Loren (01:00.251)
Thank you. Thank you so much, Alicia, for having me here. I'm really grateful. As you know, awkward and nervous about being recorded. This is my first podcast recording, but super, super, super thankful to be here and have a conversation with you. So thank you.
Loren (01:17.339)
Hahaha!
Loren (01:24.099)
I know.
Loren (01:46.779)
No.
Loren (02:18.203)
Yeah, that's such a great question. And when I actually read the question originally, I had to really sit and think about it because it's something to me that is both instinctual, but then to put it into words and make it something logical is a little bit more challenging for me. And I feel for me,
The life of boldness, of living the way that I do, has come from really figuring out, doing the work to figure out who I am authentically, and then learning to listen to her, and having the faith, the instinct, the trust to know that when I'm in that place of authenticity, when I'm in that place of boldness, that's the truest version of who I am, and I have to listen to her.
Loren (03:07.661)
Hahaha!
Loren (03:27.643)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (03:34.203)
Yeah, yeah, myself.
Loren (03:43.227)
No, I certainly haven't. Someone asked me the other day if I was born this way and I was like, oh my goodness, absolutely not. And.
Yes. Yeah, so I think when I meet people and especially when I'm in the world of yoga, friends, conversation, I tend to feel calm, present, connected. And not that I feel that way all the time, but it's something that I'm learning from other people that that's an energy that comes out. And so I worked with a retreat a couple of weeks ago. And one of the women that was there asked like,
pre -born like this, you're always so calm. And I was like, oh, honey, if you knew, first, the amount of anxiety that everybody has, the things that I've gone through in my own personal story, my life to teach me and to guide me into the place that I am now. And I'm becoming, as you know, Alicia, more and more passionate about sharing my story so that other people have that same empowerment to know that we can have a very human, a very real existence and still learn to.
as we'll get into how to tap into your authentic self, how to listen to yourself and how to come into a more grounded and present place. So no, it's not something that I was born with. I had a beautiful childhood in a lot of ways, but also a very tumultuous one. Same, a lot of similar story to many women that have a hard time through their teens and early twenties. When I had the gift of yoga as an anchor that my dad introduced me to when I was 16.
that was not a profound presence through my teens and early 20s, but it was always there. And I think that that introduction, that kind of baseline presence, even though I wasn't, you know, digging into philosophy or fully understanding why I was going to class, I just knew it was something that made me feel good. And so when I hit, I guess, my essence of rock bottom in my early 20s, I leaned really hard.
Loren (05:48.027)
on the practice of yoga and started to, at that point, understand it on a different level, wanted to learn more, knew that it was something that was helping me to feel like myself after being lost for many, many years. And so I had that gift. I had the introduction to that, which oftentimes as a teen or young person, we don't necessarily have the tools. And so finding something...
that is your tool, your anchor, that can guide you through, can help you navigate the ups and downs of human existence, I think is essential in helping you to understand who you are and what you need and how to follow that. And it doesn't have to be the same thing. It doesn't have to be yoga for everybody. It's not meditation for everybody. Everyone has their thing. It could be their family. It could be their partner. It could be...
you know, books that they've read, there's something, there's some kind of anchor, some kind of teaching that has allowed them to continuously come back to themselves. And for me, it happened to be yoga. And so when I learned, begin to understand who I am and what I'm capable of and what it feels to be rooted, grounded, calm,
It's addicting. You want to feel that more. So you practice it, you work through it. And the more you learn to, as I was saying, listen to her, listen to myself, listen to that true essence, people ask, like you said before, how do you listen to that? How do you trust that? And for me, the better question is, how do you not? How do you not listen to that?
For me, it's undeniable. It's not like I sat down one day and was like, okay, I'm at this split in the road and I either need to trust my intuition or I need to go do something that doesn't align with who I am. And for me, after practice, after understanding a lot of who I am, it wasn't a question. It's not like I had this split where I had to make this big decision. It's simply, this is who I am and this is what I have to do in order to...
