Motivation
Knowledge You’ll Love
Mental and Physical Detox Tips
de·tox: a process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances; detoxification.
Detoxes can be a mental and physical release of unhealthy substances. Remember that it is a process that cannot be removed from the body by following along this 14-minute class one time. Detoxes need commitment, dedication and patience. It takes time for your body to build up negative toxins, it will take a while for your body to release them.
To follow along with the full video of myself performing exercises, visit this link.
Easy seated pose with heavy breathing:
Focus on the present moment in this pose. I like to picture myself “inhaling” positive new life and “exhaling” old negative thoughts. Each pose, try and deep breathe 10 rounds of breath. Take your time in this extremely grounding pose. The focus is purely positive energy and mentally detoxing regret, self-doubt, comparison, judgement, etc.
2. Mad Cow Pose + Seated spinal twist
Mad cow pose helps open up your hamstrings and activate your intercostal core muscles, as well as your spine. Move on to seated spinal twist to allow your torso to fire up so that we can affectively to revolved crescent lunge. Focus on engaging your core the entire time. Keep your back strong, flat and elongated.
3. Down dog + three-legged dog
Benefits of downward facing dog are to ease the brain by physically allowing your stress drip off your shoulders. Breathe in this pose for a long time and center your hands and feet onto the four corners of your yoga mat. This pose is known for healing mild depression, creating energy and relieving stress (mental). Lift one leg high into three-legged dog and find the comfort in your hips that speak to your body. Maybe move your leg up and down or find tiny circles with your knees.
Begin with crescent lunge to stabilize your balance and create energy from the ground up. Draw your back heel over your toes and bend your front leg at 90 degrees. Attempt to square your hips to the front of your yoga mat. Revolved crescent lunge draws strength into your lower back, improves posture, releases toxic anxiety and negative thoughts only if you allow the pose to. For me, this pose is in no way pleasurable. Each time I perform the pose, I begin to sweat and physically feel toxins being released from my neck, shoulders and lower back. To feel full benefits, keep a long spine, engage your torso and exhale each time you find yourself twisting further.
4. Warrior 2
Warrior 2 builds stamina. Mentally and physically, your body is able to regain strength and let go of physical doubts. For however long may be, become still in this pose becoming stronger physically, while mentally conquering self-doubt, worry and fear.
5. Revolved triangle pose
This is a beautiful pose to regain balance in the body. Focus on this pose slowly, listening to your hamstrings and spine. The benefits of this twist reach further than revolved crescent lunge, due to the balance of your lower body. Strengthen your legs on the ground and focus on an upward gaze.
6. Gorilla Pose (or hands to feet pose) + prayer twist
Gorilla pose will release the tension of your lower back and neck. Fully fold your body forward and feel the tension dripping off of your back to your neck, off of your head and to your yoga mat. I like to think in this pose “drip your worries away.” Prayer twist is one of the most “popular” detoxing poses. Prayer twist and crescent lunge, as one of the greatest practical yogis states, “strengthens the low back, increases flexibility, and tones the internal organs, especially the digestive system. Energetically, it helps you wring out what you don’t need.” Kristen Kemp, June 12, 2018. Yoga Journal.
7. Crow Pose
Confidence booster!! Crow pose is one of the best ways to challenge yourself mentally, while letting go of fragile thoughts. Keep in mind, I did not fly my crow pose (feet lift off the ground) on the very first try. Crow pose needs time to build up arm and shoulder strength. In crow pose, you will have many thoughts in your head. Allow your thoughts to be confidence boosters that teach you “I am capable. I can fly. I am able. I can. I will.” You will also love the sculpted arms of crow pose aftermath!
8. Childs Pose
Childs pose is my favorite way to create peace of mind (mental). As well as physical grounding and support from the earth. Spread your fingers wide, lift your elbows off your mat, roll your forehead from temple to temple, elongate your spine and sink your hips deeply into your heels. In this pose, feel gratitude for mother earth, gratitude for your beautiful body and most importantly gratitude for oxygen. Our ability to breathe and be alive should be the main focus.
