52: Burning Out In Your Business? Here's How To Change That

If your business looks great on paper but you’re secretly fantasising about quitting it all and running away to sit under a tree,  that’s one big way your body is calling for your attention.  Too many women are running businesses that look good on the outside but leave them feeling hollow and numb on the inside.  

In this episode, I make the case for why your business needs to feel good in your body, and how that is different from only doing things when it feels good.  If you’ve been burning out in your business, or if you've feeling disconnected or flat, like you’re ticking boxes in a business that technically works but doesn’t feel (or even sound or look) like you anymore, this one’s for you.

🎧 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why doing only what “feels good” can keep you stuck in sabotage
• How nervous system constriction quietly shapes your choices (and your burnout cycles)
• What it really takes to reconnect to your body’s truth so that you business habits don't burn you out. 
• The two key foundations every sustainable, soul-fed business needs

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• Your sabotage patterns are smart (and could even mask as intuition)
• You can’t mindset your way out of a nervous system that brakes.
• When your inner world matches how you show up in your business, that congruence becomes a superpower. 

📌 Take Action:
➡️ Do the embodiment practice I share towards the end, to reconnect with your body’s wisdom and let me know your experience!

✅Get the FREE Embodied Entrepreneur Masterclass :

https://tertiariegler.com/the-embodied-entrepreneur-free-masterclass/

➡️ Get your Impact & Income Capacity Reset and start tapping into the wisdom of your body and grow your business with more ease, without overriding your nervous system.

https://tertiariegler.com/impact-income-capacity-reset/

🧵Follow me on Threads for embodiment tips to navigate business without pushing past your limits.

https://www.threads.com/@tertia_riegler_embodiment

📩 Got questions? DM me

https://www.instagram.com/tertia_riegler_embodiment/

🎙️ Follow Beyond Burnout for Driven Women so you never miss an episode!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2004120

🎧 Loved this episode? Please leave a rating & review + share it with a friend who needs to hear it.

📌Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute therapy, medical advice or business coaching.

