Healing Realities: Vibrations and Energy with Cari Kenzie EYV82

Hello and welcome to the Empower Your Voice podcast. I am your host, Nancy Bos. Today I had an amazing moment with a woman that has been reading my articles that I post on LinkedIn every Thursday. This is what she told me this morning, that she last week realized that the boundaries with her primary employer are so blurred that she feels taken advantage of by this primary employer to a great degree. This person that she's working for not only is unpredictable and unreliable as an employer— she doesn't know when she's going to show up, or she'll show up suddenly, or she'll text and let's meet now, morning, noon, night, weekends. She, on top of that, uses this, um, this woman who's speaking to me, uh, to do, um, all kinds of jobs that aren't directly related to what she was hired for. So we've got abuse of this woman's time and scope creep, and on top of that, last week had her dog sitting for her. And this is a highly qualified professional that has rare knowledge, and she was allowing this to happen. What she told me today is that it had not occurred to her until she put it together that she's giving up her power to her employer. She's understanding that the boundaries are blurred, but the Empower Your Voice message is hitting her hard now because she is taking the— I don't know— the easy way out by not confronting her employer, by not setting boundaries. It can feel a lot easier and safer and more familiar to say yes and sure and okay because it feels like it's risky to say, "This is not what we agreed to. This is not appropriate." These are the boundaries that I need to set. What do we risk when we don't set our boundaries, when we don't actually say, this is what I need and this is who I am? Well, if we don't do that, we are not being not only authentic, but we're not acting with integrity. Until we stop the other person and say, this is our agreement, they're going to keep perhaps walking all over us because they've forgotten the agreement. And it's easier for them to keep asking you to do stuff than to find another employee who will take care of it, or heaven forbid, a dog sitter. So that finding her empowered voice now, at first it probably seems like a really daunting task. You know, the courage that it takes to take that first step toward telling her employer, This has got to change. That first step is the hardest one, but after that, as long as you keep your destination in mind, you know where you're walking toward, you've got a specific path that you know you need to follow. And this path now, it isn't just an open field that you can walk around with no boundaries. Now you've got boundaries with this employer. You've got a sidewalk with steep curbs, and as soon as you feel yourself bumping up against those curbs, you know that you need to stay on the path. And you can still see the destination. That's not where you want to go. In her case, to do the work that she's been hired to do for a person that she thinks is amazing. If she knows that's her destination and stops letting the scope creep happen, stops letting the personal issues even be allowed, just think how exciting that'll be, how good that will be for both of them. If this woman who spoke to me this morning chooses to empower her voice, she can show up living the life that she was meant to live, living out the purpose that she was given with the skills and the passion that she has. Not trying to be everything to this person, but trying to be the best of herself to her employer. That's what empowering your voice is. It isn't just about your literal voice, although it can be. Because actually opening that throat chakra with courage to say those things that need to be said can be really hard. But once you choose, once you take that first step to act in integrity and to use your voice in integrity, true to you, it gets so much easier every time after that. Because you realize this is how you can give your gifts to the world. I have a feeling that that is something that just about every person on this planet has in common. That sometimes we people-please or give up our power or just try to make other people happy because it's easier. And that is taking power away from your own voice. Today's episode of Empower Your Voice Podcast is with Kari Kenzie. In 2013, Kari was the owner of a multi-million dollar marketing agency. She's a devoted mother, a marathon runner, and a community leader. But after she crossed the finish line in Boston in the Boston Marathon, she heard the bombs detonate behind her. Although she wasn't physically injured from the blast, she later realized that she had been hit by the deep hurt and pain that survivors often experience. Only after navigating her own journey to healing and overcoming multiple chronic illnesses that resulted from her being present with those bomb blasts Did Carrie reclaim her voice and her power as well as her experience? She started to experience the fullness of a life that's even more amazing than she ever expected, and that's what she wants for you. Carrie is a leading expert in transformational healing. She's a speaker, a bestselling author, and a coach, and she is dedicated to bringing the message of healing and compassion to you. Here we have Kerri Kenzie. Kerri, it is so awesome to have you on Empower Your Voice. Thank you for being here.

