Bio: Karen is Chief Lucky Soul at theluckysoul.com where she helps people get through their blocks with EFT tapping, aka: Emotional Freedom Technique. She offers one-on-one sessions on her website and also riffs about healing and spirituality in her weekly blog. Karen considers herself a spiritual cowgirl, jack of all traditions, master of her own. You can find her at www.theluckysoul.com or at Starbucks. Follow on FB: www.facebook.com/theluckysoul Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/karenberzanski Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com/theluckysoul 1. What’s my story? In 2008 I was living and working in NYC. One sunny and brisk February morning, while crossing the street on my way to work, I was hit and run over by a car. What I thought would take 3 or 4 days of healing (a week at most), lasted over 4 ½ years at it’s highest intensity. (I’m from Jersey, I figured a week at most was all I needed because I was badass.) I went through more doctors than I can even remember and battled in a lawsuit for nearly 5 years. It was rough. Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I got laid off from my job 4 months after the accident happened and also managed to get The Worst Haircut of My Life. I didn’t feel very Lucky at that time. It took over 2 years for me to realize I’d gone through a tremendous amount of PTSD. I had no idea you could have PTSD from a car accident. Little did I know. Since then, I’ve read a ton of books, studied with a lot of teachers, had some great adventures and now find myself settled in Los Angeles building a business around healing and EFT (one of the healing modalities that helped me most). I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time. And now I get to take my story and alchemize it into something beautiful. 2. How am I/ What makes a person a Lucky Soul? A Lucky Soul is someone who’s beat (or is beating) the odds. A Lucky Soul has a resilient spirit, an open heart, a curious mind, and a chutzpah of spirit. What makes me a Lucky Soul? Me saying so. That’s all it takes for anyone. It’s a decision to say to the world that you’re going to Live your life despite the odds feeling like they are stacked against you. I had a defining moment about 2 years after the accident—I eventually had to move back home with my parents after the accident and said that I wouldn’t move again until I’d gotten rid of the physical pain. Two years after that and the pain was still present. I knew I had a choice in that moment. Either learn how to Live with the pain, or stay in a place of feeling stuck and sorry for myself with the pain. Either way I’d have to live with the pain. It was the how I was going to live with it that became the defining question. Long story short, I decided to move to California and start a business to show the world (and myself) what I was made of. 3. What inspires me? Real people who are beating the odds every day. Nature. Music. Writing. Good movies. Good books. Good wine. Good chocolate. Honest conversations. Fashion. Entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world in both big and small ways. Story. Human potential. Brain science. 4. What things motivate me? Knowing that I only have a limited time here on earth. I can’t bear the thought of dying with my music still in me. 5. What are some of my pet peeves? People who don’t make eye contact. Interrupting. I’m amazed at how much this happens when I’m on the verge of telling someone something vulnerable or interesting. As soon as I’m interrupted I pull that thing back in and that person loses their opportunity to get to know me on a deeper level. . . It’s really important to give people time to speak. Let the silence linger a little before jumping in. I promise you’ll be surprised at what the other person says. Technology addiction. We (myself included) need to learn to connect without our gadgets. When people change the radio or the a/c settings in my car without asking. 6. What do I enjoy doing? Working on my business, reading, writing, going out to the movies, going on road trips or having adventures of any kind, traveling, good coffee with friends 7. What’s the scariest thing I’ve ever done? Moving to California not knowing anyone, having no job, and barely having visited. 8. What’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done? Two weeks after I started a new job I decided I was going to go to a conference on global healing in Bali because I’d seen this movie, What the Bleep Do We Know, and heard the director was going to be there. My curiosity got the best of me and I was on a plane 2 weeks later. I told my job it’d be great to still have a job when I got back, but if not, no worries. 9. What am I afraid of? Not being able to express myself in all of the ways I feel called to 10. Why did I move to LA? To heal fully. And also because living somewhere other than the northeast was on my Bucket List.