DARK NIGHTS OF THE SOUL,
DETOX & MINI DEATHS

There is not just one dark night of the soul. You will experience many mini-deaths as you rise higher in energy. Letting go of old ways of thinking or programmations are commonly experienced as spiritual detox, sometimes with flu-like symptoms. Common ones include extreme tiredness, lack of concentration, listlessness and not wanting to be around others. Mild depression, feeling lost and doubting the journey are others.

How Coaching Can Help: Awakening is a process so what you are experiencing, fear not- others have as well. Coaching can support you in letting go of old ways, in seeing that your conditionings are keeping you in a prison that you want to break free of. Acceptance of the process and allowing the journey to unfold at its own pace are tools that serve well.

WHEN MIND ATTACKS: SPELLS OF THE MIND-ALL LIES!

The mind gets us into trouble because we choose to give it attention and listen to its rantings and ravings, which are all lies. Mind is either in the past or in the future, never in the present moment. The mind is likened to a monkey, always clowning around and making lots of noise. Monkey mind says, “I’m the boss, I’m in control!” which prevents you from listening to your true self. Know it well: mind is NOT your friend, never has been, not now, not ever.

How Coaching Can Help: The mind is a tool, so to be “master” of the monkey mind, many techniques to “quiet” the mind or to go beyond the mind (called no-mind) can be used. Some useful tools include detachment, let go, neutrality, witnessing and compassion. Since there is a wide variety of techniques, knowing how your monkey mind works and what techniques work for your mind is a key training.

MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS

As written on the temple of Delphi, the purpose of life is to know oneself. Meditation and mindfulness techniques serve to de-automatize and break you free from your conditionings. Because your mind is always talking, you don’t hear the voice of your inner self. Your life stays the same- filled with hang-ups, thoughts and habits that refuse to uplift you. Meditation gives you the clarity to witness, listen and be in the present moment— to choose inner harmony and create a blissful way of being.

How Coaching Can Help: Coaching offers you meditation techniques, ways to stay mindful throughout the day, and assess if techniques are working for you. Techniques of meditation are as many as there are minds- billions and billions! Techniques can be divided into yin and yang, into one of the five elements, according to the chakra system or according to the 112 meditations given by Shiva. While silence, peace, insight, clarity and joy are metrics used to measure the efficacy of techniques, resistance to change also comes along the way. Coaching helps to discern, navigate, and stay committed to higher purpose and a meaningful way of being.

MINDFUL RELATIONSHIPS

When you start to see the egos of others, your perception of others and your relationships shift. You get called out for being a party pooper and not playing the old dysfunctional games everyone is still playing and interested in. This can make you feel estranged and at odds with other people and with society. You don’t feel like making small talk and you really start enjoying those moments of silence, stillness and peace. Know well that others will either 1- welcome your inner growth and ask you to share your experiences or 2-will reject this higher vibration and ask you to unsubscribe to it. The first sees you being supported in your choices while the latter can mean distancing yourself from or ending jobs, partners and friends. Either way is good. If the latter, seek others who support your priority to inner transmutation and higher purpose.

How Coaching Can Help: Coaching can help to provide you with support and offer you to share your experiences. Loneliness is not the same as aloneness- loneliness is dysfunctional, aloneness is natural. You are embracing the paradox of “being in the world but not of it.” You are awakening to the cosmic dance- a beautiful play where your part is one of gratefulness and beatitude. Coaching will encourage and empower you to continue to rise in your awareness and develop inner fortitude and strength.

HEIGHTENED EMOTIONS & SENSATIONS

Embracing sensitivity is part of the spiritual journey. Before, the noise in the mind prevented you from seeing and sensing many things. Now, sensitivity is giving you a deeper understanding into others and into situations. You can feel people more— perhaps you can sense their emotions across distances. Sounds, lights, taste, touch— the 5 senses seem to have gone haywire. Life seems to have been turned on high volume and heightened in intensity. Wait a minute, are these emotions yours? You come to the realization that they seem so real, as if these emotions belong to you. What does belong to you and what belongs to others? Isn’t the “breath of life” shared by all? The grip of the ego is loosening and boundaries are becoming loose— a scary fact for the control-obsessed ego.

How Coaching Can Help: While the word “empath” is thrown around, heightened sensitivity is common on the spiritual path. It is because what you call as “I” is starting to dissolve and loosen its hold. Coaching can offer you the guidance to accept the loosening barriers and accept others wherever they are in their emotions and in their life’s journey. While you may be tuning into them, it is not your responsibility to save, heal or take on their “karma.'“ Grounding and awareness techniques can help to stabilize your energy, offer compassion to avoid getting lost in others’ drama and in their life situation, and help you remain focused on your own inner growth and journey.

PERSONAS & PAIN BODIES

Personas are the actors or personalities of the ego. With meditation, we can identify them. We can make a list of the personalities, and observe the thoughts, emotions and behaviors of each personality. We can identify what triggers each personality to come out and create drama. We can then use different meditation techniques to lessen, reduce (or even delete) the frequency, intensity and duration of each personality. To ensure our techniques are effective, we use metrics such as silence, peace and inner joy. Awakening is a process, so the tools of time, acceptance, readiness and compassion are always on hand with this method of self-inquiry.

