The 1% Shift That Transforms Everything with Mel Braun

What if the real driver of your life isn’t your to-do list—but the emotions you haven’t dealt with yet? In this raw, practical conversation, Let’s Get Naked host Anne Karber and guest Mel Braun unpack how buried feelings live in the body, broadcast through your energy, and shape every room you enter. Mel shares her path into energy work and mindfulness, and how self-healing, Reiki, and small daily shifts can move you from chaos to alignment. You’ll hear real-world strategies for nervous system regulation, boundaries with news and social media, and modeling self-love—especially in motherhood.

What You'll Learn

• Why unprocessed emotions store in the body and leak into your tone, reactions, and relationships
• The mind–body connection and how “energy is contagious” shows up in daily life
• How self-healing, Reiki, and 1% shifts create a powerful ripple effect
• Practical ways to regulate your nervous system and choose response over reaction
• How to protect your energy from doomscrolling, news, and comparison traps
• Simple daily practices: energy body scans, breath, and morning routines that actually stick
• Why modeling self-love and media boundaries for kids matters—and how to start

If you’re ready to stop dragging the past into every room and start leading your life with aligned energy, this one’s for you. #LetsGetNaked #Reiki #EmotionalHealing #Mindfulness #PersonalGrowth

Mel Braun calls herself the “Energetic CEO” of her life and family and lives the role with intention. A Medical Reiki Master, Mindfulness Educator, and #1 best-selling Author of Magic Mama, with over a decade of experience and research, she understands the profound ripple effect our inner world has on everything we touch, from relationships to performance to presence.

https://www.instagram.com/themelbraun/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mel-braun-6b955b354/

http://www.melbraun.com

This podcast dives deep into real, raw topics—think vulnerability, triggers, and childhood trauma. But just so we're super clear: I’m not a licensed therapist, mental health professional, or anything close. I’m just a human sharing stories, lessons, and life hacks based on personal experience and a whole lot of curiosity.

So, while you might find some golden nuggets here, this is not therapy and should never replace professional mental health care. If you or someone you love is going through it, please—seriously—reach out to a licensed therapist or healthcare provider. You deserve the real deal.

Need Help Now?
Here are a few amazing resources:

·         988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (U.S.): Call or text 988
·         NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or nami.org/help
·         Therapy Directory: psychologytoday.com
·         Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 

The opinions expressed on this show are ours and ours alone—no official organizations are responsible for what we say (or how much we overshare).

This show is proudly produced at PS Studios — learn more https://www.psstudios.co

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, I'm Anne. Welcome to the Let's Get Naked podcast, where we dive deep into vulnerability. In this space, we'll explore what triggers us, uncover the patterns holding us back, and discover how to take charge of our own growth. If you're ready to dig in, be vulnerable, and face the tough stuff, then buckle up. It's time to get naked. Do you want to know what's actually running your life? Not your calendar, not your goals, not your to-do list, your unprocessed shit. Yeah. The stuff you don't want to look at. The emotions you shoved down because they were inconvenient. The moments you told yourself, I'm fine, when you were anything but. That doesn't disappear. It stores. It stores in your body. It leaks into your tone, it hijacks your reactions. It shows up in your relationships like an uninvited guest flipping tables. And then we sit here confused. Why do I keep attracting the same kind of people? Why do I keep having the same fights? Why do I feel exhausted for no reason? No reason? No, there's a reason. You're carrying emotional baggage like it's your operating system. And here's where it gets really uncomfortable. Most people would rather micromanage everyone else's behavior than sit alone in a room and face their own patterns. We've got a world full of people trying to fix each other while bleeding all over everything they touch. Relationships, business, parenting, leadership. You don't rise above your internal state, you broadcast it. So if you're walking around with resentment, anger, insecurity, abandonment wounds, guess what you're putting out into every room you enter? That. Not your words, your energy. And energy that doesn't lie. You can say all the right things, post all the inspirational quotes, play the role. But your nervous system, your body, your presence, that's the truth. That's what people feel. So when my guest says, be the energy you wish to attract, that's not some cute Pinterest quote, that's a call out. Because if you want peace, but you're chaos inside, if you want loyalty, but you don't trust yourself, if you want love, but you're armored up and guarded, you're not attracting wrong. You're tracked attracting accurate. And imagine this for a second. What if instead of obsessing over what everyone else is doing wrong, people took even 1% of that energy and turned it inward? 1%. Not perfection, not some overnight glow-up, open curiosity, but just a willingness to say, maybe it's me, maybe there's something here I need to face. That's where everything changes. Because healing isn't soft, it's not passive, it's not waiting for life to feel better, it's ownership, it's awareness. It's catching your own patterns in real time and calling yourself out. It's choosing to respond instead of react. It's feeling the shit you've been avoiding for years and not numbing out the second it gets uncomfortable. That's power. And the ripple effect, massive. You heal, you show up differently, your relationships shift, your environment changes. Your environment changes, your entire life levels up. That's the ripple. But it starts inside. So today's conversation, we're not playing surface level. We're talking about what happens when emotions get b buried, excuse me. How they live in your body, how they shape your energy, and how they quietly run the show until you decide to take your power back. Because at the end of the day, you don't get to control everything that happens to you, but you do get to decide whether you're going to keep dragging your past into every room or finally deal with it and become someone who walks in different. Let's get into it. Today I'm stripping it all off with Mel Brown. Mel calls herself the energetic CEO of her life and family and lives the role with intention. She is a medical Reiki master, mindfulness educator, and author, among other things. Welcome to the show, Mel.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Thank you so much. Wow, wow, wow. What an introduction that was and so true.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

It is, it is. I I uh I know that because of the research that I've done on you and vice versa, that we're very well aligned in our belief on this. Absolutely. And um, and so I'm excited about our conversation today. I do want to just tell the listeners also that Mel showed up today. For those of you watching, you can see, but she understood, and I love people that do their homework and understand that I see energy as Skittles. And so since we're sharing energy today, she brought me that gift, uh, which is awesome. And then we'll get into her book as well, uh, Magic Mama, and we'll talk about all of the things that um her and I align on, and then other things that that maybe she can share with me that I'll learn, and vice versa. So I really look forward to uh our conversation. Me too.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

