Episode 21:Exploring Self-Discovery and Empowerment with Aurora E Martinez

A Journey to Wellness and Fulfilment" - Join us as Aurora shares insights on personal growth, well-being, and the power of gratitude.

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Hello, world. And welcome to choices, Books and Gifts. We're. You always have choices. I'm really excited to present our Guest today. Her name is Aurora E Martinez, and I think you'll be excited. what she has to say about life. She's a life coach, amongst many other things. Good afternoon. Aura, how are you today? I am good. Good afternoon. Jay. Thank you for having me here. It's great to be here. Excellent.

So we world we're going to read, auras biography now so we know a little bit more about who we're dealing Aura Martinez is a self-discovery and empowerment coach and the creator of the Aura Blueprint. She specializes in helping women gain total clarity in their purpose, enabling them to wake up to a life of daily fulfillment and certainty. With a background as a flight attendant, or has traveled the world enriching her understanding and perspective. Through her experiences, she's discovered a profound source of well-being and has since shared it with others worldwide. Aura E Martinez is not only a self-discovery and empowerment coach, but also the founder of Life Live to the Max. She is the author of the book Creating a Lifetime of Wellness Start and Having the Life You Deserve, which has been featured in Spirituality and health magazine, Psychology Today, and Natural Awakening magazine.

All right, I sort of enjoy jumping right into it and asking the question, so, yeah, you and, I'm excited. So away we go. Yeah. So the first question is you published a book entitled Creating a Lifetime of, well, Wellness. Start having the Life You deserve. Can you tell us more about your book and how it helps individuals improve their overall Well-Being? 

Yes. So the book Creating a Lifetime of Wellness is all about the different areas of our life that plays a huge role in our overall well-being. And many times we disregard these different areas of our life. For example, the importance of having your oasis, which is your home. And mind you, this was published before pandemic and I think nowadays we understand the importance of having a peaceful home right? The importance of knowing what your needs are, choosing your companion right, choosing your friends right, sleeping. So it discusses all the different areas that many times we tend to disregard. The plays a big role in who we are, and it serves also as a guide for us to understand ourselves a whole lot better.

Thank you, thank you. That was a wonderful, great explanation. So we'll continue. In your book, you mentioned the importance of addressing different areas of life, such as body, soul, finances and relationships. How did these areas interconnect to impact overall wellness?

Well, if we are not balanced in in quotation marks and the reason why I say in quotation marks, the word balance is because I think there's no such thing as balance. But we all have our own balance sort of saying when we are not aware of the relationship that we have with the different areas of our selves in our life, that's when we find ourselves living a life that either doesn't fulfill us, we don't feel happy. We may feel like, oh, we may notice that we consistently get sick, or we consistently make the wrong choices.

And so this is why it's so important for us to understand how we function. What is our relationship either with money, with our body right. And being mindful of the choices that we make. Because unless we have that level of awareness, right, we're going to keep repeating the patterns we're going to keep doing things that we're going to wonder, okay, why my life continues being the way it is. Right? And it's because we don't understand ourselves and that relationship that we have with that area of our life.

That's wonderful. I it brings me to mind this saying, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Yes. All right. Can you explain to our audience what is the Aura blueprint and how does it help clients achieve their desired transformation?

 Yes. So the oral blueprint is the method that I use to help clients get from point A to point B. So the reason it has my name is because every letter represents what it is that I help my clients with. So for example, A is they're going to become aware right? Aware of okay, where they are now, where they would like to be and what is necessary. Right. Because unless we have that level of awareness of where it is that we want to be, that clarity, the many times we lack, we're going to keep experiencing this gap right?

You is to understand, right understand why we got ourselves into this place where we have this gap. Because unless you remove the gunk that is covering your true essence, meaning whatever, limiting belief, right? Whatever thoughts you may have about yourself, whatever it may be, the layer of fat, as I like to call it. Unless you remove that, you're not going to get to where you want to go in life.

The R is realignment because after you remove all the gunk, you have to really realign with what it is that you desire because everything is first of being. Many times we think, okay, it's only what actions I need to take. It's not just what actions you need to take. Who do you need to be? How do you need to think?

