Tag: Glow Living

  • When You Feel Pulled to the Dark Side

    When You Feel Pulled to the Dark Side

    When You Feel Pulled to the Dark Side
    By Chandra Lynn

    I remember a time when I was having a particularly difficult time processing a breakup and I went to see a therapist. I went in telling him all the things I did to make the relationship work and all the things I was going to do to heal myself. And in the way that therapists do, he looked at me and asked “what would happen if you just stopped and did nothing?” The prospect of not doing anything didn’t feel comfortable at all and the question actually infuriated me. I was looking for answers and solutions, not to not do anything! depression

    Decades later, I became friends with my yoga teacher and she said she noticed I was fidgety in the mediation part of the class and I acknowledged that it wasn’t my favorite part. I suppose I’m a “doer”. Well I’ve come to the conclusion now that I don’t like how it feels when I just sit with myself. My thoughts aren’t always empowering and my emotions can turn dark like a storm that blows in unexpectedly. The dark side has always had a magnetic pull that I’ve tried to resist.

    Today, someone asked if its possible that I’ve been silently or unknowingly battling depression all of my life. Looking back, I suppose its possible. And its possible that I am still reckoning with it, but its been such a familiar state that I don’t know the difference. My life has been a quest for tools and strategies to manage this state as positively as possible. I have not mastered it entirely, but if you can relate, I have some very powerful tools to share with you that can certainly help without prescription drugs. Boy do I wish I could just pop a pill every day and feel like this is the most amazing life ever lived, but I’m resistant to doing that because of the chemical dependency and side effects.

    Through Glow Living, I will describe all the things that have worked for me and that I’ve learned from others about emotional mastery, managing thoughts, self-love, and being the best person you can be in relationships with others. Join me on this journey by following my posts and sharing your experiences.

  • Using Your Yoga Mat as a Microcosm for Life

    Using Your Yoga Mat as a Microcosm for Life

    Using Your Yoga Mat as a Microcosm for Life
    By Chandra Lynn

    It’s hard to begin to describe what yoga means to me but I’ll start by saying that your teacher is everything. I did yoga for years as a physical practice to learn how to stretch and stay limber. Little did I know it could be so much more! About ten years ago, I joined a fancy schmancy health club as a gift to myself after having a baby, and to give me extra motivation to get my butt down to the gym. The gift I gave to myself began to unfold in a surprising way when I walked into Kristen Dessange’s Affirmations Yoga class.

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    Kristen Dessange – King Dancer Pose

    I attended Kristen’s class three times per week and it was like I found my church! Who knew I could find it outside of an actual yoga studio?! Kristen is special and I wish I could share her with you (and I hope to by integrating her wisdom into some of my posts and maybe convincing her to let me interview her for you). She is unique because she eloquently delivers themes to support the unfolding of the heart (and hamstrings!) to women and men that are “householder” yogis, not the kind of practitioners you’d find oming on mountaintops. Everyone can relate to her themes because they are universally experienced, while being so personal in how they affect you in class. She is an expert at alignment and sequencing, and weaving in impactful, non-religious spiritual truths from a variety of sources including science like biology and astronomy, hindu mythology, paganism, astrology and so much more. I really could go on and on about Kristen but the point is not to give up on yoga if the classes you’ve taken haven’t been right for you. Try more teachers.

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    Chandra Lynn – Mermaid Pose

    Yoga has made me more flexible in my body and in the way I approach challenges that come up in my life. Yogi’s have to be flexible on and off the mat, and Kristen has taught me to do more than that. She’s taught me to use the yoga mat as a safe place to explore how I am with myself when challenged. Your experience on your mat is a microcosm for how you experience life. For example, if the teacher puts you in a bound pose where its hard to breath and it challenges your flexibility to reach around to take the bind, what do you say to yourself? Are you kind to yourself? Do you push yourself to achieve it at any costs (even risk getting hurt)? Do you call yourself names or compare yourself to someone better than you? Have you ever experienced those same feelings in other situations in your life outside of class? This is what yoga is about. Getting to know yourself in the safety of a class with a supportive teacher will help you understand that you were born perfect and still are!

