Everyday Awakening: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

KATHLEEN: Hello everyone and welcome to the journey of an awakening spirit. This is Kathleen Flanagan, your host and we're streaming on the Bold Brave TV Network. The purpose of the show is to realize that you are not alone. You are in control of your life. It does not matter what your lot in life is or where you came from.

KATHLEEN: We have all felt pain, suffering, hurt, abandonment, loneliness, hopelessness, et cetera. This show helps you to take those dark moments and turn them around to create a whole new. You. We were taught to be a certain way, act a certain way and conform to society.

KATHLEEN: Being socialized is not bad, but it puts constraints on us the guests I bring on the show are telling you their story of where they came from, the obstacles they overcame and where they are today. They are sharing the tools they use to recreate themselves and their life on podcast dot Kathleen M Flanagan. Com is a list of the guests that have been on the show with their contact information.

KATHLEEN: I am aware that you may resonate with one or several of them. My desire is that this becomes a community where you have access to the people you wish to align with and utilize the tools that they have as well as the tools being offered on Kathleen M Flanagan. Com. I am a certified coach who can help you reach your dreams.

KATHLEEN: I help you learn how to rely and believe in your unlimited potential and power. I already know that you've experienced flashes of intuitive knowledge and big thinking that has you wondering just how far you could fly if only I'm here to help you stir up that innate, knowing and self trust already instilled deep in your soul.

KATHLEEN: I help you to forge forward when the old Jew would rather give up and stay stuck awakening. Spirit.com is an aromatherapy based body care line that offers alternative healing remedies and uses natural uses, natural and organic ingredients. We are offering a 40% discount by entering Brave TV into the coupon code.

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KATHLEEN: Ok, Catherine Duncan is an integrative spiritual consultant, former trauma and hospice chaplain and first Time author of her new book Every Day awakening in her book, as well as her private practice.

KATHLEEN: She counsels people on what it means to be alive and how to awaken into their heart and soul. She has faced her own death twice and companions, other other hundreds of people as they died, the deep peace and sense of the other side she witnessed was profound and soul shaping.

KATHLEEN: We can still awaken and it is a choice how we are choosing to live each day. Welcome, Catherine.

CATHERINE: Great to meet you, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN: It's good to have you here, Catherine.

KATHLEEN: It's been a while since our last conversation. I know that we talked about trying to get you on a little earlier, but you know, life does what life does and it was unable. So this is the perfect Time for you to be here.

KATHLEEN: So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about your journey of becoming an awakening spirit?

CATHERINE: My journey started, I would say when I was 11 years old, I was suddenly gravely ill and my parents took me to the hospital and I was diagnosed with a very rare form of childhood cancer. I was still little so they didn't tell me this, but I was, my parents were told that I had 20% chance to live for two years.

CATHERINE: And I started going through very intensive treatments, chemotherapy radiation surgeries. This is back in the seventies and they did have chaplains, they did have counselors. No one talked to me. I was just on an island and not long into this really intensive experience.

CATHERINE: I just started this feeling like I was living on a tight rope between life and death. And I could just feel that was I gonna be here. Was I not? Was I gonna live? Was I not? And that is one out of nowhere. I started to pray. Faith that meant nothing to me. And I started to pray.

CATHERINE: Could I live please let me live? Could I live to be 20 years old with my prayer? And when I prayed, it told no one kept praying and praying. And not long after this feeling of peace just like poured through my body and knowing that I was going to live and that I wasn't alone and cracked me open as an 11 year old, 12 year old to here I am today.

KATHLEEN: So wow. So what happened, what changed after all that started to occur? I mean, I know there were changes that started progressing when you felt that there's had to be other things that went on, especially being a young adolescent at that Time.

CATHERINE: So thankfully, I got through all the treatments. In fact, the year I was sick, this drug came over from Turkey and my father, a businessman, he's been gone now for several years, he demanded they give me this treatment. This treatment was new it could cause major heart problems. And I got this treatment. This treatment now is standard for what I went through. Now, the survival rate for what I went through is like 80%.

CATHERINE: So I got through all the treatments and as a teenager, I just was on all of a sudden this quest of like, why am I here? Why am I alive? And I just started reading as a teenager, Herman Hess, who is man, existentialism and human emotions. All these books, these really intense life, philosophical books and was just really passionate about studying this. I wasn't ready to look at what I'd lived through.

CATHERINE: I went through high school, I went through college and then I started out in the corporate world. Because my entire family is corporate in the corporate field. And that led me to the second experience I had of having a near death experience whitewater rafting on a Time inc I was working for a Time magazine on a Time in corporate trip.

CATHERINE: And that was a major turning point of like I'm done, I'm done with the corporate world. I need to really listen, where am I being called? So I've had a few really big experiences in my life that have shaped who I am to this day.