9. Eagle Pose to Dancers pose
Balancing yoga poses challenge us mentally and physically. In eagle pose, you are literally squeezing and releasing your body creating the tourniquet effect, which is compressing your body and cutting off blood and oxygen, then as you release from the twist, new flows of blood that create oxygen will travel through different parts of your body. Dancers pose creates a mental heart opener that creates vulnerability and steadfast love. You open your heart and feel vulnerable emotions that may have not come up in the past. Listen to your heart and trust in your instincts. Allow yourself to fall, laugh it off and move on.
10. Crouch and curl Pose
This pose helps to relieve the muscles in the back of your neck. For me, I struggle with a lot of neck and back pain due to improper posture and sleeping funky. Curl your forehead to your knees and allow the tension from the back of your neck to become at ease. Take this pose slowly with caution. Maybe add the balance aspect by lifting your hands off the ground.
11. Legs up the wall pose
This is how I deal with my anxiety on the daily. All you need is a flat surface + your body. Try and lift your legs at the point where they feel weightless or rest them upon a wall. Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. You can also reach your hands out to a T, palms facing up for energy receiving and palms facing down for grounding. As you lie in this pose, close your eyes and feel your belly lifting and lowering to the sounds of your breath. Begin to meditate on the things you are grateful for. Become grateful for the opportunity to let go and live on.
Namaste,
Tate
Happiness
Something huge that I have been obsessing over lately is “am I going to be happy after college.”
As many of you know, I graduated college in the fall and our final term was tragically interrupted by a virus. I was genuinely in such a happy place with my living situation, Jesus, my major, work, my boyfriend, friends and family. My levels of comfort in this stage of life were extremely high. I was in a very great place mentally, physically and emotionally.
As you all know, we enter stages of life and some can feel extremely fun and exciting, others can feel more depressing and fragile.
Personally at the moment, this stage of life is extremely intimidating. I have fears of finding a future career that I’m in love with and fears of forgetting what makes me truly happy!!
The best way to pursue happiness is to create it, give it and be it.
Create it
I like to find time in people and personal hobbies when I forget what makes me happy. Currently, I find myself painting jackets or doing yoga to help me become more centered and at peace in doing what I enjoy.
What we really need in life should be what makes us happy. If it doesn’t make you happy, you don’t need it.
Here are some things that can create more happiness:
⁃ God + Godly influence
⁃ Stable friendships / romantic relationships
⁃ A hobby
⁃ A purpose
“What if I don’t know what makes me happy”
To create happiness, you need to start somewhere. I strongly encourage to meet new people, take time to pursue self love and try new things!! If your love is being consumed by things that are not making you happy, come to the realization that there are things that you need to let go. And never feel bad for letting go of people that take your happiness away. Learn from the experience and keep moving forward.
Give it
The base of happiness can be found in the service of others. This is when you find true humility and clarity in your overall purpose. Personally, I have found that being selfish doesn’t make the happiness last long. Giving people your time, listening and being present can help create happiness in your life and for someone else.
If you can’t figure out happiness in your personal life, you cannot give what you don’t have. Once you have created personal happiness, begin to ask yourself what can I do to make a loved one happy.
Be it
Ask yourself if you’re not happy then what’s the cause? I have learned that there are many things in life that take your happiness away. People, comparison, greed, materialistic things, etc. learn to live with letting go of the things that do not serve you. The things that are not making you better every single day. Once you let go of the pain that’s holding you down, you choose to pursue the things in life that make you happy.
No matter how intimidating this stage of life is, I choose to be happy in the process. I choose to feel centered by loving the things that matter the most. Try making someone else happy today, see how it makes you feel.
Love && Light
Tate
7 Steps to a Clear Foundation
I have been thinking a lot about this silly and sweet video I saw on TikTok. It was this video clip of a sweet girl sharing a sermon she watched that discussed how women today often times meet men half way, instead of making the men pursue them like the bible says.
