The 60-Second Reset For When Life Melts Down with Leann Herron

Brain fog that scares you, anxiety that spikes out of nowhere, weekends that never recharge you, and a quiet fear that you’re “losing it” can all be signs of burnout, not a personal failing. I’m joined by Leann Herron, a certified life and holistic health coach and the founder of Finding Resilience with Leann, to talk frankly about what happens when a nervous system stays in survival mode for decades. 

Leann shares how a successful career in accounting and the legal field kept her functioning on the outside, while childhood trauma, people pleasing and perfectionism kept the pressure on underneath. When she hit the wall during the early pandemic, symptoms like panic attacks, overwhelming fatigue and severe brain fog forced a reset. We also unpack why burnout so often hits women hardest: the unequal mix of work, caring responsibilities, household labour and emotional load, plus the cultural expectation to keep going. 

We get practical about burnout recovery and burnout prevention: recognising warning signs, learning nervous system regulation, setting boundaries without letting guilt run your life, and rebuilding the basics that support health (sleep, hydration, nourishing food and gentle movement). Leann also teaches her 60-second reset you can do anywhere: feet on the floor, inhale for four, exhale for six, a quick 5-4-3-2-1 sensory scan, then one steady question: “What do I need right now?” We finish with grounding, nature, and simple spiritual practices that help you feel centred again. 

If this conversation helps, please subscribe to Farm to the Soul, share it with someone who needs a pause, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the one sign your body has been using to get your attention?

Leann Herron

Finding Resilience with Leann

Certified Life and Holistic Health Coach

505-280-2552

https://findingresiliencewithleann.com

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:26

So, welcome everybody to another edition of Balm to the Soul. I'm your host, Natasha Joy Price, and today we have a new guest, and her name is Lianne Heron. So, welcome Lianne. Thank you for coming onto the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Thank you so much for the invitation, Natasha. It's been such a pleasure getting to know you and getting to know everything about all the wonderful stuff that you do. So thank you for the invitation to come on and share my story.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Oh no, it's a pleasure. So Lianne and I have met a couple of times because I've been on her podcast a couple of times. So I thought it was about time that she came on to Barn to the Soul. So Lianne is a certified life and holistic health coach. She's the founder of Finding Resilience with Lianne, and she's the host of Happiness on Tap and Kink Your Way podcasts. So busy, busy. And we were just talking about that. Very busy. It does busy for sure. It does indeed. And you offer burnout prevention and trauma-informed resilience coaching. So, first of all, before we get into all of that, because it was so interesting, but how did you get onto this path? What led you into the work that you're doing at the moment?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

You know, that's a great question because I don't think anybody just wakes up one day and decides, I'm going to become a burnout prevention coach. And so for me, as I'm sure you have found with other helpers and healers in this field, the work came out of my own healing journey. And I spent much of my life doing what so many women

From High Achiever To Hitting The Wall

SPEAKER_01 2:12

do. I took care of everyone else. I built a successful career, spent over 20 years in accounting, and later worked as a legal assistant and paralegal while raising my family. And I just kept pushing forward no matter how exhausted I felt. And on the outside, I looked like I had everything together. But underneath, you know, and this was learned knowledge later in life, was that I was carrying the weight of childhood trauma, uh, years of people pleasing, perfectionism, believing that my value came from how much I could do for others. And while those survival patterns served me when I was younger, um, not so much when I was older. And so in 2020, early pandemic, um, I hit what I call the wall. You know, my nervous system simply couldn't keep doing what I was doing anymore. I couldn't continue to push it down, deny it, ignore it. Um, I started experiencing debilitating brain fog. I couldn't remember simple words or conversations. I couldn't remember people's, how I knew people. Like I could recognize faces, but I couldn't remember like how did I know them? Um, my anxiety was through the roof. I was having panic attacks and overwhelming fatigue. Um, and even just like routine duties felt completely impossible. And at some point I was just wondering if I was like losing my mind. Like, what's wrong with me? I've never experienced this. And at that time I was working in the legal field, and it terrified me that I couldn't continue to do the level of work I was doing for people who were paying me to be on my game when I couldn't remember if I had even completed a task. Um and what I eventually discovered about myself was that I was experiencing burnout and overwhelm, but that those things didn't just come from a stressful job or a difficult season in my life, it was an accumulation of decades of the life of living in survival mode. Um and learning about this in my late 40s was really confusing. Like, how did I not know these things? How did I, you know, I just I didn't have any frame of reference. And so during that time, I was blessed with the ability to leave my job and focus on my health, my physical health and my mental health. Um, I began learning about trauma and neuroscience and nervous system regulation, um, holistic health and all the wonderful modalities, um, breath work and sound healing and Reiki and all of these things. And what I started to discover was that healing wasn't just about like walking through my past, because I certainly did not like that part of it, but it was finding the tools and learning how to help my mind and body feel safe enough to start living again.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, we have such parallels, don't we? Because we've talked about this in the past as well. But having just retired from 29 years in the law and and feet really feeling that, you know, not the the sort of symptoms that you were feeling, but feeling that I was slowing down considerably and that there was something I just weekends did not refresh me. You know, there was a level of tiredness that we you just couldn't get through. Um, so do you think, listening to you talk, do you think that people who are having burnout, and do you think it's usually women, because we're the ones that would tend to take on the bulk of household chores, children, work often as well. But um, you had a list of symptoms there, but is it different from for everybody? Is

