Catherine Duncan – Everyday Awakening

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We know that we are not our thoughts or our feelings. We're that witness, that awareness behind. We can watch what we think, we can watch what I feel, what we feel. But many people live in their mind, which means when you're in your mind, you are in the past, you're in the future, you're not even here. You're not even here. And you know, we use our mind, of course, during the day, depending on what we do in our career, our work. But can you take a break? Can you take a break and come out of your mind into just this moment? And that in the moment when we take a break from our busy, fast, chattering ego mind is where we can feel that peace and, like, breathing room, that sense of oneness with the universe. It's there. It's not our mind. So I think a lot of people live in their mind. Their mind runs them. You know, the question is, are you living your life? Is your or is your life living you?

Welcome to the mindtrax podcast with breakthrough ideas to live your best life possible and how to make it happen. Paul I'm Paul Schiele and today we will be talking with Katherine Duncan. Katherine Duncan is an integrative spiritual consultant who's passionate about whole person healing. She assists those struggling with chronic illness, life transitions, grief and loss, while helping find more meaning and purpose. A public speaker and ordained minister, Katherine is also certified in positive neuroplasticity, Reiki healing touch, Qigong tapping, and sound healing. Her writing is featured through the Earl E. Bakken center for Spirituality and Healing, the Institute for well Being in Law, and in her book Everyday Awakening. Five practices for living fully, feeling deeply, and coming into your heart and soul. Catherine teaches from her three personal awakening experiences, including a brush with death that opened her gifts as a mystic and intuitive.

Hello, Katherine. So good to have you here on the mindtrax podcast. Thanks for joining me.

Thank you for having me, Paul.

Well, it's good to see you. I know you as a member of the association of Transformational Leaders. I've known about your work for quite a while. I'm very excited about the book that you're publishing. It's coming out and I.

See a similar path. You've spent your life integrating spirituality, psychology, neuroscience and therapy. Those are the exact same subject studies that I've been involved with as well. I love that your work is helping people to embrace every day, to embrace every choice that they make. In order for a person to really live fully every day, it means that they must be living fully awake. So I wonder if you'd be willing for our listening audience to share. What does awakening mean?

I would say awakening is living from your heart and your soul, living deeply within your body, your heart and soul versus from your mind. I mean, you can't find deep peace and ease and joy aliveness in your mind. It's in your body and in that vibrant aliveness that we can all tap into. And it's a lifelong journey.

One of my teachers said that the human experience is the felt experience. It is about being embodied and to recognize that it is a matter of embodiment. It's key. I've heard the description that mindfulness meditation is embodied awareness. Also to your point about not living in the mind, famous understanding of Buddhist philosophy is that mind is the cause of all suffering. There are calls to awakening. And you make a distinction between people are called to be awake from external means and also from internal means. Could you explain that distinction you make?

Yeah, I would say external awakening is a near death experience, a major crisis, a major loss, serious chronic illness, something that just abruptly affects your life, where you just open up like, wow, why am I here? Why am I alive? You start on the path to what does it mean to be alive? I'd say internal. And in my client practice, I work with people with chronic health conditions, people going through grief transition, but also a number of executives who've done really well, made a lot of money, and all of a sudden they're like, they feel numb. There's just an emptiness, like, this is it, this is life. So there's an internal nudging, like, there's got to be more. So that's how I would define external and internal. And I'll share. For me, awakening it started for me at 11 years old when I was faced with potentially dying as a child. And it was just, I dramatically had an awakening at 11.

Yeah. That journey through cancer that you describe in your book, it's. It's nothing we would ever wish on anyone. And yet many people I've talked to who are cancer survivors said was probably one of the most important transitional moments of their life, because it really did bring them to a place of understanding the true power and potential of who they are and what life has to offer. And when you went through that, you then also had a later experience, a near death experience that moved you to a place of what you call trust. Could you explain that a bit more?

