The Transformation Promise

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. At the end of the day, it's not about what you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted at, who you've made better. It's about what you've given back. Denzel Washington, welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you to do the same. Laura Bala, Welcome to the show. How are you doing. I am fabulous, Doctor Doug, thank you for having me here. Well, I really appreciate you reaching out. I think that the things that you have to say are just amazing.

1:07 I'd love for you to share with the audience, give you give them a bit of your background, who you are and how on earth did you get to this point in your life, because I know there's been a life transition going on here. Yeah, well, we all have these amazing personal stories of how we move through challenges and tragedies and triumphs, and so many of us right bring in the wake of going into adulthood many experiences from childhood that I feel really can either disempower or empower us. And early on I just connected to a mindset of how to empower the way I thought about the world around me and how I really moved through my experiences every day And always give a heartfelt shout out to my brother Christopher. He actually created this amazing formula coming out of the professional world of gymnastics, part of our US team.

2:10 He was a coach there for many years, and both he and I always had this unique synergy of thinking we were almost superheroes and we could accomplish anything. So we kind of moved through life always wanting to tap into something beyond just what was the daily routine of the human condition. So we just kind of started thinking big. But years, of course go by, life settles in and that childhood dream of wanting to write a book and wanting to empower the world, and all of how we think we can accomplish these big things in life. All of a sudden, I realized, like whoa life is passing fast? And I decided to start creating the science of Empowerment.

2:59 And I sat down one day to write this book, really inspired by this formula that my brother and I were using in our training facility. So we have a neuromuscular training facility, and we wanted to really begin working mindset knowledge, information and connecting that mind body consciousness awareness in our daily routine. I saw what it did for myself, my family, my children. Then I started just applying it out in the world when people wouldn't even realize what I was doing, and the feedback and the reaction and the response really was an indicator that I was tapping into something that was needed. And in the beginning of writing the book, I had a pretty severe injury. I was doing a backflip over an octagon and I ended up going into an over year long can cost journey and it really kind of turned my life inside out. I'm super strong, I'm very athletic. Nothing gets me down. I broke my leg skiing skied down the hill one day, so I've got that kind of energy in me and this really took me down. And in that process of going through something that was quite debilitating for me and finding my way through it, not just out of it, really helped create the Science of Empowerment.

4:28 And I was able to tap into this knowledge and information that I truly feel was not my own. I believe it was coming from a source beyond my level of intellect, and tapping into human potential really allowed me to create something that now, of course is helping you know, thousands of people around the world. So I created the book The Science of Empowerment. Of course, coaching, a very unique style of coaching came out of that. And now I'm really moving around the world meeting wonderful people such as yourself, that are creating incredible programs and co collaborating with other thought leaders on how we can empower the human condition and really reach the masses and start to uplift and elevate how we all show up and how we all interact in this experience. Yes, and you know, in the world today that's so essential, where we're seeing such lack of healthy interaction and you know, and you know, sometimes I think I was meditating this morning and one of the things that came to my mind was you know so often, and I kind of had the sense that you had that are and I'm going to go out and empower, you know, and make a difference for millions of people or whatever. And finally for me, it was just like, you know what, No, if I can touch one life, that's going to make a difference. And so it's

6:01 really fascinating how you're reaching out and really affecting multiple, multiple, multiple lives. And let's talk about it a little bit. Within the Science of Empowerment, you really talk about five empowering principles, and before we get started with that, I want you to really define what you mean by empowering. Yeah, thank you. You and I were talking before we went on to the recording, and I had said that there's a synergy in an alignment, and you can feel that when this really becomes your life. It's not what you think about in the sense of oh I would like to get there, but it's how you live and when you match those energies. And in the book, I actually write about that specifically one person, one transformation, and then there are two and now you feel what it is to really ex size, that compassion and that connectedness to another human being. So touching one life is for me like touching a million lives. It has that impact. The really beautiful thing that I love about the word empowering is it really expands perspective for the individual. So I may look at exercise as a form of empowerment.

