Unleash Your Potential with Author Becca Powers
This is Wendy Halley, and you're listening to Lucid Cafe. Hello. Hello. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Lucid Cafe, a podcast exploring consciousness and healing and the complexities of being human. And oh my, complexities abound.
Wendy:We've got some clown car action going on here in the U.S., which is unsettling in a variety of disturbing ways. I mean, if someone wrote what's unfolding as a novel, I don't think any publisher would publish it because it would be deemed too far fetched and the characters too one dimensional, Unless the author wrote it to be ironic. So our charge is to find ways to be okay. So, are you doing okay? Are you taking care of yourself in the best possible way?
Wendy:I'll just add that I can't recommend cacao enough. If you can get yourself some pure cacao and have a little personal ceremony or invite some friends to join you, it truly is like drinking a cup of chocolate love that leaves you feeling like everything's gonna be okay. I have some here at the wellness center in Vermont if you're local and would like to get some. Just reach out so we can find a time for you to stop in. Alright, let's get to today's episode.
Wendy:Have you ever wanted to create change or unapologetically chase your dreams, yet for some reason you stop before you ever get started? Do you ever feel stretched in so many different directions that it feels like you've lost your creative spark? My guest, Becca Powers, wants to empower you to unleash your potential and become everything you were meant to be. In this episode, we discuss her new book, A Return to Radiance, The Power Method to Ignite Your Soul and Unleash Your Potential, and the creative ways she's developed to help people get unstuck. That's some bad grammar right there.
Wendy:Oof. Becca has been referred to as the female Tony Robbins and is a renowned keynote speaker and the visionary founder of Power's Peak Potential, a leading keynote and training company specializing in mindset mastery for high performers. From her humble beginnings as a minimum wage dollar store employee to an award winning twenty year career as a Fortune five hundred sales executive, Becca has perfected her expertise in empowering senior leaders and high performance teams to unlock their full potential through her proprietary methodology, the Power Method. Please enjoy my lively conversation with Becca Powers. Becca, thank you so much for joining me.
Becca:Happy to be here, Wendy. I can't wait to dive in. I listened to a couple episodes too, so I'm like, this is gonna be a good conversation.
Wendy:Oh, great. Well, thank you for listening. Thank you so much. So you have a new book out. It's called A Return to Radiance: The Power Method to Ignite Your Soul and Unleash Your Potential.
Wendy:That's like big stuff.
Becca:Yes. It is big stuff. Uh-huh.
Wendy:So Becca doesn't screw around, everybody.
Becca:Go in. Like, my my maiden name is, like, my and it's my author name too. His last name is Powers, so I just go straight in.
Wendy:Yep. Why screw around, really?
Becca:That's right.
Wendy:Yeah. I'd love to just start with the word radiance because it's not a word we use a lot. No. What's your definition of radiance with respect to your book?
Becca:So radiance for me is well, I'll I'll define it first and then I'll kinda share what really drew me to write about it is in my perception of radiance, I I believe it's three parts. It's one part our humanness. It's you as Wendy. It's me as Becca, my personality, your personality. It's one part our soul, and it's one part infinite intelligence.
Becca:So when I think about it that way, I like to say our radiance is two thirds cosmic. Right? And then one third human. And so the thing that got me to write about radiance is I'm a Kundalini yoga teacher, and when we're practicing Kundalini yoga and especially as I went through the the trainings and I'm a level two, so I've done a lot of work, the ending expression so there's 10 bodies in Kundalini yoga, and it's similar to, like, seven to eight chakras, right, in in the chakra system, so they have 10 bodies. The final body is the radiant body, and that would be if you were comparing it to, like, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it would be self actualization.
Becca:And I just always thought it was such a beautiful expression as, like, our radiant self is the final expression that we can get to in this human experience. And it's just something that I always thought was beautiful. And then when after I had gone through my own series of experiences, I was like, it's a return to radiance because we are already that final expression. We're born that final expression. We become disconnected, and we just need to return to it.
Becca:So that's where kinda, like, the premise came from.
Wendy:Okay. Yeah. Some stuff does get in the way, doesn't it?
Becca:It does. Life lives. Yeah.
Wendy:Yeah. And that's really what your book is about is to try to get the shit out of the way so that your radiance can come forward.
Becca:Yes.
Wendy:And express itself. Yeah. So you talk about unpotential.
Becca:Mhmm.
Wendy:What made you come up with that term to describe?
Becca:Unpotential. Well well, I start the book off in our in burnout, in our trauma responses, and stuff like that. And and I'm always big on trying to give easy language to complicated things. And even though words like burnout and trauma are used all the time, when I was doing all my research and, again, on on the on the full expression side, we're talking about your full potential, your true potential, your true self, your radiance, and all this stuff. But then when we get stuck in the, we're talking about trauma and burnout and all these different things.
