Stress has become so normalized that many high achievers no longer recognize it as a problem. Tight chests, racing thoughts, chronic fatigue, brain fog – these symptoms are often dismissed as “just part of success.” But what if the real issue isn’t motivation, discipline, or mindset at all?
In a powerful conversation with TEDx Temecula speaker and nervous system coach Beth Bishop, a different truth emerges: nothing truly changes until the nervous system feels safe.
From Success on Paper to Silent Burnout
Beth’s journey into nervous system work didn’t begin in theory – it began in lived experience.
Like many professionals, she first encountered anxiety early in her career. Sitting in a corporate cubicle in her twenties, she felt trapped, suffocated, and disconnected from freedom. Leaving that role led her into the fitness industry, where movement helped regulate stress – but it wasn’t until she became a business owner that anxiety fully took over.
With the weight of responsibility and significant financial pressure, her nervous system stayed in a constant state of survival. There were days she couldn’t get out of bed. Despite having “everything” externally, she felt exhausted, numb, and overwhelmed internally.
She tried the conventional routes – talk therapy, cognitive strategies, and medication. Some helped temporarily. None addressed the root.
A medical emergency became the breaking point. After collapsing due to a medication issue, Beth realized something critical: doing “all the right things” wasn’t actually helping her body feel safe.
That moment sparked a deeper question – what if the body needs a different kind of support altogether?
Why Cognitive Tools Aren’t Enough During Anxiety
One of the most important insights Beth shares is simple but often overlooked:
You cannot think your way out of anxiety when your nervous system is dysregulated.
When stress or panic hits, the rational brain goes offline. Logic, affirmations, and positive thinking won’t land until the body exits survival mode. This explains why so many high performers feel frustrated when mindset tools don’t work – they’re trying to reason with a nervous system that’s still on high alert.
Real change starts in the body.
Learning from Animals: How Stress Is Meant to Move
Beth’s turning point came from an unexpected teacher – her dog.
After a stressful encounter with another dog, she noticed something fascinating. Her dog froze momentarily, then shook, released the energy, and went right back to calm.
That moment revealed what humans often suppress: stress is designed to move through the body.
Animals naturally discharge stress through movement. Humans, on the other hand, are conditioned to sit still, push through, and “keep it together.” Over time, unprocessed stress accumulates, leading to anxiety, burnout, and emotional shutdown.
The Stop, Drop, and Regulate Method
Beth’s work centers on a practical, body-based framework she teaches clients called Stop, Drop, and Regulate.
- Stop
The first step is awareness. Notice the moment your chest tightens, your shoulders rise, or your stomach knots. Without awareness, patterns repeat automatically. - Drop
Instead of staying in your head, drop into the body. Ask one simple question: What movement or action would feel supportive right now?
That answer might be rocking gently, hugging yourself, shaking your arms, pacing, or even letting out a deep sigh. - Regulate
Allow the movement for a few minutes – not to “fix” the emotion, but to let it move through. Once the nervous system settles, clarity returns naturally.
This isn’t about doing the “right” technique. It’s about trusting the body’s intelligence.
Movement Is Medicine – Especially for High Achievers
One striking reality Beth highlights is this: we move less than ever, yet experience more stress than ever.
Even sitting for extended periods increases cortisol levels. For people who freeze during anxiety – a common trauma response – movement can feel counterintuitive. But it’s often exactly what the nervous system needs.
Movement doesn’t have to be structured or polished. Sometimes it looks like stretching, walking, swinging your arms, or even moving like one of those inflatable tube figures outside car dealerships.
Five minutes of intentional movement can prevent hours – or days – of emotional fallout.
The Hidden Cost of High Achievement
Beth works extensively with leaders, executives, and high performers, and she sees a common pattern.
High achievers are excellent at pushing through discomfort – often at the expense of their health. They’re disciplined, driven, and resilient, but many neglect the most basic nervous system needs: hydration, rest, movement, and emotional check-ins.
