The Overwhelm Cure

Do you ever feel like your life is being run by an invisible rulebook you never agreed to? I should post weekly. I have to work late. I'm supposed to do it this way. In this episode, I'm getting personal — sharing the exact moment I realized that the word "have to" had quietly taken over my work, my schedule, and my sense of self. After three years of recording a podcast every single week (yes, ev...

Be honest — when was the last time someone described you as fun to be around? If that question makes you a little defensive, you're not alone. When we're overwhelmed, exhausted, and running on empty, fun is usually the first thing to go. And when we stop having fun, we stop being fun — for our kids, our partners, our friends, and ourselves. In this episode, I'm asking a question that might sting a...

Most of us want more confidence — but we're not always sure what that actually means. Some of the behaviours we associate with confidence, like arrogance, defensiveness, or endlessly proving ourselves, are actually armor. And armor, no matter how convincing it looks, is not the same as genuine, grounded confidence. In this episode, I'm breaking down what Brené Brown's research calls "grounded conf...

If I ask you what you want, you can probably rattle off a list: more time, less stress, a cleaner house, a vacation. But if I push past that and ask what you really want — the kind of life that actually lights you up — most women go quiet. That pause? It tells me everything. In this episode, I'm asking the question most of us have never taken the time to answer. We've built careers, raised familie...

How do other people do it? It seems like there is a secret to creating lasting change that other people know, but is kept from us.  Unlock the secret of what it really takes to learn something new and create lasting change. Our New Year's–style "all at once" efforts so often fail, and the skills that got us here won't get us to the next level.  Real change is multi-layered, slower than we expect,...

Are You Chronically Numbing? We've all been there: exhausted, stressed out, and reaching for a quick hit of dopamine — whether it's scrolling, eating, or binge-watching Netflix. These are numbing behaviours, and they feel good because they take the edge off our uncomfortable feelings when life gets rough. The truth is, we've been conditioned in modern adulthood to prioritize productivity and succe...

Quiet the Negative Chatter: Stopping the Body Shame and Building Healthy Habits When the weather turns warm and the winter layers come off, the shame around body image can feel overwhelming. I was shocked to read a 2011 Glamour Magazine study that found 97% of women have at least one "I hate my body" moment every single day. That constant, unconscious self-judgement consumes so much brain space an...

Navigating the Return of Your College-Age Kid (Without Losing Your Mind) I was so focused on the heartbreaking transition of my daughter leaving for university that I completely failed to prepare for the shock of her coming back home.  My house had gotten quieter, with less chaos and less mess, and I found it difficult, in an unexpected way, to welcome her back.  When she returned for a couple of...

How to Offer a Meaningful Apology and Repair Trust I recently received some feedback that got me thinking: what happens when we unintentionally hurt someone else's feelings? Our brains often trick us into believing that when someone hurts us, they did it deliberately. But in my experience as a psychologist, friend, and human, most of us will actually try to avoid hurting people at all costs. Even...

Stop Stressing: How to Identify and Manage Your Unconscious Expectations I was thinking about how much of our daily stress is really caused by "stealth expectations"—those unconscious expectations we don't communicate, which often lead to disappointment and conflict.  I love to call them "stealth expectations" because we don't even realize we have them, yet they drive our behaviour. The thing is,...

The Lost Art of Gathering I've been thinking a lot about connection lately—it was actually my New Year's resolution.  As we get older and busier, our friendships can suffer, and many of us are starting to ask, "Where are my people?"  This week's episode was inspired by my decision to throw my husband a surprise 50th birthday party (shhhh, it's next week), and the realization that many of us, mysel...

The 3 Steps to Overcoming Setbacks What do you do when things don't go as planned? This, unfortunately, seems to be our new normal lately. We invest so much time and energy into planning — from our careers to our families to when we'll retire. The things we can't really plan for? The inevitable setbacks, accidents, or illnesses. I used to think resilience was something people either had or didn't,...

