Conversations - Sarah Starrs

My new witchy mama's lifestyle blog: Of the Moon

Nicole Antoinette is the host of the Real Talk Radio podcast, where people come together to talk about the wonderful mess of being human. A recovering self-help addict and former goal-setting coach, Nicole’s mission is to help people get to the heart of what’s true without judgement, and to explore how we can use grit and grace to close the gap between what we say we want and what we actually do. I loved talking with her about her decision to hike more than 400 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail last year, how she successfully started a meditation practice after years of wanting to, the value of doing hard things, and what it really takes to create lasting change.

Bernadette Pleasant is the creator of Femme, a fusion of sensual movement, dance, meditation, creative visualization and celebration of the feminine form. Femme! as designed, creates sacred, safe spaces for women to explore their femininity; to move in sensual ways, to explore and release emotions, to alter or release beliefs about themselves and to unapologetically love their bodies! Bernadette was such a fun person to talk with. We dove into why people live “half-assed emotional lives” (and how to stop), the power of drumming and how it helps us to reach other levels of our psyche, and the wisdom we can access through our bodies.

Lady Lu of the Wolves, aka Lulu Brud Zsebe, is an actress on Pretty Little Liars and the wild woman behind the brand OF THE WOLVES. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and pup. In her free time she's probably playing with plants, re-designing homes or running around in the desert. I loved talking to Lulu about her connection to wolves, how she balances the competing demands of Hollywood acting and her more spiritual work, separating your sense of self-worth from your work, and making conscious decisions as a consumer.

Clare Barry is a Londoner, writer and founder of Urban Curiosity - a creativity and wellness company that helps busy people slow down and see things differently. Clare writes about creativity and human connection in a digital world and London in the real one. She leads international retreats and Urban Curiosity Walkshops in her hometown; these two-hour sessions are are part digital detox, part creativity class - on foot. By changing her lifestyle after experiencing burn out, Clare fell back in love with London and found solace within the hustle and bustle of the big city. I loved talking to her about ideas for navigating a busy, overwhelming city in a slower, more mindful way, being mindful of when and how we use our smartphones, and periods of consuming information vs. periods of creation.

Kirsten Hale is a trauma-informed herbalist and witch working to unspell the patterns of personal and collective trauma. She talks regularly to plants, makes potions and serves her kitties. She lives on the colonized territories of the Multnomah, Clackamas and other indigenous peoples in Portland, OR with two cats and a crow. We talk about what trauma really is, the ink between trauma and anti-oppression work, the link between trauma and anti-oppression work, and beginning your own relationship with herbs.

Shivani Seth is a South Asian American queer woman and the child of 1st generation immigrants from India. She’s a long-time writer, but a new publisher. I loved her article, Healing is Valuable Work and that’s the very topic we dive into in this episode. We chat about how she restructured her life after burn out, how we can come to be more generous with our definition of “work,” and the cultural beliefs we have to undo in order to see the true value of taking care of ourselves.

Veronica Yanhs is on a mission to empower women to unapologetically live their lives through kink and BDSM. To her, kink and BDSM are vessels that take people on a transformative journey to become their most confident, empowered, and enlightened self. She sat down to chat with me about the basics of what BDSM and kink are, what it looks like for her to live in a 24/7 dominant/submissive lifestyle, the myths about BDSM that she’d like to dispel, and the transformative power of BDSM and kink.

Nicola Salmon is a fertility coach, acupuncturist and naturopath. She was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome at 16 and told she would never have children. She made small tweaks to her health whilst she was training as an acupuncturist and having babies was easy for her. She’s passionate about helping other women get pregnant just as easily. We talk about what acupuncture is and how it works, the power of knowing our cycles, the myths that are perpetuated around fat and fertility, and a whole lot of other goodness.

Kait Fowlie is a Toronto-based writer who is interested in wellness and the writing process. Kait and I talk about balancing a day job and creative projects without working all the time, diving deep into journaling as tool for healing, and using archetypes to understand your present mindset and situation.

