Karin Nelson is a divorce coach, a mom of two kids, and 3 cats. She was raised in Utah in a devout Mormon family where she was taught that divorce is ‘not an option’ and something that wasn’t really acceptable. After taking her power back and asking for a divorce 9 years ago, she has worked to find her audacious voice, heal from the patriarchal beliefs Mormonism put on her, and step into a powerful, whole, complete life. She’s been divorced for 8 years and is finally living the best of the rest of her life. She lives in Utah and loves mysteries, puzzles and drinking coffee.
Becoming You Again Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/becoming-you-again/id1614295940
Karin Nelson Coaching Website: https://www.karinnelsoncoaching.com/
Meagan Skidmore (00:01)
Hey Karen, I am so happy to connect with you again. How are you?
Karin Nelson (00:05)
I am great. I’m happy to be here.
Meagan Skidmore (00:08)
I’m so appreciative that you accepted my invitation to jump on and have this conversation with me. I feel really strongly about just normalizing discussions about our faith journeys, how we experience the divine, how we process it and go through our lives. You sometimes there’s phases and we ⁓ our understandings shift, our beliefs shift.
Karin Nelson (00:31)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (00:38)
even our practices and whatnot. know you and I were in the same cohort a couple years ago in Lindsay Pullman’s Advanced Relationship Trauma Certification. And we knew a little bit about one another’s backgrounds, I think, in general. But I realize that some time has passed. And so I’m looking forward to catching up with you on all the things and also about your work that you are currently involved in.
Karin Nelson (00:48)
Yep.
Yeah. Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (01:08)
Unless you have any questions, let’s go. Let’s just dive in.
Karin Nelson (01:12)
Let’s do it! No, no questions so far. So yeah, I’m Karen and I was raised in the Mormon Church, the LDS Church. Grew up in Provo, Utah. And, you know, got married at 19. Like most good.
Meagan Skidmore (01:22)
Mm-hmm.
Mm.
Karin Nelson (01:33)
Mormon girls do, right? Maybe not most, but there’s a lot of ⁓ us who get married young, right? And ⁓ so got married at 19, had a couple kids in there, and about 20 years into that marriage, found myself going through a divorce about 15 years prior to, excuse me, about… ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (01:37)
many ⁓
you
Karin Nelson (01:59)
Let’s see, seven years prior to the divorce, I decided it was time to leave the church. And I’m a divorce coach. Now, this is gonna be circular, I think, in my storytelling, because there’s so many things that that like kind of, yes, yes, not at all. They are not. ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (02:15)
That’s fine. Just whatever comes up, I get it. Our journeys are not linear. We’d like to think that they are, but they are not. So just let it flow.
Karin Nelson (02:25)
So hopefully it will make sense to your audience. ⁓ yeah, so I’m married at 19 and I wouldn’t say that it was the most terrible marriage, but it also wasn’t the best marriage. We had a lot of problems and things that we were dealing with. And about 10 years into the marriage, my husband at the time decided he was going to leave the church. And for me being completely raised in the church and believing it wholeheartedly,
that was a big blow to me because I didn’t know what to do with that. And I had never really questioned the church. It was just, that’s what you did. That’s the way I was raised. That’s what I was told to believe, right? And so that was a difficult thing for me to deal with. ⁓ And our marriage was also rocky through a lot of this.
Meagan Skidmore (02:59)
For sure. For sure.
understandably.
Karin Nelson (03:23)
And again, it was just one of those things where, we’re Mormon and we don’t get divorced. It’s not something that happens, you know? Yes, there are definitely people in the Mormon church who get divorced, but they’re few and far between and you probably don’t really talk that much about it.
Meagan Skidmore (03:30)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And
I don’t know what your experience has been. There’s probably some shame tied to it as well. I don’t know what your experience has been, but…
Karin Nelson (03:46)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah,
absolutely. And so, you know, with him leaving the church and deciding not to continue in that faith, I wanted to keep going to church with our two kids, and for a little while he was okay with that, and then he wasn’t okay with that. And that, again, was a big blow to me because…
Meagan Skidmore (03:58)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (04:12)
I was like, what are you talking about? I need our kids to be raised in the church. Like, this is how we do things. And, you know, so it was, there was a lot of struggle between what does this mean for me? What do I actually believe?
