E010 Let’s Talk Real Resilience: A Nurse’s Story of Overcoming Burnout

If you have ever reached a point where everything felt rock heavy, where your energy was stretched thin or where you no longer recognised yourself, this episode will speak to you deeply.

If you keep thinking ‘why does this feel so hard right now?’ you might just be in a different season. That’s completely normal. This $7 Season Mapping Quiz will help you work out where you are and what to focus on next. 

Let’s Talk Real Resilience: A Nurse’s Story of Overcoming Burnout

In this conversation, you will meet Michelle Gordon, a registered nurse, mum and coach who moved through stage twelve burnout and found her way back to calm, strength and steadier days.

Michelle’s story is grounded, honest and filled with small, human moments that show what resilience looks like in real life. From choosing three real meals a day to lifting weights for calm instead of punishment to claiming fifteen quiet minutes in the morning, her journey reminds us that change happens through small, repeatable choices that match the season you are in.

📋 What we covered:

• Michelle’s journey as a nurse, mum and business owner.
• The spiral into stage twelve burnout and nightly alcohol use.
• The “Mummy, where are you?” moment that changed everything.
• First shifts: three real meals, gentle weights and daily structure.
• How lifting weights created calm instead of punishment.
• Claiming mornings by waking just 15 minutes earlier.
• The role of coaching, support and community in recovery.
• Transitioning from burnout survivor to nurse coach.
• A five-minute grounding practice to reset your nervous system.

 🧰 Strengthen Your Steady Choices
Your journal prompts for Episode 010 to help you notice the small actions that support your resilience.
👉 https://gawellness.myflodesk.com/resilience

🌟 Key takeaways:

• Resilience is built in repeatable choices.
• Calm grows when you slow down and shift how you move.
• Fifteen quiet minutes can steady your whole day.
• Support, coaching and community create momentum.
• Every comeback begins with one decision. 

 🎧 Episodes referenced in this episode: 

• E007 Let’s Talk Habits: Why You Can’t Hustle Your Way to Wellness
• E008 The Myth of Balance: Let’s Talk Seasons
• E009 Let’s Talk Integration: The Secret Ingredient to Real Change

📲 Where to Find Michelle’s Work
If you want to follow Michelle’s story or explore her support for nurses and mums, connect here:

•  Instagram: @michellegordon_coach
•  Facebook: The Healthy Happy Nurse
•  Email: michelle@thehealthyhappynurse.com

Michelle’s journey reminds us that resilience is built one choice at a time and this episode invites you to notice the next small step that could support your own comeback. 

📱 Let’s Connect 

• All links, resources and ways to connect are here https://linktr.ee/GAWellness

🔔 If this episode spoke to you, lovely, please:

• Follow the podcast.
• Leave a quick review (it truly helps!)
• Share with a bestie who’s ready to reclaim wellness on her own terms.

 © 2026 GA Wellness with Georgia Ann® . All content is for educational purposes only and is not medical or psychological advice. 

Transcript

Episode 010 Transcript

E010 Let’s Talk Real Resilience: A Nurse’s Story of Overcoming Burnout

Opening
What if rock bottom wasn't the end of your storey, but the beginning of your comeback? Today you'll meet a woman who went from stage 12 burnout and addiction to thriving and is now showing other nurses and mums how to do the same. Her journey is real, raw and proof that resilience isn't just a buzzword, it's a lifeline.

Podcast Intro
Welcome to the GA Wellness podcast, Small Steps, Lasting Change. I'm your host, Georgia Ann, health coach, solo mum and a woman who's lived through the chaos, the curveballs and the craving for something steadier. After 20 years in the fitness industry and my own journey through grief, motherhood and starting over, I've learned that real wellness isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters. Each week, we cut through the noise and get real with simple, doable tools to help you feel stronger, calmer and more like you. This isn't about perfection, it's about steady soul led progress because you deserve wellness that fits into your full life, not just one version of it. Let's dive in.

Welcome Back and Episode Set-Up

Georgia
Hey, lovely. Welcome back to the GA Wellness Podcast. Today is such a special episode and honestly, one that's going to stay with you for a long time. Have you ever wondered what it really takes to come back from absolute rock bottom? Maybe you've had a season where it felt like everything was on fire and you didn't know if you could find your way back.

