Intro: Welcome to the heart Soul Wisdom podcast, a journey of self discovery and transformation. Moira Sutton and her amazing guests share real life stories, tools, and strategies to inspire and empower you to create and live your best life. Come along on the journey and finally blast through any fears, obstacles and challenges that have held you back in the past so you can live your life with the joy, passion and happiness that you desire. Now, here's your host. Create the life you love. Empowerment Life coach Moira Sutton.

Moira: Welcome to season five, episode 92 how to manifest your greatest self. The seven-minute Shift.  Certified Happiness coach, author and founder of Elevated Mind, Michelle Sarah is with us today. Michelle is the author of the seven Minute Shift. She is a certified freedom formula facilitator and certified happiness coach. She is also the founder of Elevated Mind, a company focused on helping people manifest their greatest self and highest potential. The seven-minute shift is the answer to the very common struggles so many coaches, consultants and business owners face. Fear, doubt, and worry. For those starting or growing a business, getting out of your own way to succeed is the only real challenge. Michelle wrote this seven-minute shift for you. When asked her perspective on life, she says, life is the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is like a molecule hidden in everyday moments. It exists. You may not be able to see it with your eyes, but you can find it with a little practice. Sweep away your reactions, excess thoughts and emotions, and there it is. The innate core of every being, the source of everything you create. Is my pleasure to introduce you and have Michelle on today. We've been juggling a lot. I just love her to bits. Michelle Sarah, welcome.

Michelle: Michelle, thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Moira: You're such a beautiful soul, especially juggling everything that was going on in my life and you saying yes, yes. And just understanding. I just knew who you were. I knew it as soon as I wrote your book, but especially during all that. So here we go. I want you to start up with where you grew up, because you say that you grew up in the middle of nowhere. Please share what your life was growing up in your family and what impact did it have on you.

Michelle: Sure. Absolutely. So when I reference nowhere, that's 2 miles down a dirt road in the sticks of Georgia in the deep south, and we had an old farmhouse, and literally, like my nearest neighbor, who was about at the very beginning of the roads, about 2 miles away, they still had an outhouse because I can remember when we would drive by, we would see them run from the outhouse to the house, and I would laugh as a little girl, like thinking how crazy that was. And so I lived on this little hobby farm, and I'm an only child, and the animals were my daily entertainment, the outdoors. We had a small pecan orchard, and I would spend hours upon hours in those trees, just hanging there, thinking, contemplating. And I remember often my parents would say to me how lazy I was, and I could never wrap my head around it fully. Like, what do you mean? I'm, like, contemplating the universe. I'm solving cosmic problems, right? How is that lazy? But I was always the child who wanted to sit and reflect, and I'm still that child. Yeah.

Moira: That's wonderful. I think you said that you were swimming close to gators.

Michelle: Oh, yes. We had a small pond, but we also had a rather large lake. And in the deep south, I mean, alligators are everywhere. And we had several that lived in our lake. And it wasn't uncommon to get thrown in the lake to swim. And I can remember, it's funny, the memories that you have and when you look back. I wasn't afraid of the gators, although I should have been, because they'll take small dogs, and I was more afraid of snakes that were in the water with me. But, yes, gators were a common occurrence, like I said, as living out in the middle of nowhere and in the midst of so much nature, you just learn to live alongside it. Right.

Moira: Do you think that's why it sort of looped through that now you live in North Carolina, out again out in the country. Do you think that was an impact when you were little that brought you.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really great question. I think deep down there are these or even neural pathways that have been ingrained of those moments of peacefulness and quiet and solitude. And I associate those experiences I had as a child with being out here, far and away. Absolutely.

Moira: I know that I mentioned to you we moved to Nova Scotia two and a half years ago. If I had known what this was like, I would have came here a long time ago with the people. The just people have know then if you're talking to them and let's say they have their cell phone rings, and I'm like, oh, you have to get the phone. No, I'm with you. It's totally different. They bring food if you're not feeling well, they drop soup off on your step. It's just something out of another time.

Michelle: It's a very different way of living, the same thing here. When we drive in and out of our little valley, you may never see another vehicle when you drive that like I said, it's at least 30 minutes on this winding road alongside a bold creek. And you may see deer, turkey, all kinds of wildlife, and you may never see another person. But when you do, or if someone is out on their property working on the land, they always stop and wave, and you wave back at the waving. And if you don't, that's just rude. Right? So I agree with you. Yeah, it's a different kind of living.

