“The programming that I had from early childhood is that you are supposed to get a good job, get married, and have kids, but following that path didn’t make me happy.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about helping people develop a better understanding of themselves and their animals through intuitive guidance. My purpose in life is to make lives easier and more enjoyable for people and animals. I started studying metaphysical topics to learn to trust my intuition and found that I knew things that other people don’t know. I have always wanted to work with animals, so I focused on animal communication and have been able to learn so much from talking to them.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: The programming that I had from early childhood is that you are supposed to get a good job, get married, and have kids, but following that path didn’t make me happy. I had to release and heal from that old programming and forge my own path. I learned to care less about what other people think and design my own life.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Anything is possible. I had no idea my life could be what it is now. I found my purpose by exploring and trying new things. When I was interested in something, I took a class or read about it. What I have learned is that you don’t have to know where you are going to take the first step. Try something, join a group, ask a question, it can take you places you never imagined.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism to me means owning your truth and being who you really are. We are taught to conform, but if we can love ourselves and live our truth, we can help spread love to the world.
Thank you for reading!
I offer animal communication, intuitive sessions for people, and teach intuition classes. Learn more on my website: www.intuitivedenise.com
Q and A with Katherine, born and raised in Chile, now living in New York, New York
“You will always be the problem and you will always be the solution.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Hi, my name is Katherine Berland, and I am an intuitive-rich money mindset activator and manifestation mentor with a sole mission to help others heal from the past, align with the present, and surface profound clarity to manifest an empowering future. I feel very passionately and nothing makes me happier than helping other women cultivate a quality life filled with ignited purpose, passion, and fulfillment. From childhood trauma healing, rectifying money wounds, to manifestation mentoring that unlocks the powers of the mind, I find immense joy in delivering safe-haven sessions that give my clients the newfound confidence to conquer any obstacle within the 3D world.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I come from a very dysfunctional family. If you ask me, I really had a difficult life going through many painful experiences that I continued to perpetuate in my adult life with toxic and abusive relationships. I literally had to lose everything to start looking for answers for why we do what we do and how we can break away from suffering, lack, limitation, and unworthiness. I do not mention this in a victim place because I healed and break with most of my traumas and paradigms, but all my past experiences really helped me understand how life works, the power we really have, which ultimately led me to want to help other people break free from the illusion of the mind to unleash their true potential.
My mom was a very abusive, narcissistic person, and my parents got divorced when I was 11. My mom left me and my five-year-old sister with my dad. My dad was a great dad, but a very hard worker; he always left the house early in the morning and came back late at night. I became the mom of my sister at the age of 12 because nobody else could take care of us. It was confusing and tough. I started drinking and smoking at 12. I was a very rebellious child, bad in school, and had a lot of physical fights. I started feeling depressed, which led me to try suicide myself twice. I finished high school and started working at 17. I wanted to feel proud of myself, so I worked very hard at the age of 20. And I bought my first apartment at the age of 21. I had a boyfriend, a house, a dog a car, but something was missing. I was having everything that people said brings happiness, but I couldn’t feel happy. I was working the whole day just to pay bills, drink, and watch TV. One day I just started asking, “This is all? This is how I’m going to live the rest of my life?” So, it was then that I decided to do something. I quit my job, I left my boyfriend, and I rented my apartment. I moved from Chile to Florida. I didn’t know what to do and how to make money, so I started working as a dancer, I found happiness for a couple months, and I made a lot of money, but something was still missing and I couldn’t figure out what it was. After a while, I met the dad of my son, which was a love bomb in the beginning, and since I’d never received love, I fell in love with him so easily and ignored all the red flags. After a couple months, he convinced me to stay in New York and live with him. And I did. Then my visa expired, and it was then that he start manipulating me and abusing me. I lost all my money and even I lost myself. I lost everything. I was feeling like WHY ME? What did I do so wrong to experience so much negative stuff? Then I started looking at my son and thinking, “He is going to live the same life” and I just felt so sad. Then, I started asking myself, “What I can do to move forward?” and I remembered to start praying.
