A client found herself distracted every time she went to work on her own personal projects but had no problem staying focused when she was working on projects for other people. Find out how a grade 5 teacher has impacted her ability to succeed thirty years later.

On this podcast I'll discuss the common strategy of saying “YES” or giving your time, talents and energy to everyone, automatically, without considering any alternate response. You know who you are. The over-scheduled, stressed out, want to, but can’t do it all people. I’m talking to those who have stopped using a calendar, because they already know there is no room in it to put anything else. Or, I’m talking to the person out there that has self-care booked in, a one hour time slot, once a week but still manages to book other things in it’s place. Even though self care is on the calendar, they never do self care. I’m talking to those people today, that want something different, those people that want to be able to say no, without the guilt, without feeling bad. I’m talking to everyone who gives, because they believe they are supposed to give. Because that is the right thing to do. That’s what you’ve been taught. That’s all you know. Is that you? Let me ask, ”How is it working for you? Chances are the feel good, warm fuzzy feeling in your heart you expect to feel by saying yes, is not showing up and instead, you’re feeling overwhelmed, worn out, depleted, resentful, sad, disappointed and on and on. This podcast includes part of a coaching session where my client shares a bit about her religious teachings and how the act giving has been muddied by childhood experiences and perceptual interpretations. Listen in as I work with her to isolate the motivation and thought processes surrounding the act of giving.

This podcast shares a portion of a coaching session Lori has with a returning client. She coaches a client to recognize her wins and shares insights for the importance of doing so. Big change comes from all of the little wins and it’s vital that we take the time to celebrate each and every one of them, because they become our jumping off point for future actions. Celebrating our wins helps to align ourselves with who we really are and open us up to take the next movement forward from an aligned space. The actions we decide to take, to break a habit are incredibly powerful as they each help to draw us back into alignment. When we discount their value, we knock ourselves out of alignment, by focusing instead on the outside, the future or the past. If we are wanting, long lasting change or if we want to create a new life affirming habit then we need to create a strong, powerful foundation from which it can grow. That, comes from acknowledging, feeling, contemplating and reflecting on our wins. Alternatively, if we fluff over them, sit in the “what didn’t work,” then that, becomes the foundation of our next movement forward. Our next actions become rooted in heavy, unaligned, outwardly focused, lack ridden mentality. Chances of us sticking to our plan when it’s planted in that is slim to none. To Be Coached, Become a Coach or attend the Unleash Your Greatness Conference go to www.LoriBrant.com.

I have found that clients want what they want, to acquire things, achieve things, experience things because they want to feel a certain way. They believe that something outside of them will trigger the feeling that they crave within them. During this session, the client has expressed the desire to find herself, to have a purpose. For her, being busy is synonymous with having purpose. This appears to be because when she was busy raising her children, she felt deeply connected and valued. Now that her children are older and she has more time on her hands, she’s struggling to find that same value and connection in her everyday life. It would be easier to coach this client to “DO” something else to keep her busy but coaching her to rely on outside circumstances to feel happy, would be setting her up to end up right back where she started. Everything outside of us changes. If we depend on it to feel a certain way, and it changes,..how we feel will change. If the client can experience connection without relying on what is outside of her, she’ll experience the freedom she craves regardless of outside circumstances, regardless of the activity. The prominent limiting belief during this call is, “I need to be busy to be happy.”

