Creating space for ritual with Worn store's Lotte Barnes
Imagery: Mathew Coyte //@mathewcoyte
Words: Emma Vidgen // @emma_vee
Vedic meditation teacher and WORN store co-founder Lotte Barnes at home in Byron Bay
If you’re interested in interiors chances are you recognise Lotte Barnes as one half of the genius duo behind Worn Store. The interiors and fashion brand, the brainchild of Lotte and her wife Lia Belle King, has become a fixture on the design scene both in Australia and internationally.
But what you may not know is that when Lotte isn’t working with her wife curating the deliciously earthy aesthetic that’s gained Worn Store a cult following, she is a Vedic meditation facilitator.
The Wayward visited Lotte at her home in Byron Bay to learn about her journey with meditation and discover how creating a space for ritual can help nourish your daily practice.
we know you best for your work with Worn Store. Tell me, how did Vedic meditation find you?
Vedic meditation has a way of showing up, subtly at first and then often until you can’t ignore it and you simply know it’s something you need to learn.
I first met my teacher, mentor and now dear friend Mark Blondel through mutual friends. I went to one of his Vedic introduction talks but it wasn't until about a year later that I committed to learning and took the life-changing course with Mark.
Prior to learning Vedic, I'd practiced yoga for years. I dabbled in other kinds of meditations and was always drawn to more alternative spiritual practices and holistic treatments, but the ultimate thing that lead me to Vedic was coming out of my Saturn return. In my late 20s I was going through some really big shifts professionally and emotionally. I was dealing with anxiety and questioning a huge deal within myself and life. I had always had asthma, allergies and I had a lot of skin conditions including eczema which at that time became chronic. All of which I soon learned was emotionally stress-related. It got to a point where I was hitting roadblock after roadblock and was exhausted of searching outwards for answers to heal, as I had this belief that the healing process could occur within.
I was at a point of despair and knew that there had to be something else, another way.
You only get so far when you're pushing through an unbreakable wall until you have to stop and really reflect on what is going on and why this path isn’t working and intuitively connect to something actually really real inside. For me, Vedic was the significant turning point that empowered me from within and created long-lasting change on all levels of my life.
what changes did you experience once you started practising?
It was this feeling of coming home, to the home within you. For me instantly, it really helped with anxiety and all of my allergies, over time they completely healed and disappeared. It really realigned my whole being on a cellular level and left me feeling vibrant, connected and life became less about finding something external to fulfill me. I was able to tap into that fulfillment that was already within me and go deeper and deeper into that space.
Vedic led to a journey of self-exploration with my now wife Lia-Belle and I. We were both evolving in how we wanted to be in the world, so we decided to pack up our lives, our jobs, sell a lot of our things and just simplify our life. We just said, ‘let's go away and be free in love’. We were only meant to be going to Bali, India and Sri Lanka for a couple of months, so we only had small packs. Within two weeks of being in Bali it changed our whole presence and state of being.
We really started doing deep self-work and self-discovery and felt a shift in us during this new journey and we decided, ‘We're not going to go home. Let's really just ride this out…’
We traveled through India, we did panchakarma (Ayurvedic healing), we did a lot of shedding, a lot of beautiful traveling through different cultures. We saw healers, connected to nature, lived simply & we slowed down. Lots of yoga, lots of time spent in the ocean, we de-stressed our bodies and minds and this combined with my Vedic practice transformed how I was experiencing life and radically changed the trajectory of my life.
how long did you ride it out?
We got a villa in Bali and stayed for almost two years. We simplified everything and we started realising the true importance of your surroundings, of nature, of the environment.
Over this time, we sourced and made essential items for our home that delivered joy, function and were kind on the environment (where and how Worn was born!) We were really in that present moment of just being in a space where we were truly happy and understood that we didn't need to have all the things anymore...quality over quantity.
What did Bali change the way you approached life?
There's this beautiful saying, that Bali will take away all of your problems if you find flow and you surrender to the pace of the island. As a westerner, we’re so used to controlling things and the outcome and how you want things to be, but the island of Bali, she will throw tests at you constantly and she weeds people out. If you try and resist then she will push you out, you're not meant to be there. And I found we really learned those lessons of letting go, of letting go of your own personal preference of control, of the outcome, how things should be, because over there stuff just goes how it goes and you either find that that flow or you don’t. Thankfully we did and that approach has been embedded into us. To find flow, connect with nature and live more simply.
“You only get so far when you're
pushing through until you have
to stop and really reflect on
what is going on and
why isn't this working”
How did you hang on to that feeling when you returned to australia?
Fortunately, we continued to stay in that flow, that spiraled us on this beautiful pathway that led us back here to Byron Bay, rather than going back to Sydney. We were about to have our first child and we put it out there ‘to the universe!’, And asked ‘Where should we be living?' What kind of life do we want to continue to create?’ We wanted to take a new risk and didn’t want to go back to what we knew and the safety of Sydney. After asking these questions, Byron Bay just literally fell into our laps and aligned in so many ways (a house swap at first in Billinuggle, a retail doorway for Worn in Bangalow, our dog Gray found us & then we found our first home on the land in Clunes). It just kept unfolding without effort so we followed that flow feeling and haven’t looked back.
