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Stephanie
Hi, I'm Stephanie.

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Seth
I'm Seth, and this is the Forever Young show. The most powerful force in this world is a woman who knows who she is, why? She is here, and what she wants to accomplish.

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Stephanie
And that's where self-care comes in. As a woman, it is my opportunity and my responsibility to take care of me.

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Seth
Self-care for your mind.

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Stephanie
Self-care for your body.

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Seth
Self-care for your money.

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Stephanie
Our mission is to serve women as they fulfill their irreplaceable roles and families. Society. Business. The fabric of humanity.

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Seth
So let's get this show on the road.

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Stephanie
Karen Hanlon is the founder of Painting Your Soul Incorporated, and offers a transformative program that blends expressive painting, reflective journaling, and meditation for healing and self-discovery.

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Seth
As a certified art therapy practitioner and abstract artist herself, Karen enriches lives through creativity. Her innovative approach has gained recognition from television television broadcasts. We've been tracking those. We've been watching those, by the way, podcasts and magazines for its unique therapeutic process.

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Stephanie
Karen also contributes articles to magazines and collaborates with counseling organizations nationwide through charity involvement and workshops. She spreads the message of art's transformative impact.

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Seth
Painting your soul's multi-sensory journey of self-reflection, as presented in a take home therapeutic art kit, leads to profound personal insights.

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Karen
Yeah.

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Seth
Is this this? This looks.

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Karen
Familiar. Does this look familiar? I love it, I soul care.

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Seth
We're going to we're going to dive all into this. But, Karen, welcome to the Forever Young Show.

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Karen
Thank you. So glad to be here. And so appreciate you doing this. Thank you so much to both of you for having me.

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Seth
Your, friend and and, professional in the PR world. Steve. Steve Jensen. We'll give him a plug here. Hopefully he listens to this episode right now. Hopefully he's a closet listener, actually. Actually, hopefully he's not a closet listener. I hope he listens on speaker.

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Karen
Right.

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Seth
But we met him, and this is just amazing. This this is a principle here. Networking is so critical. And I feel that women actually are better networkers.

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Stephanie
Oh, Amen. Hey that's.

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Karen
True. I agree 100%.

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Seth
I think they're naturally better.

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Stephanie
I was going to say it's like God created us too.

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Karen
It's innate. That's right. Literally send it in us to do that. It's not even learned. It's just part of us.

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Stephanie
Yes.

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Seth
100%. 100%. I'm glad that. I'm glad that you all agree with me, but. But we sat at a dinner with. With Steve, because we had a mutual friend, and, we started bantering back and forth, and, he mentioned that he was in the PR field and, and, and one of his clients was you. And we started finding out about what you were doing with Soul Care.

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Seth
And then, of course, we talked about he was asking what we were doing with, with the, the introduction of this self care podcast for women, the Forever Young Show. And he just floated the idea. And, you know, I don't think at the time like it didn't solidify, you know, initially. but he reached back out and said, hey, what do you think about having Karen on the show?

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Seth
And as we dove in, seriously, as we dove in and started stocking, pardon me, doing our research. I looked at Steph. I'm like, I remember we were on the road. We were on the road in our in our sprinter van, down the down the highway on some some excursions, trip with a family and like, you got to listen to this stuff.

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Seth
This lady is good. So here she is.

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Karen
Thank you so much. I love that that warms my heart. What I do is a calling. It's my passion. It's my calling. There's nothing else I could imagine doing because it's part of who I am. And coming into this, really, in the past ten years has been quite the journey. I've never learned so much as I've learned in the last ten years about myself.

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Karen
What I'm capable of doing, and what gifts I have inside of me to share with others. And really, it's it's just been magical, inspirational, and then coming across people like yourself that has is doing the same thing and inspiring others. I'm just honored. I'm honored to be on this journey and sharing with others what makes me happy and hoping it makes others happy.

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Seth
Well, it it is. I know that because we're going to share a little about our soul care experience, we we I don't know, we had a therapy session is that we call it a little a little therapy session.

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Karen
It would be like that. It would be like that.

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Seth
And and we're going to show off some of the fruits of that therapy.

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Karen
Of it.

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Seth
And, and get into it. But you mentioned your passion and this calling. So we're going to dial up our our signature question for women around the world. And this is what this is what we want to know.

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Karen
Sure.

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Stephanie
So Karen, what are you most passionate about right now and what are you doing about it?

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Karen
My passion really, I am certainly passionate about creative expression. It's been part of my life since I can remember, since I was a child. But what I'm most passionate about now is sharing this program, this idea that expressive arts can really help with mental health in ways that I can only say I experienced myself going through a very difficult journey.

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Karen
I had to learn new coping skills that I really never had to dive into before. So when you're met with adversity and your life takes a turn that you're not expecting, you kind of throw your hands up and go, where do I go? What do I do? Who am I? And you ask yourselves all these questions and you find yourself almost lost in a way that you thought everything was this way, but it's really not.

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Karen
So it requires a deep dive. And the one thing that I could always go back to that gave me a lot of sense of peace was artistic expression. I did it as a teacher with my students when they were struggling. I had them go into an art corner and let go through art and creativity and writing. So when it came to my life going through a very, very difficult transition ten years ago, my divorce unfortunately lasted close to four and a half years.

00;06;32;27 - 00;06;54;22
Karen
I had to cope in ways that I could imagine, and to go a duration of time like that required something that would be long lasting. And I pulled out my paints, I pulled out my journals, and I actually started using other elements that I included in my kit. But at different times, starting with journaling, I would write every single day.

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Karen
Not because I wanted to read what I wrote. I wrote because it felt good to let go. When I realized what I was doing was letting go, I never looked at them. I just knew it felt good to release what was coming from inside of me. Out on a hand to paper, on and a journal is is better than texting.

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Karen
So I did that every single day till I had stacks up to the ceiling. Never read any of them, but I felt better doing it later. As time goes on, I started pulling out paintbrushes. Not because I'm an artist, because I'm truly not a painter in that way. I'm a creator, but not a painter. But the paint brush strokes felt meditative.

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Karen
I would sit there and paint because it felt good. I the colors were speaking to me and I didn't understand what I was doing. I just knew I felt relief and I needed relief because I was under so much pressure going through a very difficult transition in my life. And this helped me. And it was something that was not unhealthy.

00;07;49;01 - 00;08;13;22
Karen
So I pulled out. Any chance I got paint brushes, I used my hands. Canvases were everywhere. It just felt good. I started combining journaling with the painting I write before I painted and then I paint, and it was amazing what I married them and I thought, this is really helping me go through this time time frame, which I felt completely lost, truly becoming a shell of who I used to be.

00;08;13;29 - 00;08;45;13
Karen
In reality, I was never who I was supposed to be until this change happened. my favorite quote is from Cynthia O'Kelly. For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks its insides come out, and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. And when I realized what to me look like destruction very early on, I said, no, this is for a purpose and I'm going to ride this and go.

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Karen
There is a reason for this. I will never look at this as my life is destroyed and so once I took that, I just used every tool I could to help me cope during the time or it was difficult. I added essential oils. I added meditation, which I never knew about before, but I would listen to it at night and it would help me go to sleep.

00;09;03;17 - 00;09;26;04
Karen
But I added that to the painting and the journaling. Before I knew it, I had literally steps. It became my regiment every single day. Added positive affirmations. I set them on my mirror and read I am enough, I can do this here. They are actually the very one that I used on my mirror. I would read them every day not because.

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Seth
I want to give you a self-affirmation. Hi five here we're holding our little self-affirmation thing from the kit.

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Karen
Yes, and it really was something I, over time started thinking, I'm beginning to feel this, even though at first I didn't and it was not right away. But I knew somehow I was planting seeds. It was a seed planted in. The more I said it, the more I realized somewhere it was going to register and I would come out feeling that way.

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Karen
Even at the time, the darkest times, I couldn't quite feel it. So when I'm taking each of these pieces and put them together, I start out with journaling. Take the essential oils, just those two alone. Your anxiety goes down a few notches. You add in the affirmations and reading about the positive ways you can talk to yourself. You're taking yourself down another notch.

00;10;14;28 - 00;10;39;27
Karen
You sit with a meditation for ten minutes. You're almost floating. By this point, the very last thing to do is paint the meditation. Help guide me into painting where I never had to think I just painted because it was like daydreaming. And when you're in that moment, it's like being in the present moment where you have epiphanies, where you have your mind clear enough to make proper decisions.

00;10;39;29 - 00;10;57;09
Karen
So many times we're not able to get into that space. There's so much noise going on everywhere. I created a way to get out of the noise so I could be at peace, and by the time I was painting, I was fully at peace and it felt like I was floating and that I finished with a journal entry.

00;10;57;09 - 00;11;23;16
Karen
And it was always different than what I started with in that session. And it was last about an hour, hour and a half the most, depending on how much I wanted to write that day. But it became my daily regiment and it was what helped me find myself. I had to go deep and in the only way I could go deep, really to go into me outside of the exterior world was to almost have a conversation with myself through color.

00;11;23;16 - 00;11;43;08
Karen
That's what I call my business painting your soul, because it's your soul that speaks through color. Who am I at the core? I'm. I'm a businesswoman. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm an innovator. I'm a teacher, inspirer. I'm a creator. All those things I didn't know I had in me was starting to come out. Every time I did this, it was like evolving over time.

00;11;43;11 - 00;12;05;29
Karen
And the the regimen, the self-care program I was creating, I created first for myself with no intention of it going anywhere other than to help me and my faith, and certainly counseling I was involved with. Two I'm not saying this is the only thing, but it was what helped me dive deeper than I've ever been within a talk session or within anything I've ever done.

00;12;06;02 - 00;12;27;15
Karen
It was a true connection to myself, where I can finally hear myself and see who I am or who I'm becoming. And the more I did this, the more I was evolving. And here I am, ten years later, about to stand on a world stage in two weeks in London to talk about this process in front of 500 people in London.

00;12;27;17 - 00;12;50;19
Karen
And that is where this took me doing this for, for years. And of course, in between there I started doing workshops. But that really was where this originated from. And it was very organic, was never planned. And at the time I've never done anything with business. I was a stay at home mom, I raised my two children and I was a great mom, a soccer mom and dance mom, and, you know, a room mom.

