Episode 113: From LYT Yoga to Neurodevelopment with Lara Hiemann

Introduction to Wellness in Every Season

Autumn Carter: This is episode 113.

Speaker: Welcome to Wellness in Every Season, the podcast where we explore the rich tapestry of wellness in all of its forms. I'm your host Autumn Carter, a certified life coach turned wellness coach, as well as a certified parenting coach dedicated to empowering others to rediscover their identity in their current season of life.

My goal is to help you thrive both as an individual and as a parent.

Autumn Carter: Welcome.

Meet Lara Hiemann: Yoga and Beyond

Autumn Carter: I am so excited you're here and I'm excited to have Lara Hiemann with us with Lyt we were chatting just before this that I had to tell her we gotta stop so we can actually record this so that people can hear this amazingness that we're talking about. She teaches yoga and so much more. There's physical therapy in there. Let's see, what am I missing? Neurodevelopment. So think about the brain here and really that brain body connection. And I love anything about this. So fill in all the gaps. Cause I left tons of holes on who you are about your practice or your company.

And tell us what led you here.

Lara Hiemann: You so much for having me, Autumn. Yeah, I think, I think, yeah, that the.

Lara's Journey: From Physical Therapy to Yoga

Lara Hiemann: Kind of founding story or the background is always important because if we list, like, I think one thing I've done well since the beginning of before even being a professional is like really listening to my heart and what I wanted to do with my life and just what brought me joy.

I wanted to stay in that space. I wasn't doing it for any. Other external reason. And I think that came from a very solid upbringing. Wonderful parents. I'm 1 of 4. I'm a triplet. I have 2 identical brothers and me, and then an older brother. So there's 4 of us in 2 and a half years and we just were very.

Like a big amoeba moving around in those early years exploring, you know, so much of our exploration in early years comes from is what develops our brain and that curiosity so we did that because my mom was kind of like, it was also the days where it's like, go and do something, you know? And so we were always very active.

I was very physical. I loved anything that doing with the body, any movement. So I did lots of sports with my brothers and then went and did some more things on my own, like dance. And I became a runner as well. Then I went to college with the idea that I was going to become a surgeon. My dad is an orthopedic surgeon and I had always been fascinated with the brain.

And I did some shadowing of a neurosurgeon when I was in high school. And I was like, Oh, I want to do this. I also wrote about the mind body connection before I even knew anything about yoga, because my senior year in high school, I ran a marathon with one of my triplet brothers, having not trained for more than 11 miles, I think was like the most.

And when I was running, I remember feeling like I want to stop. Like this really sucks. You know, this is so hard. I can't do it. And then I would just start looking like 50 yards ahead. I'm gonna make it to that tree. I'm gonna make it to that sign. And what I wrote about was that feeling of like, our thoughts can work for us or against us.

Our body is really, really resilient sometimes as we get older and we don't move as much and we need to get our body more resilient, but in general we want them to be a collaborative team that are kind of always in that heightened state of curiosity. Like, what more can I do? What more can I learn?

What more can I experience? So I had all of that. And then I decided not to go into med school. I thought this is not going to be a great lifestyle having seen what. My, you know, the hours my dad kept, but I went along the same lines of in the medical profession as being by choosing physical therapy and physical therapy was like such a great choice.

I was kind of lucky to. Not stumble upon that, but somebody suggested like you would be a great physical therapist and because it has such an autonomy and you can practice in many different fields with many different people in many different settings. There's a lot of innate flexibility in it. And I needed that.

I think I've always had this freer spirit. I didn't want to have the confines ever of working at a desk. I knew that. And then being also my own boss, you can really have that autonomy as a physical therapist. Around the time I graduated from grad school, I started taking yoga classes kind of off, you know, just not, not purposeful.

It was just offered at a running clinic, actually. And when I took it, I thought this is really wonderful. This is giving me the same kind of. Inspired and connected feeling I have when I'm running or dancing, really celebrating the body in motion. In a very intentional and focused way versus kind of like, just wanting to pass the time.

And so I started teaching it and, so I started teaching yoga and then I went back and got my graduate postgraduate specialization in what's called neurodevelopmental training. And that is really this idea that our brains, we have neuroplasticity in our brains.

They always have the potential for change, for growth, for expansion. But we just have to kind of challenge the brain in different ways for it to be stimulated to grow, just like a muscle. In the clinical setting with patients that had some kind of neurological injury, like a brain injury or stroke.

