Unlocking Workplace Potential Through Gratitude and Meditation with Lori Saitz

Carolyn: Hello, everyone. Welcome to evolve a new era of leadership. I am your host, Carolyn Swora. Today, we are going to be talking with Bori Seitz. She is the founder and CEO of this company called [00:01:00] Zen Rabbit. And I just thought that was the coolest name of a company. So I’m going to ask her all about this. 

Lori also has her own podcast. It’s called fine is a four letter word, and she has some fantastic podcast all revolve around wellness strategies and employee engagement. So that’s what we’re gonna dig into. My hope is that you will come out of this listening or watching experience with some tangible tools and things that you can do to take one step forward in your own wellness journey.

We need you being well in our workplaces, so hang in there have a listen to the show and let me know what you think.

 Welcome, Evolve listeners. Here we are for another amazing episode. And our guest this week is coming to us from our Southern neighbors in the U. S. Lori Seitz, welcome to the show.

Lori: Thanks so much for having me, Carolyn.

Carolyn: well, I’m really excited to dig in and have this [00:02:00] conversation with you. We’re going to talk about wellbeing and how that really impacts how we show up.

In our workplaces. And, you know, if I look at my own journey, Laurie, meditation and wellness was really not something I put a lot of effort into, cause I just thought I got a lot of stuff to do. So my hope is that with our conversation that we can help people who were like me and Hey, I’m still on this learning curve to really understand other things that.

An increased attention on our wellbeing can bring us to, to our work. So, why don’t we just kind of start with what, tell us a little bit about your journey and what ultimately led you to be the CEO of Zen Rabbit?

Lori: Yeah, my story starts like way back. My mom took my brother and me to a meditation class or a course when I was 10 years old. Yeah,

Carolyn: Oh, shout out to mom.

Lori: Exactly. But of course, I didn’t really use it consistently for the next 35 or [00:03:00] something years and it like I would do it. I knew the benefits. I knew what it could do.

Do for me physically, mentally, emotionally, like energetically, all those things, but I would do it for a couple of days and then I would skip 10 years and then

Carolyn: Skipped. It’s 10 years here

Lori: to it for a couple days and then skip another few years. It wasn’t until actually she passed away in 2014 and that’s when I really came back to it consistently.

And it was interesting. Somebody else pointed this out to me. And they were like, well, maybe unknowingly, subconsciously, somehow she was preparing you for when she wasn’t still here. And I was like, wow, man, that hit home.

Carolyn: Yeah. Wow.

Lori: Yeah. So, so yeah, after that, I actually came across the book. Vishen Lakhiani is the founder of Mindvalley.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the

company. 

Carolyn: I’ve heard of Mindvalley.

Lori: a book called extraordinary mind, power of the extraordinary mind, [00:04:00] something about the extraordinary mind. And I happened to read that. And he mentions in the book that, so the course that my mom took me to was called the Silva method.

And then, and Vishen mentions it in the book because that was his introduction to Meditation as well.

Carolyn: wow.

Lori: And then he has also created a meditation of his own called the six phase meditation. And that’s what I started doing that drew me back into actually being consistent. And now, 10 years later, still consistent.

Carolyn: Wow. So you’re not skipping 10 years here or there 

Lori: I’m not, I am not. No. No.

Carolyn: And so where does Zenrabbit, like, tell us a little bit about Zenrabbit. Cause obviously that’s your company now and,

Lori: It is

Carolyn: What does it mean, Zenrabbit? Okay.

Lori: question. I’m so happy you asked that. So Zen Rabbit is actually on version 3. 0 at this point. But when I started the company in 2003, I was making a product called the gratitude cookie, and it was based on a family recipe and actual [00:05:00] cookies. Like a cross between a butter and a sugar cookie.

And I was marketing them as a way for business people to say thank you to their clients, to their team members, to people who sent them referrals. And talking a lot about this whole concept of gratitude and how it’s a differentiating factor and how it affects productivity and all of these things. But the reason the company was named Zen Rabbit is because.

When people would eat the cookies it would bring them back to this place of Zen bliss They’d be like, oh my gosh This reminds me of something my grandma used to make and it would remind them of being in the kitchen baking with the grandma and so it was kind of the Zen place and then It also tied into when I was a baby my another thing my mom did for me was she had bought me a stuffed cookie Rabbit, like a plush toy rabbit.