Well, grab your beverage and get comfy because today you'll hear from someone who's lived through that exact storm and come back on the other side, stronger, more compassionate and ready to help others do the same. Trust me, you're going to want to hear every bit of her journey.

Quick Check-In

Georgia
But first, a quick check in. Last week, we got real about how change actually happens. We pulled back the curtain on this podcast and I shared the Learn, Try, Become framework, the heartbeat behind everything we do at GA Wellness. We talked about why information alone isn't enough and how integration and real life experimentation make all the difference.

If you missed it, I honestly recommend you go back after this episode. It's the perfect companion and it'll help you see just how powerful it is to break free from overwhelm and step into real change. Michelle's story is the living, breathing proof that the journey isn't linear, but it is possible.

Introducing Michelle

Georgia
Michelle is a registered nurse with over 20 years experience in some of Australia's busiest emergency and critical care units.

She's juggled a demanding career, a new family business and three young kids, all while caring for everyone else around her but there came a point where all became too much. Michelle found herself in the depths of stage 12 burnout and severe health issues, including alcoholism.

In a quiet moment with her kids still asleep, she realised something had to change. With limited access to professional help in regional Australia, Michelle decided to become her own best advocate. She started learning everything she could about physical, mental and emotional health and step by step, she rebuilt her life.

Now Michelle coaches other nurses and busy women to not just survive burnout, but to find their own resilience, balance and joy. I'm so grateful to have Michelle joining us for this conversation.

I know it will land deeply for so many of you, especially if you're in the season of giving to everyone else and maybe feeling like you're running on empty.

Michelle, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your journey so openly and honestly. Let's dive in.

Welcome Michelle

Georgia
Hello, lovely Michelle. It is so amazing to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me. I'm just so excited to have you on the podcast.

So, I wanted to start off with just asking, can you share with us briefly how you first discovered your passion for nursing and for holistic care?

Michelle
Yes. Thank you, Georgia, for having me. I'm really excited to chat with you today. So I've been nursing for 26 or so years this year. Always love helping people. I guess that was kind of an innate part of my being, or, you know, who I became growing up from a young girl. Just loved helping people, loved, you know, making a difference in somebody else's life.

I guess over the last probably six or so years, I've really sort of turned into a more holistic style way of looking after myself after experiencing burnout and that has then sort of flowed on for me to really open up a space to help other nurses in that sort of more holistic, healing kind of modalities.

So, yeah, it's been a journey and here I am out the other side of burnout and helping other nurses, which is beautiful.

What Balance Looks Like Now

Georgia
It really is beautiful and I think your journey is just amazing and we will touch on that later on but before we dive in, I'm really curious to know, so what does a balanced day look like for you compared to where you were at your lowest point?

Michelle
Yeah, so balance to me is really, I guess, encompasses all of my core values now, which in the past didn't. So, balance to me is around health, my health especially, creating time and space for me is really important in the morning. Having freedom.

So having, yeah, the freedom to do what I want, when I want to incorporate my family and have, you know, beautiful family time and moments and to be able to still do nursing and still be a nurse, but on my terms. So, yeah, in the past,
 
 Georgia
I love that. Yeah.

Michelle
Yes and in the past, that wasn't how my life was. My life was very much around helping other people and my life was around nursing and, you know, how hard I could work and, you know, how many shifts I could push through.

That was, I guess, my lowest point because I didn't have my health, I didn't have any time and space for myself, I didn't have any freedom and I certainly wasn't spending time with my family.

Georgia
Yeah, I suppose that's the hardest thing. So, when you do want to find that freedom and then being able to find that now is such a beautiful thing.

The Moment It Stopped Working

Georgia
So going back a little bit, you've spoken quite publicly about the moment you realised alcohol and the burnout that followed just wasn't serving you. So, I'm just wondering, are you able to paint that picture for us in terms of what that looked like for you at that point in time?

Michelle
Yeah, so I, I got to a really low point in my life and career about six years ago where I found myself working really hard, picking up lots of extra shifts and overtime, neglecting my own needs, which I didn't realise I was doing at the time until later on, but neglecting things like eating properly, nourishing my body, resting properly.

