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Authoring Life Podcast

Practical Inspirations With Mary Jo Lorei

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Are you struggling to hear your voice? If you knew how powerful you are, what would you create? In this episode, Mary Jo Lorei, author of Practical Inspirations: Where the Bumper Sticker Meets the Road, leads you to your access points to listen, learn, and act on your wisdom. She suggests that we should bring joy in this game of life no matter if we get bogged down. All we need is to bring in some effort. This episode allows you to tap into your operating system to gain insight and clarity for maximizing your efforts into results. Don’t miss this opportunity and let your mind open, your heart lead, and your most excellent possibility live by tuning in to this episode of Authoring Life with Mary Jo Lorei!

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Practical Inspirations With Mary Jo Lorei

I am super excited to introduce our next guest. Mary Jo has been in my life for many years as a coach, a mentor, and a friend. I have taken her courses on sexuality and femininity, being in your feminine. I have gotten relationship advice and mentorship for many years from this woman. I\’m going to introduce you now. Her name is Mary Jo Lorei.

She\’s an accomplished facilitator, master coach, and self-mastery mentor for all those who seek their next level in life. She has many years of experience working with individuals to achieve their maximum potential, and that\’s the capacity in which I know her. Mary Jo has facilitated dynamic group encounters across the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Canada based on leadership, emotional intelligence, self-development, and relationships.

Mary Jo uses her intuition and deep connection with the human spirit to support others in developing their inner compass and creating energetic, successful lives. We\’re going to be jumping into the book that she published called Practical Inspirations: Where the Bumper Sticker Meets the Road. This is a novelty and a gift book. This is a book that you give to others because Mary Jo uses her gifts and continual development of her skills to forward to all whom she encounters.

By reading this book, you will as well. She is a compassionate mirror, a truth seeker, and is devoted to living vibrantly, dynamically, freely, and all the adjectives we can share. We were jamming on dynamic. I love that word dynamic. That\’s what I call my life now. My life and my business are dynamic because you\’re embracing it all. Mary Jo, it’s great to have you here.

It\’s so good. Dynamic is how I\’d even describe your radiance. You can\’t capture Alicia’s lightning in a bottle. It\’s dynamic, fascinating, and beautiful. It\’s a little bit maybe dangerous. It\’s fun to get close.

I know you and I started working together years ago when you had the inkling of writing a book and now it is done. Tell me, Mary Jo, why did you write a book?

I do want to give one acknowledgment for sure to you. I\’ve always dreamed of it. It was always a fantasy of me. The first step to having one in my hands was when you looked at me and said, “Why not?” When you said it in such an of courseness kind of way, it became a reality then. The journey between that moment and me having the book written was I was a little lost in what my purpose was. Writing the book became the purpose.

The best way I can describe it is I was trying to give birth at the moment of conception like I wanted it done. I was like, “Write a book.” It was clunky and I wasn\’t having fun, so I had to come to Mary Jo\’s heart center moment of what\’s the book going to cause? I got passionate about that because I have been gifted. I had a way of listening when I was younger that I couldn\’t explain but I could hear what other people couldn\’t hear, like what people meant versus what people said.

I jokingly say all three of my careers, I went from bartender to hair stylist to coach and facilitator. I\’ve been a professional listener for many years. That\’s why I wanted to write a book. It’s to have people stimulated to hear themselves. I love inspiration. I\’m a junkie. If you put the needle in my arm, let\’s go. Inspirations everywhere. It\’s so uplifting and energizing and it gets fresh air into the situation.

What I kept noticing is people have theoretical inspiration not know how to apply it. I can read a bumper sticker and I see that coexisting then I yell at the next person that cuts me off like, “When are we going to take that and put it into life?” Once that became clear, that\’s what I wanted to do. It poured out of me. They’re literally practical inspirations, little moments, examples, and paradigm shifts that give one a chance to go and check on, “Is the perspective that I\’m using working for what I want?” In the book, as I take people through opportunities to stop, check in, and hear themselves for opportunities, then also like, “How are you going to use it?”

