If you’ve ever been told you or your child has anxiety, ADHD, or both—but it never fully explained what was actually happening—this conversation will feel like a breath of fresh air.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Giancarlo Licata, director of Vital Brain Health, to unpack what’s really going on in the brain beneath these labels—and why understanding how the brain is firing matters more than the diagnosis itself.

We talk about anxiety, attention, and regulation through a neuroscience lens that’s nuanced, practical, and deeply validating for parents and high-achieving adults alike.

In this episode, we’re diving into:

• Why “anxiety” and “ADHD” are often too blunt to be helpful.
• A powerful way to understand rumination, fear, and fast processing—and how inherited traits, stress, and trauma can mix and match to drive anxiety and overwhelm.
• The order of operations your brain actually needs.
• The difference between calming your nervous system in the moment and actually lowering your baseline over time—and why both matter if you want lasting change.
• What brain mapping and neurofeedback can reveal and rewire

If you’ve ever felt like you’re throwing coping tools at a nervous system that’s already maxed out—or wondering why nothing seems to stick—this episode will help you see the bigger picture with clarity and compassion.

🎉 Special Offer: The first 5 families who inquire with Vital Brain and mention code “Alive & Well” will receive complimentary airfare for their child to Los Angeles for brain mapping—with at-home brain training to follow.

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If I were starting my career over today — with everything I now know about ambition, the nervous system, and sustainable success — I would do it very differently.

Not because I regret being driven or capable.

But because I misunderstood what actually creates long-term performance, clarity, and well-being.

In this episode, I’m sharing the five shifts I wish I had made earlier in my career — back when I was running a law practice, raising babies, and equating success with doing more, faster, and better.

These aren’t productivity tips.

They’re nervous-system-informed lessons about how high-achieving women can build meaningful careers without sacrificing their health, energy, or peace.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why defining success for yourself is the foundation of sustainable ambition
• How saying no more — and saying it faster — protects your nervous system and capacity
• Why daily nervous system regulation matters more than discipline or willpower
• The difference between managing your time and managing your energy
• Why aligned mentorship changes everything (and why I wish I’d invested sooner)

This episode is for working moms who are ambitious, capable, and successful — but quietly exhausted by the way they’ve been holding it all.

If you want to keep your drive while building a career that actually supports your body and your life, this conversation will give you a powerful reframe and a more sustainable way forward.

Press play to hear what I’d do differently — and how you can start making these shifts now.

Related Episodes:

• Previous Episode
• Three Keys to Working from Home with Kids
• Feeling Overwhelmed with Work-Life Balance? 3 Mindset Shifts for Working Moms
• Working Mom’s Survival Guide: 8 Lessons for Work-Life Balance with Dr. Elizabeth Arleo
• 3 Reasons Your Productivity Hacks Aren’t Working (And What to Do Instead)
• Do You Have These 3 Signs of Mom Burnout? Here’s How to Reclaim Your Energy

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If you open your eyes and instantly feel mentally crowded, emotionally tense, or already behind, this 15-minute morning practice is going to change everything about how your day begins.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing the exact 15-minute sequence I use on mornings when I wake up anxious, wired, or overwhelmed — and the neuroscience behind why it works.

Morning anxiety isn’t a mindset issue.

It’s a physiological pattern driven by cortisol rhythms, overstimulation, and a nervous system that hasn’t been fully off-duty in a long time.

When you learn how to work with your body instead of forcing your way through your mornings, you create a completely different internal experience: calmer thoughts, steadier emotions, and a more grounded start to your day.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why morning anxiety is so common among high-capacity women
• What the cortisol awakening response is and how it affects your emotional baseline
• The number-one mistake most women make in the first 60 seconds of their day
• The full 15-minute practice I use when I wake up overwhelmed
• The somatic movements that instantly calm your system
• How hydration, nourishment, and gentle pacing shift your mood and energy
• The final 60-second ritual that anchors clarity and presence for the rest of your day

If you’ve been waking up stressed, rushed, or already overstimulated before your morning even starts, this episode will give you a simple, powerful framework to reset your system and start your day grounded.