Meagan Skidmore (04:19)
Right.
Karin Nelson (04:32)
Am I going to be, I don’t know if punished is the right word, but what is going to happen to me in the future if I continue in the church, but I don’t have a strong marriage? Because in the Mormon faith, I don’t know how much your audience knows about religions in general, but in the Mormon faith, marriage is for time and all eternity. It’s not just until death do us part.
Meagan Skidmore (04:41)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (05:00)
What does this mean for me and my eternal future? And there was a lot of ⁓ turmoil happening inside of me in terms of, do I choose God or do I choose my marriage? Do I choose my children’s eternal lives? Do I choose my eternal life? Like, what does it all mean, right? ⁓ And so there was a lot of struggle and…
Meagan Skidmore (05:06)
sure.
Yeah.
Karin Nelson (05:28)
back and forth for myself and in my marriage of trying to decide what to do. And trying to figure out who I am and amidst all of this. A few years later, an incident at church happened and I was kind of told I shouldn’t question anything that the general authorities were doing and it was almost like that was my wake up call of
Meagan Skidmore (05:45)
Yeah.
Karin Nelson (05:58)
Okay, if I’m going to be told who to question and how to live my life from this end, then I will be done with this church. I can’t continue to struggle and be like one foot in and one foot out.
Meagan Skidmore (06:13)
So that was after you were single, newly single? Not yet, okay.
Karin Nelson (06:18)
Not yet. I was,
man, that was like such a circular thing. I probably should have like told this whole story before I said that we got divorced, but this, we’re still married at this point. Yeah, we’re still married at this point. ⁓ And so I’m thinking, okay, this, this is, you know, this helps me answer one of my questions. Do I choose God or do I choose my marriage? Well, I’m choosing my marriage over God at this point. I’m going to leave. I’m going to be done with the church. And so I,
Meagan Skidmore (06:26)
No. Okay.
Okay.
Karin Nelson (06:46)
decided I was done with the church. And that, at that point, became a big journey for me of understanding and unwinding so much of my life from this faith that had been a very prominent part of my life. And it was difficult. It was difficult to figure out who I was without my faith. It was difficult to understand.
what it meant for me and then what my relationship was at that point as well.
Meagan Skidmore (07:17)
Mm-hmm.
So do you mind if I pause you just for a minute? I can’t imagine what it must have felt like to be in that position of feeling like you had to choose between two things that were very, very meaningful to you. Your, we’ll call it the church, your faith, ⁓ your community, you know, at the time, ⁓ versus your marriage.
Karin Nelson (07:26)
Yeah, of course, sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (07:54)
someone who when you had shared children together, someone you had probably thought you would spend the rest of your life with, especially based on the beliefs you had been taught and ⁓ adopted, we could say up to that point in your life. Can you speak to that? That’s a really
Karin Nelson (08:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Meagan Skidmore (08:23)
almost soul splitting place to be in. I can only relate in so much as I felt like I was in that position when I learned of my child’s identity in the queer community. And I felt ripped apart internally, like how does somebody move forward from this place? ⁓ And…
Karin Nelson (08:34)
Mmm, yeah.
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (08:45)
What does that look like? And all these emotions to process, cognitive dissonance was my constant companion.
Karin Nelson (08:47)
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, for me, it’s interesting because at that point in my life, I don’t think that I was very in tune with me, with my emotions, with a really deep connection to my…
Meagan Skidmore (09:07)
Okay.
Karin Nelson (09:13)
intuition and my, even like my integrity outside of what I had been told integrity means, right? ⁓ Being raised in the church, they kind of teach you this is what integrity is. And I do agree with a lot of what that definition is, but I didn’t really have my own definition of what integrity is for me and what my intuition was telling me. And so I think for me, what should have been a lot of grief,
Meagan Skidmore (09:29)
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (09:42)
over the loss of, you know, this faith that I had had my whole entire life and ⁓ what that entailed, I think I just glossed over it and glazed over it and was like, it’s fine. It’ll be fine.