Yeah. When I was, well, When I was 11 years old facing cancer, I was given a 20 chance to live my life, turned Upside down. I could feel in that moment I was on the edge between life and death. And, you know, no one talked with me. And out of nowhere, even though prayer meant nothing to me, I started to pray to live to be 20 years old. I thought if I could live to be 20, I would see the world. And not long after just praying, not telling him, when this peace just flooded my body. And just this knowing that I was going to be okay and I was going to live. And fast forward into my 30s, I, you know, very grateful to live and get through that. Teenage years, college. But in my 30s, I had a near death experience, whitewater rafting. And again, here I was in treacherous Level 4 rapids in the depths of Costa Rica. And this experience of being deep underwater and this characteristic, I know you hear this, but like white light came around me and this voice was like, living or dying is fine. And just a deep, again, knowing of just I wasn't alone. I didn't know if I was going to live or die, but I just, I knew I wasn't alone and I lived through that experience. But I'll tell you, the combination of the two is just the preciousness of life. And it was a real turning point in my life where I had a very successful career with Time magazine. And I walked away. I'm like, this isn't where I'm being called and I've got to listen and trust. Like, where am I being called in my life? And that really propelled me on the path I'm on today.

Yeah, following that call is another thing which is very important again, kind of moving to that area of trust. I'd like to talk about that when we talk about your five practices. But I'd like to stop for a moment around another topic who's perhaps more related to the neurosciences. I was visiting a friend in an apartment one day and the whole apartment started rattling. What in the world is that? I realized that their apartment was over the main garage doors that open and close all day long. And I thought, oh my God, I wouldn't be able to stand that. And I said to her.

Doesn'T that bother you? She said, what? I said, decker, A.

I never hear it. That's totally deleted. And this is, this is a beautiful thing. This is what the human mind does. It habituates to unpleasant situations that are around us and basically, like you said, numbs us out to it. And to me, this is a survival mechanism. And if awakening means paying more attention to what's going on in life, why would we, why would I want to be so awake that I would hear all that kind of stuff going on all day.

Well, I would say it's a choice. We all are choosing all day, every day to open, to grow, to keep learning. And it, and it means looking inward, self reflection, working through hard things. I, I haven't met too many people, let alone in my practice that say my life was perfect, you know, so it just, it's called deep inner work. It's deciding I want to keep feeling, I want to keep growing. There's more to life. It's a choice. I also know people who, they see the work they need to do or what that means, and they're like, nope, I'm done. I've had a few people like that that have just like, are they open? Are they not? I say my, my book is for the people on the cusp of awakening, wanting more. And here's five practices that will help you just deeply come into your heart, your soul, to feel more alive.

Excellent. So the, the idea is that situationally, if we need to not attend to something that's going on, that we, that would just distract us from life, we don't have to have that our brain can actually help us in a positive way. Now, in your book, you made this statement. It's easy to live in a state of near slumber, unaware of being alive and the many blessings that are present for each of us daily. Either you are living on autopilot or you're consciously choosing how to live each day. And I really like this notion of autopilot. What I found is that many people, prior to coming into an awareness that there's more of life, are living in a bit of a trance.

Your term autopilot makes sense, but they're habituated to daily life. They don't see possibility and options beyond another day of work, hoping for the weekend working until they can retire, not really being fully alive. How do you think.

It happens in our modern societies that we get trapped in our minds in this way that we, that we go to sleep rather than living fully awake?

I think our culture perpetuates. That's our culture. It's fast, it's moving. It's about being really bright, being, you know, intellectual.

I think it's so easy to just live in your mind. I mean, that's my first practice is come back to the present moment. We know that we are not our thoughts or our feelings. We're that witness that awareness behind. We can watch what we think, we can watch what I feel, what we feel but many people live in their mind, which means when you're in your mind, you are in the past, you're in the future, you're not even here, you're not even here, and you're, you know, we use our mind, of course, during the day, depending on what we do in our career, our work. But can you take a break? Can you take a break and come out of your mind into just this moment? And that in the moment when we take a break from our busy, fast, chattering ego, mind is where we can feel that peace and like breathing room, that sense of oneness with the universe. It's there. It's not our mind. So I think a lot of people live in their mind. Their mind runs them. You know, the question is, are you living your life? Is your or is your life living you?

And oftentimes we identify with our thoughts, we identify with our feelings. Like, I am so angry that it is a statement of their beingness is the feeling that they're feeling at the moment or the thought, I'm just so stress right? As opposed to being able to separate from that a little bit and realize how many other choices that we have now. Our emotions and our body only live in the present, but mind can transcend and go to the past of the future. Bringing it back to be embodied are really the five practices, what you say is that peace, love, meaning and embodied aliveness are the byproducts of awakening. And the five practices are coming back to the present moment, connecting with something greater, growing our trust with also the concept of acceptance, embodying love, and holding openness. I love to have you suggest some of perhaps a favorite practice or exercise for each one of these five. If we could start with this idea of coming to the present moment, or what you referred to as presence. Presencing to me is such a powerful idea.

