Everyday Mindfulness Show: Living Nomadically With Lori Anne Rising

Author, coach, life adventurer and digital nomad who is house-sitting her way around the world, Lori Rising has created a life where she gets to travel and make her living exclusively online. She shares her experience of letting go and stepping into the unknown when she packed what she could fit in her car and started this lifestyle.

“It is all unknown and it is ok!”

Questions Holly and Lori explore:
What is a digital nomad?
What is the call that invited you to live this life?

Transcript

Welcome to the Everyday Mindfulness Show where we educate and inspire people to live fuller lives through mindful practices.

Let's get started with your host,

New York Times contributor,

Leadership advisor,

Sought after keynote speaker,

The author of the Amazon hot new release,

Everyday Mindfulness from chaos to calm in a crazy world,

She's smart,

Strong,

Sassy,

And a trendsetter in the field of mindful leadership.

Your host,

Holly Duckworth.

Welcome to the Everyday Mindfulness Show where we just take a moment to pause,

To breathe,

To be mindful and celebrate the power of human connection.

And today we are having a wonderful conversation with someone I can't wait for you to meet.

This is my friend,

Lori Rising.

Lori is an author.

She is a coach.

She is having a life adventure right now that we're going to dive deep into.

She is a digital nomad.

And if you have ever wondered what it means to be mindful and truly jump in with both feet and live a spiritual life,

Lori is going to share her story with us and some new tools and products that she's offering so you can live your highest and best life too.

Lori,

Welcome to the show.

Hi,

Thank you for having me.

Well,

I know we've had this on our calendar for a long time,

But we're both living these really amazing nuanced life.

We've been friends for 15,

20 years,

But we're not getting any older.

Our hair color has not changed.

It can't be that long because I'm only 29.

Okay,

Good to know.

I was just saying.

Good to know.

And I know we're about the same age,

So you're 29-ish.

So yeah.

Always,

Always.

Yes.

Anybody who watches the show knows that there's more birthday candles on that cake than that because I keep posting the pictures.

So I want to talk first and foremost about what is a digital nomad?

Right.

So there's different styles of doing it,

But basically I don't really have a home base per se.

I pretty much just keep traveling from place to place and I earn my living online digitally is the crux of it.

So my particular version of doing it though is that I do house sitting for homeowners that are traveling,

Whether it's for work or pleasure.

And so I take care of their pets while they're gone and get to live in their home rent-free or whatever the stay is.

And then of course,

As long as I have wifi,

I'm good to go.

So I just keep traveling and seeing places I've never seen before and meeting people I would never meet otherwise.

And it's amazing.

I'm enjoying it.

So for those of you who are listening to the audio,

You're not getting the benefit of this great view on the video,

But Lori's coming at us today from the beautiful Pacific Northwest where she is a house sitting on a beautiful island and beautiful water and trees in the background.

So I know a lot of our city dwellers are going to be jealous that you get to be in such a beautiful destination today.

Honestly,

Sometimes I'm a little jealous that I get to be here.

It's just one of these places that most people don't get to enjoy.

Then Orcas Island,

Which is renowned in the area for being phenomenally beautiful.

And I get to stay in a house that's like right on the water in one of the coves.

And it just blows me away every morning watching the sunrise or sunset.

And there is no bad view here anywhere.

So I'm grateful,

Very grateful.

So this feels a little bit like a paradox to me because often when I talk to people and we do interviews and we think about mindfulness,

Mindfulness more and more is really getting tied to that idea of awareness and obviously present moment awareness.

And there's something about that that feels a little stagnant.

Like my energy has to be in one place and centered,

But you just told me that you're a nomad,

That you don't have a specific one address.

Explain this paradox to me.

How do you use this nomadic thing as your spiritual practice?

Oh,

Well,

Like I can share with you when I first made the leap,

I remember driving away literally with only what would fit in the car.

And even that I have pared down even further.

But I drove away with only what would fit in the car,

Knowing that I was going to a house that would last one month and I would not know where I'm going after that.

And so I remember getting there and it was great.

The first couple of days were great.

And then I think about day three or four,

I completely had a meltdown because there's this element of living in the unknown and being conscious of the unknown all of the time.

I mean,

The reality is we don't know what's going to happen moment to moment.

And every once in a while when our plans get blown up or things shift,

We're reminded of that.

Or maybe somebody passes away or that one random phone call that changed your whole day.

We know we can't control things,

But we make plans and pretend that we do.