I'm really excited to be here. I told you earlier before we hopped on here that I've been following your journey for quite some time. And it's been really beautiful to just see you really showcase your vulnerability and certainly in your book, Life Hack, like that definitely really took the armor and the guards down. And there was so much to learn from your book as well. And that so thank you for sharing your story too.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, it's wild because I think um, you know, for those listening that have no idea what goes into writing a book or putting something out there, you know it's it's the most naked, vulnerable feeling you'll ever have because it's one thing to share your story, but when you're sharing the ideas that you have and how your brain works, right, um, it's it's as vulnerable as it gets, you know. And so it's like, and then also writing the book is okay, that's half of it. And then you get get it out there, and then having to like, okay, now I have to promote this and try to get this uh into as many people's hands as possible because of the fact that it is important to you that you that your message is out there. You know, it's funny because someone said something to me recently about about, well, your book they were being, they were trying to be uh shitty, which is totally fine. Said something about, well, your book is self-published. And I thought, okay, so what am I supposed to take that as an insult that I believe in what I'm putting out there enough that I'm willing to put my own money behind it? Like, just so you know, that's not an insult. That's I give more people props for that. Like you put your own skin in the game. Right, exactly. Like I didn't have somebody that come and say, like, oh, that's a great idea. Let me put my skin in the game. But it was I put my money behind that.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

And I told me how to do it. I had to figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Absolutely, right? So it's like so it's funny to me because it's um that doesn't hurt my feelings. That's a compliment, and I'll take that all the way, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Not necessarily the bank yet, because that's I always say that's gonna be your business card. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

You know, that's that's not the direction we're going yet, but that's okay. Um, so will you do me a favor and just kind of tell me a little bit about you, where you, you know, what what you're all about, how this all came about, and then we'll just kind of dive in from there.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Sure. So I joke that I didn't go looking for this woo-woo life. The woo-woo life found me. Yeah. And so my background was real estate. I still have my active real estate license, which we were talking earlier here in construction. And in my early 20s was really my wake up call. And my doctor sat across from me confused, and then called in another doctor for a second opinion. And he just looked at me and was like, shingles. And so that was the first wake-up call of what was internally going on in my body was now expressing itself physically through this rash on the side of my body. And so that was my turning point to really start to look inward and give my body what it was really craving. And that's how I found energy work. And my very first energy session, I laid on this table with this stranger and I remember her hands feeling extremely hot. And I'm laying there and knowing what I know now, she was working on my solar plexus at my liver, which the liver stores anger. We can talk more about that later. And I just started weeping uncontrollably, like drowning in my mucus and tears. And I was like, what is happening? And the interesting thing to me at that point, Anne, was I didn't have a thought, I didn't have a memory as to why I felt so angry after then I processed these tears. And I drove home in a complete daze and I was just super confused. And then I was like, I need more of this. So that's really what prompted me on my way, and then really got into mindfulness and understanding the mind-body connection and how it's all intrinsically connected. And I just found it so completely fascinating. And then my mom was actually help having a lot of health issues. And so, in a meditation, I heard that I needed to learn Reiki and the rest is history. So that was in 2019, then not long after, became a Reiki master, then a medical Reiki master. So I've been trained to give Reiki in the operating room, which I've had the pleasure of working with babies in the NICU. And then fortunately and unfortunately, I have worked with clients undergoing chemo, which has been very helpful for them undergoing the side effects of chemo and helping their body process all of that and the emotions, of course, associated with that. Um, so that's really how I fell into this was my own journey. And then here we are. So now I just share it like a care a bear with the world, with anybody willing to listen. I stand at the mountaintop and I'm like, do your homework, start healing.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I love it so much because I literally feel like that's where my mission is too, because I know how much better I feel. You know, I I came into Reiki when I was in um in rehab back in 2016. Oh, I had no idea. I thought Reiki rehab was like, oh, they're just gonna keep the booze away from you for 30 days until you can. That was not what their plan was at all. Uh, there was Reiki, there was breathwork, there was all of the different things. It was exactly where I needed to be. And just like you said too, it was like it sparked something in me of I want to know more because I felt so much lighter in doing that. I too thought this, I don't know where this is coming from, I don't know where all of these things are, all of this, you know, unprocessed emotion. I had spent my entire life running from emotions and vulnerability. And so I just didn't realize that I was carrying all of that around. You know, I I absolutely believe the body keeps the score. Yes. And uh very powerful book. It is. And so being able to really understand that and also lean in and say, I want to be the best version of myself that I can for me, for my tribe, for everybody, um, you know, for the collective, how powerful that is uh to really be able to get twisted up in Reiki. And so now I'm a I'm a junkie where it's like I if there's something that if there's something that's like, you know, I I I think we're all on this like scavenger hunt, right? And so it's like of self. And so you figure out like, okay, Reiki sparked something for you, or breath work sparked something for you. And so you dive deeper in that, or then you go. And it's just I've followed all of these things to do all of this massive healing work on myself. And my life is so wildly different. Like I lived a good life before that. Um, my life is no comparison, it's like going from black and white to color. And so for anyone that knows me, I'm a walking business card of the woo, right? Because same, like I wasn't into that either. And and and people that like, oh, the woo is whatever. Yeah, get over yourselves. Like woo is actually pretty lovely. And there's it shouldn't be a great way to be. I can't imagine living any other way.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