Meagan Skidmore (09:42)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (10:01)
I, you know, my family still loves me. I do, I do have a really amazing, you know, extended family. My parents are very open and welcoming and I’m lucky in that way. think not everyone has that. ⁓ of course they were, I think, disappointed that I wasn’t going to church any longer and that I, you know, didn’t accept the faith any longer, but they still accepted me. And so that was amazing. and I had a really good community, which is in the, I think in the church.
Meagan Skidmore (10:11)
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (10:30)
That’s a big deal, you know? Again, members of the LDS community can be very open and accepting, and they can also not be very open and accepting. So I was lucky again in that way to have the friends who I had already made and the neighbors that I already made and lived around, they still accepted me and loved me. And so I think for me, I just kind of like brushed it to the side and thought it’s not that big of a deal. ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (10:33)
It is.
Yeah.
Karin Nelson (10:59)
And then it
wasn’t until I went through my divorce about, probably I think about seven years later. ⁓ when all of that grief combined with the grief of my marriage ending, a 20 year marriage, it all came to a head. So for me, they were kind of tied together, I think.
Meagan Skidmore (11:14)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
When I hear you say you were not in tune with you, you said, I wasn’t really in tune with me. I kind of glossed over it and told myself everything was going to be fine.
Karin Nelson (11:33)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (11:41)
Correct me if I’m wrong, when I hear you say that, I hear, I didn’t see me, I didn’t… ⁓
see my inner, I know your religious, you’re sorry, your faith, spiritual beliefs have evolved, so I could be way off, so please correct me. I genuinely want to know and understand your journey, but it feels like you just truly, you were kind of blind to who you were on the inside because of a lifetime up to that point of.
Karin Nelson (12:06)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (12:20)
identifying with things outside of you, using external definitions of roles, ⁓ talents, of gifts, of strengths and whatnot that were kind of handed to you versus you actively, purposefully choosing those.
Karin Nelson (12:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, you hit the nail on the head. You really did. That’s, that’s absolutely what was happening for me. you know, even when I was so devout in my faith and going to church every Sunday and, you know, praying every night and doing all the things that you’re supposed to do as a good member of this church, ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (13:04)
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (13:08)
I didn’t ever take the time to actually find out for myself. Is this true? Do I actually believe this? know, ask those questions that probably everyone should ask for themselves. What does this mean for me? Who am I? And so, yes, I had been handed on a platter. This is your role as a woman in this world.
Meagan Skidmore (13:17)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Uh-huh.
Karin Nelson (13:32)
You know, as as a young girl, even in this world, this is your role. This is what you grow up to do. This is, this is what you’ll do in your family. You’ll get married and have kids and raise those kids and be a good example to them and all of those things. And so. Yeah, I didn’t know myself. I had in many ways abandoned myself without even realizing that that’s what was going on for me. And, and going back to this, you know, the divorce.
Meagan Skidmore (13:41)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (14:01)
You know, I was the one who asked for the divorce and when I was, I had been, ⁓
going back and forth on do I want a divorce, do I not want a divorce? And it was a question that I just kept like spinning around in my head. I could not make a decision one way or the other. ⁓ I mean, it had been a long time during the marriage, but the real spin of ⁓ really wanting to know one way or another was…
Meagan Skidmore (14:24)
How long would you say that went on? That spinning, you call it.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (14:40)
probably a couple of months, I would say maybe three to four months. And it was conversations that I was having with my husband at the time too. It wasn’t just me struggling with this. Like we were both in the same place of where do we go from here? ⁓ But I was tired of the spinning and I was spending a lot of time outside in nature during this time by myself going on walks every single day and…
Meagan Skidmore (14:43)
Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
⁓ It takes energy. ⁓
Karin Nelson (15:09)
⁓ again, wasn’t in the place where I really knew much about my emotions, knew much about how to connect to myself. ⁓ knew much, knew I didn’t know anything about the nervous system or, know, any of the things that we as coaches know, we have these, these, you know, skills and tools and I didn’t have any of that stuff, but I would go on walks and I was on a walk one day and I just said, what do you want Karen? Like.
Meagan Skidmore (15:24)
Yeah.
