Everyday Awakenings with Catherine Duncan

In this week's episode, I'm joined by Catherine Duncan, board-certified chaplain and author of the new book Everyday Awakening: Five Practices for Living Fully, Feeling Deeply, and Coming into Your Heart and Soul, for a moving conversation about  spiritual awakening and living authentically.  Catherine shares the genesis of her new book and how it has become a beacon for many who yearn for a more meaningful existence.

Catherine goes on to share how two incredibly difficult experiences - battling a rare childhood cancer at  eleven years old and later, staring death in the face during a heart-stopping whitewater rafting incident in Costa Rica. -  ultimately shaped her perspective  towards a life of spiritual awakening and authentic living.  She also details how she turned her trials into triumphs, and shifted gears in her professional career to pursue her calling.

We delve into the depths of Catherine's own spiritual journey and uncover what spirituality truly means to her. In our conversation, Catherine shares why its important to embrace an authentic life and harness the power of forgiveness, and encourages us all to live vibrantly, courageously, and with an open mind, ready to learn at every bend.

Lastly, we explore the fertile soil of mindfulness and how to live fully in the present moment. Catherine illuminates the significance of neuroplasticity, the art of naming feelings to soothe the nervous system, and her love for practicing gratitude daily. As you journey with us, you will uncover that your spirituality is unique to you and discover how love is the highest vibrational energy we can hold in our bodies. This episode is more than merely a conversation; it's a journey into self-discovery and awakening.

Connect with Catherine:
Website: https://www.learningtolive.org/about
IG: https://www.instagram.com/catherineduncanmabcc/
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Awakening-Practices-Living-Feeling/dp/163755608X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TMX414BZMIFP&keywords=catherine+duncan+everyday+awakening&qid=1700509585&sprefix=catherine+duncan%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-1

Connect with Michelle Rios:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.rios.official/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.c.rios
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3ahwTlqiLU&list=PL-ltQ6Xzo-Ong4AXHstWTyHhvic536OuO
Website: https://michelleriosofficial.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When you are on your deathbed. You're near the end of life. I can tell you I have never heard one person say, oh, I wish I bought that other home or I wish I had that other car. The number one theme I heard from almost everyone I was with at the end of life was what they wanted was love.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started and the world needs your light.

Speaker 3: 1:27

I am so excited to welcome my next guest to this week's episode of Live your Extraordinary Life, katherine Duncan. Katherine is, first and foremost, a board certified chaplain. She is a brand new author of the book Everyday Awakening and she runs a private practice called Learning to Live where she really works at the intersection of iterative spiritual consultant around emotional and spiritual health for her clients going through a variety of issues, from chronic illness to life transitions, to those searching for more meaning and purpose in their lives. With that, I welcome you, katherine. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Thank you for having me today.

Speaker 3: 2:10

Great to meet you Congratulations on your new book, everyday Awakening. I'm really excited to delve into it, but before we do that, I'm going to ask you a question. I ask all my guests, which is what does it mean to you to live your extraordinary life?

Speaker 1: 2:27

I think living an extraordinary life would be feeling vibrantly alive, living deeply from your heart and your soul, your essence, and just feeling it, living from there, and it's there where we find just deep peace and ease and groaning, and I think it's possible for all of us.

Speaker 3: 2:48

Wonderful. Oh, I love that. Okay, let's talk about the book, because it's been so exciting to watch you. You're out well, you've launched the book, you've been out on tour, you've gone to multiple cities and I can see doing book signings. Tell us a little bit about the whole impetus behind Everyday Awakening. How did you come about to decide I'm going to write this book and put it out in the world?