Becca:I'm like, really, it's just our unpotential. You have your potential and your unpotential. So I wanted to talk about it in a new way so that way, maybe it lands different or inspires someone who might be kinda numb to some of the common words that are just being said all the time.
Wendy:So do you mean it as if someone is expressing their unpotential or it's to try
Becca:to
Wendy:avoid expressing their unpotential?
Becca:Well, I think maybe a little bit of both. I think that we are made up of our unpotential and our potential, but I feel like we can get stuck in our unpotential even in the best efforts of chasing bills, responsibilities, caretaking, whether it's children or parents or family members. I I was joking around earlier. I was like, life lives, but life does life. And we have to respond to it, but when we don't respond to it intentionally or with high amounts of self care, and that means different things, we can get stuck in our own potential most of the time on accident.
Wendy:Well yeah. No. I don't think anybody would intentionally
Becca:Yeah.
Wendy:Strive to live their unpotential. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna be the opposite of what I would really like to be and what my gifts are. Yeah.
Wendy:Yeah. But we do it. Right? I mean, it's not a conscious thing. It's complicated.
Becca:It is complicated. And that's why I say accidental because, yeah, nobody means to do it, but we are are creatures of being hard on ourselves. So when I'm having these conversations and people are like, oh my god. I am in my unpotential. How could I let this happen?
Becca:Blah blah blah. My response is you were just human. Right? Like, you didn't intentionally bring yourself here. Just
Wendy:Yeah. Just human. So I'm curious if you don't mind talking about how you came to write this book. I suspect that your Kundalini practice contributed quite a bit based on how you've written the book.
Becca:Sure.
Wendy:Did you have a spontaneous Kundalini opening, or did you work towards
Becca:All all of it. I have a mess, and then I have the the healing and the enlightenment. I mean, you're not never in a fully enlightened state, but when you're meditating when you're doing, like, transcendental meditations for hours, you have some pretty cosmic experiences. So definitely have some downloads from from that side of things. But what really happened is a couple different things.
Becca:My quick personal story is I had a really awesome and unique childhood. When I was born, it was the late seventies, and my parents were musicians. They had a cover band. And I got to the first seven, eight years of life, I I got to grow up watching what I'm referring to as radiance. My parents were in their gifts, their talents, and their strengths.
Becca:They embodied them. They had gigs. They were out doing things. They had people over who were doing the same thing. So I had guitars and bongos and bonfires and all this stuff.
Becca:But what I witnessed were people being their true selves. What I witnessed was people being in an expression of joy and glee and witnessing their potential unfold. Right? And as I got older, my parents were so alive in this that as they had to start chasing they had me, my brother and I, and they had to start chasing bills, responsibilities, caretaking, all the things.
Wendy:Survival dance.
Becca:Yeah. They stopped doing their gigs. They stopped playing music, and I saw them. It was very painful to watch somebody who was once so alive shrink down. And my parents, both my parents passed away very early.
Becca:If I was to say it was probably depression related. My mom passed away at 46, the age of 46, and my dad passed away at the age of 62. So by the time I was 35, I had lost both my parents. At that same time around my 35 year mark, I'm 45 years now, so that's this is going back ten years ago, I was doing the same freaking thing. I was, you know, working
Wendy:As them, you mean?
Becca:Yeah. I was I was that pattern, that generational pattern was replaying itself. I have four kids. I had four kids around the middle school age group. I was a senior leader in organization.
Becca:So I had a team. I was grieving my dad. So I had lots of responsibilities, lots of things going on, and my radiance was dimming. And I felt burnout coming on, and I was faced with extreme burnout. I I'm a I'm very resilient, and it's a strength and a weakness of mine, but I powered through everything until one night I hit the bathroom floor.
Becca:And I was so emotionally exhausted that I collapsed one night with after I put the kids to bed. And in that moment of what I would people from the outside would see me as a powerhouse on the inside, I felt the most powerless I ever had, and I was laying there on the bathroom floor. I didn't have energy to call out to my husband for help. I didn't have energy to to stand up, so I just started crying. And in, like, my most broken state, I called out to, you know, god, universe.
Becca:I need help. I can't do tomorrow the same way I'm doing today, and I only know how to do tomorrow the same way I'm doing today. There is just a real desperation for for help. And I I got what I call my instant miracle. Something shifted on the inside.
Becca:I felt a voice or heard a voice from within said, Becca, you're the CEO of your life. And as I'm laying there, I'm like, if if I'm the CEO of my life, then I have a lot more power in this than I think I do. And I had just started I might have been a year into my Kundalini teacher trainings, and, like, it all started clicking together. And I rose up off the bathroom floor, a different woman than the one that went down, and I vowed that I would never hit it again. And if I stayed true to my vow, then I would help other people not hit the bathroom floor.
