Spiritual Life Coach | Laina Orlando
I am an ordinary woman who has undergone an extraordinary spiritual awakening.
I didn’t start off with plans of being a Spiritual Life Coach. Oh no, quite to the contrary!
In fact, I had my life all mapped out, including my “must achieve to-do life right,” and spirituality was nowhere on my list. I believed that to be recognized and rewarded for doing my life right, I needed to do many things, have tons of stuff, and be, well, perfect. Not spiritual!
Believe me, I had it all figured out, and I was diligently checking things off my long To-Do list: A husband, 3 kids, money, inside dog, outside cat, money, house in the burbs, vacation home in the mountains, SUV, money, career, lots of friends, money,
I was hot & skinny, a member of the PTA, a USTA tennis player, a room-mom at my kids’ schools, and on the neighborhood HOA Board, just to name a few of my overachieving antics…whew!
In the fall of 2002, my perfect life began to spiral out of my control. First, my mom died, then my teenage daughter started contemplating suicide, my marriage was on the rocks, my best friends abandoned me, my career changed, our money vanished when the real estate market crashed, and well, my to-do list wasn’t getting done. I felt helpless, hopeless, desperate, and depressed…not my idea of perfect! Ouch! Grieving the “death” of many of the crucial things I had achieved was sucking the life out of me.
In my desperation, I turned to shopping, margaritas, crystals, self-help books, workshops, drumming, tarot readings, meditation, margaritas, spirituality, energy healing, chanting, angels, Shamanism, Buddhism, mysticism, quantum physics, therapy, psychic readings, and many, many other things…did I mention margaritas? I did all this in search of relief from the pain of feeling like a worthless failure. Little did I know that life was pushing me to the extreme, which would eventually lead me on the path to becoming a Spiritual Life Coach.
Although everything I tried offered me temporary relief, nothing took away the deep emptiness I felt inside.
Little did I know, God was dragging me, skinny-ass and all, into what is known as the Dark Night of the Soul, where I had to face my inner demons.
At the end of the five darkest years of my life, I faced my ego, diligently embraced my shadows, got what the power of projections is about, understood my co-dependency and attachments, became aware of my identities, shifted through my beliefs, and prayed for God to have mercy on my wretched soul.
During this diligent Soul searching, I became aware that the only reason I was suffering was that I believed I wasn’t living up to who I “thought” the world expected me to be. Talk about living in a pressure cooker! I discovered I was living my life in total fear of doing it wrong, which meant—thanks to my Christian upbringing—that I was destined to receive a one-way ticket to that hot destination we call hell…
Then came the miracle of all miracles: I had an up-close encounter with Source/God/Spirit, or whatever you want to call “It,” and I began awakening to the Truth: that what I truly Am is One with God, and God is pure Love.
I + God = One Love! Nothing needed to be added, tucked, nipped, acquired, or changed about me.
I am as God created me: perfect, whole, and accomplished.
And I was shown another secret: so is everyone else — including you!!!
A profound encounter with God in August 2007 left me 100% committed to living a spiritual life from the Truth I awakened to. It seemed pretty simple that if I am love, all I must do is just be loving, right? It wasn’t easy to awaken spirituality, let alone become a spiritual life coach.
You see, in the previous 5 years, I was becoming aware of my dark, fear-based side and all the beliefs that supported my human ego’s structure.
Now that I experienced my light and loving side firsthand, I had to choose, situation by situation, which side of me was going to show up.
And believe me, there was no shortage of opportunities to practice being my God-Self or my ego-self. Empowered with the awareness of my True Essence, my life began to change through divorce, a new career, new friends, and a drastic lifestyle change. Then came the extensive tests: I fell in love–again–as my youngest son became a drug addict and my middle son was struggling to graduate from high school. Everything I learned in the previous 5 years was put to the test: Could I choose to Shift from my ego’s fears and Lift my vibration to the Presence of Love?
Believe me, knowing I am Love and being Loving—always—are two completely different animals!
My work as a spiritual life coach is simply this: to help you become aware that you have two sides. There is the innate you, the whole and complete expression of the very Energy of Love that created you, which is fully endowed with all the knowledge and beliefs that support your Truth and is often called Soul or Spirit. This side of you is fulfilled when you express your innate gifts, for in sharing them with the world, your authentic, creative, and peaceful self—your Spirit—is free to be: Authentically YOU!
You experience the strength of this Truth by fully knowing that nothing, and no one, need ever validate or complete you. This side of you is Loving, Kind, Gentle, Defenseless, Generous, Patient, Compassionate, Happy, and rests in a state of pure joy and peace that is indescribable. This side of you knows and trusts your Oneness with God and with your fellow holy brothers and sisters.
Then, there is your other side, which we call our human ego, and it’s made up of beliefs you learned as you innocently became conditioned to seek approval from the outside world. The ego operates as a protective mask/facade, which acts as a cover/shield/veil over your Authentic Self. This “disconnect” from your God Self keeps you from remembering your Truth by driving you to seek for more, more, more, outside of you–in the world–to complete you, make you feel good, feel loved, and feel worthy.