And the idea was that instead of having that person compensate with this new disability, why don't we train them in a way that stimulates the brain similar when we were younger in, in those developmental stages. And get the brain helping out that affected limb. And so I started. Simultaneously, just doing that and having a lot of success with clients and seeing them really improve function and just, you know, take a hemiplegic arm and really start to have use of it.

I started to sense a little bit of in my yoga practice and in teaching, there was like almost a staleness. It was like a very box and, and again, kind of very much in line with how I am. I don't like this kind of static box. It's like more like, what can we bring to this? And what I thought about is like, people are coming in and practicing, with already existing habits.

You know, if you're at a desk all day and you drive to a yoga studio and come in and take a class, you're carrying your, not just your day, but your habits, your postural habits, your movement habits. And then you start moving in a vinyasa practice without really reestablishing a more Kind of a clear brain mapping.

I like to call it, then, then your brain is smart. It'll choose the path of least resistance. So in fact, what I was seeing is people coming in and just reinforcing their habits, you know? So if your shoulders are rounded, instead of just learning how to get an upright spine and your chest open, you'll just thrust your ribs forward to get your arms up and flexion.

And I just started to question, like, why don't I apply some of the things I'm applying to my clients who have greater disabilities. And imbalances to this practice because everybody has some imbalance because that's our modern day life leads to that.

The Birth of the Lit Yoga Method

Lara Hiemann: So I created this method, which is called the lit method.

It's the lit yoga method. Lit stands for Lara's yoga technique. A lot of people don't know that, and it doesn't really matter. That was really the marketing people wanted my name in there somewhere. And I said, I don't really want my name in there, but I say, I talk a lot about being lit up. Lit up means we are, we're open minded, we're curious, we're energized, we're clearer.

And that's, I think, how all of us want to feel in life. That there's, there's just this this zest, you know, that we just, like, we're never going to get it. We're never going to get the best practice or the best this. We're just continuing to grow ourselves. And that is actually the ultimate goal. And so yeah, I started I had a small home studio and that really grew all by word of mouth.

Then I saw that I really needed to train other yoga teachers who didn't have these, some of the skills of like understanding functional anatomy and biomechanics and bringing that into it. So bringing the science and the spirit together to really have this very cohesive, beautiful method that is wonderful for the teacher, because it's very empowering to teach from a place of knowledge.

And then extremely wonderful for the people who are being taught because they're being educated there. It's a shared experience. There's no gatekeeping you know, you have to come to me because I'm, I'm going to tell you what to do. And it's very similar in physical therapy. We don't want people to be relying on us.

We want to teach them how to improve whatever it is that has led them to some kind of imbalance that might have led to some kind of injury. I created teacher training, and then I was like, I got to open up a yoga studio. So, I opened up a brick and mortar studio and had that for 10 years.

Toward the end of that, I started an online training and online platform because through traveling and teaching all around the world I'd gotten people that were like, I want to take your class regularly, not just, once a year when I can do a retreat or a workshop.

And so it's just kind of expanded and grown from there. I always say I was like a accidental entrepreneur. I never would have thought that, but it's this curiosity, this like, well, okay, I can figure this out. I can hire people to help me in the ways that I don't understand. And just the willingness to learn.

And so that's really kind of my motto is just like, be open minded.

Autumn Carter: You still have your

Lara Hiemann: brick and

Autumn Carter: mortar?

Lara Hiemann: No.

Adapting to COVID: Shifting to Online

Lara Hiemann: So when COVID hit, it's all online now. It's all online. I'd started my online platform in 2019. I started my online training in January of 2020 and COVID hit. We shut down the studio in March.

And I had really smart people in my life who about a month into it said, this is going to be a year before. They're like, yeah, there's going to be a year. There's gotta be a vaccine, et cetera, et cetera. They're not going to be opening up anything.

And so I negotiated on my lease. I only had 10 months left on my lease. And at that point, I also knew I was pretty sure if COVID hadn't hit, I was Not have the studio anymore as much as I loved it as much as I love the community I was just ready for a different after 10 years, just something different, you know, and the online stuff has been just a magical, just landscape.

I never, never would have imagined. So I was definitely primed for it and positioned for it and then it just expanded because of that.

Autumn Carter: You're one of those people that actually thrived during COVID.

Lara Hiemann: I know I felt so bad. I was so busy during COVID. I was so people were like, I'm sitting at home. I'm doing this.

I'm baking bread. And I'm just like, I am running. My business was really, really thriving and growing. I was running teacher trainings with people all around the world. And then developing new material for the second level of the training. So I was very, very busy. And I have a podcast. We're on a break right now, but I started a podcast in 2018 finding movement.

And so, you know, I was busy. That was really good. Tell us

Autumn Carter: the name of the podcast.

