THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman:
Hey there, my art lover, you passion maker, you. This is Miriam Schulman, chief inspiration officer and host of The Inspiration Place Podcast. You’re listening to episode number 137. I’m so grateful that you’re here. Today, we’re talking all about connecting with your higher consciousness so you can tap into greater creativity. In this episode, you’ll discover an intentional inspiration practice, a conscious celebration practice. And all of these practical action plans will allow you to access the greater creativity that is inside all of us.
Today’s guest is a Soul Magic business coach who took the leap several years ago to leave the corporate world and her cushy corner office to work for herself. She initially followed her Soul Magic path to become a nationally touring singer/songwriter and a yogi and meditation teacher. Several years ago, she heard the call to become a coach and now runs a successful online coaching business, where she specializes in offering coaching and online programs, and has.
Served over 12,000 students and clients around the world. She’s the creator of the Soul Magic coach certification program and Soul Magic CEO mastermind, and helps coaches build thriving soul-aligned businesses filled with dream clients and magic. Her mission is to give you the clarity, tools, confidence, business, and marketing strategy to turn your talents and expertise into a successful and thriving business that you love so that you can share your magic in a bigger way to do what you’re meant to do and make a positive difference in the world. Please welcome to The Inspiration Place, Lauren Lapointe. Well, Hey there, Lauren. Welcome to the show.
Lauren Lapointe:
Hey, it’s great to be here.
Miriam Schulman:
All right. So the reason I invited Lauren, we are both in the same mastermind together and she’s always dropping so much brilliance, and so generous with everything that I knew I wanted to have her on the show. One of the things that she helped me with was this intentional inspiration practice. Do you think that’s the right place to start Lauren, just to dive right in with some of these?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yes, absolutely. Let’s do it.
Miriam Schulman:
We were talking about our cats before we hit record. I don’t know that anyone else cares about our cats so [inaudible 00:03:34]. All right.
Lauren Lapointe:
We can do that later. Yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. All right. So tell me what is an intentional inspiration practice and why would somebody want to do it?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of started this. I didn’t have a name for it and it wasn’t an official thing, but I kind of just started doing this several years ago when I left my day job and started doing my art, which was my music, full time. And I realized writing songs and being creative was something I had to tap into regularly. And also just being able to… not just for my own art and my own creativity, but it was also just, I wanted to live my life in a certain way. And I wanted to be able to really connect with this more inspired part of myself.
So I just started doing the thing where I got really intentional about what created this shift for me. So I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced where you’re just kind of going… Because we have every day mind, which we all have that. That’s where we’re at most of the time, everyday stuff, all the things going on. And that’s important of course, but then sometimes something happens and there’s like the switch that happens. I don’t know if you know Marie Kondo from the spark joy, tidying up stuff. And she talks-
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. Ruined my life, but yes.
Lauren Lapointe:
I know. I miss all my books I gave away. My books.
Miriam Schulman:
[crosstalk 00:04:49]. Why’d I throw that out?
Lauren Lapointe:
I know, my guitars. But she talks about this concept of sparking joy. And so it’s kind of similar to that, if anyone can relate to that. But basically it’s about being more aware of the things that can elevate our consciousness, that kind of bring us into this place where it’s like the curtains part, there’s singing, there’s bells. I don’t know whatever it is for you. But it’s like… And all of a sudden we’re inspired, and so we can access that place where creative ideas come in. I use that a lot in my business because I’m running a creative business. So sometimes I find it harder with that to have to access this higher state. And so I use it a lot in that way as well, but that’s why I just started doing it. Over time, I noticed that a lot of people were asking me to help them with that. And of course, over time, a name came up, intentional inspiration.
Miriam Schulman:
So I just want to make sure that I understand what you’re saying. So this is basically instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, if you’re not feeling inspired… And I know not everyone who listened to this podcast, by the way, is a painter, I have a lot of other types of creatives who listen, but I’ll just use the painting example. Let’s just say you have the time to work on your art, whatever that happens to be, painting, music, but you’re not feeling inspired. This is what this practice is for, for generating inspiration for you? Is that what I’m hearing?
