Ashley Collom is the Head Witch in Charge of Magical Mind. Magical Mind’s mission is to teach depressed and stressed babes how to manage their symptoms with magical modalities. Magical Mind was born out of Ashley’s own trial and error, honestly. She had to take a sick leave for a month earlier this year due to her mental illness. Ashley was sitting on the floor in her parent’s spare room realizing that no amount of coping skills would save her if she didn’t believe she was actually capable of fighting her symptoms. So Ashley did what any witch would do, a ritual, and thus began her new journey teaching other women to manage their symptoms with coping skills in a different, much more magical dress.
Ashley’s clients come in feeling like their symptoms are calling the shots instead of them. She teaches people to feel more in flow and aligned with their goals using the exact same tools she did to grow her business and become healthy enough to manage her business and her full time job as a literary agent at DeFiore and Company. Ashley’s author-clients range from Instagram sensations like @WrightKitchen and @saltyseattle, to feminists creating the next world of feminist leaders like @gigiengle and @jenipherlyn.
So you balance a successful business and a full time job? How do you manage that?
You got it, I work both jobs at the same time. And honestly, I love it. I was programmed to be an achiever / work-a-holic from a young age so being booked and making money to support my family feels aligned to me.
Here are some of my tips for managing multiple “jobs”
Turn your phone on airplane mode at night. Before you connect yourself to society via your phone, connect with yourself. Wash your face, drink some water (with lemon!), and figure out what you want to get out of the day, before you let the day decide what it wants to get out of you. I like journalling and pulling tarot cards while I drink my iced espresso. Full transparency: I’m still in the process of making my airplane mode non-negotiable. It’s a process. Celebrate when you win, learn when you do not honor your boundaries. Repeat.
Don’t have email accessible on your phone. I make my literary agent email hard to find on my phone and do not have Magical Mind Mail on my phone. I do not have notifications on for emails (or, really, anything other than calls and texts). My life is so much more than being yanked out of my present moment by a notification I can deal with in 30 minutes when I’m done doing whatever it is I am doing.
Have boundaries and clearly communicate sounds like a trite self-help book but here it is folks. Here are some of my boundaries: I do not work outside of certain times for both businesses; tarot clients may not text me or reschedule their appointments for tardiness without notice. I get paid for my psychic services, in full, prior to the appointment being finalized. I do not play games and my boundaries are firm and clearly communicated, so my clients know that from the get-go. Having clear boundaries does not automatically mean people will respect them, but you know how you operate which generates and inner peace that others may not permeate.
What are your tips for managing depression and stress?
Focus on your breath. The energy of anxiety and stress is the same energy of excitement just without breath. If you haven’t read “The Five Second Rule” you must. But for immediate help when stress and anxious feelings arise, shift your awareness from your stress to your breath. Straighten your spine and drop your shoulders from you ear. Unclench your jaw. And breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth with a sigh. Repeat until you are feeling altered energetically.
Now, ask yourself what are you excited you get to do today? Before you tell me “nothing, duh, that’s why I’m stressed” I want to tell you something: the reason the energy of anxiety / excitement showed up in your system is an opportunity from the Universe for you to choose excitement. To lean into the blissful options life has to offer. So, again, what are you excited you get to do today?
There are also many Vedic / Yogic breathing techniques that are also mega-powerful, but are generally a tad more complicated than the above.
I teach tons of tools just like this in my sessions in the Intuition Society, which is a monthly psychic reading subscription service Magical Mind offers. Enrollment opens for October 2018 the first of the month. If you have been seeking help managing depression and stress, and are so sick of hearing about your “toolbox” and “coping skills”, maybe try some magic and join the Intuition Society?
How can people reach you?
Visit my website at www.magicalmind.co for contact details, Instagram, and to join the Intuition Society.