Becca:And so this is kind of where all the inspiration was. It was a little bit of my childhood and then going through extreme loss. It was watching myself go through this and the pain I caused myself, the pain I caused my family, and then the joy and the beauty that I saw when I did return to my radiance. And I was like, wow. I think if my parents would had a road map like this, they might still be alive.
Becca:And so I got very dedicated to building the formula and writing the book and all of that.
Wendy:It's a powerful story. And, I mean, you describe, like, a shamanic death and rebirth experience in on your bathroom floor. I mean, it's it's,
Becca:Yeah. I get the goosebumps as you say that. It was very visceral. I Oh, yeah. I remember everything.
Becca:Yeah.
Wendy:It leaves a mark, right, on your psyche. Yeah. Uh-huh. Because, yeah, the person you were has to die in order to allow your truth to come through. And that's a really it's a very difficult process to go through, and it's something that I think we all go through different versions of it or we're invited to.
Wendy:And sometimes we don't take ourselves up on it, and life becomes really challenging right after you get that call and you don't take yourself up on it. So good for you for well, I mean, it also sounds like you were in such a desperate place that it was, like, maybe you felt like you had no option.
Becca:Yeah. I was like I was just like, okay. I have to let go of my inner control freak. I don't got this. I don't got it.
Wendy:Yeah. You have your specific circumstances of your life, but I don't think it's that uncommon. I mean, I imagine the three people that listen to the podcast that that it's it's very relatable. It's super relatable. For anybody who's listening, who's feeling, like, trapped, trapped in their circumstances, trapped in a life that's not really serving them or working for them, if what you're offering is a little lifeline.
Becca:Yes.
Wendy:And in the book, you talk about the power method. The word power, of course, it's your last name,
Becca:and Mhmm.
Wendy:It's the method you created.
Becca:Yeah.
Wendy:So can you talk a little bit about the power method?
Becca:I would love to. So I there's five pillars to it. The first letter is the p, and that's protect your potential. And I wanted to really make it about the potential, and I go straight into it starts straight into, like, trauma and trauma responses and burnout and all this stuff. We it starts in the ick.
Becca:Right? But it should. And what I've realized over the years as I've healed myself and been a part of other people finding their path and their healing and and their growth, what I've noticed is that we weren't we, and I'm saying that generally speaking, we're not given the tools to be aligned to our potential. We're just go, and there are things you need to do to protect your potential to really stay in your radiance because if you don't, like, you you're gonna end up on the bathroom floor. Or I was just, sharing this story with someone else, and she's like, I wasn't on the bathroom floor, but I had to pull over the side of the road in my car.
Becca:I had a car moment. You had a bathroom floor moment, but I had a car moment. So I do think everybody relates to to this breaking down piece. And and protect your potential in pillar one, I give tools to help you sustain, to help protect your potential, and to stay off the bathroom floor. And then when we come come out of that phase of learning how to protect your potential, then it's about owning your opportunities.
Becca:And when I say that is that's very part two is very much or pillar two is very much a mindset section where you're pulling yourself out of victim to victor. You're changing what the meaning that you've assigned to things, including yourself. You're discovering what your values are and how you can align them to help you succeed or to live a more aligned life to your truth. And so once we get through that, then we're going into the w, which is awaken your worthiness. And I left that for the middle pillar because I really think that we gotta kinda get separated from the ick to get back to, like, oh, okay.
Becca:I got a little bit of that cleared away. I'm feeling good again, and now I can awaken my worthiness. I and I believe that we're born inherently worthy of having great health, having wealth, having healthy relationships, doing work even if it's whether it's a career or you're an entrepreneur. But I believe that we were given gifts, talents, and strengths to work, to express ourselves in through create whatever creative expression that may be and that we don't have to try so hard to do things. Like, we are already inherently there.
Becca:So it's about, like, tapping back into that worth. And so that's what I focus on in the third pillar. The fourth one is elevate your energy To be in at your peak potential or to be in the truth of who you are requires energy. I mean, we have to get that inner system going, and so that's the the breath work, the meditation, the mantra. It's the work.
Becca:He is the work. Elevate your energy. And then r is the really, it's rock your radiance, but that is the reward. When you are in your radiance, you are able your character is strong. You start making a difference by who you are rather than what you're doing.
Becca:Right? And you're you're making change because you're showing up as a change. And so that's the best way to explain it simply.
Wendy:Okay. Yeah. There's a lot there. Right? There's so much I'm guessing that it wasn't as linear a process for you like you did No.
Wendy:Ago. I don't know if it is for anybody, but you're trying to help give some it almost seems like a preventative. You've written this book so that people don't have to end up on the bathroom floor.
