Clearing Your Energy Field + Resiliency with Michelle Wincell O'Leary (part 2)

Energetic boundaries shape everything from our everyday interactions to our deepest relationships, yet most of us navigate life completely unaware of how we absorb and carry others' energies. Michelle Wincell O'Leary, author of "Resilience," joins us to share powerful yet simple techniques for energy management that can transform your daily experience.

At the heart of our conversation is the transformative "rose technique" – a visualization practice that creates clear energetic boundaries. By envisioning a rose at the edge of your personal energy field, you establish a visual reminder of where you end and others begin. As Michelle explains, "On the other side of the rose is everyone else's stuff and it is not about you. Nothing going on out there is about you." This single realization can dramatically reduce stress, anxiety, and reactivity.

The applications of this technique extend far beyond theoretical energy work. Michelle shares practical ways to use the rose visualization during driving (where it creates a buffer zone around your vehicle), in meetings, and even at conferences where energetic overwhelm is common. She also demonstrates how to use a second rose to collect and clear unwanted energies that don't align with your authentic self – particularly helpful when you notice feelings or reactions that seem foreign to your nature.

Beyond visualization practices, Michelle emphasizes conscious breathing as a fundamental tool for energy management. Taking deliberate breaths creates space within conversations and daily activities, allowing us to stay present rather than rushing through moments. "You don't have to feel rushed and nervous about this moment," she reminds us. "We can just take our time and enjoy it."

Ready to reclaim your energy and create healthier boundaries? Michelle offers virtual classes, one-on-one sessions, and an "Empowered Connection" community. Visit her website or find her on Instagram @MichelleWincellOLeary to learn more. 

About Michelle 
@michellewincelloleary 

The Quiet Gift: A Journey of Self Worth and Resilience is now available for download as an audible.  Check it out!

Transcript

Welcome to Reignite Resilience

Speaker 1 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. Resilience where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

Speaker 2 0:38

Well, tell us a little bit about the book. Resilience is the first one. Talk to us about the book. Yeah, resilience is the first one. Talk to us about the book yeah.

Speaker 3 0:44

Resilience is the first one, and so I'll show you. I carry it with me. I got to bring it to class when I teach tonight.

Speaker 3 0:50

I love the cover of it, the look of it. Yeah, thank you, thank you. It really is about that trifecta that I experienced and kind of how I use skills to move through that, and it's also about how you use things like words as energies. That's one of the first tools that I share with people. Resilience is a word that really is about being adaptable and feeling empowered or capable, and so I work with individuals and there's examples in the book on different activities and how you use words to build what would be called a platform of energy, to stand on, if you will like, a core energy that you want to bring in. So, even coming into this podcast and anytime I go in meeting, I'm like, okay, what am I calling on? Like how am I showing up? What's the energy I'm bringing to wherever I'm going? And so the book is about how do you kind of shape your own energies that fit for you and fit for the situation that you're encountering. That's one piece of it. And then it's that learning to flow and be adaptable and flexible, and I like what you said, natalie, on that flow just kind of comes in that flow state. I have different meditations and exercises to engage your own flow state and design your own flow state to support creative or other types of activities that you kind of want to get in a certain flow, and in my classes I do the same thing. We kind of set up, I support people in setting up their flow and their energies, and there's also some stories in here that I've heard through various other people I've read.

The Rose Technique Explained

Speaker 3 2:29

I'm a big fan of Thich Nhat Hanh, and so being peace one of his books or being the energy, embodying the energy of something, whether it's a word or a feeling or whatever it is, is part of an experience that I describe in here, and then also from Mastering Alchemy, some of the tools I've learned there, and so one of the most important tools within Mastering Alchemy and that I include in my book and I actually there's a story in here when I first was told about the tool called the rose. I was told about that way back in the 80s by this native elder that I had befriended, and the story of that is in the book. But the tool itself can be used in a number of ways, and so one of the ways in the book is about knowing where your kind of personal power field is, or your aura is and purposefully imagining, bringing into your imagination or envisioning a rose. You choose the color Many people choose red and kind of putting that rose right out at the edge of your space and just letting it hover there and the rose itself kind of showing you if you will, here's what belongs to you. This is your stuff, conscious or unconscious or whatever's. You're keeping in there. Whatever's kind of jumped in there and you haven't asked it to leave. Whatever that is. You can kind of see where you start and stop, from your heart to the rose. That's your space.

