(NaturalNews) Karen Knowler Part 1: The Journey to Finding "Real Life" This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Rawkathon, which can be found at http://www.Rawkathon.com. In this excerpt, Karen Knowler shares on hitting her low point and her journey to finding her "real life".
Rawkathon with Karen Knowler. Karen Knowler has been on a raw food journey for 15 years. She's a raw food coach and the co-author of Feel Good Food.
Kevin: Hey Karen. I want to welcome you to this program.
Karen: Thank you, Kevin. Great to be here!
Kevin: Yeah. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself for those people who may not know who you are.
Karen: OK. Well, my name is Karen Knowler. I'm based in the UK, near Cambridge. I've been into raw food myself since 1993.
Kevin: That long?
Karen: Yeah. It's a long time, 15 years. And, I just got really passionate about it on a personal level, and then, just decided that I wanted to do more with it. So, I wanted to work for the Fresh Network, which is the UK's Raw Living Food Organization. I found out about that the same year I went raw and thought, "This would be a fantastic job!" Because I was doing a job that was OK, but I wasn't in love with it. But unfortunately at that point, the Fresh Network didn't make enough money to take someone on. But I took it on actually, five years later when the founder decided that she couldn't handle it and it needed to grow. And I was at an age, 25, where I felt like I could do something with it.
So, I ran that for eight and a half years. And then, in 2007, last year, I decided to let that one go because I had done what I thought I could do with that and hand it over to someone else, and become the a raw food coach, which is what I'm doing now. And because my skills are helping people go raw and stay raw, but on very deep, long-lasting levels, that's my passion. That's the journey I've walked, and that's what I do today.
Kevin: All right. So, you said "deep" levels here, so let's just, without any other questions here, let's get into that. Let's talk about that passion that you have, and why you feel that you need to teach people at a level that's different than, "Eat your nuts, eat your seeds, eat your smoothies."
Karen: Sure. OK. Well, you know, apart from the food level, most people on this planet right now, are eating food that isn't real, if you like. Yeah. It's food that's been changed. And similarly, their living lives that are not real. They're doing jobs they hate; they're in relationships that don't support them; they're living in places they probably aren't a good fit for. You know people are trying to live a life, that isn't really who they are. And that is where I was at. I was working in Central London, in children's book publishing, which was great fun, but I wanted to be writing books, not selling them. So, the more raw I ate, and the longer I ate raw, the more this became really, really clear to me, that I needed to make some big changes on a personal level.
And it was a challenge, you know, because the rest of the world was saying, "Got to have a job, got to do this, got to do that, you know, and you're good at it, and the money, and career and all the rest of it." But, deep down inside, it just was not who I was, and the more I ate, the more I was kind of having those aspects stripped away from me to reveal who I really was at a deep level. And, we're talking heart and soul here.
Actually, when I was about 22 or 23, I had something like a nervous breakdown and I was off work for two weeks. I was just... I lost my will to live, and it was because the difference between where I was and where I wanted to be felt so huge that I just thought, "I don't want to be here." But, I knew I wouldn't, you know, go ahead and do something, you know, as in, take my life. But, I was just so, so low, and I've never suffered from depression. And, I know now, what that was about. It was about, basically it was as my call. It was my wakeup call to say, "You've hit rock bottom; there's nowhere else to go. Now you have to go out there and live your purpose, live your dream, live your passion, be who you really are." And, in that moment, when I kind of got that message, that was like, I made that commitment to myself, and I thought, "This is what I need to do."
So, from that moment forward, every ounce of my focus was all about turning my life around and aligning it with what I wanted. And it was, you know, before the days all of this law of attraction stuff had really kicked in, but I had read a little bit called "The Game of Life, And How To Play It."
Kevin: OK.
Karen: Which is really a small, tiny book written by a woman way back, Florence Scovel-Shinn. And it really resonated with me. I thought that this makes a lot of sense, this stuff about "create your own reality." And, where else was there for me to go anyway? You know, I've been as low as it can be; the only way's up, so let's put everything into it. And, on some level I was understanding that raw food was affecting me very deeply, but there were no books about this stuff. There was no one talking about it. It was just a kind of inner-knowing that made sense to me, but there was no validation from external sources.
So, it was a very solitary journey in many respects. And, books were the only thing that really kept me going because the Internet was not really around. You know, there were a few speakers here and there, but nothing significant. And so I committed to myself in that way, and pursued, and life just started sliding into place. It was amazing. Long story short, I left London; I went back to the countryside where I grew up. I worked in a meditation center part-time instead of full-time, so I'd go from like this semi-corporate career ladder thing full-on, to part-time meditation center, and it was like bliss.
I manifested a house in the middle of Ely which is a Cathedral city in England, which is beautiful, and I lived overlooking a Cathedral. It was gorgeous. And, I felt like I was living in Heaven on Earth because I had fully aligned with where I needed to go next.
Then, I got a book contract in conjunction with Susie Miller, who founded the Fresh Network. We wrote "Feel Good Food" together, and I took over the Fresh Network. It all came together at once, and ever since then I've just been committed to helping people, not just to get onto raw foods, to feel great on a physical level, but to use the realness of food as a catalyst to become fully real themselves, and go out there and be who they really are, and find or create their dream job, and live that. And literally, not just feel Heaven on Earth inside, because raw food can help people to feel that way, but externalize and create Heaven on Earth externally. To, you know, change the planet.
Kevin: Yeah.
Karen: You know, It's huge! Terribly huge!
Kevin: What were some of the books you read? How did you find the information?
Karen: Well, I was fortunate to be living in London.
Kevin: OK.
Karen: Between the ages of 19 and 21, I was in London for the first time, and I was bang, in the center. And so, I would go to the alternative book shops and stuff, and the health food shops. So, I found Norman Walker books.
Kevin: OK.
Karen: They were some of the first books I read. Fantastic! I mean, amazing! And so simple. That's what I love about Norman's work; it's just so simple. And then, on a kind of more spiritual personal- development level I found some Anthony Robins stuff, and "Living Magically" by Jill Edwards. She's a British author.
Kevin: OK.
Karen: Fantastic book. "Living Magically" and "Stepping Into the Magic", they were two phenomenal books. And then, there was Sanaya Romans work. She's an American author. "Personal Power Through Awareness", that was a book that kind of leapt at me. Just book, after book, after book really, but those ones in particular, were fantastic -- particularly female authors, to be honest, because I just resonate with the vibe, I guess.
Kevin: No kidding? [laughter]
Karen: Yeah. But, I think for me, it was just like, I needed almost parenting, spiritual parenting, because I was young and I was looking for someone to say, "This is true. This mirage of life that everyone else seems to be living, is not real. We've all kind of bought into this blueprint of life, but in here is where it's at, and your path will be revealed to you if you go deep enough to hear it."
And so, I spent a lot of time journaling. And now, when I'm coaching people, I'll say, "Look, you don't have to be spending lots of money to be coached or whatever because all the answers are inside. If you journal and literally pour your heart out onto paper and it works like this, that's how it works, onto the paper, the answers will be revealed to you. Providing that you're brave enough and honest enough to let them come out and then allow yourself to follow what comes out.
For more from this excerpt of the Rawkathon, plus 14 other amazing raw food interviews, please visit http://www.Rawkathon.com.
About the author
Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.
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