Hey there! I’m Laura.
My mother always called me a “seeker of peace…”
The name LSea Yoga began with my initials: LC (Laura Cole). It became LSea because I felt the need to integrate my love for, and connection with the ocean. It evolved to represent Land and Sea. I believe that we, the caretakers of this earth, must find ways to remember our place. In our busy lives, we forget our responsibility to protect wild things and wild places. Yoga helps us connect to our deepest instincts - it is the way in. In our daily practice we are reminded of our natural compassion for others, and for this planet. It is how we will ensure we, ourselves are well cared for, so that we can then give to our family, friends, work, wildlife, and the earth.
I’ve created LSea Yoga while still working full time as an SVP at a large corporation. I am simply compelled to share what I’ve learned, for what yoga has given me I’m unable to fully put into words…
Along the way, I began creating journals for my own use - to practice mindfulness and gratitude, to manage my health, and to achieve my dreams. Those journals have become The Live Well Journals, and it is my joy to bring these powerful and beautiful books to you.
Have I always done yoga?
In a word? Nope. As a kid, I was sporty: I ran track, played basketball and softball. I even spent one season as a cheerleader. As a young woman, I was less active - much more concerned with drinking and hanging out with friends…most of my exercise was dancing. A lot of dancing.
Meh. Ok, I’ll try it.
In my twenties, I bought a couple of VHS tapes (it was the 90’s, so yes, VHS) and dabbled in yoga here and there. At the time I couldn’t have told you anything about styles of yoga, or anything else. In my limited experience, I liked the chill aspect of it, but thought it wasn’t much exercise…. (Ha!)
And then I fell apart.
In 2010, I started feeling ill - and not sleeping, and I was unable to eat much. And it was getting progressively worse. I described it at the time as feeling like I’d been poisoned. It was a mystery illness, so you can imagine the number of tests they did on me - several doctors later: no answers. Long story short: they prescribed me sedatives and other drugs.
I never took them.
Yoga became my life raft.
I was so jacked up all the time, so much so I could hardly sleep. I struggled to eat and became very thin. I figured I needed to spend as much time in a relaxed state as possible…. So, I began a daily yoga practice. I found a web site that streamed classes online and started with Yin Yoga, for its slow pace. I discovered my teacher Bernie Clark, a master of Yin and full of wisdom. In those early months I learned so much from him. I learned about Yin Yoga and it’s physical benefits, but also how the nervous system works and how to slow it down. From time to time, in one of his classes, my exhausted body would just fall asleep because, at last, I was able to relax. I wanted more. And so, I began to look for other forms of yoga for variety, and almost immediately found my teacher Clara Roberts-Oss.
And then, it became a sanctuary.
I had found Vinyasa Yoga, and Clara made it a dance. She had studied with Shiva Rea, and it is their fluid styles that continue to influence my teaching today. I practiced daily, alternating Bernie and Clara. And it was all online. I attended occasional in-person classes, but my home practice was so deep, and it was such a retreat to safety, to control, and to peace that it was all I needed. I began experimenting with diet, eliminating some foods, and together these two disciplines let me begin to heal.
In 2013, my grandmother passed away. Twenty months later, I lost my mother. We three were connected in a way I cannot put into words. But what I know, is that their faith and pride continue to carry me. I miss them every day.
Grief is one of life’s great teachers. In the months after each loss, as I lay in savasana, tears would roll down my temples to the mat. And at the end of practice, as tension was removed, underneath was the deepest sadness, but also peace. Yoga removes our shell, so we can deal with what is real. But the gift of yoga is not just the removal of the shell, but a connection to the peaceful calm that lives within, so that in looking at, and observing our real emotions, we move through them in a productive and healthy way.
It was during this time that I found a new teacher, one that helped me through this tough time, one that would make me want to teach and share what I’ve been given.
And then I found Bliss…
Blissology that is, founded by Eoin Finn. My teachers have all been masters - brilliant in their wisdom - and Eoin brought a lightness, a determination to choose Happy, connect to nature, and live Aloha. Blissology is smart yoga, a way of teaching that ensures you, the student, find your yoga - instead of trying to fit you into an image of someone else’s. I connected with his teaching in a profound way, and started the path to becoming a teacher. I’m a certified teacher in both Eoin’s Blissology (Vinyasa) Yoga, and Bernie’s Yin Yoga.
Today I am healthy and healed, but oh so grateful for a journey that was terribly difficult at times, filled with tears and also joy. A combination of dietary changes and daily yoga practice have let that challenging time fade into the past, but those lessons changed my life forever.
I’m also an SVP at a large company, and so I know the challenge of finding time to connect mind and body in a busy life. Together, we’ll help you find your practice and connect with that inner peace and wisdom that already lives inside you.
I hope to give you a bit of the gift yoga has given me in this life.
Namaste, and Aloha,
Laura
Yoga is a lineage. Knowledge is passed from teacher to student, who may then become teacher. My teachers changed my life. My only hope is to give you a little of what they gave me. -LC
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The meaning of Aloha…
Visit Hawaii, and as an open-hearted, kind, compassionate, and respectful visitor, you may learn the real meaning of Aloha. There are no English terms that come close to encapsulating the meaning: love, peace, connection, kindness, patience, humility, unity, mutual regard, affection, hope - all of that, and more.
To “live Aloha” is to attempt to embody kindness and care for one another, land, and the sea. Protect our home, this planet. Protect its water, all its resources. Protect our first nations’ people, as they are the keepers of the deepest and most important wisdom - ancient ways of living that protect everything that is most important in this life.
With all possible respect to the first people of Hawaii, in honor of their culture and traditions, for we have so much to learn and so much to protect - we do our best to live aloha, and teach others to do the same.
For all living things, and for the generations to come. -LC