Transcript

Tertia [00:00:00]:
There is a huge difference between building a business that feels good in your body and only doing the things that feel good in your business. And that's what we are going to unpack in today's episode. Welcome to Beyond Burnout for Driven Women. I am Tertia with a very croaky voice today. And this is where we go from burnout to abundance. And and we take your nervous system along for the ride. So if you are doing all of the right things but you are still not feeling the shift or seeing it happen in your life, you are in the right place. Here we explore nervous system work, embodiment and how to be magnetic without going into overdrive or burning yourself out. So I hope that my voice holds through this episode. I've been putting off recording for a few days now, but I really want to share today's episode and I'm feeling much better coming off the back of a very strange springtime cold. And let's see how it goes. I want to state my case for you today, why we should. And I don't want to use the word should, but I'm going to use it with so much love in this context. I think it's so important for every woman who is building her own business to do this from her body, to build a body led business that really feels good in her body. And I'll unpack all of the reasons why I believe this in this episode and also give you some practical tips on how to get started in your own life. And this is going to be so helpful to you. If you are in a season of your life where you are, your business looks good on paper, but inside you're feeling numb, you're feeling dry, you don't feel alive in your own business anymore. You're not enjoying the things that you end up doing every day. And you dread Monday mornings, you've got the Sunday night scaries. And sometimes you wish you could just burn it all down and go and sit under a tree and not worry about anything in life anymore. And let me tell you, it's quite normal if you experience all of these things. And it also doesn't have to be like this. So I think that there's a. It's a bit of a risky topic in that often when we talk about running a business in a way that feels good in your body, it's easy to think that means you only do those things that you like. And of course we know that it's not possible to get anywhere in life if you only do the things that you like if you only do the things that you enjoy or if you only do things when you feel like doing that. All right, we all know that that's not possible, that's not sustainable, and that's not a very good business strategy. It's not a very good life strategy. And I think it's especially important to consider that we have so many sophisticated strategies. I'm using the word strategy A today. It seems we have many, many, many sophisticated strategies that keeps us showing up in the same way. Because that is our, for lack of a different word, that's our comfort zone. It's how we've been wired. It's how we feel safe to show up in because the results are predictable. We protect ourselves in this way, we keep ourselves safe in this way, even if we don't like the results anymore. So there might have been a time in your life when some of these strategies like over giving or avoiding or deflecting might have worked for you. And even if it doesn't work anymore, if that is still your baseline, if that is still the context that your nervous system holds, you're going to keep on deflecting to that. So that's why we can't just do things when we feel the in the mood. We can't just do things when we feel like doing them. Because what if the reason that we don't feel like doing something is not because it's our intuition that's telling us not to do it? It's not because it's a sign of the universe that tells us not to do it, but it's because we have a sophisticated sabotaging strategy running in the background. So most of us, most probably have built our businesses with our mind. Okay? We've used logic, we've used strategy, we've used internal external pressure, we've used all of these shoulds, we've used the systems and the processes that we've been taught. And there is huge value in that because you can't build a solid structure on a shaky foundation. So we needed this logic and this strategy. But if this is the only thing that you are going to rely on and you overriding your body throughout this, there's only one place that you are going to end up in. You're going to end up with results that costs you your energy, it's going to affect your relationships in a not such a good way. And it might even affect your aliveness, your sense of aliveness, your sense of joy, the pleasure that you experience just from being alive in everyday life. The thing is, if your body isn't on board, if you are overriding the signals that your body sends us, your business isn't going to be sustainable. And I know you know this because otherwise you would probably not be listening to this episode. But this is always the challenge, right? We know these things intellectually, but how do you actually apply it in your life? Because quite frankly, there's a lot of misinformation and shallow information available out there. If we are going to just try and dance our way into a fabulous business that sustains us and that leaves us feeling that we are making a contribution into the world, then I suppose we all could have very thriving businesses. So, yeah, I love dancing myself, but dancing and journaling and these kinds of things are little hacks are what I want to call them. In my experience, there are two things that need to be in place for us to be able to build a business that feels good in our bodies. And it's not about dancing to your favorite song every morning or lighting a candle when you go and sit at your desk, or making sure that you have a delicious cup of tea before you sit down and do your books or whatever the latest, the latest list of how to make your business pleasurable kind of tips are. I'm all for these hacks and I believe that when we do them after we've done the deeper work, they have more impact than just doing them without doing the deeper work first. Okay, so what is the deeper work? Two things that need to be in place in order for us to really have a business