Animals & Us - Voices of a New Paradigm
Animals & Us - Voices of a New Paradigm
Episode 21: The Healing Power of Nature: Living in Deep Connection with Animals, Nature and the Land, with Kari Lesick
In our journey through life, we all seek solace, peace, and understanding, but oftentimes we overlook a place we can find these. Today's enriching episode takes us on an exploration of the often-untapped sources of tranquility and wisdom found in nature and animals. We weave through my personal stories and those of our guest, healer, counselor, and mentor, Kari Lesick.
Kari reveals a fascinating world where humans and animals communicate, sharing her diverse experiences from bonding with orangutans and elephants in Southeast Asia to practicing various healing modalities like body talk and hakomi. She shares how she's found comfort in nature during turbulent times, emphasizing the importance of creating moments to connect with nature's elements either physically or intuitively. We also discuss the importance of grounding ourselves through sensory exploration, using our imagination to connect with nature, and the role of sensory experiences in coping with loss, particularly the loss of a beloved animal companion.
As you listen, remember to slow down. Be present. Look for ways to connect with the natural world in your daily life. Our hope is that this conversation inspires you to see the beauty and interconnectedness of all life forms.
For more information about Kari, visit her website at https://www.karilesick.com.
You can also find her on Instagram @karilesick.
Hi there and welcome. You're listening to Animals and Us voices of a new paradigm.
Avantika:My name is Avantika and I'm a researcher exploring animal consciousness, environmental sustainability and planetary health. I want to help bring animal perspectives to the table and transform our relationship with the natural world, and I'm Barbara.
Barbara:I'm an animal communicator and retired veterinarian. My true passion is exploring the hearts and souls of animals and helping people come to a much deeper understanding of who the animals truly are at their core.
Avantika:This podcast is for anyone who loves animals and nature and has an interest in their own personal and spiritual development. We'll bring you powerful conversations with fascinating people about animal and nature, sentience, consciousness and communication.
Barbara:Thank you so much for joining us on this journey of love, respect, understanding and care for the fellow beings who share our beautiful Mother Earth with us.
Avantika:Hello and welcome to another episode of Animals and Us voices of a new paradigm. I'm so excited to introduce you all to our guest for today and a really dear friend of mine, carrie Lesick. Carrie, I met her for the first time last year I can't believe that it was just a year ago in Kelowna, british Columbia, which is in Western Canada. Kelowna is a city nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains, by the water, and I want to mention this because Carrie was my guide and my mentor as I moved into this beautiful place and started to explore it, and I knew immediately that Carrie was so deeply connected to the land and all the beings that inhabit it. Carrie has this way of living in deep connection, communication and gratitude for all the species, whether it be companion animals, the wildlife, the trees, the plants, the water, the rocks, everything that surrounds us. She's a person of many gifts, talents and passions who has a fascinating history, so let's see if we can capture a little snapshot of her background and these various gifts. Carrie works with humans and animals on many different levels, doing integrative healing, counseling and mentoring, while balancing their physical, emotional, environmental and spiritual needs. She uses a number of different modalities, which I think we'll hear more about today. She's trained in body talk, hakomi. She's also an interspecies communicator. She has spent a lot of time with dogs, and I think we'll hear more about that today as well. She's also traveled quite a bit and has communicated with orangutans and elephants in Southeast Asia, and she spends if there's one thing I can tell you about her, she spends a lot of time on the land as well, outside. So the list of cool things about her just goes on and on, and we're excited to dive into some of those today.
Avantika:Barbara and I have both had the pleasure and honor of getting to know you, carrie, over the past year or so, and I think it's just one of those relationships where we feel like we've known each other forever. My husband, too, has had the pleasure of getting to know you, carrie, and I asked him this morning to give me three words to describe you. So he said charismatic, loving and spiritual, which I thought was pretty bang on. I was like, yeah, I 100% agree, carrie. I feel like you're someone who helps people tune into the guidance that is there for them and available to them. Every moment of the day, you show us how life is, always speaking to us and communicating with us through all sacred and sentient beings, and we're so happy that we could finally have this conversation. So thank you so much for being here and welcome.
