Latest / Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman / Catherine Duncan – Everyday Awakening

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Catherine Duncan – Everyday Awakening · Destination Unlimited with Victor Fuhrman

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My name is Victor Furman. Some call me the Voice. I've always been
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fascinated with human nature, spirituality, science and the crossroads at which they meet.
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Join me now and we will explore these topics and so much more with
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fascinating guests, authors and experts who will guide us to Destination Unlimited. In
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a fast paced, turbulent world. Are you yearning for more peace, love,
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meaning, and embodied a liveness? Are you yearning for awakening? My
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guest this week on Destination Unlimited, Catherine Duncan, says this awakening is as
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close as your heart. Katherine Duncan is an inter greative spiritual consultant. She
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is passionate about whole person healing. In her private practice, Learning to Live,
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she companions individuals who are struggling with chronic illness, life transitions, grief
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and loss, and those searching for more meaning and purpose. Catherine is also
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a consultant for Minnesota Personalized Medicine and Integrative Medical Practice in Minneapolis. Catherine is
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also a Board certified chaplain and certified spiritual director. Her website is learning tolive
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dot org and she joins me this week to share her path and book,
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Every Day Awakening five practices for living fully, feeling deeply, and coming into
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your heart and soul. Please join me in welcoming to Destination Unlimited. Katherine
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Duncan welcome Catherine. Great to meet to Victor. Thank you, and Catherine,
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please share with us your early path, including what happened when you were
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eleven years old and how that contributed to your awakening. When I was eleven
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years old, I was suddenly actually was ten turning eleven very ill. My
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parents took me to the hospital and soon after I was diagnosed with a very
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rare childhood cancer. They told my parents the doctors that I had a twenty
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percent chance to live for two years. And I mean when they told me
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this, just that I cancer. I'd never heard the word. I thought
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I'd go to the hospital and have to take like a tile in all or
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something. So when I started at the hospital having chemotherapy and radiation and surgeries,
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it was pretty extreme. And interestingly, that year that I was sick,
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random a drug came over that had not been used for the four what
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I had and demanded that they give me this chemotherapy drug. It's now standard
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treatment. The survirt for what I had is now eighty percent. So I'm
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grateful that my father had the insight to suggest and demand that I have these
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drugs. But my life just cracked open. No one talked to me.
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This was in the seventies. They did have chaplains. No one talked to
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me, and my mother would say I would be font, you were going
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to be fine, and it was comforting, but there was no sense of
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reality of what I was experiencing. They had no anti nausea drugs. They
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did a lot of amputation. It was very grim, and not long into
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starting treatments, I started to pray faith that meant nothing to me, but
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I started to pray, Could I please live to be twenty years old?
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Is what I prayed? And I told no one. And after praying and
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praying and praying, not long after, all of a sudden, one day,
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this feeling of just deep peace flooded my boy and just took my breath
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away, and I had a knowing I was going to live and I wasn't
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alone. Wonderful And what did you learn facing your death again? Having an
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ND in your thirties? Interestingly after, I mean, I'm grateful I got
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through all the treatments and fast forward went through high school, college. My
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family all of them in business. So I went into business. I was
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with actually Time Magazine. I was selling advertising and on a timing corporate trip
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we went whitewater rafting in Costa Rica and that's when I had a near death
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experience. It was treacherous waters and you know, I was on this raft.
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Next thing, you know, I'm deep underwater with a life vest and
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helmet and I just was, you know, here I am, I'm going
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to die. And I had flashbacks in that moment of seeing myself as a
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child in the hospital and this white light came around my body in this voice
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Crystal Clear said living or dying is fine, and again this piece came through
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my body and I just let go. I didn't know what was going to
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happen, but I let go. I came up from out underneath one of
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the rapids and I survived. And it was really a turning point in my
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life in that I at the time, as I said, I was working
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for Time Magazine. I realized like, this isn't it. This isn't what
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I want to do, This isn't where I'm feeling called. I've been feeling
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this nudging in my being and I thought, I need to create space to
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listen to where I'm being called. So I gave my notice and within a
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few weeks I actually left timing to start listening like where am I being called?
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So it was another deepening of what it means to be alive, feeling
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that deep peace in our being, feeling like I'm not alone, and trusting
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and listening into where am I being guided? And tell us about what you
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pursued and became after leaving time. It was just a series of interestingly listening,
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hearing nudgings I committed. And I've had a steeped prayer practice since a
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child, but after the leaving timing, I carved out time every day prayer,
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meditation, journaling, and a few months into I was picked up some
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different jobs. A girlfriend late at night said, have you ever thought of
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staying theology spiritual direction? No one in my family lineage has ever gone to
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theology ministry school. So that's what I did. I It's just like,
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oh, I never thought of that, And I applied got into graduate theology
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and then Divinity school. I just I kept feeling and sensing these nudgings.
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I think we can all experience it if we come into the moment and listen
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within. So it's just a series of graduate school becoming then actually a which
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I honestly was kind of against, like oh, I vowed as a child
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I'd never stepped foot in a hospital again, and then I kept getting this
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nudging chaplain chaplain and becoming a minister to my path. To this day,
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I feel like has really been led every step of my path. It's interesting
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I had shared with you before we started recording the interview that I've had a
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number of synchronicities in my life which also led me on a spiritual path.