KATHLEEN: To elaborate on that a little bit more.

CATHERINE: So the experience, the near death experience, I was on a time corporate trip in Costa Rica and we were white water rafting. In fact, there was a mandate, no white water rafting. Because the year prior, some time people had died whitewater rafting and we were in these treacherous waters, level three, level four because of rains.

CATHERINE: And I was on the end of our boat, if you can believe it, the head of our boat was part of this Olympic team. Crazy. I mean, instead of going around the rapids, he was going straight down the middle. And next thing you know, my life vest helmet, everything I was thrown off the boat and I was deep underwater.

CATHERINE: And all of a sudden, I'm like this is it, I'm gonna die. This is it. And images of my kids, my young kids came to me, images of me as a child in a hospital. And then all of a sudden it was pitch black.

CATHERINE: This white light came around my body in this voice crystal clear said living or dying is fine. And there was this peace again, this peace through my being. And this Time I didn't know if I was gonna live or not, but I let go and I came out from underneath this rapid. They pulled me on a boat and I was in shock. I couldn't talk.

CATHERINE: I, we had to finish getting down the rapids to get off this remote river. Got down, got off the boat. A day later. Didn't tell anyone of my experience. A day later, I'm in a taxi after flying home in Minneapolis, coming to my home and I happened to call my mother. Very more religious. Never shared a dream in her life, never has since. And in that taxi ride, she said I hadn't even told her what had happened.

CATHERINE: She's like Catherine, I dreamed that I slipped into a river and I almost drowned. And then I woke up. It was just like the day that happened and it gave me the courage of like this, isn't it? I don't want to do this. This isn't who I am. I literally within a few weeks gave my notice even though I had a really successful career with Time magazine, I gave my notice. I need to listen, where am I being called?

KATHLEEN: So how old were you when all this was happening?

CATHERINE: So this was when I was 36 I was in my thirties.

KATHLEEN: Ok.

CATHERINE: And I've been 10 years. Yeah.

KATHLEEN: Ok. And so when you made that decision to leave, what started to unfold for you during that period of Time?

CATHERINE: Luckily being I was married, luckily my husband was supportive because a lot of partners would be like, right, you're gonna leave this really successful career and all the money. And I was flying on times corporate jet. I mean, it was really glamorous and he was very supportive.

CATHERINE: And I actually just thought I need Time to listen to meditate, to journal and pray. And I mean, I already had prayer was steeped in my life, but really opening up space and literally within a few months, a girlfriend out of nowhere had said, have you ever thought of studying theology? I never thought of it.

CATHERINE: And I applied to graduate school and it was just, and when I got materials from one of the theology schools here in the twin cities, it's like my body started physically shaking. It was just like annoying. This was the path. And I remember telling my siblings they were all like what, you know, because they're all in the corporate world.

CATHERINE: They're like, what are you doing? And then my father who years consummate businessman, I went out to tell him, not only a left time, but I was studying theology and he started screaming at me like, geez, he first started saying geology and I'm like, no theology.

CATHERINE: So it was just a letting go and listening and letting go and every step of the way, it's been deeply listening to the guidance. And that's also when I joined, my husband has a small internet company. I joined that for a short Time. That was awful.

CATHERINE: You know, going from time to a warehouse with 10 guys. It's like, oh, you know, I'm in this warehouse in a meeting and that's when also when my vision opened up, all of a sudden, I could see spirits like everything just kind of really opened up on a whole deeper level.

KATHLEEN: Well, we're gonna continue this as soon as we come back from a commercial break.

KATHLEEN: Welcome back everyone to the journey of an awakening spirit. This is Kathleen Flanagan, your host and we're streaming on the Bold Brave TV Network and we have Catherine Duncan in the room with us and she was just beginning to tell us about working with her husband with a bunch of men in a boring warehouse. And all of a sudden, the angels showed up. I want to hear more about that.

CATHERINE: So I had left, as I said, I had left my job at Time. Inc, I, was doing some consulting work. My husband had a short Time, had a consulting company. So I went from the Glamour Of Time Magazine to being in a warehouse with like 10 guys. I was like, oh, it's a whole different deal.

CATHERINE: And I remember being in a meeting with like four guys talking about a consulting project and the client and sitting there and all of a sudden the whole room filled up with sets of eyes moving around. And I was like, oh, wow, it was like, oh my gosh, you know, like what's happening? I was like? Wow.

CATHERINE: And I just kind of watched it like.

CATHERINE: And then it's just like, then it left. And, but that to this day, I see, their spirit guides, totem animals. I've seen angels. I've seen many people when I was a chaplain who would come back after they died and see me in the middle of the night for a moment, like, see me acknowledge like, thank you and like, and leave.

