Move Through Fear - Episode 25

Holding on to your nerves, grounded in nothing but your imagination. The focus is off.  It’s amazing what the mind will do, if left to its own devices.  It wants protection from what?  You can only decide that. 

For the last two weeks, there has been a woman missing just a few miles from my house.  The last time she was seen was in the very grocery store I go to buy over priced vegetables when I don’t feel like making a trip to “town”.  She drove right my past my house to get to the forest that she entered on May 8th.  The only thing was, she didn’t come out.  Her car was found there by police, her cell phone and back pack sitting curiously on the front seat.  The keys left casually behind the drivers tire, as in typical free-spirited tradition.  I am the one always in full support of these things.  At the core of my values is caution to the wind, doing what we want, enjoying nature respect, but without fear, the idea of strong independent women taking on life with full forced enthusiasm.  And yet, when Amanda Eller went missing, my very core beliefs were shaken.  What had happened?  My soul felt like it lost one of my own.  The sadness turned to fear as my imagination began to take the best of me.  We didn’t know what happened.  Had she met with foul play?  My imagination of the worst possible scenarios began to play in my mind…did she try to run?  Should she have played to their requests, only to try to outsmart them in the end?  Who are they?  Who or what are we trying to survive from? 

The fear inside of me began to take shape in many unwelcomed forms.  I had nightmares of being attacked; the sounds outside my jungle cabin began to take on new and wild sounds similar to a horror movie.  I imagined people hiding in my car, in my outdoor bathroom, behind every corner.  It’s amazing how quickly your body can go to flight or fight mode for no reason other than what tricks the mind can play.

This is not how I, Felicity Powers, live.  My husband reminded me of the time I was lost in the middle of the night in the slums of Mumbai or when I was on a sailboat in the Bermuda triangle about to run aground on a reef.  Or when I hitchhiked across the country with complete strangers and truck drivers. Why was this situation so much more difficult for me?  For me, it was the unknown variables that shook me.  When I know what I am dealing with, I can find solutions.  The fear of the unknown predator is truly different.

The sickly feeling inside of me was not acceptable.  My bones had fear inside of them.  I began to say both mentally and out loud, “Not in MY HOUSE!”  My house being both my physical cabin in the jungle and also my body.  This helped, as I repeated it, becoming stronger in both feeling and intention.

I tried to tap in to my center, which is love.  I believe the opposite of fear is love, and when you tap into that center, the energy you exude is one of protection.  It is incomprehensible to malicious intent, and difficult to prey upon. 

After about two weeks of on and off uncontrollable anxiety, beating it…then it coming back.  Again, not like me at all, and I was noticing a pattern of it easily coming back—not a habit I want my system to get comfortable with.  I decided I needed to get a full body massage.  In my experience massage can utterly shove/ force energy around in your body.  With positive intent, I could free myself from the heaviness of fear.

So in the typical Felicity approach, I just I looked up the closest massage place, and lucked upon an amazing masseuse who practices ancient Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage.  I told her about my fear and she began the massage with an ancient prayer of safety.  The massage was clearing, as I breathed deeply into my intentions for Amanda and for myself.

The massage ended, I got up from my blissed out state, and glanced down at my phone.  “She’s been found, ALIVE!!!”  My body was in immediate pins and needles of elation.  She had been lost in the jungle for 16 days, survived, and was found by a helicopter within minutes of my massage ending.  The lightness and gratitude of Amanda being found has carried me for almost 24 hours now.  I am truly grateful for those that didn’t give up in finding her, and still remarkably shocked at how powerful the mind is in creating or deleting fear from our lives.

-Felicity

Being out of alignment is OKAY!

There are just some days when things seriously don’t go the way we want them to. Whether it’s outside influence or just how we feel in the moment, there are times when we feel completely out of alignment. You might say to ourselves, “Wow, this day is just shot. I feel terrible and now my whole day isn’t going right.” And even worse, “now I’m aware that I’m out of alignment so check me out attracting more chaos. Yay me.” The reason I know this is because I’ve been there. I am quite familiar with that feeling… I have a 3-year-old who doesn’t sleep well, he is in those so called “terrific” (more like terrifying) threes and my one year old is either trying to run away from me with something in his mouth or desperately clinging to me . There’s a lot not working in my favor.

