All the Faiths and all the Spirits with Rev. Cathy Whelehan

Cathy Whelehan is first and foremost a student of life, love and connection. She is most passionate about supporting students to develop personal practices that assist individual transformation and planetary evolution. Her yoga classes emphasize sound therapeutic alignment, integration with the cycles of nature and celebration of the heart.

Cathy began practicing yoga twenty years ago during her first pregnancy in 1996 simply because she wanted to feel better and found that it helped her reconnect with her body. She has been teaching yoga for 10 years and has over 1,000 hours of training in Ashaya, Anusara and various therapeutic modalities.

She has been teaching yoga out of her home since 2007 and was inspired to co-create Open Sky Yoga Barn (OSYB) in 2011 on her property in Redding, Connecticut to combine her love of yoga and service with family life. When Cathy is not doing the mom thing or teaching at OSYB, she can be found hiking in the woods with her dog Gracie, walking the labyrinth, dancing, singing, laughing, reading, writing, gardening and preparing healthy food.

This is Freddie’s first episode to explore spirituality and faith. Cathy and Freddie discuss the number one item for your self-care list, finding God after difficult times, the role of faith while raising two chronically ill children, and possibly Freddie’s favorite answer to what it means to be beautifully broken.

Episode Highlights

- 1:23 - What does it mean to be an interfaith practitioner?

- 2:49 - Why pursue the interspirituality ministry?

- 7:12 - How interspirituality could change our world

- 11:12 - Staying connected to your why

- 15:01 - The #1 thing for your self-care list

- 17:21 - Is it okay to only find God after times of loss, illness, or age?

- 23:33 - What matters is how you show up

- 24:47 - The role of faith while raising two chronically ill children

- 35:11 - The essential need for community and faith

- 38:30 - Getting connected to interspirituality

- 40:49 - What does it mean to be beautifully broken?

- 43:58 - Cathy's challenge to the audience

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (00:00.158)
I do believe that when we say things that are very much directly related to our why, you know, the big why, like, why do we get up? What are we doing? How are we showing up? What's our commitment? When we say that in a really conscious way, as a practice, in a sense, it has tremendous power to help us and all the people that we come into contact with, because the intention is really powerful.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (00:33.219)
Welcome to the Beautifully Broken Podcast brought to you by AmpCoil. I'm your host, Freddie Kimmel, and on this show, we discuss the common thread survivors share after walking through the fire, the practitioners making a difference, and the treatment modalities that deliver healing back into the hands of the people who need it most. Witness the inspiration we gain by navigating the human experience with grace, humility, and a healthy dose of mistakes. Because part of being human is being beautifully broken.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (01:07.309)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. I'm here with a very special guest. They're always special. Kathy Wheelahan. Kathy, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Of course. And Kathy, I'm having you on as a guest because I have done no shows, absolutely zero, nothing about spirituality or faith. And you are an interfaith minister.

And can you just tell the audience what that means? Sure. The title is actually interfaith inter spiritual minister. And there is a slight differentiation, I would say, I think, depending upon who you speak to. But an interfaith minister is someone who has studied all of the wisdom traditions of the world, religions and faiths and

even the indigenous cultural traditions, and sees the truth and the universality of all of the teachings. So it's like we honor all of it. And we pledge to help bring an experience of the sacred to the common of all people, you know, that we are really that out of the many is the one and out of the one comes the many.

