Follow Your Heart With Karen Fullerton – Episode 49

Welcome to The Resonate Podcast with Aideen! In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Karen Fullerton about the profound impact of our emotions. Karen shared insights on finding a balance between receptivity and action, particularly for women, and the power of embracing our fears and emotions to learn and grow from them. Ultimately, Karen advises listeners to tune into their hearts as their best resource for navigating life’s challenges with authenticity and resilience. Enjoy!

Karen’s mission is to help women flourish to #SpiralUp momentum to a life of emotional freedom, harmony, and happiness. She is a speaker, teacher, author, intuitive energy worker, and has been called a “soul provider.”

Karen has always been a catalyst for growth. As a seasoned marketer, she made her mark as an award-winning entrepreneur and nonprofit founder. Parallel to her career, Karen became a Reiki Master and Teacher in 2002—igniting her passion for chakra energy healing and evolution. Her paths converged in 2018 after becoming a quantum energy practitioner, focusing on emotional wellness as the precursor to effective mindfulness, overall well-being, and success.

Connect with Karen

Website: karenfullerton.com
LinkedIn: karen-fullerton-speaker
Instagram: @karenleefullerton
Facebook:  @Karen.Fullerton.Speaker

00:03 Welcome to the Resonate Podcast with Aideen. I’m Aideen Ni Riada and my guest today is Karen Fullerton. Welcome Karen. Thank you, I’m so excited to be here. Let me tell you guys all about Karen. Her mission is to help women flourish, to spiral up to a life of emotional freedom, harmony and happiness. She’s a speaker, teacher, author, intuitive energy worker and has been called a soul provider. You’re so welcome, Karen.

00:32 Tell me, how did you find the confidence in your own voice to do the work that you’re doing now? Initially, that confidence came from education. I always had high grades and I realized that the more I knew, which is a very good tactic, a lot of people say the more you know about a subject, the more confidence that you…

01:01 have around it so that you can speak on it. And that’s the path I took. And I did my whole undergrad and my career was built on this knowledge and that knowledge is power. And that worked for me until it didn’t, like they say. And that was this, when it started to not work. And I found out that it did not work once I left.

01:29 for my own business. So once I became an entrepreneurial, whoops, excuse me, entrepreneur, that’s a tricky word to say.

01:39 I realize that energy and specifically our emotions and the frequency of our emotions have more to do with what we receive back in the world than the words that we say. So our energy speaks the loudest. But yes, initially all education 4.0s and my MBA program, things like that. I love how you’re saying that because I know that the feeling of not being fully

02:09 And aligned energetically can be an obstacle to achieving what you want. Like you can see where you want to go. You can have a plan for where you want to go, but sometimes it’s the inner work of that self-belief or whatever in energetic terms, like you might use that, um, that focus or that, um, that, that, you know, commitment sometimes comes from within. So would you say that

02:38 that was something that you had to fine tune when you became an entrepreneur? Yes, and it’s sort of like a scavenger hunt where you have to, we so want to dig up that treasure or go to the end, but we would just be digging and digging and digging if we didn’t follow the clues to get us from one step to the next. That’s how I like to explain it because…

03:06 We’re driven, we want things fast, we want things now. When we have this passion and inspiration that we love, it’s this feeling, it’s like, oh, right, this is what I want to do or this is, you know, I want to learn this activity and we focus solely on that end means, like digging up the end treasure without going through the steps that we need to do to.

03:36 quite honestly heal energetically and emotionally to get there. It can create frustration and wanting to give up. I know that I was in a room, can I give one example really quickly? So when I had my own marketing and design business and I wanted to align it with intuitively guiding people in their businesses at that time, this was 20 years ago.

04:06 And I knew my stuff, quote unquote, right? I had a corporate marketing experience in my education and I stood up in this meeting of the city council and I was pitching and I said my ideas and I sat down, polite applause, whatnot. Somebody else stood up and said the exact same thing and it did happen to be a male and same exact concept.