I want to step back to what you said because what you shared in terms of the book writing process will resonate with so many of my clients and people out there who are thinking about writing a book. It is you want to give birth at the moment of conception and there is that nine-month period. I created a program called Bestseller in a Weekend and everyone was like, “I made 20,000 words.” You\’re going through it, netting it, adding, and changing, and then you\’re living the material. There\’s a lot of it\’s living.

I\’m going through the process now because I\’m writing a book as well. I wrote all 35,000 words then the editor ripped it apart and we\’re putting it back together. Going back to what you were saying of you get to live with the content and inspiration. It almost gets to be embodied and integrated. Going to your book, Practical Inspiration: Where the Bumper Sticker Meets the Road, how can we take these bumper sticker thoughts, statements, quotes, and make them integrated a part of our life? That\’s what you\’re saying because if you honk at the next person, then you have road rage. I want to jump into your book. Give us some practical inspiration.

Having walked with all of these, one of my favorite things about the book is I\’m still using it, not only it starts to sparkle things or things start to bubble up. It\’s also showing me where I was since the last time I read it. Some of the practical ways of life are the paradigm shift. Is this working for me? Change your lens, change your life. The lens I\’m using is often clouded by limiting beliefs, evidence-building, circumstance-driven, or living life by default instead of by design.

When we shift that out into what I want to create, I\’m not some wizard that came up with something new. I took concepts that have been around for a long time and gave them a little different access point. I do like to say clearly that I\’m not a guru. I don\’t want to tell people how to live. What I do know is there isn\’t a way but I know some ways to find your way.

You can get inspired by in this book is you\’re going to hear you more than you hear me. There\’s one dedicated to my mom because she brought to me her massive deck of cards. Midwesterner Indiana always had a deck of cards in her purse. If You were at a restaurant and the table was going to be a fifteen-minute wait, cards came out. If you\’re sitting on an airplane, cards come out. She was buried with a deck of cards.

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Hers was, “These weren\’t the cards I wanted but these were the cards I was dealt so let\’s play.” How great is that? I have rocked on that my whole life. I offer that up as, “Think about that. Why do you want to count on the cards instead of being a great player?” A good card player doesn\’t need the cards. They know how to play the cards. She also is part of where I got that joy-mongering from. If you\’re going to play the game of life, play. We get bogged down in the ugh. I\’m not saying it doesn\’t take effort. Being a human being or in a relationship takes effort but sometimes we forget. We\’re playing the game of life, so why not bring that spark of joy into it?

I was telling that to my daughter. Life is a game and we get to play it. It\’s how you respond. Share some more practical inspiration.

I\’ll flip over to a page. Hysterical is often historical. Hysterical is rarely about what\’s in front of me. It is almost always about how this has pushed a button I brought into the situation. When I feel that the temperature went way higher than it needed to or I\’m like Chicken Little that everything is falling apart. I could trace it right back down to when we were a kid and dad lost all the money. We thought life was over. I go back to that not-feeling-safe moment.

Now, when it comes, I feel that coming and you feel the energy in your body. Everybody knows that moment where it\’s like, “I\’m about to go way over the top with my reaction now.” As soon as I feel that things starting going up, it\’s like, “How much of this is what\’s here and how much of that is like, ‘Oh yeah?’” I\’ve been working a lot with clients during COVID. As you can imagine, relationships were strained.

You’re a relationship coach and to me, that is your sweet spot. It’s being able to read, support, ask questions, probe, and provoke, all of that in terms of relationships and getting people to the next level in their relationships.

I now have couples using that language. You push the button, I brought in. Instead of you are pushing my buttons, which means you\’re the one that needs to change and you\’re the problem. No, I want to be upfront for both of our sakes and say, “You push the button, I brought in.” You can\’t push somebody\’s buttons if they didn\’t have any. That awareness of, can we be honest? Your action is stimulating it. Let\’s be mindful of that. Also, it’s hitting a nerve in me that was here before I met you.