Over time, this constant “go mode” leads to exhaustion, disconnection, and eventually burnout.
What’s more, stress itself can become addictive. When the nervous system adapts to a high baseline of stress, calm can feel unsafe. Rest triggers guilt. Slowing down feels wrong.
Two Types of High Achievers
A powerful distinction emerges when looking at why people push so hard.
Some high achievers are mission-driven. They feel energized by purpose and tend to integrate self-care naturally because their work aligns with their values.
Others are stress-driven, often shaped by early experiences that taught them safety comes from pleasing others or achieving more. For them, productivity becomes a survival strategy, not a choice.
These individuals may not even enjoy what they’re doing – but stopping feels threatening.
Rebuilding Body Awareness
For those disconnected from their internal signals, Beth emphasizes starting gently.
Rather than diving into deep emotional work, the first step is rebuilding awareness:
- Pausing regularly to ask, How do I feel right now?
- Noticing where sensations show up in the body
- Incorporating small, consistent movement breaks
- Learning to interpret discomfort as information, not weakness
This process restores interoception – the ability to sense internal states – which is essential for long-term resilience.
What Happens When You Finally Slow Down
When the nervous system begins to regulate, profound shifts occur:
- Emotional reactions soften
- Mental clarity improves
- Decision-making becomes intuitive
- The body communicates needs clearly
Slowing down isn’t laziness – it’s biological repair.
And that inner voice that emerges in calm states? It’s remarkably accurate. When fear quiets and the body feels safe, intuition becomes a reliable guide.
Sustainable Success Starts in the Nervous System
Beth’s story reminds us that resilience isn’t built through force. It’s built through regulation.
High performance doesn’t require constant pressure. In fact, true sustainability comes from learning how to downshift – to listen, move, rest, and respond rather than react.
When the nervous system is supported, everything else follows: focus, creativity, emotional balance, and fulfillment.
And that’s the foundation of success that actually lasts.
FAQs
1. Why doesn’t positive thinking work during anxiety or panic?
When anxiety or panic is active, the nervous system is in survival mode. In this state, the thinking part of the brain goes offline, making logic, affirmations, or “positive thinking” ineffective. Regulating the nervous system first helps the body feel safe again, which allows cognitive tools to actually work.
2. How does movement help regulate the nervous system?
Movement helps release stress energy that gets stored in the body during high-pressure situations. Simple actions like walking, stretching, shaking, or gentle rocking signal safety to the nervous system and lower stress hormones. Even a few minutes of movement can restore emotional balance and mental clarity.
3. Can high achievers prevent burnout without slowing down their success?
Yes. Burnout isn’t caused by ambition – it’s caused by chronic nervous system overload without recovery. High achievers who integrate regular movement, rest, hydration, and emotional check-ins can maintain high performance while protecting their mental and physical well-being.
Want to Learn More from Beth Bishop?
For deeper insights into nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and body-based tools for managing stress and burnout, follow Beth Bishop on her social media channels and stay connected with her latest work.
Links:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoenixeffectbethbishop , https://www.instagram.com/theebethbishop/?hl=en. https://www.beth-bishop.com/ , https://www.facebook.com/BethBishopCoaching/
Continue Your Journey
- 🌿 Rebuild body trust and nervous-system regulation inside my step-by-step program: Deprogram Diet Culture course
- 📘 Go deeper on mindset, cravings, and sustainable health: Deprogram Diet Culture book (paperback, Kindle, and audio) find it via the book page on my site
- 🎧 Listen to the full ANEW Insight episode featuring these practices and Dr. Lavretsky’s research
View here the full podcast Transcript:
Beth Bishop Part ONE
[00:00:00]
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Hello and welcome. I am so thrilled to have fellow TEDx Temecula, speaker, founder of the Phoenix Effect and nervous system coach, Beth Bishop with us today. Beth. Hello, welcome.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Thank you so much for having me.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for being here. I’m so excited to pick your brain because your talk was so inspirational and so relatable and I think everyone can benefit from really understanding their stress response and how they can control it naturally. Um, and you are definitely the person to do this and have the story to match. Before we get started though, I’m gonna read a little bit about Beth, and then I am gonna jump into the questions I have for her.
