At Home With Sandra #8 Katey Comino

Sandra Larkin: So hi, everybody. Welcome back to SandraLarkin.com.au, for my next video series. Today I’ve got the most gorgeous Katie from Place Bulimba and Katie is not here on a capacity to talk about real estate. She’s actually here on a different capacity, and we’re going to be talking about spirituality. I had a dinner with Katie recently and discovered something that I’ve never known before, and it was really interesting. She has a real passion for spirituality, and we share that because I do have that passion as well. So today, welcome, Katie, to my home.
Katey Comino: Hi, Sandra. Thanks.
Sandra Larkin: And let’s share a little bit about spirituality. What does it mean to you about spirituality, and how did you come to have this such importance in your life?
Katey Comino: Well I think that comes a time in most peoples lives where everything is going well, but for some reason things start to fall apart, and that was very much my case. I had everything that looks good on paper, the husband, the house, the child. All the things that you would think make for a perfect life. Yet, things started to fall apart, and that’s where you look beyond, and I think that Greek word, “Meta,” metaphysical. You look beyond to the metaphysical to understand the world.
Sandra Larkin: Yeah, that’s so true because like myself … And if anyone’s ever seen my story in the video on my website, I talk about all the different things that I’ve gone through and it’s through going through challenges and those really hard times in your life that you reach out to a connection and to a spirituality. Now, we’re talking spirituality, but for some of you that may have a mental block about the word spirituality or God, that is fine. I know for some people, they don’t like the label of something. To me, it’s just a label. I do believe it’s all the same. So you could call it the universe. You could call it connection. In my mentoring programmes, I often talk to people about spirituality as connection. So happy to elaborate on that a little bit more with Katie.
Katey Comino: For people who don’t understand spirituality, I always start off by asking them two questions. One, are you willing to believe you didn’t create the universe? And two, are you willing to acknowledge that your intellectual mind can’t solve all your problems? Look, I’m not concerned about what peoples conception of what spirituality is. I’m not concerned with the language, whether it’s Christian language, Buddha, Allah. Whether they refer to it as the universe or energy. I’m not really concerned about what you call it. It’s the practise and, of course, the great dispensation of spirituality in the current climate, is that it’s all religions. And how do we know that? Because no religion can genuinely claim ownership of the sun or the moon. So we are all one and that’s the discovery you go on when you start a spiritual practise.
Sandra Larkin: Yeah. And thank you for that. It’s interesting you talk about religion. You see, I was brought up a Catholic and I myself am not a huge advocate of organised religion. However, I’m not condoning that it’s not right. But wherever people find their peace and their hope and that spiritual connection is good. But I often believe that religion is very separate to spirituality.
Katey Comino: Okay. Well not really. The term religion in the dictionary actually means to tie back to a source, to go back to the source. And that’s what spirituality is. It’s probably the oldest of beliefs, and of course now a very popular belief. But there’s nothing new in it at all, and it’s simply the acknowledgement that there is something beyond you that can work through you, but doesn’t come from you, that can work in your life.
Sandra Larkin: So Katie, what do you do for your practise spiritually? Do you a practise every day?
Katey Comino: Yeah, I do, and it’s gonna be different for everyone because everyone’s got to find their own pathway to the truth, and that’s the truth with a capital T. That’s the one truth. And whether you pray or you meditate or you constantly are reading spiritual literature, as long as you’re doing something every day, you can maintain a connection to the powerful – as we know – universe.
Sandra Larkin: Beautiful. And would there be a certain time of the day you’d recommend to do that for people?
Katey Comino: Yeah, when your mind is rested. So it’s either first thing in the morning or last thing before you go to bed. At a time where you mind isn’t chatting as it does, when you can slow your mind down, and you can … I’m not very good at meditating, so I prefer to pray. I’m not very good at silencing my mind, but you can pray. You can have a conversation with that thing, that power that’s underpinning everything in the world. So I’m one for prayer, morning and night.
Sandra Larkin: So Katie, what would you say to somebody that’s never ever felt their spirituality before and they don’t know what the hell you’re talking about? How was it of you to find your spirituality?
Katey Comino: Yeah. Well it is there, you just have to decide to access it. And once you make that decision and you’re open to it, something will cross your path. I know that sounds a bit strange, but the evidence is all around us because it’s all those things that you can’t see, but you know exist. The tides come in and out. The sun goes up and down. So you’ve got to want to, and I think they often say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And for me, I found a book actually sitting in the doctor’s surgery, and I’d actually looked at that book for probably three years and I’d never picked it up. And I was going through a hard time and I picked it up. The book is A Course In Miracles.
Sandra Larkin: That was amazing. A Course In Miracles. I love that book. Anybody that has never picked up that book, it’s incredible. I’ve got all my mentees I put on to that curriculum, A Course In Miracles. It’s life changing, isn’t it?
Katey Comino: It is. It’s very deep and it’s very hard to read, so you can get the version that-
Sandra Larkin: Made easy.
Katey Comino: The companion to it, which explains it. But it might not be for everyone. It was the thing that meant the one truth in me, and do you know, it’s also a geographical thing. According to where you live, meditation is something that you practise or you practise prayer. I like to read. I found the journey through the book, A Course In Miracles, and as you know, it’s a psychological retraining away from fear and towards love.
Sandra Larkin: That’s right.
Katey Comino: And it somehow implies that pretty much all that happens is the love and acceptance of everything.
Sandra Larkin: Yeah. And it also teaches that … A Course In Miracles is the principles not about changing behaviours. It’s about changing thoughts, which change behaviours.
Katey Comino: Exactly. Yeah. And it also invites another dimension in. It invites a spiritual elder in. And the course in miracles does refer to Jesus. So it invites that connection into your life, and that’s another conversation in itself, how to practise the course of miracles. But it was the way I discovered spirituality, and I do encourage people to find their own path, the thing that rings true for them.
Sandra Larkin: So Katie, can I ask you, if there was someone that’s listening here that’s never had any experience in doing anything with spirituality before, it’s all new, this concept. What’s one thing you’d tell them to start with every day to do just to help them out with their spirituality, or to connect with that?
Katey Comino: Look, the good way to start is to state the obvious, and I ask them, “Are you willing to believe you didn’t create the universe?” Obviously that’s a trick question. They didn’t create the universe. So that opens you up to the possibility that there is a great power, and if you look around, once you start to read spiritual work and you look around you, you will see that greater power at work all around you. And what I would encourage someone to do is be open to the idea and to want to learn about it.
Katey Comino: They do say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, and you will start to see things in front of you. You’ll meet like-minded people. You’ll find a book. You’ll start a spiritual practise, which is a quieting of mind and a trusting that the power that is orchestrating everything in this universe every day is not gonna stop just before it meets you. It’s part of you, and be open and take some steps to tap into it.