Laura Coburn

Entrepreneur, Yogi, Teacher, Traveler, Cook

This personal website is a platform for me to share my thoughts about life, love and the pursuit of happiness.

Much of my time is spent serving in the capacity of Director of Serenity at the Inns of Aurora on Cayuga Lake.

I founded and still own a design and marketing firm — Coburn Design, Inc. in 1992. While I am still involved it is in the able hands of Chris Madden and Natalie Kimbrough. I also teach yoga under the brand Eka. You can find out more about my teaching at Eka's web site.

Believing and manifesting

We have a joke in our house. I say "I manifested that!" and my husband rolls his eyes, gives me a sly smile and says "yes babe, you did." My dear, grounded husband, doesn't go in much for the new age stuff of manifesting but even he agrees that what you think you create. For a while now I have been taking seriously the theory that thoughts and speech are creative. Creativity is not a gift, it is a choice. I really believe that we create what we desire. This, in my mind, is creativity. I believe that we keep ourselves, me included, from achieving great things by "editing" our creative thinking. We get a big, audacious idea and then say to ourselves "well that can't happen." More and more these days I am saying, "why not?" A few months ago I woke up with a thought in my head. This thought was that perhaps I could study with a woman I have long admired. A woman who has written many books (seven I think), achieved great things in her a career, a woman I truly wanted to learn from, in person. So I did what we do . . .I "googled." I found out she was teaching in Toronto. I got myself registered, rented an apartment and drove myself there. Then, I showed up. I showed up with all my nervous doubts, and brought along my ideas that I wasn't good enough. Here's the thing . . .I showed up. I put one foot in front of the other and with humility and all the deserving I could muster, I just showed up. For the next days I wrestled with the uncomfortable feelings of being alone in an unfamiliar place without my "crutches" and I just kept showing up. Fast forward . . .I did the work, trained, completed my research paper after the training, submitted it. What happened next was amazing. I received my paper back with some things I could improve on and I also received my certification! Written in the margin of my reserach paper was an invitation to assist this great teacher in her work training others. Pinch me. Pinch me again. Did I manifest that? Before any of us can achieve anything we must first dream it and then we just have to show up. Show up with the vulnerability that we may fail and show up in-spite of ourselves. Show up and see what happens.