7:26 Someone else may look at being in a leadership role as an empowerment movement. We can look at faith or religion, we can look at knowledge. So what I love about the word empowering is it is such a unique journey for each individual and how they see themselves showing up in that process of living an empowered life. And part of the beauty of the science of empowerment and the book it isn't about me in my story. It is a language that it actually tunes into the reader to remind them how empowered they can be when they choose to awaken to that personal journey. So I think empowerment is self discovery.

8:16 It's how we choose to show up for ourselves first and foremost, and how we can use our journeys, the highs and the lows, the positive and the negative aspects of that and really be in a role of compassionate leader for others. So when we authentically share who we are and that journey of empowerment, there is a natural occurrence of inspiration sometimes motivation for someone else that's listening how they can begin their own journey. So I think for everyone it's an individualized journey. It's an awakening to tapping into their brilliance, their beauty, their genius of how they can truly live an empowering life. Well, and as you talk about that, what comes to my mind immediately, as you were talking about how someone who's empowered business or so forth, I would say, is there a question maybe is there a difference between what people consider power and what people consider empowerment? Yeah? Excuse me, Yeah, I definitely there's to me a world of difference. Power for me tends to be almost a play out of illusion or disillusionment. Empowering for me is something that we tap into in order to evolve the relationship or the interaction or the experience

9:52 of not only myself but of others. So I think there's a big difference there, and we see that in the political arena, We see that in what we think is leadership out in our world. But deep down in our instinct we know that something is not quite balanced there. So we easily can see when power is being used for self serving and when empowering messaging is being applied for the care and consideration of the masses, and it's much different thing. It's something that reflects integrity, kindness, love, thoughtfulness, all of those type of things. So let's talk. You talk about five empowering principles in your book, you can. Let's just go step by step with those.

10:45 Yeah, So this is at the heart of the J three equals E formula. And this is the brilliance and the beauty of what my brother put in place. When you apply these five principles in order and you move into the power seat of choice of energy, now we begin to really create this sensation, this connectedness to how we can empower our own lives. So the five principles are awareness, willingness, accountability, critical thinking, and energy.

11:26 So there's a gentle acramen for a wake. And then we move into the understanding of negative and positive energies. And as we all know in the quantum world, right, those are the two energies that we have. But we play neutral in the middle because we all need neutrality when we're in a negative state of being. We're upset, we're frustrated, we're scared, we're really reacting from patterns. We need a moment to move into that neutral grounding, catch our breath, meditate, take a walk, you know, pull on some tool skill modality to help soften that negative energy that's in momentum. And here in that state of neutrality, now we can really rely on how we can up level into a state of positive awareness or positive thinking or positive response.

12:26 So let's say there's something going on in your life, you had to fight with your spouse. We move into asking what am I aware of in the moment, and most of us know this isn't good. This is a repeat. I've had this conversation, this argument a thousand and one times. What am I personally willing to do? Stop the blame right, stop projecting, stop reacting. I am willing to look at myself and learn how to calm it down for a moment and start responding. And I do this because I become accountable to my choices, my reaction, my choice of responding to the situation rather than being fueled and just again repeating those patterns. Now we move into critical thinking, we take the emotionality out of it, we stop looking at it as a blame game, and again just really continuing this momentum, this algorithm of reaction, because we know when we are reacting from emotionality, it's really coming from a wound, it's coming from some unhealed trauma, it's coming from almost the fire, and really not the calming nature of who we can really be when we show up in a more balanced way. So

13:58 critical thinking is such an or principle to apply when we're in the middle of this reactive situation. Now we go into energy, the fifth principle. Energy is in everything, and we move into this power seat of choice where we understand that we have the ability to tap into the awareness that this is a negative environment, the willingness to neutralize it. We reinforce our own personal accountability in that process of experience. We take that emotional negative charge out, we start to think critical thoughts, become more of a higher positive thinking individual, and we choose neutrality with the intention of moving into a more positive resolve.

14:52 So listen, let's go into the awareness. Let's start with the awareness. Okay, is I think that I think one of the biggest challenges that people have is the lack of awareness. And you know, you see it all of the time, and we observe that in many cases where people just are living lives that are not comfortable for them. They hate it, they're miserable, and yet for some reason, the awareness of saying and it goes into the second thing too, about the accountability, but they're really not aware.

