Everything in life is a lesson happening for you, not to you.
– Mike Wood
We live in a world that tells us to fix what’s on the outside—our schedule, our body, our habits—while quietly ignoring the deeper truth of who we really are. But what if the anxiety, stress, and disconnection so many of us feel aren’t signs that we’re broken, but invitations to remember that we are, at our core, energy and consciousness moving through a temporary human life? In this chapter of the podcast-to-book series, Stacey Chillemi sits down with Mike Wood to explore that very idea: that we are energetic beings having a human experience, and that our inner world holds far more power and possibility than we’ve ever been taught.
Drawing from his own journey and his work through Learn To Love Being You, Mike walks us through the chakra system as a roadmap for human development, the meeting point of science and spirituality, and the simple practices—like meditation and breathwork—that helped him turn chaos into clarity. Together, Stacey and Mike unpack how understanding ourselves as energy can change the way we heal, love, make decisions, and even view death, offering readers not a theory but an invitation to go inward and experience these truths for themselves.
** Watch Mike’s Episode On YouTube and Spotify! **
Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?
For over 30 years, I battled anxiety and depression while trying to keep everything looking “fine” on the outside. Inside, though, there was a lot of chaos, confusion, and pain I didn’t know how to heal. About seven years ago, I consciously stepped onto a spiritual path and started experimenting with energy in a very simple way—by holding a crystal in my hand and noticing that I could literally feel energy moving there. That experience fascinated me, and I used that rock as a tool to quiet my mind because when I focused on the energy in my hand, the noise in my head would calm down.
Over time, with a lot of practice and inner work, I no longer needed the crystal; I could feel energy on demand, which opened the door to meditation, chakras, and a whole inner world I hadn’t known existed. Eventually, that journey led me to create Learn To Love Being You, a 10-week program to help people who feel like I once did—sick and tired of being sick and tired—find lasting peace, joy, and a more loving relationship with themselves.
You open this chapter with the idea that we are “an energetic being having a human experience.” What does that mean to you personally?
To me, that phrase means that my true identity isn’t the flesh and bone I see in the mirror—it’s the energy, the pure consciousness, that animates this body. The body came from the earth, and it’s going back to the earth, but the energy that is “me” isn’t going to die; it’s going to keep moving and changing form. When I say “you are an energetic being having a human experience,” I’m pointing to the part of us that is eternal, that exists beyond our stories, jobs, or roles. Seeing myself this way takes a lot of the fear out of life, because I no longer see death as an endpoint, but as a transition. It also helps me treat this lifetime like a powerful classroom where an eternal being gets to experience love, loss, fear, joy, and everything in between in a very concentrated way.
When did you first begin to understand yourself as energy rather than just mind and body?
That shift started when I first went on my spiritual journey about seven years ago and picked up that crystal. I noticed that when I held it in my hand and got quiet, I could actually feel energy buzzing or pulsing in my palm. That sensation became a doorway: whenever my mind was noisy, I would focus on the energy in my hand, and my thoughts would begin to quiet down. I used that rock at work and in everyday life as a tool to bring myself back to presence and stillness. After practicing consistently, I reached a point where I could feel that same energy without the crystal—just by deciding to pay attention—and that’s when I really started to understand myself as more than a mind and a body.
How did exploring the chakra system open up a whole new inner world for you?
Once I realized I could feel energy, I got curious and started seeking out every way I could to understand it. That exploration led me to the chakra system, which has been used for years in Buddhist traditions and even appears in more symbolic ways in texts like the Bible. The real turning point wasn’t just reading about chakras—it was closing my eyes, getting quiet, and putting 100% of my attention into each energy center. When I did that, I started having experiences that felt like stepping into a world I didn’t know existed. Over time, I practiced so much that I could turn these energy centers “on” with just a few minutes of silence, and that inner world became as real—and in many ways more meaningful—than what I saw on the outside.
You describe the seven chakras as a roadmap for human development. How do these centers mirror different stages of life?
