The Hidden Struggles of Emotionally Over-Responsible Women

If you’re the kind of woman who can “handle everything” the fixer, the achiever, the one who keeps it together, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, Tracy Doyle (author, resilience expert, and creator of the Aurora Method) shares what burnout really looks like beneath the surface: not just exhaustion, but disconnection from self, emotional implosion/explosion, and the quiet belief that you must earn belonging through over-giving.

We talk about the patterns that keep high-functioning women stuck, why awareness isn’t enough, and what actually creates change: daily practice, nervous system regulation in real life, and learning to shift the beliefs that drive the “always responsible” identity.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• Why success doesn’t always equal fulfillment (and what that disconnect is signaling)
• How emotionally over-responsible women drift into self-abandonment
• The real burnout progression: stress → overwhelm → conflict → implosion/explosion
• Why insight alone doesn’t change behavior (and what does)
• Tracy’s “reaction cascade” + how beliefs trigger emotional patterns
• How daily practices create nervous system regulation and relational repair
• What it means to reclaim internal authority emotionally, not just intellectually
• The difference between breakthrough moments and sustainable change
• Practical ways to stop over-functioning and rebuild connection to your voice

Links: 

Tracy Doyle 

Website: https://www.tracydoyle.life

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Transcript

speaker-1 (00:02.274)
you

speaker-0 (00:03.884)
Enjoy this Wild Soul gathering production. I'm Dr. Sanda Marie. Pour yourself a really tall glass of spiritual curiosity and join me for the happy hour for the spiritually curious podcast. In the spirit of happy hour, cheers to some new insights, peace, revitalization, and perhaps an aha moment that may change your life. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Sanda Marie. And today's conversation is really for emotionally over-responsible women.

the ones who learned early how to carry a lot, manage everything and keep it together on the outside, even when they were quietly abandoning themselves on the inside. And really it's a conversation about being human, about what happens when success doesn't equal fulfillment, when awareness isn't enough, and when the real work becomes learning how to stay present. We have the perfect guest today for this conversation, Tracy Doyle.

She is an author, resilience expert, and creator of the Aurora Method, a practical, mindful-based framework for recognizing and redirecting negative thinking that keeps people stuck in frustration, disconnection, and burnout. Tracy is also the author of Life Storms, Finding Your Clear Sky.

speaker-1 (01:26.483)
Dr. Sandra, I'm just pleased to be here today.

speaker-0 (01:29.518)
Well, this is going to be an exciting show. Before we really get into your personal journey and take that deep dive into your work, for the listeners who are new to you and your work, just briefly, what are you actually helping people understand or change?

speaker-1 (01:44.698)
First off, I want to say that if you look at any of the surveys about the workplace data, one in two women today are struggling with burnout. And so my goal is really to help people recognize that it's not a them problem, it's not an us problem, it's coming from within.

speaker-0 (02:01.58)
I would agree. What was or was there a specific moment when you realized success wasn't equal to fulfillment or was it more a slow emotional erosion for you?

speaker-1 (02:13.326)
For me, it was a small emotional erosion. My story is pretty intense. so it was sort of a, I call it my burnout journey. And then the breaking point that I hit. And then I went on to recover from it. Then it came back. So that's the thing that really got me. And that's why I basically, when I started recognizing that the symptoms were coming back, I went on a mission. I'm a person who connects the dots. I went on a mission to understand what can I do practically?

to manage this on a daily basis.

speaker-0 (02:44.824)
Well, I'm excited to get into that journey a little bit. Why do you think so many high-functioning women are emotionally fluent, yet they still feel disconnected from themselves?

speaker-1 (02:56.45)
That's a great question. I think for me, I sort of have to my background to sort of put that into perspective. So what most people know about me on the outside is that I'm an entrepreneur. built and led an award winning multimillion dollar business as a successful CEO. Together with my team, we generated over a hundred million dollars in business. And today I'm a first time published author. But what they didn't know was how much I struggled. Right.