Speaker 3 4:01

I teach people how to kind of stay and recognize and build your space and clear your space of what you don't need or don't want in your space, but also then how to view what's on the other side of your space. On the other side of the rose is everyone else's stuff and it is not about you. Nothing going on out there is about you. You can choose to engage with it because you choose to help someone, support someone, listen to someone, whatever. But you don't have to, in your space, react or feel like you should do something. You really kind of stay in your space, firm, solid your energies and take that breath in the present moment. Hence flow in the present series. Take that breath in the present moment and just look around before you jump into whatever the next thing is. So you're staying set in your space.

Speaker 4 5:01

Love that.

Speaker 3 5:02

Yeah, so there's all kinds of tools meditations, exercises, stories. There's some characters and a little bit of poetry here and there. It's a creative book.

Speaker 2 5:14

Nice. Yeah, I've never heard of the story of the rose, but I can absolutely embrace that and use that. I envision my bubble all the time but I've never like the rose that's just suspended out is kind of that. Like you said, it's that reminder. You can see it with your mind eye right, like here. It is like identifying my space.

Speaker 2 5:34

And the fact that you can create a true boundary where you know, I find that we often make our way through life and we end up picking up other people's stuff. I envision it as luggage. Right, so we're going through life. If you're in a leadership role or any type of service position or where other people depend on you, you end up picking up other people's stuff and I have to like stop and say is this mine? It's not Gently, just leave that there, that's not mine, and I'm going to move on with the things that are within my space that I need to focus my attention on.

Speaker 3 6:06

Yeah, absolutely, and so I love that you brought this up, because I want to say two things about it. One is you know probably then all the other ways people refer to the rose so it has among the highest frequencies in all of the plant kingdom. It's known to carry the essence of pure love, true love. So when you think about it in those ways, then you're bringing that higher frequency into your space and it's intentionally kind of shifting from rational mind and constantly reactive and all those really sharp emotions. It just softens and bring it right into your heart. It just softens.

Speaker 3 6:45

That was the first thing I wanted to say. The second thing is that I told you how the rose kind of helps you see where you start and stop, and I also said there's so many ways to use the rose, so I'll just quickly say the other way to use the rose. So you've got the one edge of your space. Some people put it in front, behind, left, right, above, below, touching the points of the sphere. I have other people that are like it's all the way around. I'm like whatever, everyone use it how you want it, right, your energy, your way. That's the point.

Speaker 3 7:18

But you call on another rose and you put it in your space and you just say to the rose collect up all the energies in my space that do not align with me. Just call them up, give it 20 seconds. You can spin it if you want, and just give it the time to collect it up. You'll kind of go. Okay, that feels good, like something's a little lighter, and then you envision the rose outside of your space. Explode the rose, let it go back wherever it came from. It's not yours, you just cleared your space and you can do it more, particularly when you say, oh gosh, I feel edgy. Who was I? That's not mine, rose, take that edginess out.

Clearing Unwanted Energy

Speaker 3 7:56

I know that's not mine, just get it out for me. So there's more, but I wanted to give you that one because people frequently find there's something happening and it's like that doesn't even feel like me. You're right, and you don't even have to define it, understand it, ask why it's there, just like remove it out, out, you go.

Speaker 2 8:15

I love that. Thank you for that tool. I feel like it's a little bite-sized piece to get us. Exactly I love it.

Speaker 4 8:22

It's something that's so easy for people to visualize, and I love the idea that it doesn't have to be just the rose out front. It could be whatever Sideways behind us, underneath us. It can be fully encased in roses. It really is up to whatever you visualize.