Becca:That would be ideal. That's where I was coming from energetically when
Wendy:I wrote the book. Yeah. Right. Okay. So do you think that even people who are born into the most dire circumstances that even they can rise above horrendous circumstances in order to become what you're describing?
Becca:I do. Because I think that I I've worked with all different types of people from poverty up into great wealth, and I think that there's a different struggle in each stage of life. Right? Where sometimes the the people that I might meet more in poverty are more in tune to happiness and joy, but haven't figured out how to generate the wealth. And I've also met extremely wealthy people who they don't even they can't even tap into joy.
Becca:Happy They're miserable. Yeah. Yeah. And How sad. So I feel that all circumstances are kinda unique to each person, and that's how I try to approach it from the book is like, hey.
Becca:You're you. I'm me. You're you, and you're the only one that actually knows what you're truly capable of. And so I tried to approach a return to Radiance, meeting people where they are regardless where they are on that spectrum.
Wendy:Yeah. It's so tough, at least from where I sit, to my shamanic teacher, Hank, used to talk about the difference between doing the survival dance and the sacred dance. It's a different of what you're talking about. I mean, our culture, western culture is set up in a capitalist way. So Yeah.
Wendy:We have to figure out what our survival dance is. But wouldn't it be glorious if we could find what our sacred dance is and then have it blend with our survival dance so that you can do both.
Becca:That's really yes. I'm so in alignment with that. I'm like, air five. Yes. Because I think it's the and.
Becca:You know, when your survival's questioned, it's really sometimes hard to get to that esoteric cosmic part of ourselves. But it is the dance of the end. We're sacred and we have to survive. Like, that's why I say our radiance is three parts, and and we're human and we have to honor that human part. But it's kind of cool to think that two thirds of us is cosmic because there's an infinite source or infinite intelligence out there that is capable of serving us in this journey so we don't have to be so human and stuck in it.
Becca:And that's kind of my invitation is the sake I love that you said that it's the survival, but with the sacred. Like, we can do both.
Wendy:Yeah. It's recommended. I mean, to to pursue it, but I think we can get so stuck in the survival dance that we don't
Becca:For sure.
Wendy:Have the energy or the drive, but you give so many great tips to help people kind of get out of that. So I I wanna touch on some of the points as I was reading your book that really stood out to me as important things just to chat about. Like, what do you think happens to the dreams and the possibilities we have when we're children?
Becca:Right.
Wendy:Because they don't stay in the foreground. Right? So what do you think happens to them?
Becca:You know, I I I used to play soccer, so I always say, like, I'm like, they went to the bench. I had, like, they didn't even go to the bench. They went to the locker room, and we forgot that they're there.
Wendy:They're sitting at the bus!
Becca:Yeah. They're still they're still there. But it's it's true. I think you had brought up a point that from a societal standpoint, we're very programmed to survive.
Becca:And not only that, but we're programmed to like, that's what happy should be. It should be the job, the house, the car, the this, the that.
Wendy:Right.
Becca:And as long as we're doing that, then we've made it, and we should be happy. But guess what? When our dreams and and and goals are left in the locker room, there's an emptiness that we feel. And what I've learned is just simply the invitation of inviting them back to the game, just using the soccer analogy, at least get them back to the sideline. We start to feel more whole.
Becca:And not only that, they're an important part of our expression when I'm talking about radiance. And I'll just use my, like, myself as an example. When I was a little kid, since you talk mentioned about the kids, I'm like, I have a story in there that says the Care Bear goes there. But when I was, like, five years old, I was setting up my Care Bears and whatever dolls and stuffed animals I had. I I've always been a writer, journaler, song lyrics, poems, whatever.
Becca:And whatever I wrote, I would set them up and I would I would read to them what I wrote or speak to them about whatever I was developing. And that was a very like, it gave me energy. It was exciting. It was fun, and it was like a game I played with them. And then I got older, and I told you, like, all the things that happened to me in 35.
Becca:I'm like, I I don't even by the time I was 35, I can't even tell you the last time I I wrote. Right? And part of my healing journey when I got off the bathroom floor was I just started journaling like crazy. And then as I started journaling, I started to feel more whole again. So it's like and again, inviting those dreams from the locker room back to the sideline.
Becca:I was kinda, like, dabbling with them again. And then next thing you know, I'm writing a book. And then now I have my second book. And it's just one of those things if you're listening to this, that that silly thing that you did when you were five or six might actually be the thing that lights you up inside and brings you life force. And it doesn't mean I mean, I'm very much a go getter.
Becca:It's my personality type. I'm very a type. So when I was writing, I'm like, oh, let me go publish a book. Started climbing climbing that, but that's because it's fun to me, but not because I don't have an outcome that I would I enjoy being a New York Times best selling author? Of course.
Becca:But I am not writing to become one, if that makes sense. I'm writing right for the joy of it.