that feeds our soul and that makes a difference in the world. Number one, it has to be aligned to our truth. So how do we align a business to our truth? By knowing at first what our truth is. And how do we find out what this truth is? By becoming sensitive to our bodies. Our minds are super, super smart, super, super sophisticated. And it can tell us things that we think we should believe. But these things come from our conditioning. This, it comes from the things that we see on social media. It comes from the things that we get told by gurus. And I'm putting this in quotation marks and influences that convince us the only way to win or the only way forward or the only way to do something is by following process X, Y and Z. And what this does is it takes you further away from your own truth. Right. If we are always going to look to the outside to see what they are doing or what advice they are giving, it's easy for us to discount our own truth. So to find our truth, we need to become sensitive to the language of the body. We need to turn our awareness inwards and get to know our inner world. We all have our own constellation of how our emotions, how our thoughts, and even how our patterns express themselves, how they manifest themselves, how they show up. We also have our own constellation of the different events or instances or situations that trigger these patterns. And you can only know that, not by being necessarily mindful and having awareness, by getting to know how this is alive in your body. Otherwise, it stays a cognitive exercise. You can understand what, why you are not able to say no. You can understand why instead of taking the afternoon off like you promised yourself you will, you keep on finding things to do and you're moving that rest moment out. You can understand why you're doing that. But until you get to know the constellation of activation in your body so that you can begin to work with it there, it's going to be most unlikely that you will be able to change or break that pattern. All right, so the first thing that needs to be in place is we need to become sensitive to the body. And this is very, very. I don't want to say it's easy to do, but it's not a difficult thing to do. Although it can be challenging, it's not a complicated thing to do. We do that by learning how to drop from the head and into the body, to drop from the mind and the busyness of the mind into the universe of and knowing and intuitive wisdom that is already available to us if we only slow down enough to listen. All right, so it's not complicated, but it can be challenging, especially because we live in a world that's always demanding our attention to go outwards. And that can so easily, unless we are anchored within ourselves. If we continue to look outside of ourselves for the answers or for direction, it's very easy to feel discouraged or to feel overwhelmed, or to end up pushing yourself harder and pushing yourself beyond your limits. And then you end up burning out, you end up feeling numb, and you end up feeling like a little robot in this business that you've created, not to feel like a robot, but to have a better life, right? So that's the first thing. The second thing that I see that needs to be in place for us to have a business that feels good in our body is that we have to. Have to. I keep on saying have to. It's important for us to clear the constriction that lives in our nervous system. All right, so you'll remember That I said at the beginning, there can be this misconception that this kind of business that feels good to run means that you only do the things when you feel like doing them or if it feels good to do. You don't do the things that you don't enjoy doing or that you don't feel good doing, which, of course, is not sustainable. So the constriction that lives in your nervous system, that comes as a result of maybe past experiences, past belief systems, past conditioning, all of this can begin to build layers in our nervous systems. And if we didn't have a way to process this, to resolve this, or to move it through our systems, these layers can. Can become stuck. They can become almost as hard as cement inside our nervous system. And so the patterns that tell you, oh, I don't. I'm not in the mood for this. I don't really feel like doing this. Potentially, number one, it may be true that you really don't feel like doing it, but number two, it could mean that you don't feel like doing it because you have some frozen tension, some stuckness, some layer that's been solidified in your nervous system that's decreasing your capacity, right? It's causing constriction. And in order for us to be able to hold more ease, to be able to hold more money, to be able to hold more visibility, to be seen, to be heard and to feel safe in that, we need to have the capacity in our nervous systems to handle that. Right? Otherwise, you might find yourself in a situation where you look productive, you look like you're achieving, but internally you numbed out, you. You disconnected. You're just going through the motions. And what kind of a life is that, Right? I know you don't want to live like that. I know you don't want to run your business like that. And they have just started mowing the lawn outside. So I hope that you are not going to hear it on the recording. And if you do, then just visualize the beauty of spring and how the freshly cut lawn might smell. That might bring some ease into your nervous system. So, yeah, the reality is I see too many women who are not feeling alive in their business, businesses who are launching all of these offers because they've been told this is what they should do. So it might sell, but it drains you. We end up doing marketing tactics and showing up in social media in ways that feels performative, where that is not you. You're not showing up as your authentic self, but you're following someone else's Recipe. All right. And in my experience, what I've seen over and over again with my clients in my own life is when we develop that relationship with ourselves, with our internal world, and we create more capacity in our nervous system, which translates into feeling safe, to be ourselves, ourselves. That shifts everything in