Get ready to step into the realm of the sacred feminine with Lauren Leduc, a visionary yoga teacher, intuitive, mother, and certified Dharma coach. Listen in as she reveals her transformative journey of overcoming personal challenges including anorexia, anxiety, and depression. Hear how she found her path to healing and how her commitment to spiritual growth has enabled her to embrace her gifts and inspire others. Laurenβs wisdom will help you tap into your inner goddess and awaken your spiritual growth using a chakra-based approach.
As we explore what makes us human, we delve into the fascinating world of chakras and energy anatomy. Lauren shares her insights on how to peel back the layers of external programming to uncover your true self. Listen in as we discover the power of connecting with our bodies and the joy of movement as we embody our inner goddess.
Finally, we discuss the importance of connecting with our intuition and the ways to recognize it as a gentle, caring voice that always has our highest good in mind. Lauren reveals how our bodies can provide us with invaluable information and we conclude the conversation by learning how to connect with Lauren and her book. Get ready to understand the power of compassion and understanding in our lives. So, why wait? Share this episode with someone who you believe will find value in it.
β
πππ¬ π£π’ππ‘π§π¦ ππ‘π π§ππ ππ¦π§ππ π£π¦
0:00:24 - Understanding the Inner Goddess
0:06:55 - Understanding Personal Growth and Success
0:13:17 - Embodying the Inner Goddess
0:15:38 - Exploring Chakras
0:22:55 - Connecting With Intuition and Inner Guidance
0:28:02 - Ways to Connect With Lauren Leduc
0:32:05 - The Power of Compassion in Humanity
β
π ππ π’π₯ππππ π€π¨π’π§π
"Just keep going. There's nothing wrong with you."
β
π©πππ¨ππππ π₯ππ¦π’π¨π₯πππ¦
Embody Your Inner Goddess book: https://www.laurenleduc.com/embody-your-inner-goddess-book
β
πππ’π¨π§ π§ππ ππ’π¦π§
I am Agi Keramidas, a podcaster, knowledge broker, and mentor. My mission is simple: to inspire you to take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life.
Get your free copy of my first book:
β
π¦π¨π π ππ₯π¬
Are you struggling to fully express your authentic self and feel disconnected from your inner wisdom and creativity? Discover how embracing your sacred feminine through intuitive practices like yoga, movement and gratitude can help you start inhabiting your highest self in this episode with visionary yoga teacher Lauren Leduc.
1. Practical tools and techniques for embodying your inner goddess through intuitive practices like yoga, movement, self-care rituals and connecting with your intuition.
2. Insights into using a chakra-based approach and working with energy anatomy to support personal growth, healing and spiritual awakening.
3. Inspiration from Lauren's transformational personal journey of overcoming challenges through embracing her gifts as a yoga teacher, entrepreneur and intuitive guide.
β
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
___
Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.
___
Lauren Leduc 0:00
To me, the inner goddess is it's not some outside deity or goddess. It's your highest self, okay? Particularly the more feminine aspects of the highest self.
Agi Keramidas 0:18
Welcome to Personal Development mastery podcast, empowering you with the simple, consistent actions needed to master yourself and create a life of purpose and fulfilment. I'm your host, Agi Keramidas. And my mission is simple to inspire you to take action towards improving your life. In this podcast, I invite myself inside the minds of remarkable people, and I distil the wisdom for you. So if you're ready to find practical insights that you can implement right now, make sure you follow the podcast and get the episodes as soon as they are released. And coming to today's episode. If you're struggling to fully express your authentic self, and feel disconnected from your inner wisdom and creativity, then the following conversation with my guest, Lauren Leduc is for you. When you listen to this episode, you will find out how to embrace your sacred feminine through intuitive practices, how you can start inhabiting your higher self and how to use a chakra based approach to support personal growth, healing and spiritual awakening. This is an engrossing conversation. Let's dive right in.