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And what I learned with these synchronicities is if I heard something and it's sort
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of resonated with me, I had three choices. I could either dismiss it
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out of hand. I could say, yeah, that's interesting, but not
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right now, perhaps later. Or I could say yes with a capital why.
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And every time that capital y came out of my mouth, the next
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synchronicity came, and the next one came. Have you experienced that flow also
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completely? Yes? I mean when when my girlfriend Connie late at night studying
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theology spiritual direction, I hadn't thought of it, even though since a child
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since a teenager, I've been reading books on life and meaning and purpose and
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why are we here on this earth? And she had mentioned Saint Catherine University,
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and I got information from all the different universities in the Twin Cities.
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When I held in my hands the information on graduate theology school from Saint Catherine,
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my body started physically shaking. It was just a knowing, this is
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it. And then yeah, every step I feel has been guided, not
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always interestingly, not always maybe what my mind would choose, but just a
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feeling in my body. So even chaplaincy, applying to the different chaplaincy residency
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programs, I got into all of them here in the Twin Cities. I
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was grateful for that, and I really tuned in and pray, like which
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graduate school, And I kept getting University of Minnesota, which is called,
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you know, a sort of fear of you now. But I kept getting
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that, and I thought, no, that's where I was a patient,
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a child patient there. But I kept pushing, getting that nudging, and
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that's where I went. Yep. You know, I had mentioned to you
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that I had a long career, forty four year career in industrial technology and
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sales, and that my calling, which happened in my mid to late thirties,
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and then going on further led me to the New Seminary of New York,
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and my reason for going there was that in those days, if you
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wanted to go into a hospital and do laying out of hands reiki was my
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practice, you either had to be a licensed massage therapist or ordained in a
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faith where that was considered one of the sacraments, and obviously having a full
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time position, I could not take two years to go off to go to
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massage school. But through this wonderful synchronicity about going to the New Seminary,
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I was ordained. And then when nine to eleven came along, my wife,
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who also was a graduate of that school, decided to volunteer as a
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chaplain for the Red Cross. And when I got back from a business trip
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that very week, I was out in Montana when nine to eleven happened that
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Friday, I returned and the following day I joined her and we both became
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chaplains for the Red Cross, taking care of families at the Family Assistant Center
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in New York City waiting for a ward of their loved ones who were either
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missing or had no word or those that had already known that their loved ones
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were gone. And it was one of the most beautiful life changing experiences I've
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ever had, and I'm grateful for that opportunity. And had I not listened
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to the synchronicities, I wouldn't have been present for those folks. That's amazing,
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that's a great story. Absolutely have you met and worked with others who
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have experienced this change, Oh? Absolutely, when you really take time and
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I share this in my new book Every Day Awakening, but with my clients
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over the years, when you take time to get out of your fast,
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chattering, busy ego mind right that we all have that can run our life,
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to just come into this moment, to feel into just here and now
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be here. Now we move out of our busy mind, that's when we
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start to sense and feel and hear that guidance. And so I would say,
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many colleagues, many friends that are open and want to keep going inward
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and learning and growing. This is the path and this is I believe how
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you do it. And we're going to be discussing Every Day Awakening shortly,
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but tell us about your ability and your experiences connecting with guides and angels after
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through my chaplaincy program. Then I became a chaplain at first a long term
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care center. Then I was a chaplain at our level one trauma hospital kind
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have been County Medical Center, and then a hospice chaplain Fair of You Hospice.
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For quite a number of years it was in my chaplaincy work, starting
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at hadn't been County Medical Center and then Fear Ofview Hospice. I was with
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thousands of people at the end of life, in crisis at the trauma hospital,
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but in hospice, people at end of life who died, and it
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was such a privilege, It was such an honor to be with people.
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And when I was with people dying, I could feel and sense my vision
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had opened up. I could sense and feel the energy in the room,
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spirits in the room. When people would leave their body, I could feel
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their spirit leave their body and be in the room, often just hovering way
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up above for example a bedroom. And then I had many people as a
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hospice chaplain in particular who within days to a week after they died, they
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would come back and see me in the middle of the night. I would
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open my eyes and like JOm there they would be an outline of their spirit,
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and I always felt like a nodding of like thankfulness, gratitude, and
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then they'd be gone, and it just opened up in me just there's so
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many more layers of reality between our physical body and the spirit world and the
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other lesson. Really, I feel deeply from my experiences is that death is
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not an end. We transform, we go on. It was a big
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learning, absolutely, And I haven't been a formal chaplain in hospice, but
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I have served others in hospice, and I've experienced many times when people who
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are ready to leave start seeing their relatives appearing. Have you had that same
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experience with many, many, many people, Yes, in hospice. Yes.
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In fact, it was just fascinating companioning, walking with people the last
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weeks, days of their life, even the last days I would have.
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I'm just thinking of a particular patient rename his name was Bob, who started
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to leave his body and he saw his father and a loved one I think
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it was his brother who had died, and he was talking to them,
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but then he came back. He's like, I'm not quite ready yet,
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and he would come back in his body and the next day we were visiting
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and he told me about it. But I heard this with many people.
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Yes, and it's got to be reassuring for those who are about to transition
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to know that they're being welcomed. I would say absolutely, And it depends
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on I think how open you are. But what I did find in the
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years I worked as a chaplain with Fairview Hospice is the norm was people were
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found a sense of peace and acceptance. Maybe it was not till the last
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few days, but they did, and they founded peace before they left.
