Latest / Authentic Living / Grace and Authenticity: Kathleen’s Journey to Self-Awareness and Empowerment
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to Authentic Living with Roxanne, a place where we have conscious conversations
- 0:08about things that really matter in our lives.
- 0:12And now here's your host, Roxanne Durhaj.
- 0:40Hi, everyone.
- 0:41It's Roxanne Durhodge.
- 0:42Thanks for tuning in again to Authentic Living with Roxanne.
- 0:45Today, have a guest that is gonna discuss something that I think as every woman we can
- 0:50relate to.
- 0:50It's Kathleen Conner.
- 0:52Kathleen, thanks so much for being here today.
- 0:54Oh, I'm honored to be here and to have your listeners listen to us today.
- 0:57I'm excited.
- 0:58Thank you.
- 0:59So let me tell you a little bit about Kathleen.
- 1:01The full bio will be in the show notes, but a bit about her and why she's here to share her
- 1:06wisdom today.
- 1:07She's the woman that everybody calls when they need something.
- 1:10I don't know if any many people can relate.
- 1:12Ranch hands, taco guy, chief bottle washer, you name it, known as the unofficial mayor and
- 1:19Angie's list of people.
- 1:20She built a life of service as a business owner, wife, mother, volunteer, and
- 1:25humanitarian.
- 1:26At 53, she realized she had built a perfect life serving everyone else while becoming
- 1:31nothing to herself.
- 1:34This awakening launched her transformation from depletion to authenticity.
- 1:40And she's gonna use some words of wisdom from her father, which I'll let her share with you,
- 1:45and kind of what her transformative process has been.
- 1:50Kathleen, let's just dive in to I think a lot of women are on that trajectory that's kind of
- 1:58being explained in your bio.
- 2:00Yeah.
- 2:01I think all of us, men and women, but I'm focusing on women because that seems to
- 2:05resonate with me, I am one and I'm there, is that we have a lot of moments.
- 2:11There's a lot of times in our lives that we get caught in a And prior to transforming and
- 2:18realizing and making myself a priority, I just let them pass like a moving car, just a vision
- 2:24out of the window, like, uh-huh.
- 2:25Yep.
- 2:26We'll deal with that later when I have time after this, after that, after the all these
- 2:30other things on my list.
- 2:31And then it just became more and more of them.
- 2:34And I realized through self awareness and through my own practices that the moments I
- 2:39stopped and paused and said, what am I learning from this?
- 2:44What are you teaching me today?
- 2:46And some of them were just profound.
- 2:48And one of the things that you mentioned or that we've talked about prior to the call was I
- 2:52had a neighbor that lived next door to me and there's a 100 yards between our houses.
- 2:57And I was a high school and college athlete and that sport I played was a yards.
- 3:02I ran it competitively a million times through my life and the day that the ambulance came to
- 3:10his house, of course being of service, I ran that 100 yards to his driveway and I couldn't
- 3:17get into the house because I was so out of breath and that was my moment, one moment that
- 3:22just really set me back on my heels and said, Who am I?
- 3:27What am I doing?
- 3:29I was at the prime of my life prior to these years and what happened and who am I and what
- 3:35person am I and why am I living a life of image or of ego or of material things when I can't
- 3:43even be authentic to myself?
- 3:45And so I left that day after helping serve him and serve his needs with a new found energy of
- 3:54I was disgusted with myself and I joined the gym the next week and I went and worked out and
- 4:00lost a lot of weight.
- 4:01More importantly, I found myself.
- 4:02It wasn't about the image that I was portraying.
- 4:04It was about finding myself internally.
- 4:07And I think that's a lot of most women or a lot of women go through is that we're living our
- 4:12lives in these boxes.
- 4:13And I've identified boxes that I think we put ourselves in as women.
- 4:18The good employee, the perfect mother, the people pleaser, the invisible woman.
- 4:24It's too late kind of box.
- 4:26And it's not.
- 4:28We don't have to live in a box as a woman or as a human being anymore.
