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Melissa

@followingfire

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Breathworker & writer ✨
Question Asker ♥️ 🌙 🌈
Author of “The Questions You’ll Wish You Asked” series (& more)
Backup acct: Melissa.followingfire 📚

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Our next project is in the works, and already has a write up in Inverse magazine. So cool to bring my love of writing people, relationships, and characters to the big screen.

More to come soon when we score the A-list actor we have our sights set on…(Delusional? Ambitious? Maybe both?) Grateful to again create alongside @pzerzan and @jeffreyallard - there are no limits when you pair possibility with people who will keep taking creative action. #filmmaking #womeninfilmmaking #writersofinstagram by @followingfire

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5 months ago

What did you learn later in life that you wish you’d learned earlier? The Questions You’ll Wish You Asked conversation deck for mothers and children is a bridge for all sorts of conversations between you and mom.#questionsyoullwishyouasked #questionsyoullwishyouaskedyourself #mothersday by @followingfire

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5 months ago

What if you don’t have to do that thing alone?
Make that appointment that’s been nagging at you.
Follow up with that friend you’ve lost touch with, the one you want to talk to but keep forgetting to prioritize.
Take that online course you purchased and never watched, clean the fridge, start your taxes (or just make the list of what you’ll even need to start your taxes, which is what I did today.)
Approach your to-do list, MAKE your to do list, or just show up to enjoy the co-creative energy of other open-hearted humans that are gathering to do the same.
These are things people do every week during free virtual co-working.
We meet every Wednesday on zoom, 10:30-12pm PST. Entrepreneurs, state employees, stay at home parents, writers, free-lancers, healers and poets and servers and job seekers. People who come to do SOMETHING, and others who come because they decidedly need to do no-thing.
I will brag for a minute and say that I have drawn out a pretty amazing group - here’s a pic of our crew today. (My kiddo is home sick, I don’t always work with one on my shoulders.)
We’d love if you joined us. Link to sign up (for weekly invitation via email) is in my bio. #creativity #community by @followingfire

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7 months ago

The Tourist is still making its way around the film festival circuit — we won best short film at the Best Film Awards yesterday! (And our lead actress, Miho Santo, won best actress in a short film at the Culver City film festival.)
Here are some photos at our festival circuit premier a few months back - at the end you’ll see the director, producer and I brainstorming our next project, which I have total faith we can make it happen after seeing the big things our first little film has done.)
Photos by Christina Szeto of @photosprouts @pzerzan @mihoasaito @mat_szymko @ayakasound @best_film_awards by @followingfire

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8 months ago

One of the members of our coworking crew dropped a gem during our session today and it got me thinking. How are you living into the identity that you say you want? How are you living into the values that are important to you? How can you put action behind an intention? @bodyloyalty thanks for inspiring me today (and many others.) if you would like to join our free virtual coworking group, the link is in my bio. #intention #action #identity #coworking by @followingfire

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8 months ago

So much of who we are is because of the reflection from people around us. So asking…whose mirroring are you basking in? Who “has what you want” when it comes to quality, life circumstances, how they’re showing up to hard things? Are you prioritizing those people, noticing the things that they light up in you, and how you might want to expand on them? Changing the way you approach our relationships can completely change us, our life… This new year. 📚📚📚I’m currently writing a book about friendship, and how the communities and relationships we build completely change the way we show up in the world. I’m going to be talking about this more here & I’d love to hear your thoughts. #friendship #relationships #healing by @followingfire

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9 months ago

New Year’s Eve journaling this morning was so special! We reflected, we let go, we named what we’re calling in...then we danced to Right Said Fred (I’m Too Sexy) for good measure.
Such a creative and fun and loving group of humans that gathered. Come next time! And it’s not too late to do your own reflecting - you can still download my free digital journal (at link in bio.) Happy end of a year, my friends.
“We did it, sweeties!” #newyearseve #nye2025 #endofyearreflection #endofyear #journaling by @followingfire

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9 months ago

Sacramento! If you’d like to shop locally for a questions you’ll wish you asked journal or deck (and also grab some cute clothes, jewelry, cards, fun tchotchkes) come to #másbuenoboutique for some holiday shopping. Owned by my childhood friend @ksubia and absolutely spilling over with unique gifts that are a total **vibe**. (My kiddo helped me to drop off - enjoy her anger at the door having the NERVE to be closed.) @shopmasbueno by @followingfire

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10 months ago

I took all the best questions from the journals and brought the prompts into conversation cards - they provide easy openings, options for depth or lightheartedness, and the sort of scaffolding needed to get important convos going.

