Join us for a heartfelt and inspiring dialogue between Kathy Harmon-Luber and Tessa Lynne Alburn. Kathy shares her journey from facing physical limitations due to health challenges to discovering new passions and sources of joy. Instead of focusing on what she couldn't do, Kathy shifted her perspective to explore what she could do. This shift in perspective led her to embrace activities that filled her soul, such as reading, art, and sound healing. Together with host Tessa, they explore what it means to truly surrender and find the deeper gifts in our lives. 

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• Kathy shares her journey of facing severe physical limitations due to health challenges
• Learn about the importance of surrendering to the present moment and finding opportunities for growth and healing 
• Using the power of intention and self-care, along with practices like sound healing and meditation became integral to Kathy’s healing
• Gain insights on choosing love over fear in decision-making processes, and the importance of nurturing oneself during difficult times
• Recognizing her own healing journey as a soul path, Kathy came to share her experiences and wisdom by writing a book and creating resources to help others facing similar challenges

About Kathy 

Kathy Harmon-Luber is a certified Sound Healing practitioner, Reiki Master, and wellness guide whose passion is helping people navigate the challenging terrain of the healing journey—and thrive. Her best-selling book, “Suffering to Thriving: Your Toolkit for Navigating Your Healing Journey—How to Live a More Healthy, Peaceful, Joyful Life,” is full of wisdom gleaned from decades of healing from debilitating health crises. She’s in Yoga Magazine, Authority Magazine, MindBodyGreen.com, Elephant Journal, Pretty Woman Hustle Magazine, Woman’s World Magazine, and numerous podcasts.

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Kathy’s Website & Socials to Connect

Website: https://sufferingtothriving.com/   You’ll find numerous articles and inspiring materials. 

Social Media: 

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-harmon-luber-4b38158/

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

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Hello there. Our guest today is Kathy Harmon-Luber, and I'm really happy to have her here. Kathy is a certified sound healing practitioner, a Reiki Master, and a wellness guide. And her passion is helping people to navigate the challenging terrain of the healing journey. And boy, she really knows what she's talking about there. She's also teaching them to not just navigate it, but to thrive. And her bestselling book, 'Suffering to Thriving': Your Toolkit for Navigating Your Healing Journey: How to Live a More Healthy, Peaceful, Joyful Life is full of wisdom, gleaned from decades healing from debilitating health crises. Kathy's in Yoga Magazine, authority magazine, mindbodygreen.com, Elephant Journal, Pretty Woman Hustle Magazine, Woman's World Magazine, and numerous podcasts. I think you're gonna love her. My Scorpio sister.

So Kathy, welcome to Say YES to Your Soul.

Hi, Tessa. I am so happy to be here, and I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Likewise. Yay. You know, We had so much fun getting to know one another, and maybe some of that'll show up today, but it's, it's one of those fun things when you meet somebody and there's so many synchronous things that have happened in one's life, or similar things that I'm, I'm really excited for you to share your story, your healing journey with our audience here today. And I'd love for you to pick, give them a taste and then take them into the darkness.

Yeah, I know. It's quite a story. Like you alluded to, my book came out of decades and decades of my own healing journey. I'm writing about and, and guiding people on, uh, a journey that, that I know rather intimately. For, for decades, I've had very serious spinal issues. They're hereditary diseases, seven of them. I've had autoimmune diseases, and I have gone through the dark nights of the soul. I have been to that place of suffering, and over many years of, of trying different modalities and complimentary medicine, always in, you know, collaboration with Western medicine. Um, finding a path forward from that place of terrible suffering to a place where I'm happy to say I'm thriving today, uh, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And the thing that has been so amazing to me is if you had asked me before some of these big health crises had happened, I was living the life of my dreams.

You know, I really was, didn't think life could get any better. You know, big challenges happen in our lives, whether they're physical healing. Uh, many of us go through mental and emotional things. Sometimes they're disruptions like losing a job or, or divorce, or a death of a loved one. All of these kinds of disruptions in our lives can help point us to a new life purpose. Uh, hearing our souls calling, if you will. I love to talk about this because having been in that dark place, you don't see that like so often you're like, is it gonna be like this forever? What what happens is we ask all the wrong questions. We say, why did this happen to me? And will it always be like this? And what if it is like this forever? And we need to ask the right questions. Like, what if this is a portal to something better? What if this points me at a new and wonderful future in some way? And so, I like to talk about this as our healing journey is embedded in our life's journey, of course. And, and that is embedded in our soul's journey, and it is through this portal of healing that we often find the life of our dreams and begin to fulfill our life's purpose, if that makes sense. Yeah.

