Shownotes
In a delightful exchange filled with laughter and genuine insights, Cathy Freeman joins us to discuss how creativity can serve as a powerful tool for emotional rejuvenation. Cathy, a mixed media artist and creative mentor, passionately believes that women are the heart keepers of their families and communities. This episode is a celebration of the creative spirit, emphasizing the vital role that art plays in restoring joy, calming stress, and fostering emotional wellness. Cathy’s perspective is both refreshing and relatable, as she shares her journey and the pivotal moments that led her to empower women through art.
Listeners will find themselves nodding along as Cathy shares her philosophy that “if mom's not happy, nobody's happy.” She passionately discusses the emotional impact that a nurturing environment has on family dynamics, and how women can reclaim their happiness by embracing their creativity. The episode is packed with practical advice, from how to create safe spaces for personal expression to the importance of nurturing one’s own heart before caring for others. Cathy’s anecdotes pull on the heartstrings, providing a rich tapestry of experiences that resonate deeply with listeners, reminding us that we are all in this together.
Moreover, the episode dives into the nitty-gritty of practical creativity, offering listeners a plethora of ideas to incorporate art into their daily lives. Kathy encourages everyone to explore their artistic side, regardless of their skill level, and champions the notion that creativity is not about perfection but about the joy of expression. She shares fun exercises, like journaling and simple art projects that can serve as a form of self-care. As the conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that Cathy's mission is to foster a community of support and inspiration among women, reminding us that by lifting each other up, we can create a more joyful and harmonious environment for ourselves and our families.
A gift from our guest: Grab your Heart Keeper Bundle here: https://cathy-freeman.mykajabi.com/heart-bundle. OR, go to MyArtSisters.com and click on the GIFT SHOP.
I’m so excited to share the Heart Keeper Bundle with you! I focus on three core practices — Create, Renew, and Inspire — because they support your mind and emotions, cultivating peace, balance, and resilience. God provides the daily strength; our part is to create the “pause,” stepping back from life’s challenges so we can build resilience and see a fresh perspective.
Inside your free bundle, you’ll find a sampling of what I offer in the My Art Sisters community:
- Create: a fun art project
- Renew: a weekly Grow Joy journaling section
- Inspire: a demo of painting an uplifting card to gift a friend
All patterns are included so you can follow along. These activities provide quiet moments to pause, reflect, and refresh — helping you step back into life with more joy.
My Background
After earning a BFA degree from the University of North Texas in Interior Design:
Interior Designer, HOK Architects, Dallas (1984–1986)
Owner, Healing Spaces (1986–1990)
Certified Master Rapid Eye Technician - RET: MRET - Salem OR. May 2002
Reflexologist, The Stone Institute, St. Charles, MO (2008–2016)
EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Practitioner
Certified Personal Fitness Trainer, (Cooper Clinic, Dallas)
Founder, Real Positive Change (2014–Present)
Founder, Cathy Freeman Art & My Art Sisters (2022–Present)
Today, I guide women to experience artful self-care — the practice of using creativity as a tool for renewal, restoring calm, and nurturing joy. Whether you’re seeking new art techniques, practical ways to manage stress, or simply time to yourself, this is your space to pause and be replenished.
Cathy Freeman is a mixed media artist, creative mentor, and founder of My Art Sisters and The Little Art Village. With more than 40 years of experience in art, design, and wellness, Cathy guides women to use creativity as a tool for renewal — calming stress, restoring peace, and bringing more joy into their homes and families. Her journey began in interior design, where she helped clients create beautiful spaces, but a deeper calling emerged as she realized that true well-being depends on more than outward appearances. After facing profound personal loss and walking alongside her daughter’s struggles with anxiety and perfectionism, Cathy turned her focus to emotional wellness and artful living. She now blends expressive painting, journaling, stress release practices, and holistic tools to create safe spaces where women can reset their emotional energy, hear God’s whisper, and return to life refreshed and re-centered.
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Transcripts
Today I have the pleasure of introducing Cathy Freeman. Cathy is a mixed media artist, creative mentor and founder of My Art Sisters and the Little Art village.
With over 40 years of experience in art, design and wellness, she helps women use creativity as a tool for renewal, calming stress, restoring peace, and bringing more joy into their homes. Cathy believes women are the heart keepers of the families and and communities.
And she's passionate about creating safe spaces where they can care for their own hearts, reset their emotional energy and return to life refreshed. Welcome, Cathy. It is a pleasure to have you here today. Thank you so very much for joining us.
Cathy Freeman:Thank you for asking and I appreciate you all. You're doing a great job. Thank you.
Kristina:You are very, very welcome. We are so glad you are here. So one of the things that you said in your bio is that you are or mothers are the heart keepers.
Can you talk about that a little bit more? What's your definition of that? Or what does that kind of look like from your side? And then we'll go into some more things.
Cathy Freeman:Okay. And let me start out though. I don't want, I don't husband.
I don't want him to feel, you know, slighted by any way or left out because men have it too. But I think by nature women are given that nurturing that we tend to focus more in on the home and everything that goes on in there.
And as we start to raise children or. And I really open it up to all women. You know, I think it's at Mother's Day is a hard time for some women that have not been able to bear children.