Wendy:Right. So I think you're hitting on such a key point is that there are clues in our childhood.
Becca:Yeah. Oh, I get the goosebumps as you say that. Yes. Keep going.
Wendy:Yeah. If we can hearken back to what made us excited when we were really little, we're probably gonna get close to what it is, what our radiance, how it wants to express itself.
Becca:Yes. And I love that's how you said it too because it it is like a life force. It wants to express through us.
Wendy:Yeah. I think back to when I was really little. Yeah. What a little hammy kid I was. Right?
Wendy:And, yeah, just a smartass even back back
Becca:then. It's funny.
Wendy:Yes. Can you make a living being a smartass, do you think?
Becca:I think comedians do.
Wendy:Yeah. That's true. That's true. Actually, yeah, that's true. But, yeah, if you can tap into that, then that's a lot of the heavy lifting.
Wendy:Right? Because It is. You're so open when you're little because your logical mind hasn't come online yet, and all the abstract thought hasn't come online yet. So you're more pure, and you're Yes. You're more in touch with that immortal part of yourself that has all the the wisdom and the the blueprint for your life, the potential blueprint, I think.
Wendy:Anyway, that's just you don't have to buy into that idea. But also I'm saying is that the information is there and just the things that excite you. Right? The things that bring you joy or just the thought of them give you that little thrill inside.
Becca:I love that so much because I think as adults too, and the reason I said that I'm not writing for the result, I'm writing because of the joy and that I enjoy putting frameworks together. I enjoy figuring out how I did things and how my clients did things and put them in an order to help, you know, someone else in a book. But you don't have to have an outcome like that. I have had, I've worked with a woman who was a competitive dancer as a kid and in her thirties. She had no hobbies, no passions.
Becca:She's just work, work, work, work, work. And I had asked her, I said, well, what did you used to do as a kid? What did you love? And she said, I used to competitive dance. I was like, can you do that?
Becca:Like, can you by the time we meet again, can you just go to, like, Fred Astaire or something? I don't know. Like, find a dance place. And she's like, well, I'm too old to competitive dance. And I'm like That's sad.
Becca:And so this is how the dream start dying. And I was like, you're never too old to dance. Maybe you don't have to be an Olympic dancer, but you can there's little local competitions. You don't have to be a star. You just need to go do it for the joy of it.
Wendy:Or maybe it's just dancing. Right? It's
Becca:just It's just dancing. Competitive. Yeah. Yeah. Just I'm like, just go do it.
Becca:And she did get into dancing and, like, local competitions and stuff. But what really happened is her health increased. Her income increased. She brought joy back. She was collaborating with other dancers who were just like she's like, oh my gosh.
Becca:She's like, just being in the room and seeing everybody dance and the music and the energy. You could see her when I was on the video calls with her just light up the fact that she was dancing again. And so that's my invitation to the listeners is that it doesn't have to have, a shiny prize at the end of it. The prize is your joy.
Wendy:The experience of it.
Becca:The experience of it. Yeah.
Wendy:And the impact that experience has on you. Obviously, you're saying it changes you, and it changes how you're presenting yourself and how people are perceiving you. And how is that a bad thing. Right. Unless you're a complete asshole.
Wendy:And then it yeah. That's different. Yeah. But, yeah, we're hoping that that that wouldn't be your truth is that my truth is I'm an asshole. So, therefore, I'm going to that's my radiance.
Wendy:But that's never come up in an interview before.
Becca:Yeah. I haven't seen that yet.
Wendy:My radiance is asshole ish? Everyone, you can ignore that. Okay. So
Becca:It's funny.
Wendy:One of the other things, the topics that you touch on I mean, you touch on so many. I was, like, just trying to write down the ones that I thought would be really good fodder. So selfishness.
Becca:Mhmm.
Wendy:I think selfishness gets a bad rap, and you address that in your book. So I do. Can you speak to that?
Becca:I would love to because I think I think a lot of people who have the leader, high performer, spiritual anything, if you're a spiritual entrepreneur or practitioner, we there's a level of servitude to why we're doing the things that we're doing. We're trying to serve other people. And in that, when you're showing up for other people, you typically tend to give. And that giving personality tells you that self first is not a good thing, and that goes to what you're saying. It's it's selfish to put yourself first when you know that you're here for a reason.
Becca:You're here for most of these people have purpose, missions. Like, they know that they're here for big impact. So, again, it's kind of like life is a whole bunch of, like, duality and dichotomies that you have to, like, figure out, and it's so weird. But this is, like, one of them where, actually, it's not selfish. It's self first when you are able to prioritize yourself, and that means saying yes to yourself and potentially no to other people and projects so that you can say yes to yourself first, you get more space you within.
Becca:You get more energy and you get more time. And when you have more space and you have more energy and you have more time, guess what? You show up to serve so much better. So I always say, I'm like, it's not selfish. It's self first, and you just gotta be okay with it.
