Episode #024 — Finding Strength in Sensitivity with Emily Flood

Melanie Branch: Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Trailblazers Rising I'm so excited to bring to you my new friend and mutual from social media Emily Flood and check it out clean out your ears get ready for what I'm about to tell you who she is and what she does she is the fitness witch so Emily say hi to everyone.

Hi

Emily Flood: everyone thank you Melanie for inviting me onto your podcast and yes I am a fitness witch so I blend fitness coaching with magical life coaching integrating witchcraft and everything with my clients

Melanie Branch: oh my god I love it you're my new favorite person all my other favorite people have been dethroned.

So the fitness witch I will tell you you're dealing with an eclectic witch here and witch in my book has always been a positive term a term of endearment not anything that conjures up the old Idea of you know a bent over old lady with like a word on her nose and that sort of stuff so if you're listening and that is the mental image you get in your head when we say which you can probably just tune out now.

All right so first question that I ask every single person that comes on the podcast is what sparked your entrepreneurial fire right so what was there a moment in time where you were just all

right is it here can you see me now so what sparked your entrepreneurial flame what was the moment in time where you were like fuck no I can't do this anymore I got to do my own thing

Emily Flood: so I actually started fitness coaching in early 2020 because I was competing in bodybuilding and so my Instagram account was growing and people had started to reach out to me about coaching.

And so I started coaching just one or two people but it wasn't until because during COVID all the teachers were off I was a high school French teacher actually by the way and it was kind of towards the end of the summer where I was like I cannot imagine going back to teaching again because if there's any teachers listening it is one of the most exhausting thankless careers ever.

You are working long hours you're expected to work and grade when you go home there is no work life balance and it was actually during that summer that I hired my first business coach and it wasn't until I hired that business coach that I even thought it was in the realm of possibility for me to quit my teaching day job because my entire family is teachers and they have been teaching their entire life.

So for me it I it felt like I was going to be a teacher my whole life too and when I hired that business coach she was like Oh I think you could quit within a month I was like Excuse me is that possible and then sure enough a month later I was putting in I gave my school a six week notice because I you know people pleaser felt kind of guilty leaving someone in Texas without a French teacher.

But it was kind of at that moment where I was like I really cannot do an entire year of teaching again

Melanie Branch: absolutely not as a person with teenage sons I don't know how teachers do it I don't know how anybody in the education system that we have here in the U s does it it really is very challenging.

And when it comes to being a fitness coach especially around that time I can only imagine the amount of dysregulation you've seen in like dysregulated nervous systems people coming to you people I used to be very close friends with a trainer at my old gym and she I remember her telling me she had a personal training client.

a young girl probably in her 20s her husband was in the military and she wasn't really getting any results and she had come in for one of her training sessions and gone like Oh man I had so many beers last night and her trainer was like what what huh and essentially the girl didn't realize that drinking had calories.

Yeah

Emily Flood: and you get a lot of confusion around that it's interesting and I do think that since I started fitness coaching during COVID essentially I was only online I'm only an online coach but what I was having to deal with a lot with my clients was emotional regulation and easing their stress and easing their anxiety which is what took me more into the mindset side of things and developing my emotional regulation and life coaching skills and adding in this witchcraft specifically for emotional regulation with my fitness clients.

Melanie Branch: Yeah so let's get right into the witchcraft because I'm so excited to have a fellow witch on here holy shit I'm so So I am a big proponent in candle magic and at the Neuro Spicy Academy we like to call it for my woo adjacent folks we call it tactile intention setting or tactile goal setting.

So when it comes to practicing magic any sort of witchcraft that sort of thing in your life what is your favorite modality

Emily Flood: ah I love this because you know when you start thinking that maybe you are a witch and you start researching everything what I really was pulled to was Celtic shamanism because I am Irish and so it felt very good for me to kind of get back to my Irish roots and I loved that with shamanism you didn't have to Join a coven.

You could just meditate and do these things on your own and so with shamanism your main practice is going on shamanic journeys which are essentially just extended visualization meditations where you go to meet your guides and go to get knowledge and learn from yourself and so this is one of the main things that I do with my fitness clients because I find that so many women when they're coming into a diet program or a fitness program they feel like they can't trust themselves and they can't trust their bodies because they've been trying to control and fight with their bodies the whole time.

And so I have lots of clients who aren't witches at all and probably would like be like I don't know about this but we do visualization meditations and we do these shamanic journeys together as well I guide them to meet their power animal and everything and the ones who aren't already witches their minds are completely blown when they get their power animal and they see what it signifies for them.