But we are all mothers. And so I open it, you know, that word, I think, encompasses everyone.
And as far as the heart keeper, you know, if mom's not happy, I heard this saying a long time ago, Mom's not happy. Nobody's happy. And I think that the atmosphere that we create in the home affects everyone whether we recognize it or not.
And I also recognize that people come to us, at least they still do to me.
You know, my grown kids, they come to me and they're looking for something to be able to kind of bring them into a balance or whatever, to kind of settle them down to find that center. And I think moms are the emotional center and we can help them. We're not going to, you know, do it for them. What we can create that.
That atmosphere, that center for them that they feel safe, that they feel like they can come and just regroup and then take off again.
Kristina:Yeah.
Herb:So I really like that we talked A little bit before the show and a lot of people know that, that I hurt my head. I suffered a traumatic brain injury.
And so I've done lots of brain science studies and gone through a lot of things and I just completely lost where I was going with this question. Oh, anyway, well, I'm going to come back to it in just a minute.
But anyway, normally what we also talk about is how did you get started in this realm? What. You know, because, you know, what was the pivot? You know, becoming, becoming. Teaching creativity and art to women. Oh, yeah, I brought.
I remember my first question. All right, see, that brain damage stuff was weird. So. And then I lost it again. Crazy happiness.
You said that, that, that if the wife or the mom, the late the woman of the house isn't happy, then the home isn't necessarily happy. And in my brain science and in my recovery and in all of that, one of the things that I learned is happiness doesn't come from outside side of you.
It doesn't come from other people. And there is nothing that anybody else can do to make me happy. I have to find that within myself.
So that whole happy wife, happy life thing doesn't necessarily mean you give everything to your wife. And, and I just really want to kind of narrow in on that after we get talk about how did you get started with this in the first place?
Cathy Freeman:And bring me back when we get through with that to the tuning forks. And we'll get right to that one.
Herb:Tuning forks. Okay.
Cathy Freeman:Remember that for me.
Kristina:Okay.
Herb:You'll. You'll have to remember that my might. It comes and goes. It's weird.
Cathy Freeman:All right. I think the pivoting was as a young, young, you know, just married, I think I had my first child.
I had been working with an architectural firm in Dallas and I was trained as an interior designer. I went that far field rather than just the art field because I. I was being raised in a home that my parents had gotten divorced.
I wanted to make sure I could provide for my family if something ever happened, death, divorce, whatever. And I was, I had broken off from that and started my own business as an interior designer.
And I remember one day I had been in with a woman in her beautiful home and we had talked about the living room and everything we're going to do and the changing of the furniture. And she had this fabulous focal point outside and just the whole gamut, you know.
And as I walked to the entry hall to go out the front door and turned to say goodbye to her, all of a sudden in my mind Came this thought you have just now helped her create a beautiful exterior. What about her interior meaning inside herself? And it kind of. I mean, it literally was a very profound thought.
And it kind of startled me for a minute, and I said goodbye to her, and I walked down the stairs, and I didn't know what it meant. I wasn't quite sure what it meant at that time because I, you know, it wasn't on my. My radar to go in anything like that direction as life goes on.
And we have six children, five still living, and each one of them, as unique as they are, have challenges as far as far as anxiety and ocd. And I won't even go through the gamut of all of it. And as a young mom, you're trying to figure out. You don't really pinpoint all this at first.
And back in the day, when my kids were young, this was not something that people really talked about. There wasn't that much information about it. I was really going through the dark, trying to figure stuff out to help my kids.
And so that's really where a lot of this started, is I just really threw myself into what would be helpful for them. But then also, I tend to have a side of me that can be. I don't want to say high strung, but I get stressed out. I can feel.
And I think part of that is because I do. I don't know if you're familiar with the different learning styles that there are. Okay. One of the learning styles is you.
You pick up the information from other people. You find, feel what's going on. You feel that, you know, it's not. I'm not talking about touching.
I'm talking about you walk in a room and you can sense if something's been going on in there, if there's been an argument, whatever. I'm very strong in that learning style. And it becomes overwhelming for me.
And so I had to learn ways to be able to kind of relax myself and let that stuff go, because you're always picking up information everywhere you go. So that was the beginning. Those were the turning points. I. I had shared with your wife that along the path, we have our oldest daughter.
She loved to sing and dance and very, very good at what she did. And she had been given the opportunity when we lived in Branson to sing and dance on the stage of Jim Stafford.
And she actually was a dancer, but he had heard her voice, and he wanted to actually start to promote her a little bit and help her develop that in her life. And as he was working with her, she would start to get all clogged up. She would like congestion. She couldn't, you know.
And he contacted me one day and he says, I just don't understand. He says, she's. She's fine in this situation, but you put her in this situation, then all this starts happening.
And I had actually started my training and rapid eye at that time, and I had just finished, or I was finishing it up, et cetera. And so I was very much aware that her emotional state, her perceptions, were creating a situation that was physically affecting her.
And that's a whole nother day, a whole nother topic. But, you know, I started to work with her a little bit on that. I shared with your wife that she got killed in a car accident.
