“How does she do it?”

That was the niggling thought when I was scrolling through Instagram in 2021. I was running on cortisol, my sleep was wrecked, and serving my clients was becoming harder and harder… and yet, I was still pushing harder.

If I can get through this bit of stuckness, work my ass off… then I’ll…

We’ve been conditioned to work harder, be more productive and override our innate intuition that something is “off” but we can’t quite place it.

We’re praised and rewarded for how much we do instead of who we are in our hearts. 

And I get it. Business is all about producing, right?!

But to ignore our heart, our intuition, and our nervous system for the sake of being consistent?! I’m calling BS on that.

→ On our “go” days, we’re extroverted, in our yang/masculine energy with bags of stamina (and caffeine), we promise the world that we’ll nail it.

→ On our softer days, when we’re introverted, in our yin/feminine with lower energy, we fight the urge to slow down.

Resisting and fighting urges amplifies the signals we ignore.

Pushing down the tiredness, the “crunchy” clients we’re not 100% in love with supporting, taking the money but wishing you didn’t have to follow up…

Our body either goes into “fight harder” mode or apathy.

Push harder or roll over into numbness.

Go hard

Stress hormones kick in and our nervous system goes wild. It gives us the illusion that we have endless energy to get sh!t done… and we do… for a little while.

The success industry is insidious in promoting “changing your mindset” BS, strive harder, and keep going.

Books on Stoicism and habits flood the Amazon bestseller list and we’re tricked into thinking we have to fix something.

Layer on top of that with the “why you’re doing X… because of Y” posts on the socials that agitate us into feeling like we’re broken.

Short-term stress can be good for our body, it blows out the cobwebs, it makes us come alive… but the cocktail of hormones we’re bombarded with ends up being detrimental to our long-term health.

Go numb

The other way is when we’re too overwhelmed to even fight, and our parasympathetic system kicks in.

I describe this feeling as defeated. Done. Whatever.

I believe that feminine souls don’t recognise this feeling as being a signal to slow down because it is normalised.

People pleasing, lowering standards, bending (or ignoring) boundaries, procrastination, a slip in self-care, forgetting to eat or drink, or going harder with caffeine… all come from our nervous system heading into freeze/fawn mode.

Business has a heady vibe. Logic, strategy, problem-solving, pushing. 

So it makes sense to say that we’re not performing at our best or most balanced.

Business causes us to be “up in our head” so we are disconnected from our body. 

And our body has deep wisdom that we’re ignoring.

After years of abuse, signals from our body get louder and our ability to ignore them becomes greater.

We tolerate more and more until we completely lose our sensitivity and connection with our bodies.

Our body becomes the driver and that driver is drunk!

And unconscious!

Go home

The third way is to go back into your body.

Re-sensitising the body is a mix of clearing energy and tuning in.

(And a hefty subject for another time)

Breathwork, meditation, sound healing, and repairing your gut are all flavours of what it takes and your journey is an individual one.

But when we remind ourselves of the connection we have with our body, we start to change who we are being.

Habits begin to change, emotions become more vivid, pleasure returns, intuition is heightened, we’re more aligned, and life changes

And all from re-sensitising and listening to your body.

Being called to slow down is your body asking for you to listen. 

Respecting and befriending your body instead of treating it as a vehicle to move about in. 

When we make a home in our body, it becomes our best friend.