- 4:33It's so interesting.
- 4:34Think I alluded to it before we got online, but my story is pretty interesting as well.
- 4:39I was married for twenty five years.
- 4:41Marriage was being held together by some little plasters or whatever.
- 4:46I was in a cooperative, loved my environment corporately, had a beautiful son, the whole
- 4:51nine yards.
- 4:53Marriage falling apart, corporate very stressful.
- 4:57Only thing that was working really was my son.
- 5:00And I was not told by a complete stranger walking down the steep street in Toronto,
- 5:04Kathleen.
- 5:05And that's what my opening story is when I'm speaking.
- 5:08Because as I'm knocked out, I literally get knocked out by a complete stranger and I wake
- 5:13up.
- 5:14And at that point, I don't realize it.
- 5:18And the stranger who had stopped to help me said, are you okay?
- 5:21And I said he said to me, are you okay?
- 5:24And I said, I think things are gonna be alright.
- 5:27And since that day, which was fifteen years ago, Kathleen, my life has not stopped
- 5:31changing.
- 5:32So it's interesting because I said to you I can relate because it took something, as I said,
- 5:37the universe just thought it needed to be a little bit more aggressive with me.
- 5:41And after that, it was
- 5:42a cascade of the
- 5:43dominoes and quite literally it was 11/11/2009 and my life has not stopped Congratulations
- 5:50changing since
- 5:52on your moment.
- 5:53And it doesn't have to be a rough bottom.
- 5:56It doesn't
- 5:57be have a rough bottom.
- 6:00Think they're just, it's like a cycle or a loop.
- 6:03They're just there and keep coming in until we learn from them.
- 6:06And until we pause and say, exactly what I said, what is my lesson today?
- 6:12What are you trying to teach me?
- 6:13Instead of reacting, I could have reacted and become very frustrated and just walked away and
- 6:19not helped or but I didn't.
- 6:21I looked at my house and the amazing location that I lived in and I thought, wow, this really
- 6:27isn't who I am.
- 6:29This isn't this I'm just living for somebody else, for an image, for a role, for a box,
- 6:36those types of things.
- 6:37So it was and so my purpose and I hope in life is that I can save women and men, but women
- 6:44especially time, money, and pain and learn the lessons that I've gone through.
- 6:50And just there's a lot of us out there.
- 6:53They say band of brothers.
- 6:54I think it's a war of women.
- 6:56We have to just work together and just acknowledge.
- 7:00Another thing that we talked about prior to coming online is how many times, and I hope
- 7:04that I can bring this to your audience's ears, how many times a day I hear the word fine from
- 7:11people, from women.
- 7:12How are you today?
- 7:13Fine.
- 7:14How are the kids?
- 7:15Fine.
- 7:15How's your job?
- 7:16Fine.
- 7:17And it's such a meh word.
- 7:20To me, it almost it used to really irritate me and now I find it profound.
- 7:26That's and I hope I can tell people when they say it like you're better than fine.
- 7:30You know, your life's better than fine.
- 7:32And it's not a it's not a word or expression or an emotion.
- 7:36I have was sitting on a plane one day, and someone I heard someone say, the word fine
- 7:42stands for feelings I never expressed.
- 7:47And I, yeah, and you know how busy planes can be and how loud and it was when people were
- 7:52boarding.
- 7:53So it was even more distract distracting.
- 7:55And this woman said it, and I was like, that's exactly how I feel about that word.
- 8:00That's exactly when people say it, I think, oh, it's such a mad term.
- 8:05You wouldn't describe a plate of food in front of you or a bouquet of flowers or something,
- 8:11your child is fine.
- 8:14Yeah.
- 8:14So you said that it obviously doesn't have to be as catastrophic.
- 8:18Mine is one of those rare stories.
- 8:19I would say to people don't go get knocked out to wake up.
- 8:22When women are coming forward and working with you, how are they getting there?
- 8:26Are women starting to slow a little bit more to reflect?
