FINDING BALANCE WITH LYNNE BEGIER

Written By: Lynne Begier | Photography By: Kit Noble

Former yoga instructor and Roastd General Store owner Lynne Begier gives her top tips for living your best life.

1. STOKE YOUR BELLY
Your belly is the engine of your digestive system and immune support, and it helps clear and ground your body, brain and energy every morning. I use ancient yoga kriyas from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, followed by thirty-two ounces of warm water and my choice of CBD and adaptogenic herbs to support my day. This is my non-negotiable morning routine and is the heart and soul of my current health routine.

2. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHILE YOU ARE DOING IT
This is a simple way that I can work to live in the moment. When I live this way, I notice that I am much less stressed and am able to manage all of the moments that I encounter day to day. When I get stressed out, it is usually because I am looking forward or in the past way too much and need to pull back to the moment-to-moment awareness.

3. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT YOU
You can’t always have great days. Sometimes that person who cares for you will drop a word or two that just resonates and shifts your day. We can’t always do that for ourselves, so we need a good tribe.

4. DON’T WATCH YOUR WEIGHT
I know we need to be careful about our health, but I gave up watching my weight and all those games back in my early twenties and it has made living so much more fun. I love ice cream and try to eat it as much as I can in the summer on Nantucket.

5. BE WILLING TO MAKE A PARADIGM SHIFT
It can be fun to get locked in a routine, but that sometimes can work against us long-term. The body and mind need diversity, and this can also help us maintain neuro-plasticity. After fifteen years of teaching yoga full-time, I stopped teaching and opened Roastd General Store. It turned my brain upside down, but I feel younger and energized by the challenges and all of the new lessons.

6. GO OUTSIDE THE NORM WITHOUT DEFINITIONS
We can spend thirty years growing up and figuring out who we are and then we end up in a defined box that can feel limiting. Being open to change, evolution and new possibilities is always freeing for mind, body and spirit.

7. THE 80/20 RULE
This is a guiding force for me. I remember hearing this at a training at the Kripalu Center and feeling so relieved and inspired. Do what is healthy 80 percent of the time and give yourself the other 20 percent to enjoy and live as you like.

8. PRACTICE KINDNESS ON THE SPOT
We don’t always feel nice and kind (at least I don’t), but moments are always changing and we can shift quickly with each fresh encounter. [The renowned American Buddhist teacher] Pema Chodron talks about a meditation technique that she uses “on the spot.” I have adopted it as best I can to use in my daily life. Say “hello.” Acknowledge people as they are and allow yourself to be touched by both the beauty and pain of life—always ever-shifting. I know that I am out of balance and need to recharge if I am not able to maintain this practice. It is a good beacon for me.

Lynne Begier first studied yoga at Kripalu in 1998 where she completed her first teaching training in 2001. From there, she began to study the ancient medicine system Ayurveda at the Kripalu center in western Massachusetts. It was her early Ayurvedic studies that initially sparked Lynne’s curiosity around marrying wellness with the specialty coffee world. Lynne opened Back Bay Yoga in 2002 and eventually sold her yoga studios in 2015 to YogaWorks. She then moved to her current home on Nantucket in 2016. Lynne’s early desires to integrate the specialty coffee industry with the wellness world bubbled back up, leading to her current creation, Roastd General Store.

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