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I'll tell you. The opposite is being a chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center.
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That was high trauma. That was a little different, where when you
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know in the afternoon the person's alive, an hour later they're an extreme car
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accident, and then they're dying an hour later, and that's a different kind
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of death. But in general, in particularly with hospice, there was a
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deep peace and acceptance and it was unusual that people didn't find that peace at
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the end when they were ready to leave their body. And was it comforting
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for family members who were with them at the time waiting for their transition.
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It was in again in hospice, it was my role as a chaplain was
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helping the patient find the deep peace in their being before they were ready to
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leave their body, but also family members and how if there was anything left
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to be said or any levels of needing forgiveness, just helping collaborate a conversation
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and connection so that it was a healing for everyone involved. And again a
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little different at the level one trauma hospital where there wasn't time. It just
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there wasn't that time to process us such a sudden death. So that was
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definitely more in the field of trauma that then need to be worked one after
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the person died for the family members that survived a traumatic death of a loved
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one, which I'm sure is why you share in your ministry and I've shared
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in mind that tomorrow is never guaranteed. If you've hurt someone, ask for
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forgiveness, if you feel that you have been hurt by them, offer forgiveness
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and also say I love you. While you can do it, absolutely,
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we can all heal and do our own deep healing work. And it's a
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choice. It's a choice, it's a practice. It's a consciousness to be
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aware that, oh, I still have this grievance in my heart, or
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this grudge, or just to have that awareness, self awareness I share with
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people awareness is the first step of all healing. But being able to tune
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in, how am I not at peace? What is that uneasy? What
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needs to be forgiven to then consciously bring it into your front of your brain
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to process it, to feel it, to find that deep healing, and
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we can all heal. Absolutely. It's interesting that in the ancient Egyptian pantheon
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you had Mott, who was the goddess of truth, and when you died,
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your heart was put on a scale on one side, and Mot's feather
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was put on the other side. And if Mot's feather was lighter or it
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was heavier than your heart, then your heart was free. But it was
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obviously the opposite. You still had some work to do before going into the
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afterlife. That is so fascinating. I do this is my opinion, But
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I think the reason we are all here on this earth is to learn to
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love. I think learning how to love, love ourself, love one another.
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I think what we take with us when we die is our ability to
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love one hundred percent. Thank you for saying that. I can't agree with
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you more. Thank you what inspired your book every Day Awakening five practices for
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living fully, feeling deeply, and coming into your heart and soul. I
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saw vision of my book, not surprising because I am a mystic and intuitive.
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I saw it over ten ten years ago. Then my children were teenagers
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and my husband. I just came to me. I saw this vision,
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I'm going to rewriting a book. And I then told my family and they
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all said great, Mom, that's great. But then I just started.
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I had this urge, internal urge again, listening, feeling the guidance.
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I started writing in a journal and then I started blog writing. And it
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was actually the beginning of when the pandemic happened, and we had to be
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extra careful because my husband has a rare heart condition, so we had to
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be very careful. And my life became pretty limited and small. I mean,
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I would luckily transition my whole client practice on Zoom, but I had
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more time. So I just felt this nudging. I sat down at night,
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usually eight nine o'clock, and I would pray or meditate for a little
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bit, and then I would sit at the computer and it just poured out
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of me. I write. I would write night after night, week after
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week, and my whole book. It just I had to write it.
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It was a calling in everyday awakening. You share that awakening is a profound
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experience, but it is not mysterious or esoteric. Please explain. I think
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feeling into when I say awakening, the preciousness of life right now, feeling
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into our heart, our soul. I think our heart is the doorway to
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our soul. It's about feeling what it means to be alive right now,
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that preciousness of life and aliveness we all can feel. In fact, I
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think everyone hearing this right now have had moments of sense of awe or wonder.
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If it's watching you know, sunset over a lake, or listening to
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the wind through the trees or birds singing, where it just time stops.
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You're like, oh here I am and I am alive. And we all
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can choose to awaken into this heart of the love and our heart and soul
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and that sense of oneness with universe. And it's a practice, it's a
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choice, it's a practice. I think there's several ways. One way how
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I experienced this was through crisis and upheaval. And my message with my book
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is you don't have to wait until you're at the end of your life or
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you're in crisis, you can choose right now. I was with many patients
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at the end of life who for a few moments, even before they died,
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they're like, Oh, this is it, this is life, and
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then they died. So I think we if anyone listening right now you feel
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like a nudging, you're wanting more. It's about doing the inner work,
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listening, finding that sense of deep present. And that's why I have five
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practices of how can you do this? How can you experience and feel into
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your heart and soul? And we'll talk more about that in the next segment.
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I had a wonderful spiritual teacher at the New Seminary of New York back
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in the nineteen nineties. Gentlemen was well into his eighties, and he would
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tell us that in the morning he'd wake up and he'd have pain in his
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legs and pain in his back and paint in his arms, and he'd say,
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thank you God. And people would say, you're in pain. Why
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are you saying thank you? He said, because I'm alive, and every
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day I'm alive, I have purpose. What a wonderful teaching that's so beautiful.