00;12;50;19 - 00;13;04;13
Karen
And that's all I thought I had in me. And I was doing a great job with that. But there were other plans for me, and my process helped get me into the space of stepping into who I am now for the rest of my life.

00;13;04;15 - 00;13;07;12
Stephanie
So who did you find in this process?

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Karen
I found I found a beautiful, loving, open hearted, innovative, creative, empathic, caring, strong, empowered woman.

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Seth
What do you think is the most of all, of all of these different perspectives and facets of you that you've discovered? Again, kind of like you talked about the the rising Phoenix, right from the ashes, from burning to to flying and to soaring. What surprises you most about the process?

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Karen
It comes the very beginning of it. It comes. There's a moment in time. You make a decision when you see your life in a way that completely is, I don't know, want to say, turned around or different or surprising in that moment, you have a choice to say, I accept this and I'm going to go with this is a growth opportunity because I believe I'm meant for more.

00;14;14;05 - 00;14;33;18
Karen
Or you go into victimhood and say, this was terrible. It should never have happened to me. How come it's me? Why me? And you have a moment in that time frame? It's a split second. You make that choice that determines your road. You go down. And that's so important to have people realize so many times they think something happens and it's terrible.

00;14;33;18 - 00;14;52;02
Karen
And of course it seems terrible. But looking back, it's the best thing that could have happened to me ever in my whole life. I would never have been the leader that I am today, or know that I even had this in me. If my world didn't get turned upside down in the way that it did, it would. It took that much to get me to flip to who I'm supposed to be.

00;14;52;07 - 00;15;00;09
Karen
And sometimes it takes a bigger what I call crash to have that happen. And it's meant for you. Not to you.

00;15;00;11 - 00;15;18;29
Stephanie
Yeah, I absolutely can relate to that. I was 24 when I was going through my divorce with two kids, and someone said to me, Stephanie, because, you know, I'd bring up different things like, you know, things that were bothering me with my ex or what? And, and this person said, well, first of all, isn't that one of the reasons why you left?

00;15;19;01 - 00;15;32;23
Stephanie
And second of all, do you want to do you want to be bitter or better, you get to choose what road you're going to go down. And from then on, I chose I want to be better. Yes. No matter what I'm going through, I want to make my journey better.

00;15;32;25 - 00;15;53;15
Karen
Right. And that's exactly the decision that I made, and I'm hoping that other women make. If life throws them a curveball, that moment in time is when you decide, I want to make it better. I don't want to be better because it's easy to go bitter. It's it's easier because people will pat. You will say, you're right, it's bad and hug you and you get.

00;15;53;19 - 00;16;16;05
Karen
But that's not really ultimately what it's for. It's really about growth and finding the strength within yourself that you didn't know you had. And gifts the gifts that you have to offer the world are all hiding in there, and sometimes you don't get access to it. You have your life kind of turned upside down, and I would never have come to this place if I didn't have that.

00;16;16;05 - 00;16;25;05
Karen
I was pretty satisfied with where I was, but really, it wasn't who to the level that I was supposed to be. like I am now.

00;16;25;08 - 00;16;31;04
Seth
Before we get there, I want to jump into the can we can we jump? Can we do a little a little unboxing here, please?

00;16;31;07 - 00;16;47;19
Stephanie
I please can I just first say how beautiful all of it is. Like, I, I love color and I am definitely a visual person and I just love how it looks like. I just took a moment to even just look at the box.

00;16;47;21 - 00;17;10;29
Karen
Oh thank you. So this designed with love and the ocean. I live on the water. I'm looking at water right now in my backyard. Water is a big part of my life and it's very healing. So the theme of this kit is the ocean. And that's why you have the colors of the ocean all over and throughout. Inside of it, because the healing factors that I found, especially personally, has been very beneficial to me as well.

00;17;11;02 - 00;17;35;06
Seth
So we're holding this soul care self-expression kit. I just covered you totally with the I'll cover myself this time right? If Steve, the PR guy, were here, we'd be putting this in front of his face. But for those for those who are listening, for those who are listening, you can, you can drop into the shownotes and get all of the links to find out about this.

00;17;35;13 - 00;17;51;01
Seth
Or you can hop on over to the Forever Young Shocked com and watch it right on our YouTube channel. and we actually, we opened this kit we had a little unboxing ourself recently. and we got this special package from Florida. We were so excited.

00;17;51;03 - 00;17;51;07
Karen
Yeah.

00;17;51;10 - 00;17;52;15
Stephanie
And like Christmas.

00;17;52;15 - 00;18;11;08
Seth
It was like Christmas. We're like oh this is beautiful. And and then we had a little, a deeper unboxing because we, we went into it yesterday. And so I think we're actually going to throw that up in our VIP community. So if you're not part of the VIP community, we only release some of this specific content for them.

00;18;11;08 - 00;18;25;15
Seth
You can join it at the Forever Young show.com, and you can check out what we did with this and see the unboxing. We're going to walk you through this. And so it might not be pretty here on camera at first. Let me just set it right here. So so you open this kit and you've got a wonderful box.

00;18;25;15 - 00;18;56;26
Seth
I'm not going to do everything but but okay. We just put this this is not how it came, folks. it was, this is after a painting session. We got this wonderful getting started book. Which one of the challenges, I think, especially you're talking, Karen, about being in a situation which is rife with conflicting emotions. Right? I mean, all three of us here on the show have experienced divorce, and and I'm getting the feeling, talking with you that we all had quite the time.

00;18;56;29 - 00;19;19;03
Seth
Right? Like like this, this wasn't just a run of the mill kind of a thing or a breakup. It was hard and potentially drawn out and deep and and whatnot. So having the steps in this book, by the way, hey, here's how we're going to have an experience. Yeah. super helpful like this. We just walked right through it like step one through seven.

00;19;19;09 - 00;19;26;02
Seth
But we've got you've got your easel comes with, you got an easel in your kit. I mean, like, we are full fledged artists.

00;19;26;02 - 00;19;30;17
Karen
Yeah, that's what I want. Of course you've got a camera. You are an artist.

00;19;30;19 - 00;19;45;04
Seth
Or you get canvas. I'm not going to show you the front of this canvas. That's a reveal here in a minute. Okay? But you got the canvas. You've got all your brushes, you've got all of these. How do you pronounce this, Karen ganache?

00;19;45;06 - 00;19;50;14
Karen
Actually, hold on. There's there's a way to pronounce. I'm not even. Gosh, I think not.

00;19;50;16 - 00;19;52;11
Seth
Gosh. Oh, I can say gosh.

00;19;52;14 - 00;20;10;29
Karen
Yeah. There's no really wrong way to say it. People say it different ways. But yes. Oh, these oil paints. Yeah. They're not oils. They're they're like our acrylics. They just come out easier and they're a little bit more liquidy. So they're easy to spread on a canvas. Our acrylics, it's a little thicker. That's why that is a better for for what you're doing.

00;20;10;29 - 00;20;11;26
Karen
Yes.

00;20;11;28 - 00;20;28;14
Seth
I loved working with this paint. And you get your brush set multiplicity of brushes. you've got a journal, you've got your essential oils. I'm going to say Stephanie was like od'ing on this yesterday. Last instruction set one time.

00;20;28;16 - 00;20;29;01
Karen
Yeah.

00;20;29;03 - 00;20;51;03
Seth
So we're going through the instructions yesterday and I'm kind of like like I'm the guy who follows the recipe until I don't want to because I have an artistic flair when it comes to cooking. And Stephanie is like on point yesterday with every single one of these things. This is what we didn't do this step. I'm like, baby, I think, I think we're okay with how do we didn't do this step like she was?

00;20;51;03 - 00;20;56;24
Stephanie
It wasn't a whole step. It was like a little, you know. Oh, let's let's get started on this part. And I'm like, no, no, no, we got to. Yeah.

00;20;56;25 - 00;21;09;02
Seth
She was very until it came to the consumption of the lavender oil. And then it was like over like like she couldn't get enough of it. And I wanted to say it only said do it once, but I did.

00;21;09;02 - 00;21;10;13
Karen
It I love it.

00;21;10;15 - 00;21;19;23
Seth
I got a candle. Okay I love we love this self. Are your self affirmation stand self-love affirmation. What's so funny?

00;21;19;25 - 00;21;21;16
Stephanie
You keep putting that like right, oh.

00;21;21;19 - 00;21;25;22
Seth
Am I putting on your face I like I'm equal opportunity. Here we go, there we go.

00;21;25;25 - 00;21;28;00
Karen
All right okay.

00;21;28;02 - 00;21;34;14
Seth
Here's one for Steve, the PR guy, wherever he is. And how do you pronounce this? The stone here. Chris.

00;21;34;17 - 00;21;54;05
Karen
Chris. Chris. Nikola. Chris. Nikola. Chris. Yeah. It still, as I could write up a whole thing on it. I couldn't put it that much in there because I didn't want to overwhelm. But it's got I. When I saw this, I was in California. It was the last thing to complete my kit when I was creating this, and I found it because the colors matched everything.

00;21;54;05 - 00;22;12;18
Karen
And I picked it up and I asked him, what does this mean? And he was like, oh, this has healing factors in it. Healing helps with creativity and healing. And then he went through the whole write up and I went, oh my gosh, this I need to have. And he said, oh, this is great. Especially if you're doing any kind of artwork or if you're trying to heal something emotionally.

00;22;12;20 - 00;22;24;10
Karen
I said, there's my stone. So that's where that came from. And the colors, the colors were what drew me in the obviously the colors of the ocean and so forth. But yes, it's a beautiful stone.

00;22;24;13 - 00;22;37;08
Stephanie
Oh, I absolutely fell in love with it. And I am a very energetic person. And so when I put it in my hands, oh my goodness, so much relief right in my body and my emotions. It was beautiful.

00;22;37;08 - 00;23;10;23
Karen
I'm so happy to hear that. Well, every component in that kit is very well thought out. Like I said, I've done it for years. Every piece of it you can do on your own by itself, and it's helpful, but really it's never been done where you add all these steps together in one powerful moment. And that's what I think makes this unique and sets it apart from anything else creative is it has all of those healing components together, and it flows in such a way that you don't need to feel like you're doing something that is that profound until you're finished.