Kerrin Smith is the founder of Cool & Thoughtful, an initiative to shift social values from hyper-individualism to empathy by redefining cool as generosity rather than rebellion. I’m completely obsesesed with this concept and had the most amazing conversation with Kerrin about how meditation can help us process our feelings, blending action & faith when it comes to reaching our goals, and what it looks like (and feels like) to redefine cool for ourselves.

Today’s episode is a special FAQ episode with me again! It’s the last episode before I go on maternity leave but don’t worry - I’ve pre-recorded interviews and we’ll just be switching to publishing them every other week rather than weekly. I’ll be back to recording in the autumn. I’m talking about finding your girl gang, managing your anxiety, moving to a new city, why I haven’t been writing for the past month, what I’ve learned from pregnancy and a lot more.

Laura Jane Williams is the author of Amazon bestseller BECOMING: Sex, Second Chances, and Figuring Out Who the Hell I Am and forthcoming ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST: How rediscovering your inner child can make you calmer, happier, and solve your bullsh*t adult problems. She was Grazia's "single girl" columnist until February 2017, is Marie Claire's #BREAKFREE from fear ambassador, and has written about dating, lust and her feelings everywhere from The Guardian to RED to Buzzfeed, The Metro, Stylist, The Telegraph and more. She blogs at Superlatively Rude and is currently writing her third book. This is her second time on the podcast and in this episode we discuss her experience with burn out, why she decided to take a break from writing to become a nanny, the experience of writing her second book, and her considerations around having a child on her own.

Chris-Anne Donnelly spend her days creating sacred space and road-mapping potential, branding soulpreneurs and mixing an intoxicating blend of intuition and strategy. She's also the genius behind the Sacred Creator oracle deck - a favourite spiritual, entrepreneurial tool of mine.  We had a beautiful conversation about setting firm boundaries around our time, combining work and magic, finding the flow within your day, and the evolution of her manifestation process.

Sarah Kathleen Peck is a writer, teacher, and connector. She writes a popular newsletter about about personal development, behavior change, and leadership. She's currently writing a book called Startup Pregnant about how working in tech while pregnant opened her eyes to new ways of doing message. Sarah and I had a conversation that left me absolutely buzzing. We share some real talk about pregnancy and early motherhood. We also chat about the need for multiple ways of showing up for work and life - rather than pushing all of the time, the need to be more intentional and precise with our language and commitments, and grieving even positive life changes.

Amanda Duarte! Amanda is the creator and host of the monthly show Dead Darlings, in which artists present work they’ve had to cut or abandon, at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. She co-created the meme and movement #PussyGrabsBack, is the co-host of the new Cafe.com podcast Girl Friday, and is a regular at comedy and storytelling events throughout NYC. Amanda and I do a fair bit of ranting about American politics in this episode but we also talk about what she’s learned about the creative process from hosting Dead Darlings, how we can take tangible action towards political change, and turning off the news as an act of self-care.

Jenni Brown is a Type A Creative and a Co-Founder of Prim'd Marketing, where she's the resident creative-brain // web & branding strategist helping business owners look and sound like the best version of themselves. We dive deep into the importance of living in integrity with our values, how to get really clear on what our values are, and staying in touch with them on a day-to-day basis.

Rachel Hills is a New York-based journalist, activist and author of THE SEX MYTH. She is interested in the space where the personal meets the political, or what she calls "the politics of everyday life.” We’re talking about the toxic myths that are perpetuated about sex and sexuality, not judging ourselves based on our sex drive, being more open about sex, and activism as a form of self-care.

Kara Benz is the artist and author behind Boho Berry, where she inspires her readers to lead a more centered, fulfilled, and inspired life. Kara also runs a successful sticker shop on Etsy - Boho Berry Paperie, and is currently creating her very first handwriting course. We sat down to talk all things bullet journal! What the system is, her daily routine with her bullet journal, how to start one - even if you’re not artistic, and how her life has changed as a result of this system.

You might recognize Mara Wilson from her roles in Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Miracle on 34th Street. She’s recently released a memoir called Where Am I Now? and we sat down to chat about the creative process, managing mental health issues, and our obsessions with teen dramas.