Agi Keramidas 1:41
Today, I am thrilled to speak with Lauren Leduc. Lauren, you are a visionary yoga teacher, intuitive, mother and creator of true love yoga, a premier Pay What You Can yoga studio, Your journey has been transformative having overcome a decade of personal challenges, including anorexia, anxiety and depression. You carved your path to healing embracing your gifts and inspiring others and your dedication to spiritual growth led you to become a certified Dharma coach. You are the author of the book embody your inner goddess, a guided path to radical wholeness, and you have a deep passion for harnessing the sacred feminine and empowering women to embrace self love and wholeness. Lauren, welcome to the show. It's such a pleasure to speak with you and about this utterly fascinating topics.
Lauren Leduc 2:44
Auggie, thank you so much for having me on. I'm really looking forward to our conversation.
Agi Keramidas 2:48
Me too. And Lauren, we will explore radical wholeness, that's a very intriguing term for me to explore, but also the inner goddess, and more. Before we go there, let's get a little bit of your background. So I'm usually asked for something that is like a key defining moment, that was a big transition to turn you or steer you actually towards the person that you are now. I feel
Lauren Leduc 3:17
like there are so many, many moments in my life that have brought me here. But I will go back to age 17. I was struggling with eating disorders with anorexia and bulimia and was in the hospital and an inpatient programme doing intensive therapy, getting my body back into a healthy state, and really self examining for the first time in my life. I had grown up in a very strict religious household was a high achiever, high grades and lots of extracurriculars worked, I felt so much pressure to be so good. And it all kind of came crumbling down with this eating disorder. And at the same time, my mind was really opening to different ways of life, to what spirituality even is and how it was relevant to me. While I was in the hospital receiving this therapy, it was a very difficult time, but one of the nurse practitioners was a yoga teacher. At this point in my life, I had not been exposed to yoga. I was a dancer, so I was used to connecting with my body. And I was a singer. So I was used to connecting with my breath. But I had never connected in such a calming and beautiful way to mind body, spirit and breath and really had the quiet space to truly connect with myself. And that planted a lot of seeds for my healing and my journey. It wasn't necessarily linear. I didn't go on to have a very regular yoga practice right away. But it did become I'm a very important part of my healing journey. And at age 29. So 12 years later, I became a yoga teacher. And I really, like you talked about, had a decade of healing and exploration and a lot of mistakes. And a lot of fun, too, in that time, but I just couldn't quite figure out what my purpose was. I didn't know why certain things that were seemingly easy for other people were so difficult for me. And once I took the leap, to study yoga, and then to go on and teach it, things just started to make more sense for me. And that really has created more flow and opportunity and expansion in my life since then, and the last decade,
Agi Keramidas 5:49
there was something you said, I will come back to yoga, because I would like to find out more, you said something about how things seemed easy for other people, but difficult for you. So what do you think now on hindsight, why did you look at it like that?
Lauren Leduc 6:06
Well, what I saw as in this period of my late teens, and my 20s was most of my peers, being relatively happy in high school, and then going straight on to higher education, and graduating in four years, and then maybe getting married right away and going into a career and having children and things seeming to like be on a specific timeline, the one that I was exposed to, and that I always assumed my life would be on. And for me, I almost didn't graduate high school, even though I was a high achieving gifted student, my mental health was not in a good state. So it was very difficult for me to finish, I did go on to my first college, and I dropped out after three semesters, I went to another college then transferred to another college. And with the eating disorder, and the depression and the anxiety, and also just wanting to like expand and explore the world and meet people and live in other places, it quickly became apparent that that timeline was not going to be mine. I don't think I really wanted it to be deep down. But I just wasn't quite sure like why things seemed easy. That seemed easy for other people. And it didn't for me, and it took a lot of exploration to really figure out who I am, how I operate, and then how to take those qualities and make them into like how I provide service to the world. If that makes sense. And it wasn't going to happen through a four year degree. It doesn't make
Agi Keramidas 7:37
