In this deeply honest and uplifting conversation, I sit down with my lovely friend Susie—an experienced teacher and guide in the space of meditation and mental wellbeing. Susie has spent decades working in mental health, and like many in the caring professions, she experienced cycles of burnout—driven by high demands and the challenge of minding  her own wellbeing. After a life-changing encounter with meditation, Susie left her role, headed to New York and trained as a Vedic Meditation teacher. Since then Susie has spent over a decade sharing this practice with individuals and groups around the world—from Spiddal in Galway to Australia and back to Ireland. We talked about:
The repeating cycles of burnout
People-pleasing and the pressure to be liked
Taking responsibility for our choices and our wellbeing
How family, culture, and community shape us—but don’t define us
Using meditation as a practical, daily tool for presence and compassion
The difference between numbing pain and moving through it
The question How can we be well in a society that often feels unwell?
The power of daily decision-making and choosing moment by moment who we want to be
Susie offers powerful insight into how meditation can free us from inner judgment and help us meet life with calm clarity. This is a beautiful, grounding conversation full of real talk, gentle wisdom, and simple tools for everyday life. Thank you Susie, loved hanging out with you.


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Susan 

www.SusanQuirke.com 

Learn Vedic Meditation in-person - Taught over 4 sessions in person only
Learn how to meditate online - Taught online live via 3 Zoom sessions
Mass Meditation Experiences at Summits, Festivals and Events
One to One sessions
Global Healing Live - Free online mass meditations
Stay connected via Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 15 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and life and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

On Carolines Corner in this episode I had the privilege to have a conversation with Frances (fit_with_frankie) who has brought me on a journey in supporting me with movement which helps my body, emotions, thoughts and the “more than in me”  Frances talks about taking time for ourselves, the power of movement in day to day living, the shit life throws at us, loss, suffering and how we all are heros in our own way.
Our conversation looks at the physical impact of grief and trauma, feeling like there is a cement block on your chest, how taking a breathe is so hard and for some even trying to swallow can be too much.  We also share how grief can feel like you have been ripped out of your life and put in a foreign country called grief and ways to learn this new language and how to move through it even when you can barely get up in the morning. 
Frances provides on-line coaching in the most beautiful and broad way and sees people as full human beings, body mind and soul.  Frances works with women at all stages in their lives and supports them in their own individual challenges that life has brought them.
Frances shares how we are all here for a reason and to connect with each other and how looking after ourselves is so important and how our loved ones gone ahead want us to connect, want us to live.   Also how our voice is so important.   Its not important about how you look, its about how you feel.
Once we come to this earth suffering is inevitable.  I am so grateful for the love, support and mentoring Frances gives to me.
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”
Viktor E. Frankl (Mans Search for Meaning).

In memory of Sinead Curtin
A star that shines down on all of us

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 14 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and life and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Once again I had the privilege to be in conversation with a beautiful person with an open heart and mind. Both of us willing to create the space and allow the conversation to come in and let it bring us to where it was to go.  The freedom and learning is powerful and it’s such a blessing to be able to share this conversation. 

James is an Athletic Therapist with a Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Medicine. 

This conversation brings us to how “the body holds score” and how life experiences can get tapped and stagnated in the body.  We spoke about how our own attitude, mindset and intention is paramount to the body mind and soul as it moves through life experiences.    The conversation brough us to our individual “fate” in life and even in the most devastating and tragic circumstances there is a window of freedom, when we are ready, to consider.   

James shared about his beautiful sister Michelle and what not to say to someone who is grieving.  Michelle was diagnosed at 27 with terminal cancer and given a couple of weeks to live. However, Michelle listened to her own gut, her own instinct, her own body and lived for another 2 years.   

We spoke about the impermanence of everything including our physical form and how, talking with the right people can help us to live a better quality of life. How bearing witness to life and feeling the fear and discomfort will also allow us to look at how we might self sooth.  We spoke about the physical impact and the shaking sensations inside, the anxiety and how this is part of the experience - and its shite! 

Michelle left her 2 children videos for their birthdays each year.  As tragic as it is that Michelle is not here herself ,she has left her children such a gift that they can bring through their life, what an amazing soulful human being. 

James shared how after Michelle died in 2020, he came out the following year at the age of 23.   Michelles death and covid isolation reminded James of the impermanence of life and what Michelle had gone through. He had known from just 8 years old he was gay, but he did everything he could to suppress those thoughts and feelings. James believed it (and he) was wrong. We talk about the years of keeping in his feelings and how drink numbed the deep-rooted sense of shame and being with girls allowed him to further hide those thoughts and feelings throughout college. James also shares that if he didn’t come out when he did, he would probably not be here now.   