Claire Baker is an amazing women's coach and writer. Through her popular blog, eBooks, online courses and live workshops, Claire teaches self-care, creative rekindling, how to live life aligned with your menstrual cycle and being kind to yourself and the world. Claire believes in less stress and more flow and knows that working with our natural rhythms is 'the missing key' when it comes to women's wellness. She’ll have you throwing out the scales, booking the flight, launching the blog – and falling back in love with your life. We talked about all of those things, as well as her new course Flow. What I think really sets this episode apart is we dive into how you can honour your natural cycles even if you don’t menstruate or if you’re a busy mom or have a 9-5 job and your time isn’t entirely your own. Clare has incredible advice for honouring your own rhythms regardless of your personal situation.

Today’s interview is with Erin Loechner. Erin has been blogging and speaking for more than a decade on her website Design for Mankind and she’s now released an incredible book called Chasing Slow. Now nestled in a Midwestern town, Erin, her husband, and their toddler strive for less in most areas except three: joy, grace, and goat cheese. Erin is one of the friendliest, most open people I’ve ever spoken to and I loved chatting with her about minimalism, slowing down our lives, finding our golden hours in order to be more creative, and what she learned about herself from writing her new book.

In this special FAQ episode I answer your questions about anything and everything! The topics range from spirituality, rituals, and routines to writing, activism, and moving to a new city. I hope it will give you a chance to get to know me better and learn something new in the process.

Vix Maxwell is an intuitive Tarot + Angel Card Reader + Fairyologist certified by Doreen Virtue, Holy Fire Reiki Level II, Celtic Reiki Mystic Master, Headmistress of Woo Woo School and the creator of New Age Hipster. Phew - that’s a mouthful, innit? That’s because Vix is one awesome lady! Sent here on a divine mission to kick open the musty old spiritual wardrobe, she is all about bringing the new age into the now by making spirituality accessible to whoever wants in! We had a conversation where we embraced all things woo and talk about stuff like learning to recognize our intuitive voice and getting clear on our own spiritual beliefs.

Lucy Pearce is the author of numerous life-changing non-fiction books for women, including: Burning Woman, The Rainbow Way and Moon Time, all #1 Amazon bestsellers. Lucy’s work is dedicated to supporting women’s empowered, embodied expression. She is the founder of Womancraft Publishing. Lucy and I had a really deep conversation about creative cycles, living in tune with our own rhythms, the beauty of working from bed, the difficulty of expressing our voices as women, and what it means to be a burning woman.

Sara Tasker runs the blog Me and Orla. She's a stylist, photographer, writer, and Instagram coach. We're talking about finding community (and making friends! online), curation vs. authenticity online, how Instagram has changed her life, and how she balances motherhood and chronic illness with her work.

Kristen Rogers Anderson wants to help people feel good by entertaining them and inspiring "me too!" moments. She's the co-host of the Book Club Schmook Club podcast and her true crime YouTube show, Guilty Party, launches this month. Kristen recently wrote an article about the positive sides of grief that she unexpectedly experienced after her family suffered a horrible tragedy. We talked about dealing with death, the importance of allowing yourself to grieve - and what that means, and how this experience helped her grow as a person. We also riffed on our love of bullet journaling, Kristen's journey with personal development, and the routines she's developed to take care of herself.

Alexandra Roxo is an intuitive coach, writer, filmmaker and public speaker living in LA. Her film work has garnered millions of hits online and been featured in press from Vogue to the Times. She recently co-founded Moon Club a monthly subscription based mentorship and coaching program. In this episode we talk about her journey to finding her voice as an artist, translating our feelings of overwhelm into activism, and balancing our spiritual and sexual lives.

Kelsey Cronkhite is the Founder and Creative Director at Pinegate Road — a brand strategy agency that specializes in helping creative businesses find their foundation, and build that out beautifully in all that they do. She personally loves bringing the hand-made and hand-lettered into the digital environment. From hand-lettering on websites, to torn paper and shadows, she believes that bringing more of what we love in our tangible lives to our online brands helps us connect with our audience in a deeper, more meaningful way. Kelsey and I talked about her journey to being diagnosed with endometriosis, how it changed her life, managing her life with chronic pain, and how she sustainably built up her business over 5 years before quitting her day job.