sense. Thank you. And the way you describe this using the word timeline, I think that was for me a very clear answer got something from that different perception when you think in terms of a timeline, rather than something else that you know, relevant to the question, but thank you, that was great. If you're enjoying this episode, can you find one person that you think would add value to and share it with them? I would really appreciate you. This helps grow the show and also helps you add value to people you care about. Thank you so much. Let's get back to the episode. Let's go back to the Yoga I remember when you started saying that 29 You became a yoga teacher, your face lit up at the same time while you were saying that. So how afterwards, were you inspired to create the true love of yoga and this kind of contribution that you did? What was the trigger behind that door? Yeah,
Lauren Leduc 8:38
yes, I would say unlike the earlier parts of my life, it came fairly easily. It came with a lot of work. But it was, like I said there was a lot more flow and expansion once I started doing what I was meant to be doing. So in the first couple of years of my teaching, I just taught a lot and worked on improving myself and improving my teaching working with a lot of different clients. And it just so happened that there was a very beautiful day here in early March. I live in the Midwest in the US. And it's usually very cold at that point. But it was a gorgeous weekend. So I decided that I would like to offer a donation based yoga class at this beautiful museum and take advantage of the weather. And I put a post out on Facebook to see who might want to come. And I had about 50 people show up. And it was a very beautiful experience. I decided to hold it the next week again, because we had nice weather and I had 100 people show up. And I was soon like just wondering what I could do with this. And I was impressed by the diversity of the students. And I really wanted other people to be able to see this because yoga has been so beneficial in so many lives. But I think the public perception is that Only people who look like me, practice yoga. So I envisioned this pop up yoga programme all over the city. And this is what we did, we'd go to a different location every weekend and do these big pop up classes and just practice yoga in public. And it became popular quickly, which was really exciting. And I started envisioning, like a permanent home for this where the financial barrier was not there for people to practice high quality yoga. Very soon, someone just offered me a space. I hadn't really been talking about this with anybody. Besides maybe my husband, I thought maybe it was something that would be a few years in the future. But the universe, I suppose, had different plans. And I decided I couldn't say no to this opportunity, because I had asked for it. And I was envisioning it. So I decided to just say yes, and figure it out. So in the next few months, I had opened my studio and our first location, and a few months after that, we found our permanent location. And that was eight years ago, it's been a huge learning process for me, owning this business. And it's grown and changed a lot through the years, I did have two locations. At one point, I closed one during the pandemic. I've been leading yoga teacher training the last six years, and we focus on trauma informed yoga, we focus on antiracism. And it's just been this extremely beautiful process, a lot of hard work, but it has all flowed. And in a way, Lauren,
Agi Keramidas 11:35
let's now talk about your book and body, your inner goddess. And my first question read in the title. And I will ask you straight away for some definitions here. So what is the inner goddess? And when you say embody, what exactly do we mean embodiment?
Lauren Leduc 11:54
Those are great questions. So for me, the inner goddess is this sort of, personalised version of the individual's sacred feminine. So to explain that, I'll talk about what the sacred feminine is, in every being, we have these polarities of masculine and feminine. They're not necessarily what we think of socially, or culturally, in these terms, they're a little more metaphorical. So you might think of the masculine as solar, you might think of the feminine as lunar. Another similar symbol would be like the yin and the yang, where the Yin is this cooler, more receptive energy, and the Yong is a warmer, more like penetrating energy. And they work together and balance and there's Yin and the Yang and Yang in the end. So very similar with the masculine and feminine, they both flow through the energy body, in the yogic tradition. So the sacred feminine would be all of the beautiful qualities of the feminine, it would be this more mysterious, more creative, more wild, more cyclical, energy, more sensitive energy. To me, many of those qualities are not celebrated, or promoted, or actively developed within much of the culture in the world, and therefore they're not developed within the individual. So for me, for the individual, and I work mostly with women, but for anyone to start really embracing, and loving on those qualities, similar to my own story, is a way to really feel more whole. And what we might say more fully expressed, to truly like be oneself in a way that's very unapologetic. So to me, the inner goddess is, it's not some outside deity, or goddess, it's, it's your highest self, okay? Particularly the more feminine aspects of the highest self. So we move to the embodiment piece. And when we talk about embodiment, it's more than just knowing something. We're hearing it or reading about it, it's being that so it's drawing out all of these beautiful qualities of your inner goddess are of the sacred feminine, and living in integrity with that, and connecting it all the way to the body. So it's a very authentic way to live, but it can take some time to get there.
