in an age where the lines have blurred between our work and home life. The delineation between the two has become way less defined. Along with this change, there is an increased demand on our time and attention. Now more than ever having the ability to stay productive is an essential life skill. For me, personal productivity is a goal that I am constantly pursuing. It is also one that has evolved through the years. Staying productive and finding a system that works is a personal choice. I encourage you to keep an open mind. The system I’m about to share works well for me but your mileage may vary. 

    A good system

    The key for me to maximize my personal productivity is setting myself up for success by having a good system. My system is digital and I rely on certain tools both on my laptop and my iPhone. You may be more comfortable with pen and paper. Nothing wrong with that. I just happen to like using digital applications for this.

    I am a big fan of Evernote. One of the key features of Evernote is that it just works. Any notes that I add on my laptop automatically show up on my phone. I use Evernote for just about every list I create. Lists are a big part of my life and a key component of maintaining my sanity.  I also use Evernote as part of my weekly review that I’ll touch on later. 

    Like Evernote, Todoist is another indispensable app that I love. I use Todoist for all of my projects both at home and work. These projects may be thoughts, ideas, or full-blown projects with multiple related tasks. All of these go into Todoist.  As an idea pops into my head I’ll open Todoist on my phone or laptop and enter it in. Every new task or idea funnels into an inbox within Todoist which I’ll later review as part of my weekly planning. (more on this later) For my calendar, I use iCal on my laptop and phone. Having just one calendar system is key. You don’t want to have a multitude of calendars scattered about the digital universe. One calendar, one system. 

    The Weekly Review

    Once a week, usually on Friday mornings,  I’ll sit down undistracted for approximately an hour to conduct my weekly review. The steps are as follows: 

    1. Process Inboxes – This is not time to do actual work. I use this time to go through my emails and the inbox on my Todoist app. I delete emails that I don’t need which is almost all of them. Emails that do require attention will go into my Todoist as a task with an assigned date.
    2. Planning and Organizing – Here I process loose paperwork and actually schedule tasks identified in Todoist. I’ll also spend time with my calendar looking at the week and month ahead. 
    3. Mind Dump – The next step is to free my brain of all of the things that I may be thinking about. Anything that I either want to do or think I might want to do gets typed out in either my Evernote or Todoist. The objective is to set my mind free. Doing so increases my chances of remembering things and allows me to do a better job at staying in the moment.  
    4. Review Todoist – One of the features of Todoist is that it archives a history of your completed tasks. I find it helpful to review what I’ve already done in the week prior. This helps build confidence that my system is working and that my productivity is measurable. 
    5. Review Long Term Goals – I credit author and blogger, Chris Guilebeau, with introducing me to the concept of conducting an annual review. You can check out his work at chrisguillebeau.com The idea here is to carve out a significant amount of undistracted time to take stock of your life. Use this time to plan and set goals for the upcoming year.  Each week, I review long-term goals that I had set for myself during my annual review. I want to be able to gauge whether or not I am on track with the things that I had planned to accomplish. If not, I assess why or why not and ask what may be holding me back. If there is a specific task that gets me closer to reaching a certain goal I’ll make sure it’s in my Todoist with an assigned date. 
    6. Ask Questions – What went well? What didn’t go so well? What should I start doing? What should I stop doing? What should I continue? 
    7. Prioritize Tasks – Looking at the week ahead I’ll map out what are the most important things that need to get done and I assign priorities to each. I use the flags within Todoist to organize and prioritize. An item marked as P1 or Priority 1 is the most important thing for that day. Once I complete those I move on to P2 and then finally to the P3 tasks. 

     Putting the plan into action

    Each day when I wake up the first thing I’ll do is crack open my laptop and practice LYT Daily. I bet you knew that I was going to say that! Why of course I practice LYT every single day!! The early morning hours are the time I get to myself. My movement practice is non-negotiable and the best time to get that done is first thing.  

