Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me!

How many times should someone have to prove they're not the person who hurt you?

In Part 3 of The Unhealed Child Series, Lori shares two stories about the ways past experiences can affect present relationships.

Lisa struggles to trust Donald, even as he repeatedly reassures her and suggests counseling. According to the account shared with Lori, the situation escalates into serious accusations, jail time, and the loss of his teaching job and friendships.

Tony loves Cassandra, but his history of abandonment makes ordinary disagreements feel like signs that she's leaving.

These stories aren't the same, but both invite us to examine how we respond to fear, insecurity, and past hurt.

We're talking about trust, accountability, communication, boundaries, and getting support when we need it.

We're never too grown to heal.

🎧 bit.ly/JustLoriPodcast

📖 What I Still Carry, my grief journal, is available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/00ZKSSrC

I Can Only Be Me — empowering authenticity one story at a time.

What happens when the survival skills we learned as children follow us into adulthood?

In this heartfelt installment of The Unhealed Child Series, Valora, aka Lori, takes us back to25th & Dover Street in North Philly, where she remembers growing up with a house key, waiting for family to come home, and finding kindness next door with Miss Nana, meatloaf sandwiches, and The Young and the Restless.

We explore latchkey childhoods, early responsibility, independence, family support, and the habits we sometimes carry into adulthood.

Not every childhood responsibility was trauma. Sometimes our parents were simply doing their best. But understanding our experiences can help us decide which lessons to keep and which patterns to change.

Were you a latchkey kid? Who was your Miss Nana?

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We're never too grown to heal.

You can be grown, successful, raising a family, running a business, and still carry childhood wounds that have never been addressed.

But what happens when those wounds start showing up in your relationships?

In this heartfelt episode of Just Lori Podcast, we're having a real grown-folks conversation about the unhealed child within us.

We're talking about:

• How childhood experiences shape adult relationships
• Emotional triggers, abandonment fears, and trust issues
• Why loving someone doesn't mean becoming their therapist
• Setting boundaries without guilt
• Recognizing when YOU might be the unhealed child
• Choosing healing over repeating harmful patterns

Because trauma may explain someone's behavior, but it doesn't excuse hurting others.

❤️ You can love the child inside somebody without letting their wounds run your life.

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💬 Drop a comment and let me know what you think!

We're never too grown to heal.

✋🏾 My peace is NOT up for negotiation! PERIOD!

Have you ever found yourself biting your tongue, ignoring red flags, or carrying everybody else's emotional baggage just to keep the peace?

Well, here's a question: At what point does keeping the peace start costing you YOUR peace?

In Season 5, Episode 7, I Refuse to Risk My Peace for Anybody!, we're having a much-needed conversation about boundaries, self-worth, emotional exhaustion, and the power of finally saying ENOUGH!

Because protecting your peace doesn't mean you're selfish, bitter, or difficult. It means you've learned that everybody doesn't deserve unlimited access to your energy, your time, or your heart.

✨ In this episode, we're talking about choosing yourself without guilt, recognizing when enough is enough, and protecting the peace you've worked so hard to find.

🎧 Press play, because this conversation might be the confirmation you didn't know you needed!

Your peace is priceless. Act accordingly! 💜

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “If it had been me, I would have…”?

I would have called.
I would have checked in.
I would have showed up.
I would have never done that.

But here’s the truth: everybody is not you.

In Season 5, Episode 6 of Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me, I’m talking about the invisible expectations we place on people, the disappointment that follows, and the difference between giving grace and giving unlimited access.

We’re getting into communication, boundaries, acceptance, emotional maturity, and one question that might change how you see your relationships:

Are you upset because they broke their word, or because they didn’t do what YOU would have done?

People are allowed to be who they are. And you are allowed to decide what access who they are gets to have to you.

Listen now: bit.ly/JustLoriPodcast

What happens when the version of you who got you here can’t take you where you’re going next?

In Season 5, Episode 5 of Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me, I’m revisiting a conversation I started all the way back in Season 1 about the seasons of life, but this time I’m looking at it through different eyes.

I’ve learned that every season does not require the same version of you.

The woman who survived, sacrificed, fixed everything, showed up for everybody, and kept saying yes deserves to be honored. She got me here. But some of the habits that helped me survive cannot come with me into the season I’m entering.

We’re talking about boundaries, people-pleasing, protecting your peace, saying no without guilt, and learning how to love people without losing yourself.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us, “To every thing there is a season.”

This one is mine.

This season, I choose me.

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There comes a moment when you look at the woman you used to be and realize something has changed.

You’re grateful for her. You understand why she made some of the choices she made. You recognize how hard she fought to survive, keep the peace, take care of everyone, and make it through.

But you also realize:

I don’t want to be her anymore.

In this episode of Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me, Lori has a real conversation about outgrowing old versions of ourselves.

The people pleaser.
The woman who made herself smaller.
The woman who questioned whether she was enough.
The woman who tolerated things she would never accept today.
The woman who was surviving instead of truly living.