- 8:31Because I'm thinking, right, you're busy, you're working, you're raising children, you're
- 8:36all those things and doing all the things necessary to run alive.
- 8:41What are the points of contact that women are getting to to come to you to be able to start
- 8:46to do some of this awareness work?
- 8:48Certainly my website's available at chasingpurpose.com where you can certainly,
- 8:52they can certainly reach out and schedule a discovery call.
- 8:55There's also an emotional baseline assessment available for them on my website that they can
- 9:00just take it.
- 9:00There's no wrong or right.
- 9:01There's no it's just for their information.
- 9:03The data isn't kept on our end.
- 9:05It's just for them to say, where am I?
- 9:07It's on a scale of one to 100.
- 9:09There's 13 questions.
- 9:10You can take it in a matter of minutes.
- 9:12And it's just, am I at 20% and do I want to get to 40?
- 9:17Do I want to, how do I get to another level?
- 9:20And I think on levels like a vibration or frequency.
- 9:24You want to level up, they say level up.
- 9:26That's exactly what we need to do.
- 9:28So yeah, they can reach out to me via my website and find me that way social media as
- 9:32well.
- 9:32They can reach out to me there.
- 9:33It's on my it's I'm sure you're gonna link my social media to your account as well.
- 9:37But there's a lot of work to do and life is hard enough that if you have resources like you
- 9:42and like me, utilize our experience.
- 9:45Don't go through it any harder than you need to.
- 9:48It's time.
- 9:49It's our time as women to find our voice and more importantly, our feet and move forward.
- 9:54It's time to really just step into our power.
- 9:59So do you think, like the women that come to you, are they at a developmental stage?
- 10:04Are younger women coming?
- 10:06Is it women in more kind of 40s and 50s?
- 10:10Or does is there any kind of theme to the the age brackets of people coming forward?
- 10:16Well, find that to be that's an interesting and great question, and thank you for asking it.
- 10:19It's a range of any woman at any age can go through a transition, having a baby, changing
- 10:24jobs, military spouses that go through change in very location.
- 10:28And then as we age through, then it's difference of community, maybe a relationship
- 10:34change, divorce, separation, infidelity, empty nesting.
- 10:39Really goes from like 35 to 75.
- 10:42We all have changes and transitions in our lives that occur at different times.
- 10:50It's how we deal with them and how numb we are during when they are and when we wake up and
- 10:56say, oh, I'm finished.
- 10:57I can't take anymore.
- 10:59I'm tired of living my life for somebody else.
- 11:02And that could happen in someone when they're 30.
- 11:04It could happen when they're 40 or 50 or 60.
- 11:06But there is that time when I think all of us get to the point where we're, Wow, life has
- 11:11passed me by.
- 11:12When is it my turn?
- 11:14And it's that person.
- 11:15It's that person.
- 11:16It's the woman who has done therapy.
- 11:19I love therapy.
- 11:19I've been doing it for years, decades.
- 11:21Therapy is about your past and where you've been.
- 11:24What I do is identify where you are today and where you wanna go.
- 11:28That's most importantly.
- 11:30I'll help you identify triggers and coping mechanisms that have occurred in your past and
- 11:34patterns.
- 11:35But I'm here to march you forward and to figure out a path that you can live authentically and
- 11:40just like your brand, authentic living.
- 11:43So let's talk about when we overhear these conversations with cafes or you hear it, I'm
- 11:50fine, I'm fine.
- 11:51And women or men, like to your point, they're they're going to answer that question like
- 11:56that.
- 11:56And they're thinking, I've been doing it like this Kathleen for a very long time I need
- 12:02something.
- 12:03What along with your and we're gonna put her assessment in the show notes but what are some
- 12:10things if you're if a woman's listening now and she's saying, I need to start doing something.
- 12:14What are some quick tips that you could give her now to just start to shift a little bit?
- 12:22I would say the bet the first thing to do is recognize, like anything, self awareness.
- 12:26Recognize where you are, what box are you falling into.
- 12:30And I hate to use the term box, but it is so simple.