Loren (08:01.691)
be fulfilled, to feel that sense of completeness and not have that sense, which I think many people have, especially in their early 20s, like something's missing, something's not quite right. You're still learning who you are. But I think when you learn to listen and follow that, it makes those questions and those gaps fewer and fewer. And so it's not how do you do it, but how do you not? You really, it's essential for you to listen to that and follow that. And it looks different for everybody.
My long -winded answer.
Loren (08:40.923)
Hehehehe
Loren (08:45.947)
them.
Loren (08:57.147)
Yeah, perfect.
Loren (09:04.763)
Oh, not yet. It's coming.
Loren (09:14.073)
Yes.
Loren (09:42.779)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (09:55.257)
I think there's a lot there are a lot of different answers to that question and I think it's really unique to everybody some concrete things that I can think of for example are If you're knowing that You're in that searching phase or you're listening to this podcast and you're asking the same question like well, what do I do? Go find a book. That's one of the first things for me as a young person that I
helped me because other people have done this before. I'm not unique. I am unique. But I'm not unique in the sense that I'm the first one or you're the first one to have ever lived an authentic life and made bold choices and live in a very aligned way. One of my favorite books is The Artist's Way. And it's not just for artists, but in one of the chapters in the beginning of that book,
reminds you to really look back into your childhood and to remember the things that really lit you up. That maybe in a childhood experience, a parent, a friend, a teacher dissuaded you from doing. So maybe you should do this instead. And we sometimes lose the essence of those passionate things that are innate in who we are as human beings. It's something that we were born with in.
the company that I have, Flow Yoga International, is called Flow Yoga because of the psychological state of flow. And in that psychological state of flow, we lose track of time. We're so absorbed in the moment. It's the zone, right? And so if you can find a guiding force, whether it's through a book or a person that's done it, or finding that thing for you that makes you feel like,
you're fully immersed in the present moment. And again, sometimes, like I said, in the artist's way, it talks about going back into your childhood. Think of those things that lit you up when you were a kid. Go back to some of those things. Start doing some of those things again and see if you can really be like, oh, yes, like I'm getting chills just thinking about it. Like when you drop into the zone, you drop into that moment, you know, and you know that you are doing exactly what you're put on this planet to do. And it's not always a big thing.
Loren (12:18.171)
Right? It could be a kind of book that you like to read. It could be the way that you're writing in your journal. It could be painting. It could be macrame or making these products out of my multiple projects. But whatever the thing is or the many things are that help you align with that sense of everything else falling away, that's going to help you understand more and more who the authentic version of you is. So finding that one thing, those multiple things.
Yeah, I think that's kind of step one. What's a thing?
Loren (12:57.943)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (13:01.785)
Yeah.
Loren (13:17.723)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (13:35.651)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (13:54.797)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (14:32.603)
Yeah.
Loren (14:39.067)
Yeah, and it's such a powerful place for us to all tap into and as esoteric or kind of flighty as it might sound, my firm belief is the more we as people learn to find those things, the more we heal ourselves, which heals our families, our communities and the world at large. Like just think if everybody started to really understand who they were.
what lit them up, what made them happy, how dramatically different the whole world would be. But that's a whole another show, a whole another podcast. But for sure, finding those things and...
Loren (15:20.313)
Mm.
Loren (16:25.563)
Yeah, I don't think that I need to answer that in too specific a way because I think we either know that in ourselves already, those that are listening to this, you know what it feels like when you're not listening to yourself and it hurts. Something's missing, something doesn't feel right. There's a lot of misalignment, arguments perhaps with friends and family. There's just, there's a lot of angst underneath the surface. And if it's not something that you're feeling in your own life, I'm sure that you can.
without judgment, look at those around you and understand those that are living in an aligned way and those that are pushing through living in a life that maybe someone else or society has designed for them. And you can see it, you can feel it when you meet somebody. And I think that, yeah, I think that again, back to how do you not do it? It's less a choice of basically how I can refrain that.