00;23;10;28 - 00;23;29;11
Karen
That's when you go, whoa, what just happened? That it almost is. So was hard to put words to the feeling when you're finished to what happens. But it's very powerful when you include all of this together. And that's what I found. And that's why I did it for myself for years. And that's why it's in the kit form that it is.

00;23;29;11 - 00;23;46;17
Karen
I'll share a little story with you. There was a woman that is a very close friend of mine from college. She was watching me do these workshops all over California, Florida. She said, I'm never going to be able to make one of your workshops. And she's terminally ill. She was never going to leave the hospital. I said, I'm going to do something special for you.

00;23;46;17 - 00;24;02;00
Karen
I'm going to send my workshop to you in a box. I'm going to include everything I do in my workshop, and I'm going to give you very specific directions, even in meditation, I'll even use my own voice. And I actually put this together just for her to use at the hospital, so she could put it up on her tray.

00;24;02;02 - 00;24;20;27
Karen
And the message I got back from her was tears. And oh my gosh, I've never felt this good in years. She was an actual painter. She painted something beyond beautiful before she passed away, and she was so grateful and thankful. And she could do it right there in the hospital. The nurses were raving about it as they watched her.

00;24;21;00 - 00;24;44;09
Karen
That's where the idea stemmed from, and I realized I had something that can be for someone in a hospital situation or rehabilitation of any kind. That's the idea. But now this is going up to everyone. But the original idea was for hospitals to have someone who couldn't really do anything, and they needed to heal. This is kind of their emotional healing kit, and that's what it did for her.

00;24;44;09 - 00;24;51;19
Karen
And I realized then I have something here that I think is going to be bigger than I realize, and that's where that started from.

00;24;51;21 - 00;24;58;01
Seth
That's that's a beautiful story. Oh my goodness. The tears. We we we got the tears.

00;24;58;04 - 00;25;11;05
Karen
Yeah. She she's since passed away. But I promised her I was there when she but I was there when she passed away. I was the last person she spoke to. And I promised her people would know who she was, because these are going to go worldwide. I told her that. And she she believe she held my hand. She's.

00;25;11;05 - 00;25;18;17
Karen
I believe in you and I believe in what you're doing. And I told her, I promised her that she wouldn't be forgotten because she's the reason this happened.

00;25;18;20 - 00;25;19;28
Seth
May we ask her name?

00;25;20;01 - 00;25;25;00
Karen
Yes, her name is Gretchen. Her name is Gretchen? Yes.

00;25;25;02 - 00;25;28;28
Seth
Just making a moment for Gretchen and her family. Thank you.

00;25;29;01 - 00;25;30;17
Karen

00;25;30;19 - 00;25;46;20
Seth
So we decided that we wanted. We didn't really feel whole about doing the show together without having walked maybe a mile on your canvas.

00;25;46;22 - 00;25;47;29
Karen
with that.

00;25;48;02 - 00;26;07;05
Seth
And so we got together and, and we have, we had two of these boxes and by the way, just Karen just a quick direction. In order for our listeners to find this kit, they need to go. This is obviously in the show notes, but we'll just put it right here, a direct insert. Where do they need to go online?

00;26;07;08 - 00;26;11;07
Karen
My website, my website. You can purchase them right off of my website.

00;26;11;10 - 00;26;13;15
Seth
And that is.

00;26;13;17 - 00;26;15;19
Karen
Painting your soul.com.

00;26;15;21 - 00;26;17;19
Seth
Painting your soul.

00;26;17;21 - 00;26;21;19
Karen
Dot com. Love it. It has. You can purchase it right off my website.

00;26;21;22 - 00;26;29;06
Seth
We love this! This was an awesome date. and and I can tell you, this is not the last time we're going to this. This wasn't a one and done.

00;26;29;14 - 00;26;30;05
Karen
No. It's not.

00;26;30;11 - 00;26;31;10
Seth

00;26;31;12 - 00;26;43;20
Stephanie
Well, even I don't know if you know this stuff, but even after we came in and our kids got to see it, some of our little kids were like, wait, can you get me a cat? I want to do a cat. I want to do this.

00;26;43;23 - 00;27;08;08
Karen
Yes. What, like you're going to be the first to hear this, but I have created one for teenagers and children. Awesome. And it is. It's awesome with children from age three all the way up. But of course, till adults. But three year olds can do this and it has made changes in three year olds, if you can imagine so.

00;27;08;08 - 00;27;31;14
Karen
And as an educator and a teacher that I taught elementary school, this was very easy for me to create for children. It's harder for me to do for adults. Believe it or not, children was easy. And the teenagers I worked with both age groups in a counseling center, I worked at it for the last decade. I've worked with a lot of children and a lot of teenagers, and the kits that I'm working on now will be just like this, except geared for that age group.

00;27;31;17 - 00;27;56;29
Karen
Like the teenagers. It will have a Plato in there and more tactile fun things. Confetti to celebrate yourself. They spread, you know, throw confetti up when they're done. Now, just fun and a lot of self-care. How what is self-care look like? The message in the teenage box will be more self-care. The children's one is is more about not being afraid of of what you feel and letting go of fear.

00;27;57;04 - 00;28;15;18
Karen
So they each have a different theme, but it will be appropriate to appropriate to that age group that's coming in the works and that that all of this is about to happen. And but it takes some time to get them in a distribution center. And but they've been created already. So it is going to happen and you'll be able to have them for your kids.

00;28;15;18 - 00;28;25;09
Karen
And but these kids themselves, you guys just did our really ages easily 13 on up can do this. if they follow directions they can do this.

00;28;25;09 - 00;28;28;08
Seth
So it's really I'm excited. I'm excited for that because I know our kids.

00;28;28;11 - 00;28;29;07
Karen
See, you know that there.

00;28;29;07 - 00;28;32;28
Stephanie
Will be one time I want to try out each age of the kids. To be honest.

00;28;32;29 - 00;28;34;10
Seth
You just want the confetti.

00;28;34;12 - 00;28;54;17
Karen
Yeah. No confetti. Honestly, confetti should be all of them. But I came up with the fact when I was working with the teenagers, they love just throwing stuff up and glitter and anything that was just fun and, you know, that kind of thing. And, so I, I specifically added that, but certainly we can change that and put that in every one of them.

00;28;54;19 - 00;28;55;22
Karen
I celebrate, I.

00;28;55;22 - 00;29;14;16
Stephanie
Love it totally. Actually. Kind of where I was going with this mentally was I've been doing a lot of inner child work, parts work for myself, for different trauma and things that I've been through. And so I'm like, oh my goodness, I want to go back as that little girl and express myself in ways that I didn't.

00;29;14;17 - 00;29;17;24
Stephanie
I when I was little. Like, how therapeutic will that be?

00;29;18;01 - 00;29;34;24
Karen
That is such a great statement. You just said. I spoke with someone yesterday from the UK. When I talked to, we were sharing about what I was going to talk about on stage and I and a lot of it is like bringing out your inner child through this, because somewhere around the age of 8 or 9, we had stopped being ourselves.

00;29;34;24 - 00;29;55;02
Karen
Or we don't even me like certain things. I remember shutting down and somewhere that stays shut down until you open it up or to life opens it up for you. And going back to your inner child and being able to playfully do this in honor of that child in there that still needs that is so healing and so cathartic.

00;29;55;02 - 00;30;13;22
Karen
And I think that's again why I was able to come out of this so much and then come to who I am is, is healing that inner child through this and being able to be playful without judgment. You're being you're being asked to do nothing but be free to express yourself on a canvas without judgment. No one's telling you that's right or wrong.

00;30;13;22 - 00;30;37;06
Karen
No one's telling you. Red means this black means that you're telling yourself what it means, and it is only you coming up with your own answers. And it's empowering, but it really does help, create that communication with you and your inner child.

00;30;37;08 - 00;30;38;25
Seth
I did not see that coming.

00;30;38;27 - 00;31;05;18
Karen
That's okay. I just happened yesterday with, my friend from the UK. She teared up because she was told to stop dancing at eight. You know, and she's never danced in. So, so many times we're shut down and we don't realize it until much later. And then you want to go back and find that part of yourself that was so precious and so real and authentic and not judge it and say, this is me, this is all of me, and this is what this is the tool that helps that happen.

00;31;05;21 - 00;31;23;07
Karen
And this is the open door to it. It's just the door opening to it. And I just give you the door. You open it, you open it when you open the kit and say, okay, I'm here for you. We're here. Let's connect. Let's find ourselves again. It's the fact that you opened it is is you're saying, yes.

00;31;23;09 - 00;32;05;01
Seth
You know, from the time I was a little kid being in, in church and singing and, you know, the Jesus's words coming into my mind now about, you know, the kingdom of heaven is as an adult. No, he didn't say that. He said, the kingdom of heaven is as a little child. And there's just something, as you were talking about inner child and, and the work and we do get shut down and, and I'm thinking really personally because we've got an eight year old turning nine who is a child and like just beautiful living and, and I and I mean in our work I see I see people trapped every single day.

00;32;05;01 - 00;32;10;18
Seth
Yeah. You know, one of my missions in life is to liberate the captive. And I'm not talking about with with automatic weapons.

00;32;10;20 - 00;32;11;19
Karen
No.

00;32;11;22 - 00;32;33;00
Seth
I mean semi-automatic, but, but I just it just it brought a new meaning to me, Karen, about this, this whole concept of heaven and the concept of progression and the concept of becoming who we truly need to become, which is the little child that they got shut down. So anyway, thank you. Thank you for allowing me to have a moment here.

00;32;33;03 - 00;33;01;05
Karen
Makes me thrilled to see that because it's it's honest, it's authentic. It's what this does. It helps open you up and go. It's refreshing. It's too hard to be shut down all the time in life. You are just such a. It's like this armor is around you and you're unable to really be free. So in essence, this is setting you free to find that eight year old again and and honor your your eight year old and knowing they're in the space where they're, they're happiest.

00;33;01;09 - 00;33;19;08
Karen
Nothing's telling them they can't do something or be something. They think they can do everything. And you want that to continue for that age because it's so one thing can shut it down so easily. You just don't want that because it becomes they just start losing themselves over time, but that you're coming back to that eight year old self really.

