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Child: Welcome to my mommy’s podcast!
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Katie Wells: ?Hello, welcome to the Fit Bottomed Zone Podcast. I’m Katie, from fitbottomedzone.com, and this episode is close to home because today I talked to another mom, also named Katie, all about meditation, motherhood, money mindset, mantras, and how to work this in, even if you are a busy mom. So relevant to a lot of us.
Katie is fascinating. She is a creator of the Women’s Meditation Network, which is a family of over 20 podcasts that provide meditations to women and to kids. She first launched her first podcast in 2018 and has grown massively since then to be in the top 0.01% of all podcasts with 164 million downloads.
And as a podcaster myself, I know that is no small feat. She is a mom of two, a meditation expert and a women’s empowerment entrepreneur. And we get to go in so many directions about meditation, about how she reversed her lifelong asthma, naturally, about how she balances things as a busy working mom, and doesn’t feel like that those two things have to compete with each other, what to do about stress, overwhelm, and burnout, and so much more.
Very fun conversation. So let’s join her now. Katie, welcome. It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. Thank you for being here.
Katie Krimitsos: Katie, I’m so honored. Thanks for having me.
Katie Wells: I am really excited for this conversation. I think it’s gonna be really relevant to everybody listening. Especially the moms as we get to delve into things of motherhood, meditations, mantras, money, mindset, how those things are all related. And your incredible story and work around it.
Before we jump into that though, I have a note from researching your bio that you had 10 varsity athletic letters when you graduated from high school and that you hiked up and down the Grand Canyon in one day.
Katie Krimitsos: I did.
Katie Wells: So you are obviously quite an incredible athlete but I would love to hear a little detail on those two stories.
Katie Krimitsos: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I grew up in a tiny little town, like on the border of Arizona, in Mexico. And, like, I was, I’m 46 now, so I graduated high school in 97. If that gives, you know, kind of timelines there. And I clearly remember really only kind of getting into, like, formal sports and, like, competitive sports in junior high.
So by the time I got to freshman year of high school, I made the varsity softball team and I need to kind of, like, have a little bit of humility in that fact because it was the first year we had a girl softball team at all. So… Because it was such a small school. But, so I basically, you know, like every year I had varsity, I continued in varsity softball, basketball, oh my gosh, volleyball I was in. I did swimming during the summers.
I did, you know, softball stuff during the summer. Basically, if I could be busy with sports, that’s what I did. And then years ago, in my twenties, I got really involved in, like, triathlons and road races and all sorts of stuff. And, kind of had a group of, you know, my athlete girlfriends. And we kind of took a trip to Arizona and did our, our kind of like, one day hike down and up the Grand Canyon.
And it was, it was really cool. It was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I was like, yeah, we’re hiking, you know, we’re walking up and down. Not a big deal, but it was actually like, you know, pretty rigorous. But I really, really enjoyed it.
Katie Wells: That is incredible and I’m most excited today to learn from you. I feel like you are the most inspiring example in this realm that I’ve seen of all things meditation. Because, from my understanding, you did not get to develop this on a mountain in a monastery in a completely zen environment. You actually started this with a baby and a toddler and a real life as a mom. Which I think makes it so relatable.
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah.
Katie Wells: But can you share some of your origin story and how you got into this to begin…
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah.
Katie Wells: …with and what those early days were like?
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. Thank you. Oh my goodness. So, I have been an entrepreneur for about 16 years now. Which means 16 years ago, I sort of consciously opted out of, you know, the corporate life. And had a lot of iterations of trying to figure things out and where I was supposed to be and how I would make money in a meaningful way and all that stuff.
And somewhere in there in 2014, I became a podcaster because I had, I loved entrepreneurship and I loved women. And I figured I could, you know, sort of marry the two passions and just have these great conversations with women about their entrepreneurial journeys. And so that became a really beautiful business that I loved called Biz Women Rock.
And I, you know, basically cultivated this incredible group of women entrepreneurs who I would provide coaching for, masterminds for, retreats, you know, memberships, education, all the things. And that was the business I had. It was thriving. It was really great. I loved it. And fast forward, I had my first daughter within that time and sort of figured out that whole mompreneur constantly figuring out, like constant evolving, you know, equation for me.
And then in 2018, at the beginning of 2018, sort of had all these big grand ideas to triple the reach, triple the business. Yes, we can do it. And it was a real solid plan. Q1 passed, I’m hitting those marks. And then in April of 2018, we found out we were pregnant with my second daughter. And for all of you mamas, you just know, like, something, if it’s not more than one thing, but something seems to automatically change the moment you realize you’re pregnant.
And for me, that was like I heard this incredibly distinct loud whisper that said, you’re done with this business. Which was very terrifying to me because it was a lifestyle business by that point. It really took care of me and my family at that point. And so, it was very scary and I loved it. I was like, what do you mean?
Like, I really love this, but now I’m questioning and what am I supposed to do? So pretty wisely on my part. I just decided like, you know what? I’m not gonna make any big decisions in this space of me feeling really uncertain. I’m just gonna kind of, like, let myself live in this unknowing. And I’m going to just be here with the question of what does this mean. And what does this mean for me and my family?