Well, I think that that's really a good way to look at the interfaith. It's individuals, ministers, ministries, affirming the truth in all the religions, faiths, and spiritual traditions. And what made you pursue this into your life? Because I know you're a yoga teacher and you run a successful yoga studio up in Redding, Connecticut.

and among other things that you do there. But what made you pursue the interfaith interspiritual ministry? mean, I think it was it was a it was a line through my life that was always there. And I hadn't quite figured out how to make it more of a real daily part of my life. So when I even when I was younger, I always thought like I would

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (03:27.908)
go and become a nun or something. That sounds so weird. I'm not even Catholic, but I always wanted like, really longed for more of a monastic type of a life. Then life happens. So in college, I was a theology minor and I, and I loved it. And everything I've done has an essence of that spiritual nature to it. So even when let's say I was a Russian major and lived in Moscow,

so much of what I loved about the people and the culture was their deep faith. And even in their circumstances, they were under communism and there was like, they were the most incredibly faithful and loving people, like when you sat down to break bread with them at the table. I noticed a thread in my life where I couldn't quite figure out how to make a living doing it. So I didn't pursue it after college per se, but I kept coming back around.

and I'm an ever like a never ending student. So I studied yoga and mostly tantra for years, know, more than 10 years and really immersed myself in the teachings and I loved it. And then I yet I still felt like there was more. So one day I was talking to a friend and I learned about this place called One Spirit and I read, I'm gonna read you this definition of

of interspirituality because it was when I read this definition that I just, know, the tears of joy just started flowing because I knew this was something that I was supposed to do. And I didn't quite know what was going to come of it, but it was a path I knew that I was going to walk. So this is by Mirabai Star and it's titled interspirituality. To walk an interspiritual path,

is to travel through the wilderness with open hands in a courageous spirit. It is to navigate with the heart and a book of prayers from every faith tradition that ever uttered a sacred phrase in any language. To travel an interspiritual path is to drop to our knees in the presence of love wherever we encounter it and to disarm our hearts

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (05:53.799)
the minute we have the impulse to otherize a faith we do not understand. To take an interspiritual journey is to circle ever inward to a place of holy silence and vibrant stillness. And then to surge back outward with the contemplative fruits we have gathered to feed a hungry world. An interspiritual life invites us to take our rightful place at the table of the divine

in many holy houses and asks that we kneel at the altars of multiple traditions and drink from the goblet we are offered and allow it to transform us. Inter-spirituality is about saying yes to the sacred in every form and no form, about moving beyond intellectual orientation to active engagement with various religions

about seeking and finding the love that unifies all paths and affirms our essential interconnectedness.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (07:06.128)
essential interconnectedness. That's something when you read that, you know, I was feeling it resonate in different parts of my body where the words hit. And what came up for me was right now is this climate, the social climate we're in. And I saw all these separate countries, all these separate islands of faith and belief and dogmatic views about politics and social beliefs.

about love and what a partner is, what a family looks like. And we're so segmented right now. And that passage was just like, what if people were to listen to that every single morning for 10 days in a row when they woke up and went to bed? Could you think just from those words, there could be a shift? absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. mean, one of the major shifts that has happened for me in going through the program

The first year you study all the wisdom traditions. So every month you're studying a different tradition, starting with Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, you go through it all, Christianity, Native American, you do the whole gamut for nine months. And each month you basically practice spiritual practices from that faith. And then

The second year, you're learning more about how to be an active minister, holding sacred space, ceremony, ritual, and all of those things, know, weddings, memorials, funerals, baby blessings, and things like that, but also creating very different kinds of ceremonies that might not be something, you know, someone might come to you and say, I would like a ceremony. I feel like a part of my ego is dying, and I would like to celebrate what's coming forth, and you have to...

figure out how to work with that, with the person. So there's so many wonderful opportunities. The one thing that I have found very powerful since being ordained in June is that we had to write our own vows of ministry. And it was what we were committing to and promising to the God of our understanding, spirit, source, however you want to call it, the big energy, love.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (09:25.266)
And it's our commitment that we are making every day. And before we went through ordination, which is a very powerful spiritual ceremony, we were asked to start reciting our vows to ourselves. And so you build up every morning, you're saying the vows. So it's sort of what you're asking, the question that you're asking. And now when I wake up every morning, it's the first thing. I'm laying in bed and I just say my vows to myself.