It's less a choice of.
Okay, one more time. I think that...
When you start to align with that space of authenticity, you get to know who you really are and what it is that you really need, it becomes easier to work through the fear or the resistance that you might have from friends, family, and from yourself, if that makes sense. When you don't know who you are, or you're not sure in that essential place,
Loren (18:03.483)
then the influence of others, the influence of society and the severely impactful influence of your own fear will stop you. Or it has a much higher chance of stopping you. But when you have that confidence within like your soul and you can feel it, like if you've been there and you've had snippets of it, it's in your gut. It's like, yes, yes, it's that fire. It's that willpower. It's that energy from the base of you upward that
projects you forward. And so even if, even when you have fear, even when you have outside forces that might be telling you this isn't what you should be doing, you don't have a choice because this fire is projecting you forward in that trajectory anyways, and you're going to do it. And to pivot a little bit into a conversation that you and I have had a lot before, Alicia, is, and of course my brain just.
same pregnancy thing and cut that part out.
Loren (19:16.737)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yep. I know because you and I have had this conversation before about... Oh my gosh.
Loren (19:28.923)
Hehehehe.
Loren (19:36.251)
Nope. It's something a little, it's even, it's a little bit more connected to what I was saying, but we've had conversations before about, oh my gosh. Okay. Maybe it'll come back to me.
Yeah. Sorry, this is where my brain goes these days. It just goes into the ethos. So, okay.
Loren (20:12.859)
Bye.
Loren (20:52.347)
sure.
Loren (21:01.627)
Yes, absolutely. And the picture obviously looks very different for everybody. And I always love to preface my next statement with you don't have to go quit your job and move to a foreign country and make these big dramatic changes. But telling my story will include those things because I knew that where I was at was not aligned. And it took a lot of different pieces moving.
to kind of reshift and reshift and reshift. So some of the hard things that might have to happen without going too deep into my own personal story, at 25 I got divorced and that was huge. I was in a very toxic relationship, lovely human being, but toxic relationship for the two of us. And to make that decision at a young age was challenging, but it was essential for me to remove myself from a relationship.
And many of us have, whether it's a husband, a partner, or just, you know, even friendships, family relationships that are toxic for us, and to make the courageous choice to remove yourself from that, because it's a benefit for you, and it's also a benefit for that other person, right? The toxicity goes both ways. And then moving forward through life, I've gotten into wonderful relationships with wonderful humans that you know just are not.
essentially aligned with you. And sometimes it takes a little trial and error and practicing and not being afraid to understand when something is not right for you and walking away from it. And I think I think that's I think that's true for your story as well. Like you really need to know, okay, this person is toxic for me, this job is toxic for me, and having that courage to walk away from it. And
to what I was trying to say before when... Oh my gosh, it keeps happening. I don't know... Oh my gosh. Right?
Loren (23:17.691)
Why does that keep happening? There's some weird mental block there. Okay. So when you know that something is not right for you and you make that challenging choice to leave the relationship or leave the job, it really opens so many things up for you. And when you make those choices, it's essential to take out of your mind the fear of failure.
This is what I wanted to say before. And know that no matter what choice you make, it's not the end of anything.
It's the beginning of everything else that might be possible.
And so if you can, yes, be bold and have the courage to say, this isn't right for me. I'm not going to live this way. I'm not going to do this anymore. Know that it's a benefit, not only to yourself, to the other person, to your employer, to whatever it is that you're leaving. And if on the other side of that, it doesn't turn out exactly the way that you envision it, that doesn't mean.
It's a failure. It doesn't mean that it's bad or wrong. You have to do it anyways. You have to make that choice, that transition. And the more you start to make those transitions, the easier it becomes to align and align and align and align. It kind of clears that path. It opens up those channels for that energy of positivity to flow through. And if you don't start making the shifts, you won't ever have the space to see what's on the other side. And...