And if not this, what am I supposed to do? And, you know, I basically held back on all the things I was gonna launch and all the things I was about to do. I remember losing a deposit on a retreat, a live retreat, that I had planned for because, now I was like, well, I’m not gonna do that yet because I don’t really know.
In this time I was going on walks with my husband every single day, you know, kind of like processing everything. So, one day it’d be like, okay, I can make it happen. I’m superwoman, you know, having a baby’s gonna, like, really focus me and align me and I can like really, you know, grow into this business that I’m doing.
And then the next day it’d be like, I’m gonna be a stay-at-home mom. I can’t do this stuff. I’m done. And that’s when I thought being a stay at-home mom would actually be easier than running your company, which is completely bonkers. So, during this time, it is a couple weeks into these walks. And, you know, I’m telling my husband again, sort of like the ins the outs. And he’s just beautifully listening and he kind of lets me finish and he looks at me and he says, well, what about that meditation idea?
And what he was referring to was, you know, a few months ago when I was doing beginning of the year planning, I had had an idea for a meditation podcast for women. And I didn’t do anything with it because it didn’t really fit in line with the business at the time. And so now here he was putting it back in front of me saying, well, what about it?
And I was like, well, what about it? He’s like, what about it? And that was the seed that was planted for the Women’s Meditation Network because all of a sudden, within like an hour I, we brainstormed and I was like, oh my God, this is what it could be. This is what it might provide for me and my family and the women out there.
And I just saw really clearly, even though from the outside perspective it seemed like a complete non-sequitur to go from like business and entrepreneurship. And that’s Katie’s… No one knew I meditated. No one knew that I did that at all. I never talked about it. It was not part of like, you know, I just, it was something private to me.
And so it was very weird from the outside perspective, but internally, I really got, I understood. I was like, yes, this is my next evolution of what, of my work in the world and how I feel like I’m supposed to be giving my gift. And I saw very clearly it was a whole network. It wasn’t just one podcast.
And to kind of validate that vision. I remember going on Apple Podcasts at the time and just typing in meditation and women, and one podcast showed up. And I was like, there’s no way. There’s no way that this doesn’t exist here. So I just knew. I was like, okay, the market’s right for it. The, I am a wo… this is me.
I am a woman searching for meditation. And if I saw myself in what I found, then I’m going to click play, right? And so that’s what I, that was enough for me to start. And so I started with my original podcast called Meditation for Women back in the summer of 2018, seven years ago. And I did it with a baby in my belly and a toddler at the time.
Knowing, okay, I also want, I’m going to deliberately create a business model that allows for time freedom. Because I had a business model that had me meeting with clients and I had an incredible community, mostly of moms, who would totally get and give me grace in a changing lifestyle, right?
But I just knew, I was like, no, no, no, no. I wanna be able to write during nap time and bedtimes. And I wanna be able to record during those times. And then I wanna be able to be mom. And so I knew it would grant me sort of that time freedom. So I did. And three months into launching that one, that first podcast, it was already surpassing the numbers of my, you know, a very well established podcast.
So I was like, okay, wink from the universe. I got it. I’ll keep going. And the end game really is now seven years later, we now have 20 podcasts that are part of the entire network. Everything from medi-, Sleep meditation for Women, morning Meditation for Women, daily Affirmations, meditation for Anxiety, meditation for Kids, sleep Meditation for Kids.
And I’m, I do it deliberately. It is an operation like we are an operation, and my mantra is constantly like, how can we provide high quality and high quantity meditations that women can, pick and choose and grasp during any part of the day, during any season of their life. To support the goals that they have for their deep need for self-awareness.
Katie Wells: That is quite the story and I love that. I have some resonance in your story as well on the podcasting side, at least. In that, when I started in 2014, there were very few health and wellness podcasts specifically for women and none for moms. And there were all these great…
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah.
Katie Wells: …men podcasts. But I was like, somebody needs to speak to the women and to the moms because I feel, and I would guess you agree…
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah.
Katie Wells: …moms are such a force of nature. And when we help the moms, we create ripples through not just families but society. And I think, like, that’s where change begins.
And I also love what you said about when you were going through that transition. The realization of just sitting there and being in the unknown. I think that in between space can be so uncomfortable and so transformative. And so I love that you talked about that specifically. And I would guess a lot of people listening, I know this was me for a lot of years, like, knew the benefits of meditation. Like every expert talks about meditation being, you know, so helpful. But it was really hard as a mom for me. Especially in the toddler years to actually make that a practice in the busyness of daily life.
So I would love for you to speak to the woman who maybe, like, wants to meditate, knows she should meditate, but has trouble actually implementing that in her life or making it a habit. Or feels like she doesn’t have the time or the space or the patience in the space of life.
Katie Krimitsos: Yes. Oh, that’s such a great practical question. So before I get to the practical answers to that, I wanna give a little bit of a backdrop as to why I am going to say these practical answers. So, you’re right. We all know the benefits of meditation. Anyone could come here. You could do a quick Google search, ask chat GPT, and they will tell you like, here are the 10 top, you know, physical, mental, spiritual benefits of meditation.