It is a totally different way of seeing things, living things, being in this body. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And also then all of that that comes in with the healing, taking accountability, understanding that you have the the power, not just playing the victim in your life. You know, you're the one holding the pen and you get to write your story however you want. So there's all of those things that that tie into it. But um, yeah, the Reiki work is amazing. And then you get to the point where for me, then, you know, I do my own energy work on myself. I don't even outsource that anymore because you understand how all of that works. And so it's just, it's a it's a powerful place. And I think when when people that maybe don't have any idea listen to me talk, I'm that same thing where I'm like, I'll say it as loud as I can because it's my mission. I I think it's irresponsible for people who understand how different, how wildly different it is from the before and after to not share that, right? I do. I feel like if I had somebody that was, you know, close to me that knew this information and didn't act accordingly the same way that I am, which is like yelling it from the rooftops, I'd be mad. That's right. I would be mad. And so, like, I have a lot of people in my life that look at me like I'm crazy and I'm like, I don't care. If your duty, yeah, it is my duty. I literally feel a responsibility to put this podcast together, put the book out. You know, the book is something that um my my husband was never into anything that was, you know, self-improvement, personal improvement, anything. And so I'm like, damn it, I'm gonna have to write a book because he'll end it, he'll edit it and now he's my, you know, he's the biggest, he's the biggest leader. He's a sure leader for that. You know, he always has been of everything in life, but he believes in the book that I put out and and just well, because he's seen you live and breathe it. Yes, he has. And so, and to see what a difference that makes, you know, to have that that um before and after to be able to understand how important that work is. And then also by leading it full volume when you're able to do it on on either a platform or just out loud in front of your tribe, it makes them also understand. Okay, what is she doing that's so different? Because I don't have to shake you awake. I just have to live so free that it makes you feel the weight of your chains. Right. Right. And that's it. And so that's my that's my message and just being willing to speak about it to anybody and say all of the vul vulnerable, um, cringe-worthy things, you know, when I'm doing my podcast or when I'm out promoting the book on other people's podcasts. It's like I get jacked up about this stuff because for me, it's like the energy, the patterns, the the healing. Uh to me, it's there's nothing cooler. There's nothing cooler. I've done some really great stuff in this lifetime. And for me, it's like I get so jacked up energetically when I think about that or when I get plugged into emotional intelligence and um just all of the things that kind of go in with that. Life is so much better.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So the fact that you said that you work on yourself, yes, yeah, because that is why I'm so passionate about teaching Reiki. One of my favorite quotes is by Mother Teresa, and it's I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone to create many ripples. Yeah. And that is exactly how I feel about teaching others Reiki, especially Reiki one, because it's all about self-healing. Yeah. And imagine a world where just we did 1% of the healing that we need. Yeah. What a world it would be.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I know. Just even looking inward. You know, I think we've gotten to this place where, you know, I've spent very little time on social media over the last 20 years. And so I get to this place now where it's like, okay, you gotta be doing this for the podcast and like all of the other things and the book promotion and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I look at it and I think, what are we doing, you guys? I know. What are we doing? You know, everyone is from the sidelines yelling into the void that everyone else is wrong. Take, like you said, 1%. Take 1% of those Skittles and just turn them back on yourself. Come from a place of curiosity and what could you do? Because, you know, Aunt Jeannie, who had the weird, you know, needlepoint thing on her wall that said, like, be the change you want to see in the world, was not wrong. You know, I mean, like as another favorite quote by God being. Exactly. It's like she, you know, that whole thing was not wrong. There's something to be said for that. Like, if you want to see change, if you're looking from this from the couch and saying, like, God, things are really fucked up out in this world, you're absolutely right. And how do you work on that? I guarantee you, it starts with you. You don't need to get in the comment section and fucking tell every other people what they're doing. If you don't like it, just change the channel, right? That's right. But but why don't you take that time and that energy? Just turn it back around on yourself and just say, how could I be 1% better? Not even from a healing perspective. If you don't want exactly if you don't want to dip into that yet and you're not ready to like dive into the healing, fine. Just look at your life in general and in any area that you touch, think, how can I be 1% better? Because wearing the victimhood and the victim coat of whatever in life, that's overplayed. Stop doing it. You are, and people don't understand that. It's like I talk to people and they say someone took their power, and I'm like, power isn't taken, power is given, boss. Like, yeah, exactly. Like, don't you get that? And but people don't, right? Which is again, why we're sitting here on this couch yelling like you lunatics about like you guys wake up, it's so much better on this side. Yeah, I know, and because I'm a cannonballer, and also I've been a really good cheerleader over my over my life of telling other people to cannonball as well. It's like, what are you afraid of? You know, when people come and talk through things with you, I'll say, what are you afraid of? Because I believe that there are two buckets and things are either rooted in fear or love. I just truly believe that. I think it gets down to that in in everything. So it's like, okay, what are you afraid of? And then they'll tell me, and I'm like, that will happen. Yeah. Okay. Right. But so stop wasting fucking Skittles on, you know, worrying about it's going to happen. You could, right? Exactly. Like, and I have always lived that even though you've exerted that energy.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

And guess what? 95% of the time it doesn't even happen of the things that we worry about. Exactly. I used to tell clients that all the time in real estate when they were like, Well, what if the house doesn't appraise? Or what if something comes up on the inspection report? And I'm like, if it happens, we will work through it at that time. But let's focus our time and energy on the trajectory of where we want things to go.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Yeah. Well, and like also, I think you understand the your mind, very powerful. So if you're putting out this energy of worry and all of the bad stuff that can happen, it's almost like a self-prophecy that you're self-prophesizing. And that that's actually going to be right at your front door. People don't realize reality.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Right. So stop that. Well, it goes back to, and the term is escaping my mind right now, but it's like if I tell you, and don't think about a pink elephant, what do you think about? You think about a pink elephant, right? So we need to be very conscious of what our thought patterns are because it is that mirror. You talk a lot about that in your book too, right? This mirroring that happens. And once you understand that your thoughts generate a frequency that is communicating to your body, and from a quantum physics perspective, your atoms, which if you don't remember that, we are comprised of atoms. And those atoms are constantly emitting and absorbing energy. So you and I, we've said it, you said it a couple of times in your book, and I've said it a couple of times in my book. Energy is contagious, and that is why. That is not a woo-woo terminology, that comes back to science. So when you really start to understand that your internal world, going back to why we need to do this healing, is reflecting in your outer world, you do create your reality because that is going to come back to you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

And when you realize that, it's like you have the power. Right. I didn't realize my entire life that I had been doing all of this because I, you know, grew up in South Dakota on a farm with, you know, just feral AF upbringing. I mean, it's literally my siblings and I joke around about it all the time because I look back and go, uh, but but I always knew I wanted better. I always knew that. And so I was willing to do whatever it took to do that. But I always envisioned um having the next thing, the next whatever it was. And it didn't have to necessarily be monetary, even though that was a big chunk of it. But I just wanted to be that next level up always. And in doing that, you're thinking it, right? You're you're putting that out there, you're vibrating at that. Right. Um, and then I look at all of the things that I've accomplished since then. I've come a long way, baby. I've come a long way. And it's literally because of that, exactly what you said.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