Moira: It's funny you say that, because when we came here, we sat on their front porch and we're pretty far from the road, and I can't see far, but I would wave at every car. And when you walk down the road, you wave. People wave. And some people would come up and say, I'm just coming up to introduce myself. You won't stop waving. It's a funny thing. Anyway, we're going to be talking about mindset, manifesting this beautiful seven minute shift, as you say, 7 minutes a day that you can literally grow your business and talk about our life and everything. So let's talk about myths. What are the biggest myths around mindset and manifesting?

Michelle: So one of the biggest ones, and this is through my own experiences over many, many years, of diving into the idea of manifesting, and then, of course, working with manifesting mentors and then in turn working with clients, is that one that you just close your eyes? It's going to sound really silly that you just close your eyes and imagine something having something that you want and that it's just going to literally show up in your driveway. Right. I will give this example of, like, while we cannot yet imagine that new car, and poof, it's in the driveway, manifesting happens out of this gravitational pull, which is your vibration, right, towards the thing that you want. And that requires you to take external actions to get there, because we're in a physical world. And so I think a lot of people have this idea that if they just think more positively, everything will unfold. And it isn't quite as simple as that. While it can be at times, there is a whole lot of internal work that accompanies that thinking positively. Right. Because we can think positively and not believe in what we're thinking. There's a big difference there.

Moira: So let's talk about that vibration. What is a vibrational baseline and this idea about attracting from that baseline, how does somebody create that?

Michelle: Yeah, well, a lot of the explanations that I give when I'm working with clients will be both from a spiritual perspective as well as a scientific perspective. It's just the way that my brain works. It's part of what I need in order to build the scaffolding of the mind, which is something we can talk about in a little bit, but vibrational, we can look at it scientifically and say everything is a vibration, right. We can look at it from a physics perspective. We can look at it from a frequency perspective. We can look at it like the example I give of tuning forks, right? But ultimately, it comes down to your emotions and how you're feeling. That's the simplest way that I can explain to someone or help them understand what their vibration is. And so if you're holding a dominant emotion, be that negative or positive most of the time, right? That's what's going to determine your vibration, where you're at or your vibrational baseline and what you're drawing to you on a regular basis. Many of us, because of life's experiences, our vibrational baseline is lower than we would like it to be, right? And we don't realize that it's happened. And partly that's because of neural pathways in the brain, right. What we habitually think and imagine and therefore reinforce in the brain. And so those thought pathways come again and again and again. I am one of those people who had to work really hard at changing that. And the thing that I will share with people all the time is I am not. Yes, I'm a certified happiness coach. I'm not someone who wakes up super happy and chipper like, I have to work at pushing back the difficult thoughts, right. And I have to constantly. This is part of why I have the seven minute to always. It's not something that comes easy to me. That's the thing I want people to understand. Right.

Moira: I think that's wonderful you're sharing that, Michelle, because I know a lot of people in this community that have challenges, and they don't know how to get out of deep, dark places. So for you to share that, because they might be thinking, well, Michelle has it all versus.

Michelle: I do not have it all. And it is a daily practice for me. Exactly that. Right. Because it's a choice that I make. So, coming back to vibrations. And so, again, the first thing that we have to do is increase our awareness of our own state of mind and thoughts throughout the day so that we can understand where our baseline is currently. And then we can do the things to change that baseline, to raise it right. And the more that we practice, the more that we make that part of our lifestyle, the higher we can raise our vibration in order to change that baseline. So that's, again, part of why the seven minute shift is so effective is because if you can just practice these steps and get in the habit of doing them. I do that when I drive. As long as you're not in heavy traffic, please don't do it if you've got stuff going on around you. Right. But in my peaceful drive, I can do this because I've done this so much. I can do know very quickly, every day in the car or really anything I'm doing around the house.

Moira: It's interesting because my husband, the other day, we got to talk about Trump and politics, and I didn't want to go there. And I said, you know what? I'm going to work on Michelle's interview, and it's all about vibration. I'm staying in a high vibe. I do not want to go there because that just shifts you right there in the minute.