Why Burnout Hits Women Harder

SPEAKER_00 7:00

it different for all of your clients, those symptoms, or are there parallels?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I think, you know, depending on the client, you know, I try to meet them where they are. But once we start kind of looking at their life as a whole and not just the one thing that maybe they thought they were struggling with or needed help with, like I've had people come to me for um career coaching, they're ready to switch careers, but they're they're struggling with either their beliefs or how can I do this or what resources are available to me. When we start looking at their life as a whole and unpacking, like why are they uh no longer happy in their job? Um, you know, different things like that, it starts opening up different things for them where you start to hear, oh, well, there's overwhelm and burnout, and they're tired of feeling this way, or they don't know why they're not able to concentrate anymore, or they don't understand why they're struggling with relationships both at work and at home. So I think, yes, definitely, women, um, we struggle more because we are carrying the weight of the world. We're caring for our aging parents, we're raising the children, we're doing all the shopping, all the errands, um, working a full-time job. And even when, you know, we're lucky enough to have good supportive partners, I think it's still a very uneven division of responsibilities and duties. And as women, we carry more of the emotional weight on top of that. You know, we're worried about what other people are gonna think about us if we fail, or um that we're not good enough, or we have comparison where we're comparing ourselves to another woman in the office. Um, so yeah, I think we definitely carry the majority of those struggles.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, and I think it's cultural, isn't it? It's expected of us to do a lot of these things as well. Um, but do you think it's also when you when you've seen so many clients in this position, do you often think that it's sort of related to um they push themselves so much to make themselves feel safe? You know, often earning money and and getting material things and money in the bank is a way that a lot of people help themselves feel safe because they never did feel safe when they were younger, um, or a value thing as well, like they didn't feel valued. So that is how they're gonna say, well, look, look what I've achieved, you know. Do you think those two are the underlying, strong underlying sort of factors?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah, and there's a lot of other underlying factors, but those are definitely two. They were two for me. Um, you know, I always felt if I do more, if I achieve more, um, then I'll be loved, or uh then I'll feel good enough. Because as a child, um I really struggled with um not feeling good enough. Um, and so that was one of those ways that I could for myself believe that if I achieved these great jobs and I was able to provide for my family without having to rely on or ask for help. But at the same time, I didn't even know how to ask for help. I didn't know how to receive help. So we create this cycle that we keep striving for more and more and more to fill those voids within us.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, and and presumably a lot of people like you say just don't know what to do to sort of change it. Do you think it's becoming more common? Do you think it's our cultural, our society that's always about moving, moving, moving, busy, busy, busy? Do you think burnout is becoming you know more common in women and men, but just in general?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Absolutely, because I think you know, even in that cycle, we all have a max capacity that we can can hold. I I always felt kind of like a kettle on the stove. You can only have that heat on for so long, and eventually it's gonna pop. And you know, as a woman, and we're forced to constantly strive for more, and we're also in a male-dominant world where they kind of treat us like, well, you asked for this, you wanted the the big job, you wanted to be recognized. So now you have to work harder to achieve. And so I think that it's we've created that societal structure. And then eventually, you know, our body just starts to shut down. And for women, we have hormone issues that men don't have. Um, we have the weight of that world that we've been carrying for all these years, and then we have the shifts that come with this. So we go from raising small children to being an empty nester to caring for our aging parents. Yes, and there's no break in that continuum. You know, you think, oh, well, once my kids are grown and they're out of the house and going to college or out life, then life is going to come down. Well, there's always something inevitably that's going to take up that space. And I don't think we were ever taught how to rest, how to take care of ourselves. And so we're fighting this battle with the need to take care of ourselves and not knowing how to do it.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah. I've just been involved in writing um a compilation book with many other writers, and it's all about when women need space, and it's actually exactly what we're talking about. It's finding space in that create, that really chaotic life that we all have, you know, work and family and children, and um, and it's trying to have those times where we can just have space to ourselves. And so, I mean, that's one way that people can, you know, try and recover, but but actually sometimes it's more you need more than that, don't you? You need, you know, it's gone too far in a way. So, what what how do people start recovering from burnout? How how can they start recovering from it?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