Lauren Lapointe:
It can definitely be used for that. And it could be used for pretty much anything in your life once you start to apply it. But I think that’s a good place to start is with your art or your creativity, however that looks. And it’s intentional. So what that means is first of all, you have to start becoming really aware of what inspires you. And generally, we know that already. There’s probably some things that everybody can be like, “Yeah, well, I know that this inspires me and I love this painter. And I know that sunsets…” And things like that, but it’s about being really… Can I say intentional one more time? A good way to really start to apply this practice is to write it down. Make a list. These are the things that inspire me. And also go deeper with them. There are some things that can really create the shift rapidly for us.
Miriam Schulman:
Do you mind sharing with us some of the things on your list?
Lauren Lapointe:
Absolutely. So what inspires me a lot right now, I’m really into crystals. They’re bright, shiny toys for grownups, right?
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah.
Lauren Lapointe:
So what’s not to love? So I have crystals with me. I have some right around me right now. I pick certain ones for what I’m working on. The thing with crystals, and it doesn’t have to be crystals, but it’s a physical object that connects me. As soon as I pick up my crystal, it connects me to my intuition. It takes me into that state. So it gets me out of busy everyday mind and already it kind of opens up that creative space and intuitive space.
Miriam Schulman:
That makes sense because it’s one of those things that even if you don’t believe in the power of a crystal, there is a ritual aspect that is associated with that mindfulness of when I pick up a crystal, I am going to shift the way I feel and think.
Lauren Lapointe:
Absolutely.
Miriam Schulman:
Do you have certain crystal… I don’t want to get into the weeds of crystals, but is there a certain crystal that you reach for?
Lauren Lapointe:
I have a few that I like. A deeper level to these practices we’re talking about today is also, it’s accessing a higher consciousness and creativity, but it’s also balancing. So if I’m feeling too grounded, too much kind of heavy and sluggish and… Actually, I was feeling that way today. So then I would pick a crystal. There are certain ones that… like higher chakra stuff. If anybody’s into chakras they’ll know what I’m talking about. But basically the higher chakras are just your higher consciousness. So purple ones or blue ones will kind of lift you, kind of get you out of that heaviness and help you access this higher state. So today I have a purple crystal with me.
Miriam Schulman:
An amethyst?
Lauren Lapointe:
It’s not an amethyst. I actually forgot the name. I just picked it up. I just bought it. It’s a funny name. I’ll have to look it up and share with you later. If anybody wants to know they can reach out if they’re curious what it is. I’m trying to learn my crystals intuitively. I tend to be an over-thinker, if anybody can relate. So crystals are a way for me to think less, feel more, be more intuitive. So what I’m doing now is I’m selecting crystals that I don’t really know what they mean, and I’m not looking them up. And I’m just kind of feeling their energy and accessing that state. So that’s one great way. That’s pretty new for me to be using crystals as part of my intentional inspiration. I love to watch movies about famous artists in their life. That just immediately gets me into that state. So that’s another great way. Certain books, I love Julia Cameron stuff, of course.
And speaking of Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way, her rituals are very much in line with what I’m talking about as well, where she talks about morning pages and daily walks and artist… Things like that. So there’s a lot of different tools that we can pull on. Some are more physical, some are more sound-oriented, certain music, so we can use all of our senses as well, use our mind to trigger our mind or what I’m doing, trigger more of our intuitive side. So you see how it’s all about balancing and kind of being more aware of where we’re at in any given moment and what we need to do to balance that.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. So let’s break this down. So an intentional inspiration practice, the first step you say is to journal or kind of brainstorm ideas where, what things actually have caused you to be inspired and how can you create that experience for yourself? Is that right?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah, exactly. It’s a way of capturing the creative ideas, so find some kind of way… To add to that too, I make sure that it’s… I have creative journals that spark inspiration, I’ve got my little magic journal back here. It’s purple and velvet and has magic written on it. And so that’s where I’ll write something that inspires me. So this is an ongoing practice. That’s why it’s intentional. It’s not like you just sit down once and you go, “Here’s the things that inspire me.” It’s something that we’re developing deeper awareness, and this is why it can spill over to our entire lives, and that we can access it in all sorts of different things once you start to practice this. If you’re doing something with your family and you’re feeling kind of funky, well, okay, what do I need right now to make me feel in balance and more inspired, just so I can be present with my family or whatever’s going on?
Miriam Schulman:
Do you get asked, “What if I don’t know what inspires me?” Do people ever ask you that?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah, of course.
Miriam Schulman:
What do you say to them?
