Beyond Work/Life Balance – Embracing an Integrated Life | Ep 190

Music. Imagine getting up every day full of energy, as if you were in your 20s again. What would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything, but without it, everything else is nothing. And yet, too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system or public health as a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone, combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your Health for today and all your tomorrows, don't wait for your wake up call. Welcome back to another episode of The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I am here today with a special potopalooza episode with Lara Thornley Hall all the way from Sydney, Australia. So a fellow Aussie here, and we're going to be talking about embracing work life balance. So welcome to the show, Lara. I'm excited to have you. Thanks, Melissa. It's great to be here, and as it's a pota Palooza episode, I don't actually have a bio to introduce you with here, so I would love for you to just start out by introducing yourself and sharing your story as to how you got into this line of work.

Lara Thornley Hall: Lovely, lovely. So I currently have broken all the rules because I graduated myself from corporate life. I was a VP of operations in federal government consulting for a couple of decades, and I graduated myself from that and started two businesses, and that broke the rules, because apparently you're only ever supposed to do one and dedicate everything to that. And what I'm finding is, with two businesses, you're able to have one inform the other, and even more importantly than that, you learn not to silo each part of your life, but you learn to integrate it all together on the one plate. And so that's the way that you find balance with everything on the one plate, rather than everything in different silos.

And so I love that for a number of reasons. First of all, when people think they have to find balance, they think that means they have to stop doing things. And here you are running two businesses and finding balance. And the other thing that I love is when you say, I've broken all of the rules, because you're only supposed to do one, my question to that is, who says so?

Lara Thornley Hall: Exactly, exactly, what I've really found is it's about the energy that you have. We always think about time, oh, I don't have time for this, or I don't have time for that. When my energy rises, I can do anything. If my energy is low, I can have all the time in the world, and I won't be able to do it because I don't have the energy. So at the end of the day, it's about having your energy raised up and vibrating. And if you are having a low energy day, that's okay, swivel the plate around a little bit and do some low energy tasks, right?

Yeah, or just recognize that that's your body asking you to slow down for that day and allow yourself the space to rest, yes, so that you have the energy exactly what you want to do the next day, right?

Lara Thornley Hall: And if you have your work life balance, and you're having a low energy day, it all falls apart because you're splitting yourself into so many little pieces and trying to allocate that. But when you put it all together on the one plate, and maybe, you know, as you say, you rotate the plate and you turn to rest, and then you rejuvenate and bring your energy back up again,

that's beautiful. So talk a little bit about who you're working with in teaching this philosophy to people through your businesses, because you've discovered it through having the two businesses and now you're helping others. Is that correct? Yes, exactly,

Lara Thornley Hall: exactly. So my primary life coaching target is Executive Women, because I've been an executive woman, and I always say, Oh no, I am not an executive coach to make the executive a better executive. I am a life coach for the human who wears the executive suit, because it's that human, that. I want to talk to, it's that human who needs the healing. It's that human who needs to reconnect with themselves, and when they do that, yes, they will be a better executive. But let's focus on the human first, and then I bring that across to understanding. I even bring that to the students at our math franchise, because they're the humans too, right? So out of the 1000 franchises around the world, my franchise is the first to have an imagination chair where my humans come in and they're able to go on an audio journey and many meditation so that they are able to calm their own mind and spirit and remember that they can do math. Also,

I love that. I absolutely love that I love a that you're teaching this with children, because there's so much of the work that I do that I would love to see taught in schools. So the fact that you're bringing this to kids is wonderful, because that creates a different mindset for those kids and gives them tools as young children that they will take into adulthood. And that's how we shift things, generally, generationally, for the next generation to not be in that corporate mode. You know, you're talking about talking to the human inside the executive. And I really related to that, because I used to be in the corporate world as well. And it's almost when you're in the corporate world that you step into this persona that is outside of your human self, exactly,