So absolutely. In my book I have 42 exercises and many, many of them I. I practice regularly. So coming back to the present moment, in the moment, what I'd love to share is, okay, a breath exercise. There's many different ways to breathe, but just in the moment breathing. Can you notice breathing in the coolness of the air coming in over your nostrils.

And the warmth as you breathe out?

Can you notice breathing, how your lower belly expands on the in breath.

And recedes on the out breath?

Another example, these are some examples in my book, but another example is can you right now take a moment and feel the energy moving in your hands?

When you're feeling the energy moving your hands, you cannot Think at the same time, it brings you right into here now. Or the breath. Those are a couple examples. Or mindfulness, just one of the quick take. I know I'm sharing a lot on the present moment, but being present in the moment, drinking coffee or tea in the morning, where you're just fully present for even a minute, brings you into out of your mind, into your body, into just this moment. So that those are some exercises I love when I connect with something greater. I'm really, I want to name. I just, I'm inclusive, ecumenical. I think language is limiting.

I I. An exercise I do every day is I tune in and after I breathe for a few minutes, I just tune in and I say, I am or I am presence. And I just feel energy moving up, down through my body and I just tune into. What do I feel in the moment.

Now I've noticed in my life as a result of being a meditator and as a result of having an embodied practice of yoga and qigong, that.

It'S so easy to withdraw my mind from the busyness or as you say, the egoic attachment to everything that's going on around it, does ground us in the present moment. One of my meditation teachers said it's almost impossible to attend fully to 12 breaths. The mind will always wander. So when somebody sits down and let's say they're awake 18 hours a day and for 17 hours and 45 minutes, their mind is attached and going crazy, million miles an hour, and then they take 15 minutes, now they're going to meditate. Their mind is going to do pretty much the same thing that they trained it to do for the other 17 hours and 45 minutes. So what advice do you give to someone who tries something once and says, I tried to meditate, that was ridiculous, didn't do anything for me.

I suggest trying if this is new for people, trying for a minute, a minute, five minutes.

And just see what speaks to you. We're all different. Some people might really resonate with a breath exercise. Someone, a meditation someone, a mindfulness practice. But just I advise people I work with start with one minute. Just see for one minute what that feels like to just come be here. Now breathe into your body and just feel what that feels like. Oh, a little more space, a little more breathing room. But it just, it's a practice. It is definitely a practice.

Well, this is great because of the five practices. And we'll go on to the third one about growing our trust. Each chapter that you devote to one of these practices has meditations has physical embodiment. It has psychological concepts that a person can attend to. So I really appreciate the way you've built the book.

Thank you.

So tell me a little bit about this idea of trust.

Well, I took a stab, and I really wanted to define what is trust. There are a lot of books out there that talk about trust. You're just trust, trust. Well, how do you trust, you know, what does that involve? And I think trust means accepting again, coming back to the moment. These. These build on each other, these practices. But accepting the moment fully here and now, fully accepting this moment. And when you can be here now, accepting all that is, that's when we can listen. I mean, that's when we can hear when we're present. Our mind's not running us. We're accepting all of life. We can hear deeply, hear, listen to the guidance. I think every one of us is guided. And. And that's how I think we. We can truly trust. That's been my experience over the last, you know, 40 plus years.

Yeah, and. And that was actually practice, too. Is connecting to something greater. Not everybody has a spiritual.

Life that they're living. Many that I've met in my earlier years saw themselves as merely human, trying to have a spiritual experience. But I know our philosophy, yours and mine, is that we're spiritual, being here, having a human experience, an embodied experience. So somebody isn't used to the idea of connecting to something greater, opening their heart or embracing what you know. There's books on the power of awe, just the amazing natural beauty around us all the time. What is a good way for someone to start that process of connecting?

Mm.