I was sort of just what felt like on the hamster wheel of, yeah, constantly busy, constantly working and looking after everybody else but myself and how I started to, I guess, cope with that was, yeah, I felt so wired all of the time. Like I was in that sort of fight and flight mode, you know, go, go, go, come home. I couldn't unwind or relax or even sit still and so I would sort of pour myself a glass of wine.

That'll help me switch off afternoon or evening or while I'm cooking dinner and that very quickly, you know, over a few months became not just a glass of wine, but two glasses of wine, then three, then four and before I knew it, I was drinking, you know, more than a bottle of wine of a night. It was just becoming more and more. Through that time, my mindset, my health, everything started to fall apart for me and not only that, but I, you know, I felt like rubbish and I just felt so broken.

Georgia
So what moment did you think? Nah, that this isn't serving me anymore. I've got to make a change and I've got to. I've got to do something about this.

“Mummy, Where Are You?”

Michelle
Yeah. So what happened? I started to, you know, realise that things weren't great. I started to realise that, you know, I was struggling, like just waking up in the morning, it even felt hard.

I started to resent my family. So, you know, the people that I loved the most, I was resenting them and frustrated with them because, you know, they wanted a part of me, they wanted me to connect with them and they wanted me to hang out with them.

I just didn't have the energy or the brain space or anything to give to anyone because I was so depleted.

There was a couple of moments that led to the point of, okay, I need to do something and one of them was when my little girl, who was two and a half at the time, she came up to me while I was sitting on the couch drinking my wine after a shift.

I was still in my nursing scrubs and she must have been calling out for my attention and I was a million miles away, just disconnected and she came up to me and stood right in front of me and put her hands out, grabbed my face and said, mommy, where are you?

Georgia
Wow.

Michelle
So that was. Yeah, that was a moment where I thought it was like a jolt for me to wake up and realise, you know, the disconnect, the burnout, whatever I was experiencing, I needed it to. I needed to make a change that's quite powerful.

Where She Started

Georgia
It's especially with children because they do have such a huge influence on us and I mean, I think that is just incredible itself.

Did you because being in nursing, you obviously know, like the medical side of things and about nervous system regulation and about finding alternative ways. Is there anything in particular that you started looking at or researching that kind of helped you start navigating where you were from that point?

Michelle
Yeah. So I think that the first thing that I really embarked on was getting healthy again. I'd gained a lot of weight. I was so bloated and inflamed. I had digestive issues. I had, you know, gastritis and all sorts of pain.

My very first thing was I just want to be healthy and I just want to have a fit, strong, healthy body because I was waking up after eight hours sleep, still exhausted and that was the first thing.

So I went down. I worked with a coach and went down sort of this pathway of, you know, getting a gym program written up, eating three meals a day, which I hadn't been doing.

I remember thinking, gosh, this is a lot of food that this lady is getting me to eat. Like, this is just ridiculous and she was like, no, Michelle, this is a normal amount of food that you should be eating.

I wasn't even nourishing my body. I'd run out the door in the morning and have guzzle 2 cups of coffee and get into work in the emergency department and I was on, you know and then if I got a lunch break, I might have a diet shake or an apple or something.

So, like, the state in which my body was in, you know, was not great.

So that was the first thing I started to really look at was my health, you know, nourishing my body, obviously, stopping the alcohol and really, you know, getting my energy back and I would say after, you know, three months, I really started to notice a big difference and see a difference, feel a difference.

By six months, I just had this whole new energy. I looked different and I really felt different and I felt strong enough then to then sort of look at, okay, well, what is my mindset like here? What are my thoughts? You know, I started to really. It opened up, you know, another pathway for me to explore a different level of healing.

The Turning Point Habit

Georgia
Beautiful. What was the one thing that you could say, like, because I can hear that there's a combination. But what was the one thing that was like, yeah, that's what got me to start feeling better?

Michelle
I would say it was actually getting into the gym and doing weightlifting, doing a weight training program, because, yeah, I had.

Georgia
That's music to my ears. 