- 12:32It is a methodology that people can relate to.
- 12:35The perfect wife, the good mother, the the great employee, all of those things.
- 12:39So identify that, where you wanna be, and then reject any other outside influence that's
- 12:44coming into your life.
- 12:45It's nice to have influences.
- 12:47It's nice to have conversation, but really decide who you are and who you wanna be.
- 12:52And then replace the things that happened in your life or that are happening now that are
- 12:57causing negativity or bad feelings or just a bad day or a bad mood with something else.
- 13:03It doesn't have to be anything.
- 13:04I'm not asking or we're not asking for people to suddenly pack their suitcases and leave
- 13:08their house.
- 13:08It can be very small.
- 13:10Get up in the morning and make your bed.
- 13:11Start the day on a bright side.
- 13:13Listen to your favorite song when you're dancing around the kitchen, those types of
- 13:17things.
- 13:17It's just the quick things that can bring you joy.
- 13:20Make eye contact, Acknowledge people.
- 13:23People who are always on our phones with their heads down and we're not.
- 13:26We're always in deep thought.
- 13:27Look up.
- 13:28Head up.
- 13:29Shoulders down.
- 13:30Chest out.
- 13:31March forward.
- 13:31That's what I would say.
- 13:32And then just repeat the practice.
- 13:35Replace the toxicity with positive thoughts and positive affirmations and positive behavior,
- 13:41and then just repeat it.
- 13:43Life's a cycle and every day we have twenty four hours to do our 1% to be better.
- 13:48That's all it takes.
- 13:501%.
- 13:51Do better.
- 13:51Be better.
- 13:52And before you know it, you're at 100%.
- 13:54You don't have to be.
- 13:55We should all be changing every single day.
- 13:58I'm not the person I was yesterday.
- 14:00Thank goodness.
- 14:01So your dad shared some wisdom about givers and takers.
- 14:04Let's talk about that because I think as with my clinical background it's kind of the concept
- 14:11of looking at how did we learn to be who we are, right?
- 14:14And so there's so many variables that ends up giving us our sense of identity.
- 14:19And your dad talked a little bit with you or shared his wisdom about givers and takers.
- 14:23Tell me a little bit about what he taught you about that, Kathleen, and how that's informed
- 14:29some of the work that you do today.
- 14:31My dad was an amazing man and I miss him.
- 14:33He's been called almost twenty years.
- 14:35But he did have words of wisdom that he shared with us.
- 14:37And especially me, I was a curious cat and always listening to him.
- 14:40And he always said that there were two types of people in the world.
- 14:43There were givers and takers.
- 14:47And givers give without question and without thinking.
- 14:50And they rarely take.
- 14:52We rarely take as givers.
- 14:54And when they do or when we do as givers, I'm a giver, it's always with respect and
- 15:00appreciation.
- 15:01But he always said that the takers never give.
- 15:05And he always emphasized never.
- 15:08He always said never.
- 15:09They never give.
- 15:11The takers will always take without empathy and compassion and care.
- 15:16Because for the takers, it's he always said it was about them and what they received that
- 15:22benefited them from the givers.
- 15:26And he was just yeah.
- 15:27He always he always he didn't do it in a judging way.
- 15:29My father was not like that.
- 15:31He was not a judgmental man.
- 15:33But he always said just when you greet people, givers or takers, just think about them.
- 15:40And then you place them and where you want them to be in your life.
- 15:45And I have I also use the term friendlies.
- 15:48And friends.
- 15:49You know, I have a million friendlies.
- 15:51I keep in touch with everybody.
- 15:53Right?
- 15:53Everybody I went to school with, kindergarten, all.
- 15:56They're my friendlies.
- 15:57I have a million of them.
- 15:58But I have like very few and they're my friends.
- 16:03But I have a lot of friendlies.
- 16:04It's the same thing.
- 16:05It doesn't mean that my friends are friendlies or givers and takers.
- 16:08It's just another analogy about people or how to prepare yourself or how to cope with them.