Michelle: It does. And if you think about it, if you want to manifest amazing things, incredible things, what do you think is going to enable you to manifest or what kind of place do you think you're going to be able to create the most from? Is it that high vibe, positive emotion, happy? Like I talked about, cultivating a deep well of happiness that you can draw from, that you can manifest from, versus that more frustrated, struggling down, sad, angry, fearful? Right. I think if you look at it that way, it's kind of a no brainer as to which one you're going to be able to create from.

Moira: Do you have an exercise you can share with people about how to do that so they can increase their.

Michelle: Yeah, one of the, really the fast ones. And this is actually in. This is. Which one is it? It's the fourth step in the seven minute shift, but this is one that I share with my people all the time because you can do it in a split second, and I call it borrowing joy. And it's simply recalling a memory of something that made you incredibly happy. And the example that I share in the book is, of course, about my dog, who is a very fearful dog, has always been since we got him as a puppy, no matter all of the help that we got him and the trainers and the dog behaviorists, this is just who he is, and nothing's really going to change that. And so those moments, once we moved out here, because we had him before we moved on this property, and he had more freedom where he was not triggered as much by people and cars and bicycles and trucks, and we got him a best friend, Ruby Lou, once they had their. Yeah, that's her name. Ruby Lou. It's Ichabod and Ruby Lou. And so there was a day that I was sitting on the front porch and he was running and playing with her. And I swear he was smiling ear to ear, and he was so incredibly happy. And it was that moment. It's that memory that I refer to so often, and there are others as well, but of just that pure joy and that in a split second, it's the time it takes for you to recall that memory and you will feel yourself shift, right. It can take just that to shift your vibration instantly. And so if all that you can do is when you recognize and become aware that you're not in higher vibrational state, right, that you're not in a state of mind that you would like to be in, simply recall a memory of something that makes you incredibly happy.

Moira: Like being with a friend or like you said, your dog.

Michelle: Or it can be as simple as it can be a hug. It can be remembering how someone opened the door for you at the coffee shop yesterday, someone that said thank you. Someone that smiled. Right. It doesn't have to be something I'll often get when I talk with clients about this. They'll ask. They'll say, well, I'm really struggling to pull up a memory. And it's like. Because your expectation is that it should be something grand when happiness is in everyday moments, right? And it doesn't need to be anything grand. It can be if you have that. But it can be as simple as a handshake, a smile, things like that.

Moira: Again, before we talk today, just the other day, I noticed I don't always spend as much time as I want with my mom. And she comes up every other day for coffee and folds laundry and stuff. And I surprised everybody with a really nice brunch with eggs and avocado and toast and nice coffee and everything. And she was, oh, a special occasion. And again, she's 97. And I was sitting there and we weren't rushing or anything. I had some nice flowers on the table, and I was looking into my office, which is on the main floor, and I have a really nice yellow room. Not bright yellow, just a beautiful yellow. And I was looking out at the lake and just really being present in the moment. And it was just so joyous. It was so beautiful that I wasn't rushing off or rushing anybody at the table. It was just beautiful. Now you say that self awareness can be a double edged sword. What does this affect on your natural instincts and intuition and manifesting because I haven't heard somebody say it like that.

Michelle: Yeah. And this also refers to people like you brought up circle spinners. Right? So for those of us who, in order to reach external goals, have to do a whole lot of internal work, and self awareness is a big piece of this, right? So you think about it like, you live out in nature just as I do. And I get to watch animals a lot, and the deer isn't standing there thinking, oh, I have to go over to my neighbor deer's house, and I'm really concerned about what they're going to think about me because they haven't seen me in a while. I've put on a little bit of weight, right? So as human beings, we have this self awareness, and in that sense, it then becomes this double edged sword, right? It's this incredible thing that we can be so self aware and we can do work like manifesting and the seven minute shift, right? But at the same time, ignorance is bliss. And because of our ability to manifest, it is so very crucial that we master self awareness and become the one to determine how that affects us or does not, right? So that's why when I say it's a double edged sword, it's a really incredible thing because it's part of what enables you to manifest, right? But it's also the thing that can hold you back and keep you from manifesting. It can keep you in a place in life that you just don't want to be but you don't know how to get out of, right? So learning how to manage your own self awareness positively and elevating your state of self awareness so that you are somewhat detached from it, right. And you can take the actions that you need to shift your state of mind or raise your vibration. That's being human, and that's the gift we've been given.