Karin Nelson (15:36)
What do you want? And I want you to just answer. And I don’t want you to take into account what it might do to the kids or what Eric, my husband at the time, will think or what your family will think of you. I just want to know what you want in this moment. And the answer was immediate. It was, I want a divorce. And I felt…
Meagan Skidmore (15:36)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (16:03)
immediate peace just wash over my whole body and I attribute that moment to maybe the first time in I don’t know if ever but in a very very very long time that my intuition was speaking directly to me and I just knew that’s it okay I’ve got my answer yeah
Meagan Skidmore (16:23)
love that, that’s really beautiful.
Can you share about that coming to that place of finally giving yourself permission to consider your needs, to open up whatever possibility and then listen intently.
Karin Nelson (16:38)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (16:48)
Honestly, sincerely, like you said, you went on that walk and you asked yourself, what do you want? Like, what was that? Like, how hard was that to get to that point? I mean, you’re on the benefit of being on the other side, knowing the beautiful piece that just settled in. But what about before? Because I know lots that are listening, you’re like, how did she do that? How do you I want that?
Karin Nelson (16:52)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
How do we get to that? How do you get to that place?
Yeah, I think there was so much ⁓ turmoil that I just felt internally during this time of what’s the right answer here? I wanted there to be a right answer and I wanted to know what it was and it just hurt not knowing. It hurt, there was like…
pain and anger and sadness and grief and all of the things that you would expect to accompany that decision. And I had been reading a lot of books at the time, not even self-help books. I was reading like The Grapes of Wrath. I had never read that book before by John Steinbeck. reading things and kind of just opening my eyes.
Meagan Skidmore (17:54)
Okay.
Karin Nelson (18:03)
to new ways of thinking and ⁓ new ideas in ways that I had never done before. I was very closed off before, think, to anything that was outside of the sphere of what I had been told and what I’d been taught. Even though I had left the church many years before, there was still like a wall of, this is just what you do, and this is, you know.
Meagan Skidmore (18:14)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (18:26)
you don’t have a voice, you just believe what everybody tells you and then you just keep that in your head, right? I think that wall was slowly starting to degrade for me and, you know, again, I had mentioned that I was going on a lot of walks and being out in nature and I think I was just in those moments, I was allowing myself to be more open to what it was that…
Meagan Skidmore (18:30)
Right.
Karin Nelson (18:55)
I needed. And I’m not sure if there was any conscious choice of, okay, you’re going to give yourself permission now to ask and receive. I don’t know if it was like that conscious in the moment. I can definitely look back with 2020 hindsight and go, yeah, that was the moment where…
Meagan Skidmore (19:04)
Right, right.
Karin Nelson (19:16)
I did give myself permission to ask and then receive, be open to whatever was being said, right, in my brain and my body. ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (19:17)
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (19:28)
But I think it was just a culmination of being willing to just be curious about things rather than super judgmental, super unwilling to look outside of the box, super unwilling to believe there might be a different answer than what I’ve been told my whole life, which was divorce isn’t an option. You just don’t do it. It doesn’t matter how unhappy you are.
Meagan Skidmore (19:38)
Go.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Karin Nelson (19:55)
Right?
And I was unhappy. And I think there was maybe a part of me that was like, I don’t want that to be my answer, which is perhaps why I was spinning so much. Because I could have just said, I’ll just stay married. But I never would settle on that. Right?
Meagan Skidmore (20:06)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
It’s a big deal to choose ourselves just because we want to.
Karin Nelson (20:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (20:21)
because it’s something we feel, something like we’re genuinely, I’m saying we, the collective we, but I’m speaking to your experience, which I thank you deeply for sharing. It takes courage to choose something that is maybe outside of expectations, beliefs, they become very deeply ingrained, like you talked about, you were looping for quite some time.
Karin Nelson (20:29)
Right.
Meagan Skidmore (20:53)
Part of those ingrained beliefs, that looping that happens, usually doesn’t include choosing ourselves just for the purpose of choosing ourselves, period. Because it’s a desire, it’s a want, maybe we even see it as a need. Because like you said, you were told, or the belief you felt inside, you heard inside was this is just the way it is. Can you think of any other moments where you…
Karin Nelson (21:02)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (21:23)
were presented with opportunities to wiggle some of those beliefs looser about this is just the way it is. I’m told this is how I’m told to be and so on. And you stepped into a place of. Reclaiming your autonomy of giving yourself permission to just ask and then be open to receiving whatever possibilities.
