Eps 620: Meditation as a parenting tool with Katie Krimitsos

What does Joyful Courage mean to you?

“The vision I got just right away is just lots of light, lots, lots, lots of light. You know, I believe courage comes from our willingness to do the thing, whether it’s a little bit scary or big, big scary. Um, and the more we do the thing, the bigger the muscle gets to do the thing over and over again. So to me that just means like. A willingness and a desire and a love of just shining like who I’m supposed to be in this world. The light I have to give, and an unwillingness to not do that, you know?” – Katie

Resources mentioned:

Katie Krimitsos / Women’s Meditation Network: https://womensmeditationnetwork.com/
Instagram: @womensmeditationnetwork
Facebook: Womens Meditation Network
Free download: 5 Secrets to Unleashing Your Meditation Magic!

Transcription

JC Ep 620 (10.27.25) - Final
[00:00:00] Casey O'Roarty: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Joyful Courage Podcast. This is a place where parents of tweens and teens come to find inspiration, information, and encouragement. In the messy terrain of adolescents, this season of parenting is no joke. And while the details of what we're all moving through might be slightly different, we are indeed having a very collective experience.
[00:00:30] This is a space where we center building, relationship, nurturing life skills, and leaning into our own personal growth and man. The opportunities abound, right. My name is Casey Ody. I am a parent coach, positive discipline lead trainer, and captain of the adolescent ship over at Sprout Bowl. I'm also a speaker and a published author.
[00:00:53] I've been working with parents and families for over 20 years. And continue to navigate my own experience of being a mom with my two young adult kids. I'm so honored that you're here and listening. Please give back to the podcast by sharing it with friends or on social media rate and review us on Apple or Spotify.
[00:01:13] Word of mouth is how we grow. Thank you so, so much. Enjoy the show.
[00:01:23] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. My guest today is Katie Zos. Katie is the founder of the Women's Meditation Network, a project whose beginnings was when Katie was going through a painful ending. She had just discovered she was pregnant with her second daughter, and all of a sudden she knew.
[00:01:44] That the podcast and the business that she had been running was no longer the right fit for her. Confused and uncertain. She slowed down and got quiet. Within that quiet, the Women's Meditation Network and her daughter were born in 2018, never. Perfect and always real. Katie has been using meditation as a tool to come within so she can create an intentional life.
[00:02:08] She's a mom of two incredible daughters wife to a soulful husband and loves animals so much. She won't kill a bug. Most of her wisdom has come from the depths of pain, and her writing seeks to connect us all in this human experience. Hi, Katie. Welcome to the podcast.
[00:02:24] Katie Krimitsos: Hey, Casey. I'm so, so grateful to be here.
[00:02:27] Well,
[00:02:28] Casey O'Roarty: we were talking before we've met and it's been a while, but I feel like it was 2018 actually. You know, reading your bio. You were, you were fresh in this, like, oh, you had this kind of robust podcast you were working with. Were you working with women entrepreneurs? Is that kind of where you were? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:47] And then shifted like full U-turn, I guess, into this other realm of mindfulness and paying attention to way of being. Yeah. And so it's really fun to have you on the show today. I'm so glad that you're here.
[00:03:03] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. I'm so grateful to be here. Yeah. It was, uh, I wanna say, because it was like she podcast, I feel like in one of these intersections of you and I, um, connecting it was, it was like the moment where I was like announcing one business ending and a new business starting.
[00:03:18] I think I was either pregnant with my daughter or I had just had her, so, and I was probably still pumping, you know, during the talk. Yeah. So, um, yeah, it, it's. And
[00:03:28] Casey O'Roarty: here we are seven years later. And you know, interestingly, I think it was 2019 because I was at she podcast live in Atlanta.
[00:03:35] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah.
[00:03:36] Casey O'Roarty: Yep. And halfway through the weekend, I got a text from my then 17-year-old daughter, 16-year-old daughter saying I'm dropping out of school.
[00:03:46] Oh yeah. So we're gonna, I'm gonna weave that into like the work of my, we're gonna unpack all of that. Yeah. I mean, we were already in the throes of some really big stuff and I actually left early. I left the conference early. I came home and that was like the peak of the gauntlet of adolescence with her.
[00:04:08] It wasn't the beginning. Right. But it was like definitely our peak. And you know, I think that their adolescent years are so ripe for like reaction, and in our reaction we so often make things worse. I say that a lot on the podcast, like, what's the number one thing to think about? Don't make it worse.
[00:04:28] Right? Worse and not making it worse really requires us to be in the present moment, to be grounded, to pause. And slow time down so that we can really show up in a way that's helpful and not hurtful. Yeah, and that's what I try to help my clients with as well. And I'm a big fan of meeting life as it unfolds.
[00:04:51] Rowan was my crash course in that, and then my husband and the last five years of health drama that he's had, I really work hard at staying in what's possible. What am I learning through this? What is this opening for me? And what has supported me in that is my personal practice of meditation and journaling and quiet.
[00:05:15] I call it my soul care time. Yeah. So I'm so excited to tease this apart with you and make it so that listeners find it more accessible. I want people that are listening, you all. Who listen every week to me, I want you to walk away from this conversation feeling like, oh yeah, I can, I can do that. And I see what the value in it is.
[00:05:42] Right. So can you, let's just start with what it means for you when we talk about going within, especially when everything outside of us feels so chaotic.
