Why High Performers Feel Disconnected Despite Success
Written by Laura McCann, Founder & CEO of Auratherapy
Laura McCann is the Founder & CEO of Auratherapy, a luxury wellness brand helping people reclaim their breath and remember they are vibrational beings. A 30-year CPG + tech founder, she’s building a modern movement at the intersection of scent, energy, and self-mastery, turning daily rituals into transformation.
For over 30 years, I've been surrounded by high-performing entrepreneurs. Through organizations like EO, Vistage, Gathering of Titans, and Birthing of Giants, I've sat in rooms with founders who are brilliant, driven, and wildly successful, people who can see opportunity before others, build companies from nothing, and push through limits most wouldn't even approach.
Yet, behind that success, I've seen something consistent and rarely discussed: burnout, disconnection, strained relationships, and a quiet, persistent sense that something is missing. Not because they're failing, but because they're operating from only part of themselves.
The pattern no one talks about
In business, we have language for everything, strategy, leadership, performance, growth. But we have almost no language for energy.
What I've come to understand through my own journey and over 13,000 aura and chakra readings is this: many high performers are operating with highly developed awareness, but without integration.
In chakra terms, they are living primarily in the third eye (intuition, vision) or the crown (trust, higher connection), but not both, and rarely supported by the rest of their system.
My awakening started with my body
It didn't start with meditation. It started with my body breaking down.
After decades of building and leading, I was diagnosed with Habba Syndrome, a rare and often misdiagnosed condition that forced me to stop. I had spent years operating from my mind, solving, pushing, leading, controlling. I was good at it. But my body told a different story.
As I shared on Mystery Diagnosis, it was a deeply humbling moment. I thought my life and career might be over. What I didn't realize at the time was that this wasn't the end. It was the beginning of my real awakening. Not an expansion upward, but a return inward.
The entrepreneur's blind spot
Many entrepreneurs develop an early ability to read people and environments, anticipate outcomes, trust their instincts, and operate independently. What we call "instinct" in business is often third eye energy, pattern recognition, intuitive decision-making, internal vision.
Others lean more into crown energy: trust in something bigger, openness, creativity, surrender.
But here's the insight: most people have one or the other, not both. From our data, the majority operate in either third eye or crown. Only about 20% have both activated and even fewer are fully supported by their lower chakras.
Why success doesn't fix it
This is where it gets interesting. The very traits that make someone successful, independence, vision, drive, can also create isolation, pressure, and emotional disconnection.
I've seen entrepreneurs hit every milestone they set and still ask, "Is this it?" Because awareness alone doesn't create fulfillment. It creates capability.
The missing piece
Most high performers eventually turn to meditation, gratitude, mindfulness. Those practices help. But often, they still stay in the mind. They're still thinking about feeling, not actually feeling.
True awakening is not more awareness, more thinking, more expansion. It's integration: bringing awareness into the body, reconnecting with emotion, activating the heart, grounding the system.
What I built to solve this
Through my own healing journey, I realized something critical: insight alone doesn't create change. The body has to be involved.
That's what led me to create Auratherapy, a system that combines data-driven aura and chakra readings with plant-based aromatherapy. It helps people understand how they are operating, and then actually shift it.
Why scent works
Scent is not just about smell. It's neurological. It directly impacts the limbic brain, which controls emotion, memory, and behavior. It's the only sense that bypasses the thinking mind.
But here's what most people don't realize: not all scent works the same way. Synthetic fragrance is designed to smell good. Essential oils are biologically active, plant-based, and functional.
At Auratherapy, we use essential oils because they support the nervous system, help regulate emotional states, and reconnect awareness with the body. This is how you move from thinking to feeling, from awareness to embodiment.
A new way to understand yourself
After decades in entrepreneurship, I can say this with clarity: most high performers don't need more strategy. They need to understand how they are operating.
Are you leading from vision without trust? Surrendering without direction? Aware but disconnected? Or are you fully supported?
If this resonates
If you recognize yourself in this, there's nothing wrong with you. In fact, these patterns likely contributed to your success. But they are not the full system. They're not the end of the story.
I created a white paper that walks through the third eye vs. crown dynamic, the four entrepreneurial archetypes, and how to understand your own energy pattern: "Are You Living in Your Third Eye or Your Crown?"
Because when you understand where you're operating from, you finally have the ability to choose how you lead, build, and live.
Read more from Laura McCann
Laura McCann, Founder & CEO of Auratherapy
Laura McCann, a former child star, France-raised creative, NY fashion alum, and tech entrepreneur, now leads Auratherapy as Founder & CEO. With 30 years as a founder across CPG and tech, she’s bringing luxury and innovation to functional fragrance through breathable, essential oil-based Aroma Perfumes and water-based aura sprays. Auratherapy pairs this with data-driven aura and chakra diagnostics that translate energy into personalized rituals. Her mission is to help people reclaim their breath, remember they are vibrational beings, and transform through the practice of adoring yourself.
