125. Suffering to Thriving: Kathy Harmon-Luber's Tools for Recovery

Are you ready to experience the healing power of sound & vibrational energy?

Are you curious about how your healing journey may be a portal to your life’s purpose?

On this episode, Colette hosts Kathy Harmon-Luber, Sound Therapy & Sound Healing practitioner who shares her fond memories of her early childhood and then trying to find her place in the world where she felt she belonged. Keep listening to hear her story of being diagnosed with what doctors felt was a debilitating spine disease that would have her in a wheel chair in her 30s.  Kathy was not about to take that as her future. She sought other modalities and went on a journey from suffering to thriving.

Stay to the end to hear how you too can heal yourself and how you can work with Kathy to find support for your journey to thriving.


02:05 Cherished memories of family nurtured lifelong passions

04:05 Traumatic move to Charlotte shaped sensitive childhood

07:16 Transitioned to college, built deep friendships, nonprofit work

12:10  Diagnosis of autoimmune and hereditary spinal diseases left Kathy questioning

25:02 Embraced naturopathic and functional medicine for autoimmune illnesses

27:13 Eliminated certain foods, took supplements; reduced swelling

31:51 Disruptions can lead to spiritual healing journey

33:17 Choosing hope, joy, and love over fear

36:16 Act with love and care for yourself

39:51 Author downloads chapter, scribbles in journal, creates book

43:45 "Explaining sound baths and Reiki healing briefly"

46:02 Cells emit sound at specific vibrations for healing

49:38 FREE heart chakra healing modules and sound bath

Ways to connect with Kathy:

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Suffering-Thriving-Toolkit-Navigating-Peaceful/dp/B09YDK52D8/

Website: https://sufferingtothriving.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathyluber/

Faceboook: https://www.facebook.com/SufferingToThriving

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kathyharmon-luber

FREE Healing Your Heart Chakra: https://healingartshealthandwellness.aweb.page/p/bfd182f7-b456-4ce8-b743-f21fcbd630d8

______________________________________

Connect with Colette:

Instagram: @wellnessbycolette

Website: Wellness by Colette

Thank you for listening to the Limitless Healing podcast with Colette Brown! It would mean the world if you would take one minute to follow, leave a 5 star review and share with those you love!

In Health,
Colette

Transcript

Our next guest is the author of suffering to thriving, your toolkit for navigating your healing journey, certified sound healer, sound healing practitioner, Reiki master, and more. She teaches us how to heal our bodies from within. It is a pleasure to welcome Kathy Harmon Luber. Welcome, Kathy.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:00:24]:

Hi. I am so happy to be here. Thank you.

Colette Brown [00:00:28]:

Great to have you. And I'm super excited just to dive right in. But first, I would love to know a little more about you. I know that you're currently in Idlewild, which is so pretty if you guys have never been there. It's this beautiful artist community in California right outside of Palm Springs, and it's enchanting, so you have to visit there. But where did you first grow up? And tell us about a significant childhood memory.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:00:56]:

Okay. I'd love that question. I grew up in western Pennsylvania in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, and our home was so wonderful. My dad was a forestry major who went into engineering, but he loved trees so much, he planted, like, I don't know, 40 different kinds of trees on our property, which bordered these beautiful woods. And all my memories of living there. And we moved when I was in my mid teens, 15 years old. And all of my memories up until that time were being out in the woods. We had a colleague, Taffy.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:01:38]:

She and I would go on adventures. There were lots of animals. Yeah, she was just like lassie. And we'd go on lots of adventures. There was a stream, there were foxes, there were bunnies, there were woodpeckers. There were just all kinds of animals. And it was really magical. It was a really magical time.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:01:58]:

And I just had such fond memories of that and other fond memories just besides. The memories of my dad really introduced me to nature in a big way. And my mom really encouraged me in the arts and in music, especially. And so I got started in art and music at a very young age. But my grandparents lived a couple of miles from us, and we had so many adventures at their place, too. Their home had been what was an orchard. Then it was broken up into smaller properties. So they lived on part of an orchard with all kinds of beautiful trees and a great garden with roses and poppies and all kinds of things.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:02:43]:

So those are the really wonderful memories I have of growing up. We moved to North Carolina after that, and it was just very different. But my early years were just really magical. I'd say. That's the word.