[00:05:53] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. That's such a great place to start. If you ask me to define meditation, every one of us who works in the space of meditation will probably have a different answer.
[00:06:04] My very simple, simple, basic answer is that it's a pause. That's it. Simply a pause. Mm-hmm. It is an opportunity for us to slow down almost exactly what you just described earlier, and. Come into ourselves in a way and connect with ourselves in a way that allows us to, to be separated from the fast, fast motion that is always around us.
[00:06:30] I feel like, and it, it feels like, especially these days, we kind of live on this rollercoaster. Like we're constantly on the rollercoaster. Sometimes we're in loopy loop eras, right. Um, but we're constantly moving and that's not a bad thing. But in that constant outward movement, going to the job, picking up the kids, doing the rounds here, going after A, B, c, taking care of the animals, like it's just constantly moving.
[00:06:57] Mm-hmm. So meditation for me becomes a way to pause all of that, and coming in for me means we simply become the observer. Of us and we can get a little bit more, you know, detailed about the specifics of the practice. But at its core, meditation really is recognizing using things like our breath, our senses, you know, um, things that allow us to sort of come into deep presence.
[00:07:29] And in doing so, it sort of separates us from all that hamster wheel of thoughts that's going on. It helps us separate from the rollercoaster of motion that our lives can be, and it helps us really connect to like me, like, okay, who am I right now? I'm feeling all of these feelings. I am observing, you know, these emotions that are sort of moving through me right now.
[00:07:54] I'm, I'm noticing these thoughts that I'm having about wanting to plan and organize and control or, you know, all these things. And so just, it's the pause so that we can. Have that next step of recognition and observation of those things. And in that, the miracle really comes when we actually see that, well, actually I am not those things if I'm actually the one observing it.
[00:08:18] So who is this person? Who is this soul that's in observation of these things? And once we can start seeing that there's a separation between our souls and these thoughts, these emotions, these life experiences. It becomes really powerful because a space really opens up, and I believe that this is where the magic of meditation is.
[00:08:39] This is like the portal to listening to our intuition, and now all of a sudden we can have a say in what thoughts we want to choose to let in, or which thoughts we want to choose to just float by like the clouds, what emotion we want to choose. To let's stay or what emotion we want to choose to work through and process, or what emotion we want to choose to just let go of.
[00:09:06] It becomes a really empowering space to actively come into ourselves so we can remember who we are. Anyway, I can, I can dive down the rabbit hole of that, but for me, meditation and this ability to pause momentarily throughout the day. Mm-hmm. Or for a significant amount of time, whatever that may look like for you.
[00:09:27] Becomes this space for us to just kind of take a mid step and pause as before we react to anything. Yeah.
[00:09:36] Casey O'Roarty: Mm-hmm. And it
[00:09:36] Katie Krimitsos: becomes incredibly empowering.
[00:09:38] Casey O'Roarty: I love this conversation. First of all, I love that you used the word miracle and portal, and I do think I mean it when I consider what's happening in the world today.
[00:09:51] The chaos and the pain and suffering and blame, and just the rhetoric that is being thrown around. I think the idea that we are all capable of engaging in a practice that allows us. To separate from what's hot, what's at the surface, what's triggering or animating us, and to create space and to recognize what's ours, what's not ours, what we wanna keep, what we wanna let go of.
[00:10:25] Like to imagine a world where this is like just the common practice, it feels like. It would be miraculous. I, I mean, it would make such an impact. And I think there's the micro in the home experience and then it's the macro as humans becoming and continuing to become. Yeah. Like, God, we all need to rest our nervous systems.
[00:10:51] You know? I mean, geez, please. Yeah.
[00:10:54] Katie Krimitsos: I mean, just imagine this, what I observe and what I have been a part of and what I experience too in moments is what I consider sort of being washed away by the current of the river of life, right? Yes. At the current of external things. Mm-hmm. You're on social media.
[00:11:10] Social media is such a big trigger for this. Oh my. But you're on social media. And you're seeing all these varying posts, right? So one is like totally beautiful and inspiring and like lovely and makes you cry. Yeah. And then the next one's about somebody's murder and then the next one's about these chickens that make you laugh.
[00:11:26] And there, there's such a range of emotions, right? Mm-hmm. And. Being mindful and having a practice that allows you to become familiar with the ability to pause and create space gives us the ability to say, Ooh, I'm feeling an energy here just in this thing. Right? This thing triggers me. This thing is making me sad, and I really don't wanna feel sad.
[00:11:50] This thing is making me feel angry and I don't wanna feel angry.
[00:11:53] Casey O'Roarty: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:53] Katie Krimitsos: And now you have a choice. Exactly. Do I wanna stay engaging with this thing or do I wanna shift what the obvious next question is, how do I wanna feel? How do I wanna be, and therefore, what do I need to do and surround myself with in order to create that?
[00:12:10] Right? Yes. Just that something as simple as scrolling your phone, right. Can completely shift how you do life because mm-hmm. If you, like, I get in modes where like, look, every once in a blue moon, like I kind of do the doom scrolling at night and I can numb out. Right? But the, like two nights in a row I'll notice, like, I don't like this feeling.
[00:12:31] I, I, I can feel it, I can feel the gunk on me, right? And so I can have an active choice that says. That ain't for me. Here's how I'm going to use social media. Right. And I'm not saying it sticks and it lasts forever. Sure. But it gives me the power to say, I get to control my little world. Like none of this.