Oh gosh, Nancy, this is gonna be so fun.

I hope so. Yeah, knowing you, I think you're right. So can we start out, can you share with my audience your story? You have an amazing, compelling story and we'd just love to hear it.

Yeah, absolutely. So, oh my gosh, well, I was born— no, I'm kidding. Yes, that story, it was painful.

I'll never forget that day.

Yes, yes. Um, so I say that my life purpose, um, or my divine purpose and life path collided, and it happened in 2013, right? So up until this point, I was living the American dream. I owned a business, 3 kids, custom-built home, like doing all of the things. And there would be these moments where I would wake up, I just have little thoughts of like So is this it? Like, this, this is it for the rest of my life. And but I kept journeying on, right? Because I was just accomplishing, I was successful. Well, in 2013, I found myself at the start line of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, and it was like the pinnacle of a dream. I had started running in 2010, made my way to Boston very quickly, and was just thrilled, so excited to be standing there, and had every intention of requalifying to be back. So I ran the marathon. It did not go as I had hoped or planned. I did end up finishing, but I finished and found myself immediately taken to the medical tent where just to be attended to. I was dehydrated or needed fluids, some things. It was nothing terribly serious, right? But just needing a little extra support. So I'm sitting in the medical tent and all of a sudden like this cannon goes off. And I'm like, wow, I did not know that's how they celebrated today, right? Because this happens on a holiday.

Yeah.

As soon as this thought goes across my mind, the second ricochet happens, and immediately the ground shakes, the tent shakes. It feels like everything is coming down around you. And I knew I caught the eye of a volunteer, and with unspoken words, we knew a bomb had been set off. And so within moments, everything happens so quickly in these situations. They start bringing in those who had been injured, the casualty of limb, and those who had, you know, just completely disconnected out of pain. And I looked around and said, I'm not, I don't need anything. I'm fine. Like, I'm fine. I gotta find my family. So I walked outta the tent and turned right, looked down Runner's Alley. It's just vacant. There's nothing there. And I turned left to kind of see what's happening. And all of a sudden this line of volunteers start yelling at me, scream to run as fast as I can. So I take off running and I run as far and as fast and as long, and I don't know when I stopped.

Wow.

I eventually found my family and went back to the hotel and answered the calls of everybody, you know, reaching out with concern.

Yeah.

And the next day I went down, back down to get my bag and my belongings. And found myself standing at the end of Boylston Street in my finisher's jacket. And a reporter came up behind me and was tapping me on my shoulder and he was like, "Can I ask you some questions? Like, I'd really like to know where you were yesterday and can you tell me about your experience and can you share where you were?" And as he's asking these questions, there's a voice inside my head that literally said, "It's not your story to tell." And I turned and I walked away. And I came home a spectator and left the participant in Boston. And that completely shifted the entire dynamic of my whole life. I went back to work, I watched the news with the rest of my staff, I watched as they carried, uh, you know, captured the terrorists, and I went about my business. Well, until like 3 months later when I'm bedridden ill and I have no idea what's going on with me and I can't walk up a flight of stairs unassisted and my muscles are cramping so bad I can't sign checks and I'm having seizures standing up. I mean, the craziest of symptoms. Wow. Well, 3 years later, I finally discover what was happening. But in 2014, a wake-up call happened. You would think it'd be 2013. It wasn't. 2014, I'm sitting in yet another specialist's office, one I hadn't seen up until this point, and I'm sitting down next to him, and he's taken all of the vitals, and he's looked at the heart rate, and he's checking my chart, and he looks over at me and he says, 'Are you a runner?' And I kind of looked back, I'm like, 'Yeah, why?' And he said, 'Well, your heart rate's really low.' And I was like, 'Well, yeah, I'm a runner.' And he says, 'Okay, well, I don't have anything that can help you. I literally— I don't have anything in my toolkit that's going to be able to do anything for you. But here's what I can tell you: you're not depressed, because I've never known a runner to be depressed.' And in that moment, Nancy, he saw me. Wow, he saw me. And that was a lightning bolt moment that like ricocheted and broke the darkness that I had been living in for the past year and a half, quite honestly, my entire life. Because in that moment I realized, oh, I, I don't even see me. I've completely ignored me. I've invalidated myself. I've stepped away from my own experiences. And the only way I'm going to be able to navigate through this to get to the other side is to acknowledge me because I'm the only one who can do it. I'm the only one who can heal, right?