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And that is actually how I start my day. Habit every morning for
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so many years that when I wake up in the morning, the first thing
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I do is thank you a gratitude. I'm alive. Wow, I'm alive.
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I have a bed to sleep, been, I have family, I
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have friends. So I think about the thankfulness and then I feel it.
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I feel love, gratitude vibrating in my body. Love gratitude highest vibrational energy
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we can hold in our body, and I feel it coursing through my body.
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I have a few prayers and I just see the flow of my day.
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That's how I start my day every single morning. And I'll share with
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you the opposite of that is, and I think a lot of people do
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this. You wake up and you might grab your phone, or you start
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thinking about I have this and this and this appointment and this appointment, and
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you're already in a stress response before you get out of bed. You're already
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running corusal hormone in your body before you get out of bed. So again,
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mindfully, how are you choosing to live your day? Amen? My
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guest is Catherine Duncan. Her book is called Every Day Awakening, Five Practices
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for Living Fully feeling deeply and coming into your heart and so, Catherine,
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please share with our listeners where they can find out more about you and your
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book. My website is Everyday Awakening dot com. I'm my book focus on
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Amazon, Barnes and Noble. I'm all over social media Instagram. Katherine Duncan
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mabcc TikTok is the same on Facebook. I'm learning to live as My company
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name so easy to find and we'll be back with more of Catherine after these
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words on the Own Times Radio Network, the cutting edge of conscious radio.
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Home Times Radio IOMFM. Ome Times Magazine is one of the leading online content
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providers of positivity, wellness and personal empowerment. A philanthropic organization, their net
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proceeds are finaled to support worldwide charity initiatives via Humanity Healing International. Through their
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commitment to creating community and providing conscious content, they aspire to uplift humanity on
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a global scale. Home Times co creating a more conscious lifestyle. Back on
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Destination Unlimited. My guest this week is Katherine Duncan, her book Every Day
23:59
Awayakening Five Practices for Living fully, feeling deeply and coming into your heart and
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soul. Catherine, what does it mean to live fully and awaken. I
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think being awaken into our heart and soul, living not in our mind,
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not head up, but in the depth of our heart, our soul,
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this essence of love and oneness with the world. We can all experience this,
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and it's a choice. It's a practice. As I was saying a
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little bit earlier, you don't have to wait until a crisis or facing death
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or end of life. You can start choosing. And these are the practice
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I have in my book, choosing to feel the preciousness of being alive right
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now. Is this a personal choice or do you have to go through some
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great upheaval in your life. I think there's several paths to awakening into your
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sense, your heart and soul. One path can be through crisis, yes,
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and that is my path. Is maybe not as common, but at
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eleven twelve years old, seeing that I was walking on a tightrope between life
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and death cracked me open. So I've heard that from people that have gone
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through crisis all of a sudden, just they have a whole new lens of
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what it looks like to be and feel to be alive right now. I've
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also worked with many people in my practice who they may have done, you
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know, had a career been really successful, even as say a doctor,
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an attorney, an executive, but they feel something's missing, They feel numb,
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they feel and gnawing and nudging or even I work with many women like
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this is it is this really life? And that's how they start to look
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inward to open into their heart and soul. Another group, I would say
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are people that are on the path and maybe they've had for years a steeped
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yoga practice or meditation practice and there's just to deepening happening within them. But
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a big message I just want to share is that it is a conscious choice
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how every one of us is living. Each day we're either opening and growing
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and feeling more into what it means to be here on this earth and the
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sense of aliveness or many of us, I think live on autopilot, where
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life is living us, our mind is living us. And I just invite
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the people listening right now, how are you choosing to live? Absolutely talk
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a little bit more about that. How do they identify or how do they
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look at this and go through that evaluation process. I would invite people,
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and I do this in my private practice, to start tuning in. How
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are you living your day even tuning in? Are you in your mind all
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day? It's so easy again, I think, and I think the world
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really supports this, you know about being bright and being in our mind and
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living at such a fast pace. But if you tune in during the day,
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can you notice do you have moments, minutes, or practicing where you
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take a break from your mind. Maybe you get out in nature and go
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for a walk. And when I say go for a walk, I'm not
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going for a walk with a podcast. You know I'm really present in nature.
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Do you take some moments in your day? Some people actually gets through
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exercise. It's through a yoga practice, it's through a breath practice, a
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meditation practice. There are so many different ways, but where your mind that's
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so powerful can slow down, where you can just feel into here and now,
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this moment, because it's in this moment, where that deep peace and
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that ease, that's where it is. It's not in our mind. And
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that's the first of the five practices you offer in every day awakening, being
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in the present moment. For those people who say I can't meditate, I
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can't calm down, I can't just enjoy and be in the presence of nature
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and everything around me. What do you say to those folks so I might
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lead them in a breath exercise with There are many different ways to practice breathing.
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One of my all time favorites is just taking a minute and breathing in,
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imagining peace coming through the top of your head, through your body all
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the way down through your legs, your knees, and breathing out through your
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feet. Any stress, any unrest, you could even visualize it like gray
28:32
smoke leaving your body. That's one of my favorite go tos. Here's another
28:36
example, practicing moments of mindfulness. What is mindfulness just being present fully in
28:41
this moment. So an example would be, and this is something I do
28:45
a lot in the morning. Let's say you drink coffee or tea. Let's
28:51
say coffee. You go in your kitchen, you make coffee, You pour
28:55
yourself a cup of coffee. So for about one minute, without the TV,
29:00
the radio, your phone, your computer, you there so many distractions,
29:03
none of those are on. You hold your cup of coffee, you
29:08
feel the heat of the coffee mug, you smell the aroma, you take
29:12
a sip. You're fully present for a minute, just drinking your coffee.