And since it’s Small Business Saturday, it feels important to remind you that you can order directly from me. #questionsyoullwishyouasked #conversationdeck by @followingfire

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10 months ago

Reminder that if you’re looking for something meaningful to give this season, these journals make such beautiful & meaningful gifts. Here are some of the questions from the Questions You’ll Wish You Asked journals ~ questions that help us understand where we come from, how we became who we are, and what we want to pass on.
When we answer these questions for ourselves, we gain clarity.
When we answer them for our kids, we offer them something even deeper: intergenerational healing, stories they’ll never have to wonder about, and a sense of belonging that outlasts us.
You can order directly from me or anywhere books are sold.

#QuestionsYoullWishYouAsked #HolidayGiftsWithMeaning #LegacyWriting #FamilyStories #IntergenerationalHealing #JournalingForParents #GiftsThatLast #HeirloomJournals #ParentingWithIntention #MotherhoodJourney by @followingfire

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10 months ago

My daughters’ dad Michael and I separated in the Spring of 2024, and lived together until just a few weeks ago.

The reasons are complex, as they always are, and the story isn’t just mine, so I won’t go into many details here - but I’ll just say that deciding to uncouple while parenting little kids was not a decision that either of us ever planned on, wanted, or would have done… had we not had to.

What does that mean, “had” to? What qualifies as hard “enough” to be the wrong kind of hard, rather than the kind you work through?

It’s different for everyone. But sometimes a critical mass of pain is reached that makes everything you must sacrifice to change it slightly more appealing than the excruciating circumstance of staying within it.

And sometimes the truth of a situation, the most honest and authentic and in-alignment path, is also the hardest, most inconvenient, most terrifying and uncertain.

I’ve always loved and hated the question, “what are you trying to not know?”

Because…we just can’t un-know what we know once we know it. Or something like that.

And we can’t stay in a situation because of our kids, knowing that we wouldn’t want that relationship for those same kids someday. Knowing that our lives and well being matter independently of those kids, as well.

If this sounds like I’ve got anything figured out and tied up with a bow, I don’t.

This has been the most difficult year and a half of my life, and there are still lots of tears...especially lately. I haven’t felt this much grief since my mom died.

But also...concurrently...this year has been the most liberating, electrically alive, absolutely gut wrenching in all of its humanity and untamed joy and grief and expansion.

The chapter is serving the plot, I just know it…but this chapter is a fucking roller coaster.
(Cont’d in comments) by @followingfire

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a year ago

You know that part of Inside Out where Joy and Sadness realize they have the same favorite memory?

Riley missed the last shot of the big game, and felt so sad - but in that sadness her team comforted her, and she felt so lifted & valued… a boomerang of “good” feeling that was directly tied to the low she’d just been at.

The last year has been one of the hardest years of my life for reasons I’ll figure out how to talk about here someday. But - concurrently - and maybe BECAUSE of the difficulty - it’s also been one of the most joy-filled, adventurous, connected…straight up FUN.

Being sober this long & doing as much healing work as I have to actually FEEL things as they come… it’s resulted in some of the bawdiest laughter, the ugliest crying (while being witnessed by people who love me MORE because of it) and making (or deepening connections with) the best friends I’ve ever had.

Grief & joy can really be two sides of the same year. The same day, the same HOUR, even.

Big fan of this thing called life, even when the rollercoaster leaves me battered, wild eyed, and looking straight up crazy to my former self.

She had no idea.

If you too have never felt more ruthless, unhinged, or powerful…
More “crazy” or weird or completely unrecognizable to your former self, in the most humbling and wild but GOOD ways…

Good.

Same.
Same.
Same.

I’m liking my 40’s.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat. by @followingfire

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a year ago