Day 309: Katie West
“… the most radical act I can do as a person is to really be myself, and that in being myself, I am the greatest agent of change I could possibly be. That to me is activism, and I never thought of myself as an activist.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Katie, for agreeing to be with us today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Katie West: Certainly. Thank you so much for having me. I’m Katie West, and what I do is I work with individuals and organizations to bring a greater sense of lightheartedness, levity, and buoyancy to their personal and professional lives, and I do this by coaching, being a speaker, and also training laughter coaches. Additionally, I also run the Levity Project, which is a social movement which travels all around the U.S. and gathers people in each community to play, laugh, and celebrate in public in a flash mob-style event.
Toni: Gosh, there’s a lot going on there. Katie, this is going to be a great question to have an answer. When you think of that word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does it happen?
Katie: Great question. It’s so funny, because I used to be in education and academia, and my job was to inspire. And because it was academia, I always felt like I needed to learn something and then I could inspire, and my recent journey has really helped me understand that just by being myself.
So hopefully it’s all the people I come into contact with, and as the people that I come into contact with inspire me. But the feedback I’ve had is that it’s really people who are willing to play on the leading edge of who they are. You know, the people that feel this immense calling of like “Hey, things are changing. I can feel the desire to leap.” Because I think I approach things pretty fearlessly, I think that it tends to be a great relationship of people saying “Yes, you leapt and you survived! Awesome!”
I would say that those are the people that tend to say that the flow they see me living my life with helps to inspire them to take that same leap.
Toni: Can you give me an example – I love the phrase that you push things fiercely – when you are having that transaction with that other person or with a group, what happens between you and them that they get to see you pushed things fiercely? What happens?
Katie: I think it’s at the core of the way I am and interact with people is that I believe that change is good and that we’re meant to learn. And so I think it’s really that deep gratitude that we are on this planet, and I think that that just comes through, hopefully in the way that I live of I’m not really afraid of any … of going anywhere. People will say “Katie, you get to the heart of the matter!” and I believe it’s because that’s all that matters is really being in that space.
So I think an example would be, you know, allowing the people I work with or come into contact with explore themselves, or in our relationship, or a vision someone may have to that level that they may not have daydreamed to before.
Toni: Where does … you used the word levity and there was another word that you had used that … what was that?
Katie: Buoyancy?
Toni: Yeah. How does that come into play during the inspiration that occurs?
Katie: Because I think that … I think ultimately that’s the feeling we’re all aiming for. And so when we feel the sense of being buoyant, of being lighter than any muck that’s surrounding us, there’s a tremendous power of hope, and when we are filled with that hope, to me it’s breathing. Inspire means to breathe in, and so we can’t breathe when we’re drowning. And so in that place of buoyancy, it’s like taking that breath in of being alive.
Toni: How do you think that helps someone to explore their potential?
Katie: Because when we’re free of those constraints, of the belief that we’ve held or our fear of change, or kind of … I think a lot of times we can be educated to hide for fear of what we might find in ourselves. I think once we strip those away, we get to wake up to the joy of life. Or what I do with people is I actually get people playing to help remind adults like “Yeah, learning was supposed to be fun!”
I was playing a game with my daughter this morning, and it said on the instructions “Remember (to the adults) learning is fun!” I was like, when did we forget that as adults? And so we thought all of this self-growth is hard work, and so I really … that’s what I hope to, you know … when I work with people, it’s just that idea of play and learning, and that leads to the feeling of buoyancy.
Toni: That’s a fantastic way to describe that. When you are looking for inspiration, what inspires you?
Katie: I think the core of it is getting to be alive. I mean, I’m grateful every day for just the opportunity to walk this planet, you know, to watch my children grow. And I think another thing that inspires me deeply in people or in nature, too, is when there’s the courage to shed what has always been for the hope and the possibility of what’s to come. I think that takes tremendous courage.
So when I see people doing that, it’s kind of letting ourselves be naked to the world. It just touches me, because I know it from my own life how it felt like “Oh my gosh, I’m like naked – wow!” Because I team it up with a different word, living our passion or we’re living in that flow, there aren’t those thick walls. Instead, you get to feel the richness of life, but you also feel that kind of vulnerability of really putting it out there of what you want.
Toni: The Get Inspired! Project has been filled with stories about passion and purpose, and the evolution that people go through of realizing what they want to do and what it took for them to get there, and then not everybody knows. There was a gentleman on that was interviewed that said “You know, I created a whole business around learning what my purpose was.”
