Why High Achievers Stay in Survival Mode (And How to Reset the Nervous System)

Many successful professionals appear confident, productive, and in control, yet internally they often feel overwhelmed, anxious, or constantly under pressure.

In this episode of the ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar speaks with Certified Wellness and Somatic Practitioner Karen Ann Canham about why high achievers frequently live in chronic stress without realizing it.

Karen shares her personal journey from recovering from anorexia while climbing the corporate ladder to discovering nervous system regulation, the approach that ultimately transformed how she experienced stress and emotional reactivity.

Together, they explore why many ambitious professionals spend most of their lives operating from their heads rather than their bodies. This disconnect can lead to cycles of overworking, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and eventual burnout.

Karen explains how nervous system awareness helps people move out of survival mode and into a more regulated state where they can think clearly, respond calmly, and perform more sustainably.

Want to know more about Karen Ann Canham? Here are her social media links: https://www.karenannwellness.com/, https://www.instagram.com/karenann_wellness/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenannwellness. 

Dr. Tovar and Karen also discuss how childhood attachment patterns can shape perfectionism, people pleasing, and achievement driven behavior. Through somatic awareness and simple grounding practices, people can begin to recognize these patterns and respond to stress in healthier ways.

This conversation offers practical insight into how nervous system regulation can improve emotional resilience, leadership presence, and overall wellbeing.

Learn more about Dr. Supatra Tovar and explore additional resources at
 anew-insight.com

#highachievers #drsupatratovar #drtovar #supatratovar #drt #anewinsight #deprogramdietculture #nutrionalpsychology #karenanncanham #nervoussystemregulation #somatichealing #stressmanagement #emotionalresilience #mentalwellness #anewinsight

Transcript

0:00 dr--supatra-tovar_10_01-14-2026_130718: 0:01

Okay, wonderful. So I'm gonna read a little bit about Karen, is we're gonna talk all things nervous system. You guys know we love talking about all things nervous system. So she's gonna help give us a few tips on how to improve our connection with that. Karen Ann Canham is a board certified wellness practitioner, nervous system mastery coach and somatic practitioner who specializes in helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and high achieving individuals move out of chronic stress and into such. Sustainable resilience. With nearly two decades of experience spanning corporate leadership and trauma-informed wellness, Karen brings a deeply grounded real world approach to nervous system regulation and embodied awareness. Her work integrates neuroscience, informed somatic practices, parts work and nervous system education to help clients shift from survival based reactivity into regulated presence. By teaching people how to listen to and work with their bodies, Karen supports clearer thinking, stronger leadership presence, emotional resilience, and long-term wellbeing. She is the author of From Reactivity to Resilience, a practical guide that outlines her framework for creating lasting personal and professional transformation by strengthening nervous system capacity and somatic awareness. Karen, welcome. Okay, wonderful. So I'm gonna read a little bit about Karen, is we're gonna talk all things nervous system. You guys know we love talking about all things nervous system. So she's gonna help give us a few tips on how to improve our connection with that. Karen Ann Canham is a board certified wellness practitioner, nervous system mastery coach and somatic practitioner who specializes in helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and high achieving individuals move out of chronic stress and into such. Sustainable resilience. With nearly two decades of experience spanning corporate leadership and trauma-informed wellness, Karen brings a deeply grounded real world approach to nervous system regulation and embodied awareness. Her work integrates neuroscience, informed somatic practices, parts work and nervous system education to help clients shift from survival based reactivity into regulated presence. By teaching people how to listen to and work with their bodies, Karen supports clearer thinking, stronger leadership presence, emotional resilience, and long-term wellbeing. She is the author of From Reactivity to Resilience, a practical guide that outlines her framework for creating lasting personal and professional transformation by strengthening nervous system capacity and somatic awareness. Karen, welcome. The, the other people that were in the treatment center with me as patients, right? Were like, um, everything you did so great and the thing that's still gonna hinder you is that you allow people to affect you too much. And it was true. And it, um, you know, it wasn't to the point where it was ruining my life, per se. Changed everything for me. That was a thing that finally got me over that hump and then like it wasn't, I wasn't so affected by what was going on around me. And so my journey in this wellness world was one that was, I was doing it on the side as I was climbing this corporate career, and it started more of a nutritional aspect of food and why, you know, how you can eat mindfully and why it's so important of what you're putting in your body based off of my whole eating experience, right? Um, in movement and things like that. Um, which is all important and I still incorporate that. I am certified in functional medicine as well, but. And you know, this, this, almost like childlike, I would explain it of going back to how we felt before all these, whatever stressors happened in our life. Um, so that's what really led me to this work and um, it really takes a specific type of person to wanna be able to do this work. And I do find that most people that I come in contact with are a little bit leery of what this work is and you know, what's gonna open for them. Yes. Oh, I love how you describe it as returning to a childlike energy. This is actually something I just delivered a TEDx talk exactly about that. Especially in the age of what we're seeing going on with weight loss medications. I'm really glad to hear of your recovery. And I do think that who struggle with eating disorders, but really in general struggle with their nervous system and I like to help help people understand that it's really about, um, a lot of their attachments from their childhood and how they have learned how to navigate the world based on that. I think when we look at it from an attachment based lens, we can see that a lot of people, they'll develop, you know, anxious or avoidant or disorganized attachment styles. But all of that means is that your, you and your body are not feeling safe. And what kinds of coping mechanisms do we develop through our lifespan to navigate this unsafe feeling? And working through the nervous system actually helps to achieve safety in the body. And that's usually what we felt when we were little kids and we were tuned in and tapped into our nervous system, but also. Kind of the greater kind of world and consciousness and nature and everything. When we are calm and when we're calm, we can do pretty much anything. And I love that how you, how you found your way back to your calm, nervous system after all of those series of stressors. listeners who are new to this, how do you explain nervous system regulation and somatic awareness in a way that feels practical and approachable?