Our conversation brought us to social media, its influence and impact, the idea of “happiness” and also the honest experience of a week in anyone’s life and how some days are purely for getting through and others are for striving.   

Michelle has a profound and beautiful conversation on Facebook and both Michelle and James have touched my life and I would encourage you to take the time to listen to their messages, the truth, the heartache, the strength, the more than is so powerful and I feel so blessed to have met James and to hear of his beautiful sisters legacy that will continue through the generations. 

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves” Viktor Frankl  

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 13 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and life and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Its lovely yet again to share a beautiful and meaningful conversation with  a soulful and amazing lady, Mary McHugh, Director of counsellingonline.ie, first online counselling service in Ireland, she is a mother of 3 and Nana of 4 beautiful darlings, a work colleague and wonderful friend and most of all an every day human being navigating the struggles that life brings.

Our conversation brings us from the wild moorlands and spectacular coastal scenery of Achill Island and across the World!   

We have a meaningful and loving conversation about “Counselling on Line”,  why and how Mary founded the organisation, the challenges and Marys beliefs that pushed through old rigid ways of thinking in relation to therapy, on line counselling and its benefits, what its like to be a therapist, what therapy can offer, how the therapist, like everyone does not have their shit together and how they can offer a space for people to bring everything – their pain, their suffering, their fears, their anxiety, their shame, their suicidal thoughts, their anger, their rage and how that space, can also allow a person to see the “more than” in themselves – their potential, their possibilities, their resources, their strength, their power.

Mary explains the brain in a way that is hugely understandable and will help anyone in their day to day living especially if their intention is to make peace with their thoughts.
We discuss the bottom line!  We have absolutely no control over others, only our own attitudes and responses and ways to develop these and to allow our minds to be at peace more.  We talk about ways to self regulate our nervous system when it goes into panic, fight or freeze and when logic, clear thinking, reasoning and empathy goes out the window!

We share both of our experiences over many years, working with beautiful people whose whole being are so crushed that death by suicide has become a regular thought and how no one saves any other persons life, but how we can support someone in this acute and terrifying place, to allow the thoughts move through them.

We chat about the bull shit in systems and in ourselves! The part of al of us “if they really knew me” and in spite of/despite of any given experience or moment, we are all more than that moment and how to tap into what is in all of us – our potential, our goodness, our kindness our hearts, our souls, our humanism
A beautiful conversation that spans across the globe from the moorlands and costal scenery of Achill

“I wonder if you have the patience to wait till the mud settles and an answer will arrive of its own”

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 12 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and life and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

It was such a pleasure to have a meaningful conversation with a friend and colleague who works as a Mental Health Practitioner, a lecture in DCU and all marinated in the way of Shamanism. Our conversation moved through the value of rituals, the need and strength of belonging and how we are all part of the human consciousness and what we can access within this, amazing resource as opposed to ticking boxes. To engage with each other and explore the possibilities available in each moment of our lives all sitting on the foundation of the potential of healing within ourselves. We spoke about trauma and how, once we come to this earth suffering is part of the human experience and exploring how to integrate these life experiences as opposed to them being destructive. “You can’t undo the past but if faced with courage it does not have to happen again”

We spoke about in the moment trauma as it lives in the body, emotions, heart and soul. We looked at the amazing power of the “field of possibilities/the energy we come from, will go to and sit within” and how we are all interconnected and navigating our lives and life itself. “When we get past the idea of rightness and wrongness, there is a field and I will meet you there”

We discussed that survival techniques are individual to each and everyone one of us and do not need to be labelled or categorized or judged. We spoke about the experience of a Family Constellation workshop and what it offers to look at healing trauma. “We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors” We looked at what we can send forward to the generations ahead to help them in their lives and their healing. “It didn’t start with me but it can end with me”

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 11 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and life and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