It's so true. And I did not even realize, obviously, when you're a child, you know, and the manifestation was not even a term that you used 20, 30 years ago. Yeah. But I knowing what I know now, I was totally manifesting as a child. I always had these people called it like big pipe dreams, right? But I did, and I would visualize these things happening. And I talk about it in the first chapter of my book that I would drive through this neighborhood in my rusty old 89 Plymouth Voyager van that squeaked when you went over speed bumps and no heat and no air. And there was this beautiful community being built where NASCAR drivers and Carolina Panther players lived. And I would drive there and I would visualize and dream about what it would be like to live at these places. And people seeing me on the outside now, you know, married to a professional race car driver and all these things, they have no idea the work that I have done to get to this point, to be the person that I always wanted and aspire to be. And more importantly, deep down knew that I could be.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I believe that to my core. I believe that to my core. And that doesn't make me any different than anybody that's standing next to me. But same thing, like you're just you're dreaming, you're feeling, feeling the emotions of what it would feel like, right? I I felt the emotions of what it would feel like to be where I am right now. And you literally just call it in, right? So how powerful is that? I want to circle back really quickly. You were talking about, you know, energy and how you know that always has been a thing and attracts other energy. If you think about you're in a room of people, somebody with amazing energy walks in. You can see that, you can feel that. Yep. If you don't believe in woo, tell me I'm wrong, right? Because I know that that's you know, if you're listening out there and you're like, oh, the woo-woo, whatever, you know that that's true. You know that when somebody has shitty energy and feels like they stepped in dog shit. I mean, it really does. And and that also just takes the air out of a room. So they don't have to say a word to have to tell it. And you feel it. So it's like, what's so hard to believe about energy? Everybody believes in Wi Fi. You can't see that either, but everyone's hooked into that. I know, and it's like what is it? Like, so so when people come from this from a question, it's like, get curious about this. You look at all of these happy people that are woo, there's something to it because there's not a single one of them where they're like, Oh, you know what? Prefer to go back into airplane mode. Not a single person that I that I've encountered is like, you know what, this is too much goodness. This is this is like too much. This is a lot. Yeah, I'm gonna go back and get my victim coat out of the closet. It's like, and again, you get to decide. So when you realize that there's so many people that that come, you know, make these comments about being so hard and like all of this. And we were talking about this before we started recording. It is, it is hard. But you get to pick your heart. You do, you know, and so for me, it's like, yes, life is hard. Life is going to continue to life. It just does that. It throws stuff at your doorstep all the time. But I have the tools now to be able to handle it. I understand that what is mine and what isn't mine, staying in my lane or not, you know, being Teflon. I, you know, I was talking to somebody yesterday about talking to, you know, a daughter or a son or somebody that's having a bad time and not taking that on them. And they said, I don't know how you don't take that on yourself. And it's like, what good am I if I take that on? They're already struggling with that problem. So that problem is handled. Right. Somebody's already struggling with it. I'm I don't need to take it on as well. Like I can help them with solutions and be part of that, but I don't need to carry their worry around too. But so many people do that. It's like something is happening to a loved one. And I get it, right? Yes, you're gonna support, yes, you're gonna whatever. But if you're spending a bunch of time worrying and putting, again, more negative energy into it, you're not being part of the solution.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Exactly. And that you hit it perfectly. Because then if you're taking all of that on, how could you be the person that they need you to be to come to them? And it reminds me of this Yoga Sutra. I want to say it's number three, where it's talking about you're not in the play, you're watching the play. And that is super powerful. It is, and it's hard, it's really hard to do, especially if it's a child or someone we love and care so deeply about. But once you understand the energy factor and what that plays, there's just no other way to live. Yeah, there isn't.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

And you you start protecting your Skittles, you start protecting your Skittles like they're gold because you you understand that they are. To me, that's your biggest currency. And and I look at that from people that say, oh, you know, there's time and money and I don't even think time is real anymore. Like I said, I always say like time is squishy. What is time? Go ahead and just you know, get curious about that when you have a few hours. But um, but yeah, it's like energy is your biggest currency, your attention, your focus. And they have billion-dollar algorithms that are geared towards robbing you of your energy and your focus and your attention. Your poor mind is no match to it. So that's why it's like, get off your phone. You know, I talk to people and it's like, show me your screen time. My husband and I have a weekly thing on Sundays or Mondays or whatever day the uh, you know, the average comes out, comes out on the notification, and he's what's your screen time? You know, whatever. And this past week it was like two high twos, maybe, um, which is that's great, right? That's excellent. I don't have a problem with that. I asked somebody else, she looked at her phone, she goes, 12 hours. I was like, is that a day or that's the week? The day. The day. I was like, you just gave half of your life away. And and for what? Like, that hurts my soul for people. And again, no judging, just know that there's life that's happening outside of that that's way better.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

Right, because it's in your life, not everybody else's life.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

We were kind of touching on that earlier because when we started, yeah, do some main character shit instead of like being an NPC in somebody else's life. Like, that's what people are, and they don't understand that. Yeah, you don't get today back.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Right? I mean, it for anybody who has had death that has hit them close, you understand, keep death close, right? Because live accordingly. You don't know when your number is punched, you have no idea. 10 out of 10 of us die. Yeah, and you think that the way that you want to give this gift away, that you got this gift of today, is to watch other people on this little screen that makes you depressed and anxious and sick to your stomach and all of the tragic tragedies in the world brought right to your front door. It's like no, I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Well, uh forever ago on one of your episodes, you had talked about you can't watch the news. And I'm the exact same because it's just I subscribe to this outlet that they just send you an email every day. And honestly, I do a self-check that morning to be like, Am I even in the headspace that I can even take anything of that on? Yeah, and most of the time it's not. Yeah, you know, and it because everything is just so heavy. And I have you seen um Guardians of the Galaxy? Okay, so there's this character group, and the movie starts where they're playing this song and he's just dancing and like everything is blowing up all around him. My husband's like, oh my gosh, Mel, you are so groot because that's me. I'm just creating my own little happy world and I live in my happy little bubble, and I still have bad days, I have hard days. It's not like I'm still living this human experience of these emotions, but I'm not letting that external world affect my internal because I know the power of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Well, and it's funny because, like you said, I love that your husband busts your balls about it because mine does the exact same. You know, I am in this, I'm like a little hummingbird that just enjoys my life and my energy and all of the things. And and I've been like that for a long time, even before really kind of digging in and understanding energy, because I just knew I don't feel good about stuff when I know all of that. And I don't think it's natural. I don't think we're supposed to know every every terrible thing that's happening in the world. Like, you know, you see those ASPC commercials where the sad dog, like, does messed up stuff happen to dogs in this world? Yes. Do I need to have it right at my front door so that I'm looking at that? I can't affect that right now, right? I can't do anything about it. I can do something in my world for what's in at my table. That's it. That's all I can do. So if people did, again, just spend 1% back at themselves on what can you actually affect, instead of spending those Skittles watching how sad it is that dogs in other countries or other places or whatever are not taken care of, right? We're doing that on steroids because social media, you can literally watch people being murdered for fucking speaking their truth, which to me it just blows my mind every day that that's even a thing that parents have to deal with. Um, but right to your front door. You turn the news on, here's all these terrible things. Turn the radio on, here's all of these terrible things. You you go outside, here's all these terrible things. Open the internet. Like I have just the Google that comes up with no, I don't want ads. I don't want to know what's happening in the world. I literally don't care. And people say, well, what you know, what would happen? We could all blow up tomorrow. Yes, we can. I'm not I'm not afraid of that. 10 out of 10 out of us die. Are we all gonna die at the same time? Sweet. I can't wait to see how that goes. I mean, like, you want me to worry about something sting, it's such a waste.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And when you really go back to the energy side and you really understand it, you continuing to put this negativity and this toxicity out into the world, we're just giving it a breathing ground and a petri dish. So instead, shifting it and saying, I'm giving that empathy, right? I do empathize with people and these dogs and everything going on in the world. But instead, I am being that light and sending that out, going back to that ripple effect, going back to the quantum physics. My atoms are emitting that positivity, that love, that light, raising the vibration, not wallering and getting low and doom and gloom with it because then I'm just bringing the rest of the world down with me.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