So we kind of all intuitively know that stuff. You know, it’s gonna lower your heart, your blood pressure, your standing heart rate. Like, there’s, it’s gonna lower cortisol level, like all of the things. We know this already, right? That’s not why I do meditation. That is a side benefit of why I do meditation for myself and why I share meditation and share the gift of meditation. Because really what’s underneath there, the real core reason that I’m so passionate about meditation, is because I believe that it is one of the most powerful tools for us to get to know ourselves.
It’s an uncomfortable tool. Meaning, you know, we have to practice. Almost like you said, it’s sort of like a microcosm of that season I went through where, like, you have to practice being in the stillness when we’re so entrenched in motion all the time. Right. But I really believe that when we use the tool of meditation to come into ourselves, to listen, to create enough space inside of our minds and our souls to actually hear our intuition, we have all the answers inside of us.
We remember that we’re whole and that we’re perfect just as we are. And all of that ego stuff starts dissolving pretty quickly. So I believe it’s life changing. It is world changing when you can use this tool over and over again to be able to know thyself and therefore create the life you actually really love.
So with that in mind, the tools I’m going to share are so simple and yet so profound because they give us opportunities to do this. They give us opportunities to come inside and just sort of touch base with ourselves. So for those of us who are super busy, as we all are, for those of us who are constantly in motion, for those of us who have the toddlers running around, for those of us, hands raised, whose kids are home on summer break right now. And all of a sudden you’re in a new schedule where kids are home with you all the time.
You know, some of the very, very simple things that you could do is what I like to call mini meditations. And mini meditations are opportunities for you to just come into your breath to just pause. So, a couple really great examples of these… and kind of a secondary tip I could give here is to align these mini meditations with habits you already have.
Brushing your teeth, taking a shower. You know, doing your workout. Whatever it is that you do on a regular basis. Like, you always do it. You don’t have to worry about it. You know, attach this, attach these things to those. So, mini meditation might look like you’re in the shower and instead of you sort of trying to hurry up, and hurry up and get to the baby, or you know, hurry up and get to the next thing that you’re supposed to do.
Calm down. Come inside and just focus on your breath for five breaths. That’s it. Come in. Focus on counting. Like, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out. Okay. That’s it. Pretty soon you’ll be able to sort of, like, just pay attention to sort of, like, you know, all of our senses. Meaning, you’ll start feeling the warm water on your back. You’ll start feeling the water sort of dripping down you.
And you just become aware of your senses and it brings you into the moment. Another mini meditation idea could be that, you know, you’re brushing your teeth and instead of just, like, mindlessly sort of walking around and brushing your teeth or sort of doing another thing so you feel productive while you’re brushing your teeth, like, just brush your teeth. Feel yourself.
You can even, like, look at yourself in the mirror and, like, just feel your breath, brush your teeth, feel the motion, feel the sensation of the brush on your teeth. These are just opportunities for us to slow down and be in the present moment. The last one that I love, especially for us moms who are, you know, transporting our kids, we are the kid taxis, right?
When you have a moment and you’ve dropped off your kids somewhere, before you run into the house, before you run into the grocery store, before you do anything, go ahead and just sit in your car and take five deep breaths. Close your eyes if you feel like it. And I, it’s pretty challenging to actually get to five. Because you’ll realize, that, like once you get to number three, like, your mind has already wandered and that’s okay.
Like, that’s, your mind wandering is okay. It’s part of this process. That’s why meditation as a practice is so imperfect, right? So all of these are, these mini meditations are such great ways to just incorporate them and pair them with habits you already have, and they allow you opportunities to just stop and practice, like, real presence.
We become mindful of what we’re feeling, in that moment. And again, you know, my belief is meditation is this sort of portal to our insides. All of a sudden when we stop the motion, the constant motion of our bodies, of our schedules, of our minds, like we actually can feel and check in with ourselves and be like, how am I doing today?
What do I need today? Like, oh, I noticed I woke up kind of, like, feeling a little off. What’s going on with me? And when you can just have the space to ask yourself those questions, then you start seeing like, oh, you know what? Like, okay, I can see that. I understand, oh, that’s feels still unresolved. And we start sort of seeing what do I need to feel my best today?
So all of those things start sort of sprouting up, but we can’t see them in the hurry and the rush and the movement of daily lives. So these mini meditations are a great way to just slow down and become present.
Katie Wells: I love that for one because it’s simple and can, like you explain, fit in even if you are a busy mom. I think moms are some of the busiest people on the planet. And so it’s like little rituals. And also in the focus on, starting with breath. Because I’ve had so many experts in various realms talk about how breath is the master switch of the nervous system.
And I think a lot of moms really do face overwhelm and burnout just from the stressors of daily life. And something as small as, like for me, breath work and meditation practices and morning sunlight were really impactful in helping kind of get my cortisol in a good range and, like, gently addressing that burnout. Because when you’re kind of on that line, you can’t address it by doing more things that are like a to-do list that are gonna stress you out more.
It’s like you said that, like, little pause, even if it’s just for a couple minutes, can make a huge, huge difference. I love how you kind of talked about how this relates to mindset as well. And I would love to go a little bit deeper on this. Especially maybe related to how meditation can help us shift from things like scarcity into abundance. Or maybe from, like, overwhelm into more peace. I know there’s, like, infinite ways that this is helpful. But can you touch specifically on that for maybe moms who are balancing motherhood and household and work and everything else with life?