Isn't that something? When you realize it's crazy, there's no, there's no internal mom who's going to take care of you.

It's just, I mean, right, you're always looking. Yeah, yeah, you're just like, they're gonna show up. They don't show up.

They don't show up. No, that's right.

You have to do your own thing, right?

Yeah. Wow. Okay, so That story is so compelling, but you've got, you've got some ideas there that, that I need some concrete. I need to be able to grab onto.

Yes.

So one is I want to know more about that voice in your head that said this is not your story. I want to know why you attach the physical symptoms to the tragedy, and, and how is it that the words that that doctor said that really weren't all that I mean, amazing, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Why did those, you know, open the veil for you? Those are my big questions.

Oh my gosh, so good. So good. Well, you know, when I'm speaking and I'm on stage, I give— I share this experience and I share the story, but on the back end of it, I always say this is an extreme example, and I get that not everybody's going to find themselves at a finish line in Boston in 2013. Yeah, this is an extreme example, but it's an everyday occurrence. We all have things that happen that shake the foundation that we stand on. We all have issues, that little components, little bombs that go off in our life consistently that shake and rock the confidence where all of a sudden you're like, oh, this is in my backyard now.

Yes. And what might be a bomb for you isn't a bomb for somebody else.

No, exactly. Exactly.

It's your own story. It's your own. Yeah.

And that's where the voice comes in, right? So when I look at this, and it was as audible as somebody standing right here. It's not your story to tell. Yeah. And I've had people ask me that question before, and I've sat and I've thought about it many times. And the thing that comes to mind most is it is every voice that I have heard, every limitation that I have experienced, every time that I have been told to get up and brush it off, that we move on, that somebody has it worse, that don't complain, right? You weren't injured. Don't take it away from them. Allow them to have their pain. Allow them to have their experience. Every time we do that, we negate and invalidate our own. It is honorable. I understand. I came home, I ran in tribute to the people who were directly impacted. But the thing that we forget is there's a vibrational force that echoes out from that impact zone, and that vibrational force is the ripple. And the entire community was caught in the ripple that day.

You were impacted. You were running on behalf of people who were impacted, but you were one of the impacted.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And I, I love that, that you see that, that— I believe you see that, that voice that told you this is not in your story, you're saying that that voice was wrong. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, 100% it was. 100%. But we don't know the difference. We don't have the ability to discern without some kind of awareness, right? Right. To me, it was just like, of course. I mean, I just obeyed like I did everything else in my life, everything that everybody else is supposed to do. Okay, then I'll do it. And that's what I did, right? So then—

Yeah. Awesome. Wow.

Yeah. So then we fast forward to that. Well, so then we step into the whole illnesses, which are just— I mean, talk about impactful, right? I mean, to have go from an experience in Boston to not being able to walk up a flight of stairs unassisted. And the main component there, quite honestly, is the emotions that were trapped.

Right.

That's it. It's emotions that are trapped, right? So then we—

with a friend yesterday who, um, her uncle that she loved dearly died a week ago or a week and a half ago, and she had— she's very spiritual. She has no problem knowing that he still exists in spirit form and that she'll be with him anytime that she wants to. So her mind was totally at peace with this.

Yeah.

But her body started to react. And she was actually sick for a few days until she allowed her body to grieve. And that's kind of the same thing I'm hearing from you.

Well, a little bit. I mean, I think there are two components because we do hold— like, so when I talk about that vibrational energy, of course it is expanding out. My body's absorbing that, and it's absorbing kind of the shock and the trauma of everything that happened and occurred that day. But there's that emotional component as well, and there is an emotional component, I think, and I know, that sits so subconsciously within us that we don't have awareness around it, right? Right. So where we feel like we have navigated through— honestly, Nancy, I just— this past, probably like 3 months ago, I popped to my phone. You know how you keep old notes, right? Any pocket— pop my phone and I'm, I'm like searching for notes and I go back to September of 2013, right? I'm like, wow, I wonder what that says. And it literally talks about how I believe at that point I have really been able to navigate what needed to be navigated and worked through from the Boston Marathon.