I got tired of watching people drag themselves through life half dead from exhaustion, comparison, and bullshit. So I built a system that flips the script. This book is for the ones who refuse to settle, who know deep down there's more, and who are ready to call themselves out to level up. If that's you, welcome. Let's go. You can get your copy of the Life Hack Playbook on Amazon or on the podcast website, let's get nakedpodcast.com. I feel collectively that we're really sick. And I feel like it takes wack-a-doos like you and I to be here. To be here quite. That is the best compliment I've ever had. It really is. I swear to God, you and I are twinning when you talk about like, and I'm just my husband's like, oh my gosh. Same. But but the thing is now I have because of the because of the book that I wrote, and forced my husband to edit, you know, and he's now very well versed in the book. Um, he's doing his own inner work and has for a couple of years and watching that king level up the honor of my life, right? I've been together with him for 25 years and watching him heal messed up things that happened in his childhood that again, both of us never played the victim card. We were always the I'm fine, it's fine, everything's fine. The problem is that's invisible weight that you're carrying around. And so if you're not either healing or healed from stuff that happened when you're a child, I I encourage you highly to look into that. Look under the rug. It's not as scary as people think, you know, you're so afraid of what you're gonna find. And that's, I think, why we are such a society of numbers, right? We we we stuff it down and numb on top of it, right? Your numb can be booze, it can be food, it can be shopping, it can be porn, it can be whatever. If you're in that numbing cycle where you just feel like sick and tired of being sick and tired, yeah, get a copy of the book.

unknown 30:48

Right?

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Get it's like start there, start there and get curious about it. I I watch as, you know, I've been planting seeds for a long time with the people in my life. And even like my my pool guy sent me a text this past weekend, which, oh my God, I love it so much. And he's like, I've listened to it twice now, you know, because the most dudes are not really into reading, which is excellent. Most people in general, which is totally fine. Um, but there's there's no excuses. I'll read it to you, right? It's my voice. I I spent my own money and went and recorded this and put it out on Audible so that you can listen to it. Um, you know, listen to me read. You have got five hours. You can spend five hours on something else, right? So don't make it off scrolling and just listen. Yeah. Take go for a walk. God, get outside. Get outside. It's like you have all of these people that are like depressed. I'm like, you're doing a bunch of depressing shit. What did you think was gonna happen? Like again, when I when I in the intro where it talks about you're getting accurately exactly what you're asking for.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

So get get real about that. Look yourself in the mirror and understand that what you're putting out there is exactly what you're getting back. Get curious. Exactly. Try something different, right? If you get keep getting the same exact result from doing something, maybe switch it up. You know, unless you're interested in like living this mediocre hamster wheel situation, and then that's on you.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

So I'm not interested. I was never interested. And I was like, let me do the work and let me move on. Yeah. Because I aspire to be this, and it like you, right? It's like I just always felt like I had this duty. And even it's so funny, full transparency, because that's what this is about, is I was like, what the what am I doing all this for? Like I've made all these plans and I'm running around and my two and a half year olds drug along with me, and he's having a great time though. Yeah. And I'm like, what is all this for? And I was talking with a dear friend, and she said, Mel, because you're doing what you know you're here to do. Yeah, you're you found your purpose, right? Yes. And I just again, it's my duty to just put this out there and to have these conversations because when we all elevate our energy, our mindset, we're all just gonna continue to to rise. And that's what we need to be doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

No, we we do. It's it's funny because when you for me, I think when you find that purpose, what I call the dharma, your dharma, right? When you find your dharma and you're in that, um, it doesn't feel like work. It's not right. And it doesn't matter what it takes to produce something. It's like the big guy gave me the nudge that I'm doing this show. I had no idea. This is my money that I put on the line. This is my stuff, you know. And so I when I get my balls busted by someone who's like, oh, it's all about ego, I'm like, yeah, you're right. Uh, I am so excited to age as a 48-year-old woman with no fucking makeup on, on a, on a, you know, with a bright right here. Exactly. You're right. This is exactly about ego. I'm like, I don't even want to watch myself. That has nothing to do with it, you know? Uh, but also everyone can have their opinion. I I don't get twisted up in trying to explain myself to people that are dedicated to being um to having me be misunderstood. I'm totally fine with that. Like, it doesn't hurt my feelings. I do this because I have conviction and I feel like if someone else knew the information that I did and saw the black and white and the color and did nothing with that, I'd be pissed. I'd be pissed. I think this is a collective. I think we're all one. I believe in that. I believe that when our world is sick, we're sick, you know, like we are sick. We really need help. And it's like, I am going to do everything that I know in my power that feels right in that moment. And it will that be wrong tomorrow? You know, I was thinking about that because the concept of putting yourself out there on social media and then having someone comment six months later or a year later or whatever about something that you said. And I thought, I'm growing at like freight train speed. So did I say something a year ago that I would absolutely change? Absolutely. But yes. Absolutely. Because my mind stretches every single day. When I have a conversation with another human being, I'm listening to understand, not to defend. I have, I don't want to defend any. Absolutely. So it's like when you say something, I'm not sitting here waiting for you to bump into a bunch of my triggers so that I can and posture myself to whatever. I'm listening to you because I want to understand, I want to learn from you and what your story was and what you're doing, because I think this life is an open book test. And I think we're meant to cheat off of each other. I think we're meant to share with one another. Here's what's working for me, what's working for you. Right. And every single person I know that's gotten uh involved in Reiki says nothing but amazing things. I've never heard someone who's like, I hate energy work. It's like, no, it's incredible. You know, I sent I sent my husband a couple of years ago to a Reiki gal that I worked with for a while. And game changer. Game changer for me, game changer for him, game changer. I sent my one of my daughters, uh, you know, my brother, my best friend does rake, you know, does energy work and she's a Reiki healer. It's just I I I can't I can't recommend it enough. And does that go in with all of the other things? Yes. But if you just agree to go on your own like self-discovery scavenger hunt, right? Figuring yourself out, uh, God, it's it's fascinating work to me. And you'll just figure out whatever that is. Something will spark to you. You know, it's like when I went and did ayahuasca, I was felt like I was literally called to go do ayahuasca, right? I had something that was blocked, I knew it was blocked, I couldn't figure out what it was with the other traditional um modalities of things that I was doing. And so that, and that was a game changer, right? I I've done other other things as well uh over the last several years, and every single one of them, it just felt like truth to me, and it felt like it just was calling to me to do that. When I read books, I buy the books because it sparked something, and then they're laying out in my house, and I'm like, okay, that one's next. It just calls to you whatever it's supposed to be, but you could do that, or you could do a bunch of depressing shit. Yeah. Right. You know, watching reruns of the office for the third time, or you know, watching other people as you scroll through living their lives.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