CATHERINE: And I really quickly clicked into it was comforting. It was a realization that we're spirit in a body for a short Time. There's so many layers of reality that I think many people don't see and it was just being open to all these different levels.

CATHERINE: And I really realized now that in all the work I've done with and in my private client practice that I think every one of us, every one of us hearing this right now, we all have gifts if it's clairvoyance, clear audience Clare Sense. If you can cultivate being in the moment, feeling into the moment, feeling into the guidance and what do you see sense? Feel it's here.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna share an experience because this was something I had gone to Cabo and there's a gentleman there and he does Genesis frequency. So he removes the pains in the body and they never come back. So it's like because our bodies always store pain, right? And it's up to us to figure out how to get rid of it or whatever, but whatever they do, it's amazing.

KATHLEEN: I've had four sessions now and the first Time I got on the table this Time I said, I'm laying there, I'm like, wow, my lower back is killing me and I have no idea why it wasn't there until I laid on the table, but it wasn't painful enough to address. And then all of a sudden my shoulder right here.

KATHLEEN: I had like this big knot and it was past traumas and he said, well, this is very recent because I had to ask him what it was because it was so painful. I wanted to cut my arm off because it was in so much pain and it was going numb from whatever this was. So he said it's because of betrayal and not people, not you, not trusting people because they hurt you and all this.

KATHLEEN: And one is very recent, which I knew what it was and he said the other was 4 to 5. And, then it was like I had this, when you have a massage and they take the knots out, but your your muscles still hurt for days. It was like that. And I thought, well, that's interesting.

KATHLEEN: And he says, yeah, because it's like you're moving in this new direction with spirit and as you're moving forward, it was like your right arm wanted to come with you and it couldn't because there was this big block because it was moving out, but it got stuck right here. So I thought, well, that's interesting. So the next night I go back on and I said, you know, Brian, my lower back is really killing me.

KATHLEEN: I don't know what's going on with it. It's like I'm not worried about money or anything, but it's like something's really bothering me. So I get on the table and I'm in this phenomenal pain and he does whatever he does to start the energy to move, to release. And then I'm holding parts of my back to try to put energy in it.

KATHLEEN: And then I see the angels come in and I'm like, oh, this must be really big for the angels to be here because these weren't the small guys. You know, these are the big guys and they're sitting there and they're doing this. I'm like, Brian's fully capable of moving this. So this must be pretty intense. It was intense. It became very, very intense.

KATHLEEN: So when I rolled over and I had done work for the earth of releasing women issues like stillborn pregnancies, abortions, mutilation, all the things that women do to themselves, rape all that. And I healed that from the planet in 2009. And I let out this guttural wail because of the pain that the earth was in holding all of what we women have done to ourselves.

KATHLEEN: So this came back and I felt like I was almost pregnant when I touched my stomach, like what is going on with my stomach? It felt so different. He says, do you know what this is, Brian asked? And I said, yes, I do. And I said, but I don't know if this is like residual coming up from the earth or if this is like from my body, like what I might have done to myself, right?

KATHLEEN: So anyways, everything gets done. We finally get rid of it and he and I said, can I take a shower? Because I just felt I was in so much pain. And I told him I was in excruciating pain. And he says, yeah, and you can take hot because I have fire energy. So it was ok.

KATHLEEN: But he had told me and I didn't hear this, that he wanted me to sit there because he said you were so out of it. And when I had to walk back to my room, I didn't even feel the earth. I swear to God, the angels were like carrying me through my shoulders because I was not present. I don't know where I was, but I was not present. And I sat on the deck of the hotel in the room, my room which is first floor.

KATHLEEN: So I knew I couldn't fall asleep there, but I went there and I closed my eyes. I'm like, oh you got to get in the shower, you gotta get out of here. You're never gonna, you're not gonna get up if you don't because it was just where I was, was out. So I took this incredibly hot shower and the next morning and I passed out because he said no tech, no anything you're too sensitive to energies.

KATHLEEN: The next day I woke up and I was raging, I mean, raging like everything that was like any injustice ever done to me or the planet or people. It was just rage coming out. And I thought, OK, this is right before the fall of the tears, the ugly cry release kind of thing.

KATHLEEN: I knew what was coming and I'm in this seminar. Right. And I go in that room and I just, I can't do this. And I get out and I break down in tears and waiting to talk to somebody I had met Thursday and I said, I need to talk to you. And I said outside and I just lost it completely and I told her what had happened and then she's like, she's so good.