And then a lot of the time we'll go to the upper world maybe not to meet a guide specifically but to see their future self and their future self will give them very specific advice for their fitness journey and maybe it was something that I could have already told them as their coach but it's so much more powerful when they hear it for themselves because then they're more likely to take action instead of you know me telling them you need to rest more and sleep more.

You know and they're going to be like Oh well you don't understand Emily but then if they hear it from them for themselves from a meditation and something magical then it impacts them on a deeper level

Melanie Branch: so let's talk about your guides I personally found out about my spirit team my psychic senses and the fact that I'm an energy healer around 2020 ish.

You know so my mom died in April of 2020 after an 18 month battle with stage 4 head and neck cancer at the height of the shutdown I was a furloughed employee at the restaurant I was working at things got crazy there for a little bit I'm not gonna lie there was a lot of peanut butter whiskey and a lot of spiraling.

And I really started coming out of it and learning about The traumas that we incur from childhood and and that we all have a spirit team that comes to earth with us to help us learn all of our lessons that we signed up for this time around and that they can really help us make better choices and decisions both in our life and in our business and That we're not here alone and that it's not just the universe.

It's not just your higher self you know It's not just your dead loved ones and your longtime ancestors like this there's a lot that goes into it So when it comes to really navigating that healing spiritual journey with your guides How do you like to stay connected with them and use them in your everyday life as it needs?

Emily Flood: Ooh so one of my main practices not every day because I can't go every day I go to float tanks once a week so think the stranger things sensory deprivation float tank like 11 does and it's not like a pod or anything so it's not very claustrophobic but when you are floating in the sensory deprivation.

There have been studies done that your brain gets into Theta state very easily when you are in floats and so that's actually primarily where I do my own personal shamanic journeying to speak to my guides and then from there I have a little altar with my deity statues I like to connect with them.

Maybe not on a daily basis since I do have ADHD and priorities and everything but I find that one of my guides The Morrigan she really loves it when I write and she also loves it when I go to the gym the gym is kind of an act of devotional for her since she is kind of a warrior goddess the gym kind of feels like my war zone both in my business and you know being a woman in the gym who's strong.

Yeah and and then I also have Hecate and of course Aphrodite has come in recently bringing in a lot more self love

Melanie Branch: work for me as well yeah so I have never personally worked with deities but I have done a lot of research into deities because my special interest is research so if I if I like a subject I'm like all right well let me learn everything that there is to learn about it.

And it's so interesting to me that you can have essentially free agents on your spirit team right so free agents on my spirit team and the way I describe it to other people is you know like your pass away family members and friends so like people that you knew in this life that are no longer with us here in the physical.

So you can call on them whenever you need it right so like my dead mom I can call on her when I need her help you know We have a lot of trauma that we're working through together so like I would say when I'm trying to over tweeze my eyebrows again or something I would call on her to talk some sense into me.

And then you have like the deities right so first and foremost if you feel the pull to work with a deity Whether it's Aphrodite Freya Hecate anything like that know that you're feeling that for a reason right so I see that so often in beginner witches especially when they're like how do I know I can work with a deity?

And I'm like if you're thinking about a deity and you're doing research on a deity that's the green light let's go ahead and go forward with it right and then having that place like your altar to center yourself and remind yourself like my altar is in the middle of my dresser and it doesn't get a lot of active work but it sure as shit reminds me every time I walk through my bedroom.

You're a witch bitch don't don't let any of this bother you so when it comes to being a life coach and a fitness coach and a witch at the same time what are some of the mindset shifts that you have had to make to be successful running your own business

Emily Flood: I have had to do a lot of really trauma work from that late ADHD diagnosis around feeling like I am good enough and feeling like I am worthy because for I grew up in the suburbs of Texas a very right very Christian area.

And so I was terrified to be myself in any shape or form especially when it came to witchcraft and so I couldn't even walk into a crystal shop that was well lit beautiful nothing dark or scary looking in it at all without fear because that was how scared I was of my own authentic self and so I have had to do a lot of work around really believing in myself and believing that Who I am and who my authentic self is is worthy and is a gift to the world.

And that has I think been really hard and one of the things that has helped me is realizing that when you start unmasking and start releasing the people pleasing that it will be scary and the fear is almost like a sign that you're moving in the right direction and you just kind of keep moving with it and keep taking those scary steps because the wrong people will fall away.