Lauren Lapointe:
Honestly, it’s about starting to pay attention and you just start where you are. So there’s no right or wrong. There’s no, you get extra points the more things that you have right now. It’s just starting to notice. It actually can be really fun to be a beginner of this. So if you’re feeling like, I don’t know what this is, or I already know what inspire… Sometimes that will come up. The other one is, “Well, I already know what inspires me. I’ve got that.” I can guarantee there are deeper layers. There’s always another layer we can go, which is pretty exciting. So it’s really about paying attention, being conscious with this practice and then using it.
So let’s say you sit down, it’s creative time, but you’re just not in that mode. So I know I can relate to that. Sometimes everything’s there. And sometimes you’re just like, okay, I know I need to get this piece of work done in the next hour or two. And I am just not feeling that. When you have this practice, then you have some tools at your disposal and that helps in two ways. One, it literally can create that shift for you. But two, it also keeps you from getting into that head space of, I’m not inspired, I’m blocked. We start to do this little story in our heads, and it takes us out of that and it gives us a way, something that we can do physically, an action that we can take. And that gets us out of that loop in our heads of, what do I have to do? I have an hour to get this done, or whatever might be going on. So, yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
And what you said just now triggered a thought for me. So we’re talking, first of all, about generating the emotion of inspiration for doing our creative work. However, what I’m understanding from you is that this practice can also be used to generate inspiration and creativity to also apply to those business things that may not feel as fun or creative. I was talking earlier, Lauren, with our friend Tavis.
Lauren Lapointe:
Oh yes.
Miriam Schulman:
And she was talking about getting to the other side of using that creativity for everything to make those tasks that, like you said, that are heavy, that feels like it’s business because I’m writing an email, or I’m writing copy for my website, or something like that, to make all of it feel light and creative.
Lauren Lapointe:
Yes, absolutely. And I would say that for me personally, this is where this practice… I’m going to say, it probably helps the most because I love running a creative business, but it can be really easy to get too far into the business stuff. I’ve learned that for me, and for creative people in general, it’s about… Pretty much everybody, because I think everybody’s creative, whether it be they’re actually doing a painting or something, whatever, but I find it can be really easy to start getting too serious about it. Nothing wrong with serious, we’re all serious. But what happens is when we lose that spirit of play, of magic, of inspiration, whatever word resonates with you, having this kind of practice and bringing it into our business, that we’re bringing ourselves into what we do with the coaching.
That’s how the Soul Magic came about. I was coaching successfully for a long time, but it there wasn’t a spark. When I brought the Soul Magic in… Even just saying those words, for me, triggers… I feel like a kid. I want to play. It’s like, oh, Soul Magic, like I’m playing with my crystals. So anything that we can do to access that can really help us a lot with our business. And when I started really consciously bringing that into my business, what a difference it made. Not only was my business more successful, but it just felt better. It was just more magical. It was really transformational.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that.
Lauren Lapointe:
I talked about the writing, but I also want to mention too that some people like to do things like maybe have a Pinterest board. If you’re not into the writing the list things, there can be other ways to capture your ideas as well.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that. And then not for those of you who like to art journal, definitely making a list within your journal, colored in is always a good idea.
Lauren Lapointe:
Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Miriam Schulman:
By the way, I just have to interrupt this juicy conversation because I wanted to make sure you knew that I do have a few, very few, spots inside the Artist Incubator mastermind this year. If you’re lacking a solid strategy and a winning mindset, or maybe you’re disappointed with your current art sales, I can help with that. If you’ve been listening to this podcast and you found my tips helpful, it’s time to take the next logical step and work with me on a deeper level. The Artist Incubator program is for professional and emerging artists who want to thrive. If you’re ready to invest in your art career and join this dynamic community who are doing the same, go to schulmanart.com/biz, as in the letter B-I-Z, to apply now. Now back to the show.
All right. So the next practice is the conscious celebration practice.
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah. So that’s a really powerful one. So again, these are things that people kind of hear about and do, but the same thing with the intentional inspiration and the conscious celebration, it’s about taking it to another level, being more deliberate, intentional and conscious about these things. So what conscious celebration is… And a great place to use it is for achieving goals, if there’s something that you want to achieve in any area of life, it can be your artwork, your creativity, in your business, anything, is to actually plan and advance your celebration for achieving that goal, to know what it’s going to be. Don’t just wait for it to happen and then go, “Oh, I’m going to celebrate.” But to actually know in advance what it’s going to be, and then to actively visualize that and really talk about it. So I have a great example for this.