Lara Hiemann: It's called redefining movement.

Autumn Carter: Is what you

Lara Hiemann: were saying.

Autumn Carter: Okay. Yeah.

Personal Reflections and Family Life

Autumn Carter: And I wonder how much of doing yoga and just being more mindful and in tune with the higher self allowed you to already be prepared.

Lara Hiemann: Oh, I think so. I never had a sense of panic or like it just was you know, as you know, we can react and or we can respond. And I feel like I have because of my practice and all of the things that I implement, I'm very good at responding. And being in power of what I can control and being okay with what I can't.

So I knew you know, the things I could control were like developing more material for online, offering our online classes. We continued for the first year. I had two platforms. I had my regular lit daily platform, which I had already had. And then I had the zoom classes for my studio because at the time the platform that I was on housed on didn't have zoom.

You know, zoom is pretty new. It's hard to believe, but, you know, I had been doing zoom for a little bit of time. So I was already familiar with it because the teacher training was we did zoom calls and I was. I've filmed many classes. So it was very comfortable filming and being, being on zoom and stuff.

And, but zoom was not yet integrated into platform. So I had to have those two separate. So when it did become integrated after about a year, I just moved my studio classes onto the platform and then started to offer two different options for people on the platform, people that were happy with just the, you know, Thousands of classes in the library, and then those who also wanted additionally some live by zoom and that has been just amazing.

And that, like, here we are speaking, we wouldn't meet otherwise. That's the beautiful thing about the virtual setting is that it does allow once you kind of get over that. Like, oh my God, it's not the same. Well, yeah, it's not the same. That doesn't mean my dad would always used to say like, let's embrace the fact that we can do that, that we can meet people we wouldn't otherwise meet.

And so for me, I, you know, what I realized is. I, I really liked COVID. I was like, I am an extroverted introvert. Like I really, I love to talk to people and then be able to boom, shut the computer just like I would do. I would be in the studio and then I would leave. And I was like, I have done my socializing for the day.

So I feel like it's been, you know, again, it's adjusting, but not labeling it as, as something that's. Less than or more than. It's just, it's another wonderful tool that we have and I'm, I will forever be grateful for it.

Autumn Carter: Well, I won't take too much of this about me, but I was one of the few that thrived during that time too.

And I was doing school online. I was already using Zoom. So everyone else was getting used to it and I was giving tutorials. My husband was being paid to stay at home for a bit. So we decided now's the time to get pregnant, not when we were planning on. So it was nice. My morning sickness was tapering off as he was going back to work.

That is the time that paternity leave should be happening during morning sickness if you have other kids.

Lara Hiemann: Who named it morning sickness? All day, all day. When I experienced, yeah, it's like the all day blast.

Autumn Carter: And I was right next to my oldest. He was in kindergarten at that time. Computer to computer was able to reach over, help him then come back.

My husband and I took turns supporting his teacher who was older and trying to figure it out. She's probably retired by now. So, one of those things. And It ended up being a really great time. And I am an extroverted introvert.

I'm totally the same way. My oldest is super social and I'm like, can you find someone else to talk to now? I'm maxed out and there's three other of you, so I'm good. So I totally am there and I was not feeling it until towards the end of COVID and be like, okay, I'm ready to get back out there.

And we stayed further away and kept masks on longer because of me being pregnant and then having a newborn and kids are germ factories. I mean, if it was just us and we didn't have kids. It's a great story. Like, you know, you have to feel what's best for your family.

Embracing Change and Challenges

Autumn Carter: So I love, we were talking about this before, so I'll clue everybody else in, that you now have, because you are virtual, the lifestyle where you can travel.

You are, your home base is in Massachusetts, but you are now in California and you were talking about how You had the fires right there, front and center for you, five miles away, you had to evacuate and you had the blessing of being in a rental so that you could switch to a different rental for a little bit further away and how you've just been bouncing around California, being close to one of your children,

I could tell at the end of it that you still have some feelings that you're, you're working through about it. Totally understand that. And what I love about yoga is that mindfulness is already put in it. That is my perfect way to get my mindfulness and a little bit of meditation in there and to really have that grounding and you are already doing that and able to process what you've been through because of that.

Lara Hiemann: Yes. I mean, I feel like We've been through a lot. I mean, COVID was less, you know, it didn't have a negative impact on us, but then after covet and, you know, just also supporting kids. I was going to say having a young child is like anybody that's listening. It's like, it was horrible. Like, I know my friends who had younger children.