Then she would put it, she had it in the crib. All the other animals could be taken away, but I had to have the rabbit in the crib or I wasn’t sleeping. And so, and I would rub her ears as I got older, I’d rub her ears and she would kind [00:06:00] of put me in this Zen blissful place. So she was essentially my Zen rabbit.

Carolyn: Oh, wow.

Lori: And yeah, there’s a picture on my website of me at two and a half at my grandparents house with the rabbit in my clutches. And I’m. Kind of zoned out meditative state and yeah. And so that on top of the fact that I have many years of marketing background.

Coming up with the name Zen Rabbit, nobody ever forgets that name.

They don’t necessarily remember my name, but they always remember Zen Rabbit. So then when I shut that business down and moved on, I had to keep the name because that’s how everybody knew me.

Carolyn: well, and let’s talk about how it connects though to wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. I mean, I hear this these two opposites, like Zen, like calm and then rabbit, go fast. So, I think it’s a beautiful transition and then the story behind it as well, just really kind of makes it like your essence and who you are and what you bring.

So, so let’s talk about where [00:07:00] Zen Rabbit is now. What are you doing with clients and why do we need to talk about wellbeing in our workplaces?

Lori: Yeah. What I’m doing now is well being consulting. And on well being issues and talking about the principles that, that people need to know the thing I love about what I do. And that differentiates me is that I can bring together. A lot of times people think about gratitude and well being and.

Meditation and acceptance. They’re like woo concepts, but they’re really not. There’s so much science and research behind how they work and how they affect productivity and creativity and innovation and all the things that business leaders. want to bring into their workplace. And so kind of meshing those two worlds together is where I come in and making it much more accessible and talking about these things on not just a conceptual level, but actually giving tools [00:08:00] that people can take and use right away, like in five minutes, they will see results.

Carolyn: Now, you, I know you you have some fun playfulness on your website and you talk about being more than just fine.

Lori: Yeah.

Carolyn: And can you share with us, what are you seeing in the workplaces that you work with in relation to this concept of being fine?

Lori: People are afraid to say a couple of things. People are afraid to say I’m not fine and to raise their hand because they’re afraid of repercussion or they’re afraid they’re they feel like it’s shameful and they, nobody wants to stand out and say, I’m, everything’s not okay. So this, the standard.

response to anything is it’s fine. I’m fine.  

it’s fine. Fine to me is it’s complacency. It’s mediocre. It’s not exciting. It’s not great. It’s not fantastic. Like It’s okay. And who wants to go through their life with everything, just being fine. And from a business perspective, who wants [00:09:00] employees who are just fine?

I, they, the people that I work with, they want their employees to be engaged and excited and plugged into the mission of the company, excited about what they’re doing so that they bring their full a hundred percent selves into it.

Carolyn: Yeah. I mean, I think we’re seeing a real shift in our workplaces away from engagement scores to well being scores,

You know, really if people are in a state of well being, they are going to be more engaged because their physiology is going to allow them to go there.

Lori: And when we’re talking about wellbeing, we’re talking about on every level, like physical wellbeing, because if somebody’s in pain, they’re not going to be as focused and engaged as they might otherwise be. If they’re in emotional stress, which is a lot, we see a lot of that again, how are they going to focus?

How are they going to [00:10:00] be delivering a hundred percent or delivering a high quality product? 

Carolyn: So, so what is some of the practices then that you bring into your your sessions or your workshops with these organizations?

Lori: First, it’s about gratitude. Again, bring in what I had learned and more stuff that I’ve learned since the baking company. But this whole concept of gratitude, again, there’s so much science and research behind it. And so many people. Don’t express gratitude, whether it’s as a boss to an employee or to colleagues or clients even. And it’s like I had mentioned before, it’s a differentiating factor, but also here’s this thing I was looking for is there was a study done by Harvard university, and Wharton, and it showed that receiving a thank you from a supervisor boosted productivity by more than 50%. And at the same time, people are less likely to show gratitude at work than anywhere else. Only 10 percent expressed gratitude as a regular [00:11:00] habit. And 60 percent of people never

or rarely expressed gratitude.

Carolyn: Was that pre COVID or post COVID?

Lori: Mmm,

Carolyn: Does it say,

Lori: not sure. No, it didn’t say.

Carolyn: cause my guess is That those numbers only got I’ll say worse, but our desire or our inability to be grateful or share that out loud has only become more exacerbated 

Lori: Yeah. Actually the article I just clicked on the link the article it says 2017.