Katie: I love it!
Toni: It was really an awesome way to describe that, but having said that, for you, what has it been like? Have you always shown up at the table like this, full of laughter, full of joy, knowing that you wanted to bring levity to the world, trying to make a difference that way? Did that always describe Katie?
Katie: Wow, that’s a great question. Sure, I think on some level. I was fortunate enough to come into the world saying … you know, embracing change, embracing whatever was to come my way. But no, I think it’s a fairly recent waking up to the idea that the greatest and I guess even radical … the most radical act I can do as a person is to really be myself, and that in being myself, I am the greatest agent of change I could possibly be. That to me is activism, and I never thought of myself as an activist.
For me, it really was a very simple moment. I was on a subway and everyone around me was frowning, and I had my eyes closed, I was listening to music. And I was away from my kids for the first time, and I opened my eyes and everybody was frowning at me because I was smiling so broadly, and that’s when I thought “Wow, if I can do this and keep smiling no matter what is happening around me, then that creates a ripple effect of positivity.” And that was the first moment I sort of woke up to, wow, this is powerful.
Toni: It takes a lot of courage to stay in that place.
Katie: Oh … absolutely. You know, some people have said “Oh, you don’t seem that vulnerable because you’re doing this whole practice of levity.” To me, levity is an intentional practice. I am not “Gosh, gee willikers.” I’m a pretty serious person, and to me levity is an intentional practice of saying “I want to feel lighthearted.” When I work with people … I can’t work with anybody unless they say “Yes, I’m willing to risk everything for that idea of living buoyantly.”
Toni: That’s amazing. I really like that approach, and I believ I shared with you in our pre-interview that I love the fact that you are working around levity and laughter, and I think that that’s … but I also want to make sure that the point is clarified that you made, which is that it is an intentional practice and it isn’t an “Oh gee, life is always going to be butterflies and bluebirds.” So I think that that’s pretty powerful.
Katie: Absolutely. You know, I think that’s the definition of buoyancy. It’s being lighter than what’s surrounding us, and so it’s not a denial of the challenge. It’s just saying “Okay, everything may be really tough” – and we know this right now in our society – “there’s a lot of tough things going on – but I have the right to live lighter than this. I have a right not to drown.” And in that, that’s where I think we come together and we stop living our tales of isolation, and that’s when change can happen as we all open to that buoyancy.
Toni: So what do you do now to continue to explore your own potential so you can continue to do this wonderful work?
Katie: I have the inspiration of little ones who, you know, can say like the word “eyeball” 60 times in a row, and it’s just amazing. But I think for me, and it is the heart of that, is keeping a sense of wonder. And you know, my process has led me to realize – especially since I left the world of academia – of anytime I’m kind of keeping my expert hat on of I know everything or anything about this particular thing, it’s keeping me from that space of wonder and the beginner’s mind, and this idea of being new.
And so, what I found is when I can be in that space of just discovery, inspiration can be on a mountaintop, in a boardroom, it can be at a gas station, and it can be anywhere if I’m open to that place of the wonder of life.
Toni: For me, what I’m hearing is that for you to stay open to explore your own potential and to stay open to that wonderment as you describe it, is also the buoyancy that you’re giving to others so that they can be above the muck and also be open and aware. So you really are coming full circle with this, aren’t you?
Katie: Absolutely; and you highlighted it, that it really comes back to that intentional practice, as a choice, and I don’t underestimate when I work with people in coaching, what a big deal it is to make that choice. So whenever people come into me, into my coaching practice, I just give them a big “woo-hoo!” and it’s like, the rest is going to be fun, because it’s such a big deal to be willing to challenge that status quo in our lives. And I think as soon as we do so, we kind of hurdle that, there is this wonderful power of buoyancy. And once we feel buoyant, gosh, everything else happens much more smoothly.
Toni: Katie, thank you for an absolutely wonderful interview, and it’s been a total pleasure. You’ve given a lot of information and value during this 15-minute interview, and we cannot thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Katie: Thank you so much, Toni. This has been just an honor and a joy.
Toni: And good luck to you.
Katie: Excellent. Keep laughing!
Toni: Thank you. Take care, Katie.
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For more information about Katie West: thelevityinstitute.com, thelevityproject.com
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