Speaker 1: 3:13

Interestingly, I 10 years ago saw a vision of this book. I saw the book and this was 10 years ago. My kids at the time were teenagers and I just happened to mention to my kids my husband I'm gonna write a book and they all said great, and I started blog writing. I started my private practice in 2016,. I started blog writing, which was a great way to just start writing, getting my ideas out, and then, in the pandemic, early 2020, I just started seeing the book, the chapters, the practices, what it would look like, and by end of 2021, I started diving in writing. I had still had a full-time practice at night.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Nine o'clock at night, I would sit down, do some breathing, meditating, like shh, I would start writing and it just poured through me. I would say writing a book is a calling. I had to write this book. I didn't even think about publisher. I wrote, half the book came through me and then I was like, oh right, I don't think about publishing and all this. So it was definitely calling and I'll say it also comes from years of working with people as a chaplain and then in my private practice, of people wanting more, longing for more. I mean, maybe they've achieved their goals in the corporate world or they're at an age where they're really more self-reflective. Like is this life and just what does this mean, and how can I experience more and find this peace? And that's the impetus also behind my book. What does it mean to be here now?

Speaker 3: 4:45

I think that's such a critical point that you're hitting on, because I've talked to a lot of people through this podcast and one of the reoccurring comments that comes up or questions is is this all there is? I have worked and worked and worked. I poured myself into a career, I poured myself into my family and yet I'm longing for more. What do you think that more is from your experience?

Speaker 1: 5:11

In my private practice. I would say this is the number one thing I hear from almost everyone. If they're going through a health challenge or a big life transition, or they're starting self-reflething like what is my life now? Maybe middle age or starting to think about next steps in a career, yeah, wanting more a nudging I hear I've experienced this two years back but just a feeling inside like ugh, there's something more, something is missing.

Speaker 1: 5:38

I would say many, many of the people I work with, a lot of it comes down to feeling a numbness towards life. Many people I think a lot of our societies like this. I think it's very human to live from our head up, living in our mind, where you're just go, go, go. Your ego, fast-charing mind we all have is running our lives. So I think a big piece is just learning ugh, not my thoughts or feelings. I'm that still witnessing presence behind that, and when you start to tap in and come down into your heart, come down into your body, it's like ugh. Here I am. I've literally had people in my office where we'll do a one minute, five minute breathing exercise and all of a sudden it's like wow, there's a shift. They come out of their busy mind.

Speaker 3: 6:25

I love the fact that you refer to these as awakenings, because I use that same term.

Speaker 3: 6:30

Like some people will say, it's a midlife crisis or a health crisis, but it is that moment of awakening to the something more that I think so many of us go through at different stages of life.

Speaker 3: 6:43

I certainly had it early on. I know you did too, but I was sort of in my mid-20s when I found myself at this intersection of life, going 150 miles an hour academically and professionally and hitting a wall with some health challenges that seemingly weren't that important to me at 25, 26, but caused me to really feel like there's got to be something more than what I am living. This feels so unsatisfying and unsettling compared to maybe what I anticipated, I would feel by doing all of these things right the typical American dream and ticking off all the checking, all the boxes off the list of what it means to have a fulfilling and successful career and start off in the world and the right. But and I found my longing ultimately was a need to reconnect at a very deep internal level of spirit. Tell me, is it different for different people or is it ultimately come down to this notion of we're human beings but we're really spiritual beings having a human experience.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Yeah, I love that phrase. I think we're spiritual beings in a human body for a short time, and I would even say we are eternal beings. I've experienced witnessing walking with thousands of people at end of life, my years as a chaplain I faced my death twice Just a deep knowing that death is not an end, that we go on, our spirit goes on. I do not have one doubt. I've just witnessed and experienced way too much, but I think it's coming into just your deep soul, your essence, that core coming into that, and it's and the language may be different for every single person listening to this right now that sense of oneness or essence, is it connected that oneness with God or Source, universe, brahmin, energy, true nature? And I think language is limiting and opening to what is that for every single person listening right now? And when you can tap into, get out of your mind, come into your heart, come into that deep essence, that oneness that we are. That is awakening, that is the peace that is just like, oh, the preciousness of why we're here.

Speaker 3: 9:05

Tell me about your experience, because I had the opportunity. I'm very grateful to be able to read some of your book before we sat down, and I know that you were facing health challenges very early in life. Tell us a little bit about your own walk and your own awakening.

Speaker 1: 9:24

For me it started when I was 11, 12 years old. I was suddenly ill. I was diagnosed with a very rare childhood cancer Back in the 70s. My parents I was so young, of course they didn't tell me, I couldn't understand it, but my parents were told that I had a 20% chance to live. Expressingly. I now know this as an adult.