Kari:Thank you, avantika. I also want to thank to Vinder for his three words and Barbara, it is always a delight to be with the two of you. There are very few people in the world that when we get together, we can go so many different directions and so many different beings, seen and unseen, can show up in our conversations. So, yeah, thank you for having me here today. I'm excited. It's a long time in the work for this to come together.
Kari:One thing I would like to do before I start is you know, I met Avantika a year ago and we were on the Silk Territory and I'm grateful to the people of that nation and time and memorial, the ceremonies and the ways that they've honored and held those lands in such high regard and the relationship with the four legged in the plant kingdom. And I also want to share today that I'm in a different location, that I'm on Treaty Six Territory, which is colonially known as Edmonton. I've had the immense gift of the past week of creating relationship with the land, coming here and introducing myself to the trees and the grasses and slowing down to really just connect with the roots of the nations that are here the Cree and the Blackfoot and Nakoda and the Denny and the Mady people, also from Region 4. I know that there are many other nations that are here as well, and I really am humbled by the opportunity to connect with, being seen and unseen here too.
Barbara:Thank you, terri, that was so beautiful and I've loved all of our conversations and I'm so inspired by you and your connection with the land and the Native peoples. I live in the US and you both in Canada. It makes me want to move to Canada, but it's been really, really, really wonderful getting to know you and we've had some tremendous conversations and now we get to do it on the podcast. So I'm very excited. And, carrie, briefly, what is the work you do? What is your overriding intention or purpose or goal in the work you do and what got you there? What's a little bit of your personal story?
Kari:That's a big question. The overriding intention is that your phrasing. Is that your words?
Barbara:Yeah, Just what calls you, what kind of work are you actually doing and why? I know it's a big question.
Kari:It is a big question. What calls me is being connected, feeling a sense of connection, a sense of unity, and for many reasons, my 10,000 hours has been on the land and with the land. Some of that has been alone. A lot of that has been with the dogs. The dogs have been incredible mentors for me in understanding communication and understanding relationships and understanding connection. And the beautiful thing around dogs is, you know, I think, when we ask one another, how are you doing today? And oftentimes the answer that you're going to get is well, I'm fine, even if we're not fine, we're just so conditioned and programmed.
Kari:The dogs have always shown me the truth and they've always mirrored, as people talk, what's going on within their relationships, their relationship to self, their relationship to others. So it really has been a study of the journey into the heart, into communication, into the ways that communication gets blocked or stuck. You know, intuitive communication can be with all form and all being. So it can be with animals, it can also trees and rocks and my liver or my gallbladder, and there's not really any separation. So sometimes, as people are going through their own challenges and blockages and barriers in life, part of that intuitive communication is just slowing down and really being able to connect into what part of the body is telling you or wants to say. So my passion is listening, is watching and witnessing, is being an advocate for beings that don't necessarily have an equal voice at the table. I think sometimes we make decisions around animals or plants or the land without consulting those beings, and also part of a big part of my passion is with the human animal and the ways that we struggle uniquely. You know, we have this consciousness, this greater being that we call the mind, which is often our greatest hindrance, and so I really one of my passions is taking people and just being on the land with them and allowing the laws of nature, the elements, to bring their teachings and their lessons.
Kari:The one thing I know for sure is the one thing that I can trust is the laws of nature or truth. Some of the man-made laws, some of the laws that I make up, can get me into a lot of trouble. So the most aligned and balanced, I feel, is when I'm on the land and quiet and just listening and watching the magic show up. I appreciate that when I'm on the land with someone else, that we get transported back into a state of childlike curiosity, and so, with that awe and wonderment, there's often beings or messengers that will show up in the most unexpected ways, at the most unexpected times and somehow, when we're in resonance and together, our blinders come off.
