Share your personal journey
Do you have an inspirational story to share? Do you know someone who has faced a big challenge and persevered, whose story may help others? Someone who has accomplished something extraordinary or remarkable? To be considered for an upcoming article, please contact contributing writer Beth Anspach at banspach@ymail.com, with the subject line Personal Journeys.
POSITIVE NEWS
The Dayton Daily News brings you uplifting human interest news every Thursday in Life.
With four grown children and six grandchildren, longtime Daytonian Karen Kelly Brown says it seems she is always busy “reinventing herself.”
“I started out life as a deeply loved child from California,” Brown said. “My mom had a poster hanging over the ironing born that said, ‘They can because they think they can.’ She was inspirational without evening knowing it.”
Brown said she was leading a charmed life, as well, without even knowing it, growing up with parents who inspired her, then becoming a successful adult with a career in radio and marrying the love of her life, Butch Brown. “I never realized that I was beating myself up at least a dozen times every day before it was even 10 a.m.,” Brown said. “I would look in the mirror and see sadness on my face.”
In 2012, Brown started a spiritual journey of sorts, in an effort to learn to love herself. “I took a sabbatical and stayed with my sister and my mom in California with the goal of writing a book,” she said. Suffering from writer’s block, Brown said the book turned into a business upon her return to Dayton, after she met people she knew were supposed to help her along the way.
“All along my journey I realized that this wasn’t just about me, but about all of us,” she said. “The daisy is magical to me and is a cornerstone to my business, and I met a jeweler and a designer who are both helping me with the logo and pieces that include the daisy.”
The daisy and the concept of “I love me,” are central to Brown’s business “The Art of Self-Compassion,” which is an inspirational web-based program that invites users to overcome their self-doubts, embrace their weaknesses and be kind to themselves.
“I actually had 300 bidders when I was working on the logo,” Brown said. And it was during that logo bidding process that she met an 18-year-old man from the country of Macedonia who was struggling with his own self-worth. “This proved to me that everyone, at some time in their lives, struggles with issues of self-compassion,” she said.
Brown said “The Art of Self-Compassion” has seen tremendous growth over this past year and is helping more people answer the simple question, “Why am I nicer to the mailman than I am to myself?”
She has been directing retreats and seminars and speaking locally on topics such as “Losing Your Senses and Gaining your Soul” and “Positive Outlook Training,” regularly and also offers eBooks, webinars and a texting program that sends “I love me” reminder quotes daily.
“I’m not a professional or a therapist,” Brown said. “I just know how it feels not to like myself. I work at not being so hard on myself, and my whole life is richer because of it. My whole backyard is just overgrown with daisies since I started this, and I didn’t even plant them. I just think that’s a message that I’m supposed to share what I’ve learned with the world.”
For more information about Brown, log on to www.theartofselfcompassion.com
About the Author