I would say if you do not believe in something greater, which a number of people, friends, colleagues, clients I work with don't. I just invite them to tune into this energy, this energy, their true nature. What is it? How do they feel into that, their essence, that aliveness in their being, that energy I just. Again, I come back to. After working for years as a chaplain and of all faith traditions, I just. I think people get really stuck on language. And what is that for you? What is that for each person listening today? What is that feeling, that movement? Is it. Is it. Is it a divine universe? Allah, Brahman? Is it just a sense of energy moving in your body and tuning into what that is and growing that feeling? And can you tap into and feel that feeling through, you know, arrangement of breath, meditation, body movements, but just where you feel that, and that slowly becomes your anchor versus your mind, and that's where that peace comes.

Nice I. I remember that one of my first truly powerful spiritual awakening experiences just came from following my breath. And it wasn't like I was trying to connect to anything. I recognized that I was connected. And that's, that's in our nature. It is at our essence. And when we're living in our mind to the point that you're making, it's very difficult to recognize that. So. So let's go to number four, which is embodying love.

Yep. I think. I think the reason we're here is to learn how to love. I think what we take with us is when we pass on is our ability to love. I think love is the greatest healer. I'll tell you, I. As a hospice chaplain for quite a number of years, this was the number one theme I heard with people right before they died. This is what they wanted. They wanted love and feeling into love. I. I just think love is a healing balm. So how, how can you grow self love? You can't truly. I know Louise Hay says this. You can't truly love another until you love yourself. I think it's true. And we can all learn to grow love for ourselves. And the more love we have, the more love we have to give to others. So in my book, I one practice, for example, that I do, I do every single day. It's a gratitude practice. I know we hear a lot about gratitude practices, but the one I'll share that I. It's in my book. The one I do every day is in the morning, your alarm goes off or you wake up before you get out of bed. Right when you wake up, I think about all the things I'm grateful for. I'm alive, my family, I have a home. I have so much to be grateful for. I think about it, but then I feel it. I feel it in my body. Love, gratitude, highest vibrational energies there are. And I feel it coursing through my body. And I tell you I'll do this, even just for a few minutes. It sets the tone for my entire day, really does.

I mean, raising our vibrational level to love, which is certainly the highest that anyone could attain, is the connective energy of the universe, what holds everything together. So to have a practice where you are purposefully, thoughtfully.

Connecting to that, I can see why it would make an entire difference in someone's life. Then during the day, the idea of forgiveness and kindness, also great messages in your book of how we can practice something not just when we're waking up, but really all throughout the day.

And it's. I Think it's a daily choice for all of us to keep growing that love, feeling that love. And the more you feel it, you're like, oh, you just, it's just again, it's healing physically, emotionally, spiritually. And it's our essence. I think our essence, the essence of our being is love.

And the science is in. I mean, it's clear that when we have practices like this, it makes a difference in all aspects of our life.

Absolutely.

So the, the fifth and final of the five practices is holding openness. And I, when I read that chapter, I saw there was a big emphasis on being able to let go of fear. And I always heard the biblical.

Admonition that perfect love casteth out all fear. So I always thought while there is a range of emotions, those are at the two polar opposites. And if we're ever in fear, we're really not accessing the fuller potential that's within us.

I would say hold openness. I think of can you. And it's a lifelong journey. Again, can you ride the waves? In life we have ups and downs and hardships and can you truly go with the flow? Can you ride the waves? I, I'll share with you one quick example. I learned this very deeply when I companioned my mother in law in 2004, suddenly dying of pancreatic cancer. And she, she just. Her life cracked open. And together the two of us went and saw this amazing healer in this town named Michael. And Michael said to her, are you going upstream or are you going with the river? And she said, I'm going with the river. She was, she just surrendered into the moment each day. And by surrendering into the moment, she found peace. Because she wasn't, she wasn't in her mind, she was in her body just a moment at a time. And that's where that breathing room, that peace at ease, sustained her. And it grew. And by the time I was with her, when the moment she died, there was just this radiant glow around her, it was incredible.

It's gorgeous that the work that you've done in hospice care I think is super important.

Certainly people my age are facing the reality that the generation before us is passing. And I see that our work is to be.

Midwives for the world that's being born, but also hospice workers for the world that's passing.

What do you have to say to our listener about this stage of life, about being a facilitator, both for the person who is passing through this life, but also for those of us that remain behind after a loved One passes.

Walking with someone at end of life. I've obviously done this professionally. I've also lost five family members, so I've had my share of loss. I would just say walking with a loved one at end of life.