And I did have I lost a good 200 Instagram followers which was a significant number for me at the time when I came out as a witch but the Fitness Witchcraft has brought me over 36 000 TikTok followers so you might lose some in some way but then your right people will be attracted to you and you will feel so much more comfortable in your life when you are able to be yourself.

Melanie Branch: Absolutely so I'm so glad you said that when it comes these two mindset and manifestation because those two go hand in hand if you are trying to manifest and you're not working on your mindset I'm sorry to tell you I hate to be the one but it ain't going to work and really getting to that point of.

magnetism right so the more you're raising your vibration the more joy you're experiencing the more fun you're having the more ease you're inviting into your life the easier it's going to be to naturally align with higher vibe people and higher vibe concepts and ideas and projects and you won't even have to worry about relationships falling apart or anything like that because you're naturally Just going to grow apart right?

So when I was still working at the terrible restaurant that will not be named and I was learning about my crystals and I was building my business and doing all that I remember having like certain crystals on me at all times like my black obsidian and a few others and I remember like sitting in one like POS area in the restaurant and watching a really big gossiper that I worked with and I remember watching them and another POS area gossiping ha ha yucking it up with somebody else that worked there.

And I remember being like consciously in my brain saying I do not want them to talk to me today I do not want them around me they're going to I just don't even like their energy and they left that POS and if you don't work in a restaurant or never have that's like the computer area where the servers stand around when they're not taking care of your fifth diet Dr.

Pepper or Diet Coke refill whatever it is anyways and I remember being like I really don't want them to come over here with that bullshit and they walked and they looked at me and they just went mm and like that little look on their face like no I don't want that and they walked past me and I was like thanks!

Yo my spirit guides thank you so much if it's that easy I will stay on this fucking level forever so it brings me to my next question entrepreneurship is going to prove who's really your friend and who's not your friend and if I had learned one thing that I really wish somebody would have told me ahead of time it would have been that.

Your friends who you thought were always going to be around you're no longer going to talk to and your clients are going to become your friends is that something you found true and what can you add to that sentiment of like Damn I really wish somebody would have told me this

Emily Flood: yes it is unfortunately heartbreakingly true.

That is kind of one of the traumas that I have I've had a lot of abusive friendships and abusive relationships in my past with narcissists narcissists and everything and I find that as a female entrepreneur especially and someone who is neurodivergent and also being a fitness coach so in the fitness space that is so dominated by the toxic male energy and being someone who talks about emotional regulation and woo things in the gym that a lot of people look down on me and it's been hard to realize because I went into the gym especially after the abusive relationship like okay I am ready to make friends and not be isolated anymore.

And I tried really really hard to be friends with the other entrepreneurs in this gym and was really not receiving any reciprocal energy back and so it kind of had to I've had to like take a step back to realize like okay I want these people to support me but they aren't right now the people who can support me because they're very focused on themselves.

They're very focused on maintaining their perfect Instagram image and so right now it really does kind of feel like my clients are the only ones who get me my own podcast listeners are the only ones who really know my full story and get like the full me because there's not too many people that I know in person who are able to have a conversation even just like this with me on this level.

Melanie Branch: Yeah absolutely you know I I use this as a mantra all the time is I am not going to explain myself to anybody who's committed to misunderstanding me and you know vivid hair around those toxic masculinity dudes that registers as you know like a poisonous tree frog so if you want to go to the gym and get left alone by the men dye your hair a vivid color.

Emily Flood: Yeah hmm I think one of the things that has helped me the most on my entrepreneurial journey with these friendship things is that I mean if you want to make it big in the entrepreneur world you can't fit in because one of the things the stats that really gets me is that I think it's only 0 2 percent of female entrepreneurs ever make it to seven figures and I'm not there yet but I'm like dang if I want that to be me then I'm not going to fit in when I reach that goal.

And so I don't want to be the person who fits in and so I used to have this like you know limiting belief lifelong belief especially being neurodivergent that I don't belong I don't fit in and now I've chosen to view that as a good thing cause I don't want to belong and I don't want to fit in because I want to change the fitness industry.

Melanie Branch: Oh my God I love that and okay so the other day I made a tick tock I think it was just a tick tock story about so when you find your flock right when you find the people that accept you for who you are and you don't have to explain yourself anymore and you can really like let your walls down and actually work on those traumas that you have that you've endured with people that are there to help you.