Becca:You know?
Wendy:Right. Yeah. Culturally, again, this is a a common
Becca:Yes.
Wendy:A common issue with women.
Becca:For sure.
Wendy:Being the nurturers, we have to take care of everyone else. Right? So that message is drilled in unconsciously. I think it's generational. And so the idea of putting myself first, it just it can rub us the wrong way.
Wendy:And if you're gonna say that taking care of the self is not warranted, that I don't have permission to do that because it's selfish, then you'd have to say, well, then because to me selfishness is there's a malicious intent. Like, you're trying to take advantage of someone else for your own benefit. And if you can answer that question, like, am I trying to harm someone by taking a minute for myself or doing some self care stuff or pursuing my dreams? Is that really
Becca:Hurting someone?
Wendy:Is that hurting someone? Actually, it's probably gonna have the opposite effect.
Becca:That's a really good reframe, Wendy. I like that you shared that a lot.
Wendy:Thanks. I'm glad it's I'm glad it's Yeah.
Becca:No. I'm like, that's that was awesome.
Wendy:So, yeah, self first. It's okay to put yourself first.
Becca:And for any of the listeners, especially for the women listeners, I just wanna double click into something that Wendy was talking about. This concept was very hard for me too. I have to I'm a mom of four. I'm a leader of a team, so I've got, like, I'm basically like a team mom. I've got six to eight people reporting to me.
Becca:And so I was at the bottom of the priority list when
Wendy:I hit the bathroom floor.
Becca:But when I was in my most powerless moment, and I can still tear up thinking about this, as I'm thinking about I have thoughts racing a million miles a minute. And I'm like, you know what's selfish is that I didn't put myself first because I'm almost I almost got hospitalized. And then I ended up I pushed myself. I was so selfless that I ended up with autoimmune disease, and it took me two to three years to really heal. There was days I couldn't get out of bed, and all I kept thinking about during my healing journey was how selfish it was of me not to prioritize myself because now who's suffering?
Becca:My family. I'm having to have people help take care of me. I'm having to take days off work because I wasn't willing to say yes to myself. That's pretty selfish. You know?
Becca:So it's just a mind flip on it.
Wendy:But Yeah. Unintentionally. Yes. Of course. But that's a great example.
Wendy:And I think it's a really common one too. Yeah. Mhmm. I think about the mostly women who come to, my wellness center and the struggles they have with their health and how this is part of it, I think. Yes.
Wendy:For a lot of us. Yeah. I mean, sometimes there's others factors, but but just it's like this long standing over time building trajectory towards poor health because if you think about it, a a lack of attending to the self. Mhmm. Not in every instance, but it's certainly there's a common thread there.
Wendy:Okay. So another really powerful concept you talk about is meaning making. Oh, yeah. If I think about it, actually, a lot of the concepts in your book, it does remind me of you being a CEO of your own life because it's kind of like, what is my mission statement as a human being? How many of us think about that?
Wendy:A lot of people ask the question, why am I here? What's my purpose? That does seem like a sad question that a lot of us ask Mhmm. That we don't know, that we feel so disconnected that we can't even answer that question. But there is a purpose.
Wendy:It may not be grandiose, but there is some reason why you're here. So how do you talk about meaning making with folks?
Becca:So when I was going through my own healing and then I did a bunch of certifications too in shadow I did a certification in limiting beliefs and shadow beliefs. It really made me look at meaning a different way and made me reflect on some of the things that I had been through and some of the mental shifts I made. But I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was like, oh, that's what I did. Is that meaning gives an emotional vibration. And when our meaning has pain attached to it, to an event or to a person, we actually reinforce, like, a a lower vibration.
Becca:And we I mean, this is kinda like law of attraction stuff, but p I don't know if people think about it in relationship to meaning and how that could keep us into, like, a lower vibrational stance. So you could even be doing all the law of attraction stuff, but still not getting results.
Wendy:That's a great point.
Becca:It might be because of what's going on around how you're associating with things. And so when I really started thinking about that, I was like, hey. Let's change the conversation. When I can when I was going through my health issues I'll just use it as an example because I think a story sometimes can help conversations like this be easier to understand. But think about that.
Becca:I was I had connective tissue autoimmune disease, which is now in remission, but it meant that, like, my joints and my bones ached from the inside. And there's days I couldn't get out of bed. And I could have sat in bed and felt sorry for myself. I really could have.
Wendy:And It's an option.
Becca:Yeah. It's an option, and I did do it a couple days and maybe a couple weeks. But at some point, I got over myself. Right? And I'm like, listen.