    When asked why she calls her style Affirmations Yoga, Kristen says, “For me, to affirm something first requires an awareness and acknowledgment of what is. This is the first benefit of yoga. The practice reconnects you back into yourself and your life.  Once we have tapped back into what is, we have a window of opportunity to realize that we are co-creating with our life. This awakening to the empowered self must come from our sovereign, authentic essence – our soul. When we tap into our soul, we reconnect back into the universal spirit of life. This is what I affirm- the full spectrum of living from your authentic self- as collaborative participation with Spirit while embodied. To affirm the fullness of LIFE means that you affirm your full SELF. It is not a Pollyanna approach to life, instead it is the full on embrace of all this you are and all that is as a way to co-participate with consciousness.  That is the yoga. There is no sugar-coating it. Can we fully embrace and participate with all the flavors of life as a collaborator with it? Can we dive fully into the joy, sorrow, passion and pain? This life is not something to hide from or deny. It is the very gift of embodiment and eminence that our soul longs to live. We are meant to live this live fully, as ourselves completely, with no holding back. This is the full gift of yoga.”

    I have a lot of posts planned for learning more about how certain yoga principles can transform your life. Stay tuned to learn how to root to rise and ground down into what you’re certain about to grow and handle changes that are inevitable in life. I also plan to write about how yoga helped me process grief from the loss of two best friends and my step mom. And just wait until I tell you about my Shakti Sisters, a group of the most inspiring women I’ve ever met that have turned into my chosen family, a real sisterhood!

  • Defining Your Road Map To Success

    Defining Your Road Map To Success

    Defining Your Road Map To Success
    By Chandra Lynn as Published in I Am Entertainment Magazine mic

    Imagine singing in front of an arena full of adoring, screaming fans, and feeling the high that comes from being center stage. Then, imagine going from the stage to your own luxury tour bus and hearing nothing but the hum of wheels on the road and feeling severely lonely and unsatisfied with life. This happened to a friend of mine who called me after a sold-out show.

    Despite achieving “legendary rock star” status, he was still not satisfied with his life, even though others perceived it as the kind of success that dreams are made of. Why? For one thing, people define success differently. We may think he has it all, but those things didn’t fulfill his true inner desires and human needs. For many, success is achieving fame and fortune, but for some it’s simply getting through a single day without a drop of alcohol, while others may see success as contributing on a global level by headlining a benefit concert. The truth is that most people really don’t know what would make them deeply satisfied…even when they’ve achieved levels of success that they thought would be enough. little-boy-playing-electric-guitar

    As children, we define what we do and don’t want for our lives based on our role models and experiences while growing up. Every situation gets filed under “Yes, I want that” or “No, I don’t want that”, which creates a subconscious road map for our lives. However, it is full of conflict because we can file multiple things that don’t work together in the same place. For example: my friend determined he wanted to be a touring musician and also wanted a wife and kids, placing him in a double-bind. While on the road, it was hard for him to find a suitable wife, but once he found a wife and had children he was challenged by the amount of touring that was required to be successful because it took him away from his family.

    By the time we are adults, its common to feel frustrated by all of the challenges in life, which often leads us to feeling unfulfilled and unhappy. If you feel this way now, it may seem like external circumstances are to blame, but consider the possibility that your conflicts are coming from your own “map”. This is good news because it means that although your current life conditions don’t sync with your map, you can change it. How? Change your life conditions or change your roadmap.guitar-player-on-road-v2

    My friend was able to do this successfully by deciding that creating a family and being present with them was more important than touring so he began composing and recording new material in a home studio. If you feel stuck with your current life conditions, change your roadmap with these steps (ideally after doing some physical activity that puts you in an energized, positive state):

    1. Think back to yourself as a child and recall any visions you had for your life. Write them out in as much detail as you can. What did you want to be when you grew up? Where did you want to live and in what kind of place? Did you want a romantic partnership and to become a parent?