And so I never was able to really see the fruit of that, but it really propelled me to work with other people.
And I realized at that time, too, I just finished my education, opened up my office about six months prior, and I thought, you know, I feel like God gave me that tool. Because as we were going through those phases of grief, our family, everything that was dealing with, I knew what we could do.
It wasn't something that, you know, grief, you never know how it's going to hit you. But I had some tools that could help us, you know, process it a little bit. I don't want to say easier.
There's no easy path of grief, but we were able to get through it. And I feel like it, you know, it was a huge help. So.
Herb:So I have a question in there, because at the start, you talked about the woman, and then you heard the message when you left her house about you helped her do this beautiful exterior, but not the interior. And did you go back to her? Did you work with her anymore?
Or was that just a pivotal moment of understanding that you moved forward with, or did you go back to that at all?
Cathy Freeman:I actually didn't. I didn't go back. I actually shut down. I mean, I finished her job. I finished what, you know, she needed at that time for that.
I shut down my design business, and I took off on another path. It was that strong inside of me. I went into exercise, trained at Cooper Institute for Exercise.
I just went down this whole path of learning and trying to figure other things out.
Herb:Awesome. Thank you. That one little bit there kind of got missed. And so there was, like, a hole in the story that, for me is.
Cathy Freeman:Like, what happened to the lady?
Kristina:Oh, my God.
Herb:And, you know, in. In that story as well, you did kind of explain some of the happiness Aspect of the. Of the. You need to be happy within yourself.
And so can you go into that a little bit now?
Cathy Freeman:Well, I think, you know, there's been a lot of people that you could. I can't think of names right now, but they talk about what you decide in your mind.
You know, the decision that you make is what's going to, you know, come about, per se. And I've had experiences myself, not many, because I tend to be more on the happier side, just naturally, but where you just feel so overwhelmed.
I don't like to use the word depression. I get. Think it gets thrown around a lot, but it was hard to get out of bed.
And I realized at that time I needed to use something inside myself to make the determination that what my attitude was going to be for the day. And so I would say as I woke up, first thing is, I would say out. Not out loud, because my husband's here, but in my mind, out loud to myself.
You know, this is going to be a great day. I'm going to have a great day. I'm gonna do. Go forward and make this a great day. And it's all about, I feel, making it a great day.
You know, there's too many things that happen. We live. Our oldest son is in his 40s. He's 40, and he has schizophrenia. He has mental disorders.
And our house is like chaos all the time because you've got that happening. And so with that, I have to determine that it's not going to affect me. And it's been a process.
I can't say it's been an easy road, but it's been a process of being able to understand. Okay, I determine how I feel inside. I determine what happens.
You know, there's been situations, too, and I don't know I'm going to go off on this little tangent, but I feel very strong about it. I think sometimes we can come into contact with other people that we just don't get along with that. And you can. You can try your hardest.
I'm going to be happy. I'm going to be nice to them. I'm going to. And it doesn't always work.
And I. I learned that probably mostly with my son, because he can be very aggressive and a lot of anger. And I think that what I've learned with that one is I turn to prayer.
I ask heavenly Father, and this is from my perspective, but I asked God to help me have a. A clearer understanding or just open my mind to how he sees this person and how he would respond to this person. Person.
And it helps me personally, to be able to just get a different perspective on it and kind of put myself aside and see them in a different light. Now you something.
Kristina:And then you asked me to remind you of tuning forks. I was going to go right there, this part here.
Herb:Oh, and real quick, what you said, Life is 5% what happens to me, and 95 how I deal with it. And that was the saying I had on my wall. And that just fits so well into what you're talking about. It's like, stuff happens.
It's always going to happen. How are you going to deal with it? How are you going to be in that?
Cathy Freeman:And, yeah, and Herb, you. You actually went through a pretty traumatic. My son fell, I don't know how many, 30ft, just huge amount from a tree and had a devastating.
I don't know the story.
You probably don't want to go into it right here, but you have gone down a path of where you've had to really retrain and learn and be able to develop that for yourself, haven't you? Yeah.
Herb:So I. My last big hit was a snowboarding accident, and I hurt my neck and my shoulder and my hip.
And when I was going to chiropractors and doctors, that's what we were dealing with. And months later, my life started falling apart, and I started yelling at people and I lost emotional control. So it wasn't like I hit my head.
And I knew it. It went undiagnosed for years as my life fell apart around me, and it got into a really dark place. And so, yeah, I had to dig my way out of that.
Kristina:So.
Cathy Freeman:Wow.
Herb:Yeah.
Cathy Freeman:Oh, wow. Now, you asked me about tuning forks, and I want to share that. Years ago, I had done a conference, asked me to come and speak.
My husband's a professional musician, and so I wanted to show how music. The power of music, and. And so I use tuning forks, but this applies to what I'm doing here.
Also, if you take a tuning fork and you have another one, you hit this tuning fork. If it's at the same frequency, this one over here will start vibrating because of this one. You've heard of that study resonance?
Kristina:Yeah.
Cathy Freeman:Yes. And that's the point I was trying to make when we talked about mothers. We don't have to go around being all jovial and happy all the time.
