pod bites: Seeking Sunshine with Karaleigh Garrison

“People who are listening to your show want you. They want to meet you, and they want to have a snippet into your life and sometimes that includes the messiness that is your life.”

Our featured podcast host in this episode is Karaleigh Garrison, host of Seeking Sunshine.

Seeking Sunshine is about looking for the sunlight between the clouds- a glimmer of hope to keep us going even in the darkest times.

In this episode Karaleigh shares why she looks for the sunshine.

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Karaleigh’s links:

The podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seeking-sunshine/id1589826112 

The website: www.karaleighgarrison.com 

Custom songs: email customsongs@karaleighgarrison.com 

The instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seekingsunshinepodcast 

Karaleigh’s podcast picks: 

The Cathy Heller Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-cathy-heller-podcast-manifest-flow-and-align/id1191831035 

Empowered, the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empowered-the-podcast/id1659310535 

Prefer to read? Read the transcript below.

Got a show you’d love to hear on my podcast? Tell me about it!

Alison: [00:00:00] Welcome to pod bites where we go behind the scenes of podcasting. My name is Alison Fraser and my guest today is Carolee Garrison from the Seeking Sunshine podcast. So welcome Karaleigh to the show.

Karaleigh: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Alison: With a name like Seeking Sunshine, what is your podcast about? 

Karaleigh: My podcast, it's so funny because it's about seeking sunshine, but really it's about acknowledging the darkness. It's about finding the positivity in the trials of life. So we do dive deep into the really tough things so that we can flip them on their heads and find how we can find the goodness in where life gets really tough.

Alison: I love that because you can't have joy without sadness. 

Karaleigh: It's true. It's really true. And there is so much, you know, there's so much pain in life. And so that's what it's all about is how can we turn that on its head? [00:01:00] How can we find something to smile about when life's really tough? How can we find some way to change our perspective?

How can we find some way to look at it from a different angle so that we can find something to be grateful for in our child? 

Alison: How was it that you decided to start Seeking Sunshine? Like, what's the story behind it?  

Karaleigh: So I have three kids, um, that all have special needs. Uh, I've got three kids, they all, that all have autism, and then one of them, so I've got two that are high functioning, and then my one in the middle is severely autistic, and he also has type 1 diabetes.

And then, on top of that, my husband has been disabled for the last decade. He's actually doing much, much better now, but so we've had quite, um, a journey in our family of, of poverty and of trials and of hospital visits and near death experiences and all [00:02:00] sorts of chaos and craziness and difficulty. And I have found that as we look for a way to find positivity and a way to be grateful for everything we have, that it really does change your life.

It really, when you change your perspective on what you're experiencing, that it changes your whole attitude. It changes, like, you're able to find joy and happiness instead of being stuck in this, you know, never ending cycle of pain. You can choose to break free of that. 

Alison: I think that's, yeah, an incredible...

Reframe, because a lot of people, some, well, I'd say a lot of people, some people might get stuck in that whole, woe is me, life is terrible, that whole cycle. But then you do see people like yourselves who, uh, who some people might think it's the worst thing ever, but you're so happy [00:03:00] about things.

Karaleigh: Well, and it sucks to be there because I've been there.

I've been there in that depressive cycle of like, this is the worst thing ever. I can't imagine life being worse. And it. It really sucks to be there and it's like, I don't want to be here. How do I get out of this place? And the thing is, is that you can't, there comes a point where it's like, I can't change anything outside of me.

I can't just make my husband not be disabled anymore. I can't change my kid's diagnoses. You know, I can't do anything that those things are out of my control. What is part of what I can control is me. And that's it. So how do I use what I can control to change my life? And this is how, is you can change your perspective.

You can choose to look for the sunshine wherever you can find it, and that is enough, it turns out. It [00:04:00] turns out that changing your perspective is so incredibly powerful, it's so much more powerful than we ever gave it credit for.