    2. Ask yourself, does your childhood vision match what you want from your adult view of life? If so, why? How does it serve your current needs?

    3. If you determine the childhood vision does not serve you anymore, recognize that you need to replace it with a new adult vision based on how much you have grown.

    4. To create a new vision, take some time to visualize how you can spend the rest of your life happy with what you have achieved. What do you need to be deeply fulfilled and utterly satisfied?

    5. Connect this vision to a higher purpose. Why does this direction make you happy? Who does it serve? What does it tell you about who you are and what you’ve contributed? What do you want to be remembered for?

    6. Consider any conflicts that may exist with your current life conditions, and determine which direction will give you a healthier and more successful end result.

    7. Write out your new vision based on this new understanding, and be as specific as possible. AmericaRoute(bl)After this, you will have a fairly clear vision, but you still need a clear roadmap.

    When you live by a subconscious road map, it’s like driving from California to New York with only a vague sense of how to get there and why you even wanted to go there in the first place. An effective roadmap involves an integrated plan that is broken down into seven core areas of your life: spirituality, physical body, emotions & meaning, relationships, time, work & career, and finances.

    To begin this process, expand your vision to include what you want to achieve in each of these areas; list out the actions you can take in each of the areas to realize your visions; set reasonable expectations for when to achieve them; and start taking action. You don’t have to live your life by default. There are a lot of things you can control to create the level of success that truly meets your needs. Aligning with your higher purpose (why you were created) and creating a healthy life vision and roadmap will send you down the path of living out your highest potential.

  • The 51% Rule

    The 51% Rule

    The 51% Rule – Boundaries are Your Friend

    By Chandra Lynn

    A friend reminded me today of my 51% rule. Have you ever felt like you are doing more to help your partner then they are to help themselves? Sometimes it just seems easier to take control and get things done on your own than ask your partner to do their part. And they may be completely happy with having you take care of business. But after all while, you may find that you lead in all ways in the relationship, and start feeling overwhelmed and tired of being the one to handle everything.

    To prevent this from happening, I recommend each partner agree to carry A MINIMUM OF 51% of the work load on their end. When someone is doing AT LEAST 51% of the work for their own life, things will stay more balanced. Helping somebody with 49% of their work is still a lot when it comes to managing someone else’s stuff. I could even argue that is too high of a percentage. However, if someone needs you to help them with an area of their life, and you are feeling happy to do it, consider making sure they understand that you will only take on a maximum of 49% of the tasks that need to be accomplished.

    I learned this the hard way. I saw a former partner struggling with his career, so I jumped into immediate action. Being a fledgling marketing consultant, I was actually excited to put my skills to work for him. Without him asking me, I built him all the marketing materials that he needed to present himself in a more professional way. At the end of it, he was grateful but didn’t really leverage it to the extent that I had hoped. I could see that the struggles in his career had more to do with his ambition then it had to do with his ability to present him self in a professional way. As a result, even with the new materials, he did not apply himself, and I felt like all the work I did to support him was for nothing. I distinctly remember going to a diner and telling him that I needed to see him doing at least 51% of the work to reach his goals for his life. And, I would be happy to do whatever I could to support him, but I needed to see him applying himself more than I was putting in to help him.

    Jumping in to help a partner is a noble thing, but I can also enable bad behavior in your partner. There is nothing wrong with being supportive, but you have to be careful with behaviors that lead them to where you think is best for them before they have even asked for help.

    The friend who reminded me of this was looking back at her life and realizing that she has always done the majority of the work in the relationship, and her partner was happy to have her do it. However, he started taking advantage of the fact that she provided so much with little appreciation or awareness of the effort involved.

