Embracing Intensity

In this first interview episode of 2020, we are continuing to discuss how our intensity can be our greatest source of power. Join me for an exciting conversation as today’s guest teaches us about sharing our gifts with the world.

Emily Roach is an international speaker, business coach, and professional “Biz BFF.” Through her online courses, live workshops, and intimate retreats, she empowers women business owners to play full-out, show up wholly as themselves, and create the business of their dreams. When she’s not teaching women how to rock their business and crush their goals, she’s camping around Oregon in her vintage school bus with her family of five.

Show Highlights:

• How Emily is multi-passionate about many things, especially helping people unlock their potential and realize their capabilities
• Emily’s personal brand of intensity, which is exemplified by the way she talks too fast and too loud as she strives always to be authentic
• Growing up, Emily was an “odd duck” who was shy, expressive, and creative
• How she worried about fitting in as a teen, but then decided she didn’t want to fit in
• How she found a small group of friends later in her high school years
• The moment in high school when everything “clicked” and she found complete freedom
• The societal pressure to be a “good girl” and a people-pleaser
• When Emily feels out of control with her big emotions, and it seems like she’s not connected
• How Emily gives others permission to be themselves and loves to share her enthusiasm to pump others up
• How Emily harnesses the power of her intensity by putting more structure in place, which, in turn, gives her more freedom
• The benefits of structuring your time and schedule
• How meditation, journaling, and being supported by other people help Emily with her big-intense emotions
• The best advice Emily ever received: “Accept all the support you can.”
• Books that have helped Emily the most: The Big Leap, Playing Big, and Alice in Wonderland
• How Emily helps others use their fire by reflecting back their light and brilliance and seeing their wisdom, potential, and capability
• Parting words from Emily: “People have told me that I’m too much when at times I feel like I’m not enough. It’s an impossible juggle. Know that you are exactly the right amount of much-ness.”

Resources:

Biz BFF

Find Emily on Instagram: @biz_bff

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

Playing Big by Tara Mohr

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte

This week on Embracing Intensity, I'm sharing the first lesson of my Ignite Your Power Course. In this lesson, we will observe our own powers, get clear on how to harness them and develop a “power toolkit” to help harness them more. You can find the full group discussion and other materials related to the lesson in the Embracing Intensity Community! 

You can also download a free workbook on Harnessing the Power of Your Intensity.

In this episode: 

• Learn the 5 types of intensity and how they can be your greatest superpowers.

• Explore how to harness them and keep them from getting out of control or suppressed.

• Learn tips to channel each intensity in a positive direction.

• Improve your self-regulation skills.

• Create your own toolkit to get in your “power zone.”

Links:

Free Harnessing the Power of Your Intensity Workbook

Embracing Intensity Community

As we ramp into the new year, I wanted to share a bit about what we have in store for 2020 on the Embracing Intensity Podcast!

• We are starting my free power zone toolkit this week on Monday! Sign up here to join us here!
• We will be ending the challenge with first group call for updated Ignite Your Power course I’m relaunching in the Embracing Intensity community.
• Next week I’ll share a modified recording of the first lesson on Harnessing Your Power, and then we will have our first interview episode of the year. 
• We have some amazing guests lined up to interview and we are 58% of the way to covering two interview episodes per month. Join us in the Embracing Intensity Community, or on Patreon to support us! 

Ignite Your Power monthly lessons & themes:

• Harnessing Your Power
• Connection
• Self-Empathy
• Time & Energy Balance
• Shifting Perception
• Meeting Your Needs
• Priorities
• Rituals & Routines
• Building Resiliency
• Self-Advocacy
• Reaching Out

Links:

Join Our Power Zone Toolkit Challenge

Embracing Intensity Community

Support us on Patreon!

Are you an Approval Addict? How about a Gold Star Chaser? For so many excitable people, it can be exhausting and unfulfilling simply living life under the shadow of the approval of others. If that sounds like you, listen in to this rerun installment of Embracing Intensity. This week, Aurora interviews her mentor Amy Pearson about her own struggles as an Approval Addict. Amy is a life coach, mother, and deep believer in helping women come into their own authenticity. In this episode, she dives deep into what it means to live free from approval, and gives you the tools and opportunity to be who you truly are!