I mean, I grew up believing that I had to sacrifice myself for my family, for my job, for my relationship. And where that sacrifice came from, that belief, I was raised by a mom who was mentally ill. She was a teenager when she had me. I didn't know my dad. I grew up with my grandparents in my mom's family, because she was the oldest of nine. But when she got married when I was seven, my life turned around. She married an alcoholic and he was a

a gambler and was losing all our money and we had no food. My mom was mentally ill, couldn't handle it. They had two kids. So by the age of 10, I became a caretaker for my mom, for my siblings, for the house. And so that traveled with me, right? Because I wanted to get out of that. That effect for me was traumatic. It was profound. As I grew up, I really threw myself into school as my respite.

So I knew then the only way to get out was to achieve, right? So the ed sacrifice on the one hand and achievement was my way out. I did, you know, class president, straight A student, first to go to college. So fast forward, my stepfather actually passed away four years after my mom married him. So we were back with my grandparents. And when I was in my twenties, my grandmother said, you know, it's now it's your time. I've been taking care of your mom all her life.

and I want to retire, I'm moving away, and you need to take responsibility for your mom. And I was in my mid-20s. Separately, my sister was having issues similar to my mom, but back then there was no diagnosis for bipolar disorder. So she was basically using drugs to medicate, and she had two kids out of wedlock. So I was responsible for her kids, was responsible for my mom.

speaker-1 (05:18.626)
And now I'm telling you the burnout journey, because it starts out like stress, then turns into overwhelm because I have my own relationship, my own home, and I'm trying to manage it all. I'm a senior director at work. So what burnout looks like is it starts like stress, it feels like overwhelm, but then it starts to move into conflicts where you feel like no one understands. And you're like, you know, why are they putting more on me? And they don't understand me. And you start getting angry, right? At least I did.

I felt like I was at odds with everyone. People just took me the wrong way. But then as you start to get deeper into burnout, it starts to turn into what I call implosion or explosion. Right? And so the imploders, and we often have traits of both. For me as an imploder, it was more like crying anytime. I remember I just wanted a break and go on vacation and it rained when I went away to Cape Cod in the summer. Crying at God, why, why? Why can't

I'm imploding and I'm crying, crying on my way to work, crying at work. But explosions were more like snapping at people, just losing it when it wasn't even commensurate. It would just be a question that someone had, just a general curious question, but I was overreacting in a way that I was ashamed. I didn't understand what was wrong with me. And where burnout takes people from there is either that's your signal to get help.

or you take it deeper. And I took it deeper. you know, many people will start using substances. They can even move into wanting to go into depression and anxiety, but also wanting to kill themselves. So for me, my breaking point, I mean, I can remember it like it was yesterday. I mean, it was December 21st of 1999, around the holidays, getting ready for work. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. And it was like my

My eyes were hollow, my spirit was dim. For a minute, I didn't even recognize myself, because I looked so empty. And inside my head, I'm like, I'm done. And then it was a fight in my head, right? I'm done being responsible for my mentally ill mom. I'm done taking care of my sister's kids. I'm done being stressed in every single direction at work, because I was the fixer. Everyone came to me. So then it was, I'm done being the fixer.

speaker-1 (07:44.264)
Why can't people fix it themselves? You know, just going on and on and on in my mind. And then I felt like I was just done fighting with everyone and everything. the next thing I knew, my ruminations start going into, you know, if I got good and drunk, maybe I'd crash the car. And if I crashed the car, no one would know I did it on purpose. I didn't want anyone to know I was weak. Right? Later that night,

I was jolted awake by someone pounding on my car window saying, are you okay? Are you okay? And when I looked up, my car was facing head-on traffic. I was facing oncoming traffic. My car was a hair away from a head-on collision. There was a pregnant woman in the car. The husband was the one knocking on my window. That was my moment. I mean, I was like, what have...

I don't, you know, and now I'm crying. How did I get so lost? And how do I get my life back? And that next day, custody of my sister's kids, I'm walking to a school meeting, because I lost my car the night before. I'm crying and screaming at the universe. I'm like, I want to live. I want to live again. And it was like a fight in my head and my heart. My head's scolding me, Tracey.