karen-_1_01-14-2026_160718: 0:08

Yeah, I, I really loved how you just explained that. I explain it in a way of, um, most of us have not been aware of our bodies for a long time, and to be able to get into our bodies can be challenging. And that really is the beginning of the work. And I do use language that it sounds really silly for us to be able to say, like, just take 10 seconds of like feeling your desk. And they're there for a reason. And then, you know, we wanna start to uncover are they still working for us? Are they hindering us from where we wanna be? Um, what are they doing for us? Where do they show up in our body? What are the sensations, um, related to that? Because if I, I know what those sensations are, I know that, that I can quicker evaluate when that part's showing up, and then I can decide, is this part getting in the way of my present moment?

dr--supatra-tovar_10_01-14-2026_130718: 0:10

I love that so much. I do think that true change in terms of the way that we think or the way that we're reacting to the world or whatever we've, gotten from our childhood or whatever part is showing up, we can't really change that just cognitively. We need to create safety in the body first and then be able to explore or not these parts or our ways of dealing with things or whatever, you know, we have gotten from our attachment styles are actually working for us. And I love that you take people on a mindfulness journey. I love exercises like that, like, um, you know, naming five things that you can see. Four things. You can hear the the 4, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 grounding technique. I love helping people get into that mindfulness state because it really is that beautiful connected flow state, and when they're in that state, they're able to really objectively look at the ways that they've been with and dealing with things, and then be able to change them from that calm nervous system state. So really good work that you're doing out there. Let's talk about high achieving individuals. You know, they're usually up there in their heads. They're cognitively driven, strategy driven. How does developing some body-based awareness change how they perform under pressure? What is the value of learning how to regulate the body.

karen-_1_01-14-2026_160718: 0:12

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people that I work with are high achieving. I mean, these are people that come to me and and do this type of work are very aware. They're very insightful. They're in their heads. And, um, my, my work and what my job is to, is to get them into their body, which usually is extremely difficult in the beginning. And so they're in this place of really, um, this, more of this hyperactive type of state, um, very busy feeling, can be anxious, and then they're in the state of just like depletion. Collapsed shut down. Um, and they're, they're going back and forth between that. And so part of the work that I do is educating them on what's happening, happening physiologically, and that that helps them, right? So that usually helps them. And of course there's more science that goes into that, letting them know like our body's communicating 80% up to the brain. And 20% down. So if we're only working on that brain, um, there's, there's miscommunication going on, right? And so, um, that helps them then to understand. And then the titration piece of the work that we do of like slowly getting them into the body, they see the effects. Is it beating fast? Is it beating slow? Do you feel fluttering? Um, you know, we can go through a lot of different things, but to be able to sit there and feel. Feel into these sensations, feel what emotions may be coming up is extremely uncomfortable. And as a practitioner, which, you know, we have to be careful to, you know, titrate them in so it's not too much on their system at once.