Becca:Like, I'm still alive. I still get to choose to put my feet on the floor even if it freaking hurts. I can still and I get emotional thinking about it because it's like, when I chose to live healthy in my mind, not like and, yes, I had to do all the things. I had to start eating better and moving my body differently and stuff. But I chose.
Becca:I'm like, I get to do this. I'm not dead. You know? I get to put my feet on the floor. I get to choose to go move my body.
Becca:I get to choose to go cut the vegetables that I don't want to eat. But guess what? I get to choose that. And the more that I started feeling empowered by my choices, my meaning around like, I felt very victimized. My dad had died.
Becca:I'd hit that bathroom floor. I knew I was going in a different trajectory, but I still had to go through that that middle part of some days really sucked and some days were great. And the more I shifted into I and I get to do this mindset, like, miracles started happening. Like, the struggle stops being so struggled. And that's really what my invitation is.
Becca:Like, what meaning are you assigning things to? Like, did did your mom yell at you when you were little and that made you feel like a bad girl? And so are you still carrying bad girl energy with you, which is very common for women. So that might be, again, a spot, an invitation where you can choose like, that's an old pattern. That doesn't serve me every time.
Becca:I don't do things. I don't take risk because I don't wanna get in trouble. Well, does that really serve you at 42 years old? I don't know. I'm just making up a number.
Becca:But that's what I mean by, like, I I really take meaning and I wanna drill into it because I think if it's an opportunity for us to live a much more healthier and radiant life if we can purposely choose to change the meaning we've assigned to things.
Wendy:Very powerful concept, and it makes me wonder how many folks with depression, if that's part of their depression, the onset of it is a lack of meaning in life. I remember reading that people who have a terminal diagnosis, if they have meaning, if they have a goal or something that they're striving for, they live so much longer because they're striving for something. They have that meaning, that purpose.
Becca:Mhmm.
Wendy:As opposed to people who just sort of surrender and give up. I think it depends on, again, on the diagnosis and the circumstances and everything.
Becca:Sure.
Wendy:And, yeah, you think about an absence of I don't have meaning in my life, Then why would you wanna get up in the morning? Right. The point. Do you think it is difficult to find meaning? It's kind of like the dreams we had when we were children.
Wendy:You can recollect them because there were moments of joy in your life. But do you think that meaning is tucked away somewhere?
Becca:I I do think it's tucked in, and I think it's I think it's in there always wanting to be expressed. And what I mean by that is as adult and it goes back to some of the societal conditioning that we've been talking about. I think that we're taught that meaning should be an outcome. Like, oh, this award or this certificate or this much in my bank account.
Wendy:That's a good point. Okay.
Becca:It's not meaning. Like, when I
Wendy:That's a goal.
Becca:Yeah. Right? And so when I was sick it's not the one gift within sickness is it shifts your perspective, especially when you get healthy again. And so what I find is that there's so our meaning comes in our relationships. Once I was able to heal myself from the inside out, I started having very deep and meaningful like, not even conversations, but connections with my kids, my husband, and talk about meaning.
Becca:Then I was finding meaning. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, I have meaning as a wife. I have meaning as a mom. Not only do I have meaning, but, like, I'm enjoying this depth.
Becca:I'm getting to know people. So, like, there's this level of I'm getting fulfilled with meaning by exploring my curiosity and seeing where it's going and seeing what's what's possible. There is meaning in who you are. When you get more in touch as I've been talking about this radiance and as Wendy's been saying, like, going back into the joy of even things from childhood, as those things come up, you start realizing that your character is stronger than it is. You start realizing, holy crap.
Becca:I overcame this, this, this, and this. Like, I didn't realize how powerful I was. And then all of a sudden talk about purpose. People try to find their purpose, and they think it's a job. Your purpose is often expressed through who you are rather than what you do.
Becca:And what I mean by that is we're having this awesome conversation about meaning. Like, I found meaning in helping other people find their potential. Right? And so as someone might go through some of my work and get re in touch with that, I I got a message today as a matter of fact of, like, Becca, this book has already, like, changed my life. It's so good.
Becca:I ordered a copy from for a girlfriend who's really struggling. And I think that's meaning. I think that's purpose. Absolutely. And so those things start happening as a reflection of who you are rather than what you're doing, and life gets to feel more satisfying.
Wendy:Okay. Before we wrap up, I have another question I wanna ask. Sure. Do you have any advice for people who are pursuing their dreams but aren't seeing success?
Becca:Keep going. And and alignment. I'm gonna talk about values
Wendy:really fast
Becca:because I'll make it a quick story. But oftentimes, when people are striving for success success are are their goals, like, it's the goal that is the objective and not the experience. And so I often say, like, focus more on I'm I'm a big goal setter. I love super big dreamy goals. I talk about them in the book, but the outcome should be a result of how all that alignment is happening within you.
