Addictions aren’t easy to accept or overcome. But if you have someone to supporting you all the way through, the process becomes very less cumbersome. My guest today has been instrumental to my path to recovery from addictions*. Meet Lorene Clark Lacayo, professional Well-being Coach (NBC-HWC) and Co-creator of the Coach Collaborative. Lorene helps people find their optimal wellness by developing a deeper understanding of their habits and lifestyle choices.
Lorene helped me through many different addictions in life- cigarettes, juul, alcohol and caffeine were difficult habits to overcome. Today, we talk about my transformative journey and how Lorene saw me evolve in the process. We also get to know Lorene’s philosophy of approaching addictions, definition of addiction, and learn the intuitive way of self-recovery.
Being vulnerable and dispelling the secrecy that I tied to my addictions helped me emerge strong. Lorene gave me the space to understand that I could take my time, that it was okay if I wasn’t ready.
The key is to not consider your addictions shameful or embarrassing. You’re taking care of yourself, perhaps not in the healthiest way possible. Cigarettes were a means for me to get outside, have one-on-one deeper conversations with fellow smokers, and do a little breath practice with the inhale and exhale of smoking. Working with Lorene I created new behaviors that fulfilled the same needs. Finding the right coach is incredibly important. I’m so glad Lorene was such a great fit.
Today, we also discuss intuitive coaching and where Lorene finds herself in it. Intuition to her is “something that is hard to describe, but you can cultivate it, and you can actually learn how to reconnect with it, and you can learn what it is.” Lorene also shares how intuition is the essence of her work.
Everybody has their own pace and rhythm to changing habits. Learn to take it in steps. Lorene showed me how to empower myself to choose if I wanted to quit or continue. And that worked wonders. I am super excited to share with you our conversation today. Dig into it for a whole different perspective on addictions, intuition, and choices!
Show notes:
Follow Lorene Clark Lacayo on Instagram: @loreneclarklacayo and @coach.collaborative
Resources Discussed:
How To Stop Smoking by Allen Carr
Vulnerability by Brene Brown
Join the Lit AF Email list: https://pages.sarahcohan.com/
For a free somatic feelings meditation and affirmantras for your phone visit: https://www.sarahcohan.com/freetools
*DISCLAIMER: While Lorene and I worked together as coach-client, we no longer work together and agreed to terminate the coaching relationship before recording the podcast episode.
Quotes from Lorene Clark Lacayo:
“I just really honor when, anytime somebody has the courage to say out loud to me, something that they may have not said out loud to anyone about something that's holding them back from being who they really are.”
“This is your journey and I’m just walking next to you in it and walking alongside you in it, which is so far from where we were a decade, two decades, three decades ago, even so, I really am so glad that I’ve gotten to see some of the evolution of that. But I also think that there's still some of that paradigm that's still there and people also got a taste of that paradigm and so they're very cautious to reach out and they're very cautious to talk about it and ask for help because they've already got some of that taste of the old paradigm that is not that way.”
“It's really illuminating to be able to tell someone that it's okay if you're not ready [to quit something].”
“I really feel blessed and honored to have been able to learn this with people, and with people's permission to be a partner, and not to be an expert. ”
“I think when we can start to get back in there within our own way that we talk to ourselves, it can really free up to a place of empowerment, a place of choice, a place to really be starting to decide that we want to take the reins in our own life, versus what someone else is putting upon us to be doing in our life.”
“We can create changes for a little while. But if we don't get into that, getting to know and getting to understand and getting to become aware and even accept, then it's likely we're gonna end up going back to those habits and behaviors. Because it's what's familiar.”
“I became extremely attuned through my auditory sense. And so I didn't have my other senses, it actually allowed me to then lean on this other sixth sense, this other intuition, this other felt sense.”
“My secret mission is to just help people connect with their authentic voice. Because if they can know how to do that, they can learn how to do that. And if they can have tools that will help them do that, like what you're saying, then even if we get away from it, then we've got a toolbox that can help us cut back to it.”
“If we can actually just sit and write into the questions like that and not overthink things, it's a really good way to get the most out of the cognitive part of that work.”