how you show up in your business and how you run your business. When we allow our body to lead from a healthy place, right? A place where we have the capacity and a place where we are deeply in tune with our own inner truth, we can begin to follow our own natural rhythm, our own natural beat of rest and action and intuition and listening to ourselves when we're feeling hungry or tired or thirsty. Where we follow our cycle, where our nervous systems are healthy and working in the way that it should, working in the way that supports us becoming activated when it's necessary, but also have the skills and we've built the internal capacity that our nervous system can come back to a baseline or a thermostat that is not built on conditioning, but that is built on internal safety and on a knowing of our own worthiness. The thing is, when you are leading your business from your body, you are congruent, right? There's no dissonance in terms of who you are being, being, how you are showing up and how you are running your business. I say time and again how people can experience our energy. And now, in the time of AI, it's even more important than ever that we find our voices, that we anchor our voices, and that we speak from our own deep truth, from our authenticity. There is a lot more noise going out into the world, and I believe that this is a gift, because your clients are discerning and they will find you when you are congruent, when you speak from your deepest truth and when you live your life and you run your business in a way that feels good in your body. So I'm going to leave you with a first action step that you can begin to practice with. Because this is unfortunately, unfortunately like anything to do with the body. There's no quick fixes, right? These are skills for you to be able to get to know your internal world. It's a skill. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. You can't firstly read about riding a bicycle and hope to get it right. You have to get on the bicycle, and then you've got to continue to do it until your body learns the distinction, balance. And it's the same with embodiment work that I do and that I guide my clients through, is you can't read about it or even just listen to this podcast. You have to actually get on the bicycle. You have to get into your body and find that distinction for yourself. So here's a little practice for you, and this is going to help you to develop or to begin to develop that sensitivity. I want you to think of two tasks or processes or two activities, two things in your business. The one is something that you enjoy doing, and the other is something that you really dread doing. You don't like it, it annoys you, there's no pleasure in that for you. And once you have that, start with a task that you don't enjoy doing. And now go ahead, you can close your eyes because this might make it easier for you, or you can lower them to a soft gaze if that feels safer for you to do. And just notice how does this task, when you feel into this task, when you throw. Think about this task, when you center this task in your mind, how does that feel in your body? What is it that you notice? And you don't have to do anything with the information. We are now only developing this awareness to begin to see how my external actions, my experiences, my situations, and the dynamics in the external world world, how this makes themselves known in my body, how this shows up, how this is alive in me. So do that first with a task that you don't enjoy. Simply notice what is alive, what happens, and then you can go ahead and shake that off and then turn your intention, your mind, your awareness to the task that you enjoy. And still with your eyes closed or lower, keeping them lowered in a soft gaze, notice how does this feel in your body? Where do you notice that pleasure, that enjoyment, that maybe sense of ease or relaxedness? However you experience this task that you enjoy, where do you notice that in your body? How does that make itself known in your experience? And once you have a sense of that, you can maybe send a breath into this feeling, experience the sense of aliveness in your body and allow it to take up a little bit more space in your body. And if you've done this practice, I'd love to hear actually your experience of this. If you found that you felt nothing, you felt numb, for example, I want you to know that that is there's nothing wrong with you. This can happen. And this is what we want to break free from. We want to break free from this numbness so that we can have access to our own aliveness. So if you're not feeling anything, if you're just feeling numb, then that's nothing. To be worried about or concerned about. That's information. That's data. That's something that you can now begin to work with. So I hope that you found a nugget of wisdom in this episode that gave you a bit of a different perspective and inspired you to begin building your business in a way that feels good in your body. There is still Time if you are listening to this episode on the day that it gets published, there's still time for you to sign up for my free masterclass expanded that takes you from managing yourself to being yourself so that you can hold more of what you want. It's going to be a masterclass workshop, so I'm not only going to be teaching theory, but it's also going to be a chance for you to ask some questions so that you can take this information and apply it to your own life. I'm all about that. Just holding information in our heads is pretty useless if we don't use it, if we don't apply it into our lives so that it makes a difference. So that's what's going to happen in the masterclass workshop tomorrow where I'm going to guide you into how to step in your fullest self expression so that you stop micromanaging yourself and show up in a way where you are truly seen, where you feel safe to be yourself, and how that can change everything not only in your business, but also in your relationships and actually in your whole life. I'd love to see you there. I'm going to leave the links for that in the show note. Thanks so much for tuning in. As always, I appreciate you and I'll you see speak to you in the next one. Bye.