Episode 153 -- Karen Noltner -- Shake Up My Environment

Stacked Keys Podcast

Have you ever dreamed of stepping out from everything you know and going on an exploring adventure? Tune into this conversation to get an inside peek at a couple who hit the road. This guest consistently finds herself in support roles and just now she’s starting to make sure that she’s not just reflection of everyone else, but rather she’s coming into her own dreams. Meet Karen Noltner as she’s figuring out ways to express herself. She says the time came time to focus on what actually might bring her joy in addition to helping other people.

The last two years, she and her husband, John Noltner — who’s Founder and Executive Director of A Peace of My Mind — travelled in an RV and then downsized to a small van. Life became so simplified because all the other distractions were gone. They were super intentional about being outside more and she became more focused. Many of the things that she thought were so defining and important, she learned were not priorities and she learned to focus on change in pivoting and realizing for the most part —unless it's truly catastrophic— It's not a big deal. Karen has embraced and learned to just laugh and enjoy it because it is change and change is inevitable. She says that the last two years have been so freeing— to just kind of strip everything away and just focus on the current moments. Karen told herself, “I need a home base. I need a place for the kids come home to I need a place that I know is our stuff. And I think I just reached a point where it became so clear to me that I was not able to move forward in figuring out what I want to do in this next chapter of my life without taking this path.”

We talk about her husband’s career of freelance photography and then the project he took on to have conversations across the country and her role once again as a helper. She shares some of her adventures and thoughts.

Through all of her experiences Karen says she’s not super afraid to make a decision anymore. It is something like a joke within her immediate family that she didn't like making decisions because she felt like whatever decision she made that she had to live with for the rest of her life. That is the past.

We talk about strengths and her life philosophy of moving forward, embracing where you are, and not to wish things away — even in the hard. It's taking that next step probably that builds strength if you just keep going. Karen grew up with the focus to be kind and to help others as she says that her parents lived with such a mindset and that was a theme. She shared that with her own children as well.

You can follow Karen’s blog thejoyinbetween.net and on instagram and facebook. Her husband John can be found at A Peace of My Mind on social media platforms and his website apomm.net

Music "STOMP" used by permission of artist Donica Knight Holdman and Jim Huff