I might whisper them out loud, but I want to wake up my husband. but that's how I start my day. And it is powerful because no matter how off track or what anxiety or whatever is going on in my life with my kids or my business or whatever, that regrounds me into what I'm committed to every day. That's how I start. And on the very few days that I forget, it's funny.

Because sometime during that morning, I will stop and go, my God, I forgot to say my vows. And I'll just drop in and do it right where I am, whether it's doing the dishes or driving my son to school or whatever. I have felt a major shift since that time of writing them. And now that I've been through about three months of saying them, I do believe that when we say things that are very much directly related to our why,

You know, the big why, like, why do we get up? What are we doing? How are we showing up? What's our commitment? When we say that in a really conscious way as a practice, in a sense, it has tremendous power to help us and all the people that we come into contact with because the intention is really powerful. Yeah. And what's your mission with this?

you know, with this practice that you're developing in yourself and where do you see this woven into your community? You know, right now I'm not so sure. I feel like I'm in a little bit of a limbo space. And so what the vows are really helping me do is stay connected to my why. Like the first line of my vow is my beloved, I surrender myself into your sacred service.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (11:47.377)
and commit my life to the embodiment of love through an ever deepening relationship with you. So that line, when I say that line each day, I am so ready to commit to then my meditation, my practice of being with spirit. And then it's out of that because it's through the surrender. mean, none of us really knows.

what tomorrow brings. We can have a whole plan and a wonderful calendar and all sorts of great ideas and things that we're going to do. But the fact of the matter is that anything can happen. We can get hit by a bus. Absolutely. The big bus. The big bus. So someone can get sick. You can get sick. Something can change on a dime. So to me, I've been a big doer my whole life. Running businesses and...

and having three kids and two of them were chronically ill. So there's a lot of stuff in my life where it was like, I just see what's in front of me and I do it and I just keep doing and I keep showing up. And in a way I'm in a place, a little bit of this place in my life where I'm exploring more of what it is to be and do less. And it doesn't mean that I'm not doing, it just means that the quality of my doing starts to shift a little bit, cause it's more grounded in being. Totally candid question.

Are you the more the deeper you go into this area of discovery? Do you think it's it's like Kathy Wheelhand can be whatever she wants to be? You can you can create or are you in this process of peeling away layers? Discover what is inherently you by design? I mean, I would say I guess I think it's a little bit of both because in peeling, I think it's more the second in a sense because there's a place.

of being in each of us that is the ground of being. And so as we, in a way, fall more and more in love with ourselves, right? We allow this infinite potential to birth and manifest. So I think it's both in a way. Yeah. What I love about the second one, and this just came up in a conversation yesterday, is that we're like,

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (14:09.609)
especially now, and I think it's been magnified and manifested that we're like this generation where this product of like 40 years of self-help. So it's like, you can be, you can be, you can make whatever you want, you can create. And there's so much ego driving that. And then the other way that we're like, it's this area of discovery. think anytime you come at something with a question, it's like, you know, you're humble, you're humble to what's inside you as you're going through this area of discovery.

You're always asking as opposed to it's like me, I'm doing it. I'm driving the business. I'm the savior for these people. And you know, what's inside that I'm going to discover today, tomorrow, next year, always amazing, always divine. in there, you know, like for me, that means like, you know, God's inside. Totally. It's an inside job. As opposed to I'm like creating this island, be like,

really wish God would help me right now. He really doesn't really want to go my way. And he really hasn't given me the apartment or home I dream of. And, know, then it's like you have this like, then you're always a stranger. You have this weird relationship where he's like, you're like, I just really leaves me all the time. Really doesn't help me out anymore. God has abandoned me. Think of one of the, you know, there's the niyamas and yamas, yamas and niyamas and yoga. And one of them is this a parigraha, which is this grasping and

Ishvara Pranidhana is the Niyama, which is the other side of the ethical guidelines, which is surrender to source. So I think as human beings, it's very natural and sort of a habit that we have to grasp and try to hold on to, controlling in a sense. This whole, you can manifest whatever you want. Just choose the next best thought and all that stuff. I am not