[00:12:49] Yeah. I, nobody gets to control my world. For me, I get to control how I choose to show up to it and what energy I choose to surround myself with so we can, I mean, there are a million different examples of how we can use this again in our home, how we interact with the world, and how really we're showing up for ourselves and being the best expression of our souls and therefore allowing other people to do that around us.
[00:13:14] It's, it's a magical of. Fact that it, that it has on other people, our kids included, right? Yeah. They see that energy.
[00:13:31] Casey O'Roarty: Well, and then there, so yeah, there's like the global river of madness and then there's, you know, I'm thinking about my all of you listeners and whatever the latest thing is. I mean, I have clients who recently reached out and said, well, now we're in the experimenting with pot era of teen parenting. Or now we're in the right.
[00:13:52] This era and you know, like that there's those little tributaries I guess that, you know, feed into this big river of Yeah, yeah. Of life, of external experience. And I, when I think about the teen years, and I know your girls are a little bit younger, you're making your way. But one thing that we cannot control as well, I mean anything really control is an illusion.
[00:14:15] But one of the things that we, I feel like parents really want to figure out the. Secret way to avoid is teen brain development. And it just is gonna happen no matter what. You can do all the things. Yeah. It doesn't always show up the same way. But the teen years, this transition between childhood and young adulthood, this transition where we wanna offer space and experiences for our kids to.
[00:14:41] Be ready enough to step out outside of our home. And whether that's, you know, I've, I've been kind of calling it this on-ramp, you know, into young adulthood. They have to have the opportunity to practice life skills and mistakes and learning from mistakes and. Our regulated, curious, non-reactive presence.
[00:15:07] More of the time. Notice everyone that I'm saying more of the time, this is not about perfection. We're still humans. It's so critical. Yeah. Right. And when we aren't, what do you think, you know, in your mind when you think about human relationship and kind of putting it into this parent, teenager, what are we risking when we don't?
[00:15:28] Support ourselves in practicing that space and that quiet and that pause that you're talking about.
[00:15:36] Katie Krimitsos: Let me give you an example of what it does look like. Okay. And, and I think from there we can, you know, come to the negative side effects of what it might not look like. Yeah, I want it, of course.
[00:15:48] Disclaimer, it doesn't always go this beautifully in my home, but I think that this is something, no matter what age your kids are, I think you can relate to this or at least, you know, pop in some sort of version of this. So my. 9-year-old came home from school last year. She had been in this public elementary school for you know, years and we loved it, and all of a sudden last year.
[00:16:10] It just wasn't working. She would come home at least once a week in tears. Mom, I'm the stupidest one in class. I hate this. I hate going to school. You know, like it, which was just, it was a complete 180 from her prior experiences. And so at first, just my reactionary thought is like, you're not stupid. Oh my gosh.
[00:16:34] No, you're not like, I want to dismiss what she's just told me.
[00:16:38] Casey O'Roarty: Mm-hmm. Change your mind.
[00:16:40] Katie Krimitsos: Um, but because I do a practice of being mindful about myself and being mindful and, and taking a pause before I have that reaction, what I started doing was saying, Hey. I see that you're really frustrated right now and you really don't feel good.
[00:16:56] Tell me more. Right. And so what I discovered in that was that she, they're testing her once or twice a week. She's a slow, she was a slow reader at the time. And you know, I'm putting up air quotes right now, like things in third grade really uptick a lot, right? As the teacher tells me, because you now need to be able to read fast.
[00:17:16] For all your math and all your, all the other things, right? So I know the script that they're telling me, but what I'm seeing clearly is that the box that is working over there is not working for my daughter. Mm-hmm. And so I just let her explain that to me in her own words. So what I was able to do in that situation with say, Hey, let's have a conversation about different ways of learning.
[00:17:38] And we just opened up. I was able to help her see that there are so many different types of smarts. Mm-hmm. There are so many ways that people learn and you know, your school right now has a certain way that they do it and that's great and it works for a lot of people and perhaps it isn't the ideal for you.
[00:17:57] So in that, what ended up happening, kind of the very, very long story to the end, we ended up moving her to a small private school that my younger daughter had already been going to. And my beautiful little story of contrast is that the week before she moved, even though we knew she was moving, she had a parent tea teacher conference with the old school and they basically told me she was failing and they really liked her, but she was failing and she needed tutoring.
[00:18:21] She needed to B-B-B-B-B-B, blah, all these other things. And I was like, okay. We went to, we started her new school the following week, and her teacher on the second day. Took notice of like this art project that she was doing. My kid was doing like in, you know, their free time or whatever, and she was, she noticed some of the other kids were really like intrigued by the little piece of art that she was making and being the phenomenal teacher that she is.
[00:18:48] She said, Hey Sedona, I noticed that that is such a cool piece of art. Will you teach everyone tomorrow during class? Will you teach everyone how to do that? Yeah, so my kid, it makes me emotional. I know my kid went from mom. I'm the stupidest one in my class to. Completely thriving and being in an environment where her, the way that she learns is supported, is cheered on, is challenged in a way that's, that I think is really beautiful.
[00:19:18] She has come to love reading. She's an insatiable reader at this point. So I'm saying all of that because it's a beautiful success story that shows that in this moment, because of my. Extreme willingness to be present with myself. I could take a pause in in those moments that were fiery and emotional and high tension, and I could just.