[bctt tweet=\”You can\’t push somebody\’s buttons if they don\’t have any.\” via=\”no\”]

That way, I can share my feelings with you instead of making you responsible for them. Get into a relationship where 2 or 1 of the other things I eradicate with all the couples I work with such as letting you know if anybody wants to call me know this is coming. You may not say you make me feel. It’s taking out of any of the languaging because again, you can\’t make me feel anyway. I have a reaction to you and if I take responsibility that way, I\’m hysterical, emotional, and reactionary. I\’m bringing this to the us because I could use some support with it then we\’re on the same team.

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I want to get back into the book because it is a picture book with beautiful photos and very much like a coffee table book. Where can people find Practical Inspirations?

Right on Amazon or you can go to MaryJoLorei.com. It\’s an interesting size book because it\’s 12×12, so it fits in a backpack. It\’s a good journaling book. People have a good time. I\’ve had people reach out to me that said, “Me and my husband have been reading one. We choose one and we read it every day for seven days and then write a little bit about it. We talk to each other about what it stimulated that day.” I did do it beautifully because again, why not?

Why not learn and enjoy beauty at the same time? The gentleman that did the art direction, Chris, was astounding. He was such a visionary and a visual. He understood how to make something visual out of what I was talking about that was nebulous or esoteric. That was one of the most fun parts of the whole book.

That imagery and deliciousness, when he went through it if you pay attention, the first picture is winter and it ends in fall. It goes through four seasons and because it\’s 52, one per week for a year or one every day for two months. You can choose however to do it or you randomly open it up to a page and it\’s usually the one you need to hear as it has been recorded.

I would love to jump into another one that you would like to share with us that you feel like it\’s the one everyone gets to read now.

This is the one everybody gets to read now. Expression is an eye conversation. Communication is a we conversation.

Speak into that.

I find collapsing the two. People express themselves and wonder why they\’re not being understood. If you\’re expressing, it\’s a one-way street. It goes for me out. Expression is important but if I want the expression to turn into understanding, then I go, “I don\’t want to express myself. I want to communicate. I want to commune with somebody else.” Now my expression turns into communication because I\’m paying attention to where I want it to land and what I want to convey.

It\’s not just when I think of self-expression, which is so important. All the many ways people find to do it. I talk to people about the way they are in the kitchen, decorating their homes, and where they take care of their bodies. There are all kinds of ways, like artistic ways and spiritual ways to express yourself. It\’s having your tone out into the world. When I want to be understood, I take that expression now and almost bend it into, “I\’m also responsible for how my listener is listening.”

When I want to express myself with purpose, I\’m going to look into Alicia’s eyes and I\’m going to say, “I know what\’s important to her. I know what our relationship means to me. While I\’m expressing myself to be heard, I\’m going to set you up to win. I want to teach you about me. Permission to say it the way it comes out and permission to edit it or alter it if I didn\’t express in a way that you understood what I wanted to express.” Now, we\’ve moved into we conversation and my expression is now communication.

Beautifully said. Since you\’re supporting relationships and individuals to get to their next level and you do that through facilitation and workshops internationally, do you find that it has taken on a different context, texture, and urgency in the last few years?

Absolutely and I say this from a place of inspiration. Who\’s ever reading, please open your heart and read generously because I\’m going to express myself. I\’m hoping to land an understanding here. We\’re not out of it. Are we “going back to normal?” How do we go back to unknowing what this showed us about ourselves and our world?

[bctt tweet=\”Open your heart and listen generously.\” via=\”no\”]

There are things opening up as far as safety, the lethalness of the pandemic, and the wake-up call that is now starting to become a world that works for everyone that isn\’t so selective and unjust for people of different colors and shapes and all of that. I think there should be some reality check that we get to say, “We\’re still in it.”