I will not argue with any of that stuff. Like I do believe and I did the Abraham's pick stuff and I, you know, I do think that positive psychology is powerful in all of that. I think what I came to in my life was that I, my relationship to goddess, God, right, spirit, source, that inside job thing that we just talked about,

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (16:31.159)
that I notice the more I go into a commitment and I fall off the wagon just like anyone else, right? I'll have several days where maybe I haven't had a chance to really sit and meditate or I'm on the fly or whatever. But every time I come back into it and I quiet my mind and I sit in love, I have a deep sense of remembering, even if it's just momentary.

And I drop into such gratitude that I was taught how to, that I know what to do, and that I create a space for myself, that I value myself enough that I create a space for myself to do it. I mean, I would actually say that I think of spiritual practice as just the number one thing on my self-care list. Yeah, think it's something that for so many people,

You know, it falls by the wayside and for whatever reason, you know, and I, and I see, I see this in like my, my dad, remember going to church as a little kid, we went to a Lutheran church, which I had super mixed feelings about. And then we went to a Methodist later on, but I remember like when I was a kid, my dad would never go to church. He would, he would often not go. It was like every fifth or sixth Sunday, he would like show up.

And now my dad's like, you know, got the Bible every morning. He's got his Wayne Dyer tapes. He's like, you know, the birthday cards. He's like, you know, it's all it's like G.O.D. like all the way like he's come. He's he's been in my opinion, he's been beat up a little bit by life and like the ego that has no other place to go. It's like you could almost see the person get like pulverized and they're like they have and for whatever, know, however that

That whole that's a whole nother podcast which we won't even get into but I See the transformation and I see it happen oftentimes once someone's gone through cancer or Lyme disease or they get to a certain age and now it's time you see death coming Because you're like I see death coming all the time. I mean, I just like I look around it, you know being you know

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (18:54.233)
41 and and I've just seen so much life go by and I was like I remember there was a time this hit me hard Hard last week. I was rocking around Hell's Kitchen and I'd walked around those streets for 15 years going to auditions Trying to make it into your next show What'll be next? When's my agent gonna call and that was like it that was all I was thinking about and there was no concept of like when it would end when when it would be done, I just was like

This is so present for me now. But now I walk around those streets and was like, shit, there's 40 years of it gone. I was like, I, I can, you know, hopefully have another 40, another 50. That would be great. But you see this timestamp on it and those things that were so held so much power and so much weight just don't matter that much anymore, especially after going through, you know, chronic illness. And you see like.

It takes one long, one wrong twist of the intestine of you back in the emergency room and you know, who knows what follows that. yeah. yeah. It's just crazy what drives, but I guess we're all driven the whole, the sidebar it back to my point. We're all driven to these points of like come to God, come to Jesus moments, come to Allah moments when we, when we need to be. Yeah. And I think that that's a very good point about

illness and and and even grief, you know, having someone die that you really love. It's right front and center. Like none of us are guaranteed another day. I know. So how's your today going? So for me, that's why I keep coming back to the spiritual practice, because it builds a container. You know, and I went into the ministry

because I had built up a container of spiritual practice for many, years. And then I really wanted to understand how do I use that in service of myself, my family, and others? Because the sense I have when I practice is really one of oneness. And the last line of my vows is, to remember to return to love again and again.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (21:17.829)
remembering our oneness and our wholeness with all that is. So it's like these different things like illness, death, and all sorts of things in between can stop us in our tracks. And then we go, like you had that experience of walking around. I'm in a place where my second child has now gone off to college and I have one left at home. I've been having these crazy moments of seeing my life in totality.