Speaker 1: 9:53

A drug came in from Turkey that was randomly being given to children. My father, a business man he's been gone now for many years but he met the doctors demanded I get this treatment. It was a really powerful chemotherapy agent, along with other chemotherapies they gave me. But this chemotherapy drug is now standard treatment for what I had. The survivor right now for what I had is 80%. I mean it was a life-changing drug I had. So here I was 11 years old, going to the hospital every week, intensive chemotherapy, radiation. I had multiple surgeries. It was very grim. In the 70s they did have chaplains. They did have counselors. No one talked to me. My mother I would say more religious would say you're going to be fine and that was comforting, but there was no sense of reality. I mean what I was seeing. I was so gravely ill Back in the 70s. They did so much amputation, it was just really a horse and clinging to the hospital to have drugs and then they had no anti-Nazi drugs and I would be so sick until the middle of the night and it just not long.

Speaker 1: 10:59

After all the treatments, I had this feeling in me. I could feel that I was between life and death. I felt like I was looking over a cliff. I'll tell you, I grew up really fast. I just am like this is it? And all of a sudden this sense of like wanting to live came through me and I started praying.

Speaker 1: 11:18

And I'll say, prayer meant nothing to me. My family Lutheran we had occasionally go to church but I was so young it didn't resonate. But I just started to pray and my prayer was fleeting with the universe and then ended up using language. Eventually I did use God, but in a big, broad sense. But just like, could I live to be 20? I thought if I lived to be 20, I would see the world and I kept praying. I told no one and then, not long after I have a prayer, I have a vivid memory that's with me to this moment, of just this peace flooding my body. It was just like it just came through my body and just a deep knowing that I was going to live, I was going to be okay. And now I've had some people ask me like you never told anyone, like I didn't. But I held that in me and it was life changing and comforting and I've held that feeling, that sensation, in my being ever since.

Speaker 3: 12:13

And the second time. Tell me about the second time that you had this rush with death.

Speaker 1: 12:18

So fast forward. I got through all the treatments, very grateful. I'll just tell you I was a teenager. I really didn't talk about what I went through and I wasn't ready to look at what I went through. But I started voraciously reading why am I alive? And so I started reading all these books on life meaning purpose. I did follow the family path of business. I have a lot of siblings, everyone in business. So of course I went into business and I was with Time Magazine, the regional sales for Time Magazine. It was really fun. I met incredible people, traveled. It was glamorous. So here I am in my 30s working for Time Magazine and they had a trip for the top sales people, like they did every year.

Speaker 1: 12:59

We're in Costa Rica, we're whitewater rafting and it was really treacherous river. I'm from rain, so at level three, level four, rain, so it was a near death experience, I would say whitewater rafting. It was life-changing and I have to share, I mean, the experience. We were going down treacherous river rapids. Our boat went straight down the middle, which is crazy. I was in the back of the boat a life vest, helmet, everything. I was thrown off deep underwater and I was just like this is it? I'm going to die. I had flashes of my children. I had flashes of me as a child in the hospital, and it was pitch black. And then, all of a sudden, this white light surrounding my body and this voice, clear as crystal day, said living or dying is fine, and I just surrendered. I thought I didn't know if I was going to live or die, but I let go and I think that's what happened.

Speaker 1: 13:57

My body then came out from underneath the rapid. They grabbed me. They got me on a boat. I couldn't even talk. I was in shock. We had to get down the river to get off the river. And I'll tell you one thing when, a couple of days later, I didn't tell you what happened we're in a taxi driving back to our home and I called my mom I just had to call my mom to tell her I'm home and not in nowhere. My mother's never shared a dream in her life. That's not my mom. And my mom said Catherine, I had a dream that I slipped into a river and I almost drowned, and then I woke up, and it was literally that day that that happened. And so when I say life changing, I, within a matter of weeks, I gave my notice, even though I had this incredible job with Time Magazine. But I was like this isn't it. I need to create space to listen. Where am I being called? And this is not it, so I left.