You know, I think one, understanding it, you know, first acknowledging, acknowledging that we have hit that wall and learning about our bodies, learning about our nervous system. For me, that was the gold in the whole

The First Steps To Recover

SPEAKER_01 14:34

big picture was I didn't even realize I had a nervous system. I didn't realize I had trauma trapped in my body. Um, and so when I started experiencing all of these different symptoms, I didn't know where they were coming from. So I was looking at like external sources. What causes brain fog? What causes anxiety? But I was looking externally. And so it really helped me to start looking internally and become educated so that I could understand what my body was experiencing. Uh, you know, not just the anxiety, the burnout, the brain fog, all of those things, but hormonally, what was my body going through? Because doctors tend to say, oh, it's just menopause, or oh, it's just a sign of aging, or oh, it's just this. And they just want to give you a pill. So we have to kind of be aware of what that burnout is. So I would start with, like I said, um, recog recognizing some of the warning signs. So what's happening physically in my body, um, what's happening mentally, you know, burnout can look like all of those things: brain fog, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness. But when you have a doctor that is constantly saying, oh, that's just part of aging, oh, that's just part of menopause, then we kind of brush it off without kind of doing the deeper work.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And so I would, you know, really kind of start there before looking at like how to recover from it, because just having knowledge is so much power. And then I think kind of looking at like how are we staying busy? Why are we staying so busy? Why do we feel like we have to stay busy and on all the time? So looking at where we're giving our energy away, whether it's uh being that people pleaser, that helper that's always saying yes to everything and helping all of our friends and never saying no. Um those are things that we have to look at and say, you know, can I say no to this? And then we have the flip side of that, you know, when we're setting boundaries for ourselves and our own well-being, then we have the guilt that comes with those boundaries. We don't want to hurt somebody's feeling, they're used to us always being there. Um, so how do we do that in a way that makes us feel whole, that makes us feel safe, and that provides us the space for that rest you were talking about. Because when you're on the go and on the go, on the go, you don't take the time to rest. And I remember when my husband and I got together, like he can take five naps a day, even if they're just like a 10-minute cat nap. He can just sit down in his chair and close his eyes and take a nap. And I never could understand how you can nap. I don't have time to nap. Like I have got so much to do, and I've got to clean and I've got to do the dishes and I gotta throw the laundry in the dryer. And so one of those things was giving myself permission to listen to my body. And if I'm yawning and I'm tired, go sit down or take a nap or go sit down and read a book. Eventually the book's gonna lead to the nap anyway. So however you get there, you know, but I think it's it's just um it starts with awareness, giving ourselves permission to pause, which is one of my favorites, uh, listening to your body, setting those healthy boundaries, um, and then reconnecting with the basics that support our health. So making sure you're getting quality sleep, you're eating nourishing foods, you're staying hydrated, you're getting some movement. And one of my favorite things is also a time to find joy in life. So for me, it's that pause and I'll step outside and I'll let the sun shine down on my body, giving me some healthy vitamin D. Uh, listen to the birds. Um yesterday I noticed I have an iris blooming. All of my irises bloomed in May. I have one iris and one rose on my rose bush. What joy to have that in the peak of summer here, and seeing that these things are still resilient and still want to be seen and noticed. And so it's, you know, it's it's a combination of just those things that we can do.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah. Yes, all of those very valuable points. Um, just a couple of things that really resonated with me. Doing something and moving your body, I think I've realized is so important um for energy work. That was never, never, you know, not something that I always put together, but actually I think it really helps to integrate things. And um and having just retired, I've started yoga, but I've actually felt found it incredibly good with the energy work as well. And the other thing I was going to say is not to expect it to for you to unwind or completely relax quickly, because I found it to be a real journey. I can feel myself slowly unwinding internally, you know, in a good way, relaxing. But gosh, it's a slow, it's a slow process. It takes time, it's not a quick. Um, and I suppose that's the same with any energy healing, isn't it? It's not a quick fix. It's um it's how you need to live your life, basically.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah, it almost feels like in your body, like there's two forces fighting against each other. There's the I need to rest and I need to move. So it almost feels some days like restless leg syndrome, you know, where there's this underlying jolt. This is, oh no, you got to get up and move. You got to get up and move, you got, but it's like I just want to rest, you know, and that's where my mind goes is it's like, oh, this is like restless leg syndrome. It's this competing forces. And so and for me, it's just like, okay, what are you needing? And just asking my body and listening to my body. What do you need right now?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, that's a very valuable point. You need to have that conversation with your body, don't you? And listen to the answers, definitely. Um, so what do you offer? What do you offer these clients that come to you um with burnout symptoms or not realizing they're coming to you for burnout? If they come for other things, but