[00:19:44] I don't think that there's one way to parent. I think that in that moment I'm able to listen to my intuition and say, what do I do here? What do I do? What's the right thing to do? What do I need for my daughter? Right? What is the best thing I could do for my daughter right now? The best? And sometimes, 'cause that didn't happen all the time, right?
[00:19:58] Like this happened over a couple of weeks. Some of those painful moments. And so sometimes I just held her. Sometimes I was like, fuck the homework. We're not doing the fucking homework.
[00:20:07] Casey O'Roarty: Yeah. Dare that teacher. Yeah. I mean, how dare they? Any teacher say Your fourth grader is failing.
[00:20:16] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah,
[00:20:16] Casey O'Roarty: yeah. It's, anyway, we don't need to go down that rabbit.
[00:20:18] Whatever. It's what it is.
[00:20:19] Katie Krimitsos: I mean, yeah, we could go down that rabbit hole. My point in saying all of this is like that is just imagine you listening. Of, of a, of a tension moment with your kid. Yeah, yeah. Right. And they're just, they're exploding with emotion. Mm-hmm. And imagine it, believe me, I have done the dance where I dive right in with my own emotion and we have a dance that it ain't pretty.
[00:20:40] Right. Right. But like, imagine how powerful it is for you to be able to take a pause and step back and just be able to like. Love them in their, in their turmoil of emotion. And ask your intuition, what do I do here? Yeah. What is the best thing that I do? And you listen to that intuition. Yes. To me, that's the magic of meditation.
[00:21:00] Yes. You listen, it is the portal to hear your intuition and that you are fucking brave enough to listen to it and take action on it. Yeah. So, you know, the story I just told was not just one moment. It was all these little moments of me checking in, going, what do we do? What do we do? Oh. Why don't we check out my dau my other daughter's school?
[00:21:18] Right. I didn't even think about about that. Right. Like, right. Oh, why don't we do like, every next step was provided for me because I would tune in and just listen.
[00:21:29] Casey O'Roarty: Yeah. And,
[00:21:29] Katie Krimitsos: and know the voice of my intuition and, and trust it and be like, okay, we're gonna do this. And ultimately, always, always, my end thing is like, what's the worst that can happen?
[00:21:41] Like what's the worst? That gonna, okay, we go to the school and it doesn't click there. Like, yeah, okay. Like, yeah. Then we have more information to move from. We have more information. Yeah.
[00:21:50] Casey O'Roarty: Well, Katie, what I love about that story is you've married the tools with the user of the tools like. Tools, meaning? So I'm a positive discipline trainer, so a lot of what I share here on the show and with clients are this kind of framework and philosophy of positive discipline.
[00:22:09] And two of the tools are validation and curiosity. And for those tools to be useful, we have to be the user of the tools, has to be authentic and grounded and connected to themselves. To the person in front of us. And so that's really what I heard you do in that moment was recognize. And, and well, you know, for me it would be like, Ooh, I, I'm uncomfortable.
[00:22:39] I'm uncomfortable that my kid thinks this about themselves. I wanna, I do wanna fix it. I wanna change their mind. Oh, isn't that funny? Here I am in that way that I get. And then even recognizing like, okay, so what do I want to create in this moment? What does my child need? How can I foster their critical thinking of themselves?
[00:23:00] 'cause as you know, jump ahead into the adolescent years, the number one thing I want my kids to walk out the door with is, is as much practice as possible in critical thinking. Yep. And these little micro moments where we pause and say, wow, I see you in this. Your experience matters. I'm curious about it.
[00:23:21] Tell me more about it. We're kind of, we're we're helping those gears begin. To really move.
[00:23:28] Katie Krimitsos: And so you, you ask me what is the negative impact that could be there if we do not do these things right. The negative impact is that we swim in the drama that our kids bring to us. Yeah. And we are not a solid, calm anchor for them.
[00:23:43] Yeah. You know, our kids, especially at the adolescent age are woo, like there's spinning, right? Like, there's so much going on and everything seems like the end of the world or like the biggest deal. Right. And so, right. The best thing we can do to make sure that our, our connection, our bond with each of our kids remains super strong, is we can be the, we can be the anchor in the storm that they're having.
[00:24:09] Yeah. And we can only do that if we're self-regulated. We can only do that if we allow ourselves to just pause and allow ourselves not to get tied up in the storm, or if we are gonna be in the storm. We need to be able to. Creatively get ourselves out and apologize for being in the storm. Yeah. And bring them back down.
[00:24:29] Yes. So that's the power of it. And it, it, it shows up every single day. Every day. Yeah. Every day. This is so practical.
[00:24:35] Casey O'Roarty: Yep. Well, and I think one of the also unintended consequences of not having a practice like this is we we're always sending messages. And if we continue to be in the loop of, yeah. I've gotta change your mind on this.
[00:24:49] I need to fix this. You can't handle this. Like there's so many unspoken, unintended messages that when we're in this reactive mode, unexamined. Mode that we're sending to our kids, and then they're going to therapy later on and well hopefully, well, not hopefully, but they're probably going to therapy anyway because we're, we're imperfect and it's great.
[00:25:10] I know. Go, go work out your stuff that hopefully it's not that too detrimental. Right. I like to say hopefully it's a carry-on bag and not a U-Haul truck of issues that they're taking to their future therapists, but you know. Yeah.
[00:25:24] Katie Krimitsos: And it's also, uh, one of a very, very common thing that I hear from a lot of my women listeners in their relationship with their kids is that they're so busy in life, doing life that.