Alison: Can you remember that day when you did change your perspective, like the light bulb going on?

Karaleigh: It's more of a slow realization. It's come on as I've talked to lots of people on my podcast who have done the same thing. It comes on as you look back at your life and you're like, Oh, I can see how that played out. In a really unexpected way and oh my gosh, that wasn't the worst thing in the world. The biggest thing for me was, um, so again, I have a son who's, he's 12 now and he's severely autistic and kind of semi verbal and he's type 1 diabetic.

And when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, it was really easy to be like, [00:05:00] what? Like, like this is obviously the worst thing in the whole world. Um, he's already got this. Debilitating mental, you know, condition. How can you be given something else? How can God give him something more?

On top of being severely autistic. I mean, this is my kid who's running after cars, who's constantly a danger to himself. Like, how can he be handed more? And I, and I really thought it was the worst thing in the world. And I was so, I was so speechless at how this could possibly be happening to us. 

He was seven years old when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and he was completely and utterly nonverbal. He didn't have a single uh, uh, uh that meant anything and we'd been doing intensive therapy for his entire life and he'd made zero progress and then he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes [00:06:00] and he progressed.

So fast in his speech after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Like, he started talking right away. Like, by the end of a month out from that diagnosis, he could say all of his colors. It was amazing. And here we're, we're like four years out and I can't get that kid to shut up. It's amazing. It's incredible.

It's changed my whole life. And it hasn't just, you know, changed what he's capable of, but what I have come to realize is possible. Like, this thing that I thought was the worst thing in the world has opened up my eyes to what's possible for him. Like, things, it's changed my... Perspective on every the way that I look at everything in my [00:07:00] life now.

I no longer look at things from such a narrow perspective, where I'm like, this is the worst thing in the world, because now I'm like, how could this thing be amazing instead? And so it's helped me reframe, like, the way that I look at my husband's disability, because he was home with our kids for a decade.

Well, he couldn't work, and it was really hard, like, he was in and out of the hospital all the time, and he was in so much pain, and there was a lot that was really bad about it, but as I have looked at it from this new perspective, and as I've reframed it, it's been like, oh my gosh, I couldn't have done all of the kids doctor appointments, and all of their therapy, and all of their school meetings, I If he wasn't home with me the whole time, and, oh wait a minute, my husband knows exactly how hard I work [00:08:00] as a mom every day.

He doesn't take me for granted. He knows exactly how hard this stay at home mom works. He comes home from work now, because now he's doing, like, so much better. He comes home and rubs my feet at night and helps do the dishes, because he knows how hard our kids are to raise. Like, he's a different person.

Because of that decade that he was home with me. And when I look at the gift of that time instead of the curse of that time, I'm like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. And so it's, it's really easy to look at our lives from the really narrow perspective of like, this is the worst thing ever. But because of Joshua's diabetes journey and him learning how to talk from that, which is like the craziest thing ever, And because of that, and it [00:09:00] wasn't a sudden like, Oh my gosh, now he can just talk.

It took, you know, six months, a year before I was like, wait a minute, whoa. As I look back, I can see it. Hindsight helps a lot, but the more that I look back and I practice that hindsight flipping kind of thing, right? Where I go, Oh, I can see how that's changed. I can see how that was a gift. I could see the blessing in that.

It's easier for me to be like. This seems really hard right now, but wait, there might be a gift in it still. It's easier for me to reframe what I'm currently going through. It's easier for me to see how there's a potential in it. There's a potential that I just maybe can't see yet. Maybe I don't have to condemn today as the worst day in history.

Alison: It totally does. Do you have people on your show who [00:10:00] come on and tell similar stories of how they've gone through those hard times? Can you tell us about some of those? 

Karaleigh: Yeah, I've had some absolutely amazing people come on my show. Um, I have friends who have really debilitating, um, medical conditions who have just overcome such unfathomable odds.

