Imagine waking up tomorrow without the weight of self-sabotage crushing your dreams.

Discover how trapped emotions and subconscious programming create self-sabotage patterns that keep you stuck in cycles of burnout, relationship chaos, and financial blocks. Michelle Ward, certified emotion code practitioner and self-sabotage coach, reveals the breakthrough method for identifying which of the five self-sabotage archetypes controls your life and how to reprogram your subconscious mind for lasting transformation.

Through her proven emotion code techniques, Michelle helps you understand how childhood programming from birth to age seven creates limiting beliefs that sabotage your adult success. Whether you're the Adult Child archetype staying small to feel safe, the Fire Starter creating chaos before breakthrough moments, or the Financial Saboteur blocking money flow, this conversation exposes the hidden patterns keeping you trapped.

Learn Michelle's personal transformation journey from health struggles and business failure to breakthrough success using subconscious reprogramming and trapped emotion release. Discover how recognizing your self-sabotage archetype becomes the first step toward breaking free from burnout, healing relationship patterns, and creating the empowered life you've been fighting to build.

Stop being your own worst enemy and start winning with Michelle's proven strategies for subconscious transformation, emotion code healing, and self-sabotage breakthrough techniques that have helped hundreds escape limiting beliefs and step into their next growth zone.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Michelle Ward
• 1:04 Personal Health Journey & Mindset Shift
• 3:03 The Surrender Moment
• 5:26 Burnout & Subconscious Beliefs Connection
• 7:14 The Five Self-Sabotage Archetypes
• 12:56 Final Thoughts & Episode Close

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Rise from the Ashes. I am honored to be here with my next guest, michelle Ward. She is a coach, she is holistic and she helps people improve their lives with the emotional code. Michelle, say hello to the world and what you do and who you are.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Hello everybody, thank you so much for having me. It's just very generous of you to share your platform and your time with me and who you are. Hello everybody, thank you so much for having me. It's just very generous of you to share your platform and your time with me and take an interest. I am a certified health coach, a certified self-sabotage coach, a certified emotion code practitioner We'll probably get into that a little bit, all these certifications later.

Speaker 2: 0:41

I started out about 25 years ago with my own health problems that allopathic care wasn't helping me with, somehow ended up on the internet, learned about holistic health and started juicing and doing all these different things taking sugar on my diet, taking processed foods out of the diet, which was back then eating organic. Everything was so crazy back then. But my husband was like you're in charge of the household, you do whatever you want to do. Miraculously, within about three months, that problem resolved itself and I thought, well, maybe there's something to this. So I kind of went down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and all the things. What I really came back to is that at a cellular level, we have to take care of our bodies. What we put into our bodies comes out through how healthy we are, how well we sleep, how well we move and how we think. And so I moved into mindset like looking into mindset about 2016, maybe 2015, and learned that that is foundational for healthy living.

Speaker 2: 1:44

And then that kind of evolved into learning about subconscious programming and how we are programmed from about third trimester in the womb through age seven by our culture, society, family, religion, media and all these things. And so we're in this theta brainwave state. You know, during that time we're just kind of absorbing everything and then we're creating our own habits and beliefs. That follows us into adulthood. What may have kept us safe in those early years no longer keeps us safe. I specialize in identifying those subconscious beliefs driving behaviors that are leading to self-sabotage. With the emotion code, I can identify trapped energy emotions in the body causing emotional pain, physical pain or overall discomfort in life.

Speaker 1: 2:31

There's a lot there. I want to circle back around to the why behind it. You mentioned there was a moment where you were going through a lot of discomfort, pain, illness a few years ago. What was the moment for you to go? That's it. I'm done with this lifestyle. What was that pivotal moment and what was the reason behind it? Was it an external reason? Was it your kids? Was it your relationship? Was it just? I'm fed up of seeing this. What was it?

Speaker 2: 3:02

Yeah, so I think it was an evolution over the years. The problem that I was having I probably should have clarified this is I was having trouble getting pregnant within three months of changing my diet and detoxing I I got pregnant and had a daughter in 2000 and another one 18 months later. Now they're 23 and 24. At that point I was doing it for my children and my family. I'm not going to feed them sugar and processed foods and I was the weird mom. So that was the driving force then.