- 16:13So you just meet people and you say, okay.
- 16:16That's interesting, right?
- 16:17So I did a podcast a little while back and the woman talked about daughtering and she talked
- 16:22about the burdens, the implicit burdens that daughters take on and they don't even real it
- 16:30was such an interesting concept.
- 16:32Right?
- 16:32The daughters are the ones thinking about the maybe the aging parents, and they're taking
- 16:36care of obviously, they're taking care of their children, but they're always telegraphing
- 16:40forward about what is needed for the family system.
- 16:44So it's interesting.
- 16:44Right?
- 16:45Because if you think about it, women don't wait to get things done.
- 16:48They just do it.
- 16:49And if if they don't have that centering point to your point, like, it doesn't take much to
- 16:54deplete.
- 16:55And then you're depleted and then you get fine and then they keep taking on more or maybe
- 16:59potentially things get start to get piled on them and they can't say or they don't say no.
- 17:07So with this awareness that you're allowing or teaching people, do you find that women find it
- 17:14hard to say no even though they know they need to say no?
- 17:18Yeah, one of the boxes is the people pleaser.
- 17:21Know, no one wants to disappoint.
- 17:22Then I think one of the most important things in self awareness is it's okay to disappoint
- 17:27people.
- 17:28It's okay to set boundaries in a soft, compassionate, empathetic way and say, I just
- 17:33don't have time.
- 17:35You know, I don't want I don't wanna do that today.
- 17:37That doesn't feel right for me.
- 17:39No one can argue that you're expressing your in a feeling.
- 17:44I don't feel like going.
- 17:45I don't feel you can't they can't argue that away from you because it's your feeling.
- 17:52You have a right to share it.
- 17:53Yeah, I think people in women, because we're always the caretaker, the nurturing soul, all
- 18:00of those things that we put ourselves last on the list, we put ourselves and then we don't
- 18:07have anything in our cup to pour from.
- 18:11So how can I be a great mother when I'm not great to myself?
- 18:16When I'm not empowering myself as a confident and powerful and authentic person?
- 18:22How can I teach my son that?
- 18:24How can I teach him, if I'm not showing he's going to model my behavior, and my tone and my
- 18:32vocabulary and all of those things?
- 18:34So if we can't be true to ourselves, then how can we teach authenticity to our loved ones?
- 18:42Absolutely, and it's so important.
- 18:44I would say that most of us have been pricked and prodded along the way, which kind of takes
- 18:50away from that concept of being true to yourself or authentic.
- 18:55And like you said, the transitions or like the loss or the new job or the new city or blending
- 19:02of families, whatever that transition is wakes you up to some degree and then you have to
- 19:08address what's happening from that state to start to think, like you said, who am I?
- 19:14What am Right. I
- 19:15I
- 19:15We don't have to play a role.
- 19:17Don't have to be the stepmother, the mother.
- 19:19We can be Kathleen.
- 19:21We can be that powerful woman and person, but you can you are you.
- 19:25No one else is ever is like you.
- 19:27That's what we need to do is just as a society and as a female empowerment, just be ready to
- 19:36be ourselves and to just find our voice and our feet.
- 19:39Think that's the most important thing is, it's okay to not know.
- 19:43I don't know.
- 19:44We don't know everything.
- 19:46And when we do, that's when our time here on earth is gone, When we finished learning at
- 19:51least to our capacity.
- 19:53So I hope there's never a time that we aren't always learning and being curious about things.
- 19:57And we just have to reflect on, I think pausing is great.
- 20:01Breathing is even better.
- 20:03I used to be a very reactive person, always wanting to convince and compete and do all
- 20:07that.
- 20:08I still have that nature in me.
- 20:09I'm just better with it.
- 20:11I just cope with it better.
- 20:13I'm still a very competitive person and all of that, but I just, I don't lead with it.
- 20:18I want people to know me as me and just know that's part of me, but that's not who I lead
- 20:25with, what I lead with.
- 20:29You brought up a really important point.