The human-ego side of you perpetuates the illusion that you are just a finite, vulnerable, separate self among the billions of individual bodies that inhabit this glorious planet. But don’t despair because the good news is that this side of you can be transcended with your commitment and willingness to shift your beliefs. And yes, I’ll teach you to Shift your thoughts & Lift your vibration, so you can awaken and free your Soul!
As a mother of three young adults, a wife (yes, I gave it another whirl, and then we divorced 4 short years later, in 2014…oh well!), a friend, sister, cook, gardener, dancer, and an all-around lover of life, I know firsthand, that all the obstacles that stand in the way of being your True Authentic Self can be easily seen and transcended, once we shine the light of awareness on them.
Everyday life is the perfect setting for us to practice expressing Love or to hide behind the suffocating mask of Fear.
My biggest test, to see how awake I really was, came when my then 14-year-old son decided to take me on a 4-year drug adventure! Not only was I making a choice to stand in the Presence of True unconditional Love for him, but at the same time, my brand-new marriage began to fall apart. I wasn’t afraid for my son’s life because God had shown me the eternalness of all life, and I trusted Him/Her. Although I did experience fear many times, by then, I knew the fear was only a thought in my mind, so Shifting from fear and Lifting into Love became relatively easy. With my new hubby, though, that was a different story. I was crazy in love with him from the moment I met him, and as my son needed me to walk the drug journey beside him, my relationship with Ken got strained.
To be present for Spencer and my middle son, Tony, who struggled in high school, I limited the number of clients I was coaching. And since I had already closed my center shortly before I married Ken, I wasn’t offering many workshops. Believe me, since I wasn’t afraid of my son dying, I certainly wasn’t scared of Ken leaving. But I became aware that the fear I was experiencing with Ken had to do with money and safety.
How the hell was I supposed to be available for my child while my primary source of income was a husband that wasn’t happy about providing room and board for my kids? Talk about the perfect opportunity to watch my ego find a source of fear I had not seen before: money. Thanks to Ken, and our divorce, I got to see that having money, albeit his, did not add one ounce of security or even joy when it became more important than our love!
By the way, as of 2018, both of my sons graduated from high school. Spencer is now a senior at Georgia State University and has been sober since 7/15/14. Tony started a career path in the world of grocery stores, and my beautiful daughter married her sweetheart on September 24, 2015, in a glorious Colorado fall wedding.
I am clearly not your conventional spiritual life coach, but I can assure you I know Truth. I am interested in one thing—and one thing only—and that is to be an example of what is possible when one truly commits to navigating the path of transcendence and spiritual awakening.
Since that glorious encounter with God in 2007, I have become an author, speaker, spiritual life coach, and creator of The Power of Awareness program and The Awareness Academy. I am also passionate about facilitating study groups on books channeled by Jesus, precisely A Course In Miracles, A Course of Love, and The Way of Mastery. I am a tireless crusader, committed to helping others awaken their magnificence. Talk about the ultimate love-fest! You see, when we become aware of our Oneness with God, loving each other and ourselves becomes the natural process by which Heaven on Earth is created, and there is no better or more joyful way to experience life. Talk about the ultimate love-fest!
I desire to serve as an example of who you are, indeed already exists, fully accomplished within you. You do not need to learn who you innately are; you simply need to become aware of how you forgot your True and Authentic Divinity in the first place when you entered the human ego’s trance.
Seriously, remembering who we are is what the Spiritual Journey is all about!
Am I offering Love 100% of the time? Of course, not, but I am willing and committed to Being the Love that I Am. And when I forget this, which still does happen, I simply forgive myself for forgetting that Love is what I am, and I disregard fear and return to love, again and again, and again!
The awareness that I Am Love allows me to release fear-based thoughts quickly and as I easily shift from judgment to forgiveness, from separation to oneness, and from comparison to compassion. As you might imagine, bliss is experienced through only one of these choices.
Awakening was simple because God did that for me. On the other hand, staying awake is not so easy because that choice is entirely up to me. Yet, with diligent practice and unwavering commitment, that choice comes down to what I prefer to experience: Love or Fear? Do I want to live in heaven or in hell? Do I want to feel good or bad?
Awakening is simply this: instead of living for the approval of others, I choose to live as if there are no “others” because we are One! Oh, Yeah! Yes, this is a Divine paradox.
If my story, my style, and my passion for sharing Truth resonate with you, please allow me the privilege of being your guide on the most incredible journey of our life…the Journey to Awaken our Magnificence!
I do what I do to share the Truth I am remembering. Nothing has multiplied my joy more than witnessing those whose lives have been impacted by my work, who are either sharing love and compassion with their family and friends, or those who have become amazing spiritual life coach and healers, some who even traveled the world expanding the awareness of many on this planet. I feel like a proud spiritual mama, receiving infinite joy as I share the message that we are love! I genuinely give what I love receiving as I teach what I am committed to learning!
As your spiritual life coach, I promise to guide you in a fun, gentle, and yet powerful way to remember and awaken your True, Authentic, and Deliciously Magnificent Self. And the only thing you need does desire the happiness that Truth offers, more than anything else in the world, significantly more than being right!
Seriously, this is what I do! I know, I know, I have the world’s best job, and I love it!
If I can Trance-end my human ego and awaken my Soul, then anybody can too…woo-hoo!
We are magnificent…yes, we are!
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you truly are.” ~ E. E. Cummings