Now, with time, I understand that you don’t have to force anything. I forgive them. And I made peace with my past and especially with myself, taking full responsibility for what I do what I get and how I feel. Now, I love my family just the way they are. I lost a lot of people on this path. Now, I made new friends and people who are on this path of making the world a better place. I’m always connecting with nice and beautiful people. My health is 100% good, my relationships changed so dramatically, and I feel full of purpose. And I’m loving what I do.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Spirituality, mindset, and body, you have to find the balance in the three of them if you really want to live a happy, fulfilled life. Everything that you need is within you; you will always be the problem and you will always be the solution. If you had childhood experiences where you didn’t have the choice to choose about your life, now you have the power and it’s time to own it, and create the life that you want and deserve in this world. Doesn’t matter what you did or who you think you are right now…you are always worthy if have it all.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: I think feminism is the concept of equality as humans.
MORE FROM KATHERINE:
I love what I do and am always seeking ways to advance myself both personally and professionally to share that knowledge with others. However, when I am not working, you can often find me meditating, dancing, traveling, enjoying the zen of the beach, studying about human behavior, the mind, the universe, and of course one of my favorite things to do is spending time with my amazing kid.
“…learning, continuous learning, and investing in ourselves always pay off…”
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I have always been passionate about making the world a better place. This was inspired by my parents, who both had a strong interest in world politics, literature, culture, and people’s lives generally.
Since college, I have worked for 30 years in international development on poverty reduction for disadvantaged communities, economic development, and natural resources management.
I want to see economies growing, enterprises thriving, the environment staying healthy and beautiful, and people’s lives improving.
I have also been strongly interested in sharing my knowledge and experience and supporting people’s growth. I used to be a dedicated manager and team leader.
For the United Nations, I managed and motivated a team of senior, older female, and male staff colleagues to stay strong and deliver during a transitional period for human resources in its Hanoi office in the early 1990s.
For the UK Aid program in Vietnam, I was part of and then led a team in 2015 of an economist, climate adviser, and program manager to design and implement projects worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.
In addition, capacity building for member countries was one of the priorities in my work on socio-economics with the Mekong River Commission Secretariat until late 2022.
About eight years ago, having survived depression due to a family crisis, I realized I lacked the knowledge and “soft” skills to build good relationships.
I had always been kind, dedicated, and responsible, but at times I had also been unaware of other people’s feelings and thinking and in many cases may have thought I was always right.
I started to focus my learning on these soft skills, or people skills, to understand men and women more, and above all to focus on my relationship with myself. I learned to love myself, accept myself, and take better care of myself, to be in a much better position to love, accept and care for others, as a woman.
I recognized deeply the values of self-love, inner strength, and feminine confidence, and the benefits these can bring to a woman’s happiness and inner peace.
After my job as an economist with the Mekong River Commission, I decided to become a full-time happiness coach for professional committed women, who, like me, may have focused and succeeded in their professional lives, but less so in their personal lives…women who would benefit hugely in all aspects of their lives by improving their confidence and inner strength and achieving the happiness they deserve and desire. Here is my LinkedIn page minh-nguyen-050299102.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in the North of Vietnam when the country was still going through war and then reconstruction.
My parents were loving and also strict, and taught me a lot about discipline, hard work, kindness, and respect for others. We were poor, like many other families in Vietnam then, but always rich in our thirst for knowledge and information about our country, and about the larger world.
My father would bring back books he borrowed from his university library every week of subjects ranging from history to geography to politics and literature. He would also listen to radio programs from America, the UK, and France (which were considered “enemy” influences then). He wanted me to do the best I could, so he bought me books in drawing, music, and maths for me to explore. I did not do well with art but was much better in maths and English, and I was successful in a highly competitive entrance examination for one of the most prestigious high schools in Vietnam, thanks to guidance from my dad.
Each week I left my family, for boarding school, with high-performing students from all over the North of Vietnam, only returning home with my family on Sunday. It was demanding but also very rewarding.
We considered our teachers as our second parents, and classmates as special friends that I still keep in contact with after nearly 40 years, and visit from time to time. I then went to college for teaching English as a foreign language. I did not become a teacher but an administrator with the United Nations office in Hanoi, Vietnam, thanks to my English capacity, hard work, and positive attitude.
I also did a second degree, in economics as I wanted to do more substantive work, which I did also with the United Nations as a program assistant managing regional projects. I then got a scholarship to do my master’s in development economics in the UK in my early thirties, with my mum’s strong support in taking care of my small children together with my family.
