Kat is an inspirational change agent who has consulted with over fifty corporations and taught thousands of people how to meet the challenges of change. Her first book, Winning the Change Game, reflected lessons she learned from twenty years in the corporate world as a change management consultant.
Her second book, Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master, is the story of how she learned to bounce back after having to close her successful consulting practice when she was struck down by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Choosing to Be was awarded the 2008 Independent Publisher’s Bronze Medal, and has been highly praised by Thom Hartmann, award winning author and lifelong meditator, as one of the best books on meditation he has ever read. A new edition of Choosing to Be was published by Findhorn Press in late 2010, and is being published in both traditional and simplified Chinese in 2012
Kat spent much of 2009 researching insomnia to resolve her own sleep issues, and has recently released Insomnia Relief Recipes, her e-book that educates people about sleep and how to become confident sleepers without using drugs. Her companion teleseminar series on insomnia will launch in July.
Kat is a magical storyteller who shares her soul, expands our minds, and reveals to us our inner wisdom. In addition to the medium of her writing, she also hosts a popular radio talk show, Finding the Magic in Midlife on Exceptional Wisdom Radio. Every week, Kat interviews authors and exceptional women from all walks of life about the challenges and opportunities for midlife women. She is currently developing a series of programs to pass this wisdom on to current and future generations.
As a result of her own profound experiences with personal change and helping many people cope with their transitions, Kat was named the Exceptional Wisdom scholar on Personal Change in early 2009. She has collaborated with Dave Carpenter, Exceptional Wisdom scholar on Peak Performance, to develop the newly released e-book, Prospering in 2010: Embracing Change to Accelerate Success. Kat and Dave have also announced a ten-session Teleseminar Series that will cover in greater detail each of the ten changes described in their book.
One rainy morning, Kat Tansey was trying to make a very important decision—should she stay and fight her debilitating depression, or should she choose to end her life? Hamlet-like, she kept turning the matter around in her mind.
The problem, as Poohbear Degoonacoon, her Maine Coon cat, explained, was that the mind she was using was her ordinary mind, not a good place to be when making a decision of irreversible magnitude.
“Before you make a choice you cannot undo, you need to understand the nature of your own mind,” he said. “Whether you are a human or a cat, the same technique applies. You must learn to sit and meditate. And I happen to know more than a little bit about this,” he observed, making a point of sitting down and tucking both paws under his chest in his best Buddha pose.
And thus begins Kat’s journey back to herself, a journey into her own consciousness—where she learns to unlock the secrets of Buddhist meditation and find inner peace, and little by little comes to regard Poohbear Degoonacoon as a true Buddhist master of meditation.
Choosing to Be is a magical story about becoming fully present and achieving the true freedom of enjoying life just as it is. Guided by her inscrutably wise and perceptive Buddha master who just happens to be a Maine Coon cat, and inspired by his comical little brother who is the essence of pure Buddha nature, the author overcomes seemingly impenetrable obstacles to achieve inner peace. She breaks out of the prison of her ordinary mind and arrives at a place that was there all along, the sky-like freedom of her own Buddha mind.
Author Kat Tansey has created a story about love and compassion that teaches us answers not found in our ordinary minds. She takes the mystique out of Buddhist meditation and presents it in a way that anyone can relate to, while honoring her teachers for the extraordinary contribution they make to the world. She also, of course honors animals, cats in particular, for their healing presence in our lives.