Embracing Intensity

Aurora met today’s special guest, Kate Arms,  at the SENG conference recently and was so inspired by her talk entitled  "Thriving with Intensity: Mining The Magic From Your Overexcitabilities” that she knew Kate would be the perfect fit for the podcast. Kate’s professional background includes working in a myriad of careers including being a lawyer, administrator, artist, writer, and coach. Kate describes her Signal Fire Coaching Program as a vehicle for her to do her life’s work: helping people thrive as the fullest version of themselves and creating effective systems that support the people working within them.

More in this episode:

• Kate’s shares details about her personal intensity.
• Factors that affected Kate’s intensity while growing up
• Kate describes ways her intensity could feel out of control in the past.
• Channeling ways of questioning others
• Using leadership thinking to question self
• How theater can help intense individuals.
• No one person will have all the answers for you.
• Kate’s personal practices
• The personal passion that fuels Kate's intensity
• The magic question

Resources Mentioned in the Show:

How to donate to help keep the podcast going via Patreon

website: Thrive With Intensity

website: Parents of Twice Exceptional Kids

website: Signal Fire Coaching

Signal Fire Coaching on Facebook

Signal Fire Coaching on Twitter

Undoing Depression, by Richard O’Connor

Making It All Work, David Allen

If you are a multipotentialite, do you prefer to cycle through interests or do a whole bunch of different things at once? In this week's episode of Embracing Intensity, I discuss my own tendencies when it comes to pursuing multiple passions and why I'm moving from a lot of varied activities at once to focusing on just a small few. 

In this episode, I discuss:

• Rainbow people vs. specialists.
• Where I'm a specialist.
• Learning about our learning. 
• How you can join our upcoming group call on the Embracing Intensity Journey!

Related Links:

Find Your Superpower Course

Upcoming Group Call 

Are you struggling with a difficult relationship? Would you like to find out how to use this hardship as a means to transform your life and discover yourself spiritually? Sunny Joy McMillan joins us on the show today and she is a happy divorcee. After a high-conflict marriage, she learned how to have a really awesome post-divorce friendship with her ex-husband, until he passed away in 2018. Sunny is passionate about empowering adults to make soul-based relationship choices and using divorce as a catalyst for personal transformation and spiritual awakening. Listen in today to find out what she has to share about how she guides people towards making their relationship choices based on heart and soul, rather than culture, family, or social concerns.

Sunny describes herself as a recovering attorney and she is also a practicing master life coach, having done her coach-training and certification through Dr. Martha Beck's program. She has recently written a book, called Unhitched, which will be coming out in December. Sunny also hosts a weekly radio show, Sunny In Seattle, where she interviews inspiring guests like Gay Hendricks, Neil Donald Walsch, Mark Nepo, and many others. Listen in today to find out more.

Show highlights:

• Sunny explains what she is intensely passionate about.
• What took Sunny out of the life that she no longer wanted to live.
• How Sunny's former life as an attorney helps her to guide people through her process.
• What Sunny's own brand of intensity looks like.
• The way that Sunny managed to free herself from a life that did not work for her.
• What Sunny's book is all about.
• The way that Sunny's intensity affected her while she was growing up.
• Sunny has had to get used to feeling comfortable in her own skin.
• Cultural factors that affected the way that Sunny used to feel about herself.
• What Sunny has learned about her own self-worth?
• The people that Sunny looks up to.
• The really messy life that Sunny used to live.
• Sunny explains her need to become a whole person.
• The way that Sunny uses her fire for good.
• Sunny's current purpose in her life.
• How having a spiritual awakening has changed Sunny's life.

 Links:

Book mentioned on the show: Steering By Starlight by Martha Beck.

For your free, electronic copy of Sunny's book, go to Unhitched Book     

For my Patreon Pledge Drive go to Patreon to get great bonuses for signing up. This is where you can join us for the group call.

Have you ever felt yourself changing in order to fit in? This week on Embracing Intensity, I talk about experiences of past guests and myself of being social chameleons and examine when it becomes a problem and when it can be a positive thing. 

In this episode:

• I share about my experience at the SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) conference where I spoke last weekend.
• 3 Types of social chameleons I've observed.
• Thoughts on the difference between "fitting in" and "belonging"

Resources:

Find me on Patreon

Find Your Superpower Lesson

Do you suffer from ADHD and feel that it holds you back from reaching your full potential? Today we have Clinton Fetters on the show and he, as a husband and father, really understands how hard it is to feel that everyone else wants you to be linear, in a zig-zag world. Clinton would really love to live in a world where adults with ADHD can come out from the shadows and share their greatness with everyone around them. Listen in today to find out what he has to share.

Clinton works in a lumberyard by day, as a supervisor. He also aims to help adults with ADHD reach their potential through his personal brand, Distractonaut. In his free time, you will find him watching horror movies with his wife, playing board games with his daughter, or over-analyzing something in the corner! Recently, Clinton threw caution to the wind and began challenging himself daily, by creating talking videos on Instagram. Listen in to find out more.

