It’s okay to take a holiday, even if it’s just one day off. I don’t think anyone is completely indispensable. I worked so hard when I was a manager and never took a day’s sick leave unless I absolutely had to, but in retrospect a day here and there might have helped overall even more, rather than going to work exhausted.
Today, more than ever, wellness is at the forefront of societal discussions. From mental health to physical well-being, women are making significant strides in bringing about change, introducing innovative solutions, and setting new standards. Despite facing unique challenges, they break barriers, inspire communities, and are reshaping the very definition of health and wellness. In this series called women in wellness we are talking to women doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists, fitness trainers, researchers, health experts, coaches, and other wellness professionals to share their stories and insights. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Catherine C. Bastedo.
Catherine C. Bastedo has taught Reiki at all levels, led workshops and retreats, volunteered as a wellness coach for cancer survivors, and sat on the board of a nonprofit organization devoted to women’s health. She practices yoga and meditation and writes online articles related to complementary health. Catherine spent her childhood in northwestern Ontario, obtained her MA in Canadian Studies, and now lives in Gatineau, Quebec. She enjoyed a career at a senior level with the Canadian government and then was executive director of an international nonprofit that promoted and supported Canadian studies, before turning to her writing and energy work. She loves spending time with family, being outdoors, and traveling, and is always curious to learn about the flora and fauna of other countries, especially the birds!
Her new deck Bird Vibes Meditation Cards is available online and in stores. Learn more at www.CatherineCBastedo.com.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I was born in a very small town in northwestern Ontario, north of Lake Superior, which was at the time accessible only by rail, ship, or float plane. This early proximity to the boreal forest has been a great influence on me and I have always loved getting outside, walking, and enjoying nature. Although there was only a bookmobile library in town, my family had books everywhere and encouraged my love of reading. This led me to study literature at the postgraduate level. The symbolism and archetypes I found in literature, and then again in my studies of energy healing, led me to perceive them in the natural world. I combined my various interests and wrote the Bird Vibes Meditation Cards to show others how birds, with their physical and spiritual attributes, can provide guidance to help us in our daily lives.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Well, I have had several careers — from executive management in the Canadian federal government, to Reiki and then to writing. I’ll give you a story from my Reiki career, although it is hard to choose among so many stories that have awed me! Early in my practice I was asked by a young woman, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, to give her some Reiki sessions to help heal her phantom pain. Reiki is a form of energy healing that I have studied for many years. When a practitioner does Reiki, we call in the universal energy around us and act as a channel for the highest good. This woman had lost her lower leg to cancer and had a prosthesis. She was suffering on an emotional level as she could not perform the same physical activities as before, and she was dealing with what is called phantom pain but is very real. I gave her several Reiki sessions and was amazed to discover that I could feel the energy of her old leg, as if it were floating above her prosthesis. I asked to be a conduit for energy that would allow her prosthesis to be integrated on all levels, and her pain disappeared. She was extremely grateful. I had similar experiences giving Reiki to women who had undergone breast reconstruction after cancer. These experiences showed me clearly that there is an energy around us and in us that we don’t entirely understand. And when it is spiritually guided for the highest good, it is an amazing force for healing.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
At the outset of my working life, I thought I needed to be successful according to the ideas of others — my family, my friends, my colleagues. I achieved goals expected from me in obtaining my master’s degree and an executive position, but I was not living from my heart. I had not paid enough attention to my inner voice, my intuition, that told me I needed more balance in my life and a better way of helping others. When I started my Reiki classes, I was required to really think about my life goals, and I realized that my work at the time was not fulfilling and was taking too much time away from my family and the time I needed for myself. When I was young, my mother would say, “Listen to your inner voice,” but I did not realize what an important lesson she was trying to teach me.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
We each make an impact and spread our inner light. None of us live in isolation — we are always touching other people’s lives, not just family or friends or colleagues but strangers whose paths we cross in person or online. When we express kindness to the person who is serving us coffee and having a bad day, we make a difference; when we look at someone and really see them, or truly listen to their story, we make a difference. First, we need to start with ourselves, seeing ourselves with compassion and without judgement. No one is perfect. When we are more forgiving toward ourselves, it becomes easier to help others.
The work I do teaching Reiki, writing, holding retreats, and so on, helps people connect with their inner voice, with their highest self, so they may reach out to others in a new way with a higher awareness and more connected to their heart. I have seen people go from the depths of depression and despondency to joy after one Reiki session! My Bird Vibes Meditation Cards has given people new insight into their lives and on what they can do to bring about change and emotional healing. If we can forgive ourselves, then we can love our relatives, our neighbors, and the people we meet. If we each related to others without judgement, without letting our ego get in the way, imagine how different the world would be!
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing?
1. Get out in nature.
Getting outside in the woods or in a city park and opening all of our senses to nature makes us feel better physically, mentally, and spiritually. The Japanese have a term for forest bathing, Shinrin-yoku, and have scientifically proven that a walk in the woods reduces stress, improves sleep quality, mood, focus, and can lower blood pressure. Forest bathing is a form of preventative medicine. I am fortunate to live next door to a beautiful woodland area called the Gatineau Park, and when I walk there, my thoughts change, new ideas come to me, and I feel invigorated and happier. I watch the birds and the other wildlife and notice the beauty of the changing seasons. I smell the earth, feel the breeze, taste the wild berries — if I know what they are! If you don’t have access to a forest or can’t physically get outside, try to bring Mother Nature inside with plants or pictures of the outdoors. Turn off your phone and leave your mind chatter behind you for 20 minutes. Slough off that old coat of worry, just for a short time.