04:36 and it got conversation and oh great idea and that was the first moment that I finally said to myself there is something, what is up? Like it made me want to understand, like there is more here than just education and hard work and the just do it attitude because I have those down pat. So that was the first time that I really started leaning into self-discovery.

05:04 So you were using your voice, but the voice wasn’t connecting with the people you needed it to connect to. Yes. And so I have the opposite of what is often discussed, where people are shy to speak because of bad experiences or being shut down. I had the opposite because I have a very strong boundaries and solar plexus area. I have this…

05:31 desire to speak up to be heard. So I never had that, that shrinking feeling. I had, ooh, but I know this, somebody please believe me. And so I would overcompensate. And what people don’t, or have a difficulty understanding is sometimes that overcompensation is also the imbalance.

06:01 of our voice, our throat, our communication, our desire to be seen and heard energetically. It’s just the other side of the spectrum instead of being in the balance, in the middle. Yeah, that’s so interesting. I know that I’ve experienced that myself because I always was outwardly confident, but underneath there were some self-doubts and things just weren’t, they didn’t always click into place in the way that would seem

06:30 Like it should do naturally. So there, and it was because of that, because I was saying things like I want to be a singer, but I can’t do that, that I started that personal development journey that was more of an inward journey and less of just, you know, figure out how to do it and do it, because that doesn’t always have a lasting result. You might even get to where you want to go, but it might not be sustainable if internally you don’t have that balance within.

06:59 So, and go ahead. Never mind. No, go ahead. You had something to say. I want to hear it. I just wanted to close the loop on that for me with that one story to give an example of the energy impact is that I realized one of the memories I had when I was four was of my dad not believing me. When I…

07:28 I did a swear word, actually. I swore for the first time, and I just heard him say it. And so when he had asked the question, yelled at me, of course, and said, where did you hear this? And I told the truth. It’s always been part of my being, even as a kid. I just tell the truth. And so he didn’t believe me. I didn’t say that. And so it shut down my voice. And so it’s a revelation, and that revelation is important, but we’re still responsible for the transformation.

07:57 of that revelation, but it taught me why, kind of the why between I was speaking up and I was wanting to be believed. So the energy underneath whatever it was I was saying didn’t matter if it was a business pitch or to somebody else that I truly mattered to me, that they believed me, that energy imprint of shutting down my truth.

08:24 was the energy that was speaking. That’s what was going out regardless of my words. And once that is harmonized, then I found you don’t have to work as hard. Yeah, yeah. You felt like you had to try harder because you were almost expecting internally, you were expecting not to be believed as well because it had happened to such a young age. That makes just so much sense. And so…

08:52 Was that the main roadblocks that you’ve had with your voice or was there anything else that, you know, you had to overcome in order to find that part of you, that that confident part of you again? It’s never a one and done. I feel like whatever our lessons are will show up in different ways. And so, yes, over the years, I still have had.

09:21 healing moments with my voice, but that is the root that I go back to that really helped me understand. And then I go into, well, why, what is the fear? What around not being believed? Why do I care if people believe me? Right? The need of acceptance. And so it flourishes out into other areas that open you up to this awareness of those feelings.

09:50 to get your attention to clear your path. And so no matter how, you know, and it’s easier. It sounds like, oh my gosh, you know, this is quote unquote hard work, but to me, it’s so much quicker to get to your goal because if you keep trying, for me, I would keep trying and pushing and I would, I had so much drive and so much optimism and faith and mental stamina is that I just pushed and pushed and pushed.

10:20 And when I was young enough, I was okay to do it. And then as I started to get older, I realized this is tiring. I’m not really satisfied. I’m not quite, I’m getting there. It was like this rubber band effect, you know, where one is on something that’s static or like around a tree and I have a rubber band around my waist and I go and go and go and push and push and push and I get there and then holding it there is too much effort. Yeah. And so then I would be like, oh, you know, pulled back.