In reflection, I am always grateful for the good education opportunities I had, my parents’ relentless support, and my family’s care for my children.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Through the ups and downs of life, I have learned that hard work, discipline, and consistency are important to do well in your work and life. But I have also realized the importance of softer skills such as self-love, understanding of ourselves and others, believing in ourselves, taking care of ourselves, accepting ourselves and others, choosing happiness and positivity, raising ourselves up, and moving on…whatever life throws at us, it is an opportunity for us to explore, to learn, and to further grow.
Once we develop the ability to have a basket of tools to use and stay strong and positive inside out, including embracing our vulnerability, we are and will always be fine. And learning, continuous learning, and investing in ourselves always pay off, quickly and sustainably.
Q: What does feminism mean to you? A: Working previously for a long time in international development, I have been trained in gender equality extensively. I have also been lucky to work in organizations where women receive equal treatment and a lot of support.
However, I feel I did not fully understand the “feminine power” as somehow it was widely believed and propagated (at least before in our society) that women may suffer more than men, or that women are disadvantaged (and this latter view is still true in many societies).
Only after I improved my knowledge and skills about men and women, and about relationships did I come to know and fully appreciate that being a woman is a beautiful thing, and in fact an advantage in many ways.
Feminism to me is to recognize and take into account the differences between men and women in all activities and environments, and to give equal opportunities to men and women, as all the gender equality rhetoric often says.
More personally, and more strongly than ever, feminism to me is about empowering women to appreciate their unique roles and power, at home and in the society at large, as loving, nurturing, supporting, and compassionate forces. I would not seek to compete with men at work or at home.
We all have unique and valuable energies to make the partnerships work, at home and at work. And once we women believe in ourselves more, and most importantly love ourselves the right way, we can be successful and happy in all our important relationships. We can live a truly “zen” balance with the world and our loved ones.
Life is beautiful! trust yourself! And trust the Universe! And thank you to The Woman Wednesday Blog for featuring me and other women, all working hard in our different capacities to improve the lives of ourselves and others.
Q and A with Rockshana from Fairfield County, Bridgeport, CT
“Something valuable that I learned very early is that not everyone is going to enjoy my talents and, that if I wanted to get the role, if I wanted to get a high score, I needed to work hard, train, and only put my best foot forward...”
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I’m passionate about performance art and helping others grow into and in the best versions of themselves through a field of work that they enjoy so that they can be happy and feel good about themselves.
I found this through my own passion.
I feel most confident when I am actively doing something that I love such as dancing, modeling, and acting—whether I’m in class, on stage, or just consistently have it on my schedule. I feel confident and happy, and I feel like the best version of myself.
I help others find that confidence and happiness through their passion even if that might be as a nurse, financial advisor, etc.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I went to a private school from daycare all the way up to my senior year of high school in Connecticut [United States].
As a child, I always wanted to be on stage performing for my family at home which led to my mom putting me into modeling which then turned into acting.
I enjoyed singing and gained a solo at school, which lead to me taking vocal lessons and then getting into dance. Each of those activities taught me how to express myself in different ways and learn confidence. Taught me to have drive, determination, persistence, and individuality and that my hard work pays off one way or another.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Something valuable that I learned very early is that not everyone is going to enjoy my talents and, that if I wanted to get the role, if I wanted to get a high score, I needed to work hard, train, and only put my best foot forward, and if I do get a no and/or if someone gets a higher score than me, it’s okay.
What I have to offer might not be what someone needs that day/in their production. Along with that, I learned that there are other people in the world that can do what I can’t and that work as hard or possibly even harder than me to get a high score.
Everyone puts in as much work as they are able to and it’s incomparable.
Q: What does feminism mean to you? A: Feeling confident in wearing whatever you would like to wear, working in a field that you enjoy and are truly passionate about, and being the best version of yourself that allows you to be happy is what feminism means to me.
“Art can give us strength to carry on, courage to push through.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I am passionate about empowering, uplifting, and bringing joy into people’s lives through art.
During the lockdown, I started a series of paintings called Urban Queen.
Initially, I gave up my studio and planned to relax at home for a month or so. I was planning to do all the things I never have time to do like reorganize my wardrobe, read, and drink cocktails on my terrace. It didn’t last long.
One day I read an article in Forbes magazine about the seven women head of states and how they dealt with the pandemic. I started thinking about all the women in lockdown, all the unsung heroes, and the women who are leaders in their own way, whether it’s in their home or in their community.