So yeah. 

Carolyn: before, yeah. Yeah. So, so gratitude. Let’s talk about that. Like what? Okay. Fine, Laurie, I’ll say thank you. I’m sure you’re going to hear maybe see some eyebrows, but take us through what’s this journey of gratitude that you bring into your workshops,

Lori: Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s really about Becoming what one of the things that people say is well, I’m not I’m just not naturally grateful

Carolyn: right?

Lori: Or I don’t have anything to be grateful for Which is like, wait, wait, wait, let’s take a step back because whatever your circumstances are, is kind of irrelevant.[00:12:00] 

It’s how you are perceiving things, how you were looking at things. And so helping people to gain a new perspective on it, to see it through different eyes. So for example, a few months ago, I was. I’m living nomad life night right now. So I’m driving a lot and I’m living and I’m living in different places.

And I was in a city that I didn’t know. And long story short, something happened with the brakes on my car and I narrowly avoided hitting the car in front of me. But when I hit the brakes, they locked up and I’m in six lanes of traffic and it’s about seven o’clock at night. It’s starting to, you know, it’s dusk.

And I’m stuck. Like my car, the brakes are locked, the wheels are locked, and now I’m just sitting there. So I call roadside assistance and they send a tow truck and all the things, but while I’m sitting there, instead of going into a rant, which I could have done, and a lot of people would have done, I instead went to [00:13:00] gratitude.

And I went, I’m so grateful that I have roadside assistance. I’m so grateful that they’re sending a tow truck driver and that I had called them and that they were on their way. And that he was so careful in getting the car up because it was. It was a difficult situation because the wheels were locked to get it on the flatbed.

, and that I was only a mile from the Airbnb I was staying at. And that then he actually, he dropped off my car at at the dealership. That was also only a mile away. And, Then he gave me a ride home. He was like, I’m not really supposed to do this, but since it’s so close, I’ll just drop you off.

Like all of these things that I could be grateful for instead of being angry that this happened, I’m grateful. I didn’t hit the car in front of me, like all of these things, but that comes from practice.

you know, 15, 20 years ago, that wouldn’t have necessarily been where I first went. I can’t believe this. I don’t have time for this. I’m angry about it. But instead now I’ve trained myself and this is what I do in my workshops is help [00:14:00] people with these techniques that can help train them to become more naturally grateful so that when things happen, you see the gratitude instead of.

The frustration and the anger. And that’s not to say that there is no frustration and anger, but how do you override it?

Carolyn: right. So, so basically what I’m hearing you say is gratitude is not a personality trait. It’s a state, or it’s a skill that we can learn.

And so what could be. Some things that we could start with in the workplace. What are some examples that we could share with the listeners that can help them ground into some things that we could be grateful in these really wild days in our workplaces?

Lori: Yeah, I’ll give you a specific tool that I use with my clients. And so listeners can take this and start using it right away. it’s called, but I’m grateful exercise. So, for example, going back to that story your your car breaks down,

Carolyn: Yep.

Lori: you’re on a ramp.

I can’t believe this is happening. I’m gonna be late for this meeting. I have so [00:15:00] many things to do today. I And then, but I’m grateful

Carolyn: Mmm.

Lori: what? It doesn’t even have to be related to the incident. It could be, but I’m grateful that it’s not raining today. That it’s sunny today. But I’m grateful that I have a cell phone that I can use to call for help.

Whatever it is.

Carolyn: Yep.

Lori: And doing this, catching yourself in the moment when you catch yourself complaining or criticizing. And we’re human, so we do that. It’s a matter of catching yourself. And have you ever heard that it’s not great to use , the word, but?

Carolyn: Absolutely. Yeah.

Lori: Because if I was giving you some feedback and saying, Carolyn, great job on that presentation, but next time, you know, I just negated everything, all the good stuff I told you.

And that’s exactly why we are using it in this case specifically, because we want to negate the criticism and complaint part and focus on the gratitude part. So it’s, but I’m grateful

Carolyn: Oh, I love [00:16:00] it. I mean, I’m like you, I like the words, but, and should, those are two words that I think we need to eliminate. And what a great way to sort of, use that in a reverse way. So here might be an example in a workplace. You’re in a meeting and it’s taking forever and you’re bored or it’s not going fast enough.

