Mother Nature knows best

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How often do you take time in nature to relax and ‘just be’? If you are working in a city, or even in blissful Ibiza, spending a long time behind a laptop, or on the omnipresent iPhone, means the radiation from the screens and the over-stimulation of the senses, can send you into a heightened state of headiness, or over-exhilaration. Whether you just need to take a break from typing, or are feeling excessively tired, low or stressed – rather than popping some pills, opening a bottle or having a meltdown, try a more natural remedy this springtime to release the nervous energy and build-up of emotions, see the bigger picture again and remember what you are really here for.

Nature inspires, enriches and provides new perspectives – from cliff tops, at sunrise, or even during your lunch break in the centre of a city. As you step off the cement and onto green grass, rust red Ibiza soil, sand or into the sea, you’ll instantly feel any tightness and tension unwind downwards as you start grounding the body. Just 10 minutes can put you into a complete ‘break state’, resetting your emotional thermometer to peaceful and cool. Just do it: get away from the desk, from the house-tasks and from the ‘have tos’, re-find your self and your inner-peace amongst all-accepting Mother Nature.

To oxygenate and revitalise the whole system, consciously take 10 deep breaths of fresh, clean air. Yes – even in cities! Find a place with some trees – they are the city’s lungs, recycling carbon dioxide and producing fresh oxygen continually – and get up close and breath deeply. As you inhale deeply, through your nose specifically, you are inhaling up the ‘ida and pingala’ – two energy pathways that intertwine down to the base of your spine. As you breathe in the fresher air, your nervous system can start to relax. Even better if you’re in Ibiza, where you can walk through rosemary bushes and pine trees – drinking in the uplifting and revitalising aromatherapy in addition to fresh oxygen.

The colour green is the colour of the heart chakra, and is proven to be soothing and deeply calming. As you look around at it, observe yourself – you may feel your chest opening and expanding, your breath softening and shoulders relaxing. Notice how good it feels to look around at wider, more open spaces. Feel the way that looking around at the colour green relaxes your eyes. If walking along the beach, the blue hue of the sea is also the colour of flow and great for healing. Looking out at the horizons and the vastness of sea and sky will literally, open your mind.

Step out of the ‘have to’ head of the ‘switched on’ life you have created, and feel how much easier it is to put the many tasks and responsibilities of daily life to one side when you can see the beauty of the blossoms opening, the vibrant green fronds and leaves, and the grass beneath your feet. Let nature see you as you truly are: in your strength and vulnerability. Come ‘home’ to your real self and feel back in to who you really are… naturally.

Spring clean your body, detox your mind

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How are you feeling at the end of the winter? Even if you are a regular gym goer, outdoors exercise lover or passionate yogi, chances are you have been spending the majority of time, not least because of the colder weather, inside lately. Winter time often sees us being more ‘indoors’ and ‘inwards focused’. The colder weather and longer, darker, nights encourage us to hibernate – and rightly so! Winter is the time of year for the ‘inner work’ as we say in Ibiza, and now, as the beautiful almond blossoms appear on the trees signifying the change of season, are you feeling your whole being wanting to open, expand and grow? How can you release the last of the winter blockages and step into spring with a clear focus, positive intentions and an energised, spring in your stride?

