Take Care

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Laurie Buchanan

I can’t begin to express the excitement I felt when Certified Professional Coach, Sarah Jordan, invited me to be her guest to launch Season 4 of her wildly popular podcast series. This season’s focus is TAKE CARE.

If you’ve ever wondered what goes on inside the head of a transformational life coach…
If you’ve ever wondered what a coaching session might be like…
If you’ve ever wondered about the business of forgiveness…

…this podcast is for you.

In the first six minutes and forty-five seconds of this podcast, Sarah takes care of some necessary housekeeping with her regular listeners; then I jump in. She’s amazing, and I hope you’ll become part her tribe at sarahjordancpc.com.

Here’s a LINK to the podcast. Enjoy!

Do you believe that forgiving is condoning?

A Heavy Load

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Laurie Buchanan

For Note to Self book events, it’s important to find a commonality that levels the playing field and places all of us on the same page. That’s why I typically talk about non-forgiveness. It’s one of the heaviest loads (emotional baggage) we can carry or drag with us. I usually start by saying:

fullsizeoutput_3f98 — Hint #4 — There’s no commuter train service in my sabbatical location.

Every single person in this room, without exception, will need to extend forgiveness to someone at some point in their life for something the other person did or failed to do.

Likewise, every single person in this room, without exception, will need to receive forgiveness from someone at some point in our lives for something we did or failed to do.

Then I read a passage from Note to Self that begins on page 116. If you have a copy, you may want to check it out.

Has extending forgiveness, or the lack thereof, played a role in your health and wellness?

Reminder, the caveat of the Looking for Laurie game stipulates: “The first person to type the accurate city and state of my sabbatical location into the comments section of the Mar 28 post will receive a personalized copy of Note to Self: A Seven-Step Path to Gratitude and Growth for themselves or as a gift to someone else.”

Housekeeping — The Kind that Matters

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Laurie Buchanan

Last week, at her request, I called a potential new client. Questions in hand, I was ready to see if we would mesh in a coaching relationship. Within minutes I discovered that this woman has a short—very short—time to live. The coaching experience I offer is typically nine months in length, so where did I fit in?

Beyond humbling, she shared with me that knowing in advance her approximate date of death has been a tremendous blessing in that she’s completely prepared—except for one thing. Taped to a framed photograph on her nightstand is a clipping from a long-ago magazine article I wrote:

Like the path we walk, giving and receiving forgiveness is a fundamental part of life’s journey. Reminiscent of falling leaves, offenses may scatter the pathway of our heart—the seat of our outlook. This attitude determines the terrain of our path and forgiveness keeps the pathway clear.

It is my perspective that the place to start—the place to launch joy, hope, positive aspirations, and healing begins with forgiveness. Until that bit of housekeeping has been taken care of, everything else is futile.

Since that initial call we’ve had two more conversations. Neither one of us is charging a fee, but you can well imagine that I’m receiving much more than she is. I’m learning how to die.

Do you need to give or receive forgiveness, or are you all set?

Laurie Buchanan

“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.”
— Laurie Buchanan

The Book—Discovering the Seven Selves
The Experience— Life Harmony

Find me on Twitter @HolEssence