265 Mindfully Blend Traditional and Alternative Healing; Michelle Chalfant

Michelle Chalfant is a life coach and therapist. Her clients hire her to enable them to find their authentic selves through a holistic approach of blending alternative healing techniques with traditional counseling. Michelle is creator and host of the podcast, The Adult Chair, which is now in its third year of production. The Adult Chair shares impactful messages about codependency, self-love, depression, getting unstuck, removing masks, and how our understanding of ourselves impacts the most important relationships in our lives.

Contact Info

• Website: www.TheAdultChair.com
• YouTube Channel: Michelle Chalfant
• Podcast: The Adult Chair
• Facebook: The Adult Chair (Closed Group) You can also join this on the website.

Most Influential Person

• John Kabat-Zinn

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness has helped me with my emotions by really getting in touch with what's going on inside of me. I know now to slow down and tune in.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Oh yes. I mean, taking a slow, deep breath just brings me back into present. It brings me back into my body so I know what I'm feeling again. I know where I am. I know what's going on around me. Breath has been huge.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Wherever You Go, There You Are by John Kabat-Zinn
• App: Insight Timer
• App: Heart Math

Bullying Story

• I was bullied. I never even became aware of it until today. I really didn't. I think what happened ... I witnessed my mom and my uncle for many years.
• When I was a little girl, in third or fourth grade, I went to a Catholic school. We had the little skirts and I'd get on the bus and this boy would flip my skirt up every day. I'd be so horrified and embarrassed. And I'd say, 'stop lifting my skirt' and he'd make fun of me.
• Then he started putting his clarinet grease in my hair. I remember coming home, at 9 or 10 years old, and feeling defeated and sad and there's no hope and no one's helping me.
• I had friends at school, but there was this one boy who used to do this do me every day. I remember just feeling awful and I remember coming home one day and looking at the steak knives and thinking, maybe I should just kill myself because I can't handle this.
• I remember thinking that thought and thinking, no, I'm not going to do that. I think of the children of today. Is that their only option? That's a whole other story. I'm still here, so I kept going to school.
• Then I started bullying a little girl on the bus who was really, really, quiet. She didn't say anything, she whispered when she spoke, she was so quiet.
• I would not have called it bullying until today, honestly. I would sit next to her on the bus and I'd say, why aren't you louder, what's wrong with you? Why are you so quiet? Talk louder. Nobody likes you.
• I think I was doing that as a reaction to what this kid was doing to me. And to what my uncle was doing to my mom. It was like a domino effect. Because of your show (Mindfulness Mode) I realized I was bullied and I bullied.
• The bullying with this boy went on for the whole school year and I remember telling my mom and my dad, it's OK. We sweep everything under the carpet. I think it ended at the end of that year and I stopped bullying that girl. I ended up switching school in sixth grade so it was over.
• I bumped into him years later and I said, what was that about? Why did you put clarinet grease in my hair? And he started laughing and he said, I had a crush on you. I said, well it didn't feel that way, it was not nice. And he said, well, I really liked you and wanted your attention.

Quotes From The Interview

Anxiety is when the body is taking those emotions and bringing them tight inside the body. It's trying to keep them contained like a pressure cooker. So what I do is I slowly take the lid off the pressure cooker. - Michelle Chalfant

We have a cast of thousands inside of us. - Michelle Chalfant

I help you connect with your inner child. - Michelle Chalfant

Anxiety is not an emotion; it's a physical response to unfelt feelings. - Michelle Chalfant

The adolescent part of us does not know what to do with the child so it pushes it away. - Michelle Chalfant

We need our adult to come in and say, I choose to feel my emotions, otherwise we don't do it. - Michelle Chalfant