[00:25:38] If you don't have a regular practice of pausing, and we could talk, we could break that down. So it doesn't need to be really like, you know, intimidating, but like, if you don't have that regular practice, you are just, you're just on the treadmill of life. Yeah. And how does that feel to your kid who's co, who's constant, like, I need attention is in some ways I need attention, I need some presence, I need X, Y, or Z.
[00:26:01] And the best gift that we could give to our kids is just woo. Okay. It doesn't matter what to-do. List items are going off right now. Like, I need to be here, I need to be here. I need to be present. And look, I can get really bad with this with just like chores around the house. Like we need to do this. We have animals.
[00:26:17] So it's like, oh, sundown, we need to do this, this, this, this. Hurry. We need to get all the animals in. Right. And there are times when my girls are like, mom, will you dance with me? And I'm like, no, we need to do this. I need babababababa and I have to stop myself in the middle of it. Sometimes I, I continue and then I'll come back to them afterwards where I'm like, God, my kid just wanted to dance with me.
[00:26:35] Mm-hmm. And I'll be like, Hey, I'm sorry I got really busy with all the things. Let's dance, right? Yeah. Or I, I stop mid dinner, right? Yeah. Mid whatever, because none of it is actually as important as my kid just wanting attention from me in that particular moment. Yeah,
[00:26:49] Casey O'Roarty: yeah. Wanting connection. And fast forward to my clients who don't understand why their kids won't talk to them, and it's like, well have, you know, over time we show them where we're willing to be present and where we're not.
[00:27:02] Right? Yeah. So I think it's, I think it's really, really powerful. I remember in the beginning of really kind of creating a routine for myself, talking to a friend about meditation in particular, and saying to her like, oh, I'm really bad at it because I can't just keep my mind quiet. And she said, Casey, it's not about keeping your mind quiet.
[00:27:25] It's about developing the muscle of recognizing, oh, I'm, I'm in my planning mind, or I'm in my judging mind, or I'm in my. Whatever mind and coming back to, you know, breath or physical sensations or whatever it is that we anchor in as our present moment. And she said that is the muscle that we develop through meditation.
[00:27:49] And so in those moments, you know, and I kind of talked to my clients around like, this is the. Like do it when there's no crisis, so that your body becomes familiar with like, oh, look at my mind. I'm totally spinning out on this thing. Or I wanna jump in there In the moment, we have muscle, some muscle memory that's going to increase the likelihood that we can say, whoa, oh, okay.
[00:28:13] Whoa, hold up. And I've had to do that with my, you know, my own kids where something shows up, usually it's unexpected and out of nowhere, and I'm like, oh. What the hell, you know? And then, okay, well, sorry. Got that out. I'm gonna, yeah, for me it's like I'm okay. Feel your feet, pull back, your shoulders, open your heart.
[00:28:33] And then the question of what do you wanna create in this moment? Yes. Like that's really the in the moment practice for me because I practice outside of the moment, so. Hundred percent when you talk to people about meditation, like what do you, what is it for a person who's never tried it or thinks that they're can't do it or they're not good at it?
[00:28:55] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. So let's start with busting a few myths about meditation. Yeah. Which is one of my favorite things to do. Medi. And much like your friend said, I'll, I'll start with that one. Uh, most people think that meditation means that your mind is going blank as you sit down and you know, that's the practice.
[00:29:10] That's not true. Your brain's job is to make thoughts. So our job is not to go completely blank, and that equals a successful meditation. Our job is to notice the thoughts and ultimately notice our separation from the thoughts, right? So that's myth. That's a first myth. The second myth is that it needs to look like what it typically looks like online.
[00:29:29] You know, like sitting cross-legged backed, completely erect. You know, my fingers are touching, thumb and finger are touching. Um, you know, I am. Sitting on outside in a beautiful spot, and I'm there for an hour on my meditation pillow with my incense burning. Like that's Yeah, with your really nice athleisure wear on, I mean, of course.
[00:29:49] Of course. The wind is blowing, keeping me perfectly cool. That is absolutely not what it has to look. It can look like that. Yeah. I love it when it looks
[00:29:58] Casey O'Roarty: like that.
[00:29:59] Katie Krimitsos: I assume, no, my back hurts. My back cannot sit in that erect position for longer than like two seconds. My meditation practice lately looks like late, like sitting on my bed and I'm sort of like, or on a couch, and I'm comfortable.
[00:30:13] I'm in a comfortable position. Rarely are my legs cross-legged because you know, like my knee, I have a bum knee Sometimes that doesn't always feel good that way, so Okay. Like I'm just co, I'm sitting comfortably and I'm sitting with a mug of coffee in my lap. And I take sips all throughout my little meditation practice.
[00:30:32] Are you giving us permission to drink our coffee, to ruin our, our
[00:30:36] Casey O'Roarty: meditation?
[00:30:38] Katie Krimitsos: Not only that, I'm gonna bust another myth. You can move. And it can be a meditation. There is an actual thing called a moving meditation for those of us who are athletes. Now, some people may completely disagree with me on this, but for some, for those of us who are athletes who have movement as a part of our daily practice who are used to sweating and, you know, having some level of like, you know, physical workout on a regular basis, you already know.
[00:31:02] The mind body connection, you know, the mind, body, spirit connection. So movement, whether that's just walking in on a nature path or just walking down the road, or even like, just doing some, some sort of like yoga and, and meditation o often get clumped into one little, you know, thing. And they're not, they're, they're very different.