So that's what I found at the Neuro Spicy Academy I'm second in command I've started it with Christina we're in love with the whole thing love it so much if you're a Neuro Divergent Entrepreneur you gotta check it out but that TikTok that's going around that says you know how you can tell who has ADHD around you you make a weird sound and whoever repeats it hey there you go right?

So yesterday two days ago I can't remember because time's not real I was at the Neurospicy Academy it's a virtual campus so we can all sit together in a cafeteria if we want to you can go sit by yourself and just being able to body double because you know other people around it's up to you but I'm sitting there with two other girls.

Christina and Yari and one of them goes Yari goes Hey! And we're like what you know what what is it and she goes What song is it what's the song called and it goes Da da da da and she started singing it and Me and Christina just We got like We're like Mm hold on and we're like Within five seconds we had the name of the song We had who sang it We're all sitting here like Oh yeah that song they used to play at the roller rink At the skating rink all the time.

Da da da ba right and I remember in that very moment I was just like These are my people these are my people where we can just have the most random conversation and now I'm gonna have a different earworm in my head than I've had in my head for the past however long amount of time and I'm gonna be singing that song from the skating rink for the next 24 hours but like to find people that get you is gonna it's going to be a very small group of people but it's going to fill your heart up so much more than when you had that big group of friends.

Yeah because people suck

Emily Flood: yes and that is part of what has made TikTok so incredible for me because I don't know many witches and I don't know many women who lift who are also spiritual and woo and who are interested in mindset work instead of just trying to fit into the Instagram fitness space that's very picture perfect.

Melanie Branch: Yeah god you know I saw somebody recently on my FYP post a before and after of like her bloating at the gym and as a person who deals with a lot of hormonal issues I have polycystic ovarian syndrome endometriosis and premenstrual dysphoric disorder on top of all my other alphabet soup and you know right now I'm very premenstrual.

My period's coming any second now and it has been for the past couple days so I love everybody that's in my life and has put up with me to this point but really giving a real like show on your social media like this is what actually happens when you work out really hard everything is swollen because all your water is on all of your muscles and whatnot and this is totally normal right?

So like how do you like to portray the normalcy and the keeping expectations when it comes to your social media ooh

Emily Flood: one of the favorite things that I do and now you've reminded me that I need to do it again soon is that I do have abs right and so a lot of women pretend or not pretend they think that that means that I have a completely flat stomach.

But even when you have abs you don't have a flat stomach because you still have your uterus and if you stand relaxed then you're still going to your belly's still going to stick out and so I like showing I think it's very important not that I necessarily like doing it because there's all that that's still that don't show your bad side view on social media.

But I think it's really important for women to see that because when I was starting out on my fitness journey and I saw an influencer who I looked up to where she was standing with her phone belly completely relaxed like just looking down at her phone I was like Oh my gosh her belly looks like that.

And so it's really it's really important to see the normalcy even with someone who has like extraordinary fitness results

Melanie Branch: hold on my dog's got locked outside.

Emily Flood: This is what editing's for yeah that's what editing's

Melanie Branch: for but you're so private these f ing people yeah.

Emily Flood: Ooh I have one more thing to add on to that too.

Melanie Branch: Thank you for bearing with me it'll just be two minutes aye yi of course let's let's like I have to be home alone to film so nobody else is on the wifi but then when I'm home alone I'm the only one to take care of the same animals.

Hehe.

Soon oh I'm on a delay! Oh it was like being a being a vampire I sat down and I wasn't there yet oh my god okay whew! That was terrifying okay now I know what it would be like so let's get back into witchy talk okay okay all right so carry the one all right we're just going to pick up like we left off.

Yeah balancing balancing the creative and strategic sides of entrepreneurship is a challenge especially for us neurodivergent people right so how do you really find the sweet spot when juggling the strategic boring stuff that we have to do and the magical fun creative stuff I think

Emily Flood: for me what's really most important is tuning into my body.

If anyone here knows human design at all I am a generator and so I'm not supposed to be making decisions solely from my head and when I am in my headspace and I've got that anxiety saying do more you're not doing enough etc I end up missing And the needle movers in my business because I'm like content content content because that's fun.

And so I really have to slow down and even if it's just standing outside on my balcony and taking like seven deep breaths to connect to myself and connect to my body usually I'll get a like oh I remember I'm supposed to do this long email list task that I don't necessarily want to do but that is going to be what moves the needle forward and not the quick content creation.