15:33 How do you help someone or how do you suggest someone learn to become more aware of what's going on and understanding that, you know what, this reality that I'm experiencing is not necessarily reality, it's what I have chosen to experience. How do you help someone to become aware? Yeah, so what I've done, and there's many things that you can do. But I'll ask someone, are you aware of what the weather is outside? Is it sunny? Is it cloudy? Well, of course I can look out the window. So you remind them that there's this automatic right response system that we all have built into the human condition. Now I'll say, okay, find something that maybe you aren't aware of what you see is there now that you're placing your awareness on it. I'm just picking this because I have a beautiful vision of trees outside. Well, the weeds are changing. Okay, were you aware of that this morning? Not really? Just got up, had my coffee, got the kids ready, whatever the story is, okay. So now you're starting to tune in a little bit that when you place your attention just on the experience of awareness, you can see how quickly your awareness moves from just oh it's raining, I have to put a coat on, to wow, look at the vibrant orange on that tree over there. I'll begin to bring that awareness into something so simple, so soft, of an expression of

17:07 awareness that you can see in their mind. They start to realize if I take a moment and I just stop the routine, I stop the pattern, right, which is the behavior, which is the story, which becomes the personality, which is what allows us to not be present in the moment, we're just on automatic. They start to feel like, oh, I can notice something different. So that is a very simple, very gentle way that we can use awareness no matter where we are. So even if we're in a car and we're driving down the same road and we're stressed out and we're going to work, and all of what we know comes up, ask someone Okay, I want you to notice one thing on that drive that you've never known before. And then they come back in right to the next session and you start coaching and they're like, I noticed three things. Ooh, look at that. There's your awareness. You're already connecting to your own awareness and your own level. Now you bring it in deeper. So when you're having an argument or there is some kind of distortion in our environment, now we can say, okay, I am aware that I've been here before. This is something that is so automatic to me. It is on repeat. Hit the record, play it out. Now, tell me when you had that

18:37 disagreement. Something came up with our teenage kids and we all went into that write that repeat of how we know this plays out? What did you do differently? Because you were now aware of something differently? And it is amazing when you open up the space for someone else to start tuning in to that, how were of empowerment in their life? They start to see, oh, I thought I was in the power position. I'm older, I'm wiser, I'm smarter. Your fall blame game and they realized that that was disempowering them. Back to the conversation, we just had around power. Now they start to understand that when they move into an awareness, not only are they empowering themselves, they're actually empowering the other person. Now we can start dialoguing very differently. Yes, and you know the next step, which is the willingness that becomes. And I really smile about this because I've been really looking at this for a couple of years about writing a book called be Willing, you know, be aware, be willing, be Free, And I only had three you've got five there. But the reality is that I find that a lot of people are not necessarily It takes a willingness to even be aware.

20:03 It takes a willingness to be able to say, you know what, I'm actually trying to really stop for a moment and observe, maybe even step outside of myself for a minute and just observe what's going on here. That willingness is something that I think can be very difficult for people to develop. How do you help someone to develop that willingness to be able to and, like I say, step outside of themselves and observe the experience or the situation and go, like you say, you know what, I'm going to become more aware of what's really happening here. Yeah, willingness is a challenging principle to apply in our life, so many of us. Again, it's seeded almost into the human condition from very early on, not to really bloom and expand what this for me, this absolute empowering pillar can present. So what I do, whether we're talking about it with you know, a friend or we're coaching, is asking someone when they're in that moment of a repeated cycle, same conversation, same right outcome, terrible job, struggling with addiction, overweight, whatever this scenario may be, if you stay connected to the unwillingness structure, that energy structure of unwillingness, tell me what your life will look

21:34 like in a day, a week, a month, year, let alone three, four or five. Tell me what that story is. I want you to go into it deeply and give me every detail that you can. And honestly, for most people, they don't even want to begin the story because they already know what it's going to be, because it's what it's been. So now we start working negative, positive, neutral, right within that principle of willingness. We start by asking them, maybe give me something that you're unwilling to do that you've been unwilling to do for someone, let's say that struggling with weight. They may be I've been unwilling to put the food down. So you have to start going into what is their story around that unwillingness to change what actually is causing them the pain. And there's a difference, as you know, therapy versus coaching. So I don't go into the therapy, but as a coach, you listen for the cues, and if you know that there is some really deep seated trauma associated with the unwillingness, then of course you gently guide them to a professional in that therapy style environment.

