Some stories need a rainy rainforest and a cabin straight out of a folklore dream to come alive. And on the latest episode of the Holistic Circle podcast — hosted by the astutely reflective Philipp Kobald — we are given just that. Titled Spiritual Conversations, this episode introduces us to Kimberly Flear, a coach, speaker, and spiritual guide whose journey through addiction, recovery, and a cabin-centered self-discovery will make your next existential crisis feel like a group therapy session in the woods.

This podcast, a production of Holistic Circle, isn’t your average fireside chat. It’s an hour of raw revelations, delivered with honesty that is both humbling and refreshing. Kimberly, a former hospitality industry stalwart, spent decades navigating the restaurant scene — an environment of chaotic energy, demanding hours, and all the emotional baggage your diners accidentally tip along with 15% gratuity. As a sommelier, bartender, and server for over 27 years, Kimberly excelled outwardly but fought a personal battle with addiction for much of her career.

The story she shares, though, begins not in a wine cellar or a bustling kitchen but in September 2020 — a month she describes as both her rock bottom and her rebirth. Kimberly got sober, trading the numbing embrace of alcohol and drugs for a brutally honest reckoning with herself. And let’s be clear: the reckoning didn’t take place in some picturesque suburban detox. Kimberly left Vancouver, sold everything that didn’t fit into her Mini Cooper, and moved to the Sunshine Coast, where she lived in a 1971 Airstream trailer, tapped into the river for water, and embarked on a six-month odyssey of isolation and shadow work. Yes, you read that correctly. She survived a Canadian winter in a trailer. Take that, Bear Grylls.

What’s compelling about Kimberly isn’t just her willingness to embrace discomfort — it’s her almost poetic appreciation of what that discomfort taught her. The podcast takes us through her slow journey to healing, beginning with those long, cold nights of introspection. She meditated, journaled, and introduced herself to breathwork, all while staring down the psychological and emotional debris she’d avoided for decades. No Instagram. No Netflix. Just silence, her shadow, and a pack of unwelcome mice for company.

“If I wanted to create my reality intentionally,” Kimberly says at one point, “I had to clear out the muck.” It’s the kind of line that would sound cliché if it weren’t delivered with the weight of her lived experience. Kimberly’s trauma wasn’t the result of a single incident but an accumulation of childhood bullying, PTSD, and other emotional wounds that took years to surface fully. And when they did? She greeted them with a raw vulnerability that’s as inspiring as it is intimidating.

But don’t mistake Kimberly for someone who’s left her past entirely behind. Her work now bridges the gap between her former life and her new one. As the founder of a coaching practice, she guides clients — many of them middle-aged women — through their own transformations. And her connection to the hospitality industry remains unshakable. Kimberly founded an organization dedicated to supporting restaurant and bar employees, addressing addiction and mental health struggles that run rampant in the industry. “It’s not just about talking about addiction,” she says. “It’s about shifting a culture.”

That culture shift, as Kimberly explains, isn’t easy. The restaurant industry’s chaotic energy has long been both its charm and its curse. It’s an environment that attracts people like Kimberly — resilient, resourceful, and often deeply empathetic — but offers them little support in return. In the podcast, she reflects on the toll this took on her, not just in terms of addiction but in absorbing the often-unacknowledged energy of the customers she served.

“Imagine being an emotional buffer for hundreds of people a week,” she says. “And then imagine not knowing how to protect yourself from that energy.” It’s a sobering thought (pun intended) and one that highlights the systemic gaps Kimberly is now working to fill. Through coaching, workshops, and even policy advocacy, she’s giving back to an industry that, for years, took more from her than it gave.

Yet, the podcast isn’t all heavy introspection and industry critique. There are lighthearted moments, too. Kimberly and Philipp bond over their shared love of nature, waxing poetic about the cedars and fir trees that now surround her cabin. There’s even a laugh-out-loud bit about Philipp’s reluctance to trust black bears, despite Kimberly’s assurances that they’re more afraid of us than we are of them. It’s these moments of levity that make the podcast as human as it is profound.

By the end of the episode, you’ll find yourself looking at Kimberly’s life not as a cautionary tale but as a road map — albeit one that requires a deep dive into the uncomfortable. If nothing else, her story serves as a reminder that healing isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence. And sometimes, it’s about trusting that your cabin in the woods — or whatever metaphorical sanctuary you’re searching for — is waiting for you, even if you have to brave a few snowstorms to find it.

Want more of Kimberly’s journey, complete with her reflections on mindfulness, trauma healing, and that infamous Airstream? Watch the full episode of Spiritual Conversations on the Holistic Circle YouTube channel. It’s an hour well spent, whether you’re wrestling with your own shadow or just curious about the view from Kimberly’s cabin.

#Podcast #SpiritualConversations #Kobald #HolisticCircle #SelfDiscovery #SpiritualJourney #Recovery #TraumaHealing #Mindfulness #HealingEnergy

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By Philipp Kobald, 2024