And so slowing down I have a tool that I think might be really useful for ADHD ers is I have a whiteboard that I call the done board and so instead of making a to do list which always is way too long when you're in ADHD or because you think that you always have so much extra time during the day I like to write down the tasks that I do get done because then it makes me feel really accomplished at the end of the day to see like Oh wow I did do a lot instead of I didn't get everything done.

Melanie Branch: Yeah I I suffer from five minute syndrome I think everything's just going to take five minutes I think cleaning my car is going to take five minutes I think writing an email is going to take five minutes I think launching a new venture is going to take five minutes and it's sometimes it comes in handy.

Other times it doesn't it really comes in handy when your family members or your friends know that you think everything is only going to take five minutes so you say I'll be there in five minutes and they know that means probably 25 or 30 but when it comes to lay time management that's as much French as I know I want you to know and we I know that I took Spanish I'm from Southwest Florida and Spanish is it's much more beneficial than a French but I do have a lot of Canadian clients but they're not French Canadian.

They're just Canadian Canadian I don't know what that is anyways so when it comes to time management right between content creation and and calls with your clients and having a social life and all of that I rely on phone alarms every I have so many alarms set in my phone and I also do I live the magic mojo lifestyle so it's a combination of low toxicity low demand and then all this other sort of more holistic natural stuff.

Because I don't want to take medication for my ADHD because it totally blocks my creative flow and I'm like do I want to have a spotless house and no originality in my brain or do I want to figure out how to get keep my house clean and still have some fun and whatnot I have found again alarms in my phone and then flexibility into my agenda right?

So like I don't go to the gym to work out but I like to start moving my body between 3 and 6 p m what do you recommend to your clients when it comes to finding time for everything and not burning out

Emily Flood: ooh okay so personally time management wise I like to use Google Calendar because then it'll send me notifications.

before so I don't miss things but then for my clients one of the things that I like to promote like you were kind of talking about with manifestation earlier it's that so many people on their fitness journey say like I'll feel confident when I lose weight but it's just like when you're trying to manifest more money no you need to feel that feeling now.

And so if it when it comes to going to the gym if they're feeling a lot of dread and they don't want to go one I have a lot of unshaming tools to actually dive into okay why don't you want to go to the gym is that some inner child thing do you think you're going to get bullied and like diving into that.

But then also having them do fulfillment rituals before they do something that they don't want to do so maybe it's a pre workout meditation in their car maybe it's doing something they enjoy before they do the task of going to the gym so that they feel good so that they feel confident so that they feel excited instead of dreading their workout.

Because if you go into a workout dreading it it's not going to be as good of a workout and it's going to feel like a chore and potentially even a punishment for your body when it should be almost a ritual in celebration of the you that you are becoming like a transformation ritual if we want to make it witchy.

So doing things like even just a three minute dance party to their favorite song to get that fulfillment going before they have to do a task that they don't necessarily like to do and that's something that helps me in my business as well especially with ADHD following the dopamine doing something I like before the dishes.

Absolutely

Melanie Branch: my way to get the dishes done is to require the other people in the house to do it because I'm not doing any fucking dishes anymore gad damn I hate that you know what I found it Okay so for sensory support I I am a high sensory needs baby that's what I call myself so I may not be by traditional standards high support needs and I am also very high masking which is how a lot of us go under the radar for so long as neurodivergence ADHD and autism.

Especially so anything that requires wet hands wet paws or wet right here on your wrist like where your long sleeve would be hitting your wrist and I think it has to do with like childhood stuff I absolutely cannot stand like remember when your hoodie would get wet right there and you just felt it all day and you're like ah I also don't wear any shirts that have sleeves on them and the only time you'll see me in sleeves is a jacket.

Me too that's a sensory thing yeah yeah yeah they're the worst right they are absolutely the worst and I think it has a lot to do with like my build I have pretty big shoulders I have big arms not so much a big chest anymore Well there was a small period of time like breastfeeding that they were just fantastic.

But it's like if you are not If the shirts always bunch up and the shirts always restrict you stop wearing shirts like that right so in your journey of figuring out your neurodivergence and accommodating it what sort of sensory shit throws you for a loop

Emily Flood: oh my gosh I'm so excited that I can speak about this on your podcast because gem sensory sensitivities are such a thing and I think people forget.