Agi Keramidas 14:46
Thank you for the answer was when you were saying about embodiment? It was what you said about being and that was the word you used and I also when you describe the inner goddess as the San Jose That's how I perceive it. Anyway, they feminine aspects of our higher self that also for me made complete sense. So thank you for this very clear answers. I was having a look at your book and you follow a sequence over seven weeks and that sequence it goes according to the chakras. So, can you tell me what role do chakras play in in this path of, you know, wholeness and embodying your inner goddess, and it's a topic that I would really like to hear more about from you?
Lauren Leduc 15:32
Sure, I would love to go into detail about it. I love teaching on this subject. But as I talked about, in this yogic view of the body, there's the masculine and the feminine well, that exists within these channels of lifeforce energy. So in energy anatomy, there are many of these channels throughout the body. But there are three main ones and they run along the spine, there's a main one called Shuna, that runs along the spine to the right of that is the masculine, which is called Pingala. To the left of that is the feminine, called EDA, everywhere, they kind of spin around and intersect Shuna creates a major chakra, which is a whirling vortex of energy. And each of these vortexes of energy could be thought of as like different zones of the body or energy body. And each of these zones holds different qualities. And when you put them all together, it's really like this whole sense of what makes us human, what makes us spirit. So for instance, I almost think of them as like little filing cabinets, not that it's that cut and dry. But if you open like the filing cabinet of the heart and look at the heart chakra holds our love for others, our love for self, our ability to forgive our acts of service, our joy, so all of those qualities would be within that space. And there are seven of these, again, all with these different aspects. So as we take this journey from the root all the way up to the crown chakra, we get to kind of discover and unearth these different qualities that we hold within us. And they say this isn't about self improvement. It's more about loving on all of these different parts of ourselves, and discovering them and really figuring out who we are and how they're relevant to us within our own stories, and starting to peel away some of the external programming that we receive from our families, our religion, society, culture, government, you know, whatever it might be media to figure out what is truly authentic to us. Who are we truly,
Agi Keramidas 17:50
thank you. So apart from I know that this is a topic, of course, I'm not going to go any deep and discuss about soccer school could be talking for hours about this. So I will, but thank you for this answer. Apart from this, what are the source a key teachings would someone reading the book expect to discover and I'm in spiritual.
Lauren Leduc 18:10
So the different teachings in the book and like you beautifully said, it takes place over seven weeks, there's a reading every day, which is the teaching and for me, it combines relevant aspects of my own story channelled writing. So writing that I just allowed to flow through like from my sacred feminine from my inner goddess, as well as a lot of yogic philosophy, because that is my background. So I tie those aspects together for the teachings. So each day has a reading, the reader is asked to reflect on it. So I have specific questions that they can either ponder or journal about, to find how these things are relevant to their own story, and then some sort of embodiment practice. So for me, when I'm learning, it's not enough just to read something, I need to put it into action to really feel it and to like, like we're talking about to be that. So every day, and I'll use an example, like the first day is all about connecting with the body, about the physical body, because so many, I think people in general in our world are very disconnected from their bodies, or they don't see it them as a part of nature. They don't see them for the miracles that they are. And not that it can be solved in one day, necessarily, but this is an introduction to it. So you know, I talk about my own journey with my body. And then we reflect on, you know, what are the limiting beliefs that we hold about our own bodies?