Um, a close friend of mine, um, has a condition called FOP and she is such an incredible artist. Um, and even though she has this condition, so FOP is a condition that causes your muscles to turn to bone over the course of your life. And it's a really, really rare condition. And I've had a couple people on who have that condition because I grew up with this friend and she actually passed away a few months ago.

Um, but she, [00:11:00] despite this condition, um, such an incredible artist and was able to use her art to just brighten people's lives. I've had just the most incredible people on my podcast. So many people. Um, this one woman who, she was pregnant and found out that she had cancer in the middle of her pregnancy and her husband left her while she was pregnant and had cancer and they wanted her to, uh, abort the baby. And she chose not to.

And she is just such an incredible human being to this day! She, you know, is raising this beautiful baby, who is alive because she made such a hard choice, and she, you, the stories that people tell. There's this quote from someone who I cannot remember her name, but Mr. Rogers quoted her a bunch, where she said that you can't help but love somebody when you [00:12:00] hear their story.

When you really listen to somebody's story, like, you just can't help but love them. And it is so powerful to not just listen to people's stories, but to tell your own story and then verbally, like, transform it into something positive.

To be able to express It's your own pain and how hard it has been and have somebody actually listen to you. Because there's so much of this world today where it's like, nope, can't handle your pain. I can't take it. I can't hear it. I don't want to listen to it. I'm too much for me. And, and that's maybe something that's unique about my show is it's like, I can take your pain.

I can hear it. Like I've been there and I can handle it. But then we're going to like. Transform it. We're gonna find beauty in it. We're [00:13:00] gonna find something. We're gonna find that like rose among thorns, right? We're gonna find the diamond that is in that pain because it's there. I promise you it's there.

I've had plenty of practice finding it for myself, but I know that I can help you find it too. And when you find it, it changes your whole history. It changes the way that you see yourself and your own story and you start seeing yourself as this resilient powerhouse. And you start, it just changes everything.

It's incredibly empowering and so beautiful when you start seeing your life from that different perspective.

Alison: I think that's such a gift. Like from your podcast, what you're bringing to the world, like being able to see that their own pain, but also hear other people's and, and get that dose of sunshine as, as you've created with [00:14:00] your show, finding the good things.

Do you have any tips for anyone who's wanting to start a podcast or has maybe started and it's just getting going? Like what have you learned along the way? 

Karaleigh: I've learned so much. Um, one of my favorite tips is to just make it easy, make it so, so easy. Cause again, I'm doing my podcast with three special needs kids.

So it's all about like making it easy. Um, I record, so I just record over zoom really easy. Um, but when I'm recording my like intros and outros, I just use my cell phone and my recording app on my phone. It's just make it so easy. And then over the summer, when my kids were out of school, the first summer that I was, my podcast has been going for about two years now, and the first summer that I was doing this show, I got really burnt out because I was trying so hard to make it perfect.

I [00:15:00] had my microphone, I had my booth, I had it all set up, I was trying to edit out every um, and every breath, and trying to make it perfect, and I couldn't do it over the summer when my kids were out of school. It was too much, and I ended up, Not doing any episodes of the summer because I couldn't keep up with it.

But then when I, I got reinvigorated in the fall and they went back to school and they weren't draining all my energy anymore and I let it be easy and then when they were back out of school for the summer and I was trying to record these I would just Walk myself in my room and they could be screaming upstairs.

I would just do it anyway And I had this realization that when I'm listening to other people's podcasts, like, I'm not listening in a bubble. I'm not listening to other people's podcasts in dead silence and judging them if there's background noise. No, I'm listening to other people's podcasts in life.

Like [00:16:00] in my real actual life, there's background noise in my real life. And I usually, if they have background noise in their podcast, I usually think it's coming from my life. Right. So when I have had these occasions where I've, cause you know, I'm recording my intro and I'm going, hi, this is Karaleigh Garrison.