Well… It’s all about a good spring clean!
  • Physically. Work with springtime energies to do a physical detox or cleanse. There are many ways to do this, including juicing and raw foods. We love Verity Smith’s door-to-door nutritionist facilitated juice cleanses, tailored to your personal needs. Or if you are looking to retreat and detox on a deeper level, try Ilona Pantel-Ayal’s amazing holistic fasts held high on a mountain top in the beautiful Buddha House incorporating reflexology, massage, visualisations and many other supportive techniques. Otherwise, you can simply choose to lighten up your larder (and your life!) by eliminating stimulants like caffeine, good old PG Tips, sugar, wheat, dairy and all the stodgy carbs that, whilst great for winter warmth fuel, can feel heavy and unnecessary for the approaching warmer months.
  • Mentally. As you detox the body, you also create space to clear and cleanse the mind. Inevitably, stuff will come up! This ‘stuff’ could be things you may have been avoiding or things you have been seeking clarity on. Any situations in relationships, or in life, which are not clear will beckon your attention. Having a good holistic life coach or detox guide is vital to be able to reconcile and release any challenging emotions. The Just Stop! lifestyle detox retreats offer wonderful, fully-facilitated support so you can dig deep and transform any poison into medicine.
  • Energetically. When cleansing your system, you can expect to feel tired during the first couple of days. So long, slow walks in nature, gentle yoga and stretching are vital for supporting your lymphatic system to purify, calling on you to breathe more deeply and consciously. The yogic ‘pranayama’ techniques lengthen the breath, to expand the intake of new ‘prana’ or life force energy and enable deeper release of ‘apana’ or old, toxic, waste energy.
  • Spiritually. As you clear your space internally, it opens up a connection to your inner self, the deeper, truer part of you that enables you to know when you really are on your right path. This is a great time to consider your life purpose and how you are treating yourself and others in your life. Take time out to ask yourself those important questions and to connect with your potential for creating incredible projects this year.
  • Environmentally. Move through your home with some sage or palo santo, or good quality incense to intentionally clear the space in each room. Now be brave! Veto all the things in your physical environment that do not bring you feelings of peace, calm or happiness, and yes – that includes clothes! Follow the three-word rule: recycle, re-sell or retain. If there are things around you that don’t feel good to look at and are catching even a millisecond of your unconscious attention, they are potential energy drains. Get rid of them!
So what are the benefits?

You will soon notice how much clearer and lighter you feel. You will rest better, sleep better and feel stronger, calmer and more energised. Your appetite will diminish and you will be able to listen to your body more, to continue to eat and drink things that really are good and right for you and your system. Your home will become a place where you can relax and refuel and your ‘inner-world’ will also feel more peaceful as you listen to your inner guidance system more effectively. Welcome to living your life in flow!

Find more information here about Ibiza Retreats Just Stop! retreats – the perfect escape for an inner spring clean.

Wellness consultant: How to harmonise your heart

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What helps you feel most nourished and filled up with (self) love? Do you relish the energy given off by radiator-like friends? Do you sparkle like a star from the buzz of good social events? Or do you prefer the natural energy you receive from walks amongst flowers, grass and trees or from the sounds of crashing waves along a beach?

The heart is about one million times stronger electrically than the brain, so for a life of health and happiness (and therefore, sustainable success), keeping your heart’s energy charged can only happen when you nourish yourself holistically.

Whether you love the feel of a vibrant city or the sensory infusion of a colourful music-filled symphony, nourishing yourself in body, heart and mind is important.

  • Boost your body strength and beauty via exercise, oxygenating your system with hikes and walks outside, practicing yoga to tone and get your prana (life-force energy) flowing
  • Massage your mind with mindfulness in every day life by downloading this app and turning any testing tube-journeys into headspace practices that focus the mental-monkey-chatter and massage your inner-mind
  • Harmonise your heart and soul by using the power of appreciation to open and expand your heart’s vibration. The heart’s energy field is like a cyclical torus (imagine a doughnut shape) with energy flowing through, up and out. Where attention goes, energy flows – everything is energy.

It has been proven that as you point your focus on what you can appreciate – whether it is the warmth of the sun, or having functioning, healthy legs to walk on – you begin to notice much more of the good stuff you are so fortunate to have happening within and around you. Rather than getting stuck on what is exhausting and frustrating, or otherwise feeling negative, your awareness about the good stuff expands. Check out this TED talk by Mike Robbins – to find out more.

Simply put, appreciating external things nourishes you fully – the good thoughts and feelings multiply, helping you happily harmonise.

The heart is also five million times more magnetic than the brain. Like the ripples that expand outwardly when you drop a stone into a pond, by choosing one thing each day to nourish each part of your inner and outer self, your positive feelings and thoughts – in essence, your vibrations – will send out this message to the world around you. Being the magnet you are, you will start attracting more nourishing people, clients and situations into your life and become more nourishing for others via your energy.