Lara Thornley Hall: exactly and and the integration of one informing the other. My life coach training, I learned the very important message, don't work harder than your clients. And I learned it, and I didn't quite see it in me, because sometimes it's hard to see it in me, but I saw it when I'm a mentor to my math instructors, and I had one young instructor who was so passionate about this one student and so desperate for them to get their math results improved that he was just about doing their math for them, because he was so desperate for them to improve, and that's where I saw myself, right? That's where I learned the lesson, don't work harder than my clients, because, yes, I could be desperate for my client to get the results they want, and I can't do the work for them. And that's where this integrated life with one part serving the other, and me allowing myself to learn and give in each situation, that's where the fulfillment comes from. Yes,

and I love that, because I share that in my own training as well, that if you do it for them, you are denying them the learning that they are supposed to get on their journey, and we're all heart, you know, felt people, and so we want the best for the people that we're working with. And it's easy to fall in, oh, just do it for them, right? Except that when I had the realization then I'm denying them the opportunity to learn, that's when I realized, no, no, I can't do it for them, right?

Yeah, that's so important.

Exactly So again, and I love the idea too, of the imagination chair and calming the nervous system, right? And helping people relax so the students relax, calm that nervous system to get into that place where they can do math, right, and it sounds like an environment, too. One of my favorite quotes is, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. That mindset around particularly math, I see it a lot

Lara Thornley Hall: with kids, and really is breaking going for so many

it is because the ongoing conversation is, I'm bad at math counsel,

Lara Thornley Hall: and it actually becomes an identity. Yes, right? We're actually yes. We're helping them do the math. We're also helping them heal their identity, their relationship with math, right? That's why the audio journey so important, yes, because they have to do math to be better at math. And if we can change their identity, yes, I am a math kid and talk about numbers being like characters in a story, and they can solve mysteries together, right? And raise their energy about math, it'll help to heal their relationship with math as well. And that's where we do right, exactly.

And that healing that relationship is literally shifting their mindset around it, and moving from that place of, I don't think I can to I think I can exactly. And as soon as you move into the I think I can, well, you can, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I love that. I really love all of this conversation here and just the shifting things around the plate is such a beautiful way to give people a different approach to life. It's never this or that Exactly, and that's often taught

Lara Thornley Hall: that we are. So when a new opportunity comes now, I don't have to analyze it and go, does it fit in this bucket or this bucket or this bucket, right? I just have the opportunity of, Oh, I could speak at the next chamber of commerce women's meeting. I'm there because of my math franchise, and I spoke about hypnosis in a police station, right? Because it was an opportunity, and I could connect with the opportunity. I didn't have to put it in the math bucket, right? I could bring myself to it and bring the best value that I had in the moment to those women, most of whom are business owners, and the opportunity to give them the value that they needed, which at that moment was hypnosis in a police station.

Love it. I love it because we do all have parts of us, and we don't have to separate out those parts. And again, that's the work that I do, is bringing those parts together. And what you're very clearly doing is, you know, I can talk about hypnosis at a police station. In fact, my training partner is an ex police woman, and she wants to bring that into the police station. And the work that we do to help heal, help them all heal from the trauma that they've experienced using timeline therapy and hypnosis.

Lara Thornley Hall: Yes, wonderful. That's wonderful. Yes, the opportunity to travel to the past and to change your view of the past is just incredible. It's so powerful,

exactly, and working with the unconscious mind, which is exactly what you're doing when you're putting the children in the imagination chair,

Lara Thornley Hall: yes, yes, I haven't quite gone so far as hypnosis with the children, though I'm tempted from time to time

and and yet they might be doing it themselves. Because, let's face it, we spend 90% of our day in trance anyway. So their soul lines already know how to go into trance, and you're giving them a track that is helping calm their nervous system. They're dropping down into trance. You're just not giving them the suggestions, although they're getting the suggestions that they're good at math. So Exactly, exactly, what is hypnosis? Anyway? It's a beautiful way to give positive suggestions to the unconscious mind so that they can act on it. Wonderful.