A pain body is a term coined by E. Tolle that is old pain feeding off new pain. Liked to a little monster, it gets triggered by certain events, people or patterns. Its food is pain. When the monster gets triggered, the past traumatic pain gets recreated and the new pain amplifies the trauma. Negative emotions, thoughts and behaviors are the result. How often the monster comes out and needs to feed depends on the level of pain.

How Coaching Can Help: Described above is a unique approach of self-inquiry that Catherine has developed through her own meditation and has taught to others. It is a process of looking at the story of “I”— of asking who is in, of asking who am “I?” Life on the inner and outer does not change until this I-Story changes. Coaching therefore shows you how to use this method for the purpose of inner transmutation and re-working the “code” of your life.

“SUPERPOWERS” & PSYCHIC GIFTS

Reading others’ emotions and intentions, having premonitions, seeing auras around people, seeing colored orbs, having visionary dreams— the list goes on of so-called “psychic” abilities. While labelled as “psychic,” these abilities are natural and common on the spiritual journey. Whereas mind was filled with noisy chatter, now, a “quieter” mind allows you to tune into what is really going on. While these newfound “superpowers” can be fascinating, they can be hard to cope with, and even lead to estrangement or judgement by others who simply don’t or want to understand. As tools, these “superpowers” can be beautiful to use. As food for the ego— such as “look at me, look what I can do,” and “I’m extra special,” abilities can divert us to spend more time and invest more energy into growing them than on the real journey, which is about inner joy, peace and harmony .

How Coaching Can Help: When abilities are “laid to rest” then we don’t need to get “hung up” on them, but can accept them as beautiful tools and part of the journey. Coaching can provide you with support and help you understand and navigate these newfound abilities. Coaching also provides a grounding foundation for coping, all the while keeping you focused on the true purpose of inner growth and inner transmutation.

CONSCIOUS & UNCONSCIOUS INTIMACY

Unconscious relationships, where your partner isn’t meditating or working on themselves, pose challenges as you rise higher in awareness. The common issue cited is feeling on a different wavelength than your partner which leads to 1- feeling more of a teacher than a partner 2- feeling unsupported and not being able to share your spiritual journey 3- feeling disconnected from your partner since you can see their ego manipulations and strategies 4- fear of separation and an uncertain future as a higher purpose and inner growth have become your priorities.

Conscious relationships are when both partners are working on themselves, both functioning as teacher and as student, helping to lift one another and grow in conscious awareness. Conscious relationships can include conscious sexuality, where sex energy can be used as a form of energy exchange and healing. Challenges include 1-when one person longs more for divine union than being in the relationship, thus fearing separation or rejection by their partner, and 2-uneven growing patterns where one person feels they are growing faster and doing more work, thus feeling unsupported, resentful or considering separation.

How Coaching Can Help: As with all relationships, open communication and the connection with your partner are key factors for success. For unconscious relationships, coaching helps you to use the relationship as part of your spiritual journey, offering insights into the human condition and mind. Coaching can also serve to validate your spiritual progress and appreciate your ongoing dedication to inner peace, joy and higher purpose. For conscious relationships, coaching can bring understanding, awareness, and working on 1-ego personalities and strategies within the couple dynamic 2-replaying patterns and cycles based on past conditioning 3- identifying triggers and “pain bodies”— how pain from the past looks to create and feed off new pain.

MYSTIC DREAMS

The vast majority of dreams are nothing more than a strange, fragmented summary of the past few days. They feel odd because they are a chaotic blend of your thoughts, emotions, and recent experiences—people, places, and objects all mashed together into a bizarre mental montage.

You know the kind—your mother is there, but suddenly, she’s a horse. Then, without explanation, you're flying through the sky, only to find yourself in the bathroom getting ready for work. No logical sequence, no clear narrative—just a surreal jumble of memories and symbols.

Most therapists recognize that these dreams are the subconscious mind’s way of processing the recent past. Unresolved emotions tend to linger, replaying in strange, symbolic ways as you attempt to understand and integrate them. This is why countless dream dictionaries exist, offering interpretations of common symbols—an interesting exercise, but often missing the deeper truth.

While most dreams fall into the category of psychological processing, a rare 10% go beyond the ordinary. These mystical dreams don’t simply reflect the past week; they invite us to see the bigger picture.

These dreams can be unsettling, revelatory, or deeply moving. They can offer hidden truths, spiritual insights, and messages from the beyond. Mystical dreams have a way of staying with you, shifting your perspective, or even altering the course of your life.

How Coaching Can Help: Catherine has been analyzing dreams since she was 16. Her understanding of dreams extends beyond interpretation; it includes first-hand experiences of dreamless sleep, conscious awareness while the body rests, and visions of others within the dream. Since mystical dreams can be hard to cope with, coaching can offer you clarity and understanding, helping you tap into insightful messages and seeing these dreams as doorways to a greater understanding of yourself and higher consciousness.