The Living Clearly Method: 5 Principles for a Fit Body, Healthy Mind & Joyful Life - Softcover

Baldwin, Hilaria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1623366984 ISBN 13: 9781623366988

Verlag: Rodale Books, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Hilaria Baldwin knows what it means to be pulled in many directions—as a mother of three, businesswoman, yoga instructor, Instagram sensation, and wife of actor Alec Baldwin, she has to work hard to remain centered. Through her life experiences, struggles, and personal growth, Hilaria has developed a method for using movement and mindfulness to create an unbreakable mind-body connection, an illuminating method that shapes her life.

The Living Clearly Method shows how to blend purposeful movement with conscious breath to move through our lives with grace, calm, and positivity. By using Hilaria’s five simple principles—Perspective, Breathing, Grounding, Balance, and Letting Go—you can flow through any situation with the beautiful union of mind, body, and spirit that a yoga practice can create.

But learning to honor the body and listen to the soul does not end when you get off the mat. Hilaria believes strongly in finding ways to integrate the five principles into your entire life, so for each step she also shares her own routines that keep her active all the time—from the little motions that engage her body during household chores and the foods that keep her well nourished to the philosophy that grounds her when she’s being pulled in a million directions at once.

This book is also packed with practical tools such as timesaving tips, delicious recipes inspired by clean and plant-based eating, mini-workouts that seamlessly integrate into your everyday life, breathing exercises, and customized yoga and meditation routines.

The Living Clearly Method teaches you to listen to your body, tune in to your mind, and develop the consciousness to clear your head and find peace in your life. It is a beautiful, intuitive guide for living the healthiest life possible, both inside and out.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Fitness and wellness expert Hilaria Thomas Baldwin is the cofounder of Yoga Vida, a yoga studio with locations in Union Square and Noho in New York City. She is the lifestyle correspondent for EXTRA, where she covers fitness, fashion, celebrities, and news. Baldwin has been profiled by the New York Times, Elle, and Yoga Journal and been featured as a fitness authority on TODAY, Katie, LIVE with Kelly and Michael and The Rachael Ray Show. She released her first workout DVD, @ Home with Hilaria Baldwin: Fit Mommy-to-Be Prenatal Yoga in October 2013 from Acacia. She lives in New York, NY.

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Chapter One

MY STORY

Many people know me as the woman married to Alec Baldwin who does yoga poses in unlikely places. But there's more to my story than that. I've worked hard to make it through the blurry parts of my life, and I've fought for the happiness that I've found.

In one of my earliest childhood memories, I'm at a playground. I was a complete monkey as a child, as comfortable climbing trees as standing on solid ground. Instead of swinging like the other kids, I shimmy across the top of the swing set, 12 feet above the ground. While this likely sent the other parents into a panic, my mother calmly calls after me, "Hilaria, are you listening to your body?" Do you trust your body with what you are doing?

Back then this was an annoying question, but I would later understand what a gift it was; I was taught to tune in to my physicality at a very young age, and this fostered my passion for movement of all kinds. My first love was ballet, which I started as a toddler (before quitting in a 3-year-old's rebellion against the too-strict teachers). Then, the free-spirited world of traditional Spanish flamenco won my heart. By age 7, I found my way into gymnastics. My small stature and agility made me a natural fit for its complex moves and rigorous training. By my early teens, I fell headlong into the world of Latin ballroom dance--equally demanding, but with tiny sequined dresses and gold lamé heels as a bonus. I loved the combination of music, costumes, and artistry. Latin ballroom was arduous yet glamorous, in a fake-tan and false-eyelashes kind of way.

My years on the competitive dance circuit gave me some incredible life skills, like focus and self-reliance. But they came at a steep price. Without realizing it, I started drifting away from the playful connection to movement I'd enjoyed as a young child and into a different and darker kind of dynamic: pushing my body to its limits and commanding it to perform through pain or fatigue. I took my instrument for granted, using my sheer mental power to override injury, smile winningly for judges and audiences, and play deaf to my aching feet, hips, and back.

By the time I got to college in New York City, I was still pushing. I took every opportunity I was given--dancing, teaching, and studying--and ignored the fact that my well-being was declining. There were times I was in so much pain I could barely walk, yet I never missed a practice or performance. Beneath my pulled-together surface, my swollen joints, strained ligaments, and ruined feet told a different story.