00;33;19;08 - 00;33;35;08
Karen
In essence, when you do this, you're finding that feeling of what it felt like to be that age with the freedom and the honesty, the purity. And that's what you're coming back to with this. It helps. That's beautiful. Thank you.

00;33;35;10 - 00;33;38;00
Seth
You mentioned you mentioned teenagers.

00;33;38;05 - 00;33;38;20
Karen
Yes.

00;33;38;23 - 00;33;42;10
Seth
And we can say something about that. You know, we have a blended family of ten.

00;33;42;12 - 00;33;45;02
Karen
Oh wow. And and kids. Yeah.

00;33;45;02 - 00;34;01;25
Seth
Oh, yeah. Blended family. Yeah. Not the family of ten. Ten kids. and, we have four at home. We we've gone through, we've gone through, we've gone through. There's they're like a dishrag now. We've gone through it. We've gone through eight teenagers now, we've had eight.

00;34;01;27 - 00;34;02;10
Karen
You're the at.

00;34;02;10 - 00;34;03;28
Seth
Some point to.

00;34;04;00 - 00;34;06;10
Karen
Yeah.

00;34;06;13 - 00;34;26;22
Seth
And I remember, reading about some research that came out of, I think it was Australia and mental health and wellness. In fact, I think it was about depression, and it was talking about how the research has shown that. And this is kind of like a duh. But sometimes we use science like that just to confirm what we already know.

00;34;26;22 - 00;35;05;01
Seth
But we can then quantify it. Right? Right. But but work, being outside, getting outside and walking and working, you know, in nature was more effective in quote unquote treating. I think it was I think the study was about depression than traditional pharmacological, you know, Prozac, whatever. Wellbutrin. a medical approach. And I just had this epiphany. As we're talking, I'm thinking this, this multi dimensional mode, modal self-expression.

00;35;05;01 - 00;35;07;01
Seth
This is not an art kit. So I is.

00;35;07;01 - 00;35;09;20
Karen
Not about art.

00;35;09;23 - 00;35;32;12
Seth
It's but I this is therapy. Like like this is something that I would want every one of my teenagers to, to to experience. And, but we're not going to wait till they're teenagers and we have to, you know, we have more to correct. Correct. Meaning more, you know, more to more baggage to, you know, garbage to, to fix outlet.

00;35;32;12 - 00;35;38;06
Seth
You're we're starting and we're starting young. We got a six year old. She's doing this at self-expression kit.

00;35;38;09 - 00;35;54;14
Karen
It's never too late. I did it with a three year old. Do you realize at three I was able to stop? This little girl had a coughing tick. It was from fear of some sort. She developed. And the mom said, can you work with her? And I did my process with her in a very, you know, elementary level.

00;35;54;16 - 00;36;19;26
Karen
It was exacto and I will I was surprised and she the mom was floored. The tick stopped the tick, the coughing tick stopped completely from doing this. Subconsciously, she had some fear going on that she didn't even know that we don't know what caused it to stop. We just know the process helped her negate what was going on in her mind that was causing the tick, and it completely stopped.

00;36;19;26 - 00;36;41;28
Karen
And that is true story. As a mother today, to this day says it was from that process at three year old. It's never too young. And I'll share with you as a teacher my students. I taught advanced students in elementary level, self-contained, gifted children who came with very bright minds, but also a lot of emotional parts of them were not is balanced sometimes.

00;36;42;00 - 00;36;59;06
Karen
So what did I do with them? Instead of sitting them in timeout, they went to the art corner they created. They wrote stories and then they did art. That is what somehow balance them out. To come back to the class and get straight with what we were doing in the classroom. So I never put him in a timeout.

00;36;59;06 - 00;37;23;18
Karen
It was get creative. So in my mind, every child I've worked with has had a creative corner. So I developed in their home with the parents help a quarter where they go to to decompress and use art naturally to help them when it comes to things they can't articulate because there's so many times the elementary school age kids can't articulate what they're feeling, so they act out and we throw them in timeout.

00;37;23;18 - 00;37;44;17
Karen
We give them dimensions, whatever they're called, detentions. It really they just need to express something and they're having a difficult time doing it. So when I went back to my teaching days, it all made sense. In essence, this is what I'm asking everyone to do is find a space within your home that you can explore creatively and find some sense of peace there.

00;37;44;17 - 00;38;08;02
Karen
And you will. You will be able to accomplish it through creative expression. It is absolutely scientifically proven. I proven it for ten years and if we can turn to that, just like I ask little children to do in their home, adults should have that too. We need a space in our house. That's our creative expression space. You don't have to be an artist, you just have to be able to express in any way that makes sense to you.

00;38;08;04 - 00;38;29;25
Karen
And that's what I'm. That is the message I'm trying to get out there, even through these kids. Not about being artistic, using it as a tool to let go and be expressive and find that piece of yourself. And then my goal again, to have everyone doing this as a form of coping. When you're struggling in life, you come to different points where you're just having a hard time coping.

00;38;29;28 - 00;38;51;07
Karen
This is your coping kit. people call it a emotional first aid kit. I have doctors that use this that work in the emergency room here at Morningside Hospital in Clearwater, Florida. They use my kit because they can't take anything. They have to do something very holistic, especially working in the emergency room. This helps them decompress. It's what they do.

00;38;51;07 - 00;39;03;03
Karen
So it's almost like I want people to look at this is a coping skill that is healthy, holistic, and it not only helps you, but it helps you find parts of yourself that you didn't know were missing.

00;39;03;06 - 00;39;14;04
Seth
You talked about, in in kind of the aftermath or not even the aftermath, but being in the middle of the battle, right. The what? What I'll call the fog of war.

00;39;14;04 - 00;39;15;01
Karen
Yes.

00;39;15;04 - 00;39;39;22
Seth
And something I was taking notes you said I needed to find. I needed to find something that that could help me. You mentioned creativity. We talked about imagination. You said something that was not unhealthy. In other words, you need it in a healthy outlet. And I was just imagining how many of us and how many women really like there are default because of generational traditions, you know, or generational curses, whatever you want to call it.

00;39;39;24 - 00;39;53;14
Seth
We we might or they might be attracted to that unhealthy coping mechanism. Right. And this this is this is soul food.

00;39;53;16 - 00;40;16;00
Karen
Right? Exactly. This is soul food. And that is what I'm hoping for. So people turn to something like this instead of the unhealthy coping mechanisms that are out there right now that are not doing anything for us. And the pharmaceutical, I actually tried to be on something for like an antidepressant at one point in time. It was miserable.

00;40;16;00 - 00;40;37;03
Karen
Like for a week. I said, this is awful. I couldn't do it. I simply tried it and I said, this isn't this is making me not even feel myself. And so I went past that, and this is what I dove into, is the one thing that helped me solidly get out of anxiety and fully be able to immerse myself and get in the peaceful place.

00;40;37;05 - 00;40;58;24
Karen
And even if it was just for an hour, it was better than what I would have done otherwise that would have been unhealthy. so thankfully this helped me not turn to unhealthy things that could have happened after a four and a half year divorce. There's lots of things that could have come in. but I turned to walking the beaches or walking walking in nature because being outside physically was what saved me as well.

00;40;58;25 - 00;41;18;08
Karen
That's why this is Ocean theme. I walk that beach every single day for years, both in California and Florida. Because it is my backyard doesn't mean you have to have a beach. You just have to have a backyard or a street. Just walk walking. So that became, my therapy along with the other components in the kit. And that's what got me through it really did.

00;41;18;08 - 00;41;35;22
Karen
And then the workshops I did to help other people was just a hobby for me, because it helped me heal someone else. When I saw the benefits to them, it made me feel better. So I was helping myself while I was helping other people at that time. And that's what really shot it right up because I thought, wow, this is really different.

00;41;35;22 - 00;41;56;00
Karen
People are loving this, and I'm going to keep doing it. But I didn't have an intention of going any further with it. But it was meant to go further because here I am, ten years later, now an owner of a company CEO and founder, and a product. So it it had a life of its own and I was just following it.

00;41;56;03 - 00;42;06;02
Stephanie
I mean, sometimes I've heard from other people or even from children that, you know, when they are prescribed, quote unquote, drugs, that it actually sometimes numbs them out.

00;42;06;03 - 00;42;06;11
Karen
Yeah.

00;42;06;11 - 00;42;18;11
Stephanie
No, they don't feel anything. And I love that. Instead of doing that, you turned the other way. And not only did it not numb you like, it's helping you to become who you're meant to be. Yes. And that is such a beautiful gift.

00;42;18;18 - 00;42;19;19
Karen
Yes, exactly.

00;42;19;19 - 00;42;47;25
Seth
Instead of muting the emotion, instead of muting the emotion and the passion, you talking about sending kids to timeout, it's because there's a there's a lot of passion going on. Instead of muting that with, with, you know, kind of an external controller, whether that be a timeout or whether that be, you know, a pharmaceutical, we're going to actually turn right around and we're going to dive into your emotions, dive into your creativity, drive dive into your expression.

00;42;47;28 - 00;43;08;02
Karen
Right. And we're so afraid to do that. And for some reason we were afraid to. And I'm want to make this where people aren't afraid to dive into your emotions, because that's the key to get out. That's the one key free. And we don't see that. We see that a stay away, let's do everything but that because we get to protect ourselves, but we're protecting ourselves from nothing.

00;43;08;05 - 00;43;28;29
Karen
We're hurting ourselves by not expressing what's inside of us. Naturally, we feel things because it's natural. This isn't you're going to feel anger. You're going to feel hurt, devastated. Those are natural feelings. Just you don't want to hold on to them. You want to get them out if feel it and then get the other side of it. But to hold on to it, you're just you're it's just like this.

00;43;29;01 - 00;43;34;29
Karen
It's becoming what we call dis ease. Dis ease turns to disease.

00;43;35;01 - 00;44;01;26
Stephanie
I actually had some experience with that just recently, honestly, just the last week or two where, we actually recently did a podcast, on domestic violence and it shocked me, but it it really triggered me and I couldn't fully come out of it for a couple of weeks until I went and did that inner child work and realized what my needs were as a little girl.