    When I sit down to start my workday I’ll review my Todoist for the action items that need completion. Since I already spent time prioritizing and assigning dates to tasks during my weekly review I’ll have a road map for my day in front of me. Some tasks are reoccurring and others are not. Todoist allows a lot of flexibility to create projects with related tasks. Any task that has a date will show up in my Todoist on the date that I had assigned to it. From there it’s just a matter of checking off items from my list by using either the Todoist app on my phone or laptop. Although rare, the best days are when I can check everything off of my list. If I don’t get to everything on my list it will carry over as an overdue task on my Todoist. From there I can reassign a date to the task or just complete it at the next opportunity. 

    A few more tips 

    Remain flexible and adaptable – There are going to be days when life happens right? Things come up and that takes you off of your game. Learn to be ok with that. You just need to adjust and move on. Use your system to maintain order.

    Stay disciplined – Whatever system you use you need to be disciplined about applying the steps. It’s ok to be fluid and allow for adjustments that will enable the system to work for you. Once you commit to staying organized and productive, stick with it for a while to see if it works. If not, don’t be afraid to make adjustments as needed. 

    Be kind to yourself – I’ll let you in on a secret. I am not the most organized person in the world. I lose things often, I forget things and I don’t always stay focused. The one big thing that I have learned through the years is to allow myself some grace. Personal productivity, like many things in life, is constantly evolving. Responsibilities change, life situations change and there are many distractions we all have to contend with. Find what works for you and don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t get to everything. Keep working at it and you will soon be on the path to improved personal productivity and more freedom. 

     

    Tim Bantham

  • Never Work For Your Heroes

    Never Work For Your Heroes

    You should never work for your Heroes

     

    If the old adage “You should never meet your heroes” bears true, then I’m here to tell you, you should definitely never work for them.

     

    If you google the original warning, you’ll get search page after search page full of people corroborating the advice. 

     

    “You’ll be disappointed!” they say.

     

    “The image will be shattered!” they warn.

     

    “You’ll lose all hope in society!” they yell in all caps.

     

    I understand why people say this. I understand why the world warns you not to meet people you put on a pedestal. Let’s face it–we are all human. So it makes sense that if you meet someone you’ve placed unrealistic expectations upon…it’s probably not gonna work out for you.

     

    However, now that I’ve not only met my hero but then worked for her directly for two years….I’d like to weigh in.

     

    Y’all need to get better heroes and stop being afraid to meet them.

     

    Lara became a hero to me not because she was a brilliant recording artist, movie star, or something to that effect (although of course, she is a bit of a rock star in the yoga and PT world, let’s face it!)…she became my hero because she was genuinely a good person, with a good heart, doing good things, and cared about making people light up and be their best. She also knows how to effectively communicate all of that with grace, and never apologizes for her humanity.

     

    Her intelligence, confidence, humor, and fierce compassion for others did not let me down. It has been so inspiring to get to see Lara through life’s ups and downs and model behavior that I would like to adopt into my own life. She’s always evolving and open to change. She takes everyone’s opinions seriously. She values all life. She takes criticism with an open ear and heart and is the first to admit if she is wrong. She stands by what she says–and she gets out there and moves every day!

     

    Does this mean that she is 100% perfect all the time? Of course not! In the past two years, there have been moments where I’ve had the “C’mon Lara!” thought. But you know what–she’ll be the first to admit it. And guess what…I’m not perfect either (Thank God!) and she’s never made me feel poorly about it. She has hard days too, or things that didn’t go as well as planned, or any other of the plethora of things that make us human. But isn’t that amazing? To see your hero be a human, and understand that we are all human. To see how a genuinely amazing human responds in the face of adversity? A TRUE role model. Doesn’t that give you hope? Doesn’t it make striving to be a better person more of a realistic goal?

     

    So please, meet your heroes. If they don’t measure up to your expectations, then wouldn’t you rather know so you can find the ones that do?

     

    If you’ve met your hero and they rose to the occasion…then I’ll dare you to go one step further and work for them, because it might make you love and respect them even more.

     

    To Lara, the LYT Team, and the LYT Community….thank you for the opportunity to work with you. To serve a mission with a badass leader like Lara, hard-working souls like our team, and outstanding humans all around the world that strive to make thousands of people feel better in their bodies and minds has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I’m happy to report that Lara Heimann and all things LYT Yoga have passed the meeting and working for your heroes test, and I am honored to have been a part of the journey. 

     

    -Catherine Ferraro

    -Former COO, LYT Yoga