And so for me Artificial lighting I can't do it but unfortunately a lot of gyms have them if the gym has low ceilings I'll feel cramped obviously if it's crowded if there's no windows that throws me off as well the temperature is a big one how loud the music is there was one time I was going to a very popular social media gym in Houston Texas that the music was so loud that I couldn't even hear my own music.

And it was so hot and my pants were tight and it Threw me into an anxiety attack and I ended up running out of the gym and then got called lazy by my toxic male masculine coach but the gym that I have now I am absolutely obsessed with it sensory wise because it's a garage gym they have open doors.

It's very spacious they even have a little room in the back and so that's a room that I get to go to if I'm feeling overstimulated or if I need to cry or have a moment I can just go shut myself in the room and be alone for a moment and so for anyone out there who doesn't like going to the gyms for that reason shop around.

I think I'm not a big fan of commercial gyms because of the lighting and there's always different people going in and out and so I really like smaller locally owned gyms because then you Get to see familiar faces every day even if you're not trying to make friends and then usually that's where you get gyms that might be really unique where they have open doors where I am allowed to bring my dog to the gym which is an emotional support dog was really key for me after I got out of my abusive relationship and was terrified of people.

So sensory in the gym it's huge

Melanie Branch: absolutely the gym that I used to go to here in Jacksonville was all indoors all air conditioned you know it's like this big square but like you know there's a functional room over here there's a ladies only room over here there's a group fitness room there's a spin room.

I will say the only thing I miss about that gym is the spin classes and like the dance classes but I I I I I did not want to be out on the regular floor by myself lifting weights with all the people out there that are on the floor lifting weights because again and this is something that my family really struggles with me trying to explain it properly.

My need to not be perceived right like not be perceived against my will so I have teenage kids I have a husband when they're all home on a Saturday and Sunday and I'm sitting here in my open office because we're in a 1300 square foot house I know people can hear me I know people can see me I know people can listen to the conversations I'm having with the people at the Neuro Spicy Academy or anything like that.

And it's just so nice to not be perceived and you just don't get that in most gyms so I know as neurodivergent people we do tend to be turned off to those more traditional more corporate type gyms whereas like I said a gym that's like somebody's like a outdoor area like a garage absolutely.

Get those big fans on let me put my headphones on let's let's let's go to town leave me alone let me do some shit you know

Emily Flood: yeah and I want to say for anyone listening on here if you are anxious going to the gym there's a big stereotype in the fitness community where it's like just suck it up.

People aren't looking at you et cetera and that I think really invalidates the neurodivergent experience and so if you are on my team we are not invalidating your gym anxiety we can do home workouts if you want we can talk through it because whatever anxiety you have it is there for a reason it is your body telling you in some way shape or form that you are not safe.

So we go with it

Melanie Branch: yeah we will not invalidate you here we will just deep dive to try and figure out where it came from and how we can fix it that is so good now I talk about self care all the time self care is not a fucking facial and a pedicure alright self care is the concept that you are the only person on this planet that is in charge of your well being.

I am not my husband's not responsible for my happiness and my success my children are not responsible for my happiness and success I am responsible for making sure that I am good that I am happy that I feel great that I protect my boundaries and I protect my peace and we know that running a business can be stressful and requires high levels of self care.

So what are some of the self care practices that help you stay moving forward instead of you know like panicked and what the fuck did I do by starting this business okay one of the things

Emily Flood: that I've had to implement for myself which was very difficult is really strict boundaries of when I stop working each night.

Because otherwise with ADHD hyper focus I can work till 10 o'clock at night and then immediately go to bed and feel awful and sleep awful and wake up feeling awful again and so I've got a strict 7 30 p m cutoff time it adjusts and it change changes but then also making small moments throughout the day to emotionally regulate if I'm feeling anxious and not to just keep going with that anxiety.

So one of the things that I've started to integrate this week is going out to my apartment's pool sticking my feet in the water to kind of ground myself and work with the energy of water a bit even if it's just for like five minutes and like breathing I get this sense of calm and this focus that comes over me that then like.

trickles out for hours into my business so that I can have a calm evening so that I can actually focus on reading a book instead of thinking Oh my gosh did I forget to do this I need to write this idea down especially with ADHD I've really had to continuously reflect and refine on what works for me.

Melanie Branch: Yep and it continues to grow and it continues to change and being flexible is so incredibly important I have a a flexible yet rigid bedtime I don't say routine because I think routines are boring but like ritual that I have to follow because my brain needs a small amount of stimulation to be able to fall asleep.