00;44;01;26 - 00;44;18;14
Stephanie
And but in the midst of that, I had been feeling sick and I wasn't getting over it. And I was like, what is going on? What is going on? Why can I not kick this to the curb? And then once I felt better than another thing popped up, you know, within, you know, 12 hours or less? Yeah, right.

00;44;18;16 - 00;44;40;17
Stephanie
I'm working with a hormone doctor right now. And she was like, Stephanie, what? What's attached to the sickness? Let's, you know, let's let's jump into this because she's more of a whole, body approach and, you know, realizing, oh my goodness, I wonder if it was being triggered from this podcast that that I did, and I wasn't expecting to be triggered by a and then I ended up doing that.

00;44;40;20 - 00;45;01;02
Stephanie
inner child work. And while I was doing it and expressing, you know, myself, one of the big things that I was feeling sick was my throat. Oh, yeah, I was doing that. Your voice throat felt so much better after I did that. It was really powerful. Wow. Marvel. So yes.

00;45;01;08 - 00;45;21;16
Karen
That's amazing. Yeah. Especially as women, we lose our voices somewhere along the line. I know I did, and I didn't realize it, though. It's funny. It's very tricky. you're when you've had trauma, the last thing you want to do is speak up or stand out. You want to hide. It's a natural way of just going. I don't want to put myself out there to have anything else happen.

00;45;21;16 - 00;45;39;04
Karen
So we go into hiding and then we lose our voices and we go further and further into oblivion. In reality, we need to be out there more and in sharing and expressing, and sometimes we tend to go inward. And so the way the kit works is to pull you out. If you're in that space, we're going to bring you out.

00;45;39;07 - 00;45;47;14
Karen
So we can find your voice again and find you again and get you back up there steady and standing right up there. You should be enjoying life and finding peace within it.

00;45;47;17 - 00;45;52;04
Stephanie
Which I definitely, I feel like happens when we went through this kit.

00;45;52;06 - 00;46;15;06
Seth
So we went through this kit. So we're back to the kit. This is awesome. This is a great, incredible discussion. So so we we're not going to go through all the steps. But the beautiful thing about about the guide is it takes you through the steps as you prepare. And one of those early steps, you know, in addition to the stone, by the way, this is a gift because this is really my stone.

00;46;15;08 - 00;46;29;06
Seth
But Stephanie, start my stone. And I could see that she wanted my stone because her stone had a little more brown in it. And and and this one was more blue. And I looked at, I'm like, babe, would you like my stone?

00;46;29;08 - 00;46;30;04
Karen
And she's like.

00;46;30;06 - 00;46;31;24
Stephanie
No, that is not what happened.

00;46;31;26 - 00;46;33;15
Seth
Oh what happened?

00;46;33;18 - 00;46;36;07
Stephanie
Can we trade? I like yours better.

00;46;36;09 - 00;46;40;02
Karen
Oh, I think I offered it. Yeah I think.

00;46;40;05 - 00;46;50;10
Seth
Fortunately we recorded this. So we will get back to you. And when you go to the VIP community to see the VIP for your eyes only, you will see that I offered this to my wife.

00;46;50;16 - 00;47;03;01
Stephanie
So here's the thing is you were like, oh, okay. And so I gave it to you and you looked at and go, oh, I know why. Because it had like, like Brown is more of your color.

00;47;03;01 - 00;47;03;10
Seth
Yeah.

00;47;03;10 - 00;47;03;25
Karen
Oh yeah.

00;47;03;26 - 00;47;09;07
Stephanie
That those natural colors. Whereas like the beautiful blue vibrant is more me.

00;47;09;08 - 00;47;14;00
Seth
A true I saw this and I thought of you honestly so I was happy to give it to you. Like I said like I offer.

00;47;14;04 - 00;47;41;08
Karen
So I'm that you know, it's funny because there are some brown in the rocks and they represent. When I was in California, I was up at the top by Big Sur, northern California coastline, which the cliffs were the most beautiful. I think I've ever seen, honestly. And when I was going through this, finishing up formulating my kit, I just remembered that in my mind's eye, the cliff with the brown with the blue water, the combination with the cliffs in the water, that's what that stone had.

00;47;41;08 - 00;47;58;21
Karen
So there's there's mountain, there's cliffs in that brown. There's strength. Right? There's rock like you're strong like a rock. So that brown in there is actually really good. So I'll be a rock. You are my oceans, right? See, that's no words. Yes.

00;47;58;23 - 00;48;05;20
Seth
So we pulled out our journals and started writing. anything you want to say about your journal experience? The pre journal.

00;48;05;20 - 00;48;06;28
Karen
Experience. You know what.

00;48;06;28 - 00;48;27;18
Stephanie
That one was probably one of the most difficult for me because I've always struggled with writing. Expressing myself on paper has has always been something that I'm. Yeah, I've struggled with. But once I got that, that one inspiration, which we haven't even talked about, this, it was what you brought up the the whole inner child thing. You're like, what you did inner child work the other day.

00;48;27;18 - 00;48;38;28
Stephanie
You know, if there's something you want to talk about that. And I was like, no. And then he's like, you got some healing, right? I was like, yeah, yeah, I got healing, but I don't necessarily want to write about it. Yeah. And then I totally did.

00;48;39;00 - 00;48;40;24
Karen
I totally did.

00;48;40;27 - 00;48;52;07
Stephanie
And it was so good. It was really good. I ended up writing, you know, a lot more than I thought I was going to, but yeah, yeah, it was. I really loved how it started off the journey. I thought that was really great.

00;48;52;07 - 00;49;08;06
Karen
Thank you. I and I love yeah, it's it's sometimes hard for people to start out with journaling, especially if they're not used to it. It is hard, but that's why I keep it very open. Just write how you feel in this moment, even if it's a sentence. It's what I used to do with my students. That's how I got them to write.

00;49;08;06 - 00;49;27;01
Karen
Just do a sentence, and then each time it got easier and easier. And then before they knew it through journaling like crazy. That's why there's a journal entry at the end, because you'll see the difference from the beginning to the end is pretty substantial. And and where your mind goes over your emotions and, but the journaling is one of the biggest things to tackle.

00;49;27;01 - 00;49;39;15
Karen
And it's why it's the first thing because it brings out a lot of fear in us initially. But it's when you overcome that fear, it's easy to overcome the fear of doing the rest, especially the painting at the end. So preparing you to let go.

00;49;39;17 - 00;50;03;15
Stephanie
Interesting. Yes, that you just described my journey. Honestly doing this. Yeah. Like it's yeah. Once I did I was like, okay, I feel great. Let's dive into this painting. And I, I feel like, art is not necessarily my strong creative side, but I still am drawn to it. I still love it. Right. And so I'm always trying.

00;50;03;15 - 00;50;25;18
Stephanie
And I will tell you that when stuff when I first started this experience and he got out the camera so that we could film it and I was like, I don't. So he had to our two cameras set up to where you could see on one camera, you could see the back of me with my painting and the front of Seth, and then the same on his side, so you could see the back of him in his painting and the front of me.

00;50;25;20 - 00;50;47;29
Stephanie
And at first I was like, I really don't want people to see what I'm drawing. What I painting like that. Is that like, even doing this is so vulnerable of me, but then for you to film it, yeah, I know that we might use that for content is like so extremely vulnerable and I feel like it will hinder the experience and even my creativity, from coming out.

00;50;48;02 - 00;51;05;13
Stephanie
but then after a little bit, I was like, well, I guess you could film it. And if we I mean, it's not like it's alive. So if I don't like it, you know, we can play around with it and take it out or something like that. But I ended up being so grateful that we did film it because the experience was so beautiful.

00;51;05;13 - 00;51;10;24
Stephanie
And and to be honest with you, like, even I don't know if I'm jumping ahead on what you're thinking.

00;51;10;24 - 00;51;14;28
Seth
You're you're girl, you're you're you're rolling right now.

00;51;15;00 - 00;51;38;14
Stephanie
But when we did the meditation and I really, you know, I was just taken into myself and the experience and your beautiful words and, your soothing voice and just listen to it. And then, you know, you talk about color or, you know, different things. Just doing the stroke. And I'm like, okay, the color I picked was purple.

00;51;38;15 - 00;51;38;25
Karen

00;51;38;29 - 00;51;57;20
Stephanie
And purple is one of my least favorite colors. So I was shocked. But I'm like I'm going to trust the process. I'm going to do this. Yeah. And and then even just being like oh just do a stroke I'm like are you kidding me? Like like I need direction. I need to know exactly what I'm painting, you know?

00;51;57;22 - 00;52;15;12
Stephanie
And I'm like, I'm trusting the process. I'm trusting the process. And I will have to do a little shout out for, McKenna Wooley. She is also an artist. And I went to one of her classes and she just was like, Stephanie, why? Who taught you to color inside the lines? taught you that? You have to know exactly what you're doing.

00;52;15;12 - 00;52;42;01
Stephanie
I was like, oh, crap, you're calling me out. So I did have a little bit of her pop up in my mind like, yeah, you know, that's okay. I told you, you know? So I'm like, okay, let go, let go. Okay, I'm letting go. And even each step as I went through and picked a different color or I picked, you know, what I was going to do with that brushstroke or whatever I was, I was really blown away at what I ended up creating at the end.

00;52;42;03 - 00;52;49;21
Stephanie
Yes. And something I'm actually I'm very proud of and I don't know, I don't even know what else to say.

00;52;49;22 - 00;53;14;11
Karen
I think that I think that what you said really struck a chord with me in a positive way, that you found some things happen that you didn't expect. You picked a color that you didn't expect, but you went with it. It's just really kind of listening to your gut and going with it. And then the next time it gets easier, the next time next stroke, it's easier, and it's almost like it's flowing and you've kind of learned how to go with the flow a little bit.

00;53;14;18 - 00;53;31;28
Karen
And I think that's what life teaches us. We get hit with these things we don't expect. We're looking for a lot of answers and we're looking for everything to be set up just so. But sometimes it just isn't, and sometimes you don't know and you just have to go with one stroke at a time and then you see a finished piece and go, oh, now I get it.