Loren (25:02.043)
on the topic of that fear of failure, you and I have talked about this before, I did choose to leave relationships, to cut leases on apartments, to sell my car and to move to a foreign country. And the whole time, it wasn't a fear of what if this doesn't work? It was simply a mindset of, well, this is amazing. I have to do this. I have to see what happens. And if it doesn't work out, the next thing will.
If living in the middle of nowhere in Panama is not my thing, I can always go home. I can always choose somewhere else to be. And I know that we all are in a lot of ways are very privileged to have those choices. And I'm very grateful for that. I don't take that for granted. But most of us listening to this have choice. We have the ability to decide if something is right or wrong. And if we choose one path and we're like, oof, that was a dead end, that's not working.
then you pivot and you get to choose something else. And so it's not a closure, it's not a failure, it's just a continuing expanse of possibility and openness when you separate from those things that you know in your heart of hearts is not right for you. So.
Loren (26:27.011)
Yeah.
Loren (26:41.339)
Right.
Loren (27:18.171)
Yeah. Yeah.
Loren (28:17.115)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (29:12.523)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Loren (29:28.191)
Okay.
Loren (29:55.533)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (30:13.581)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (30:44.013)
Okay.
Loren (30:56.269)
Yeah, beautiful. I'm gonna have to write down that mantra.
Loren (31:09.261)
Yes. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Loren (31:24.205)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (31:58.709)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. Beautiful.
Loren (32:06.957)
Hehehehe
Loren (32:24.491)
Yeah, beautiful.
Loren (32:28.621)
So when I first moved to to Cambutal here in Panama, there was this piece of land that I said, if I ever have the ability to buy land here, that's the one again, just that like intuitive feeling of like, there's something more than the drive. There's just like, there's something, it just walk by and I'm like, oh, you know, and.
And I wasn't in a place to do that and to buy any land or anything. And life took in very few years, a lot of twists and turns for me, as you know, Alicia, I met a wonderful, wonderful human who's now my husband, the father of my daughter. And we during, in 2020 moved to Argentina and we had to pivot again, our lives because of circumstances outside of our control and made a choice to go down there. And as we were,
in Argentina deciding what we wanted to do with our lives. Again, just a really essential part in relationship to if you're sharing relationship with somebody and on this path of being authentic to who you are, having those conversations and that the authenticity with your partner is essential. And so we sat and said, okay, where in the world do we want to raise our family? Where do we want to live? And we listed all these places. We wrote down all the pros and cons and we just both were like, we need to go back to Cambutal which we knew before we, it was kind of our intention. Our plan was to come back.
We wanted to be open to possibility. And so we really sat down and thought about it. And we knew we had to come back to Cambutal And so we said, okay, we're going back to Cambutal. What are we going to do when we get there? And I had said, yeah. So I said to, I said to Mathias, I said to my husband, I think we should buy that piece of land. Let's see if we can figure out a way to get that land and start a project there and have something beyond.
you know, just like a nine to five or making, you know, paying the rent kind of job, like something that really invests us into the community and for ourselves and our hearts, our hearts, longings, our passions. And so we decided that through Flow Yoga International and other, other things that I would be able to open up a space on that land, original intention, like, oh, maybe we'll have our house there. And we had all these, you know, kind of like in the air dreams about this land. And we were blessed enough with, with our own investment and family to be able to buy.
Loren (34:53.997)
this dream piece of land. And it was a bit of a shock even just calling the owners and be like, is it for sale still? And they're like, we don't really want to sell it, but we'll sell it to you because we know that you'll take care of it. And it was just such a, an aligned moment. A few other things had to fall into place and they did. And so even before moving back to Kambootol, we became the owners of this particular piece of land. And then we knew we were going to have to wait. We made this big investment into the land.