Moira: So, let's do an exercise of how to elevate your mind, supercharge your body and emotions with joy and bliss, and really increase your vibration and become that match. And how do we know when we're a match to the results that we desire? There's a big one. That's my little chunking going on, my NLP little chunker. But elevate an exercise for that. And then how do people know when they're at that to say, okay, what do they do then? Do they match their desire? Do they say, now, oh, I'm feeling really great today, oh, and now I'm going to think about what I want to manifest?

Michelle: Yeah, let me answer the second part first. So when you think about the thing that you want, right. Whether that is a beautiful, wonderful, loving relationship, whether it's a new car, a huge home, whether it's simply a certain amount of money in your account, it doesn't matter what it is, right. Depending on what you have to become aware of, what having that thing will enable you to do, have or become, right. So, for example, I can say that I want $10,000, and that's really exciting to think of having $10,000. But what's more important, and from a vibrational perspective, is understanding. So then how does that change my life? What does that enable me to have or do or be or become, right. And it's that feeling that is that vibrational match, at least in my own experience, right. And everything that I have manifested in my own life, it's tapping into that feeling, because that's what's under the surface of the simple desire, right? We go a little bit deeper and say, okay, so then what does that mean for you to have that? And it's those emotions, because for some people, let's say again, if we're talking about money, right, if we're talking about manifesting $10,000, for some people, it's a matter of being able to pay the bills, right? And so when we can identify that, it tells us a whole lot about where they are currently vibrationally, and maybe whether it's in a state of lack and fear. And it shows us where we need to move to in order to match the vibration of $10,000. Right. It's a process, for sure. So, having said that, and do you want to go through the seven minute shift?

Moira: I think we do want to go through it, yeah.

Michelle: Okay. Yeah, let's do that.

Moira: Okay.

Michelle: In the back of the book, I have it just kind of abbreviated to make it really quick and easy for you to begin to practice and remember. And it is basically the very first step. And I give you letters to try to help you remember if you're like me, like I can remember a series of letters rather than a whole intense process, right? So the very first one, which is n, which is negative emotion. So just becoming aware just as what we were talking about, I want you to become aware of what negative emotion is bothering you at this point in time. And generally, this is what triggers you doing the process anyways. If you're going through your day and something happens and you find yourself in a negative state of mind, like you're frustrated or angry or upset in some way that triggers you to say, okay, let's go through the seven minute shift really quickly, right? So, becoming aware of what that negative emotion is, whether it's fear, anger, sadness, whatever it is, right. Become aware of it. The next step is P. So, that is perspective. This one takes, and I've got it mapped out in the book. And this one, as well as the next one, are probably the two steps that will take you a little bit of time to learn. But once you learn them, that's it, you're good, and you'll be able to do this faster and faster. So, P is for perspective, and I want you to identify the perspective that is creating, feeding the negative emotion. So, for example, let me think of an example to do for this. So if I have someone who made, let's say I did a presentation, right? And I had someone on the team that made a negative comment about the presentation, and that was really bothering me, kind of weighing me down the latter half of the day, and I became aware of that, and I said, this person made a negative comment about my presentation. It makes me feel really frustrated and kind of down in the dumps. And the perspective that I want you to come to is through a simple questioning process to say, I feel really crummy because so and so made a negative comment about my presentation. And that makes me feel bad because. And I want you to finish that sentence, right. And it can be as simple as saying, I feel angry over what so and so said, because. Right. And you just keep following it down until usually, what will happen. And again, this takes a little bit of practice. Usually what will happen is you'll come to a point where you realize the answer is, because it makes me feel like I'm no good, or it makes me feel like I screwed up, or it makes me feel less than. Right. And that's the perspective that we're looking for. And so then the next step is r for reframing. And we want to reframe this perspective. And there's lots of ways that we can do this. And I give examples in the book. A quick one that I do with clients is, okay, so the perspective is that you aren't good enough, right. You really screwed up on the presentation, and you're no good. That's the perspective. Well, there were other people in the room, including the person who made the negative comment. If we were to ask four of them what their perspective was on that, chances are they would each be different. One might say, well, that person was really rude, and that was uncalled. For. But I heard them on the phone earlier. They'd had an argument with someone. They were upset and frustrated. So they probably were just venting their bad mood on you. Right? Another one might say, I didn't see anything happen. I didn't notice anything. Right. What are you talking about? I thought everything was great. And what you realize is that while your perspective could be true, chances are it's not, or at least it's not the only truth. And it allows your brain to release the hold on that perspective and therefore release the fuel to that negative emotion. The next step, then, is, Michelle, can.