29:18
Maybe you have a window, you look out the window, you see birds
29:21
flying by, You're just present for a minute, drinking your coffee. That's
29:26
a really beginning level. Just start with that. See how that feels,
29:32
just being present while you're drinking coffee in the morning, and notice how that
29:36
feels. So many people have left their faith and are searching for more.
29:42
What perspectives can you offer people that are searching and struggling and why is it
29:48
important to connect with something greater? I share with many people I work with
29:55
and in my talks that I give just some understanding around the words religion and
30:00
spirituality. And yes, I'm a minister. In my background, I'm very
30:04
inclusive and a liberal minister. But when I think of religion, I think
30:11
of it as more you know, man made doctrine, dogma, how you
30:17
practice a tradition and some of the current research on this is what twenty percent
30:21
of the US people in the US go to church. I like the word
30:26
spirituality. What does spirituality mean? What gives you meaning? So just tuning
30:30
in on a daily basis, what gives you meaning, what gives you life,
30:34
what gives you a sense of peace? And joy and leaning into that
30:40
I think is really important in life giving and finding. When you say community,
30:48
having a sense of community, having people that you connect with, and
30:53
it may be around spirituality, I mean even just deciding I want to meet
31:00
a friend for coffee instead of over the phone, or maybe you like to
31:03
go play basketball, or just a sense of community is so important, especially
31:07
right now while we're in what's called the loneliness epidemic. One out of two
31:11
people in the US are lonely, and one of the antidotes is community.
31:15
And here's the research. When you have one or two authentic friends that you
31:22
can really share with, you live longer. Community is so important. One
31:27
of the greatest lessons I learned while attending interfaith seminary in the mid nineteen nineties
31:33
was that there's an iteration of the Golden Rule in virtually every faith. How
31:40
may we use this to embody love and compassion. As I said earlier,
31:47
I think the reason we're here. I think we're spirit in a body for
31:51
a short time and then we go on. But I think we're here to
31:53
learn how to love. I think love is the healing bomb. I think
31:59
love is the greatest healer, and at the end of the day. I
32:05
think love, kindness the golden rule. Do on to another, hoos you're
32:08
doing to them? I just I think that is the true healing, and
32:14
love and kindness always wins. I'm guessing everyone hearing this right now has had
32:17
experiences around if it's a family member, a friend, a colleague who is
32:22
maybe not kind, not thoughtful. We all have had these experiences, and
32:28
I have two. And what I have found in my life is love and
32:31
kindness always wins. It just over time. Someone who's not nice to you,
32:37
you treat them well, and you know, I'm with the caveat.
32:40
If it's an abusive relationship, you have to have boundaries and potentially walk away.
32:45
But kindness always wins. It's the greatest healer, and people can heal
32:52
when they're around you. If you're embodying love and light, it has effect
32:58
around everyone who's around you when you hold and embody love. I've had situations
33:04
where I've been with a group of people and one of my friends and the
33:08
friend has disagreeable and sitting at a dinner table being disagreeable, and everyone gets
33:15
up and walks away, and I would embrace this person and hug him and
33:21
say I love you anyway, I love you as you are, and he
33:25
would start crying. And that promoted healing. Absolutely, Yes, yes,
33:34
when you can embody love and kindness amidst being around people that maybe you don't
33:39
agree with what they're saying or you don't agree with their behavior, my experience
33:45
is just what you experience, is that people can open and soften because they
33:49
can feel that love and that kindness. I had an experience working in healthcare.
33:54
One of the healthcare groups I worked with as a chaplain and you would
33:58
think, for example, and chaplaincy, the teams, nurses, social workers,
34:04
the groups that you work with, they would just naturally embody love right
34:07
because you're with people that are end of life. It's really life and death
34:12
situations. And surprisingly, like in all areas of career careers, there are
34:19
people that maybe they are going through hardship or a tough time, or that
34:22
aren't necessarily kind. But I had a couple challenging colleagues and I just embodied
34:30
love and kindness and guess what, they ended up slowly shifting and changing and
34:35
it was a tremendous healing for all of us. And the other aspect is
34:39
something that many of us have been sharing since the advent of COVID, which
34:44
is acts of radical kindness, going out of your way to be grateful,
34:47
to thank people for their service, to offer your service to those who need
34:52
assistance and help, perhaps in shopping or doing something else. Just a smile
34:57
as you pass someone on the street, a good morning, a good ea,
35:00
how are you. Simple things like that will change a person's attitude.
35:05
I agree, and I think that's very powerful. I practiced this popping into
35:09
the grocery store, and sometimes a checkout clerk might be just very cool or
35:15
aloof or maybe not even kind, maybe they're not nice, and I'll just
35:20
look at them and say, how are you today? And it's just amazing
35:23
when you can give someone some kindness, some attention, how they can just
35:28
open and soften. And one more example. I was shopping one time and
35:32
there was a very long line at the checkout and this much older woman came
35:37
with her basket and she looked dismayed as she saw so many people online.