You could have killed two people. How could you do such a thing? How could you?" But my heart sang, Tracy, you're still here. And that was the moment. I I just learned my first real lesson, which is exactly what you said. Sacrificing myself is not about abandoning myself. It's about putting myself first while I'm managing it all.

And for me, that meant getting help. had some trauma I had to work through, and they treated me for depression, you know, and so I go to therapy and I get the help I need. But it was over a course of 10 years that I finally realized it wasn't my mom doing this to me, it wasn't my family, it wasn't my job. It was none of those things breaking me. It was my own beliefs. And, you know, I always believed that I didn't belong.

speaker-1 (10:08.334)
I was born without, I didn't know my dad. And I felt like if I gave 110 % to everyone and everything, then maybe I would. And so when I learned how to reshape the beliefs that shaped me, that's when I found my way back to myself, to my life, and to the people that I love.

speaker-0 (10:29.496)
That's a really powerful story, like super powerful. Thank you for sharing that. There's a lot of people who feel like if they just give, give, they perform higher, that they will belong, that they'll fit in, that their life will have meaning. This is just a great example. So I'm gonna ask, you have talked about human doing.

instead of human being. Talk some more about that.

speaker-1 (11:04.706)
Yep, that's my favorite term. So, you know, there was a time, like when I actually thought that my burnout was caused by all of them, right, or was the conflicts, the difficult people in my life. What I did was it was like, we have a tendency to think like if they just would stop asking or people would just support me more, then the burnout would get better. But what happens when they don't? We do, we do, we do more, and we just don't know how to be.

And then what happens when we keep doing is we take it in, because they don't recognize us, and we stew and we stew and we stew. Right? So for me, human doing is about recognizing that burnout is not about them. It's not about us. It all, the fingers always got to come back to our own chest. It's all about us learning how to be. And that to me is what the greatest lesson I had was, because I was a doer and not a be-er.

speaker-0 (12:02.904)
So did being actually feel foreign to you at that point in your life?

speaker-1 (12:06.678)
Absolutely. And because think about it, when you're burnt out, I call it fine. The fine phenomenon, right? We're frustrated, we're irritated, we're numb, and we're exhausted. And so we just keep pushing, pushing, pushing, doing, doing. And we don't ever give ourselves permission to be still with ourselves. We don't give ourselves permission to even express our truth, right? In terms of, no, I'm not able to handle that right now.

speaker-0 (12:36.664)
Permission, that's a big word for a lot of the work that's being done. But let's talk about your current work. What are the core principles behind the Aurora method in human terms, not the framework language?

speaker-1 (12:49.398)
Yeah, no, the framework is very practical. What it's about is really recognizing what I've learned is, and this is really through my own work and working with others, is that we're all wounded, right? We've all had experiences in our lives that affect us. And for many of us, it's multiple things. It could be being taunted. It could be, you know, being bullied. It could be critical parents or teachers. For some, it's emotional neglect. For others, it's physical sexual abuse.

for still others, it's significant traumas. what I've seen, and I'm a pattern person, so what I've seen is this amazing pattern. No matter who I help professionally, it could be significant trauma over here, or it could be someone calling them a name in school. We seem to form two foundational limiting beliefs. I'm not good enough, and I'm not worthy. And what I've learned is, is that any time someone says or does something that triggers those beliefs, it creates what I call the reaction cascade.

Right? Which is fear gets triggered next. And I like Tony Robbins work, which is fear of losing what we have, fear of being less than, or fear of never getting what we want. And then where does it go from there? I was, you'll see me, I always do it with my body. We go in between our two ears and that negative thinking starts, right? And it's self-centered traits that are developed from this. So some of us go to self-pity.