That could really be a struggle. Our kids. 1 was, she was taking a gap year. But before she went to college, and then our youngest was a sophomore and he, his school really was adapted. Well, they had a week on and a week off and he really liked that hybrid. And I didn't really have to, you know, I didn't have to do any classroom stuff with him.

So we didn't have to deal with that. And then, but when our youngest was, in the process of his senior year, he was being recruited to play basketball, and then he decided to go to this place in California. It's called Harvey Mudd. It's a wonderful tech school. It's part of the Claremont systems and the basketball program is amazing.

And I said to my husband, we're going to go out there. Like I have always wanted to live in California. I've been, I have relatives out held here. I've been here many, many times. One of my best friends from two years old lives out here. And I said, I want to be near my baby, you know? And so we had just finished building our house in Massachusetts in the Berkshires with the intention.

We were that would be like, kind of our, our 2nd home, but we no longer needed 2 houses on the East Coast. If we were going to be spending that time out there, so we sold our house where we raised our kids and Princeton. I had been in Princeton, New Jersey for 28 years. I had a community there built a community there and all that.

So that was really the 1st time that I was challenging myself in a deep way because. No matter how adaptable anyone is, at probably some level, we're all kind of comfortable with comfort with what we know. And I definitely have that, you know, my mom is in the same house that I grew up in. She's been there and she'll never leave, you know, and I was, I grew up in North Carolina.

I went to Duke, which was about 20 minutes away from where I grew up. I went there for undergrad and grad school. And when I was, I was like, I got to get out of here, even though I had looked at other places, but I loved Duke. And So I knew I didn't want to be someone that for me and my growth and curiosity, I needed to challenge that very comp that comfort.

And my husband was totally, like, he's really flexible and I'll, I'll give him a lot of credit. He was a professional actor for 10 years, but when we met, so he always had that, like, I'm okay with the unknown and I'm okay with changing things. And so that was our first real, like, Adaptability is like, we're going to sell our, this home.

We're going to live in the second home that we built because it's beautiful in the months we want to live there. And then we'll be out in California and then we'll figure it out. After my son graduates, we'll kind of figure out where we want. Maybe we'll want to travel during this,

and now here I am a year and a half after that happened. And I feel like, I don't say reborn, but I feel so young and free. And like, I can, there's so much I can do because I said yes to that. So sometimes it's like saying yes to opportunity, even when it's uncomfortable now in terms of moving with the fire, we didn't have a, we kind of didn't have a choice.

We could have, many people stayed in the area, but we didn't have to. And I said to my husband, we don't have to be here, like, I don't want to be here with poor air quality and no water. Let's go. And it would, if it was just the two of us, that would have been fine. We have a dog and a cat. Our cat, as we mentioned, nobody likes, never likes being in the car.

And this would have been like his fourth car trip. And in this 2 months that we had already been here but we just, you know, we did it. And then we had to go back and pack up all this stuff. We had just moved in 5 days prior. So we had bought all these groceries also, but our car was packed to the rim.

After we'd already evacuated with some stuff. And so those are the just, like, moments where it really comes in. I wasn't ever. Fearful of my life or fearful of it. Something, you know, I just, it's the, it's the stuff, the logistical stuff that is a strain and a stress, but you just power through it and realize like, this is going to be okay and I'm safe my worry was more for other people.

We ended up doing a fundraiser for Pasadena humane society, which took in over 400 animals. And we had a great success with that. So you feel like you want to do something and. It's just overwhelming the loss that was around me. And so that definitely affected me, but my own kind of logistical irritation at the, like, that's, you can get past that.

Like we just had five rough days and then we, you know, we got to where we're going to be. And that is truly like we were talking about beforehand. That's really what this practice is about. is one is it helps you really identify the feelings that you're having and then be able to say like, is this a real thing?

Is this really something I need to be like persevering, perseverating over? Or is this just a feeling that I need to feel and let pass through? And I think that all of this sensation, the alignment, the mindfulness that you practice on the mat, when you bring it into life, it allows you to have that.

Adaptability and that tenacity to handle challenges.

Autumn Carter: I agree.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Autumn Carter: So what is something that you would like to leave listeners with that they can take, take on the road?

Lara Hiemann: There's a lot of things I'd like to say. One is that I'd love to reframe this cultural Subversive message that aging is a terrible thing and we're going to just like wrinkle up and not be able to move well.

And, you know, I'm 55 in a lot of ways. I feel like I'm moving as well. If not better than I did in my 20s and 30s. We're trying to realize that the reality is that we are in control of a lot more. We're in control of our health. We're in control of things like what.