Kari:And so what I mean by that is we could walk the same trail and be stuck in our own heads, or have had something come up in the morning that has us swirling or angry, and we could walk by that same eagle or deer or symbol on a tree and not even notice it. So, when we can stop, pause and slow down and come into resonance and the harmony with nature, now those messengers, as they show up, they bring gifts for us, they bring information, pockets of information, they bring hope, they bring messages, and the biggest thing that I've noticed is they bring an invitation back into self, back into being embodied, back to finding safety and trust within each of us. It's kind of a long and broad and detailed answer.
Barbara:Perfect, it's perfect and it was beautiful, really beautiful. I think it's so important that we pay attention to these things and that we communicate with nature and ourselves. And that brings me to a question about what you're doing now, which is Hakomi right. Isn't that a system of tuning into the body, mind, spirit?
Kari:It really is. So, hakomi, you're journeying, exploring into the body to look at some of our core wounds or traumas, the things that have happened to us in life, and there's ways those are living within us and they hold us back. They hold us back from living a life that we want to lead and I really enjoy. Hakomi is a lot like walking out on the land with someone, and how they're similar is we all have story and we start off on this journey together where in a Hakomi session, someone steps sharing their story, the story of how they're feeling, things that have happened, and within that story, we get to stop and pause for a minute and then we get to notice, we get to invite in the body and notice.
Kari:Where does that story live in the body? We notice it might be a sensation of how it feels, or a color or a shape or a story may have words to it. And when we can really slow down and witness what the body is holding and we can get really curious about that and some of these barriers, some of these ways that we carry limitations into the world and we just hold back from having a vibrant life where we can be consumed or afraid, somehow there's something that shifts and changes within us. Part of the body starts to loosen off the ways that we've been holding or guarding or armoring or carrying ourselves. If we can have someone take that over with us and hold it with us and we can relax into it for a moment, there's really important things that come out. So it's really a journey of being embodied and also sharing and witnessing story.
Barbara:I love that. It sounds really wonderful. And, speaking of story, you've got your own little story going on and what I'm really curious about and excited about is that you have traveled and you have worked with orangutans and taught why you were over in Asia. So can you talk a little bit about what that experience was like? What were you doing and why, and what was it like to be with those orangutans in the wild?
Kari:How long do we have? Do we get to have a couple hours?
Barbara:Yes, briefly briefly, karen.
Kari:You know that part of my life was a very exciting time, and it was a journey where I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie, where we would see things and experience things that you couldn't really quantify, that the human mind couldn't make sense of, and it was magical. It was magical to be with the orangutan and I think the journey of getting to the orangutan was one of stillness, patience and also a tenacity. I had an amazing mentor at the time, a woman named Lucia Jacob, and one of the things that I love about Lucia is she's larger than life and the things that the average person would think wasn't possible or wasn't doable, she would always be okay yes, why not, let's do it. And it was from a communication that she had. We had one of the very first workshops that she had that we were doing together as a group, called Linking Awareness, was in the Singapore Zoo for the practical day and there was an orangutan there named Charlie, and when she had connected in and the group of us was sitting around observing the session he was sharing about, you need to go find the woman that knows about the orangutan and that she was in Borneo, in Kelamantan, and so to be able to go and find this person. And so we went on this journey to meet and find someone named Brute Geldikos. And so the incredible part of this story was that Jane Goodall, diane Fossey and Brute Geldikos all had their own unique journeys with primates and, to make a very long, convoluted story short, it was a bit of a treasure hunt. There was a lot of time of sitting and waiting and just being patient, waiting for the door to open to meet Barute, and so just in that act alone, I think it really taught the importance of stillness, the importance of rights of passage, that sometimes all the time, it's really important to show up when we're guided, even if it seems really crazy and we can't understand why we're being told to go sit at this place and wait. And so when we finally did meet her, it opened up a multi-year project of being able to look at animal communication and to go into the jungles and to just spend time with the orangutan.