And the project was going to be maybe like a five year wait before we could get things started, get ourselves back up and running in a new country. And in that time, as always, being a new mom, being just a woman on the path of constantly being curious about what's going on with her and how I can evolve in different ways, continuing to do work, making new friendships. I met you who happened to be on your own life's path, life's journey, we cross paths and
in a lot of ways, I think just became really fast friends. And those of you that are listening to this and know Alicia, she's amazing at asking really great questions and having beautiful conversations and not just surface level things. And so Alicia, Monique and I were taking a ceramics class in another town and we had this long drive to and from our class, which is another fun story in and of itself.
And I was listening to Alicia and Monique just tell these really beautiful, vulnerable stories about themselves. And I realized that in my own path, I held a lot of my stories inside. And so I was encouraged by these other bold, wonderful women to share more pieces of myself. And in that, we started to share more about what our dreams were and what we wanted to do and who we really were and what our limiting beliefs were and how we were stopping ourselves from living our most, even, even,
three women that are really living a bit differently than the mainstream. We still have moments of doubt. We still have those things that stop us from really, truly blossoming. And I felt safe with Alicia and Monique to finally open up in another level. And in those conversations, the dreams about the land came out and what I wanted to do and the community of Kambootah here, I think is a need for community space for more movement, yoga practices, obviously.
Loren (37:18.091)
fanatic for yoga. And so I want to introduce it to as many people as possible. Also with body working, having a space for people to come in and do some healing body work sessions. And in that same conversation, Alicia, if you don't mind me telling kind of your your snippet of it was talking about again, wanting to have a business and something that held you in this new place that was aligned with who you are outside of the beautiful coaching and other work that you do, like having something a little bit more tangible.
and you had started talking about having a co -working space. And when you have multiple people come together, even if you're not technically working on the same project, but just working in the same place, that energy of motivation, that energy of inspiration, and how that can really transform a community of people. Instead of being a small town where people are isolated in their homes and doing their own private jobs and maybe seeing each other beautifully at sunset and having nice conversations, we bring community together. It just makes such a dramatic.
shift in the way that that community can function and the future growth of that community. And so Alicia sharing her dreams, me sharing mine, having these beautiful, vulnerable moments. We both kind of looked at each other and over the course of the next bit of time, we're like, what if we tried to combine our dreams? Would that be so, what if we did this together? Could that, could that work? And I think it took a lot of trust on both of our ends, just getting to know each other. And really again,
back to that mantra, but trusting that instinct and saying, okay, something about this feels really right. Having logical conversations, especially with our husbands and me, like, okay, who are these people?
Loren (39:08.653)
Yeah.
Mm. Yeah.
Loren (39:31.885)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (40:27.693)
I'm sorry.
Loren (40:47.565)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Loren (41:14.509)
you
Loren (41:31.629)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (41:47.853)
this.
Loren (41:59.821)
Yeah.
Loren (42:17.485)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (42:21.965)
Mic drop.
Loren (42:35.115)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (42:40.109)
Yeah.
Loren (42:57.037)
Yes, yes, nothing like putting it out there into the ethos to make sure it, oh, make sure it happens comes to fruition. Yeah, I think that an important part of the story too that I missed and you just touched on is the concept of the perfect day. And I think that's really what got us going in our conversations was describing if we could live the perfect day every day, what would that look like? And I think that's an important part if people are looking for more tangible things to do.
to align with themselves and what they want their life to look like. And you do this a lot in vision and goals. If you can really sit down and map out what your ideal perfect day realistically would look like, or maybe let go of reason, let go of logic, just what does your perfect day look like? Yeah, what does that look like? And then start to take those steps to implement pieces of that. And...