And I've always been a person who is aware of the thin veil between this world and the next. But now I'm seeing it in sort of snapshots of my life. You know, I'm 51. So it's like, sort of see like, there's the first part of your life and then, and now I'm moving really into the second part of my life. And I was sitting out with my husband and I said, you know, it's amazing to me how 25 years of a marriage can go by so

quickly. And then now I have a perspective of looking at sort of like, like you were saying, it's like phases that you've gone through, right? Like at that time in your life, you could feel like you could just drop into and know that feeling of walking around that neighborhood and feelings you had around that. Like, I feel like I can do that, like with decades, you know, of what it was like to have babies, of what it was like to. So,

I think that our humanity, like there are certain things that we just all share together. And one of the things is that literally we're all gonna go at some point. So we live in a culture where death is really not honored or celebrated, where it's definitely feared and it's sort of like put off. And I think it's great to have like all this.

biohacking stuff and live as long as you can. I'm all into all that. But the fact of the matter is you can do all that. You're still going to go at some point. Well, you could still catch the bus. Exactly. My oncologist told me right after I got better. He's like, dude, just because you beat cancer doesn't mean you can't get hit by a bus. So pick your head up. Exactly. Pick your head up. So so I guess for me, and you asked before something like, how does that translate to?

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (23:41.023)
When we were in the second year of seminary, just remember, I think I've told you this before, it was the beginning of the year and they said, you you minister to whoever walks in your door. That's what interfaith, interspiritual ministry is. Whoever is in front of you, the clerk at the checkout counter, your kid's teacher. And this is not

from a hubris place or an ego place. This is literally from a place of humility that if that we see ourselves as here to serve in the capacity of love and loving kindness. And that just feels so good to me. So it doesn't matter really what I'm doing. That's just a choice of how I want to show up, whether I want to teach yoga or meditation or,

be a coach or a spiritual counselor. It doesn't, at the end of the day, what really matters is how I show up and what my why of intention is in how I show up. And you mentioned a little bit ago that you had two kids that were chronically ill. You know, I know you grew up and well, you're in Lyme Central. You're in the middle of Connecticut, which is a big Lyme disease area.

Can you talk a little bit about that? Like how your faith and where you pulled strength from to walk, you know, to children, which I can only listen to stories about it and say, wow, that sounds terrible. How would I deal with that? you know, I can't imagine a piece of you walking around outside of yourself that you...

You know, at least yourself at the end of the day, you feel like you have this degree of control, but definitely your children. I can, I can only imagine that's a totally different story. Yeah. I think from an early age in my, you know, motherhood, like in, in, in early motherhood, because of my, you know, I started doing yoga when I was pregnant with my first. So that was a spiritual practice and a path that I was already on.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (25:55.763)
And I did believe in, you know, reincarnation and sort of this idea that like, there's a certain amount of choice that the soul has in coming in. And, you know, I don't know exactly what happens, where we come from, where we go. But I do think there's something about in being around people who have passed, you know, I know that the energy lives on and that I know we take some of what we've learned with us.

I just know inherently that feels very right to me. Early on when my oldest first got sick, I did have a very deep knowing that this is his path. Like he has to walk this path. And I am here to shepherd him, toward him, to do the very best job that I can, but ultimately I can't control it.

And so that was sort of the beginning of my practice of surrendering. That's strong. Yeah. Wow. And that was over. It happened. It's just over and over again because, know, your kids having major testing done that's invasive and he's in pain like you can't imagine. you know, my daughter too and all that. And and it wasn't even the money. was the anguish and the end that you want like.

When you're a parent, all you want to do is take it from them. that's you literally, you're like, God, just let me have the disease. Give it to me. You know, and you, you can't, you can't. So, so that was my first experience of surrendering over to a power that is greater than me and having faith in it. Like I remember when they told me that my son would, be in a wheelchair by 21. And the first, I just, I said, no, that's not going to happen.

