For many moms, that quiet “I’m fine” isn’t actually fine. It’s a nervous system pattern of holding it all together under bracing and control.

When you’re the one holding everything together - the schedules, the emotions, the invisible labor -your body often learns to stay braced. Literally and figuratively holding your breath.

In this episode, we sit down with Tabatha Debruyn to talk about 9D Breath work and somatic breath work and why it’s one of the fastest ways to shift your nervous system state without forcing yourself to think your way out of stress.

We unpack what suppression looks like in high-functioning women:

functional freeze, low-level anxiety, mind fog, and the subtle bracing that earns gold stars but slowly drains your joy.

Tabitha shares her own story through grief, caregiving, panic attacks, and insomnia — and how breath work helped her feel emotions she didn’t even realize she had been holding.

Together, we explore how breath can become a practical daily tool for nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and building more capacity for life’s stressors.

You’ll also hear and try a few simple breathing practices with us — including a down regulation breath that supports rest and digestion, and an activation breath that gently energizes the body while building resilience to stress. Because nervous systems and energy are meant to move and be dynamically alive. Learn how to change your state with breath work, one of the tools and skills always available to us in the middle of conflict, hard moments, and motherhood.

If you’ve ever felt irritated by advice like “just calm down,” this conversation offers something different: real regulation, not playing calm.

We talk about co-regulation with kids, why moms often become the emotional thermostat in the home, and simple practices like humming and singing that stimulate the vagus nerve and help your body shift out of survival mode.

And if breath work has ever felt intimidating, too “woo,” or too time consuming, this episode will leave you with clear language, grounded science, and tools you can use in just a few minutes.

Where to find Tabatha:

Website

Instagram

Free resources & email list

– A 7-minute cinematic introduction to 9D Breathwork

– A 5-minute nervous system reset

– A 7-minute guided morning routine

Book : An Inspired Guide to Living the Life of Your Dreams, is available on Amazon. It offers reflective prompts and practices that support many of the ideas we explored together.

Send us Fan Mail

If you’re ready to stop living on autopilot and start leading your life with deep presence, I’d love to work with you. Book a free interest call here: Click Here

💌 Want more? Follow me on Instagram @themotherhoodmentor for somatic tools, nervous system support, and real-talk on high-functioning burnout, ambition, healing perfectionism, and motherhood. And also pretty epic meme drops.

🎧 Did you love this episode? Be sure to follow and please take a quick moment to leave a review and send this episode to a friend. I'd love to hear from you on how this podcast impacted you, send me a DM or an email.

You don’t usually see a high-functioning woman fall apart in a dramatic way.
It happens quietly. Subtly. Responsibly.

To the point where everything still looks fine… but inside, something feels off.

If you’re still getting everything done but feel numb, foggy, disconnected, or low-key resentful, this isn’t you being ungrateful.
It’s what burnout looks like when your nervous system has been running on pressure for too long.

In this episode, we talk about the hidden signs of high-functioning burnout—the ones that don’t stop your productivity but slowly drain your aliveness. We unpack why “just push through” works so well… until it doesn’t, and how burnout starts leaking into motherhood, relationships, and your sense of self.

We also get into identity fatigue—that quiet thought of “what if I just stopped caring?”—and the reality of perfectionism as both a driver and a weight you can’t sustainably carry.

Then we shift into something most people skip: burnout prevention.
Not waiting until you crash—but learning how to read the early signals.

We talk about:

• why high-functioning coping hides burnout
• subtle signs like numbness, brain fog, and disconnection
• resentment when support feels uneven or one-sided
• how strength becomes rigid (and why flexibility matters more)
• the concept of “prescribed burns” to prevent full collapse
• somatic work, boundaries, and building real capacity
• what it actually looks like to receive support without guilt

I also share a real-time look at my current season of motherhood and homeschooling, and why tightening my boundaries (especially with social media) became necessary when my margin shrank.

If you’ve been holding a lot for a long time… this will feel familiar.

Listen, send it to a friend who carries a lot too, and tell me what hit.

Want to learn and hear more about healing while staying wildly capable as a high functioner? Join the email list here

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Want to work with me? Find out more here

Send us Fan Mail

If you’re ready to stop living on autopilot and start leading your life with deep presence, I’d love to work with you. Book a free interest call here: Click Here

💌 Want more? Follow me on Instagram @themotherhoodmentor for somatic tools, nervous system support, and real-talk on high-functioning burnout, ambition, healing perfectionism, and motherhood. And also pretty epic meme drops.

🎧 Did you love this episode? Be sure to follow and please take a quick moment to leave a review and send this episode to a friend. I'd love to hear from you on how this podcast impacted you, send me a DM or an email.

You’re the strong one. The capable one. The one everyone relies on.

You hold the emotional tone of your home, keep things moving, and rarely drop the ball. But underneath it all? You feel braced, tired, and more alone than you want to admit.

In this episode, we unpack what “high-functioning” actually looks like for moms—and why being the one who holds everything together often means you’re the least supported in the room. Why you can be surrounded by people, but still feel lonely in the day to day of what you hold.

We talk about the nervous system patterns behind hyper-independence, why asking for help can feel harder than doing it all yourself, and how deflecting support quietly blocks the connection you actually want.

Sometimes when you are highly capable, you tend to be seen as not wanting or needing the help and support you crave.

Inside this episode:

• What it really means to be the emotional thermostat in your home
• Why strong women often receive the least support
• How minimizing your needs keeps you disconnected
• Hyper-independence as a safety strategy (not a personality trait)
• What functional fight-or-flight looks like in motherhood + business
• Why your kids’ emotions can hit harder than expected
• How to ask for help without overexplaining (“dead bird theory”)
• Building friendships where you don’t have to be the strong one
• Letting gratitude replace guilt so you can actually receive love

If this hit, send me a screen shot and a dm on IG, I always love hearing from you: https://www.instagram.com/themotherhoodmentor/

If you’re ready for deeper support, this is exactly the work I do with women like you. Click here to apply for 1:1 coaching

Send us Fan Mail

If you’re ready to stop living on autopilot and start leading your life with deep presence, I’d love to work with you. Book a free interest call here: Click Here

💌 Want more? Follow me on Instagram @themotherhoodmentor for somatic tools, nervous system support, and real-talk on high-functioning burnout, ambition, healing perfectionism, and motherhood. And also pretty epic meme drops.

🎧 Did you love this episode? Be sure to follow and please take a quick moment to leave a review and send this episode to a friend. I'd love to hear from you on how this podcast impacted you, send me a DM or an email.