35:42
And I went out of my way to let everyone in line know, and
35:45
I'm giving her my space. I said, please take my space. Everybody
35:47
turned around and looked at me, and I walked around to the end of
35:50
the light to give her. That changed her whole affect for that day.
35:54
Mm hmm. That's lovely. I love it. And it's so simple.
35:59
It's something we all can do. There's no, there's no It doesn't cost
36:01
us anything except to open our hearts and give love. Mm hmmm. I
36:06
have a dear friend. In fact, I write about her in my book.
36:10
Her name is Lori, and she just embodies love to a level I
36:15
don't see very often where will. She's in Chicago. She's a part time
36:20
actress and she comes in town to visit and we'll walk around one of the
36:23
downtown links and she says hi to almost everyone, and there's just this warmth
36:30
streaming from her, and it's so beautiful just even witness the warmth from her,
36:36
and then how people soften as they feel that warmth come over them.
36:40
Another practice that you offer in Everyday Awakening is growing our trust. With so
36:47
much misinformation being shared in both traditional and social media, how do we do
36:52
this in I've a huge self help reader since a child, and I've read
37:00
so many books where they say trust, trust, but they don't tell you
37:04
how. So I really pushed myself in writing this, this particular chapter,
37:08
how do you trust? So here's how I think truly we can trust,
37:14
and that is first starting with coming into the present moment, being here now,
37:19
when we're coming to the moment, Then it's practicing acceptance. And boy,
37:24
that's easy to say, you know, it can be really hard to
37:28
accept the moment, especially with how messy life can be. But can you
37:32
just accept in the moment what's happening, the good, the bad, just
37:36
accepting the moment. When you can drop in and accept and surrender into the
37:39
moment, that's when I think we can listen. We can what they say,
37:45
listen with the ear of our heart. Just that listening, listening,
37:50
hearing, sensing, feeling. We all have these abilities, so we listen
37:54
and that's where we can tune in and that's how we trust. Trust is
37:58
an active verb. It's by being in the present moment, accepting the moment,
38:02
listening, and then you start to feel and get a sense like I
38:06
am on tracker, no I'm not on track, or that inner guidance within
38:09
every one of us arises and gives you information and guidance and will give you
38:16
a sense of truly how you can trust, How your path is unfolding.
38:21
I've been blessed as you have, with guidance, spiritual guidance, and many
38:27
times in my life listening to that inner voice and recognizing that what's being shared
38:32
with me is important for me and those I love. I've followed that guidance
38:37
to the t. A quick example several years ago, I was driving with
38:40
my wife and son on a local highway. We were in the extreme left
38:45
lane. Traffic was moving at the speed limit. There was no indication of
38:49
anything wrong, and the voice came and said get out of this lane.
38:52
Now. It didn't shout at me, it spoke reassuringly and lovingly, but
38:55
I always listened. I moved from the left lane to the center lane,
39:00
and within ten seconds there was a major accident in the left lane, and
39:04
had I not listened, we would have been in the middle of that accident.
39:08
That's amazing. And I also get a lot of guidance like that as
39:14
well. And my comment to share in the moment is that I do believe
39:19
everyone listening can open into this guidance. Some of us it might be hearing
39:24
like how you heard and I hear guidance. It might be hearing what they
39:29
call is clear audience, or it might be seeing, which is called clairvoyance
39:34
or clere sension. But you can't access that when you're in your busy mind.
39:39
It's when you come into the moment, feeling into just here and now
39:45
that that is where that guidance resides. My guest is Catherine Duncan her book
39:51
Every Day Awakening, Five Practices for living fully, feeling deeply and coming into
39:58
your heart and soul. We'll be back with more after these words on the
40:01
Old Times Radio Network. Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big
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Humanity Healing is Where your Heart Is. Hello. I'm Sandy Sedgeby, a
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host of Home Times Magazine's flagship radio show What is going On? My passion
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is sifting through information, research and innovations from new thought teachers, speakers,
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and researchers pushing back the boundaries of what we know about life, energy,
40:52
metaphysics, and the universe. I love shifting perceptions about who we are,
40:57
why we're here, and how quickly impossible become normal when we open our minds,
41:01
expand our awareness, and accept that the only limits that exist are those
41:06
we place upon ourselves. So if you're the kind of forward thinking, eager
41:09
investigator of what lies beyond the current reality that most perceive, why not make
41:15
a date to come play with me in the Field of Possibilities at four pm
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Pacific time seven pm Eastern Time every Thursday, and together we can discover what's
41:25
really going on. Vox Novas the New Voice, vox Novas the New Dimension,
41:36
vox Novas vought and movement leaders who will share from their experience and offer
41:42
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41:49
Join me every Thursday at eight pm Eastern on all times radio for Vox
41:54
Novas the New Voice. If I could be you and you could be me
42:00
for just one hour, if you could find a way to get inside each
42:05
other's mind, Walk a mile in my shoes, Walk a mile in my
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shoes, Walk a mile in my shoes, We've all felt left out,
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and for some that feeling lasts more than a moment. We can change that
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learn how it belonging begins with us dot org. Brought to you by the
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AD Council. Welcome Mile in the Shoes back on Destination Unlimited. My guest
42:30
this week is Catherine Duncan. We're talking about her book Every Day Awakening,
42:37
Five Principles for living fully, feeling deeply, and coming into your heart and
42:43
soul. Catherine, what have you learned about the meaning of life when you've
42:49
companioned so many people as they died. I think it's about how do you
42:57
live today? This moment came you feel into the preciousness of being alive.
