Crystal Seaver is teaching at Wanderlust Snowshoe and Wanderlust Whistler. For tickets and more information about our events, click here.
We’re all striving for balance—but what does that really mean? At Wanderlust Festival, you may balance your day between fitness classes, yoga flows, and meditative sits; you may balance the types of activities between the ultra woo (celestial soundbaths) and the traditional (practice with someone like Dharma Mittra); you may balance your festival budget between necessities (yummy veg-forward food) and the superfluous (OK, but I really wanted that crystal!). There are all sorts of ways to find balance. And fitness maestro and personal coach Crystal Seaver may just be your new favorite source of motivation to do so.
Crystal offers easy-to-follow online workouts as well as coaching services, and has dedicated herself to supporting people on the path to increased well-being. These are the kinds of workouts you can fit into any schedule in order to find balance—it only takes 20 minutes to feel amazing. Crystal asks her clients to meet themselves as they are; to work consistently to elevate their quality of life. This ultra-marathon runner has a lot of wisdom to share on how we can best take care of ourselves no matter how busy we are or what life throws us, in order to stay balanced and be the best versions of ourselves. We got to sit down with Crystal and chat about how we can show up to life as the best version of ourselves.
Learn from Crystal IRL at Wanderlust Snowshoe and Wanderlust Whistler!
Wanderlust (WL): Let’s talk about our most valuable resource: time.Can you tell us a bit about your relationship with time? How do you balance your work with restoration even though you’re life is full?
Crystal Seaver (CS): Time is precious and we have to manage it well if we want to be happy. I don’t think that means life is always going to be balanced. We need to accept that it is okay to give more time to certain parts of life at certain points of time.
It’s easy to get caught up in go, go, go and fill your time with all the things—but, it’s important to recognize that in order to give—we have to make some time for ourselves too. Block it out on the calendar—maybe it’s an extra 30 minutes in the morning to drink coffee and journal, maybe its 10 minutes in the middle of the day to walk and regroup. Whatever it is, it’s like any other time obligation—non-negotiable.
WL: Do you have a morning and/or evening ritual?
CS: I always make my bed. ALWAYS. I’ve also learned to put my phone away after dinner each night—of course there are exceptions when work dictates otherwise, but there is no more scrolling before falling asleep.
WL: What is your biggest stressor at the moment and how do you show up to it/manage stress?
CS: Oh gosh, I’d like to say there are no big stressors. But, I’m in the middle of a few big projects. We moved a few weeks ago and our yellow lab, Belle, has been pretty sick, including a trip to the animal hospital. I would say it’s been relatively high stress life lately. Firstly, I have to recognize and accept the stressors in order to manage them.
When I am stressed I prioritize my routine. Despite feeling overwhelmed I still try to sleep well, fit in a sweat session, drink water, and find even as little as 5 minutes to disconnect from it all. Instead of thinking about how to change the stress, I shift focus to my routine and let that take care of.
WL: If you only had 10 minutes for yourself on one of those busy, full calendar days, what practice would you employ?
CS: On the busiest of calendar days I’ve realized that I need to embrace quiet. Even if it’s 10 minutes. It gives me a chance to rest, renew and really think—what is priority, what do I need, what should I let go of. We live in a loud and busy worldquiet is a challenge we need to take.
WL: What does an ideal, balanced day look like for you?
CS: I gave up on the concept of balance a long time ago. Life is always going to be imbalanced on the day to day – sometimes we need to give more to work, sometimes we need to give more to relationships and others.
My ideal day looks like this: 4:00–5:00 AM wake up, dog walks, workout, shower, coffee shop, dog walks again, work, take a pause from work to walk and refresh my mind, work again, early bedtime. The days when I’m not working, my ideal day looks like an adventure in the mountains.
WL: Can you share a mantra or affirmation that you work with?
CS: You can do hard things. It started as my go to for ultra racing, I know apply it to every day.
WL: Part of self-care is navigating limiting beliefs and critical self-talk. How do you work with moments when you feel not enough or find yourself operating from a place of fear?
CS: We will always be our biggest critics. Once we recognize this, we can start to change the way we talk to ourselves. The first step is to identify that you are being critical and talking negatively. Instead of judging it, practice feeling whatever you are feeling. And then move on. Don’t get stuck in the feelings of inadequacy and fear.
WL: Anything else you want to share that might support us in living our highest quality lives?
CS: Live. Really live. Sit in the quiet. Ask for help when help is needed. Drink water. Go to bed earlier. Laugh more.
Learn from Crystal at Wanderlust Snowshoe and Wanderlust Whistler!
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Erin Ward is a freelance writer, yoga teacher, and instructor at Wanderlust Hollywood.