[00:31:21] They can overlap, but some sort of a stretching routine. Some, some sort of a movement routine. If you are moving during your sitting practice, that is okay, like, mm-hmm. So, you know, my, I, I always love to tell the story that my husband and I. Both, I believe, are incredibly deep spiritual people. But he has not sat and ever done.
[00:31:42] I think one time I took him through a guided meditation way before I ever did this network or even thought about it. And he loved it. It was great. But his meditation, his way of meditating, his walking, he walks with a cane, he talks his stuff out. Like he, he's, he's talking and moving and walking and thinking and dreaming, like that's his meditation.
[00:32:00] Casey O'Roarty: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:00] Katie Krimitsos: And who am I to say that that's wrong? Right? It works for him. Right. It's his ability to like practice gaining that muscle mm-hmm. To pause and get to know himself, to open up that portal to his, to his soul, and to hear his intuition talking. Yeah. So any way you want that to look and, and I'll go a step further in some of these myths, meaning.
[00:32:20] It doesn't have to be an hour every day at 4:00 AM and that's the best time to meditate. Now, is there science that shows that a quote unquote ideal time to meditate is in the right when you wake up and right before you go to bed? Yeah, of course there's science to support that and that's great 'cause your brain's in a certain space that allows kind of more things in, right?
[00:32:38] It's more malleable. That doesn't mean that that's when you have to meditate.
[00:32:41] Casey O'Roarty: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:42] Katie Krimitsos: Currently, my practice looks like this. Currently my practice, I, I happen to get up at like four or four 30. That just happens to work for me now. That has not always been the case. And I sit, you go to bed. When
[00:32:52] Casey O'Roarty: do you go to bed to wake up at four or four 30?
[00:32:54] Girl, you
[00:32:54] Katie Krimitsos: don't wanna know, are you not getting enough sleep? No, I just don't. It's not the season for a lot of sleep. It's the season for like, it doesn't matter. Okay. Yes. But I'm up at like 4, 4 30 and I will sit for like, you know, sometimes 10 minutes. Sometimes like for an hour and a half. I just am sitting there and sometimes I meditate.
[00:33:11] I, I will sit and just like breathe. I typically don't have a guided meditation on during this se particular season, but sometimes I do, you know, sometimes I'm 20 minutes in and I'm like. Okay. I feel the energy to like get going to work. Right? And like that's great. Now, before this season, I had for many, many years my meditation practice.
[00:33:31] I was, I was in the early years of the Women's Meditation network, people would always ask me what my meditation practice is. And for a while I was really embarrassed about it. But I have come to really embrace this and I wanna share this with people because I wanna let it be okay if this is your meditation practice.
[00:33:45] 'cause it is equally as powerful as 4:00 AM for an hour, right? I call it a grab and go. In a grab and go season. Mm-hmm. So what this means is taking little moments throughout the day when you kind of know like, oh, my brain is spinning, or, oh, I'm feeling really anxious right now. Or, ugh, like I'm, I'm feeling really tired and frustrated, or whatever the feeling is that you're like, I just, I just need a little bit of a reset.
[00:34:08] I just need a couple deep breaths. So for me, this would often look like I just dropped off the kids. I'm on my way home and before I go in to like go, go, go at work. I want to, um, sit and take five deep breaths in the car. Mm-hmm. That's it. Five deep conscious breaths. Mm-hmm. I'm counting breathing in one, breathing out one, right?
[00:34:28] Mm-hmm. Um, oftentimes this looks like, um, this has been too, like in the shower, like, um, you know, and I'll kind of overlap this with like what I consider little mini meditations, like just. Five deep breaths and connect them to a habit you already have while you're brushing your teeth while you're in the shower.
[00:34:45] You know, right before you go to bed. So sometimes like in the middle of work, if you're, if I'm like, oh my God, I'm just done and I know that there's more to do, I'll take, I'll go outside barefoot, step in the grass, and I'm just. I'm looking up at the sun and I'm just soaking in the sun for, you know, a couple deep breaths and I'm just there and I'm present.
[00:35:03] That hit, that was my meditation practice for a long time. I still do that a lot, but now I, you know, kind of have that morning, morning time as well. So your, your me, you can access the power of the pause anytime, anywhere. For as long as you need it. Few seconds, few hours, really doesn't matter. You will get you, that muscle will grow no matter which one you're doing.
[00:35:35] Casey O'Roarty: What I'm hearing you talk about is intentionality and willingness. Mm-hmm. Right. Like I love all those different scenarios, whether it's your husband's process or your process. I love, I love, I don't know why, but the whole coffee in my lap thing like so good. I feel so empowered right now. I can have coffee.
[00:35:54] I'm so excited because usually it's right next to me and I'm like, well, I'm not gonna meditate too long 'cause I don't want you to get cold. Mm-hmm. And, and I remember years ago talking to a client whose. Self-care was really was going to the gym and I was asking her, okay and her, you know, her cardio elliptical time, I asked her, so what are you thinking about on the cardio, on the elliptical?
[00:36:18] What are you listening to? What are you watching? And is there a space here during this period of time where it can be, you know, 5%, 10%, 50? More soul filling than it is because I, I go to the gym regularly. I get on the treadmill and I'm watching a show. I'm doing everything I can to distract myself to forget from the fact that I'm on the treadmill on an incline for however long.
