We recently connected with Lauren Van Der Veen and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I would say that I get my resilience from my ancestors and the strength of the culture that I was born into. It’s not easy to survive where I come from. I have often described my early life and moving to California from Chicago as a refugee story. As a child I was placed in foster care in a dangerous neighborhood and I learned to adapt in order to survive. I know many who didn’t and it’s because they absorbed their surroundings. I’ve always felt above it all, guided, conscious, I am very aware, I can even smell bullshit. In hindsight, I’ve always had a strong faith and I do choose to wake each day grateful to God. It’s my faith that allows me to always point my compass towards true north. Life is a constant ebb and flow and we are all just riding one big cosmic wave. If we are wise, we strive, for equilibrium. I think smiling helps, too, especially when you are not in the mood. For African Americans resilience is a way of life. To be human evolutionary speaking and or to be human revolutionary speaking is measured by resilience.
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?
I am a renaissance woman and creative who loves the arts. My main focus is definitely interior design and curating. I run a boutique architectural design firm called Zen Ren Inc. It’s been such a pleasure to create inspired designs for an array of clientele throughout Southern California and beyond. Naturally as a social butterfly I also enjoy creating communal events. Curating is such a beautiful off shoot from my design career. I am working on the relaunching of an event series called, The Spiritual Speakeasy which is infuses jazz music and rituals in a communal setting. It’s an ode to activating the senses of the artist and a spiritual container for connectivity.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Story telling, technical skills in design and beauty, in that order.
I’ve always been able to write. To have a clear point of view has helped me navigate life and definitely my career. Knowing that I am the main character in my story has allowed me to create the life that I outlined with edits from God of course.
My technical skills in design allow me to be billable and there for I could participate in an exchange of using my talent to gain my freedom. My resilience has also set me apart from just being trendy or a taste maker. I can raise you like a hand in cards that I am more than just a designer. I am an alchemist. I have the ability to make things real while so many are lost in ideas or waiting for things to come in the mail. With the help of my collaborators we are designing and building our own tables to sit at, rooms that foster creativity and environments that are inclusive to all ways of being. To be able to translate your ideas into comprehensive design and then to construct them is true alchemy. Those technical skills qualified me to work on projects and break down barriers around race and being a woman. To let your work speak for itself has been like the golden ticket to success.
To beauty. Oh how, I love thee. I am beauty and beauty is me. To seeing the world as beautiful. When the ugly arises we can transmute it with our love. Sometimes caulk and paint can make it what it ain’t. I like to decorate myself and then I walk with a sway and emulate. I am all about style and grace. I find beauty in the simple things. Like a single flower in a cup of water and the way its color accentuates.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
40 day Mind Fast Soul feast by Dr. Michael Beckwith is a book that I always come back to. The first time I picked this book up over ten years ago I had never fasted before. I surely thought fasting was about sustaining from food. I wasn’t aware that what we read and what we think can be poison or spiritual food. So for 40 days I read this book and it always moves me in a purposeful direction. It’s a small but mighty text that is so powerful especially when read it in the rising. A few pages a day that frames your consciousness and creates simple shifts of awareness. In that text there is a passage about Martha and Mary who are sisters.
The passage that moved me the most was a story about Martha and Mary, two sisters. One of the sisters Martha kept to her chores and didn’t understand why Mary was favored for sitting at the feet of God. I have always been hard working but it is my spiritual walk that has brought me the greatest reward, more than working smart too. Reading that passage I just surrendered my soul over to God. Then causally made a coffee and went about my day just feeling more aligned then ever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Zenrendesigns.com
- Instagram: @rennsworld @zenreninc
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