We recently had the chance to connect with Cora Mickael and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Cora, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: When was the last time you felt true joy?
Honestly? Yesterday (this morning turned out to be full of adulting, so I try to slow down and really bask in joyful moments when they come). I was catching up with my mom and realized how soft and sweet life has felt lately. Such a stark contrast to last year, when I was caught in the chaos of a international Hague convention process to get my daughter home from overseas after a summer visitation turned nightmare. Oof. That crisis was the breaking point of many years of struggle.
Now, a year later, I’m on the other side of it. I’ve rebuilt from the ground up. I’ve spent the morning at a park with my girl. I’ve built systems that support me. I’ve created work that sustains me. I’ve turned everything I learned through survival into something I can serve other women with. It’s not just joy…it’s earned, rooted joy. The kind that comes from choosing yourself over and over again, even when it costs everything.
By ‘everything’ I mean the cost of choosing yourself can sometimes feel like you’re risking the very structures (identities, patterns, relationships, coping mechanisms) you’ve relied on to survive. Feels like dying! Especially when you’re already in crisis. I spent Sunday cleaning and rearranging my space because it felt creative and joyful to care for my environment. Life finally feels like the other side of a long tunnel (almost! There are still times when remnants of the chapter you’re ready to leave behind come back to pay you the kind of visit you despise), and I want women to know that no matter how dark (and freaking long) that tunnel is, it ends eventually. Not in one go; it’s more like washing off a spider web you’ve gotten tangled in. You have to keep moving and do many passes to make sure it’s really gone. And sometimes, you still get that ghost spiderweb feeling… brrrrr.. But there’s another chapter waiting, and it’s worth setting new foundations for.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Ooook, so I didn’t set out to create a brand or a framework, I was really just trying to survive.
For years, I lived in a state of constant mental and nervous system overload (navigating crisis after crisis, legal battles, trauma, and the kind of stress that settles DEEP into your body)
I was trying to think my way out of it, fix it, heal it. I tried many modalities, and while all of that has its place, at some point it just started to feel like more pressure, more effort & more on my to-do list.
I didn’t need another thing to do, I needed something to hold me. I needed to feel at home in my body, in my house and in the world. I thought I needed motivation and there was something wrong with me, but really, I was just numb. Pushing and forcing.
That’s what led to Eden Quadrant.
It’s a framework that helps women return to their bodies and find what actually supports them. Not in theory, but in lived experience. It’s rooted in Human Design variables and it teaches women how their systems are designed to take in information, nourishment, rest, direction. It’s not about forcing your body to comply, it’s about letting your body guide you back to yourself. It’s about putting yourself in the right places and understanding your body’s language -its energetics- so your nervous system can finally exhale. (When we’re in survival we push for resolution from the mind to find answers, we go into overdrive and get caught up in loops and overthinking, here we tune into the body to support ourselves!)
The Eden Quadrant reconnects them with parts of themselves that have gone dormant. And it creates enough space for playfulness, expression, and creativity to return. (It’s communal, we have fun, speak about interior design and how to build your nest for the inside out to be supported from the outside in. A whole journey into creativity and empowerment, your inner child will looooove it)
But that’s just one side of the ecosystem.
I also teach financial literacy, because we don’t just need emotional safety, we need material safety too. It’s one thing to feel empowered in your body, and another thing entirely to be able to make clear, confident financial decisions(and to be at peace with them). To understand how to build something steady for yourself, your children. To stop handing your power over out of fear or confusion.
That’s why I see my work as an ecosystem, not a step-by-step ladder.
One root is the body (playfulness and intimacy!)
The other root is the material/financial literacy (which can be as much fun eventually, I promise)
In between is where the bridge is built. I see each foundation/ side like the starting point of a rainbow, Once that foundation is set, the light starts to bend and the arc appears: it’s the bridge, the two way street, it’s paved with self- trust, regulation, energetic alignment, playfulness, intimacy, clarity, sovereignty. All of this you gain as you walk the path.
From that place, women can begin to create from a totally new foundation.
Not from fear or freeze, but from power, clarity, and joy + build a life that reflects that.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I believed my body and my voice weren’t safe, that they had to be controlled, quieted and reshaped in order to be lovable, acceptable, allowed. I didn’t have language for it back then. I just knew that to survive, I had to perform. So I twisted myself to fit.
My head was always bubbling full of dreams and wild, weird ideas with nowhere to land. It’s painful to have nowhere to put them! There was no bridge between my inner and outer world, just a growing ache of unrealized creation. And that ache shaped how I moved, how I spoke, how I made. It shaped who I became.
For a long time, I thought that pain meant something was wrong with me, it meant belonging wasn’t in the card. But truly, it was just a signal that my inner world was too big to stay hidden. And I’m here now to build the bridges I never had, for myself, and for others like me.
Now I know the body isn’t a liability: it’s the compass.
The amount of shame we carry for simply being how we were (especially as kids), how we ARE, is staggering. So many of us were taught to override our instincts, to eat differently, sit differently, relate differently, be more “normal,” more palatable. We learned to abandon what felt natural in order to fit in.
Nowadays, one of the deepest joys I have in guiding women through the Eden Quadrant is watching them realize… they were never weird. The way they function best (their rhythm, their digestion, their way of relating to space, sound, direction) was in them all along. It’s often what they were doing before the world told them to be different. The moment that recognition clicks into place, there’s this wave of relief, a homecoming. And more than that, leaning in fully is where the magic happens. We’re not “fixing” anything.
We internalize those voices so early that we forget they were ever separate from us. We split off from parts of ourselves before we even know they exist and then spend years feeling like something’s missing. It’s unconscious and non verbal. It’s stored in the body.