Katie Krimitsos: Oh my goodness. This is such a big, big topic, so I’m just gonna come into it with my own personal experience in hopes that so many of you mamas out there will really relate and hear me here. You know, again, using the meditation as this lens for self-awareness and, like, knowing ourselves, I think it’s such a beautiful practice. Because we can start making a distinction between ego and like our soul’s desires and our soul’s real purpose of being here in this world, right?
And I think when we feel stress or we feel, you know, disappointment, frustration, anger, like, when we feel these emotions. They’re not bad. They’re just emotions. I think oftentimes it’s because, like, who our soul is, is meeting up against ego. The ego that’s scared, the ego that wants to be appreciated, but I’m keeping score and why aren’t you appreciating me. Like, the ego that says, you know, I’m trying to, the soul that says I’m, I have this big desire to be this beautiful, intentional parent and raise my kids in this special way.
But the ego that comes into play. Going, oh, I’m not doing it good enough. Or, oh my God, my little one just yelled at me, blah, blah, blah. And I need to teach her, you know, respect. Like, none of these things are bad or good. I really don’t wanna put that label on it. But, like, the emotions, those that overwhelm, like the, our nervous system is, like, reacting to these over and over again, right?
So I think where meditation can help is, number one, calming us down to allow us to sort of, sort through that stuff. We can start hearing the voice of our ego, right? The noise of our ego. And we can start separating it and distinguish it from the voice of our intuition, the voice of our soul. And when we can start seeing those two things as two separate things, we can start identifying. Man, I’m having a lot of fear about this, I’m having a lot of anxiety about this, why?
You know, mindset. Oh, I’m thinking that I, there’s not enough, there’s not enough money. There’s not enough time. You know, I spoke earlier about, you know, my, this is our first week of summer schedule. I can’t believe how much anxiety I had about summer schedule. Because it’s, I’m somebody who loves routine.
I like to know what I can rely on. I work, I work full time, right? And so working full time with kids who refuse camps. Right? Just refuse camps. Like there’s no such thing. So it’s me wanting to be simultaneously knowing I want to have the free space and the free time at home with my kids.
It’s, like, there’s so many good things about this summer. You know, I’m definitely somebody who’s like, I have x amount of years, X amount of summers with my kids like this, right? So I don’t wanna just, you know, give them up to, you know, so I could stay in my routine. So my whole point in saying that is like, as I was noticing more and more stress and anxiety coming up about it, I was like, why? What’s here?
And I could see very clearly, oh, I have a mindset called, no, Katie, you know, when Katie doesn’t have a set schedule, it’s chaos. And you know, kid and Katie ha can only be mom or I can be business owner. I can’t do both things at once. I suck, traditionally, at, you know, what everyone thinks that we’re so good at, which is multitasking. Which I think is a complete bs. But I’m not, I’m not good at it.
I am either working or I’m mom because I wanna be present for both, right? Well, guess what? That doesn’t, that black and white idea works really well when I have constant childcare when it’s a school year, but it doesn’t really work so well when things are a little bit more fluid during the summer.
So I can start recognizing some of the stories that my ego has, some of the stories that, and limitations that, my ego is telling me, trying to keep me safe, trying to keep me on edge, trying to make sure that you know, for all the very reasons. It doesn’t actually matter why my ego is telling me those stories.
What matters is that I can recognize them and then I can come right back in here and say, well, what is true for me? What do I wanna believe? Actually, I really wanna believe that summer is gonna be pretty damn magical. And it’s gonna be different and it’s gonna be weird. But I have an enormous amount of support around me. And it’s gonna require a little bit more work. Because it’s not like, you know, this, I don’t have to think about the schedule anymore.
Like, I’m gonna have to think about the schedule on a regular basis. But if I can stay on top of it, like, it’s gonna be okay. You know? So, and there’s a lot of beauty in this sort of, like, flow of summer. There’s an enormous amount of beauty in the flow of summer and wouldn’t it be great, like, can I choose to believe instead that there’s a lot of abundance here?
I’m in the process of writing a book. And I’m like, oh my God, I’m writing a book over the summer. What was I thinking? But I’m, like, how about I choose to believe something a little different? What are the practical things that I can change in my life? Could I get up a little earlier? So let the kids sleep in a little later?
Like, can I change some practical things in my daily life that allow me to sort of lend myself to what I do want to believe. Which is, I wanna believe abundantly. I wanna believe that there’s an, that I can have all the things, right? I wanna believe that I can have this great summer with my kids, be a really great present mom.
And I can produce really amazing, abundant and prosperous things in my business that help millions of women around the world. Yes, I can do it all. And I’m gonna figure it out how, right? So, you know, I say all of that because meditation really is that tool that helps us with that initial process of sort of, like, separating and identifying those limiting beliefs, those stories, those mindsets that we have.
The overwhelm. Even the overwhelm. I’m gonna tread lightly here because overwhelm is a very real thing. I feel it. It is overstimulation overwhelm. And it’s easy also to get caught up in the story that that’s normal and that we’re just always gonna have it, and that I’m always doing it and I always have to run this fast.
And that doesn’t have to be true either. So I’ll give you this kind of real life example. So yesterday was a Tuesday. My kids were signed up for horse camp this week. Okay? They were supposed to be at horse camp from 9:00 AM till 4:00 PM. Day one of horse camp, they don’t wanna go back. They don’t love it.