10:47 But if you just take the rubber band away from the tree, you’re free to go. Yeah. So it sounds to me that your path has been really about helping to find your own balance, to heal yourself energetically, and to use your emotions as part of that guiding system to figure out what’s going on. Like almost like a detective, the way you’re talking about, you know, the scavenger hunt following clues.

11:15 What kinds of clues can the listeners be looking out for? What would you say to them if they’re experiencing a block with their own voice? Your heart always knows your next best step. To follow your heart or ask your heart or your soul, if that’s better acquainted for you.

11:41 What is it that I need right now? Heart, what is it that you desire right now? And you can tell if you’re in your heart or if you’re in your mind because your heart has a simple answer. It will be rest, joy, play, peace. Your mind will say, I need to get on this show to get so many subscribers, right? Do this, do this, do this.

12:08 and it’ll be very specific and it will go in different directions. But if you follow your heart for what you need and you then use your mind and your creativity for how to do that, you’re blending your heart and your mind and you’re integrating their superpowers together. You follow our heart for the next step and the mind to figure out how to get there and then the heart for the next step and the mind for how to get there. And you’ll be surprised that

12:38 it’s much easier and that your destination might change. So instead of focusing on that end goal and fighting all these obstacles and walls to get there by following your heart and we’ll get into how your feelings can help you also to hear your heart better, you will have

13:07 opportunities present themselves almost, I want to say magically. That’s the word that I was thinking. Magically delicious. And it’s like, I don’t know, magically delicious. I don’t know why I was just thinking that, but, and then you might realize, oh my gosh, I can change. I still want to speak, but why was I focused on this?

13:33 keynote speaking. Now I want to do panelist work because I realize this is my passion of interconnecting with people. You learn so much about yourself and so you’re not ever going to give up what’s core in you. You’re going to excavate what you’re really in love with and passionate about for yourself. I think that’s so important because I did a lot of personal development stuff for about 10 years

14:03 setting this big goal and visualizing it and feeling like you’re already there and putting it in there. But I always felt very pressurized by focusing ahead like that. And I didn’t, didn’t, wasn’t quite grounded enough to see what my tiny little next step was. So I love that you’re emphasizing that there is an easy next step that will also bring you somewhere.

14:31 and that we can actually learn to trust those nudges or those little intuitive hits and allow things to develop rather than push for things to develop.

14:46 And as women, especially allowing yourself to receive and rest, creativity is part of that receiving and resting and what’s called feminine energy, which is the balance to that active. But society and protocols have taught us we have to push, we have to be heard.

15:16 And it’s the shift. It’s a shift and a shift in paradigm and belief structure. Really is.

15:30 And even this pause, like it’s almost like to allow us to just pause in the conversation and be. Let silence be silence. Yeah, because I say we have some things in common, Karen, that I have been that pushy, not pushy, but that very focused go, go, go kind of person. And I’ve had to learn to

15:58 hold space better. I’ve had to learn to tune into situations with more sensitivity rather than just going in with blinders on my mind, presuming things were a certain way. And it’s been a training that’s helped me with my spiritual practices and things like that has brought me to being highly intuitive in ways that I don’t feel, you know,

16:27 It’s like, I don’t even feel like it’s me. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes it’s like, where did this come from? So how has intuition helped you in your work? Has that been a part of it?

16:41 I have developed my intuition over the last 20 years to where it’s a huge part of my work. So I am Claire audience, so I will hear messages. And I also, I forget the Claire for this, clan sentient, where you just know, it’s almost like I have the whole idea just plopped in my head and I just have a solution.

17:09 And oftentimes that is difficult for me to verbalize to somebody because when you have this download, it’s almost like that movie, not Contact, what’s the one with the arrival where they have a circle and in that circle ink spot is a whole sentence or concept. And they don’t have the same word by word linear.

