Wholistic Healer Spotlight:
Laure Badufle
Laure Badufle is a French-Korean adoptee, ESSEC MBA graduate, professional coach affiliated to the French School of Coaching, Kundalini Yoga teacher and Artist-Author.
Laure is the founder of RAJAVTAR STUDIO, a healing space with presence both online and in Paris, and RAJAVTAR WEAR, a conscious minimal and natural clothing brand. RAJAVTAR is Laure’s spiritual name, meaning embodiment of grace.
She created the ADOPTION MASTERMIND to help adoptees and adopters through the challenges of adoption and works with French and international organizations (Racines Coréennes, la Voix des Adoptés, G.O.A’L, I.K.A.A, Enfance et Familles d’Adoption) to promote the health and support the rights of the adoptees.
A Conversation with
Laure Badufle
IAMAdoptee interviews Laure Badufle, adopted from South Korea as she shares her journey of healing through kundalini yoga.
What is your name?
I was born in South Korea in 1984 under the name of Park Areum. In 1985, when I was adopted to France, my name became Laure Badufle. In 2018, I was given RAJAVTAR as a spiritual name that I chose as my yoga brand.
How do you identify yourself?
For many years, I have searched for my Self out there into the world, wondering whether I was more European or Asian. More recently, I have experienced that identity can be the intention that I want to give to myself and to others.
Where were you adopted from and when? If you would like to briefly share any aspects of your life before adoption, please do.
I am one of those many babies born in South Korea in the 70s and the 80s who were adopted and raised in Western countries because we were illegitimate children, which means our parents were not officially married and the conditions to live with them were not met.
You can hear more about my adoption journey on the Adapted Podcast.
What is Kundalini Yoga? Are there any other yoga practices or techniques that you practice or teach?
In my search for Self, I have tried many techniques and I specialized in three of them in particular which helped me the most.
First of all, when I discovered Kundalini Yoga (KY) in my 30s, I felt I was returning home, returning home to my body and returning home to my Asian roots as Yoga originated from Hinduism and Buddishm and as Buddishm is widely spread in Asia.
In KY, our true identity is revealed when we become conscious of our breath. We realize that our core identity, our « sat naam », is our magical ability to experience the infinite potentials of life and if we cannot breathe, we cannot live at all.
Stress management is a common issue among Adoptees and KY works well to release the stress we pile up in our body by practicing strong breath control, repetitive movements and sound therapy. We target our work on the nervous and glandular systems to detox ourselves.
Then, on an interpersonal level, I found NonViolent Communication (NVC) very useful because it helps us to create authentic relationships with ourselves and others. As Adoptees, we often overadapt to others, trying to please them while neglecting our own needs, which sometimes ends up in abruptly cutting relationships and feeling guilty about it. With NVC, we learn to welcome our emotions because they tell us more about our needs and we train ourselves to take care of our bonds with others while remaining true to ourselves.
Finally, on a transpersonal level, I received much understanding and healing with Family Constellations (FC). This technique can be performed as a group with the support of a facilitator. It allows us to map the relationships among our families, whether we have information or not about them, thanks to collective consciousness, which means the other participants. FC allows us to honor and connect to the power of our ancestors, the adoptive ones and the biological ones, while freeing ourselves from their mistakes.
What motivated you to learn and want to become masterful at this practice?
As a transracial Adoptee raised in a white environment, I have always searched for belonging and never really found it. I could never completely identify with only one technique and community, (in fact, I could not find anything relevant to transracial adoption) so I explored and combined different teachings to create the technique that answers my specific needs. By creating this technique, I feel I found my place and I help others to take their places as well.
What does healing mean for you as a human, an intercountry adoptee, and as a shaman? What does it look like?
Healing for me has three components :
- Acceptance of my story, myself and others,
- Humility to admit my wrongs and letting go of emotional burden,
- Training of the Mind, which allows us to Rewrite our stories, changing painful memories into meaningful experiences.
To illustrate this possibility, I created a 15 minute special Rebirthing Meditation for Adoptees, which will give us the opportunity to revisit the moment we were born and our relationship with the world.
Are there specific programs you are creating or have created for the intercountry adoptee community?
I created the Adoption Mastermind, an all-year-long online and bespoke program for Transracial Adoptees, which combines all the teachings that helped me for the past 15 years about Transracial Adoption. It consists of online modules and 1:2:1 sessions during which we can work on anything related to the program or our daily challenges.
We also launched Adoptees International Anonymous (AIA), in French language and online. We will publish a book about the programme and we hope such initiative will grow all over the world.
In what ways has your identity as an adoptee changed, evolved, or developed over the years?
I like the metaphor of Camel – Lion – Child from French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. As a child, I was like an obedient Camel, carrying other people’s luggages on my shoulders and aiming for one standard of success. Then, as a teenager, I became a very angry and wild Lion and crossed many deserts. Today, I am trying to find joy and connect to my inner Child. In reality, life is not linear and naturally, those three phases coexist every single day of my life. We strive for progress not perfection.
You can hear more about my transformation over the years in this article by the Korea Times.
Are there any ways you have incorporated your Korean heritage/culture into your daily life?
While living in Asia, I got a better understanding about my own body (how to take care of it, how to dress, how to make up) and how to cook Asian food, which I have incorporated into my daily routine.
I have also applied for the recovery of my Korean name and Korean passport, as a way to reclaim my story. (You can do it from your local Korean Embassy in any country. You do not need to live in Korea anymore to do so).
And finally, I have fantasized about the Korean girl I could have become (and I will never be) by creating an Art Project called #TOMYIMAGINARYTWIN.
How do you take care of yourself?
I have been clean and sober for two years now thanks to the support of the 12-step-recovery programs and it has changed my life. Those programs are available near you, either in-person and online.
Is there one book, film or movie you would recommend to fellow adoptees?
You can watch « Return To Seoul », which is based on my true life story and rewatch « Kung Fu Panda » and eat dumplings whenever you feel down!
Thanks for your time.
DIY: Rebirthing Meditation for Adoptees (15 Mins)