I need like the ritual of making a sleepy time tea to get ready to fall asleep you know tell my husband Hey I'm going horizontal now you know like sometimes I just need to lay down and you guys can still come and talk to me and hang out but sometimes I need to lay down and have everybody leave me the fuck alone.

So really having that like power down moment where my brain goes okay we're not working anymore we're not going to think of any more ideas we're not going to think about any of our clients we're really just going to go to sleepy town thank you very much has been so beneficial and I wish that I was not a toddler that needed to like shift gears into all of this stuff but that's what works for me.

Right so like okay Mel like I say this in my head okay Mel we're not going to work anymore we're going to turn the computer off we're going to turn the lights off we're going to go put our jammies on and all that I really have to talk myself through all of it or I will catch myself rushing I will catch myself being really hard and critical on myself and it's like no you don't have to do that.

You can just be

Emily Flood: nice I love that so much and I kind of have to do the same thing and one of my bedtime rituals actually is acknowledging the wins that I've had for the day and what growth that I've experienced so that way I'm not continuously thinking of all the things that I didn't do and then I like to listen to theta wave music right before falling asleep.

And sometimes I fall asleep while doing this so you could call it a meditation if you want but almost to put my brain into that creative state of relaxation as a bed ritual so then I fall asleep faster and so then my sleep is more restful as well

Melanie Branch: yeah now let me ask you this through the process of reorganizing my day remapping my day.

This is something that I teach in my time hackers workshop I have found that I am an early riser I like to wake up between five and 6 00 AM most days and that I'm an early to better right and where I had been going wrong for the majority of my adulthood was that the waking up at six or seven right?

So I would naturally wake up around five or six and I'd go back to sleep for I would press snooze and that really screws you over because you're gonna wake up when your alarm goes off in the middle of a sleep cycle and you're gonna Be groggy for hours and I would push myself to stay up later than I actually wanted to because you know that second and third wind that you Get if you push through that first time that your body's like I'm so tired And if you just push through You're going to be able to like stay awake and whatnot.

So through remapping my day I figured that if I wake up at 5 or 6 a m that means that I can be horizontal at 8 p m and that's a good thing what have you found about like your natural energy cycles are you a night owl or are you an early bird I used

Emily Flood: to be a night owl but one of the things I've realized is that When the sun comes up I start getting anxious if I haven't accomplished anything for the day.

And so I started waking up at 5 a m about 10 months ago for my business and I get like a majority of my written content work done in the morning before the sun even comes up maybe maybe not when it's summer and there's longer daylight hours but I really love being in the dark I have my witchy galaxy lights on.

I like my candles I have incense going and it feels so peaceful for me to have those few hours to myself in the morning I also do some journaling and some self care rituals in the morning as well which I if I woke up and I it was already light outside I would feel so much pressure to immediately start working that.

From the hours of about 5 a m to 6 30 a m I am journaling I am meditating I am putting myself first so that way come 6 30 a m I can start doing content and start doing things on my business before the sun has completely come up so that way I don't feel like I'm wasting time journaling when the sun is already

Melanie Branch: up.

Yeah yeah I get that I used to think that I needed to work out first thing in the morning to like okay well I need to go on a WLK or a bike ride or something like that you know at eight o'clock once I've dropped the kids off and whatnot and now I realize I like I'd like to move my body between three and 6 p.

m it just works better for me and it's going to become difficult this summer because you're in Texas I'm in Florida three to 6 p m is primetime thunderstorm hour so I'm gonna have to start figuring something else out but because I'm flexible and I'm aware of I have to make changes in my agenda every day to accommodate what my energy is I'm not worried about it.

Emily Flood: I love that and that's one of the things that I've had to do as well with my workouts because I used to work out at 10 a m because the gym here actually doesn't have air conditioning and being in Texas 10 a m was at least slightly cooler than 2 p m but I noticed that when I got home from the gym and I ate lunch I would hit that immediate you know ADHD 2 p.

m crash and so now I go to the gym at 2 p m and so that crash doesn't hit me because I'm moving my body and so we'll see if I have to you know reflect and refine as it gets hotter or if I'll just deal with it but I had to recognize how horrible it was for my concentration and my My work habits to continue sticking to that rigid 10 a.

m schedule just because I thought I had to keep doing the same exact thing over and over

Melanie Branch: yeah yeah all right so before we get into the lightning round of ADHD questions I'm going to have you plug your spot and tell everybody everything about where they can find you and how they can work with you.