17:35 structure and I felt so connected to that movie because sometimes that’s what it’s like. I just have this download and it’s up to me to break it down into the biteable steps and I do that well for myself but part of that growth I talked to you about in the beginning with the confidence and the verbalizing with the voice is to be able to do that for others. So when I had my

18:04 position as marketer, I didn’t have anybody to really report to and I could just do it. It was my own energy. But once I started working with people that was another level of growth for me, you know, is to be able to do that with somebody else’s energy and comprehension. This is a good point because I was at a meeting earlier and one point came up about, you know, finding your voice and how we need to continually find that evolving voice with us and

18:34 when things change or when we need to up level, now you call it spiraling up and evolving, then we get hit with some of those self-doubts because now we’re moving into a new way of expressing ourselves or we’re trying to offer a different service in our business, or we’ve got a more senior role in the company. What would you advise to anybody going through that kind of a crisis in their voice due to

19:04 trying to change and transform and grow.

19:11 I’m going to ask you to clarify that. So if somebody goes into a new position and then the fears associated with that, is that what you’re talking about as far as the confidence in their voice to speak up in that new role? Yeah, yeah. Am I hearing that correctly? Okay.

19:26 we touched on the feelings again, so the fears, the self-doubts, and those are the things that will ultimately help free you. So whenever we grow, we need to release. So it’s like the balancing. You grow, you learn something new, and you need to release and surrender. So those things are really teaching you where you now need to be.

19:56 to let go from that new growth. And a spiral, it’s never going backward, even a downward spiral, which I will use, but we’re never really going backwards. It’s an illusion. You know, when you’re so used to going forward and you feel like, oh, I’m feeling this again, I’m feeling this fear and this lack of confidence, it’s allowing you to

20:23 It’s to reflect all of the RE, the re’ is associated with revisiting, uh, reassessing, releasing. It’s allowing you to go back and say, okay, I have grown. What is this a remnant of? What else does this mean for me? And, uh, sometimes it’s simple and sometimes it’s just, I can do this. And it’s a little pet talk. Other times, uh,

20:52 you know, it might be a little more deeply rooted because maybe it could be associated with generational or ancestral healing. So when you’re not conscious of it, it’s a little harder to dig in. You know, a lot of times I get that with clients. I don’t understand because I’ve done my work, as we say, right? It’s like, well, we’re always here students and learning, but, or I…

21:21 I know where this is coming from, but I can’t seem to transform it. And so a lot of that transformation comes from, you don’t have to know. I knew one of the stories with my dad when I was four and shutting down my voice and not believing me. I’m sure there were energetic patterns of that way before that one memory.

21:47 and ancestrally and generationally as a woman especially and not being believed and that we’re coming here to transform and all we can do is focus on us, focus on you and the transformation point, knowledge is power, awareness is power but you don’t have to figure it out with your mind. It goes back to the heart and love

22:17 being able to transform and love yourself in the moment of all of those other things. Think of yourself, I know this is a little bit of, looks like inner child work, but it helps to see yourself. What if you were talking to yourself as a four-year-old? What advice would you give? You’d probably give some comforting words and advice and, oh, my gosh, you’re doing the best you can. You know? You have so…

22:47 too high, you know, so high expectations for yourself. Just be, you’re doing perfect. And we need some of that self-love. And recognizing how you’re feeling and allowing yourself to feel it allows your body to give it somewhere to go energetically. But the transformation to help with it from, you know, that circle pattern of repeating is learning how to shift

23:17 in the moment with love. And that’s sometimes difficult because when you’re in a moment, you’re in a moment. That’s why music can be so powerful to help you. While you’re expressing grief or sadness or frustration, allow yourself to feel it, but also play music that you love, that will connect you to that light in you, that love. And…

23:46 If you can shift while you’re going through it, shift your perception to, yes, I know I’m being a victim here and I just need a, I need a victim moment. I need to, right? Allow yourself. I just need a pity party. I know it, but I need this and I’m loving myself for it. I’m going to have that ice cream and I’m going to allow myself to have this moment because I…