More in this episode:

• Clinton explains what he is intensely passionate about.
• What caused Clinton to look deeper into himself and start Distractonaut.
• Adjusting to, and coping with change when carving a path of your own.
• What Clinton's particular brand of intensity looks like.
• How Clinton's intensity affected him while growing up.
• Why it's difficult sometimes for people with ADHD to be identified as gifted.
• Cultural factors that affected Clinton while growing up.
• Clinton's conscious decision to force his parents to send him to school.
• How Clinton managed to intentionally tone himself down, over the years.
• How much Clinton accidentally lost, from trying to fit into a mold.
• The doubts and fears that Clinton experienced when he was first married.
• Lessons that he learned about open communication in a relationship.
• A lesson that Clinton learned about controlling his impulses.
• How Clinton uses his fire for good.
• How practicing meditation has really worked for Clinton.
• The benefits of keeping a journal.
• A book that Clinton keeps coming back to.
• How Clinton helps other people to use their fire.
• For the worksheet that Clinton has created for people who struggle with taking the next step, go to his website distractonaut.com

Links:

Aurora's website: Embracing Intensity

Clinton's website: www.distractonaut.com

Resources:

Book mentioned on the show: The One Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

This week on Embracing Intensity, I head to the SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) conference in San Diego! I also discuss what's coming up in the next couple of months.

In this episode, I share:

• An overview of my upcoming talk, which I will share on a call in August.
• Topics for the next two group calls for Patrons.
• Why next week's interview episode is notable. 

Do you have a message to share with the world? Rukshana was once unable to share her message, but she now not only sharing her message but is paving the way for others to do so, as well. Rukshana shares what it is like to be a former refugee and immigrant from Mozambique. Tune in to this week’s episode to hear Rukshana’s story.

Rukshana is CEO of her women’s coaching business where she is able to help women overcome their rough pasts and create their desired, beautiful lives through nature retreats and various online coaching programs and communities. This week’s Embracing Intensity show is one you will not want to miss! 

More in this episode:

• Learn what Rukshana experienced in a refugee camp.
• Rukshana shares how she turned the negative experiences of abuse in a refugee camp to positivity.
• Rukshana shares what prompted her to speak up for herself.
• Move beyond unresolved issues and love yourself.
• Rukshana tells us how having children made her closely examine her life’s purpose.
• Learn how Rukshana improved her overall health, including getting off prescription medications.
• Rukshana shares how it is ok to be vulnerable.
• Understand your body!
• Meditation can be used as an important tool.
• Learn how personally experiencing nature can change your life.
• Rukshana shares how she helps others find their passion and helps them verbalize it to others.
• Rukshana shares how simplifying your life can benefit you. 

Links:

The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod, was a helpful book for Rukshana.

Rukshana’s Facebook Page

A Women’s Lifestyle Community, Rukshana’s group on Facebook

Rukshana’s Website

Instagram Page

Twitter Page

Do you have so many things you want to do that you don't know how to decide what to focus on? You are definitely not alone! This has been a theme this week for me both in coaching and my League of Excitable Women Facebook Group. This week, I touch on the three main things I consider when I decide what to focus on and share a few resources I've created in the past.

In this episode:

• How do the choices affect your stress and energy?
• How do they align with your purpose and values?
• What has the most impact for the least amount of effort?

Resources:

First solo episode On Paralyzing Abundance

Blog post on Energy Balance

Blog post on Tools for Prioritization

Find Your Superpower Course

Are you reclaiming your life now that your babies have grown into young children? Nisha is doing that, and so she's intensely passionate about finding herself in everything that she does these days!  She's also passionate about her children, her family and their religion and she really like to be sure that whatever that she does feeds her because her youngest child is four now, and so Nisha is re-possessing herself and getting back into being human! Listen in to find out more!

Nisha is a member of the Karuk Tribe, from California. She helps her husband run his tattoo shop, she's busy building a business with her sister and her husband and she takes care of her live-in grandmother too. Additionally, she manages her children, who all model, and she's one of the dance-leaders for their tribal ceremony in northern California. Listen in today to find out what Nisha has to share!

More in this episode:

• Nisha explains what her personal brand of intensity looks like.
• How Nisha's intensity affected her while growing up.
• Growing up with an identical twin sister.
• Some cultural factors that have affected Nisha's intensity.
• Going to College in Oregon was a big culture shock.
• The intensity of growing up on tribal land.
• Giving her children a tribal connection.
• Tuning out and learning to relax and live in the moment.
• What happens when things get too intense.
• Knowing how to give the children the very best opportunities for success.
• Figuring out what it takes to really feel successful.
• Why Nisha started making jewelry again.
• Nisha was also a photographer long ago.
• Getting to know that you can do the hard things!
• Learning a difficult lesson- that if you're not doing what you value, you're valuing the wrong things.
• Some books that have had a big influence on Nisha.
• Being a great role model for your kids.
• Remembering that nobody's life is perfect.
• The importance of educating yourself.

Links:

Nisha's husband's tattoo website: Tattoo 34 P.D.X

Or  find Nisha at BaDundle

Have you ever had to switch gears to keep doing what you love? This week, I share my plans for the next year and moving forward.

In this episode:

• Why we sometimes need to switch gears to keep doing what we love. 
• What I'm focusing on for the next year. 
• How you can help support the sustainability of this podcast

Resources:

Embracing Intensity Store