Done.

And guess what? That's when I got sick. It's when I got sick.

It's when you decided.

It's when I decided, like, I've got— like, I've navigated and I've, you know, I can understand and I can see and all of those things. But it's the emotions that we bury out of habit, the things that we don't show because we were told as a child it was too much. Stop crying. Brush it off. Right. So it becomes so ingrained in us. It's like driving a car. We don't even have awareness to it anymore. And this is what happened to me. And those— all emotions are energy, and that energy has to move and it's got to go somewhere. And when you don't allow those emotions to move because we don't have an awareness, we're not allowing them to come forward or getting curious about them, then they get trapped and they get trapped in the body. And the body has to express in some way, shape, or form. And so it's going to do it in illness, it's going to do it in inabilities, in injuries. You name it, autoimmune conditions, uh, inability to speak, quite honestly, like all of these different things will get trapped and locked down when we don't have the ability to express.

Yeah, expression is holistic, and if something is wrong holistically, yeah, it's going to impact your expression. Wow.

It is.

So moving on then to you realizing that, yes, this is what's going on, tell me about that light bulb, um, and how you work through that in time since then?

So 2014, I have this doctor who says this thing to me. Like you said, it's not like horribly impact— it wasn't like earth-shattering, really good insight, mind blown, right? But it brought forward to me— it's sometimes when you know things but you don't realize that you know them, right? Um, it just brought something forward to me that caused me to start to take things a little differently, to choose things a little differently, to listen a little differently. And so I followed my intuition. I would look for signs, or they'd show up, or I'd hear something 3 times and think, oh, I need to follow that path. And that's what I would do. And then I found myself— so I did a lot of Western medicine, I did a lot of holistic medicines, and I was up and down and really never able to come to the other side. Well, in 2016, part of that curiosity that led me down a path took me to California to a conference, uh, in a human potential coaching program that I got myself involved in. And while I'm at this conference, I'm talking to this gal, and at this point I have had, outside of chronic Lyme disease and Hashimoto's and Epstein-Barr and all of these crazy autoimmune conditions, I had suffered from insomnia so bad it took 5 sleep medications to go to bed, right? Wow. It was crazy. So I go to this conference and I go to this neurofeedback, uh, big booth, right? I'm having conversation and she's like, so what's going on? And I said, well, I've got— I have this chronic Lyme disease and insomnia and, you know, Da da da. And she goes, oh, I've been there. I've had that. I've got this gal. She does this thing. You should give her a call. It would be really helpful. And at this point, I'm like, I don't care what she does. I don't care who she is. Like, give me a number. I'm calling. So I call this gal, and I always joke. I'm like, yeah. So I get her on the phone, and she goes, so tell me about your childhood. This is not how it happened at all, but it's what I felt like, because I remember thinking, that's not why I called you. I called you because I have Lyme disease. But in our conversations, what I came to realize is that there was a connection in mind-body-spirit, that there was a connection between the traumas and the things that I had experienced in the past and, uh, what I was navigating through physically in that moment. And the more that I had the ability to go back and to address the trauma, to be like the buffalo and turn around and go directly into the storm, the more I did that, the more I was able to heal. And the more I was able to heal, the more I was able to overcome, and the clarity I got in my life and the more my life path changed. Wow. So that's when I really dove into neurosciences and quantum physics and quantum mechanics and energy healing and energy medicines and energy psychology and all of the things, right? Because when I have the opportunity to heal an insomnia overnight, I kind of want to figure out how that happens and like, how do I have the ability to bring this forward to other people to allow them to do the same thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because you want to save people from the suffering that you went through with the knowledge that you now have.

Well, I'd love to help people just like not even get to that point, right? So we all have these, you know, little things that peek up, or they're like, hey, over here, but we're too busy to pay attention. And so we get the Chris Farley 2x4 across the face. And this is— this was my 2x4. It was like, hey, so I've tried telling you, you remember that little 2x4? I know. So I say, I'm like, it could have been a little gentler.