So you’re sitting there and I can just say, Oh my gosh, this is so annoying, but I’m grateful for my great hair today, for example, or I’m grateful for the plans I have later on tonight. Yeah, it really can just sort of change that moment for you.

Lori: Yeah,

Carolyn: Wow. Now, what kind of resistance do you hear people say?

Oh, Lori, like this gratitude thing after you teach them this, what, this one technique do you get? What kind of resistance might you get?

Lori: Sometimes it’s, this seems too simplistic. Can this really work? Cause it’s so simple. Like this is silly and it’s not because the more you [00:17:00] practice it, the more you will naturally go to gratitude and it changes what you’re actually doing is you’re rewiring your brain

It doesn’t have to be complicated. This is the thing I always laugh at is because people want to make things so complicated and because it’s so simple, they think it doesn’t work.

Why can’t it be easy and work at the same time?

Carolyn: Yeah. Hello, neuroplasticity, right? Yeah, we know that this works. So. I’m going to guess that directly connected to the power of gratitude is the practice that your mom taught you at the age of 10.

So how do you, tie these two things together with your clients?

Lori: They’re very interconnected and I talk about them as kind of separately, but within the same framework.

them under the. Pillar of collaboration, like gratitude, and then there’s collaboration and. Under collaboration comes [00:18:00] communication and both of these practices. Can make people, can inspire people, can help people to be more emotionally aware. And by doing that, now you’re developing better relationships. You’re more what’s the word I’m looking for? You’re not as likely to anger as quickly. And so you don’t get drawn into conflict. As easily so now your interpersonal relationships are improved and whether they’re at home or at work.

And the reason I mentioned the at home part is because a lot of times people will have conflict at home and it’s still in their head when they get to work. And so it affects their ability to focus to, to do the work that they’re there to do, because they’re still thinking about that argument that they had with their partner yesterday.

And so when you can use gratitude or meditation, depending on the situation to help clear those thoughts in your head. So that you don’t have those distractions going on. You can be more focused. You can be more creative. You can be [00:19:00] more productive.

Carolyn: Yeah. To me, it’s a real thing about presence, right? So, so this practice of meditation, I remember it would have been well over, well, maybe close to 10 years ago. Now, this leadership group, I was a part of, we read a book. Oh, my goodness. I’m trying to remember what it was, but it was sort of like introducing meditation or mindfulness into the workplace and myself and another, you know, We’re really gung ho to bring it into the group and do like a lunch and learn. And there were only a few of us that really took it seriously. The other ones are like, Oh, whatever. This is silly. We don’t want to waste our time on it. And I think now we’re in a place that’s fast forward 10 years. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any leaders that have ever said to me in the past two years, this meditation stuff’s a joke.

Don’t bother with it.

Lori: Yeah, well, it’s interesting because once you start studying the science and research behind it and you start looking at how businesses are [00:20:00] bringing it into the workplace, you start seeing. Who’s using it and this has been for more than two years, but business leaders like Ray Dalio and I mentioned Ray because he’s an icon on wall street and wall street is like the complete opposite of woo woo, right?

So

Carolyn: Yep.

Lori: if a wall street icon is practicing meditation, talking about his practice and attributing, a large degree of his success. Obviously he still had to take actions, but he’s attributing a large. Portion of his success to his meditation practice because of what it allows him to be because of the leader it makes him

Carolyn: Yeah.

Lori: then in Ray Dalio, Bill Ford, chairman of Ford motor company Arianna Huffington, so many business leaders, sports people

Carolyn: Yep.

Lori: LeBron James and Carly Lloyd, and so many of them because it helps with their focus and productivity.

Carolyn: [00:21:00] Absolutely.

Lori: And so when you start hearing things like that, it makes me question if you as a listener or as a leader want to be successful in business, why would you not use this practice?

Carolyn: Well, I’ll come back to, you know, this Zen rabbit image, right? I think why people don’t use it is because that rabbit is trying to run, right? And run. And the Zen part of it sort of seems counterintuitive. At first, you know, sort of at first flush, you know that same company that we had, that little book club, I told you, and if I go back even 20 years, I was traveling for work and I happened to be on the same flight as the CEO of the company.

At the time we weren’t sitting in the same places. Obviously he was in business class. I was not. And. I was standing talking to him while we were waiting for our luggage. And this notion, I can’t remember how it came up, but he basically said he meditates every single day. And he looked at me, I’ll never forget this.

