Embracing Moments Of Aliveness: Interview With Cara Bradley

You're listening to Women's Dream Enlightenment.

Dream decoding,

Deep discussions,

And spiritual stories of self-discovery to inspire your personal enlightened journey.

I'm your host,

Megan Mary,

Founder of Women's Dream Analysis.

Let's bring in the light.

Welcome.

Today,

I have Kara Bradley.

She is a mind-body teacher,

Motivational speaker,

And author.

She's built and sold multiple wellness businesses.

She now coaches high-performing women to harness the changes during menopause and to claim their vitality and power.

Welcome,

Kara.

I am so privileged to have you here today.

Well,

It's great to be here,

Megan.

Excited for this conversation.

Awesome.

Well,

Kara has been so inspirational in my spiritual journey that she was the first woman that I reached out to and said,

You have to be on my podcast because I want everybody to share in your wonderfulness and be inspired by your awesome just energy.

Kara,

Tell me what you think enlightenment means to you.

It's such a great question.

The first thing that comes to mind is aliveness.

Really to feel,

To be enlightened is to be fully embodied in our aliveness from our toes to the top of our heads and beyond,

Beyond our physical bodies.

That's what I would say.

Okay.

That's an amazing explanation.

I resonate with that as well.

I think being alive is so much also part of being present.

It's so much what you speak about,

The positive mindset,

But also just living in that moment and not letting it pass you by.

100%.

Yeah.

I think I've always experienced aliveness in different ways as an athlete.

I was an athlete for most of my life.

And so I think athletes are so embodied most of the time that we don't realize that most people or people that aren't athletes don't feel that all the time.

And I would say it's probably goes to artists and musicians and anybody who has a craft or a skill that they find flow in are able to access that aliveness more often than not,

I think.

Yes,

Absolutely.

So tell the listeners about your enlightenment journey and what that pivotal moment was that brought you to where you are today.

Oh,

There've been so many pivotal moments in my life.

I remember growing up on Long Island in New York.

We had a little bungalow by the beach,

By the Long Island Sound.

And every night and most mornings I would go by myself.

I could walk by myself.

We were allowed to do that back then,

Right down the street.

And I would sit and watch the sunset or the sunrise.

And I was enthralled and enraptured by the sunsets and the sunrise.

And I think that's something that imprinted on my soul,

Imprinted on my being.

And my entire life from there,

I guess it's a pivotal moment,

But there've been other moments that have shifted me into a remembering.

I think that enlightenment,

Waking up,

Being more aware,

It's really more of a remembering than anything,

A remembering of who we are down at the core of our soul.

And so some people have these big ahas,

But for me,

I think it's been more of a subtle remembering over and over and over again.

Yes,

That's so beautiful.

And I couldn't agree more.

I felt that way so much when I was called to begin this podcast and on my journey that it was not something I found,

It was something that I was returning to.

Yes,

Absolutely.

And you're right that the spiritual journey isn't a destination,

It's a journey.

So it's never ending,

But there's wonderful ahas along the way.

And fortunately,

Wonderful people to surround you along that path that can say,

It's okay.

What you're going through is you're not alone in that.

And I think that's part of what's so wonderful about what you're doing now is really being that light for other women.

Thank you.

Yeah,

I feel really called to do whatever I can until my very last breath to help people remember who they are in any way,

To just remember that they are divine,

They are genius,

They are energy and impulse flowing 24 seven.

It is an endless stream until our very last breath.

And then we don't really know what happens then,

But I can only imagine it's magnificent.

So yeah,

It's interesting that you say that the light,

Because I often feel like,

And these are some of the things that come to me in dreams and in meditation is holding a torch is just holding a torch to show,

Oh,

This is the path forward for you.

Not that I am in any way better or above anybody else.

It's just,

I often picture myself as just standing on the side of a path,

Holding the light for people to see what's next.

And you are,

Because that's how I think of you.

It's a wonderful metaphor.

And I'm so glad that you brought up dreams because I think,

Of course,

Our dreams are filled with metaphor.

I mean,

That is,

They are stories of metaphor and just everything about them is a beautiful story that's meant to tell us something that we need to grasp onto.

And many times that is our purpose.

Many times we can discover our true purpose and our true happiness and the light within us by looking into our dreams because they know what we're supposed to be.

They know our higher self.

They know our true self.

They know our pure light.

And all of that is just buried underneath the ego and all of the other entrapments of life and expectations.

I think meditation has really helped me channel into that and connect with that true self and really understand better what I'm called to do and what I'm supposed to be doing.

Absolutely.

A hundred percent.

So talk a little bit about your experiences as a mindset mentor.

I want our listeners to know a little bit more about that because I think that your experience doing that,

Owning the yoga studio,

All of those different things in your life path have really culminated and brought you to where you are today to help women through this next transition in life.

