5 x 5: My Top Lists of gift ideas this Holiday season, my current favorite instagram accounts, beauty products and more...

Everyone loves lists! Lists are a quick and easy way for our brains to gather information and make sense of things. Whenever we encounter new information, our brains immediately try to grasp wether or not this new piece of information is relevant for us. Just like you are currently assessing these lines that you’re reading. The process is instantaneous and we don’t even understand that we are constantly evaluating what we are seeing or reading. As we are continuously bombarded with images, headlines, news and texts, our attention span is nowadays extremely short and there’s something in numbers that make them pop out more than just the ‘normal’ headlines. Lists tap into our preferred way of receiving and arranging information at a subconscious level; they hit our attentional sweet spot. Cool, so now that you’re on board with lists, I’ve gathered a few for you to enjoy; everything from silly favorite beauty products to my favorite podcasts at the moment and so forth.

5 ideas for gift giving this Christmas that doesn’t involve buying more stuff (aka zero waste!):

Give a staycation: pick a nice hotel in the city and plan for a romantic getaway in your own home town/city (this gift idea is only for your partner duh)!
Give a massage session or session to a chiropractor or any other healing/bodywork or pampering gift!
Give a wine tasting course… I mean who wouldn’t benefit from a little extra knowledge other than always ordering that same ole Sauvingnon Blanc or Malbec…. 🙋🏼‍♀️
Give a yoga private/course or a one month yoga pass to their favorite yoga studio!
Give a floating experience!

My five fave podcasts at the moment:

The Goop podcast by Gwyneth Paltrow - from doctors to creatives, CEOs to spiritual healers, this is a good mix of it all.
Expanded by Lacy Phillips - Get your manifestation to the next level, no more unicorns, puppies and “only positive thinking”.
The Influencer podcast by Julie Solomon - If you’re in the marketing biz, there’s some useful tips and interesting convos.
Auta Antti! by Antti Holma (in Finnish) - In this hilarious and brilliant podcast the Finnish NY based actor answers to his listeners questions and the answers are not just funny, but actually very very wise. I almost pee myself as I laugh so hard.
Under the skin with Russell Brand - In this podcast Russel explores what's beneath the surface - of people we admire, of the ideas that define our time, of the history we are told.

5 tips for surviving winter in Helsinki

Embrace the season. It’s crazy how in our society things tend to speed up during Christmas with the year coming to an end, people run around like crazy. The problem is that at the same time people are tired, exhausted and stressed AF as naturally we feel like hibernating and sleeping in for longer. The reason is simple: we are not living in alignment with the season. Winter should be a time to slow down, cuddle up and get cozy with your woollen socks. This is literally the opposite of our modern society. So my very first tip is to cut out the unnecessary commitments. Make space for nothingness.
Yoga. Not a shocker here, but self-care goes a long way and especially during the darkest time of the year. If you’re not into yogi, then do your thing, whatever it might be (crossfit?). But exercising will give you well needed boost of feel good hormones (serotonin).
Get a sun lamp. Some people argue that this is going against the natural rhythm and season (and even my first tip). HOWEVER, some people get truly affected and depressed of the lack of day light and if you happen to be one of those people, there are luckily methods to counteract the darkness blues. I use mine in the mornings so that I have an easier time getting out of bed.
Pretend that you’re a tourist. Helsinki is a really nice city and there’s lots to do even in the winter time, so put your jacket on and go on a city stroll to Tuomaan marrkinat (market) and walk around and voila you’ll start to feel all jolly and fuzzy inside.
Decorate your home during the holiday. I swear, when we got a christmas tree last weekend everything felt a little better.

Being a tourist in my own home city is kind of nice.

5 Interesting & different instagram accounts worth following:

@connecting_consciousness : Mysticism, kind of out there, might be too much for the science loving instagrammer.
@chaninicholas : Astrology as its finest. Chani started learning about astrology at a very young age of 12 years and shares her wisdom on her feed.
@emotionalclub : Depression isn't funny, but dark humor sure is. This account is all about embracing the humor in everything, even depression.
@tobemagnetic : Lacy gets it. Her instagram is straight on and she cuts through the New Age ‘just think of something positive and you’ll attract it into your life’ BS.
@wat.ki : This feel good account follows the life of tho adorable dogs: Watson and Kiko along with their other animal friends.

My five favorite beauty regimens/products I am obsessed with right now:

Hydrating nutrient mist from Mad Hippie - I received this hydrating mist as a gift a long time ago on a retreat that I was co-hosting together with SurfYogaBeer and I just recently started using it. Now I use it every day and it really makes my skin glow like no other serum, cream or anything else I’ve tried in a loooong time.
Skinperfect primer by Dermalogica - I love the velvet texture and it smoothes out the fine little lines and uneven spots on my face.
My Simply Natural - hairbrush. I have hair is fine and gets easily super tangled, so this baby has helped a lot. Especially now with my long extended curls.
Oil pulling with coconut oil - this simple technique of swishing oil in your mouth improves not just your oral health, but your overall health as according to Ayurveda, all disease start in your mouth. I try to do this at least 3-5 times a week in the morning for about 15-20 minutes (which is annoyingly long), but it leaves my mouth feeling fresh and on top of all bleaches your teeth in a non harmful way.
My amethyst jade roller from Embrose - There’s been so much hype in the beauty world about face rolling and gua sha, I had toto try this out and I have to say, I do notice a different. My skin gets more plump and soft whenever I use the roller.

