Hi, there- Welcome to The Loving Lotus! If you already follow me via social media, you know I believe in vulnerability and authenticity. I use these sites to share my experiences – my yoga, my thoughts, my friends & family. The good, bad, and all the waves in between. Many say I feel and think too deeply, and that’s true. It’s a blessing and a curse. Recently, I woke up and decided to use this blessing and give it a platform. Thus, The Loving Lotus came into play. 

I am lucky enough to have an excellent support system to bounce these ideas off of and help give feedback. As I talked with friends, a lot of words were thrown around: vulnerability, acceptance, self-love, personal, compassion, care. After a while, loving lotus was decided. Why loving lotus? Well, let’s break it down.

First, I want to talk about the lotus. Many in the yoga world are probably very familiar with the lotus flower and its background. For those of you who are not, the lotus flower is a beautiful flower that grows deep below the surface of muddy water. To bloom, it must fight its way through this deep and dark environment. Once it finds its way, the lotus flower blossoms, bright and beautiful. Many people attribute the lotus flower and its origin to different symbolic meanings: Purity, enlightenment, overcoming adversity, and perseverance. Many of us have been through thick, dark, muddy, and scary times in our lives. We can’t see the light and may no longer believe there even is one. But just when you think it is gone, you bloom. You understand that things happened or you use experiences to become stronger, yet softer. To learn and grow and thrive. As I mentioned earlier, I feel deeply, and I think a lot. I also have faced many obstacles and have used my past experiences and various outlets to overcome them. I believe these barriers are what have and continue to make me the empathetic and understanding individual I am. 

I just finished “Braving the Wilderness” by Brene Brown (which I highly recommend) and her primary theme of the book is: Hard back. Soft front. Wild heart. I love this. I think it is essential to use our experiences to grow. To learn to stand firm when needed, but still be soft and understanding as well. But most importantly, these experiences are what makes you, YOU! So, I dedicate this blog to all my wild hearted-lotus flowers in the world.

Which brings me to love. I knew that if I was going to put my life on a platform for people to engage in, I wanted it to be centered around love. Raw, non-judgmental, authentic, real love. A safe space where people can come and feel a connection. A place where they can sigh in relief and say, “I’m not the only one” or can just smile and laugh (because I am pretty funny). 

With that being said, I am not planning to use The Loving Lotus for all of my own mushy, deep, emotional thoughts and experiences. Like I mentioned earlier, I want to be real and raw. Yes, I love to write, and I love to yoga (which may take up the bulk of the site), but I also love food, makeup, dry humor, movies, photography (or all art in general), traveling, and doing my best to find beauty in each present moment. I still will post on Instagram and Facebook, but not everyone on these sites necessarily wants to read and see all of my long and elaborate posts. I want to have a central location for those that do feel that connection to go and follow or even just check in from time to time. If you have made it this far, I am guessing you are one of those people. 🙂 So, stay tuned for updates and fun. 

All the Love and Light, 

Lauren