Beautiful. And I know that you are doing that today. You, you really went through the gauntlet, um, and overcame a lot of things. Like you mentioned seven spinal surgeries, uh, or you had, wait a second, you had seven

Injuries. Yeah.

Yes, yes. So

Unfortunately not operable, that that was part of the big challenge. Oh, operable. Because of the complexity of these, these inner weaving kind of diseases, if you will, and, and other, uh, connective tissue diseases and all. Uh, I wasn't a candidate for surgery, which, you know, often we think, you know, you, you get the surgery and you go on the road to recovery and you get better. And that wasn't the case in

this. Okay. So let, let's back up, because I, I'm, I'm missing some pieces and I wanna make sure that all, all our listeners can follow this crazy health story of yours. Mm-Hmm. . So, like, you were living the life that, you know, that was really great. You were having a good time. You're in your, like, your twenties at some point, right?

Yeah. I, when I, yeah, what happened? 21 years old, uh, again, living the life of my dreams, um, I began to have serious spinal issues, more serious than just hurting your back or having a back ache, things that really had me down for the count for like a couple weeks, or at one point a month flat on my back. I missed work. I missed all kinds of things in life. Um, but, but doctors told me I had the spine at 21 years old. I had the spine of an 80-year-old woman. And I was like, okay. Uh, they, some doctors, one doctor told me I would be in a wheelchair by my mid-thirties. Oh, I'm not, by the way. And, and I'm older than that. So, you know, it's one of those things that I realized I had a problem, but I was really young, you know, and I thought, well, I'm just going to, um, I don't wanna own this.

I'm going to find as many alternate complimentary ways of working with my medical doctors as I can at that young age. I don't know. I just had this, this idea that, that somehow none of those things that they predicted were gonna come true for me. I just, I wanted to have a different life. And, so I began doing yoga. Um, I began getting, you know, massages and acupuncture and, and lots of different, lots of different things, supplementation, uh, many different things. And you know what? I managed it until, uh, I was 42, and I was working at, out at the gym with a personnel trainer, and the first disc ruptured. And again, because my spine is very complicated, they said, you know, most people will heal. We're just going to make you rest a whole lot. After three months or so, four months maybe, I was back to my job.

I was back to, uh, being very active. I was a very active walker. I had been a runner, uh, didn't get back to running so quickly, uh, biking, dancing, all the things I loved. Fast forward again to 2016. And now, um, you know, I had all of the intuitive, I would say, warnings. I had all the intuitive warnings in 2016. Shouldn't have gone on that road trip. Probably shouldn't have, uh, gone on a, a business trip that that involved several hours in a car, probably shouldn't have photographed a friend's wedding. Many, many things. I was doing quite a lot. I was, I had a full-time job in addition to performing classical flute on weekends. My back hurt really bad when I played my flute, and I didn't wanna give it up. I didn't wanna give up any of these things. And so I just kept pushing like, like so many of us do.

Well, that's so, that is, yeah, right. That's the thing. It's the push through mentality, right?

Exactly.

That gets us into trouble.

Yeah, exactly. Every time it gets us into trouble, doesn't it? And so that's what happened. I just kept pushing. And I went on a business trip. Uh, it was a couple days. It was a long road trip. And I was standing in the kitchen, uh, one day, the next day after getting back, talking to my husband, making a cup of coffee and horribly severe pain in my lower spine. I, he had to help me to get to bed. I laid down, I could not move, and it got worse and worse and worse. And I thought, okay, I know what this is. This is another disc rupture. It would've, it was the fourth one. I knew how this story went, and I thought, all right, you know, two to three or four months, and I'll be back. I just have to rest. Got it. Got it. I got the message. Except that's not what happened. I ended up being bedridden for five years. It was disastrous. I couldn't, it

Is, wait a second. You can't just keep talking. I mean, that ,

Right?

