Love Your Story

Episode 224: Practical Happiness - Interview with Pamela Gail JohnsonWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Let me start with a story: A Native American story tells about how god gathered his animal advisers together to help him decide where to hide the Secret to a Happy Life from humans.  He first asked the Eagle, “Where shall I put it?”  The Eagle answered, “I shall hide it at the top of the highest mountain. Man will never find it there.”  God considered this but decided against it. “One day, Man will go there,” he said.  Next, he asked the Clam, “Where shall I put it, little Clam?” “I will hide it at the bottom of the deepest ocean,” the Clam answered. This seemed like a better idea, but the Lord hesitated again.  “Man will go there someday,” he said after some thought. Then the wise Owl stepped forward. “Though I regretfully cannot take it there myself,” he intoned, “perhaps you ought to hide the secret on the moon.”  After considering this, God finally came to th

Episode 223: Bitter or Better Rumi said, “The wound is the place the light enters you.” I love this gorgeous truth, the poetry of it, the truth in it, the hope of it.  In our times of suffering and trial it is often hard to see the purpose. Instead it’s the “why me?’ It’s the visceral jerking away from pain, it’s the scream. But if we realize that this too shall pass, and in its wake will be strength and color we don’t yet understand, we can hold to hope.  Join me today for insight from a war hostage, a woman who was hit by a car and had her leg paralyzed, and from a man who recovered from a truly traumatic childhood into an engineer of lives, too see how the wound is the place that the light enters you, and the importance of trusting the process.  I want to start with 4 truths today: You can’t get past the past until you accept it.  The process of growth is pushing past one wall after another, and often those walls are painful. Failure is feedback. It teaches us what not to do.  Don’t stare a

Episode 222: Hero On A Mission, Part 2- With Jessica BurrellDonald Miller says, in his book,  Hero On A Mission, “Life is a beautiful experience and we get to participate in making it so….the idea that fate writes our story is a lie. We do not suffer fate, we partner with fate to write a story generated from our own God-given creativity and agency. And that story can be more than interesting, it can be meaningful.” Part 2 in this 2-part series puts Jessica Burrell and host Lori Lee in the hot seat to discuss when they have sourced all these energy types: Let’s have a little fun today and talk about what these roles look like in our own lives - Jessica and I will be the guinne pigs. As we do this we can start to be more aware of what energy we are sourcing in our lives, and with that awareness, create life stories with more intention and understanding.  Hero energy is where you take responsibility for your responses to life. A hero moves forward. When have you been sourcing Hero energy? Listen t

Episode 221: Hero on a Mission, Part 1 - with Jessica BurrellWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast! Today’s episode is a double whammy of goodness because we are going to be discussing some really fun ideas for moving our lives forward, from Donald Miller’s book - Hero on a Mission, and we’re doing it with Jessica Burrell, the owner of Amplify Your Vision, the fabulous transformational coach. Do you want your life story to be as meaningful as possible? Are you willing to take responsibility for your own life story?  The good life stories take work. Our lives have a beginning, middle and end - like a story. We play many roles - friends, husband, wife, son, daughter, teacher, learner etc. - we are multi-dimensional characters. But within our story there are times we also play the role of the villian, the victim, the hero and hopefully the guide. But before we go there, we first need to talk about our own power and responsibility. This brings us to - Who is writing your story? Do you think fate is res

Episode 220: Death with a Little "d" - Interview Margaret MeloniWhen a marriage fails, a friendship terminates, we find new wrinkles and new sagging skin, we lose a job or lose a beloved pet, the facts of impermanence stare, unblinking, at us. While logically we can acknowledge that impermanence is a matter of fact, a fact of life, it is also something we fear. We fear losing our youth, people and pets we love, a job that helps us define who we are, a way of life, wealth, etc. With that fear comes suffering. Learning to let go….that’s what we are talking about today. Today’s episode is about Death with a little d. I’ve called in our death specialist, Margaret Meloni, but we aren’t talking about dealing with the death of our loved ones or ourselves today, more about the death of less crucial things. And we are having this discussion because a section of the road to enlightenment is living with more peace and less fear, and impermanence is one of those things we get to understand better. Tune in for what this l

