Welcome to Karen’s BLOG

Karen Allen

Hello to my old and new friends on this crazy ride we call life!  

I am a 35-year-old single mother of two young children, an entrepreneur, writer, and spiritual seeker. I love learning about the mind-body-spirit connection and applying what I discover in my daily life. I also enjoy sharing my experiences with others in the hopes of helping and inspiring them in their lives – so welcome to my blog!

I grew up on a stretch of Trans Canada Highway in (very) rural New Brunswick. I spent much of my childhood climbing maple trees, helping my father in his garden, and riding my bike around our 300-acre property. My three siblings and I didn’t have much by way of material things – our clothes were hand-me-downs and we didn’t even have a VCR until after I left for university – but we always had enough. While I know some of my friends felt bad for me that I had less than them, I never felt that way: I had home-grown organic vegetables, a baseball diamond and bonfire pit in my backyard, a beach only a few kilometres away, and tons of room to run and play and breathe fresh air.

At 17, I left home to go to university and get an undergraduate arts degree. Then I met and married a wonderful man, who died of cancer only a few months after our wedding. At 22, I moved to Ottawa to pursue a Master of Journalism, went through two years of gruelling depression, and came out the other side with a degree and a new lease on life. I climbed the ladder of success in communications, made new friends, remarried, had two beautiful children, and bought a four-bedroom single home in Kanata. To many outside observers, I “had it all.”

But I couldn’t quite shake a niggling feeling of restlessness and discontent. While my husband was a good man, I wasn’t happy in my marriage; and while I made good money, I wasn’t doing something that made a difference in the world. So I started soul searching, reading and learning about the mind-body-spirit connection. I took courses in meditation, yoga, “Collapsing Your Barriers” and “Your Life Purpose” and met wonderful new people like Cara, Mary and Leslie. Then last year, I took a leap of faith and a leave without pay from my job to start up a writing consulting business. Also last year, my husband and I decided to separate, after many years of trying to make two incongruent puzzle pieces fit.

If you had told me twenty years ago that at 35, I’d be living in Ottawa, self employed, widowed and divorced, I would never have believed you.  It’s funny the twists and turns our lives take. As someone who likes to have a plan, I’m discovering you can’t always know or plan what’s coming next. So here I am, very un-tethered and feeling uncomfortable with the uncertainty about where my life is headed, what I’ll end up doing and who I’ll end up with. I had made a goal in January of “no resistance / go with the flow,” and boy, the events of my life are certainly giving me ample opportunity to practice that mantra!

I’m looking forward to chatting with you more in the weeks to come about my spiritual adventures!