Colette Brown [00:02:56]:

Enchanting. That sounds like, was it a little jarring or shocking moving out of that and into a new place? And how was that transition for you?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:03:05]:

Yeah. Oh, it was very traumatic, as you can imagine, because I moved at all. The years are formative years, but I had gone to school with all the same kids, had friendships and neighbors and family, and we moved so far away. Charlotte's a lovely city. My family still lives there. But it just was so hard for me. I was a very shy, painfully shy, creative, weirdly, wildly creative kid and very sensitive, highly sensitive kid. So it was difficult to go to a brand new school, being shy and sensitive and all that, and only for two years before going off to college, so it was hard to get established.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:03:55]:

It really was. It was hard to establish friendships. I did that through the music programs and the art programs and both in school and then extracurricular things. So, yeah, it was really hard. I was in a very bad depression at that time, one of many in my life, but I, at that point, was not getting the help that I needed because nobody recognized it. And so those were really hard years right after moving. It was a traumatic thing for me. Sure.

Colette Brown [00:04:27]:

And did you make friends? Was it hard for you? Did you feel like you were an outsider, or was that part of the problem? You weren't really fitting into that environment.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:04:39]:

Yeah, I wasn't fitting in. I was from up north and definitely an outsider, and everyone spoke with a southern accent, and I'd be in class, and I couldn't understand people. That was terrible. And it made me just all the more self conscious and shy. So there was that. But then I made a couple of friends through the music program. I played classical flute, and so I was in the band and I met people. The orchestra, actually, I met people.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:05:07]:

And so through them, I discovered a group of people who sang, and I became very actively involved in that. And that saved me because they were all creative, musical people like me, so I fit in. But it's so much of, I think, childhood and teenage years is. And life, let me just say. And, like life, it's like finding your tribe of people. Like, where do I fit? It's the longing for belonging. And until you find that, life can be very uncomfortable. We have to find our tribe.

Colette Brown [00:05:43]:

Yeah, you do. And I went from a small town to Los Angeles, very different, but that resonates so deeply. And I really started making good friends after I had children. So I understand that jarring effect that can happen when you're out of an element and you go into another one, and it can create a lot of problems. It doesn't have to, but it can. So where did you go after that? So high school finishes. And then what did you do?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:06:16]:

I went off to college and that was a continuation of just a real, those were struggling years. They really were. So when you said you really started making friends after you had kids, it's like I really began having deep friendships that I have to this day. After I graduated from college and moved to Washington, DC, and I was starting a life on my own, moved away from home, and I just had this fire in my belly to make a difference in the world. I always have. I attribute my grandfather. He had a lot of influence on me in helping others. So I've always worked with nonprofit organizations, my entire career, organizations that make the world a better place for people and for the environment and things like that.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:07:06]:

And I went to DC because there were a lot of advocacy groups there. And that's where I got my start. And that is where I truly found my tribe of people and began to make really deep friendships that, like I said last to this day, amazing.

Colette Brown [00:07:22]:

So then where did it take you? So you're going all over the map here and then you end up in California? In Los Angeles.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:07:29]:

Yeah. So I was twelve years in Washington DC, where I worked for organizations like some environmental groups. I worked at George Washington University, the Democratic National Committee, the Smithsonian, lots of really wonderful organizations. After a while, I just was done with DC and I had been in fundraising. I had come out to California a number of times on business and I loved it. It just really spoke to me. And again, when we talk about finding your tribe, it was just so much more relaxed than DC. I never totally felt like I fit in DC.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:08:08]:

It was always putting on the mask of what I had to be to do those jobs. And I found when I was in California, I don't know, a different vibe just felt right. So I took a job in Los Angeles. And really not that Los Angeles is a fabulous city. I just love the diversity of it and the arts and everything. It's really magnificent. And the ocean, of course, I'm a water person, so the ocean was really a big influence. But at some point I had met my husband.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:08:42]:

Then we got married and he had brought his kids up to Idlewild when they were young and they go camping and everything. And he kept saying to me, we have to go to Idlewild. And I was working as executive director of a foundation. It's really busy, didn't have a lot of time off. But finally we ended up coming up to Idlewild for Thanksgiving. I fell in love with it. Then we'd come up for birthdays and other holidays and things. And it got to the point where I would just be in tears at having to leave after the end of a long weekend.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:09:15]:

I didn't want to go back. And it became clear to both of us that this community of artists and musicians was really. It's the first time I felt really connected to community is here in Idlewild. It's a sense of belonging that I don't think I ever had any other place except where I grew up in Pennsylvania.

Colette Brown [00:09:38]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:09:39]:

And so it's funny, I wandered a lot trying to find the right place for me, the right spiritual home, all of that. And this Mountain forest and this community of kindred spirits. Is it? My father, I'll add, did not allow me to major in music or art. Things I was really good at. He wouldn't permit me to do that. But after I finished college, I just decided I want those things in my life. So I always kept them in my life. I continued with flute playing, and then I got into sound healing, and I became a fine art photographer and collage artist.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:10:21]:

And so being here in Idlewild, it is that spirit of the arts that really helps to foster that creative journey, so to speak.

Colette Brown [00:10:32]:

Yeah. So this all sounds great, and this is a good story. I want to know what was that when you discovered that you have this autoimmune disease? And what did it look like leading up to that? Share a little bit more about that.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:10:49]:

Yeah, I love to share this because it is the story of healing. It is the healing journey. So when I was in, my, two things happened. It was autoimmune and hereditary spinal diseases that were extremely so. When I was 21 and working in DC, I began having, I was very active. I was always a runner and a swimmer. And I got into aerobics for a while. I did gymnastics.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:11:18]:

I was doing all the stuff. So very active. But I began to have really severe back issues to the point that I'd be out of work for a month, which at that age is not a normal thing. So I went to doctors and they told me that I had, at age 21, I had the spine of an 80 year old.

Colette Brown [00:11:40]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:11:41]:

I have seven spinal diseases that are hereditary. They run on my dad's side of the family. And so I thought, oh, in fact, I even had one doctor say to me, an orthopedic doctor said, you'll be in a wheelchair by the time you're in your mid thirty s. And I was like, what? I did not have that vision for my life. And I said, no, thank you and that set me, I don't know what it was within me that was just so resolved that I would find another way.

Colette Brown [00:12:14]:

And you were old when he told you that.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:12:16]:

I was 21.

Colette Brown [00:12:18]:

This is 21 when he said, you'll be in a wheelchair by the time you're 30.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:12:21]:

By the time I'm 35.

Colette Brown [00:12:23]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:12:24]:

I was very much, yeah, no, thank you. Don't want to own that story. So it put me on the search for complimentary things. I got more into yoga. I'd been doing yoga in college. I got more into yoga and fewer high impact things that I knew would cause issues. But by that point, a lot of the damage had been done at the same time. In my mid twenty s, I went to a new doctor, and she shook my hand, and my hands were very cold.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:12:53]:

And she says, oh. She turned them over. She says, oh, you have ray nodes disease. I said, what is that? It's autoimmune. And I said, what does it mean? She says, don't worry about it. Just keep your hands and feet warm in cold weather. And again, living in Washington, DC, we had real winters. Just keep yourself warm, and it doesn't mean anything until you start to have problems.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:13:16]:

So I forgot about it. I knew I had it. Fast forward. We moved to Idlewild 19 years ago, and we're on a mountain at high altitude. We have winters, and it really affects the extremities. I start having all of these weird symptoms. I go to doctors. Six doctor appointments, they didn't know it was autoimmune, and I did not know it was ray nodes, because it was affecting my feet, not my hands.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:13:44]:

So I didn't immediately put it together. I ended up seeing a dermatologist. He says, oh, no, you need to go to a rheumatologist. I got on that track, and the rheumatologist threw lots of big medications at it. Highest doses of nifetapine and gabapentin, at its highest dosage, 3200 milligrams. And I was so sick, and I had lots of other mystery symptoms, to the point that at my job, I had a number of people working for me. And one day a woman came in and she shut the door and she said, we're all very worried for you. Are you dying? They actually thought I was dying.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:14:24]:

And I get choked up saying that I wasn't. But the doctors hadn't fully figured out all the autoimmune things that were going on at that point. Someone, a friend said to me, you really should see a naturopath. I was getting acupuncture because of the spinal issues in my was doing acupuncture. I was doing reiki, a lot of complementary things, a lot of massage for the back, and then myofascial release, physical therapy, all this stuff. But I was having all of these weird things. So she said, go to a naturopath. And I did.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:15:02]:

I found a tremendous naturopath and a doctor of functional medicine. And so I just got myself to people who got me on the right track, and the naturopath, I did ayurvedic medicine. All of these things helped, which to our listeners who might have autoimmune, like, if you have one, it's well proven by doctors that you probably have two or more. In my case, I've got a few of them. And everyone, a lot of people, I should say, in the medical profession, will tell you that you can't cure them, that they get progressively worse and worse. And for a long time, I did, until I didn't, until I started doing the naturopath, got me on a course of supplements, and we dialed in diet, the anti inflammation diet, cutting out gluten. Even though I'm not gluten intolerant, I have a big sensitivity to it. I have a sensitivity, like most people with autoimmune, who Dr.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:16:05]:

Gundry's book, the Plant Paradox, talks about how people with autoimmune are the canaries in the coal mine. And if we eat night shades, like potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, all the foods I love. Right? I had an organic garden in the backyard. I was growing all those things. I ate them every day, and they were making me sicker. And lectins, things like beans and corn. And I might add that for over three decades, I've been a vegetarian. In recent years, I've added more protein, seafood, and chicken.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:16:42]:

Very recently, in fact, during COVID I began adding chicken to my diet to get more protein. But as a vegetarian, it became very difficult to take away vegetable after vegetable because they were inflaming my system. But it was very hard. I won't sugarcoat it. It was extremely difficult to be a vegetarian and have to take out, like.

Colette Brown [00:17:03]:

Half the vegetables, because beans are a staple of protein. And, yeah, I'm sensitive to them, too. Legumes.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:17:13]:

Yes. There you go. When I took them out of my diet, and after, like, maybe a month of getting everything out of my diet, the swelling in my hands, my wrist, my knees, my feet, all the swelling went away. The ray nodes began to reverse, began to good supplementation with a lot of high dosages of vitamin B and omegas and D vitamins all really contributed as well. So it's a matter of doing a lot of things at the same time, but being very scientific about it, adding one thing or taking away one thing at a time. I call that in my book, being super sleuthy. Try it for a week, see if it works for you. And if it works, do that.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:18:01]:

And it's a matter of over time, just dialing it all in and lifestyle choices. I think one thing with autoimmune that we learn, and especially spinal diseases, our body sends us signals when it's not happy, and we have to pay attention to the signals and rest. Rest doesn't just mean taking a nap. Rest means sometimes you need an entire day to rest, to recover from a road trip, or going to a doctor's appointment miles away, or going to an event at night. That's rest. And we have to just do very robust self care. And in our day and age, that's really hard. We have jobs, families, commitments, communities that we serve and work in.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:18:48]:

And so it is a huge challenge. But when we do it, I have reversed my autoimmune. Doctor said it wasn't possible. I've done it. I will tell you, I never talk about brands in particular, but a couple of years ago, when I started taking Dr. Isaac Iliaz's pectosol, which is modified citrus pectin, I got a handle on the horrendous nerve pain in my hands and feet. And the autoimmune, the ray nodes part of it, the connective tissue disorder part of it, the asthma part of it really began to get significantly better. I still have challenges that probably will always be the case, but it's not nearly as severe as what it was.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:19:34]:

And so everyone is different, each body is different. We have to find out what works for us. And so all of that is really important. But the most important part is following our inner healer. That's our intuition. And when I work with my clients, so many people say, oh, I don't have intuition like you do. I don't get little hits of wisdom. The more we stop, unplug, listen, just get quiet.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:20:04]:

The more our bodies speak in pain, hives, swelling, allergies, sensitivities. That's our body speaking. There's a wonderful book by Dr. Gabor mate called when the body says no, and it's all about this, it's tuning into your body. But when your body says no, we have to listen. And I'll tell you, the story of in 2016, I suffered the fourth spinal disc rupture. It was debilitating. I was bedridden for five years because I did not listen to my body that whole year.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:20:41]:

It was saying, wow, you really shouldn't go on that west coast, entire west coast road trip. You shouldn't probably photograph your friend's wedding. You shouldn't be on so many boards in town. All the things it was saying, slow down. Just slow down. I didn't. I went on a two day client trip away from home. And the day I came back, I was standing in the kitchen talking to my husband, making a cup of coffee, and the disc ruptured.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:21:09]:

He got me to bed, and I could not get out of bed, even to get to a doctor. So I had a wonderful doctor who called me, and we did a telehealth. I physically could not. I could barely get six to eight steps to the bathroom, the master bathroom, for months. I could not get to the bedroom door. For months more after that. I couldn't get to the kitchen.

Colette Brown [00:21:31]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:21:32]:

Couldn't do anything. My body completely shut down because I wasn't listening. And that was a big wake up call. And then later, I found Dr. Gabor mate's book. When the body says no. And then everything began to make even more sense. But I learned that lesson quite the hard way.

Colette Brown [00:21:50]:

Yeah.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:21:51]:

But I think I've come to see that healing journey. The way I say it in my book, Colette, is our healing journey is embedded in our life's journey, is embedded in our soul's journey. Like, these things happen for a reason, and they happen. These disruptions and healing can mean not only physical healing, but mental, emotional. It could be the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, a divorce, a breakup. All of these are disruptions in life that if we look for the gift in them, the lesson in them, they can be a portal to a beautiful spiritual journey. And that certainly has been my case. It completely shut me down prior to the disc rupturing, like, weeks before that, days before that, I was swimming 3 hours a week.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:22:43]:

I was hiking in our mountains. I was walking every day. Just incredibly active. I then could do nothing after that day for five years. What do you do? Okay, so you can ask all the wrong questions. You can sit and feel sorry for yourself and say, what will happen to me? What if it's always like this? What if all the bad what ifs? What if I'm like this for the rest of my life and I can't get out of bed? And then one day I realized that is mental suffering. And that kind of suffering is a choice. And every moment of every day we have a choice.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:23:17]:

How we make our mind our medicine. Are we going to feel sorry for ourselves and be in that kind of suffering or are we going to find joy and thrive? And so in that moment, that aha moment, I was like, every moment from now on, I am going to find hope and light and joy, and I'm going to choose, as Pema Shodran says, the buddhist nun, choose love over fear. Fear is that conversation and that downward spiral. Right? But love, what would love do? It's asking the right questions. What if this is a portal to a better life? What if it's an opportunity for me to follow my dreams and passions? I've got the time now. What if it's an opportunity to learn to take classes, to read books, things I didn't have time to do when I was so physically active. And that's the path I chose. And you make that choice day after day, moment after moment, step by step, right.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:24:19]:

And it takes you to a beautiful place. If we make our mind our medicine and choose to thrive, choose joy.