So I guess my biggest message is at the end of the day, what really, really matters. It usually isn't buying shit, you know, usually it's, it's, it's how we take care of ourselves. And do we go to bed at night and feel like, Oh, I did a good job taking care of myself. Because if you take care of yourself, you are a better person in this world.

Why? Because when we take care of ourselves in the ways we need to, and I talk about this a lot in my movement. Good biomechanics means that we have, we're holding on, we're bodies of energy, we're holding our energy and we're maximizing it. We're not leaking it out. We're not, you know withering it out by sitting in one position all day.

And then wondering why we don't have more energy, we, we hold on to it and we maximize it. And then that allows us to have the space and capacity to have more energy and vitality generosity for others. And that's where we get a lot of that, you know, this beautiful feedback loop. We have more for ourselves.

We can give more to others, especially if you're a mom. Women have culturally been, you know, relegated to being caregivers and putting ourselves last. Even though we, we have plenty of examples that that is, that shouldn't be the case. It's still a message. I think that it is, is in this whispering. So take care of yourself and believe that you can improve on the way you feel always, no matter what age you are.

It's never too late to start. And that really again, goes back to that. the beginning of neuroplasticity. We can grow. We can't evolve.

Autumn Carter: When you're talking, I had a double breath in because I was picturing doing the warrior poses and I meant to do yoga this morning and then there was a two hour delay from the snow.

So that kind of went out the window. At least I got my pickleball in. So I at least got something, but I was expecting to double dose today, but just picturing it, I just had that. Cause that's when I feel the most energetic is during those poses.

Lara Hiemann: Love it. That's amazing. Yeah, you're really channeling and that's what it's all about.

Autumn Carter: Any last thing that you want to leave our listeners with and then tell us how to get into your world besides your podcast that you already mentioned and will be in the show notes.

Lara Hiemann: I would say, you know, if you're interested in if you're movement curious and you want to learn more, because most of us haven't been taught about our bodies ever, maybe a little tittering, like course about sex ed when we were in sixth grade.

But other than that, we're not taught about our bodies. We're not taught about like understanding shoulder and hip and neutral spine. These are concepts everybody should know. And we teach that from the, kind of the ground up. And we teach that on our lit platform. Everyone is trained by me. So it's from it's through the lens of physical therapy but incorporating the beauty of yoga with it.

So you can check that out on the lit daily. We have a free trial and it's really, really wonderful and it's challenging. So remember challenge is good challenge. In fact, is the only thing that grows us. So all these little moments of challenge and stress actually make us stronger.

Autumn Carter: Oh, I love that. And that's my reminder that I have not played piano yet today either.

That is, it does not come naturally to me. And that is my way of challenging and reworking some of those pathways in my brain. So thanks for that reminder. And what is your reminder that she reminded you of that you should have done today? I'm curious. Thank you. Oh, you have one too? You're asking them, I thought you were asking me.

I was like, I think I did everything. Well, she got her task list done. What about the rest of us? Oops. Thank you so much for being on. This was amazing. And I've learned several things, but more than anything during this conversation, I hope everybody else felt like it was for them, but I felt like so much of it was for me, it was reminders of things that I've been learning in different books and different classes that I've taken with one of my coaches that I'm working with just so many different things where it's like, you need to remember this, you learn this, remember this.

It just allowed so many things to sink in deeper. Thank you so much.

Lara Hiemann: It was an honor to be here.

Closing Remarks and Resources

Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode. I am your host Autumn Carter, a certified life coach dedicated to empowering individuals to rediscover their identity, find balance, miss chaos, strengthen relationships and pursue their dreams. My goal is to help people thrive in every aspect of their lives.

I hope today's discussion inspired you and offered valuable insights. Stay engaged with our wellness community by signing up for my newsletter at wellnessineveryseason. com slash free resources. When you join, you'll have the option to receive a five day guide called Awaken and Unwind, five days to mastering your mornings and evenings, along with free guides, special offers on my programs, practical tips, personal stories.

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So please spread the word about our podcast and about our newsletter. Thank you for being a part of our podcast community. I look forward to continuing our conversation, sharing stories, and exploring wellness in all of its aspects. Take care until our next episode. You can also work with me one on one or on demand through one of my programs.

By visiting wellness in every season dot com slash programs one last thing to cover the show legally I am a certified life coach giving general advice So think of this this more as a self help book. This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only I am not a licensed therapist So this podcast shouldn't be taken as a replacement for professional guidance from a doctor or therapist If you want personal one on one coaching from a certified life and parenting coach, go to my website, wellnessineveryseason.

com. That's where you can get personalized coaching from me for you. See you in next week's episode.