The pressure to keep performing can make you forget who you are. In this episode, Renee Coover joins The Raw Onion to talk about what happens when career success, motherhood, and self-worth collide, and what it looks like to choose yourself before your body forces the issue.

Renee shares her journey from high-stakes legal work to a more aligned life, including the moment she realized that burnout was not just emotional, it was physical. We talk about career transitions, the illusion of safety, self-advocacy, and the courage it takes to rebuild after everything you thought defined you starts to fall away.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever questioned whether the path they are on still fits. If you have been pushing through exhaustion, doubting your next step, or wondering how to trust your inner voice again, Renee’s story offers both honesty and hope.

We get into:

• Career transitions and self-identity.
• Overcoming fear and self-doubt.
• The importance of self-advocacy and boundaries.
• Building confidence and resilience.
• The role of support systems and community.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why burnout can show up in the body before it shows up in your decisions.
• How to tell when success no longer feels sustainable.
• Why a “power pause” can become a turning point.
• How yoga and meditation helped Renee reconnect with herself.
• What it means to bet on yourself and build something new.

🎙️ Guest: Renee Coover is the founder of Engage Law, a fractional outside general counsel who helps growing businesses navigate employment, regulatory, and operational matters with clarity and practical guidance.

⏱️ Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 05:13 Renee's Story: From Big Law to Yoga Instructor
• 11:07 Listening to the Body and Making Decisions
• 19:52 Recognizing Opportunities in Life's Moments
• 25:06 Embracing Change and Taking Risks
• 37:20 Overcoming Fear of Risk and Embracing Change
• 47:22 Armoring Up for Yourself
• 55:28 Advocating for Yourself in the Workplace
• 01:05:52 Finding Your True Identity

🔗 Connect with Renee:

LinkedIn: Renee Coover

YouTube: Engage Law

TED Talk: Taking Back Your Pregnancy Rights

Website: EngageLaw

🔗 Connect with Stephanie:

Website: Triage Coaching and Consulting

Free fit call: https://tidycal.com/sohannesian

🔗 Connect with Yoshie:

Website: Lotus Flower Journeys

Free clarity call

🔗 The Raw Onion:

Website: The Raw Onion

Email: hello@therawonionpodcast.com

#WomenInBusiness #PowerPause #CareerGrowth

If you have ever felt like your body gave out before your mind was ready to stop, you are not alone in that experience.

And you are not broken.

What happened, neurologically and physiologically, has a reason. This episode is where we start to look at it.

We closed out the Roadmap to Resilience series with something different this episode. Stephanie brought her own story to the table, and what she’s spent the last decade trying to understand about what actually broke down, and why.

What we explored together:

Resilience is neurological, not just psychological. Culture tells us resilience means endurance, suppression, grinding through. Neuroscience tells us something completely different. It is recovery capacity. Flexibility. The ability of your nervous system to find its way back to safety after stress. Those are not the same thing.

Your body has been scanning for safety your entire life. There is a process happening beneath your awareness, constantly assessing your environment, your relationships, your inner state. When that process has been overridden by years of hustle, inherited messaging, or survival wiring passed down through your family, you lose access to your own signals. You stop trusting what your body is telling you. And that is when collapse becomes possible.

What you inherited may not belong to you. The hypervigilance. The head-down, don’t rock the boat, keep working until someone notices. The inability to rest without guilt. For many of us, those were not choices we made. They were patterns absorbed from the people who came before us, people who needed those patterns to survive. The question is whether those same patterns are serving you now, or quietly running the show without your knowing.

Identity and resilience are not separate conversations. If you don’t know what belongs to you, if your values have been borrowed from a workplace or a family system or a culture that taught you to earn your worth, your system has nothing stable to return to. Resilience requires somewhere to land.

Curiosity is where it starts to shift. Not a program. Not a fix. Just the willingness to ask: what is this trying to tell me? What engine am I actually running on, and is it mine?

We are not here to tell you what is wrong with you.

We are here because what is happening in your body, your brain, your burnout, your exhaustion, your sense that something is off even when nothing looks broken from the outside, has a reason. And that reason is rewritable.

We will be back next week in a new format. Video is coming, and we are stepping into a new series exploring women in business.

Until then, you are more resilient than you think.

If something in this episode is still sitting with you:

Wondering if what you’re carrying might be inherited, not yours? Stephanie works with high-performers ready to remap what’s been running them.

Book with Stephanie

Feeling like you're at a crossroads and not sure which layer to look at first? Yoshie works with people who are ready to get curious about what's underneath.

Book with Yoshie

If you’re part of the sandwich generation, caring for aging parents while raising kids and managing a career, the holidays can feel less like a celebration and more like overload.

Welcome to Episode 2 of The Raw Onion, where we unpack what’s happening in your brain and theirs when holiday expectations collide with caregiving burnout.

You’re Not Alone

Up to 25% of Americans are in the sandwich generation. The holidays pile emotional and sensory stress on top of chronic caregiving. When you’re already depleted, the pressure to create a perfect moment can push you over the edge.

You’re not failing. You’re overloaded.

The Aging Brain

The aging brain has reduced dopamine and serotonin, and less cognitive flexibility. That means:

• Less emotional resilience
• More irritability
• Harder time adapting

They are not being difficult. They are less able to pivot.

Their amygdala activates more easily, while the prefrontal cortex struggles to regulate. Even positive moments can feel overwhelming.

The Nostalgia Trap

Older adults do not just recall memories. They relive them.

When memory centers activate, they may lose context. A holiday memory can bring connection or unprocessed grief. Often, they cannot tell which is coming.

Nostalgia is not neutral.

What’s Happening in Your Brain

While their brain is rigid, yours is flooded with cortisol.

Chronic stress leads to:

• Shorter patience
• Lower empathy
• Emotional exhaustion

Then comes the guilt cycle. You snap, feel bad, shut down, and think you’re failing.

You are not failing. Your nervous system is responding to prolonged stress.

The Mismatch

Two overwhelmed nervous systems trying to create a meaningful holiday moment. You both want safety, but in different ways.

That is biology, not failure.

How to Help

• Reset breath

Take two short inhales through your nose and one long exhale. This calms your nervous system and helps you regain clarity.

• Name your brain

Pause and say, “I’m overwhelmed. What do I need?” This creates space and reduces reactivity.

• Accept, do not solve

Acceptance lowers stress faster than problem solving. Acknowledge the overload instead of fighting it.

• Redefine success

Success is not a perfect holiday. It is moments of safety and presence.

Your Invitation

Lower expectations. Focus on small moments instead of perfect gatherings. Rest without guilt.

Before stepping into any interaction:

• Take a breath
• Name what you feel
• Accept the overload
• Lower expectations
• Choose rest when needed

You are not here to fix everything. You are creating small pockets of safety and connection.

That is enough.

Are you navigating the holidays with aging loved ones? We would love to hear your experience. Share in the comments or reach out.

Stephanie specializes in inherited generational stress and how family patterns shape our nervous systems across generations.