In summary, she spoke about women being at the top of this mountain. The mountain is a very high point in life where they are in a healthy relationship with God, they love themselves and honor their bodies. Basically at an all time high with their life body, and spirit. Then all of a sudden they see a man at the bottom of the mountain that is hollering for them and saying “hey beautiful, why don’t you come down here.” And the woman often responds with “why don’t you just meet me half way.” This half way point is a halfway relationship with God and a halfway relationship with a man which is never going to be result in true happiness.
I think about this often not only in my romantic relationship but in friendships as well. In college, the amount of peer pressure is inevitable because it is something that will be with us at all stages of life. Peer pressure is often times how the devil will form how he wants to control and take your life. This peer pressure can come to an end when you have created a sturdy foundation for your life. When we are at the top of the mountain, we have to gain control of our lives so that no temptation has the ability to make us think we need to meet it half way in honor of feeling real love and completion. I have written down some steps that have made me feel complete in my foundation, these are steps I physically write down when I feel like temptation is wanting me to act, think or react in certain ways.
How to gain full control of your life:
Create your foundation
Root down your faith in a higher power, create a safe environment for where you live and prioritize family relationships. Whatever it is that you believe in, a higher power will humble you into a divine wholesome surrender. For me, this is the thought of knowing that nothing will be perfect and God has control over the things that I do not. He is my shelter through the storm because I know that God would never put me through a hurricane just so that I would drown. I also find myself humbled in the fact that a divine power is so gentle, loving, selfless and ENORMOUS always has my best interest. ME. My heart. Imperfect and all, he loves me anyway. This strong foundation is rooted through faith, hope and prayers. I also have learned that as I grow older that family is destined with you for a reason. If you have struggle within your family home, do not ever give up in the effort of fixing this relationship.
Find a passion
Find creative, healthy, life goals for every stage of your life. Whatever your heart is inflamed by, seek it to the fullest potential. Singers, sing! Dancers, dance! Do this for you so that you allow the creative part of your brain to be fueled which can help reduce stress in your life. My passion is being a fitness instructor, this also takes a lot from my health mentally and physically. You cannot teach someone anything if you do not have enough inspiration inside of your cup. I become inspired when I workout, that is my passion. I feel like I am working out to let go of the bleak that is inside of me so that I have room for more wholesome energy to fill into my cup. If you do not have a passion, dedicate a week of your life to finding one. I promise it is meant to be a driving force that you want to wake up and pursue every day.
Know your worth
Be confident in your being. This is not just in your body, but in your brain and your spirit as well. Knowing your worth can impact how you treat other people because when you let love flow from the inside of your soul, it will radiate to everyone that is honored enough to be in your presence. Knowing your worth is sometimes hard to do, but it is a skill that will enhance how you see yourself. As well as how you allow others to treat you.
Serve others
Mahatma Gandhi says “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I heard this quote two years ago when I was entering yoga teacher training, and it has changed my life ever since. With this quote in mind, I began volunteering for the church services to watch the children which has spoken to who I want to become. This is something that we make excuses for and say we never have time to do. I fall into this category of creating excuses as well. But the reality is that people are more important. Create selfless qualities by sacrificing time in your day to make someone else’s life a little easier. It will always be worth it.
Speak your truth
Communicate YOUR VOICE. This thought is in honor of representing Visuddha, also known as your throat chakra. (If you have no idea what the 7 chakras are, I advise that you look into them. You do not have to believe in them to learn something from them. They also correlate with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which is CRAZY because this is an unexplained coincidence that speaks to human creation.) I used to be the type of person that did not speak my truth and I let others speak into it for me. Through the practice of balancing this chakra, I have focused on more “I feel” “I am” oriented sentences that allow my voice to correlate with my mind, body and spirit. Speak your truth everyday. Be frank. Say something that is blunt. Always keep in mind the feelings of others, but protect your heart first with your truth.
