Are you living the life you love? For most of us, that’s a complicated question that demands an even more complicated answer. To live our best lives, we have to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative---but that’s easier said than done. Join us as we discuss it all with today’s guest.
Dr. Raquel Muller is a psychologist, mom empowerment coach, and speaker. She is the founder of Joyful Imperfection Counseling, LLC, and the creator of The Woman System. Dr. Raquel harnesses the power of cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness strategies to empower women to transform negative self-talk, let go of self-doubt and guilt, banish burnout and overwhelm, cultivate a greater self-love, and reconnect with their own greatness so they can create lives that they love while making a positive impact in their families and the world.
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Find Raquel’s website: Joyful Imperfection Counseling
Email Raquel: dr@doctorraquelmuller.com
Find Raquel’s Facebook group: Redefining Supermom
The Science of Getting Rich by W. D. Wattles and
I've been behind on my workbooks and lessons as I wrapped up my school year, and now I'm catching up! This month's theme is on Creatively Meeting Your Own Needs and in this episode I'd like to talk a little about the concept of Emotional Liberation as described through Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication.
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I’m glad I’ve gotten to know today’s guest on the show. We’ve been following each other on Instagram, and I recently discovered that we’re in the same Facebook group. We’ve bonded over our work and service with twice-exceptional individuals, and we have much more in common, too. I’m excited to introduce you to her!
Boontarika Sripom is a therapy-influenced life coach for gifted and creative people. Her background includes school counseling, working in special education, and community mental health. As a life coach and sensitive person, she uses psychology and typology systems like Myers Briggs and enneagrams to help people empower themselves and reach their potential. Her favorite clients are creatives, gamers, and sensitive people who feel misunderstood. Boonie makes online content on Quora and YouTube. On Mixer, she streams video gaming while chatting with fellow gamers.
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Boonie’s website: Organized Messes
Find Boontarika Sripom on YouTube, Instagram, and Quora
I’ve been sitting with the best way to use my platform to share and support Black voices with the understanding that a lot of folks are exhausted right now and don’t need me jumping in their inbox. So instead of business as usual, I decided to share information about some podcasts with Black voices and highlight them. Starting with a short clip with permission from Arianna Bradford of last week’s NYAM Project Podcast on Thoughts from a Black Mom.
Below you will find links for podcasts and youtube channels you can listen to and support using their own descriptions from their pages. If they have a Patreon, I also included that link so you can also financially support them if you'd like.
Alexandra Loves - Website and Podcast - Youtube Channel - Support her on Patreon
Helping you create what you want by being exactly who you are. Now offering Black Mentor Sessions designed to hold a space, help clear imbalances, and provide solution based guidance for those white people who want to work with her.
Arianna Bradford - The NYAM Project - Support her on Patreon
A weekly podcast consisting of anecdotes and interviews from everyday mothers and experts alike, highlighting real motherhood and questioning what we think we know about parenting and motherhood.
Andréa Ranae Johnson - A Call to Serve Podcast - Andréa Ranae’s Website - Support her on Patreon
If you have a vision for change in your communities or our world (or maybe you just know that a different reality is possible) and you want to show up, contribute, serve or generally live the kind of life that leaves this planet better than you found it – you’re in the right place.
Colin E Seale - thinkLaw Podcast - thinkLaw Website
Critical Thinking is the most essential 21st century skill but it is still a luxury good. Only 1 out of 10 educators teach critical thinking, and this educator usually only teaches at elite schools or to the most elite students.
Gary Ware - Gary Ware on Youtube - Breakthrough Play Website
Jaiden Love - Jaiden Love on Youtube - Held and Heard Website
Leesa Renée Hall - Leesa’s Website - Podcasts featuring Leesa - Support her on Patreon
Exploring Bias One Field Trip at a Time. On her Patreon she is creating Inner Field Trips™ with writing prompts to help you unpack your biases around racism, in a supportive environment.
Phyllis G. Williams & LaTricia Smith - Living the Principles Podcast
A podcast committed to relevant conversations about strengthening the Black Community.