- 20:32And what I wonder is what are girls seeing and learning from their moms?
- 20:39And then, like you said, the shift, have a son as well, Kathleen, and I always try to have him
- 20:45see the flip side of his perspective.
- 20:48Obviously, he was raised by me as a single mom.
- 20:51And it's interesting because you're right.
- 20:53Once you share more, they're sponges.
- 20:55Right?
- 20:56They really they really do gain a perspective because you're not really trying to keep it all
- 21:01together.
- 21:01You're not trying to you have to give certain things you have to get done but when you show
- 21:06your vulnerability, I'm not so good at this, I'm good at this or whatever or I need your
- 21:10help.
- 21:11And even for girls I think there's a lot of pressure and I don't know if you would agree
- 21:14with women just now because we're getting the scholarships, getting the degrees, getting the
- 21:19positions, there's a lot more pressure for women to perform at work and at home.
- 21:25And our daughters are looking at this as well, trying to figure out where's the middle.
- 21:30So for professional women or women staying at home, it doesn't matter.
- 21:34I think women fill roles.
- 21:36What guidance do you give the mother that's trying to juggle it all and keep the boat
- 21:42afloat as their children look on?
- 21:45I would say be present with themselves and with their kids.
- 21:49So that's most importantly.
- 21:50Think that there's because of social media and we use that every single day and promote our
- 21:54brands that there is that like image.
- 21:57We have to be out there.
- 21:58We have to have the Stanley Cup.
- 22:00We have to do all of these things to, to look the same, to be the same.
- 22:04We don't.
- 22:05What's more important to be authentic.
- 22:08And I think just pausing, I think when my son and I talk and there's an experience that he
- 22:13sees something or feels something from someone that he's not enjoying, instead of trying to
- 22:20tell him how I would do different or what would happen if some hypothetical was different, I
- 22:26would say to him, and I do say to him, then you know what not to do when it's your turn.
- 22:32Then do better, then be better.
- 22:35Those are the things like if he's having problems with a teacher or with a friend or
- 22:39whomever, it's okay, put it in your bank of information to know how not to behave if that
- 22:44was you.
- 22:45And so those are the things we're not, I make mistakes every single day and I hope I learn
- 22:50from them.
- 22:51And I tell them, I'm having a hard day.
- 22:54We didn't do that.
- 22:54We didn't that wasn't a conversation that went well for us.
- 22:58He and I have a word.
- 22:59It's not a safe word because we're always in a safe environment, but we have a word that we
- 23:03say purple.
- 23:04And when we say purple, the conversation stops and we breathe.
- 23:09So there's no more conflict or convincing or those types of negotiating as mom and child can
- 23:16do.
- 23:17It's just a calm and it can just happen in a heated discussion or just in a, I don't have
- 23:21time today.
- 23:23I'm busy right now.
- 23:24I'm working.
- 23:24I am juggling.
- 23:25I'm doing all the things that I have to do, and I'm going to always be there for you.
- 23:29But right now, I have to say purple.
- 23:32And and and it's it's that simple.
- 23:34Right?
- 23:35It's communication, but it's sometimes just getting that cue word that allows you to just
- 23:39stop.
- 23:39Yeah.
- 23:39And he just respects it.
- 23:40It took all the times for us to remember when it was said to stop.
- 23:45So it's not but it now it's and again, it's not used daily, but when it is used, it's very it's
- 23:50a very respectful and just a, okay.
- 23:52Pause.
- 23:53Breathe.
- 23:54And then we can pick back up the conversation later when we both do have time.
- 23:59So what do you think employers should think about when they're thinking of females in their
- 24:04workforce?
- 24:05That's a great
- 24:06Yeah.
- 24:07Corporate That's thing.
- 24:08Because we know that obviously anxiety and depression is on the rise and I think women are
- 24:14the numbers are stacking higher for women.
- 24:16What should employers kind of keep up at the forefront of their mind in order to potentially
- 24:24explore or think and meet about meeting the needs of these women?
