Quarantine – the ultimate Svadyaya (Self-Enquiry)

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I landed back in the UK from Ibiza on the dawn of a new quarantine.
 
With two young children and – fortunately – a beautiful cottage on the side of a village, which overlooks vegetable gardens full of butterflies.
 
And, In spite of landing into an area of outstanding natural beauty I watched my ego mind spiral into frustration, anger, resistance of every teenage type
I became the victim of the circumstances….  I felt trapped, en-caged and enraged.  I lobbied the local MP and checked the WhatsApp streams every 2 hours to see how the government talks were unfolding. 
 
And then…
 
* I reminded my ego mind that I, me, Larah, personally, had made the choice to book the flights at exactly that time, on exactly that flight, and I had felt guided to do so. 
 
* I reminded my ego mind that, if I could surrender this resistance, I could, instead EMBRACE this opportunity to fully retreat, to ground and earth into England’s deep, replenishing green grass, soothing summer sunshine and wise and ancient trees.
 
*  I chose to celebrate this opportunity for deep Svādhyāya – the Sanskrit term which describes one of the yogic Niyamas, which means self-study, self-observation.  
 
* Arising early each morning (6am) to run, practice my yoga and meditate just after dawn, before the rest of the village arose.
I chanted mantras and meditated on the GIFTS that this situation was giving me, and enquired about the higher purpose of this experience, for me, at this precise moment in time. I wrote and mind-mapped and doodled and reflected, 
 
* I focussed on appreciating and loving every moment, every opportunity to receive the food being delivered, to pick the fresh beetroot from the garden, to soften with my children into a gentler rhythm without driving a car or interacting with too many other people. 
* I could see the magic of this time again and all the butterflies and nature just blossoming and blooming and thriving. All around me.  
 
* I could feel myself “dropping in”, my nervous system restoring despite regular high-wattage screams from my dynamic golden three year old, 
 
* Sleeping deep and rising with the dawn, this state of deep rest creates space for new inspirations to arise  Literally to breathe deep – t”ins spire” and to see things and life more clearly, to feel deeply aligned with my purpose, with visions and ideas and new “inspirations” arising. 
 
My overall sense of presence, expanded and life-became-mindfulness… walking with feet barefoot on the grass and the earth daily, rooting and grounding into the here and my patience with the children, which, lets be honest, is the ultimate “litmus test” deepened and expanded too.  Because, as I softened and became more aware of my own life state, moment-by-moment, I could be more present with and connected to them.  Because in the end, our children, are our ultimate life gurus – the clearest ponds that provide mirrors for our self-reflection.
 
And I genuinely feel deeply grateful, that spirit, creator: LIFE! gave me this extra opportunity to remember this.
 
 
Wishing you ALL well in your own inner-journeys of Svadhyaya….    
 
 
With love and blessings.

EASING out of Lockdown…

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Support to ride those human-evolution waves…

By Larah Davis, Founder and Co-Director of Ibiza Retreats

As country by country, the world begins to open up its flight routes again, how are you feeling, deep in your belly?

 Are you feeling ready to live better, happier, healthier from the learnings of this Global Pause?
Here are 5 keys to support you to Ease out of Lockdown – and ride the human-evolution waves
1. Get grounded – you deserve to feel safe and WELL in your own skin!
Are you feeling as safe and clear and strong as you deserve to?
The “collective conscious” can have a positive or negative impact on how you are feeling.  This is the “energy field” between you and everyone else around you…  in your community, in your online communities and this energy passes through emails, whatsap groups and facebook newsfeeds.
So every day – begin your day – not on the phone or social media, but by sitting on the earth and taking 5 deep breaths from your heart, to your belly to the earth.
Affirm by TAPPING into your thymus gland: “I am safe, I am well, I am strong”
2. Get centered into your own personal power! 
Choose what you are listening to and reading to begin your days with a positive, loving and empowering foundation before reaching out into the outer world for other information.
Get out of your head and into your body by stepping out of bed consciously and entering yourself.
Ground into your feet and inhale your arms above your help, press your palms together and exhale your hands back to your heart to find your center again.
Repeat during the day whenever you need to restore equilibrium.
 