SPEAKER_01 23:41

I think the biggest part of my offer is that I offer women a safe space. A safe space to stop surviving and to start living again. I offer them a safe space where they can talk about things maybe they've never shared with their partner or even with a girlfriend or a family member. And most of the women, you know, have come to me, have spent years taking care of everyone else. You know, they're successful, they're capable, they're dependable, but underneath they're exhausted. So I also provide a safe space for you to just relax and let your body just relax in a calm, safe environment. Sometimes that's turning the lights down, sometimes that's just laying and relaxing on my massage table. Sometimes that's uh calming music, sometimes that's the singing bowls. Um, but it's just providing an environment where they can unwind and relax. And you know, my role isn't to fix anybody, you know, they're not broken. My role is to help them reconnect with the person that they always had, that they've always known is there. Um, it's to teach them tools that most of us never learn.

A Safe Space And A Toolbox

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Um, so whether it's somatic tools or breath work, um, but it's giving them a toolbox that they can take with them and be able to utilize whatever tool they need at the time because not everybody's gonna need the same tool. Like I loved yoga. Um, I did yoga for three years and absolutely loved it. I could do it alone at home, I could do it in the mountains, I could go to group classes. Um and I I loved having that tool in my toolbox. But then I also had meditation and I had art therapy and I used grounding techniques, then I used my crystals and did energy work. So I think what I what I like about what I do is I provide people with education information and a path to their healing while holding safe space for them.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yeah, lovely. So, what's um what's one exercise you can recommend for the listeners if they want to um reset their nervous system? What's something that people can do?

SPEAKER_01 26:37

One of my favorite exercises is something that I call the 60-second reset. Um, because it's simple, it's accessible, and almost anyone can do it anywhere. When we are overwhelmed, our nervous system also, you know, often gets stuck in fight, fight, or freeze. But before we can think clearly or make good decisions, we need to help our body recognize that it's safe in that moment. And one thing I learned um through kind of my own personal journey was how long an anxiety attack spikes naturally when you're not fueling it with rumination or just how long it takes to naturally spike. And it's right at about 60 seconds. So if you can have the tools to ride those waves, um, and so I'll talk about the tool. So here's how the 60-second reset works. Um, first, uh place both feet flat on the floor, notice that support beneath you, feel your body being held by a chair or by the ground. Um, next, take slow breaths in through your nose for a count of four, then exhale gently through your mouth for a count of six. You always want to exhale longer