00;53;32;00 - 00;53;49;09
Karen
But sometimes you just don't know in the moment. And that's why you go with your intuition, your gut, your gut, says purple, go with it. Don't question it. Just trust. And that's what you did beautifully. And you got the feeling of, okay, so when it comes to another situation in your life where you're kind of going, oh, I don't think I can do that.

00;53;49;09 - 00;54;11;17
Karen
I've never done that before. You're going to remember this experience and go, wait a minute. I did this in another way. I can do that too. And that's that's the bridge. This is I mean, this is where people now, it's like taking a neural pathway and going, oh, now this is easier each time you do something and overcome the fear or go into the unknown like a blank canvas is a big unknown.

00;54;11;17 - 00;54;17;03
Karen
But if you can feel that you've overcome something pretty big to be able to do that and come out the way you did.

00;54;17;06 - 00;54;37;17
Stephanie
Yes, yes. And I will say a few things. One, I did love and appreciate the affirmations on the side because anytime I kind of stalled on something, I was like, okay. And I look over and just read through some of those affirmations and it really helps me. Another thing I want to point out is that at the beginning of this, if I'm just totally honest, Seth can attest to this.

00;54;37;20 - 00;54;53;20
Stephanie
I kind of had a bad attitude. Like, you know, I I'm exhausted. I feel like I could go to sleep right now, right? You know, this isn't really what I want to be doing, right? This moment. But then when I came out of it, I don't know if you noticed, but I was, like, floating. I was just like, this is so great.

00;54;53;27 - 00;55;01;08
Stephanie
Life is wonderful. Oh, yeah, I can I can take over and do dinner, you know, for my daughter that was doing it. Oh, yeah, I can like it.

00;55;01;09 - 00;55;18;25
Karen
Really isn't that amazing? In that time frame, we resist the very thing that could help us, but we don't even know we're doing that. And I witnessed this all the time where people say, yeah, well, I'm going to get to this when I get to it. And it's a timing thing. I don't ever say, you have to do this for two weeks, or else you could sit on your shelf for a year.

00;55;18;27 - 00;55;32;29
Karen
It's going to happen if you have it in your presence. So somehow, if you've connected with me and this is in your presence somewhere along the line, you're going to do it. But most people will say, I wish I had done it sooner, or I wish I didn't wait so long. In your case, you did it right away.

00;55;32;29 - 00;55;47;05
Karen
But a lot of people will wait because they're a little intimidated by it. And that's what I want to bridge the gap and go. Nothing to be intimidated with. This is like what you said. You felt like you were floating. If you knew going into this, you were going to feel that after, would you dive right in? Right?

00;55;47;06 - 00;56;04;29
Karen
You'd be like, oh, I feel, but it's the hesitancy, it's the not knowing. And you think it's an arduous journey. In the end, it's the opposite. It sets you free. And that's the biggest challenge I have, is to get people to get past that. Oh, I don't know. This seems like a lot. I don't I don't want to follow directions.

00;56;04;29 - 00;56;26;18
Karen
And then they push it aside and they're avoiding this. The freedom they could feel in that moment. But it's their personal journey. And I don't just this is this is a timing thing for anyone to do whenever they're ready. And there's no judgment to it. That's the best part about it. And there's nothing to judge when doing it or when you didn't do it, or it's completely personal.

00;56;26;20 - 00;56;51;08
Karen
And the experience you had was exactly why I created it, because it becomes something you'll remember. It's when you use all your senses and all your pretty much all your senses are used here. It becomes an impactful experience that you don't forget that you've learned something from and it helped you. That tool helps you for something in the future to try something unknown or something that you're not sure about.

00;56;51;08 - 00;57;00;12
Karen
You're going to be more apt to dive into it, that you're going to trust yourself. It builds a little bit more trust when you do something like this.

00;57;00;14 - 00;57;18;13
Stephanie
You know, that's so true, especially because, like, honestly, art has been something that I've struggled with my whole life. Like I was even telling my niece the other day, like as a teenager when I would go to like church activities and they would do crafts or art or whatever, sometimes I would start it, I would never finish it.

00;57;18;13 - 00;57;43;18
Stephanie
And a lot of times my youth leaders would come in and, you know, feel bad. And so they'd finish it for me. and so it's something that I either have, frequently left undone or, go into it stressed or, you know, with hesitancy. And, you know, now that you're saying that next time I want to do this or my child or my spouse wants to do it, I'll be like, heck yeah, that was fun last time.

00;57;43;20 - 00;58;05;23
Karen
Right? And because the way you feel when you're finished, you can't deny it's euphoric. It's like daydreaming and it's almost like. It's like floating, like you said. And that's what I hear for most people. I feel like they're floating, and it's really like daydreaming and you're not your mind. You're in a little combine is on vacation and your other side of the brain is in with never.

00;58;05;23 - 00;58;24;17
Karen
He gets the chance to play. So really, that side of you is now getting a chance to express where it's been pushed aside for years. And it's uncomfortable because you're not used to that. You're not used to not analyzing something, judging it, fearing it. Right. It's not like us to go into something. Oh, right. It's almost like a relearning.

00;58;24;21 - 00;58;29;08
Karen
This is a a tool to help you unlearn some of the habits that have hurt us.

00;58;29;11 - 00;58;30;10
Stephanie
Yep.

00;58;30;13 - 00;58;32;23
Seth
So we're going to show you a painting here.

00;58;32;26 - 00;58;33;01
Karen
In.

00;58;33;01 - 00;58;35;13
Seth
A minute. In a minute.

00;58;35;16 - 00;58;36;18
Karen
In a minute.

00;58;36;21 - 00;59;00;27
Seth
Like the plot thickens. So so I started with journaling and to be quite honest, for me, art and again, we've established this. This is not an art kit. This is not about art. This is not really about painting. It's about self-expression. And everything is just a modality and an opportunity. And I'm just going to put it out there like I'm, I did this one time.

00;59;00;27 - 00;59;06;10
Seth
Give me a break. Like I'm not done. Like, you're not done expressing yourself. So I'm going to show you my painting.

00;59;06;10 - 00;59;07;13
Karen
Just starting. Yeah.

00;59;07;13 - 00;59;16;27
Seth
I'm just, it is a new avenue to to give myself some self love and to find out a little more about what's inside of me. So, can.

00;59;16;27 - 00;59;31;14
Stephanie
I say something really fast? Yeah, I did love that you said all of that about that. It's not necessarily art that it's, you know, a journey expression, all these things. It really gave me permission to let go also. So I just wanted you to know that I appreciate that.

00;59;31;16 - 00;59;32;06
Karen
Right.

00;59;32;09 - 00;59;40;06
Seth
So I pull out the journal and here's my thoughts about journaling. Journaling. It's so good for you. I don't want to do it.

00;59;40;08 - 00;59;42;14
Karen
Because.

00;59;42;17 - 00;59;59;19
Seth
Like I've known journaling, like I've been taught that journaling is so powerful for my entire life. Right and off and on and off and on. And mainly what happens is I can't start with today because this happened yesterday and that was awesome. And then this last week and I got to catch you up on when I'm done, like, like just close the book.

00;59;59;19 - 01;00;17;25
Seth
Like I can't even start that. So I just again, I went into this and maybe it was the lavender, maybe it was, you know, maybe it was knowing that we were going to have this show. So I was going to have to show up. But but I actually do enjoy express blessing in words and that's, that's more natural for me.

01;00;17;25 - 01;00;46;23
Seth
So it started me off. And rather than going into what happened yesterday or my thoughts or my feelings, I had this image. And maybe it's because you'd primed my mind with water. Maybe it's because blues. One of my favorite colors right? But I had this idea of a Dew Drop of a rain drop, some water and and so this these are these are the lines I wrote.

01;00;46;29 - 01;01;14;12
Seth
This is the poem. This is and this is like the first page of this journal. Well, inside the heart, a sea of passion. Like roaring waves. It rolls, crashing down upon shoreline of craggy crevices, stones also within that same torrential heart of hurricane like power, innocence and purity born of peaceful reflection. Like do on the morning flower.

01;01;14;14 - 01;01;14;24
Karen
Oh my.

01;01;14;29 - 01;01;25;20
Seth
Still further yet a glass like lake, a mirror of reflection. The hopes and dreams that may come to be manifesting the soul's vision.

01;01;25;22 - 01;01;45;03
Karen
Nice. That's incredible. I have tears in my eyes I love that I. I know beautiful and it's everything I'm about is the ocean and have stated it in the poetic way you used your words is absolutely beautiful. I have never been so touched.

01;01;45;06 - 01;01;46;08
Stephanie
Truly. Wow.

01;01;46;11 - 01;02;09;28
Seth
Thank you. I'm going to say that of everything that I experienced yesterday, this these lines mean the most to me. And and I'm going to allow that like. Yes. Like part of me during the whole process wanted to judge like, no, the paintings got to be like like I was really working on creating new synaptic connections in that brain.

01;02;10;00 - 01;02;10;07
Karen
Yeah.

01;02;10;08 - 01;02;36;25
Seth
Saying no judgment here, no judgment. Right? I am I am compassionate and creative. Right? Creativity flows through me with ease. Right. but this is what I'm most proud of because this is this is an this. And I haven't really edited it, you know, I mean, I have there's a couple of words I did here, but it was pretty much free flowing.

01;02;36;28 - 01;02;40;12
Seth
And I feel like, wow, that's inside of me.

01;02;40;15 - 01;02;41;08
Karen
Yeah.

01;02;41;11 - 01;02;45;11
Seth
Now, I didn't feel that way about my about what I put on the canvas as.

01;02;45;11 - 01;02;46;26
Karen
Much that's okay.

01;02;46;26 - 01;02;47;08
Seth
And that's.

01;02;47;08 - 01;03;08;09
Karen
Okay. Right. So it's it's my way that you see that because it really is it. That's why I leave it so open ended. I know some people struggle with it, but I want this to be an experience. It's personal for you, whether it's the journal or the painting. As long as your expression happens the way it needs to happen for you, that's all that matters.

01;03;08;11 - 01;03;22;17
Karen
The painting is irrelevant. The writing, what you did was exactly what you needed in that moment, and the rest was just icing on the cake. So experience that without judging is absolutely perfect. Well thank.