Tamara (aka Wolf Sister) is a Shaman, Reiki master, supernatural potion maker and Tarot reader. I’m always so impressed with her grounded approach to personal development and spirituality and it’s such a pleasure to get to share her with you on the show. We talked about her own journey with anxiety and depression, her shaman studies in Bali, how to get started with a tarot practice, and how she balances her business as a healer with her job as a hair dresser.

Sarah Von Bargen is a writer and teacher who believes that everyone and everything is interesting. She helps her people live easier, more intentional, more interesting lives through courses, articles, and incredibly doable suggestions. We had a really fun chat about so many things, including her thoughts on the recent US presidential election, writing a new things list, a simple trick for being more productive, and how we can stop making regrettable purchases once and for all.

Susannah Conway is the author of This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart and LONDONTOWN: A Photographic Tour of the City’s Delights, and co-author of Instant Love: How to Make Magic and Memories with Polaroids. Through her writing and online courses, she helps people reconnect to their true selves through creativity. I’m so excited to share our conversation, where we sat down to chat about harnessing creativity, the healing power of journalling, thriving as an HSP in a big city, and her rituals for preparing for the new year.

Rochelle Schieck is the founder of Qoya. Since its inception in 2009, she has trained hundreds of Qoya teachers, taught thousands of Qoya movement classes, and led dozens of retreats in the most sacred places on earth with one intention in mind: to remember, and to help others do the same. Her work has been featured in outlets like New York Magazine, Oprah.com, The Telegraph, and Psychology Today. Qoya has come up on the podcast many times and it’s had a profound impact on my life, so I’m really excited to share this conversation with you. We talked about learning to trust our bodies, healing from heartache, balancing our masculine and feminine energies, and what you can expect in a Qoya class.

Nancy Levin is the author of Worthy: Boost Your Self-Worth to Grow Your Net Worth, Jump … And Your Life Will Appear, Writing For My Life. She’s a Master Integrative Coach and the creator of the Jump Coaching and Worthy Coaching Programs, working with clients – privately and in groups – to live in alignment with their own truth and desires. She was the Event Director at Hay House for 12 years and hosts her own weekly call-in show Jump Start Your Life on Hay House Radio. Nancy and I will be talking about the fact that most personal finance books don’t work because they don’t address the underlying self-worth issues that lead us to underearn, overspend, and generally self-sabotage with our cash. She’s talking about her own money story, what changed everything for her, and how the approach she uses with herself and her clients is really different.

Dyana Valentine is not for the faint of heart. She’s spent 13+ years teaching leaders to listen to themselves and complete seemingly impossible projects—we’re talking major brand overhauls, six-figure product launches, full-fledged manuscripts. She serves up straight-from-the-hip advice in online magazines and columns all over the ‘net. In a past life, she was an idiot-savant microsurgery tech, worked for the Olympic Games organizing committee, and was personally approached by the FBI with a recruitment invitation—for classified reasons – on two separate occasions. As you can tell, Dyana has such an interesting life story and we had a fantastic conversation about her journey but also about her zone of genius: decision making. We riffed on why decision making is so hard, the Super Conditions game she’s created to make it easier, and why some decision making systems miss the mark.

Emily Nagoski is the New York Times bestselling author of Come As You Are: the surprising new science that will transform your sex life. She has a PhD in Health Behavior with a doctoral concentration in human sexuality from Indiana University (IU), and a master’s degree (also from IU) in Counseling, with a clinical internship at the Kinsey Institute Sexual Health Clinic. She has been a sex educator for over twenty years. Come As You Are absolutely changed my life and my relationship to my sexuality; it’s definitely a must-read. Emily and I talked about so much including the big myths that are damaging so many women’s relationships to their sexuality, why everyone’s sexuality is actually totally normal (yes, even yours) and the thing that really bugged her about 50 Shades of Grey.