KATHLEEN: She's like, she's like we moved down and she's like puts herself in the birthing position, right? And I'm like, I am not doing that and she's like, she's sitting, she's just squatting. I'm like, not doing that. I said, yeah. And I'm like, not doing that. And then I did it and then she's, now you're gonna wail out whatever. And I'm like, I started out real softly because I didn't want to do it.

KATHLEEN: And then it got really loud and it was like, how long can my breath go? Because it was so long. And at the same Time that was happening, it was like, I was birthing and releasing at the same Time, it was the most incredible experience. And I said, yeah, my vagina is pulsating and not like in an orgasmic way.

KATHLEEN: It's like she says, there's life there. I said, yeah, that's what it feels like it's life like it was so different. And then a guy, one of the maintenance workers had heard the cry comes driving up is everything ok. It's like, yeah, we're fine, we're fine. And it was that whole release of just, wow.

KATHLEEN: So when I finally found Brian, because I couldn't find him, it's the only reason I went to Darcy. And when I found Brian, I said, can you tell me what this is what happened? Because I know that if I ask he'll tell me because his gift is exactly like mine was down because I had actually had a conversation with him about how he does what he does.

KATHLEEN: And he wasn't surprised the angels showed up for me. And so he said, this is first cause and I'm like what he said, yeah, this is first cause and I'm like, oh my God first cause you know when I emerged into life and not this life but life, this was what I was carrying and helping and releasing and everything.

KATHLEEN: So I was like, wow, and he said, it didn't surprise me that you had the meltdown the way you did because he said it's just that release. And so just being in that energy and just allowing this energy to like flow out and allow like new energy to come in.

KATHLEEN: And when you were saying about being present, that is so true when you're having events as I wanna call them at this point, when you're having an event like that a lot of times we get afraid and we shut down instead of allowing, so you allowed, not knowing what you were experiencing, you were allowed it, you surrendered. I allowed and surrendered knowing I don't know what's going on here.

KATHLEEN: The body might be a little afraid but it was no, I'm just gonna release this because whatever this is, it's important to get out, not only for me but to help the planet too. You know, because as you are aware that as we grow and evolve individually, we're ascending the planet because that's that much more darkness being released from the planet. That's that much more pain and suffering. That's transforming into light.

KATHLEEN: So I just wanted to share that only because I know what it can be like when something like this is happening and how many people have I talked to that just get scared and they're like freaked out and they shut it down and I'm like, but this is a gift.

KATHLEEN: I mean, the angels come, it's such an amazing gift because there's that peace that you talk about and that loving vibration and energy that we do not feel on the planet like you feel when they're present, you know?

CATHERINE: Right. Right. And I mean, for me, thank you for sharing that for me. This was almost 25 years ago and I do remember a few years into just regularly seeing spirits. There was a period I'm like, ok, I'm gonna take a break right now, like it can just be like, I don't need to see anything for a year and I'm like, ok, then I was like, ok, bring it on.

KATHLEEN: No. And I get that because you do sometimes it's too much, when they know that you're like a willing receiver, they want to keep pushing. You know, it's like, oh my God, we got a live one. That's how I always look at it. We got a live one.

CATHERINE: Come on troops. Let's go.

CATHERINE: But I also think, and I'm curious your thoughts on this, but we can set up really clear boundaries. I got to the point when I was a chaplain and so many nights I was being awakened by a spirit waking me up like boom. And it was a magical like, wow. But it got to the point where I had to put up energy boundaries like you cannot, at night you cannot come within 20 ft of my bed and wake me up. I need a break.

KATHLEEN: Yes.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, I had to do that too. I mean, because there are things that some of the work that they had me do early on when I was very, not necessarily new, but in the process of doing more waking up and going a little bit deeper into this world.

KATHLEEN: I got to a point where, because they said one of my missions was the people that were at their last chance of making that evolution a change. Either they stay in the dark and evil or they transform to the light. They were bringing those people to me.

KATHLEEN: And, it was hard, it was hard because, you think you're a crazy person because they're so crazy and they're dark and evil and they know how to make you think you're crazy. And they were very successful. And I remember the last Time it happened, I said, I'm done.

KATHLEEN: You find somebody else because I feel bad because I can't reach them and it's their choice. It's their free will. But I had to put a boundary up to just say no, this is too hard for me. This is too painful. I will help people, but we have to find something different because last causes, they all keep choosing the dark.

CATHERINE: Yeah, I did.

CATHERINE: What do you do? You know what I mean?

KATHLEEN: Let me continue to feel like a failure.

CATHERINE: I even this last year launching my new book every day awakening. It will be a year out this week, which is so exciting. It's been going really fantastic and I've podcasts and TV, interviews and just a lot of exciting things promoting my book. But I've also energetically, probably not surprising with my energy field, getting bigger and broader and consciously expanding it.

