SOULSPEAK WITH LORI PAINTER

"It's so easy to fall in love with someone... It's so easy to just let go and just fall in love. But can you fall in love with the break-up? Can you fall in love with the end of a cycle? Everybody loves the summertime and the sunshine, but can you fall in love with the rain and the snow?"

www.lifebylori.com

She is a blossoming presence in the health and longevity  movement. Her videos are amazing. Lori Painter is a life coach and a mom of two beautiful children who teaches her as much lessons as life does. She dedicates her life helping others see the potential they have in spite of all challenges and manifest that inspiration into the present.  She's big into simplifying life and encouraging people to explore this side of the spectrum and  benefit from the wonders that can only come from being in tune with the self, and with all of life and creation. 

I am grateful to have Lori on Soulspeak among many others who chose had the courage and grace to let go of who they once were and embrace who they can be. Infinite and bright, illuminating the world with their craft and spirit. 

WHO IS LORI PAINTER? TELL ME ABOUT "LIFE BY LORI"

I actually started with something originally called "Inspire 2 Act" (an old blog) and then I had a YouTube Channel which has the same name "Inspire2Act".  I still have it. Inspire 2 Act is my mission statement. It's when I knew in my own life that I would receive inspiration and then I would go "Oh  , I'll do that later"  I would ignore it and ignore it. I found that it was such a source of frustration, almost like a spiritual temper tantrum that I was like "Okay I gotta stop ignoring this. I need to step forward." That's where the mission statement came from. To move from a state of inspiration into action. 

Every time I saw "Inspire 2 Act" I knew what it meant it and I would tell myself "Lori if you feel it go for it. JUST GO!" So that mission statement was really for myself at first but I find a lot of people that go "You inspire me to act". That was awesome. 

When I finally decided to create the website lifebylori.com I really felt strongly that at the end of the day it's not about what we did , it's about how we lived. I love what Gandhi said: "My Life is My Message". So 'Life By Lori' is life as I am living it This is my message. This is how it is. 

I'm a mom with two kids and I thought: "If I were to die today, would my children know me and would they know what mattered most?" I wanted to have that memory to be able to take it with them. 

It was me living out loud, this is what I feel, and maybe it's crazy, maybe its on point. But this is my life . This is what I am about, and I'm all about absolute liberation. I want to liberate myself because I remember thinking "Oh my God I was a stripper I can't tell anybody that" , or "Oh my gosh I've done all these crazy things in my life... I can't possibly be a spiritual person." because I've seen just the opposite. But what I found is that those things absolutely shaped me. I'm big in letting go of all the stories about who we were as if it were right or wrong or good or bad. It just was... That's who Lori Painter is.

HOW HAS THIS CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

A lot changed... I realized even deeper that I was into personal development because I was always doing challenges. I  always wanted to see how good it can get.  As a kid I was raised  poor and abused I remembered feeling like   "Man I got the short end of the stick in my life, I won't ever be as privileged as so many people in the world are"   I carried that mentality and there was this certain point where I realized I could actually change all of that... that I actually get to see what I'm made of.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOURSELF FROM THIS EXPERIENCE?

That I am passionate. I saw how own sense of my contribution to the world really deepened and I wanted to be a part of the positive media. Life is short, and it sucks and I know we have all these habits but lets unlearn some of them and let's get down to what really matters. 

I have this saying and it sounds kinda crazy hippie but I love it and it brings me back to remembering why I'm here and it's that when I wake up in the morning, I should be feeling so freaking thankful that I can breathe, that I can smell, that I could touch and taste and   feel... I should feel ready to go in the middle of the desert completely naked and just go "OH MY GOSH I AM ALIVE!" but what ends up happening most of the time is that we wake up in the morning with that overwhelmed feeling and go "I got this to do.. I have that to do." 

Life is a privilege. It's an honor to be here. Anytime, we can be gone. We chose to come here. I feel like that's what it's really all about and I'm learning to shed all the layers in our environment that is so twisted in a sense but necessary to our development. Like we needed to go through that spin cycle in our own way. That's the coolest thing about it. Remembering what I am here for. This is why I am here. I'm here to shine, I'm here to grow, I'm here to serve. 

AND WHAT HAVE YOU UNLEARNED?