24:11 I love myself. I just need this rest and release. That’s a, that’s an act of self-love. It’s just allowing yourself to feel. I didn’t say I’m good. Yeah. That’s just so great. I mean, when you said about, you know, trying to, you know, in transformation to have something new come in, we have to let go of the old and that can be scary and can be painful and then that, that self-nurturing that you’re advising is to go and

24:40 listen to your favorite music, go and have your favorite dessert or whatever it is. Go for a nice hot bath or call your best friend or all of those things that we know that we can do to support ourselves, but to allow it to and not expect ourselves to be. Able to, you know, just smoothly move through lots of transformation or lots of change. It is hard letting go sometimes. It’s hard to let go of.

25:07 whatever is going on, even if it’s something in your own mind or something in your ancestral line or something, and also other people have to change along with you, that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of moving parts. And I love that. I just love that idea that you’re giving yourself love as you let go so that you can fully step into a transformation. And you said it’s hard to let go. And grief came to mind because so many people are grieving and they’re so

25:37 so much going on in the world right now to pull us into grief, whether it’s not even in our own family. And grief, people, I feel like people are afraid, myself included, are afraid to let go of feeling grief because we feel like we’re letting go of that memory, we’re letting go of that person, we’re letting, we don’t want to let go of our…

26:05 past situation because there’s things we loved about that. And it’s something that is natural to do. But if we can look at grief as, like you said, I mean, that’s the old, and the letting go isn’t forgetting. The letting go is opening up that space for the new.

26:31 we can still love them. Everything’s still in our hearts. We can still have that empathy and compassion and we have our memories and we can go there anytime to that space. So we’re not really giving anything up, but it is a healing process because, you know, especially in grief or when we lose somebody that we love, there is a void. And I feel like grief is one of the hardest emotions to…

27:00 transcend through because it’s a difficult feeling for one to really allow ourselves to go deeply into. It’s not comfortable, it’s uncomfortable, but also knowing that we’re not letting go, we’re not giving up on a person, we’re not letting go, we’re just spiraling, we’re spiraling up and that energy is with us, we’re carrying those lessons and learning and everything.

27:29 Hmm. There’s something very beautiful in that. That really makes it really makes sense to me because of course I am living in the US now as well and I’ve had a hard time letting go of wanting to be back at home in Ireland. So when you brought that up it made me feel like yeah maybe I’m experiencing some grief letting go and I’m really embracing being here more now but there is a part of me that’s worried that who

27:56 who am I if I’m not pining for Ireland and I’m not planning to move home next year? Like who is this new adventurous person who’s happy to be in the US and embracing all this adventure? So there’s an identity shift. And so there is, but I feel that I think that, yeah, I do need to acknowledge also that letting go part. I mean, maybe I need to eat more ice cream. That would be fun.

28:23 what kind of resources do you recommend to people when they’re in a journey similar to what we’ve been discussing?

28:34 it’s going to be very similar to my other advice and to really tune into your heart. So there are so many tools and practices out there to help and they’re all wonderful on their own, whether it’s meditation, whether it’s energy work or Reiki or reading certain books and going outside of ourselves to help learn more about ourselves is fine, but to follow your heart of which one?

29:03 to gravitate toward. So I see. When you said that, I was like, to follow your heart to which one? I was like, what? Which practice? I know, I’m probably not grammatically chromatic. I don’t know. I love that. It created so much dramatic tension that when you said which resource, I was like, oh yeah. So you’re saying, tune into yourself before. Tune into your heart. Yeah, because it’s.

29:32 You really are your best resource. And just because something worked for somebody else does not mean it’s going to work for you in the same way. And so if you jump into something thinking, oh, this is going to help me, and you do it only to out of desperation or help, you might not. I’m not saying you won’t. But you might not receive the benefit that you’re looking for. Again, it goes to the energy behind why you did it.