2. Focus on joy.
Try taking a joy walk! Especially if you are feeling down. Go outside, look for beauty in a leaf, a flower, a sunset. Listen to the birds or to children playing. Smell the flowers, taste a snowflake, if you can. Bring a child with you on a walk — they have a knack for finding fun! When was the last time you rolled down a hill or lay on your back to watch the clouds? I rolled down a hill with my grandson last summer and I’d forgotten that simple pleasure. Sometimes we think we are too busy, but that 20-minute joy walk will help you feel better about yourself, accomplish more, think of new solutions to your problems, and be in better spirits with those around you.
I have had my share of grief, but when I focus on the positive, my grief becomes something I can live with and learn from. Last spring I participated in a retreat in rural Quebec. The snow was just beginning to melt, slick ice covered the country road that meandered alongside a frozen lake, ice coated the branches. The sky was a gorgeous deep blue, and the sun was shining so that everything sparkled. I pictured my deceased sister joyfully laughing at the beauty of this scene, so similar to where she lived at Mont Tremblant, and then I literally skipped along the road like a kid. My heart was filled with love for my sister and overflowed. I told everyone back at the retreat about this, most of them about twenty years younger, and I could see the looks of surprise on their faces. They loved it. Focus on joy whenever you can!
3. Connect with Spirit.
When I say Spirit, I refer to the energy around and within us that may be called God or Buddha or Allah or nature or All that is. There are many ways to go within and connect: meditation, even for a very short period, prayer, focusing on nature, dance… When we bring an open frame of mind to our practice, whatever it may be, we become more compassionate toward ourselves and others. I find yoga helps me connect, especially Kundalini yoga that is very meditative. Sometimes in Shavasana, the relaxation at the end of my practice, I feel as if I am floating above my body, and I can see my concerns from another perspective. This helps me release my worries, my uncertainties, and my stress. Afterwards I feel renewed.
4. Develop and use your intuition.
One of my teachers used to tell us that intuition is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets. It is so true. Now I use my intuition to decide what to buy, who to call, or when to do something. If I don’t use my intuition, I regret it. I have learned that if I am thinking about someone a lot, I need to call them, and invariably they will say, “Oh I was just thinking about you and hoping to hear from you.” I am now quite used to wonderful synchronicities in my life — people showing up when I need them, opportunities coming my way, hearing songs with words that comfort me at just the right moment. Many people have told me stories about how listening to their intuition saved their lives, like not moving ahead at an intersection despite someone honking and avoiding an accident or not getting on a plane or boat and being so thankful afterwards to have avoided a major problem.
5. Practice moderation.
We all know we need the right amount of sleep for our body, as well as to eat well and exercise appropriately. I have never followed diets of the day, but I eat healthy food and have been blessed with a healthy body. I love an occasional butter tart, although they rarely come up to my mother’s standard, and I enjoy a glass of the red wine my husband makes, no additives. I think that if we listen to our body, it will direct us. When I am super tired, I listen to my body, and I have been known to have an 11-hour sleep to recoup! I love to swim lengths, but if my muscles say stop, I listen. I think moderation applies to many things and can help us find balance in our lives. For busy people, especially at a stage of life where we are dealing with kids, or aging parents, plus work and health issues, this is often a challenge. I used to think that for my family to be healthy I had to make everything from scratch. Of course, they loved this, but I came to realize that if I was going to continue my work, business travel, and family visits, I would have to make some adjustments. The kids were pretty happy with the occasional pizza, and I gained a few precious minutes!
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
OPEN YOUR HEART TO LOVE!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- It’s okay to take a holiday, even if it’s just one day off. I don’t think anyone is completely indispensable. I worked so hard when I was a manager and never took a day’s sick leave unless I absolutely had to, but in retrospect a day here and there might have helped overall even more, rather than going to work exhausted.
- Have fun! It’s easy for me to get caught up in getting something done, and I still need reminders to have fun as I go along.
- Just BE! I have always been a doer, and I have had to learn to just BE, to meditate, to walk, to connect with Spirit. If someone had told me that early on, I’m not sure I would have taken it in. Some things we just have to learn on our own!
- Read worthwhile books — actually my grandfather did advise me as a teenager to only read a book if it was worth reading. He was self-taught and widely read so he knew what he was talking about. But I do regret that along with good literature I have read some junk. I am much more discerning now. I read constantly and occasionally something that is just a page-turner for the airplane, but at this stage of my life, I can understand what he meant. There are so many books to learn from and enjoy! If a book is not worth reading, I can now put it aside and not bother with it.
- Develop healthy lifestyle patterns early in life. After I had my first baby, I started yoga as a means to get back in shape. I loved doing yoga, but as life got more complicated, and I had 3 children, I dropped yoga, I thought I was too busy. I have since resumed my yoga practice, and I think the earlier years helped me. Find what works for you in terms of looking after your body, your spirit, and your mind, and keep up those practices.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
They are all so important, but I would have to say that if you do not have your mental health, it is pretty hard to contribute to the others. I have seen people get so depressed about the environment that they cannot help. People scoff at others who are trying to help if they are not in a place of mental balance and an open mindset. My own work helps people release trauma and old patterns of behavior that do not serve them. In this state of mind, they can contribute so much more to the causes that are dear to their heart.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
My website: https://catherinecbastedo.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisionReiki
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/catherine-c-bastedo-18421a1b
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherinecbastedo/
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com .