A little more subtle would have been fine.

Would have been fine. Right. So I work to help those on the front end, right? Because we have those little questions. We feel like we're stuck. We feel like nobody's hearing us. You're in the meeting or you're trying to speak or you're trying to get on stage and it's like, why am I just not getting there? Why am I so afraid? Or what is it about me not being heard or not being able to share my voice? Those are those little things. Those are the things we want to address and we want to really get to the bottom of so that we don't have to have the 2x4 and we just get to catapult ourselves to the next level.

So let's go there.

Yeah.

You've got people who are coming to you with a why do I have this problem, right?

Yeah.

What are your next steps? What do you do with people?

Oh, it's a lot of questioning, but questioning in a bad way. It's a curiosity. That's what I call it. It's very much a curiosity, and it's a curiosity that leads us down a path to understand the pattern that has been created. Our lives are run by habit, right? The subconscious mind is this amazing, powerful thing that we utilize to the greatest benefit, like I say, of driving a car so I do not have to pay attention like my kids do when they're learning at 14. However, it's also the thing that runs my daily life 95% of the time, which is unfortunate if I don't know how it's running it. And so when people feel like they're stuck, when people feel like they're not being heard, when people feel as though, like, gosh, I just keep trying to book the stages and I'm not able to get there, that's when we get to get ask a question. We get to get curious and go, okay, wasn't that like, that's super interesting, right? Because they see somebody else doing it and they're doing it easily. So what is it about me? What is this pattern that's been created? And so I come in with an element of curiosity that quite honestly I'm training people to have, but it is so uncommon, um, because it takes people from their current experience into the pattern back to the past that takes them to the source so that we have the ability to re-record. The way I've been explaining it lately is my time period, we had the cassette recorders and they played the Top 10 at night. And I remember sitting there with my tape recorder and you'd be like, recording, right? Oh my gosh, recording your Top 10! And then the next night it would come on, you'd be like, go back to the beginning and to re-record over, right? To get a new Top 10 because the other one's old. I don't listen to that one anymore. It is a day old, right? Or it could be a week old or whatever. Well, this is how the subconscious mind works, except for that top 10 has been there since I was like 5 or 6. Yeah, the top 10 isn't something that's been there for like a week, 2 weeks, and it just feels like it's a little outdated. No, this is stuff that needs to be completely remastered. So this curiosity allows us—

Bette Midler in your brain, it's gotta go.

So true. So I asked the question of the experience because it's an entry point. Okay, it's just an entry point. And then we start to navigate ourselves back through the past, and then we ask the questions. I ask the questions that help them to be able to reach the port— the point to find the pattern in order to pull it and then re-record what they want over what has been playing. And that's what I do. And so many times it's when people come, they'll say, I've got this issue, I have this thing going on. I can very easily in intuitively tell them exactly why.

That's—

I can tell you why.

That's your gift right there.

That's my gift. I can tell you why this is going on. Let me share this with you. This is the thing that needs to be worked on. Now, you can do it, you don't have to do it, is entirely up to you. But you've asked me, and this is what your energy is communicating to me. Now, I have the ability to read the energy and tell you what it's communicating, whereas the person that's trying— that you're trying to book the stage with, or the person that you're trying to get the job with, They don't have the awareness, but that's still what they're reading. That's still what they're experiencing. Their subconscious is experiencing. Their subconscious and their energy is experiencing that of you, and that's why they make the decisions they do. So we have to change that vibration.

Oh, that is a great way of saying it. All right, I think I'm, I'm finally wrapping my brain around that for the first time. Thank you for that.

You're so welcome.

The energy, the vibration. I, I would love to hear more about this from you because you're the first guest that I've had on the podcast who's talking about energy healing instead of psychology or hypnosis or any other, um, scientifically tested method. And so talk to me, tell me, give me some more in-depth information about energy healing.