Moms, we are human. But at the same token, I think we owe it to ourselves and to our families to be able to give ourselves some time.
That was one of the things that we talked about earlier, Christina, that, you know, do we need time? What if you don't think you have time to take care of yourself?
Let me tell you a situation where right before this was probably just a couple months before Amy's accident, she. We had, you know, she was 17 years old, and when you're dealing with teenagers, she was very sweet. Okay, well, you know, very sweet.
But, you know, there's those moments when she didn't agree with mom, and mom wants this, and she didn't agree, you know, those things. And so we had had a little disagreement, and with her, trust me, is nothing compared to this other. With my other son.
But anyway, we had this disagreement, and she had such a tender heart that after, you know, give an hour or something, she would. She'd feel so bad and she'd come back and she'd. She would, you know, apologize her or something about, you know, the situation going on.
Well, in this particular situation, she had written a note and put it in an envelope and give it to. And I'm going to start crying. I can feel it coming. So I apologize. Okay?
She had given me this note, and I knew that it was an apology note because I had received so many before. And not to dismantle, you know, that's not a bad thing. But I was not in a space to take it and accept it. I was still frustrated.
I was still irritated. I took that note and I threw it in the trash. I never opened it.
And so these tears that you're seeing and hearing about is this grief that I feel inside that if I was in a better space, that was another turning point.
Kristina:Yeah.
Cathy Freeman:If I was in another, different space, and I realized I needed to get in a different space, and I wanted to be in a different space. It's all about, what do you want? I wanted to be in a different space because two months later, she passed and I didn't have that note.
I would give anything for that note right now to be able to hold on to and listen and read again. So I think it's, you know, going to that question, do I have time? What's more important? Yeah. You know what's more important?
Kristina:Yeah. Thank you for that heartfelt sharing. Absolutely. Yeah. We, as moms, we go there. You see? You got me going. But that's okay.
So my next question was, how do we take this art, right, and let moms use that to get that piece of calm, that piece of space that they need, that creativity? How does that bring that out in them? And then, like we were saying, how does that kind of drift into the family?
Or how can she use that to maybe even help the rest of her family find this space?
Herb:Because also in coaching, it's like if, if you think you don't have time, that means you should do it twice as long. So you know that that's kind of, it's like, oh, I don't have time to do a five minute meditation. Well, then you should do it for ten minutes.
Cathy Freeman:True. Than you should difference. Okay, let me tell you, I've got a dear friend, her name's Jerry and she's a grandmother.
And Jerry loves to see the work I do. But every time I've sat down actually with her in a class online, and I could tell she was getting extremely anxious.
She was just getting very, you know, anxious over it. And so it was just her and I, and so I started the conversation, Jerry, what's going on?
What is, you know, and, and asking her to try to dig into this a little deeper. What is bringing all this up within her? Come to find out.
When Jerry was just a little girl in her first couple, I don't remember, second, first grade, whatever, the teacher had asked him to paint, to draw a bear. And what she did is she drew her little picture and she was so happy with it.
But the teacher came by, looked at all the little desks, and she didn't like that bear. She picked that bear up and took it around the room and showed everybody, this is not how you paint. This is not. Or draw. This is not how you do this.
That devastated her and that has been inside her, so inside herself. She has always felt that she cannot create. She is not an artist. Everybody is an artist. Everybody can create.
It's just a matter of trying and practicing and applying.
It's not, you know, people say, well, you're gifted with this or you're being, you know, you might have a tendency towards it, you know, something that maybe you, you enjoy about it, but you have to practice and learn. So as far as some ideas, I, I went ahead and I, I, I'm very visual, obviously.
So for those that are watching can see this and those that can't, that are listening, I'll describe it. There's a couple of things you can do. You don't need to sit down and do a masterpiece. If you can allow yourself to just have the freedom to play.
Go back to your childhood, pretend if you need to, that you're just a kid and just play, that would be the best thing to do. I gave some ideas, I wanted to I pulled them up over here. That's not always about, this is a shoe.
It's not my father's, but it reminded me very much of a shoe that my father wore. Exactly like this kind of brown wingtip, whatever. I took this shoe.
When I saw it at a secondhand store, I was like, oh, my gosh, I. I'm going to take that shoe. And I took pictures of him. Cut them out, mod podge them across the shoe. And then he loved the mountains, and we grew up in the mountains.
And so I painted a little bit of the mountains on it. Inside this, I put other pictures, and I created a journal.
So I think the best way, one of the things you asked me is what, you know, out of all the different things that I do offer to my community, and that what is the simplest, easiest, quickest thing that somebody could do? And that would be to journal.
And I don't mean to sit down and write, which is also very helpful, because as you're sitting there and pouring it onto paper, you're emptying your own cup out and doing that. But I can't sit still that long to do that. I've got to be moving a little bit more. And so I've created fun ways to create journals.
And I think if you have children or even for yourself now, this one is one I created for myself. Just a little shoe. And on that shoe, I put torn paper and then just smooshed paint all around it and then added inside it. It's.
It's the paper that fits the sole, so it's the sole of the shoe. You open it up, and I've put in here pictures and things, and I can write and create a journal.