From selling Christmas wrapping paper at 9 to studying Law and Commerce in UCD and practicing as a Solicitor to the Owner of The Lab Performance, Female Fight Nutritionist, Coach, MMA and Kickboxing Fighter.
With much gratitude and love I have, like all the other wonderful conversations, learned so much and feel blessed in this episode of Caroline's Corner to have a had a wonderful and meaningful conversation with a beautiful soulful woman my friend Lindsey Doyle.  We discuss never compromising your values, how Lindsey herself worked through change in her life as opposed to allowing fear to be all consuming.  Lindsey shares how its ok letting go of what is not working in your life and nothing is ever a waste.  Just because you can do something does not mean you have to.  We explored the word “should” and its negative impact on peoples lives and also hero worshiping in comparison to admiration for people who lead with love.  Lindsey shares how Eckhart Tolle was one of the first guides who helped her deepen her spiritual journey and a quote that has helped her in life “its not the situation, it’s your thoughts on the situation.
Lindsey, her soulmate and husband Austin, Damien and now three others offer a service to individuals that has a broad outlook that integrates Taoism, consciousness, functional medicine exploring the root causes, physicality and a life approach that sees people as full human beings as they explore training, nutrition health and sports performance.  “Your tribe finds you” The Lab Performance and Nutrition   www.thelabgym.com
Lindsey's intention is to live well as she wants to feel alive until she dies.
We explore grief and trauma and how physical it is and helping the body integrate within a safe space, with the right people who can bear witness.  We talk about when emotions are pushed down they create stagnation in the body and we become physically sick and how it is about building a life around grief.  
Lindsey shares her early days Kickboxing and the challenges of defeminising herself where now her work aligns with reaching her full potential and support other female athletics.  Lindsey shares the value of going into therapy for a year and a half herself which allowed her explore her view of being feminine in a male orientated sports world.  
We talk about image in society, fashion weight, size, body image and how seductive global thinking is and the impact.  
What a blessing.
With love to the beautiful soulful Izzy and her family Austin, Lindsey, Bodie and Veda

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 10 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Sarah experienced acute anxiety, panic attacks and bad thoughts for most of her life all fueled by fear which attached to  the fear of dying and the dark.  

Over the years with the love and support of family and trying many different supports Sarah learned to gradually cope and manage her day to day living.  Sarahs voluntary work with No Panic played a big part in her recovery and her new path with Trauma Research UK has helped Sarah to evolve further in her recovery and she now can experience her anxiety in context to the situation/experience and knows why she is her, to Turn her Wounds into Wisdom and to be of service.

Thank you Sarah for being you, love always Caroline 

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 9 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Caroline speaks with Fran Grace today. They enter a deep conversation, speaking freely from the heart about the pain and the joy of life. Just like life itself—there is no script! They reflect on the synchronicities that brought them together in an online course at the University of Redlands called “Paradigms of Healing and Wholeness” taught by Fran, based on THE POWER OF LOVE book. The book includes an interview with Alexander Vesely, the grandson of Viktor Frankl, and this became a golden thread for Caroline to follow in her journey. Fran shares the unforgettable experience of hearing Caroline speak in the class about her soulmate John, and his brutal murder. There are no words that suffice. Only holding space and bearing witness to each other. Little did Fran know that, within a year, she and her lovemate Diane would suffer the sudden passing of their 29-year-old son to Covid. Fran and Caroline discuss the e-book, LOVE IS FOREVER, that Fran and Diane wrote to describe their journey with that grief. It affirms the human capacity to nurture life and to find meaning and beauty—even in the most devastating circumstances. The e-book includes Caroline as an example of this capacity to endure tragedy and share something meaningful with others out of one’s own suffering. Fran shares about the role of the Death Doula and overcoming fear of death. She and Caroline reflect on how freeing it is to offer something without needing anything back.

Links to what is mentioned:

CAROLINE’S CORNER Episode with Alexander Vesely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8It05pXoLtE

LOVE IS FOREVER e-book: https://innerpathway.com/product/love-is-forever-e-book/

HEALING AND WHOLENESS online course: https://vimeo.com/374154759

THE POWER OF LOVE book: https://innerpathway.com/product/the-power-of-love-a-transformed-heart-changes-the-world/

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 8 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Caroline and Alex choose to have a loving and meaningful conversation about devastation and suffering in life and finding meaning.  Alex’s grandfather Viktor Frankl was a holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and neurologist who specialized in the treatment of suicidal patients and developed his own psychology theory Logotherapy “healing through meaning” and published his autobiography book “Mans Search for Meaning” bases on his experience in various Nazi concentration camps.

Caroline herself a psychotherapist mentor, tutor, past Founder and CEO who also worked extensively in the area of suicide and developed and implemented unique programs based on her personal experience of being a user of the Psychiatric services, speaks of the devastating impact of her soulmate and husband Johns violent and intentional murder.  In the conversation Alex and Caroline hold a deep intimate conversation, living example of the powerful value of bearing witness to suffering and the choices which are possible, even in the dark depths of suffering.

Welcome to Caroline's Corner, Episode 7 a safe place for unique conversations for people who want to find meaning in their lives and share it with others.  This will evolve and grow with some amazing and beautiful human beings.

Caroline and Olivia step into  a conversation that explores intuition, the body, the heart and your passion in life which allows for a lovely rich conversation. that moves through your soul journey vs the normal route, trusting the intelligence inside you, the choices we make and how they determine the direction we take and much more.