New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Meet Caroline Paradis, 39-year-old Reiki Practitioner and Meditation instructor.
Caroline grew up in South Carolina but moved up to the area to potentially move to Boston or Providence for work, but fell in love with New Bedford and decided to stay in the area. She got into working with nonprofits by working at Rotch-Jones Duff House and from there became the Director of PR and Marketing for United Way.
After several years of working with United Way, she became the President of Junior Achievement. She truly loved the mission of the program, but during that time in her life she felt that things were off balance between work and life. During that time, she had gone for a few Reiki sessions and, after a weekend retreat at Kripalu Yoga Center, she began seeking out meditation. It was her meditation practice that pushed her to become certified in Reiki.
Reiki is the practice of balancing one’s own energy, as we are all energetic beings. The belief is that, over time, our body’s energy gets out of balance and Reiki practitioners are able to help channel universal energy to help establish equilibrium in the body.
After earning her Reiki certification, Caroline made the jump from her nonprofit career to become a full-time Reiki practitioner and guided meditation facilitator. She is such a large advocate for Reiki and meditation because with the current state of affairs, people are feeling more stress and anxiety than ever, and her hope is to help alleviate that stress. This has even pushed her to hold a weekly lunchtime guided meditation in downtown New Bedford, so that those who work in the area can use that time to re-align and center themselves before returning to the stresses of the day. “Meditation isn’t about shutting your mind off, it’s about how you deal with your thoughts.”
Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com.
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Read more of the Faces of New Bedford series here.