22:49 If I have someone that I know is right there off at that ridge and they're getting ready to peek over it and sit on it and kind of rest in the out willingness, which almost all of my clients read the book first, so they're already primed for what we go through in the coaching sessions. They're ready. It's just a matter of really supporting them in the disempowering experience of unwillingness and the empowering experience of learning what it is to become willing to show up for yourself and your life and really again creating an empowered life.

23:30 And most people, when they understand that there's an option, an opportunity, a pathway for transformation, they will begin to take that journey. It's rare, and I've met anyone that has, you know, And it's interesting as you talk about therapy versus coaching. You know, there are people that can literally do that introspective work and really manage to heal themselves emotionally, physically, whatever that happens to be. There are others that are just not quite there yet, and they cannot be afraid of therapy. They need to realize that, you know what, I need a little bit of extra help. I'm not quite there yet. And I think that's important for people to understand and realize it's okay, It's totally okay, you know, and you get the whole awareness and you know the willingness, and then you get into the accountability. I love that part of it because in our today's society, you blame everybody else for what you're experiencing. And it's rare. I you know, it's like, okay, here, I am upset. Why what is it? What triggered within me? What experiences have I had that I'm allowing that to trigger me to the point of being frustrated, upset, and to be willing to take that accountability and say, you know what, the fact is I've worked with sometimes as I taught one class, it's like I got

25:02 to bring a miriad. Okay, so you know what, if you're having a challenge and you're starting to blame someone, stop for a minute, grab that mirror and put it up in front of you, because there's the challenge. It isn't them, it's you. I just did this with a client the other day. They were just in their stuff and I said, Okay, take a moment, take a chair and just go sit. Take five minutes, breathe, calm and go have a five minute conversation with yourself, please, And of course that fits into where we are within their coaching process. It absolutely was transformative. They realized again, we're going back to the story that we believe that we were a victim. And one thing I always say is, first of all, yes, therapy is one of the most important healing modalities we have within the human experience, and it is important for those of us that have gone through trauma and taking that journey to go through it and come out with a sense of almost accomplishment. Right, so we can move from that victimhood and really empower as we move forward. One of the things that I always say, again it could just be conversation out in the world or certainly with clients, is it is fundamental to honor whatever it is we have gone through. It is important to see it and feel it

26:37 and almost align with this level of compassion for what we went through. But there is a time in a place where it is empowering to put the story down and begin rewriting it, which is the power of accountability. This brings us into unison with our and no longer going outside of our own skill sets, our own tools, our own healing, and looking for answers outside of ourself, looking for someone to show up and make it all better. So when we really exercise the third principle and the J three equals E formula, accountability is a strong empowerment pillar. It's centered almost in the middle. For that reason. Again, it's not to ignore what was done, or what was said, or what we experienced. It's to say that I see it, and I have compassion for where I was, and maybe that person was at that time, and whether they have grown and done the work, that is not for me to be accountable too. How I now choose to move forward and create an empowered life. Now I will take accountability for my healing, my journey, and my way forward. And you know what's interesting, I find that gratitude can become so key in that. Because I was just

28:10 talking to a friend today and they were talking a little bit about some of the struggles that they've had for the last number of years and so forth, and I said, you know, stop for a minute and think about being grateful for what you've experienced, because look what you have become because of those experiences. And they actually took those experiences and became such a higher level of goodness and kindness and all of that type of thing. So I think sometimes we forget to realize that whatever we've experienced in life, even those horrendous trauma, you know, we don't have to be grateful for that at all, and recognize also that it has nothing to do with us, but it has to do with somebody else. But the bottom line is is that allowing it to empowers and having that sense of gratitude that we are becoming even at a higher level of who we are because of those experiences, if, as you say, we can take them and change them from being the victim to being the empowered individual that looks at that, analyzes it, recognizes it, and can be grateful in some way for what it has done to help them become a better person. I think that's one of the big challenges is to guide others in that again, that awareness that you can take that relationship, your