Bedridden, you went from like this really full act of life. You'd already overcome many challenges and defied doctors, you know? Right. ill wishes and, or predictions. I shouldn't say they wished that, but they predicted incorrectly, but, and you're living and you're like managing, you know, like every, you know, sure. I'll just manage, you know, two to four months I'll be back and going. And then bam, this wasn't a month this time, this was five years in bed. What?

And

Yeah. Well, wait, wait. Like, I, I have to know, like, what was the, the moment, like when you realized I'm actually in bed, I'm not getting out of this for a while.

Devastating, you know, I could walk, uh, you know, about six steps, uh, maybe a couple more eight steps to the, to the master bath and in howling pain, and with the assistance of my husband, like, I couldn't walk through the bedroom door for months. Okay. That's how bad it was. I couldn't do anything. Like I was, I was a mess. And it was, it had never been this bad. And, you know, um, I had wonderful doctors and a neurosurgeon and, and everyone, you know, I did consults with, and they're like, you know, you, you can't have surgery. And so the best thing you can do is just to continue to rest. And I said, how long is it going to be? And they said, you know, we can't answer that. It could be six months. It could be three years. And I said, I'll never forget this.

I said this to the neurosurgeon test. I said, I am an overachiever. I'm sure it'll be just a few months. I'm gonna be fine. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this . Oh my goodness. Except big wake up call from the universe. You know? It wasn't that easy. And it was devastating, as you can imagine, you know? Yes. I had to let go of everything in my life, my work. I was on three boards of directors in our local community. And, uh, like I said, I played classical flute every weekend. I'm an award-winning photographer. I had to stop doing photography. I couldn't stand at my easel and paint. I gave up everything and the darkness sets in. Yes. And part of what got me through it was, um, you know, I began collecting, inspiring quotes on my computer.

I could put my laptop on my stomach, . And that was about all I could do. And so I started keeping this little journal, and I put in inspiring quotes, um, I think along the lines of, you know, uh, Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer and Pema Chodron. And, uh, lots of people in their quotes appear in the book, in my book Mm-Hmm. , because they got me through. And so I started keeping this journal, uh, things I was trying, you know, from different supplements to tracking my progress, because I find, like, you know, there was a point when I couldn't walk 20 steps, and then that came the day when I could walk 25, you know? And so, like, it, it's this microscopic progress compared to what, like, I was hiking in our mountains on weekends prior to this happening. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Just prior to it happening, I was swimming three hours a week.

I couldn't walk to the bedroom door, so, you know, it, I had to latch onto something. So I started writing about it. I started collecting these quotes, and I realized very quickly that in every moment we have a choice. I went down the dark rabbit hole of despair. You know, when I say dark night of the soul, I'm not kidding. It was, it was horrible. I got help. I got the help I needed. And to our listeners, I just want to say, if you're in a very dark place, it's not a weakness. It's a strength to ask for help. Get the help that you need. And so I started there from that point for a short time. And then I realized that every moment is a choice. I could either be miserable and suffer in my mind 24-7 and become a bitter, angry, old woman one day, or I could choose another way. And I decided every day to choose joy. And this, this is what I call making our mind our medicine. Because we can go down the dark path. We can wallow in it. We can wallow in self pity, um, and despair, and see no light at the end of the tunnel. It's really easy sometimes in life to get to that place. I

It's far too easy to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. Right? Yeah, exactly. But if we can really discipline our minds to, I'm not talking about fake positivity. I'm talking about what can I find today that will bring me joy? I did a lot of reading. I listen to music. I've always been a musician since I was a wee little girl of three years old. And I love music. I listen to music, um, and sound healing. We know that, that listening to music is healing. I decided I would do the, the right kind of music. It has to be music you love. That's the key. The, it's music you love. Uh, we all think, you know, oh, it must be classical music, right? because it's so pretty. But, you know, if you love jazz, hip hop, R&B, um, um, any, any kind of music, if it speaks to your soul, it's healing for you.

And when I say, you know, make your mind your medicine, it's like any medicine that we choose. We are all unique. Every one of us is different. My medicine is nature. I live on a mountain. Nature is part of my medicine. Music and sound healing are my medicine, art, creativity, those, those things are my medicine. And like, uh, certain kinds of music are my medicine. And so everyone has to ask themselves, what is it that brings me joy? Follow that curiosity. And, and that is listening to our hearts. It's listening to intuition, but it boils down to what is our heart whispering? We've gotta get slow. We've gotta unplug the devices. We've gotta be, you know, quiet and just settle into this. And when you're in a bad place, sometimes that's scary. But if we can, if we can try to find one thing that will bring us joy in that moment and build on that.