How do you need to feel about yourself in your life? So realigning with what it is that you desire and a is aliveness, because aliveness is what you're going to feel when you heal whatever wounds you have to heal. When you remove whatever it is that was out of your awareness. Right? And when you start aligning with the version of you that you need to be, you're just going to feel good.

Yeah, yeah. It's like peeling back that onion until you get yes, you know who and what you need to be. Fantastic. Yes. What are the areas of our lives one needs to be mindful of that affect our well-being? What do we have to realize?

You know, back when I wrote the book, the very first thing that I wrote was you need to create a an oasis, right? And that's because when our home is in chaos, everywhere we go is going to be chaotic. But now, after pandemic, I would dare to say the number one thing that is so connected with our cells is we need to be mindful of our mindset. And this is why I'm going to write the book a second edition, because I think that after pandemic, so much has changed.

And when our mindset isn't right, our finances, it's not going to be right. Our home is not going to be right. The how we perform when we work is not going to be right. The decisions that we make are not going to be right. So now, looking back and now after pandemic, I would dare to say the number one thing we always have to be mindful of is this we hear this our mind, right how we are, who we are, the essence, our selves.

Because everything starts with us. Absolutely everything. Absolutely. I love your enthusiasm and your insight. I know you believe in what you're doing and we believe in it too. And I'm sure you're very good at it. Thank you. You're absolutely welcome. What do you suggest to your clients to help them uncover and overcome the challenges they face?

I would dare to say curiosity. Why would I say that? There's a reason why, when you notice that something isn't going right in your life, or no matter what you do, something isn't clicking. The first step to everything is curiosity. Why is that? Because when you're curious, you lower your resistance. When you're curious, you open yourself up to understanding what isn't working. When you're curious, you allow yourself to continue the journey.

See? Very. But as human beings, we tend to. When something isn't working with, something isn't right. Point the finger outside of us. We tend to get frustrated. And what happens when we do that? First of all, we blame. We can get resentful, either resentful towards our partners or or our friends, or our family or whatever it may be, and we may tend to give up on whatever it is that we want.

Whereas when you get curious, you start to uncover, why is it that this isn't working? What is it about me that needs to change? What decisions do I have to make sure we go opening the path for either healing, for making better decisions, for understanding a part of yourself that you perhaps didn't know, or a blind spot that may be there, or perhaps someone that you need to meet that will connect you to whatever it is that you are wanting. So curiosity really opens up the path to everything that we want. And we may not realize it, but it really, really does.

 Yes, I can agree more with that. You need to be curious. You need to be open. You need to open your arms to let the whole world in, because you never know where opportunity is going to come from. And, you know, a lot of people are finger pointers. But it was told to me, when you point the finger, you got four fingers pointing back at you. It's all about in life. It's about us taking responsibility no matter what's happening in our lives. Because you're an adult and you know, even if it's asking for help, which is I know I need to do that even today. Yes. And it's just vital and very important. So, for individuals struggling to transform a specific area of their life, what guidance or recommendation Would you offer if someone dealing? with something specific?

Yes. Well, I always say the first step is always to get curious. And then the second one I would dare to say, be honest with yourself about what it is that you need to get you to your next step. Because only when you want, only when you're honest with yourself can you really say, oh, okay, I you can face yourself when you're honest, right? You can take the very next step that you need. And speaking of that, I just want to I want to share many times we tend to go so ahead of ourselves in terms of what it is that we need in order to transform a specific area of our life.

It's so important for you to meet yourself where you're at, because when we take so many steps forward, say, for example, I feel lonely. Oh well, I need to. I need to get a partner. I need to get someone know, investigate. I'm just saying that as an example. Investigate. Worse, as long as loneliness coming from. Could it be because you feel unfulfilled? Because if that's the case, no partner can give you that. Is it because you you feel like you're lacking love? Well, how can you love yourself, right? So. So really being honest. Really be looking at yourself and your life and really being honest. And then meet yourself right where you're at. And also if you need help, seek help. I think many times we get a shamed if we need help, right? Because we view it as a weakness. No, it's actually a strength.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's the strength. Yeah, absolutely. It's a strength. And you know, when I was going through my times of challenges through my life, you know, like you said, I was always trying to if I had the right girlfriend, if I had the right job, if I had. But until I took care of this, was I able to get the other things in life that I was so, you know, hoping to achieve and I have them now. So you frequently emphasize the significance, the significance of our relationship with ourselves. For those who are new to your work, could you elaborate on why the self -relationship is considered crucial?