Episode 219: Come Off Conqueror - Interview Bonnie Randall Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. "You can't go back and change the beginning of your story... but you can start where you are today and change your ending" On today’s show we are talking about coming of conqueror. What does that mean? To conquer something is to prevail over it; to overcome and take control of. Often times we are held hostage by events in our pasts that have traumatized us. We are cripple by the abuses of others, by shame, even by our own destructive choices. We are talking about events we have not been able to heal from. Events in our stories that have us stuck, like a knight in a mud bog - forward progress inhibited, wallowing in the dirt and muck we don’t know how to break free from. Tune into the audio program for my interview with Bonnie Randal, creator the YouTube channel Come off Conqueror. Ms. Randall is a champion of the down-trodden. She has a 20-year career in marketing at all levels from Fortune 500 to non-profit

Episode 218: Life Engineered- Interview Rusty Lindquist Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast! When we talk about living your life story with intention, we are essentially saying, let’s engineer our lives. Let’s look at what we want and purposefully create thought patterns and habits to be who we want to be. Rusty Lindquist was interviewed in the early years of the podcast - episode 21 - Remember that because you’re going to want to go back and listen to his story if you haven’t heard it yet - His father thought he was being called on by God to sacrifice his son and that led Rusty and his mother to run for their lives. This man lived alone, hiding out in a forest as a 10 year-old. He knows how to go from trauma to success, so he’s got cred. Rusty founded Life Engineering to help individuals, parents, leaders, and organizations cut through everything and achieve excellence. Life Engineering provides the tools and the training, the motivation and the methodology, an entire system designed to help people move

Episode 217: What's the Most Important Story in the World? Interview Mary Alice ArthurFor all my Love Your Story listeners, you know the premise of the podcast is that we are living our story and while our backstories may be messy, coming to love and accept them is crucial to self-love and acceptance and to moving forward in a healthy way. We also constantly talk about the fact that since our lives are an unfolding story, and we have agency and intellect, we can, if we choose, control that story, we can shift directions at any time. We understand that the stories we tell ourselves determine what we believe, how we see the world, how we see ourselves - and those are powerful things, because they, in turn, determine our very lives. I have a question - do you get this in theory, or do you REALLY get it and put it into action? Stay tuned — On today's show I have Mary Alice Arthur, a woman who has spent her life as a story activist helping people to understand this, and to empower them to use this power that

Episode 216: Resiliency - What does it take to bounce back?Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today we are talking about Resilience - let’s define it: Resilence is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” Lynn G. Robbins, a leader in the LDS church shared, “During my visit to Brigham Young University–Idaho in the fall of 2017, the school’s new president, Henry J. Eyring, told me that his foremost concern was the high dropout rate of college freshmen. Students leave college for a variety of reasons, but a lack of resilience is one of the leading reasons that many universities across the United States are experiencing this same challenge.” He then mentioned that the military is noticing the same thing: “Discovering a lack of resilience among its recruits, the U.S. Army started offering the Master Resilience Training (MRT) program to fortify soldiers against the stress, demands, and hardships of military service.” Colleges, military, these are just a few places where this

Episode 215: Interview: Kimberly Hill - Men's Relationship Coach Healthy relationships are one of the most important parts, if not THE most important part of creating a life story that we love. When it comes down to it, on our death beds, it’s always about the relationships we’ve had, not about how many days we worked, or how many toys we bought. Intimate relationships are crucial to our well-being. This relationship - the one with our significant other - finding them - the right one, and nurturing a healthy relationship, is, dare I say, a life goal for most.   So, today’s guest, Kimberly Hill, the host of the Self Confidence Project podcast, and men’s life, dating and relationship coach, is here to talk to us about where men are struggling, how to navigate this area with authenticity, common mistakes and how to over come them, and a lot more.   Tune into the audio program for this very cool discussion that’s going to focus on the men of the world.   Kimberly says, “Healthy relationship