So let's go back a little bit down your road and hear a little bit more about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's interesting.

I've had a lot of different roles and responsibilities in my life and my career,

But they have always started in the body.

And so,

You know,

Lately I've been landing on calling myself a body mind teacher.

More so actually,

And I may have it on my website as a mind body,

But more body mind than mind body because,

And I'll get to some of how I came to this in a moment,

But our mind and body are in constant communication through different systems.

And some of it is energetic and some of it is actually physical,

But 70% of the information that is on this super highway channel is actually going from body to mind and 30% is going from mind to body.

So my whole life I have been really interested in how we can read what our body is telling us to use that as good information for whatever it is we're doing.

So I'll give you an example is I was a figure skater in New York.

I was very average.

So I will say you've never heard of me.

I really was.

I really was.

We had limited money to spend on skating and I just,

You know,

Kind of stayed at a certain level.

But back then we did something called figures or figure eights and we were given,

Skaters would be given a blank patch of ice and a scribe,

Which is like a big compass.

And so you would draw out a big figure eight and then you would spend an hour going around that figure eight on an edge,

Backward,

Forward,

Inside edge,

Outside edge.

They figure skaters don't do it anymore because too many figure skaters absolutely hated it.

It was very boring.

I on the other hand,

Absolutely loved it.

And this is at like a 11,

12 years of age and it would be before school early morning.

And there I was on,

On this ice in the quiet.

And what I noticed as an 11,

12 year old,

Of course I didn't have this language,

But what I would notice,

And it was like a game for me is that if I was thinking about something,

I would go flat on my blade.

And if I wasn't thinking,

If I could be fully down in my foot,

The one foot that was on that one edge of a blade,

I would be able to hold it.

And I really believe this was the beginning of my interest in the body mind connection in mindfulness,

In awareness and in building mental awareness as a capacity for mental performance for competition for the things that I did further on in my years.

Yeah.

So that's a,

It's a long story,

But I think it's an important story because so many of us have these experiences as children and young adults that really steer us or at least highlight what makes us come alive.

And unfortunately in our culture,

It's often not supported or,

You know,

We,

We often are just steered away from some of those loves that we have as children and young adults that actually may just be our soul's calling.

Now I wasn't destined to be an Olympic skater,

But,

But there was good,

Really good clues there as to what I think,

I believe I'm here to do in this lifetime.

Yes.

Yes.

I love that story.

I think,

And I can just envision you doing the figure eights and,

You know,

There's obviously a meditative quality to,

Because that's the infinity symbol.

Absolutely.

So,

I mean,

That is sort of a mindful meditation in itself that you were experiencing,

Not even really possibly knowing it at that time.

So absolutely.

It's amazing.

And then you went on to just coach other people,

Organizations,

Corporations,

Sports teams,

All kinds of things.

So what happened then when I was in my college years,

I was a runner.

I ran track in college,

The 800.

Again,

I was very average.

I really,

Really was.

And my last college track race,

I had a flow experience where I was so embodied and so focused and so fearless that I shaved seconds off of my 800,

Which is,

You know,

It is a race of milliseconds,

Not seconds.

So something happened to me during that race that changed my life because it reminded me of days on the ice,

But it also was so visceral for me.

And I remember the race was hardly even over and I realized,

Oh my gosh,

Like there's something about what just happened to me and I've got to understand what it was.

And I knew in that moment,

If I could understand how to access it on demand,

I would be,

You know,

I could do anything.

And so it took me on a journey to understand how to train the mind and literally went to the library.

So this was pre-internet and I found books on yoga and meditation and I took them out and I started to study out of a book.

Yoga which is,

You know,

An ancient discipline that has a rigor to it.

And I wanted a rigor as an athlete.

Meditation as well,

You know,

Deeply studied.

So that's when I went in on that route to learn and practice and then eventually teach and I opened a yoga studio and a meditation center.

From there,

I also started to infuse these principles and these practices into athletes at the university level.

And this was before most sports teams were doing this.

Now everybody's doing this.

And so,

You know,

It's always like one thing after another,

But I'll tell you Megan,

That at the ground of it all is my deep desire and also my deep joy in helping people come alive,

In helping them drop or release or let go of or dissolve anything that's holding them back in a step forward into who they are meant to be in this lifetime.

That's so inspirational.

I mean,

I love hearing those stories and I think I can see your path and where you've come from and how it's led you to where you are now.

And I think it's amazing what you're doing now,

Specifically with women too.

So that's the next thing I want to talk about because my gifts are completely in the realm of women.

And one of the things that I help other women with is something that I call the crossroads.

And that's basically where you're at a point in your life of transition or loss,

Whatever it might be.