01;03;22;17 - 01;03;38;08
Stephanie
You. Oh, and I was blown away when he wrote or read it to me. At first he wanted to read it before we paint it and I said no, no, no, no, no. We got to do the steps in order. I don't want this to be like, change what I'm doing. So he's like, oh, okay, okay.

01;03;38;08 - 01;03;50;01
Seth
I thought it was a good point. I was like, at first I was like, I want to, I want to, I want you to read, I want to, I want to tell you about this poem. And she's like, yes. Oh, wait a second. No. I'm like, wait, you I can't wait. No, we got to follow the steps we got to.

01;03;50;04 - 01;04;08;23
Seth
And then the idea was, honestly, I totally agreed it was set. I'm sure that's going to be great. That's your like that's your self-expression. I want to continue in the vein that I've started with my self-expression. So I thought it. I thought it was actually brilliant. And I'm glad she called called off the dogs now.

01;04;08;23 - 01;04;09;02
Karen
And I.

01;04;09;02 - 01;04;09;24
Stephanie
Think it's I will.

01;04;09;24 - 01;04;29;23
Karen
Say to do this together. I love hearing people doing this together, and what they've learned about each other through this heightens things, and it really brings some awareness to things that you wouldn't know maybe otherwise. It's a great thing to do as a couple, and I'm thrilled to see your response to this doing it together, because it does require talking back and forth.

01;04;29;23 - 01;04;37;09
Karen
And and, you know, it's it's navigating this together is is really neat to see how well you did with that.

01;04;37;12 - 01;04;44;27
Stephanie
That was really fun. And but when he did read that poem to me, I was like, oh my goodness, I was choked.

01;04;44;27 - 01;04;49;05
Karen
Up with this post that if you don't mind. Oh, as a.

01;04;49;09 - 01;04;49;27
Seth
Absolutely.

01;04;49;27 - 01;05;11;08
Karen
If you're okay with that, it's it's truly beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes to think that you could write something like that just from literally opening up this kit right away. That's the. Yeah. And the power that this has to be able to bring and illuminate something within you that you either didn't know or forgot about or go, wait, I look at this, right?

01;05;11;08 - 01;05;34;28
Karen
That's brilliant. And in everyone it's about pulling out your own gifts. It's not somebody else's gifts, it's yours. And that's what this is, highlighting who you are and and raising it up and and that's it's just beautiful. So that thank you for sharing that beautiful, vulnerable moment with your journaling. It means a lot to me, especially.

01;05;35;01 - 01;05;41;18
Seth
Thank you. Thank you. That was I can't remember what step it was in step 1 or 3 or whatever, but it was awesome. It was at the beginning.

01;05;41;20 - 01;05;41;28
Karen
Yes.

01;05;42;04 - 01;06;00;17
Seth
So then we go to painting, then we go painting and I couldn't see what Steph was painting. We were on opposite ends of the table again. Those are in the VIP community. You're going to see, you know, see the, the the footage on this. But at the end Stephanie reveals this. This is her painting.

01;06;00;20 - 01;06;13;00
Karen
This is the purple painting. Oh, I love it. Oh my gosh, look at that. Oh I see flowers. Oh my gosh blossom. Oh my gosh this is amazing.

01;06;13;03 - 01;06;15;03
Stephanie
Let's dig in a little ladybug vine.

01;06;15;04 - 01;06;23;00
Karen
And the flowers and the colors are beautiful. I just love it. I love that you wrote awesome. That's.

01;06;23;00 - 01;06;24;04
Stephanie
Thank you. Yeah.

01;06;24;06 - 01;06;28;16
Karen
Home. Thank you for sharing that. Like I said.

01;06;28;19 - 01;06;37;22
Stephanie
Each step of the way was a little intuition. Definitely. what I wrote about afterwards. Trusting my gut. Trusting my intuition.

01;06;37;25 - 01;07;08;15
Karen
Right. I, I absolutely love that. The colors, the flowers, the word blossom means so much. Think about it. Yeah. Blossoming. It's a representation, right. And the best part with the journaling, which I do encourage to continue doing after you've done this, is you're going to get more insights to that painting every single day. It really comes on times of the day or like, oh, and then you write down that insight and before you know it, you're on this pathway of going, I just set out something new about myself I didn't know before.

01;07;08;15 - 01;07;27;12
Karen
And then the journey begins and it keeps going like that. And the continuation of painting and this it only it's the growth that's happened for me because I did it so much. It's it's how I grew. It's how I got to the core of me, the inner child, the person that needed to have a voice. That's how the voice started to come out is through that.

01;07;27;12 - 01;07;34;09
Karen
And I just love your painting is so beautiful and so representation, but representative of who you are.

01;07;34;11 - 01;07;38;27
Stephanie
Thank you. I definitely feel that way about it too. I love it, I'm proud of it.

01;07;38;27 - 01;08;00;22
Karen
So that just means the world to have this kind of a testimonial. And I have to be honest, I've never had this happen yet, so this is a first time for me to experience someone that has done it together. And sharing the results for me on a podcast is is unbelievable. I couldn't be happier to validate what I'm doing and what I'm really hoping for, because a journey like this hasn't been easy.

01;08;00;22 - 01;08;18;03
Karen
I've had a lot of adversity. A lot of people Pooh poohing it. Like whatever. There's coloring books out there, and I'm like, now, this is more than a coloring book. Seriously. Trying to get to people, helping them understand what this is. Like this what you're talking about helps articulate this so much better than I could ever do on my own.

01;08;18;03 - 01;08;35;24
Karen
It takes somebody doing it and saying, this was my experience, and that's what people listen to. And they're going to say, oh, if that happened for him, that happened for her. I know I can do this, but that that's been my struggle is having people really understand this is not about artistic ability, but the tool is necessary in there.

01;08;35;25 - 01;08;43;04
Karen
It really is necessary for the whole thing to have the effect that it does have.

01;08;43;07 - 01;08;44;20
Stephanie
Great.

01;08;44;23 - 01;08;51;06
Seth
This is so representative of Stephanie because I don't know if you can see she's there. There's a little there is a little red,

01;08;51;09 - 01;08;57;00
Karen
Ladybug, ladybug, ladybug flower. Oh, there. Hello, I like bugs.

01;08;57;02 - 01;09;10;06
Seth
I'm like, how did she painted this? Ladybug has spots. I don't know if you've seen the lady have her spots. I'm like, wait, did we have the same brushes? Because. And then her signature. Her signature. This is so. Stephanie, can you see that?

01;09;10;08 - 01;09;11;00
Karen
Yes.

01;09;11;02 - 01;09;14;10
Seth
She's got a heart.

01;09;14;12 - 01;09;30;13
Karen
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? And you can look at it and go. Everything she did was authentic, real. And it was her, right? Every little bit down in the ladybug, which I absolutely love, a ladybug. They bring good luck. My mom.

01;09;30;16 - 01;09;31;15
Seth
They are.

01;09;31;17 - 01;09;32;18
Karen
So.

01;09;32;21 - 01;09;53;26
Seth
My mother was my mother here was at the house, because she lives here, my parents live with us and she was coming in from the yard or something, and we were in the backyard actually doing this. So we had, again, you'll see the footage, you'll see some of the footage, Karen. But, you know, we had hummingbirds flying around us and birds chirping, and we live on a mountain, literally.

01;09;53;26 - 01;10;13;20
Seth
So I mean, it was just a peaceful, peaceful, beautiful place to do it. It's a beautiful, beautiful day. We were in the shade under one of the trees, and my mom, my mother, she comes. How you guys doing? Our great. We were just finishing up and she comes and stand behind me. Says nothing. She's looking at my painting.

01;10;13;22 - 01;10;27;14
Seth
She's looking. My painting says nothing. but I was already prepared for that because, like, this is a I'm going to show you my painting and it's for nobody else. Like, like it's just it's where I was yesterday. Right? Right.

01;10;27;17 - 01;10;28;05
Karen
It's where you were.

01;10;28;05 - 01;10;56;15
Seth
Yes. She goes behind Stephanie. She goes behind Stephanie looks nice. She's like, oh. Like she she loved it. Right. but but I what I think is important and that's wonderful. This isn't about anybody else wanting to buy your painting or give you a pat on the back or say, nice poem set. I'm glad that you ladies, that that that you like the poem.

01;10;56;16 - 01;10;59;17
Seth
I'm. I'm truly happy. I'm. I'm glad that you felt emotion.

01;10;59;17 - 01;11;00;26
Karen
And.

01;11;00;29 - 01;11;07;28
Seth
That's wonderful. But whether you liked it or not, I liked it.

01;11;07;28 - 01;11;10;19
Karen
And that's all that matters.

01;11;10;19 - 01;11;16;21
Seth
And whether you like my painting or not, I don't like it. You know, I'm going to show you my painting.

01;11;16;21 - 01;11;18;12
Karen
Like, that's okay, because that's okay.

01;11;18;12 - 01;11;39;18
Seth
I'm doing this because I know there are people out there. I know there are women out there who are like me, who like, I'm not going to paint. And like, Stephanie's got she's she's got that beautiful like this. Things being displayed. Right. The kids love it. They're they're going to want this I guarantee you this is going to be part of the discussion on our family estate decades from now.

01;11;39;20 - 01;12;05;29
Seth
Like, no, I want the blossom painting right. Our little six year olds running around saying, it says blossom, isn't it beautiful? Right. And so in my mind, I what I was again, not really used to the medium of painting to express myself. I don't know that I've ever had, an acrylic type a gosh, like like I, I've done watercolor folks.

01;12;06;02 - 01;12;09;21
Seth
Right. And Crayola. Right. Okay. Mark.

01;12;09;23 - 01;12;10;18
Stephanie
The coloring books.

01;12;10;18 - 01;12;29;26
Seth
Yeah. Crack at the coloring book. And so learning how to express yourself with paint and I think I also chose imagery as opposed to maybe just color in strokes. And so I almost I don't say limited myself again. I'm just saying, wow, this is a celebration because I'm learning about myself.

01;12;29;27 - 01;12;30;17
Karen
Yes.

01;12;30;19 - 01;12;53;20
Seth
Then I'm confetti, right? I'm learning. Yeah, I had fun, like creating texture and mixing colors and and learning about one stroke to the other. Now at the end, like, did I really did I get the rain drop, the dew drop? Did I? Well, like, I mean it's in that form, but I this is this is my painting okay.