Miriam Schulman:
Good. I was about to ask you. What’s your example?
Lauren Lapointe:
[crosstalk 00:17:15] crystals. I know, I know. So for me, for my next milestone in my business, I’m going to get one of those…. Do you know those amethysts? They’re called geodes. They’re like those things… You see them a lot in pictures. They look like these big, kind of like they’ve been dug out of a cave, and they’re all sparkly and purple. You see them all the time. Anyways, they’re really cool looking and they’re pricier. So for my next milestone in my business, I already know the amethyst geode I’m going to get. I’ve gone to the store, I’ve taken a picture. I look at it daily. I’ve been telling everybody. I’m telling you, I’m telling all the listeners here today, that that amethyst geode’s going to be mine. I’m going to celebrate it when I reach this particular milestone.
And then of course, what happens is when I reach that milestone, I have to make sure I do that. The power in that, you can probably hear, just in the way I’m talking about it, I’m really excited, but I’m also very clear. Do you hear that clarity? It’s like, will I reach this, it’s going to be this. And that comes down to also attaching play and the concept of receiving as well into our work, whatever that work is.
Miriam Schulman:
I want to circle back to something you said that I think is hugely important and very different than what I normally hear in the goal setting space. So often people will put on their vision board a picture of their goal. But what you are saying is you put on your vision board the picture of the reward that you plan to give yourself for reaching this goal. Is that right?
Lauren Lapointe:
Absolutely. And not to say we don’t do the other thing too. This can be really powerful, because again, it brings that spirit of play and fun. So we’re not just trying to reach a goal to reach a goal. Sometimes it doesn’t feel always as meaningful, because maybe it’s a cool milestone, but we get this reward. And what this is doing… A lot of what I’m talking about has to do with inner child work too, which we need to really balance in our lives, our artwork, our creativity, in our businesses. When we bring that in and we keep that spirit of play and fun and access it, it just takes everything to a whole new level, and it works.
Miriam Schulman:
Wow.
Lauren Lapointe:
It really works, yes.
Miriam Schulman:
You’re definitely giving me things today now that I hadn’t done before that I’m going to start thinking about how I’m going to do it, because I never heard that before. Yeah, I’ve heard reward yourself for reaching a goal, and yeah, I’ve heard about putting goals on a vision board, but I never thought about putting the reward that you’re giving yourself as part of your visioning. It’s brilliant.
Lauren Lapointe:
Well, one of the ways that that can be super effective is really wrapping yourself in that reward. I think about my amethyst geode every day. I’m really excited to get it. You’re making it real. And you do the same thing with the milestone that you’re trying to… We’re not forgetting about whatever that milestone is. And it doesn’t have to be a big milestone. You can use this for whatever you need. You live, breathe, think about it, use visuals, whatever you need to do. And again, talk about it. The more we talk about it, the more we make it real. Sometimes we can feel more awkward talking about the milestone itself. This might not be something we want to just always share what that is with people, but we can talk about the reward. I mean, you don’t want to know how many people know about my amethyst geode. I mean, strangers will get to hear about it as well.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s right. There’s a lot of listeners to this podcast, apparently, according to all the sites that report on that. Yeah. [crosstalk 00:20:37] couple of thousand people.
Lauren Lapointe:
I know. So we all get to celebrate that amethyst geode.
Miriam Schulman:
They’ll break into your house and steal your amethyst. No, I’m just kidding. Do you reward yourself on the effort or the result? Do you understand the question?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah, absolutely.
Miriam Schulman:
So there’s some parts of the result that are out of your control. You’re fully in control of the effort, but you’re not fully in control, always, in the result of that effort. With my clients, we celebrate inspired action. Every week I say, “Let’s talk about your wins,” just as we do inside the mastermind that we’re a part of, I do that for my clients. And I tell them that a win is not just, I sold the painting. A win is also the effort you put into that may or may not result in it. So if somebody had been struggling to send an email campaign, to me, that’s a win to be celebrating when you send that out. That is a win because you took an inspired action. Are you rewarding yourself with actions or results?