I had an urge to paint these women, so I set up a home studio and ended up working 12-hour days for two months straight. I took over the living room, and my family got used to fending for themselves.
Through my paintings, I want to bring every woman into the spotlight who runs her household, raises her children, puts up with her boss, looks after her health, and shows the strength and courage in her everyday life. I started sharing my art online and the response I had from women all over the world was incredible.
Art has the power to move people at a very deep level and women connected with the paintings in a way I didn’t expect. I had hundreds of messages from women telling me what these paintings mean to them and how they make them feel. Stronger, powerful, self-confident.
A deeply moving experience was talking with Kristen, a nurse on the front lines in San Francisco. She was working crazy hours, doing loads of overtime when the hospital needed her, only taking breaks and resting in her car when she was on call.
We messaged each other and spoke a lot. She told me, “I’m scared, inspired, and empowered, raising girls during this time! These paintings spoke to me on such a deep level as a nurse on the front lines and mother of two daughters. Seriously, these paintings blew my mind on so many levels.”
This expresses what I paint for: the power of art to lift our souls. It reminds us that we are magnificent beings capable of doing so much good in the world. Art can give us strength to carry on, courage to push through.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in a totalitarian communist regime where ‘freedom’ was nonexistent and food shortages, fear, and persecution was part of the daily life.
I hated the system that imprisoned my grandfather, I hated the fact that everything was grey.
When I was about 12, I saw a book on Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. I was so moved by the art, the colors, the beauty that I decided there and then that if I can get out of the country, I would leave and never come back.
That chance came when I was 18 years old, so armed with big dreams and a bag full of clothes, I made it to London, UK, all by myself.
I wanted to finish my education, so I was going to college during the day and working evenings and weekends. It was then when I discovered painting.
I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. I would stay up really late at night to finish my paintings assignments. However, the mentality I grew up with was that of the ‘starving artist,’ so instead I pursued a career in fashion where I thought, worst case scenario, I can get a job as a seamstress.
Instead, at the age of 25, I opened my business, a fashion label that expanded rapidly selling in 300 boutiques all over the UK.
Time passed, I fell in love, got married, and had our daughter. In 2009, my family and I moved back to my native Romania. This was now a totally different country I didn’t recognize.
Liberated from communist regime, the country was flourishing and exciting. I started an interior design business that made six figures in the first year.
Still, painting was something I was called to do all my life, so I started painting again, at night time and during the weekends. In 2013, I was invited to exhibit in Miami, during the famous Art Basel. That was all I needed to get me to pursue my long life dream.
Shortly after, I walked into my office and told all my staff that I would be closing the business in order to pursue a career as an artist. I was 40 years old! It was a bold, crazy move and what followed was a few years of really hard work.
As a self-taught artist, I made a point on working extra hard on my technique as well as finding my artistic voice. And still, I didn’t feel “worthy” unless my art was validated by the “art establishment.” When my family and I moved back to the UK in 2018, I got the validation I thought I needed by working with some well established art galleries, exhibiting in central London, selling my art to important collectors.
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Life is about constantly learning, growing, and evolving.
Painting the Urban Queen series has taught me my latest lesson: I don’t need the art establishment to validate me or my art. I am a queen and I wear my crown with pride.
At the same time, my biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that “I am on Purpose.” I have been searching for purpose, for the best part of my life, and asked myself many times, “How can I live on purpose?” I think Urban Queen has provided me with the answer. When you are passionate about what you do AND you serve others, you are living with purpose.
Q:What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism is reestablishing the balance between feminine and masculine. It’s recognizing and honoring our differences.
It’s understanding that vulnerability, sensitivity, intuition, creativity, and nurturing are very important qualities the world needs. They are not weakness as we were raised to believe.
We don’t need to be like men. We need to connect to our own inner feminine qualities and lead from there.
Q: Would you like readers to know anything else?
A: I would say honor yourself.
Women are used to doing everything for everyone else first, and we leave ourselves last.
I am also guilty of that sometimes, and it’s something I’m still working on.
To me, honoring yourself means working on your mindset, learning to appreciate what’s important in life, being grateful, being inspired, treating yourself, and most importantly, loving yourself. Find the Queen within!
The Woman Wednesday Blog 