    If you feel overwhelmed with all that you have to do for yourself, your partner, your kids and other people in your life, ask yourself whether you feel your partner is stepping up to their full potential and supporting you in the way that you need them to. If they’re not and you’re enabling them to kick back, please consider that your standards are not high enough for yourself in terms of expecting a partner to do their share. Ask specifically for what you need from them, and make sure you get their agreement before creating new expectations that they will deliver.

    Everyone needs to feel useful, needed, purposeful and that they bring value to a relationship. This post is to remind you that you can do this by supporting your partner and those around you, as long as you set healthy boundaries and set reasonable expectations with your partner to do a minimum of 51% of the work in their own life.

  • Health & Fitness Tools – Part 1: Bodybuilding.com & BodySpace

    Health & Fitness Tools – Part 1: Bodybuilding.com & BodySpace

    Health & Fitness Tools – Part 1: Bodybuilding.com & BodySpace
    By Chandra Lynn

    Getting fit and losing (or gaining…anyone?) weight is hard and to make it a little easier – and a lot more effective – I rely on technology as tools to support my journey. Here is an overview of what I use and why I like it, starting with Bodybuilding.com. It’s free to join their fitness community on their website, or more importantly, with a mobile app called BodySpace. Some people want to go it alone and that’s fine. Some people even like to use things like these bulking supplements to help them out. However, others prefer having that little bit of extra guidance from someone else. You don’t have to participate in the community, but when you join, you get access to their free programs that are excellent. It’s important to take advantage of these programs. They are the perfect way to test your fitness. Some men have said they have been trying to train and bodybuild for a long time now but feel that their bone strength and ability to develop muscles is not what it should be. One option would be to see one of the many HGH therapy doctors.

    I have completed several of their programs and the mobile app makes it easy to track the entire plan with a calendar that pops up your work for the day. It also allows you to track your weight and reps for every exercise. And if you don’t know how to do something, it gives you a step-by-step guide as well as a tutorial video. These programs are put together by experts and are highly effective. You can choose your program based on the type of results you want to achieve. If you are interested in finding out more about bodybuilding and what you might need to begin, you can find more info here or through a quick Google search.

    My Home Screen homescreen

    This shows me the number of workouts I’ve tracked and how many pounds I’ve lifted in total which is motivational. I set goals to celebrate different milestones. My next one is when I get to 300 workouts tracked…9 more to go as shown here. I can also add photos, managing friends, get inspiration and informational content, track workouts, change programs, and more.


    My Saved Programs image3

    I can research all of the programs they offer and save them in the app for quick access. I choose different programs for different reasons. Sometimes it is to shred, sometimes to build muscle. Other times, my choice is based on the length of time or dependent on which trainer that put it together. Members can also create programs and make them available but I have started with the most popular ones by experts Jamie Eason, Dr. Jim Stoppani, Erin Stern, Ashley Cluth, etc.


    Friends IMG_3256As mentioned, you can ignore the social networking part altogether, but if you want to explore it, you can connect with women and/or men who share their workouts, motivations, nutrition tips and experiences. Unlike other networks, you’ll see a lot of skin and muscles here, but so far no one has been inappropriate. You tell me, would this motivate you?


    Program Overview image7

    This screen lets you see how your workouts are layed out for the entire duration of the program.


    You caimage1n click on any of the days and see the whole workout.


    image10Once you decide to do one of them, you can track your weight and reps. This is helpful to remember where you are and what weight you used.


    Workout Log image2

    Each workout shows you all of the exercises and allows you to track them, learn how to do them, look up previous stats and more.

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    In summary, I would be lost in the gym without following a program on Bodybuilding.com when I first got started. Now, I can go in a bang out a workout but the fine art of weight lifting requires you have a plan that rotates body parts and intensity over time. Having a program that is thought out by an expert makes your results more of a sure thing. If you really follow it and honestly give it your best effort, it will work and you’ll see results.