René Brooks - Black Girl, Lost Keys Blog - Podcasts featuring René - Support her on Patreon
A blog that empowers black women with ADHD and shows them how to live well with the disorder.
Sharon Burton - Spark Your Creative Podcast
Spark Your Creative is a company under the SJB Creative Ventures, LLC that focuses on creativity coaching…for individuals initially who want to discover or reclaim their creative gifts.
Zaakirah Nayyar - Living Legacy Podcast
This week instead of sharing a new episode, I am participating in a Podcast Blackout protesting the deaths of the Black people slain by police violence or victims of hate crimes. I will share some links and resources below if you would like to do more work around anti-racism and don't know where to begin.
(This list is missing MANY names)
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I have compiled and organized resources on this Pinterest page according to themes I’ve observed online in this Responding to White Supremacy Pinterest Board, feel free to send me other resources or topics to include.
A good start is to learn how to apologize when you inevitably do something wrong, this video from Franchesca Ramsey on Getting Called Out: How to Apologize is a good start.
Then read this article, White people, stop asking us to educate you about racism to understand why it is our responsibility as white people to educate ourselves and then pay BIPOC educators who specialize in this area to go deeper.
Educate yourself on being a better ally, some of these posts are a good start, and reading some of these books would be even better, and better yet pay anti racism educators for their trainings.
Then take action, these two posts are a good start: Want to do better, but aren’t sure where to start? Start here and 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice.
Today’s guest is someone I met through The Gifted Homeschooler Forum for which we both write. Through her experiences and those of her children, she’s become a champion for parents of “quirky children who don’t fit the mold.”
Kathleen Humble is an ADHD mom in Melbourne, Australia. She writes at Yellow Readis about gifted and twice-exceptional homeschooling. Her book, Gifted Myths, is available at The Gifted Homeschooler Forum Press. She’s been published in Victorian Writer, The Mighty, and Otherways magazine, and she was the recipient of the 2018 Writers Victoria Write-Ability Fellowship. In between writing and homeschooling her kids, Kathleen loves reading, sewing, and big cups of tea.
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Find Kathleen: Yellow Readis
Facebook: Yellow Readis
Twitter: @Yellow Readis
Pinterest: Yellow Readis
Gifted Myths by Kathleen Humble
NeuroTribes by Stever Silberman
Last week someone on Twitter tagged me in a post asking if I was familiar with the concept of over-excitability. It made me realize that many who follow my work around twice-exceptionality aren’t familiar with my early work which is founded on the concept of excitability. Excitability is the foundation of my work on the Embracing Intensity Podcast and Community.
Five years ago, I asked my community to help me come up with things that many of us had in common being highly excitable. I made an animated post on Buzzfeed, but I thought it was a good time to revisit the origins of my blog, and I finally figured out how to add GIFs to my own blog so I decided to revisit this post with animation on the blog, and share it here on the Podcast!
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25 Things Only a Highly Excitable Person Would Understand (Animated)
Today’s show is a different one. I’m interviewing a 12-year-old with ADHD who is easily distracted. He hopes you will be, too.
It’s an extra special privilege to interview my son, Z. Jay Baxter, who just released an activity book for his 12th birthday. It’s called The Notebook of Mass Distraction: Boredom Busters for Busy Brains. He has also started a YouTube channel and would love for you to follow him there.
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Find Jay’s Workshop of Wonder on YouTube!
When we get caught up in our own thoughts, it can interfere with our ability to see things clearly. This week on Embracing Intensity I talk about types of thoughts that disrupt our objective observations.
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Support Embracing Intensity on Patreon
Jay's Workshop of Wonder on YouTube
We all love that coworker who is filled with positive energy that spills over to everyone they touch. Certain people have a knack for celebrating the wins of others, and even though we all might want to be that person, it takes a specific mindset that most of us lack. It’s an incredible benefit when this person ends up in the field of education, where they can spend their days impacting the lives of students in positive ways.
Amy Campbell is a friend and colleague in my school district. As the 2020 Washington State Teacher of the Year, she is clearly gifted and intense, but she has now become a public figure who is a fierce advocate for her special education students.