And I don't have that luxury.

So like even just this morning,

My next house sit after this one that there'd be three days in between,

Four days,

Something like that.

Time to travel from Northern Washington down to Southern California,

Basically.

And she called this morning,

She's like,

I'm not going to take the trip after all.

And I completely understand her reasons.

I'm grateful she gave me enough time to rearrange things.

But I can tell you when I left my former life,

That phone call would have had me spinning out of control mentally and emotionally quite easily.

This morning though,

I was like,

That's okay.

Because if it's not this,

It's going to be something better.

I have time to sort it out.

I know that the universe supports me and I'm going to sit in that energy and stay in that energy.

So it is the unknown.

And that to hold that awareness of it is all unknown and it is all okay,

That's for me the practice.

Well,

We're calling this show.

Did you pack your life vest?

Because I packed my life.

Yeah,

But I mean,

I've seen you leap off small buildings with a single pound many times over your lifetime.

And I think that's part of answering life's call.

So I'm curious about that.

What is this call,

This thing that's inviting you deeper and more expansive out and into the world that your roots will be wherever you are as you move them?

Right.

For me personally,

I refer to that sense of being in a couple of different ways.

Sometimes it feels like it's the universe or what somebody might refer to as God.

Sometimes,

Especially when I'm in meditation,

I feel more like I go in words.

And sometimes I even see like an older elder woman that I'm sitting with,

Who is this wise woman who knows me more than I know me.

And so I've learned to call her my wise one within or WOW.

So sometimes I just refer to it as this wow life that I'm developing because it's coming from her wisdom,

That wise one within.

And so I have to admit that there are plenty of times in my life where I have ignored her completely.

And those are usually the times in my life where things just start falling apart and I just can't get them to come back together again.

I recall earlier this year,

Having the idea that I wanted to travel,

Knowing that,

Kind of just this sense of that it's finally coming.

I've actually wanted to just travel and write and do this kind of thing since I was about 19.

And I wound up married and having kids and having a whole different life first.

So now I feel like it's my time.

I knew it was coming.

And honestly,

I sat with that for a very long time.

I,

You know,

Probably at least six months before it finally started shifting into start getting ready,

Start doing something.

And then the day came where I'm like,

Nope,

I have to go,

Or I'm just,

I'm going to claw my eyes out or something.

I don't know what,

But I have to go.

I couldn't,

I couldn't not do it anymore.

So terrified and no backup plan and not really a full idea of what it was I was walking into.

I packed up the car and left,

Left everyone and everything behind.

My partner of four and a half years at that point,

Family.

I mean,

I have friends still that are all over the place,

But the ones who are local,

Obviously leaving,

Leaving the safety net,

Leaving everything simply because this piece of me said I have to.

And it's just a matter of continuously now tapping into that and saying,

Okay,

Well,

You brought me here.

So you must have a plan and trying to listen carefully and interpret that well,

I think is an ongoing practice every day.

Well,

I love that acronym.

Why is one within,

You know,

Again,

There,

If you're a man or a woman listening to this show that that still small voice within you,

All of us have it,

All of us listened to it differently or don't listen to it differently.

And I think it's exciting to hear someone who daily practices connecting to that and then acting from that,

That place.

And thank you for sharing that,

That journey.

This wasn't like a walk,

You know,

Get up one morning and just surprise,

I'm weeping.

It was deliberate and intentional and listening.

And you know,

For those,

Those who are on the show,

I want everybody to know that,

You know,

Lori's been incredibly responsible with her life that she,

You know,

Her,

Her kids are often growing and making their own choices.

It's not like she was this,

You know,

Deadbeat parent that left kids and all that behind that.

That's not about the story you're hearing here.

You're,

You're hearing a story of some aspects of your life.

Maybe it's your career or your children,

You know,

Those things are going to turn down and then you get to choose as a wise one within what are you turning up and you had gotten this call,

You know,

Kind of started out with languages that you have your TESOL certificate now,

Teachers of English as a,

Oh,

TEFL,

Sorry.

Yeah,

No,

That's fine.

But you can tell,

Tell us more about that.

That's teaching English as a second language.

Teaching English as a foreign language.

Foreign language.

But yeah,

ESL,

It's,

It's kind of all synonymous,

Same idea.

But yeah,

So one of the things that I can do and have been doing a bit of,

Which is an online opportunity is teaching English to other people.