CATHERINE: Energy coming at me in the night, I mean, like being tested like, coming at me to the point where I'm like, oh, this is not OK. And, learning another energy technique is, and I hadn't worked with this before. But in this last year, consciously, when I go to bed, setting up a grid around my house and then a grid around my bedroom and even a grid around me and my husband.

CATHERINE: But just like you can't come, dialing that in. And it's like, and I'm good. But if I forget, sometimes it's just this energy and it's not, I won't even characterize it as dark or dark spirits, but kind of testing me like, ok, let's see how she works with this energy, right?

KATHLEEN: And I have a quadratron set up in my house and I have these massive crystals underneath my bed set up in a triangle. So I'm not that, I mean, I can handle those energies, but sometimes, like the last two weeks, it's like 2 o'clock in the morning, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

KATHLEEN: Ok. Got it. And I'm energized. Because there's so much energy coming and it's positive energy. But it's like, can I just like maybe sleep a little longer than 2 a. m. in the morning? Can we like dial this back? Just a little used to be three? Now it's two.

KATHLEEN: And eventually it does subside. But it was like for two weeks, it's like, well, welcome to my world. You're waking up at 2 a. m. Welcome to my world and I'm being downloaded with messages to give to people. So I of course I'm going to do it because I said I'm here to serve.

KATHLEEN: And when you say that then, oh good. Let's see how well she's gonna serve. And then of course, when you do that, they keep giving you more and more and more. So it's like, ok, ok, we got to figure out a different way of doing this, right?

KATHLEEN: Somehow of doing this.

CATHERINE: Be careful what you pray for.

KATHLEEN: Exactly. Exactly. I know. And people say, well, what else can go wrong? I said, you don't ever want to say that because spirit will let you know what else can go wrong. I stopped saying that a long Time ago because every Time I said, what else could go wrong? Something else went wrong.

CATHERINE: I remember a child leaving the hospital thingy. I will never step foot in a hospital ever again when I was done. And then I was like, ok, whatever you want me. And then when I, and then it was chapel, I'm like, are you kidding me?

CATHERINE: You know, and then it was like, I got into all the major hospital systems and then I kept getting, it was the University Of Minnesota where I was a patient. I'm like, you know, and I had already done so much of my own inner work, but it was like another layer of healing. It was like, I know what you pray for.

KATHLEEN: Well, sometimes it's beyond the onion. That's what I think. I think when we start going deeper and deeper we're doing, previous lifetimes, I mean, really digging deep because that's what this energy that we're in is about is the deep core energy.

CATHERINE: Ancestral energy past life. I mean, I believe all of that.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, because it's too much. And when I found out that I'm also helping the earth, that's part of the mission that I came down is to help her transcend and help her healing and I, people don't know how much she hurts.

KATHLEEN: I mean, she really hurts and to feel just a tad of what that is and how long she's been holding that energy and to finally release because it's like she wants to transcend with us. I mean, she's a living viable being, she's not just rock out in the universe. Like people want to think she is.

KATHLEEN: She's when you think about like all the natural disasters and how little loss of life happened during those periods of Time, you know what I mean? I mean, millions of people should have been dead and, 100. Yeah, that's a lot. But it's not a lot when you think of how many more could have died with some of these major disasters 10, 20, 30 years ago because they were massive.

KATHLEEN: So I get when you know that you're doing this and I commend you for the work that you do and that you listen because it's not an easy path.

KATHLEEN: I mean, people think it's glorious and it could be and it's not necessarily that at all because we're doing so much deeper healing to help people that we come in contact with and then to help people to transition in death and you're dealing with grieving families. That's hard, hard, hard work, that's hard work.

CATHERINE: Yeah, it's a calling and I mean, I did it for years and now I have a private practice. I just had this nudging like I'm ready to work with people that wanting more, feeling more coming into their soul now. Not just about to leave the earth.

KATHLEEN: Right. No. And that makes sense because, our earth is shifting. I mean, we've got some big changes on this planet coming in November. You know, supposedly the doorway of the 11:11 is closing and the separation starting. It's coming. I mean, the powers to be gave us, what, 12 more years because it was supposed to be done in 2011 and 12 more years, 32 years.

KATHLEEN: We've been helping this planet get more people on board of growing and waking up and now it's Time for that. It's here and I feel that presence that those that are called to serve, they're stepping up, people are stepping up more and more all the Time. Thank God. Thank God. I agree.

KATHLEEN: I just want the world to be a happy loving place. I mean, this is part of what it should be. It's not supposed to be all about pain, suffering, greed, murder, hate prejudice.

KATHLEEN: I mean, yeah, those are human conditions but we're still the same if you ever talk to other people as you, well have, when you talk to other cultures, other races, other people, you find out that they want the same exact thing as you do. They just have a different color skin and they live in a different part of the world. I agree.