Moira: I ask you, just before you go to the. On the one you just did, reframe the perspective? You called this in step three, let the cork float. Can you just expand on that a little bit?

Michelle: Oh, yeah. Thank you for bringing so your natural state. Our natural state as human beings is always happiness. Right? It's always happiness. That's our default state. Even though, as I say that, I can hear a ton of people saying, no, it's not. And coming from me, as I said earlier, someone who has always struggled with maintaining a positive state of mind, I can tell you that it actually is our natural state. Right. And so that's what I mean by let the quirk float when you take away all the sinkers. So, especially coming from the deep south, where I went fishing every day, right? So we have sinkers on the line, and as we go through life, we accumulate more and more sinkers. And eventually there are enough sinkers on that fishing line to pull the cork below the surface. What I'm saying here is, by doing this, becoming aware of negative emotions, being able to find the root perspective and reframe, essentially letting it go, we are removing those sinkers so that we can just let the cork go back to floating. Right.

Moira: Thank you.

Michelle: Yeah. You're welcome. So then we go to e, which is elevate. And this is where I gave the example of borrowing joy. This is exactly that. I want you to instantly, very quickly recall a memory to shift your state of mind. Okay? And we've talked about how to do that. So moving on to the next one is s, which is self image. And this one is imagining, I will call it you, 2.0. Right? Imagining the version of yourself that has everything that you desire. So whether it's the $10,000, it's the new job, it's whatever it is, the relationships. Imagine that version of you who has that already. And the interesting thing here is, when you go through this, and again, this exercise alone really only takes 20 seconds. Maybe right in the beginning it may take you a little longer because you're exercising those muscles to actually be able to see these things. But I want you to be able to see the version of you who has all of these things. I want you to notice what you look like, what you're wearing, what's your facial expression, how are you holding yourself, your posture, right. And hold that image, because once you've formed that image, you're going to be able to recall it very quickly the next time you go through this process.

Moira: What if somebody has, let's use a common one, like to lose weight, right? Because I love that you call those the eyes of you 2.0. I thought that was really cool. And they want to be slim and fit and healthy and full of vitality and everything, but they've tried a diet before or changed their habits. How do you work with that belief there? If they're thinking, I can't do that, I can't have that. They might do this exercise, but they're.

Michelle: Really saying, yeah, there are some things that are, it comes down to beliefs about self. Right. And perspectives, and there are some that are very deeply rooted. And that while you can use this exercise daily, there are some of them that are going to take some deeper work. Right. And certainly that I've done with clients over the years. So for this person, I still want you to go through the exercise, the seven minute shift, even though it may not go as deeply as needed for certain beliefs, certain things that have been so deeply ingrained and stuck. Right. But this does come down to what you believe about yourself. Right. And it can be many things. It can be. What's the risk in losing weight? Right. What happens to me and how I interact with the world and other people if I become thinner or healthier. Right. And it can be hard to visualize the image of yourself who has already lost weight and is healthier, but keep at it. Right. You can see that. And even if it's only for a split second, that's okay. Just keep practicing it. Because your brain, there's many aspects of this emotional, but there's also just simply the function of the brain. Right. And keep at it. Keep practicing it and you'll be able to hold that image longer and longer. There's really cool and interesting things that happen in the brain when we do this. But as I said, even if you're not able to get to the root perspective, because sometimes that piece is harder still, go through the motions of all the other steps. Right.

Moira: So tell us about that a little bit more. I'm not trying to interrupt you. I want you to go through them all. But this connection between the brain and you talk about when we physically move, I think that also helps us in decision making. I would love you to expand on that, because what you just said about the brain.