Join Aurora and Amy to experience all that this episode has to offer:

• Amy shares how she journeyed from people pleaser to fearlessly fulfilled.

• Discover what it means to be an Approval Addict, and how to break the cycle.

• It is time to drop the façade of likability, and start embracing that inner fire. Find out how!

• Learn how to channel your intensity instead of pursuing affirmation from others.

• Moms really do know best—learn what wisdom Amy embraced to change the course of her life.

• Unlock what it means to Amy and Aurora to unearth your own authenticity.

• Amy describes what it means to find her Tribe, and discover how you can find your Tribe too.

• Check out your Approval Personality with Amy’s specially designed quiz.

Links

Join the League of Excitable Women on Facebook 

Amy's New Website Being Amy The Blog (Active 1/1/20)

Sign up for updates and take Amy's Approval Personality Quiz

Amy’s Original Website

Aurora’s Website

Power Zone Toolkit

Embracing Intensity Community

Amy Recommends 

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

Would you consider yourself the “Creative Type?” Does life seem to be barely within your control? Do you ever find yourself toning down your big, grand ideas for the sake of appearance and opinion? If so, you might be like this week’s guest on “Embracing Intensity. Join Aurora as she interviews Katherine North. 

Katherine is a life coach, writer, and mother on a mission to lead women out of the creative storm of clutter and into a more beautiful, more authentic life. Her coaching allows women to stop stifling their joy, and embrace the things they truly love. Tune in to hear about Katherine’s journey across oceans and disciplines as she explains what it means to declare dominion over this beautiful life. 

Listen in as Aurora and Katherine discuss: 

• Katherine’s journey from toned down and timid, to creatively big and epically badass. 
• Discover how Katherine figured out how to live life in the “ethereal realm”
• How to engage with your creativity, and let it be as big as you want it to be 
• Find out what it takes to be a Heathen Mystic 
• Uncover the magic of “morning pages” 
• Find out how you can be a part of the next Queen Sweep for a more beautiful home
• Get connected to Katherine’s weekly blog with tips and tricks for intense, sensitive, and creative women 
• Learn the two requirements for being an EFBA 

Links

Join the Embracing Intensity Community

Katherine’s Website

Katherine’s Book Practical Magic for Secret Mystics  

Aurora’s Website

Power Zone Toolkit   

Katherine Recommends

Parenting Without Power Struggles by Susan Stiffelman 

Steering by Starlightby Dr. Martha Beck

Three words: You are enough. For an intense person in today’s fast-paced and demanding world, it is easy to feel like you have to tone yourself down. Are you feeling burned up, beaten down, and bummed out? Then you need to listen to this week’s episode of “Embracing Intensity.” 

This week’s guest is Starr Sheppard-Decker, a business coach, and spiritual leader with a passion to see women fully embrace their intense selves. Through spiritual searching and a dive into her own inner psyche, Starr realized she desired attention and acceptance from others, when all she really needed was attention and acceptance from herself. Hear Starr’s wisdom and heart for women with intense passions and a fire worth spreading. 

In this episode: 

• See how Starr’s passion for societal change has turned her into a teacher, spiritual leader, and life coach.
• Starr shares the experiences and revelations that changed her perspective on her own brand of intensity. 
• Feel great about how unique you are!
• See how intensity looks in the fast paced, energetic, deep inner workings of psyche and spirituality. 
• Learn how to live on the edge of cultural norms and present new ideas. 
• Break the idea of categories; redefine good and bad in your life 
• Find the right fit in your relationships. 
• Hear how Starr found spiritual development by seeking help and healing. 
• Learn grounding techniques and increase your emotional bandwidth 
• Deal with false beliefs and cling to what is true. 

Starr Recommends

A Woman’s Worth by Marianne Williamson

The Mandala of Being by Richard Moss

Links:

Starr’s Website

Session link

Embracing Intensity Community

XPress Your Power Store 

Aurora’s Website

This month I'm taking the month off and sharing reruns of my favorite episodes from season 1. This one is particularly timely because I've been having a lot of conversations about twice-exceptionality lately.