Speaker 3: 14:46

So tell me a little bit about what happened next, because your path is not one that everybody takes, and you're doing incredible work. I want to hear more about how those experiences really drew some of the decisions.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Yeah, I really felt in my being and I had a very strong prayer practice and a sense of feeling of oneness in my being and I just thought I have to listen. Where am I being called? I felt like we were talking about that, nudging that like this isn't it, and I felt like this is it. I need to just carve out time. I did a little bit of consulting. My husband at the time had a small startup internet company. I joined them. It was awful. He had a going front, time magazine too, aware, sweet 10 guys.

Speaker 1: 15:31

But literally a few months into it a girlfriend late at night had, out of nowhere, said my friend, connie, I've been studying theology, spiritual direction, I mean. Here I was as a spurious reader, reading tons of books, self-help, meaning, purpose, life, aliveness. I never thought of it. She mentioned St Catherine's. I looked into a bunch of programs, literally. I looked into it. I got the program from St Catherine and my body started physically shaking. It was just like physical knowing. This was the path I applied. I got in.

Speaker 1: 16:04

I looked to tell my parents my father, a consummate businessman at the time he started screaming at me he's like geology. And I'm like I can't help it. Geology, I mean leaving Time Magazine to study, he thought geology but theology was just as bad. But anyway, as soon as I started graduate school, the first few weeks in graduate school, I was reading all these books on spirituality and life and meaning and I was like this is what I've been looking for. It was just a confirmation. So every day, since listening, creating space and prayer, meditation to feel and hear, we're in, being guided.

Speaker 3: 16:42

Tell me a little bit about what spirituality means to you. You've spent a lot of time thinking about it. You've spent a lot of time in communion with other people, obviously discussing it. What does it come to mean for you in your life?

Speaker 1: 16:55

I really like the word spirituality, so the two words religion, spirituality. I think of religion yes, I'm a minister but I think of religion more man-made, doctor and dogma, like how you practice a tradition, whatever Christian or other tradition, spirit, tradition. I like the word spirituality because it's like what gives you meaning and it's going to be every single person hearing this it may be different for every single person what gives you a sense of life, of meaning, a sense of aliveness, and tuning into that Do you find that, when working with others that are searching for this more meaning and purpose in their lives, that that tuning in is different for each person, or do you find that in going on that internal journey we kind of eventually get to the same place?

Speaker 1: 17:48

Yeah, very interesting question. I would say it's a different language, different ways. Maybe you access it, but then there's a sameness among all of it. I think you cannot find that deep sense of meaning, your essence. You can't find it in your mind, you can't. When you're in your mind, you are in the past, the future, you're not even here. And that witnessing presence, that is our essence. We watch it, we can watch our thoughts, we can watch our feelings.

Speaker 1: 18:17

So, coming into that stillness, even as simply as right now I'm talking, feeling the energy moving in your hands for a moment, feeling your fingers when you feel that you can't think at the same time, or coming into your breath, or just wasting my book, I have 42 exercises. How do you do this? It's not just theory that I teach in my practice, but I think it's just coming in, moving out of your busy mind into just this moment, right now, here and now, be here now and then, when you come into that, just tune in. What's there? That feeling, that energy, that sensation, that knowing and then listening. Every single one of us has gifts If it's a sense of hearing, sensing, seeing we all do but it's coming into that stillness, to access it, to really feel into who we are, how we're being guided every day.

Speaker 3: 19:12

What's the one people to know? Based on the book, based on your experiences, what's the big takeaway here?

Speaker 1: 19:19

I would say the biggest takeaway is we can access every one of us the preciousness of life, what it means to be fully alive, feeling that vibrancy, aliveness right now, and that you don't have to wait until a health crisis, death, a transition and of life. You can access it right now. This comes out of the impetus of writing my book, my Experience, but also being with hundreds and hundreds of people in a point of crisis as a chaplain, or in a point at the end of life. As a hospice chaplain that I was for years, I did witness many time people within days, a day, even the day they died, just a moment of like, wow. So this is it, this is life. You're getting it on such a precious level, like a deep like, and then they're gone, they died. I just think it's a choice. What are you choosing? How are you choosing to live today?