Kari:One of the things I can share as a bit of a personal story was the orangutan. I had this experience one day when we were taking a group of little juveniles out into this little playstation where they got to just be in the jungle and explore. These little orangutans would come like little kids and wrap themselves around you. We walked together out into this area and I remember holding one of the little orangutans and we were heart to heart and I could just feel the heartbeat of this amazing being and somehow, all of the years of my conditioning, my protection, my guarding, the way I armored my own heart, it just fell away. It fell away and it was a very emotional moment for me Because somehow in that moment there was a safety of being witnessed by another being other than human that could touch and see me to the core of my humanness, that had no expectations, that didn't have me entombed in a frame of who they thought I was, that somehow saw me in my wholeness, as I saw this being in their wholeness and their light, and the moment was magical. It was a life-altering moment and some of the time that we spent on the land and the jungle it was as if the orangutan were just like come here. I want to show you something and I remember one of the very first pictures or the first images I took was of this orangutan sitting on a boardwalk and it had its hand down on the side of the boardwalk and the image was just of the hand and there was something so strong and powerful and gentle and I'll often look at that image because within the image is just such, there's an energy that you can't even put into words, that deeply and profoundly changes you as you engage and you dance with that image. Something within your self-structure, something within my beingness, changed, and so I noticed that the time in the jungle, the time with the orangutan, really opened up my heart, my capacity to love, my capacity to be curious and playful and probably one of the most important things is it opened up my creativity. It opened up a love affair. It opened up a love affair with the land. It opened up a love affair within myself where I could take the creativity of the feminine and put that into this love affair in a way where it was poetic, it was artistic, it was dynamic and it allowed me to really step into being a very different person than who I was seen to be in my family system or in the third-dimensional world.
Kari:I think that one of the beautiful things about animals is that animals help push us out of having type A personalities where we have structure and agendas and schedules and time frames and if we can drop that you know the orangutan from a practical perspective just because you're at a feeding station waiting for them to come doesn't mean that they're going to show up.
Kari:And so there's this level of patience and beingness, and if you could drop yourself we played a lot with, I played a lot with if I could drop myself into that place of a still point within, if I could connect within my own body and slow down, if I could sit in my heart and send out an invitation, would they show up differently than how we're conditioned, as you know quote unquote when we come in as tourists, where there's a busyness and we walk in and an expectation that they're going to animals, are going to entertain, and they're going to show up and be there, and so it's a very different energy field, it's a different consciousness, it's a different invitation. And oftentimes, when we could come in either individually or collectively and hold that space, then guess who would show up. Does that answer put you a question?
Barbara:Yes, I could feel it, carrie, it's like I was there with you. I got really emotional for a while when you were with that baby, with the orangutan, and you know, I think something we have in common is that deep love of wild animals and wildlife and nature. And I've had experiences with wild animals. The close personal ones have mostly been in captivity, but still it's. There's something so special about being with an animal like that and somehow winning their trust and in sharing just that wild, divine, natural essence of who we all are. And you know what I'm curious about, as you talked about that, it stimulated your creativity and I'm wondering how that happened. What's that about?
Kari:You know, I that's a really great question and, as I feel that question in my body when you ask it would I keep hearing rippling in the background Was the words love affair, love affair, love affair. And so when I think of human relationships and when I think of beloved and when I think of what is it like when we fall in love with someone, another being and a different part of us gets to show up. You know there's this euphoria almost, or that person that you know, for a moment in time, we have a snapshot in time where that person that we dreamt of being or these things that we dreamt of in life seemed possible in that newness of relationship. And I really feel like part of it was the busyness of my life. Once you come from the city and you go into the jungle, you know, barbara, what it's like to be with the wild ones, or be on the land when you slow down. I think part of it was an activation from being on the land. You know Indonesia is a country of love, people that are some of the most loving people and radiant loving energy is.