It's like you can make the choice. Put your effort and your time and your energy where you want and focus on you. We, you know, we've talked a lot about the social media side of things and giving your power and your time and your energy away, and instead bringing that in and talking about the reiki side of things, you know, think of it like this you're driving down the road and your car starts to veer to the left. What do you do? You take your car to a mechanic and they say, Oh, guess what, Ann? You are correct, your car's out of alignment. The mechanic does whatever the mechanics do, and they fix your car, you hop back in, and now your car is driving the way it's intended to. And that's the way that I view Reiki. Reiki is just the skilled mechanic of your body, your car, your vessel, because there are things that pull our energy out of alignment, like doom and gloom, social media, the toxins, the food that we're intaking, the lower quality of water we have now, all of these things are creating toxins and misaligning our energy. So Reiki or whatever modality that I speaks to people, Reiki was just always something that, like when I learned it, it was like a homecoming. Every cell of my body remembered it. It just felt so right to me. But if Reiki is not for someone else, I always highly encourage them to just get curious, like you say, and just explore. Maybe it's acupuncture, maybe it's just sound baths. All of that is extremely powerful, but it's all working with the energy of the body to bring you back in alignment. And ideally, we want our bodies to remain in a state of homeostasis because then dis-ease, physical ailments, all of these cannot reside within that. And that's the ideal world, right? Right. But it's training your body like that muscle uh to continue to be in alignment.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Yeah. And it's powerful when you are. I mean, it's it's wild when you when you feel out of alignment because now it just screams at me when I when I am. It's like, okay, what am I, what have either I gotten into or what have I not cleared, or what have I, whatever? You can literally just feel it. You get so in tune with yourself that you just want to be back in in alignment. It's it's it screams at you.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Well, and I think people that may be new to this concept, something that they can do is I call it like an energy body scan. And it's just understanding your mental landscape, the landscape within the body as well. So, first thing that I really like to do is when I first wake up in the morning, I'll lie in bed for a moment. Don't grab your phone, just lay in bed, just take some deep breaths and just kind of visualize scanning the body. And that feels tension there. What is that communicating? Or maybe that's too much. Just notice it, just have that awareness and then go down the body, whatever, and then you go about your day. And for me, being an empath, that's extremely important. And certainly when I work with clients, because I then know if I'm going into this session, hmm, I didn't have that right knee pain earlier. Okay, that's now me connecting with my client in a clear, sentient way. And then I know that's theirs, not mine. And that is how I make sure that I'm staying in alignment with myself. Yeah. So for somebody that's new, that would be a great practice that I would start. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

It it's it's really powerful to just even get curious. Yeah. Now, if you're if you're listening and there's something that sparks, just get curious. Yeah. Do your own research, figure out what that is, try it. Ask a friend. Hey, do you know anything about this? Have you tried anything that, you know, that resembles this? Or what does this look like? I think just even sparking curiosity where people talk to one another. You know, it's like when you encourage people, for me, I encourage people to read the book with a friend so that it's like talk about the things that are in there. It isn't just about reading a book. Right. This is a you can take control, you can take the bull by the horns of your own life and make changes. And so when you when you're talking about waking up in the morning and do I have bandwidth for this? When you were talking about the email at the beginning of the show, do I have bandwidth for this? Just getting mindful about your life because we are so in airplane mode and like just doing the next thing, and there's so many things that are robbing our attention. Let that pause for a minute, right? Like you said, let your phone sit there. You don't have to be that, it doesn't need to be the first thing that you get on, and it definitely shouldn't be the last thing before you go to bed. That's just that's a pro tip. Maybe everyone's like, I sleep like shit. I'm like, do you take your phone to bed? Yeah, I'm like, this is not rocket science, you guys. Right. If A equals, you know, it's like I don't have to explain this. Why we're all adults. You know that you're getting shitty sleep. It's like I went to a restaurant, I got food poisoning, I decided, you know what? Can you give me some of that? I'm gonna take it home, I'm gonna put it in the fridge. And then I'm gonna eat a little bit every day so that I just constantly feel sick. What are you doing? Like, knock it off. Knock it off. Get in touch with yourself about how do I feel after I do fill in the blank, whatever it is. After I go to the park and I sit on a blanket and I look up and I lay and I watch the leaves just blowing in the breeze or whatever. Do you know what I feel like? A million dollars. My nervous system is calm, right? It's like treat your nervous system like a business. We know this now. We didn't know this 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. We know this now. We know all of the things that you're talking about as far as Reiki and energy and atoms and like how your frequency and your vibration. We know this, right? Don't be like, I'm not doing that because I'm bullheaded. Like, okay, stud, like stay where stay where you are. It's like you could have a day that's like a three out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. You're willingly choosing the three. Okay. I mean, I know I don't want to I don't want to rain on your parade. I'm gonna be over here living my best life every freaking day. I really want you to join. I mean, I really do.

SPEAKER_00 41:58

Let's hook our and skip away.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Well, and it's funny because like as my as my tribe was leveling up, as I was leveling up, I had different seeds that I was planting and like, hey guys, it's really so much better over here, but it's a hard sell. When I'm like, hey, you want to work on your childhood trauma? Come over, I'll have snacks. We're gonna bring a breathworks lady in, you know. I'm that wack-a-doo. But but I'm gonna lose these people because as you level up, you have less tolerance for people. Right. You have less tolerance for people that want to just play the victim because you understand you're the one holding that card, boss. Yeah, and I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you and your pity party for the rest of your life because you're doing depressing shit and wondering why you're depressed.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Like I it's so difficult. And those heavy hitter emotions, not even just from you wanting the people around you to level up from an emotional standpoint, but a physical standpoint. Because I really have seen in my practice, I've done well over a thousand Reiki sessions at this stage, and I see these patterns of what happens. And when we do not process these emotions, they will manifest in other ways. Just like for me, it manifested with shingles. I had uh not long after the shingles, I had a sudden gallbladder removal with no explanation as to why. Knowing what I know now, it was all energy. But that's again why it's so important for me to share this information with people that everything is psychosomatic, right? It's that mind-body connection. You cannot disconnect it. Yeah, so making sure that we are processing because these things, if left unattended, as we said earlier, they don't disappear. They manifest. They do. And they manifest in ways that will capture your attention physically if you do not handle it prior to that.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Yeah. And then what we do is we rely on big pharma to give us a pill to numb it. You know, so someone described. How much time do we have today? No, no, no, God, seriously, add another two hours, Michael. We're not going anywhere. No, it is, but it's crazy because it's like we're we've done what we've We what we um, you know, what was the next thing that was handed to us, but we know better now. We know that that doesn't have to be the path that you go down. We know that that's your body screaming at you, telling you that you're out of alignment.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

The goal is to get ahead of that. Yeah. You don't have to wait until your body is screaming at you like I did, and I see so many other people. Get ahead of it, do the work now. Yeah.

unknown 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

It's just it's so hard when I've seen so many people that I love so dearly, and you want to help them, but they have to want to help themselves. They have to want to do the work. And if they don't want, all you can do is just continue to like leave the Skittles, leave the little breadcrumbs everywhere, and do your best. And then they have to make those choices. They do.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