I think for both of us, it was kind of like, okay, you know, like slow mornings, kids to school, grab a smoothie, go to a yoga class, you know, sit down, get some of our, because we're both, you know, self -employed, entrepreneurial business owners, get some of our computer work kind of stuff done, have lunch, do a little bit more computer work, you know, go pick up the kids, spend time on the beach, all these different facets that you and I have already implemented in a lot of ways into our lives.
living all the way out here don't have access to beforehand, co working space, place to do movement place to get bodywork. And so when we put all of those things together, we realize that in a beautiful way, we're creating a perfect day not just for ourselves, but essentially opening space for others to create their perfect day every day. And yeah, so that rolled into the design of the entire space.
where we knew that we wanted to have ample space for anyone that wants to come in to work together in that co -working space. And I think almost everybody now understands the concept of co -working, but just having that open space for those that need to just sit down and get some work done, but have the energy of those working around you to keep you inspired and motivated. And...
Loren (45:14.413)
I'll let you talk a little bit more about the details of the co -working space, but deciding that that was going to kind of be like our ground floor base of this space. And then we decided upstairs to kind of have it be the movement space as well as body working space. And so as a yoga teacher, obviously I'll be sharing some classes, but a big passion of mine is to also allow others that are here.
to have a space to offer what they offer, whether it's through movement, through any kind of like guided work. There's a woman in town that teaches Zumba, getting everyone kind of to do the thing that they love in a movement setting and have a space to actually do it and then to bring people together. And then in the world of body working, right now, you know, I take my table and I go to the hotel and I go to different houses and I walk around all over the place and like, how lovely would it be if there was just one central place for me to work.
to do what I love and share that. But then also, there's phenomenal people here that are either here for a month, three months, or live here year round that would love to be able to offer what they do. And not just massage therapy, but if it's reiki, energy working, acupuncture, chiropractice, whatever it is that someone does to have a space again to be able to do that. And so that bringing together people I think is what helped us to decide on the name of the business. Because I don't even know if we've shared.
the name of the business, don't don't don't tremble, tremble please, La Colectiva, which means the collective. So having a collective space for us to all come together to curate our perfect day here in this slice of paradise that we've decided to call home.
Loren (47:06.733)
Mm.
Loren (47:19.893)
Yeah.
Loren (47:42.805)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (48:03.949)
Yeah.
Loren (48:50.637)
I'm
Loren (50:21.005)
Yeah.
Yes.
Loren (50:51.725)
Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, I feel the same way, not to just reiterate exactly while we're on air and people want to hear the same thing again, but truly, it's been such a gift for us to be able to, for me to have that sense of trust in you and to have just that really, again, authentic yes. Okay, it's not, again, it's not that question of like, well, how could you do that? When we started to have those conversations, it was like, how can't?
How can we not do this? This just feels like another big yes moment in both of our lives. And I think it's also a place on this topic of living boldly. We are creating a space for others to tap into how to live in that bold way, just by supporting each other in community, by being living examples of that authentic way of being.
La Colectiva will be a place, a platform for others to really jump off from and to find their most authentic selves and to live those, live the dreams.
Mm -hmm.
Loren (52:01.485)
Hahaha!
Loren (52:08.557)
Mm -hmm.
Loren (52:44.633)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think as, as, as moms of daughters too, like the other big motivating force for me too, is I really want to show my daughter what it's like to listen to yourself and to trust yourself and to empower her to do the same. And I joke around that, you know, here we moved off to the end of the road in the jungle and she's going to end up working IT at Google in Seattle. No offense to Seattle.
But for her to know that she has the choice and to empower our kids, and I can say my daughter, to empower women, but all children to really kind of set that tone, to continue to motivate and set as an example, a walking, living, breathing example of what it is to live authentically, to be bold and to, it's not always easy.
You know, you and I both have bad days and off moments and make bad decisions and all the things. It's still a very human existence. But when you sit back at the end of the day, you can take a deep breath.
and really know in the depths of your soul that you are exactly where you're supposed to be. And how, I'm almost sore, how stinking great is that? How great is that? How lucky are we to have that? Yeah.
Loren (54:08.525)
So thank you.
Loren (54:55.277)
Thank you so much, Alicia. Love you. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Bye.