And there's a phrase that I, a quote that I love and I can't remember who to attribute to. I think it's one of my favorite poets, David White. Um, but what can I do today that my future self will thank me for? And that's not sitting here feeling sorry for myself. You know, it was reading, taking classes online, um, asking the right questions like I was alluding to earlier. Not what's going to happen to me, but okay, let's say this is going to take a while. How can I, what can I let go of that doesn't serve me? And in doing that, what does that make room for, that I'm passionate about? That brings me joy. What if this is a time of discovery to learn new things? You know, most of us in life, if we're busy working or raising families, we don't always have time to take a long pause and just explore what we want to do, like what we want to learn, what we want to be curious about.

That hasn't happened in my life, except in this particular situation. And I thought, well, how can I make the best of this moment, however long it lasts? And, and what is it that I want to learn and grow? How do I want to grow as a, as a human being? How does my soul want to grow? And when we get quiet and we start having those conversations with ourselves, you know, saying to your heart, my beautiful, hardworking heart, I'm listening. You know, what do you have to say to me? Like, and, and, and, and it isn't always a linear conversation, as you know, probably, right? Mm-Hmm. , it's, yes, it's more like you ask the question and you ask it again, and you ask it again, , and, and it shows up in your dreams or as you're writing or, um, losing, doing the dishes, the conversation. Exactly, exactly. Anything like that where, where our minds aren't necessarily engaged in the thinking of the answer. Mm-Hmm. , um, sometimes the answers, they, they come up.

And Kathy, at what point in lying there in your bed and looking for the joy and this, that, and the other, like getting yourself inspired daily, at what point do you feel like you were really starting to hear your soul and you were realizing you were talking with your soul?

I think I was probably a couple or three months into it before it really started to occur to me. So I think that up until then, I was not in a good place, and I was trying to be, but it wasn't working so well. And then just one day that, that, that light came on, it's like, you've got a choice here, Kathy. You know, you can, you can just, you know, you've had your little pity party here. You can live in that, or you can find a different way. And then I started just getting really curious. It's like, well, huh, well, what does that mean though? You know, what could that be? Asking those right questions. And then I started thinking about it as this, this is my soul's journey. This is happening for a reason. It's like an initiation. Mm-Hmm. It's like, you know, an initiation that happens in, in so many times in our lives where it's a test.

Which way are you going to go? You could, you could just curl up and, and, you know, hide under the sheets forever. Sure. But, but what if this is something different? What if it's stretching boundaries? And it was, I couldn't do anything physical. So I had to start looking at things from the standpoint of not inability, but ability. What can I do? So I literally made this list. Okay? So I wrote down on the left hand column of my computer document, I, I wrote down, okay, I cannot hike. I cannot swim. I cannot go for walks. I can't run. I can't play my flute. I can't, I can't, I can't get to the kitchen. I can't get outside to our deck. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. And I can't stand at my easel. And on the, the right hand side, I made a column, okay, I can't play my classical flute, but I've got a couple of Native American flutes, and they don't twist my back. So I said to my husband, go to my, go to my office studio and find a Native American flute and bring it. I'm going to see if I can play it. I can play it laying on my back. So it was like, okay, there's music in my life. I couldn't ride horses, but I could draw horses. So I started drawing horses, . And it sounds really silly, you know? Right. Okay. Right. You can't what ride horses, but you're going to draw them. You're going to find

That fun. Well, I think what's

More,

What I'm noticing is, I think what's a really interesting thing here is that if, if somebody were told, oh, you, you can't ride horses, so why don't you draw them? You'd be like, screw you. Like, that's not an answer, , right? But you, you knew that it, this came from within you, and you were open and you were curious, and you're like, I want to experience joy. And so all these things helped support you in saying yes to that activity. Whereas before you would've just completely laughed at it or dismissed it.