Kari:My experience has been in Indonesia and so I think that there are places on the land on this planet that also hold different resonance, almost different frequencies and different downloads, and I felt part of myself wake up, and so it was as if somewhere in time, a memorial. I had been on those lands before in another form and you know, I make up a story that perhaps there was something I left behind or something that was left behind for me, and I feel sometimes, when I'm really called to journey to a place, I get really curious about oh, where is the gift? What have I come back to remember, what have I come back to to pick up? You know, what have I come back to collect? And I really think that that time of creativity it was coming back to embody that, it was coming back to, to have an intimacy with the land, with the orangutan, with the jungle, and open up that, that intimacy within myself. I know, with other people that you've had on the podcast that perhaps you've talked about chakras and chakras and animals and in humans. I know that being on that land had a big effect on some of those, those energy centers in my own body and activating that energy.
Kari:I think, being in the jungle also, I dropped the bravado of being an adult, and an adult that knew things and I got back to going, or I got to go back into being a child again and just being curious and playful and so that you know allowed me to walk through the swamp in my bare feet and feel the mud in my toes, to watch some of the different plants and you know how they could catch a fly or catch another insect. There was just a real way of igniting this childlike passion about relating to the land and being alive. So I think that there's a lot of complex answers around creativity and what that was about, and some easy answers around what it was about.
Barbara:Thank you, and you know you just triggered something for me. First, I bet you the orangutans were part of that playfulness and creativity, because they, you know, when I've been around them it's more in captive situations, but the little ones, oh my God, they're so playful and adorable. But also, you reminded me when we talked about creativity. I hadn't really considered this before, but because I've been in some wild places with wild animals and because I've had personal relationships with some quote wild animals in captivity, I think it's awakened something in me too, that creative spark, and I've been noticing lately that I just all I really want to do is write, and my writing is with the animals, you know, connecting with them, and I think it has awakened more creativity in me too, just those interactions. So thank you for bringing that up. It's very, very, very wonderful. And your experience, oh my God, I could listen all day and just go there with you. So thank you.
Kari:Thanks, barbara. You know I was thinking about you this morning as I was getting ready to come online and record with you today. I was just sitting in meditation and going back to a time with the orangutan and also the elephants, and I was thinking about you, barbara, when it came to the elephants and I know that they are the elephant kingdom is a deep passion and love of yours and I was thinking about you know a couple of things about the elephants. One was being drawn to, I was infatuated with their feet and watching how their feet would move and how such a grandiose being could be so quiet and so gentle on the land. And then the other thing that was intoxicating for me, being around the elephants, is not the trumpeting that they would do, but that rumble of the sinus passage. And so when they would do that, there was something in me where I would just close my eyes, and it was, I would just. It was like ecstasy and I could almost feel my own cranial bones and my own brain just moving to that rumble.
Kari:And as I was hearing you talk about your journey, barbara, with creativity, I was like huh, I wonder if being around the elephants, with that, that transmission, that energy field and just noticing within myself how I had that, how I felt that in my own body. If part of that energy shakes up the head and the places that we hold really rigid and the thought patterns of how I think or we think we should move through life, if somehow that gets shaken up and that's also part of what opens the channel to come into the heart and into that, the womb of creativity, and connecting the heart and the womb of creativity, and I'd be really curious you know for you how that creativity has been enhanced by your time around the elephants?
Barbara:Wow, that's so interesting and I'm not going to take up this whole podcast talking about me and the elephants. But you know, to me when the elephants do that low rumble, it's like a cat purring kind of you know. They're just so calm and beautiful and peaceful. I don't know about it affecting my head when I'm sitting in my house writing to the elephants, but being in their presence is and Avantika has been there with me too in Africa there's something just so it's indescribable. When you're in the presence of those guys in their own natural habitat, it's very, very, very special. So thank you for all that, carrie, and I'm going to turn it over to Avantika.
Avantika:Yeah, carrie, I was going to say I really hope one day that you write a book, because listening to you speak is like listening to poetry. Honestly, you have a way of transporting us with your words and I really feel like you have a way of embodying what you are speaking, you know, and by how you speak it and what words you choose. So I just wanted to say thank you for sharing that with us and our audience and we can finally share your brilliance with our audience as you talk about your experiences, and I want to talk about, you know, something that I went through this year.