43:04
I do think being alive is a gift. It's such a gift, and
43:08
often I think many of us don't really feel how it's such a gift until
43:15
something happens, or maybe you start getting older and you start also now reflecting.
43:22
But I think to feel like that wonderment, that preciousness that I think
43:29
the core of our essence is love. I think we're all connected through this
43:34
love and this oneness and it's like, ah, it's here right this moment
43:37
for every one of us to experience if you want, if you choose,
43:42
and it's a practice. Aside from this topic we discussed before about asking for
43:47
forgiveness or offering forgiveness. Is there anything that has come up amongst those that
43:52
you've been in hospice with that they had wished they had done in their life.
43:58
I've a lot with people at the very end of life realizing that what's
44:06
most important is love, love of family, love of friends. Everything else
44:12
drops away, and I'll share with you. I experienced this with my mother
44:19
in law twenty years ago, and this was a turning point for me at
44:22
turning me again listening to becoming a chaplain. Her life was really externally focused
44:29
material things and shopping and just outside distractions, you know that we all can
44:36
get caught in. And she was suddenly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and there was
44:40
nothing they could do. She lived a year and she just opened and blossomed
44:47
and all that dropped away, and all that really mattered was her dear family,
44:52
her close friends, feeling love, feeling into the preciousness of life.
44:57
I witnessed it in front of my eyes and it was beauty. It was
45:00
just it was inspiring soul shaping to walk with her on that path. And
45:07
I did see that with quite a number of people that I companion and walked
45:10
with in hospice, that all the years that they worked, they spent so
45:15
much time just warring or fretting and just really realizing that it's just about enjoying
45:22
the moment right now with the ones you love. I'll share one personal experience
45:27
with you. This has to be with it happens to be with my mother.
45:30
She transitioned in January of twenty twenty, and my sister and I were
45:35
with her at the time. And one of the things that was very special
45:39
to her, she truly loved my father. He died when I was fifteen,
45:44
and she did eventually remarry, but my father was the love of her
45:47
life. And back in those days, there was a song called Honey by
45:51
Bobby Goldsborough, and the song said, Honey, I miss you and I'm
45:55
being good and I longed to be with you if only I could. And
46:00
the day my sister called me and she said this is it, and we
46:04
were standing by her bedside and she was unconscious and I said, mom,
46:07
I said, if you look, you'll see Daddy's waiting for you. And
46:12
he's singing a song to you, and honey, I miss you and I'm
46:15
being good and I'd long to be with you if only I could, And
46:22
her breathing changed, her effect changed, and she passed very shortly thereafter.
46:27
That was a gift. That was a gift for my family, for my
46:30
sister, myself and my brother also wasn't there at that exact moment, but
46:32
was there. And also the understanding that we can call out to our family
46:39
who has gone before and ask them to join us and comfort us. That's
46:45
just beautiful, beautiful. I had a similar experience when I was with my
46:50
father when he died. I was the only one in the bedroom. There
46:52
was a nurse in the very corner, all my siblings everyone was out of
46:55
the bedroom, and I just he was unconscious, and I just in my
47:00
mind like I'm ready and say it's okay, Dad. I thought that in
47:04
my mind, and then all of a sudden, this huge wave of energy
47:09
came through the bedroom. It was just remarkable, magical. My dad turned
47:15
his head, opened his eyes, and wood left and it was just on
47:22
spiring. It wasn't I thought I'd be scared. So it was my father
47:24
dying and we were very close, but it wasn't It was just beautiful.
47:30
It was just unbelievably beautiful and peaceful, and knowing that people come and help
47:36
us when we were ready to leave our body. I think it was angels,
47:40
spirit guides. They all were there helping whoom, helping my father leave
47:45
and transition. Both of us have the experience of knowing what it is to
47:51
give true listening to those that were called to serve. And a poem came
47:55
through me a few years ago about this. May share that with you,
47:59
Oh, I'd love to hear. It's called the gift of true listening.
48:02
They're often are words that need to be heard without cutting in or positioning.
48:09
Your heart will be stirred and compassion conferred. As you offer the gift of
48:15
true listening, you'll create sacred space while bestowing great grace with love all around
48:23
you glistening. It may be any place where a soul you embrace as you
48:30
offer the gift of true listening. So gift someone near you by saying I
48:36
hear you, lifting them up with your christening, and one day, when
48:40
you're gue, you'll be heard too, receiving the gift of true listening.
48:46
Oh, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's the four tenants of my training
48:52
as a spiritual director, as a chaplain. How can you just be a
48:57
listening presence, just presence, fully present in the moment, absolutely, Catherine,
49:04
in this stress filled world, what would you offer listeners to calm the
49:09
nervous system and reset the brain. We now know that we can every one
49:19
of us self regulate. We can calm our nervous system. And this was
49:22
revolutionary research back in the seventies doctor Herbert Benson, Harvard professor and doctor who
49:29
coined the term relaxation response and working with your breath five minutes just breathing in,
49:36
breathing out, five minutes of a meditation. If you do five minutes,
49:40
it lowers physiologically changes your body, calmbs your nervous system, lowers your
49:45
blood pressure, your heart rate, your cortisol level. Every one of us
49:49
can work with us to calm our body. There's also somatic body movements.