It's actually kind of funny because the tag line to "Life By Lori" is inspiration for personal transformation and using myself as an example. And I laughed because the other day I was thinking about it. All of the things I've learned as far as religion, the way to eat, as far as education, entrepreneurship or career... as far as relationships --- every single thing that I grew up learning,  whether it's political , religious, social...  I no longer have. I've let go of these belief systems, and I thought that was so amazing.  

WHAT'S ONE THING YOU WANT TO CHANGE ABOUT THE WORLD?

I don't really think about changing the world because sometimes that seems a bit detached. In a sense it seems so big so what I usually think about is how do I change myself or how do I support and nurture my children. It's really kind of funny because a lot of the things I've done in raising my own kids was making sure that their connection to their own genius, their spiritual connection their internal guidance, whatever you call it, is preserved. A lot of times I let my children kind of guide me in this whole un-learning process because I felt that they were more connected, more pristine, more in tune and such really good reminders so if anything at the end of the day if I say I've done good it's that I made a commitment to shine...to remember that I am here to freakin' enjoy this life! I say that because I was a 'master party pooper' I was a master at taking the fun out of everything. I really made life so much harder and so much of a struggle but like I said I think that it made being 'in the flow' that much sweeter. 

I used to have this idea, that I would save my children from the unnecessary suffering of the world and then I thought they too will have their own suffering because it is part  of that cycle of life. When you go through that phase then you come out with a strong testimony... you come out with that wisdom. Wisdom doesn't come from hearing it from somebody else, it comes from living it. I'd like to see more people alive and just celebrating in the miracle of that, and be like  "HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING WE ARE ALIVE RIGHT NOW." Why are we even complaining?! This is insane! But at the same time it really is necessary and It gives me a lot of compassion when I see people that have a lot of health ailments or emotional ailments. I know what that's like. It doesn't look pretty but then it is kind of  pretty . I know that sounds kind of confusing but it's beautiful... the whole cycle. 

I used to say this because I've had a lot of relationship break ups: It's so easy to fall in love with someone. It's so easy to just let go and just fall in love. But can you fall in love with the break-up? Can you fall in love with the end of a cycle? Everybody loves the summertime and the sunshine, but can you fall in love with the rain and the snow? -- If I can remember that and inspire other people to remember that then that's really powerful.It's the thing that I'm always remembering to love even when I don't understand it. Even when the tree goes dormant and all the leaves are gone and it looks like it's dead but it's not... can you love that cycle of stillness and silence... that appearance of nothingness and hibernation I don't know if that makes much sense.

IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE. WE LEARN SO MUCH FROM OUR CHILDREN. ANY PARTICULAR MEMORIES THAT STOOD OUT?

Yes, there are two things that my son had said years ago that really stands out. and I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I home schooled my kids for a few years and during that time I was like "Okay buddy we gotta get on with our schoolwork, we gotta do this."  and he said "Mom, why are we doing this if it's not fun?"  and I remember thinking  Because we're supposed to! Aren't there all these rules we're supposed to follow?  and afterwards I was like  You know what he is SO RIGHT! Screw this forget that we're gonna have FUN." And that when learning really happens because learning doesn't happen when we're stressed out.

There's another thing that we did... Are you familiar with Dr. Emoto and messages from water? We did the rice experiment. But we did it a little different that just rice cooked and sitting in a jar. We actually put it in a jar a quarter filled the rest up with water...just like the human body. So it's 25% matter and 75% water. To one jar we said "I love you" and to one jar we said "I hate you" and we had, in between the two jars  a buffer zone or a jar that didn't have any intention on it. It was amazing to see the molds...One jar disgusting and the other one had all of the grains lifted up, everything was pristine and beautiful like it had uplifted itself. It was just gorgeous. And I remember that every time I started to lose my cool my son would point to the jars and say "Is that really what you want to do to me and to your body?" and I was like Whoah! He was so right!  because we don't see it physically. It's something internal. That almost had me go to tears. I was stunned and I couldn't say anything and I had thought about all the years and all the times that I wasn't thinking that way and I thought I need to be responsible for the energy I bring to this world . If my son is that jar of water and I'm not saying "I love you" to him then I am contributing to the degeneration of his own experience. That's the biggest lesson I've learned from my son. 

