Peel the Onion Podcast by Olivia Maxwell

Laughter, the Nervous System & Breaking the Stress Loop w/ Bianca Spears #29

What if the way out of burnout wasn't more discipline - but more play? In this episode I sit down with Bianca Spears, a thought leader shaking up the coaching and facilitation world by blending neuroscience, nervous system regulation and a whole lot of laughter into what she calls the NeuroPLAYstic Way. We get right into the onion. Bianca shares the burnout that cracked her open in 2021 - the 2am wake-ups, the can't-switch-off loop, the chronic stress that no amount of "doing it right" could fix. I share my own version from my consulting years: the meditation, the fitness, the clean foundations all in place, and still that inner voice waiting in the chair - you're not enough, do more, prove yourself. Together we explore why high-functioning, Type-A, caretaking people so often burn their wick all the way down, and what actually breaks the pattern when willpower can't. In this conversation:  ✦ Why a dysregulated nervous system keeps you stuck in the same survival loop  ✦ The difference between understanding burnout and actually healing it  ✦ How laughter moves the body out of fight-or-flight and into safety  ✦ Neurons that fire together wire together - and how to rewire them  ✦ A live demo you can feel through the screen This one is for the high-achievers, the carers, the ones who can't seem to stop - and are ready to come home to their bodies and live, not just function. Rooted. Alive. Full out. ✦ | Bianca Spears | Bianca Spears is a thought leader shaking up the coaching and facilitation world in the most playful way possible. She blends coaching, neuroscience, and psychology with a whole lot of laughter in her science-backed method, The NeuroPLAYstic Way. Bianca helps leaders, coaches, and facilitators grow their impact, attract more clients, and create transformational sessions, all while having fun. The NeuroPLAYstic Way Facilitator Training (enrolment closes 6 July) | https://neuroplay-cjhfamvm.manus.space/ [https://neuroplay-cjhfamvm.manus.space/] Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/bianca.spears [https://www.instagram.com/bianca.spears] Website | https://www.biancaspears.com [https://www.biancaspears.com/] Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/bianca.spears [https://www.facebook.com/bianca.spears] YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/biancaspears [https://www.youtube.com/biancaspears] | Olivia Maxwell | Olivia Maxwell is a former psychologist and intuitive guide based on Sydney's Northern Beaches, working with people at the threshold where the old identity no longer fits and something deeper is asking to emerge. Blending psychology with Akashic Records, breathwork and somatic work, she guides high-functioning, soulful people out of the loop and into a life that's rooted, alive, and fully their own.  Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/ [https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/] Website | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/] Book a Private Session Here | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/book-a-session/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/book-a-session/] Learn more about Kangen Water | https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43 [https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43]

The Threshold Nobody Prepares You For - Becoming a Mother, Breaking the Lineage, and Mothering from Wholeness w/ Olivia Maxwell #28

A year ago I held a mothers blessing ceremony in my home. One week later, I gave birth. And what followed was the most profound identity dissolution of my life - one I had no language for, no framework to hold, and no amount of psychology training had prepared me for. In this episode I'm going all the way in on the threshold of motherhood. Not the curated version. The real one - the one that peels you back to who you actually are beneath every role you've played and every version of yourself you've carefully constructed. In this episode we cover: — The identity dissolution that happens when you become a mother, and why it is not a crisis but the most ancient initiation a woman can pass through — Why the lineage patterns you thought you'd healed come flooding back in pregnancy: the people pleasing, the fitting in, the keeping the peace, and why the timing makes complete biological and spiritual sense — What it means to break the cycle: the healing you do now is not just for you, it is for the soul you are bringing in — The real difference between mothering from wound and mothering from wholeness — not as a concept but as a nervous system state you can feel in your body on an ordinary Tuesday — The tension of building a soul-led business while devoting yourself to raising a daughter consciously and presently — and the only compass that has never led me wrong — Who I am, one year on from crossing that threshold. Unrecognisable. And not for a single second sorry for the dissolving that got me here. This one is for the woman about to cross the threshold of birth. For the woman in early postpartum who is mid-dissolving and has no name for it yet. For the woman a year, two years, five years on — who is still becoming. Your dissolving is not an ending. It is the beginning of building yourself from the ground up, with a wisdom, strength and crystal clarity that nothing else could have given you. Let yourself dissolve. She is already there on the other side. | Olivia Maxwell | Olivia Maxwell is a former psychologist, EMDR practitioner, breathwork facilitator and Akashic Records practitioner based on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She works with people at the point where the old identity is no longer sustainable and something deeper is asking to emerge. Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/ [https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/] Website | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/] Meet You Session Booking | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/book-a-session/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/book-a-session/] Learn more about Kangen Water | https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43 [https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43]