Oh, I would've, I totally would've, I would've said, forget that. That is not a, not a good substitute. But so, so it wasn't only horses, I just began to lean into drawing. You know, I could just crop it up on my stomach and draw. And, and so that became something that I enjoyed exploring. I, in my life of, of being a very busy nonprofit, uh, executive, um, for, you know, my whole career. It's like I didn't have much time to read all the books I ever wanted to read or, or take online classes or anything else. And I just began to see it as, wow, this is kind of fun. I have like this free pass to read all the books I want. And so I started, you feel the energy shift as I say that, right? Yes, absolutely. You know, it's like, I started getting curious and saying, alright, this, that's not bad.

I have, you know, a stack of like a hundred books I'd like to read, um, on my wish list and, you know, some movies and things like that. So I filled my time with things that filled me up. And it was only by letting go and surrendering. And by surrender, I don't mean giving up, of course. I mean, when we surrender and say, okay, I need to float in the river of life right now and not try to swim upstream or beat myself up for not being able to swim upstream fast enough. Um, because I can't do that. I have to float in the river of life. And once we start doing that, it is just so fascinating to me that doors begin opening opportunities come up, and, and we, and they feed our soul. Right? And so that is the path of curiosity. I began listening to my heart more, and I just, I was very lit up by things that I was exploring.

And that just led one thing after another, you know, to new, uh, new rabbit holes, I guess, you know, to explore. And that felt good. And then at some point years into it, like, like we're maybe maybe around the three year mark, I can't exactly remember, but maybe around the three year mark, uh, when doctors said, well, it isn't going to be just, you know, six months to three years. This is taking longer, and you're doing everything right. You're doing everything right. There's nothing more that you can do. It's taking longer. I realized, okay, well there's, I'm never going to get back to that old life, I don't think, um, I probably need to start thinking, uh, about like, what does life look like going forward? Like, what would I like to do if this is all I get? If I can never walk again, which I'm delighted to say, I can walk.

I'm, I'm, you can, yes, walk bedridden, I can walk, I can do things. Um, I, but I, at that point, I didn't know that. And I said to myself, if I will never walk again, if I'm going to be stuck here bedridden and out of bed for just a few minutes a day, basically, what does my life look like? That in a way that not, not the bad. What does my life look like, but the good, what if, like, what if I can think of, of other things I'd like to do that'll keep me fulfilled for the rest of my life? Mm-Hmm. And those things became, uh, sound healing. Um, meditation, visualization and journeying, uh, art, uh, music, all the things that I love are now the life that I have. And then right around that two to three year mark, I look back at this, this journal I was now keeping on my computer and said, there's a lot of wisdom here to share with other people.

And I've always been a very service oriented kind of person. I've always worked at nonprofits, like I said, make the world a good place. And I thought to myself, I never wanted to write a book, but if I wrote this into a book, which was beginning to take shape in my head, if it helps one person, my job here is done. If I help one person get through something like this, I will feel very good about the book. And as it turns out, it's helped a lot more than that. And that is thrilling, absolutely thrilling. But that's when that path opened up to me. And I saw that as a soul path to be able to take whatever, you know, horrible suffering, I went through, turn it into thriving, and then share it with the world that felt like a life purpose. And there's this wonderful quote I want to share with you, um, by Alain de Botton. Uh, he said, we should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them. And that is the path of the soul.

I love that. Yes.

Yeah.

Yes. The beauty in everything. And I mean, I think this is a key part of your message. And, you know, there's this struggle and overcoming, or go surrendering through the struggle, but it's really about the, the deeper gifts, you know, but not just trying to ask, what's the gift here? What's the gift here? What's so great about this? It really is going more micro than that, and taking it a step at a time and connecting with your heart deeply inside so that you have that guidance for the next question, so that you have that good feeling. And I, and you also, and you didn't really speak to this, um, but I know it's part of your method, which is to be intentional, right? Like you Oh

Yes.

Knew exactly what you wanted to be experiencing, and you never lost sight of that.

That's right. And that's hard, you know? It is, it is making the commitment every day to what is sacred to you, and, and being willing to commit to it and fight for it if you have to. And by sacred, I mean, like, for me, it was that intention. You know, I intend to heal from this. Our bodies are so wise, we can heal, we can heal our bodies. I have reversed autoimmune diseases that my, you know, rheumatologist looked at me and said, I don't know what you did, but like, that doesn't happen. People don't do this. But I set the intention years ago, I intend to heal. Yes. And it can be that simple. That's a really simple intention. I intend to heal. That works for everything. It works for, for emotional healing. It works for healing from trauma. It is, it is opening the door to the possibility, right.