There'S, you know, there's no one right way to do it. What I have learned in my life, what I believe is love is the greatest healer. Showering the person with love, helping that person.

To find some semblance of peace. Is there anything that person needs to let go of or process to come to some peace? And what is that? I mean, some people, peace might be in, in a faith, something greater peace might be just in really having a really deep meditative practice, just helping them find that peace within themselves, that peace that, that spaciousness, that love in their heart. And sharing that love with them, I think is paramount, really important. And I think as a, as a caregiver, I would go back to self care. Self care. So important. When you're with someone at end of life, you're losing a family member. And after they've passed, how do you care for yourself as you're going through a major life transition? Major life transition. And how can you stay open? How can you keep your heart open and, and let the, you know, let the feelings out, let the grief out? We know emotions aren't permanent, but we need to feel them. We feel them. That's how we find deeper healing.

And there is no one way to get through grief. I mean, grief has its way with us. And someone might say, isn't it time that you stop grieving? No. I mean, the grief, if it has hold of us, is going to pass when it's done its work. Is that what you have found?

Yes and no. I, I think time is a healer. I once had a colleague who shared with me. It's always stayed with me, that grief. It's like a circle. It gets easier, it's less so. But then there can be a day where you hear a song that was your favorite song of your father, or you run into your father's old friend or where it's just like the grief is as if he had. This person had just passed that day. And that does happen. But I do think you integrate it, you move through it. Your heart is always. There's a spot in your heart that's always been touched by that person. And being okay when there are moments where the grief might really reappear. But I do think time is a healer. And really letting, letting, letting, being with. And it takes courage all the feelings, all the emotions. Because I think that's how we move through hardships.

Yeah, courage. Of course, the word courage means filled with heart. So it makes sense if we could keep coming back to love that place of the heart. We'll always find the healing that we're looking for. I'd like to ask a couple more questions. One is about a person who is at the cusp of awakening, doing the work, doing the practices, and is finding the benefit of the practices and is actively awakening to the full power and potential of who they are in the life that they're living and their significant other, their spouse, whoever isn't on that path. And so it creates a bit of a. A disorienting situation. I know that some people say, well, if you're not going to support me, I'm just going to leave. And that seems a little counterproductive to the whole idea of awakening. I often am in favor of staying with the process before just rejecting everybody who isn't in my process. What would you advise if someone is in that situation? Mm.

When we become more conscious, more awakened, living not out of our mind, our heart, our soul, our essence, our vibrational energy gets higher, you know, we become more grounded, more embodied, more conscious, higher vibrational level. And I'll tell you, your closest people around you, your partner, your friends, your family, they will be affected by that, it will change them. And, and yes, I think in partnerships, often one partner grows and it's just there's one partner grows, one doesn't. You grow at different times. I would just say can there be a grace period, a grace period to just, you know, letting you live your life, letting them live their life and, and see how over time they might be willing to open how you do connect and is it meaningful and is it life giving? Because it is kind of a song and dance in your partnership of growing and not growing. And can there just be some breathing room amidst that? And I think ultimately over time, if someone shuts down and they're not willing to grow, they're really closed off. I think a questions of well, is this life giving? You know, is this a life giving relationship? And, and if not, well, is there a way to make it life giving? What can I do or not do? And yeah, good.

It is again back to the idea of making a choice. I love the idea, as you said, kind of holding openness as this final fifth and final practice, it would make sense holding openness for the relationship in the same way. So thanks for that. And in the near death awareness One of the things that I've come to realize is that death has no power. That when we're in that even those who have transitioned but then come back to life describe that there's really nothing to fear about passing from this life because we pass back into the light of this magnificent spiritual being that we came in as. So it's, it's an opportunity to go back to that light. It's, it's nothing really to fear. We don't need to fear our mortality. But when there is, let's say, a 20 something who feels invulnerable and then there's a 40 something who is feeling their mortality, there's a big difference there in terms of an appreciation of life. And I'm wondering, what do you see as a difference between the mindset I'm not afraid of death and somebody with braggadocio at age 20 standing on their motorcycle like this, going 90 miles an hour, and someone else who is perhaps a parent, a caregiver, who recognizes the fragility of life and appreciates it for what it does.