Agi Keramidas 19:43
That's great. Let me ask you something more practical than because it's one thing you said there are practices of embodiment. So can you share with us one or two practices that individuals can adopt to you know, embrace or start embodying their same inner goddess,
Lauren Leduc 20:01
huh? Yes, I'm happy to share a couple. There are 49. In the book, I'll choose a couple that I think are particularly fun. So one of them is about moving the body. And for me, I was a trained dancer. So I was trained to move my body in a really specific way. I also know a lot of people who either don't dance, or who only will have fun and let loose and dance if they've had a few drinks, right. And we're made to dance part of the sacred feminine is this connection to the divine through the body. So it's not just through like sitting and meditation and listening. It's through the joyful movement, as well. And you can see that in many cultures across the world, in history, and even present. So one of the practices in the day that's called I move with joy, you choose a song that makes you feel really happy. And you dance and not with any particular aesthetic in mind, not with any particular technique, but just as goofy and silly as possible. And I did this a couple of days ago, and I was not in a very good mood beforehand. And I was laughing so hard all by myself making dumb faces and just feeling so good. So it's a very, like quick way to reconnect. That's one practice, I have another chapter on women's relationships with each other. Because while there can be really beautiful female friendships, there's also a lot of toxicity, I think, among them, a lot of competition, a lot of judgement and a lot of triggering. So as a practice that day is to call or text a girlfriend, and just tell them what you love about them without any kind of expectation in return. And when I've done this practice before, it is always a quick way to just feel like so connected and so grateful for the relationships that we have in our life. And I think we don't do that enough. I don't think many of us just reach out and appreciation enough. So the prompts to do that is such a wonderful thing. So when I talk about embodiment, that's truly what I mean. Some of them are more esoteric, like meditation practices or yoga postures. And some of them are just easy things to do that fit really well into our own lives. Like it's not, it's not difficult to pick up your phone and tell someone you love them.
Agi Keramidas 22:35
It's not difficult at all, yet, so few do it at least you know, as on a regular basis, or when they feel like it's almost even a practice. So thank you. This
Speaker 1 22:46
was two wonderful, practical steps. So appreciate that. There is another topic. So I'm going to digress, but if there's something I really wanted your comment about and as an intuitive reader, so what advice do you have for someone who wants to connect more with intuition with their inner guidance in a more deep way?
Lauren Leduc 23:12
That's such a great question. And I have a few answers, I would say first. First, it takes a lot of self connection. That means connecting with the body, it means connecting with the mind. So if you're someone who's never sat and really observed their own thoughts before, that would be a great first step. Because it can be very difficult to hear the intuition through the workings of the mind. Yes, it's part of human nature to have flattened Yogas Chitta Vritti. It's this whirling energy, its thoughts, its memories, it's wonderings about the future. You know, there are so many things going through our mind all at once. And it can be very, very noisy. Add in living in a noisy city or having a noisy household. Add in media and phones, add in trauma, perhaps that has disconnected you from your own self. There are a lot of reasons we might not feel connected to the intuition and haven't yet developed that sense of self trust. So I do have a connection to intuition in the Third Eye section of my book, which is a six week and I do recommend going through all of the lower chakras first to create the connection and the space to connect with the intuition. My main piece of wisdom I think about the intuition is that it is a quiet voice and it is always kind. It is always loving. It always has our highest good in mind. So sometimes people confuse it with anxiety and anxiety does not sound like that. So even when the into And might be connecting you with information that you don't want to receive and your ego, or that doesn't feel so nice, it still is coming from this calm space. Also, the way we receive it is all a little bit different. We call the intuitive senses, the clear senses. So similar to the senses that we have to connect with the physical world, we have senses to connect with the energetic world. So there is clear knowing. So that's kind of downloading information, like suddenly you just know that something is right. There is like visualisation. So similar to how you would see something in your imagination, it's pretty much exactly like that. Also like the way you would hear a song in your mind, you can hear your intuition. And that way, you might feel a sense in your body. Like sometimes when I work with others, what I'm feeling in my body is actually like information to give to them, because it's what they are feeling like I might feel a tightening in my throat or in my heart or in my stomach. And it's not really coming from me, it's coming from that which is difficult to distinguish, at first and can be really confusing. So those are just a few different ways that we perceive the intuition. But most importantly, I'd say it is this like, very, very kind voice within, and it can just take some time to be able to connect with it. I do believe everyone is absolutely able to do that. Beyond that, I will say that our bodies are very intelligent. So I'm speaking about a very specific type of intuition right now. But our bodies, once we're very connected with them do know a lot. So think of instinct, think of, you know, I've had this situation before where I'm I see someone on the street, and I know, immediately to get out of their way. Because like I'll get hot chills in my body. And there's just something inside me that says like, this person isn't safe. And it can be a lot happier than that to you might feel very excited or happy when you see a person or when you hear about a specific situation or when you consider your goals and dreams or something like that. But it's very important to to feel what your body's reaction is. Because it has a lot of information for us. And it's very smart.