Crisis and rock bottom (sometimes even abuse, sadly) have a way of pushing us so deep inward that it feels like our light is gone. But sometimes, in that darkness, we find parts of yourself we’d long forgotten were there.
The pivot then comes when we recognize that we’ve become our own prison guards, and learn to let go. It’s hard. Self-trust is paper thin after a lifetime of self-abandonment and self-betrayal. But little by little, through listening, experimenting with the body’s language, getting intimate with our shadow, and simply showing up, we retrieve the gold stored there.
You start placing yourself in environments that nourish instead of drain you. You let the world support you. Your energy trickles back. You remember what play feels like.
There’s pleasure in melting into your own body. A spark when the conscious and unconscious flirt with each other. Tiny heartgasms of joy. Peace of mind. Moments when you recognize something no one else could, a truth only you can feel…and you smirk at the intimacy of it.
So yes, I believe I am safe now. I know I’ve got my back. My inner child knows it too. We’re building and playing together.(weeeeeeeee finally!)
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
All the seeds I planted while in crisis… they’re starting to bloom now. The alchemy of creation is real. I’ve built community, self-trust, a strategy- and I get bursts of steady joy. An intimacy with myself like never before, because the places that held walls : guilt, shame and fear before can become the very places that hold the most joy and peace.
Suffering gives you the option to spiral inward and cut yourself off from the parts of you that need you most. There’s another option (not an easy one, but it exists) It taught me intimacy with the body, pain and crisis brings you into the belly, the heart and the throat.
It cracked me open to the raw truth of emotions. I learned to listen and lean in closer, rather than collapse. Showed me that crisis isn’t the end, it’s a portal.
That’s the heartbeat of my work now:
Alchemizing crisis into creation, shame into peace and bridging survival and self-expression.
Success alone could have never taught me that kind of transformation, it would have been me standing on a house of cards. I don’t glorify suffering, or the addiction to crisis by any means. But when it does happen in life, it’s a relief to know there’s another way through. Let’s not get hooked on the struggle train, Success wants you to experience what it has to offer too!
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
Ooooh juicy. Let’s look at the finance industry for this one.
You hear a lot about how women just need more financial literacy (like if we just took a budgeting class and downloaded the right app, and “curved our optimism for shopping”(..?) everything would magically fall into place). But that’s not the real issue. Women already know how to stretch a dollar and survive. What we don’t have is access: to assets, networks, and systems that truly see us. We’re still navigating a financial world built by and for men. Traditional financial planning rarely accounts for wage gaps, caregiving responsibilities, or the financial abuse many women face. It assumes steady income, clean documentation, and uninterrupted earning. But what about the woman starting over? The woman in transition who needs a private account or help cleaning up debt that isn’t even hers? And let’s be clear: financial insecurity isn’t just a low-income issue. Women with six figures in the bank still get locked out of accounts, cut off from access, manipulated into dependence, or left unprepared for sudden divorce or loss.
That’s why I do what I do (me and my community of finance women!), holistically, with tools and strategies that meet women where they are. Sometimes that means flexible insurance, protected savings, or small wins that build real momentum. But more than anything, it means safety. Access. Peace.
Because this isn’t just about money, it’s about moving out of survival and creating enough space to bring hope back, to place your dreams and hopes back at the center of your life. It’s about rebuilding or strengthening your foundation for the next chapter so you can truly thrive. It’s about knowing your children will be cared for, having real access to bring your ideas to life on a bigger scale, and creating new environments that reflect your vision. When money is in the hands of women, the whole world shifts and changes.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
I’m focused on building foundations that will bear fruit not just now, but decades from now. I’m guiding other women to rebuild through that same process, step by step. One project close to my heart is the Million Dollar Baby Plan. (And yes, if your “baby” is 5, 8, or 12… it’s never too late to start. What matters most isn’t perfect timing, it’s time in the plan. The earlier you start, the better… The next best time is now.)
It’s a financial strategy designed to help women ensure their kids will be sovereign, stable, and secure no matter what life throws at them. It’s about protecting your family from market ups and downs and even becoming your own bank(!!!)
When you’ve been through crisis, especially when your children are unwitting collateral in that chaos, all you want is to shield them, give them the life you dreamed of, or at least make sure they don’t have to survive the way you did.
To give them real options. That means protecting them from financial miseducation and giving them both the funds and the framework to support themselves.
It may take a few years to start maturing, but the peace of mind starts now. Even if you’re rebuilding and starting small, it’s the act of claiming that future that matters most. Because legacy isn’t just about what we leave behind, it’s what we build and nurture while we’re alive too.
(Don’t have kids? Do it for YOUUUUUU.)
Last thing:
If you’re reading this and you’re in a season of starting over (or if you just know it’s time to stop shrinking and build something solid) I want you to know you’re not alone. There is a way to feel safe in your body, steady in your world, and supported in your next chapter.
The next Eden Quadrant class begins this fall, and I’d love to have you in the room. (See attached links)
As a gift, I’m offering a complimentary financial strategy session to any woman who reads this, backed by one of my mentors. (We’re a group of women from all over on a mission, and we walk what we teach.)
You don’t have to figure it all out alone. Allow yourself to be supported. Lots lots of love to you and yours in this season. Cora
Contact Info:
- Website: https://payhip.com/b/C0zZE
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/coramickael
- Other: Ready to rebuild with purpose? To get on the waitlist for Eden Quadrant, schedule your complimentary financial strategy session, or if you have any questions (want to help other women rise, want to help your community), let’s connect! Write me at [email protected]
- Vortex-Collective: https://www.vortex-collective.com/a/2148172165/ZjNzYq27
Image Credits
Tyler Aryai – Photographer
