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Embracing Intensity

Use your fire without getting burned.
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Embracing Intensity
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Now displaying: June, 2019
Jun 24, 2019

Last year at a regional SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) conference, I had lunch with someone who followed my podcast and online community. She asked me, "what exactly do you do?" Today I'm sharing more clarity what I do with educational assessment and consultation, and my shift towards doing more group facilitation. 

In this episode:

  • What psycho-educational assessment is all about.
  • How educational consultation can help understand existing testing.
  • Moving towards more interactive facilitation in group calls and courses. 

Links:

Embracing Intensity Community

Contact Me

Jun 17, 2019

Every so often, you meet someone who has had to fight for where they are in life. It’s usually the people who have faced the greatest difficulty who learn to be the most resilient and truly have a heart of gratitude for what they have in life. Such is the story of today’s guest. Join me to learn more.

Zaakirah Muhammad Demba is someone I met through a podcasting group on Facebook called She Podcasts. Once I got to know her, I realized she would be a great guest on the show--and here she is! Zaakirah is a brand-cultivating strategist, professional photographer, and digital marketer. She helps small businesses make their social media pages look good, and she advises the best social media tactics for growing and being consistent with their brand. At 6 months of age, a camera saved her life, and at 9 months old, she was taken into surgery to have her right eye removed due to a rare cancerous tumor that was detected by a camera in a photo taken by her mom. Her hearing slowly began to decline as she grew older, but her other 3 senses kicked in and are doing well. At age 5, her mom gifted her with her first camera, and she received her first digital camera in middle school. She attended technical high school and went on to study commercial photography and never strayed far from her purpose in life. She moved to Washington, DC, to expand her education and work in professional photography and videography. She currently resides in Nashville but has traveled to 10 countries with her camera, most recently to South Africa. As a people-person and an empath, Zaakirah wants her legacy to be the fact that she was able to see the good in people, help them live their best life, and step outside their comfort zone.

Show Highlights:

  • Zaakirah’s intense passion for photography as a way to share her mind and her voice
  • Her podcast, Living Legacy, is a way to get her story out
  • How her mom taught her to fight for herself and her health
  • How she’s faced cancer, eye removal, hearing loss, PCOS, and infertility
  • Why she chooses to live a holistic life to be more in tune with herself
  • Growing up as an intense person who was labeled GAP--Genius African Princess--by her mom
  • The difficulties in school because of bullying
  • The cultural factors Zaakirah has faced as a Muslim woman of African-American descent with a deaf-blind disability
  • How yoga helps her quiet her mind
  • Why 2019 is the year of “No More” for Zaakirah
  • What she learned in test-taking about listening to her intuition
  • A breakdown in high school due to anxiety, anger, and stress
  • How Zaakirah uses her fire to help others grow their businesses, tap into their potential, and recognize their purpose
  • How writing out her thoughts and feelings helps her tap into her creative juices
  • Why she needs quiet time to recharge
  • The best advice she received was not to allow negativity to overtake her
  • Why Zaakirah focuses on forming good habits, like consistency, gratitude, using a vision board
  • Some favorite books: Chicken Soup for the Soul series, The Diary of Anne Frank, and autobiographies
  • How Zaakirah helps others through her coaching and her podcast

Resources:

Zaakirah Nayyar

Living Legacy podcast

Jun 11, 2019

These last few weeks of school my schedule has been thrown off whack, but as school approaches the end it opens up my schedule to do more great things with Embracing Intensity and more!

In this episode:

  • What I've been focusing on this year.
  • Where I'm headed into the new year.
  • What I learned about myself on our last group call in terms of prioritizing my time. 

Links:

Embracing Intensity Community

XPress Your Power Store

Jun 3, 2019

Today you’ll meet someone who manifests his intensity through music and dance. In sharing his passion, he also stays connected to his Indian culture and brings it to people across the US as he celebrates all things FUN.

I first met Prashant Kakad in his role as a Bollywood DJ. I’ve loved attending his dance events because of the diverse variety of people and the open and free spirit of celebration. He is one of the best examples I know of psychomotor or physical excitability. As I’ve gotten to know Prashant better, I realized that he is gifted and intense in many different ways. From Orcas Island to the Florida Keys, this multifaceted Bollywood entertainer has spent the last 10 years traveling across the US sharing his passion for Indian music and culture. An Indian-born, first-generation immigrant, Prashant’s unique perspective as an Ivy League graduate and ex-Intel engineer-turned DJ transforming American nightlife has inspired many South Asians who seek to pursue a life beyond their tech job.

Show Highlights:

  • How Prashant has always been intensely passionate about dancing, music, and creative expressions---not being an Intel engineer
  • How he travels the US with dance parties in various cities, along with dance classes and workshops
  • Prashant’s natural inclination toward intensity in his dancing and in his meditation practice
  • How he has had to “find the middle” of both extremes of his intensity
  • How he grew up with a very intense life in the city of Mumbai, which has over 19 million people
  • How Prashant stays connected to his Indian culture and loves giving others a window into that world
  • How he had to downplay his passion for music and dancing as he grew up, mainly because of his family’s disapproval
  • How his intensity sometimes gets out of control
  • How Prashant finds opportunities to self-reflect and course-correct
  • How he helps by holding opportunities sacred in bringing his culture to people and helping them connect to it
  • Harnessing the power of his intensity by being around people who resonate with him
  • Prashant’s personal habits of jumping headfirst, thinking later, going with his instinct, and embracing the unknown
  • The best advice Prashant has ever received: “Live and go, based on your personal experience, not on what someone else does or says.”
  • Prashant’s favorite books to recommend: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews
  • How Prashant loves to help others in teaching dance because it’s both external AND internal

Resources:

Find Prashant on Instagram:  Instagram: Dream Prashant

Find Prashant on YouTube:  Dream Prashant

Find Prashant’s website:  Dreams Perfected

Consider supporting the podcast:  Embracing Intensity

From last week’s episode:  Side by Side: A Model of Healthy Relationships by Kate Arms

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