Speaker 3: 20:19

Oh, I love that so powerful. I'm sure you're familiar with the work having been a hospice chaplain for many years of hospice nurse out of Australia that talked about the biggest regrets of people who were on their deathbed and one of the biggest regrets was not living their life authentic or true to who they were, that somehow they had left life on the table. They had the life that they wanted, but rather perhaps showed up in more of the stereotypical rules that may have been anticipated for them and their family or within their society, within their community. And I'm curious did you ever come across people talking about things that they regretted, or maybe some of the top regrets that came up in those conversations? Were they similar to the findings of this hospice nurse out of Australia?

Speaker 1: 21:11

I would say absolutely. People had regrets or a feeling of sense they needed to forgive someone or forgive themselves. Regrets, forgiveness, and my role with working with people and just helping them get in touch with what is that regret? Can they name it? What is that forgiveness? What is left that they need to, I think, not carry with them when they pass on, and so that's even more for me.

Speaker 1: 21:39

I heard a lot around forgiveness, forgiveness. I need to forgive, and this is some unease I'm holding and help them work through that. And I'll tell you, interestingly, after, as a hospice chaplain for eight years, and every day I was with someone dying. It was a lot of people I was with. It was the norm truly to see people and walk with people that at the very end there was a peace. It was almost unusual not to be with someone in the hospice setting. This is different than the trauma hospital, hcmc, where I worked, where it was sudden and people died suddenly. That's a whole different way to die. But in hospice there was a peace with people right at the end, or maybe it was before the end, but just there was a peace which was really reassuring to see that people can open, let go, forgive, I think, getting into the front of your brain whatever it is you need to process, to come into, to release. Let go define that peace and ease. That was a norm that I did see.

Speaker 3: 22:40

What do you think that tells us for those that are living and the lessons to be learned from those experiences of those folks that are dying or have passed on how to live differently perhaps than what we, from a current societal standpoint, maybe do?

Speaker 1: 22:58

I would say can you? And this takes skill, this takes courage, this takes strength, this takes a consciousness like, oh, I want to keep learning, I want to keep opening, I want to keep growing. That does take a conscious commitment so that when things happen in life, they do For every one of us. Things happen. We have a situation, maybe that's unpleasant, with a family member or something that happens that causes some unease, whatever that looks like. Can you mindfully get and realize, wow, this is what happened. Can you identify what's happening?

Speaker 1: 23:36

I mean, here's some research when we can identify that unease, worry, rumination, fear, when we can name it. This is part of neuroplasticity 101. When we can name it, it calms our nervous system, it's healing. We can name our feeling Gosh, I'm kind of anxious. When you name it, that calms our nervous system.

Speaker 1: 23:56

And then feelings are not permanent. It takes strength, Like why would I want to feel upset when I can go distract myself and watch a Netflix show? But truly, to take a little bit of time you know I've taken a ton of time, a little time to identify the feeling, maybe be curious where do I feel it feel it, let it move through you some, and then growing the good affirmations, positive imagery, just ways to feel into our heart, to feel and grow that love in our being. These are choices we can do today to be conscious, to work with unease that comes up in life, Instead of waiting until the very end. We're human, we kind of just do the best you can. But I think before you even get to the end of your life, like, okay, I'm going to keep working on this, I'm going to keep wanting to heal and grow and learn from everything in my life, and I feel like if you take it all in.

Speaker 3: 24:49

It gives you some permission to relax, and maybe this is more Western cultures than others, but particularly here in the States, I know we tend to be very, very focused on career. We want to grow, we want to have nice things. We all want to have an American dream concept in our minds. I don't want to take away from that. That's all good. You should want to grow and build and have and what have you.

Speaker 3: 25:16

But I find that when you start to think about the end and then kind of go from there, it gives you a little perspective of like, wait, how am I living now? Am I completely stressed out? Am I completely banking on future moments that I'm not guaranteed? Am I present for this experience of today? Or am I so consumed with anxiety or frustration or worry about something or another that I can't even enjoy the meal I'm having with my family or be present for a friend that wants to spend time with me?

Speaker 3: 25:53

And I think that a lot of us I certainly was one of these people experienced that and deep within that build portion of my career and there were many awakenings I'd love to talk about. I was like when was your awakening? I'm like which one. I've had many. Clearly, I needed to be reminded of what really matters and to be reoriented or redirected, and thank goodness I've had many along the path that have gotten me a few degrees closer to where I wanted to be ultimately, but I do think it is a lifelong endeavor. Right, it's not the switch and like I'm awakened and I get to stay at this place forever.