I think another fun way is I am very strong on the words that we speak inside our mind and the things that we say to ourselves. And I always am, you know, listening to myself and listening to what kind of words am I using? Are they words that. That will bring me strength?
Are they words that are going to deplete me? And so one thing that I created a long time ago for my clients when I was coaching was a huge library of affirmations.
As I worked with people, I found that they had the same kind of repetitive stories, you might say. And so as we came up with affirmations, I would stick those in this little area, and I. I put it in the group for the community.
But what I'm saying here is, I think creating any kind of a journal where we just write down, you know, if you have a poem, you Love. Or if you have, you know, something that really hits you and resonates to you, then to write it down.
Because all you need to do is open up that page and it's there, and it's there to remind you and help you remember. And once you can shift your thinking to this, you feel much better. Art for me.
Kristina:Oh, and I just want to say real quick, for the people who can't see inside that journal, not only is the poem written, there's either a picture that's been cut out and pasted, or drawing or a painting or something along the lines that kind of make the poem stand out. So, oh, man, that's a treasure.
When you open that up and you get to relax into that painting or that drawing, and then you get to read those special words to you, I can see how that could be a calming, creative space.
Cathy Freeman:Yes.
And for people that, again, if you don't think you can draw or something, you are, like you said, cut out pictures and stick them in anything that's visual. Because the mind speaks in images. It doesn't speak in words. If I said the word red, did you think R E, D?
Or did you think red like a red car or, you know, it pitches.
Kristina:What shade of red?
Cathy Freeman:Yeah, what shader did you want me to think about? It thinks about that. So it always thinks in images. So any kind of image that you can put out there is very helpful. Which actually leads me.
Can I tell you about sand tray really quick?
Kristina:Yeah, go ahead. Okay.
Cathy Freeman:All right, you're watching. I should watch the time here.
Kristina:Oh, don't worry about the time.
Cathy Freeman:Okay. Send tray is.
I call it sand talk because as you use sand and you're putting images in the sand to represent certain things, and a lot of times you don't have any idea what they're representing, but you just place something in there. But as you start to talk about it, your. Your mind opens up to. Well, that to me, represents xyz, you know, my youngest daughter.
Well, two stories on her real quick, bless her heart. When she was very little, she came home from school one day, and I was. I was blessed to be able to put them in a private school after Amy passed.
We had homeschooled all those years. And then when that happened, I was. We. The door opened up for us to do that, but. So she came home.
She was in first grade, and she was very upset, and she didn't understand why. I didn't understand why I could. You know, I didn't know what was going on with her. But I could tell that she was reacting very uneasy.
So I pulled out the sentry and I had her sit down and do this.
And as we discussed and kind of talked about a little bit, and I had to tell me the story behind the images, she started to tell me about a little child who had. The teacher had said something, and the child answered it was the wrong answer. And the teacher didn't make fun of the child, but the kids did.
The kids all laughed at the. At the other child and made fun of the child for having the wrong answer. And it just broke her heart. And she didn't know how to deal with that.
And she is very sensitive. And so as we talked about that, then I was able to say, okay, what would be helpful? What could help that child? What would.
And we actually walked through this little process.
I walked her through it, and what she ended up doing was turning all the chairs around from laughing kids to kids that were now going to support this child and to be more supportive. And it switched the perspective in her mind. She took off. She was super happy. Same daughter. Now, she's probably the one.
That also was a reason I went into this, because she had some challenges when she was born, but her senior year, she too loved to sing. And the choir, you know, in school, the choir does a lot of competitions.
And she got to the point after doing it for four years, she was tired of the competition, she was tired of the pressure and the. And she's a perfectionist. And so she would put a lot of pressure on herself to make a certain grade. And it was also coming from the teacher, etc.
So she decided she wasn't going to do it that year. And I sat down with her and I said, if you don't want to do it, that's just fine with me.
I said, but is it because you don't want to, or is there another reason behind this? And so we created a century, and she started discussing about things, and that's how it started coming out.
I don't even think I knew at the time, you know, really, she didn't know too much about it as we started the sand tray. But I always knew I could get her to converse with me clearer by being able to explain.
Explain to me through objects and different things what was happening. And so then we took that and we switched that. And I said, all right, what would make it better? What would change it for you?
And she was able to switch her whole perspective from, I have to make this, you know, perfection and hit this certain score for the judges. And I have to do this to.
I'm going to go enjoy myself and have a great time, and I'm going to do the best I can, but it's the best I can, and that's good enough. And not stress herself out. And she enjoyed her senior year, as a matter of fact, she had to go through a lot of hoops to get this to happen.
But she wanted to sing the national anthem at the homecoming there at the school, so she had to jump through the hoops.
But she sang that national anthem in front of all of her students, the school, school, during homecoming and just had the time of her life doing that.
Kristina:That's amazing. Oh, wow.
And I love that specific concrete because, you know, when I talk with parents also, we talk about how to get kids to be expressive and things like that. Those sand trays also, you can do it with a rice tray, you know, little pieces of rice, lots of different things. Glitter.
There's lots of different things you can do. And let them draw and express themselves. And then it's easy to wipe it or shake it and then start all over again.
