We recently connected with Catherine Duncan and have shared our conversation below.

Catherine, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

As an integrative spiritual consultant, I see people in my private practice to help them find peace, ease, and joy in their lives. Years of being a trauma and hospice chaplain and now in private practice, I help people look inward to live from their heart and soul. This deep peace and vibrant aliveness is not found in our mind. My first book, Everyday Awakening – Five Practices for Living Fully, Feeling Deeply, and Coming into Your Heart and Soul was released July 11th nationwide. This book has 42 exercises to help people find deep peace.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

After facing my death twice and companioning hundreds of people at the end of life as a hospice chaplain, I want to help people find their essence, and soul, and aliveness now. I left a successful corporate advertising job with Time Warner, to study theology.

I’m passionate about whole-person healing. In my private practice, Learning To Live, I companion individuals who are struggling with chronic illness, life transitions, grief and loss, and those searching for more meaning and purpose. I also am a consultant for Minnesota Personalized Medicine, an integrative medical practice in Minneapolis.

My training includes being a board-certified chaplain and certified spiritual director, Ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, certified in positive neuroplasticity with Rick Hanson, PhD; and a range of alternative healing modalities, including Reiki, Healing Touch, qigong, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)/tapping, and sound healing. I’ve served as a spiritual-care provider for Fairview Hospice, and Hennepin Healthcare in the Twin Cities.

As a public speaker, I deliver talks on resiliency, self-compassion, self-care, neuroplasticity, and awakening to organizations and companies in person and virtually. My writing is featured on the website for the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, the Institute for Well-Being in Law’s website, and in the textbook Integrative Medicine by David Rakel, MD.

I’ve followed five core practices since a young child and I share them in my practice and in my upcoming book – Everyday Awakening. I include 42 exercises in my book to help people find this peace and ease in their being.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

At 11yo I went through intensive treatment for a childhood cancer. My life turned upside down. Back in the 70s they did have chaplains, no one talked with me. My mother was very comforting but there was no conversation about what I was going through. I felt like I was living on a tight rope between life and death. I started to pray on my own to live to be 20yo.
I told no one.
Not long after, this peace poured through my body and a knowing that I was going to live. I knew in that moment that I wasn’t alone. This peace has been with me to this day. This deep peace and knowing has helped me when I had a near death experience in my thirties and companioning five family members when they died.
Listening deeply within, I felt drawn to become a chaplain and then a hospice chaplain and had the privilege of walking with hundreds of people at the end of life.
Many people at end of life looked deeply inward and found new life and peace. Many patients spirits glowed in their final days.
Death is not an end. Our spirit goes on.

I saw many patients come back to see me briefly after they had died to thank me in the middle of the night.
I continue to witness the resilience of the human spirit.
Resilience is walking forward each day and having the courage to look inward, choose what is life giving, and continue to want to open and grow ever day and feel vibrantly alive.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

My family background includes working hard, helping others, and not focusing on yourself. It has been eye opening the social media journey I have been on to promote my upcoming book, Everyday Awakening.
It has really stretched me.
I’ve learned that if I’m sharing on Facebook live, instagram live, podcasts, it’s all okay.
At the end of the day, it isn’t about me, it is about helping others.
If I can help one person seeing my posts on life, meaning, purpose – wonderful.

As Margaret Mead said – “We are at our best when we serve others.”

Contact Info:

• Website: everydayawakening.com
• Instagram: Catherineduncanmabcc
• Facebook: Learning To Live
• Linkedin: Catherine Duncan, MA, BCC
• Youtube: Learning To Live: Mind Body Spirit Teachings