The Voice in The Park - What Soul Intelligence Actually Is w/ Olivia Maxwell #27

I was twenty-six years old, sitting in a park in Sydney with my journal, when I first heard my soul voice clearly. Not as a concept. As a felt experience - distinct from my thoughts, my conditioning, my fear. In this episode I unpack what soul intelligence actually is and what it isn't, drawing on my own story of burning out in corporate mental health consultancy, leaving a secure salary, and hearing something land that sounded nothing like fear. This episode explores: * How to recognise your soul voice - and how it differs from your thoughts, your conditioning, and your nervous system's protective responses * What reconnecting to the earth and the feminine actually felt like after years of living in my head - and what changed as a result * What the Akashic Records are, why I resisted them as a psychologist, and what they surfaced that years of therapy never reached * What soul alignment feels like on an ordinary day - not in a meditation, but in your body, in the grocery store, in a conversation This is the part I was most afraid to publicly name. And the part that changed everything. If you've ever felt a knowing that sounded nothing like your thoughts - this one is for you. | Olivia Maxwell | Olivia Maxwell is a former psychologist, EMDR practitioner, breathwork facilitator and Akashic Records practitioner based on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She works with people at the point where the old identity is no longer sustainable and something deeper is asking to emerge. Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/ [https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/] Website | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/] Learn more about Kangen Water | https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43 [https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43] The Opening - Group Body + Breathwork Journey 13th June | https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-opening-a-body-breathwork-journey-tickets-1988664572269?aff=oddtdtcreator [https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-opening-a-body-breathwork-journey-tickets-1988664572269?aff=oddtdtcreator]

The wall you keep hitting - it's not you. It's lineage. w/ Olivia Maxwell #26

If you have done years of personal development and still keep hitting the same wall - this episode is for you. Not because something is wrong with you. Because something was handed to you before you had words for it. In this minisode, I walk through five signs that the loop you keep experiencing is lineage trauma - not personal failure. And beneath each sign, what actually becomes possible when it finally releases from the body. You will hear about: * Why you absorb everyone's emotions and what changes when that wiring finally updates * The nervous system pattern underneath working hard to earn your right to exist * Why knowing the pattern intellectually never stops it - and what does * The grief that feels bigger than your own story * The role you were assigned before you could speak - and how it gets released This is not about understanding your wounds better. It is about feeling what life looks like on the other side of them. Not transcendence. Presence. Your actual life - inhabited fully. | Olivia Maxwell | Olivia Maxwell is a former psychologist, EMDR practitioner, breathwork facilitator and Akashic Records practitioner based on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She works with people at the point where the old identity is no longer sustainable and something deeper is asking to emerge. Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/ [https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/] Website | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/] Learn more about Kangen Water | https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43 [https://consciouswater.org/?a=rdx43]

New beginnings don't start with excitement. They start with grief. Minisode w/ Olivia Maxwell #25

We have been sold a story about new beginnings. That they arrive with clarity, momentum, and a kind of electric aliveness that tells you - yes, this is it. But more often, new beginnings feel like loss first. Because every genuine new beginning requires the ending of something else. A relationship. A career. A version of yourself you have been performing for so long you mistook it for who you actually are. And endings - even the ones we choose, even the ones that are clearly right - involve grief. In this minisode, Olivia explores why grief is not a sign you made the wrong choice but a sign the ending was real. She introduces the rite of passage framework - separation, the in-between, and arrival - and why the in-between is not the obstacle to your new beginning. It is where you are being remade. If you are somewhere between who you were and who you are becoming, and it feels more like grief than excitement - this one is for you. Rooted. Alive. Full out. ✦ | Olivia Maxwell | Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/ [https://www.instagram.com/awakened_mbs/] Website | https://awakenedmbs.com.au/ [https://awakenedmbs.com.au/]