KATHLEEN: And that's the part that, that's what I want to, people to wake up. That's why I do what I do with the show. That's why I bring people like you on because I want people to see it doesn't matter where you came from. I mean, you give up a Time magazine.

KATHLEEN: I mean, everybody's probably like turning green with envy of like what she's in the Time Corporate jet and she gave it up for this. You know, because it's not about money, it's not about money, it's not about prestigious about that.

CATHERINE: It's about that deep inner peace and are you living your truth? Are you living from your soul? You know, are you living from your heart and soul? That's it.

KATHLEEN: It is. And, I've always lived that way. I have no regrets. I mean, when I hit 60 I'm sitting here going, wow. Everybody has like, 401k and they have this and they have this and they're ready to retire and I'm like, I got none of that. But you know what? I lived a life of being fearless.

KATHLEEN: I mean, I had a lot of fear but I jumped off the skinny branches all the Time and discovered I had nothing to fear but fear itself. That was my motto in life and to me, I couldn't have picked a better life for myself.

KATHLEEN: And I think that's true empowerment when you can look at the tragedies in your life and you can look at all the hardship and everything else that happened. And when you come to that point, I'm saying I created this life and no one else did this. But me and I did the best job because of where I sit today was well worth everything I went through.

CATHERINE: Absolutely. No. I mean, that's how I feel completely. It's like, wow.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, that's true. Empowerment and people don't know what that word means, but that's.

CATHERINE: Empowerment and living out.

CATHERINE: Yeah. But it also takes just so I know from my work and my private practice it takes strength and courage to go inward and do self reflection and do the healing to find out, who am I and where am I called?

CATHERINE: And how can I live from my inside, out, from living from my soul. And sometimes it's hard work and it's a choice. We're choosing to open and grow and feel vibrantly alive or we're living on autopilot. Life's living us.

KATHLEEN: Well, when I discovered about the doorway closing and Solara is who did the opening of the doorway of the 11:11 started in 1992. And she's putting back up the very first gates. And I remember all this because I was part of all of this back then. And she said, when I was a little kid, she knew this was gonna be her last lifetime.

KATHLEEN: As I knew this was my last lifetime. And she walked around with her suitcase in her hand like I did. And then she realized you have to go in to go up to go home. And I realized that too, that I had to unpack my suitcase. I had to come into the earth. I had to come in and really dive deep. I mean, really do the really, I did a lot of hard work, but I wasn't into the painful, hard work yet.

KATHLEEN: And when I went into that painful, hard dark work is when I went, ok, this is how I'm going home. It doesn't matter. I'm home now, even if I'm not home, I'm home. You know, because I'm living in my place of empowerment, I'm living for my true self. I have boundaries. I have a mouth. I say no. Instead of everybody wants to like me, I want people to like me.

KATHLEEN: It's like, I don't care if you don't like me. I like myself and that is all that matters anymore. That's the empowerment of coming from that place. And if something's wrong in my life, well, guess who created that? It's me and I can fix it and just taking 100% total responsibility for what's up here, what's in here and what my life is like.

CATHERINE: Yeah. Yeah. And, here's a little tidbit along with what you're just sharing. I want to just offer. And that is, I remember in my twenties when I was in my twenties, I was like, this is it, this is my last lifetime. Bring it on. Like I'm not coming back. I remember thinking this and like really intent, like bring it on man. This is it.

CATHERINE: And eight years ago and I write about this in my book, Everyday Awakening. I had my two facing my death, two experiences and then my husband out of nowhere almost, he flatlined, he almost died. He came back. I know it was just like can't make this stuff up. And he was in the hospital for 10 days in the ICU diagnosed.

CATHERINE: Thank God he survived, diagnosed with extremely rare heart condition and he's doing well today, but it was like horrific experience watching your husband go through trauma and flat line in front of you and all that. And then, he's doing well. Hopefully he can live a long life, but that was a lot to witness to walk through. And then I remember I took a little Time off work.

CATHERINE: I was a hospice chaplain then and then within a week or two later, like, ok, I'm going back to work and I'm driving to go see a patient who's dying, which is common and I had to pull the car over like, oh, like I'm not ready yet. So I took another week off and then it came to me that like the memory I pulled the car over as I was being seeing patients, the memory of like, bring it on. I'm not coming back.

CATHERINE: And then in that moment I'm like, what do you want me to come back in another lifetime? I'm ok. It's all good. Like I didn't throw out that hardcore. So I'm like, you know what? It's ok, I can come back. It's like I've experienced and seen a lot, you know, and I'm not 60 yet and I've experienced a lot. Like I'm 100 of what I've witnessed.

