Delightfully playful, yet deep and serene, Kathy Freston advocates self-transformation through the power of relaxation and visualization. Her motto: "Close your eyes, and open your mind." And to do so while one of her specially recorded CDs plays, is a rewarding and sometimes revelatory experience. "Everything is energy," states Kathy on her website, www.kathyfreston.com. "Before anything happens on the outside, a shift must first occur on the inside."

Kathy believes that within us all is a profound desire to realize ourselves as enlightened, powerful people. But unconscious, habitual thinking patterns tied to psychological issues end up blocking this basic desire. Getting out of our own way by restructuring how we think about ourselves and our lives is key to starting a true transformation. As Kathy told me, "If you really focus on the meditation, it's amazing what can really manifest!"

As a formerly starving artist, I sat in meditation with Kathy's "Abundance" CD, and found myself processing quite deeply some issues I personally had on the subject of worthiness and self-esteem. The outstanding background music to Kathy's soothing, reassuring mantras, opened the door to a deep, receptive place. I came out of the meditation having spotted three or four major habitual thinking patterns holding me back. Once an habitual pattern is spotted, it no longer can hold its power over you, and with frequent reinforcement, positive patterns can work their way into being new and better habits. "When you have something close to the surface, rather than having it nag at you; when you really connect with it and pay attention, it's able to dissipate," Kathy adds. "It's really like facing off a bully. A bully really has no power when you face them off. The power goes away using attentive mindfulness."

In an attempt to test the waters of the mainstream consumer consciousness, Kathy offered her "Perfect Weight" CD on the Home Shopping Network. There was a definite demand--she sold 6,000 CDs in under 30 minutes. "To me it was a success, because the Home Shopping Network speaks to a lot of Americans who maybe don't have a lot of experience with New Age techniques. And it showed me there was a real willingness and openness to try things in a different way." Her target audience was people who were unable to get diets and exercise programs to work for their weight loss. "I think they really came to the realization that you have to change what's on the inside for anything to really work in a profound and lasting way. When you change your mind, you change your energy, and then your patterns of behavior change. It's inevitable that the physical world is going to catch up with that internal world." Kathy says.

I asked Kathy if she has noticed a general trend toward higher consciousness in the world: "I think so, especially after 9-11. People are going inside and looking within a little bit more than before. There's not that insane, ego-based desire for more-more-more prior to 9-11. I think people are looking for deeper spiritual ways of being in their lives."

Kathy has gone through her share of suffering before arriving at some of the principles she espouses. "I remember one time I was very sick. I could not see beyond being sick at that time. I was up on Mount Everest, and I felt like I was near death. I remember this thought came to me that whatever I'm feeling right now won't necessarily be what I'm feeling five minutes from now...because the Law of the Universe is that everything changes. We're constantly shifting and moving and transforming. So whatever I'm feeling now does not have to be my reality five minutes from now. I remember thinking, Oh, that gives me an opening, and it saw me through that time."

Although Kathy's modeling career took her all over the world, and her further travels for recreation and spiritual searching brought her in contact with many on the spiritual path, she says, "I can't say that I've had any one particular teacher. Everyday life is my best teacher," she claims. "I think gurus are useful, but also so is paying attention in your life. I've met taxi drivers that were my teachers. There's a message whenever you're looking. When the student is ready, the teacher appears, and appears in many forms, if you're paying attention."

Kathy proclaims that because everything is energy, time and space is really meaningless when it comes to changing our lives. "I think miracles collapse time. When the soul is ready, the time and space just falls away. You can't imagine that one little event can just vault you to the thing that you want. It really doesn't have to happen in the way one would ordinarily suppose. I think god, or your higher power, is so much smarter than we are; has so much bigger and better of a plan than we could possibly have, that by our surrender, by our admitting that we don't know the best way, things can happen so much more perfectly, easily, gently, quickly--when we just let go."

Check out Kathy's transformational meditation CDs on her website, and have the change of your life!