I got to a place with my husband where I was like, listen, big dog, I am tired of leaving uh seeds other places. I am gonna club you over the head and take you back to my cave because I don't want to lose you. And I don't want to be in this place where I'm doing this hummingbird fairy, amazing best life of ever, and you're back there complaining and being the victim in whatever it is. I think three out of 10. I want to be a 10 out of 10 every single day. I know that I have control over that. And so being able to share that is empowerful.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Exactly. And that's empowering you as a wife, as a mother, yeah. Being a mother now, that's extremely important to me. Like my son loves Reiki. I have to post this cutest video of him talking about fun things on social media. Yeah. But I had gotten done with a Reiki client um, and he ran over and he was like, Mom, I need Reiki. I need Reiki. And then so I put him up there, I do a little bit of Reiki, and then he goes, I want to give you Reiki. And I lay down and I have a video of him like doing this. It's the cutest thing ever. But instilling these qualities in him at such an early age at two and a half, because then it's just gonna become second nature. Yeah. And that is where we make a big change in this upcoming generation. Because I will tell you, I've also worked on a lot of children and a lot of um teenagers, young adults, and they are so tapped in. And I think it's very important that we understand and we nurture that instead of squashing it because this is the next level that's coming in and they can help make a really big change, but they're also more sensitive and not always the best part. This is why the social media and really making sure that we're keeping track of what they're being exposed to because their sensitivity can attract them that way much quicker than even it does for you and I. Yeah, is what I've noticed among these other children that I've worked with.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

I I think they are more tapped in, and I think that's what makes it even more dangerous. You know, I look at that from the standpoint of um, I I think children should not have smartphones. I think children should not have smartphones. I really do. I think it's scary AF. I've watched as that happened, you know, my with with our girls. Um we gave them phones when they were like 15, 16. Talk about the quickest way to to um squash a woman's confidence, you know, the the comparison game, the whatever. And that's not a that's not an app you keep them off of, right? It's not like, oh, there's a parental control for that. No, that comparison game is savage. It's savage. I want my daughters to be capable and and in tune with themselves and um strong and confident. And it's like that is not what we're building with the this technology. So now it's a careful. Well, so now we're comparing to something that you just can't even compare to. It's not even. Who was it that I saw I saw just a clip of just a few minutes that there was a performer that was on stage at some sort of um uh like music award show recently where her whole thing was she's standing up there singing and her backup dancers were dressed in like all black.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Is this where they took the wig off? Yes, and they took her minutes and everyone was like, I love that. Like I didn't see the whole thing. I didn't need it, but now I'm gonna have to go back and watch it. Do mega powerful.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

Yeah, it really is, right? Like you're stripping, you're getting naked. You totally totally are. And that's part of the thing for me where it's like, okay, I stopped getting Botox. I'm gonna start wearing hats, a lot of hats on the show. Uh, I don't wear makeup. I wear, you know, this is just we look at this honey. But thank you. But it's just I I feel like this is one of those things where I have to practice what I preach and and and take my own medicine because I told all of the all of the girls how beautiful they are, just how they are. And then if I then you're doing all these other things. So it's like, all right, I'm gonna take my own advice, and it's also ex it like extremely hard to be a 48-woman, 48-year-old woman who is aging and um and just loving myself all the way through because I spent a lot of years not being happy and being very critical of myself, and I'm not doing that. I've spent the last couple of years really falling in love with myself from the soul perspective, not this ego perspective. And I will not beat myself up because I understand, again, that we're all connected. And so, would I say that to my daughter? Would I say to my daughter, ugh, your thighs are too big or ugh, your whatever? Of course I wouldn't. So there's no way I'm saying that to myself now. And so being able to say, I am going to do this on this platform. And what will that look like? I don't know. I can't wait to see how many hats I have. You know how many hats I'm gonna debut a new hat every week on on the podcast. But um, you know, that that's just also making making light of it and not taking it so seriously because I think what we're teaching our young girls is do all the things, right? Do all the things that doesn't build confident women, and that doesn't mean you don't do all the things for special occasions or for things, whatever. But but if you're not willing to go to the grocery store without putting on a full face of stuff or let anyone see you, or you have to put on this whole, you know, performative bullshit. Our girls are watching, our sons are watching. Like we don't want to do that. I know that's not what we want to, I that's not what I want to pass down. No, right. We want to create that healthy environment for them and being mindful about that. I have this question that keeps coming up in my head. Does your husband let you do energy work on him? And tell me what his thoughts are on all of it. He does.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

It's so funny because you know, he's we've been together, we just had our 14-year wedding anniversary, but we've been together 18 years. And so we were children. He was 19 and I was 21 when we met. And I am like always a chameleon. And he's like, What's Mel gonna be into today? Like, he's just along for the ride, he's never squashed that, which has always been super empowering for me as well, just to let me be whoever I want to be that day. Um, but when I first got into energy work, he was kind of like, Oh, I don't really know, because he has a very like analytical, logical brain. And so because we're not always able to articulate this, even science hasn't even fully caught up to energy work and everything yet. And that's okay. So he loves it. He always says, I don't really understand it and I don't really know about it. He's like, All I know is it does work.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

So it's really interesting. And from a performance perspective, you cannot perform at a high level, whether you are a CEO of a company, whether you're a professional athlete, whether you're a boss babe mom. You when your nervous system is dysregulated, you cannot operate at a high level. Yeah, it's that simple. It is so for him, going into these extreme situations with these high Gs and fast speeds, you have to be regulated. And so for me to help support him in another capacity, it's just elevated him that way.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

It is fun. My husband lets me work on him too, and it's just like, oh, this is so much fun. Yeah. Again, he doesn't understand it in that's and that's okay, right? But he but he does understand that he feels better about things. You know, he watches the whole manifesting thing. And people from the outside in my life are just like, what? I'm like, because I'll tell them, I'll write stuff down. I have like this pink paper, I'll write stuff down on it, and then it just comes in. And they're like, What I'm like, exactly. I'm like, I'm magic. I again, I don't have anything special that anybody else doesn't have. I just get in tune with yourself, be mindful, live a life that's not just thrown away to um the wolves, whoever's paying the highest price for your attention and your focus. You know, once once you see that, you can't unsee them. You know, I watch this with the the political theater that's happening and the the the big pharma and the news, and they just prey on people and they just get you so worked up because they show you a child separated from the mom at the border, and it's like, then then you know, we're turning on one another because if I don't get outraged, then people are like, how can you want that to happen? It's like, boss, that's not in my world. Like, I'm not saying that's not happening and that that's not sad. I'm I I have empathy for that mother that's dealing with that. I can't lose sight of what's in my circle right now. This is my orbit, right? In my orbit are my children, my friends, my family, my community that's right here in my area. That's where I'm going to be able to do. I'm going to try to affect change as far out as I can. I'm a big cannonballer, right? So I'm going to do everything that I can. But if I get outraged at that and get on the socials or get on wherever and start spewing hate towards other people and like, I can't believe that that doesn't outrage you. I can't believe that you're wasting Skittles on shit that you're not going to actually affect, right? To me, I think that's just as outrageous as what you're saying to me. We're not listening to one another to understand. We're listening to one another to defend. And to me, it's like, why are you even talking? Why are any of you even talking? What a complete waste.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Well, it goes back to you put it in your book and I put it in mind, and it just made me chuckle, is the oxygen mask on the airplane. You have to put your old oxygen mask on so you can help those in your sphere, your orbit. Yeah. And then you can have, if you still have the capacity, and maybe you don't, but we can only reach so far. And that's going back to those energetic boundaries and really making sure that you're taking care of your immediate tribe. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