So they don't ever feel like they're stuck with, oh, well, I didn't like the way that turned out. Right. But if they do like the way it turns out, then you take a picture of it and then they still have that for later.
Cathy Freeman:Right.
Kristina:So those kinds of things. So, you know, not only good for the mom to calm and express, but also the child that you're talking with, they're working with.
So thank you for sharing that example. I love that very much.
Cathy Freeman:Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
Kristina:Yeah.
So as we're talking about, you know, helping moms become that center, and then, like you said, those vibrations go out and help the rest of the family vibrate at that higher level, that happiness level and things like that, and you're. They're finding that piece of calm to themselves. Right. What other ways? You talked about journaling a little bit. We talked about the sand trays.
What else maybe do you sometimes suggest or have the moms do that really get them to bring themselves down in that calm center space?
Cathy Freeman:Well, actually, that goes into a whole different area. As far as there's something that I was trained with, the rapid eye. It's called eye releases. And it's really about taking the perspective.
You take the perspective of what you're thinking. All right. And then is it. All right, I'll just go ahead and show you right now or tell you about it right now.
You end up, you're moving Your eyes back and forth. And as you're doing that, you're telling yourself to release whatever this perception is. So let's just say that you've given me.
Give me an example of something. Let's say somebody's. Somebody said something, and it's hurt your feelings, all right? Or maybe they haven't even said it, but it just hurt you.
Something hurt your feelings. And so you. You're really trying to tune into the emotion of something because it's the emotion. Emotions come from the thought.
And so if you can change your thought, you change your emotions, all right? So you're tuning into that emotion.
So if you're feeling sadness, then you would start moving your eyes back and forth, very gently, slowly, a couple of times. I would say three or four times. And you would say, release sadness. Release unhappiness. Release whatever's coming to your mind.
Tell and command your mind to let that go. Then you would shut your eyes tight, open, tight, open, tight, open. You do that three times. You take three cleansing breaths. Do that three times.
And then you just sort of pause for a minute. And you assess yourself.
Because when you first started, if you were on a scale from 0 being, nothing's bothering me, to 10 being this is bothering me, you're probably up there to 10. So you assess yourself. Where am I at on this scale? If it's dropped down to a zero, you're good to go.
And you want to step into your next step, which is replace it with the. What we call an affirmation or a positive statement of some sort. That's what this whole book is full of, is positive statements.
Kristina:Nice.
Cathy Freeman:If it's not, then you would lift that. You would do it again, repeat it until you've brought it down low enough.
Because what's happened is there's files in our side, our mind, and you're trying to get to that file and. And pull out the stuff, eliminate it, toss it out and replace it. Because you can't just. Some people say, well, I'm gonna.
I'm just not gonna think about it, or I'm just gonna. You know, you've got to really change the thinking around it. The. The thought patterns are like little trees.
You've got, you know, these roots and these branches going in all directions, and you've got to get in there in a way, just simple.
I'm not trying to give you a lot of stuff to do here, but you're trying to get in there and get that body to release some of that and open up to accept A new perspective of it.
Kristina:Really like that. And if you're modeling that in front of your kids, you know, because we're trying to help parents, moms be in a center space.
But then you model it for your kids, or you show them what you're doing and how you're changing the way you're kind of feeling about something. Then again, those vibrations, those good vibrations, those changes are going throughout the whole home.
Cathy Freeman:Yeah. I want to share this.
Herb:You said that your thoughts create your emotions, but the. The opposite of that is also true. Your emotions start creating your thoughts.
And this is something that, because of the way my brain works, I. I call them chemical dumps. So there are times where for no reason, I will go through emotional stuff that lasts for two or three days without any sort of triggering event.
So my body just starts dumping chemicals. And as I'm having these things, then my thoughts start to reflect sometimes what the chemicals are telling me.
So if it drops, like epinephrine and norepinephrine, then I'll get very angry and frustrated for like two or three days at a shot for no apparent reason. And it's like. And then I'll start noticing that my thoughts start getting involved. So sometimes.
Sometimes the emotions and what's going on inside of the body also creates the thoughts. So there. There is a fine balance in there.
And playing on that edge, when you start to lose it is like, is my thinking doing this, or is my thinking because of this and that? Mindfulness in there can sometimes be a pattern interrupt and break the cycles. That. That curiosity can also break that cycle in there.
Cathy Freeman:Yeah, it's all about creating that pause, isn't it? It's about, you know, something's going on. You may not know what it's all about or why it's happening, but you just need to create a pause.
And if you can create some sort of a pause, then you're able to give that opportunity to make the shift, to make the change, to make a choice. But if you're on this, you know, emotional train that's going down the track 90 to nothing, you know, you can't stop it. You've got to create a pause.
And there's an exercise I did with a group of young girls one time where I. You take a piece of peppermint candy, put it in your mouth. You take a small little rock, a pebble, nothing too sharp, nothing too dangerous.
Put it in your shoe. And then you ask them to walk for just a little bit. Give them three minutes, no more. Don't know we're not trying to hurt ourselves. Okay.