And he said, I would not be able to do my job and manage [00:22:00] everything that I have to manage without it. I mean, that was a good, Oh, that it could actually be about 20 years ago now. And so to your point, if we see. These big names that are associated with a lot of success in a world that is very productive and not Zen right?

Moving really fast. I think it really just helps bring that notion of paradox, right? We can have the Zen and we can be really like fast little bunnies and get lots done. Yeah. Right.

Lori: Helps you get more done faster by practicing meditation so two reasons why people say they, they’re not good at meditating or why they don’t.

One is I don’t have time. And two is I can’t clear the thoughts in my head. Okay. So these are both myths, misconceptions. Okay. So the clearing the thoughts in the head, no one can do that. Like maybe a monk who’s been practicing for a hundred years but it’s not a realistic [00:23:00] expectation and you’re not You’re not, that’s not what meditation is for.

It’s for bringing your mind back, like paying attention to when thoughts and distractions start carrying you away, coming back to the sound of the meditation teacher’s voice or the focus on breathing and whatever it is. And every time you bring yourself back, like you, Oh, my thoughts are carrying me away.

I’m coming back. I’m coming back. I’m coming back. You’re training your brain again, right? With the rewiring of your brain to bring yourself back from distraction. So even when you’re not in meditation, when you’re working on a project or a proposal, when you start note, you’ll, you will start noticing. More frequently that your mind is getting carried away by things that there are distracting you and you will bring it back faster.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Lori: And so then to the point of, I don’t have time. If you can complete a project. That might have [00:24:00] taken you two hours, but now you can do it in an hour and a half. You just bought yourself 30 minutes and you don’t even have to spend all those 30 minutes in meditation. You could just spend 10 minutes in a meditation and now you have 20 extra minutes to do something else with.

Carolyn: Well, and I just, I love that you’re making it really real for folks. Cause when I, and Hey, I said it for many years 

Lori: Mm hmm. So did I.

Carolyn: have time, which is really an indicator of, Hey I’m the rabbit part of Zen Rabbit. I got things to do. Let me hop away. You know, the other thing I hear as well is I can’t sit still. So what do you say to that?

Lori: Two things. One is I try. I don’t love that word because I always think of Yoda and there is no do, there is no try there’s do or do not. Okay. So 

Carolyn: so 

Lori: here, Here’s something to you. Yes. To test out  before we recorded, but put on your favorite song, upbeat music, and kind of like move your body and dance and get out that [00:25:00] energy and then see if you can sit,

Carolyn: Right.

Lori: that’s one thing.

Secondly, nobody said meditation means sitting quietly cross legged on a mat for hours at a time with no thoughts in your head, you could do a meditation. While you’re out walking or running. You don’t have to be sitting still.

Carolyn: Yep. And so this is where I have tended to use the word presence or mindfulness specifically in workplaces because it seems a little bit easier, less resistance to this, that image, like you said, like who did say that this was somebody sitting on the side of a mountain. Hey, you know, clearly it’s been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, like thousands

Lori: Thousands.

Carolyn: concept of bringing stillness into our mind.

And with a little bit of stillness comes more clarity, which is what you were saying, which leads us to more creativity, better collaboration, better communication. And it also gives us [00:26:00] the ability to access gratitude with much less resistance.

Lori: And to access new ideas. It was Thomas Edison used to put himself into a meditative state. To access ideas that were kind of outside his immediate consciousness, because he knew the ideas existed. How many patents does he have or inventions did he create? And that wasn’t from a thinking state.

He didn’t just think there, sit there and think consciously. Oh, let me create a phonograph machine. Like those came from that. Other than conscious mind of his, and he accessed those ideas through, you know, I don’t know what he called it, but it was a kind of a meditative state. And if people have resistance to this term meditation, what I also bring into it is it’s a grounding practice, a grounding, let’s do some grounding, calming exercises [00:27:00] that can be as simple as.

Focusing on your breath, because anybody listening to this, I assume is breathing. However,

Carolyn: Let’s hope so.

Lori: yeah, however, we tend to breathe very shallowly

Carolyn: Yeah.

Lori: and not focusing. And so giving yourself the opportunity to focus on deeper breathing and breathing in all the way down to your abdomen, the way babies do and then letting it go.

Like even doing that for two to three minutes. Has so much benefit, oxygenates your whole body and your brain and resets your nervous system. And so 2 to 3 minutes, everybody has time for that.

