023 What Burnout Taught Me About Pausing & Self-Care

027 A Guided Pause - Selr-Care Practice for Women Solopreneurs, Visionaries, & Dreamers

What happens when a woman solopreneur finally slows down long enough to hear herself clearly? In this special guided episode, Dr. Nic leads listeners through a live Pause Session designed to help overwhelmed, stuck, and creatively blocked women reconnect with themselves, their ideas, and the dreams they may have quietly buried beneath pressure, burnout, and overthinking. This is not a strategy episode. It is an experience. Through grounding exercises, nervous system regulation, reflective journaling prompts, and intentional stillness, listeners are invited to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the ideas and desires they may have stopped giving themselves permission to pursue. This episode explores: * nervous system grounding * creative clarity * reflective journaling * emotional regulation * dream pursuit * pause practices for solopreneurs * wellness-centered entrepreneurship If you’ve been feeling stuck, creatively disconnected, emotionally overwhelmed, or uncertain about your next step, this guided Pause Session is for you. Stay Connected with Dr. Nic through her newsletter, The Pause for Solos. Click HERE [https://nicolepertillar.substack.com/subscribe] to subscribe.

026 The Power of Showing Up Together

Dr. Nic shares business lessons learned from her journey through a 30-day Hot Pilates challenge, emphasizing the power of community, committed decisions, and support in building sustainable habits and businesses. Stay Connect with Dr. Nic: The Pause for Solos Newsletter - https://nicolepertillar.substack.com/subscribe [https://nicolepertillar.substack.com/subscribe] Check Out the Community Dr. Nic Loves: Hot Works Little Rock on HWY 10 - https://www.hotworx.net/studio/littlerock-hwy10?source=DriveSearch&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21987217577&gbraid=0AAAAA-kEjsdJW96mabLUd5VSgZA7UrgAp&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3qLSBhDaARIsAFTiVh71c_FB97IE6dVYJy1gDn55Fbiz9iV1W9UIk-_q2Bxuj29NnLBWEPwaAjlwEALw_wcB [https://www.hotworx.net/studio/littlerock-hwy10?source=DriveSearch&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21987217577&gbraid=0AAAAA-kEjsdJW96mabLUd5VSgZA7UrgAp&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3qLSBhDaARIsAFTiVh71c_FB97IE6dVYJy1gDn55Fbiz9iV1W9UIk-_q2Bxuj29NnLBWEPwaAjlwEALw_wcB] Key topics The importance of community and accountability in achieving goals How committed decisions drive consistency and momentum The role of support systems in mental and physical health Lessons learned from a 30-day Hot Pilates challenge Strategies for building sustainable habits in business and life

025 How to Handle A Business Plateau

In this episode of Holistic Mental Health for Women Solopreneurs, Dr. Nic shares a vulnerable reflection on feeling stuck in her weight loss journey and navigating a frustrating plateau. THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF: You feel stuck in your weight loss journey or wellness routine You are navigating a plateau in your business, creativity, or consistency You are comparing your body, business, pace, or process to others online You feel like what used to work no longer works the same way You are in a season of grief, stress, transition, or midlife change You are trying to rebuild healthy rhythms after disruption You want to stop shaming yourself and start listening with compassion You are a woman solopreneur who wants to build a sustainable business without burning out WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN WHAT USED TO WORK STOPS WORKING? In this vulnerable and reflective episode, Dr. Nic shares honestly about feeling stuck in her weight loss journey, navigating a frustrating plateau, and trying to understand what her body needs in this current season of life. After being away from her normal rhythms for two months, carrying stress, processing grief after the loss of one of her dearest friends, and navigating the realities of age, hormones, and perimenopause, Dr. Nic began to recognize that her plateau was not just a physical issue. It was an invitation to pause. This episode explores the connection between weight loss plateaus, business plateaus, creative blocks, comparison, and the need for recalibration. Dr. Nic invites women solopreneurs to stop shaming themselves when old systems stop working and instead use the pause to reset, reevaluate, and recalibrate their next aligned step. Because sometimes a plateau is not proof that you are failing. Sometimes it is information. IN THIS EPISODE, DR. NIC SHARES: 🔴 Why plateaus can feel so discouraging when you are trying to become a healthier version of yourself 🔴 How stress, grief, disrupted routines, age, hormones, and perimenopause can impact your body and your capacity 🔴 Why comparison with fitness influencers and online business voices can disconnect you from your own wisdom 🔴 How weight loss plateaus and business plateaus often bring up the same emotions: frustration, shame, urgency, and self-doubt 🔴 Why what used to work may not work the same way in a new season 🔴 How to pause before you panic, quit, or copy someone else’s process 🔴 The importance of resetting, reevaluating, and recalibrating your systems 🔴 Why solopreneurs need aligned systems that honor their current capacity, not fantasy versions of their lives 🔴 How to stop interpreting every plateau as failure and start seeing it as information weight loss plateau business plateau women solopreneurs holistic mental health perimenopause and weight loss midlife wellness women over 40 wellness burnout prevention nervous system regulation sustainable business