Avantika:It was a rough year for me, you know, gone through some hard times this year, earlier in the year, and, carrie, as you know, you had a really important role to play in my journey and I still think you do. But during that time you were like an anchor for me and I look back and I feel really fortunate and I have the sense of knowing that you know we had to be physically together during that time. You helped me. You helped to show me that I could feel safe and comforted by and held with love by the land, by the trees, by the water, by, you know physically, coming with me, taking me onto the land and probably doing a lot of the work that you described at the beginning, that you do with people, but I really felt like I could take a deep breath and surrender and really let go and surrender to the laws of nature, which, as you said, represent the truth. So I just first of all, you know, want to acknowledge that and thank you for all that I can all the things that I can't even put into words that you did to hold my hand and guide me through that.
Avantika:It was like a live experience of what you. But I want to ask you for anyone who's listening who might be going through a really hard time or in the future, if they come across something in there, really in a place of struggle, do you have any words for us on how we can embody some of what you've said and really turn to nature, turn to those laws of nature, turn to the beings that are around us, whether it be our companion animals or being outside, or even connecting intuitively with other beings that we're not physically present with? Do you have anything that you could share with them about how to gently navigate through a tough time?
Kari:Thank you for that question and before I give the answer to that question, I really want to acknowledge your vulnerability with even naming what you were going through or the tough time that you were having, and what a gift it was to just be on the land with you and just walk and just witness. To answer your question. In the struggles of life, in my journey of life and some of the moments I've had to meet, what I've come to understand is just because I think it doesn't mean it's real. And oftentimes, when our systems, when I get overwhelmed, when my system gets overwhelmed, it's hard to be able to differentiate between what's really happening and the stories that I'm making up or what I think is happening. And some of the greatest teachings I've had from some of my mentors has always been to take those moments to the land. So when we feel overwhelmed, when we feel like we may not even be living in our bodies, that we can't touch hope and there's this real sense of desperation and aloneness. I know that if I go to the trees and I sit at the base of a tree and I lean back into the tree, that I can feel the trunk in my spine touch and become one. If I think about that tree, if I was to sit and close my eyes, I can understand that beneath me is earth, is a solidness of earth, and there's also a root system. And if I could imagine it, it's as if I'm being held by a root system, that I'm finding my own backbone, that there's somehow support within me, I'm touching my own support and that somehow there's something you know there's this being, there's this living being, this tree that is holding this very grounded energy that goes from the earth up into the heavens, into the cloud realm. And that in that moment, if I can just surrender and be there, if I can put my fingers into the soil of life, if I can feel the texture of that soil, it's coolness, it's dampness, that somehow I remember that I too am alive. In those moments there's something that I think that we remember about ourselves, or there's something that awakens. And then you know sometimes when, if we could just do that one thing, whether it's a tree in our backyard or whether we're at our desk at an office and we just draw a tree or we imagine it, we close our eyes for a minute and just imagine there's a way that that just invites us to pause for a minute, to just to breathe, to not feel so alone.
Kari:And I feel right now. We live in a time where life is hard Mentally, people are taxed, there's a lot of anxiety and depression and hopelessness. And there's an excitement for me when we're together on the land or when someone goes on the land about, we find life again, we find connection, we find breath. And I realize that just as our earth is made up of the elements earth and air and fire and water and space, so am I.
Kari:And when I can understand that if I have a lot of wind in my system or a lot of air the days that I'm talking a lot and not in stillness, I understand that that does something to the element of air in me, and so then I can feel anxious or overstimulated. And so by being on the land and with the elements of the land, that somehow it has a way of recalibrating the elements within me and bringing a grounding and a calmness. Sometimes there's this euphoria of almost being invincible on the land because I come, you know, we have this invitation to come back into balance and alignment, and I think that's one of the hard things about sedentary lifestyles being on computers a lot sitting, a lot being inside a lot. Is that we really? We miss that calibration, we miss that nourishment that the land has to offer our systems.
