Hey you!
I’m Lara Lolita. A certified yoga teacher and intuitive maverick at your service.
An intuitive what?
A maverick is an independent free-spirited individualist. Someone who likes to think and explore outside of the box (and stir things up a little…Remember Tom Cruise in Top Gun?).
So far, my life has been an interesting process of learning how to ACCEPT and ALLOW my innate spiritual rebel - which was pretty painful and lonely at times but oh so worth the trouble!
Read on to find out how yoga played an important role in becoming who I most needed to be and how this benefits you!
I call myself a yoga maverick jokingly because I teach spiritual shizzle the only way I can: my way.
Where did I grow wrong?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been deeply puzzled by the human addiction to drama. As a super shy and sensitive child, I would observe grown-ups struggle with their self-inflicted and self-sustaining misery and wonder:
Should life be this hard?
I felt certain it shouldn’t be. I believed life was one happy singalong (growing up with the Sound of Music, who could blame me?). Short of happy adult role models I yielded toward (1) the desire to please others because I longed for joyful company, and (2) a stubborn unwillingness to become an adult.
Left on my own, I would retreat in fantasy and express myself through singing, dancing, dressing up, crafting, and drawing on any surface available. When grown-ups asked me "what do you want to be when you grow up?”, I thought it was a trick question.
I had no other ambition than to be me. What else would I be?
After high school, I felt discouraged to pursue my personal creative passions. They were brushed off as idealistically foolish and naïve since they wouldn’t bring in any… money.
So university it was. But for no other reason than to make my mother happy and my father notice me. But the harder I tried to fold myself into a pretzel to please the world around me, the more I lost sight of who I was and what I wanted to do.
A few quickies about me.
Fashion, film, and a yoga mat.
I completed a university degree in Film& Television including an Erasmus exchange with Bologna (Italy) but I couldn’t see myself working in the scene. So I ran off to my happy place in Portugal for three months to build some confidence.
Back in Amsterdam, my mother gave me the opportunity to become an entrepreneur. I opened a fashion boutique in her former antique shop which was part of our house and called it Lola Belém.
Despite my passion for fashion, I soon caved under pressure of being a shop owner. My love life was a repeating disappointment and my friends were busy raising children. I felt lonely, guilty, and a burden to everyone.
I had no idea who I was and my career as a professional people pleaser seemed doomed to fail. One thing was for sure: I was headed in a seriously depressing way unbecoming to me. I needed a drastic change ASAP! But what to do? Was there a reset button to start over?
Nope. No quick-fix. But there was yoga. For many years I had been practicing yoga with different amazing teachers in gyms only. Somehow two of my favourite teachers had fallen off the radar and I was eager to go back to their classes.
As a depleted desperado I was finally ready to be a real student for once. A student of life. So my teachers apeared.
From drama to dharma.
Patrick and Gosta now had their own yoga studio: Svaha Yoga Amsterdam. As soon as I entered their yoga shala infused with incense and mystical mantras, I knew I had made the right the decision. Within a month I signed up for the Teacher Training 2009.
I never imagined teaching anything to anyone. Standing in front of a group talking was the one thing I feared the most. But when I learned about the concept of dharma it hit me pronto that teaching - and overcoming the fear of my own voice - was what I was born to do, my dharma.
My first teaching experience at a gym confirmed this. Shocked and surprised by myself, I sat outside in my car for an hour after class wondering “who-the-f-was-that-in-there-talking?!”
What I did know was that I wanted to go back and do it again! This super-shy introvert had taken the first step back to her true self AND she something to say.
Which brings me back to you…
As a passionate yoga lover, I can show you where to look. You decide what you see.
What I wish for you.
The infinite wisdom of yoga has been vitally important to my life’s story. It has given me the support to take responsibility and show up for myself – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Yoga also offered me a practical toolbox to accept myself as the master of my own creations. Life is no longer happening to me. This opens up so much potential!
I wish the same freedom for you.
Therefore, it’s my purpose to share my experiences and inspire you to detox from drama and move beyond whatever is holding you back. I’m here to remind you that an abundant life can be YOUR reality, not just a childhood fantasy.
How much abundance you’ll allow is up to you.
Where I am in today’s world.
After 5 years of Algarvian hermitage, my mother’s passing in 2019, and the World Wide Retreat (#lockdown2020), I’ve fully committed myself to the proces of embodied self-realisation.
Meaning, this former lack-junky has finally tapped into her personal abundance. his has sky stand before you today as a spirited advocate - solitudinarian turned magician - for self-investigation and abundance!
Since 2021 I live in Naarden-Vesting in the Netherlands and continue to travel to my house in the Algarve. I hope to meet you soon at one of my yoga events in either country.
I teach with a playful sense of humor, share personal war stories, and always wear a hint of SUN (by Jil Sander). I teach from passion, experience, and intuition.
I’ve never been to India and I I’m tattoo free, but I teach yoga as real as it gets without an exaggerated soft tone of voice.
Yep, I still sound like Fran Fine :-)
What some say about me.
The Portuguese name Quinta da Yoga popped up in a dream and means ‘yoga farm’ or ‘yoga estate’.
Chat with me
Ready to get personal with yourself?