Just Stop! and Surrender

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Sometimes its time to Just Stop! and Surrender.… I was driving through the beautiful Ibizan countryside yesterday and I reached a red-light – most unusual in these small roads and natural surrounds – and my inner-mind spoke up: “hmmmm – it must be time to Just Stop! “ I laughed to myself: it had been a beautiful, memorable, yet intense few weeks, many wonderful clients and amazing, transformational retreats, gorgeous boat trips and sacred family time.  Yet not much down time…  So what was missing?  Why was I feeling this? Because I needed some slow-down time for me.  I saw a negative thought flash through my consciousness: “I am so sick of driving everywhere” And, just as the universe works with such precision to bring us exactly what we are asking for, my beautiful white jeep shortly stopped… just like that! At the bottom of a small hill.   And so that… was that.  I had to Just Stop! and Surrender.

* I noticed myself feeling relieved, as I rearranged appointments.  I accepted and even embraced the situation with the insight that this was going to be a beautiful learning curve and was what my soul was actually asking for, the jeep was faithfully towed to the mechanics leaving me… car-free for 24 hours at least !

* I was able to slow down as I surrendered and began to let go of control.  

* I breathed deeply into my belly and trusted that we would find ways to easily manage the many intricacies of work and family life gently and easily.

* I allowed  my husband to drive me and my son to his school.  We then did something we have not done together often since our son was born, my husband and I returned to feeling as light and free as teenagers, as we took an early morning swim together in the glittering emerald waters of Benirras beach.  I felt cheeky little tickles as fish nibbled my legs and announced their presence and, with no control over when we were leaving… I felt my mind quieten into a deep, blue, calm as I immersed myself in the waters and enjoyed the incredible majestic cliffs and rock formations, the morning light, the peace…

The rest of the day just flowed…. with a natural rhythm, from meetings and clients to lunch and emails.

And me? I softened, I felt myself enter this sacred feminine place that is gentler, more open, receptive, as I allowed others to take the actions necessary, which I did not try to control and which they, therefore, did with pleasure and with ease.

And as I descended further into this beautiful “softer” realm, my intuition became clearer, and I experienced many wonderful insights about other areas of my life that I need to “prune” this autumn, to purify and release, in order to conserve my energy and to secure more sacred, car-free, natural-letting-go time for me.

It was time to create some Autumn exhale time :0)

Join us for our Just Stop! Retreat in October and come share more of this surrendering-into-softness and enjoy the gentle new energy that can flow.

 

Thank you for reading! And have an amazing, go-with-the-flow day.

 

 

All love and lots of light x Larah x

 

“Walk in Beauty” Women’s Retreat

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The Dalai Lama has said, that women will heal the world.  Yet first we need to heal ourselves and rediscover our beauty and feminine strengths to inspire the changes to flow.  From October 9th – 12th Zorah Leduc and Ilona Pantel-Ayel welcome women from all over the world to find strength and receive inner-healing in this powerful women’s circle as you meditate, dance, sing and through rituals, weave new medicine for strength and inner-healing into your life.  Through this carefully guided three day ceremony you will deepen your innate connection to mother earth and will feel your connection with all that is.  As you explore the simplicity of shamanic rituals that allow your female wisdom to arise, you will experience the blessing of inner-silence and open up to a new appreciation of your own beauty, learn techniques to cultivate and maintain this, your fitness and physical wellbeing, with nutritional details shared by detox and fasting expert and multi-level therapist and medicine woman, Ilona.   Zorah and Ilona will lead you with with wisdom that encourages you to reconnect with your own.  And just by being there, you will feel new gratitude for the tremendous beauty around you – in the stunning eco-setting of Ibiza’s most beautiful mountain top retreat: : “Buddha House”.

3 day workshop 295 euros

Food and accommodation: 49, 69, or 95 euros per day – please email us for further details.