Lauren Lapointe:
Both, because I agree. I think very much so. It can be easy just to look at the tangible results. And I think those are important too, because as humans, we like tangible things that we can see and feel. So it’s important to have those, but I absolutely agree that… And honestly, a lot of times there’s a milestone, but the lesson in getting there, all the things that came along the way, those are often the biggest wins, is what we learned and all the different things. And sometimes we’ll set a milestone as we’re in process. We’re like, wait, that’s not my milestone. So here’s the thing, because this is all in the spirit of play, right? Let’s say my milestone that I’m working towards for my amethyst geode, let’s say, I’m like, wait, this isn’t the right milestone. I’ll change it. I’m not going to make this like a thing. I’ll just be like, okay, let me change over here. And then it’s this, and I just shift gears.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. So you’ve picked your reward, and let’s say something goes south with that goal you had that may or may not have been in your control. And you’re like, okay, well new goal. Same reward, new goal. That’s what you’re saying?
Lauren Lapointe:
Exactly.
Miriam Schulman:
I like that.
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah. And also to come back to what you’re saying about the celebrations being less tangible, those are really important too. So again, it’s about being conscious. What is it that I want to accomplish here? And it doesn’t have to be a physical thing. It can be, I want to do something scary. That could be a really good thing to reward ourselves for. If I do this scary thing, I get whatever it is that you want. It sounds so simple, and it sounds kind of silly, but I will tell you, it works. I’ve used it for years for myself. And when my clients start using it, it’s transformational.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, of course, because this is what we… This is what you said what’s inner child work. This is what we use with children, do this thing and you get the sticker.
Lauren Lapointe:
Exactly. We all want the sticker.
Miriam Schulman:
My daughter started teaching general music, which I don’t know, Lauren, if you heard me talk about this. Teaching general music in the age of COVID, not easy. The kids can’t sing and they can’t play instruments and they can’t leave their classroom to go to a music room. So I said, “Well, why don’t you just start giving…” She’s saying, “I’m having all kinds of behavior problems.” I says, “Give them stickers. It works.” I don’t know why, but they all-
Lauren Lapointe:
I want a sticker.
Miriam Schulman:
We all want the gold star.
Lauren Lapointe:
It’s so true. So I have a friend who… It’s funny, she actually would not consider herself creative, but she’s wildly creative. She just embodies it. And she does stickers on everything, and we all love it. So just hands us a note, or here’s a piece of paper and there’s something in there, it’s got stickers all the time. And it’s so nice, yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
Have we had the sticker conversation? I’m like a middle school girl with stickers as well. I subscribe to this monthly sticker kit.
Lauren Lapointe:
Really?
Miriam Schulman:
That they switched it. The person who designed it went from monthly to every other month. So every other month, I’m waiting for the packaged to come.
Lauren Lapointe:
I need to hear more. You’re going to have to share that with me because I want some stickers.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, I will. It’s really nice. It’s all these color themes. You put them in your planner and I decorate my planner with it. And I can’t wait for it to come. And it’s so playful and fun. I love it. All right. So this probably a good place to start wrapping up because I think we’ve covered everything we promised.
Before we wrap up, don’t forget, if you liked this episode, come check out the Artist Incubator. It’s my private coaching program for professional emerging artists who want to make more money from their art, but enjoy the process and stay inspired along the way. The program is by application only. Go to schulmanart.com/biz, as in B-I-Z. If you qualify, you’ll get my eyes on your business, absolutely free. And we’ll discuss the steps you need to take to reach your goals and thrive. And I want to make sure that if you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of it and tag Lauren. She’s @laurenlapointecoach over on Instagram. And that way, she can also check out your amazing art or whatever it is that you do. So in tag us both, I’m at @schulmanart over there. All right, Lauren, do you have any last words for our listeners before we call this podcast complete?
Lauren Lapointe:
Yeah. It’s full permission to play and to try these practices, to try them and to allow yourself to play. And the one last piece that I’ll add, because some people will reward themselves with like, oh, I need to get some new flooring or da, da, da. Indulge yourself. Indulge, play, get the stickers, get the crystals, whatever that looks like for you. You totally deserve it. It’s going to not just change your life, but everybody around you as well. On Instagram, let me know how these practices work for you and what you’re choosing to celebrate with. I’d love to hear that.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. And you don’t have to just take a screenshot of the show by the way, although I love to see that, so I know you’re listening. But if you just want to tag Lauren or myself underneath one of your art posts, we would love to check you out. So @laurenlapointecoach or @schulmanart. All right, my art lover, thank you so much for being with me here today. See you same time, same place next week. Stay inspired.
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place Podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart, and of course on schulmanart.com.
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