This was the only camp that we have planned for the whole summer. So, on Tuesday I’m saying, hey, we can’t quit after one day. You have to at least go today. And then we’ll kind of reassess and we’ll see how it goes. And we have, we have property, okay? So we have animals, we have property. As we’re leaving to, as we’re leaving, I’m, like, gathering things up and I see a coyote out the back chasing my chickens. And I’m like, oh my God.
So that, the next hour, was trying to find all the chickens. Sadly to say we can’t find one, but all the rest of them are okay. So that was interesting. Take the kids to horse camp instead of just dropping ’em off, we’re already late. Instead of dropping them off and now I can adhere to my schedule, I stay there for what turns out to be another hour so I can sort of get them settled.
Because they’re not easy to settle in on that day. I get home and I immediately have to reprioritize because I don’t have the chunk of time that I originally thought that I had for work, right? Reprioritize. Check, check, check, get the things done.
Then I go up to my mother-in-law’s house. And my mother-in-law, my father-in-law and our family advocate and caregiver for them all go to do estate planning for my in-laws, right? It’s an emotional meeting. There’s egos flying. Like it’s, lot of, lot… It’s a heavy meeting. I leave there. Meanwhile, I’m on the phone with my husband who’s, like, has forgotten about gymnastics practice and he has to go to, and I’m trying to remind and do all the things, and he’s like, yeah, but what about dinner?
And I’m like, oh my God. Do you have, know, how many thousands of details have gone into making this day work the way it’s, it needs to work today? And you are just asking me about dinner… anyway. My point saying that is, like, I felt so charged, I felt so fried. And that’s a real feeling of overwhelm. It is real.
And, I was reminded by the end of the day, because all I was doing, I was taking deep breaths on the way home. I wasn’t listening to anything. I wasn’t talking to people. I made quiet and I just took deep breaths on my way home. I was looking out, I was noticing the sky. I was noticing the water. I was noticing the rain. Like, just, bringing myself into presence.
And I realized, okay, I can let this become part of the story that I’m an overworked, overwhelmed, busy mompreneur, right? I can choose to do that, or I can choose to say, today was hard and that’s okay. What do I need to kind of get me back to center? And what do I wanna believe for the day, for this next day?
Right? So today I was out with my chickens. I did my coffee out with my chickens, and I just was in nature for like an hour with my chickens. Reminding myself what I’m grateful for. Kind of reassessing, you know, feet in the grass. Grounding myself and just reassessing how I wanted this day to be. So we can’t do that if we continue to sort of, like, just assume and take and kind of wear that story over and over again.
You know what I mean? So I guess all that to say that it’s really up to us at any given moment what, how we want to step into our lives and meditation becomes and self-awareness becomes the door to do that.
Katie Wells: I love that as an example. And I love, especially that, like, refocusing and realizing we have more choice than we often feel like we do, and we’re caught up in the busyness of life. And that question you said of what do I wanna choose to believe? Because I think we do have so much more choice than we often feel like we do in a given moment when life is happening.
And I’m gonna go out on a limb and wonder. I also found in your bio a note that you had reversed your lifelong asthma naturally. And I’m curious if any of this inner work was related to that. And I ask only because I reversed Hashimoto’s, which they also tell you is not reversible. And…
Katie Krimitsos: Yes.
Katie Wells: …you’re told like you’re gonna be on medication forever.
And the funny part is I did, and I’ve talked about this before, I did a lot of the physical stuff. But I had been doing that for years and years, and it wasn’t until I addressed the mental, emotional, spiritual side, the inner work, that things actually shifted. And for me it was learning to see myself well and say myself well, and not say that I was sick, but to say I was healing.
Not say my body was attacking itself, say my body was working in my favor, things like that. So I’m curious if you also have a story of how this relates to your healing as well.
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah, for me it all comes down to deep, deep self-awareness. Deep self-knowing and belief and trust in who I am as a soul. And believing that I’m whole. And believing that I know what’s best for me. No one else knows what’s best for me. And I can be incredibly rebellious in this way. And I can absolutely kick myself outside of the box because I refuse to stay in that thing.
You know, to an aggravating degree, I’m sure, to other people, but I don’t care. It’s my life. And so yeah, I have been asthmatic since I was 18 months old. And, you know at some point in early junior high, like, was on daily meds for it, daily inhalers for it. Obviously it was regulated because I was a big time athlete.
Still am. And so it was regulated. And then, 16 years ago, I met my husband and my husband’s a bird, parrot, guy. And we got a parrot together. And, couple months into us having a parrot, I realized, like, I was on a master swim team at that point, and I could not swim one lap, like, it, I could not breathe like it felt, it was such torture trying to breathe every single breath.
No amount of inhalers would help. And so I realized, oh my God, I’m allergic to her. This is crazy. And you know, everything I read was either get rid of your parrot or your, you know, allergen pet or buy this $10,000 air purifier that may or may not work, right? So I was like, there’s gotta be another way.
And I ended up finding, you know, kind of going down the rabbit hole of internet marketing back then, which I’m so grateful for because I found this incredible article. That basically was like, here is the combination of supplements that you need in order to not only deal with the symptoms of asthma but actually will repair your respiratory system over time.