You know, we're not and we're not coming back to you that's not my belief system. So I believed in something different and I believe in the power of love to heal in such a huge way. So it's been I mean, it's it's but it's I still go through it. I still get the phone calls from college and this is problem and it's like, you know, I just try to be the best version of myself in the most loving capacity. don't always do it right. But.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (28:18.152)
or and, I go back and I practice. I just was telling you that it's been a really crazy summer and I haven't been practicing as regularly. And I have a bunch of different stuff that I do, breath work and meditation and asana and all different, but the meditation is what I really try to stick pretty regularly to. And now I'm getting back into it and the deep sense of gratitude that I

I'm like, oh yeah, I remember why I choose to do this. I had one teacher, one of my philosophy teachers said, you know, the universe, you know, God, whatever you want to call it, is playing hide and go seek with us all the time. And we're playing back. You know, we hide, we fall off.

we do these little things with ourselves and then we realize, wait a minute, I want to be seen, I want to be heard, I want to be loved, I want to be found. So we play with that and we go back and forth. you know, one of the things I noticed again and again is about, I don't know, seven or eight years ago when I started a very rigorous sadhana practice of 60 days with my friend Laura, I shifted an old pattern of

when I would fall off my practice and get back on the mat, I would have a whole bunch of like, I don't know, maybe guilt or like, I haven't been on it. And it would like take up about 15 minutes of my practice having to move through whatever shame I had created around not practicing. And then finally I got to this incredible place where I was no longer looking at what I hadn't done.

And entering into whatever day I came to my mat as an incredible gift that I was giving to myself. And it made me, you know, tune more into these like 12 step programs and people, you know, recovering from any kind of like addiction stuff. Like every day, begin again, begin anew. Every day is an opportunity. And that was a powerful shift for me.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (30:33.81)
And so I feel really grateful that this is such a deep thread in my life. And I think the ministry just, it kind of, you know, it broadened my perspective in a huge way by bringing me like around the world. And there was so much diversity in our program that that was wonderful too. And then I was part of a bigger community.

So I think the last thing to say about how did I make it through with, you know, sick kids and this different thing. I think that's like the bridge from interfaith to interspirituality. I think it's this jump of like, it requires community. Like interfaith is saying, okay, all of the wisdom traditions, if you read the texts, which we had to do, you know, it's remarkable.

They're all saying the same thing. They're just saying it in a different way. It's love. It's their books of love, unconditional love. And it's so beautiful. So that's the interfaith. It's like recognizing the truth in all of that. I would say the inter spirituality part is realizing that, you know, the growth of inter spiritual wisdom requires

community. You can't do it in a vacuum. You can't be a monk in a cave. We have to have each other. We have to have the mirror and we have to enter into relationship and be willing to have difficult conversations and agree to disagree and hold each other in the highest.

That's inter spirituality. That's taking it to the next level, which is, think what we're seeing in our world now is such a divided right. And there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fear being manufactured and sold in many different ways, politically, right? know, emotionally. And so, but when you get together human to human,

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (32:59.304)
and you speak from the heart.

The rest of it doesn't really matter. You can still have differences, but ultimately, you know, we come in, we spend this time here, and then we go out. So those of us who have had more challenge and illness and death and struggle are, think, on some level more aware of it. If we have any kind of a consciousness going on or any kind of a deeper seeking going on.

But that doesn't mean that we can't then help be a beacon of light in the darkness or bring more consciousness to the ignorance. And I really think that that's what this whole thing is about. This inter-spirituality is about recognizing that we have to do it in community. So.

We need to practice on our own and cultivate the love for ourselves, our bodies, our self care, all of the stuff that you talk about in your podcasts, right? Educate ourselves, stay engaged, right? Honor the body, honor the emotions, all of it. But at the end of the day, if we're just keeping that for ourselves, we're completely missing the point and the opportunity.

Because it's in sharing what we've got that it magnifies it exponentially. That's the service component. And I think some people think of service in a limited way. I think of what you do as service. You are serving humanity by helping people tune into things that they might not have access to or understanding around.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (34:55.952)
that can really shift their lives. And then if they shift their lives and become the best version of themselves, then everyone they come into contact with, right, they're making the world a more loving place. So I think the reason why I really went into that program was, you know, the sense of needing community, global community.