What I want to say is that being out of alignment is okay. And the reason is because the judgment of our emotions, the feeling bad about being out of alignment, is all in our ego. Our higher and truest self does not judge us for having a bad day. Just as the universe doesn’t judge our emotions, the same goes for our higher selves. We must give ourselves grace in these times of low vibration and not continue to judge ourselves, perpetuating the negativity. Listen to your inner voice… does it ever come from a place of judgement? No. We must stop the judgement of our own emotions. Why do we become our biggest critics? Our worst supporters? We must learn to truly love ourselves enough to be our own support. To be rooting for ourselves.

Side note: Literally as I am writing these words, my son has thrown himself on the ground crying (screaming) because he can’t close an Easter egg on his own but he doesn’t want my help. DEEP BREATHS, friends. DEEP FREAKING BREATHS.

We can strive to take tiny steps to get closer and closer to alignment. So that as the day progresses, we are not completely lost and drained at the end of it. Some examples of small steps that get me closer to alignment include, giving my son a big hug, grabbing that vanilla latte or sparkling water, turning on some aligning music in the background and even taking one minute in downward dog to stretch. Deep breaths are my key to slowing down and giving myself a moment within the chaos. It is important to know that we must allow ourselves to feel the discomfort without judgement so that we can easily recognize that it’s just a passing feeling that can’t weigh us down. Flow through the emotion and allow it to run its course. Don’t fight it because you can literally drown in that low vibration, flow with it and then when you can tread water, try. If something doesn’t work right away, don’t fret.

Try again, give yourself grace and love. Just as our inner being would.

xo, Claire

My first experience with Tarot + Intuition

Growing up I was told that Tarot cards and readings were FAKE. Someone who read fortunes was "just trying to get your money". Remember Miss Cleo? "Call me now for your free reading!" That was the message I grew up with. Follow this link if you don't know what I'm talking about here.

My first encounter with an "intuitive" or tarot reader was in college. I was experiencing a major life shift and felt that I needed guidance. My friend and I both went to the little shop that we passed hundreds of times with little to no expectation. The woman who was doing my reading walked in after getting fast food from next door... my expectations dropped even more. I was sure I was wasting my money but I didn't want to just walk out. I was there for a reason and I might as well see it through. The reading consisted of a palm reading and tarot session. I explained all of what was going on in my life at the time. I had experienced a major breakup, I considered moving and changing schools.

After reading my palms and pulling cards for me, she confirmed what I knew I should do. Basically I heard everything I wanted to hear... and after telling her about my problems, I figured that she was probably just giving me advice. I wrote it off as a fun experience but definitely not something I'd do again.

I actually ended up following the advice she gave me and it led me to where I am today. I let go of that relationship with an open heart, went to the school that my heart knew was right and began a relationship with my now husband. In fact, the woman told me that I already knew who my soulmate was... he was someone already in my life, I just needed time. And sure enough, Darren and I had been friends since high school and about a year after that reading, our relationship really took off.

10+ years later and here I am studying the Tarot and really leaning into my intuition. I think that the woman told me everything I wanted to hear because deep inside, my intuition knew what was right. I believe it was my intuition that led me to find someone confirm what I had been hearing all along. Now of course, I can trust my own intuition and can hear it MUCH more clearly. I am able to tap into it whenever I need guidance. I allow myself to be nudged closer and closer to my truest path.

I have never wondered what my life would be like had I not listened to that woman. I think it's because I knew that this was always the way it was meant to be. Now that I'm on the right path, I see confirmation of it everywhere. Being tapped into my own intuition has been the greatest gift. Reading Tarot or writing to your intuition or even just going with your gut feeling are all ways that we can open up the channel and connect with who we truly are. The closer we are to our highest self, the better.

WOW, we're a little behind on this blog thang!

We've been working tirelessly to get content out on our podcast and Instagram. We hope you've been enjoying everything lately! Our intention was to have show notes for every single episode... but as we've been getting this show off the ground, while living our lives outside of the podcast, we've realized there's been a bit of a learning curve involved :)

Thanks for sticking around! We'll have more content up soon as we are planning BIG things for Bonfire Babes.

In the meantime, we would LOVE to get to know you a little better. Follow this link to fill out a form so we can get to know you better and create better and more targeted content that will vibe with you! Can't wait to hear from you.

