What’s possible with a healed nervous system?
The number one reason I started my own business in 2021 was to control my environment. Still early into my recovery from the breakdown I experienced on the job in 2020, I dreaded the end of work-from-home mandates because working from home provided the stability and predictability I needed to support my healing. Plus, 40-hour weeks were out of the question. So I struck out on my own to claim as much control as possible over my schedule, environment and energy.
I did really well in Year One. But Year Two demanded more of me, and if you’ve followed my writings, you’ve seen firsthand how that journey has progressed. As I tried putting myself out there, I discovered two things, one of which I haven’t talked about much:
- Promoting myself, being visible and closing sales caused me off-the-charts anxiety. “Debilitating” is the word. It was more than rejection sensitivity. It was more than a lack of confidence. It was a full-blown Freeze response to trauma. And I knew I couldn’t force myself past it. I’d need to heal it instead.
- Less obvious was a loss of enthusiasm for the types of services I was offering. As a communications and marketing professional, it is humbling to admit that a lot of the strategies I believed would work didn’t work well at all when it comes to running a solo enterprise. This realization dealt a serious blow to my professional confidence.
You know a lot of the rest of the story. I decided to get clear about who I actually am, and that’s how I ended up with an Autism diagnosis. Hungry to leverage the upsides of my autism and mitigate its downsides, I learned everything I could about nervous system, which quickly grew into a passion.
To that end, I pivoted my business last October, eager to help others the way I was already helping myself. And over the course of the past nine months, I’ve seen the powers of my neuro training work for the clients and friends who’ve trusted me enough to book neuro consults.
But last month, I had to face the honest truth: My neuro business will not be able to sustain my household financially for a very, very long time. As a result, I decided to put my personal nervous system rehabilitation to the ultimate test: Could I tolerate the stress of looking for a job? Interviewing for a job? Going back to work full time?
I honestly didn’t think I could. But then the miracles started rolling in.
- With a healed nervous system, it is suddenly possible for me to reach out and ask for help.
- With a healed nervous system, it is easy to apply for jobs.
- With a healed nervous system, and the experiences I’ve gained as a business owner, job interviews are hardly a blip on my stress radar. (Turns out, job interviews aren’t half as scary as discovery calls!)
- With a healed nervous system, what else is going to be possible?
I came of age during the worst economic recession in three-quarters of a century, so believe me when I say it felt like divine intervention to land interviews on 100% of the jobs for which I applied.
What happened next was equally stunning: I was offered a dream job to return to the political realm. It’s a job I would have loved to pursue before my first marriage led me into a bunch of traumas and dead ends from which I’ve spent the last year recovering. It feels like a second chance to pick up my destiny where I was 12 years ago, before I got so badly off course that it landed me in an emergency mental health clinic on a Wednesday afternoon in 2020.
Thus, my journey has come full circle.
I begin my dream job on July 1, and along with it starts the next phase of my healing.
- How will employment feel on this side of healing?
- How will it feel on this side of running a business, knowing all the struggles, fears and freedoms that come from such an experience?
To be honest, I am so damn excited to find out, I can hardly wait! I’ve been gifted the optimal team with whom to progress to the next level of not just my career, but my personal growth… my Journey.
But what will happen to my business?
It ain’t going away! I’ve switched up my services and am now waitlisting new clients to ease into a different and more sustainable flow. And with ever-growing confidence in the nervous system’s capacity to heal itself, my neuro consults will be more impactful and important than ever.
Likely I won’t be posting as often on my blog or on my social media accounts, but when I do, pay attention because the next phase of my journey is sure to be rich with healing and discovery. We’re about to fully test the powers that come online once you learn to optimize your nervous system on-command.
Want to join the waitlist? Here’s how.