3. Breathe deep and Choose information that helps you feel Strong, Well and Good
Inhale deeply and exhale even more deeply when you are reading ANY information coming through – from friends/family/news stories.
Yes it is important to stay “awake and aware:.
Yet even more important is YOUR WELLBEING FIRST – so whether you choose to believe it or not –  “be strong” to whatever comes your way.
Rather than letting it affect you in a fearful or unbalancing way.
Remember – The choice is YOURS (and you have the free will to believe or not believe, to listen or to change the channel to beautiful healing music!)
4. Reflect and Rewire! 
Have you gathered the insights and learnings from the enforced Global Pause to be able to re-emerge wiser, clearer and with “reset” priorities that focus first on your health, happiness and overall wellbeing – and that of your family, friends and mother nature?
This re-emergence is a phenomenal opportunity – to ride the waves of transformation that began when we had to sit still, turn inwards and navigate our inner-terrirotires.
Because when you can note down what you have noticed, about what felt new, or good in this Global Pause, what enabled your body and your nervous system – and maybe even your mind – to relax in ways you had forgotten…. you can Rewire your mind to focus on the way you WANT to approach life, your friendships, your social interactions, your family time, your working life – from a place of integration.   Where you have integrated YOUR truth, your needs, how you are feeling day to day, with what you choose to share with the outside world.
5. Lets go slow – and TRUST in life’s flow
There has been so much breaking down of old ways…. systems, businesses, old ways of living, expectations and relationships
Trust is a seed that we need to plant deep once again
Plant it with your intention “I trust in life”.
Cultivate Trust by proactively appreciating all the positive aspects of these challenging times, all the knowledge and learnings that have arisen.
Now go slow to deepen the connection to your self – your innate wisdom and those “quiet messages” from your intuition which will help you trust in life’s flow and allow the universe – through friends, family and synchronistic situations, ensure that your needs can be met.
It is a practice. to ease out of lockdown in the way that serves YOU – so that you can also choose to SERVE the world, by being a LIVING part of this HUMAN R-EVOLUTION – by honouring yourself, your intuition and your truth.
Day by day.
It is a practice….
And we are here, via whatsap, email and phone, to support you!
Feeling wobbly? Needing support through this transition?
 
Larah and Susie are offering 1:1 Zooms to clear the fears and anxieties and help you clarify YOUR path forward, integrating Quantum Coaching, Breathwork and Yoga Therapy.
You can email info@ibizaretreats.com for more information, or call us if you want to chat to a friendly human voice for all the details on 0034 663 093 499.
Or join our R-Evolution Retreat in September – where Larah and Susie will be with you as your co-creator life-guides!
Lets hold hearts and hands and KNOW that our WORLD is WELL and we are ALL on this transformational ride!

Bringing Yoga for Kids to schools in Ibiza

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Peaceful Warriors – bringing Yoga 4 Kids into the schools of Ibiza – by Larah Davis.

It happened as a calling.  With our own children in the schooling system we – Suzanne Faith, Diana Naya and myself, sat together in December last year, and shared our deep, and heartfelt, calling to bring Yoga – and its many benefits – into the schools of Ibiza. 
And we want to welcome YOU to join in our “peaceful warriors” movement where we will be creating weekly spaces for children to explore many forms of movement, with yogic awareness, as part of this exciting and oh-so timely initiative. With screens entering children’s lives at younger and younger ages, the human need to connect, with each other as well as one’s self, has never been more apparent. 