Like one of the platforms I'm on all of the students are in Japan and so they're at various stages of knowing and understanding English.

And so I get on with them and sometimes it's just talking with them so they can practice conversation and teaching,

You know,

Okay,

What are the grammatical differences or what are the funny little sayings that we know what we mean,

But it's not a literal translation,

You know,

That kind of thing.

So that's actually really fun.

I get a window into their life when they share with me,

You know,

What they're doing during the day and what their jobs are and kind of even why they want to learn English.

I didn't realize how much of Japan is really focused on becoming international in terms of their companies and economy,

Which makes sense.

It just didn't occur to me.

So it's,

It's another wonderful way to connect internationally and,

You know,

Again,

Do things I wouldn't have done had I stayed in my former life,

I guess is what I would call it at this point.

So there's one line that I that I use a lot that I always credit to you,

Which is some will some won't someone's waiting.

I don't know how many years ago you said that to me,

But you did.

And I think that this is an exciting opportunity for all of us to use your wisdom and say,

You know,

In your life,

What is that thing that you're waiting for?

What is that thing that you think you can't do that?

Really you're waiting or the world is waiting for you to give that gift to the world.

Absolutely.

And I think one of the things that I am reminded of constantly and really try to,

You know,

Every time it comes up,

Fear in particular is huge.

And one of the things I've decided to really look at fear as is a friendly energy awaiting recognition.

Because that energy,

I mean,

Really,

It's the part of us that wants us to say,

Stay safe.

It loves us so much that it would rather keep us where we are already safe or at least familiar than to try something new.

But that fear is based on survival,

Not thriving.

I want a life where I get to feel alive and thriving,

Which means I have to confront the fear,

Figure out what it's trying to tell me and what it needs.

Maybe it just needs me to sit with it and reassure it like a child.

Or maybe it needs me to do a little research so I have better understanding.

Maybe it needs whatever it is.

It needs recognition.

And courage,

Bravery is only after the fact.

You know,

I think I wrote a blog post about it here recently about taking a leap and,

You know,

It reminded me of jumping off a cliff with my son cliff diving.

And it was that process of being absolutely terrified at the top.

But it was only after the leap that the exhilaration,

The fun,

The excitement and the like,

Oh,

Now I really feel alive happens.

And that's the way this journey has been too.

You know,

Walking out the door was terrifying.

And I needed to work through the emotional process.

You know,

Bringing our lives into alignment means dealing with all of the things that brought us out of alignment in the first place.

So that's the stuff that comes up first and we need to sit with and work through.

But ultimately,

I have to admit,

I feel more alive and joyful every moment of every day,

Even if it's not quite working than I ever did before,

Because I took the leap.

So I'm back on this idea of did you bring your life vest?

And I know somebody's listening,

So heck,

I'm hearing your story.

And I'm like,

Okay,

I can't even comprehend putting all of my life in my car.

Like,

Like,

Tell me what are those like two things that you're like,

I know I'm taking these things.

And like,

What were the things that were the hardest hardest to give up?

Like,

What did you pack in the car for sure and what did you like,

Like,

You let it go,

But it was hard?

Um,

Yeah,

That process really changes your relationship with stuff.

Just completely when you have to look at what is a necessity?

And what is not?

And what can I carry?

And what can I not?

That's it's the memorabilia was really,

Really difficult to go through,

Especially the stuff from my childhood or from my kids childhood.

And I do admit some of that stuff is actually in storage at my mom's.

So I didn't completely let it all go there.

I do have a few things that I just could not and like,

It's not worth carrying,

But I'm not willing to give it up yet.

But for the most part,

It really came down to,

Okay,

Who am I?

And what does that mean?

I know I'm going to need clothes.

I need my laptop.

I have things with me in the car in case I need to camp overnight somewhere and I only have my car.

So I do have a sleeping bag and you know,

Basic survival supplies,

Essentially.

The car,

You know,

Car maintenance types of things,

You know,

The basics and it really came down to what do I need to work?

What do I need to survive?

And I do honestly,

The couple of little things I have with me that are just because I wanted something that was familiar is there's two coffee mugs actually that I keep with me.

I love my coffee.

One of them is it just,

It has,

It's a beautiful ceramic mug that I got at the Paris casino in Vegas.

So it's from a trip and it just,

It has like travel week,

You know,

To what does it say?

Travel to develop your curiosity basically.

And I'm like,

Well,

I'm on that journey that's coming with,

You know?