Growth doesn’t mean we have to hate who we were. Sometimes we simply thank her for getting us here…and release her.

We’re talking healing, boundaries, self-worth, authenticity, and having the courage to become the woman God is calling you to be.

She was you.

But she doesn’t have to be your forever.

🎙️ Welcome to Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me.

What happens when someone else’s testimony sounds exactly like the prayer you have been praying?

In Season 5, Episode 3 of Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me, Lori shares a powerful moment from the Iowa District Meeting pre-musical, where God used the childhood rhythm of double Dutch to reveal a deeper message about faith, timing, healing, and preparation.

While watching a minister praise God with knees that had once been affected by arthritis, Lori celebrated his healing while quietly whispering, “Lord, that is my prayer too.”

This episode speaks to anyone who has ever been genuinely happy for someone else while still wondering when their own answer would come. Through the image of a girl standing outside the turning ropes, Lori reminds us that waiting does not mean God has forgotten us. Sometimes we are not being rejected. We are learning the rhythm.

You will hear an honest conversation about living with pain, believing God for healing, following wise medical guidance, preparing for change, and trusting God as the Master Rope Turner.

One rope may pass beneath your feet, but it will not defeat you. Another may pass over your head, reminding you that you are still covered.

Your story is not over. The ropes are still turning.

Keep praying. Keep preparing. Keep listening. When God says move, move. When He says jump, have the courage to enter.

Episode 3, “Lord, Turn the Rope: When Somebody Else’s Testimony Sounds Like Your Prayer,” drops Tuesday, August 18, 2026, at 12 p.m. Central Time.

Follow Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me on Spotify at bit.ly/JustLoriPodcast so you don’t miss an episode.

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Where do big dreams begin?

Not always on a stage.

Not in a corner office.

Not in a million-dollar studio.

Sometimes they begin in a little room.

This episode was inspired by a powerful moment during OutKast's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Earlier that evening, musician Jack White challenged young creators to "get your hands dirty and drop the screens and get out in your garage or your little room and get obsessed."

Later, André 3000 reflected on those words. As he remembered the little room in Atlanta where OutKast first began, his voice broke with emotion. Through tears, he said, "We started in a little room." Then he reminded us, "Little rooms... great things start in little rooms."

That moment stayed with me.

As I looked around my own second bedroom, I realized I was sitting in my little room.

The room where I pray.

The room where I worship.

The room where I've cried.

The room where I've questioned God and celebrated answered prayers.

The room where Shades of Blaque Creations® was built.

The room where M.U.S.E. Method Academy was created.

The room where I learned AI, designed products, wrote books, recorded podcasts, and discovered new dreams I didn't even know I was carrying.

In this deeply personal episode, I share my original spoken word poem, "Little Rooms," followed by an honest conversation about why we should never despise small beginnings.

Your little room may be a kitchen table.

A dorm room.

A corner of your apartment.

The front seat of your car.

Or a spare bedroom like mine.

Whatever it looks like, don't underestimate it.

God has always done extraordinary work in ordinary places.

If you've been waiting for the perfect time, the perfect space, or the perfect circumstances to begin, I hope this episode reminds you that your purpose doesn't need a bigger room.

It simply needs your obedience.

Scripture: Zechariah 4:10 (KJV)

"For who hath despised the day of small things?"

Thank you for listening to Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me, where we embrace authenticity, faith, creativity, and the courage to become exactly who God created us to be.

Because great things...

still start...

in little rooms. 🖤🎙️

Season 5 of Just Lori, I Can Only Be Me is here, and this premiere is extra special. Tuesday, August 4, 2026, marks my three-year podcast anniversary!

Season 5 introduces Unfiltered: The Authenticity Series, where the investigation turns inward. Last season, we examined artificial intelligence, bias, and the systems shaping our world. This season, we are talking about the versions of ourselves we have created to survive those systems.

In Episode 1, “What’s Underneath the Mask?”, Lori returns to the powerful story of MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini, whose face was not detected by facial-recognition technology until she held a white mask in front of it.

That moment raises a deeper question:

How many of us have learned to put on metaphorical masks just to be recognized, accepted, respected, or allowed through the door?

From code-switching and the professional “customer-service voice” to racial battle fatigue and the pressure to appear strong, polished, pleasant, and unbothered, this episode examines what those masks cost us.

What happens when you have worn the mask for so long that you are no longer sure which voice is your natural one? What remains underneath when you stop performing? And is being registered by a system truly the same as being seen?

This is not a checklist for becoming your authentic self overnight. It is an honest, reflective conversation about identity, faith, fatigue, survival, and learning to live with an open face.

Grab your favorite drink, get comfortable, and let’s rap.

Season 5 premieres Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. CST.

Celebrating three years of empowering authenticity, one story at a time.

God bless. Much luv from me.

I’m Just Lori. 🖤