  • Transformations Take Serious Commitment to Yourself

    Transformations Take Serious Commitment to Yourself

    Transformations Take Serious Commitment…And Are Worth It!
    By Chandra Lynn

    I was raised by a very petite mom and, although I’m small too, I always felt bigger as in thicker or, dare I say, fatter. Although I’ve never been grossly overweight, I carried around the belief that made me refer to myself as the “10 pound overweight girl.” Being the perfect weight and size always seemed just out of reach despite going to the gym and trying different diets that seemed to work for my friends. After having a baby, negative self-talk increased and turned into serious frustration with my body, as if it was separate from me and working against me.

    I felt doughy and full, a quality that a macrobiotic counselor said was from eating dairy. Legitimately, I had eaten a lot of dairy in my life because I was raised vegetarian and it became the substitute for meat. When served vegetarian food, it was always a combination of carbs and dairy (i.e. cheese lasagna, cheese enchiladas, cheese sandwich, etc.). So I cut out all dairy for eight years, got rid of my microwave, and learned how to cook with whole foods and no dairy.

    In truth, I saw some improvement and the puffy quality died down. But, I still felt like I had a higher percentage of body fat than I wanted so I decided to get even more serious and turned to weight training. In the past, I would do yoga and force myself to do cardio, but it just seemed like enough to maintain, not transform. I decided in myself that it was no longer acceptable to despise my body and turn against myself by allowing a negative inner critic to let loose. It just wasn’t working and would trigger depressive episodes of self-loathing. Honestly, I couldn’t understand what was going on with me because it didn’t seem right to do this to myself when I knew men were attracted to me and I was beautiful…not like a model but pretty in my own unique way.

    Enough was enough and I decided to open myself up to working out much more vigorously. I made the scary trek over to the free weights area of the gym and started talking to people that were all much nicer and more helpful than I could have imagined.

    I realized that I really needed a program to follow and didn’t want to spend more money on a trainer because my gym membership is fairly pricey. So I turned to bodybuilding.com and signed up for a free account on their social platform Bodyspace (find me: GlowChandra) which gave me access to some amazing programs put together by fitness models, athletes, champion bodybuilders, and expert trainers.

    On Bodyspace, I saw a lot of average people achieving amazing results. If they could do, so can I. jamie-eason-live-fitI started with Jamie Eason’s Livefit Trainer, a 12-week program which is great for beginners. Jamie is a petite fitness model who is the same height as me so it seemed like a good match. And it was. After completing that successfully, I realized that consistency is the key and that I will spend the rest of my life on a program of one kind or another.

    I went on to do Dr. Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Shred a few times and now I’m doing Dymatize Transformed. In addition to these programs, I have continued doing yoga and they are perfectly complementary. I’ve also added H.I.I.T. (High-Intensity Interval) Training. I’ve also added back some dairy for protein, so I eat eggs, whey, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. I eat some cheeses on occasion but try to stick with low-fat ones like parmesan and manchego.

    jim-stoppani-six-week-shortcut-to-shredThere are endless topics to explore related to health, fitness and nutrition so you can read more about this in future posts. For guidance on what to eat while training, read my post to help you figure out your calorie intake and macros. You can also read about how transformative my yoga practice has been for me.

    What I will leave you with is a general understanding of what all this effort has done for me. I have changed my body a lot. I’ve sculpted it to have more muscle definition and less body fat. And through this emotional process that involves mental and physical exercises, I have come away with a strengthened self-esteem and diminished self-talk. I look more youthful and rarely get sick. I catch a glimpse in the mirror and still wish I had less cellulite, a higher, rounder booty, and longer limbs, but I am really proud of myself and think I look the best I have in my entire life. I am no longer the 10-pound overweight girl. I’m a workout warrior that is motivated to keep transforming myself to glow inside and out.

    BEFORE:

    CL 38 weeks sm copy

    AFTER:

    More resources:

    Bodybuilding.com

    Jim Stoppani’s Official Page

    Jim Stoppani’s 6 Week Shortcut To Shred Review by CheckMeOwt