There are seven major chakras, and each one tends to dominate roughly a seven-year phase of our development. From zero to seven, the root chakra is highly active as kids learn what a mom is, what a tree is, what a door is—everything in this physical world—and that connects them to the earth. From about eight to fourteen, the sacral chakra lights up, and our creativity and physical attraction patterns begin to form; it’s when we figure out who and what we’re drawn to, and our creativity is often off the charts. From fourteen or fifteen to about twenty-one, the solar plexus becomes central as we build an ego and start saying, “I’m a sports guy,” “I’m a geek,” or “I’m this type of person,” stacking identities that will carry us through life.
From twenty-one to twenty-eight, the heart chakra is key as we decide what kind of partner we want, whether we’ll marry, and if we’ll have children. Then from twenty-nine to thirty-five, the throat chakra really switches on—people stop listening to music and turn to talk radio and podcasts—and we begin to realize that when we speak, we’re casting “spells” with our words. After that, the third eye opens more fully, and we ask bigger questions like, “Why am I here?” “Is there a God?” and we can receive real answers through that center. Finally, from forty-two to forty-nine, the crown chakra is often activated, and many people experience spiritual awakenings, turning away from purely material pursuits and toward connection with something unseen—whether they call it God, Source, or the universe.
You’ve said the brain is more like a transmitter. How do you see the relationship between the brain and these chakras?
Science is increasingly showing that the brain functions more like a radio transmitter or television set than a giant storage unit full of fixed content. A lot is moving through it, but just like a TV, you can only tune into one channel at a time, even though many are available. In my experience, all of that information is coming from the chakras and flowing into the brain, which then interprets and broadcasts what we’re tuned to. So I see the chakras as the broadcasting stations and the brain as the receiver and tuner that lets us experience that energetic information as thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. When we work directly with the chakras, we’re essentially changing the signal before it ever hits the “screen” of the mind.
Many people feel like their development went “off track” because of trauma, addiction, or rough childhoods. What happens to our energy when those stages don’t unfold smoothly?
When those developmental stages get disrupted—through addiction, trauma, or rough upbringings—you tend to see energy blockages and misalignment in the system. The chakras don’t get to mature in a smooth, natural way, and that can leave the body and mind feeling like they’re constantly fighting themselves. You might experience anxiety, feel “off” for no obvious reason, or notice that you’re tired all the time because the energy isn’t flowing properly. From a chakra perspective, it’s like having kinks in a hose: the water is there, but it can’t move the way it needs to. Science now says that around 90% of illness is caused by stress, but most people don’t fully understand what stress really is or where it’s coming from—it’s often our whole energetic system responding to stuck patterns we don’t even see. When we can bring those centers back into alignment and get the energy flowing, we’re able to operate closer to our true potential.
How can someone start to sense which of their chakras are open and which might be blocked?
A simple way is to use a guided chakra meditation and just notice what you feel. When you do a balancing meditation, you’ll probably feel two or three centers very strongly—those are usually the ones that are open and active. The ones you can barely feel, or can’t feel at all, are often where energy is stuck or not moving. If you’re going through a big life change, you might notice your root chakra becoming very active, because change tends to light up that center. If you’re in a new relationship, welcoming a child, or experiencing a wave of love for someone, your heart chakra may feel like it’s opening wide. Feeling your centers is usually a good sign; not feeling them isn’t “bad,” it just shows you where some healing and attention might be needed.
For someone brand new to this, what’s the best place to begin connecting to their energy centers?
The best place to begin is meditation, because it’s the only way to truly experience yourself as an energetic being having a human experience. A guided chakra meditation will take your mental focus out of your head and move it step by step into each energy center. Typically, you’ll start at the base of your spine, then move up just below your belly button, into your solar plexus, your heart, your throat, your third eye, and finally your crown, spending a few minutes in each place. During that time, you literally feel the energy in those areas—buzzing, warmth, pulsing, or a sense of expansion—and it can feel both mysterious and deeply familiar at the same time. The more you do it, the more you build a relationship with those centers and begin to understand what’s happening within you.
You shared a powerful story about a heart chakra meditation where you felt yourself expand across the planet. Can you walk us through that experience?