Speaker 2: 3:30

But the problem with me is that, although I was doing all this healthy stuff, I was still over, fat, under muscled and angry. I would get mad about everything and mad at everyone, and I was a victim in my own life. It all kind of came to a head in 19. And I was already doing the inner work, like the mindset work, but everything kind of crashed around me. My husband decided he was unhappy in this marriage and didn't want to be married anymore. My kids were in college One was a senior in high school and the other one was a freshman in college and then 2020 hit and just all the things around that, and I had zero control over whether they were going to get to go to school where, you know, my senior wasn't able to do her senior activities.

Speaker 2: 4:15

I had another business that just failed because it required in-person contact my dad, who I had a very difficult relationship with all my life. He had cancer, but he got a diagnosis that put him into hospice. So it was just one thing after the other. There was one day, I think my husband was telling me that done in this marriage, and he left for work. I remember looking up at the ceiling and saying OK, I surrender God, I know you've got me, you've proven yourself in the past and I'm just going to surrender all this. And so that was the moment I said I can't, all these things point back to me. You've heard the saying wherever you go, there you are. I knew I was causing the problems in my life Obviously not my dad's cancer but I was angry with him, resented him, but he had moved on. He is a great man, or was a great man, but I wouldn't forgive him.

Speaker 1: 5:06

So that's kind of what the catalyst was for me I think, for the listeners, and thank you for sharing that. Michelle, I could tell the eternality in your voice reliving some of. But this is what I like about having these conversations it's and people don't realize how real these things are until they experience it or hear it and relate to it. You mentioned something earlier about surrendering, and it's so important on two levels. One is forgiveness. You can't control anything. Most people in the world have this frame of your life must look like this, and for a very long time your life did. But they came to a point where you were just like actually it can't look like that because it isn't working. It can't look like that because it isn't working Instead of trying to fix it. You put a shortcut in there for what some people take 10 years to understand. I surrender into whatever's coming next and whatever you believe in. What was the result after? What was the immediate relief like? What was that emotion for you?

Speaker 2: 6:20

I felt like I just exhaled. You know that was the initial feeling, but I continued journaling, examining my thoughts, examining my beliefs and then questioning myself Is that really true? With confirmation bias, you look for evidence to support whatever you believe about yourself or your circumstances. But I can also look back on times where things were difficult and I shifted my mindset. It's like the problems just dissolved because my perspective changed. If I did it in that situation, then I can do it in all situations, and so I drew on past experiences, but also drew on what I'd been learning for 10 years and started actually putting it to the test, and it worked.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So how do the roots of burnout and subconscious beliefs, how do they drive your values? In your own experience, coaching, I mean you've been doing this 25 years now. What's the commonalities you see within that and how do they drive productivity forward in their lives and also, if you wish to share, in yours?

Speaker 2: 7:26

These subconscious programs or beliefs are established early in life, meant to keep you safe, but at some point those beliefs start to work against you. For me personally, I consider myself a strong person and most women I work with are very strong, but they burn out because they're wired to push beyond their own needs, like me, Somewhere along the line, usually early in life, they picked up a belief that their value is tied to how much they do, how well they perform, how useful they are to others. These subconscious beliefs become invisible operating systems, the drive, decisions, boundaries and how much rest they feel they are allowed to receive. So there comes the burnout. Burnout isn't always about workload. It's about the internal narrative that says if I stop, I'll be forgotten, or if I rest, I'll lose everything I've worked for, or if I'm not getting 110%, I'm not worthy. The problem is that you can't outwork a subconscious belief that says you don't deserve peace. Your body, your brain, your world is going to come crashing around. And so until you identify that programming, you'll keep repeating those cycles of over-functioning, resentment and depletion.