Episode 06: Ego + Intuition

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In this episode we explore the two voices that guide us, our ego and intuition. We define them to help you know the difference between them and talk about how to quiet the ego and tune into our intuition. We share how we release thoughts from our ego and a writing exercise to connect with our intuition. Come back to this episode as many times as you need, it's shorter than other episodes but the content is juicy. 

We define ego and intuition.
We give you a visualization exercise to release egoic thought.
We give you a writing exercise to help you tap into your intuition.
Felicity shares an excerpt from her own intuition.

This episode is great for anyone who wants to start living their soul's true purpose.

Release that egoic thought!
Close your eyes. Visualize a bright, warm light (this is love). Take a deep breath in, breathing love in. Say: Thank you for that thought, ego, but it does not serve me. Then breathe out, slow. I imagine myself as I take that deep breath in being surrounded by love and then seeing the love dissolve the negative thought. You can use any kind of visualization that best fits you but I definitely imagine a Pocahontas-colors of the wind-vibe!

Tap into your intuition!
Find a quiet space. Write a question on the paper. Clear your mind and write the first thing that comes to you.

Most of all, do what feels best for you. Know that your intuition can communicate with you in many ways, not just in thoughts or words but it can literally flow out of you like art on canvas. So listen to yourself. Check in with how you feel and as always, if it doesn't feel good... move on and do what does.

Best, Claire

The Travels of a Wild Woman

For most of my life I’ve been a traveler.  At the age of eight my family moved from rural Alaska to Hawaii, and for the rest of my youth we moved houses every year or two without fail.  New schools, new houses, new friends was a big part of my upbringing. My parents had a big influence on how I processed that newness. They always were excited about the next big opportunity.  The nicer house, the new location, the new idea. We rode those opportunities like waves, and when one failed we always had new ones to replace them with. As far as friends, I kept many as penpals telling them of my wild adventures.  My parents taught me I was given a chance to reinvent myself everytime I started a new school. I used this to really assess who I was and who I wanted to be.

Everything about being in new places excited me.  I loved being in Hawaii where the schools were so diverse, and I love observing the multi-cultural dynamics, learning about new histories and cultures, and engaging in new adventures.  I was a traveler before I know what that was.

When I was 14, I took a trip to Japan with one other girl my age.  We each lived with separate host families for 6 weeks and my life was violently shaken upside down.  We had tofu and whole baked fish for breakfast. We took two trains, a bus, and walked for 45 minutes each way in the humid heat in heavy long uniforms.  I was thrown into a world where I could not read the writing nor speak the language, and I had to learn how to get creative quickly. This experience rocked my life in a real way, and ever since I was obsessed with the challenge of international travel.  I loved being uncomfortable and figuring it out. It was the beginning of the next 15 years of my life as a world traveller.

Many of my travels I have taken with travel buddies, but many others I have been solo.  I savor each experience, and think back to every experience like one think backs to a good meal.  Traveling is one of the times I feel most alive. It is when you have to trust people more than normal, see things done in different ways, see the world and its many diverse relationships interpreted in differently.  

When traveling solo I like to get up with the sun and walk around new cities.  I love seeing a city in its sleeping state. I feel like I am experiencing something special, that not everyone gets to see.  I love to watch a city wake up. I love partaking in the morning beverage and breakfast of choice of a particular area. Fried bread and cafe con leche or hot tea and fruit or tofu and a whole fish, let me watch the sunrise…  I love learning new languages and seeing the ingenuity at every level of humanity. I love the raw approaches to business and the true connectedness that still exists in many corners of the world.

Travel, for me, puts me into alignment.  It is a challenging game if discovery that turns all my senses on.  Does travel do this for you? Do you have any wild travel stories you would like to share?  I would love to hear them!

Episode 4: Bonfire Chat with Darren Byler

In this episode of the Bonfire Babes Podcast, I sit down with my husband Darren to talk about his life and how he uses the law of attraction to manifest all the things he desires. We talk about parenthood, using the law of attraction unknowingly and we dive into religion and the stigma that all this woo woo stuff can have. I certainly learned a lot that I didn't know and it was so much fun sharing this space with him. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did.
 