In that meditation, I focused only on the heart chakra, which is associated with green energy. You start by imagining a small green ball of light in your heart, then let it expand to cover your chest, then your whole body, then the room you’re in. From there, it continues to grow until it covers your house, your block, your city, and then keeps going outward. By the time I finished, I genuinely felt as if the energy that is “me” had expanded across the entire planet. It was an amazing, almost indescribable experience—like I physically felt myself stretched across the globe. I can’t say for sure what was happening on an objective level, but subjectively it felt very real, and I could never have had that experience if I hadn’t closed my eyes and gone inward. Over the years, working like this has helped my heart chakra open and stay open most of the time, and now when anxiety shows up, I can focus on my heart, feel it open, and watch that anxiety dissolve.
You’ve said your favorite meditations are the heart and the third eye. What makes those two so transformative for you?
The heart chakra meditation feels like being wrapped in a warm hug from the most loving grandma you can imagine—that’s the closest way I can describe it. When my heart is fully open, I experience this deep, steady sense of love and safety that’s hard to access any other way. The third eye meditation is powerful in a different sense because it connects me with information—like the Akashic records and past life impressions—that I’ve worked hard to learn how to access. Through that center, I’ve seen patterns from previous lifetimes, including times when I was in war or even living as a woman, and those experiences help me understand why certain lessons are showing up now. Some of that has even been independently confirmed by other energy workers, which is pretty wild. Together, the heart and third eye give me both the loving emotional state and the insight needed to navigate life in a more grounded and purposeful way.
You mentioned seeing past lives and even validating that through another practitioner. What did you learn from those experiences?
When I explored past lives, I noticed a clear theme: if I had done something harmful in one lifetime, I would be learning the lesson from the other side in another. For example, if in one life I was a wealthy banker who refused someone a loan, in another life I might find myself being the one who couldn’t get the loan I needed. In one series of sessions, I walked back around ten lives and saw that in one I was shot in the head in a war while running from battle as a young man, and that two lives ago I had actually been a female. Later, during an energy session with Chris Hancock, he independently told me—without any prompting—that two lives ago I had been a woman, which matched what I had seen. The odds of him guessing that out of nowhere are pretty slim, and it felt like the universe was giving me a little nod of confirmation. Those experiences taught me that our lessons don’t always stay confined to one lifetime; they unfold across many, and what we do now echoes forward.
When people come to you for coaching or your 10-week program, how do you help them access their own answers rather than relying on yours?
Whenever someone comes to me for guidance—whether it’s in my 10-week Learn To Love Being You program or through coaching—I start by helping them quiet their mind. I’ll often suggest simple breathwork, like box breathing, to get them into a calm state where they feel grounded and settled. Once they’re in that calm place, I encourage them to ask the universe a clear question and then go right back to focusing on their breath instead of trying to think up an answer. In my experience, nine times out of ten, an answer comes within seconds as a thought that clearly feels different from their usual mental chatter. That’s the universe speaking through their third eye, and it’s far more powerful than anything I could tell them.
You also use a powerful 30-minute breathwork practice. How does that help you clear fear and solve complex problems?
When I’m facing a complex problem or feeling weighed down by fear, I turn to a pranayama-style breathwork practice where I flood my body with oxygen for about thirty minutes. I breathe into my belly, then into my chest, and exhale, all through my mouth, so the breath is continuous and strong. For the first ten or fifteen minutes, it can feel intense—your body may tell you to stop, and all the anxiety you’ve been carrying rises up. But if you keep going, there’s a point where that anxiety suddenly drops away and you cross into a state where fear simply can’t exist. That space is incredible for problem-solving because you’re no longer coming from a fear-based mindset; ideas arise that are free, creative, and aligned. You still want to sense-check those ideas the next day, but most of them hold up surprisingly well. For people just starting, I recommend setting a timer so they don’t go past thirty minutes, but with practice, you can learn to sustain that euphoric, clear state by adjusting the pace of your breathing.
You shared a simple hand position that can change how energy flows. How does that work in practice?