The BRAVING Checklist: 7 Research-Backed Ways to Assess Trust Today, we're diving deep into the Dare to Lead skill set of trust. As I talk about in the episode, one of the worst things I could ever hear is, "I don't trust you".  Ouch, that's a gut punch!  It's interesting to consider how few people we truly trust, which often comes from not knowing what actually creates and breaks trust. I get int...

Today, I'm continuing our conversation about what makes us great leaders by diving into the concept of vulnerability. We often think of vulnerability as a weakness, but it's actually a measure of courage and strength.  As a leader, whether at work, with my family, or in my community, I'm required to lean into this discomfort and share vulnerably. But it's important to note that there's a differenc...

In this episode, we're diving back into the Dare to Lead framework, focusing on the crucial step of defining our values. Before taking the Dare to Lead workshop myself, I honestly thought knowing my values was just interesting knowledge, like an Enneagram or a personality test. But I quickly learned how profoundly life-changing it can be. We often walk through life just reacting—getting mad in tra...

In this episode, we're diving into a topic many leaders struggle with … truly knowing if you're doing a good job. We all have blind spots, and what we think a great leader is — someone who has all the answers and never makes mistakes. These are common myths we tell ourselves. The truth is, poor leadership usually happens outside of our awareness. You'll hear how self-awareness is essential for gre...

Life Skills Everyone Thinks They Should Know (But Were Never Taught) In this episode, I dive into the profound impact of the Dare to Lead Certificate Workshop .  Honestly, the title is misleading. After facilitating this workshop for hundreds of people, I get piles of feedback sharing that it was the best training they've ever attended.   I think the workshop should truly be called "life skills ev...

Have you ever felt frustrated because a change in your life is happening more slowly than you think it should?   I've worked with countless women, and have gone through it myself, where we're making progress, but our minds tell us it's not enough or not fast enough.  Then, we wind up frustrated and quit, or we end up in a cycle of overwhelm and burnout. Many of the women I work with even end up ta...

I know how overwhelming and difficult life can seem when we jump back into our routines and schedules after the holidays. We often think of vacations as the only true rest, but what if we could make our everyday lives feel easier?  I believe we are often making our own lives harder than they need to be. In this episode, I share my three-step plan for creating a simpler life. Effectively, it's the...

I'm checking in with you on your New Year's resolutions.  If you're like me, you might have let go of them within a day and a half! This time, my goal is more manageable: to create small, consistent habits.  Did you know that almost half of what we do every day is out of habit? This is good news, because if we can turn the changes we want to make into regular habits we don't need to think about, w...

This is the last Overwhelm Cure podcast episode of 2025, and I certainly feel like we need a reset.  2025 was a year full of highs, but I also felt the stress and the weight of the world.  If you did too, I invite you to close that chapter, take what we learned, and plan for 2026. The Chinese zodiac brings the Year of the Horse, which signifies power, freedom, energy, and success. It encourages bo...

How to Prioritize Health, Declutter Your To-Do List, and Avoid Burnout this Season The busy holiday season is coming up fast. It might already be here for you when you listen to this. This year, I'm doing holidays differently, and I invite you to do the same. I'm challenging you to treat this busy period like the high-performance athlete you are . It's a marathon, not a sprint, and we need a strat...

Finding Empathy and Peace at Holiday Gatherings With the holiday season filled with a stream of office parties, celebrations, and family gatherings, it's inevitable … We're going to run into "that person."  You know who it is.   The person you constantly find yourself judging or complaining about.   These people might even make you think twice about even attending the holiday party, because you'd...

Strategies for an Overwhelm-Free Holiday Are you tired of feeling obligated to do all the domestic duties during the holidays, rushing around while everyone else is making memories?  In this episode, I address the elephant sitting around the Christmas tree. It's this … the common thread of resentment and exhaustion that many women face, despite their best efforts to create a "magical time" for eve...

Living BIG: How Boundaries, Integrity, and Generosity Free You from the Fear of Being Disliked Have you heard of the book, The Courage to Be Disliked, by Japanese authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga? Full disclosure: I haven't read it yet, but I know many people who have and highly recommend it.  The title made me wonder …  How would our lives be different if we were okay with people not liki...