So it’s this combination. It’s a specific combination of quercetin, which is a natural antihistamine. Many of us might use it already for, like, seasonal allergies. And then, bromelain, which is the root of a pineapple plant, right? So the combination of these two things in a certain amount of certain high dosage, over time, will do this.
So that’s sort of the actual thing, right? Well, what was, what I did kind of in the holistic realm is that, like… And I noticed a difference the next day as I started taking these, like within 24 hours, I could notice a significant difference in the symptoms. Like I could breathe again. So, but what I was actively doing is I was actively meditating and doing, like, visualizations of, like, my lungs opening up and staying open and being whole and strong and clear.
Like, every day I would do that. Just, you know, I don’t wanna make it seem like a chore. Because it wasn’t. I would just be like, oh, maybe like the five minutes right after I get up or the five minutes right before I go to bed, I would just do this little visualization of, like, me breathing my lungs opening up, my body working perfectly.
You know, I would see sort of like everything circulating beautifully. And I would see myself sort of like being able to run for a long distance, being able to swim for a long distance. So that visualization really lent itself into, like, I am whole and complete. My body knows how to take care of itself. My body knows how to heal and I’m gonna trust that.
Now fast forward. And so, it took me, that and the supplements. I was off of my daily meds within, I think, a year. Like it took me nine months to a year and then another half of a year to actually wean off of the supplements. So, like, I don’t take anything now for what, like, 14 years now, 15 years now. So I don’t consider myself having asthma anymore. Now fast forward. Last summer I did something very similar. I kind of had a little bit of a breast cancer scare, like, I was feeling sort of like some lumps in my breast and, you know, I’m 46.
And again, this kind of goes into it. Like this deep, deep… I’m such an advocate for deep self knowing. Like no one knows me better than me. No one knows my body better than me. No one knows my mind better than me. No one knows my soul better than me. So my doctor, thankfully, is, knows I’m super granola, knows that I will always want a natural way of doing things first.
Knows that I’m very much a, like, let’s work on the mind first. And. You know, I really do believe that the body will fall suit in, you know, in some respects. To make a very long story short, he recommended I go get a mammogram, do all the things, and they basically said, hey, you need to go get a biopsy. Which was a little terrifying, right?
And so there was probably half a day where I was just, like, letting myself live in terror. Like, oh my God, called up the insurance company. What do I do if I have cancer? Like all that crap. And then after that I was like. That’s not really how I’m gonna approach this, that’s, that doesn’t feel right for me, right?
I’m gonna approach this from a state of, I’m already whole and complete, what is, what do, what does my mind need and what does my body need to heal? And so I would just, and this is heavily influenced by Dr. Joe Dispenza too. I was kind of listening to some of his books at the time, which is very much that concept.
Like, if, like, we can really, like, control our minds and visualize what we want and our physical lives will sort of step into that, right? So I was just visualizing, like, a completely healed body. Practically though that doesn’t mean I wasn’t doing practical things. Practically speaking, I gave up coffee. Like the kind of the, what I now know was not very good coffee at the time, and within 48 hours, like my symptoms, like all the heaviness and the density there and the pain there was cut in half.
So, but I kept on visualizing like, everything’s healing, I’m good, I’m totally fine. And I went in to get the biopsy and they have to do a mammogram at first in order to triangulate what the first mammogram found. And they couldn’t find anything. So I never had a biopsy. And I was like, I knew, I already know.
I already know what you’re gonna tell me. So I just believed wholeheartedly, like, I’m healed, I’m fine. My body’s strong. My body knows how to heal itself. And I, just, I unwaveringly believe that stuff. And I think that that’s very true to my personality. I just unwaveringly believe what I wanna believe.
And we’re all allowed to do that. We don’t have to live by any of the other rules. Like, we can just believe what we wanna believe and therefore make it all happen, you know?
Katie Wells: I fully agree with you. And I think this is like, it’s so powerful and often underestimated. And I would guess some people listening may be doubting that this is so powerful. And I think your wording is actually very important. Like, unwaveringly believe. Like I have a friend who has that perfectly with even small things of like. She knows she will have a parking spot right in front of wherever she’s going. Every single time. And she does, every single time.
But the extreme example on the flip side of this would be there are many documented medical cases where someone is given a terminal diagnosis, they die when they’re told they’re gonna die. And then the autopsy reveals they didn’t actually have whatever it was, it was a misdiagnosis. But because they believed they were going to die on a schedule, they did.
So that, to me, illustrates the extreme other side of just how powerful this is. But I think that, like, unwavering belief is really the key and applies to so many areas of life. And if we’re gonna already have all these inner thoughts every day, why not learn to make them in our favor and to make them more positive and to enrich our inner experience throughout the day.
Another area I would love to hear from you about because we’re both mom entrepreneurs and something I think about often is kind of what lessons do I hope my kids take away from not just having me as a mom, but, like, me being in the work that I do while being their mom. And hopefully, I think often of, like, I know they see me work a lot. I hope they often also realize that, like, they are a priority and I’m there with them a lot. I hope they feel my presence.
But I’m really curious for you, like, how do you balance that and what do you hope your daughters take away from seeing you as a working mom?