Carolyn: Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just, yeah. I just, you know, brushing your teeth in the morning or washing your face, just follow your breath in and out. You know, those, that is a step into this practice. Now I know, I believe Lori for your, like in your business, you offer customized meditations And I know you refer to it as a GPS for your brain.

Is that still something that you offer clients?

Lori: It is [00:28:00] still something I offer clients. I don’t do a whole lot of it right now, but I love it because it’s very personalized.

Carolyn: So how do you personalize it? How what do you what information helps you personalize it? Why do we not just have a standard set practices to follow?

Lori: We can’t, I mean, people can, there’s, there are so many great apps. There’s this one app that I use all the time, almost every day. It’s called insight timer and it’s free. There’s a paid version, but the free version gives you access to so much and tons of guided meditations. In their guided and music. And I just want to mention to that, especially for beginners, people who are just getting started in meditation or in calming breathing exercises, I highly recommend guided because again, it gives you something to bring your mind back to when it starts wandering.

So there are plenty of that. And there’s many other apps too, and other places you can find meditation. So. What I’m doing [00:29:00] is creating a customized meditation. I have a a form that people fill out that includes their past current and future things to be grateful for.

Carolyn: Mmm.

Lori: And I incorporate them into the meditation.

So the brain is now paying attention more closely than it otherwise would because these are about you. You’re listening to. feeling grateful for these things that you’ve had in your past. Your brain’s like, Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh yeah, I remember that. That’s so cool. And then things that you currently have in your life that you’re grateful for, maybe, you know, this awesome project that you’re working on or your dog or your cat or whatever it is.

Like it can be work and personal related. It doesn’t have to be anything. And then what are you grateful for? This is really interesting one that you are working on bringing into your life. That is a goal. And people are often like, well, how can I be grateful for something? I don’t have yet.

Okay, again, [00:30:00] this is science and research and not stuff about energy, but when you are focused on feeling gratitude and on from an energetic scale.

David Hawkins talked about Gratitude is the highest. Energetic vibration you can get into

before enlightenment, which is like. Almost nobody reaches that, but so when you are in this energetic. Feeling of gratitude. You are essentially magnetizing yourself for these future goals.

And it makes you feel good.

And when you feel good, you produce better work.

Carolyn: Yeah. 

Lori: And that’s what the, customized

meditation is doing.

Carolyn: well, it’s like the hyper driver, like the boost, right? When you push like a boost button, if you’re playing a video game. And again, it seems so simple, but it really helps our brain, right? Cause our brain likes to work so fast. It’s Oh, I recognize that. Boom. I’m going to sort of attach myself to [00:31:00] that even faster.

So yeah.

Lori: yeah. And those customized meditations, the feedback I have gotten on them. And then I put a healing frequency music underneath it. So it makes it extra boost because your brain is engaging with it on a different level. And the feedback that I’ve gotten is people have been brought to tears because they know they filled out the form.

And then I’ll do like a five to 10 minute kind of an interview with people to clarify things and just get a feeling. Of who they are and that helps me decide which piece of music I put underneath it. they listen to it and they’re like, They don’t remember that they told me this

stuff. 

Carolyn: So then they’re like, how did she know?

Lori: And it’s very personal. It’s brought a lot of people to tears because they’re just, they’re overwhelmed with this feeling and it’s the gratitude feeling. And it but that it, but, but that it is so personalized and so much about them and their brain is paying attention.

Yeah. only. Yeah. And they’re [00:32:00] only.

between 15 and 20 minutes. So we’re not talking again, like it’s not an hour of commitment time and people want to listen to it because it’s about them and it makes them feel good. And who doesn’t want to feel good more?

Carolyn: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, and you know, I know a lot of organizations now offer free subscriptions to some of these apps. So I’m with you. I think insight timer is wonderful. Primarily because it’s such a huge platform for practitioners to put their own content on. So that’s one reason I love it. It’s not sort of, it’s just sort of a free platform.

And there’s just such a diversity of offerings on there. You can really find 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 45 minutes. I’d like bierno beats or I would like nature sounds, like so much to offer there. You know, another one that I have found really helpful has been balance. I know Calm has a business package now.

There’s Headspace. So there’s so many things out there that There’s so many offerings or [00:33:00] tools to help us muse. I even used to muse for a while that kind of helped me with brainwaves. Interestingly enough, I would get mad at it. I was not grateful. I would get mad at why? Because it would measure your sort of brain activity.