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Find Amy on Facebook or Twitter (@the_mrscampbell)
Check Amy out on YouTube
Fostering Resilient Learners by Kristin Souers
The last few weeks I dove deep into creative projects including updating a whole bunch of new shirts in my Threadless store, creating 8 new youtube animation videos, launching a workbook and helping my son launch his new activity book, the Notebook of Mass Distraction: Boredom Busters for Busy Brains.
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Jenelle Wooodlief's Self Care Revolution Community
These last few weeks have been super intense. For those of us who are sensitive, we’ve either wanted to escape into a hole to heal or dive deep into creative projects, which is what I’ve been doing. I hope you’ve found the things that help you cope best in this time of uncertainty. My guest today has wisdom and insights that can help!
AmyLee Westervelt, of Gratitude & Glamour, is a life and business coach for empaths and highly sensitive people. We connected through a mutual friend, and I’m excited to introduce you to her today.
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Gratitude And Glamour Find AmyLee’s free ebook, The Empath Elixir
Find AmyLee Westervelt on Facebook
Visit The Unstoppable Empaths System for information on AmyLee’s new course, The Unstoppable Empath System
Find additional resources: Embracing Intensity Store and Embracing Intensity
This week on Embracing Intensity I discuss what I'm doing for self care in the chaos, and share some additional resources.
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Gifted AND: A Story about Twice-Exceptionality - Animation of Colin Seale's story
My guest today is doing great things in the field of education. I’ve come across his work in the gifted and twice exceptional circles, and I knew he would be a valuable guest on the show. I’m happy to have connected with him around his work in teaching critical thinking skills.
Colin Seale was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, where struggles in his upbringing gave birth to his passion for educational equity. Tracked early into talented and gifted programs, Colin was afforded opportunities his neighborhood peers were not. Colin uses lessons from his experience as a math teacher, later as an attorney, and now a keynote speaker, along with his work as a contributor to Forbes, The 74, and Education Post. He’s the author of Thinking Like a Lawyer: A Framework for Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to All Students. Colin founded thinkLaw, a multi-award-winning organization to help educators leverage inquiry-based educational instruction and strategies to close the critical thinking gap and ensure that they teach and reach all students, regardless of race, zip code, or what side of the poverty line they are born into. When he’s not serving as the world’s most fervent critical thinking advocate, Colin proudly serves as the world’s greatest entertainer to his two young children, and as a loving husband to his wife, Carrie.
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The latest Embracing Intensity workbook on Balancing Your Time and Energy is available in the Embracing Intensity Community. Our live group call on this topic is scheduled for Saturday, April 11, at 10:00 am Pacific.
Check out the Embracing Intensity Facebook page for upcoming events!
Thinking Like a Lawyer: A Framework for Teaching Critical Thinking to All Students by Colin Seale
With all the unexpected changes this last week, a lot of us are finding ourselves working from home. This is definitely a challenge for me because I'm used to having the structure of work schedules and deadlines to keep me on track. I decided to explore how to create my own structure in times of chaos on my blog, Youtube and the Embracing Intensity Podcast.
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I connected with today’s guest on Facebook, and then we met in person at a conference last September. We have so much in common! We are joint members in several communities, we’ve moved from working with children to working with more adults, and we’ve both been busy in the past year refining what we want to do and how we want to help people.
Molli Osburn is better known as “Molli the Math Rebel,” formerly “Molli the Math Lady.” She is an author, public speaker, and transformational coach. As a former math teacher and tutor since 2006, Molli is the author of Beyond Math Anxiety: 99 Insights (and a Calculation’s Not One!) She specializes in spreading awareness of the widespread problem of math anxiety and its deeper cousin, math shame. Recently, she started exploring the connection between math shame and money shame, especially among women. She’s been sober since January 2019, and that progress is a vitally important part of her journey. In her spare time, Molli enjoys hiking, traveling, crafts, and gluten-free baking.
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Molli The Math Rebel (website in progress)
Find Molli the Math Rebel on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Judgment Detox by Gabrielle Bernstein
Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein
Do you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? This week I explore a question brought up in our Embracing Intensity Community around Carol Dweck's Mindset theory and how it relates to gifted and twice exceptional individuals.