- 24:27Because they're obviously, they're gonna perform and overperform potentially.
- 24:31But in order to keep them well and productive, what kinds of things from your coaching lens
- 24:37would you think employers should consider?
- 24:40I think anything when it comes to a positive and impactful culture is huge.
- 24:45I think open communication is essential in our work environment, especially giving them space,
- 24:50letting them take time to say, you know, I'm anxious right now.
- 24:54I can't focus.
- 24:55I had a bad night.
- 24:56I had a bad day.
- 24:57I just got off the phone and I'm frustrated with what just happened.
- 25:00And instead of rushing them to the next meeting, giving them grace, allowing everybody
- 25:06but especially females because we do so much, a little and a lot of grace.
- 25:12It goes a long way.
- 25:13My father, another thing that he would say is grace over grudge.
- 25:18I was raised in a very
- 25:20Grace over.
- 25:21But that's it.
- 25:22I hope you've used that for know your marketing.
- 25:24All the time and I was used, yes.
- 25:26And I, we were raised in an Irish family and there was a lot of stubbornness and a lot of
- 25:30grudges.
- 25:31He wasn't that man.
- 25:32He did lead with grace and he taught us to lead with grace.
- 25:36And I love that when people, and I think that companies back to your question, corporate in
- 25:41any company, any size, just lead with grace, understand.
- 25:46I was behind a car twenty years ago that this really resonated with me at the time and still
- 25:51does.
- 25:52There was a sign, a handwritten sign in the back window of a car and I was at the red light
- 25:57and this woman was in front of me.
- 25:58This person was in front of me and it said, cancer patient struggling with my thoughts, be
- 26:05kind.
- 26:06And I thought, what a profound thing to put out there, very vulnerable.
- 26:12But I also thought, I hope no one honks at her.
- 26:15I hope no one in some cities, people tend to honk.
- 26:18Yeah, depending on how big of a city
- 26:19or whatever.
- 26:20They're like
- 26:20move along.
- 26:21They don't have time to go from the break to the gap.
- 26:24Or even adopting that scientist, human on board, thoughts might be scattered.
- 26:30Like it's cancer, which is very serious, obviously.
- 26:33Yeah, right.
- 26:34The thing is any of us could be going through that scattered feeling and just to have, like
- 26:39you said, to your point, grace, like your father is very wise, clearly, to be able to see
- 26:44that because we sometimes you don't you literally don't know what someone's
- 26:48experiencing.
- 26:48You don't.
- 26:49Don't just go, go, go, go, go, but just stop, like, take a pause to your point and say, you
- 26:55know, how you how you like, how are you really doing?
- 26:59Right.
- 27:00Yeah.
- 27:00And another thing is just believe that everybody has the best intention.
- 27:04Everybody wants to, we're all in this together.
- 27:07So just know that if anybody comes across as nasty or mean, or even snide or whatever the
- 27:13comment is, that's their stuff that they're dealing with.
- 27:16And again, give them grace.
- 27:19Just take it instead of reacting.
- 27:21I think there's a lot of especially in our environment right now, there's a lot of
- 27:24reactive energy, right?
- 27:27And our climate I think right now it's just it's okay to just breathe and pause and just
- 27:35don't respond.
- 27:36Just that little minute or second of silence really can transform any conversation or even a
- 27:44text.
- 27:44Hey, I need a minute to think about this.
- 27:47I'm not gonna respond right now.
- 27:49You've triggered something in me.
- 27:50There's a, you know, there's a lot
- 27:51of Maybe we need to come up with
- 27:52a human pause button, you know, like like when you pause or two together.
- 27:58I'm Like
- 27:58come up with something like that.
- 28:01Yeah, I just think that there's just too many reactive.
- 28:04We're just so quick to for instant gratification, we want it on the good side, but
- 28:08we also just, there's so much competitive or energy that says, I can't let that person win
- 28:14or control.
- 28:15I think a lot of our society and a lot of what we deal with all day is just control tactics.