Michelle
I thought, you like that. Yeah because in the past I'd used exercise as almost a form of punishment. So I was like running and high intensity and this particular coach, she was like, no, no, no, we need to just get you back to walking and I want you to do some gentle weights three times a week.

I had some reluctance about that because I was used to just that high intensity go, go mode and part of this was slowing me down and that was quite, yeah, a mindset shift, a frequency shift, I guess, for me to do.

Once I got into that gym, I started thinking so clearly it was like the weight session, you know, just lifting the dumbbells or whatever she had me doing I started to notice how calm my mind became in that space.

The First Seven-Day Shift

Georgia
So we've spoke about looking after nutrition but was there something that you took for about seven days to say, you know what, I'm going to give this a go, see what works and then I might look at maybe integrating that in a long term way.

Michelle
Yeah. So for me I, I really wanted to, you know, flip this script, I guess of me.

You know, it was coming home. My wind down time was come home, wait till 5 o' clock and pour the wine and then I would stay up really late at night because it was like the only time that I peace and quiet and I really wanted to be a morning person.

I'd done lots of reading about getting up early and starting the day right because I certainly wasn't and one of the things that I started to do was just wind my clock back 15 minutes early because where I live here in Queensland in Australia, the mornings are just so beautiful, you know, like the sun is shining, it's such a great time of day and so they great at that.

Georgia
Yeah, the weather is beautiful in Queensland.

Michelle
It is and I thought, well, I need to make the most of this. My family is still asleep. How can I, you know, give myself some time in the morning rather than staying up late, you know, where I want to pour the wine and drink.

So that became something that I did and it was just 15 minutes each day, you know and then after I'd sort of mastered that and I thought, oh, I'm feeling good in that 15 minutes. I did a meditation and so after about a week or so I increased it to half an hour and I added in like a 20 minute walk in that time and you know, did a 10 minute meditation.

So I started to play around with time and morning routine and you know, giving myself that time and space in the morning which is just now like my non negotiable.

Support and Mentorship

Georgia
So I mean while you were trying this and while you're trying some of these different things, did you have support around you? Family, mentors, community or anyone that offered you a little bit more of that? Motivation.

Michelle
My husband was really supportive. You know, he was just like, whatever you need to do, I want you to heal, I want you to work through this, I want you to do what you need to do. So he was amazing and, you know, the other thing I did was obviously hired a health and fitness coach and then I hired a life coach after that because I realised when I, you know, had really shifted and found strength in who I was, I started to feel really good in myself, that there was some more for me to tap into.

I started working with a life coach and, you know, did some programs and started to explore, you know, what next, what's available for me now.

Georgia
That's amazing.

Non-Negotiables for Nervous System Regulation

Georgia
So, I mean and you're coming into now, so what would you say your routines or rituals that are non negotiables, especially with coming back and regulating your nervous system and avoiding that burnout?

Michelle
Definitely my morning routine is my non negotiable.

So now I usually wake up between say 5 and 5:30 in the morning. I do read a couple of pages of an inspiring book. I love reading all things around, you know, mindset and yeah, just how to become the best version of you. So whatever book I have, I read a few pages in the morning.

I then journal and set intentions. So that is my next thing and I usually journal for, you know, anywhere from, you know, 15 minutes to half an hour and then I do some exercise.

So I do usually either a yoga session or a weight training session at home or I go for a walk. Yeah, so that is my biggest, I guess, non negotiable. Now that, yeah, I love that.

Georgia
Would you say these are seamless part of your day now? A seamless part of your life? Not just your day, but your life?

Michelle
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it sets me up for so much clarity and success and it just sets the tone for my day.

Georgia
That's beautiful.

From Recovery to Leadership

Georgia
So where did you stop seeing yourself as recovering from burnout and start seeing yourself as a resilient, balanced leader coming out from the other side?

Michelle
Yeah. So I think about a year after I had hit burnout and had such a, a real shift in my health and I'd started to, you know, make that change in terms of my own health and energy.