Episode 214 - Walking on Water Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast! Today is about taking a walk on the water.  In my living room I have one picture of Christ. It is a picture of his feet. A picture of him from the knees down, walking on the water. I chose this painting, because in my soul I sense the deep importance of this display to us. The deep importance for us of learning to walk with faith, of coming to understand what it is, why it’s important, and how to develop and use it in our own lives.   For us to grow and stretch, and become more, we have to risk. We have to struggle to stand, to try to walk in the first place. We have to have more faith in our why, in ourselves, and in our supportive universal purpose and God, than in fear. Tune into the audio program for 3 clips from incredible women about the idea of walking on water.   Martha Beck, the international life coach said, “Every leap into light starts as a leap in the dark.”   I’ll point out the obvious - Every leap into

Episode 213: Got Trauma? Interview Trevor Lay Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. As we live our life stories, and strive to create our best life story, we have the opportunity to deal with challenges. One of these challenges can be trauma. There are many things that cause trauma for us - violence, abuse, we’ll get into this more in the interview, and what causes trauma for some will not cause trauma in another, but learning to navigate and learn from it, and doing the work to make sure it doesn’t sabotage us and our relationships, seems like a pretty important skill set. Mark Goulston, MD, said, “Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.” Join me today as I talk with Tre

Episode 212: Domestic Violence: Interview Brielle Cotterman and Melissa Haenchen Brielle Cotterman is a TEDx Speaker, Publicity Expert, and Celebrity-Maker. She is a survivor of attempted murder and domestic violence and an advocate for a world where intimate partner abuse is not tolerated and survivors are met with empathy. She is a graduate of Indiana University, a World’s Grand Champion Equestrian, and she has been married for just over a year to the love of her life and owns & operates a show horse breeding farm, where she lives with her husband, three children and many, many animals! She has spent the better part of the last decade helping clients to craft and scale Dream careers to 7 figures and beyond by leveraging their personal stories and passions in order to create speaking tours, author award-winning books, procure media placements, and inspire the millions of people that need to hear their story. Tune in to the audio program to hear Brielle's story about having a gun held to he

Episode 211: Healthy Co-Parenting: Interview with Jae Behrman and Amanda LouderWelcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today I have an interesting duo. A divorced couple who had 3 children together. After their divorce they needed to heal and grow individually, but they also had to immediately co-parent. This is an important topic, because for children of broken homes, how this co-parenting is done can make a huge difference in how much baggage the children take away, in how secure the children feel with life, even how loved the children feel. I haven’t heard someone talk about this before so I’m looking forward to today’s conversation. In 2011 Jae and Amanda filed for divorce. Stay tuned to find out why. But more importantly, stay tuned to hear a story of growth and positive co-parenting and what that looks like.  Join the audio for my discussion with Jae and Amanda for the answers to some of these questions: Tell me just a little bit about who each of you are today, then we’ll jump backward in time to

Episode 210: 3 Tips for Being Exceptional with Co-Host Jessica BurrellLet's start off 2022 with 3 Tips for Being Exceptional. Join us in the audio program to hear the discussion about being exceptional and what these tips mean in much more detail: 3-Tips: #1 - It's How We Do What We Do. #2 - Be the Miracle #3 - Get off the Bench To contact Jessica Burrell: Jessica@amplifyyourvision.com