Speaker 1: 26:35

It doesn't happen like that and we all, I bet everyone hearing this, I mean every one of us I bet it has moments of just deep presence, of like you know, maybe it's even just you're sitting by a lake and it's a sunset, and it's just a few moments of just feeling enchanting, magical, like you're here. That is presence, that's awakening and it's starting to tune in and notice awareness. I always share with her when I work with awareness, building that awareness muscle. Where are you all day long? How are you living your life?

Speaker 1: 27:08

So, just going back to your comment about achieving yes, our culture, I think, is all about achieving and more, and all the news, everything we hear, and there's a height of it. We get a dopamine hit, we get a hit like how fun, I bought this or this, but it's short lived. And I go back to the thought that when you are on your deathbed you're near the end of life. I can tell you I have never heard one person say, oh, I wish I bought that other home or I wish I had that other car the number one theme I heard from almost everyone I was with at the end of life and what they wanted was love, love themselves, their family, that's it. Everything else dropped away, it was love, and I think the reason we're on this earth is to learn to love, and that's what we take with us is our ability, our capacity to love.

Speaker 3: 27:59

That's beautiful. Walk me through what your morning routine is. I'm very curious. You've been at this for a long time, you know. I know the importance of having some sort of morning routine, even if that shifts from day to day. What's yours look like?

Speaker 1: 28:17

So I have a pretty set-defined morning routine. First thing wake up, alarm, or sometimes I wake up before my alarm hit the alarm. And here's what I do. I do this religiously every day. I haven't do this for years. I have some minutes of gratitude. I know there's a lot out there on gratitude. Here's how I practice it. I immediately just like, oop, I'm alive, I have a home, I have children, I have my partner, my husband, my dear friends. I think that like ugh, and then I feel it.

Speaker 1: 28:52

Gratitude. You can think what you're grateful for, but it's about feeling it. Gratitude, love, are the highest vibrational energies that we can hold in our body. So I'll just start to feel this energy like coursing through my body, which is lovely. And then I have a few minutes of prayer and I'll even add in you know, I'll see my day talking with you today, appointments I have, and I just see a flow through the day. I do that before I even get out of bed.

Speaker 1: 29:18

And I just want to say a quick comment, and I'm sharing this with people. I mean, if you wake up, hit your alarm and all of a sudden you grab your phone, or all of a sudden you're like I have this and this and this and this. I'm just telling you. You're already in a stress response and you're releasing cortisol in your body. So, going back to what I just shared gratitude, prayer, seeing a full of my day get out of bed. And then one more thing I'm really religious about doing automatically.

Speaker 1: 29:42

I've been doing this for 20 years. I maybe miss a day a year if I'm traveling or something, but I actually am very empathic. I get a lot, see a lot, feel a lot and I'm interacting with people all day long. So I won't get into this long discussion. If you're curious, of course I can share with you. But I work with energy. I am very mindful of how I give and take energy. I set up what's called energy boundaries game changer, life changer where I'm really grounded, if who I am, but I'm not taking in all this energy If it's people, the world, there's so much unrest. So how do I find my deep space and grounding? That is a go-to every morning that I just have found life changing and I share that with quite a number of people and clients and my practice. In fact, I have it in my book. We're going to talk about how to do it.

Speaker 3: 30:34

So let's talk about that. Let's talk about what are some of those top three or top five practices that you talk about in the book. I know you have several exercises I want to say more than 40 exercises in the book, but talk maybe about the top five that you think are just a sense for people, for connection, for grounding, for being present.

Speaker 1: 30:53

In my book. It's five practices for living fully, feeling deeply, coming into your heart and soul. These are practices from childhood that I started just organically doing and that's what I list. So just for a moment to share the five practices. Coming back to the present moment, connecting with something greater and I'm very inclusive in whatever that looks like grow your trust and body, love and hold openness. So those are what I think are five core practices to really tuning in and living from our heart and soul, living from that eternal essence that we are, I would say, day to day, and maybe starting with just the first practice. This is key and that's connecting.