Speaker 3 8:36

That's right, that's cool. Works really really well. On car bumpers too, when you're driving. Oh, tell me more and visualize on the car bumpers Again. People do them different places. I'm usually in front and behind. If I'm by the river and we've got seagulls all over, I'm like I'll put it on the top of my boat or my car too, Like not here.

Speaker 4 8:55

Not here, don't Exactly? I don't need that right now.

Speaker 3 9:00

But, inevitably on the road you'll find that people kind of soften around you instead of riding your tail or doing weird stuff Like, people will just get out of your way. The lane will open up when you need it. People just relax and calm down.

Speaker 4 9:14

Okay.

Speaker 3 9:15

I'm so used to that. You can try that too. Yeah, people driving is nuts out there right now.

Speaker 4 9:20

I don't know what has shifted in the world, but the aggressiveness on the roads now it scares me when I'm driving and I've never been scared driving before. So I'm like what is happening. So I love that idea. Just to put that around you, to just get out of here. It's not my stuff.

Speaker 3 9:37

Yep, and then clear it out when you get where you're at, because you inevitably all that people's stuff jumps in your car with you for a ride and it's like get out of my car.

Speaker 4 9:46

Oh, I love that, I love it, I love it.

Speaker 2 9:53

Michelle, that's a big piece that you talk about, like clearing that out, like just as we think about, like the energy or just the extra stuff that we pick up one of my healers calls it etheric garbage like the stuff that's just out there. That's not ours, right, and we pick it up for whatever reason, because we think, oh, that's fun and we hold on to it for a little bit and it's not ours as quickly as just driving down the road going to a meeting. Conferences, I think, are probably. Those are the ones that I am like, yep, we're going to just keep ourselves in our space here, because you are exposed to so many people that are experiencing life at different degrees, and so all of that is constantly moving around you and we do, we pick it up for whatever reason. We don't know that we are.

Grounding Excess Energy

Speaker 3 10:30

But I'll say this we pick it up for whatever reason, we don't know that we are, but I'll say this we pick it up. When we engage, yes, so right. And when we get triggered by something we don't you know like for whatever reason, and then we get in reaction mode about it, we absolutely attract more of it to us. Pick up more of it when we engage with that number one we attract. But the second thing is one of the ways to be supported in picking up less or no that's not even the right way to say it If people that use grounding or a grounding cord or a grounding process. The reason for grounding is so the excess energy that we don't need has a place to go.

Speaker 4 11:08

Okay.

Speaker 3 11:09

Grounding off the excess electricity. Okay, so one of the ways to do that is that rose you have out in front of you is throw that, throw stick, that stem all the way in the center of the earth and or use a grounding cord for yourself and whatever meditative practice you use all the way down and like, turn it on, ask it to remove the things that are like in excess, like overwhelmed and overanxious, and you can ground that off and out of your space by staying grounded and connected. It has a way to release. So that's just another. I just wanted to comment on being grounded and out in nature at all for any moments that you can.

Speaker 4 11:50

And I think that that would explain probably what's going on. What I notice out driving and stuff like that is because everybody's just absorbing everything. They're just taking everybody's stuff on and they don't know how to release it and let it go Especially at the end of a workday.

Speaker 3 12:06

think about how much everybody absorbs and then gets in their car and drives off with I mean they have no idea.

Speaker 4 12:13

Yes, cars full of everybody's else's stuff Exactly.

Speaker 2 12:18

I just see like a picture of somebody opening their car when they pull into their garage and all of it just falls out. Yes, it explodes Exactly.

Speaker 4 12:28

Oh my God, it's like a clown car.

Speaker 2 12:30

Exactly exactly. Yes, it's full of stuff, and I think a lot of that is also the season. So, michelle, like you're in Minnesota, you all have pretty extreme winters and we're here in Colorado and I feel like in the summer people are just trying to do the most, like how much can they fit in? They don't want to miss the opportunities to enjoy outside or connect with friends or get on the boat, because time is limited in terms of when they can enjoy it, and so that creates more of the anxious stuff that's out there.