About three months into that process, I started to share on Instagram what I was doing and I had quite a few people reaching out saying, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Thanks for sharing and they were asking lots of questions, just my, you know, followers, a lot of them were friends and colleagues and I started to gain new followers through what I had been sharing and some of my posts and then I started to have probably about that 12 month mark people, nurses especially, reaching out, asking if I could help them.

So that became a bit of a, I guess, a moment where I was like, oh, what does this mean? Should I be doing something with this? Like, is this something that I should step into?

I remember asking my coach at the time, the life coach that I was working with and she said, well, what do you want to do? Like what do you want to do with this new information and these new opportunities that are coming your way? I said, well, I can help them.

So I started to do some free coaching sessions, I guess and I had some beautiful nurses come to me for help that had got great results and from there I was just like, I need to do this, I need to share my knowledge, I need to just, there's so much information that I can give and guidance and empowerment and support for these women. How do I become a coach?

That was where I really turned tuned into actually becoming a coach and starting my own business for real.

Michelle’s Program and Process

Georgia
So, so how do you guide these beautiful nurses that are coming to you asking for help? What, what are the processes that you currently go through?

Michelle
Yeah, so I wrote a 12 week program based on my own healing journey because I really sat with what I had done in my healing process and I realised that not only was it about, you know, nervous system regulation and really, you know, identifying that, burnout. That meant that I was so completely dysregulated, so healing the nervous system, but also really identifying what are the burnout drivers, what was behind my burnout, what were my thoughts, what were my beliefs, what was shaping my behaviour to burnout and constantly be on that hamster will process.

I wrote a program that based off of that, each sort of step that I took and I launched that in 2020 and yet here I am five years later and I still run that program and have the most amazing nurses have come through.

It's really all about a holistic approach to healing from, you know, mindset nervous system to reprogramming the unconscious mind to, you know, general health well being techniques as well.

Yeah, so I love it. It's a community now and it is a real journey. So if people come to me at, you know, like rock bottom like I was and by 12 weeks they're in a completely different energy and a completely different space and it's beautiful.

A Client Story That Still Gives Goosebumps

Georgia
Is there a client story that you can share with us that transformation or that something that still gives you goosebumps?

Michelle
Oh, yeah, one of them actually comes to mind. She's actually just recently launched her own podcast and has become the coach herself, a beautiful nurse by the name of Kobe, who.

She reached out to me probably three years ago now, two to three years ago at rock bottom and she had very, you know, she was using alcohol to escape. She had some thoughts about ending her life. The transformation that, you know, she came into the program at that real depth of burnout. There was lots of other supports that she had in place to. To help her.

Over that 12 weeks, she had made such huge shifts in healing, in regulating her nervous system, in, you know, shifting her mindset, in, you know, really getting in control of her thoughts.

She changed her job into something that was more aligned. So that's what we looked at as well, which was a big part of what was burning her out.

She ended up buying a beautiful farm with her husband. So she had a move, you know, about three months later into something, you know, into a dream property.

Now she's a coach herself, helping other mums and she has a podcast. Yeah, we connect every day. We talk on social media. She's just, you know, followed every step that I, you know, guided her through. She was open to everything that I suggested and that's, you know, where she was able to and what she's been able to achieve.

Georgia
So that all started from you? That's amazing.

Michelle
Oh, I know. It's like. Yeah, I often, like, when I connect with her, when we connect, she's like, I love you and I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, I get so teary listening to. Yeah. Watching her, even on her social media platform. 

Georgia
Yeah, that's gorgeous.

The Lesson Michelle Wishes More People Knew

Georgia
So with your client work, what's something or a lesson that you wish more people knew about?

Michelle
A lesson.

Georgia
Yeah, something that. That you teach in your sessions or in your program that you wish more people knew about or more people would take action with.

Michelle
Yeah. So we are all creators of our life and I think that's been, you know, really helping people. because when we're burnt out, you know and on that hamster wheel especially, we feel like and it can feel like life is happening to us, that we are, you know, just a moving, you know, apart in this movie or this scene or this thing, you know, that we have no control and, you know, we all do have control.

That was one of the most powerful things that I realised was that I was kind of on this, you know, never ending hamster wheel that wasn't going anywhere thinking, why me? Why is this happening to me?

From that space there was no way I could change, you know, if I was playing, you know, in that victim mentality because life is happening to me.