The 60-Second Nervous System Reset

SPEAKER_01 28:13

than you inhale. That's a trigger for your nervous system. Um so it'll help you begin to start to relax. So I go through that um, you know, three to five times, depending on a client's level of anxiety. Sometimes it takes just a little bit more to get them to calm down and release those thoughts that are running around. Um, I like to teach them how to engage their senses. Um, so looking around the room, uh naming five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. And most people can do all of those things in their car at home, in a store outside. Maybe not the tasting, but even if it's just I still taste the taste of coffee that I just finished, or um a candy that I just sucked on. So it's kind of using these techniques um to really help. Um grounding is one of my um parts of that 60 seconds. So stepping outside. Yeah, kicking off my shoes. Um, all summer long I'm in flip-flops, but you know, I'll kick off my flip-flops and I'll step onto the grass or step onto the dirt. Just connecting with the earth helps bring you back into the present moment and staying instead of staying caught up in anxious thoughts or stress, because you know, anxiety is that focus on the future, the what ifs, the what can happen. And so when we're in the present, we're not focused on the future, and so that will help calm your nervous system. And the last thing is I like to just kind of ask myself one simple question: what do I need right now? Not what does everyone else need, but what do I need? Maybe that's a glass of water, maybe that's a healthy snack, maybe that's five minutes outside, uh, maybe it's a stretch, uh a yoga pose, or just a stretch for your body. Sometimes just a simple stretch can also trigger the system that you're calm, you're relaxed, uh, taking a deep breath and just giving myself permission to say no to something. So these are the things that I try to practice in that 60 seconds. Maybe it's one of them, maybe it's all of them.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yeah. No, I love that. One thing I always talk about um is grounding. I think that's just essential, isn't it? To um be well grounded, because otherwise you're just not focused at all. So um yeah, going to walk on the grass, etc. Lovely. Thank you. That's things that people can have a try with. Um, and so one thing that I ask most of my guests that come on, um, but you might it this might overlap with what you've just talked about there, but I often ask them what's one spiritual thing that you that you do to help you feel centered and balanced, whether that's daily, whether that's weekly, you know, but do you have anything that really helps you stay centered?

SPEAKER_01 32:05

And it's definitely going to over overlap for me, because when I start feeling overwhelmed or disconnected, my first go-to is to step outside.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

Um, even if it's just for a few minutes and plant my feet firmly on the earth, take a few deep breaths and simply just be present. And, you know, nature is so powerful in all of the things that that she provides for us. So I'll notice the sun, the breeze on my skin, the sound of the birds, all those things that I already uh talked about, because nature is just an incredible way of reminding me that I don't have control over everything. And it invites me to slow down and trust that life has its own rhythm. Yeah. Um, I was really blessed and was able to go up to the mountains of Colorado and do an inner quest retreat in nature.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Wow, lovely.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah. And during that time, the beauty of not only being in nature, but to just allow my body to reset with the tone of nature. It was moving very slowly.

Grounding And Spiritual Centre In Nature

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Um, you know, in the city, you're just on the go, on the go, on the go, on the go.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

And to be able to connect with nature. Um, and just I spent a lot of time um in front of my altar also, you know, in in connecting with my higher purpose, my higher self, uh, surrounding myself in pure white light, grounding. I mean, that is something I can do anytime.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Anywhere, yeah. Lovely. Nature is so important, I think. I think we are absolutely, you know, there's a relationship there, isn't there, with nature? We can't do without it. Um, and for me, it's getting out into the garden as well. We were talking about that earlier, because the UK is having a heat wave, so it's actually slightly too hot to go in the garden. But I can certainly go and walk on the grass, which is amazing. Thank you, Leanne. It's been so lovely to have you on the podcast. Um, how can if somebody would like to talk to you or um, you know, um take up one of your, you know, a session with you, how do they contact you? How's best to get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_01 34:53

The best way to get in contact with me is through my website, which is finding resilience withleanne.com, all one word. Um on my website, I have all of my coaching information. I have a lot of uh free and very low-cost digital products that people can nice uh can print on their own and do at their own time. Um, I have a page for my podcast so it has all of my guests and a way to listen to whatever platform they prefer. So they can just click on whether it's Spotify or YouTube or uh Apple Podcast, and that way they have immediate access to the podcast. Um I have a blog that I'm very active on, so that's really the best way to find me. And I'm also really active on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Right. Excellent. And all of that information will be underneath the episode as well to remind people listeners. So thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. It's a fascinating subject. Um and um it's been really lovely to speak to you again.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

You as well. Thank you so much again for the invitation. I always enjoy spending time with you.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Oh, no, that's a pleasure. So if you've enjoyed listening to Leanne and I, if you could like and share, that would be amazing. And of course, you can subscribe to Farm to the Soul podcast,

How To Find Lianne And Closing

SPEAKER_00 36:27

and you get extra episodes and guests and meditations, etc. So have a look at that, and I will speak to you all soon.