And your dreams are starting to tell you things about that,

That you might not understand because your subconscious is 95% of your mind and your conscious is only five.

And so as you're going through all these changes in your life,

Your dreams are trying to help you and they're trying to show you the way.

And so I think it's amazing what you're doing now with women in menopause.

So let's talk a little bit about that.

Yes.

Yeah.

And this,

I know it's amazing.

And I just want to encourage everybody listening,

You know,

To just allow yourself during a transition to sit in space because you will either through dreams or meditation or a poem or your next book,

You will get answers.

And so like you said earlier,

You know,

I'd been training high performers,

CEOs and professional sports teams,

College sports teams,

Really people that,

That very,

You know,

High level of their lives for a long,

Long time.

And then I stopped.

And for about four years,

I really kind of lost myself,

To be honest with you.

I lost my confidence in that,

In that arena.

I felt like it really wasn't,

I wasn't making progress.

I wasn't,

My words were not landing out there.

And so I also went into a bit of a funk myself and it was during the time of the pandemic and everything,

But it was only recently.

And I sat and I prayed and I practiced and I dissolved and I let go of,

And I really just allowed myself to sit in space.

And I realized that as I was starting to come out of this dark place,

Which we will go through over and over again in different cycles in our lives,

I believe,

Was exactly where I am,

Which is a 58 year old woman in post-menopause,

Realizing how much those years of perimenopause,

Menopause,

You know,

We'll be in post-menopause for the rest of our lives.

Those years,

How much our body mind is reorganizing and adapting to an evolutionary process.

And you know,

It was hidden in plain sight for me as I started to think about my own journey and then to look at and speak with and start to coach women just like me.

It was like one of those huge ahas,

Like,

Oh my gosh,

This has been here all along.

Like this is exactly the population I should be working with.

And it feels like I've never felt so right.

So really what I am helping women to do is to navigate,

Navigate this massive reorganization of our body mind.

And it goes through all the systems in our body.

But one thing that is often not talked about,

Of course,

The topic of menopause is so under researched and we're so under educated as women.

I had no idea,

But there are such incredible changes that happen in our brain during this time just to changes in estrogen levels,

Which is known as our memory molecule.

So unfortunately,

There are a lot of women,

I would say probably most women who think it's all in their head and they think there's something wrong with them or they're losing their mind or,

You know,

They fall into depression,

Into having a lot of anxiety and insecurity.

And it pains me,

Like literally pains my heart now.

Now that I have come out of my funk,

I can see where I was and felt very much alone.

Just like you said early on,

Megan,

Is that unless we're speaking about it,

We can feel like we're the only ones in it.

And so what I'm doing now is educating women on physiologically what's happening.

Again,

The body mind connection,

But also how to also flip the switch on how you view menopause and turn a maybe a fixed mindset into a really positive and transformational mindset because I believe that and many others as well will speak about this.

This time in our lives,

Which can start in our late thirties,

Actually,

Because our brains start to change before our bodies start to change due to hormonal shifts.

But this evolutionary transition could be used for extraordinary transformation to really step up and into who we are meant to be,

To step up and use our wisdom and life experience and voice and power and passion and time,

Perhaps,

To really offer something special,

Our unique gifts to the world.

So that's a little bit about what I'm doing in different ways.

One-on-one coaching,

Group coaching,

I'm on TikTok every day,

Really playing there as a great platform,

And we'll see what happens.

Oh,

Well,

Thank you for sharing all that.

I think our listeners will greatly connect with that,

I know.

And I feel like there is so much that happens in our lives as women.

I have written a blog about this where the four stages,

I feel like we're told there's three,

But I really feel there's four and I feel like everybody's missing out on the seeker and the seeker is where we are now.

We need to embrace that moment where we're all seekers,

Where we know that we're no longer who we were and we don't know yet who we are,

But then we go seeking.

And that's when we can find what our true gifts are and what our next purpose in life is and what we can share with everyone else to uplift everyone else and to not be so alone and to really embrace the change.

I think that that's.

.

.

And celebrate the change and use it as a catalyst.

So I love what you're doing because I feel like that really resonates with that mode of thinking.

Yeah,

I think it is,

If we really just look at it as an evolutionary process,

We can be,

I think there's a little more peace in our hearts that this isn't something that I've done to myself.

It's actually something that happens because the intelligence in my body.

I believe that women have been done a great disservice in not being educated and prepared,

But change is coming.

And I believe that we are the generation of women that have really fully invested so much in our careers and our lives and our health that we are not going to just lay down and accept feeling like crap for the rest of our lives basically.

And it's my hope that we will be prepared enough to go through this gracefully and to really,

Like I said,

Step up in our power,

But to then also start to educate our younger women.