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Those who have been affected by trauma are the people who truly understand the extent of the big emotions that come with trauma. It’s refreshing when someone uses their background of self-doubt and shame to help others heal. Such is the story of today’s amazing guest, so join us to learn more!
Rayah Dickerson hosts the podcast, Depth of Echoes, which is a mental health podcast that is a wonderful resource for the mental health community. Rayah is the anxious, semi-depressed wife of a guy with schizoaffective PTSD, and she’s a trauma-informed mom, ally, researcher, writer, activist, and national speaker. I was privileged to be on her show this week as Rayah interviewed me; now I’m returning the favor. She was recently diagnosed with ADHD, which is a common experience for many creatives.
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Find Rayah and Depth of Echoes on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Patreon, and YouTube
This week on Embracing Intensity, I'm sharing an excerpt from this months lesson in the Ignite Your Power series - From Mental Chaos to Clarity and Connection. You can find the whole lesson in the Embracing Intensity Community or find a copy of the workbook in our Embracing Intensity Book Store.
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How much emphasis do you put on self-care? I’m talking about yourself, not what you might recommend to others. We fall victim to many myths that trick us into putting self-care on the back burner of our lives as we frantically run here and there. Today’s guest shares what she has learned through her focus on self-care and empowerment. Join us to learn more!
Jenelle Woodlief empowers women to redefine and embrace radical self-care, sharing deeply personal experience and wisdom. As a licensed massage therapist, she practices empowering bodywork aimed at restoring balance in the body. Thai massage is an incredible modality that incorporates effective massage with movement and stretching performed on a comfy floor mat. She educates and coaches clients on simple but powerful self-care techniques, empowering them to care for their bodies at home. And she does it all! She publishes her writing, speaks her truth, teaches Thai massage to groups and couples, builds community, fights inequality, and is building a self-care revolution! Join Jenelle in learning to love and care for yourself, and in turn, others. Jenelle is powerful, dynamic, engaging, and wise. I’m happy to introduce her to you today.
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Instagram: @jenelle.woodlief
Facebook: Step Into Your Power
Coming out of an educational conference it struck me how many sessions emphasized acceleration as the primary tool for supporting gifted students. As a gifted student who had both positive and negative experiences with my education, I have mixed feelings about this. While acceleration can be valuable for many gifted students, focusing on it exclusively can leave out a lot of twice exceptional and under achieving gifted folks, which can have lasting impacts on the experience of gifted adults.
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When I first heard today’s guest speak at a live event, I knew that I had to have her on the podcast. Her story of growing up in the Philippines in less-than-ideal circumstances is a powerful one that she is eager to share. Let’s learn more about how connecting with other people’s stories can transform lives.
Kareen Mills was born into a large family. The dream of coming to America was her escape from a not-so-healthy childhood. Her podcast, Being Motherhustler, is a tribute project to her mom and grandmother. Her podcast is ranked in the Top Ten at Entrepreneur.com’s list of 20 podcasts that will help you grown in 2020. Being Motherhustler was also named the #1 domestic violence podcast by Feedspot.com. Kareen was named one of the Class of 2018 Accomplished and Under 40 by the Vancouver Business Journal. She still maintains a day job, managing a $50 million bank branch. The reason Kareen is so passionate about financial wellness is because hers was nonexistent until she learned one of life’s tough lessons from financial ruin. This experience provides Kareen a platform to make a difference in people’s financial lives today. Kareen is a master networker who co-founded Game Changers Global Network, LLC, and The Woman’s Network. She is quickly growing her Motherhustler brand online and offline, and she holds space for the Motherhustlers and women through events, retreats, and group coaching programs. In addition to these endeavors, Kareen serves her husband and two sons as a wife and mother.
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Find Kareen on social media: @kareenmills
I had the pleasure of interviewing Kareen Mills, who's interview I'm excited to share next week. As she shared her own story and the importance of listening to the stories of others, I really related to how stories are what connects us with others.
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Join the Embracing Intensity Community
Get your free Harnessing The Power of Your Intensity Workbook
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.
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Find Emily on Instagram: @biz_bff
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
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.”
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