Some of us go to self-importance. I was a self-importance person. I got out of poverty. How dare you? Don't ever question me. And I was always at odds. Or we go to self-seeking, where we need validation and approval, and we become people pleasers. And I call them issues. There's many of them. It's whatever follows the word self. But the point is is that we become self-centered, which I don't know a single person who isn't, right? But self-centeredness

And self-centered thinking is like driving in a city of limitation, right? Because we can't get out, we're stuck, but no one can get in. So we're just operating through life, just feeling alone, misunderstood, frustrated, disconnected. And what the Aurora Method is about in my work is to help people breaking through those things that are keeping them stuck. And once you get through it, I call it the turnaround, because you can really look at your life in another way and you can see your own patterns.

speaker-1 (15:09.102)
and how they've created this distance between you and others. And then once you break through that, which is through other techniques that I share in the framework, once you do that, you not only restore connection to yourself, but to your voice, because you learn how to speak differently. You can express things differently without having to like scream about it, right? Or just be angry about it. And oftentimes I find that once you get to that place, you're mending and healing.

the relationships that were fractured by that burnout.

speaker-0 (15:42.914)
That makes sense. You've mentioned the emotional outbursts and the relationship struggles. What patterns keep repeating for you?

speaker-1 (15:51.47)
So my biggest one, and I'll walk you through the cascade because I love doing this. So my biggest one was, and I had to get to the original belief that was formed. So when I was young, my mom married when I was seven. My stepfather's parents rejected me. They did not like that my mom came to the marriage with a child. So they called me a bastard. They made me sit on the floor. I wasn't allowed to sit at the table and eat. I was treated like a dog. When was an eight-year-old, I'm like...

Why are they treating me like a dog? I looked up the word bastard. I didn't understand it. As I'm, you know, reflecting on this, trying to understand why are they so mean to me? You know, I started to really think like, wow, like my siblings are my half siblings. You know, my mom's family, who I thought I belonged to was her family. They're her siblings. They're not mine. And all of a sudden I just felt like I didn't belong. The work took me to recognizing, re-feeling that wound of being rejected. So anytime I sensed

could be at work where I thought you didn't want me in the room, or if I thought that you were talking badly about me, or if I was in a relationship, or even with my family, if I felt like you didn't recognize me or see me, that initial belief, I don't belong, triggered I'm not good enough, which triggered my never fear, I'm never gonna belong. And then I would go one of two places on the self-seeking side, in a personal relationship, I'd be like, did you see what I did?

Do you appreciate what I did for you? How do I look? What do you think? And then when I didn't get that, I'd be angry, right? Now on the worst side, if my spidey senses thought you didn't want me there, ooh, I became very, very self-important. I became very self-righteous. I'd make sure that I would prove to you that I knew and I was worthy of being there. So first I would get dismissive. I was arrogant.

And then I couldn't understand as a CEO why people were afraid of me. Right? So, you know, this was all from one belief. And what it did was it kept me apart from, and the more apart I was, it fueled other beliefs like the sacrifice, which was I have to do everything myself. That was another belief I developed. And when I developed that, especially at work, when I got arrogant, people pulled away. Fine, I'll do it myself. What message was I sending them?

speaker-1 (18:19.19)
I don't trust you and I don't need you. And then I couldn't understand why they weren't doing anything for me, right? Because I was the one creating a dynamic. So that's really how it works.

speaker-0 (18:31.064)
That's such a great example. think many people relate to that on so many levels. So many people understand their patterns intellectually, yet they still react the same way. Why do you think insight alone doesn't create change?

speaker-1 (18:48.128)
Yeah, that is such a great question because that was exactly my experience. That's why I created the Aurora Method because what I found was I was able to explain, I call it today, jading. I was able to justify, argue, defend and explain everything that I did. But what I found was that does not foster connection, right? Because people get tired of hearing why you keep doing what you do. They want to see you change. And so for me, what I had to do is I had to learn practices.

to be A, be vigilant, see my patterns, name them, and recognize what I needed to change. I'd call it simply think and do the opposite, pretty simple concept. So if I'm self-reliant, what I have to do is release that reliance and open my mind to being receptive to ask for and receive help, right? And let them, let them help me. If I'm self-seeking, I have to practice refraining from asking.