49:54
And I have forty two exercises in my books. So my book isn't just
50:00
theory, but how do you do it? How do you find love and
50:01
flow and peace? Is it a body exercise? Is it working breath meditation,
50:07
working with energy. There's just many different ways of how every one of
50:12
us can tap into, tune into an embody, that peace and that ease
50:17
that is truly our true nature. Please share with us some of the other
50:23
modalities that you use in your practice. I do a lot of teaching,
50:30
just basics of different breath exercises, meditating, working with your body, working
50:36
with a self soothing practice, working with your voice like toning. I'm trained
50:42
in EFT emotional freedom technique. I'm also steeped in energy healing. I'm certified
50:49
in reiki and healing. Touch. One quick common in the moment that has
50:55
been life changing for me. A modality and I have it in my book
51:00
is working with energy energy boundaries to the world. There's a lot of chaos
51:05
in the world. There's a lot of unnies in the world. So people
51:07
listening right now. If any of you feel a little more sensitive, you
51:12
don't even have to be empathic, but where you can feel a lot,
51:15
maybe you pop into a grocery store and you can kind of feel the unnies.
51:19
Just conscious of how you work with energy and energy boundaries. A couple
51:24
quick examples of visualizing as far as you extend your arms is your whole energy
51:30
field and seeing it like a bubble and eggshell where the energy hits the sides
51:35
and drops away or mirrors on the outside, or I'll just set my intention.
51:40
But is amazing how we can all feel more grounded if we consciously work
51:47
with this and what I'm telling you about energy boundaries right now in this moment,
51:52
some people might think, ooh, kind of woo woo. But here's
51:53
the thing. The number one medical textbook in the United States for integrative medicine
51:58
called Integrative Medice and by David Rachel and my Collague, and I wrote a
52:01
chapter in that the latest edition there is a section on what I'm talking about,
52:07
and I share that because this is now being accepted by doctors the medical
52:12
field nationwide. So that's just one quick snippet. But even working with energy
52:17
has given me and so many people I've shared this with, just more grounding,
52:22
more peace. Were that chaos of the world. You're present, but
52:25
you're not taking it in and it's not disregulating your body. Many of us,
52:30
myself included, had a reaction to the M five solar flares a few
52:36
weeks back. Did you were you affected by that? You know actually I
52:40
wasn't, but it may also be because of my daily practices. I mean,
52:46
I start the morning with gratitude before I even start my day. I
52:52
mindfully work with energy and energy boundaries through the day and even at night when
52:59
I go to because I can tune in and sense and see and experience so
53:02
much of the spirit world, spirits and angels. I actually even work with
53:07
some energy at night just so I can sleep well. So maybe that might
53:12
be a reason that I didn't notice it as much. That's wonderful. Tell
53:15
us a little more about EFT emotional freedom technique. It's a modality where you
53:23
tap on eight key acupressure points. I trained with a woman here locally who
53:30
trained with the founder, and it's really a powerful modality to clear in your
53:37
body heavy negative if it's like you're stuck in a state of fear or anxiety
53:45
or anger, these heavy feelings, and it's there's a lot out there about
53:49
emotional freedom technique. How I've learned and with the woman I trained who trained
53:53
with the founder, is you get in touch with what is that number one
53:57
feeling? You tap on the eight key acupressure points feeling that feeling to clear
54:04
it and you only use words if it accentuates the feeling. But it's a
54:07
very powerful modality to clear heavy emotions out of your body. What would you
54:15
like readers to take away from every day Awakening five practices for living fully,
54:20
feeling deeply and coming into your heart and soul. I would invite everyone listening
54:28
to just tune in to look inward to how are you living your life every
54:32
day? Are you able to live in a place of peace, calmness,
54:38
equanimity? Granted, yes life has curves and ups and down, but is
54:44
that your anchor? Is it not? Or are you finding which is so
54:49
human? To live in your mind? Live in a place of a lot
54:52
of worry unrest. We almost call it like we're in a limbic loop.
54:57
You keep thinking and worrying and you know what we well, we're thinking that
55:00
affects the emotions, then the feelings. It's just can be a whole circle.
55:04
So every one of us can choose to tune into and to grow that
55:09
peace and that love that we are to feel into it, to love from
55:15
there to that be your anchor, and invite you just to ask how are
55:17
you choosing to live? And it's possible to feel peace and ease and that
55:23
deep sense of a liveness. Right now, my guest Katherine Duncan. Catherine,
55:29
one more time, please share with our listeners where they can find out
55:31
more about you, your work and your book. Yeah, my book Every
55:36
Day Awakening, and my website Everyday Awakening dot com and my book is on
55:43
Amazon, Barnes and Noble. My on social media Instagram is Katherine with the
55:49
c Catherine Duncan MABCC. That's my name. On TikTok, I'm on LinkedIn
55:54
the same name, and all over Facebook. It's actually my company name,
55:59
Learning to Live. Catherine. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing
56:02
your experience and your wisdom. A delight to talk with you. Thank you
56:07
so much, and thank you for joining us on Destination Unlimited. I'm Victor
56:13
the Voice Furman. Have a wonderful week.