Agi Keramidas 27:23
Thank you for this wonderful Lancer, it is indeed and just when you think about crossing on the other side of the road, you as you might meet, I have had often when driving before, right take, you know, steal the car in return that you can't really see what's on the other side of it at head on occasions like knowing that there is a car coming on the other direction. So I would slow down. And it was not a surprise after because it has happened a few times to see that the horse indeed the car comes with was like a nice warning sign of that. So you thank you for bringing that back to my memory. I have a couple of quick last questions that I always ask my guests. But before we go there, can you please share with us? How can the listener connect with you find out more about you and your book, of course,
Lauren Leduc 28:17
sure, you can find me on my website, Lauren leduc.com, la URENLEDUC. And from there, you can find information about my courses and readings and book, I have a podcast called your spiritual besties with my bestie Rasheeda. And we have a lot of really interesting conversations on there. And we actually do intuitive readings as well. So if that's something you feel intrigued by, you can actually hear us giving readings to someone to kind of understand what that is all about. And you can find me on Instagram as well. At I am Lauren LaDuke.
Agi Keramidas 28:56
Thank you. And so let me ask you then a couple of quickfire questions. The first one is What does personal development mean to you?
Lauren Leduc 29:04
Personal Development to me is this beautiful commitment to yourself, to not sell yourself short, to show up for yourself in your life and to to nurture yourself. It's like self parenting in a way. You know, we're not just letting life happen to us. We're being active participants in our own life. And I think that it's an ongoing process that can last a lifetime and it's very worthwhile. It makes us better citizens in the world. It makes us more thoughtful. It helps align us with our purpose or dharma. It's such a way to like move through this world awake, you know.
Agi Keramidas 29:51
Beautiful answer. Thank you, Lauren. And hypothetically speaking, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self or 17 may So what's one piece of advice you would give? I would say,
Lauren Leduc 30:03
just keep going. It's a there's nothing wrong with you, and that we live in a beautiful and messy world. And maybe to just embrace those qualities, you know, I wouldn't want to give away too much, because I feel really grateful for my journey and my story, even the hard stuff. Maybe just give her a big hug.
Agi Keramidas 30:25
Wonderful. Lauren, I want to thank you very much for this enlightening conversation I really enjoyed in there were some elements that you said that I believe there were some deeper layers of knowledge or understanding behind all wisdom, even behind them. So thank you very much for that I want to wish you all the very best with your mission with your passion with your life's mission. I mean, before we conclude, I would like to end with some parting words from you. But what came to my mind, you said that there were 49, if I'm not mistaken, practical elements in your book. So you gave two. So if you want to conclude with a third one, that will be
Lauren Leduc 31:05
great. Sure. But before I do that, I just want to tell you Auggie, thank you very much. You have been so kind and thoughtful and patient, I will tell everyone, my toddler is here with me. flow. So I appreciate that so much. Along those lines, I will say in the first week, we write a letter to our inner child. So we go back and really talk to our childhood self. And for me, it was a very hard opening practice. Like I look at my own daughter, and I hold her and I tell her how much I love her to be able to see my own self, in the same way of this like, innocent being that's just so special. And send all of that love to me as a child was just such a beautiful practice. And I hope that something everyone can do for themselves. I'll also add, I hope it's something we can do for others as well. I think it's easy to put adults in boxes to judge them. But every single one of us was born a baby, right? Every single one of us was this innocent new, beautiful life and to be able to go back to that really, I think shines this layer of compassion on on humanity. So I definitely recommend that practice. So thank you for bringing it into my mind.
Agi Keramidas 32:28
Thank you. And before I leave you for today, if you've enjoyed this episode, can you find one person that you think it would add value to and share it with them? I would really appreciate you. Not only does this help grow the show, it also helps you add value to people you care about. Thank you so much. Until next time, stand out, don't fit in!