01;12;53;20 - 01;13;07;02
Karen
Love it. Absolutely love it. Because I'm going to goes your express in everything about it is what you need to see and what you need to feel about yourself. And there's nothing to judge about it. They're all beautiful. Everything.

01;13;07;04 - 01;13;12;05
Seth
I feel like the third grader, that's all you. I feel like the third grader taking this to my teacher.

01;13;12;07 - 01;13;14;06
Stephanie
So validate your third grader.

01;13;14;08 - 01;13;18;16
Seth
I yes, I so thank you. That's interesting. I never thought about this.

01;13;18;19 - 01;13;44;04
Karen
Here's what I learned. Validate your third grader. I taught third grade and that was my grade. I taught and I I'm honest when I say this. It is about you liking what you did and you express yourself with color and you communicated with yourself through color. That's to be celebrated. That's not. And that's a moment in time where I had a conversation in depth with me and that shows it and that's it.

01;13;44;06 - 01;13;53;21
Karen
There's nothing about anything else other than what a beautiful moment that is, and the colors that I use to represent my soul. It's unbelievable. I had fun, I just love.

01;13;53;21 - 01;13;56;29
Seth
It, I had fun, thank you. Thank you so much.

01;13;57;01 - 01;14;05;16
Karen
And truly meaningful for me to see this, because this is exactly what I did this for. It's exactly why I do what I do well.

01;14;05;16 - 01;14;16;17
Stephanie
And I only have to say that I've been laughing because after. Or maybe I was right before he showed me. He was like, well, I was trying to paint a dewdrop, but it's more like, what did you call it?

01;14;16;18 - 01;14;17;20
Seth
It looks like an.

01;14;17;23 - 01;14;18;13
Stephanie
Alien.

01;14;18;13 - 01;14;29;20
Seth
Alien egg pod coming down from some sci fi movie, you know, like I'm like aliens going to come out of that, I don't know, it's like some alien. Yeah. Anyway, with three sons.

01;14;29;22 - 01;14;50;09
Karen
That's why I keep laughing. My God. But the entire thing that's going to mean something different to you. That's what's so crazy about this. You think right now this is something. In about five months from now, you're going to look back on that, and it has a completely different meaning for you. It is it is truly a open door, colors representing you, opening a door.

01;14;50;12 - 01;15;07;26
Karen
That's it. And then you're going to go, oh, I remember thinking that was an alien pod. I know what this means to me now. And you're going to be blown away by it because you won't expect it. And that's why this is so beautiful, because you've opened up what I call a portal. And, is all to your emotions.

01;15;07;26 - 01;15;23;06
Karen
Now you're connected, and now you're going to have an easier time expressing that way, because you're not going to feel anyone's judging you. Isn't that beautiful? No one's saying good or bad. That's just. You can look at this. I did me, this is me, and celebrate that. That's. We're celebrating.

01;15;23;08 - 01;15;41;02
Seth
And after this experience, my first inclination was I want to come back to the canvas. I want to create that next thing. And I in fact, I told her, here's what I'm thinking about. My next canvas. It was it was really a beautiful experience.

01;15;41;02 - 01;15;56;00
Karen
There's going to be a time you're not going to think about what's going to be on the next canvas. You're just going to do it without thinking you're going to go, I, I'm not going to plan ahead. I'm just going to let it. And as time goes on, you're going to find yourself thinking less and less about what you're going to create.

01;15;56;00 - 01;16;15;20
Karen
You're just going to go to the canvas and let it let your paintbrush just do what it's going to do, and you're going to be, wow, wow, you just started a beautiful journey. And it's beautiful to see this because, you know, a year from now, I want you to look back in this moment and you're going to see a different perspective in yourself that you didn't probably have before.

01;16;15;20 - 01;16;31;22
Karen
It opens up something where you see things differently. It's like The Wizard of Oz. You go from everything black and white, and then all of a sudden you're in there, Oz, and everything's in color. It's almost like that feeling something changes within you and it never goes back to the same. It's just brightens more and more as time goes on.

01;16;31;25 - 01;16;53;29
Karen
And you'll remember that time when that happened for you. And, a lot of people go back to the beginning when they did. This is the turning point, which is which is really neat to hear. And I've been hearing more and more of it because more people are coming back with testimonials now that they're getting out there and this is why I so appreciate today what you're doing is such it's such validation as to why I'm going on the world stage in two weeks.

01;16;54;01 - 01;17;15;06
Karen
At first I had imposter syndrome going home. I, I didn't start out to be an art therapist. I was a stay at home mom. And how am I on the world stage? I don't deserve to be up there with PhDs and doctorates of psychology. I'm just a teacher. And no, no, I have every right to be up there because I created something innovative that is helping people and to overcome that imposter syndrome of I'm not enough.

01;17;15;09 - 01;17;32;01
Karen
That was my biggest feat. So everything in that kid I had to use to get myself to a world stage, if you think about it, I had to overcome all those hurdles, all of those hurdles, including imposter syndrome, which is one of the biggest ones for me. And, we are all it's the same thing is I'm not an artist.

01;17;32;06 - 01;17;52;17
Karen
Who am I, an artist? I don't paint like painters do. I have a friend that's over here today. She's sitting on my couch. She created the kit box color. She's the artist. I paint and I'm innovative. But we all have our own gifts. And I think if everyone realized they're going into this to find something special within themselves, they didn't know they had, that's beautiful.

01;17;52;20 - 01;18;13;10
Karen
And and when they realize it has very little nothing to do with painting, it's it's going to make them more inclined to try this because it's tapping. And like you said earlier, it is tapping into yourself, finding out who you are and enjoying the journey. This is about enjoying it, not looking at this arduous thing. It's like now I get to enjoy, sit back and look at my life.

01;18;13;10 - 01;18;35;12
Karen
Is one paint stroke at a time. Tomorrow I'm going to paint blue. We'll see what the next day brings. Might be green, I don't know yet. And before you know it, a week later of a canvas that's full of color and you didn't expect that. That's that's the motion. I want more people to come to think more openly and openly with creative, with a more open, creative mind takes away the anxiety.

01;18;35;15 - 01;18;55;03
Karen
Because when you're in a creative moment, doing anything creative anxiety goes away right off the bat. So we're doing so many different things with this. We're also taking away anxiety and depression is helping with that. With the people I spoken with has really helped with that quite a bit, because when you're doing anything creative, it takes away any of that negative self-talk.

01;18;55;03 - 01;19;23;18
Karen
It just you're in the moment. You're creating for creative purposes only. And that's my goal with this is to have more people in that mindset, that healthy mindset. Be creative, be yourself. Find who you are because it starts with the mind. The health starts right here. Getting this straightened out will help with all the physical things. Right now I have, doctors in Texas incorporating these kids into their health care practice because they call me their missing link.

01;19;23;20 - 01;19;44;25
Karen
Can you imagine? That just happened a couple months ago. And the missing link is true. This is a missing link. We're not looking at the emotional side of things while there's therapy sessions out there. There's I'm not going against here because I was also in therapy. But there's a piece of this that people don't have access to. And I've created a tool to help you get access to it quicker and better.

01;19;44;29 - 01;20;01;07
Karen
That helps with therapies. This is a tool that a therapist can use. This is a tool a life coach can use with their client. This is a tool to be used in tandem with health care professionals. Because I have the chiropractors working on their body, they have the red light therapy for this. They have everything but the emotional side.

01;20;01;12 - 01;20;22;21
Karen
And what I have is an emotional vitamin and a kit or an emotional massage. And so now they're looking into this more seriously, and the doctors looking into this are really seeing it as a part of health care that's necessary to help heal the patient fully, because you can give them any kind of drug, but it's not going to work if their emotional mind is not cleared up.

01;20;22;24 - 01;20;30;29
Seth
Wow wow wow wow, I was you're just closing that. I thought this darkness always yields to light.

01;20;31;05 - 01;20;31;18
Karen
Yes.

01;20;31;20 - 01;20;35;06
Seth
Fear always yields to faith.

01;20;35;09 - 01;20;35;17
Karen
Yes.

01;20;35;17 - 01;20;58;04
Seth
And at the heart of painting your soul, the soul care kit is creation, creativity, imagination. Another word for creativity. Imagination is faith. Yes it is. It is the work of faith. So an interview with Karen Hanlon. Karen, thank you so much for being with us.

01;20;58;04 - 01;21;27;17
Karen
Thank you so much. What a pleasure it has been. Thank you. I'm honored to have been on your show today. This is a delight. I thank you for doing this. Thank you for showing me being vulnerable and showing me your paintings and your your beautiful poetry. I love everything you've said. Your description of how you went through this helped me see this is necessary to keep pushing out there because I know everyone will benefit from this because it has such a way of healing that is profound.

01;21;27;20 - 01;21;41;26
Karen
And what you showed me is that it is it is really, really even working with both of you. And in the short time it's going to keep happening, you're going to find more insights as time goes on. That's what's really special about it. It's not a one and done. And you're right, we're going to keep going back to the canvas.

01;21;41;26 - 01;21;55;13
Karen
Even the one thing you don't think you're good at, you're going to find yourself doing more and more, and you're not going to know why. It's going to make it easier. How much do we know this? I don't even like this. And you're going to be blown away with where you head now. You're going to be surprise. You'll surprise yourself.

01;21;55;13 - 01;22;02;16
Karen
So you're on a journey, and I'm so glad to be a part of it. Truly, truly humbled.

01;22;02;18 - 01;22;06;14
Seth
And cut. It's a wrap.

01;22;06;16 - 01;22;21;19
Stephanie
Thank you so much for being here today. And thank you for sharing this episode with that one friend who needs this conversation. Thank you for all the ratings, the reviews, the comments, and especially the support. We so appreciate you.

01;22;21;21 - 01;22;35;21
Seth
Now, if you want to take a peek behind the curtain and be the first to know about special previews, backstage updates here at the show, and especially some private collection content that doesn't come out in the regular show.

01;22;35;24 - 01;22;40;19
Stephanie
Be sure to join our VIP community at the Forever Young Show Home.