Everything became about our quality of life and how it made us feel. As that was how Bali felt for us. And every decision since then has been how do we feel in that space? How are we in flow? What is presenting? Are we surrounded by & respecting nature? What kind of upbringing do we want to give our daughter? These became the pinnacle questions we ask ourselves over and over to help keep us in that flow state.
what inspired you to become a meditation teacher?
Witnessing the profound transformations personally, I simply wanted to share this onwards to as many people as possible. To do something in this lifetime that has a positive impact on an individual's quality of life.
Before I knew that, Lia saw a post on Instagram that was about VM teacher training. She came and showed me and It was one of those moments when you just see something and you just know. It was an all-encompassing feeling of, that's what I need to do! I’d crossed paths in India with my soon to be teacher, Jacqui from The Broad Place, and was keen to deepen my studies with her. I got in touch and proceeded on an interview call from Bali to her in Sydney. You needed to do an interview because it's not just a short, six-week course, it was a year of study. It's very intensive. You do a lot of shedding, it's a real personal journey that takes a lot of commitment and dedication.
After really feeling that it was aligned we came back to Australia and shortly after I started, my studies. It took me two years. I paused my studies after our daughter was born, just to really focus and support Lia, bond with my daughter and simply because we knew that those magic few months would be fleeting and we would never get that time back. So prioritising that and, then continuing through my studies was how it unfolded. It was all such an amazing journey and time. Moving through parenthood and my Vedic studies has been some of the greatest life experiences thus far. Learning what's going on within you, around you and discovering how you surrender repeatedly, to your own preference, so that you can make room for something greater!
how do you create a space for ritual in your home?
For me, it’s scent. I have a growing collection of incense and oils but my go-to’s are Copal & traditional Sandalwood from India. I also love Bodha Modern Wellness and their ‘Ground’ incense, Dutchies & Maison Balzac Japanese incense.
Smell is the closest connection to memory, a muscle memory of sitting down into meditation, quieting the mind, closing the eyes, opening the heart and using the smell of incense to help guide you in.
A reminder to your body to instantly know, it’s in that space of calm.
Equally part of the ritual is sharing my practice with our beloved Gray (Kelpie x Koolie dog). She will sit next to me every single time that I meditate. I've always found that so beautiful. She knows the cues, she'll come and sit next to me and will stay the whole time. She doesn't move and gets into her little meditation groove.
When you meditate, within half a minute energy changes. Dopamine starts flowing through your body and you adjust to a frequency that animals really relate to and they become calmer. Dogs are really in tune with energetic frequency
For me, it’s scent. It's a reminder to your body to instantly to know it’s in that space of calm. It’s a cue that says, ‘sit down, you're going to let go and enjoy the environment,’ even obviously your eyes are close through it.
other than meditation, what else is a part of your morning ritual?
Going outside with my daughter, we almost always start our day outside. Be it barefoot on the grass, or walks in nature or by water. It is one of the most important life lessons I wish to share with Opi. To build her connect and understanding with the outdoors, the natural frequency that we are all connected with but don’t all have a connection too. It calms us both on a cellular level and sets us up for the day.
I also make for my wife daily - coffee (the slow way!) using a very sentimental Italian Atomic stovetop coffee machine. It’s taken me a good few years to master the art of how to add the right amount of water for the pressure, how you need to pack the coffee grind just right and how to froth and heat the milk to perfection. No instant Nescafe here. It really is an art and a sensory experience. You have to listen, feel and watch the entire process and give it your full attention which in itself is beautiful and a ritual I love.
how does creating a space for ritual help nourish your practice?
With Worn or the Veda Way, it is all an extension of how we choose to live our life. It’s the daily practices we as a family intertwined in all aspects of creating space within our home, life and existence. We place a great amount of time and care as to the feelings we are building in every space, or with every object. It is all amount nourishment and it is all about how it feels...
You don't have to have a designated nook, but it is nice to help get into the practice and get into the ‘feeling’.
I am very fortunate to have a multiple of Worn chairs within our home. I do rotate where I meditate, pending on the time of day, the light, where I am and or how I feel or what I naturally gravitated towards. Sometimes that staying in bed, sometimes that outdoors, in the car, at work, or sometimes it’s on the lounge or on a Worn single-seated chair. There are many factors to nourishing my practice, the seat is one part but the environment also plays a big part. As although your eyes are closed for the meditation, that time as you slowly open your eyes at the end and readjust to the world with a new calmer, clearer perspective - I like to look into nature as the first point of reference. I can see things with a different lens and connect on a deeper level. I bath in that time for as long as I can (generally a few mins before my daughter comes climbing on me or my dog licks my face!) Which is equally as rewarding as the view.
By carving out that time daily and creating a space and ritual, you're prioritising the importance of self-care and bringing the best version of yourself back out into the world. As meditation is really all about enhancing your eyes' open state and awakening your pure state of being to live a truer, fuller life.
“I can do nothing for you but work on myself, and you can do nothing for me but work on yourself.” Ram Dass