29:45 relationship to that event or sometimes for decades of an event, and use it and recalibrate it through to a more neutral understanding and a more positive I think experience for self love. And again we're talking this through but there is a process and there is a journey. We're not at all looking at anyone saying well, if you came out of this abusive environment, you can just recalibrate it and change it into a positive process. So obviously, you know listeners will know that, but we're talking about this very unique and empowering way of knowing. There are opportunities, there are options, there are pathways, there are healing techniques and modalities. Through a podcast, through a coach, through a book, et cetera, where you can start to expand your perspective on just what may be possible for you to again transform that disempowering story into a more empowered present and future life yourself. Yes. Absolutely, And as we move forward into the next one, and you know, as I think about awake, I keep thinking, Kay. But we're talking to see here critical.

31:11 Yeah, So tell me a little bit about what your thoughts are about this being critical about things. Yeah. So again, this critical thinking is so important because we're human beings and we're always reacting the high and the low, the beauty and the ugliness, right, the love and the hate, the good and the bad, the positive and negative. There's always a reaction to everything rather than a response, and there is such a difference. Most of us react from emotion, and that emotion is tied to an experience that already happened, So there's already an imprint of energy on the experience that we are reacting from. Now, obviously the sun is out and we're at the beach and we're just having a beautiful day and we're in gratitude and appreciating the ocean and the warmth, and we're reacting to that day. That's a positive reaction. So we all understand that when we bring in that fourth principle from the J three equals E that critical thinking, now we can start to move towards again a more empowered life because we begin with that awareness. Right, we see, I'm aware that we're arguing again. I am willing to take a step back. I am accountable no longer for how I react in this.

32:40 Now I'm going to start exercising critical thought. I'm going to remember that I'm reacting from a wound. I'm reacting from a past story. I'm reacting from a thought process that is attached to something that I once experienced. That is not where I am now. I am thirty seven, i am a wife, I'm a businesswoman. I am not seventeen or seven anymore. Now I take the emotional charge out of that reaction, and I exercise critical thinking, and I start to respond from a more empowered place. I'm not saying it would be perfect, but maybe I've done some therapy, Maybe I have had a transformational coach. Maybe I've read an empowering book that opened up my mind to a new skill or a new awareness. Now I begin to apply a higher level of intelligence, and I reside less in the emotionality of a story that does not serve me well anymore. All right, and beautifully said, and beautifully said. And then we get to the final one. Energy.

33:57 Energy. Ooh, energy is in everything. I always say and write about this in the book that even if you don't understand mathematical equations and quantum physics and epigenetics and all the new sciences, I don't. I'm not an expert in all of those. There's no way I could understand all of those. But I do know that energy is in everything because we know what we feel all the time. It's an energy. It's a happy energy, it's a frustration energy, it's a scared energy, it's an excited energy. We all know what energy feels like. So even again, if we don't understand that even solid objects are energy objects, they're just condensed, that's okay.

34:45 Put that aside. Let's look at the power seat of choice. When it comes to energy, negative, positive, neutral, which one are You Ask yourself that in all interactions, and you will start to you up level your own intelligence. You will start to tap into that level what I call that internal brilliance, that genius that I firmly believe is residing within every human being. Ask yourself positive, negative, neutral. Now you start to play around with why would I choose negative anything? Why I have the power to neutralize that negative thought? Actually stand in the middle. I can see the awareness to what was negative. I know I am now learning how to be an empowered being. I can see positive over there. I may not exactly know how to get there. I may not have all of it lined up, but I am now am starting to think write positive intelligence. I have the ability to move out of negative thinking, negative patterns, negative habits and behaviors.

