Karen C.L. Anderson, BA, EFT, MCC - Expert

You might want to get comfortable…grab your favorite beverage and settle in for a little story.

I used to believe that my purpose in life was something elusive and fleeting, and that finding it and then actually doing it would require hard work (not the motivating, inspirational kind) and suffering.

I used to believe that in order to have a worthy purpose, I would have to change in some drastic way…that who I was could never, ever possibly be enough.

And if I am really honest, what I really believed, deep down inside, is that I didn’t even have a purpose. And that secretly terrified me.

It was such a secret that even I didn’t know it.

That terror showed up in my life in myriad ways. I tried to stuff down and hide it with food, wine, shopping, and men. I hated my body. I lived in reaction mode. I didn’t take responsibility for myself. I had dysfunctional, co-dependent relationships. I blamed others. I blamed myself. I was a walking, talking vessel of shame.

To say that I lacked confidence is putting it mildly.

The realization that I do, indeed, have a purpose (and not only do I have one, but that it comes easily and naturally to me) didn’t come as a bolt out of the blue. There wasn’t a single moment or turning point. And believe me, I wish there was because it would, perhaps, make this story a little more compelling.

There’s been a series of moments – a few big, on-purpose moments, but mostly, millions of tiny, almost imperceptible and sometimes unconscious moments (many of which I have written about on my blog) – that have led me to now.

And unlike anything I’ve ever done before, I know, like I’ve never known before, that I am now living my purpose. And with that knowing has come one of the biggest realizations of all:

I have always been living my purpose.

Even when I was eating entire bags of Goldfish crackers, entire bags of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and washing it all down with bottles of wine.

Even when I slept with men who didn’t give a crap about me.

Even when I declared bankruptcy.

Even when I was lashing out at those I loved.

I was living my purpose, but I was also resisting it with all my might.

And so that’s why I do what I do. I teach the art + science of profound self-trust and acceptance to women who are ready to…

…stop living in reaction to others (especially their mothers)…

…and in resistance to their amazing and lovely selves.

I didn’t get a degree or certification in profound self-trust…it’s something I was born with. That, along with the sum of my experiences, my wisdom, my innate abilities, and the stuff I’ve learned along the way, are enough.

But in case you’re wondering, I do have some formal training, some informal training, and I’ve done lots of hard work (the motivating, inspirational kind) in order to put some structure around my wisdom and experience:

• I am a Master Certified Coach through the Life Coach School
• I am an Emotional Freedom Techniques practitioner and have completed EFT Training For Trauma, Levels I + II
• I am a certified Food Psychology Coach through The Spencer Institute
• I wrote a book, AFTER (the before + after): A Real Life Story of Weight Loss, Weight Gain, and Weightlessness Through Total Acceptance, which was based on my blog, “Before & After: A Real Life Story.”
• That blog was selected by the Institute for the Psychology of Eating as one of the Top 50 Emotional Eating blogs, and by Shape magazine one of the Top 20 Inspiring Weight Loss Blogs (in 2011).

Prior to all of that? I spent seven years as a freelance writer (talk about an act of profound self-trust) and before that I spent 17 years trying to fit my right-brained self into a left-brained career as a trade magazine journalist in the field of plastics (and if I had a dime for every time someone mentioned that line from The Graduate…). I also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from Marist College in 1984.

What about you? I’d really and truly love to know more about you.