Yes. Well, you are the link to absolutely everything and you are the center of your own universe. And I'm not saying this in a way for someone to only think about themselves. I mean, in, in the sense of everything starts with you and ends with you. And depending on the relationship that you have with yourself, that's what's going to determine how you're going to treat money.

That's going to determine what you allow in your life, that's going to determine who you choose as friends and even as a relationship. So, for example, if you do not feel worthy of your, of anything, you don't feel worthy. That can make you choose a partner that doesn't value you. I think that can make you choose friends that are not right for you in regards to money. Money has a funny way of showing us the relationship that we have with ourselves. So if you do not value yourself, you're not going to value perhaps the effort that you put to make the money, or you may not trust yourself when it comes to making a financial decision. Right? So everything, absolutely everything is linked as well. This is why we always got to look at how are we speaking to ourselves, how do we view ourselves our self-concept.

Right. That's what it is, is how we view ourselves, how we perceive ourselves and your self-esteem, how you feel about yourself. All of that is so important because it's going to determine every single decision that you make throughout the day. So we need to look at that. Yes, without a doubt. You know, when I was, also going through my situation, I remember, I was told to say, you know, empowering things to me.

And in the beginning, I used to say it all day long, thousands of times. Certain things that I know would set my mind right. And now, if I'm having a bad day or anything, if I say them 3 or 4 times, it really it read three restarts my brain and everything where I can be more positive and be kinder to people and a better person in general So that's very important how we look and think about ourselves. And if you tell yourselves enough times that you're good, it will be so. Oh, yeah. All right. Okay, here's a good one. You emphasize, you emphasize the significance of gratitude as a way of life and how you cooperate. Gratitude into your daily routine.

Yes. Gratitude. I think one of the biggest mistakes or blind spots that many of us may have when it comes to gratitude, is we associate gratitude to a feeling. And gratitude. So much more than that is actually a lifestyle. And so I even created a course on that living with gratitude. Because the thing is, it is a lifestyle you got to and I will I in the course I explain how you have to think in gratitude. Right. Those thoughts what's going on in the mind? Are you thinking in gratitude? Are you feeling in gratitude? Why are you doing in gratitude so you can not possibly just thinking gratitude or feeling gratitude, but not doing gratitude. So what are your actions that reflect that? Because that's how you draw more of the things in life. Because we get what we give, we get what we give.

So the simple thank you. You know how many times, people may do things for others and they the other person doesn't say a thank you, simple thank you, right? Or even with choice in words in terms of when we would like to ask for something, I want this. I want to say not in gratitude. I would like thank you. Please. Right. So doing in gratitude then being in gratitude. Your whole being. Right. It's everything.

Yeah. It's everything. Food of gratitude. You know, I, I very rarely find people that are depressed or unhappy if they have an attitude of gratitude. Yes. Humble and grateful for everything we have in life. Not what we don't have, but be grateful for what you do have.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, yes. Absolutely. Can you share an example of a transformational experience you've witnessed in one of your clients? through your coaching process? 

Yes, So one client of mine, she didn't realize how she was holding on to something that had happened in the past in a past relationship that she had. And when she understood how she the story that she made in her mind. Right, she all of a sudden it was she had that awareness and she was able to rewrite that story that she was telling to herself. She was able to open up. Yeah, right. We don't realize sometimes how the way we perceive either the ending of a relationship or something that occurred, the story that we tell ourselves about it, it affects even the current decisions that we make today.

So she was making that relationship that she had with this guy means something, that it was it. And she was realizing the decisions that she was making. When it comes to guys nowadays. And so when she understood what she was telling her son, what was going on here and healing the heart, that's when she was like, oh, wait a minute. I all this time I've been thinking this about myself, and I didn't realize how that was affecting my choices. So that level of awareness and then healing that it was just so beautiful to witness. It's just so beautiful to witness.