Each of your hands has a chakra in the center, and energy leaves through the tips of your fingers. When you bring specific fingers together to form a loop, you essentially close a circuit and cut off a significant amount of energy that would otherwise be leaving your body. In the mornings, if I’m having trouble waking up, I can simply lie in bed, hold that hand position, and notice how, within a few minutes, my energy starts to build and I feel more awake because I’m holding onto more of my own power. During breathwork, using that position creates a noticeable buzz in the hands that then travels up the arms, into the shoulders, chest, head, and the rest of the body. It’s like an early warning signal that a wave of energy is about to move through, and you can then regulate the intensity by speeding up or slowing down your breathing.
How does seeing yourself as energy, not just form, change the way you look at life, love, and even death?
Seeing myself as energy first and form second has completely changed my relationship with life and death. If you imagine being an energetic being that’s been around since the beginning—with no true start and no end—then death stops looking like a cliff and starts looking like a doorway. Without that sense of an ending, life would actually be pretty dull; nothing would feel urgent or meaningful. But when you’re in a human body with a finite lifespan, love, loss, joy, and pain all take on a deep significance. From this perspective, death becomes the greatest gift an eternal being can experience, because it gives weight and richness to everything that comes before it. When people pass now, I don’t see it as a tragic disappearance as much as a transition in a much larger journey, even though my human nervous system would still react in a scary moment. That knowing—that I am an energetic being having a human experience—brings a lot of peace and courage into how I live and how I love.
You’ve said everything in life can be seen as a lesson. How has that perspective shifted the way you move through the world?
Viewing everything as a lesson has changed the questions I ask about my life. Instead of saying, “Why is this happening to me?” I ask, “How is this happening for me?” and “What am I meant to learn here?” That shift invites the universe to show me the deeper reason behind what I’m experiencing, whether it’s something painful or something beautiful. It’s the same lens I use when I look at things like vapes being in every store or unhealthy food filling grocery aisles; rather than seeing them only as problems, I see them as opportunities to choose differently and grow. When I started seeing myself as an energetic being, I began noticing synchronicities, feeling like I could speak to the universe, and realizing that energy is everywhere. Looking at a human cell under a microscope and the universe through an energy-sensitive lens reveals similar patterns—they look almost identical. For me, going inward feels as infinite as looking outward, and that understanding helps me see that every experience is part of a bigger, purposeful master class in growth.
Tell us about your program, “Learn to Love Being You.” How does it help people experience themselves as energetic beings?
Learn To Love Being You is a 10-week program I created to help people who are dealing with anxiety and depression understand how their mind and body work together, and to guide them into lasting peace and joy. The program is built around practical tools, breathwork, meditation, and mindset shifts that I used on my own healing journey. There is an entire week devoted specifically to the chakras, where you spend your time going inward, connecting with each energy center, and learning to experience yourself as an energetic being rather than just a thinking mind. My goal is not just to give people information but to help them actually feel the difference inside themselves—feeling energy move, feeling anxiety dissolve, feeling love and calm where there used to be chaos. By the end of the journey, many people see the world through a completely different lens, one that is more loving, empowered, and grounded in who they really are.
If you could leave our readers with one simple takeaway from today’s conversation, what would it be?
If there’s one thing I’d love every reader to really take in, it’s that you are far more than you’ve ever been told. You are infinitely more powerful, more expansive, and more capable than the stories you’ve been given about yourself. You are an energetic being having a human experience, not just a stressed-out human trying to survive. When you start to see yourself that way and actually experience it through meditation, breathwork, and inner exploration, everything in your life can begin to shift. You realize that peace and joy aren’t somewhere “out there”—they’re within you, waiting to be uncovered.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The best way to follow my work is by visiting my website, learntolovebeingyou.com. That’s where you can learn more about the Learn To Love Being You 10-week program, explore introductory resources on breathwork and meditation, and stay updated on new offerings. You can also connect with the community, read more about the journey, and take the first step if you feel called to experience yourself as an energetic being having a human experience. Be sure to also follow me on Facebook and Instagram! Your effort is the only requirement for success, and I’m here to support anyone who’s sick and tired of being sick and tired and ready to create lasting peace and joy.
Mike, this has been such a powerful and eye-opening conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your journey, your practices, and your perspective with us today.
Thank you for having me. It’s truly a pleasure to talk about this work, and I’m grateful for the chance to connect with your readers.
