We were lucky to catch up with Adria Firestone recently and have shared our conversation below.
Adria, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
The reality is that the pressure of my life in the past few years has been so intense that if I hadn’t hooked into my purpose for this lifetime and realized I hadn’t completed it yet, I would’ve left the planet. That’s a thought that bothers me and drives me forward. Like so many of us, there are those days when giving up feels like the easier option. It never really is though, is it?
I knew if I wanted to survive, and thrive, I had to accept the reality of where I was. I’m starting over again! It’s one thing to teach others acceptance, the challenge is to live the teaching.
Singing and theater saved my life. I escaped abuse and had a safe space where I could scream in pain and rage as long as I screamed on pitch and followed the conductor. For decades, I had an international award-winning career in opera and musical theater. When I left the stage, I had to reinvent myself.
While building my new career and a start-up business I discovered my husband had serious mental health issues. I became a full-time caregiver dealing with arrests, breakdowns, medical issues, lawyers and doing everything in my power to keep him out of jail. It worked, but in the process, I had to let my growing business go. Once again, I began the intense process of reinventing myself.
My resilience comes from all the lessons, the heartbreaks, the ‘making it up as you find your way’, learning to be perfectly imperfect and to always take the next step. I keep doing this every day and like exercise, we get better at it. So many women underestimate the power of their resilience, but this is one of the secrets of finding out who you are and what you are on this planet to do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My mission and profession have come together to empower the women of this earth to speak out, be seen and lead. I believe the divine feminine within us all can heal this world.
What I love about my business is that I get to use every skill I learned in world travel, in decades on stage, teaching and speaking. My work is practical and spiritually grounded.
Whether I am sharing presentation skills, camera confidence or designing the life of your dreams, the transformation I witness in my beautiful clients is thrilling. These are strong, successful women who have gone through intense career and life transitions and have lost touch with their wild, untamed hearts. Most have taken care of everybody else and let go of their dreams.
It’s time to reconnect to our wild, wise and untamed selves. By changing ourselves – seeing our lives and what is possible in a new way – changes our world. We can do this.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Get Help:
When I hit 50, I was running on empty and going about 90 mph. Not surprisingly, I crashed and burned. When I walked off the stage for the last time, the concept of who I thought I was vanished. Who was I now? Did anybody care? Did it matter? Did I matter? All the old definitions were gone. The void terrified me.
I got help, tried every healing modality, and began a gargantuan journey. In the silence of meditation, in movement and writing, I began to feel connection again with my own heart and soul. I tapped into my intuition and found gratitude that opened new horizons.
Surrender:
One of the keys that unlocked my healing was to release control. The more trauma has shaped us, the more we think safety lies in extreme vigilance, being fast and smart and controlling our environment. Those qualities helped me survive in the past. The past is gone. Forgiveness allows us to keep the lessons and let go of the pain and being a victim.
My healing led me to discover the power of my own vulnerability. I look at our lives as an exquisitely intricate tapestry unrolling in divine timing according to the contract our soul made before we came into this life. Part of my life lesson is to learn, and teach, spiritual sovereignty.
Surrender control over how or when things will manifest and allow divine timing. This is a far more joyous way for new opportunities and relationships to flow into your life and business. Be open to receive and willing to drop your cool and ask, “What do you mean by that?” allows communication and intimacy to flourish. Our deepest learning lies in our relationships, even the difficult ones.
Self-care
Like many caregivers, I ignored my own needs for years. I had no boundaries and no reserves. I was disconnected from my body and my health suffered. Finding help for myself was always on the to-do list but it never quite got done.
When we ignore our bodies, the Universe makes a move. I woke up one morning in extreme pain with a back spasm and couldn’t move. I began physical therapy and started walking – boorrrring! Then I began to listen to music again and I began to dance every day. After two decades of silence, dancing made me want to sing again, just for the joy of it.
This house our soul lives in is the only body we have in this lifetime. Movement and sound brought me back to life. I’m still shedding my protective pounds and feel and look twenty years younger. This reinvention stuff rocks!
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
When I was on stage I was hiding in the spotlight. Revealing my authentic self with all my tenderness and ferocity is scary stuff. I was so accustomed to masking my pain and doing it all myself, I had to learn to ask for help. I am learning how to receive and I’m willing to share what I have undergone – the process, the pain, and the power.
My solution is to continue to share my journey using all my creativity. Like I said before, my challenge is to live what I teach. I use my music in cabaret to tell my story. I share my spiritual rituals in the classes I teach. For us all, our most precious legacy is to grow up and become who we truly are.
And that’s the takeaway for our readers, reach out, find the help you need, trust you are here for a reason and find the courage to keep walking. This world needs you and your unique energy – not someone like you, but you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://adriafirestone.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/speakoutbeseenlead
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/adriafirestone
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdriaFirestone
- Other: https://adriafirestone.com/welcome https://thecharismaexpert.com
Image Credits
Freddie Hannan Linda Perdroso