KATHLEEN: I know. Oh, believe me, I am. I know. And they say I'm gonna, when I was a little kid I said I'm gonna live to 100. And you thought, oh, that's kind of a cool number. You don't think it's old. And now, when I'm at this age I'm like, ok, I got this many years to go and I'm like, and that'll be here by tomorrow.

KATHLEEN: You know what I mean? Because how fast life moves. I mean, I'm just blown away when I turned 60. Like, how did I get here? I was like, just 20 yesterday. What happened, what happened? But there was so much life happening within those. But it's so when people say life just happens like that, it's really true. It's a blink of an eye.

CATHERINE: I agree. And I think tuning into Whitfield for everyone listening. You know, what is it?

CATHERINE: Do you like this be your lifetime or do you wanna, whatever? It's all good?

KATHLEEN: Well, I wanna get as much as I can get rid of in this life that it is it gonna take to get rid of anything because if I come back, I don't want to come back with like all this garbage that I decided not to deal with. Right.

KATHLEEN: Yeah. And my mom, I remember her telling me one Time she saw a picture of her dad and he was laughing and she had never seen him laugh because he was a wife beater. Ok. So she came from abuse that way.

KATHLEEN: And when she said that she said everything in her being changed because she had never seen her dad laugh and she was like, he's human, like something shifted. And she said, why did I have to wait to what, 65-70 years old, whatever it was, whatever her age was. And I said, but mom look at it this way.

KATHLEEN: You healed it and you don't have to relive it because you allowed you forgave him in that moment to see he was human. And that's all you have to do. It doesn't matter if it took you a lifetime to get there, you got there. And that's what people have to look at too. And remember that it doesn't matter how long it takes to learn a lesson.

KATHLEEN: You have to learn it because we do have overriding lessons. I mean, we have a lifetime to learn like who am I? I didn't know who I was. I had no clue who I was. I spent half my life going. I don't know who I am. That's why I can't speak. That's why I have no opinions but then when I found on an astrological level that I have, what is it Scorpio in the

KATHLEEN: Scorpio is in the first house, I think it is. And that's that when I die, I will know who I am and I will never have to learn this lesson again because I will know who I truly am by the Time I'm dead and I already know who I am.

KATHLEEN: And every Time and as I grow and evolve, I see more and more and more of the bigness of who I am. You know, because you start out and you get bigger, your higher self can come in your higher self and then that starts evolving where that expansion and sounds like you're having it, especially when you had to when you're living your husband's near death experience.

KATHLEEN: It's like, oh my God, if that wasn't a full circle of what everybody went through around you and now you got to see what it's like to be on the other side. But you also had an awareness that they don't because, it's on the other side, but it's still that human heart issue.

CATHERINE: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think the reason we're here on this earth is to learn to love. It's can you love? Of course, forgiving, loving, loving. I think what we bring with us when we die is our ability to love.

KATHLEEN: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: And you know, and grief, I know grief sucks. I don't like it. But you know what? It helps to break your heart open for more to receive. And somebody told me that when my mother died because that was probably the first major grief I ever experienced was my mother's death. And it was a very painful experience. Somebody said, but your heart, your heart broke open.

KATHLEEN: So you have more capacity to love because of it. You have more compassion, more understanding because this is an experience that most people don't even know and how to handle. Right? So now you know, so like you sat there with people that were grieving and you sat there and held space for them and you felt uncomfortable but you so just sat there with them and that's all they needed.

CATHERINE: Oh And that was it. That was the biggest lesson being with people, thousands of people as they died, it was love, everything dropped away. It was just this radiant light around people and a love and like an understanding, many understanding at the very end like this is life and then they got it and that all that wonder the preciousness and that they were gone.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, it is. I mean, it's amazing as painful as grief is because I watched my mother die. That was as she stopped breathing, we all in the room stopped breathing with her. And then when she took a gulp of air, we all did the same and none of us knew we were in rhythm with my mother and helping her transition, it was so somber.

KATHLEEN: I mean, when it was, when it was finally called, it was sobering. It's like, what do you do? And we just stood there not knowing what to do at that moment. And then it's like, well, we have to pick up her stuff and take her stuff off, her jewelry off her body and it just felt so weird and nobody would do it. So I did it.

KATHLEEN: I took all her jewelry off her body and then.

CATHERINE: Feel her spirit above her because like I, with family members of people, I could like feel like there they went and then they were hovering above their body.

KATHLEEN: I think my mother was there. I think there was very much a lot of that happening at that moment because I was very sensitive to what was going on and everybody was starting to get very erratic in the room because they didn't know how to handle the emotion. And I was just being with the emotion. So I'm like, you know what? Nobody's talking to me, nobody cares about me. And it's true. I have nothing to do with my family anymore.