Well, it's a big topic. I was going to say, I didn't give you much of a leading question. I apologize. I just allow it to show me exactly where we need to go in the conversation we need to have. So energy healing is a very big topic. It really is. But when I look at it, it actually becomes very simple because we have a way of communicating with one another. And the way that we communicate with one another is through energy. We feel like it's through words. But it's through energy, right? We know this. Our voice is nothing but a vibration, right? And it's vibrating at different levels, which is why sometimes people's voices are irritating, sometimes they're pleasant, sometimes we can understand what they're saying, and sometimes we can't, right? Because it's all just a vibration. Well, it's the same thing with our subconscious mind. It's same thing with the energy that we're carrying and we're holding. We walk into a room, we know exactly the corner we want to go into because those people are my people. You feel it, right? You're just connected and you're drawn to it. The other side of the room, you're like, no thank you. Yeah. Or my people aren't here. Yeah, my people are not here.

Family, this is where I belong.

Yeah, so we're consistently and constantly communicating through this world of energy. Okay, so when I look at energy healing, I look at the way that we are communicating through this form of energy and how we want to communicate through this form of energy.

But it's something that isn't measurable, can't be seen.

Is that— it can't be seen, it can be measured. They are actually doing more scientific studies where they can measure. If, if you've heard energy fields electromagnetic fields, they can measure that from the body, right? And we know that thoughts are nothing but energy. They travel, right? Your voice is a vibration. Again, it's nothing but energy. So we're communicating in all sorts of different ways, shapes, and forms. But this energy that we're communicating from the subconscious mind, again, are these beliefs that we don't have conscious awareness of, but that are constantly flowing throughout the day. Me. So that when I step in and I'm working with somebody, that's the energy we're working to heal. So you start communicating cohesively in an aligned way, so everything makes sense, and your reality then starts to replicate what it is that you truly desire, because your conscious mind is pairing up and aligning with the subconscious mind, and they're no longer fighting one another.

Got it. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I— in, in my coaching, I use the example or the formula that, that fear plus excitement equals nervousness, because it has an energy. The fear has an energy, and if you're fighting each other, then you end up with performance anxiety or stage fright or whatever. If you've got excitement plus excitement, like you're talking about, the subconscious and the conscious lining up together, nothing's in the way. It's just flow.

Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Wow.

So do you work with people on Zoom?

I do, yeah. I work with individuals in person. I also do quite a bit because I work internationally, so I do a lot virtually and on Zoom, um, to be able to help people really kind of fish through and figure out the thing, right? Because it's— oh man, it's frustrating to be stuck. Well, it's frustrating.

Is it always one-to-one? Are you able to work with groups?

Or— I do workshops. Yep, I do workshops. I do keynote speaking. So I go into organizations, I have conversations, because it's an entire culture, right? And so if we can get the culture to where it needs to be, and then I have the ability— so the most amazing thing is when you have the ability to be able to truly navigate and align within your own energy, you get a different perspective. You start seeing life differently. You see yourself differently. Therefore, you have more compassion and have the ability to see other people differently. That judgment just kind of goes away, right? The friction goes away, and now we have the ability to really be able to collaborate and to be able to move everything forward in the greatest way.

Awesome, awesome.

Yeah.

Wow, thank you, Carrie. Where can people find out more about you and work with you and learn what you have to teach?

Oh my gosh, well, uh, my website, carriekenzie.com, and then I am also most heavily active on Instagram @carikenzie. Yeah. Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us today.

Oh my gosh, so great to chat with you.

Kari Kenzie has so much that she has to offer the world. I'm glad she's out there getting the message out, especially to my audience. So grateful to have heard from her. Be sure to connect with Kari at karikenzie.com. That's spelled C-A-R-I-K-E-N-Z-I-E. And as for you, does this empower you even more to share your voice with integrity? Remember that story that I told you at the beginning about the woman who's struggling with an employer who's crossing the boundaries in every direction so that there are no boundaries left? Is that you in some part of your life? Find the courage, act in integrity, be honest and true with what serves you in your purpose, in your destination. Empower your voice to be the awesome person that you need to be. That's all for today. Thanks so much. This is Nancy Bos with the Empower Your Voice podcast. Bye-bye now.