A long-simmering struggle with anorexia and bulimia began to hold me firmly in its grip. By the time I was 20 years old, my 5-foot-3 frame was at least 20 £ds under a healthy weight. My nails were brittle, my hair was falling out, my period was MIA, and my energy had tanked. I was miserable and desperate to feel better.

That's when I found yoga. I was hustling across the East Village to my NYU classes one day when I saw a sign for a new yoga studio. I didn't know much about the practice but heard it gave people relief from stress and physical aches and pains. Instinctively sensing that yoga might help me sustain my dance career without it destroying me in the process, I grabbed a flyer and then stared at it for a week, working up the courage to try something new-- not easy for a perfectionist and competitor like me. I finally summoned up the nerve to try a basics class. Wearing baggy sweatpants and a tank top, I tiptoed to the back row with my mat.

In that first class, I discovered that yoga was the complete opposite of my dance and gymnastics training. Every posture I assumed was for my own good, not to land a high score or impress an audience. It was a revelation--and it was the first time since my mother's playground inquiry that anyone had instructed me to listen to my body. By the end of class, lying in the resting pose called Savasana, I was in tears. As a kid, I'd had such a natural connection to the part of myself that knew what would make me happy and what felt right and good, but in the swirl of competition, I'd lost touch with her. I cried because I had let her down and also because for the first time in forever, I wanted to find her again.

The owner of the studio saw potential in me and encouraged me to apprentice there and take the teacher training program. I threw myself into my studies and quickly began teaching some of the studio's large group classes.

As requests for more focused, one-on-one attention came in, I added in private classes. My sensation-based style of teaching seemed to help people struggling with all kinds of demons: eating disorders, abusive relationships, illness, obesity, addiction, anxiety, depression, and much more. We would use the yoga poses to get into the feeling of being in the body and, from that place, to find more awareness, compassion, and room for change. We explored how a physical practice could be a way into feeling our lives from the inside out and a key to reclaiming our power so we were not ruled by our thoughts, fears, and stories.

We explored how a physical practice could be a way into feeling our lives from the inside out and a key to reclaiming our power so we were not ruled by our thoughts, fears, and stories.

To maximize this, I started using special sequences of poses in my class that brought the best out of my students and helped them connect to themselves more deeply, inside the studio as well as outside it. Over time, this loose system crystallized into what I christened the Living Clearly Method. That's when I fell in love with my job. Helping others to find the seed of possibility inside themselves, even if it was just for a moment or two, lifted my heart and spirit daily.

I wish I could say that it was smooth sailing from this point on, but sometimes things have to get a whole lot worse before they get better. Even while I was helping so many others, I still didn't listen to my body. I was like the cobbler who had holes in her shoes. I spent each day teaching other people to be kinder to their bodies and to tap into the beautiful connection that yoga can create between the mind and the body, yet I was blind to how hard I was pushing myself. Like many New Yorkers who strive to make ends meet, I threw myself into teaching with relentless drive. It was my life's mission, almost a devotion, and I held myself to super-high standards. Extraordinarily long days became my reality; skipping meals was par for the course. Even with all the yoga I was doing, and with all the positive change that the Living Clearly Method was inspiring in others, I still hadn't found the key to tempering my go-go-go approach to life.

In 2009, one of my students approached me about opening up a yoga studio together. I jumped at the opportunity, and we spent endless hours meeting to discuss the name logo, teaching philosophy, location, and more. All this while I was still dancing, teaching dozens of yoga classes per week, running to get my cardio in, and much more. Little did I know that this amazing opportunity would get served with a very challenging lesson. It was to be the lowest point of my life.

My left hip began acting up one morning on my daily run. A lighting bolt of pain seared down my leg. I pushed through it, assuming it would eventually die down. It didn't. I'm pretty sure I have an exceptionally high tolerance for pain, but this was bigger than anything I had experienced. After a few days, the sensation progressed from discomfort to agony, and soon I couldn't get out of bed. Two doctors and bottles of painkillers later, I finally got an appointment for an MRI and a pair of crutches. The day after the MRI, I hobbled out of my apartment building with my crutches to meet some friends. I had balanced a purse on one of my shoulders, and as the apartment door closed behind...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Rodale Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1623366984
• ISBN 13: 9781623366988
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland