What if being kind to YOU and the demand to include yourself in your life choices was the fiercest choice of all?
Here’s an amazing – and far reaching! – conversation about creating true kindness, the lie of being nice, avoiding the drama of finding your individual self by choosing against others and the what gets created when you include yourself in your life choices…  Just click the image below to play.

How much bigger would you like your world to be?
Creation of a life that works for you

Most of us are living a smaller life then we are capable of creating.
The symptoms of small living show up in a variety of ways: lack of money, relationships that don’t work, body issues, constant stress and tension, feeling unfulfilled, stagnant progress…
These can be halting and debility or simply an invisible tether that adds extra drag and slows your forward momentum.
What creates this small living?
Decisions you make of what you should or need to be for others that outweigh what you would like to be for yourself.
Judgments that densify your space and weigh you down.
Blinders that keep you from seeing yourself in all your creative brilliance and uniqueness.
The stops and starts that keep you from using what you’ve got to create consistently, freely and in a really fun, powerful way.
Take a second to ponder:
What bigger world would you like to create for yourself?
One where there are no limits?  You have enough money? Your relationships are fun and play-based?  Your body is healthy and vibrant?  Your day is filled with activities you love and people you enjoy?
What bigger world would you like to be a part of?
One without judgment?  Based on kindness?  More connected, allowing, peaceful and filled with possibilities?  Where everyone was uniquely them and valued for it?
Creating money, health, relationships, expansive living and sustainable elements to your life comes from the willingness to create a future that is congruent with the big expansive being you actually are.
Bonus – more of us choosing this will have a ripple effect in the world and what could be different then?!
Start the exploration process with these questions:
What works for you?
What’s unique to your desired quality of living?
What possibility would you like to be and offer this world?
From there:
Acknowledge you have a bigger ask – the world you desire may be bigger then what other are choosing and what you have chosen in the past.  What’s the future you truly desire but have not dared to ask for before?  What have you dreamed about but thought was out of reach?  What do you know is possible that others don’t?
What if you could create and have all of that with ease?
Acknowledge you have more ways to create what you desire then you may think – we all have crazy capacities that we can draw on at any given time.  Unfortunately, those capacities go untapped, unexplored, unclaimed and underutilized a lot of the time.
If you were willing to explore, cultivate and use your capacities what life, living and future could you create?
How much bigger would your worlds become then?!
I’m kicking off a 14 Day exploration Creating with Your Crazy Capacities July 1^st (this Saturday) where we will unlock all of this and more!
Check out the class page for more information on all the creative possibilities HERE
Here’s to ease, joy and a bigger world for all of us!

The Isolation of Depression
You are not alone

I felt alone during the years I lived with bipolar depression. There is nothing easy about the reality of living with mental illness but from my perspective the most difficult thing to deal with and move past is the isolation.
No one seems to understand you. Even you don’t. You aren’t sure what is wrong – just that something doesn’t feel right. You can’t quite find the words to express it and may lack people who are willing to truly listen.
This leads to so many people struggling silently. The fear of being judged and the current stigma around mental illness doesn’t encourage people to speak up and get help. Our sense of isolation grows in the silence.
The greatest relief for me came when I found myself on a counselor’s couch. She was patient, non-judgmental, she knew when to speak and when to listen, she didn’t try to fix me, she didn’t label me. She just held space for all the upset, confusion and fear I had been living with to come out and be released.
I had struggled silently for months before this tipping point came; trying to figure things out on my own, afraid to speak up, not sure of what to say…
I looked for comfort, hope and clues all around me but came up short. I was unequipped to deal with it and things got very bad, very quickly. I felt utterly alone.
When I first started to write my book, The Other Side of Bipolar, someone gave me the wise advice of starting with a letter to myself at the height of my illness.
‘With everything you have been through and what you know now – what would you say to that 14-year-old girl to help her through it?’
Here is the letter that came out…  I hope it brings any of you who are struggling relief, hope and most importantly the awareness that you aren’t in this alone.
You’re not alone.
I know it seems like the end; like it isn’t worth it to keep going. As if there is nothing on the other side of this pain, embarrassment, shame, anger and confusion you feel. That you can’t possibly survive it. That there is no hope for coming back, for changing or being like the happy people you see around you. The sadness is suffocating. The confusion can spin your head. You may feel like you are losing grip on reality. That you are going crazy. That there is something really wrong with you.
Try as you may, you cannot shut out the pain. It is hard to see past it. It seems that it will never get better—that there is no hope.   
You may think the world will be better off without you. You may think that you are so insignificant that your absence will not be missed, that life will go on and no one will even remember you.
But what if you are important beyond measure?  
What if your absence will rob the world of what only you can offer it?  
What if the bullies, the judgmental people, the hate and sadness in this world aren’t more real or true than your kindness, gentleness and hope?  
I am here to let you know there is a possibility for your life far beyond what you can see right now. There is freedom from this pain.
Today is World Health Day and Depression is the chosen focus. More than 300 million people are dealing with Depression on a daily basis in the U.S. You truly aren’t alone in this struggle and with any luck more information, awareness, tools and possibilities will be created for you to move past it.  Just as I have.

I’m holding a FREE online workshop on How to Quiet the Mind next Wednesday.

We’ll explore little known perspective shits and the most effective tools I have found on my 20-year journey to move past my bipolar depression and create a life that I love.  Please join me for an in-depth, content-rich conversation by registering here:  https://quietmind.laurenpolly.com/30-days-to-a-quiet-online-workshopzzwx0a5h

Awakening Your Zest for Life
“Lauren’s contagious laugh and zest for life influence all that cross her path.”
My publicists added this line to my biography recently. It tickled and delighted me. It is a quality that I don’t acknowledge enough in myself yet something that others do over and over again. Thank goodness!
The first time it came up was when I was speaking to a friend about overcoming a certain limitation with my business. There were things I was creating that weren’t taking off in the way I had hoped. They felt dead before I even got them off the ground and when I eventually did there was no interest in them. That energy in my business spread to my life and I became low energy and felt lackluster. Not fun and not me… I knew there had to be an easier, and more expansive, way to create but I just couldn’t access it.
In this conversation my friend acknowledged my zest for life and suggested I infuse it to those business creations. To be honest I was a little unsure of how to do this but I forged ahead, discovering along the way, and voilà! Life was breathed in, interest sprouted and it became fun to create and play again.
How did I infuse zest into my creations? I moved towards my enthusiasm. I spoke to the topics that lit me up. I chose what was light and easy – no more pushing against roadblocks! I created things differently – in my way and not by the standards or formulations of others.
We underestimate the creative power our zest has. What is zest? It’s that which adds flavor, possesses great enthusiasm and energy and has keen enjoyment.
Our natural zest for living, fun, play, exploration and creating is a highly valuable, yet often times over looked, trait. It is a source of great creative energy and a highly desirable quality (as I am finding out!).
If you are feeling lackluster, bored, low energy or are having difficulty creating what you desire I wonder what adding more zest to your life could change?
Watch out for this conclusion trap: Do you think that this is a quality that you don’t possess? It looks different for all of us. It may be a bubbly joy, a sense of excitement, an energy of peace, an expansion of space… Just because your zest looks different than others doesn’t mean you don’t have it. Start to explore what adds zest – flavor, enthusiasm, energy and enjoyment – to your life and creations and go from there.
Acknowledge your zest, ask it to grow, move towards it and apply it to your life in any way that makes you happy. I wonder what you can create from there?