You know, I realized in my own life, change is so hard, even when it's for the better. So you get out of this miserable relationship and, you know, you try to change your life, but it drags us back in because it's so hard to change. And I know I'm filled with codependency. Of course, it's gotten better over the years. Yes. You have to be aware, you know, where you're going and what you do if you, what advice would you give to someone who is struggling to maintain a positive mindset and find gratitude in their daily life? What would you suggest to someone? What should they be doing on a daily basis? 

One of the things that I highly recommend, and it's something that I do myself, and we sometimes hear this often but don't really realize the value of it. Journaling. And I'm going to tell you why. And for those that are not the type to write, you could just record it. And the value of this. First of all, you dump everything that is within you because we could get so caught up in what we're feeling and what we're thinking that we don't even realize what's going on within us. And how that's affecting us throughout the day. So dump journal, don't buy everything that's going on. Right. And the beauty of that is when you read it at a different time, on a different day, you start noticing the patterns.

You start noticing the way you're thinking. You start understanding what works for you, what doesn't. And even when you record yourself, you're going to feel this, this sense of relief, which many times I feel and I've noticed when I'm around people like they are carrying so much, right? And this is why they're feeling so frustrated. I mean, there's so many reasons, but when we're carrying so much, we feel the weight of it. One of the things is done for everything that's going on. Yes, right. And also be honest with yourself. Do you need help? Right. Do you need the help either of a therapist or coach? Those are two different things, by the way. For those that may be wondering, those are two different things like be honest with yourself because sometimes we alone cannot see our blind spots.

Agreed? Agree. Always someone you know outside in can see that I know my self. I spent a, a period of time in 12 step programs, and I know one. One of the most cathartic things I can do is when I went to a meeting and I shared, I shared about my day and the things I mean, like you said, you do it in recording or journaling, but how much better it was to get it all out and off me and not in my brain. Somebody once told me, you know, some of the things in your life start with a small little, little marble of snow. But if you let it roll down the hill, it will become a boulder at the end of that. So you need to get it when it's a marble and share it. Get it out, fix it, ask for that help get different perspectives. Yes, yes .

Can I say one more thing, Pleas I ask you this. So people noticed and I'm always very enthusiastic and happy, even when I have a lot going on right. And one of the things that I do in the morning, I know myself and I know that I need my time. So many times we don't give ourselves time for ourselves, right?

So it's so important in the morning to give you some time to sit with yourself. Okay, how am I feeling? Why am I tired? And my this and the reason why that moment for yourself is so important is because when you understand where you're at, see, for example, if you're tired and something happens that you do not like, if you're tired and you're unaware that you're tired, you're very easily. You can very easily get angry and annoyed or snap. Whereas if you have that level of awareness, oh, I'm tired. And this you can take a deep breath and be like, okay, this person is not that they're annoying me, is that I'm tired. You taking that power back, right? Because we don't we give our power away when were unaware of ourselves and where we're at. So I'm able to make that decision every single day. I'm going to be happy.

Yep, yep. And that that is a decision. You're going to go yes all day being miserable or. But at any day you can stop and say, I'm going to change my mind and I'm going to be happy there was one other thing I wanted to say that that that I thought of when you had, you know, talked about this, especially the morning part.

I so I have a ritual and I have to have I wake up and for me, I like to pray, so I pray and then I sit for 20 minutes and I go through what was taught to me many years ago, transcendental meditation. And then I read a confirmation, positive reading. And I can't tell you how that changes how we are of of the day, how you go into the day with the knowledge of how you're feeling, how you're doing, what you need to change as far as your thinking is going.

So you are just a, fresh flower. I really enjoy what you have to say and you're so very, very enthusiastic the way you say it. And I love your attitude, I do. I wish you much luck. Thank you. We will be coming to a close for today's podcast. So or is there any parting thoughts that we would like to leave our listeners with something you feel very strongly about?

Please, please, please have a healthy, positive relationship with yourself. Seriously. Like that's the basis of absolutely everything. Because when you are good with you, you're going to be good with it. Everything always start with you. Seriously. You're the you're the foundation. The really the foundation. We forget that which we forget it.

We do. Like I said, you know, a breath of fresh air. I look forward to, getting to know you better. I thank you and, world, thank you for tuning in to. You always have choices. May God bless you and look after you always. Thank you.