[00:36:44] Right. Oh my God. I love it. And that's okay. I'm okay with that. Yeah. Yeah. Um. So what I'm hearing you say is, regardless of what you are doing, are you being intentional with how you are experiencing yourself? Mm-hmm. And that's such a wide open doorway to practicing pause and calming the nervous system.
[00:37:03] And it requires willingness. Like even in the moments of like, 'cause, and I get it. 'cause I too am here, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm on my computer, I'm in the afternoon, like, oh my God, I'm so over this. Yeah. I can either, I have a choice, I can either charge ahead and continue to be annoyed by whatever it is that I'm doing, or yeah, I can be willing to say, okay, I'm gonna take five and I'm gonna go, I am gonna go feel the sun on my face, or I am gonna experience the air outside or whatever, and, and I just, it's so accessible.
[00:37:38] Right? Yeah. And it's such an opportunity and such a gift. And I think too, there's this conversation, especially for moms around. Self care versus selfish, and it's such an old conversation. You cannot be who your kids need you to be without taking care of yourself. Right. Yeah. And you're not gonna enjoy,
[00:38:00] Katie Krimitsos: you're not gonna enjoy motherhood nearly as much as you would if you were really in tune with yourself.
[00:38:06] You know? Yeah. And you're gonna start, you're gonna start believing all the crap that's out there. You know, I, I speak a lot about the noise versus the voice. And I think it's worth mentioning that when we are not really in tune with ourselves, we don't have a regular practice to tune into ourselves. We can let the noise.
[00:38:24] Live our lives. Oh yeah. We can let the noise dictate who we're supposed to be, what we're supposed to do, what job we're supposed to have, how much money we're supposed to make, what our kids should be doing. Like, it's so easy and it's so prevalent to see, you know, a, a blank statement for, it might be called Keeping Up with the Joneses in mm-hmm.
[00:38:41] Your, your home life and your business life, whatever that is. To me, meditation becomes this tool for getting to know the voice and when you know the voice. You already know what to do for yourself, or you have a lot of faith that you will figure it out and your voice will lead you, and you'll have that divine guidance on what the next right step is.
[00:39:02] And. More and more you don't care about the noise.
[00:39:08] Casey O'Roarty: Hmm.
[00:39:08] Katie Krimitsos: You really don't care. And so, if I can sort of take a snapshot of my life right now, from the outside, it might look relatively quote unquote normal, right? Like, I'm married, I have two kids, I have a successful business. Like, you know, like it might look that way.
[00:39:25] But my life, every brick of my life and the way I live it. Has been put in very intentionally. There is not one piece of my life that I just go down that river. I let the current take me like every area of my life from how I structure my days to how I'm spending time with my kids, to how I'm spending time with my husband, to the kind of work that I do, to the evolution that my business continues to have.
[00:39:53] To how I'm treating my body, how I'm approaching, I'm 46 right now. How am approaching this particular season of my life and my motherhood and all of the things like it is incredibly intentional, every little piece. And I could give two shits. What the hell the outside world has to say about that. Mm-hmm.
[00:40:14] And if I actually listen to the outside world, I would not have this life that I have right now. And for me. This becomes the most empowering tool that each of us as individuals can have to actually design a life we really, really, really love. But it requires us having this practice regularly, no matter how small or big these chunks of time are, so that we can make that distinction.
[00:40:40] Is this the noise of the world or society or my parents or an older version of myself that I'm hearing right now? Mm-hmm. Or is this the voice telling me what's right for me right now?
[00:40:50] Casey O'Roarty: Yeah.
[00:40:50] Katie Krimitsos: And that's how we make decisions. That's how we decide how to deal with our kid in a particular hot moment. Um, or what we need to do when our kid calls us up at a conference and tells us she's quitting school.
[00:41:01] Like, yeah, to me. There could have been a million different reactions in that moment, but that was your, that was exactly what you decided to do. Mm-hmm. Everyone else could have an opinion on what you should do, and I'm sure maybe you had some people tell you in that particular season what you should do.
[00:41:16] Right? Yeah. None of that stuff matters. What matters is that you do what is best for you. Yeah. Your family.
[00:41:23] Casey O'Roarty: Yeah. Your
[00:41:24] Katie Krimitsos: relationships, and literally we are the creators of our lives from the
[00:41:28] Casey O'Roarty: inside out. Yes. Oh my gosh. And like that, thinking about that time, there was the external noise and there was a lot of internal noise too.
[00:41:38] Of course. Of course. There was a lot of me recognizing beliefs that I didn't realize that I had until I was confronted by this kiddo who was dropping out. And it's funny that you say we are the designers of our life, because I remember with Rowan, that's my language. I love that. I want my, I mean. To raise children into young adulthood who truly believe and, and, and are empowered by the idea that they get to design the life that they have.
[00:42:07] They get to, yeah, decide how they experience their experiences is, I mean, I talk about it here on the pod. I talk about it with my kids. I remember my daughter at like six, you know, right around this period of time, saying like, that was heavy. That felt like a lot of responsibility. And you know, she has since shifted and that was a great wake up call to me too, just in my delivery of that.
[00:42:34] Yeah, yeah. Expression. But also I think about what you were just talking about makes me think of parents. You know, back when I did parenting classes with parents of younger kids, I remember one particular. 'cause it's all I teach experientially. It's a lot of role plays. It's a lot of playing with contrasting scripts.