Speaker 3 13:00

Yeah, and you know, our weather patterns have shifted so much. I don't know about Colorado. I did go to school out in Colorado, so I lived there for a few years. I really enjoyed Colorado. But we have extreme heat, we have extreme wind, which makes boating difficult, we have extreme storms popping up, and so there's maybe even more challenges. It's not the summers that we used, they would just be stretch long. And now they're like they would just be stretched long, and you know, now they're like well, you better get out right now, because by tomorrow, who knows?

Speaker 2 13:30

Exactly, wind picks back up again. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 13:34

Yeah, but yeah, of course we have the lovely sun out all the time or most of the time, and you know that in itself makes a difference. It does that source energy is huge. Go soak some up. Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.

Speaker 2 13:48

Well, michelle, if any of our listeners would like to work with you outside of purchasing your book, they can get the book Amazon and.

Speaker 3 13:56

Yes, amazon and Kindle. And in the next couple of weeks, or perhaps by the time this comes out, I'm actually republishing a second edition, because I'm moving it to my own label. Oh, nice It'll be under me Spirit of Therapy Publishing. It'll be on my website, so spiritoftherapylcnet. It'll be on Amazon, kindle, apple Books those are the three and my website. If you don't want to give Apple or Amazon all the proceeds you can give it to the author.

Speaker 2 14:26

A bigger percentage? Yes.

Michelle's Classes and Resources

Speaker 3 14:29

And I'll say this too, because sometimes finding websites, people don't really go to websites all that much anymore. A little bit. But Instagram. You can see my name here, Michelle Winslow Leary. That's my handle on Instagram, and every link to everything is on Instagram and or linktree backslash Michelle Winslow Leary. All my links are on there too, so try and make it easy.

Speaker 2 14:51

Websites I love websites, but Well, it's one of those things. You have to have them, but people aren't really visiting them. They will definitely check you out on Instagram.

Speaker 4 14:59

Absolutely. You're doing these in-person classes right now. Do you do any of those classes virtually? Is that even something that's possible? Is that available to people if they're interested?

Speaker 3 15:09

Yeah, absolutely. I do what I'm calling your Energy, your Way, which is kind of about feeling more like yourself in all the steps that you're taking. And so what I do is I offer virtual classes. Pretty much every month I start a new class and I keep it small intentionally because it's personalized. We can have more back and forth dialogue and learn tools. It's five weeks, one hour a week for five weeks, and I engage with people from around the globe.

Speaker 3 15:41

So what I do is it depends on timeframes that come in, but I don't say classes on Tuesday at two or whatever time. I get five or six or seven, eight people together and then we have a conversation about everybody's time zones and schedules and figure out what works. It's not for the rest of your life, it's five weeks, so we just make it work for that next cohort and so on and so forth. So I offer that all the time and my second book will be coming out. The second book is on awakenings. So I'm really excited about that and what happens is I generally I will take the book and transform that next level of energy and tools into another class or then a combined class. You can do resilience and awakening. Oh wow. Those classes are available almost every month worldwide. Anyone who listens to this particular podcast, I will honor 25% off the class.

Speaker 2 16:36

So thank you for that. That's wonderful.

Speaker 3 16:39

Absolutely. I also do one-to-one personalized sessions with people. Some people come in, you know, as you're becoming more conscious and trying to be like okay, why am I doing what I'm doing and how can I elevate what I'm doing and use tools differently. So I do work with people on those kind of shifts in career and life. So my one-to-one services are available in like a two-hour block if we just want to deep dive a topic, are available in like a two-hour block if we just want to deep dive a topic. Some people want, like I want a session every three weeks for 10 months. So yeah, I have individual courses.

Speaker 3 17:12

And then the last thing I'll say is a few months ago I started a community and it's called Empowered Connection and it's a community of like-minded individuals that are all kind of working at different levels on elevating tools, consciousness, awareness, managing all the changes that are happening in our world so exponentially fast. We cross-inspire and co-create and co-motivate and co-create and keep elevating our skills and tools together elevating our skills and tools together. So there is an opportunity to access that group as well If folks are interested in having a place. That's a very sacred space for us to be together and continue to cultivate with and for each other.

