“Energy Is All There Is”: Understand Your Energy Body, Feel Better
Managing your energy is key to regulating anxiety, stress, and overwhelm. In this episode, Morra sits down with energy healing practitioner Ellen Donaldson to explore how energy dysregulation shows up in high-achieving, anxious professionals, and what you can do about it. Ellen breaks down key concepts in mind-body energy medicine, including the chakra system, and offers practical tools to help you feel more grounded, present, and powerful.
Morra shares her own experience learning from Ellen, including how a simple shift in energetic awareness helped her cope with caregiving demands and daily overwhelm. You’ll also hear a short guided meditation to help you regulate your energy, even on the busiest days.
Takeaways from the episode:
Your energy body (composed of chakras and an aura) affects your emotional and physical well-being.
Dysregulated energy (like overly open or closed chakras) can manifest as anxiety, emotional flooding, or exhaustion.
The second chakra is particularly relevant to people-pleasers and caregivers. Learning to “close” it slightly can reduce overwhelm.
Grounding through the first chakra helps regulate the nervous system and bring you back to the present moment.
Simple practices—like visualizing veggie steamers as chakra regulators!—can be done in seconds, tied to everyday routines.
Ellen guides listeners through a quick grounding and chakra-regulation meditation you can repeat anytime—before a tough meeting, while caregiving, or simply when you're feeling frazzled.
Resources & Links
🌿 Download a free guided meditation from Ellen at: starleafwellness.com/morra-interview
🌿 Learn more about Ellen’s practice: starleafwellness.com
Timestamps:
03:40 Understanding Energy and Its Importance
06:21 Exploring Chakras and Their Functions
09:28 Grounding Techniques and Practices
12:22 Guided Meditation for Energy Regulation
17:25 Practical Applications of Energy Regulation
20:45 Resources
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How Growing Up in Foster Care Shaped Chéla Gage’s Leadership
How does growing up in foster care shape you as a leader? Chéla Gage is the former Vice President Global Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer, workforce mental health advocate, inclusion expert, and host of the 1 Million Fosters podcast. Gage joins Morra to share how her childhood in foster care shaped her strengths as a leader, her reflections on anxiety and hypervigilance as an asset, and how she’s transforming trauma into purpose.
Chéla’s journey from foster homes and group homes to senior leadership roles at Nissan, Raytheon, and Starbucks is a testament to the power of claiming your story. She shares how her upbringing honed her ability to read a room, anticipate challenges, and build belonging, skills that have made her invaluable in corporate spaces.
Learn more about Chéla Gage: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelagage/
Key Themes:
✅ Hypervigilance as Leadership Strength: Growing up navigating new homes and caregivers taught Chéla to read the room quickly, identify influencers, and trust her intuition—skills she now uses to drive business impact.
✅ Reframing Trauma into Purpose: Chéla discusses how she once felt shame about her foster care past but now sees it as her superpower, providing her with empathy and perspective leaders need.
✅ Parenting as Reparenting: Motherhood allowed Chéla to give the love she didn’t receive as a child back to herself.
✅ The Role of Anxiety: Anxiety kept Chéla alert and prepared, but she learned to manage in therapy, to reduce constant threat scanning and burnout while embracing her “hypervigilance” as a leadership tool.
✅ Creating Belonging in Corporate Spaces: Through her career in recruiting and DEIB leadership, Chéla discovered the importance of recognizing and honoring people’s whole stories, not just their resumes, to create true inclusion.
Timestamps:
07:09 Hypervigilance as a Superpower
12:59 Transforming Pain into Purpose
18:40 The Role of Anxiety: A Double-Edged Sword
24:14 Inclusion and Belonging
29:51 The Impact of Personal Stories
34:50 Empowering the Foster Community
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Using AI for ADHD With Lindsay Scola
What happens when a late ADHD diagnosis meets the powerful potential of AI? Writer, strategist, and sleep coach Lindsay Scola joins Morra to share how she uses AI as a personal productivity partner to manage ADHD challenges, perfectionism, and executive dysfunction—while preserving creativity and rest.
Diagnosed with ADHD at 41, Lindsay discovered that AI could act as an accountability buddy, thought partner, and creativity booster. From using AI to overcome the dread of the blank page to automating follow-up emails, Lindsay shares practical ways she leverages AI without losing her humanity.
Buy Lindsay’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/AI-ADHD-Practical-Starting-Finishing-ebook/dp/B0F5T9QKMH
Listen to our interview about the stimulant shortage, narcolepsy and ADHD: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ritalin-and-adderall-shortage-and-how-it-impacts-work/id1480904163?i=1000611595946
Key Themes:
AI as an ADHD Copilot: Lindsay explains how AI helps her manage executive dysfunction, tackle writing tasks, and avoid the overwhelm of perfectionism while maintaining her unique voice.
Reducing Shame and Preserving Brain Space: Using AI for small but stressful tasks frees up cognitive space, letting her focus on big ideas and creative work without getting stuck in spirals of self-criticism.
Permission to Play: Lindsay urges people with ADHD to experiment with AI and other tools to find what actually works for their brains instead of following rigid systems that suppress creativity.
Scheduling for Neurodivergent Brains: From building “dopamine deadlines” to respecting personal circadian rhythms, Lindsay shares how she structures her week to maximize focus while honoring energy dips.
AI for Burnout and Loneliness: We discuss how AI can help solo workers feel less isolated and provide accountability without judgment, acting like a team member who says, “let’s keep going.”
Timestamps:
03:28 ADHD, Midlife, and AI Solutions
08:13 Balancing Perfection and Completion
11:07 Childhood Injustice and Self-Awareness
18:30 Optimize Productivity by Time Awareness
19:37 Embrace Napping for Productivity
25:40 AI-Assisted Writing for Quick Posts
29:06 Podcasting Inspiration for Writing Newsletter
32:32 Flexible Time Management Strategy
35:50 Improvised Charging Solution
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Crossover Special: Everyday Better with Leah Smart
Everyday Better with Leah Smart is a show that helps listeners level up - in their careers and their lives. In this episode, Leah speaks with Anxious Achiever host Morra Aarons-Mele about her research and work around having a understanding your own unique brain and embracing a big career, from introversion, mental health, and neurodivergence. Morra explains what she’s learned about leadership and organizations through the lens of studying these topics.
Check out Everyday Better:
On Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3G8zjY1
On Spotify: https://bit.ly/3HRpNsQ
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Who’s In Your Mental Health Squad?
It might not be that easy to talk to your boss about mental health. But having close friends at work - on your team or elsewhere - where you can have open, honest dialogues can go a long way. In this episode, host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with three work friends about how they started talking mental health, how it helped them in their jobs, and what they hope managers can better understand in the future.
Host Morra Aarons-Mele is on a mission to reframe how we think about anxiety and mental health in the workplace. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. We desperately need better models for leadership and a more holistic view of mental health. Our culture tells those of us who suffer from anxiety and depression that we can’t succeed, but we tell a different story — without sugarcoating the tough stuff. We feature stories from people who’ve been there and experts who can help you thrive.
Listen in your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1480904163
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