Be intuitive
Allow your vision to become more clear, use your imagination, create conceptive clear thoughts. This is where the phrase ‘trust your instincts’ comes into power. We have them for a reason. It may be your higher power trying to direct you into a certain direction or your fight or flight instinct, but these feelings that are body naturally create are in our life for a reason. Furthermore, the creative imagination is something that can help clear your head for the betterment of your mindfulness. When we let life get so boring, following our daily to do lists, we do not leave room for happiness to lurk in which causes a lot of sadness in our life. That is when we feel like something is missing. A way that I practice this is through visual arts. Even though I am not an artist, I love to draw pictures so that my mind can focus on something that is not going to stress me out.
Praise your higher power
This is represented through universal love, strong faith, wisdom and understanding of all beings. Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu– may all beings everywhere be happy and free. This is something I wish everyone could grasp with the concept. Our society today already has so much hate, bitterness, envy, jealousy and negativity. If people were truthfully happy in their foundation, all of this would go away. One of the ways I do this is by giving thanks to the Lord for creating me, for creating my “enemies” and creating my life. It has never been anywhere close to perfect, but I would not want to have it any other way. The struggles my God has put me through has created my character, as well as enhanced my faith to teach me that with God, all things can be possible.
You can be the queen or king of your life. You have the power to not allow other people to tell you how to live, who to be or how you should act. When you insert these foundations in your life, you will find that you feel more freedom in your authentic being. If necessary, take time away from people and create a strong foundation. This is why a lot of celebrities end up losing who they are. They do not have a strong enough foundation in private, so they do not know who to be in public. Remember, God is the endless pursuit that will meet you all the way. He will not ask that you meet him half way in honor of feeling loved. To my sisters, He will bring the right man that will help you stay on top of the mountain, and he will encourage you to always be there.
Xo, T
Five Tips to Strengthen your Yoga Practice
One of the first things to remember when practicing Yoga is that it is a lifestyle of change, endurance and perseverance. When committing your mind, body and soul into your practice, remember these five steps.
Breathe
Remember to breathe throughout this practice. I know it sounds obvious, but often times I find myself holding my breathe in difficult poses until my face turns red. To learn how to breathe in an intense pose, close your eyes and feel your lungs become full of air, then slowly release until you have no air left to release. There are many breathing exercises you can find online to help different breathing techniques. One that I recommend is Ujjayi Pranayama, this is when you find yourself breathing in and out of your nose.
2. Avoid comparison
Comparison is something that I struggle with today when I watch yoga goddesses such as Jessica Olie or Hannah from @gypsyon__. However, I constantly remind myself that at one point in time, they were struggling along their journey, just as I. We all start our yoga practice at a different place mentally and physically. With this in mind, there is no reason to compare your body or practice to another due to the fact that simply… they are not YOU. The best part of your practice is that it is a spiritual awakening that only you get to encounter. Avoid allowing other people to feel this for you.
3. Meditate
True mediation is done when the mind is clear, and there is only a small focus. When practicing yoga, I strongly encourage turning off your mind and inner thoughts. Avoid thinking about your to-do list, what you are going to eat next and what your plans are for the day. When indulged in true meditation, you find new strengths within your internal perspective being brought into light, and at times, weaknesses arise that you must face.
4. Repetition
In order to complete your goal within a certain pose, whether that is to become deeper, hold it longer or simply just perform the pose, you must constantly dedicate time to this practice. In my journey, I spent 6 weeks performing half pigeon, in order to perform the splits more comfortably. Today, I can get into the splits with little proper stretching. Due to this repetition, my muscles were conformed to stretching in ways that I find pleasure, rather than discomfort. I strongly encourage repetition because practice creates permanence! (Not perfection because that should not be the goal.)
5. Patience
Lastly, and most importantly, patience is the biggest life lesson yoga teaches on and off your yoga mat. Patience is the ability to realize that your journey is not going to be like your friends, or like the beautiful yogis of Instagram. Patience will teach you endurance in a way that helps benefit your mindset and learn to just be within the moment. Patience is practicing a pose every day for six months to feel the benefits at hand. Patience is encouraging yourself to take things slow, because within time, all things will work in your favor.
Thank you for reading my steps to improve your practice. As always, I hope your yoga journey is thriving with desire.
Love&&Light,
T