With my daughter on the other hand, it's observing that we came into this world already with the genius of what it is that we are passionate about... What we're alive about. And sometimes I just feel like watching that unfold effortlessly. My daughter is such a natural writer, and she could create all these amazing stories but if she sits down to do English work for school  she can't stand it. It's so fascinating and I'd say "You know what I'm not even going to worry about the fact that you freak out on English. Let's just keep writing beautiful stories." 

She reminds me that I don't need to focus on where I'm not good at or what I don't enjoy and to just go back on what I'm already naturally doing for fun. Holy crap! We can actually do things that are fun! That seems too good to be true right? But it's really how it is.

WHAT'S SOMETHING ABOUT YOU THAT  NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW? 

If I were to just explain my typical day and what it is I'm doing... I exercise for an hour each day whether it's walking or yoga or dancing or whatever but on top of that I have a morning ritual that I follow that really gets my mind, body and spirit balanced before I wake my children up or interact with the rest of the world. I really feel very strongly about that because I have fallen away from that practice and I have a spiritual temper tantrum inside. I am also  a minimalist. I love to just get rid of stuff. I own very little and I like it that way. I'm really big into  LIBERATION, and being FREE in every aspect of my life. In fact later this year I'm coming up with a  book all about that. It's all about letting go of all of the stuff that we want to carry in our life. I see how we  are a slave to our finances , we're a slave to our appetite , we're a slave to our job , we're  a slave to our relationships, we're a slave to our household responsibilities and the  need for accumulation of 'stuff' and I am just really passionate about taking all that crap off of your plate and saying 'Those are the things you are hiding behind in your life... Let's take them away and then see what happens... What happens if I  remove all of the junk, all of the things that are in the way of keeping you from coming alive. What will happen then?' 

We'll see what the title turns out to be but it's really about personal liberation. I'm really into that empowerment. I've been in debt, I know what that feels like, and I've been out of debt, and I know what that feels like! I've had a lot of material stuff and I had nothing. I've been in beautiful relationships and I've been by myself ...I know the contrast and I think that I have lived such a colorful life. I think about it and I'm like Man if I were to die today, I really have experienced the fullness of life. I feel like nothing was left untouched in my life.

YOUR GREATEST INFLUENCES AND TEACHERS?

Oh man... I got goosebumps all over! Okay  this sounds very  Miss America but I'm gonna be real and  say there is inspiration in everything and I have so many... I remember 6 or 7 years ago I really loved Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, Gandhi...and then what I noticed is that as the years had gone by they started being my friends. And just to add this in, I spent a lot of time in solitude and silence. It took that to get off from the rat race to a place of complete isolation where I could 'tune in' .. Where I would rather listen to an audio book of someone really inspirational rather than go hang out with some people whose energy were a little off , or not in alignment. 

I believe in that saying : You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. If I surround myself with people with high vibration then that will bring me up. And then what I found is I was internally shifting my friendships started changing. The people who surrounded my life after I shifted -- they are now my role models and my mentors. It's this close connection whereas before it was like this is this person who was way out there...Now it's like I know actual people , I talk to them, I communicate with them, they're my team, my network and my tribe, they're my mastermind, they're right there. I really feel this had a huge impact on me. 

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is that emotion  where you have goosebumps and tears coming out of  you.  Love is compassion. It's having that honor and complete respect and acknowledgement for the cycle of life. So if you see something that may typically be disturbing, it's loving that. It's easy to love the pretty things in life, or a cute baby  but is it easy to love a crotchety old man that would want to spit at you or do whatever they want? Like I said earlier, can you love the other end of the spectrum? 

I always see love as a blessing too, like when you see Dr. Emoto's work... it completely changes everything. It's like having super powers. When you have that and you're tuned in to that alignment  the doors will open for you, the world rolls out the red carpet, and says "Go ahead... Go Lori... go walk."

YOUR ONE MESSAGE TO YOUR CHILDREN. 

Listen to your intuition. You're constantly being guided... 24/7. Get out of your head and into your heart and listen to that.

This feature is also seen on Before It's News

FOR MORE ON LORI VISIT HER

WEBSITE: www.lifebylori.com

YOUTUBE CHANNEL: www.youtube.com/inspire2act

FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/LifebyLori

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