Episode 209: Best of 2021 Best of 2021 Welcome to the LYS Podcast! Today’s episode is one of my favorite of the year because it celebrates the listener favorites from the past year. Today we’ll hear little clips from the top five episodes of 2021. What did you guys love best? Which episodes lifted your spirits and gave you a dash of inspiration to create your best life story - whether that meant striving a little harder, living with intention, or making it through one of the muddy swamps in your life story? Welcome to the top 5 LYS episodes of 2021.  Let’s start out with #5 - Drum roll. This year you guys loved the idea of owning your own story - episode 188: Own Your Story takes us on a discussion of what it looks like to accept yourself, your life, your responsibility, and your power.  https://loveyourstorypodcast.com/captivate-podcast/episode-188-own-your-story/ #4 favorite for 2021 is episode 185 My interview with Barney “Scout” Mann (trail name is Scout.) , the author of Journeys Nort

Episode 208: What Do I Magnify? Whatever I see through the magnifying glass grows bigger. It is up to me where I focus that lense. At the beginning of the year I mentioned that my focus for the year was “What I focus on Expands.” We talked about that earlier, so today’s discussion is a little different - we’re talking about magnifying. It’s a space to ask yourself, what do I magnify? I think this topic is so important because it is the very power we create our stories with. What we magnify becomes bigger for us.  If I’m focusing on all the crazy political upheaval, I’m going to be filled with the emotions that brings up in me. Maybe I’ll be full of fear, spreading stories and fears with others, spending lots of time hording TP or …. If I’m focused on the good I see in others the world is going to feel pretty nice and I’ll see the beauty and diversity in people, which will create friendships, understanding between people, create a greater space for loving. If I’m magnifying business growth or making money my

Episode 207 It's All About the Love:Interview Sterling Jaquith Brene Brown said, “If we want to fully experience love and belonging, we must believe that we are worthy of love and belonging.” We are going to build on this idea. Step 1 is to believe we are worthy of love and belonging. Step 2 is to develop self-love I am currently reading a book called, Health Revelations from Heaven and Earth, by Tommy Rosa and Stephen Sinatra, MD, where Tommy shares his near-death experience and the things he was taught in while in “heaven” and one of the most important points he learned was about self-love. He said -  “To be self-loving is the foundation of divine love. Divine love flows eternally and unconditionally between God and all living beings and never waivers. But for you to truly perceive and feel divine love, there must be a foundation of self-love in your life. With this foundation you can also love others unconditionlly, as God loves you. You will be able to love without fear and without wanting.

Episode 206: A Doable, Enjoyable Guide to Living the Life You Want - Interview Danielle Dinkelman If Diets don’t work, What does? - A doable, enjoyable guide to living the life you want. Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today’s episode is about how to create real change when we want to. It’s about our health and lifestyle. Now before you tune out because it’s been done a million times, let me tell you what’s different….Danielle Dinkelman was referred to me by a fellow podcast host. I liked the idea of intentionally creating a healthy lifestyle, but everyone has an angle on this. The reason I took a look at her book  “If diets don’t work, what does.” was because I was coming up hard agains the Covid 15 pound weight gain. But there are a couple things I know about myself - 1st - I’ve never had to diet, I don’t. I don’t own a scale. If I tell myself I can have some food I will inevitably eat 3 or 4 more times of that food than I normally would. It is completely unrealistic for me to even pretend for one m

Episode 205: You Do You - Live Your Own Colorful Story   The other day I was emailing with a woman who said she was really concerned about her granddaughter. She was trying to teach her granddaughter - or encourage her - to do her own life. You Do You! She said infatically. I wondered which podcast episode might be a support to her granddaughter, and I suggested a couple, but I realized we talk about this all the time, in lots of different stories, but wouldn’t it be fun to have one episode that brought some of those together. This is our You Do You episode. Stay tuned for lots of fun thoughts on overcoming the stigmas that hold us back, the power to change our circumstances, samples on what it looks like to customize your life, and let’s create our own magic as we live our own bright, magical, individual lives. Sometimes our lives are unexpected - always. In fact if was this very question “Did your life turn out as you expected” that was the first Love Your Story research project. 19 out of 20 people