Colette Brown [00:24:29]:

That's such a good point. It's a choice. It's a daily, one of my favorite sentences is no is a complete sentence because you have to learn how to say no if you're more sensitive soul, which I think you and I are very similar in that way. And no is not always easy to say, but when it comes to sacrificing your own health, to say no to someone or something, then no becomes easier and easier and it's a daily choice. I'm so happy that you said that. So tell us more about that.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:25:02]:

Yeah, it is a daily choice. It's real easy to fall into the other place of, and I had to really catch myself. Now it's a habit. It's like anything you do something day after day, making a certain choice, making it a practice, and now it's this beautiful habit. I never have that downward spiral or I know it'll show up at the door, but I see it and I say, oh, I see you. I'm not going there. I catch myself early, it still comes, but fear comes and we have to face it. And not just slam a door on it, but face it and say, I see you.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:25:42]:

I hear you. Tell me about this, what is at the root of this? And sometimes it would be, I fear, like I'm going to be a burden to my husband and my family and my friends for the rest of my life. That's the fear. And I go, oh, okay. That's what I'm feeling. And you feel into it and say, got it. Okay, let's park that. What would love do? What can I do for myself right now that will make me feel good? What do I need right now? It's not going with fear on this journey over there.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:26:16]:

It's what would good self love, good self care do or say? And there's another quote I love. It's what can I do today that my future self will be grateful for? I think David White said that. One of my favorite poets, but not sure. Anyway, what can I do today, right now, as I'm having this feeling of fear? What can I do right now that my future self will be grateful for? It's not going down the downward spiral. If you're going down that downward spiral and you can't get out, get help. I help of a therapist. Early on, I was in a pretty dark place there for a while and get the help that you need. But if you're beyond that point, and that's not a judgment, good or bad, it's just.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:27:03]:

It is where we are. If you're in a bad place, you're in a bad place and get help. If you're in a better place, then start to curate your thoughts. Curate your not false positivity, but steering yourself in a better direction.

Colette Brown [00:27:18]:

There's hope. Yeah. What did that look like for you when you started your healing journey from being bedridden?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:27:25]:

Yeah. Hope was hard to find, but I knew I could because I'd been through enough situations in my life where I knew, no matter how hard, how horrible it was. One of the first chapters in the book is this too shall pass. My grandmother said that quite a lot. And as a kid, as a teenager, I didn't know what that meant, really. The depth of it, right till you have to live it. I had to live that every day. It's okay.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:27:51]:

Today I'm having a really horrible day. But I know deep down, this too shall pass. And I'm either going to just rest and take care of myself today and not make myself do anything. No shoulds. No. I should read a book. I should take a class. I should do some contemplative writing.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:28:13]:

I should do that work project, none of that. Sometimes you just need to take a break and you wake up the next day and you are feeling better. It is different. It's finding the gratitude. This is a big one, finding the gratitude. A lot of people talk about gratitude, but when you're in that horrible moment, finding the gratitude of, what is the gift in this? Okay, it's not worse, right? Could have been worse. Could have been way worse. The gift is, I have a husband and friends, and I'm learning to say yes.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:28:46]:

To help, right? Friends want to help. Okay. I'm learning to say yes. I'm grateful for all of the people who help, and I'm grateful for the time to be able to spend reading inspiring quotes and reading inspiring books and making that choice, right? So that's what it looked like on a moment to moment basis. And I started. The one thing I could do laying flat on my back is I could put my laptop on my lap and I could sit there and I could write in my journal. I've always been a journaler, since I was a little girl. And so I started collecting inspiring quotes that got me through, and I started just writing about what I was going through.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:29:25]:

And then a couple of years into that, I looked at it and I went, I think there's something here that will help other people. I've learned so much in these years that maybe it's a book. And I never wanted to write a book. As I've shared with you, never wanted to write a book. But that was the inner voice. That was the voice of intuition that said, write the book. Outline the chapters. Just outline the chapters today.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:29:51]:

That's all. You don't have to do anything more than that. And then I'd get to download an entire chapter while I was sitting with my husband all of a sudden, and I'd pull out a little paper journal, and I'd just start scribbling in it. And it became the book. And the book is a toolkit of, I think, 36 short tools that get you through things like asking the right questions, things like intuition, compass intuition. That's our inner healer. When we really spend time listening and asking questions, asking those right questions, then it's not linear. We don't get an immediate answer.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:30:30]:

Usually for me, they show up in my dreams. They'll show up three days later when I'm in the shower. It isn't always that immediate thing, but honoring that. If my intuition says, okay, you have to rest now. If I'm up and around and walking and doing things and working and all this stuff, but if my intuition says, wow, you really need to get some rest today, I unplug for the day, and I get the rest. I honor it. Yeah, that's when intuition speaks. And it speaks more clearly when it knows you're honoring it.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:31:05]:

A lot of times when we're kids, we're told, don't daydream, don't listen to those imaginary friend voices. All the stuff of, when we're young kids, a lot of us are told, you got way too active in imagination, Kathy. You're too much. Just calm it down there. So we shut it off over time. Just shut it off. And so life and healing journeys teach us to honor it or not. You can go through life without, but you get much more wisdom when you listen your body.

Colette Brown [00:31:35]:

Yeah. And when did you come into Reiki and sound healing?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:31:39]:

Okay, so I started going to sound baths a couple decades ago. It started with drum circles in Santa Monica, on the beach, yoga studios, and there'd be some sound healing. I really love that. And at the time, I was executive director of a foundation high stress job. I was just doing it for relaxation and anxiety. And it helped me so much that I started integrating it into my own life on a daily basis. And then maybe ten or 15 years ago, I started getting into it and going to sound bads more. And then I began collecting.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:32:14]:

And I had always been a classically trained musician, but then maybe 30 years ago, I started playing native american flute as a meditation, not as a, let's play baroque music perfectly, but let's just play a native american flute as a means of meditation and emotional expression and that kind of thing. And so I just gradually started collecting more and more sound healing tools, basically.

Colette Brown [00:32:40]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:32:41]:

And then several more than ten years ago, I got certified in sound healing. And the woman, the amazing woman, I was going to Trudy Levy for reiki healing. She said, I would love to teach you Reiki. She says, I think you really have a sensitivity to the energy in a big way. And so I began studying reiki and became a reiki master. It was gradual. It was just little by little. But the thread that weaves the whole thing together is I followed my intuition, my inner healer, on what felt good to me.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:33:21]:

And then I incorporated it into my daily practice. Like, days are so busy, I have a tibetan bowl, and I'll just ring it three times, and that's all I get. Other days, I play my flutes or my crystal bowls or my drums, my frame drums. I play tuning forks, just for a moment to change the vibrational energy.

Colette Brown [00:33:45]:

I want to quickly say, for those of you who are listening, who might be wondering, what's a sound bath? What is? So this, I want you guys to go on a journey. We're getting close to the end, but this is a thread. This is that thread that Kathy's talking about? You heard something. You're listening to this for a reason. What is Reiki healing? It's a healing art that where the hands are going over the body, but you're working with energy. You're not touching the body. Sound baths, where you're usually in a room, maybe with others, it doesn't have to be. And you're doing like a crystal bowl with, what is it called? Like the little drum, just like a little wand that goes around.

Colette Brown [00:34:28]:

And you're tuning into vibrations because we're all vibrational beings. And if you remember back to when you were a child and there would be an adult that walked in the room that you didn't like, it was like immediate. I don't like that person. And there's an energy there. So as we get older, we learn how to push it down, how to mask it, how to push forward even when we're not feeling right, and we don't know how to say no. And the sound just helps to bathe you, literally, and it's emotional. I usually cry in a sound bath. If you're hearing this, go investigate it.

Colette Brown [00:35:07]:

And actually, you don't have to go far, because Kathy does all of this. She does one on one sessions where she can work directly with you. So if you're wanting to understand what is it, she can work with you. She can show you what it's like, and she can definitely help you. Right, Kathy?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:35:25]:

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And on my website, which we'll mention at the end, on my website, I wrote an article not that long ago in yoga magazine on sound healing and why it works. The science of why it works, as you said, we're vibrational beings. We are energy beings. Our bodies are 60% to 80% water. Water is more conductive of sound than air. And scientists out of UCLA, in fact, James Jimzewski has found, working with medical doctors and sonic scientists, that every cell in our body emits a sound.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:36:02]:

Like heart cells make a sound at a certain vibration and brain cells at another. And this is spectacular for sound healing, because now we're beginning to learn the frequencies that affects not only the chakras of the body, the energy centers, but the specific organs. And if you're having a problem with a certain area of your body in sound healing, we can match the vibrations to those areas. And what these scientists have found is if the cells are atrophied or damaged in some way, they're not emitting their sound, but what reinvigorates them is that vibration at that certain level of hurt, say, like 40 brain cells, it reinvigorates them. This is changing modern medicine, complementary medicine, and hospitals across the country and nursing homes are integrating both sound healing and Reiki energy healing into their hospital departments of integrative medicine. You go there for cancer treatment. My mother was in a hospital in Charlotte last year with cancer, and she got sound healing. And increasingly, medical doctors are using sound healing and reiki energy more and more.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:37:21]:

It is really amazing, and I see incredible results with the people I work with one on one, because we're able to target exactly what their needs are. Yeah, it's pretty powerful.

Colette Brown [00:37:33]:

It's powerful. I know. And one of the questions that I love to ask all my guests towards the end is, if this was the last message that you had to broadcast out to the world, what would it be?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:37:46]:

Yeah. I love this question so much. So earlier I talked about how our healing journey is part of our life's journey and part of our soul's journey, and how whatever healing crisis we're going through can be a portal for us to expand spiritually and discover our purpose in life. I see that not only in my own journey, but people I work with. But what I want to say were these my last words? Our planet really is in peril right now. People are in need. There are a lot of crises, wars, all kinds of terrible things going on in the world. But I believe every one of us who is born right now on the planet, alive on the planet right now, we have a sacred purpose.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:38:34]:

There is a mission to our lives, and it's important for us to bring that forward. A lot of people I work with start out by saying, I don't have a gift. I don't have a purpose, really. I don't see it. Go on that journey. Explore that. It is through exploring ourselves, getting quiet and listening that we hear those whisperings. Even in my own life, it was not one instant.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:39:00]:

It's been this evolution. Go on the journey of evolution, because our planet and all of humanity needs us all right now. We are all each like little points of light. And those little points of light add up to a big, bright, shining, hopeful light.

Colette Brown [00:39:17]:

That's beautiful. I love that. And Kathy, how can people find you?

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:39:23]:

The best way, Colette, is for people to find me@sufferingtothriving.com. There they can connect to me on social media. They can learn more about my book, suffering to thriving. And I have a free offer for our listeners.

Colette Brown [00:39:37]:

Wow.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:39:38]:

At the top of the homepage, there is a place where you can access a series of free modules on healing the heart chakra that I, in collaboration with Doctor of functional medicine Dr. Charlize Davis. And it's all about, from the medical perspective, the functional perspective of the heart chakra. And when our heart chakra is out of balance, what kind of diseases manifest? And then my side of it is the sound healing and the Reiki healing. And it's really a deeper dive than we've been able to get into today, but it also offers a free sound bath to listeners.

Colette Brown [00:40:20]:

That's amazing. So go check her out. This is great. And you're just such a warm, radiant being. And I'm so happy that we were connected. And I love what you're doing. I love your story. I love that you're continuing to learn and to share that wisdom with others.

Colette Brown [00:40:40]:

Like you said before our podcast, you wrote your book because you felt like people had to know how to heal and how to go through things in life. Whether it is a disease or a relationship, there's just functional tools to get you through and change your perspective and give you something else to think about. Kathy, I really appreciate you being in the world, showing up, sharing your gifts and talents. And if you get to Idawild, you should look her up.

Kathy Harmon-Luber [00:41:10]:

Yeah. And it has been just a joy. Colette, I have loved our conversation. This is beautiful. And when I talk about us finding our purpose, you clearly have found yours. Your show is such a gift to people and it's been an honor to be here today.

Colette Brown [00:41:25]:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And please check out Kathy. I will put all the information in the show notes, how to find her, book, her website and contact her. Thank you all for listening. And until next time, be well.