I want to say something that was that's coming up for me. So I have this thing where I, a couple of years ago, figured out that uh the way to have my cup full and the way to be able to give from an abundant space is really to take care of myself first. And I had a hard time with that, especially as a mom, because it felt very selfish and it felt like, you know, me putting myself first was not the right thing. I was committed to the change because I knew that I needed to do something. So even though that was the hardest thing for me to do, I realized now after the fact it was the best thing that I could have done because now I'm full and I give from an abundant heart. What would you say to mothers? Because I know you agree with this as well. What would you say to mothers that are listening that maybe think that that's that's bogus? Yeah, that it's selfish because we literally we were raised as these be a good girl, be a good boy, you know, give, give, give until you're completely empty. And it has made the biggest change in my life for me to put my own mask on first at whatever cost that is. And that may mean someone has to wait or that I don't have the bandwidth to be able to help someone, that I have to say no to things. Right. Um, but what would you say to them to just get maybe encourage them to get curious about just even that concept so that they can really be working from a place of abundance instead of resentment?

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Absolutely. Well, the word resentment, right, that's a heavy hitter because being in those situations, and look, I'm gonna be full transparent on this. Like my husband's been traveling a lot. We've been in the thick of it. Now I'm traveling, he's home, like we've just had this crazy schedule. And I said to him a couple weeks ago, I was like, I am so resentful that you just get to leave.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

And I don't usually feel that way, but it's just because it's been so hot, heavy of like, I am just carrying it all. I'm working on my own dreams and ambitions and being a mom and being a wife and being a supporter and all of this for everybody. And but you know what it was? I wasn't taking the time that I normally do. And that is where it all matters, like we're talking about putting your own mask on first. So if you are in that stage where it's just really heavy, you're feeling that resentment, you're exhausted all the time, depending on the age of your children. Like my son's two and a half. So I really focus on waking up at least an hour before he does, because that's my quiet time. And what is a non-negotiable for me is quiet time. I have to have that decompression. And the way you start your day will be the ripple throughout the day. So I don't like chaos. I like to be cool as a cucumber, and then I wake up in the morning, I drink my hot lemon water, oil pull, stand on my vibration plate. That's my quiet time. And then I like to read in the morning, do something to educate myself, which is always self-help. I don't read for pleasure, I always read for education because my time is limited and I'm always looking to grow and expand, like we said, have these conversations to be educated on as well. And so that's my morning routine. Does that happen every day? No. In the days that it doesn't, I definitely know. I can feel it. And I'm a better mom because I start the day regulated. When I wake up on the back foot with my son and he is hell on wheels and he is full of spitfire, and I love that about him, but it is exhausting. And making sure that you take that time. So whatever it is for you, however, you can sneak in, I have a 10-minute rule that I started at my postpartum period that I could do anything for 10 minutes, whether that was 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minute walk, 10 minute meditation, 10 minutes of Reiki. But I had to carve out those little moments of time for myself. And it wasn't pretty, it wasn't sexy. Sometimes it's when my son was on the boob and I'm breastfeeding. But I was taking that 10 minutes, just focus on my breath work and calm myself because I'm exhausted. I was running on like no sleep, writing a book, doing all these things. But I was like, I have to carve out this time. And next thing you know, 10 minutes adds up and adds up, and you have your 30, or then you're at your 40, and then it's an hour that you got that time for yourself. So it may not be the picture perfect. I am gonna go to the gym and spend an hour all to myself, but give yourself those little increments and you'll be surprised.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

Yeah, I I co-sign that 100%. And also I think throw out any rules, throw out any rules about how you think it needs to look. Because people think like if I don't meditate for 20 minutes, it's not worth it. Meditate for two minutes. You know, don't do a guided meditation. Put on a sound bath on YouTube. That's a breather. Yeah, that's an hour. If you go two minutes or 10 minutes, it doesn't even matter when your body says you're done, then you're done, right? Showed up. You showed up for yourself. Absolutely. I just I think that that kind of stuff is so incredibly powerful. And and people um lean into those things. Whatever it is that you're curious about, lean into it. You have that device that you carry around that has that worldwide web on it, and it can find all sorts of stuff. You know, people that make excuses about, well, I don't have the money for this, I don't have the money for that. That worldwide web has all sorts of stuff that will tell you here's what I'm struggling with or here's what I'm dealing with. There's free resources everywhere. Get curious about it, invest in yourself, right? Right? You won't be sad about it. Stop the doom scrolling and use that time for yourself. Yeah, look at your look at your uh time on Instagram. If you've got a part-time job worth of Doom scrolling, change it up. Maybe, maybe just give a few percentage points to something else. I love it. Mel, thank you so much for coming. Will you please share with our listeners how they can connect with you or find you, get a copy of your book? Will you just share that information before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Absolutely. So Instagram is where I communicate most. So it's just the Mel Brown spelled B-R-A-U-N, looks like Braun on Instagram. And then my website is just Mel Brown.com. Um, my book is on there. We can connect. I offer um limited Reiki sessions. I offer a one-on-one mentorship to really clear and talk through all these things. So if people are feeling really stuck in their life and they're on that gerbil wheel and they're ready to get off and they're ready to take charge and be their own energetic CEO of their life, then I can certainly help with that mentorship.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

I love it. I think everyone should have not only be a mentor, but have a mentor. Absolutely. Whatever that looks like, right? If you don't have someone in your life, find a coach or find somebody that is in that capacity that can do it because it's a game changer. People are able to see things from a perspective that you're not. You know, anybody that can kind of give you a different POV is a big deal. So awesome. Well, that's our time for today. Uh, if something hit, stirred, or lit a fire under you and you've got thoughts, questions, or a story you're ready to share, slide into our DMs or email us at ladies at let's get naked podcast.com. If you believe in these conversations, help us keep them rolling. Follow, share, rate, review, do all the things, and we will catch you next time. That's a wrap.