I’d love to hear some of your favorite podcasts or any other input you might have to my lists!

Happy Holidays!

Eva

PS. Make sure to check out my upcoming events if you feel like you could benefit from some strechin’

Tuomaan markkinat by Senate Square in Helsinki. Image: Jonna Monola

Eva Estlander 24/02/2019 Eva Estlander 24/02/2019

Real and talk about instagram, selfies and self promotion

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Dear reader,

If you're a millennial like myself you’ve most likely stumbled upon the expression “shameless self promotion”. If you’re unfamiliar with it, what it means is putting yourself out there with the idea of marketing something you sell, provide or do without feeling any shame about doing it. I believe the infamous hashtag #sorrynotsorry sometimes goes along with it and most of you have probably seen a cute selfie on instagram by someone you know along with the hashtag. I guess the #sorrynotsorry is a way to acknowledge that something you’re posting might trigger some feelings or opinions in some people but you decide to do it nevertheless. More than the #shamelessselfpromotion, the #sorrynotsorry is often used when someone is simply just giving themselves permission to post that cute pic (nothing wrong with that) and perhaps not as used when marketing a product or a service.

So like I mentioned the whole concept with shameless self promotion is basically not feeling any shame in blasting (presenting would be a nicer word) your services or products on the world wide web. In all honesty though, unless you’ve got the confidence of Kim Kardashian or Queen B (um, Beyonce hellooo) (not even sure she’s got that good of a self esteem actually…) the odds are you might feel some sort of shame or insecurity in posting pics of what it is that you’re trying to sell. I mean, at least I do. And I wanted to write about it openly and honestly. Social media and especially Instagram are great tools to gain traction for whatever it is that you’re selling or promoting. Good content on your feed translates to many likes that will lead to more followers that leads to a wider audience and that again will eventually result in more business. So yes, in a nutshell social media and self promotion are key parts of a smart marketing strategy. Unfortunately or luckily though (however you wanna look at it) if you’re a yoga teacher or someone whose product happens to be a service you sell yourself, it most likely will mean that the content you’re sharing will involve pictures, opinions or words of yours.

The raw truth is that we live in a world were pretty pics of pretty girls gain followers. I mean who doesn’t want to look at a girl striking a one armed handstand in a thong…. hmm, some might not actually want to. BUT many do. For some it might be inspiring, for others it might be entertaining and for others they simply enjoy the beautiful images. But the truth is these accounts have a lot of followers. The important thing is to understand that an image is just that, a glimpse of a moment, and a pose is just that, a pose. It all comes down to your perspective and the pair of goggles you’re using to look at your world though. Learning cool ass ninja tricks like arm balances or being skinny, fit or good looking does not equal happiness. Being fit and attractive are ideal attributes many strive to attain. Knowing how to rock cool ass yoga poses might be empowering for some. BUT again plz remember, it does not necessarily mean that the person is living a balanced happy life. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. We have really no way of knowing, unless we do. So remember that next time you’re scrolling through your feed. But that being said, pretty pictures work in marketing.

Posting pics on social media is a hard dance between creating content that empowers, motivates, gains traction and is beautiful and real all at the same time. As someone trying to promote something you’re obviously hoping to get likes and to gain followers in order to grow your business. But if you’re a yoga teacher like myself, how the heck do I do that in a graceful and successful way. If I scroll down my own feed for example and review the pics that have the most likes, I can see a pretty clear pattern (well now it’s harder after the new algorithm change). Not surprising, the pics with the most likes are close ups of my face or me in a swimsuit. So does that mean I think I’m the shit and hot as balls, well, nope, I can assure you NOT AT ALL.

To put yourself out for the world to see is hard and takes a lot of courage in the first place. Sadly we yoga teachers get constantly judged and criticized for the content we post on our feeds. And this does not only happen with yoga teachers, I see this with many women in many different fields of business. Why the fuck are we not allowed to be smart & sexy at the same time? Seriously though, who are you to say what is appropriate content and what’s not. I mean if you have a social media account clearly you want to share something with the world as well, so why is your content more appropriate than mine!? I remember it like yesterday when a person commented on one of my pics when I posted an image of a landscape “nice, not a picture of yourself”. This made me sad cuz putting yourself out there is already hard enough to begin with. Well watcha gonna do, haters gonna hate, right!?

This image has the most likes on my instagram feed. Taken by talented friend Jess Leigh Photography.

So my point is too often we might be too quick to judge and think “omg look at Bethany just posting pics of herself”. Well, lemme tell ya something Mike, perhaps Bethany needs a little extra validation and has a low self esteem…perhaps Bethany is dealing with a breakup and needs to feel good about herself OR WHAT IF MIKE, Bethany is actually trying to sell or promote something and is using the best possible marketing strategies she knows. So please before jumping to the conclusion and thinking that Bethany thinks that she’s the shit and throwing the first rock, I suggest you step back and check yourself. Sure, most of us might agree that if Bethany is simply looking for validation through social media, it might not be the best way to cope with her low self-esteem issues. But then on the other hand, who the hell are you to judge. I mean are you perfect? What I’m trying to say is, that we are all different and today the gram happens to be a big part of our lives, in the good and the bad, and we all use it in different ways, some for marketing, some for posting pics of their sushi platter, some of them surfing, others for selfies and some for posting pics of their their kids. And this is all completely fine. So please, Mike, try to be more understanding and kind in a world that’s already harsh and hard enough as it is.

With love,

Evita