Katie Krimitsos: Oh man, that’s a great question. You know, they, because, historically I sort of like compartmentalize work life and then mom life, for a long time actually, they didn’t really see me work. And so I realized, like, I’m kind of doing them a disservice if I don’t work a little bit in front of them. So they don’t, because they, they’re like, what does mommy do, right?
I talk about my work a lot. We listen to my meditations every single night to put them to bed. So they know, they, I am very clear about, like, hey, mommy’s going in for an interview right now, or like, I’m going in, I gotta record meditations. They kind of will walk on in on me, in my closet, as I’m doing meditation sometimes.
They don’t know the full scope of all the stuff, nor do they need to. But they see mom work a little bit, right? Enough to know that I do work. Enough to know that, like, I do, because I verbalize it, I do important work that I love. And I’m very, I’m very quick to say, like, I do work I love. Like you get to, you are allowed to do work you love.
So one of the big things that I hope that they see is that. And because my husband’s an entrepreneur too, and so he very much is passion driven and they see both of us that way. So I love that they’re getting two examples of just humans following their passions. And it’s not, they, they see the struggle, like, you know, my, they see it, they see the frustration. They hear me and daddy talking about some business stuff, right?
But they see, and I think sometimes I’ll sort of bring the lesson home that like, you’re allowed to do what you’re, you love. You’re allowed to… You know we just bought this property last year. And I remember talking to my daughters about like, we got this because, you know, our companies do well and we earn money and we do that by providing beautiful things and things that help people.
And you know, it’s all we’re having the money conversations about what money is. It’s this tool that, for exchange. And, you know, following what you love and all this stuff can come, you just gotta believe it. So, you know, they’re, I love that they see kind of that whole, the whole garden of what work is.
Because for us it’s not, it’s not nine to five and then we’re done and they never see it and we complain about it. We don’t, we’ve lived a very different life than many folks. And it’s not to judge. It’s not, it’s just to say, like, our life looks very different. And so I love that they see that. I love that they see a life where we have flexibility.
I love that they get to have us, you know? I love that we’re involved with their school. Like they go to this really cool independent school that’s very, like, holistic and fun. Like I love that. Like we’re involved there. I’m teaching meditation there. They have gardening going on there that I’m, that I’ll participate in. And, like, you know, like, I love that we’re there and available for them.
And then they get to see the manifestation of what it means to work and work hard and work passionately about, towards something that you really love. And I’m seeing this already in my oldest one. Because we don’t ask the question like, what do you wanna be when you grow up? We don’t, we don’t do that.
But we’ll just, we’ll help them lean into what their interests are, right? So, you know, my oldest daughter loves art. She’s a phenomenal artist. And we just, like, love on her with that. So anytime we see her art we’re, oh my gosh, this is so good. You should try this, and this and this. And we’ve at least given her enough information for her to know, like, that she could go to art school if she wanted to, if she ever wanted, take more art classes.
Like she could continue to follow that curiosity of art right? And then we’ll talk… What did, I said something to her, the, she said something the other day. I think that they had the conversation at school about, like, you could be an artist when you grow up, right? And I kind of said the thing, like, you know, babe, some people might tell you that if you’re an artist, you can’t make money.
She looked at me very strangely. She’s like, really? I go, yeah, I go, but the truth is like I’m an artist. I’m a writer, you know, and I make money. And we’re all artists. Like, you’re an artist, you can make money with what you wanna do. Like, there’s a gazillion different ways to make a living and put beautiful things out in the world and be prosperous as an artist.
And, but the most important thing is that you’re doing it because you love it and you’re happy and it brings you joy. So, it, like, it’s… She sees us and then we have these conversations that sort of like tie it all together. So I think that’s my favorite thing, is that they see us in action and that we have the freedom of schedule to be as active with them and as present with them as we possibly can be, you know?
Katie Wells: I love that. And it goes back to what you said earlier too. About, like, that motherhood and work don’t have to be like these separate silos necessarily. Like, they can overlap beautifully and they can both be priorities without sacrificing from each other. And you can be so present with both and then your daughters get to see that kind of play out in your life. I’m also curious, like, what boundaries, routines, practical things do you have in place to balance both? Because I know you probably get that question a lot, I certainly get that question a lot of like, how do you balance the work and the kids and all the things.
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah, so let me make sure I’m following up with this by saying that I don’t, this is not a perfect thing. Like, it might sound all rainbows and unicorns, but like, it’s, it’s messy. It’s very messy. And I call it my mompreneur equation. Which is sort of like, you know, I really believe, like, I’m putting my priorities and my values on my calendar so that you wanna talk about a practical thing, I put them on my calendar.
So I know when I’m doing work, kind of what my start and stop times are with work, what I’m working on for that day. I try to be as efficient energetically and practically with the work that I’m doing when I’m doing the work. And that never looks perfect, right? There’s always wiggle room, things always shift, and that’s okay.
But if I can have, like, general template of, like, what a week looks like, I really look at my life in, like, week long segments. And then, you know, so it’s just, it’s always, it’s messy. And then with my kids, I love, like, I love routine. I love, okay, every Tuesday we do this. Every Friday we do this and that, that’s not real life a lot, you know?