Abraham Hicks - Esther and Jerry Hicks - The Law of Attraction (get the audible version!)
Seth - Jane Roberts - The Seth Material
Darryl Anka - Bashar

I invite you to go down the rabbit hole on youtube if you're into this stuff... the Abraham Hicks stuff is fascinating and there is SO much of it available. Leave a comment below or get in touch with us on instagram or by email and let us know your thoughts!

A podcast about all the things that light us up and make us shine. We'll chat about all things high vibe, relationships, crystals, yoga, pregnancy, travel and so much more! Join us at the bonfire.

Episode 3: Rise Into Your Worthiness

In this episode of the Bonfire Babes Podcast we explore the world of feeling unworthy. You'll hear why we think so many women deal with this problem and we share with you our own personal journeys with unworthiness. Our examples cover both relationships and motherhood issues.

In this episode of the Bonfire Babes Podcast we explore the world of feeling unworthy. You'll hear why we think so many women deal with this problem and we share with you our own personal journeys with unworthiness. Our examples cover both relationships and motherhood issues. We also leave you with tools to help you remember your own worth.

This episode is great for anyone who has ever felt as if they were not enough. We hope that after listening to this episode, you are able to dig deep into your soul and rediscover your worth.

...

Here are 5 ways to start treating yourself more kindly...

1. Take care of your body.
Listen to what your body needs, not just what it wants but what it needs to function at it's highest vibration. Get restful sleep, move your body and fuel it with nutritious foods.

2. Ask yourself, "Is this right for me?" "Is this serving me?"
Often we commit to things that aren't even good for us, we put ourselves and our needs behind others. Putting ourselves first takes real discipline but we really need to start loving ourselves.

3. Acknowledge your strengths.
We tend to always notice and point out our faults. Bring focus to the things we do in each day that exude love and kindness. The more we focus on that goodness, the more we can attract.

4. Use loving language.
Pay attention to the things you say to yourself. Have you used any of these sayings lately?:
I'm so stupid. I knew I would fail. I can't believe I thought I could... I hate myself. I don't deserve...
Would you say these phrases to a child? Or to someone you respected? We must learn to respect ourselves enough to use loving language and give ourselves some grace when we fail.

5. Feel gratitude.
Gratitude is an amazing magnet for more positivity in life. When we really focus our lens on gratitude, we are able to open our walls to more possibilities. Be open to other's acts of kindness. Learn how to take compliments, often we brush aside kind comments from others. Show gratitude and allow that to help you move forward in your day with more love.

Daily Affirmation: I acknowledge my worth; I am overflowing with love.

Practice this daily affirmation for 30 days and share how it affects your life! Once you believe in this affirmation, create a new one! Affirmations are POWERFUL at changing our thought patterns. Using them can actually alter your brain to start believing in them AND can actually make it more easy for you to think positive thoughts!

Episode 2: Alignment

What a way to kick this journey off!! This was so much fun to record and we could go on for hours about this topic. In this episode we talk about one of our favorite things... ALIGNMENT. This is a BIG topic and we can't wait to share it with you.

Here's what we went over...
-the law of attraction
-what is alignment and flow and how do I get into it?
-how does alignment bring us closer to creating the lives of our dreams?
-what does alignment look like when you have screaming kids around you at all times?
-intentional living and letting go of relationships that don't serve you

This episode is great if you're new to living with intention and are looking for a brief overview of what alignment is.

Here are some of our favorite resources for diving deeper into this topic and hopefully starting you out on your own journey of discovery!

Abraham Hicks - The River, Alignment + Flow
Abraham Hicks - Alignment, Alignment, Alignment
The Lively Show - How to Get out of Fear and Back into Flow + Alignment With Gabby Bernstein
The Secret - Book and Documentary

Why the Bonfire?

Think of a bonfire... what kind of thoughts come to your mind?

I'll tell you what comes to my mind... warmth, friendship and s'mores (mmmm...). That smell that sticks to your hair and clothes after a long night at the bonfire is intoxicating and for me and brings back all kinds of feel good memories.

As a child, I camped a lot and bonfires were part of that special event. It meant that both my parents took time off of work, loaded the car up and took my sister and I to the beach to camp. Growing up in Hawaii, camping looked different than what many of my mainland friends experienced. I got crashing waves, late night fishing and sand EVERYWHERE while they got potential bears (that may be a slight exaggeration, haha!). We cooked over the fire, we made s'mores and stayed up late underneath the stars. I can't wait to create those kinds of memories with my boys.