Michelle: Yeah. So one of the cool things that I read years ago was that our brain cannot see beyond the skull. It cannot see beyond the bone that it's encased in. And that was so very profound to me because. What do you mean? We have eyes, but that's not the brain seeing. Right. And the idea of the fact that the brain cannot tell the difference between what we imagine and what we actually do, it made that make sense for me. So it doesn't matter whether we are simply imagining a walk, a hike in the mountains, or we're doing it, the brain is experiencing it just the same. Now, there may be, depending on how precise or in depth or intense the visualization is, there may be a difference in the physical signals that the brain is getting from the body, like fatigue and such. Right. But the brain is still experiencing it. And so when we go through the practice of these exercises, right, like the seven minute shift and these visualizations, and we do them on a regular basis, the brain, for example, seeing 2.0 version of yourself, right. Whether that's a thinner, more healthier you or what have you, or a wealthier you. Right. The brain is experiencing that. If you're doing that every day, the brain is experiencing it every day just as if it was real. And what happens then is the brain, because the brain filters so much out every second of the day, because we couldn't possibly perceive everything that's going on around us all the time, we wouldn't be able to handle that. There's too much input. There's too much going on. Right. The brain filters out a little bit of that for us to receive and notice and be aware of and experience. So when we are going through practices like this on a daily basis, the brain begins to change what it's allowing in as part of the filter, because essentially what we're saying is, this is thinner me. This is healthier me. And the brain then allows in the things that match thinner, healthier me. Right. The things that would be a part of the life of, then they're healthier, happier me.

Moira: Be in alignment.

Michelle: Notice. Yeah, I'm sorry, what did you say?

Moira: I said, be in alignment with what you want to create.

Michelle: Exactly. But it's also a matter of if I'm not giving the brain the information it needs to allow certain things into my life, that means I'm not noticing the opportunity to say, go on a hike with a group of friends every week, because it's just not passing, it's not registering on my radar. But as I start doing these visualizations now, the brain is allowing these things for me to see these things and notice these things more and more and more, or opportunities that lead me more towards the healthier, happier me. But previously it wasn't because that's not where my thoughts are. Right? Yeah.

Moira: Okay, let's go on to number step six.

Michelle: Yeah, so this is v. So vibration, for sure. Yeah. So vibration. Now, this is where we are now, imagining what we would prefer to experience instead. So early on, when we did elevate your mind in step four, we did that very quick state of mind shift by imagining, remembering a memory that made us really happy. Now, I want you to, instead of using that same example that I started with, imagining or recalling the coworker saying something really negative about your presentation, how would you prefer to feel instead? Right. I'd actually prefer to feel really proud of myself because everybody was very impressed with the presentation and I got lots of positive feedback, and it just felt really good. That's how I would prefer to feel instead. And so that's where I want you. Again, this is practicing something else. This is exercising another muscle. Right. And bring and elevate your vibration a second time in the process by imagining how you would prefer to feel instead. Perfect.

Moira: And then the last piece.

Michelle: Yeah. Is integration.

Moira: Yes.

Michelle: And this piece is fun. This is the physical piece. This is where we're going to actually do something physically, whether it is. I give a couple of several examples in the book, but it may be that, as I've said, I imagine that 2.0 version of myself again. And I stand up and I take three steps. I imagine her three steps in front of me, and I take three steps and step into her. Right. It might be that I identify where I'm feeling, if I still feel any negative emotion. For me, emotions have always been very physical. I always feel them, most of them in the center of my chest. And some of them I feel very, very strongly as a physical pain or sensation. And so I can identify that, and I can draw a circle around that. I can push the circle away or pull the circle towards me. Physically doing this with my hands and my arms and see how the sensation changes. You'd be surprised. It sounds strange, but do it because it does change, right, for some people. And it can change day to day. It doesn't mean that it's always the same, but it can be a difference of when I push this circle away, I feel it less. So we're going to go with that. Or if it's a positive emotion that you're feeling, you can amplify it, pull it closer. Do you feel it stronger? Or grab the edges of the circle and stretch it, make it bigger, make it larger. Do you feel more of it? Or condense it down smaller? Do you feel more of it that way or less of it, whichever direction you're going? And so doing these physical actions, it makes a connection yet again in the brain, right? Because now we're engaging the physical action, the physical movement, and connecting those wires, right. And solidifying the experience for the brain. And, of course, at the end, I always want you to do something to symbolize hitting that send button, right. I think one of the examples that I love is having that digital readout, like, on my arm. Like there's this panel that I can open up. Because I happen to love technology. And symbolically doing something in your own mind or physically, that makes it so, right. Hitting the send button, shutting the door, opening the door, walking through the door, whatever it is that makes an impact for you. I encourage you to play with that and find the things where you physically feel the shift.

Moira: Thank you. That's so much fun. Now, you talk about never take action without first bringing your awareness into focus. So you really have to get clear on what you want. Is that true?