This is going to be dramatic, so forgive me but when an atomic bomb goes off, it\’s the next ten years that have to be dealt with. Until nature comes back, the radiation gets eradicated, and new babies are being born, we\’re still in that. We\’re still in the vibration. It was so great because one of the first things I did when the pandemic hit was get on a coach\’s call with you with other people and we sat in here.

I do remember that.

You introduced me, so we’re open to the concept. One of the things that were startling was when the exterior structure got stripped away. We found out how weak our infrastructure was. I was depending on my schedule, on my drive to work, the kids being out of the house for eight hours, and being able to get up close and personal with people. I was depending on all these things, then suddenly, that was all gone.

We\’re still now and what I\’m encouraging people is this is the best time in our lives to get intentional and purposeful with what we want in our emotional, physical and spiritual spine. What\’s the core? What do you want to have so solid no matter what swirls around you again? Here\’s what I do know and what I can count on because that had people in a panic. As I said, it\’s going to be some time until equilibrium is fully restored. That\’s not bad. It\’s just I want to pay attention. If I\’m on a catamaran, I\’m going to walk differently if it\’s tipped up to the side.

For the last couple of years, I, fortunately, didn\’t lose anyone and had the opportunity and the privilege to move cross-country and live in Miami Beach. I slowed down and I\’m still at that pace. My three words are purpose, play, and pleasure. That\’s what I\’m focused on. If it\’s not the purpose and not playful, then it\’s not pleasure. That\’s where I am. Going to a place, lowering my costs, and getting simple, that\’s what it did for me. You said infrastructure, so my infrastructure is peace and being slow.

Do you remember a time in your life when you thought being noisy was better?

There was a time in my life where I thought being noisy was better. I have no interest in going back and everything is working. That\’s the beauty of that. The work that I did with you and I met you through Mastery In Transformational Training in Los Angeles and the Grace Program in Relationships. You being my coach and mentor. I shared and introduced you as I invited everyone in and you have this way about you. I want to acknowledge you. You are so present and do not take anything for granted and are so grateful. You take the juice and the essence out of each moment.

Thank you.

That\’s what I learned from you. Even when I talked to you as we got on the phone. It\’s like the juice and seeing people. You make them feel like they\’re the only person in the room and that\’s a beautiful trait to have while holding space for dozens and hundreds of people. Now with your book Practical Inspirations, you get to serve thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people because they can go to their local bookstore or purchase it on Amazon or MaryJoLorei.com. First of all, did you have anything to say about it?

I\’m so touched right now. I\’m so grateful for the way our vibrations harmonize. It\’s something I\’ve always appreciated about you and me. We are not always on the same note but we always harmonize. I\’m deeply grateful for that because to me, that\’s a dynamic way of living. I don\’t need another me. I need another Alicia in my life. When we\’re not on the same note, we know how to undulate around each other and find that we\’re there. You\’ve shined the light for me and been my soft place to land. It\’s been a privilege to be yours. That\’s what I\’ll say about that.

We\’ll jump into the speed realm and this first question will maybe get you emotional. What is your legacy, Mary Jo?

My legacy that I\’m generating with all the fibers of my being. When we truly know our own values, we support other people in knowing there and we make a world that works for everybody. It is my passion, my purpose, my vocation, and my joy to remind people. No matter what human experience you\’re having, you\’re a divine being.

In a world that works for everybody, that\’s sustainability. What is your favorite book?

It\’s crazy, A Prayer for Owen Meany.

I’ve never heard of it.

I\’m blanking on the author\’s name. I can\’t believe it. It\’s my favorite book. Also, The World According to Garp. He wrote all the scripts of books. There\’s something about the way they capture this character. It is about fulfilling a purpose and you don\’t realize it until it culminates what you\’ve been reading the whole time. I like to be pretty savvy, so I pay attention, as you said. If I can be delighted and surprised by an ending, every once in a while, I\’ll go back and read it again. There\’s about friendship, family, and purpose in it in a fun way. It\’s a book I\’ll go back and revisit every couple of years.