Impossible. The world seems to throw this word at you a lot, doesn’t it? For Intense, Exceptional, Gifted, and Intuitive people, our greatest strengths are often viewed as weaknesses and disabilities. When the world tries to label your dreams impossible, what can you do to harness your fire and show the world who’s boss? Wouldn’t you like to know there’s someone who has walked that hard road before, and come out the other end burning brighter than before?  

Dr. Melanie Hayes is the founder of Big Minds Unschool, a program that allows Twice Exceptional students to thrive in their own unique gifts. Melanie is also Twice Exceptional, and she knows what it is like to be a bright fire in a world that feels too small for her. After growing up with “impossible” dreams, Melanie learned to make her vision a reality. Now she is using her fire through coaching and Big Minds to change the world. This week, she will share her stories of growing up, success through unconventionality, and wisdom to inspire you to take the word “impossible” and transform it into a force of good.

Also in this episode:   

• Melanie grew up as an intense kid with a bit of an existential, otherworldly perspective.
• A fascination with twice exceptional minds.
• Working within the extremes of life, and when life doesn’t seem to want to work with you!
• Speaking up for intense kids in schools.
• Learning to trust yourself and your instincts.
• Why is it so hard to recognize our gifts?
• Overcoming fear and letting go of limitations.
• Life-coaching a holistic being.
• Roundabout career paths and connecting to the work you do.

Links:

Melanie Recommends

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Melanie’s Website

Big Minds unschool

Find Melanie’s Book on Amazon!

We Tried Normal

Join the Embracing Intensity Community

Support us on Patreon

Sign up for the Free Find Your Superpower Course

I'm taking the month of December off again, but this year I decided to try something different and share some of my favorite episodes from season one with an update from the interviewee! This week I'm sharing one of my most popular episodes of all time with Paula Prober!

As a child, were you deemed over-sensitive, dramatic, or over-emotional? Are you a deep thinker, intellectual, or intense creative? Perhaps that just means you are gifted. Join Aurora in this week’s “Embracing Intensity” as she interviews Paula Prober, an expert on the gifted population. Paula has journeyed through many disciplines from education to counseling and now to writing. Her interdisciplinary wisdom has led to a fascinating and enlightening perspective on the mind of a gifted individual. The gifted are often intense and excitable. Paula’s mission is to show the world how the gifted adult can seek healing and live life to the fullest.  

Inside this week’s episode: 

• Find out if you could be “gifted”
• Learn how to apply Paula’s analogy of the Rainforest Mind
• Find out how to discover ways to connect with your body and hone your wonderful giftedness
• What does the Argentine Tango have to do with giftedness? Listen to find out! 
• Learn strategies Paula suggests for taking care of yourself.
• Discover the Healing Arts, and the key to finding a good therapist.
• Hear how Paula changed her voice, and why it mattered so much to her! 
• Uncover how writing, meditating, seeking therapy, and SLEEP can help you embrace your fully gifted life.

Links

Paula’s Blog: Your Rainforest Mind

https://rainforestmind.wordpress.com/

Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth by Paula Prober

Paula Recommends

Belonging Here: A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person by Judith Blackstone

Embracing Intensity Community

Support us on Patreon!

Kazmiers Dabrowski was an early proponent of what we now call the neurodiversity movement. He asserted that what was viewed as "neuroses" were not an illness, but in fact a sign of high developmental potential! His theory of Positive Disintegration views the importance of falling apart, or disintegrating, before integrating into a higher whole.

This week, Chris Wells, Director of Qualitative Research at the Gifted Development Center, dives deeper into Dabrowski's life, what led to his theory and how it applies to us in the current day. 

In this episode:

• How Dabrowski's theory relates to the current neurodiversity movement.
• How his own life experiences and trauma impacted his theory.
• The importance of values.
• The three factors of developmental potential.
• How dynamisms, or the forces that drive our actions, serve as a catalyst to higher development.

Links:

Finding Treasure In Ruins Blog Post

Embracing Intensity Community

Gifted Development Center

I've been asked a lot about twice-exceptionality recently and especially on how to identify ADHD when giftedness is also involved.

In this episode:

• Characteristics observed in people who are both gifted and ADHD.
• Characteristics that may be common with giftedness, but are even more extreme when ADHD is thrown in.
• Assessment patterns I've observed with kids with ADHD.

Links:

Embracing Intensity Community

Brendan Mahan's ADHD Essentials