Michelle: It is. And the reason being is we are often in a state of reaction. And I don't want you to simply react. I want you to take very intentional action. And that requires you to be aware of how you're feeling and where you are first.

Moira: Right. If we talk about, like, okay, so, vibration. We have a frequency going on all the time. There could be the zero point field. God, quantum physics source, whatever that higher power is for the person. Do you teach people how to tap into that and powerfully bring that into their life?

Michelle: I do. And it's different for every person because of whatever it is they want to call that. Right. And the way that I work with people around that is I listen for a really long time, right. I listen to the references they make, right, how they perceive certain things so that I can work within their own framework, right. So that it makes sense for them. And so tapping into it, it doesn't matter what you call it or how you see it. Or what it feels like to you or me, it doesn't matter. Tapping into it is always the same. Right. It may be the method, in terms of precisely how you do it, is different for each person, but it comes down to, oh, go ahead.

Moira: Do you think that ties into intuition and paying attention to your gut and just letting that come into you, like listening so you can.

Michelle: Yeah. The more that you do exercises like this and you raise your own self awareness, the more that intuition comes through. And what I found over the years, as I started doing this work and going deeper and deeper into it for a long time, I would get intuitive nudges. Right. I would just get a feeling or a knowing, and I would always say things like, that's how it comes through for me. I don't get it in any other way. But as I continued to do the work and do all of the internal shifts, suddenly I started having. I might get visual flashes. I might hear a sound, right, that something or hear a voice. Right. So it was fascinating to me that the more I raised my own self awareness and began to fine tune that, the more my intuition came through in a multitude of ways.

Moira: I'm an empath and an intuitive, so I'm very aware of my feelings and environments and have different ways of making sure I'm safe, so I'm not taking everybody's **** in. My teachers used to tell me that through the years, because I used to say, when I was younger, doing Reiki and different things and healings, oh, I want to experience everything so I can really help this client. And then somebody said to me one day, do you really want to experience all that stuff? And I thought, what am I saying?

Michelle: Like, no, I wish that for myself, always being super sensitive, and just as you said, being an empath and feeling other people's emotions was always very difficult for me. So much so that I would isolate myself. And I didn't know. I wish I had known. I wish I had had someone who could have taught me that early on and understand, as you said, how to protect yourself, because it is a tough thing when you feel everything so vibrantly, right? Yes, there's positives to it, but there's also challenges to it.

Moira: And in my family, I saw spirit when I was very young. We purchased land in the country that goes back to my younger days. Why I like to be in the country now. And we built a home there, the brand new home. But where it was built on, there was different spirits, and I didn't know how to deal with them. Then I was again, like twelve or something in the room that I chose. My brother got a room, I got a room, my parents had a room. And I remember when they said my name, it freaked me out. Like, when they talked to me and I went to my parents room, I said, I'm sleeping in here. And my parents are like, you're not sleeping in here. This is silly. And I'm going to sleep on the floor tonight, period. And then they learned through the years that that was a path that I was taking to be in the healing world. And I'm going full circle back to that now because it's what I'm really passionate about. I love your story that you had. It's a fun story that you said, if only I had listened to my gut in that inner voice. I love that story.

Michelle: The ride at the fair.

Moira: I didn't know that one. That sounds great. This was when you opened a health food store. But what happened with the ride at the fair?

Michelle: Oh, goodness. Oh. So the ride at the fair. So I was 15. This was one of the first times, or probably the first time that I was aware of my intuition coming through. And I was in line waiting to get on this ride called the octopus. And so this is where they have this cylindrical core of the ride. And then there's all these arms that come off of it. And at the end of each arm there's a bucket, and that's where you sit, like a couple of people can fit in there. And then it spins around and goes up and down really fast. So my girlfriend and I were in line waiting. 15 years old, and it was the last ride of the night, right? Her mom was getting ready to come pick us up and we were trying to get one more ride in. And I'm watching the guy operating the machinery and he is yanking really hard on the lever to get it, I guess, to get everything to slow down and stop so that people can get off and the next people get on. And he had a perplexed look on his face like something was wrong. And I was like. And I heard very clearly, don't get on the ride. And I didn't listen at all. I thought, no, that's ridiculous. Why did I hear that? And I got on the ride with my girlfriend and she sat next to me in the bucket. And it begins to spin around in circles and it's getting higher and higher and higher. And then I feel this violent shaking. And then before I know it, we're on the ground. So we had fallen twelve to 15ft. The whole arm had disconnected from the center piece, and we fell, and I had bitten my tongue halfway off because I hit.