Speaker 2: 8:39

So that's basically what I experienced A very bald volunteer with the kids' school, very bald volunteering at the church. I was this perfect Christian wife to the outside world, I knew what the thoughts were in my mind always doing for other people but not taking care of myself. And so it ended up with me being very overweight as a health coach telling other people how to eat healthy. And so it ended up with me being very overweight as a health coach telling other people how to eat healthy. And I was eating healthy. But I think the emotions that were trapped inside of me were just keeping layer upon layer of trying to protect me. That happens a lot with people who struggle with weight loss. They can't understand. I'm cutting calories, I'm exercising, I'm doing all this stuff and I can't lose the weight. Well, that was the same with me. But once I released the emotions, then the weight just started falling off.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Interesting, then for the listeners out there. If you know someone who this fits or sounds like, just share it with them, because that could be a direction for them to go to Michelle and say this is what I'm experiencing. It sounds very similar to what you've experienced. Can you help? So I encourage you to share it. It's resonating Self-sabotage. We all do it, every single one of us, but you've done something a little bit different with this. There are self-sabotaging archetypes that you encountered as patterns within people In your earlier days of forming what you're doing now. Where did these show up in your life and how do they manifest now? And if you would name them in your clients?

Speaker 2: 10:14

Okay, yeah, so there's five that I identify in the process. First is the adult child, and a lot of us can relate to this. This is somebody who believes that she must stay small or obedient. To stay loved or safe, she has to follow the rules. She can't question authority because that's not safe Instead of seeking the doctor for another medication to fix this problem is a good example. Somebody that doesn't question authority.

Speaker 2: 10:40

During the 2020 situation, I was questioning authority. I got not in trouble, but my kids and my husband were like just wear the mask or stop with the conspiracy theories. I was like this just doesn't seem right, so I kind of moved out of that adult child syndrome and into taking on my own power. Another one would be the fire starter. This is somebody who creates drama or destruction before things get too good. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy that this thing is not going to work out, so I'm just going to make it not work out. Essentially, the nervous system is wired to expect chaos, and maybe this is because a lot of this is rooted in childhood programming, that maybe this person wasn't seen a lot and so she or he created drama to get attention.

Speaker 2: 11:25

There's the victim, and we all know and have played the victim role in our lives. The victim has learned that power comes from pain and attention. You might unconsciously recreate situations that keep you struggling, but when you start recreating situations in your mind about how something happened, your perspective or perception of the mind really doesn't remember exactly what happened. So we create our own stories and become the victim to that story.

Speaker 2: 11:49

There's also the financial saboteur. Maybe they believe that money is bad, it's unsafe or unattainable. I remember, remember my dad used to say money doesn't grow on trees, and there was always this narrative around there's not enough. Breaking free from that lack of abundance and being that financial saboteur in your life is very freeing. The last one I don't see a whole lot of, but it's the failure to thrive and they're stuck in this identity of well, I'm almost there, or I'm always busy but never arriving. These people spend a lot of time on social media. They're couch potatoes, they're overweight. They may go to the gym once a month or they may be the ones that start at the gym their New Year's resolution and just can't do it. People have got to understand. There's nothing wrong with you. You're not broken, you're just programmed. Part of the work I do is deprogramming these subconscious beliefs so you can live to your highest potential.

Speaker 1: 12:43

I love that. For those people now listening and wondering what's going on, go back to the very beginning and listen to the full conversation. Michelle went through a challenging time with self-worth and understanding that she was at her core. She now helps people empower themselves to a bigger, better, brighter future from her own experiences with the emotional code. Before we go into part two, of course part one is there anything you'd like to leave the audience with?

Speaker 2: 13:15

I think one of the things that we used to tell our children from the time they were young is that wherever you go there you are To really reflect on what's going on inside. You're not broken, you're just programmed, and it's never too late to make a change. It does take courage to face yourself and to look in the mirror, but that's what life is all about Moving from your comfort zone into the next growth zone. If you think about where you are right now, maybe it's a comfort zone, but at some point in your life that was a growth zone. Keep on growing, so keep on shining.

Speaker 1: 13:48

I think it's great advice from my audience and, Michelle, thank you very much for joining me today. I look forward to part two, when we go into the ascent. This is education. This is where you've come from. We're going to go into the ascent what you're wanting in the future, who your ideal client is and how we can help you grow your business and impact even more people. Thank you very much, Michelle. I'll see you on part two.

Speaker 2: 14:15

Great, thank you.