35:57 I can neutralize it with new perspectivetives, new tools, new information, gain insight, gain knowledge, become inspired and move into an empowered positive outcome. Just ask yourself, negative, positive, neutral, which energy am I? And in that moment of asking, you can now begin to run through those principles and then at the end see how an empowered life can go from negativity through the neutral for a positive outcome. And it really does work well. And I think it's important for people to understand that there is this quantum field, there's this field outside of us that we don't always recognize. And it takes a lot of meditation to that type of thing to tap into it.

36:46 But even without doing that, just recognizing that there's that positive energy that you can tap into, and as you tap into it, it can literally start to change your perspective, start to change your life. I mean, we talk so much about joy and happiness and not realizing that, you know, guess what, we can literally create that joy and happiness for ourselves by tapping into that energy that exists a little bit outside of our awareness. But as you say, as we become more and more aware of that, it can make such a difference in our lives. And it really is, it is outside of us when we look at it from the perspective of universal creation or the God force. However, we look at that power that is really at the foundation of why we're here, that's again a unique journey. But let's say one night you're stargazing, just look at that with amazement of how were this beautiful blue jewel floating in the middle of a galaxy tapping into that?

38:01 For me, whoa, and I'm just this little human walking the planet. What can I do? How can I tap into that quantum awareness of how does gravity hold us here, and then we can start engaging in all the beauty and all the diversity of how our mind can start thinking about. Okay, I may not understand again quantum physics, but I know I'm here. There's something remarkable about me. I came into this experience for a reason, for a purpose. What is it? Let me become this grand explorer of my own potential by tapping into these forces that yes, are outside of us, but really they reside so deadly in sight side. Absolutely. That's what I was going to say, is so often we don't realize that we seek outward when in fact it's within us. And if we can begin to understand that and truly believe it and recognize that, you know, if we're wanting to tap into that energy, it's within us to be able to do so, and I think that becomes in a wonderful awareness when we can reach that point. Yeah. I write something very quickly about in the book about this, like, I'm a firm believer that how science used to say, you know, we had all this junk DNA, and science now knows it is untapped human potential. It is really awaiting its recognition internally. Right that

39:37 navigation system is in there. Switch it up, Get creative, have fun figuring out what does this look like? What is my potential? What is my connection to being an energy being? What is this beautiful mind brain matrix that I can enter data in? Get creative, put data out for positive purpose, to create positive causation. How can I be a human being that contributes betterment and goodness and love and compassion into the human condition? And it is so important anyone that ever feels that, who am I to create any ripple effect? I'm here to tell you that your ripple effect is needed every single human being. When they start to transform from negative thinking, negative patterns into that neutral to positive energy, you actually become more of a beacon of light than the dark, than the shadow. There's so many analogies and poetic ways we can express this, but your presence is needed. And the more you heal and the more you become aware of your personal empowerment journey, now we start to create a more collective vibration of goodness on the entire planet.

41:01 And I couldn't have asked for a better ending. That's so wonderful to be able to sum it up the way that you just have, So let me ask you a question. How do people find you, Laura? How do they reach out and find you if they have that desire to do so? Thank you. Yes, and first of all, just such an honor and a pleasure to be here with you. I really appreciate sharing some moments of this lifetime with you, so thank you and for all the work that you do. Www. Dot The Science of Empowerment dot com. There's a place to email me for those who put a notation that maybe they heard me from this conversation. I will sign and mail a book when they order it via the website. I have a small amount left from the original printing, which is really cool. They're becoming collector's edition everyone else Amazon, of course, Laura Brennan ballet The Science of Empowerment. It's on Kindle, all the bookstores, et cetera. So yes, please reach out. I do speaking engagements.

42:06 I show up on virtual stages all over the world coaching. Read the book. It will change your life, I promise you. Wonderful Laura, thank you so much for being on the show. This has just been wonderful, and thank you for everything that you're doing to make a difference in the world. In the other people's lives since folks, thank you for listening today. Hope you really enjoyed it, and please reach out to Laura if it's something that you feel can be of value to you, because I know it certainly can be. We look forward to having you join us again soon. Have a wonderful week, and have a wonderful day.