What about your favorite author? Do you have a favorite author?

If I remember his name.

What are you going to read next? What\’s on your bookshelf or your nightstand?

What I have lined up is I have a nonsense novel that I can\’t even remember the title of and I am working through a coaching manual, a way to look at people\’s perspectives. I have one that\’s in the shoot ready to come in. It’s more about emotional brain chemistry. Emotions are all driven by the chemistry in the brain and I think the more we know about that, the more intelligent we can be with it.

What are you writing next?

One of the things that came out of the pandemic, as it turns out the guy I live with is the one I want to be with, so we\’re tying the knot. With all the fun, I\’m having planning the wedding. Somebody said, “You should do a practical inspiration for brides,” because I\’m doing with the wedding. I\’m like, “That should be it.” I still want to do a collection again because I do love bite-size pieces. I am putting things into a bucket and we\’ll see what it turns into. That\’s what I\’m working on.

That\’s how it begins. How can people find out more about you, Mary Jo? What’s your social media and website?

The website MaryJoLorei.com says a little bit about me and it is a great way to get in touch with me. On Instagram, every Tuesday, I put out a Truth Seed. It\’s funny that evolved. That was a gift from COVID and in honor of George Floyd. I was calling him truth bombs. I realized I didn\’t want to be another bomb in the world. I want to be something that grows. Now I call them Truth Seeds, so I plant little seeds every Tuesday. They\’re pretty fun. Again, I\’m traveling around. I\’m doing workshops, so where I\’m at is always on my social media or on my website. That\’s how people can find me.

You can buy Practical Inspirations at MaryJoLorei.com or on Amazon. Mary Jo, I\’d love for you to leave a last piece of advice. Plant a seed that can grow in all of those that are reading.

I\’m going to reiterate what I said earlier, only now I ask when you read to relax your shoulders, soften your belly, and take a big breath. You were born whole and perfect. You are 50 trillion cells that will never happen again by birthright alone. You are a one-of-a-kind miracle. No matter how much evidence you gather, no matter how much you resist it, no matter how even your ego wants to get in the way, it\’s never not true. If you start from there, the very next thought, word, or deed is going to be coming from me, a divine, one-of-a-kind, never happening again, being. You wait for your life to unfold.

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Thank you, Mary Jo.

You\’re so welcome.

What a way to end this episode. Let that sink in, everybody. With that, I want to thank Mary Jo Lorei for being here and sharing your Practical Inspirations and wisdom with us all. Everyone, thank you so much for being here and we\’ll see you on the next episode. Be well, everybody.

 

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About Mary Jo Lorei

\"ALMary Jo Lorei is an accomplished Facilitator, Master Coach and a Self Mastery Mentor of all those who seek their next level. She has over 20 years of experience working with individuals to achieve their maximum potential. Mary Jo has facilitated dynamic group encounters across the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Canada based on Leadership, Self Development and Relationship. Mary Jo uses her intuition and deep connection with the human spirit to support others in developing their inner compass and creating energetic successful lives.

Last year Mary Jo published her book “Practical Inspirations: where the bumper sticker meets the road”. The book is a full tome of access points to listen, learn and act on one’s own wisdom. With so many inspirational sources out there, it can become overwhelming, and even more so without application. The opportunities in these pages tap into the reader’s own operating system, then give insight to and clarity to maximize turning efforts into results.

Mary Jo has completed multiple intensive facilitator & coaching programs, and has studied with multiple spiritual masters and has pursued philosophy and anthropology courses. All of this (and more) helps her unlock understanding of the workings of human beings. She puts out a weekly inspiration called Tuesday Truth Seeds, works with private clients on success in all areas, she facilitates workshops for companies as well as produces her own, and is always creating her next training,

Mary Jo uses her gifts and continual development of her skills to forward all whom she encounters. She is a compassionate mirror, a stealth truth seeker, and is devoted to living vibrantly.