Becca:It's an inside out game. And for someone who's striving but not seeing results, I typically find that it's an alignment issue with meaning that we've already talked about that, so I'm gonna skip that. But values is another big one, and I'm gonna give you an example. My number one value still to this day is meaningful work. Doctor.
Becca:Right? The thing is most of us don't know what our values are, and so I invite you to do, like, a values assessment. I have one in my book. But when I found out that my number one value was meaningful work, I was not surprised that I hit the bathroom floor because I valued it over myself.
Wendy:Oh, good point. Okay.
Becca:Mhmm. And so I would have never I had financial goals. I had other things, but I valued meaningful work over myself. And so I took myself out of my own game. So I wouldn't I wasn't able to hit some of the milestones that I had for myself at that point in my life because values have a light side and they have a shadow side.
Becca:And, unfortunately, the shadow side of my relationship to my values was winning the game. And so that's just might be some food for thought for some listeners as you like, if you're struggling to achieve something, maybe it might be packed up in the way that your values stack within.
Wendy:Love it. That's great. I mean, there's so many more areas I wanna go into, like power, for example. I wanted to talk about power, personal power. You wanna touch on that just briefly?
Becca:Yeah. We wrap that up. Well, yes. Because in Kundalini yoga, our personal power is located at the base of our spine. And that's just not in Kundalini yoga, but that's where I teach from.
Becca:So but we can activate that every day with our breath and with, like, taking some a couple deep breaths and then squeezing up and in on everything. But activating your power once a day is so incredible for that two thirds of ourselves that is cosmic. It needs us to be like, yes. We are cosmic. Like, take some deep breaths.
Becca:Your breath defines who you are. Take intentional deep breaths every day. Your personal power when you're you're talking about depression, it can beat depression. It can rise you out of the darkest places if you believe that it's within you. And so sometimes we just gotta start working at activating it, and then it will empower you.
Becca:I mean, sometimes you can't just be like personal power, go. I mean, it's you know? Like, that would be really cool. But if you do start working with it intentionally, it eventually will do that.
Wendy:Awesome. Yeah. And you also make some correlations with animals.
Becca:Yes. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. The roar.
Wendy:Very shamanic.
Becca:Yes. Yeah. And And I'll talk about that. I have time. Roaring is so fun, and it is you know, I just talked about, like, taking a big deep breath and then squeezing up and in on, like, your lower regions.
Becca:That is one way to do it, but roaring is so fun and very shamanic, and we love it in Kundalini yoga because it does. It activates all your personal power. And so if you are embarrassed to roar in front of people, roar in your car because it is fun, and it does activate your personal power.
Wendy:You know what's fascinating too, just a really quick little side note here, is that over the last eight to ten years or so of doing shamanic work for clients, the species of animal that's coming forward for women left and right is big cat medicine.
Becca:Really?
Wendy:Yeah. That's, like, the main animal that comes forward to be of service to that that person, that woman, to help her reconnect with her power, to step into it, to walk through the world like a jaguar or a lion.
Becca:That gives me the goosebumps. So It's really cool. I didn't mean to interrupt you. But it is just like when I was writing, like, I mean, I was very connected to spirit as I was writing this book, and I would meditate I really just try to get as connected as I could be before I wrote. And I got this download that was like, roar.
Becca:Like, this is really and I'm like, really, I'm thinking I'm like, do I wanna are people gonna laugh at this? Is this important to write? Well, here it goes. We're gonna roar. But I really appreciate you saying that because it felt important to write about.
Wendy:I think you're tapping into something there. Absolutely. That's cool. Very cool. Well, alright.
Wendy:So as we wrap things up, are you doing any kind of one on one work with people?
Becca:Right now, I'm mainly just doing conferences, workshops, things like that where I'm hired in to facilitate them. So if anyone's listening and they have interest in that, I'm down. You can find me at beccapowers.com, which Wendy shared before.
Wendy:But Yes. Absolutely. And then, of course, there's your book. Books
Becca:Yes. Is you have
Wendy:more than one book that I highly encourage people to, check out. And so, yeah, I'll put I'll put links up in the show notes for folks. And I just wanna thank you very much for coming on. This was really fun.
Becca:Thank you for having me. It was an awesome conversation. I love my smiling. You can't see me guys, but, like, I really enjoyed the conversation. I have very cheeky cheeks right now.
Wendy:That's cute. Thank you. Lots of great things to contemplate. If you'd like to learn more about Becca or get a copy of her new book, please visit beccapowers.com. Thank you for listening.
Wendy:I love hearing from you and so appreciate your feedback. A big thank you also to Lonnie for her generous donation to the podcast. I was able to upgrade some of my equipment, which after seven years was starting to fall apart. Okay. That does it for this episode.
Wendy:Next time, an absolutely fascinating conversation about the impact of social media on our brains. Please don't be afraid. It's good stuff. Until next time.