Press play and learn the morning practice your nervous system has been asking for.

Related Episodes:

• Previous Episode
• My 5-step Morning Routine
• What To Do the Morning After (A Bad Night’s Sleep)
• 5 Morning Mistakes that Wreck Your Nervous System and Cause Burnout
• Morning Meditation: Grounded, Grateful, and Energized
• Not a Morning Person or is it Actually AM Anxiety? Signs You Might Be Waking Up in Fight-or-Flight (and What to Do About It)

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You’re not overwhelmed because you’re doing too much —

you’re overwhelmed because you’re committing to things that aren’t truly aligned.

The 90% Rule is a deceptively simple framework that will help you stop overthinking, stop people-pleasing, and stop tolerating the 60–70% decisions that drain your bandwidth.

When you learn to choose only what is deeply aligned — and release the rest — your entire life gets quieter, clearer, and more intentional.

In this episode, I break down the neuroscience behind decision fatigue, how the body responds to indecision, and the practical way to apply the 90% Rule in your everyday life.

You’ll learn:

• Why “maybe” is your nervous system’s fastest path to burnout
• How to recognize the opportunities that look good but aren’t right
• The brain-based reason high-capacity women get stuck in obligation
• How the 90% Rule protects your energy and expands your bandwidth
• A new way to make decisions that feel deeply aligned with your season and values

If you’re craving more ease, margin, and clarity in your life and work, this episode offers a clean, elegant framework you can implement today.

👉 Press play and learn how to make decisions that truly honor your capacity.

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You know that moment where your kid says or does something, your nervous system spikes, and every parenting thing you’ve ever learned disappears from your brain…

Today we’re talking about the huge gap between what we know about calm parenting and what actually comes out when we’re tired, stressed, and triggered.

I’m joined by Dr. Alissa Jerud—clinical psychologist, DBT expert, and author of Emotion-Savvy Parenting.

Dr. Jerud blends gold-standard, evidence-based tools with respectful parenting so you can stop white-knuckling your reactions and start leading with grounded emotional skill.

In this episode, we’re diving into:

• The “knowing vs. doing” gap in motherhood
  Why even the most trained parents lose access to their tools under stress—and what shifts when you stop trying to control your child and start regulating yourself.
  
  
• The ART framework: Accept, Regulate, Tolerate
  How to accept emotions without judgment, understand the real “ingredients” behind your reactions, and work with triggers, thoughts, and vulnerabilities so you’re less likely to snap.
  
  
• What to do when anger hijacks your system
  How to feel anger without exploding, use distress-tolerance skills to dial it down, and choose actions that align with the parent you want to be.

This conversation is for you if you’ve ever thought, “I should know better by now,” but your reactions aren’t matching the mom you want to be. You’ll walk away with language, lenses, and practical tools you can use in real time… even on the messy days.

Pick up Dr Jerud’s book Emotion-Savvy Parenting here.

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What if the real reason you’re exhausted isn’t your schedule… but the boundaries you don’t even realize you’re breaking?

If you’ve been feeling overstimulated, stretched thin, reactive, or like you’re carrying more than your share (mentally, emotionally, logistically)… this episode is the missing piece.

Because high-capacity women don’t burn out from weakness.

They burn out from misaligned boundaries — the subtle, invisible ones you don’t see until your energy is already leaking everywhere.

And once you understand these four boundary categories, you’ll finally see:

✨ why you feel overextended even when you “should” be fine
✨ where your bandwidth disappears
✨ the patterns that pull you out of regulation
✨ why your emotional labor keeps creeping up
✨ and the exact boundaries you need to rebuild next

This is one of the most important conversations I’ve ever recorded for high-achieving women who want to feel calm, grounded, and in control of their energy again.

If you’ve been trying to “manage stress,” “be more disciplined,” or “get organized” — and it still feels like you’re running on fumes — press play. This is the episode you’ve been needing.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 4 misaligned boundaries that drain nearly every high-capacity woman
• Why overwhelm is not a time-management problem
• How your nervous system determines your boundaries long before your mind does
• The subtle ways you leak energy without noticing
• The boundary category that most high-achieving women neglect
• The exact places to start if you want more time, more bandwidth, and more ease

If you’re ready to stop leaking energy — here’s your next step:

Honor Your Energy and the VIP Capacity Alignment Audit are open through Wednesday, December 3 at 1pm ET.