Karin Nelson (21:46)
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I’ve had, know, that I think was like the ultimate noticing of asking and allowing, giving myself permission to just let it be whatever it was. And I’ve definitely had many, many more since then. I had an experience just a…
a couple of months ago with myself where it was again, it was very clear to me and it wasn’t even, you know, as big of a decision as divorce is. It was actually kind of, kind of a silly decision but I’d like to share it just because I think maybe, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. ⁓
Meagan Skidmore (22:23)
I don’t think there’s any silly. If it’s meaningful and important to us, it’s valid.
Karin Nelson (22:33)
I was gonna, I had decided that I was gonna go to a protest in the city that I lived near. ⁓ I live in Utah, so it was gonna be in Salt Lake City. And ⁓ it was an important thing for me. I had never been to a protest, but it was something that I really wanted to do. It felt important to me. So I decided I’m going. Asked all the people around me, does anybody wanna come with me? Nobody wanted to come or couldn’t come, any of those things.
Meagan Skidmore (22:44)
Okay.
Karin Nelson (23:01)
And so I was like, okay, and I was starting to get very nervous. And then, and then I started to kind of, again, second guess myself and say, it’s too scary. know, scary things might happen. There could be, you know, antagonistic people there. You don’t really know what to expect sometimes, even if it’s a peaceful protest. And so I, the next day woke up and said, I’m actually not going to go. I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to go. Um.
Meagan Skidmore (23:12)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (23:30)
I’m just, and I was real with myself. I was like, I’m pretty scared. And I think I’m just not going to go. And telling all of the people that I had previously told I was going to the protest. And the protest was about two days from that time. And I went to sleep that night and I just…
couldn’t sleep, tossed and turned, thought about it in my head a lot. I felt that same pull of which way, what’s the right answer here? Why am I still thinking about this? Why can’t I just decide? And I woke up the next morning and I really just gave myself some space, meaning I…
Meagan Skidmore (23:59)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓
Karin Nelson (24:10)
sat in this chair, this is my office and I spend a lot of time in my office, so I just sat in my chair where I feel very safe and comfortable and I just got still and quiet and said in the same way that I did when I was asking that question about do I want to stay married or not, what do I want? And then I just listened and let my body and my brain
answer for me and the answer was I really want to go to the protest it’s important to me and so again I felt the immediate like peace come over me and I was like okay that’s my answer did I still have fear yes of course I still was kind of scared but I knew
Meagan Skidmore (24:38)
you
Karin Nelson (24:52)
that I wasn’t gonna let that fear be the deciding factor for me because if I let that fear decide for me, it would keep me from doing something that I truly felt was an intuitive yes for me. This was something that like aligned with me and my North Star and the kind of person that I am and want to be.
Meagan Skidmore (24:58)
you
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (25:16)
And so I went to the protest and everything was great. And I was so happy that I went and felt supported, supportive of my community. And I felt in, in line with who I am and the person that I am continuing to become.
Meagan Skidmore (25:30)
Mm hmm. I caught that you said I let my brain and my body answer for me. And the response you heard was I actually do want to go to this protest. That is a connection that I think has been lost or misunderstood or that we are now learning more information about. I have been studying more and practicing more.
Karin Nelson (25:38)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (25:59)
using that mind, heart, body, soul connection. It’s so important to increase awareness around all those elements of our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual existence. They’re all connected and there’s deeper knowledge and wisdom and meaning to be gained.
Karin Nelson (26:05)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (26:29)
when we learned when we learned to drop into our body and not stay up here spinning in our head quite so much. ⁓ Yeah. I love that you you brought that up because I think sometimes the temptation or or the tendency, not temptation, the tendency is to believe that we are our thoughts or that we are our feelings.
Karin Nelson (26:35)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (26:59)
We’re the ones experiencing them.
Karin Nelson (27:02)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Meagan Skidmore (27:03)
Period. And there’s information
there for us. There’s messages there for us. And what we do with it, that’s what really matters. That’s what really can, as they say, push the needle a little bit more.