So I'm releasing the self-seeking and I have to say, I'm worthy as I am. You know, I don't need them to tell me I'm worthy as I am and refrain from asking. And I found that when I did that in my own personal relationship with my spouse, wow, once I gave space, I actually got everything I wanted. You know what I mean? But the minute I was demanding it, I wasn't getting it. Why do I think people, know, insight doesn't help? Because I think all we do is stay stuck in our head because we're not practicing change.

speaker-0 (20:16.408)
Love it. What role does rewiring emotional patterns, not just managing the symptoms, play in your work and what might that look like practically?

speaker-1 (20:27.968)
Yeah, so when you start rewiring, what happens is, is you start noticing what at first you think are people changing. Because what's happening is you're changing, right? You're changing how you show up. And so when you do that, all of a sudden it's like, my gosh, my husband, like, he actually told me I look nice. Or my boss seems to be treating me differently. Or I don't feel frustrated at work as much, you know, because people just seem to hear me now. I don't know why.

Because what's happening is, is as we're rewiring and practicing, I call it manifesting change, as we're practicing that, we're actually showing up so much differently. We don't see it, but they see it.

speaker-0 (21:08.462)
So you're getting a different reaction. With your Aurora method, it reminds me of a way to get relational nervous system regulation. Have you thought of it in those terms?

speaker-1 (21:20.846)
I have, but I look at it just more as connection. I'm very practical, but it is nervous system regulation because at the end of the day, I was emotionally dysregulated, you know, and I had to do a lot of work. That's why I said what felt like over 10 years, I had to do a lot of work to get myself to where I am today. And part of it did include recognizing what was happening in my body. And so for me, was, you know, as soon as I was triggered, I'd be like, I couldn't breathe. You know, so I had to pay attention to that.

then I had to learn how to release it. And so for me, why I put the Aurora Method together was that took me so long. And when I saw what was triggered, so for example, I'm afraid I'm gonna lose the business. And all of a sudden I'm gonna lose the business. Here I am, the CEO presented with a big challenge. The ultimate would have just reacted. So was just I'd literally sit, you'd be across the table from me and I'd be quietly saying.

And in my head I'm saying I'm breathing in calm and suddenness, I'm releasing fear all as well. And you don't know I'm doing that, but I'm doing that. It's not that I have to breathe real heavy and hold my breath. I'm just breathing in and breathing in and breathing out and I could be present. So yes, there was a big nervous system component to that.

speaker-0 (22:41.986)
That is just so important. And when you're present, you can start recognizing it more and more.

speaker-1 (22:49.708)
Exactly.

speaker-0 (22:51.4)
Tracy, your thoughts on the importance of a daily practice rather than breakthrough moments. Would you see a difference with that?

speaker-1 (23:00.59)
Absolutely. I'll tell you a story about that. So I had, here I am, I'm recovering from my burnout. They put me on antidepressants and going into therapy. everyone says, Tracy, you're doing great. I learned some mindfulness techniques because after all what they say about burnout is you have to learn how to change your outlook and your mindset. And so I had one friend I was vulnerable with and she actually burned out. She shared some tools with me. and I had breakthroughs and I saw these amazing patterns.

And then what did I do? Like most people, I stopped. She showed me the importance of daily practice and what to do. And it was simple techniques like the one minute reset I just showed what I'd be doing in a meeting. But I just stopped it. Because at the end of the day, what do we think? check. I'm done with that. It's over. I'm fixed. So fast forward, I end up getting fired from my job because I had a new job, actually.

a senior vice president, I'm doing really well, I'm the top salesperson. Although I had healed relationships at home from my burnout, I was so successful, I didn't prioritize work. And when it all started to come back, that's where it showed up the most, because that's where my highest pressure was. And when I was put on a performance improvement plan, and I was given an executive coach, I was like, how dare you? Don't you know who I am? So then what happens? I get fired.

So I start my own business, you know, because I'll show them how they fire me, right? And of course I was successful within my first year, but that's when I really went downshift in terms of abandoning myself. I put that business ahead of everything, myself, even my family for a while. And I was just go, go, go, go, do, do, do. And then I burned out again. And it came back, the same types of feelings where I didn't want to live again. And I mean, it was crazy. And what I realized

My one friend, she showed me all these things. She said, well, what happened? Right? She and I had such great conversations. And I said, what happened? Um, I'm busy. Right. No, what happened? She said, and I had to admit, I stopped putting myself first. stopped my daily practices. And so she said, what are you going to do different? And that's when I really realized at the end of my day, I needed to evaluate it.