[00:42:54] And I remember one parent saying like, Ugh, this feels like a lot of work. And I responded with, yeah, this is thoughtful parenting. Yeah. And it feels when it's new. And we have to really work. I, I use this metaphor of, because I live in the Pacific Northwest, so it's really, we've got these dense, beautiful forests and when you go to a hiking trail, you know, if it's a popular hiking trail, it's really easy to follow.
[00:43:25] 'cause thousands and thousands of people have walked this trail. It's obvious. You can talk to your friends, you don't have to pay much attention. And if you look into the forest, you can see these, these game trails, like slight divots in the undergrowth where the. Animals go. Yeah. And if you decide, okay, from now on, instead of taking the main trail, I'm gonna take the game trail.
[00:43:48] It's, you are gonna have to pay a lot of attention. You're gonna need a machete. Like it's gonna take many, many, many walks down that path for it to wear down and feel like something we don't have to think so much about. And that's kind of how I hold this idea of doing something new and different. Right.
[00:44:09] And, and being willing to look at the noise and, and, and everything you're talking about. At the, at the beginning listeners, it's gonna feel, it might feel like the game trail, but over time it feels less clunky and we get better at it. Right? Yeah. And that intentionality that we're building our life with starts to become just something that's lives in our back pocket versus, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
[00:44:32] Let me retry. Let me redo. Not that that doesn't show up, you know? Yeah. Continue to show up, but it shows up less. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Uh, I love the, I love having these conversations. I'm so glad to be talking. Me too. They're so good. Yeah. I'm so glad to be talking to you about it because I like, I think I said at the start, I really encourage the clients that I work with the parents in my membership.
[00:44:54] You know, we always start our group calls. With some kind of grounding that I lead and I'm really transparent. I'm like, listen, I tell you guys to do this on the Daily and I don't know if you are or not, but you are at least gonna do it when we get on a call together. Yes.
[00:45:09] Katie Krimitsos: Send them over to one of my podcasts.
[00:45:10] They can go and play a guided to meditation there. Yeah. We'll talk a little bit about,
[00:45:14] Casey O'Roarty: about the Women's Meditation Network and what you have to offer.
[00:45:18] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. So for seven years now, I have been producing guided meditations for women. Um, and over the years we started with one meditation for women. Um, and now we have 20, um, that are a part of the podcast.
[00:45:31] So you're talking like meditation for anxiety meditation, sleep meditation for women, morning, meditation for women, panic attack meditations. So each of these are individual podcasts. Um, we now are pretty prevalent on YouTube under women's, uh, meditation for Women. We are, because we kind of had this conversation before.
[00:45:48] We are weeks away from launching our Meditation for Menopause YouTube channel. Oh, great podcast. Yes. Thank God. We need you. Yes. So I have been a producer and a creator of all of these guided meditations, and I am about, in this experience and in talking to so many women, millions of women all over the world, listen to our guided meditations and over all these years of really talking to them, this exactly what I've been sharing today is.
[00:46:19] Is coming out as like, okay, this is the magic in our meditation practice this, we come here because we're anxious, we're co. We come here because we, uh, can't sleep. We come to the meditation 'cause we wanna start our day with intention. But behind all of that is really what I believe is the magic and meditation.
[00:46:36] So I am actually releasing my course, meditate to Magic come January of 2026. Yes. So if anyone is interested there is, you can just go to women's meditation network.com. There is a freebie that will tell you the five secrets to unleashing your meditation magic, and, um, you will hear more about it that way.
[00:46:54] So yes, it is the actual guided meditations across the network, and then obviously the education to help you use the tool of meditation in a way that's really magical for you.
[00:47:04] Casey O'Roarty: Yeah, I love it. I love it. Yay. Well, I'll make sure. Those links are in the show notes. Where else can people find you and follow your work?
[00:47:15] Katie Krimitsos: Yeah, like I said, on YouTube, uh, meditation for Women or women's meditation network.com. Anywhere you're listening to podcasts where, wherever you're listening to this right now, just search Women's Meditation Network and you will find all of our pods there.
[00:47:27] Casey O'Roarty: Love it. So I always close the show with a question for my guest, which is, what does joyful courage mean to you and the work that you're doing?
[00:47:36] Katie Krimitsos: Ooh. Um huh. The vision I got just right away is just lots of light, lots, lots, lots of light. You know, I believe courage comes from our willingness to do the thing, whether it's a little bit scary or big, big scary. Um, and the more we do the thing, the bigger the muscle gets to do the thing over and over again.
[00:48:00] So to me that just means like. A willingness and a desire and a love of just shining like who I'm supposed to be in this world. The light I have to give, and an unwillingness to not do that, you know? Mm. Beautiful.
[00:48:15] Casey O'Roarty: Katie, thank you so much for hanging out with me and sharing everything you did today. This was so awesome.
[00:48:21] Katie Krimitsos: Uh, Casey, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure. I love this conversation.
[00:48:30] Casey O'Roarty: Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to my SPR partners, Julietta and Alana. Thank you Danielle, for supporting with the show notes as well as Chris Mann and the team at. Pod Shaper for all the support with getting the show out there and making it sound good. As I mentioned, sharing is caring. If you're willing to pass on this episode to others or take a few minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it helps other parents find this useful content.
[00:48:57] Be sure to check out what we have going on for parents of kids. Of all ages and sign up for our newsletter to stay [email protected]. I see you doing all the things. I believe in you. See you next time.
[00:49:16] I.