And other than that,

It's really,

You know,

It's an interesting thing because even when I go to souvenir shops and stuff,

I'm like,

Well,

I don't have room for that.

I don't want to keep collecting things.

And so my relationship with stuff,

It's shifted from what can I bring with me and hold onto to what can I experience?

What can I see today?

What can I take a picture of or video record or in some way,

What experience can I share with people online,

With myself,

With loved ones back home,

Or,

You know,

With the people in community with here?

That's been a piece of the puzzle too for me is redefining what it means to be home and redefining what it means to be in community.

Because really in many ways,

Everywhere I go,

I'm an outsider,

But at the same time,

It's really kind of fun to meet people and make those connections and start feeling like an insider.

And then of course,

Just in time to leave again.

So it's an ongoing practice of detachment and completely being in the moment and grateful for what is so well in here.

So it's kind of an interesting way to live all of the spiritual practices that we hear talked about all of the time.

This lifestyle is like,

Well,

They're wonderful practices because I kind of have to keep my sanity,

Or I'm going to tear myself apart in grief every time or drive myself crazy with anxiety or,

You know,

All of those fear-based things.

So yeah,

What I've realized is that my life vest is within me.

I will land,

I will find a place,

And I know there will be answers there.

And that is a really powerful place to come from that I haven't really experienced before.

So it's been a journey to get here and I know it will take cultivation to hold on to it and keep it and it's really an amazing thing to be in it.

So I always love that word community because community,

Community,

Community,

Everybody's got to be in community,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

But you know,

You break that word down,

Common unity.

And that common unity,

Mindful community is,

You know,

Being in the present moment.

So like you said,

Your community,

Maybe those four people you meet in the restaurant in California on Tuesday,

But they may be the eight people that you reach in common unity,

You know,

Three weeks later when you're in Seattle.

And so always looking for those same same.

And I'm excited because you're actually going to build your own community.

And as you're calling it the tribe of rising women,

It's going to be a Facebook group.

Tell us more about that and how people can get this and your book Youth Riving,

Reclaim Your Life,

Live Your Purpose.

Absolutely.

Well,

On Facebook,

If you look up the tribe of rising women,

You will see me and see it.

And it's a wonderful community.

It is a free community.

I'm going to be sharing more of my own story and journey and being in relationship and community with people.

So if there's questions,

I'm happy to answer them.

But it's also being created as a safe space for other women who want to step into answering their own calling.

So whether that means maybe they want to be a painter,

Maybe they want to be a writer,

Maybe they want to travel.

It doesn't have to be my lifestyle.

I think we all have a calling within us that for whatever reason terrifies us to step into because we know it's going to change everything.

And we also know that it's going to bring us alive.

And it lights me up to think about what this world can be when more of us live from this place of being fully alive and joyful.

And I mean,

This just is such a different energy to come from.

It's amazing.

So I like I said,

It's a free community.

I invite women there who really want to explore this and want to be engaged in it.

There's mentoring available and of course that community sense online.

My book,

You Thriving,

Reclaim Your Life,

Live Your Purpose is available on my website at loriannerising.

Com.

And it's L-O-R-I-A-N-N-E-R-I-S-I-N-G.

So that's available there.

And there's links to the community and such there.

And for your listeners in particular,

I am also offering a free three-part training.

It's kind of a starter kit for women who are interested in exploring what this really means and taking the first few steps to get a clearer idea of what it is for them.

And that's available.

It's loriannerising.

Com backslash everyday mindfulness.

And that's specific for your listeners here.

And again,

It's a free starter kit for women who want to step into their calling.

Lori,

That's so generous.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to make sure we get all of those links into the show notes and that we really invite ourselves this year in 2020 to think about letting go of that old acronym of F.

E.

A.

R.

And stepping into that friendly energy awaiting recognition.

There are so many possibilities ahead for us in 2020 and certainly beyond when we are willing to take that spiritual step to listen to the call and do it.

And you are doing it.

Everybody jump on Lori's Facebook page,

The tribe of the tribe of rising women.

That last name.

I love that tribe of rising women.

Why didn't we think of that 10 years ago?

Thank you so much for your yes.

I look forward to seeing you continue to rise and your community continue to grow.

So Lori,

Thanks for being on the show.

Well,

Thank you for having me.

I really enjoyed it.

Looking forward to more.

Awesome.

Remember,

Mindful matters and so do you.

Thank you for joining us for today's show.

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