Facing some uncertainty?
This is not an obstacle.
You can become more self-confident in any circumstances.
Discover what the expert, Katherine, has to say about it!
Let’s dive right in!
Who is Katherine Jansen-Byrkit?
Katherine is amazing!
She has this calm and reassuring voice when she talks, we instantly connected! 🙂
Katherine spent over a decade in Public Health managing violence prevention and teen health programs.
Her second career is the one that she has now enjoyed over 15 years offering in private practice not only holistic psychotherapy but retreats and workshops as well!
She’s originally from Oregon and currently lives in Minnesota with her husband (for 30 years!) and their 6 children (impressive!).
Meet Katherine! 🙂
She just published her first book!
Last year, Katherine published “River to Ocean: Living in the Flow of Wakefulness.”
This is what it’s about:
“Her book reflects the human voyage of finding your way to an awakened self. As with a river that traverses steep mountains and winding valleys, our inner and outer worlds can be encumbered by a lack of connection to ourselves, old beliefs, an anxious mind, preoccupation with death, or compromised relationships to others. Each and all of these can interfere with living our most authentic and loving life. In River to Ocean, Katherine explores nine aspects of wakefulness, offering insights, practices, and her own and other’s inspirational stories from the field.”
To get your copy of the book, click here!
Who we are and what we do…
I always start my podcast guest interviews by asking my guests to introduce themselves starting with the question “who are you?”
Most of them are a bit surprised and want to answer something else from the common “this is what I do in life…”. I like that! 🙂
So, no exception for Katherine, I started by asking her this question and we laughed at it.
After sharing who she is, she adds:
“Who we are can take form in what we do, but we have too much attachment sometimes to who I am is what I do.
If we lose a job or if our relationship changes, then our identity kind of crushes.
So the idea of who we are is very important.
There are essential parts of us, we have unique parts and that’s what is very important too!
Not only what we are doing but who we truly are.”
Uncertainty in life and confidence
I told Katherine that in a time of a lot of uncertainty (taking the example of the situation of COVID-19), it may shake our self-confidence because everything seems so fragile around us, it seems kind of out of control!
To that, Katherine says that:
“We are wired to deal with uncertainty.
We don’t even know what will happen in 5 minutes from now!
This idea of this unfamiliar is threatening or the unknown is endangering to us. We live with the idea of control but there is a lot of uncertainty out there and in all things!
My first read would be just to trust that we have the capacity to deal with hardship and that we are wired to react to things if we need a burst of energy.
Whatever we are worried about, actually, it’s about our resilience because we are facing uncertainty at all times.
Just to normalize it, with COVID, it came on very fast and it’s such a global thing.
What is certain VS what is uncertain, if people can find: What in your life is the same?
Going out with your dog, taking a deep breath using meditation, or spring in Oregon like we always have, it’s important to feel that deeply, to feel quiet and calm when things feel so different”.
Being more resilient…
If you’re interested in the topic of resilience (facing any situation and knowing that you will be okay!), you have to check out my post and podcast episode: How To Build Your Resilience And Boost Your Self-Confidence
How self-care can help!
Katherine shares that:
“I’m sorry and sad for what is happening, for the tragedy and all the loss.
And at the same time, I’m really glad for the opportunity for people to see things that they didn’t know that they needed, having a structure is important, not a rigid one but one that you organize your life and your day.
I would say “self-care” and not only getting a massage etc. but deep self-care in terms of physical health, having a relationship with one’s body, listening to your body, taking care of it.”
4 categories of self-care
Katherine breaks self-care into 4 categories:
“Physical, emotional, relational, and for some people spiritual.
And back to talking of a time of uncertainty, find your feet, or trust your resilience, take care of yourself.
We will all look back over this time, there will be an end to this stage and this is a powerful opportunity to use it as a wake-up call, whatever that means to your listeners.
Maybe it’s about taking care of your body so you don’t worry about immunity, maybe I realized that I was very lonely, I need to look at that in my life because life will go back to normal.
And it all depends on what it means to you and what it means to me.
I’m more a “glass is half full” kind of person, I think that things happen through us and for sure, for us.
It means to me to really be intentional with my life for the next days and weeks.
When we say that “things are happening to me”, it makes us feel like a victim of the situation and of our lives.”
Waking up through your life!
About her new book, Katherine shares…
“I had a lot of trauma when I was a teenager, I realized it through the years of rebuilding.
I was 200 pounds, that’s not my normal body weight and this book is all the pieces I found that were important to rebuilding and finding myself to my conscious self rather than felt back then as broken self.
So, part of it is having a relationship with yourself, this is aspect one.
My book is about 9 different aspects of wakefulness.
It is a little handbook to help navigate life’s upsides downs, the mountains and the valleys, the easy stuff, and the hard stuff.”
Sounds amazing, I really want my signed copy of it! 🙂
Embracing death and dying
Katherine and I talked about embracing death and dying.
In our opinion, we’re not talking enough about it out there!
Katherine says:
“If we make peace with it, we’ll live a different life.
By facing it! I’m not saying just to accept it, but to EMBRACE death and dying.
People were shocked by that title, but it’s not such a negative thing and doesn’t have to be such a scary thing when we can face that.
The first thing would be to accept it.”
I 100% agree with her! 🙂
Our whole life would be different if we would be accepting it a bit more!
To get your copy of the book, click here!
More about Katherine!
If you just like me, really liked what Katherine is saying, you can find her through her website:
You’ll find links to her community (like-minded people who want to live a conscious life), her actual practice, her new book and so much more!
Or her Facebook Page:
Order your copy now of River to Ocean!
To sum up!
Katherine has a lot of experience and knowledge to share! 🙂
She ended this interview by saying:
“Our relationship to ourselves, being more a whole, knowing who we truly are and like the question you asked “who am I?” and realizing that we have nothing to prove, every day we can go and achieve, but it’s not from the same place of fear or insecurity.
My work is to move from the head to the heart, having something in our bones and not just a nice idea.”
This is very encouraging and inspiring! Sounds like we can all do amazing work with Katherine!
I can’t wait to get my copy signed from her! 🙂
Katherine is part of people that are changing the world, I’m so glad I had the opportunity to talk to her!
Thank you Katherine! 🙂