speaker-1 (25:25.006)
How did I do with my self-centered thinking and traits and my fear? I asked myself simple questions, put my intentions in for the next day, woke up in the morning. For me, it started with five minutes of meditation and intention. Today, I do 15 to 20, because I love it. I can't live without it. But to give myself, I use the word permission, but to really, to challenge myself to put myself first was what I had to overcome, was that resistance.

and give myself permission to do that in the morning.

speaker-0 (25:55.842)
Wow, there's so much value in all of that. So I would say there's also a commitment with the permission. It's interesting your journey. It's really been a process. And it sounds like there's so many times where you feel like, okay, I've mastered this, but then something else came up. So really this is a lifelong journey.

speaker-1 (26:19.95)
It is. I find that, and I'll give you some examples, you the more I practiced, the better it got and the better I can make big decisions. The biggest one I made was my business. It was a very successful business, but it outgrew my skills. And I did not want to step away. You know, I just thought I'll figure it out. There was a piece of the business I really struggled with, and that was the financial management part. And it was hard for me.

And I took courses and I did everything to be a straight A student with it, but I still couldn't internalize it. So we got to a turning point where the business was like at a tipping point because I couldn't direct enough. I couldn't direct well enough. I finally had to come to terms with like what was holding me back. It was my own fear of letting go. That was it. And so I went on a mission to find a replacement.

I had to step down as CEO because I wanted to exit. I wanted to exit successfully. I wanted the team to sustain. Right. And so again, it was another sacrifice, but it was a different type of sacrifice. had to, you know, basically put that first. But with my practices, it gave me the clarity and the presence to make that decision.

speaker-0 (27:36.512)
So in your practice, what have you seen regarding what do people usually expect from an emotional change to feel like versus what actually it seems to feel like?

speaker-1 (27:50.76)
Usually what I find is whenever I work with someone, there's some struggle in their life. It's either at work where they're completely frustrated with how they're being treated or it's something at home where they're on the verge of divorce or they're just feeling non-supported by their family. So it's one of the three things. And what I find is people just want that to get better. What the Aurora Method Journey does is it takes them on a self-assessment journey where they're really looking at it and looking at

their part in the struggle. And once they see their part in the struggle, that's when they're empowered to change it. Because that's my belief. When you see it, you can name it, you can change it. And then from there, what we do is we really put together a personalized mindfulness practice for them, which is what are they affirming? Because I can give you my affirmations, but they're not going to do anything for you. Right? So it's really what are you releasing and what are you affirming?

And so that's basically what we do. And then from there, it's designing their own mindfulness practice, which for me, it started out with, you know, five minutes in the morning. Some people like to go for a walk. So whatever it is that gives them their quiet time and their stillness time.

speaker-0 (29:02.606)
That makes sense. I'm going to revisit, you've talked about this a little bit throughout the whole conversation, but I think that this particular topic, this piece of it is really important. What does it mean to reclaim that internal authority emotionally, not just intellectually?

speaker-1 (29:21.006)
That reclaim is, at least for me, feeling still on the inside. Before I did the work and when I was in that burnout state, that's why named the book Life Storms, it felt like churn, constant churn. So reclaiming myself was just all about getting still on the inside and getting clear, not only intellectually, but with my heart. It was almost like a heart, or I pointed my head at a heart, a head and a heart sort of connecting and having that clearness and that.

that stillness within to be able to walk through life. I hope that answers the question.

speaker-0 (29:54.584)
think that that does it nicely. And I think as many ways as we can come at that question is it's important because it's accord everything. So you see yourself as an everyday person these days, right? What does it mean to now after everything that you've experienced?

speaker-1 (30:07.182)
I do.

speaker-1 (30:12.322)
being an everyday person. What it means to me now is being a person who's actually able to help others with wisdom and lived experience. That's what it's about for me today, is sharing how my experiences affected me and knowing that change is possible. And when we disrupt it enough, our joy is possible, our peace is possible, our happiness is possible, our life is possible, and even different outcomes are possible.