Avantika:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that with us. I imagine, too, that it's probably easy to be on the land, and if we're really consumed by what's going on in our heads or in our lives, you know to miss those opportunities to connect and calibrate. So you know, do you have anything you could share with folks who are listening, who are feeling ready to slow down, who want to connect more deeply, who want to feel inspired by the magic and the wonderment of the planet and from all that you've learned from the animals and all that you've experienced personally, any words of wisdom to share with people who are ready to do that now?
Kari:Simplicity, so does it need to be, you know, a 10K hike with two or three hours out on the land? I mean that would be amazing. Sometimes it's sitting in your own home or your own office and it's just touching some things that are around you, things that have different qualities or different textures. You know, perhaps it's pulling up an image on the computer of a lion or a fish or an elephant and just really being with that image for a moment. I think when we're driving or we're out on the land and we notice something out of our peripheral vision, whether it's an animal that's there or it's a tree, can we engage with that being, whatever it is, with all of our senses. You know I'll often say this to people that I'm working with, with their dogs that and it goes the same for cats or any animals that we share our spaces with there's something really profound about going on a sensory experience with your animals, the animals that share space with you, your animal companions to you.
Kari:Know, what does their fur feel like? You know, could you recreate them in front of you so that if you were at work and they weren't in the same space as you, could you close your eyes and still feel their body and where their ribs are. Could you feel their fur underneath, you know? Is their fur wiry? Is it soft? Is it long, is it short? What's their musculature like? You know. Can you use your mind's eye to see their build and what they look like, you know? Can you, in your imagination, pick up their little foot and smell that you know little popcorn foot? Can you smell that scent and that essence? You know, perhaps you've done something like giving them tripes this morning that something that has a real taste palette or smell palette, where you can actually feel it, activate the saliva in your own mouth just from its smell. And so there's this way of bringing our senses in to again create that aliveness, this realness.
Kari:And I believe that that is such a simple thing that we can do, and it can be so calming and so soothing and so connecting and so real. And for those of us that don't have animals at home but have plants, we can go on the same journey with a plant or a tree in our yard. So it's also being creative around. What are the things that make you feel connected? For somebody else it might be a book. Can you activate that book from a sensory perspective. And if we could take a minute out of our day when we're feeling overwhelmed or disconnected and just played with that for a moment, if we could connect to our animal companions that way physically, where we had that much touch, so that we could embody them, we could bring them into our sensory awareness, then that does something, that that changes us somewhere deep inside. That changes us, it awakens us and it heals us.
Avantika:Honestly, listening to you, what I feel like doing and what immediately came to my imagination was going with our cat into our backyard and like experiencing what she's experiencing. I don't know why, immediately in the beginning, when you were describing this, I'm like thinking about Fiona on the grass and like actually getting down there with her and asking her like what are you looking at, what are you smelling? And experiencing life? You know to the best of my ability, through her eyes and through her senses, and how beautiful and powerful of a bonding experience that can be as well. And I'm definitely, you know, these days I'm just so aware of the fact that me getting time to actually touch my dogs and my cat and is such a gift, you know, and it's so precious to be able to do that with them and smelling their paws like I love doing that and just those quiet moments, you know, where we can really just kind of like how you described, you know, that experience with the baby orangutan, like just being there in that moment and feeling seen and feeling connected and everything else just kind of melts away, like I see you, I witnessed you and you see me, you witness me, and we can just share this, this beautiful moment together.
Avantika:And you also mentioned you know, you know, for if we're in an office or don't have access Necessarily to get out on the land or to be with animals, to even, you know, pulling up a picture of them, and that's really the beauty of this intuitive connection that we can have with other beings, and the power of intention and and how beautiful that can be with just you know, like you said, if you can't be physically with the tree, how interesting of an exercise it would be to just even draw the tree and imagine it and using all your senses to imagine that you are aware they're there with the tree.