And then once they get through, you sit down with them and you say, which one did you focus on more? Did you notice the peppermint in your mouth or did you notice the pain in your foot? And we're all so unique and it's interesting.
Some people will notice the pain that was like, ah, my foot is killing me. Other people like, oh, I love this candy.
And so it's kind of good to understand ourselves because there's no two people alike, you know, and how do I respond to something?
And once you understand, and I think it's a great thing for moms to use with their kids, you know, let them understand how, you know, how do they perceive things and not expect them to do it like a cookie cutter like everybody else, you know, that's the other reason I get back in towards the creativity is because everybody expresses differently.
And so you've got to create so many different tools, so many different ways to help them express and to process those emotions, because if you can process them, then they're not going to build up. And that's what you were saying her with yourself is it.
It dumps and all of a sudden these chemicals dump and it's building and you've got this, this ball of motion in there. And then everything else takes off. I found with myself. You know, we've got a lot of OCD in our family. Our children are ocd, several of them.
And you know, as hard as you can, once that mind starts looping, you know, there's really no, you've got to, you got to be able to stop it. You have to put a pause to it and say, okay, we're going to put a pin in this and then figure out what direction you want to go from, from there.
Because once it starts going, you can't just say, oh, I'm just going to happy myself out of this. You know, it doesn't. You have to do certain things or you. It's advisable to do, you know, different processes to support yourself, to be able.
Herb:To do, you know, what you're talking about is kind of why I also usually recommend people get a personality test. There are so many different kinds out there. One of my favorites is the mbti. Jordan Peterson's Big Five is. Is incredibly good as well.
But I like the color code. And the thing I say is the personality isn't who you are. It's. It's what your baseline is. It's. It's.
If everything goes to heck Then how are you going to react as. As everything's gone, how are you going to react? That's your personality.
But then you can use your personality to say, hey, I'm not very strong in this, so I'm going to build my character and put that on top of. On top of my personality. So personality is not a. This is who I am.
But it helps you understand how you make decisions, why you make decisions, especially.
Kristina:When everything's going to heck.
Herb:For instance, I was. For instance, I'm an introvert.
And I always, a lot of time wanted to be, oh, how come I can't be that person out there on the stage always talking with people. It's like, people go away. I want to go be by myself. How come I can't? And so I thought something was wrong with me.
And then once I learned my personality profile, I was like, no, I recharge by being by myself. And then I can be with people. But that takes energy. So it's not that I can't do that, but I have to prepare.
So that's how learning your personality can help you figure some of these things out as well.
Cathy Freeman:Yes. There's another one out there called the color code. I can't think of what his name is, but I love that one because it's so simple.
You know, red, white, yellow, blue. And I kind of came up with a. Another one, a fifth one that's not really his, but I call it, you know, iridescent.
So when they put it all together, you know, then what do you got? You know?
Herb:Right.
Cathy Freeman:Anyway.
Kristina:Yeah, I love that.
Cathy Freeman:I agree with you 100%. Figuring it out, understanding ourselves is very important. Yeah.
Herb:And, you know, every kid is individual. It's like, you have five. How many of them are like each other? It's like.
And so it's like they all have their own personalities, and if you can figure out what it is, instead of trying to make them what they're not, you can work with their strengths to help them fill in.
Cathy Freeman:In.
Herb:In gaps and stuff.
Kristina:So.
Cathy Freeman:Oh, I totally agree with you. That is really important, what you just said. Yes.
Herb:And it also. It also make moms happier because they would understand how to talk to their children a little better maybe.
Kristina:So, Kelly, this has been such a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate you being here.
Would you make sure you tell the audience how they can get a hold of you if something has sparked their interest or they're like, oh, you know what? I need to really talk to Kathy about this. What's the best way to Get a hold of you and maybe work with you a little bit more.
Cathy Freeman:I. I've got a website, realpositivechange.com the fun place to go is called myartsisters.com and it's a little village that I created that you can click your click on those little buildings. And some things are obviously for the members, the community, but there's a lot in there that you could just read. I also did a little area that's.
That's for whoever listens that wants something. And the address for that is real positive change.com B, E, H, which is the initials of your education.
Kristina:Yeah.
Herb:And all of that information will be down in the show notes.
Cathy Freeman:Yeah.
Herb:Now we spend a lot of time talking about why and how. Let's talk about now. What, what is it that you do? How is it that you help. That you help moms and families?
What is it that you are working with and what is it that you do?
Cathy Freeman:What I do is I provide them basically a place that they can come to to find, number one, the resources, the things we've talked about, to be able to refer back, be able to understand. We have a community that we can get on and we talk once a week. It's not really geared towards discussing children and what the problems are.
That's not really. That's not what I'm doing per se. Mine is geared towards how to really bring more creativity into your life.
And so what is it that, you know, what is it that you're interested in? What is it, you know, what ideas can we give you that will help you to be successful in that?
And I guess another example that pops up and, and I think it's a great thing I'll share with them to do. This was an. This was an activity that I gave to my community last year.
And this is from a walk, just things that we picked up or they picked up as you went out on a walk. And we created. What this is, is. Is a visual replica representation of their journey for the morning.