 

And so, this April we are introducing Yoga4Kids into the Santa Gertrudis school with our intention being to spread this “movement movement’ for kids to benefit from enjoying yoga as part of their curriculum, throughout all the schools in Ibiza – and beyond.
If you are a parent, teacher or yoga teacher who feels “the call” to join us – on March 22nd – 24th we are offering a 20 hour training for all who are interested in learning this fabulous toolkit to enrich the lives of our children – and enhance their educational experience and overall wellbeing. 
It is an inner-peace movement to enable our children to maximise their gifts and to connect to their body, breath, mind, heart and each other. It is a program which cultivates space for children to express and release in a non-competitive environment. So yes! It is also VERY useful for enhancing family life at home.

This training was developed by internationally renowned teacher Suzanne Faith who will be leading the course, supported by Larah Davis Yoga Teacher/Therapist and Founder of Ibiza Retreats with Diana Naya Mindful-yoga teacher and conscious education devotee translating into Spanish. Suzanne developed the programme and introduced it successfully into schools in Vancouver. It is a program that addresses strength and flexibility, nourishes creativity, creates emotional strength, invites self-acceptance, cooperation, collaboration, general body awareness, coordination and balance, self-discipline and builds mindfulness and concentration.

Yoga4Kids builds awareness around nature, animals and the environment, and gives kids important skills for interacting in social environments. It also teaches lessons in kindness, compassion, leadership, respect, teamwork and self-awareness. It’s magical and utterly FUN! Expect to dance, jump, express and sing!

This 20 hr Kids Yoga Teacher Training is a comprehensive and practical certification course.  You will be given the tools in order to teach yoga within local schools and it will provide you with tangible knowledge and plenty of amazing ideas to create unique and fun yoga experiences for kids.
The course is the perfect opportunity for enabling your own kids tribe to become a real team.
Course timings:
Fri March 22nd 15.00 – 19.00
Sat & Sun March 23rd & 24th – 09.00 – 18.00
Prerequisite: A passion for yoga and a minimum of three years of a yoga practice
Price: €295
Location: Open Space, Santa Gertrudis, Ibiza
For further information: YOGA 4 Kids — Suzanne Faith Yoga

Clear the Fears – and do it anyway!

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By Larah Davis – Co Director of Ibiza Retreats

 