You know, I have it here at the barn. I create community in these little, you know, pockets of, you know, local and stuff like that. But this gave me a sense of being connected to a much bigger movement. And and I can tap into that all the time. And that feels. Really supportive and that that it makes me have more hope and faith.

that there's tremendous possibility that we haven't even tapped into yet because I can go dark like anyone else turning on the news, reading the paper, right? There's a lot we can focus on that's not going well. But there are so many good people and so many good organizations doing so many amazing things that let's keep showing up. Let's stay steady. Let's keep having these conversations like we're having right now.

because there might just be one person who listens to this. One, that's all it takes. Each one teach one. Maybe one person listens to this. Here's something about this interfaith interspirituality that a little light bulb goes off, just like they did for me in some way for them. And maybe they end up going into the ministry or a interfaith interspiritual ministry somewhere in the world.

And they find their calling and their path and they step up as a minister and they lead a community and other people's lives are changed tremendously. And we don't even know that it happened. That's the part that really is so amazing to me. When I get the email or I get the...

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (37:04.617)
you know, little note from someone that says, you know, you probably don't remember me, but I was in your yoga class and you know, 2000 whatever, you inspire me. And I thought that person didn't like it at all because they said nothing. And they ended up going on and going into teacher training and becoming a yoga teacher. And their lives have completely changed. And they're just writing me a little note to thank me. And I don't, I, I just, I'm flabbergasted by it. One time I met them.

something like that. So I think that's where the like podcasts, the things that you're doing, that you have the potential to reach so many people. And even though we want them to make a comment and like and share and all that stuff, right? Like sometimes it's the person that you've never heard from that listened to it and had a major shift. And you hear about it like years later. I just want to

know, Freddie Kimmel, I heard you one time, you know, and that's, that's where we just have no idea what the effect of our actions are. But if we're rooted in love, and we know the intention, the big why, why we're doing it, and we stay steady in our commitment to do it, then we surrender the outcome. And we keep coming from love. Yeah, that's beautiful. I want to

Because I believe in people. It's like, where do I get started? I want to buy in. How do I, you know, what book do I go do? Where do I get started? Because like you said, there'll be people who download this podcast from all over the world. I think we're in like 56 countries now, something crazy. Not like the most downloaded podcasts in the world, but you know, like it does, you have that ripple effect. So is there a place where people could get a hold of you?

and reach out and send you a message even for a coaching session, to do a Zoom coaching, to come see you live. Like where would they go? Do you have a website? Yeah. So the Open Sky Yoga Barn, it's just www.openskyyogabarn.com and it's also on Facebook and I do have an Instagram and you can just hit me up and I'll respond.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (39:32.287)
You know, the other thing that I would say for people is that the beautiful thing, if you're at all interested in checking out one spirit, while it's located in New York City, all of their classes are you can zoom. So they have a bunch of weekend classes, weeknight classes that people can take that aren't in the seminary so that you can see if any of that resonates with you. So they have.

Buddhist classes and know, Christianity classes and spirituality classes and you know, Course in Miracle and you know, all sorts of different things that you can dip your toe in the water to see if something speaks to you as well, you know. So yeah, I'm available. People can reach out to me and you can also look up One Spirit Interfaith Seminary online and you know, follow your, just keep following your heart.

Beautiful. always that is that is the and that's the graphic of the beautifully broken podcast. I had this like vision of like this heart with like a megaphone coming out of the top with like a crack in the side. It's just keep it does it comes back there. The other thing I want to ask, you know, I close out the podcast. What does it mean to you to be beautifully broken? Well, I think we all have.

beautifully broken bits and pieces. And, you know, I think about how in yoga, you know, we learn about how you have to have the darkness to appreciate and understand the light. You don't have the contrast, you can't learn, right, what the quality of the thing really is. If all we had was light, right, and there was no night, there was no way.