Welcome back to the Seeking Sunshine podcast. And I'm locked in my bedroom in the basement and my son's at the top of the stairs going or whatever, you know, you can hear that faintly in the background. It's. And I'm like, this is my only opportunity to do this today. I don't have endless possib like, my podcast comes out tomorrow morning.

It's 9 o'clock at night. I got this. Like, this is my only chance to do this. My kid will not shut up. This is it. Like, no one's gonna notice. And if they do, it's like, guess what? I'm an imperfect person. I'm a mom. This is my real life, [00:17:00] and people appreciate real life. People appreciate real, you know?

Imperfect is. It's what we all crave. We don't want perfection, we want real. And so, every so often, that is what my podcast sounds like for the introduction. Like, it's not all the time, it's not even most of the time, but every so often, you know what? That's me. That's my real life. And actually, my last, my very last podcast episode that came out last week, um, It was the day before school started and I was doing a solo episode and I hadn't done a solo episode all summer because I had a bunch of pre recorded episodes that I did before summer started.

And I decided to do, um, a solo episode because I just felt like I needed to. And so I decided to do a solo episode, and my son, who's severely autistic, Joshua, came down. And so he's on my episode, [00:18:00] making some sounds and playing on my phone. And it was like, Hi Josh, welcome to my podcast. And my listeners got to meet Josh because that's my life.

And it's like, people who are listening to your show want you. They want to meet you, and they want to... Have a snippet into your life and sometimes that includes the messiness that is your life Love that let it be Imperfect and let it be real and don't get so caught up in being perfect People would like me more for being real anyway.

Alison: Very awesome tips there, Karaleigh. Yeah, I'm with you in that whole don't be perfect. And I try not to edit so much, you know. I've had podcasts before where it's been, I'm gonna re record this, I'm gonna re record this, and you just get so caught up in trying to be perfect that it doesn't... [00:19:00] It doesn't stay fun, and I think it should be fun.

Karaleigh: If you’re not having fun, you're not gonna, you're gonna get burnt out, you're not gonna keep going. I've had, I do, um, quotes from my guests at the end, and then I'll, I'll read them off, and I've had times where I'm, like, reading and I get tongue tied, and I'm like, I'll plop, and I'm gonna just keep going. I don't even re record it sometimes, cause it'll be 11, 12 o'clock at night, and I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna redo this, sorry guys.

I'm just gonna keep going here. 

Alison: Yeah. I, I love that so much. Just, yeah, keeping it real. So, anyone listening who is thinking about having a podcast but has three children at home, it can be done. What's, what are some podcasts that you like to listen to yourself?

Karaleigh: Oh there's some great ones. My, definitely my favorite is, uh, Cathy Heller.

She's my favorite. She inspired me to do [00:20:00] my podcast, um, and I've learned a lot about how to podcast from her. Um, my good friend Linda Brand has her podcast, um, it's a really great one. There's a lot of amazing podcasts out there, go find a topic that you're interested in and just dive in. Yeah, 

Alison: there's a show for everything.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us about Seeking Sunshine?

Karaleigh: I think we've pretty much covered it all, it's just about, you know, Finding something to be grateful for, finding, finding a way to look for sunshine, look for something positive, always, like in every, like as often as you can, it's a practice.

It, and the reason why is like, don't you just want to be happier? Like, [00:21:00] that's the whole reason why. It's like, I want to be happier. Don't you want to be happier? It sucks to be drowning in a pool of negativity. It sucks to feel like you're just... stuck in your life because I've been there where I'm like, I feel powerless.

Like take your power back. This is how you do it. You reframe your brain. You choose to have a different perspective. That's how you find joy again, is you look for sunshine everywhere you go. And it'll really, it'll lighten your mood and you'll be happier. I promise. Thank 

Alison: you so much for coming on and talking to us about it. I hope that everyone does find their own sunshine.

Karaleigh: You're so welcome. It was a joy to be on here. 

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