My amazing teacher, Louise Mita, is coming back to Ibiza next week.
And I am so, so happy.  When she is here, reactivating my tools of mental mastery and higher healing she helps me diffuse fears, worries and anxieties with love.
With awareness that all these feelings surface from a collective consciousness (well mostly!) under Louise’s guidance, not only do I remember to clear them, but together we turn these ripples of ‘clearing-through-the-fears’ outwards, to expand for the higher good, love, peace and solutions of planet-saving ideas, to surface within our society.
Having travelled off the White Island to Mexico and beyond this Winter, I was able to see the world beyond our “Ibiza-bubble” much more clearly.
I could see, feel and hear the different realities being experienced in other countries and cultures and how these can have a knock-on affect on one another.
I saw, felt and sensed a lot of fear – about what is happening to our planet, no – about what WE as a human-race (which is truly RACING!!!) is doing to our beautiful planet.
The oceans coughing up plastic onto beaches after storms, the excess seaweed (metres and metres of it) covering half of the caribbean sea and littering the Mexican beaches, due to warming-oceans and excess nitrates in the soils of Central America washing into the seas (Thank YOU farmers RACING to create MORE food which we mostly turn to refuse!)
And I have to admit, I felt a sense of fear. I felt shocked, afraid, of what the human race is doing, that it is out of control and hurting our planet – as much as ourselves.
BUT! As I have learned with my trainings with Louise – and which my heart already knew:
* Fear ignites Fear
* Love inspires Love
   AND
* Love CONQUERS Fear – physically, emotionally and energetically.
Founder of Integrative Quantum Medicine™, Louise Mita is an Internationally renowned Energy Master and Hawaiian Kahuna, who developed this simple-yet-powerful self-and-others healing technique after studying Chinese Medicine and higher schools of Martial Arts over decades, gleaning the master keys and pearls of wisdom that she simplified into the IQM™ system.
It fuses Quantum Theory (yep – that is the REALLY cool bit where mind-meets matter and you realise, through the exercises with her, that you DO have the power to change EVERYTHING – to BE anything and everything you wish to be AND that, actually, you ARE already flipping AMAZING!).  Anyhow – (I love this stuff so much, I get carried away) – it integrates Quantum Theory with Chinese Medicine and Western Anatomy and Physiology – giving you the keys to MASTER the ‘monkey mind’ when it feels sucked in and spiralled down by fear.
Louise hands you the tools, techniques, the KNOW-how and the energy infusions to optimise your wellbeing, health and happiness in DAILY LIFE.  And this helps me, tremendously, as I MINDFULLY observe emotional triggers about Brexit, about the schooling system, about Syria, about the rubbish on the beaches and the Cargo ships simply dumping loads of toxic garbage into the Ocean.
The MORE I direct my thoughts based on LOVE for myself, LOVE for my closer circles and world-community, LOVE for the ignorant, “RACING” humans, the more the energy, thoughts and actions around this soften.
This gives space for SOLUTIONS to arise.  
It is our children mostly, the next generation, who live in this LOVE state frequency and who, uninhibited by fears of “what others will think” express creatively their ideas, opinion and exquisite ideas for cleaning up our oceans, healing our rivers, delivering education programs and alternative farming solutions.
So let’s join together this year – to be, share and FEEL the power of love, for ourselves, each other and our planet.  
JOIN US!
For an incredible Integrative Quantum Medicine™ Immersion – Art of Stress Management & Art of Energy Parenting workshops on the 4th and 5th of  March – Followed by the IQM Level 1 and 2 trainings on March 7th and 8th then the 10th and 11th.
The training is hosted at our own stunning retreat venue in the North of Ibiza and we can build a retreat package for you around the workshop and training dates.
And if not…. invest in LOVE on retreat, in yoga, on the mat, on the meditation cushion – but mostly, please, in NATURE – where nature reflects back to us that ALL creation, all of it, this magical wonder around us, comes from a place of love.
Feel free to get in touch with me personally via Whatsapp if you would like to know more about these incredible workshops and trainings,
on 0034 670 248 292.
Have a beautiful day!
Love Larah x
festive hearty stew

Nourishing Festive Butternut Squash Stew

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As the festive season approaches, most of us will over-indulge with food & drinks that can leave us feeling miserable & sluggish. So here’s a nourishing easy quick and affordable recipe that will fill you and the family up in all the right ways.

Butternut Squash Stew.

Ingredients :
1 Butternut Squash
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of cayenne
small jar of organic tomatoes (or 3 finely chopped tomatoes)
1 jar of Organic chick peas (or 1 cup dried and soaked overnight)
2 large handfuls of kale.
1 gluten free vegetable stock cube
1 lime
1 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast (optional)

Quinoa or brown rice to serve alongside.

Heat a teaspoon of coconut oil and fry the garlic for just 1 minute so it doesn’t burn and add all the spices. Chop the butternut squash into cubes and add. Once you smell the spices, add the stock which you have added to 750ml boiling water, and then the organic tomatoes (if using fresh add them at the beginning before the stock) Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 20 minutes (until the butternut squash is tender) Next, add the chick peas, kale, lime & nutritional yeast and leave to simmer for another 10 minutes)
In the photo, mine is served with mixed red & white quinoa which adds even more to the wonderful colours of the dish.

This recipe is a perfectly balanced dish, providing plenty of protein from the chickpeas & quinoa, carbohydrates from the butternut squash. It’s also a good source of of B6 which is essential for our nervous system & immune system,  and the kale – which I refer to as the ‘King of Greens’ as it is a nutritional powerhouse; super-high in nutrients, such as Iron. vitamin k and vitamin C.

This is a great meal for all the family – warming, filling and packed full of nutrients – and so simple to make!

Made with love, by Lisa Strong of Strong 4 Life Nutrition