This morning's discussion is with Julie Burch.
Julie is a level 2 coach in Unified Mindfulness, working on level 3. She is also a Licensed Spiritual Practitioner and offers Mindfulness classes as a Mindfulness Meditation Coach as well as work one-on-one with her clients.
The focus today is on Julie and her work. We are discussion Mindfulness Meditation and the development of 3 mental muscles;
- Concentration
- Sensory Clarity &
- Equanimity / Balance
Julie has 2 websites: 1 in progress, the other is julietbrilee.com (as an author).
Welcome Julie!
This is Part 2/2.
Below is a transcription of the interview video:
Julie: It sounds like you and your husband are getting a lot of fulfillment out of your practice and it's creating less friction and more ease in your life.
Violaine: Yes, we try to develop ourselves in this way, yes. It's not always easy, sometimes the concepts are a little bit hard to grasp but I think we've been put on the path and we have people in our lives that are also guiding us as we try as best as we can, to develop ourselves, develop those mental muscles and just expand the Consciousness in general. We're both working towards the goal, maybe not at the same speed but we're working, we’re working there. It's a work definitely, a work in progress for everybody. I think not everybody is at the same level all the time and maybe it's hard to understand each other at times but I think at the end of the tunnel there is this big reward of a full release in pure harmony.
Julie: Yes, and I just want to highlight that reward that you're talking about, that feeling of release and harmony, I feel like we get that kind of reward along the path many times as we come to new understandings and as we grow, those kinds of rewards of feeling. When you say release, I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but it sounds to me like it's a feeling of relief and fulfillment. Is that what you're talking about?
Violaine: Yes, for example sometimes when I'm stressed, I will feel tension on my heart for example and as I try to let that go…, it's what I would call, I guess, a release.
Julie: Yes, and so you're getting some relief from tension and stress, and you feel that ease that comes. That's a pleasant feeling of peacefulness and wellbeing it sounds like yeah.
Violaine: Yes, very much so. I will briefly touch on the other side of you, the Juliet Brilee, and excuse me if I'm not pronouncing it completely right, because you do have two websites you mentioned and you're an author. Would you share just a little bit about that aspect of you with your books and your ebooks and the topics that you're discussing just so people listening are aware of all the facets of you?
Julie: I don't have a website for my mindfulness practice yet, that's in the works. I do have a website for my author career. I write under a pen name and I write romance. I write romance that are like women's fiction, romance and suspense. There's little suspense dripped in, although I like to write Christmas books as well. I enjoy writing it.
I'm also an artist and I teach painting and drawing. I made the painting behind me. I do love the creative arts whether it be writing or painting and I teach writing and I teach painting and drawing and Zentangle which is a Black Ink form of art. When it comes to my writing, first of all, it's wonderful and I think I attribute mindfulness to allowing me to be able to do this.
To just sit down and open up and let the words flow through me and that can happen for a half an hour for two hours for four hours at a time. I really think that the ability to just open up and be present and let that flow that's almost like meditation right there, okay. That's an auto response to the creative essence that wants to push through us all.
I think anyone who's gotten lost in a creative idea or in a creative activity I mean understands what it's like to go into that timeless place and just have the creative impulse soar through us and so that's what happens when I write. That's what happens when I make art. I enjoy writing in particular in writing, sometimes I drip little bits of philosophy in there, a little bits of wisdom and I enjoy doing that. It's a way of sharing that with the world. I think probably most writers do that in some way.
I love to write about characters who have serious challenges or traumas. I have three series of books out and in every series of my books there's a blind character because my son is blind and I love to share just aspects of being blind with my characters.
I’ve spent much of my life thinking very hard about his needs and how to help him to be successful independently. As a result I'm pretty good at writing the blind characters. He gives me a lot of feedback, he gives me feedback and his girlfriend, who's also blind, gives me feedback. I read all my books to them and so I appreciate writing in that diversity as well.
We live in a world with people who come in all shapes and colors and abilities and all different sensory, strengths and limitations and I just like to include some of that in my stories.
Violaine: Yes, well that's really nice to share that work and I'm sure it's very beneficial for your son to participate.
Julie: So that's Julietbrilee.com.
Violaine: Yes, I'll make sure to include that in the references. One point that I wanted to mention is the “contact me” page. I just wanted to make sure if there was anyone listening to this interview, that if they're interested in your work or want to reach out, because I see there is a “contact me” page typeform…?
Julie: I do not, you're right, because that's my author website and I really encourage people to sign up for my newsletters there. I have a newsletter that comes out twice a month and I don't have anything on.
If you go to the Unified Mindfulness website, you can find me there and contact me through them. But I also have Julie burch coach @ gmail.com. And I can email that to you. And so that is also a way people can get a hold of me, and when I get my coach website up, there will be a “contact me” on there as well. But right now, I am listed under the level two coaches on the Unified Mindfulness website and hopefully in six months I'll be listed as the certified teacher on that site as one of the many certified teachers. That will happen when my program ends this year.
Violaine: Yeah, I'll wish it for you.
Julie: Oh, thank you, I appreciate that!
Violaine: We're getting to the end of this interview, we have some bit of time left. I like to always ask towards the end, and this is more so open-ended for you if there is anything else you would like to share, convey to our audience before we conclude? Any final thoughts of what you would like to include between your work with the Unified Mindfulness or your work as an artist? Anything that comes to your mind, please feel free to share.
Julie: Well that's such a big wideopen possibility there. I would like to say that I believe that there's a creative essence in the universe. There is a creativity in all of us and that creativity wants to pour through us into life in some form.
You're using it right now as you interview people and I know that you make speeches and you have a business. So that's one aspect of your creativity, of your creative pursuits, right? The creative energy manifesting through you in that way and I believe that mindfulness practice helps us open up the doors to our creativity so that it can flow out into the world and I think it needs to, it wants to I think that's part of the expression of who we are in our human form.
What gifts do we have to share with the world? And I think we all have gifts to share with the world. I think we all have specific and general gifts. We're here to express the unique beauty that we are and we can do that through a variety of ways. I think the mindfulness practice really greases those wheels so that we can do it more effectively and more fluently and more joyfully.
Violaine: Yes it's a very nice way to put it. What gift do we have to share with the world? Yes, I thank you for mentioning some of mine! For some reason I developed this, it’s not love, but I developed this really (addiction maybe?!) to do public speaking. I really like to put the word out there and share as much as I can.
Julie: Right, and see, that’s it. That is the creative impulse pushing through you to go into life and you're an example of it right there, right now yeah and so that's it's driving you yeah.
Violaine: So I think all of this will conclude this interview. Thank you so much for sharing all you have to share about mindfulness and about your work and I really appreciate all the words you put out there and your work in general. So I will end this recording but I will stay on.
Julie: Thanks Violaine.