024 The Nervous System Truths Every Solopreneur Should Know

What if the reason you keep starting, stopping, scrolling, overthinking, or struggling to follow through is not because you lack discipline — but because your nervous system is overwhelmed? In this episode of Holistic Mental Health for Women Solopreneurs, Dr. Nic explores the powerful connection between nervous system regulation, burnout, creativity, decision-making, and sustainable business building. Building a business while emotionally flooded, overwhelmed, grieving, exhausted, or stuck in survival mode is not sustainable. Your body was never designed to carry vision, leadership, creativity, and impact while constantly living in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Dr. Nic shares a vulnerable story from her doctoral journey, reflecting on how emotional overwhelm almost led her to make a panic-based decision to quit. With time, training, and deeper self-awareness, she now understands that what she needed was not more pressure or more discipline — she needed regulation. This episode is an invitation for women solopreneurs to stop judging themselves for what looks like inconsistency and begin noticing what may actually be dysregulation. Because you are not lazy. You are not incapable. You may simply be trying to build from a body that does not yet feel safe. IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT: * Why you cannot sustainably build from dysregulation * How emotional overwhelm impacts creativity, clarity, and follow-through * The difference between laziness and survival mode * How fight, flight, freeze, and fawn show up in business-building * Why your nervous system may interpret burnout, comparison, pressure, and uncertainty as threat * How dysregulation affects decision-making for women solopreneurs * Why regulation is foundational to sustainable impact * How grounding yourself can help your creativity return * The importance of noticing your personal triggers and patterns * Why self-regulation is part of nurturing the wholeness within KEY TAKEAWAY You cannot shift what you have not named. And for many women solopreneurs, what has been labeled as procrastination, inconsistency, lack of discipline, or failure may actually be a dysregulated nervous system trying to protect them. POWERFUL QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE “You cannot sustainably build from dysregulation.” “Your body was never designed to stay in survival mode long-term while simultaneously carrying the weight of vision, leadership, creativity, and impact.” “Regulation is a strength. Regulation is a superpower. It is foundational.” “Your nervous system is not your enemy. It has been trying to protect you.” REFLECTION QUESTIONS Take a few minutes after listening and ask yourself: 1. Where have I been calling myself lazy when I may actually be overwhelmed? 2. What situations tend to push me into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn? 3. How does dysregulation show up in the way I build, create, lead, or make decisions? 4. What helps my body feel safe enough to think clearly again? 5. What would it look like to build from regulation instead of survival? CTA If this episode resonated with you, screenshot it wherever you’re listening and share your biggest takeaway on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, or wherever you hang out most. Tag me or send me a DM. Everyone who shares will be entered into a drawing to receive one of my hand-painted notebooks — because writing, doodling, sketching, and painting can all be powerful practices for regulation. And if you haven’t listened to last week’s episode, What Burnout Taught Me About Self-Care, go back and listen. These two episodes are connected.

023 What Burnout Taught Me About Pausing & Self-Care

🔴 EPISODE SUMMARY What happens when the woman building the dream never stops long enough to care for herself? In this deeply personal episode, Dr. Nic shares why she started pausing, what it cost her when she didn’t, and how the pause became one of the most transformational parts of her wellness and entrepreneurial journey. This is not just a conversation about rest. It’s a conversation about burnout, emotional exhaustion, self-abandonment, survival mode, and the sacred power of slowing down long enough to reconnect with yourself, your purpose, and your vision. If you’re a woman solopreneur, creative, or visionary who has been carrying too much for too long, this episode will invite you to stop, breathe, and reflect on what your spirit, mind, and body may be trying to tell you. 🔑 KEY TAKEAWAY Pausing is not weakness. Sometimes the pause is the very thing that reconnects you to yourself, your clarity, your creativity, and the deeper vision for your life. ---------------------------------------- 🔴 POWER PAUSE REFLECTION When is the last time you truly paused? Not scrolled. Not planned. Not worked ahead. But actually stopped long enough to listen to yourself? ---------------------------------------- 🔴 THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF: * You feel emotionally exhausted * You’ve been functioning in survival mode * You struggle to rest without guilt * You feel disconnected from yourself or your vision * You’ve been building while burned out * You know you need to slow down, but don’t know how 🎧 STAY CONNECTED: NEWSLETTER, THE PAUSE FOR SOLOS ON SUBSTACK [https://substack.com/@nicolepertillar]