In the world. That's right. There are infinite possibilities, as we know. Stating the intention walks you through the portal toward those infinite possibilities. It is taking that first step. And what I like to say is, change or alchemy, if you will, of, of any kind, begins with like one breath, one thought, one intention, one prayer, one step. That's how it begins. And then the next day, the next step, the next prayer, the next intention, right? It's like every day having that intention front and center in your life. And we all, like, there were times when it was one step forward and five steps back, you know? Sure. Like, I'd be making great progress. And then it was like, wow, that didn't go well. Something happened and I was smacked back a bit. And, but, but not losing sight of the end goal and not, not, you know, not judging, not measuring linearly as, uh, every single day I have to make a progress knowing that it is a dance. Sometimes it's forward, sometimes it's back. But, but keeping that forward trajectory is what is important.

Yes. The forward trajectory is important because if we're not doing that, then we are going back. So we like, we have to be in motion one direction or the other. And so I like to think of it like a spiral, right? We're like going up the spiral, and then we come around a certain point, and the view is, seems to be pretty much the same. Only it's slightly different. We're at a different place on the spiral. We're a little, maybe we'll call it higher up. That's

Right.

Right. And then, but then we go around and we go around again. We come, come around to that same viewpoint. We're like, what's changed? But actually a lot changes. Uh, the higher we go into those new viewpoints, even though we might be looking at the exact same thing, the way we see it is going to be changed.

Ooh. Yes. Definitely. I love that. Yeah. It's a spiral for sure. Yeah. And everything is incremental. So what I try to always keep in my mind to this day is like, we don't always make giant steps forward. Sometimes healing is amazing and giant steps I've had that happen too. And sometimes it's not. And not to lose sight of the fact that everything is incremental. And if you're making little baby steps every day, you're going to get to that place eventually. It might take longer, but you'll get there. And we lose hope. I mean, we're human beings. We're having a human being experience here. And, and we do. It's easy to lose hope when, when Well, that's

Full of judgements, right? And expectations that you, so we have all these things externally pointing, we think are pointing at us or to us to suddenly get it and suddenly be perfect. But that's unreasonable. And, um, if we were perfect, we would, we would like just go to the next level. We'd give up this body probably, um, unless we'd stay as a saint on this plane, you know, to support other human beings. But I don't think we, I don't know that we have any living saints right now. We might, but that's pretty rare. So we're all here learning and growing, and we, we get to choose our method. And you chose joy.

Exactly. And just to follow that up, like, okay, so like I was saying, every moment in life is a choice, and I chose joy. But there's also Pema Chödrön, the Buddhist nun, who is, I just adore her. She's very plain speaking, right? It's easy to understand. She puts it very simply. And I quote her in the book too, that, that everything in life is a choice between love or fear. How does love decide? So that's my litmus test as I go through my day, you know, if I'm having a moment where I am full of fear about the future, and look, we live in a world right now where it's easy to be consumed by fear. And so, um, we look at the news, we look in our personal lives, we look at the planet and the environment. It's easy to live in a place of fear.

But how would love decide? You know, that is a choice between saying, I'm going to look for something that, that does bring me joy, or I'm going to go hug my dog, or my kid or my partner or whatever, and, and, and focus on love. Sure. That's part of it. But the other part is, and especially for those on, on the healing journey, how would love decide means don't sit around thinking about how bad your diagnosis is and all the terrible things that can happen. We have to be real about it. We have to face it. We have to do what's right for ourselves. But, but to sit around and stew in fear is, is not healthy for us, number one. And then what, what would love do? Well, love would say follow robust care, self-love. Uh, and that's not, you know, if you're a woman painting your fingernails and taking a bubble bath, that's not, that's not self-love .

You know, it's like maybe right now if you get quiet and you listen to your heart or to your body, or you do a body scan, your body says, I am so exhausted. I need a rest. I just need a rest. Take the day off and rest. You know, it's, it's that kind of self-care. It's, yes, it's doing things that are nourishing for your soul, but then sometimes it's hibernating. And like I have gone through, uh, actually recently, you know, it's winter time. Um, and, and I live on a mountain, so it's very cold, and it feels like it's time to hibernate. And I have been sleeping more, resting more throughout the day as I can. You know, we still all have busy lives, but, but there are, you can, you can take five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour to do something good for yourself. You know, I had mentioned sound healing as part of my daily practice. I can't sit around, you know, all day and do sound healing, but every hour on the hour, I can take three deep breaths and I can use my Tibetan bowl, or I can pull out a, a fear chime or a native flute and play for five minutes or three minutes . You know? And that is self-care, right? And so everybody has to find the what brings them self-care. But it comes from that deep listening we were talking about earlier.