Alexis Wolfer is the founder and editor-in-chief of the empowering online women’s lifestyle magazine, TheBeautyBean.com. She's a well-known beauty and lifestyle expert, as seen on the Today Show, E! News, The Doctors, and more; and the author of two books: “The Recipe For Radiance: Discover Beauty’s Best-Kept Secrets In Your Kitchen” and “Radiant Bride: The Beauty, Diet, Fitness, And Fashion Plan For Your Big Day.” I was fascinated to talk with Alexis about the importance of natural beauty, the products she’s loving, the intersection of feminism and beauty, and what her journey to self-love has looked like so far. She’s not afraid to go deep and talk about the big issues!

Caroline van Kimmenade teaches Highly Sensitive People how to work with their sensitivity instead of fighting it, so that they ​stay open and caring, feel lighter and can effectively make use of their sensitivity instead of being burdened by it. We talk about what it means to be a highly sensitive person, the benefits and challenges, learning the language of your sensitivity, as well as our own experiences of burn out and what our healing journeys looked like.

Crowned ‘the defender of female awesomeness’ by Cooler magazine, Lisa Lister is an advocate of the FULL female experience. She’s a writer, a menstrual maven and creatrix of the SHE Flow system – yoga, women’s wisdom and menstrual health + ‘down-there’ care practices – dedicated to helping women crack their lady code, reconnect with their body wisdom + love their lady landscape. We sat down to talk about the societal trauma caused by patriarchy, reclaiming our SHE power, dancing between devotion and spontaneity, and what it means to be a witch.

Amy Kuretsky is a health coach for creatives, licensed acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist, and woo-woo as fuck. She helps busy bosses fuel their hustle by honoring their health and their bodies, and helping them heal their digestion. She started following this path after being diagnosed with Crohn's disease - an autoimmune disease of the gut - over 10 years ago and using natural healing therapies to heal her own digestion and become her healthiest self ever. We talked about her journey of healing from Crohn’s, tapping into our intuition, the fact that foods aren’t the enemy but not every food is for every person, and how the elements are connected to our body and can help us live in more harmonious ways.

Gail Shock aka G Love is a Love Revolutionary, a Quantum Meditation Teacher, Coach, Writer and Energy Magician. We talked a lot about what that mega job title even means, the crises that ended up being her soul cures, the new ritual, Gail is using to celebrate the small, wonderful things that happen throughout her daily life, her beautiful spiritual beliefs, living from a place of self-acceptance rather than self-improvement, following the whispers of the feminine throughout our lives, and the experience of “The Voice Thief,” and how we can go about reclaiming our voices.

Emma Gannon is an author, blogger, and marketer, and she recently released her first book Ctrl Alt Delete: How I Grew Up Online with Ebury Publishing. She was one of the first bloggers I started following when I decided to move to London. I love her charming but no-nonsense take on life and her adventures in this city are always exciting to read about. I'm thrilled to say that you can look forward to hearing from her in an upcoming episode of the podcast! When Emma announced that she was publishing a book, I knew it would be just as fun and thought-provoking as everything else she does. In Ctrl Alt Delete Emma chronicles how she grew up, and ultimately built a career, online - complete with cybersex, catfishing, and many an MSN convo. The book is fun and lighthearted in places, but also deep and philosophical in others as she grapples with such topics as bullying and feminism. There's a whole lot of nostalgia too, for all of us who fumbled our way through growing up in those early days of the Internet. In this episode we talk about the power of self-awareness for designing a life you love, setting online boundaries, creating a work/life balance that works for you, and finding inspiration.

Ezzie Spencer trained as a lawyer and has a PhD in women’s wellbeing. She cares about, and works to further, women’s emotional, financial and spiritual wellbeing. As the creator of Lunar Abundance™ – a lunar-inspired self-care practice, Ezzie helps thousands of women around the world cultivate self-worth, confidence and feminine flow in a playful and feminine way. In this episode you’ll hear Ezzie’s unique perspective on what each phase of the moon can offer us and how tracking the lunar cycle is a really powerful personal development tool. While magic and ritual can be a beautiful part of any lunar practice, Ezzie is very practical and grounded and there are unique perspectives even for people who have absolutely zero interest in magic or spirituality.