So it's like, it's very interesting. The broken bits and pieces bring in more of the light and I think help us to, you know, do that excavation of who we really are. If I look at my life and I look at, you know, as human beings, we're always sort of looking to see, if only we could just get it stable. If only...

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (42:01.043)
we could just have whatever, fix my joint pain or not have any fatigue. Things would be so much better, you know, or we do that thing, right? If only we all do it. Right. Some of us have learned to do it so much less, but it still will creep in because it's a habit. And if I look back at my life, the most powerful teachings and learnings came out of the

absolute most darkest times. Hands down without a doubt. So if you were to tell me now, if you could do it all over again, you know, would you not, you know, would you choose not to go through all of that difficulty with your kids and stuff? I just couldn't see. I can't see that because like they are the amazing human beings they are.

because of everything that they've gone through. And it's not that I would wish Lyme disease on anyone or wish the pain and the suffering on anyone because obviously I want all people to feel peace and health. But at the same time, wow, the life learnings and the experience of walking through that, I think that is what is the beautifully broken for me.

You know, there is such a depth of beauty in coming out of a time of darkness. It's like, you know, the fruitful darkness. Beautiful. The great answer. I think it's arguably one of the best. should compile all the, what does it mean to you to be beautifully broken and make an episode? Yes, I should do that for like the end of the year. My editor will love that.

He's like, this is $2,000. The other thing I want, I would ask is if you could leave the audience with a question, introspection, what might they do next? A question for self-examination, drop it in the bucket. I guess I would say, what's your why in relationship to

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (44:24.64)
the God of your understanding and you don't need to use God. You can use source energy, love, the big love.

How do you see that relationship and

How do you feel when you're in a space of sitting with that relationship? And what do you want to do with that relationship?

It's like, it's a big question. A lot of people, what happens is that they ask themselves this question when they're dying. They get close to the end of their life and all of a sudden they're like, I've had no relationship with God or whatever and I'm afraid. And I just think it's just an opportunity to do that today. To just take a paper or your journal out.

and just say, yeah, what is my relationship to source? Do I have any practice? When do I feel connected? It could be just when you go into nature. And what does it feel like? You know, and why do it more? I think that's really the question. We're going to leave it there. Kathy, you've been a dream guest.

Freddie Kimmel and  Rev. Cathy Whelehan (45:50.541)
And I will put in the show notes how people can get in touch with you and we'll do another one. We should do a death episode. Oh, now you're talking all about death. Think about that one, people. Thank you for being here. Namaste, my friend. Well, I feel blessed to know you and that you've come into my life. So I just I adore you and I feel that you are a beacon of light to so many people.

So keep doing what you're doing. That's the plan. All right. Until I get hit by that bus. Maybe we'll be on the same bus. know. Namaste. Ladies and gentlemen, you made it to the end of the podcast. Now in a world where the average attention span is less than 10 seconds, we just spent almost an hour together. And I think this is the beginning of something really beautiful.

Now one way to support the podcast is to head over to freddysetgo.com and check out my newly launched page, Freddy's Faves, where I've linked every five star product and healing modality you hear about on the show. Most offer significant discounts by clicking the link. And please know it doesn't cost you anything extra and at the same time, they support the show through affiliations. So check out Freddy's Faves on freddysetgo.com.

This episode of the beautifully broken podcast was brought to you by our sponsor, AmpCoil, upgrading the vibrations of hearts, minds, and bodies all over the world. Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's show, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review. Grabbing a download is like giving this virtual thumbs up that we're doing it right. And if you want to connect with me, shoot me a message on Instagram at freddysetgo.com or at freddysetgo. That's all for today. Our closing, our closing, the world is hurting. We need you at your very best. So take the steps today to always be upgrading, whatever it takes to move the needle. Remember, while life is pain, putting those fractured pieces back together is a beautiful process. I'm your host. I love you. Namaste. Have a wonderful day.