I don’t know what it is to be honest. I don’t know what it was exactly measuring, but I had to stop using it because I was getting mad at myself for not doing it right and not doing it fast enough. Which is not the purpose,

Lori: Yeah, that totally defeats the purpose.

Carolyn: right? And I’m not blaming news for that. That was user. That was total user user face problem.

I guess my point that I’m trying to really emphasize with the listeners is there are lots of ways to walk into this,

Lori: Yes. And it really comes down to finding the one that works for you.

Carolyn: right? 

Yeah, 

absolutely.

Lori: Just like everybody’s not a runner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work out.

The thing that works for you.

Carolyn: Absolutely. Well, Laurie, what would be your final words of wisdom for the leaders listening to this show?

Lori: It would be one [00:34:00] lead from example. In doing this and let people know, like if you are meditating, you know, not that you have to sit in the middle of the office or, you know, in the middle of a meeting and meditate, but be open about your practice. And the other thing is that you could start meetings by doing a quick one to two minute grounding exercise so that you can bring people into the meeting so that they can be focused while they’re there.

That they’re not still thinking about the other things that happened earlier in the day or yesterday or whatever, and get them all on the same page.

Carolyn: I had a group of 60 people just recently in a room. Yeah. A group that you would never think would be open to this. And they did three different breathing practices with me 

Lori: Mm hmm. 

Carolyn: And the, at one moment, the entire room was inhaling and exhaling at the same time. And I had a real moment of wow look at where we’ve come

People weren’t just like rolling their eyes.

They were [00:35:00] really in it.

Lori: Yeah and this is gonna sound so idealistic but and, If everyone could come from this place of calm and groundedness, what would our world look like?

Carolyn: Yeah, that is a great question to end with. A great question for listeners to take away myself, you as well. We can, you know, really think of that. Cause that again, brings us into the present moment and allows us to be grateful. I’m grateful uh, you found us here on evolve and that you’ve come on the show and would love to give you a chance to just share where could people find out more about your work, maybe they want a meditation, a little GPS work from Lori.

Where can they find you?

Lori: My website is zenrabbit. com that’s easy enough. And there are links there to my socials. I most frequently am on LinkedIn. So feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Send me a message and say you heard me here on evolve and let’s connect.

Carolyn: [00:36:00] Perfect, perfect. So to conclude all of the podcasts, I ask our guests three questions and it’s going to come as no surprise that these questions are very much related to what we’ve talked about. Because in my book that I wrote, Evolve, right there it was really about Learning to show up in our leadership spaces with more intention and more awareness.

Lori: Mm hmm. 

Carolyn: these things bring us a step closer. So first question I have for you is around self awareness, and I find that people can really learn and share in the growth when they hear other people’s stories about self awareness. So I’ll invite you to share, you know, a short story or anecdote where your level of self awareness just really grew exponentially as a result of something.

Lori:  I, I mentioned earlier that I have been living nomad life and yeah, so it’s been almost 10 months since I gave up my apartment and have been house and mostly cat sitting [00:37:00] across parts of the U S

Carolyn: How do you, okay, sorry, side note. How do you find cats in houses?

Lori: There’s a website called trusted house sitters.

Carolyn: oh, no way. Okay.

Lori: and people list things. Yeah. And so, yeah. So, and then word of mouth also so this has required a lot of personal growth and expansion examination to give up my apartment. I don’t have. Well, I mean, I can call a friend’s house a home base.

So when I go back to where I call home in Northern Virginia I have a place to stay, but it’s not my own home. And sleeping in different beds all the time and people are like, how do you do that? I just wouldn’t be able to. And so, just all of the situations. That I’ve had to adjust to in being in different places all the time and different homes and different cat personalities and all of those things has been such an, enormous growth opportunity.

But I, [00:38:00] and I did see, I catch myself too. And it’s been such a fantastic opportunity for self awareness

Of what. Was what could be scary and doing it anyway. You know, I love talking about also the concept of courage and courage is not lack of fear or lack of anxiety about something it’s doing it anyway,

And that’s what I’ve been doing the whole past 10 months.

It’s been really enlightening.

Carolyn: and we’ve had no cats show up on the screen, sadly. haven’t, Yeah, it’s nap time.