Karin Nelson (27:21)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (27:21)
I want to talk a little bit more kind of about where you’ve evolved to and kind of what you’re experiencing now. I have found that not only seeking moments of bliss, but ⁓ experiencing these moments of bliss after one takes the reins of their ⁓ spiritual faith journey.
Karin Nelson (27:27)
Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (27:50)
⁓ awakening, however you call it, versus focusing just on the pain points. Of course they play a role. That’s where a lot of learning and stretching and growth occurs. But there’s so much joy to be had, kind of on the other side of stepping into all of that uncertainty and that unknown and claiming that spiritual autonomy, that self differentiation, that spiritual sovereignty.
Karin Nelson (28:00)
Right.
Meagan Skidmore (28:18)
So I would love to hear more about that part of your journey. How and where have you found new joy or new life, rebirth, we could say, in your journey?
Karin Nelson (28:31)
Yeah,
yeah. Well, I mean, had all of that grief, all of the grief that I kind of saved up for when I left the church, and then the grief of, know, asking to end my 20-year marriage. And so as I learned to process through and let go of that grief, and as I learned to listen to myself and…
Meagan Skidmore (28:39)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (29:02)
believe that I had opinions and thoughts and ideas that mattered that I never really knew about or agreed with before, that I never really gave myself space to have and feel and think and decide for myself.
Meagan Skidmore (29:22)
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (29:22)
⁓ That’s where kind of that joy came in for me is I realized I’m an individual. I don’t know that I ever like.
That wasn’t a realization for me before that. I was just one of the people, you know, who goes in line with all the things and says the right things and, you know, would change my opinion based on the group that I was in because that’s what they were all saying. And so I would say the same thing because I wanted to be accepted by the group, right? I didn’t… That was scary for me to have a voice that was my own. And so being able to find…
Meagan Skidmore (29:39)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Karin Nelson (30:03)
joy and ⁓ self connection through
having a voice and figuring out what that voice was and figuring out what are my opinions? What do I like? What do I not like? Which groups do I want to stay a part of? Do I agree with everything they agree with? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe it’s okay if I do or I don’t. Maybe it’s okay to not be friends with these people anymore because…
I don’t have to pretend or people please to, you know, stay friends with them or whatever. And maybe that’s okay. Maybe that’s where the joy actually is, where I can actually be myself for the first time in a long time.
Meagan Skidmore (30:53)
Yeah, that self-differentiation piece is key. It’s absolutely key. Yeah, there’s so much joy in learning and living to be had when we can truly claim our autonomy in all the ways. So share with us, kind of tie it back now to your work currently as, do you call yourself a life coach? Tell us more about that. Tie all this into your work currently.
Karin Nelson (30:58)
Yeah, it’s huge.
Absolutely.
Yeah, so I am a coach. I don’t typically use the word life coach, but I guess technically I am a life coach. I just, I’m a divorce coach. So basically I, I coach other women who are going through either a divorce right now, or they are already divorced and they are trying to…
Meagan Skidmore (31:28)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Karin Nelson (31:48)
reconnect to themselves in ways that they either haven’t in a very long time or ever have been. To me, it was such a turning point in my life and such ⁓ an amazing thing to reconnect my brain, my body, and my intuition, something that I had never experienced until that pivotal moment. And I’ve experienced it many times since that
Meagan Skidmore (31:54)
Okay.
Hmm.
Karin Nelson (32:15)
I just know that every woman needs to have that in their life. Not because I think that like, they need to know what I think they should be doing, but so that they can decide for themselves what is best and right for them. Because I think when you’re able to do that in your own life, that leads you to your joy, that leads you to your bliss, that leads you in the direction that you were meant to be headed.
Meagan Skidmore (32:30)
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Right, right. I’m so grateful you had that experience. And I know that you’re able to walk side by side with your clients and help them experience that same thing in their lives. ⁓ We’ll make sure and leave your website or whatever other information that you would like to leave so folks can connect with you who feel your services align with their needs. My last question for you though.
Karin Nelson (32:54)
Yeah.
Great, love it.
Meagan Skidmore (33:13)
I ask all of my guests, and that is, does living beyond the shadow of doubt mean to you now?