KATHLEEN: And I walked out of the room and I'm sitting here waiting for them to take her jewelry, right? Because why should I have it? And they weren't doing anything. So I'm like, ok, so I walked out of the room, my sister comes after me and she says, Kath, there's a ring that mom gave to her daughter. Ok. And so I opened my hand expecting her to take all the jewelry and she only took the ring.

KATHLEEN: And I thought, wow, this is interesting because I really expected that. Of course, I got a flack about how I took all the valuable stuff from my mother. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Yeah. So, but the whole point was is that some of that jewelry belonged to in the will belong to somebody else.

KATHLEEN: And they were trying, family members trying to take it and it was like, no, it doesn't belong to you will says this and I'm gonna hold my mother's will. That was the one thing she asked me to do was to make sure that her will was followed because my siblings weren't going to do that.

KATHLEEN: And I helped my mother to transition. And that was the job that I came down to do was help that woman transition as hard and painful as it was. It's what I did and it was, it was just a beautiful thing, so to do that to be in a room with people and hold the space of love for them while they're grieving and loving that person to go to the other world is it's a beautiful gift. It is a sacred gift.

KATHLEEN: I mean, death is, when people talk about the death experience now being in the room when somebody dies, it's like, no, they've been there, done that and, you know, where they are, you just know and it's, you just feel honored when they share that with you too because that's not something people share very much. And it's a different way to celebrate life, in my opinion.

CATHERINE: I agree. It's so sacred, so holy and death is not an end. I mean, I witnessed so so many people feeling like there they went and then seeing things and death is not an end.

KATHLEEN: Yeah. No, it's true. So, Catherine, how can people get a hold of you because we're coming to the end of the show?

CATHERINE: Oh, this is so fun.

CATHERINE: Let's see. So I have a book out called Everyday Awakening. You can find it, Amazon Barnes and Noble all over. And it's about what does it mean to be alive right now? And you can go to my website every day awakening.com and then I'm all over social media, Catherine with A c Catherine Duncan, on Instagram, Catherine Duncan M ABC C and on TikTok and on linkedin and Facebook. Yeah.

KATHLEEN: So, what would be one piece of advice that you would give our listeners to become a better person or to help them achieve their dream?

CATHERINE: I would ask everyone who's listening right now, how are you choosing to live?

CATHERINE: And are you living, we head up, are you living in your mind where your mind, your thinking mind is just running you causing suffering? That's where all the suffering so much of it exists? Or are you choosing to open and to grow and coming into just this moment? That's where the peace, that ease, that preciousness, that awe the wonderment.

CATHERINE: There it is. And it's a choice everyone's making. We're all making all day, every day to grow and live from our heart and soul or not. And just how are you choosing to live? And it's a choice. It's a practice every day. It's a consciousness. You can open into that if you choose.

KATHLEEN: Well, I wanna thank you so much for being here, Catherine. It was a very fast hour, we're just starting to get into some really good stuff, but this is what we decided we were gonna do somewhere along the line because you and I connected so well when we met a few months ago.

KATHLEEN: So I was like, OK, I'm gonna get this to spin up. So I did. So thank you for playing. It was so much fun to play like that.

CATHERINE: So fun to talk with you. Lovely. Thank you and blessings to you and everyone hearing this.

KATHLEEN: All right. Well, thank you again, Catherine and we will be talking to you soon. So I wanna thank every, you're welcome. So I wanna thank everyone for joining us today. And if you found some value in the show, then feel free to pass on the link to your friends and family and go ahead and like and subscribe to the show.

KATHLEEN: And if you're struggling with anything that we talked about today, you feel free to reach out to me at Brave TV, at Kathleen M Flanagan. Com. And I would love to help you get through whatever may be happening for you.

KATHLEEN: I have no issues. I really want you to come into a place of happiness and joy. My books, Dancing Souls, the Call the dark Night of the soul and awakened are on amazon.com and they are also on the Kathleen M Flanagan site.

KATHLEEN: You can go ahead and check out Kathleen M Flanagan. Com for the list of services and products that are being offered there. And I do have a three minute destress meditation and all you have to do is just download it and it's a great way to come back into balance.

KATHLEEN: It's sound, it's three minutes and it just will alter how you're feeling in your life. Be sure to visit Awakenings spirit.com for the 40% discount by entering Brave TV into the coupon codes and the prices will adjust automatically.

KATHLEEN: And grandma's natural remedies.net is 20% discount by entering Brave TV into the coupon code. And that concludes our show for the day for today. And I will see you all next week, Tuesday at 4 p. m. Eastern Standard Time and from my heart to yours, I hope you all have a fabulous week.