Yeah. All right. next question is again, the entire podcast answers the second question, but I’m going to ask you specifically, what is a practice or cue that you rely on that helps you regulate, helps you find calm amongst chaos,

Lori: of course, it’s meditation and I do it every morning [00:39:00] when I wake up. And I do it in the morning, you know, this is another question I get, when’s the best time? Well, the best time is whenever time works for you. And I like doing it in the morning because it sets the intention for my day. It sets the stage for my day.

And, At this point, now that I’ve been doing it so long, it’s almost if I don’t do it, it feels like leaving the house without brushing my teeth.

Carolyn: Yeah. And I’m going to guess your day just is a little bit off

Lori: yeah, absolutely. And again, it doesn’t have to be long. It could be this morning. I think the meditation I did was nine minutes.

Carolyn: Yeah. Yeah. Do you do it before you roll out of bed? Or do you get dressed first and then do it?

Lori: No, honestly, I may have to get up and use the bathroom and then I go back into the bed, but I do not get dressed. I don’t put my contact lenses in before I do it. I just do it first thing.

Carolyn: Yeah. And that’s why, that’s why, I mean, I mean, that’s why I asked. Not that we need to be right with you in your morning routine every morning. But to your point, do it when it feels right for you.

Lori: Yeah. Some people do it in the middle of the day. You can do it as you’re falling asleep. The time right when you wake up and when [00:40:00] you’re falling asleep is really a great time because your mind is still in that in between sleep and awake. And that’s when it’s most most susceptible, if you will, to the messages going into your other than conscious mind.

Carolyn: Wonderful. I did mine this morning too, before I got started on my day. I think I might do it tomorrow now that you said that

Lori: Good for you!

Carolyn: a good time. And now my last question is all about co regulation. And I think music is just, whoops, is just a fabulous, tool to help us co regulate.

And my question to you is what is a song or genre of music that helps you feel connected to something bigger than yourself?

Lori: Yes, I’ve Love this question because I am a big music fan as well. And so I, the song that comes to my mind first off and because there’s so many is Carrie Underwood’s unstoppable.

Carolyn: I have not heard that song.

Lori: Oh, yes. I think you have, if you heard it, you would know, and the video is amazing too.

Carolyn: I can think of Sia’s song, but okay. I’m going to look it up after this. Carrie Underwood’s [00:41:00] Unstoppable.

Lori: Yeah, it’s it just pumps me up. It gives me such an extra boost of energy and it’s just like it just fuels me

In a way that, you know, okay, I’m going to go out and do the thing, whatever the thing is, I’m going to go do it.

Carolyn: Wonderful. Ah that’s sounds like a great song. I love, and I do love Carrie Underwood, so I’m surprised. Maybe I do know it. Anyway, 

Lori: You, you know, 

it, 

Carolyn: I’m going to check

Lori: It wasn’t a hidden in the back of an album song.

Carolyn: All right. Lori, thank you so much.

Please thank your team who found us. It was really great having you on the show.

Lori: My pleasure, Carolyn. 

Carolyn: I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Lori today. It it was really practical. That was my hope that we could give you some real tools to get started on this journey of meditation and gratitude, which are two important elements of your wellness. And we heard Lori say this as simple as they are.

They really do work. So if you [00:42:00] don’t have any of these practices in place yet, I’m just going to invite you to step into it for a minute a day. Maybe even two minutes. Before you get up in the morning, what are three things you’re grateful for? Before you go to sleep at night, what are three things that you’re grateful for?

And you know, sometimes it is, I’ve had a good hair day, or I enjoyed my meal, or my dog’s here cuddling with me. Whatever it is, we don’t want to edit ourselves when it comes to gratitude. And with regards to mindfulness, meditation, I really encourage you to find an app, find a tool. You could reach out to Lori as well.

She offers some personalized meditations, but there is so much strength in this work. It helps bring our body state, our physiologically into a place of safety. And when we are in a place of safety, we are more able to [00:43:00] access. Emotions that fulfill us. We are more able to access hope and. and.

It’s really important in our world today that we have access to the state so that we can reconnect or stay connected to our true deep self. If you’ve enjoyed the show today, I’ll invite you to go and check out my website. Carolyn’s word. com. Right now, when you join the evolved community, you get access to a tool that I have.

That shares with you 10 calming practices right in line with what we talked about today. Thanks so much for tuning in and we’ll see you again on our next episode. Bye for now.