Body Judgments and Self-Esteem; Part 1 of Mental Health and Bodies
Could the dis-easy relationship with your body be contributing to sub-optimal mental health? The connection between our body and mind is a hot topic these days. Experts from different perspectives are linking stuck emotions, limited thought patterns and stress to poor body health. But what if it worked the other way as well?
We hear frequently how the mind can affect the body but how does the body – or more importantly our relationship to our body – effect our mental health? After all it is difficult to be happy or feel satisfied with your life when your body isn’t feeling well or when you are uncomfortable in your own skin.
How are these toxic relationships created? Have you ever notice how many of your interactions with your body are riddled with judgments? How often do you look in the mirror and judge the size, shape, health and age of your body? Do you find yourself comparing your body to others and judge it when it doesn’t stack up? Do you force your body into strenuous exercise regimes, extreme diets or clothes it doesn’t like as a way to try to fix it?
All of these actions are based on the judgement that your body isn’t good enough. What affect does that have on your body? What affect does it have on your mental health and overall happiness? It is easy to see how that judgmental point of view towards your body could start to affect your mental health. It isn’t a big leap from; ‘hey body you aren’t good enough’ to ‘I’m not good enough.’ Stress, lack of self-worth, poor self-confidence and overall dissatisfaction with life can be born this way.
The good news is it is never too late to change this dynamic. Our bodies are forgiving and bounce back as soon as the door is opened (by you!) to engage with them in a conscious and healthy way. Once you open up to this possibility you will begin to see how a more positive relationship between you and your body can create more for both of you. Imagine living day to day where the health of your body could assist in your mental health and vice versa. A happy body can lead to a happy you; all you have to do is take the first step.
How do you stop judging your body? Be mindful during the day as the judgment we have of our bodies are insidious and many times unconscious. Set a target that you will be aware of your own body judgments. When you find yourself judging your body stop and instead find something you are grateful for about it. Gratitude and judgement are opposing energies – they cannot co-exist. By introducing gratitude into your relationship and interaction with your body you will immediately dispel the judgement. Flip the judgments to gratitude and see what affect that has on your body/mind health!

Have you decided that receiving sexual energy means that you 1) are obligated to have sex with that person, 2) that you are inviting rape or sexual abuse, 3) that you are bad and being inappropriate, 4)… 5)…, 6)… you get the point…
These were my reasons for ‘fearing’ sex and my own sexual energy – what are yours?
Let me tell you about an experience I had a few years ago that CHANGED this for me forever.
I was walking in a park in Oakland one Sunday. I was enjoying the nature and playing with the earth which always turns my body on. Typically I tamper it down as it seems to invite a lot of interest. Not today.
I received stares from all ages and genders. I received whistles. I received one guy flipping his head around so fast as his bike passed me that he bumped into a car. I even received a man inviting me to have sex with him in the public bathroom! Typically this kind of attention – especially that last invitation – would have me running for shelter. Again not today.
Things were changing. Working with the tools of Access Consciousness I had demanded that I trust myself. I was done with shutting down and hiding from sex. I was done with feeling like I had no choice in the matter. I was trusting that it was ok to be sexual, receive the energy and interest which my body so enjoys AND that I could protect myself if needed. Protection not through force but through awareness.
On my way back to my car I was bending over admiring someone’s garden and my gut spoke to me. It twisted quickly and I had the awareness to “get big.” This is an Access tool – expand out to make yourself invisible don’t contract to make yourself smaller. Smaller you = bigger target…
I turned to see a beat up car driving by with men in it that I KNEW were up to no good.
I didn’t shut down or off – I just expanded further.
I started walking with a quickened step and more directionality to get out of there.
A few blocks later I heard a women scream and saw her run out in the road to flag down a passing car.
The men my awareness told me to get away from had tried to grab her and put her in their car.
They didn’t even see me…
To go from receiving and inviting all that sexual attention and energy just a few moments earlier to not even being seen by men who were looking for a victim CHANGED everything for me.
I KNEW from that moment on that I could trust my awareness. That I had to listen to myself. And that it was OK to receive sexual energy without an expectation of what it meant or what may be expected of me. That I have the choice for what I create with myself and my body.
What if you didn’t have to wall off sexual energy for fear of being unsafe?
What if you started to trust your awareness and got the hell out of situations when your gut said to?
What if by stepping more into your sexual energy you not only receive and gift more healing and nurturing but also invite a HIGHER level of awareness of when a difference choice is required?
We will be exploring this and SO much more in my upcoming Orgasmic Revolution: Embracing the Joy of Embodiment in Sex and Beyond classes. I’m booking more classes around the world. Please contact me if you are interested in having me come to your town.
San Franciso: Febraury 28
Chicago: May 1 – 3
What else is possible?
Ease and Joy,
Lauren