As an adult, bonfires meant celebrations. The start of summer, a birthday, the end of finals or even just to celebrate friendship and being alive. This usually included copious amounts of some kind of alcohol and feet covered in charcoal. Friendships were made, relationships were made and broken, friends turned into best friends and I had some of the best nights of my life around a bonfire.

Bonfires are where humans for centuries have gathered to tell stories. It's what makes us human and what gave us an edge over other species. What are we without fire? What kind of stories would we not have known had we not discovered the power of fire? The bonfire is where ancient ceremonies took place. It's where we danced all night long. It's a place of tradition, of passing down our ancestor's knowledge. It was a sacred place but also a place of community. And while I think that the real bonfire is always better, creating space in our hearts for a digital bonfire helps us to continue the tradition of bonfires shared by ancients all over the world.

So feel free to whip up some s'mores in your home while listening to the podcast. We invite you to always join in the conversation, be a part of this beautiful community and share the good times with us. I just use my imagination now for that bonfire smell I love so much :)

When you get sick of making excuses...

For 6 years, I’ve had this vision of the life I wanted to live.  I’ve dreamed of living in a tropical climate, sun-kissed hair, eating healthy, colorful food, and spending time in the ocean daily.  I dreamed of sailboats and fishing. I dreamed of having a family in this environment, my children running around naked like sea gypsies- tan, happy, healthy, and strong from a life near the ocean. 

For 6 years I have found every excuse in the book of why I couldn’t just go and live this life.  I made an excuse that I needed way more money to survive in that environment. I even went to the point of saying I needed 7 streams of passive income before I could possibly settle down in paradise!  I have been working around the clock, in big, big cities in urban areas for 6 years and dreaming of being warm and healthy. At one point I had saved quite a bit of money, but instead of going and investing that money in a beautiful tropical location, I decided I needed to be even MORE prepared and invested it into my parent’s business and went to work for them...hundreds of miles from the sea in the dessert.  I sat at a desk for 10 hours a day hunched over my computer drinking coffee and staring out the window into corn fields. I spent many days looking at my instagram of beautiful beach babes and would look online at bikinis that would someday fit and I would someday wear. If you know me, this didn’t used to be me. I was always the go-getter, that went after what she wanted. What the heck happened?

I slowly began to ask myself questions that ultimately made me really question my behavior.

Why was this dream so difficult to accomplish? 

Why was it more comfortable just working and working for a goal, but never making the jump?

How did I get this way?  How is the fear of “making it” keeping me from even trying?  As I get older, I feel like these strange fears easily creep in without even consciously letting them in.  If I’ve never had difficulty finding work, why am I so worried about having everything perfect before I move to the sea?

The egg began to open.  I came to the realization that I’d been dancing around my goals because I was afraid of failure.  I was afraid that if I actually moved to the tropics, and I didn’t make it-- then what?? What would people think of me?  For some reason I felt ok with doing these things in my early 20s. No one took me too seriously. But in my 30s? I felt this overwhelming pressure that I had to really “make it.”  There was this unstated pressure that play time was over.

And you know what, I didn’t consciously agree with that.  I was unconsciously making decisions that brought me farther from the beach than I had ever been.

It was then that I decided to make some rapid decisions to get myself closer to my goals.  The rapid decisions built momentum. I decided I’d rather be dancing closer to my goals, even with the potential of failure,  then wait until I was perfect or the situation was perfect. You know it’s the right thing when things start feeling good again.  When the flow starts to happen. I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to my dreams.

Stay tuned for this beach babe to make some dreams become reality.

Has this happened to you?  Do you ever feel the pressure to “make it”, and so you leave your dreams for “later”?  I want to hear about it!

Season 1 Episode 1 - The Spark!

Well, we did it. We are putting the feelers out there and we are LIVE. Our first episode of Bonfire Babes is available on the Anchor app. Click on the link at the top of the page to be zoomed off to our page on Anchor or click HERE.
Leave us a comment and let us know what you think! Share some topic ideas with us! We can't wait to connect!

-Claire