So for those that are just listening, let me describe it. It's a stick, a stick that st. That's going horizontal. I've got it attached to. This is actually just a.
A piece of a jewelry that I was going to throw away because it broke. So it's. It's like a hanger. I've created a hanger with a stick going horizontal and something to hook onto the wall.
Then I took four pieces of individual paper, punched holes in them, and hung those from the stick. And on each One of the papers is something that I saw as I was walking.
And so I think the key is to really become more observant in our life, to really observe what's around us, observe people. I think, you know, if we can do that, learn to really tune into something a little more of what's happening, then we can be more helpful.
I wanted to pull this in, and I don't know if this makes any sense, but it just popped back in my head. Here was there's a school that, when we were homeschooling, it's called Waldorf School, and it's here in Texas.
I know it's all different places, but I went down for a seminar one time with a group of moms, and the thing that I learned when I was there is their philosophy is, for children, this applies not just for homeschoolers.
This applies for any, you know, anyone is when they're younger or, you know, in their younger stages, it's always a drive to get them to write and, you know, do all those things that, you know, the school wants them to do. They. The Waldorf School taught just let them create because children are naturally creative. They've got imaginations. Let them create.
So they did their math through creativity. They did their history through creating creativity.
Either they acted it out, they drew it, they did all kinds of stuff until they got past probably fourth or fifth grade. It was all done with art.
And the reason they did that is because they found that as they used that and developed that in their mind, they became more of where they could process and think through things rather than just do what you're told, okay, open your book, do this assignment. Finish this assignment. Go do this. You know, they became more leaders. They were able to think for themselves and then process and be able to take off.
And so it sounded great to me. I thought so. That, you know, that was another stepping stone, too, was I realized that with creativity, it does it.
It creates this emotional climate within us. It also releases. Like you said earlier, there is chemicals that are released when we create the serotonin.
All those things are released, and they help us to calm our nerves. There have been times when I've come in here, I've had a situation with my oldest son. I. I'm really stressed out over something.
I will come to my table, pull out a. A paper. I don't have to necessarily do anything that's beautifully wonderful. Pull out the paints and whatever and just start going.
And I can feel my whole system just relax. It's like I can Take a deep breath, Put a pause to what's going on. Take a few minutes. It doesn't have to be a long time.
Then I can go back and hit it again.
Kristina:Absolutely. Lovely. Thank you so very, very much for all of that. Is there anything that we haven't talked about today that you were thinking?
Oh, when I'm on the show, I really want to mention this.
Cathy Freeman:I.
Kristina:It'S okay. It's not.
Cathy Freeman:I think, I think we've. We've really, I think we've had a lot more about the way the mind works and the perceptions than what I probably thought we would.
But it all plays such an important part. Does it?
Kristina:It does. It does. And it helps the moms get that mindset of why is taking time to be creative important?
Why is it important that the mom's cup is full in order to give back to the family? All of those things that we try to tell people about and they're not quite sure why that really is the important part of it. Yeah.
Herb:Yeah. And after doing so many of these shows, it's like, I, I, that that is the important stuff.
It's like all of the problems, all of the issues, so many things can come back to being human, to breathing, to how you are eating, to how you are having gratitude, and all of the jobs and all of the relationships and all of that other stuff just is. Is going to happen. And what really comes down to it is being human through all of it. And that's where.
That's why people are so stressed out as they start is they forget to be human while they're being human.
Kristina:Right.
Cathy Freeman:Impatient, patient with themselves, patient with others.
Kristina:Exactly.
Cathy Freeman:Which is not one of my strong suits.
Kristina:Exactly. We so appreciate your time and your energy of being here, all the wise tips that you gave and all the helpful hints and everything.
So thank you very much for being here. It has been a wonderful conversation with you today.
Herb:Yeah. I could have taken us down so many rabbit holes. We have a whole nother conversation. There are so many things that you said that could be expanded on.
So I'd love to have you back sometime and go back through this.
And again, I would also like to thank you for being here because so many people out there now are just talking about problems and they live their lives small and they keep themselves safe. And you had those problems and you learned from them.
And instead of, instead of keeping it to yourself, you're out sharing it with the village, and that is the hero's journey. You went out and you fought your dragon.
You learned your lessons and you come back and you're sharing your wealth with the village and that makes you a hero. So thank you for being here today. Thank you for doing what you do and thank you for actually making the world a better place.
Cathy Freeman:Thank you. Thank you, Herb. You all are also. So you guys have a great day. Thank you.
Kristina:You are very, very welcome. And thank you again. All right, audience, you know what time it is. It is time to start sharing. Right?
If Kathy's message hits you in any way, you're like, oh, my gosh, this person needs to hear this. Or, oh, I know a family that could really up level and become more calm and peaceful by hearing this message.
Cathy Freeman:Please share. Right?
Herb:If you don't want us to say this like 10 times during the show instead of just at the end, like, share and subscribe.
Kristina:Zach, wait.
So take all these nuggets, all these beautiful pearls of wisdom that have been shared and don't just put them on the shelf, pull them out of your pocket and use them throughout your day, throughout your week so we can continue to create happy, healthy and successful kids. Until next time. Bye for now.
Herb:Bye for now.