Register before the live call starts, and you’ll get coaching with me inside the session.

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What if the most powerful version of you isn’t the one who does more — but the one who gets crystal clear on what truly matters…

and stops leaking energy on everything that doesn’t?

Today’s episode is a grounded, science-backed reframe of overwhelm — not as a time problem, but as a capacity problem.

When you understand what’s actually happening inside your nervous system, everything shifts: your clarity, your presence, your patience, your ability to breathe again.

Inside, we’ll cover:

• ✔️ The physiology of overwhelm (and why it hits without warning)
• ✔️ Who you become when your nervous system finally gets the support it’s been asking for
• ✔️ The one-minute somatic reset that expands your capacity fast
• ✔️ Why honoring your energy is the first step toward feeling like yourself again

Honor Your Energy, my 7-day nervous system + boundaries reset, is open for a few more days at the Founder Rate. It’s the most powerful next step if you’re ready to stop running past your bandwidth and rebuild your capacity from the inside out.

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There are three things silently draining your energy this week — and they have nothing to do with your schedule.

They’re happening inside your nervous system.

And once you learn to spot them, you can interrupt them in seconds.

Holiday overwhelm isn’t random.

It’s patterned.

In today’s episode, we’re breaking down the exact mechanisms behind each pattern, why they intensify during the holidays, and how to use simple, science-backed somatic interrupters to reclaim your capacity in real time.

✨ Quick reminder before we dive in:
Honor Your Energy — my 7-Day Nervous System + Boundaries Reset — is officially open for enrollment this week only.

If you’re tired of feeling maxed out or living at the edge of burnout, this reset will help you regulate your system quickly and stop leaking energy in your everyday life.

👉 Click here for Honor Your Energy: A 7-Day Nervous System + Boundaries Reset!

🌟 Click here for Honor Your Energy + VIP Capacity Alignment Audit

✔️ The neuroscience behind invisible labor

How hypervigilance, predictive modeling, and mirror neurons pull you into cognitive overload long before you feel overwhelmed — and why shaking + heel drops instantly discharge sympathetic activation.

✔️ Why emotional caretaking feels automatic

How empathy circuitry, emotional fusion, and the fawn response activate during family gatherings… and the 30-second somatic reset that restores your emotional boundaries on the spot.

✔️ What causes boundary collapse under pressure

Why your brain predicts “no” as a threat, how stress hijacks executive function, and how to use the micro-pause + physiological sigh to access choice instead of reflex.

✔️ How holiday stress reduces your window of tolerance

A deeper look at allostatic load, anticipatory stress, and why your bandwidth shrinks even when you’re technically “off.”

✔️ Three practical somatic interrupters you can use anywhere

Each tool is fast, discreet, and physiology-backed — perfect for crowded kitchens, emotional conversations, and overstimulated evenings.

If this episode lands in your body — if you feel stretched thin, reactive, or overloaded — this is the week to reset your capacity.

Honor Your Energy is a 7-day Nervous System + Boundaries Reset designed to help you:

✨ regulate your system quickly
✨ stop leaking energy through invisible labor and people-pleasing
✨ interrupt your stress response in real time
✨ rebuild your bandwidth in a way that fits your real life
✨ protect your energy with boundaries your body actually feels safe holding

You’ll receive:

✔️ Daily somatic resets
✔️ The Boundary Alignment Tracker (your clarity tool for overgiving)
✔️ The Energy-Honoring Script Library (no-guilt boundaries made easy)
✔️ Your Stress Response Profile — a live workshop with Michelle
✔️ Optional upgrade: The Capacity Alignment Audit™
…a personalized analysis of your real-life energy leaks + a VIP coaching call to walk through it

Enrollment closes soon — grab your spot while it’s open!

👉Honor Your Energy: A 7-Day Nervous System + Boundaries Reset

👉Honor Your Energy + VIP Capacity Alignment Audit

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