How daily chanting makes Lauren O'Brien an unstoppable artist, performer and happy human

In this conversation we’re talking with Lauren O’brien, a writer/performer who practices Buddhist chanting on a daily basis to transform poison into medicine.  This is how she turned a tragic event into a play that won best show at the 2020 New York Fringe Festival, and how she’s been able to thrive despite many obstacles over the last several years.  Lauren is now returning to the festival  with “Lolo’s Boyfriend’s Show,” a glitzy, saucy one-woman act about dating in NYC.  Lauren and I are old friends who met through our shared Buddhist practice.  She used to visit my tiny NYC apartment and encourage me to chant and have faith in my own brilliance, even when I felt my worst, or something really crappy had happened the night before (like a bad date in NYC).  This is a very special episode where Lauren and I reunite, reminisce and celebrate this incredible victory of bringing her writing and acting to life. We also laugh, get silly, give each other virtual hugs and even reference some alien sex - you’ll have to listen all the way through 🙂 Here are my favorite takeaways! We all have this potential for a beautiful Buddha nature that’s truly and eternally happy.  Through chanting we become connected with this Buddha state of unshakeable happiness, where our life condition doesn’t have to depend on outside circumstances.  We can learn from the symbol of Buddhism which is the Lotus flower, which blossoms and seeds at the same time.  This symbolizes how the positive causes we make in life have an immediate effect on our experience here on earth, even if we don’t see the effect right away.  It is  also a beautiful flower that  grows out of a muddy swamp, proof we can bloom among the chaos. The bigger and stronger the intention, the more powerful the masterpiece.  Lauren’s first show “Jaxx and Lolo” was a tribute to her dear friend who’d committed suicide and had always wanted to create a play about her life.  Lauren’s show had not only incredible talent, but a powerful mission - to spread healing and awareness around suicide ideation.  Pertaining to Lauren’s reference about throwing logs on the fire to further ignite it, we can actually let our biggest obstacles increase our capacity for victory - transforming poison into medicine.  Survival includes ease and self care - we need to know when to retreat. If we go too hard our bodies will let us know.  Our body is our wealth, it’s our vessel.  We need to slow down to speed up! Follow your creative genius - a therapeutic piece of writing becomes a book or a play when we’re writing from the heart, and allowing ourselves to be the vessel of the words and stories that want to come through us.  Lauren’s info! To  get tickets to Lolo’s Boyfriend’s Show if you’re ready to get the whole skinny on dating in NYC! :  Lolo's Boyfriend's Show Tickets Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenobrienmusic/ To learn more about Buddhism and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo: https://www.sgi-usa.org/  (And previous episodes on this podcast) To connect with Rebecca: Wanna start a podcast, but overwhelmed by the technology? Check out Rebecca’s free video on everything you need to know about recording, editing and publishing podcasts, condensing 2 months of research, trial & error into a 20-minute behind-the scenes video of her process:  https://purple-firefly-12441.myflodesk.com/howtopodcast  Other social media links: Podcast FB group:  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/859832058689723⁠ https://www.instagram.com/healingvoyager/   ⁠https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.schlosser.5⁠ https://substack.com/@rebeccaschlosser?utm_source=profile-page   Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode, and let’s connect on social media since I’m always looking for feedback, new guests and new friends!  The FB group offers additional content and a chance to connect further :)  I’m overjoyed and humbled to have you in this community, as we can never have too many conversations about healing and blooming!