About Us
About Laura B.
.jpg)
Laura Bowles is the founder of The New Normal, LLC. In her coaching practice, Laura focuses on understanding values and how they guide relationships and decision-making. While Laura doesn’t enjoy having conflicts in her own life, she provides support for those in conflict situations because she believes that conflict serves as an opportunity for connecting more deeply with one another and ourselves. Through her coaching, Laura fosters an open and compassionate space that encourages individuals to fully explore their values, emotions, and options for action when seeking growth and change.
​
What does “a nurturing pause” mean to you?
I value being a nurturer in my own life. I am a mother of two children, and nurturing their well-being is one of my top priorities, along with nurturing my relationships with my spouse, family, friends, and community. In all of that, I sometimes don’t prioritize caring for myself. My husband often reminds me that pauses are necessary, that it’s important for me to go to dinner with a friend or to exercise or to stay in bed to read a good book on a weekend morning. Pauses help me remember to nurture myself first and to maintain that as a practice even as I nurture others. I can’t serve others well if I am not well-resourced and whole. Running, talking with a close friend, or cooking a simple, comforting dinner help me pause, be nurtured, and say to myself “this moment is enough”.
How do you connect with creativity?
I used to think I needed to be a painter, sculptor or “artist” to be creative. However, my definition of creativity has changed. I now see creativity as the expression of one’s true self in the world. When I am in the presence of this - a musician creating resonant music, a painting that gives a window into an artist’s soul - I am inspired by a creative presence. I feel connected to my own creativity when I express myself through coaching, facilitating, teaching, reading, and writing.
My favorite quote is from Rumi:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, There is a field. I'll meet you there.”
I find meaning in creating safe spaces that foster connection and belonging. Whether it’s a coaching engagement, a facilitated workshop, or a retreat getaway, people are looking for a bridge to Rumi’s field, and I’m honored to build them wherever possible.
Jessamyn Ayers is a social worker, writer, coach and teacher who believes that wellness is the constant search for homeostasis among our physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual selves. A shift in one area creates a shift in all. Her coaching work centers around accompanying clients in discovering and establishing the strategies that keep them well and pulling those out, as one would rain gear, when life inevitably blusters. Jessamyn appreciates the poignant punch of a good metaphor and the recentering force of a well-timed joke.
What does a nurturing pause mean to you?
I am not sure when pauses became so harrowing. Professional publications write constantly about the toxicity of equating full schedules with meaningful lives. Our vacations are typically full of excursions and we fear giving children too much downtime. A third of Americans find it difficult to sleep. More of us now have grown up with 24/7 television than not so maybe when we hear a broadcasting pause, we assume it means a problem. Pauses, however, are necessary. They are brief and create the internal intentionality to move forward. The psychotherapist Viktor Frankl wrote that in the pause “lies the freedom and power to choose our response….[and therein] lies our growth and our freedom.” I think of pitchers on the mound coming set and taking a breath before starting their throwing motion. A gymnast exhaling before executing her tumbling pass. The breath we take before starting a presentation, writing a difficult email or opening the door for a difficult friend or family member. How do we carry on without nurturing the pause?
How do you connect with creativity?
I write daily. It is my surest form of expression. I have thought in stories since I was a child and relied on it as an adult as a way to navigate my own difficulties. I appreciate other art forms–painting, music–more than I practice them myself. Of course, this is a very common response to creativity--that it only shows up in art. The same spark I feel when a writing idea appears, I feel when a colleague asks me for a new spreadsheet. I feel it at the beginning of a coaching session when I ask what a client wants to work on today. The bio of any MacArthur Genius Grant Award winner is the essence of creativity. I believe that creativity is a way for us to straighten what we see as askew. To quote Rick Rubin in his book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, “Through the ordinary state of being, we’re already creators in the most profound way, creating our experience of reality and composing the world we perceive.” When I am intentional about this feeling, acknowledging it in the deep breath before moving forward with it, I feel most connected to my own creative force.
About Jessamyn
.jpg)
About Laura W.
Laura Woody is a certified coach and the founder of Connections Coaching and Consulting LLC, bringing 20 years of non-profit leadership and social work expertise to her transformative practice. With a passion for helping people see their strengths and navigate the "brutiful" realities of life, Laura supports clients in listening to their hearts, honoring their needs and desires, creating space for authentic growth, and moving forward with self-compassion and clarity.
​
What does “a nurturing pause” mean to you?
Pausing isn't just a concept for me—it's a practice I'm always adjusting and fine-tuning, intentionally learning to see my own needs as just as much a priority as the needs of others. For most of my life, I’ve tended to throw myself into (read, at the mercy of) my studies, my work, my passions, my family, and forget that I’m most effective in all of these spaces when I take the time to listen to myself, my body, and my own needs. My journey through career burnout and early motherhood has been a powerful teacher that (thankfully) forced me to get still and honor myself in bold new ways. Choosing to live in this new way was scary at first! But, I believe that transformations require us to take risk, to bet on ourselves, and tenderly care for ourselves as we take the next best step toward the life we want. I choose to live by my favorite poet, Morgan Harper Nichols’ wisdom - “You don’t have to be fearless. Doing it afraid is just as brave.”
​
How do you connect with creativity?
I wouldn't call myself an artist, but I am a serial crafter— exploring various creative projects from felt flowers to ceramics, painting to card making. Music (playing it, listening to it, singing loudly in the car to it) feeds my soul, and I find joy in creating beautiful, eclectic spaces in my home that tell stories of travel, connection, and meaning. Creating beauty from chaos whether it’s helping a consulting client create policies and procedures, creating a new spreadsheet to carefully track important data, and dancing in the moment with my coaching clients are certainly other ways I scratch my creative itch.
​
And last, but certainly not least, I’m a wife to a wonderful husband, a momma to 2 smart and silly kids, and a proud daughter to some amazing parents. I truly enjoy doing life with all of them in a multigenerational home in Fairfax, VA.