Speaker 2 17:58

Complimentary community or is there a access? There is a fee?

Speaker 3 18:00

Yeah, there is a fee, and there's a monthly fee is $35. And if someone's interested in a monthly session with the group, then there's another fee structure. I offer that as well. So all kinds of opportunities.

Speaker 4 18:14

You have definitely embraced the purpose of everything that happened. You figured it out pretty amazingly. You're doing some amazing things.

Speaker 3 18:23

I really appreciate that and in a breath I just have to reflect back. I'm still figuring it out, oh yeah, we always are.

Speaker 4 18:29

We're always figuring it out.

Speaker 3 18:32

But it's so lovely to meet like-minded individuals and kind of both. To feel your validation and reflection to me is really really lovely. I thank you for that very much and also I really just enjoy both of your presence. Really lovely. I thank you for that very much and also I really just enjoy both of your presence. I love that you've reignited resilience in this podcast and the conversational way you just sort of flow conversation. It's really really lovely. You guys have a nice way to interview and present these stories to people. Thank you.

Speaker 2 19:01

Thank you. Well, it's something that we're passionate about, so thank you for the feedback on the space that we've created, and it's taken some time for us to find our rhythm. Well, it took some time. I think we found it. Now it really works, because we didn't start out this way, michelle. We definitely started out with, like, scripts and talking points, and I knew that that wasn't authentically who I was, and then we found this space. So thank you.

Speaker 3 19:24

Beautiful, it's beautiful. Yeah, nicely done Beautiful.

Speaker 2 19:28

Oh my goodness, if you have any tips or advice for our listeners, things that we haven't touched on yet today, what would that be?

Speaker 3 19:36

All right. Well, I'll give you one of the ones that I'm paying attention to right now and that is really to embrace and I talked a little bit about it Embrace your breathing even more consciously, taking that breath and kind of letting it settle, and there's a little pause at the end and it gives you a little space. Even in conversations, I'll notice I'll get rushed like, oh, and I got to do that, I got to laugh. I'm just like, just right, and the next thing, the next opportunity, like sort of gently, comes in that you don't miss it in the rushing. You just let it kind of be a little softer, a little gentler and a little more aware. And when I go into the classes we're always like, okay, let's get present right here, right now, not where you just were, and not what's coming back, and you don't have to feel rushed and nervous about this moment, we can just take our time and enjoy it.

Speaker 4 20:30

Love it.

Speaker 3 20:31

Right, and that way, whether you're at the lake or not at the lake, you can still enjoy whatever moment you're in, anywhere, anytime, and it's free.

Speaker 2 20:40

Exactly All in there. I think that's the most important piece, is making sure that you embrace it and realizing it's available anywhere.

Speaker 4 20:49

It doesn't cost you anything, yeah, just a moment of your time, and it allows you to almost take back control, because sometimes we're just like and it just that act of that breath, you're just like, okay, now I'm back in control, I'm back present and here in this moment and I can think clear, make better decisions.

Speaker 3 21:07

Yeah, I love that it feels like a settling, like the thought settle, the emotions settle, and it's like, oh okay, now what?

Speaker 2 21:15

yeah, love it oh my gosh, perfect. Don't take for granted the breath. Uh, thank you, michelle, thank you.

Speaker 2 21:23

Thank you, this has been an absolute pleasure. We will make sure that we drop your website and your link tree and Instagram in our show notes so, as you're listening we, you can click those links and head on over to find Michelle. Thank you for spending the afternoon with us. It has been an absolute pleasure and for our listeners. If you want to know more about what's happening in the world of Reignite Resilience, head on over to ReigniteResiliencecom or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Until next time, we'll see you soon, Thanks everyone.

Speaker 1 21:52

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas. To fuel the flames of passion, please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes and, of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.