Karin Nelson (33:20)
Yeah,
so you had sent this question beforehand and I’ve been thinking about it because I think it’s a really kind of interesting question and I think for me it really is connecting with your own intuition and what that is for you. So living beyond the shadow of the doubt to me is like…
It’s different for me than it is for you than it is for the person over there or the person over there that’s listening to this podcast, right? It’s so personal and unique and individual because all of our intuition is unique and individual to us based off of
our individuality based off of the experiences that we’ve had, based off of whatever spirituality we are encompassing in our lives and the direction. Like, I don’t really know what intuition is, if it takes some kind of shape or form within us, but it is like the all-knowing being for us as individuals. And I think really connecting to that,
is what takes us beyond that shadow of doubt. And I think every person, women especially, because I think women are conditioned to not trust our intuition, but I think every person, because men have it too, need to connect to that, to live the life they were meant to live.
Meagan Skidmore (34:46)
Yeah.
I love that I think you said that you said I think the intuition is this all knowing either said being or energy of some kind within us. I love that. That’s that’s beautifully said. I agree. ⁓ Everything is some type of energy, some type of vibration. That’s what connects us to all other beings and living things and energies on the earth.
Karin Nelson (35:05)
Something. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry, my cat is meowing. I don’t know if you can hear that.
Meagan Skidmore (35:28)
So really quickly, I’m gonna throw out some for fun questions for you, for our guests to get to know you. Tell us your favorite book.
Karin Nelson (35:35)
Okay.
Alright, give me one second. I I was meowing cat. Let’s see. wow. Favorite book. ⁓ I don’t know if I have one.
Meagan Skidmore (35:49)
or our favorite book, just
the one you’ve read most recently maybe.
Karin Nelson (35:53)
⁓ So I’ve been reading this series that my daughter told me about. know these are probably supposed to be fast questions, but ⁓ it’s the Throne of Glass series by I think Sarah Moss is her name and they’re just adventure and fun and the heroine is a woman and she’s strong and tough and amazing and they’re fun. I love them. Yeah.
Meagan Skidmore (36:12)
Sounds like an awesome adventure.
Are you an introvert or are you an extrovert?
Karin Nelson (36:18)
I am an introvert and sometimes a little bit of an extrovert, but I do like to be, I’m a homebody. I like to be home in my space and a lot of people is definitely draining. So introvert.
Meagan Skidmore (36:28)
Yeah.
Awesome. Tell us your favorite artist.
Karin Nelson (36:37)
Taylor Swift, I mean, I’m wearing her shirt. Like, come on, I love her, she’s the best.
Meagan Skidmore (36:39)
No hesitation. I love it.
Would you consider yourself a night owl or a morning lark?
Karin Nelson (36:45)
Morning, morning, morning, morning. I’m in bed by eight o’clock every night. Morning.
Meagan Skidmore (36:47)
Nice. ⁓
and tell us your celebrity crush if you have one.
Karin Nelson (36:54)
gosh, I would say years ago it was Idris Elba. I mean, come on, how do you not love him? ⁓ But that’s faded a little. I don’t know if I have one right now, but maybe five years ago me, was Idris Elba.
Meagan Skidmore (37:02)
Okay, that’s fair. Totally
fair. Do you do still or carbonated water or diet soda or some other fun beverage?
Karin Nelson (37:14)
Mmm, I love a good blended frozen coffee. I do like water too and I’ll drink bubbly or regular still water, but I love a good blended coffee. It’s my favorite.
Meagan Skidmore (37:22)
Mm-hmm.
Great.
And then finally, the furthest place that you’ve traveled.
Karin Nelson (37:30)
for this place. was a long time ago and I’d love to go back but it was Spain and it was amazing. I loved it. Yeah. No, I wish.
Meagan Skidmore (37:35)
Oh, I have been able to go once. It is fun. Do you speak Spanish? That’s OK. Still, still completely fun.
Karen, it’s been a pleasure. I thank you again so much for your time in coming to chat with me today. I’ve loved reconnecting and hearing how you’re doing. Your work is so important, and I’m grateful that you are there to support others that are going through what you went through and helping them, being with them along the way.
Karin Nelson (38:03)
Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It was a great time. It’s nice to catch up with you too.
Meagan Skidmore (38:07)
Absolutely.