dr--supatra-tovar_10_01-14-2026_130718: 0:16

Yes, totally. I am curious in terms of what you have observed as the reasons why people might become high achievers or that are very, very success driven, what are you seeing in your clients? And, and I'll just give a little peek into mine. I think it ranges. There's a whole gamut of reasons why people might be highly driven from. You know, coming from people pleasing backgrounds and feeling like they have to be perfect, to, you know, coming from really punitive backgrounds where either you go all the way or you're in trouble, um, to some that are, you know, just, just really just about, you know, success driven, not really a lot of like trauma informed reasons for them to become super high achievers. They're rewarded, you know, they're praised by things that they do achieve. So it could be none of those things, and it could just be like when they get good grades or you know, when they won their sports game, then they're like, praise for that. So. Those types of things are what I see. It varies in the severity of like what people went through and you know, we can talk about trauma and how that shows up differently for everybody and there's so many factors that go involved, but it's, it's, yeah, all those things that you said, those, if we're perfectionistic, we're usually high achieving as well. Yes. And I do think, you know, that's probably the most common presentation that I see in women is, you know, uh, the perfectionism that comes from people pleasing. And I think, you know, if we do look at it from an attachment lens or even a parts lens, the reasons why we do that is to achieve safety. If I can make everyone around me happy, if I can do everything perfectly, then I will have a safe environment. And I think it's so important for people, if you're out there listening and, oh my God, that's me. Holy cow, that, you know, achievements, they're wonderful. There's nothing wrong with, uh, you know., wanting to be a high achiever, but if it is costing you, in your body, in your nervous system, there is a way through that. Does this work for me? Um, turning the focus from the external validation into the internal validation, and that also comes from somatic awareness. So I, I love that we are seeing eye to eye on that as well. Let's talk a little bit about your book from Reactivity to Resilience. You talk about moving out of survival mode, and this is kind of what we've been talking about is, you know, coming from a survival mode, uh, standpoint, uh, what does that shift look like in everyday life and in leadership? So this is interesting. Um. What I was doing at that time was more of a management type of thing. You know, I was meditating, I was doing mindfulness, and none of these things are wrong. They're great, they're great tools, um, and everybody's different. What's gonna work for them, right? But the nervous system work is something that, um, changes your way of being. And so this book that I wrote really was based off of a lot of struggles that I was having in my career. I mean, I was in a male dominated industry and there was a lot of things that were really hard for me to, um, deal with and I really didn't know how to deal with them. And. You know, obviously it's never appropriate to react in the workplace. It was just staying in my system and I was like trying to manage this and keep, like, pushing forward and ultimately kind of ignoring it. Um. So I guess that book kind of really came to be about, there's all these modalities that you can use as far as things that I had just mentioned. But, um, I, I'll be honest and say like if I went back and rewrote that book, which I am writing a different book right now, that it would be very different. I don't wanna feel like I'm pushing and striving and all these things that are out there that I'm supposed to be doing to be well, um, which are helpful and did help me. But it was, it just, it started to feel like it just wasn't right. Yeah, I, I think. There are a lot there. There's so many tools out there. There's so many things. There is meditation, there's affirmations, there's mantra work there, there's yoga. There, there, there are so many ways that we can reduce our stress and that is all valuable. Pilates, that's my go-to. You know, I love getting into my body and, and releasing tension through movement. However, if you are doing that and your nervous system is not regulated. It does not help you as much as if you really learn how to regulate the nervous system. To give people kind of a picture to how to get to that childlike state, you know what we talked about these grounding exercises, but you can do that so simply through your breath. If your exhale is longer than your inhale and you're doing this for even like two minutes, and you just focus on counting out your breath. You'll start to feel just this kind of light ease in your body. She's talking about that childlike state. That's when we kind of, you know, do this on a more regular basis for a longer period of time. What tends to happen for people is the sense of wonder returns. That sense, like when you would go out into nature and you're like, wow. That can be achieved on a regular basis, you guys, and that can enhance any other stress management tool that you are working with. So we're gonna get into that a little bit more, maybe with some specific exercises that we can do in the second half of this podcast. Out of time for this first one. But I think we've gotten so much great information about how to really kind of learn how to tap into our nervous system and achieve that sense of wellbeing and peace. So thank you Karen for coming for this first half, and I know you're gonna join me for this second half and I really hope everyone else joins us as well. Yeah, I, I think. There are a lot there. There's so many tools out there. There's so many things. There is meditation, there's affirmations, there's mantra work there, there's yoga. There, there, there are so many ways that we can reduce our stress and that is all valuable. Pilates, that's my go-to. You know, I love getting into my body and, and releasing tension through movement. However, if you are doing that and your nervous system is not regulated. It does not help you as much as if you really learn how to regulate the nervous system. To give people kind of a picture to how to get to that childlike state, you know what we talked about these grounding exercises, but you can do that so simply through your breath. If your exhale is longer than your inhale and you're doing this for even like two minutes, and you just focus on counting out your breath. You'll start to feel just this kind of light ease in your body. She's talking about that childlike state. That's when we kind of, you know, do this on a more regular basis for a longer period of time. What tends to happen for people is the sense of wonder returns. That sense, like when you would go out into nature and you're like, wow. That can be achieved on a regular basis, you guys, and that can enhance any other stress management tool that you are working with. So we're gonna get into that a little bit more, maybe with some specific exercises that we can do in the second half of this podcast. Out of time for this first one. But I think we've gotten so much great information about how to really kind of learn how to tap into our nervous system and achieve that sense of wellbeing and peace. So thank you Karen for coming for this first half, and I know you're gonna join me for this second half and I really hope everyone else joins us as well.