Meet Lauren Gilhula

We recently connected with Lauren Gilhula 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?

This one goes deep.
I found my purpose in the depths of grief and I discover new layers of my purpose through grief.
My first encounter with profound grief was when one of my childhood besties, Nicole was killed in a car accident the summer we were 12.
I call her my twin soul as we were born a day apart and were two peas in a pod and even looked alike.
Losing someone so close to me when we were so young shook my world and truly changed the trajectory of my life.
While other friends couldn’t relate to me, I relied on the unconditional love of our family kitty to comfort me and hold space for my emotions.
After Nicole died, I made two promises to her- to live twice as big for both of us and to love her parents as my own and include them in all parts of my life journey; joy filled and difficult.
Those two promises have led me to some amazing adventures and memories.
Nicole’s death was the first of several profound losses that I experienced through my teenage years.
What I discovered through those experiences is that I very quickly became the friend that others gravitated towards when they were experiencing loss for the first time.
This is when I realized the first layer of my purpose. I decided to use the wisdom of my pain to help guide others through their pain.
I wanted to shine a flashlight on the path of life so that others don’t have to be lost in the dark in the ways that I was through my own experiences with grief and loss.
This continued for 20 years until a death that brought me to my knees and shook me to my core in a way that I cannot fully articulate.
In May 2022, I lost my dad to cancer.
Losing my dad took the breath out of my lungs for a long time. There’s something about losing a parent we’re close with that absolutely launches us into a dark night of the soul; an identity crisis.
Who am I without one of the most important people who helped mold me to become who I am today?
I was lost in that place for a long time and even 2.5 years later I still feel remnants of it.
This onion layer of purpose finding was a little different.
I already embodied the helpful friend role to others so what’s next?
In review of my dad’s legacy, I remembered how he too wanted to help others and for a period of time ran a weekly meditation group and hosted spiritual and personal development workshops.
The deeper pull started for me while on vacation shortly after he died. I started feeling this undeniable pull to start a podcast.
I felt like my experiences and wisdom through navigating grief for over two decades needed to reach more ears than just my inner circle. It would also give me an outlet to express my grief.
So I started a podcast.
After that, I felt the pull to start teaching the tools and practices that have helped me navigate grief and loss. I see them as my survival guide to navigating life with more grace and ease.
Two and a half years later, I’m still recording weekly podcast episodes, and I have an online community that I nurture along with free and paid courses and offerings.
What started as a whole lot of sadness with nowhere to go has turned into a soul purpose that has helped many others navigate this crazy thing we call life with a little more grace and ease.
What better way is there to walk the dark parts of the road than with others?

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?

As I mentioned in my life purpose story, I shine the metaphorical flashlight to help others navigate life’s path with more grace in ease. This includes finding ways to be okay with the dark times as they are the places in our experience where we can extract the most wisdom to light the way forward.
My business is called Living on Lemonade with Lauren.
The idea came to me while my husband and I were on our honeymoon, and I was receiving the soul pulls to start a podcast.
In a quiet moment, I had a reflection from our vacation so far and the thought occurred to me that I was drinking a lot of lemonade on the trip. This thought quickly evolved into “it’s kind of like I’m living on lemonade.”
Then the lightbulb in my head fully illuminated and I knew it was going to be the name of my brand.
The idea of creating a life where we strive to make lemonade out of life’s lemons and live on it feels so fitting to the theme of most of my life.
Some days I’m great at it, others days less so and that’s okay.
If you resonate with the idea that we’re a soul having a human experience, we can see ourselves as these two parts.
I use my passion and understanding of western science in the forms of psychology, neuroscience and trauma/nervous system work partnered with eastern spiritual philosophies and modalities to create a wider picture understanding of our experience of life.
In order to live well, we must take care of our body and human mechanisms.
When our human is healthy, we have better access to the voice of our soul; our intuition.
Our soul is the part of us that craves new, expansive and joyful experiences.
Inside my brand, my podcast is a verbal account of everyday experiences and the wisdom that I extract from it.
The courses that I offer are how I share the tools of working with both our human and soul experiences on a deeper level.
My most recent offerings in my soul-led business are intuitive readings and collaborations.
One of the things that has helped bring me back to myself through difficult seasons of my life is my intuitive practices and I’m super excited to share my intuitive gifts with others and help them develop theirs.
As for current offers, I’m in a creation and organization phase at the moment so the best way to see what’s current and upcoming is via the Living on Lemonade with Lauren Facebook community, new episodes of the Living on Lemonade with Lauren podcast and/or via the Living on Lemonade email list.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Curiosity is the first word that comes to mind.
A big part of my mission is to encourage more curiosity in others as I believe it’s the foundation of personal healing and growth.
I use curiosity as a way of life. I think I’ve always been curious and that’s why it led me to studying photojournalism in college and working as a freelance photojournalist for a few years.
I love learning about people and asking questions. This curiosity made me a natural fit in my career as a radio communicator assisting search and rescue with the Coast Guard. Enhancing situational awareness through curiosity helps me ask the best questions to get help on the way as quickly as possible.
Connection with my intuition has been another prominent skill that has helped me on my journey.
Meeting and staying connected with the inner wisdom part of myself has helped me maintain hope that better times are ahead and given me strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other to eventually get there. Becoming and staying connected with our inner self creates an unwavering foundation to navigate all of life’s seasons.
Lastly, understanding my own neurobiology has been an absolute game changer for navigating life in general.
When we have a deeper understanding of how we’re wired and why we act certain ways, we can start to work WITH these parts of ourselves instead of trying to fix or eliminate them.
My best advice to summarize these points is to get curious about everything, discover and get to know who you are deep within by disregarding societal norms and expectations and learn how you are wired and develop an understanding of how best to work with the parts of you that both hold you back and move you forward so that you can live a more fulfilled life.

How would you describe your ideal client?

The people who will find my work the most interesting and helpful are those who love learning and have a knowing that there’s more to life than the hamster wheel of society and they want to discover it for themselves with support and guidance.

My people are the kind that believe there’s magic to be made in life while not bypassing our humanness.

They’re a “follow your heart, take your brain with you” kind and I love every minute of guiding and supporting them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzzlaurengilhula/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingonlemonadewithlauren
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@livingonlemonadewithlauren
• Other: Living on Lemonade with Lauren podcast available on all major podcast platforms