“She is
endlessly interesting”
“She’s a
warrior”
“She’s got a
sparkle”
Lori Halliday written and designed by cameron conway
heal in ways that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise, and her energy can brighten any room. Even though she has so many jobs that benefit so many people, she does not give herself a title. She defines herself only in terms of her actions, and I think many people would agree that she is a self-help guru. Ella, her fter a crazy morning in daughter, said: the Halliday household, I was standing upstairs in “She is literally my best friend Ella’s room when the most golden, I smelled something burning. “Is beautiful ray of there a fire?” I asked. Ella told sunshine on this me that the smell of smoke was planet. I wish I nothing to be concerned about; could explain it to it was just her mom, Lori Hal- you, but you can’t really know unless liday, burning sage. Sage represents wisdom, and you know her.” ella Halliday because of this I think that sage daughter is a perfect metaphor for Lori. Not only do the energies and properties of sage describe her “The greatest thing about her perfectly, as she is one of the is her beauty and warmth. When wisest and most grounded wom- she looks at you or speaks to en I have ever know; like sage, you, you feel beautiful. She her essence fills everywhere she makes you feel and know that goes with light and her own sort you are beautiful and wanted of purity. and that everything you do is Lori Halliday changes the way that people view themselves and ok because you’re human.” (E. Halliday). the world. She helps people to “I think there is an aspect of elemental change when suddenly sage has gone to fire. In lots of cultures that is cleansing or preparing energy.... I think it is a way to reset and physically clear the space.” Lori Halliday
Lori now lives in Santa Cruz on a ranch with her family, and she refers to herself as a “Jane of all trades”. She has deepened her knowledge through studying body movement work, and has now expanded her studies, teaching pilates, gyrotonics, dance, and helps others rehabilitate through these activities and more. She told me that all of this also helps her to stay “personally strong”. A love of hers is Horse and Heart, her nonprofit therapeutic approach to working with horses as a partner in healing, which she explains teaches clients a lot about themselves and the animals. Lori had kind of a crazy childhood that she openly talked to me about. She explained that her dad left after two years of her life, but ultimately came back into the picture when she was 16. To make matters more complicated, she experienced mental illness in her family very directly with both her mother and her aunt being institutionalized at some point during her childhood. She calls herself “resilient” and her mother “loving,” so all of the family drama doesn’t seem
so unusual to her. Mental health and emotional challenges are not unfamiliar to her, so she has learned to cope with it her whole life and has therefore learned the best methods for keeping herself grounded and happy. (L. Halliday) In her 20’s Lori worked in mental health institutions, transitional living environments, and group homes with youth. She explained that these were challenging jobs with horrible salaries, but that the moral incentives vastly outweighed the economic and she was not in this line of work for
the pay anyway. Lori met her husband, Andy, a few years later at the mall, and they had a daughter shortly after getting married. Ella developed a love for horses at a very young age, and out of love and devotion to her child, Lori decided that instead of being separated from Ella’s life of horses, she would educate herself about them and become involved. Even though she started her work with horses later in her life, her equine experiential learning has also been very therapeutic for both inner and outer growth
work. Lori’s greatest takeaway from all of her healing work has been learning that being outside in nature is very healing in a very natural way, and this has made a big difference for her. A lot of self help websites suggest going
“outside to be on the ground or to garden. Nothing like getting our hands in dirt to get us grounded and present.” (“Ten Ways to Stay Grounded”). Of course there is another side to this argument: the fact based, scientific side. Scientists and
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lawyers agree that
“we need to accept the mysterious nature of our snap judgements. We need to respect the fact that it is possible to know without knowing why we know and accept that -- sometimes -- we’re better off that way.” (Gladwell 52). Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink, is discussing the idea that humans need to learn to trust our first instinct. This passage comes from a chapter titled “The Locked Door: The Secret Life of Snap Decisions,” a chap-
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ter in which Gladwell discusses a situation is off, they should multiple scenarios in which peo- trust that. ple prove the reliability of trust- One of Lori’s best qualities is ing their gut. Lori Halliday has similar views to trusting oneself “She’s very and their instinct. She believes heartfelt that every person should trust and sensitive themselves and their instincts, and really and that the energy someone wants to help feels never lies. The feeling you get about a person in the first someone, but 10 seconds expresses an ‘an- at the same cient biological wisdom’ (“Intu- time she’s a ition: It’s Powers and Perils”), warrior.” and this feeling should never Andy Halliday be ignored. If someone feels in Husband their heart that the energy of
that she makes other people feel important and loved. She can help other people without it having to negatively affect her family. Ella said that her mom
just like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell’s studies of symbolism. Lori has also has studied native american practices, which have led to an even deeper understanding of herself and the world around her. Lori and sage have energies that can fill any room. Sage means wise, and Lori knows how important it is to trust herself and her instincts. When I was interviewing her, I asked what she thought about these intuitive feelings she would get when interacting with someone that didn’t quite sit right with her, and she told me that when people interact,
“is always in these tough situations, trying to help others, trying to help her family members, trying to find people jobs, trying to save an animal, whatever. And she always brings it back to what she has and what we need to be grateful for and what she has to be happy about. It’s never like these things ever get her down or bring darkness into our family’s life. It’s always “there is a tone or quality sort of ceremonial healing.” that is speaking louder than (E. Halliday) the words. Motor neurons is During her interview, Lori de- another aspect as to how we scribed how she has a lot of link up to people. Some peotools that she has learned from ple are more adept with that. her practices in her psychological They have a watery morphdevelopment. One of her favorites is looking at artistic cards, ing nature they can align with mentioning some done by Linda people more easily.” Kohanov called “The Way of the Horse”. She describes the cards as archetypal types of ancient images and understandings that are basically ways to settle in,
that you are right. Her strong instincts and understanding of herself make it clear to Lori that what lies ahead for her is unclear. She is going to continue learning and educating herself and others, and developing herself. She hopes to spread her knowledge to others and help as many people as she can. Lori’s husband summed her up by describing her as
“very heartfelt and sensitive, and she really wants to help people. But at the same time, she is a warrior…. She has a sparkle…. She is endlessly interesting.” (Andy Halliday).
(L. Halliday). Everyone has the ability to feel what she feels in her gut when something is wrong; it is just about tuning into it and trusting
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LORI Cleary, Thomas.The Sayings of Buddha. Bantam, December 1, 1994. Print. Dahm, Eva. “Ten Ways to Stay Grounded.” The Online Self Improvement Community. 2004. Web. October 2015. Halliday, Andy. Personal interview. 5 October 2015. Halliday, Ella. Personal interview. 19 September 2015. Halliday, Lori. Personal interview. September 2015. Halliday, Lori. Personal interview. 5 October 2015. Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink. New York: Little, Brown Company, January 2005. Print. Myers, David. “Intuition: It’s Powers and Perils.” New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University. Press, 2004. Web.
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