We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Dickinson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
On the surface, my journey could be seen as a bit all over the place. As I reflect deeper into it, I can definitely see multiple threads of deeper meaning and significance that have contributed to the overall tapestry of what I’m creating now. I think the reason I feel so called to working with people to help them uncover their soul purpose is because it’s taken me so long to really realize and anchor into mine. Let me explain a little about how I got here.
When I was young, I started out wanting to be a writer; at least, this was my first career I remember wanting to have. Since then, it’s changed it’s named many times and only now is it coming into focus that the term ‘creator’ is more closely aligned with my soul’s purpose. I like to create new things. I like to pry things open, look at what’s going on on the inside, and create order out of otherwise seeming chaos. I think it’s part of my Virgo nature.
I knew from a young age that I wanted to help people in the form of energy medicine, although I didn’t even know what that was at the time. In early high school, I remember having my first anxiety attack on career day, because none of the typical choices of careers were calling me and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do. I felt paralyzed by this feeling that I was supposed to have it all figured out, yet I was failing myself by not knowing.
The one thing that did finally call to my soul was art, and I attended art school for a time. After some major family events changed the course of my life, I got called into holistic health and healing, although again, I didn’t know for sure what it was that was going to be “for me” or “my thing”. I just kept following the guidance of what was inspiring me at the time. I worked for chiropractors, wellness centers, assistant to various natural health and healing professionals, while also pursuing my own education in the healing arts. I’ve been such on the search for the “one thing” that was going to feel like it was my niche and specialty, but like so many practitioners, the external pull of getting certification after certification diluted my vision. In retrospect, everything I learned from within the alternative health business and as a practitioner was going to profoundly serve me when it all came together. And that it did!
After living in Sedona and visiting other sacred world sites like Uluru in Australia, I started to get a better vision of what I wanted. I was just starting a coaching practice on the side when my first glimmers of my current life started to inspire me, and it was while living in Dallas to chase another certification and finally getting back into my art and creativity that I realized that all this time I thought I had been “looking” for my purpose, I had been building it all along.
Since moving to Mount Shasta, California, my professional experience, aspirations, childhood dreams, and the beautiful journey of it all has finally crystallized into the transformational retreat company I have created. On a personal level, it encapsulates everything I’ve ever been interested in (art, healing arts, alternative health and healing, personal transformation and development, and traveling to the world’s sacred sites) and brings me incredible joy. Even more so however, is the joy that it brings me to share this extraordinary world of retreats and our vision with our guests. Retreats create such a beautiful container of space for healing and transformation – and fun – and I’m honored and humbled to be witness to another’s journey in such a profound way, and for the first time in my 40 years on this planet, I finally feel ‘on purpose’.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
With my company, Orion Retreats, I’ve been deeply inspired to put together a collective of thought leaders, coaches, creatives, healers, and wellness practitioners in a collaborative space to create transformational retreats for our guests, while supporting these facilitators in their own calling to help people. One of the north stars I’ve known about my soul purpose throughout my journey, is that I was here to support others’ soul purpose. When I can support a facilitator in bringing their vision, skills and creativity into the world by giving them the framework of marketing and a collective mastermind team of sorts to be supported by, I know I’m fulfilling my mission to be of service. It’s deeply rewarding to me to connect with other leaders in the coach and wellness field, and I’m in awe everyday of my life that this is what has been created. There’s a beautiful passage by Elizabeth Gilbert in her book ‘Big Magic’ that refers to the idea that when something that is meant to be created is ready to be birthed into the world, it will seek its conduit and channel through the inspirations we receive for it, and only by listening to the inspiration can we be a part of its creation. This resonates with me on so many levels, and I attribute much of my business model and plans to simply listening to the universe. As more people receive this inspiration, we can truly birth something significant into the world.
I love that we are all heart-centered professionals looking to genuinely help others activate and transform their lives. It’s one thing (and a wonderful thing at that!) to go on retreat to relax, unplug, and destress. It’s another to combine this ‘retreat from life’ feeling that’s needed for so many people on so many levels, with a higher purpose for coming together. This could be in the form of learning a new healing arts modality like the training retreats we’re developing, uncovering your soul’s purpose, getting activated and cleansed from the world’s sacred energy sites, or coming together in a mastermind retreat for conscious leadership. Retreats are a wonderful, beautiful, and truly sacred space. How much cooler is it that we can create transformation on deeper levels through the power of community and a safe, welcoming environment? I think people can really unfold their protective armor and relax into a more soulful experience when given the permission to just ‘be’ and show up exactly as you are. Retreats offer this kind of experience without the pretense of having to be anything other than their already beautiful, authentic selves.
We have two beautiful retreats available this fall in Mount Shasta, California (www.orionretreats.com/eclipse-2023) and Sedona, Arizona (www.orionretreats.com/sedona), ongoing Enneagram retreats (www.orionretreats.com/enneagram) and a whole collection of international retreats planned into 2024 and 2025. These locations include Morocco, Fiji, Patagonia, and Croatia, and I collaborate almost daily with new facilitators who want to plan their retreats for years to come. It’s been a very exciting time and I welcome anyone who wants to share these transformational experiences with us. If you’re not ready for an in-person retreat, we have an excellent team of coaches who can work one-on-one with prospective guests, whether you want soul purpose coaching, conscious leadership development, or inner work coaching with the Enneagram.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I would absolutely tell anyone who’s looking to make shifts in their lives to be brave enough to do the work. If someone is just getting started on the journey of self-discovery, I would recommend:
1) Finding your Enneagram type and a coach who can help you through the growth process. It’s an excellent system to learn about yourself, however to really implement the growth paths and put the knowledge to more significant use, finding a qualified Enneagram professional is essential. It made the world of difference for me, and I recommend working with Jon Kohrs at www.fresheg.gs.
2) Practice self-care to really experience who you are, and who you were before the world told you who to be. This can include doing inner child work to nurture the aspects of ourselves at a younger age who needs your adult perspective, or providing to yourself all the things you seek outside of yourself. It’s not always the pampering kind of self-care, although that’s great too; it’s more of attuning to your inner self and creating a life that will nourish your soul.
3) Get creative, whatever that means to you. Find ways to get out of your head and express from your creative, authentic self. As an abstract artist, my biggest life transformations were when I just picked up a paintbrush and started with color and layers. You don’t have to have an objective or a formula. Color inherently expresses emotions and ideas, and just by trusting your intuition about what colors to work with can create neural pathways that allow for a greater expression from your soul. When we let our authentic selves flow from the inside out, we naturally create a dialogue with ourselves that impacts our lives as a whole. In a world that keeps our attention focused outward, creating a sacred space within to hear your own soul can transform and heal our lives in ways we never thought possible. I’m living proof of this, and art was one of the most important avenues for getting back in touch with myself.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
The most impactful things my parents taught us (I am one of six children) is to not let the world or external circumstances change who you are on the inside. This was, and still is, an invaluable lesson when showing up in the world, because there will always be people who judge you for one thing or another, but whether you’re rich, poor, have faced struggles or have had a relatively peaceful life, the most important thing that really matters is the kindness in your heart and the strength of your character. Talking about it now reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” To me, it’s absolutely the most important part of what makes us human, and why the retreats I am here to create and offer through my team are solely based on reconnecting with and awakening ourselves to our divinity.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.orionretreats.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/orionretreats
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/orionretreats
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-dickinson222/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@orionretreats