Speaker 1: 31:35

Coming back to the present moment Life happens, the deep, present, stillness. I think people are seeking peace and ease. I mean, we know just even people one out of two people in the US now are declared from the loneliness epidemic we are living in, as well as coming out of a pandemic where we all experience grief to find just some breathing room, some stillness. It's not in our mind, it's coming into just this moment and it can be using your senses, it can be coming and using your breath, it can be putting your hands on your chest and just feeling in to your heart, the warmth of your hands to just bring you down out of your busy mind. I think that's really important.

Speaker 1: 32:19

This is something I practice every day. I practice this, if it's even a few minutes here, five minutes here. I meditate every day, that, just like huh, it just gives me that stillness, that grounding. I think practicing some kind of gratitude where you can feel into your heart, to feel the love we can grow the love in our being, is so important. And I'll say the third is, I think of love, embodying love. How are you living your life, even just your mental framework, and then how do you feel into it? Can you grow the good or are you stuck and I talk about this in my book that negative rumination? Can you identify it? Take a break, feel your feelings and just grow the good. I've worked with Rick Hansen, trained and certified in his positive neuroplasticity training and his phrase grow the good, love it. How are you doing that every day?

Speaker 3: 33:13

Hmm, I love that. What is it that you think that you are? All the things that you're brought to this earth today? Because you clearly have a mission-driven life, you're on purpose, you're living with great intention. What's the one thing you want people to know or feel or take away from the work that you do?

Speaker 1: 33:35

I want people to understand that we all, every day, all day long, are making choices. We're making choices how we're living. We're making choices to embody more peace, embody more love, work through unease and openness. We're making choices, or we're subconsciously choosing not to, and I think, being deeply, I think, grounding it in love, loving to yourself, give yourself grace Everything. I'm saying it's not all easy, but just starting to tune in a takeaway how are you living today? What choices are you making? How can you choose? Because every one of us can feel a little more breathing wrong, even with whatever's going on and a lot of hard stuff happens in life. I do understand that. But how are you choosing to live? What's your choice? And peace and ease and stillness, and that deep, eternal peace is here for all of us. If this is what you want, you can find it.

Speaker 3: 34:42

I love that. I mean, I often think about the phrase. It's used quite often. I think it has great meaning. Life is happening for you, not to you. And can you be an observer in your own life, because pain is inevitable but suffering is not. And can we show up as more observers in our own lives and seek more peace, seek more love.

Speaker 1: 35:07

And some people might not choose it, it's okay. I know some people that they're content with the way their life is. They maybe don't want to do emotions, they don't want to do this, that's okay. But so what today can give you a little bit more ease in your life, a little more peace? Just little baby steps starting on the path.

Speaker 3: 35:25

Excellent. Anything else that we need to know? What else do you want everyday awakenings to leave people with?

Speaker 1: 35:33

That, this deep, preciousness of life we can feel into and experience right now, today, and also choosing how you want to live your life and knowing that as you open and feel into that, we are all guided, every one of us gets internal guidance and there's just, I think, an eternal peace that's here for all of us and I would say from my experience that death is not an end. I've seen too much, I've witnessed seeing spirits and angels and I just we go on. Death is not an end. So how do you want to live today? And invite you to open and just start noticing what gives you peace and love in your life and growing that.

Speaker 3: 36:14

I love that. Making some space for that still small voice that we all have within us, to maybe listen to that a little bit more than when we are not as in tuned. Get more in tune to that still small voice. That that's the guy, that that's where the spirit and the intuition comes from. So far, it's never failed me. How about you, catherine?

Speaker 1: 36:37

Yeah, no, that's how I live my life, every day, every step.

Speaker 3: 36:41

I love it. Thank you for spending time with me today. It's been an absolute pleasure. I hope that you'll come back again.

Speaker 1: 36:47

Yeah, thank you so much. You're lovely, thank you. Just blessings to everyone hearing this and would love to All right.

Speaker 3: 36:55

Until next time, everyone, live your extraordinary life, take care.

Speaker 2: 37:04

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at michellereosofficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.