Moira: Oh, my goodness.

Michelle: And broken all the cartilage in my chest. She had to have stitches on her head, and it also. So fractured vertebrae in my spine because of the compaction. Right. But I remember being in the ER and one of the nurses, I was talking to her about what happened, and she was like, honey, didn't you know that as your intuition? And I just remember looking at her so bewildered, like, no, I did not.

Moira: It's like, if you're. I talk about the word fear. The acronym was, I took from fear to feeling excited and ready. And I'm trying to remember who said that, but that doesn't mean if you're walking down an alley and you have this intuition that you're not supposed to be there, that's not that kind of fear. That's like, pay attention. Go back to the hotel or something like that.

Michelle: Yes.

Moira: Both my husband and I have that all the time. Yeah. Very cool. This has been so much fun, Michelle. I want to know what's on the horizon for Michelle in 2024.

Michelle: Thank you. So one of the really exciting things that I've been working on for so long, way longer than I expected, but it's just about. Here is a membership called advanced manifesting. Now, the book, of course, I talk about building your business. Right. Advanced manifesting is for everyone, whether you have a business or you don't.

Moira: Great.

Michelle: That's perfect.

Moira: I'm excited that you're doing that.

Michelle: Yeah. So advanced manifesting is a monthly membership where you get access to meditations and advanced manifesting techniques. I have a nine-lesson course that teaches you how advanced manifesting works. You'll have manifesting scripts, manifestation maps. If you don't know where to start, you just follow the map and visualizations and affirmations and a whole bunch more. And the really cool part is every month you'll get some fresh, new content. And this has really been. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Moira: No, that sounds exciting.

Michelle: Yeah. This is like my heart of hearts, right. This is the thing that I've wanted to create for so very long, so that people have access to pretty much everything that I know when it comes to manifesting and everything I continue to learn. Right. I wanted to be able to create a space where I can just pour everything there. And you have it available to you daily. The other thing that we'll be doing on a monthly basis is a live manifestation challenge for seven days every single month. So that can serve to kind of hold you accountable to doing these things for yourself. Right. So that you can begin to, as I say, manifest everything you need to be free.

Moira: And I love that you're a certified freedom formula facilitator and a certified happiness coach. How cool is that?

Michelle: Very cool.

Moira: Very cool.

Michelle: Yes. I remember when I found out that you could be a certified happiness coach, I was just so excited. And it's really funny that the look that people give me when they hear both of those titles, right? Yes, always very kind of like one eyebrow is raised. Yeah.

Moira: Freedom and happiness, part of my brand, create the life you live on your terms. I used to speak on cruise ships with my husband for five years and spoke other places and workshops and all those things. Part of my brand is I took a smiley ball, about twelve inches, of course, round as part of my brand to let people know. And I gave out happy balls and all these things and to let people know, even if you turn that happy face on the ball upside down, you still know it's a happy face. So the whole happiness thing when you said that, yeah, it's very cool. So I want to ask you, what would you like to share with our listeners as your special gift today? And I want everyone to know. In the show notes below, you'll have the links to Michelle, her book, and her upcoming program that she's doing. We'll put everything there for you so it'll be easy. So what would that be, Michelle? What would you like to give them?

Michelle: I would love to give a free chapter of my book so that people can read it. And if it's for them, they can go read more. But even just in that one chapter, you can get a ton of stuff that will be helpful to you whether you have a business or not. And so, you can go to yourfreechapter.com and download that now. If you go and download that or sign up to get that free chapter, then you'll also get notified when advanced manifesting is opening its doors. And the reason that's really crucial is everyone who's in my community, when advanced manifesting opens its doors will have the opportunity to get it for $7 a month forever, as long as they stay a member. Yeah.

Moira: Oh, that's wonderful, Michelle. Thank you for sharing from your heart and soul your wisdom on how to manifest your greatest self, the seven minute shift. Namaste.

Michelle: Thank you.

Outro: Thank you for listening to the Heart Soul Wisdom podcast with Moira Sutton. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please join our community@moirasutton.com. And continue the discussion on our Facebook page. Create the life you love. You will be part of a global movement connecting with other heart centered people who are consciously creating the life they love on their own terms. Together we can raise our consciousness for the greater good of humanity and for our planet.