Lara Thornley Hall: And all hypnosis is self hypnosis. So if they want to train they are more than able to to to recover from the hardship of their school day Exactly,

exactly. So, yeah, I love this conversation. Look at how you're bringing all of these different things together on your one plate and serving so many in such positive ways. Yeah. So I absolutely love this conversation. Thank you for changing the narrative around what work life balance looks like. Yes, because there is a lot of conversation around that right now, and there are a lot of people saying, well, there is no such thing, because you can't ever be in balance, etc, etc. And so that could make some segment of the population just give up and go, Oh, well, there is no such thing. So why am I trying to get there? And then they keep pushing and striving and overdoing it, and they end up in burnout, right?

Lara Thornley Hall: Right? Versus, I mean, I really think burnout is often when you're striving for that work life balance ideal, and you can't meet it, but maybe, if it's not what you're striving for, if you can rest and and sink into integration, and rather than having everything conflicting between work and life, if you can relax into integration. That's when the burnout can be reduced and the recovery can start.

Exactly, beautiful. So tell me a little bit about the programs that you offer when you're working with your clients.

Lara Thornley Hall: Yes, so with thought renovations, we work with clients in a monthly program where we have a coaching session. So we're doing root cause coaching to go from the presenting problem out there all the way through to the unconscious mind to understand the root cause, the limiting decisions, negative emotions trapped in our body. And then after every session, I prepare a personalized meditation so that they can journey that at home in their own space and their best time, which is going to be addressing what was the most pertinent area of need and healing from our coaching session. So the meditations can be more hypnotic, they can be more guided journey. They can be more specific procedures, even some. Traveling on the timeline as part of the meditation so that they can really meet themselves at the point where they need healing.

That's beautiful. I love it. I absolutely love it. You've tied all of the components together into one beautiful journey for your client, right? Because that's the integration

Lara Thornley Hall: as well, the multi modality, bringing them all together so that healing can happen

exactly, and then they get to listen to that, you know, once a day, every day, as the unconscious mind just it's just download to the unconscious mind, beautiful. So tell me, Laura, what does don't wait for your wake up call mean to you.

Lara Thornley Hall: Don't wait for burnout to happen before you decide to change things. Take a deep breath right now and realize that life can be so much better when you connect with yourself and you integrate with yourself. That's

beautiful. Thank you. And if people would like to get hold of you and work with you. How can they reach out to you? And yes, believe you have a free gift you like to offer audiences. So share that as well, please.

Lara Thornley Hall: So thought, renovations is my company, because we all need to renovate our thoughts. So thought renovations.com is the website. You can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram under thought, renovations. And my gift is a personalized meditation where you can choose the journey and the focus. And I'll record a meditation specifically for you with the view of integrating the conscious and unconscious mind in the area of focus, whether that be reducing imposter thinking, improving your relationship with food, reducing drinking alcohol or some other area that you want focus. I'll do a personal meditation for you so you can start your healing journey. That's

beautiful. Thank you so much. What a beautiful, beautiful, generous gift. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have any last words of wisdom that you would like to share with the audience? Yeah,

Lara Thornley Hall: I really want to say you are worth connecting with connecting with yourself. You will find a person inside of you who is fabulous and so worth the effort.

Beautiful and so true. I absolutely love that we all have our own magnificence. We're all here on this planet for a reason, and when we tune into who we truly are, that becomes apparent, and that's when we get to witness our own magnificence. I love it beautiful. Thank you so much Laura for coming on the show and to my audience. Thank you so much for tuning in, week in and week out, and learning from the wonderful guests that I have on the show. And if you know somebody that needs to hear Laura's message today, please share this episode with them, and we will see you back here again next week. Thank you for investing this time with me on the don't wait for your wake up call Podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone you think can benefit and have a positive impact on their life, that would be wonderful. Please leave a review by going to your favorite podcast listening app and let me know what you enjoy or would like to hear more of it. Will support me in my effort to bring the possibility of natural healing to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we have today and make human health a global priority. Health is your true wealth and.