My daughters are 28 and 29,

And I want them to be fully prepared for all of the symptoms.

And like you said,

And celebrate some of them.

I mean,

They are inconvenient,

But with proper lifestyle practices,

Which is something I teach a lot about,

With simple proper lifestyle,

We can keep things at bay and then we can have resources to know what to do if things are extreme.

Yeah.

And I think it's also important to understand the role that estrogen plays in so much of that,

But also in our dreams.

Most people don't realize that as our estrogen rises and falls,

It affects our dreams.

And the more estrogen that we have,

The more we remember our dreams,

But our dreams change and the themes of our dreams change as we go through these different stages of lives,

Because our body is changing and our whole mind is changing and our whole spirit is changing.

And so the types of dreams that we have will reflect those changes in our lives.

And the changes in our body will also reflect the themes of the dreams and how we can interpret them and how we can use them.

So there's a lot of correlation there.

And I think that dreams is just another avenue of self-care that everyone should consider because it's another way to tune in and to really listen to that little voice that you're not really paying attention to,

But it's always there for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And unfortunately,

So many women struggle with sleep during certain times of the menopause cycle.

And so I think it's very,

Very important for us to learn how to protect our sleep and to prepare our body and to work with our circadian rhythm so that we can have not only the deep steam cleaning of our brain during deep sleep,

But also to be able to have those vibrant dreams and to remember them.

Yes,

Absolutely.

Sleep is essential.

So what should everyone stop doing and what should everyone start doing?

I know you're going to love that question.

Well,

I guess this is overall in or not directed toward menopausal women.

I would just say one of my favorite practices,

And I wrote about this in my book,

Is to practice glimpsing and recognizing moments of aliveness,

Recognizing those little short spontaneous delights that happen.

And they are happening,

By the way.

We're often just driving too quickly in our day to recognize them.

But they are those delightful moments when perhaps you catch the sun on the top of the trees or you meet somebody's gaze in the grocery store.

Those short little delights when your heart just skips and it just feels like life has slowed down or come to a standstill for a moment.

Perhaps it's just a song that just makes you feel joyful or your afternoon run.

It doesn't matter what it is.

It can come in so many different forms.

And then as you're going to sleep,

In addition to a gratitude practice,

Or you can replace it every once in a while,

To think about the moments that day that made you come alive.

What made me come alive today?

What sparked my soul today?

Because once we can start to notice them,

We'll start noticing more and more.

We'll start to lean into those moments and recognize that actually all my daily tasks are just what happens in between those moments of aliveness.

And I believe that when we experience those moments more often,

We are just happier and more compassionate and more generous to others.

So that's what I would say to start doing.

Wonderful.

And of course,

Journaling is a fantastic way to track that because the more you start keeping track of all those little moments,

Those synchronicities,

Those seeming coincidences that you wonder,

I wonder if there's something to that because there is.

The more you keep track of that,

The more you start to see all those little miracles.

You start to understand the guidance that's happening and you feel more tuned in.

That's right.

So what's next for you on your journey?

Big question.

I have no idea.

To be completely honest with you,

I have just begun this new phase of supporting women through the menopause continuum.

And I believe that I'm going to be here for a while.

I just don't know.

And I'm really finally at the place in my life where I know that over planning is going to stunt the growth.

I've been such a doer,

Planner.

I've been a business owner for my whole life and raised two kids and just been like a worker bee.

And I want to experiment with not being a worker bee right now and really offering up the space for my soul to step forward and to guide this next iteration of my work.

Yes,

We do need to step aside and let it flow.

Right.

Yes.

Yes.

So three takeaways you hope listeners learn from this interview.

One is glimpsing aliveness,

Noticing moments of aliveness.

I think you'll be surprised.

The second is to remember that how you feel isn't all in your head,

That your body is constantly changing.

The chemistry in your body is constantly shifting,

Which is going to impact your mood states.

So it's not all just what's going on above the neck.

And then the third thing I would say is to sit back and look back at your childhood and go explore what some of those moments were for you,

Like my sunrises and sunsets or my skating moments,

Because you have them.

Maybe it was with a grandparent or a best friend or alone,

But just to allow yourself because there's so many clues back there and it doesn't have to be what you're going to do in your career.

I think we're so work oriented in our culture.

It could just be your what brings you alive and helps you towards that feeling of being awake in this world.

Yes,

Yes.

We were so close to the spirits when we were a child and that is,

We should hold that and carry that through the rest of our lives to really keep that connection.

Absolutely.

Wonderful.

Okay.

Well,

Thank you so much for being here today.

I truly honor what you are doing for the world and I think that all of my listeners will resonate with it as well.

I really appreciate you sharing with us today and thank you for being here.

Thank you,

Megan.

My pleasure.