And that's how I look at everyday, being an everyday, just an everyday woman trying to help another everyday person, because so many people have lost hope, especially when they're stuck in the city. I call it the city of limitation, which is, you know, we're stuck inside and helping people breaks through that city is what gives me joy today. You know, and that's really what it's about is that's my why.

speaker-0 (31:04.888)
That's so beautiful. When you look back at the older versions of yourself, because there was a few of them on that journey, what do you understand now that you couldn't see then?

speaker-1 (31:15.362)
You know, what I couldn't see then was my partner struggle. My favorite thing about what I studied psychology was I learned about Abraham Maslow and he used to talk about his hierarchy of needs and I never understood what he meant. Right. But what he was talking about was any time we have a wound and a need is stunted, we end up looking at life through a straw because we're just focused on what we don't have. And so we live in this place of lack.

We live in a place of discontent, right? And we're just unhappy and we're searching for it, we're searching for it. But if I would have known then that all I had to do is put the straw down and I saw everything that I had, I think I would have handled life a lot differently.

speaker-0 (32:00.27)
Yeah, retrospectively, it always looks a little clearer.

speaker-1 (32:04.822)
Yeah, I was so negative. I mean, it was just, don't have this and I don't have that and poor me, poor me, poor me. I was just always stuck in self-pity, feeling alone because I was, you I had responsibilities for my mom. And a lot of it was one way relationships, right? Because I had to give and give and give. She just didn't have the capacity to give back. wasn't that she didn't want to. When I learned to shift that perspective and I saw my part in that struggle, I realized I wasn't accepting.

I wasn't accepting her limitations. I wanted her to be someone she wasn't able to be. And then once I did, I built a bridge back to that relationship. I was fulfilled even though she couldn't nourish me, but I had other people around me that could. And I finally, when I put the straw down, I saw it and I was like, wow, I just missed all that.

speaker-0 (32:55.138)
That's so beautiful. The work you're doing is just making such a difference for so many people. Tracy, for the people who want to learn more about you and your work, how would they do that and what does it look like?

speaker-1 (33:06.798)
What it looks like is I'm doing a 12 week course. It's called the Aurora Method Academy. I'm taking people through the Aurora Method. And right now I'm actually taking them through for free because I want people to know, like, I mean what I say. I believe in what I do and I want to show people how to change. So they just go to my website, TracyDoyle.life, just go on the Aurora Method Academy, book a one-on-one with me. Because the main thing is even though it's free, I want to make sure it's right. I want people to share with me what

they're expecting to make sure that I can deliver what they need.

speaker-0 (33:39.15)
Gosh, that's so beautiful and generous. Thank you. As we're getting ready to wind down the conversation, I have one last question for you. Sure. If someone listening feels like they're holding it together but empty inside, what you've described, what's the first honest place to start that road to fulfillment?

speaker-1 (33:58.082)
The first honest place to start that road, I'm going to say it again, is give yourself permission to put yourself first. Because sacrifice is not about abandoning yourself and that emptiness is nothing more than something you've created and it's time to, it's just time to rethink the approach and reclaim, know, reclaim your voice and reset your mindset because you'll be so glad that you did.

speaker-0 (34:21.55)
Tracy, thank you for sharing your work and your wisdom so generously. This truly has been such a grounding and meaningful conversation. I know so many people listening are going to recognize themselves in what you shared on many levels and take something real away from it. Tracy, it's been such a pleasure having you here and learning from your work.

speaker-1 (34:42.912)
I can't thank you enough and I, again, if anyone's out there struggling, just know that there is hope and change is possible.

speaker-0 (34:49.942)
Absolutely. And I also want to send a big thank you out to all the listeners who are joining Tracy and I today. Remember, stay curious, be open, and give yourself permission. Until next time. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Wild Soul Gathering's Happy Hour for the Spiritually Curious. To learn more about our guests, please go to our website.

Wild Souls Gathering dot com. We're very eager to hear from our listeners what you thought of the episode, topics you might like us to cover in the future, your thoughts on spirituality, questions you may have. Please feel free to send us an email at Wild Souls Gathering at gmail dot com. This is your host, Dr. Sandra Marie, sending each of you peace and love. Until we meet again, embrace your wild soul.