- 28:20And if we just acknowledge we're not gonna play, we're not gonna play when people try to
- 28:25control things.
- 28:26We're just
- 28:27That's the most powerful thing you can do is create the silence or create the gap where
- 28:32Yeah.
- 28:32Just a sense of peace, just a sense of, I'm not gonna let you get to me.
- 28:36Right.
- 28:37Absolutely.
- 28:37It's hard.
- 28:38It's and it does take time.
- 28:39I it's gotta and it's
- 28:41have to lots of practice too.
- 28:43And
- 28:44I'm not saying that yeah.
- 28:46That there's things that are perfect, but it's There are times that you're going to slip up, a
- 28:50lot of them, but eventually you'll get to the place where you'll pause
- 28:54and breathe.
- 28:55Absolutely.
- 28:57This has been a beautiful conversation, Kathleen.
- 28:59Well, thank you very much.
- 29:01So, again, tell everybody where you hang out on social and a bit more remind them about the
- 29:08assessment again and your website so that anybody that's wanting to to explore further or
- 29:13have conversation with you, they can reach out and spend some time with you.
- 29:17Yeah, I appreciate that.
- 29:18So the discovery calls are free.
- 29:19They're half hour or so to spend time with me talking about a few things.
- 29:22You can find the link to my website, my Calendly link.
- 29:25Get on my calendar.
- 29:26I'd love to talk to you.
- 29:27You can find me on social media, Instagram, and now we just started Substack and Facebook, so
- 29:32we're out there as well.
- 29:33You'll link them to your social media, I'm sure.
- 29:35But, yeah, just find me.
- 29:36I'm here.
- 29:37I'm listening.
- 29:38More importantly, I'm pausing before I talk, and I wanna help people help themselves more
- 29:43importantly.
- 29:44So what am I taking about away?
- 29:47What you're doing?
- 29:48Yeah.
- 29:49When someone says fine, probe a little bit more and grace ahead grace instead of grudges
- 29:57according to Mr.
- 30:00Kathleen's dad.
- 30:01If you can apply those two things, what a shift you could potentially make in someone's life
- 30:07you never know.
- 30:08You might need it sometimes and in doing that with people around you make a difference.
- 30:13Just listen for it because the words define, just remember it as feelings I never expressed.
- 30:20And then when someone says that's what they're doing, they're not expressing their true
- 30:24feelings.
- 30:25Yeah.
- 30:25I like it.
- 30:26Like it.
- 30:27Grace of a grudge.
- 30:29Yep.
- 30:29Straight mark that.
- 30:31Yeah.
- 30:32It's a good one.
- 30:33Kathleen, thank you so much for your time.
- 30:36And for everybody listening, thank you for hanging out with me week after week.
- 30:40And hit that subscribe button so you can know when I have amazing guests like Kathleen on.
- 30:45Do a review so we can know what's going and potentially what kind of topics you wanna hear
- 30:51more of.
- 30:52For employers listening out there, leaders, think how is it that you can meet women where
- 30:58they are to optimize their capacity?
- 31:01Clearly, they have capacity, but to optimize their ability to stay healthy, functional, and
- 31:07creative and at work so that they can come back after doing what they need to do outside of
- 31:12work and bring the best version of themselves.
- 31:15So for everyone, what am I up to?
- 31:17I am launching the course on the ROR course on my book and life coaching.
- 31:24For more information, just reach out to me at roxanneroxandderhodge dot com.
- 31:28Again, Kathleen, thank you so much.
- 31:30Yeah.
- 31:31Thank you.
- 31:32For everybody, thank you, and we'll see you again next week.
- 31:35Take care.
- 31:35Take care.
- 31:36Bye bye.
- 31:36Thanks, Roxanne.
- 31:37Thank you.
- 31:38Thanks for tuning in to Authentic Living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive,
- 31:44healthy change.
- 31:45Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach.
- 31:49To work with Roxanne, visit roxannederhaj.com/blueprint.
- 31:55We'll see you next time on Authentic Living with Roxanne.