The Karen Kenney Show

A quote I love from writer Jonathan Franzen is at the heartbeat of today’s episode. He says: “When you stay in your room in rage or sneer or shrug your shoulders as I did for many years. The world and its problems are impossibly daunting. But when you go out and put yourself in real relation to real people, or even just real animals, there's a very real danger that you might end up loving some of...

Like the Fall leaves that blow all over our yards, we can often get blown around by our thoughts. Have you ever been looking for the answer to something, and you say to yourself, “I'm just going to look this up real quick on the Google”... and before you know it, you've gone down some sort of rabbit hole that now has you scrolling on some social media site — and you're left wondering, “How did I g...

My friend and former elementary school teacher, Kirsten Tulsian, found herself sitting on the floor of her classroom one night with her head in her hands and breaking down in tears. Feeling overwhelmed, overworked and underappreciated, she realized that she just couldn’t keep going on this way. Although heartbroken about what that might mean for the kids she taught and loved, Kirsten knew if somet...

At the transformational retreats that I lead, I sometimes like to share something with the participants that I call: “Voted Most Likely To”. It’s a humorous exercise that looks at what we or the people in our life would definitely say we do on a regular basis. I find it to be a helpful tool to identify patterns and habits around the way we show up in the world; either for better or for worse. Toda...

For those of you that know me, you know that I just absolutely love Mr. Fred Rogers. So much so that I consider him one of the head honchos on my Spiritual Team. When Fred was little and big scary things were happening in the world, or if he saw something on TV that frightened him, his mom would always say to him, “Look for the helpers.” Yes, there might be buildings that are crumbling and awful t...

When it comes to communication, relationship building and dreaming big, it’s important and impactful to be specific in what you say, the decisions you make, and the actions you take. Specificity is at the top of the list because the intentional details matter and have the power to make a difference in both your personal and professional life. Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about how...

Everywhere we look it seems we’re seeing suffering in one form or another. It's completely normal to want to turn away and avoid the feelings of fear, overwhelm, exhaustion, rage, despair, and hopelessness that may come with it. Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about bearing witness to what others are going through, so that we may keep our humanity intact and not lose sight of our com...

There is so much going on in the world - violence, war, division, separation, lack of cooperation and simply not listening to one another and as a result we bump up against each other all over the place. This got me thinking… what could I offer to someone, wherever they may fall on the spectrum of spirituality, that might be helpful? Especially as we're going to be entering into the season of clos...

Not everyone will be our “cup of tea” and we won't always be theirs - and sometimes this can even extend to seasons in our life. Meaning that, what was once something we needed, we no longer need now or what we once liked or loved - may not instill those same feelings today. It’s these moments of realization that have us taking a step back, unfollowing, disconnecting or even walking away from some...

I hope your curiosity brought you here because I know that my curiosity brought me here to record this episode. Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about the British slang term “Coddiwomple” - which plainly means “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague or yet unknown destination.” We live in a culture that is obsessed with making plans, setting goals, checking the boxes and doi...

Sometimes it’s not just the people in the immediate relationship that are affected by the decisions that we make or that get made. Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about collateral damage and how the choices we make can affect those around us in sometimes not so great ways. Picture dropping a pebble into a lake, and watching those little water ripples go out further, getting bigger, e...

I think knowing how we best learn is super important and helpful. It’s good to discover for yourself, if you’re a visual, audio or kinetic learner, or a combination of two or all three. It's also helpful as you're learning to know what you don't know! 😆 Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about the 4 stages of learning, and how they come into play in the different areas of our life. We’...

Mahatma Gandhi was known for having said; “My life is my message.” Recently, I was thinking about my own mortality and one of the things I considered is… when I die, what am I actually leaving behind? Like, if I were to drop dead tomorrow… What would the message of my life (so far) have been? What would they say about me and my life at my funeral? What is it that people are going to remember about...

Have you ever found yourself overthinking and softening your language in emails, meetings, conversations, or voice and text messages... So that other people wouldn’t perceive you as being a pain in the ass, or too needy, or too bossy, or too whatever the feck’? How about over-explaining yourself almost as a preemptive apology - instead of just answering with a direct yes or no? Are you familiar wi...

So many people, many of whom, because of experiences from their earlier and most formative years - have developed a low level or lack of self-esteem, self worth, and self confidence.  Since we sometimes can't truly see our real selves, what we see instead and unfortunately also believe is the interpretations and judgments of other people's opinions, and reflections of who they think we are. T...

Something I learned back in college from my Communications Professor, is that “the message sent is not always the message received.” Just because I think I've done a good job communicating who I am, what I do, and what I offer - doesn't mean that people are always picking up what I'm putting down. The reality is we all learn differently and many of us often need to hear things multiple times and i...

There’s a saying that gets tossed around a lot that says, “Hurt People, Hurt People.” While this can sometimes be true… There's also a ton of people out there with adverse childhood experiences - that include unbelievably difficult, horrifying, tragic, awful, brutal, violent things that have happened to them - and they’re not out there perpetuating the same awful stuff on others. They’re not stuck...

In life, we sometimes need to move things around. Whether the movement is about the physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual — we’ve gotta’ get our ass up, in gear and “rearrange the furniture” of our lives. Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about “rearranging furniture” and it’s not just our external physical stuff like beds, tables, bookcases, desks and chairs. We take a look at the...

Today on The Karen Kenney Show, my guest, client and friend - Jordan Dranes and I are covering some heavy and sensitive topics like Mental Health, trauma, violence, drug addiction, overdose, death, suicide, change work and healing. This is a 2-hour conversation - that is powerful, emotional and impactful - and I believe in some ways is going to be extremely helpful for many people listening both t...

Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re talking about creating change in our lives and how the way for real, lasting transformation to happen - first starts with us actually wanting it. The reality of it is - we will grow to the degree that we want to grow, we will change to the degree that we want to change, and even more so to the degree that we are willing to change. You’ve gotta’ want it and you...

I've noticed more and more that lots of people want to jump right into “being a noun” or “having a title” or “getting the results” and skip all the action pieces or as I like to call them - the verbs - required to get there. Saying things like: I want to be more, feel more, or have more like “fill in the blank” but the actions required to reach that outcome do not follow the statement. They’re all...

Assumptions are similar to what I like to call “interpretations of or expectations from the past.” They also often live in the space of incomplete information… where we write stories that we believe to be the truth; even though we might not have any real clue about WTF is actually going on. Ha! Today on The Karen Kenney Show, we’re taking a look at assumptions, how we make them, who we make them a...

Our nervous system is always asking things like, “Am I safe?” Often this line of questioning begins when we’re wicked young - even pre-verbal. As children, we scan our environment and look around for someone to support, protect and provide nurturing and nourishment for us and for lots of kids in many instances, we didn’t find it. So it’s not so surprising that as an adult, you may not feel particu...

Growing up, life happens and “people be people-ing” - so all of these different scenarios play out all around us and some of those suckers can leave a mark. It can affect the way that we start to think, feel, believe and how we come to view ourselves, each other and the world around us. As a result, we are sometimes left with a “film of fear” over the lens we view the world with. This fear creates...

A famous film director once shared an interesting spiritual perspective about Superman that has always stayed with me and it inspired this episode! I like to believe that we are in some way extensions of the Divine. Spiritual beings who are made up of energy and Love. Yet at some point, on this crazy journey called life - we’ve forgotten that these human bodies and these ego-personalities we show...