29:58 You did it out of fear. You did it out of desperation. I need, right, this closed perception. Whereas if you are even open, maybe you don’t know what to do, simply using some affirmations, like I am open. I allow what is for me to align me to come forth and just be more open or choose things that you love. So for singing, I’ll just put in a little

30:28 experience with singing. I love to sing, but I’m not, I found my greatest success, if you will, when I sing along with others, like in a choir or something like that. But if somebody were to tell me, oh, to get over that, you know, you want to be a solo singer, do I? I don’t know if I want to be a solo singer. Does that give me joy? But if they would have told me some…

30:54 uh, resources to do or exercises or meditate, even the spiritual part of it to break through the blocks of doing that. I might find all of this. I really don’t want to do it. You know, when you journal because you’re supposed to, it’s kind of defeating the purpose. I don’t journal anymore. I turn on this music and I dance to a song. That’s my form of meditation. So

31:22 Don’t do something just because somebody said it will help you get through it. Try to do something that resonates with you. And if you just don’t know what that is, then I would suggest just step out of your comfort zone. Just make yourself do something. Even if it’s going out to dinner or lunch with a friend and talking with somebody else might give you some ideas. Or just go to the bookstore and.

31:52 look for a book that pops out at you or you like the cover design and start reading it. But on a journey, whether it’s improving in business, improving in confidence, improving your own healing and wellbeing, it’s a balance and I think we talked about in the beginning, balance and integration is key. And all of that.

32:23 comes from within. So the more you can tune in to you and what your heart is telling you, because we’re so pulled to our mind all the time. And it’s very powerful, but the heart really does know your next best step. And it’s okay to play. Yeah, to test the waters or to try new things. And just a reminder, what you said earlier was that the heart gives a simple answer.

32:50 It just says joy or peace because I thought that was really good because sometimes we do doubt it. We’re very analytical about what our mind is saying. We’re like, oh, was that really my intuition? Should I do that? Should I do this? So the simpler the answer, the more likely it is it came from just your heart. Right. And when you do that, you find that you have more energy. You know, that’s sort of a self-care. We look at self-care as restorative a lot of the times because we

33:19 go, go, go, and we get burnt out, and then we have to self-care to replenish. But if we do this and we self-care to our heart and what we need daily, even if it’s for five or 10 minutes and we’re stopping and we’re following that or dancing or singing in the shower, something that gives us joy, you know, our heart says, I don’t really want to make those phone calls today, I’m going to go watch cartoons, and you do it. We’re building stamina, you’re building strength, and you’re building.

33:49 the ability to go back to something with more.

33:55 ambition and motivation. Beautiful. Then, so yeah. Beautiful, beautiful. Is there anything else that you would like to say to our listeners before we wind things up a little bit here?

34:10 Just that know that where you are right now is exactly where you are supposed to be. That your best is more than good enough. I don’t like that saying because your best is your best. Celebrate that. Don’t compare yourself to others. And so.

34:36 I just want to give all the listeners like a warm hug. Just trust yourself and follow yourself. Of course, in the work that I do with energy sessions, I even do a free consult too if somebody wants to learn more about anything that we’ve said here today. I don’t know if you give that opportunity, but I’m happy to talk more about it. That’s what I would say is.

35:06 Celebrate where you are right now. That’s the most profound thing ever. I love everything you’ve said today, Karen. And I would encourage all of our listeners to connect with you. You have your website, karenfullerton.com. You’re also a speaker as well. So if you are in a company and you want someone to come in to speak, Karen does that kind of work as well. And I will be putting all of your contact details with the show notes.

35:34 And I’m so grateful to all of you listeners. We are sending a warmer hook to you. Can you feel it? Now I’m singing in my head, can you feel it? Can you feel it? Thank you for being with us today, Karen. It’s been a pleasure. Oh, my pleasure. Good night, everybody. Thank you so much. See you next time. Bye. Bye.