Lori Brant interviews Gina Hatzis, who has become an internet sensation with over 40 million views of her Too Much Woman video.  Gina's personal journey as a Too Much Woman has touched the hearts of many. Too sensitive, too big, too bold, too much were the messages she heard over and over again forming the belief system she lived by into her 40's. Recognizing that the version of Gina that people loved or admired was not the true essence of who she was, she decided not to dim her light any longer. Lori and Gina discuss the process of how she reclaimed who she really was, which included her femininity, sexuality, her body, her sensitive nature, and all the parts that were determined to be too much. The process changed her life and opened her up to deeply loving herself in ways she never knew was possible. A recovering journalist, Gina has spent the past 25 years as an International Corporate and Public Speaker, specializing in soulful leadership, stellar communication and epic empowerment. She’s also a blogger, a writer, a spoken word artist and the host of her show Spiritual G Spot, broadcasting in over 70 countries worldwide and is currently on a global tour as the spearhead and Visionary for the Too Much Woman Movement, a platform for women shine fully in their glory. When she's not speaking, writing, dancing or singing carpool karaoke, she is mothering her amazing teenagers and desperately trying to convince them she is still dope. Her first book, Celebrating the Too Much Woman is hot off the press! You can connect with her on social media at Gina Hatzis or at www.ginahatzis.com. To learn more about one on one coaching with Lori Brant go to www.LoriBrant.com.  To learn more about limiting beliefs and how to transform them attend the Unleash Your Greatness Conference.

I had worked with this client for eight sessions over a two-month period. At the beginning, she shared how her anxiety, physical pain and fatigue kept her from taking care of herself financially. We uncovered some limiting beliefs like
I need to be taken care of. I should be taken care of. What I want doesn't matter because I am a woman.
I need to treat myself.
 I need to spend my money right away.
 There is never enough money.
 I don't need to work.
I'm too tired to work.
 Other people will support me.
I am not worthy. Through the coaching process, it was revealed that when she was a child, her father expected her mother to do all the chores and also, that my client should not help her mother. It was very explicit. If she helped her mother, that would be an indication that she was being disloyal to her father and he would get upset. She also expressed, that if she did what he said and didn’t do any chores, he would shower attention and love on her making her feel deserving and “like a princess.” The limiting belief fueling financial dependence, “I shouldn't work.”

 Over the 8 weeks, we worked on mindset, personal self-care and developed specific actions each week to support her financial independence. By challenging her limiting beliefs she was able to open up to alternate perceptions that supported her expansion and growth, like, I don’t need to be taken care of, and I’m better off not being taken care of.

Aly, like many new Life Coaches is trying to Brand and distinguish herself from other life Coaches by trying to use her unique personal experiences to set her apart. She is finding it difficult to achieve a balance between sharing her story and what she can bring to the coaching conversation, while still adhering to the premise of coaching and having the session centred around the client. Finding a balance required a deeper understanding about how she empowered herself, how she could translate and convey that understanding as a strategy to potential clients through marketing. Lori helped the client to summarize what she had learned and how it could be applied in creating content for marketing platforms including social media, blog, book and more.

Sometimes, we avoid feeling our pain by running away or pushing it down into the corners of our being hoping it will just go away or subside but it doesn’t work. These emotions that we refuse to feel get all clumped together like a ball of play doh in the grass. It’s hard to separate the little bits and distinguish between all the feelings, like shame, unworthiness, or being loveable or enough. We can meditate for hours, do yoga and recite affirmations, but if we are not questioning, identifying, feeling and understanding the ball of limiting beliefs,.. and the emotions attached to them, they will forever be infiltrating our present day experience. Being a people pleaser, trying to make everyone else happy are often strategies we use to avoid triggering those buried painful emotions. The strategies, which were created to keep us safe or to avoid pain can actually be doing the opposite by keeping us in a perpetual state of stress. By constantly keeping us focussed on the outside, or on other people our energy is spent trying not to trigger old pain rather than being aligned, present and living from our natural state of peace and calm. Brenda, Lori’s coaching client is wanting to love herself wholly,..completely, and experience the freedom of that. However, until she tunes in to her body and her feelings, those buried emotions are going to travel with her and into her present experience. To love herself just as she is or to feel worthy of what she has,…. it will require her to know the difference between how it feels to be aligned with the essence or who she is and how it feels to be operating from the emotional ball of limiting beliefs. You’ll listen in as I work diligently to get her to establish the experiential benchmarks to what it is she is wanting, rather than allowing her to “run away from what it is she doesn’t want.”