Avantika:So, yeah, you've given us so much to think about and so much to digest. Our time has just flown by like. I feel like, as always, we could just sit here and keep chatting and and listening to you release. Truly, such a gift carry you give us every time we talk. You give us a lot of things to think about, you give us a lot to feel inspired by and a lot you, at least for me, you help me realize that there's so much more I can explore in myself and there's so much room for that magic to add light and joy and excitement to my life, so I'm always learning new things from you. Thank you so much.
Kari:You're very welcome. I'm always learning new things from you as well, you know, I think, one little piece that I'll add on about why that sensory experience it ties into what you were just saying about. You know what if you can't be with that animal or tree or in that space? One of the things I really appreciate about doing that sensory exploration Is this you know, one of my, my deep loves a dog that had spent many years with me menu pastor leader this year, because we spent so much time together and there's a whole other story as to like that's a whole other episode, but one of the pieces that I can share because I spent so much sensory hands on time with her doing exactly what we were just talking about that now, even though she's not in a physical body, I can recreate her in front of me, I can feel her, I can see her, I can smell so many different parts of her, I can awaken her Through all of my senses and have her be alive in such different ways, and that's a really important gift to bring forward when we go through that, that loss.
Kari:Also, alongside of that, I knew this morning, because of who Barbara was, that she'd be curious about the wild ones and what that experience was like. One thing to have gone through that experience many years ago. And it's a powerful exercise for me to sit as the person that I am now and close my eyes and remember. Bring the jungle to life, bring the orangutan to life, bring the elephants through all of my senses so that they can still talk and share with me now and I can continue to learn that I can still be in connection. That way, I'm never alone.
Barbara:That's so sweet, carrie, and beautiful Everything you've said. Like Avantika said, it's magical and it's poetic. The way you speak is poetic. It's like sitting at the foot of a wise old soul who has so much to share, so much wisdom. So thank you for all you've shared with us and you've given all of us a lot to think about and to feel and to be inspired by and to move forward with. So thank you for for all you've shared today.
Kari:Thank you, barbara. That means a lot coming from you.
Barbara:I love you, carrie. I love you too, barbara.
Kari:I treasure our relationship.
Avantika:I love you both.
Barbara:I love you too.
Avantika:I feel like I need to fit in here. No, I love you both. You know that this was so lovely. I'm so glad we got to do it and, like you said, carrie, there are so many more conversations to be had and to share. We've just scratched the surface. So in the meantime, though before we, you know, can hear you on the podcast again Could you tell our listeners where they can find out more about you or where they can reach you?
Kari:Yeah, thank you. You can email me at k l e s I c k at gmailcom, or my website is Carrie messickcom.
Avantika:Perfect, and we'll make sure that we put those links in the show descriptions. Everyone can find you easily and anything, before we wrap up, carrie, that you would like to share with us.
Kari:I just like to say that, avantika, if it wasn't for you, the three of us wouldn't be sitting here. You have a great way of following your intuition and reaching out to people in a way that other people wouldn't, and building community and bringing people together. So thank you for that.
Avantika:The pleasure is all mine. I'm very aware of all the beautiful souls I get to be around in this lifetime, so I just want to bring them all together and to have all these amazing conversations and bring more people in. So thank you.
Barbara:I just want to second that, carrie, that Avantika is an unbelievable networker and techie person and friend and just amazing. And it's true I wouldn't know you, carrie, without Avantika. What a gift. So thank you both. I love you both.
Avantika:Thank you. Yeah, I think we were just meant to find each other. I was just the mechanism and my heart was probably just the compass. So thank you both for being in my life and thank you to all our listeners who have tuned into this episode, and we really hope that the conversation has given you some food for thought. We would love to hear your feedback, any questions you have, any comments you have. Please share them with us. We love to hear from you. And before we wrap up the episode today, we would like to end with a brief blessing, as always, for the animals.
Barbara:We'd like to end this podcast by taking just a moment to be quiet and we give thanks and blessings to these amazing animals that we share our lives with. They give us so much and ask for so little in return. We hope that you can keep the animals and all living beings in your heart and in your mind as you go about your day. Thank you so much for being here with us today.