Yes, indeed. Kathy, one moment please. [bell rings]

. I love it.

There's a little self-care moment. Yes. That's

Beautiful. One my how it changes the energy, Tessa, right? Mm-Hmm. . It just changes the energy. It's like a reset. Yes. And I find that's, that's a lovely tip for, for our listeners. Like, you know, every now and then I'll be working on a, on a project, on deadline, and I'll be getting a little stressed out because the deadline's approaching. But I always have time to bring out a Zaphir chime or another little, uh, bell or a Tibetan bowl. And even just ringing it three times, it takes all of one minute or less. Mm-Hmm. . But it changes the energy of the room. It changes the energy within myself, and it brings us back to that place of grounding and connection.

I totally agree. Yes. I, for me, it's, um, really connecting to my soul. Like I know that there's something special that my soul loves about that sound. And so it's just, it just is, you know, when I ring that bell, yes, it's perfect. And I know them when I hear them. I love little light chimes and I love certain ones. Not all of them, but when I hear it, I'm like, that's it. Uh, and I have a physical response. Kathy . We knew this when we met the first time. We knew we,

We can talk forever. Yes. Did ,

Um, , I would love for you to just like, you just gave a tip, is there anything else you want to just remind people of before we get into how they can connect with you?

I'd love to, yes. Okay. So I did allude to this a little earlier, and I want to come back around with that whole notion of our healing journey embedded in our life's journey, embedded in our soul's journey. I believe Tessa, every person on the planet who's alive right now is here for a reason that maybe we can't change the world, any one of us all by ourselves, but when every one of us finds that gift, that is our soul's gift, life is about finding that gift and bringing it forward in service to the world. It might be in service to your community or to your, to your own family. Uh, but whatever that service is, everyone has a gift. And that gift is needed in our world today, more than ever before. And the way we can often find it is through these, uh, health challenges and, and other crises in our lives. And so it's easy to just say, oh, I'm growing, going through this terrible thing. But, but it, it is the biggest gift in the world to take the time to find the treasure in it, and find your gift and bring it forward in the world. And everyone has that gift, and everyone is needed right now. I would just, I would just leave us with that.

Hmm. Yes indeed. Thank you for that. Kathy, please share with everyone how they can connect with you.

Oh, thank you. Yes. Alright. The easiest way to connect with me is at my website, sufferingtothriving.com. That's all one word, sufferingtothriving.com. There, uh, listeners can connect to my social media. They can scroll down. My, my homepage and I have a number of articles, the articles on intuition and sound healing, making your mind your medicine that appeared in Yoga Magazine. And some of those others you mentioned at the top of the show, uh, are free for, for people to read there. And I also have a wonderful free new offering that we just put up on the website. Um, a Doctor of Functional Medicine, Dr. Charlyce Davis and I have put together a module called, uh, Healing the Heart Chakra with Vibrational Energy. And that is, um, sound healing as, as well as, uh, Reiki energy. And she talks about it from the medical standpoint, and I bring in the chakra work and the sound healing. And we're both Reiki masters, actually. So it's infused with all of that, but it Oh, beautiful. It includes a free sound bath that I think our listeners will be, will be,

Well, I'm on that. I'm like, , I'm on it. . That sounds amazing. And just a beautiful, beautiful gift. So thank you for letting us know about that. And once again, it's sufferingtothriving.com. And if you forget, it's in the show notes. All right. So Kathy, I'm just delighted that you've been able to be here and that you shared so much of your story and your inner thoughts and processes about how you came out of being flat on your back to being, just an absolute beacon of light in the world today. Thank you for being here with our listeners and with me. It's been an honor.

Thank you, Tessa. Likewise. It's been an honor and an absolute joy talking to you. I've so enjoyed this.

Hmm. All right. We will say goodbye for now. May you know love. ... Till the next time.