In this episode, Alyssa Booth shares a powerful story about how neglecting her own physical and emotional health led to burnout, and how recognizing the cycle can empower women to choose themselves first.
Welcome to the go-go-go crash cycle. The one where you run yourself completely into the ground, hit the wall, feel guilty about hitting the wall, get back up, and do it all over again. The one that looks like productivity and ambition from the outside — and feels like barely surviving from the inside.
In this episode Alyssa gets into the cycle that shame from Episode 3 actually creates. Because shame doesn't just sit there. It drives something. It keeps you moving so you never have to stop and feel it. It fills every margin so completely there's no room left for gas — which is why some of you are driving on five miles and calling it fine.
Alyssa shares the story of taking her dog to physical therapy twice a week while ignoring her own significant postpartum back and pelvic pain. And the moment ten months postpartum when she finally hit her breaking point and asked her husband for help — and he looked at her and said: \"I thought you liked doing everything.\"
Not with cruelty. With complete sincerity. Because she had been doing everything without complaint for so long it looked like a choice.
If you're stuck in the go, go, go rhythm and feeling guilty about slowing down, this episode is your wake-up call.
In this episode:
The takeaway: Find one thing this week that you have been putting off doing for yourself. Not for your kids, your house, or your job. For you. The doctor's appointment. The PT referral. The thing you keep moving to next week. Do that one thing. Not because you've earned it. Because you have a dog who got PT before you did and it's time.
00:00 - Alyssa’s realization and need for change
05:05 - Understanding and breaking the cycle
17:25 - Community and support networks
30:51 - Embracing pause and reflection