I think if I'm understanding your question, it just speaks, I think, to all our paths are different. How we open, how we grow, how we embrace this deep aliveness of our being and our essence. And I mean, I think if you've had a near death experience, I've met number of people who have. I've had one and I've read a lot in this field. I think once you have a near death experience, there's just a knowing, a knowing, like there's something more you're gonna go on. And I had patients who had near death experiences. And then 50 years, 60, 70 years later are in hospice and they would say to me, I know now is my time, but I know it's okay. So, yeah, there's a, there's a acceptance. This all ties in with being in the moment. Your level of acceptance, your level of. And it's a lifelong journey for all of us. I mean, of course there are moments I have fear. I have like, you know, but I catch it. I catch, I catch the unrest, I catch the fear and I come back and I just, as Rick Hansen said, grow the good. And I open into just what is present right now. And it's, I think it's just a lifelong journey path for every one of us. And based on our life experiences, I think really do dictate and our level of openness, our level of consciousness and wanting to keep opening and growing.

Yeah, I'm thinking about the extreme sports that began taking over the Olympics back in the 90s. This is a way of expressing outside of the boundaries of anything that anybody has ever done before. And it's, it is, it's not only awesome, but it's also an amazing sense of aliveness for those who participate in it because they enter what we would call a flow experience. And entering flow could happen when you're painting. It could happen when I'm playing the guitar. It could happen when a person swinging a golf club, playing a pickleball.

There's so many ways that we can connect with the amazing power of aliveness that's available to all of us.

That's what I really hear every day. Awakening is about connecting to that aliveness, that flow of life that life is offering us to live into each day. Do you have a final thought for our listener to consider? How to engage that flow.

Again? I would say it's a choice every one of us is making all day long. Are we open to just open, open, growing, wanting to learn, wanting to feel more? Or we're either choosing that or choosing subconsciously not to. So the practices I lay out and the range of exercises are just different angles to come into feeling. What does it feel like to be here now? What does it feel like to come into your heart? I. I think ultimately it's about coming into this moment, into our heart and our soul, our spirit, and living from there. And that, I mean, people I hear every day, I. They want to feel more love and joy and they. A numbness. Well, it's about how do you find that deep peace and ease and what are you choosing?

That's beautiful. So just a bonus thought here for a moment. It, it's really not about goal setting and attaining something. It's. It's almost absent from the book. I, I know that you do have, you know, set some priorities and objectives and things like that, but it's, it's not about a success orientation or a goal attainment sort of thing. It's more about a peaceful presence and embracing of the real power that is the life that you're living. Did I read that accurately in your book?

Yeah, absolutely. It, I would say it's less is more coming into that stillness, that silence. I mean, that is where it's like, oh, here I am. I mean, I've. I've led many different people who have felt so much unrest in a few minutes of a breath exercise, and they're like, here I am. I mean, just that feeling of just being here in the moment. It's powerful and life changing.

Very beautiful. And thank you for the good work you've done and serving so many people throughout your lifetime. It's, it's obviously your life's passion. It's your great skills. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast.

Thank you so much. Great to talk with you.

Bye, Katherine.

Bye.

I hope you enjoyed our conversation with Katherine Duncan. You can learn more about katherine@everydayawakening.com that's E V E R Y D A Y A W A K E n I n g.com and now in the second part of the podcast, it's just you and me. I'll tell you how to use the paralliminal sessions in the MindTrax app to easily handle obstacles and move toward the success you want, especially as it relates to our discussion with Katherine. If you're new to the relaxing Paralympical audio sessions, they use breakthrough technologies to activate your whole mind in only 20 minutes to help improve any area of your life. Let's get going. Foreign.

Hi, welcome back. This is the follow up to my dialogue with Katherine Duncan and her work on everyday awakening. So many of the things that she's into, the spirituality and psychology, neurosciences, therapy, such a wonderful blend of technologies and philosophies and an amazing array of applications to her work. And we're going to be talking about paraliminals that may be able to assist in implementing the sorts of ideas that she was referring to. And if we were to follow the five practices of her book, we have living in the present moment, connecting with something greater, trust and acceptance, and embodying love and holding openness. There's some Paralympicals that really assist with this in the area of living in the present moment. So much of my work is about just dropping in for a moment. Meditation doesn't have to be more than 90 seconds, really. It's about relaxing the shoulders, the face, and tuning into the touch of the breath, which she guided you in very nicely during her presentation.