Emily Flood: Yes okay so I am Emily you can find me on Tik Tok and Instagram at M Yogi underscore fit used to be yoga teacher and you can also find my podcast witchy wellness with M on Spotify Apple podcast any major podcast platform and if you want to work with me the best way to go about finding the links to everything.

Oh I have a freebie of 50 magical rituals for your fitness journey that you can find hopefully in the show notes to this and also in my TikTok and Instagram bio and you can find out all the ways to work with me there I do answer all of my DMS and yes I do a blend of fitness coaching with life coaching.

And what that means is that I tie my client's fitness results to their life results so it's not just okay you want to get skinny no how will losing weight impact your confidence and how you show up in your life in your career in your business so I have clients who say they dread going to the gym because they don't like their jobs.

I'm like okay how can we fix that do you want to get a new job how can we make your job more enjoyable so that you actually enjoy going to the gym and then with Fitness Witch Academy it's my magical mindset course and we do a lots of witchy rituals with the purpose of subconsciously reprogramming your mind.

Because a lot of people try Keto diet and then you try another strategy and another strategy without ever really diving into well actually what subconscious programming do you have around being worthy around being good enough that is the real reason why you haven't been successful before and so.

When we work with your brain like this we are creating those new neural pathways for self love for believing that you are worthy for believing that you can actually stick to your fitness journey this time and so that identity first approach really helps my clients to find a deeper why for their fitness journey and learn to love it instead of viewing it as a chore or a punishment for their body.

Melanie Branch: I love that so much yeah oh I knew you were going to be great okay are you ready for the lightning round questions don't overthink them just stream a conscious okay consciousness all right number one what's your favorite social media platform

Emily Flood: actually Facebook I know lots of other women entrepreneurs on there and I find I can connect with people a lot more.

So if you want to shoot me a friend request on Facebook and you can find a lot more of like the behind the scenes a lot more realness a lot more storytelling over there I would love to have you

Melanie Branch: I I deleted my Facebook off my phone and now I don't know how to log back into it so it's okay but I can get to you through Instagram.

So but I will tell you you're the first person to say Facebook and probably you're going to be the only one in that category for a hot minute all right number two seriously you know I love tick tock all right what is the most recent rabbit hole that you have gone down

Emily Flood: ooh I went down a human design rabbit hole yesterday because I got a new reading done from the woman who does the human design podcast and I got her reading done for my chart and I started reading all of these things about my design and there were so many light bulb moments for like the things that aren't quite going quite exactly the way that I want them to in my life that I was just like the human design chart it knows everything.

So that was

Melanie Branch: yesterday I love that okay number three what is your favorite emotional support show so what show or movie do you watch when you're not willing to take on anything new ooh,

Emily Flood: I think right now it's been Vox Ex Machina on Amazon Prime it is a Dungeons and Dragons animated show and there's only two seasons of it so far but I'm on like one of the last episodes of it.

Melanie Branch: Heard anybody say in the Amazon Prime show and not anything having to do with Dungeons and Ja and Dragons has ever been mentioned on my show so look at us! Mine is Parks and Rec just so that everybody's I'm a big Leslie Knope fan okay the fourth question is a two parter have you consumed any water today and do you want to share your emotional support cup with the class?

Emily Flood: Yes I have consumed water this is my water bottle with my unicorn stickers fun yes

Melanie Branch: we love it I knew you were going to have drink you were going to have consumed water today because you're a fitness witch but I ask everybody all right last question and if this one's healthy then it's going to all make sense.

What is your current dopamine snack and or meal ooh okay

Emily Flood: so my favorite meal when I'm like not feeling great is actually going to Chick fil A because I used to work there in high school so it is very much one of my safe foods and right now because it's summer and it is very hot in Texas I will get the The salad but the one that has the fried nuggets in it the the Cobb salad and then I get a large Coke zero for you know the dopamine and then a cookie because I have to have a dessert and their cookies are just glorious.

Yeah I'd like to blend that I like want having something cold

Melanie Branch: to eat during the summer okay I'm here for all of that absolutely so what dressing do you get on the salad the light

Emily Flood: Italian

Melanie Branch: dressing oh see I would have gone ranch or blue cheese all day but that's the difference between an eclectic witch and a fitness witch obviously.

Yeah so Emily I want to thank you so much for being on the show today and imparting your wisdom on everybody listening and I love you all equally and for different reasons and we will talk soon okay bye!

Emily Flood: Thank you.