One of the biggest shifts that I made and that I help my clients to make is, no, no, you are in control. Get into the driver's seat and you have to decide that you want to make a change. That's the first step.

You know, decisions are really powerful. You can either decide to stay and keep going as you are or you can decide that you're no longer available for this and that it's time to make a change and from there just take the next step.

A Five Minute Practice to Calm the Nervous System

Georgia
So talking about the next step, is there a simple five minute practise that listeners can maybe try today to calm their nervous system that you recommend?

Michelle
Yeah, I think grounding, like we need to stop the noise.

Like it's really important to, you know, a lot of my clients and past version of me were overthinking constantly in the mind, thinking and trying to outthink every possible scenario and every possible problem that's coming and I guess that's part of the nurse's brain trying to be 10 steps ahead all of the time we've got to get out of that and ground and just be grounded.

A big way to do that is to get out in nature. Just get out in nature and just be present to all of the senses. The smell, what you're seeing, what you can hear, you know, what you can feel.

So, you know, for me, I love to go out into the nature and the bushland up behind my house. If ever I'm feeling overwhelmed or just need some time and space, or I go down to the beach and I jump in the ocean and have an ocean swim.

they're, like just really simple practises that you can do for five minutes to just, you know, get you out of that overthinking, analytical mind and the, you know, it's something that you can do daily.

Where to Find Michelle

Georgia
Michelle, this has been amazing and I know I keep saying the word amazing, but it really has and it's been so insightful and you've literally blown me away today with hearing more about your story and more from where you've come from. You've had a really amazing journey.

So if listeners want to try and find you and connect with you and learn more about you, where can they find you?

Michelle
Yeah, so on Instagram is a great platform where I am a lot and my Instagram handle is Michelle Gordon_coach, or I'm also on Facebook as the healthy, happy nurse. So, yeah, reach out.

Georgia
Beautiful.

Michelle
Yeah.

One Last Encouragement for Burnt Out Mums and Busy Women

Georgia
Finally, what's one last piece of encouragement that you'd give to any busy women or mums who are on the edge of burnout right now?

Michelle
Yeah, one last, I guess, piece of encouragement is it doesn't have to be this way and you know, there's more available for you, so it really just go.

Going back to what I said earlier, to start with a decision, are you willing to continue on and tolerate the status quo or what is happening? Or are you willing to make a change?

You have to ask yourself that question and if you're willing to make a change, then decide to change and literally just think about, well, what's my next step? Who can support me, who can I talk to, what resources can I access? Just do that.

Georgia
Thank you so much, Michelle. I've really enjoyed speaking with you today.

Michelle
Amazing. Thank you for having me.

Georgia’s Closing Reflection
Wow. Did you feel that energy in Michelle's voice? Honestly, I'm just so moved by her honesty and her willingness to share such a raw, real journey. It's the kind of story that truly shows what it means to reclaim your life from burnout and I hope you found it as inspiring as I did.

Lovely, if you're listening right now and feel that you're deep in your own version of burnout, please know you are not alone. There's absolutely no shame in reaching out for support or even just giving yourself permission to pause and care for yourself.

Resilience isn't about falling down, it's about finding the strength to get back up again and again and taking the lessons with you each time.

If you want to connect with Michelle or learn more about her work, you'll find all head links in the show notes.

If you're new to the Learn, Try Become Journey. Don't forget to check out episode nine. It's the perfect foundation for taking those gentle, practical steps, no matter what season you're in.

Thank you, as always, for showing up for yourself and being part of this beautiful community. Next week, we're revisiting something close to my heart, something we touched on back in episode eight, the real world of mum guilt. You don't want to miss it. Thanks, lovely and I'm so glad you're here.

 Outro

Thanks for being here. Lovely. If today's episode gave you a light bulb moment, helped you feel seen or sparked a small step, I'd love to hear about it.

Tag me over on Instagram @gawellness and share you in so I can cheer you on.

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Until next time, take a deep breath and take care of you.

With love,
Georgia Ann

© 2025 GA Wellness with Georgia Ann™.

All content is for educational purposes only and is not medical or psychological advice.