As an ongoing practice, I think that living in the present moment is recognizing where we are on our timeline from the past, which extends behind us to the left, and our future, which is in front of us to the right. And where we are in this present moment right now, we can get a sense of being grounded in the now in the self. Love parallel terminal does a magnificent job of that, where in one hand you're connecting with your younger self and in the other hand you're connecting with your elder self and the three of you get to be present in this now moment, healing the past, anticipating the future with a positive sense of self regard. Great para liminal for that. Another one that would work really well is the parallel I did with Bill Harris called Fresh Start. I return to that parallel quite often. It's an amazing way to recognize that each moment provides the opportunity for a fresh start. And as Catherine was talking about it, she says, every choice we make, if we're doing it choice fully, consciously, with an open heart, we're making the most of each moment. We are choosing to be fully alive. So great para liminal, fresh Start. In the area of connecting with something greater, there aren't a lot of my parallel that are spiritual practices per se. So it's, it's not necessarily one that would be best. Certainly prosperity is really close to that because we're tapping into the abundance of the universe. But I was thinking Euphoria would be a really good one. It's an amazing parallel, really puts you in touch with that natural essence, which is that true inner connection to the infinite. And it is euphoric to be in that state.

The third area, trust and acceptance being sort of the subtitle of that.

I thought of the miracle mindset that I did with JJ Virgin because.

Not only are you connecting with the possibility that is miraculous, but you're really trusting that all of the resources needed to have that miracle occur are available to you right now. And accepting is an important part of that paralimal. It's being open enough to recognize that there's a possibility, trying to come your way and you can receive it. It's very, very interesting parallel. There's seven, seven different aspects to it that you can.

Any particular listening that you do.

The next one is about embodying love. And the first one that came to mind with that is Marcy Shimoff's Paralympical with me called Happy for no Reason.

There really is a way of just connecting with your heart energy and recognizing this natural.

Joie de vivre, this natural life giving power of happiness that's always available to us. So that's one. The other is joy. And you know, joy or passion is the energy of the heart in the Five Elements program. So.

Joy would be a great one for that place of truly embodying love. Not, I think that when Catherine was speaking of the concept, she was talking about it from the standpoint of self compassion and compassion for others. The joy Paralympical is more about finding your passion and expressing life from that place of passion. But I think that those two concepts merge quite nicely. And if this is an area of your life that you are interested in working on. Play with the joy paralliminal. Let us know how it goes. The final area is the area of holding openness.

The way I like to think of that is being able to hold a container for anything that's possible.

Certainly when we think about receiving a miracle or having a wonderful change in our lives, or as Catherine's work spoke about hospice or I referred to being midwives to welcome in what's coming into the world and being hospice workers to usher out or facilitate with compassion the passing of what is, who's whatever it is whose time has come to leave. So that idea of openness, while it's a big topic and Catherine has some very nice exercises in her book about that, I would recognize recommend the gratitude paraliminal as being an essential aspect of this. Grateful for what you receive, grateful for what you release. And.

While trust and acceptance was really about letting go more, I find holding openness was really about letting go of fear probably more than anything else. And so the gratitude would be one side of that. The other is fearlessness as the other aspect of this. Maybe two sides to the same coin. Gratitude for all the resources that are given in fearlessness to know that the world cannot harm us, that we're here living on purpose to the fullness of our life. And.

We will do it with each breath we breathe, from the first breath to the absolute last breath. And all those breaths in between are breaths that we can receive and release with great gratitude.

So those are the five areas. Those are the Paralympicals I recommend. Thanks for listening to the podcast. That's it for now.

Thank you for joining me today. I applaud your willingness to maximize your potential. You can easily use the paralyminal audio sessions in the MindTrax app to stimulate your non conscious mind, I.e. your inner mind, to reduce any resistance in your life and to propel you toward the success you want. Go to www.mindtrax.com go. That's www.m I n d t r x.com go.

These amazing audio tools have helped millions and encourage you to bring them into your world today. Be sure to be back for more episodes of the mindtrax podcast. You'll find insightful conversations with authors, experts and thought leaders all devoted to improving your life's experience. Thank you again for being here on our MindTrax podcast.

Sa.