What’s Your Story?
In the fall of 2001, my daughter drove off for the first day of her high school senior year alone. My son had graduated from high school a few months before and was starting his first year at Texas A & M University, 1200 miles away.
I watched her drive away and felt a pang of sadness bubble up from deep in my chest and burst to the surface in a sob.
What I felt was more than being alone. What I felt was a void. An unknown, murky feeling of swimming in the dark. Who would I be without mothering my two kids?
I was 41 years old, a single mom, and my life had been focused on my children.
This was officially the day my mid-life journey began.
My thoughts bounced back and forth between curiosity and panic for several weeks. “You should get a different job,” “you should move back to Texas, closer to family,” “you should travel!” “you should blah, blah, blah.”
I felt all over the place and felt like I needed to figure it all out, right now!
This is mid-life.
Flash forward 13 years…when my now married daughter called to tell me she was pregnant with my first grandchild. I was living in California, away from my entire family in Texas. I was directing a beautiful resort spa, making more money than I ever had. And yet, this new grandbaby reached a deeper part of me.
I made the decision to move to Houston to be closer to my daughter and her growing family, despite the fact that this move meant leaving a beautiful man who loved me very much. (I still hadn’t learned the art of relationships.) I found a job quickly that would pay for my move – a sign of right action, right?
I was in the birthing room with my daughter and son-in-law as my grandson, Theodore, made his journey into this world. And my heart burst wide open. I wanted to stay in that moment forever.
But the job I’d thought was a sign of affirmation quickly fell apart. And I found myself looking for work once again. As my savings dwindled, I expanded my search outside of the Houston area. Then the Texas area. I eventually accepted a job back in California, promising I would not ever sacrifice family for work again.
For the next few years, I was plagued with the feeling that I was called to something more, something deeper.
When I had to cancel plans to attend my grandson’s first birthday due to work, I knew I was done. I sat in the breakroom facetiming Theo who was surrounded by family as they sang “happy birthday”, and my heart was breaking.
Inside, that voice screamed, “Enough!”
I started plotting my exit route from the insanity.
I began acting on what I value most. That Summer I took my family on a vacation to Montana – the first of many vacations to come!
A month later, I returned to my original massage school in Colorado and attended training for Trauma Touch Therapy™. This work, offering real change for people with trauma (all kinds of trauma), shifted the way I approach massage and shifted the way I view life.
I used the techniques to release fears and self-doubt. I used it to process blocks and patterns that had held me back for years. I began to move with my body, in a flow that felt natural, organic.
I began to sense a current in my life. I took intuitive painting classes. I began to sew again. I evaluated my life with compassion and began to see how each experience had its place. I created a list of my deepest values and began using this list as a roadmap. Every day I saw I had choices. I’d either choose the road toward my dreams or not.
And one day, I realized I no longer felt confused, or disconnected, or anxious about my life!
In 2015, my daughter gave birth to twins, adding a double dose of joy to our lives.
I started coaching women in 2017. It was the next right step for me. I combined my years of experience working with the body-mind connection with my passion for helping women reclaim their power, their joy, and their freedom.
I took the process I used for breaking free from a corporate job, and the mindset that says I need to follow a certain path. I added in nurturing and cheerleading. I broke it all down into teachable steps. And created a coaching framework that leads you gently through murky confusion to clarity and confidence.
And it is my deep pleasure to offer this program to you now.
P.S. In 2019, I married that beautiful man and we moved to Wimberley, Texas. I get to enjoy family, our beautiful home in the Texas Hill Country, and a life that just keeps getting better, richer, and more me!
What this means for you…
If you are overwhelmed, restless, or feeling dissatisfied…
If you’re afraid you’ve this is all there is…
If you’re creatively stuck, or think you don’t have a creative bone in your body…
If you want your life to be more fulfilling…
Then you are only steps away.
This is your gentle nudge, with a compassionate hand to hold along the way.
What do you have to lose?
Carol D Holguin
Texas Licensed Massage Therapist: LMT 132669
California Certified Massage Therapist: CAMTC 49218
Certified Trauma Touch Therapist: TTT 15205
Master of Counseling
*Carol provides Trauma Touch Therapy services in Texas and California only.
**Body to Soul™ Coaching is provided worldwide.