So I sort of, like, lean into that immediately. Like, okay, do we, do, you know, me and my husband, do we do Nate date nights every Saturday night, Right? But, you know, we’ve had seasons where that kind of goes in and out. And that makes sure that he and I are really strong amidst the constant changing of life.
You know, but I, for me, it is primary most important for me to schedule alone time with myself. And that has, I have recognized the older I get, I need a lot of alone time. I need a lot of time. Some of that can be reflective meditation time. Right now that typically looks like I’m waking up really, you know, 4:30 or 5:00 AM. And I’m just sort of giving myself a good half an hour to an hour til not be productive.
Like, let me just sit with my coffee. And I meditate. Sometimes I feel really inspired to, like, write something really quick and I kind of just let myself. Do what I feel most called to do at that time, but like, there’s no checking shit off of a list during that time, you know? And, but it, that time is so important for me, and I’ll do that multiple times during the day.
You talked about getting outside and getting sunlight, like, you know, we have land here, so it is very easy and important for me. Like, if I ever feel sort of, like, oh my gosh, lots of stuff going on. I just will easily, like, just walk outside. Go look at the creek, go look at the chickens, go look, go walk around a little bit.
Get outside, get in the sun. So for me it is definitely, like, knowing what my priorities are, knowing what my values are in any given season. Time with my husband, time with myself, time to work out. You know, how am I taking care of my mind, my body, my soul. First, how do I get that first? And business is, me working, is a part of that because what I do is incredibly soul fulfilling.
I love what I do. And it’s an expression of who I am in this world. And so I have to make time for that. So for me, I sort of, like, schedule that it’s shown up on my calendar. Like where am I setting those times? What am I doing and how do I, even if it all doesn’t happen, at least I’ve sort of set a template for the week, you know what I mean?
And then, you know, again, it’s really important for me to be present with my girls. And as they age, they’re nine and six right now. They’re at a really fun age where they’re sort of, like, shifting into these, kind of, like, girls slash women, like young women. And so it’s beautiful. Like, how we spend time together now is very different than what it looked like, you know, two years ago.
So, It’s less caretaking and more like connecting. So, we’ve just started, and again, we’re not perfect with this, but we’ve just started doing, like, little, like, daddy daughter dates and I will go on a mommy daughter date and then the following week we switch. You know, like, having one-on-one time with each of our girls, making sure they feel seen and making sure that we’re getting to know who they are as they’re growing and aging and what’s important to them.
And so it’s like those things. Like, I try to see it and create this template for my values on my calendar, and then life will change it and move it. But it’ll give me some sort of a starting point.
Katie Wells: I love that, and I know you have, you mentioned like 20 podcasts and you have so many resources available, especially for the moms listening. Where is a good jumping in point and starting point? I’ll make sure I link to all of it in the show notes too of course.
Katie Krimitsos: Yeah. So we actually have a Meditation for Moms podcast. It’s one of my favorite. The graphic itself, the visual itself, is so beautiful. It’s this woman with, like, this rainbow colored hair. She’s this really artistic, beautiful silhouette face. And then she’s got like these rainbow hairs coming out.
It’s just gorgeous. So it’s called Meditation for Moms. And there, humbly speaking, I deliberately put meditations on there and create meditations that I really want to relate and hit home with the moms. Many types of moms, many seasons of moms, many seasons of motherhood. So, from a brand new mom to, like, you know, mom going through empty nests.
So that is a really great place to start. Meditation for women are original. I love recommending that one because I feel like it’s a little bit of a buffet style. Like there’s a little bit of everything there. There’s sort of like these really beautiful poetic ones that I’m writing. There’s sleep meditations on there.
There’s morning meditations on there, there’s affirmations on there. There’s sounds on there. So there’s a little bit of everything so it can kind of, like, be a great place to start. And you could be like, oh, I really like these morning meditations. I’m gonna go listen to morning meditation for women.
So yeah, it’s, those two I think would be such a great place to start. womensmeditationnetwork.com is sort of our home where it’s very easy to sort of, you know, browse around and get what you need. Or whatever podcast player you’re listening to now you can just go type in Women’s Meditation network and, you know, see all of our shows there and just kind of, like, start searching.
It’s meant to be a library, like a giant library for you to just search through. I really do my best to try and make the titles approachable and easy. And, like, I literally have one called when you’re overstimulated and overwhelmed. Like, those are the titles of my meditations, because that’s when we need it. That’s the one I’m like, yes, I need that one, right? I need to play that one. So yes, those are the places to start.
Katie Wells: I love it. Well, all of those will be linked in the show notes. And I have so much enjoyed getting to know you and this conversation and all that you’ve shared. Thank you so much for being here today.
Katie Krimitsos: Aww, Katie, thank you so much. I’m so grateful. I really, really appreciate it. I’m so, so proud of the work that you do with mamas. Like, it just, I, you know, you talked about back in 2014 about, you know, the message and the connection you really wanted to make. You’ve obviously done that, and I just, I love it. Like the more mamas that can get the resources, and feel connected, that we need to feel and be seen in this crazy…
Oh my gosh. 90% of what we do is completely invisible. Like the fact that you make that so visible and so relatable is so beautiful. So just thank you for your work that you do.
Katie Wells: Oh, thank you, and thanks to all of you for listening and for sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with us today. We’re both so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of The Fit Bottomed Zone Podcast.
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