Bianca Osbourne is a menstrual and fertility coach for energetic women, like you, who are ready to love their cycle and step into their feminine power. It’s her mission to help women balance their hormones, regulate their cycle, and create a vibrant, effervescent life that they love. We sat down to talk about her journey, of course, but also how we can reclaim our health and stop looking for answers outside of ourselves. You’ll hear us dive into talking about many of the most common reproductive health issues women struggle with and the insights Bianca has to share about alleviating them. She shares her advise for tapping into the wisdom we can gain from our menstrual cycle and what it can teach us about our bodies and lives. She also answered listener questions about coming off the pill and non-hormonal birth control.

Through her blog, podcasts, videos, and courses, millennial blogger, speaker, and podcast host Katie Dalebout curates inspired wisdom that guides people to go deep and sift through the thoughts clouding their minds. She’s the author of the Amazon best-selling book Let It Out: A Journey Through Journaling. She helps people develop a positive image of their bodies by embracing their creativity and personality outside of their physicality and she’s on a mission to share journaling tools that invoke deeper authenticity and self awareness. In this episode we talk about her journey of using journaling in her recovery from eating disorder, why she thinks journaling is such a powerful practice for personal development, what her journaling practice looks like, how to get the most out of journaling, and some of her favourite journaling tools that she shares in her book.

Kylie Travers has gone from homeless single mother of two because of domestic violence to multiple international award winning CEO, author, speaker and advocate for ending domestic violence and homelessness. She is passionate about helping others turn their obstacles into opportunities, change their mindset, smash their goals and achieve a life they never though possible. We sat down to talk about the mindsets and tools she used to overcome massive obstacles and rebuild her life. We dive deep into her goal setting (& smashing!) process and her beliefs about what it takes to develop resilience. We had some difficulties with the Skype connection so towards the end of the interview the audio begins to get a bit shaky and we had to edit some portions out, so I apologize for this and hope you still get a lot out of the conversation!

Rebecca Campbell is a best selling author, inspirational motivational speaker, spiritual teacher, grounded spiritual mentor and practical intuitive guide. She's the author of Light is the New Black and her forthcoming book, Rise Sister Rise. We had a really amazing chat about the power of devotion to your spiritual practice, exactly what HER practice looks like, creating from a space of feminine flow, and the role of the shadow when you’re trying to work your light.

Makenna Johnston is a business coach, author of The Intention Generation and her and her wife recently bought Julia Child's home in the South of France, which they're turning into a cooking school and yoga retreat centre. Whether through writing, speaking, or creating her work’s cornerstone is the notion that intention trumps expectation and that input matters far more than extraction. The results? Alignment & Presence. (Things the world could use more of). We dove deep into Makenna’s journey - which is absolutely fascinating - as well as what it takes to live an intentional life, the consequences of getting caught up in expectations rather than intentions, and how to set powerful intentions and visions for our lives. This is one of those conversations that left me with goose pimples afterwards and I’m so excited for you to hear it.

Xochi Belafour is a blogger and a nutritionist-in-training who combines diet, natural healing, and various methods of spiritual inquiry to guide her readers and clients in cultivating more balance and harmony within and without. I’m in love with her beautiful book that has the same name as her blog (The Naturalista!), both of which are full of delicious recipes, natural beauty tutorials, and practices for mindful living. In our interview Xochi talks about how she slows down and lives mindfully within the hustle and bustle of city life. We dive into her own journey to wellness and healing and how we can begin experimenting to find the foods and practices that suit our bodies in this season of our lives. She shares many of her own favourite practices and talks really beautifully about bringing mindfulness into our daily lives.

In a reversal of roles, Ebonie Allard puts the questions to host Sarah Starrs. They talk in-depth about my daily routines and rituals, the benefits of my meditation practice, finding magic rather than monotony in our daily rituals, my journey with sexual shame and what I’ve been doing to heal and release that, why I’m making these changes with the podcast, the importance of sisterhood, and so much more.

To celebrate our first anniversary, here's a collection of clips featuring the best of the best of season 1. Jen Dziura talks about the key to instant confidence. Kitty Cavalier dishes on seducing your goals. Alexandra Franzen tells us how being a daymaker is an important part of her spiritual practice. And so much more!