Beth Bishop is a TEDx Temecula [00:01:00] speaker, founder of the Phoenix Effect, and a nervous system coach who helps high achievers overcome anxiety, panic, and burnout without losing their drive or ambition. After experiencing profound burnout as a business owner, Beth turned her personal healing journey into a professional mission studying neuroscience based stress regulation and mind body approaches to resilience. She now teaches practical methods for calming the nervous system, stopping panic in the moment, and creating sustainable success rooted in emotional wellbeing rather than constant hustle. Oh my gosh. We need to hear about this today, especially. Beth works with individuals, teams, and organizations seeking high performance with balance and mental clarity.
Beth, welcome.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Thank you. Thank you.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: So excited [00:02:00] to talk to you today, especially because in learning more about you as we went through the speaker journey, um, your story is so relatable and it, you know, it’s, it’s especially relatable, uh, coming in and out of Covid, which was a horrible time for everyone, but especially, uh, gym owners in particular. It, gym owners were really struck hard. Uh, during Covid. If, if you could give us a picture of, you know, not even when you had the gym, but even before that, what has your journey been like, uh, you know, with stress and how did you turn the corner?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah, well, I mean, I, I think everyone deals with a, a healthy amount of stress, well, an, an unhealthy amount of stress. I guess what, 83% of Americans have symptoms of chronic stress, so it’s not healthy. So I’m like many of you all, um, I started feeling extremely anxious in [00:03:00] my early twenties. When I was working my first corporate job and I was sitting in my cubicle and my chest was tightening and I was like, oh my gosh, is this gonna be the rest of my life and I’m, am I gonna be stuck behind a desk and a monitor, just like typing all day?
I just felt so suffocated and so not free. Um, so I ended up leaving that job.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Thankfully.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah, thankfully, and going into fitness and as I became a trainer, I learned more about, you know, exercise and regulating my nervous system, but I didn’t really feel the intense stress and anxiety until I became a business owner. And it turns out, you know, when you create a brick and mortar gym, you inherit a little bit of debt, and I had about a quarter of a million dollars of debt and I didn’t know how to handle that. And that’s when my anxiety just came rushing back. It was brutal. There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed.
I couldn’t think clearly. I didn’t [00:04:00] know what I was gonna do with my life. I was just like, this is so awful. My life is so perfect on paper. I have all the things, but I just can’t get out of bed in the morning. I feel so stressed and so just dead inside. So I went to therapy. I tried all the things, cognitive behavioral therapy, lots of talk methods, not a lot of the somatic work. Um, I tried medications, they helped ish, but it didn’t actually help to really, it felt like it was masking it. Right. And then one night I had, I was standing up to just go from the dinner table to go sit down and watch some TV and relax, and I ended up collapsing, and getting a concussion. Because I was on the wrong medicine, because apparently you can’t have a certain type of medicine if your blood pressure’s low.
In that moment, I felt so failed by the system. I had been doing all the things, but I was still on the floor, and so I got fed up with it and I was like, there [00:05:00] has to be another way. This can’t be the only way me venting in my therapy sessions every week and masking with medication.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes. So let’s, uh, you know, and I just wanna piggyback on that. I think this is so relatable and I personally have gone through a journey like that in my twenties as well when I, I used to be in the entertainment industry, and so when I came into that as of my profession, and that was how I was making my money, oh my gosh.
The anxiety and the panic about having to try to, you know, make money from something that’s so, you know, mercurial,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: It was, it was overwhelming. And I went to the doctor because I had had a panic attack and I thought, oh my gosh, am I having a heart attack? Like, what’s going on? And immediately the, the first thing they did was give me medication.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yep.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: And I thought, oh, okay. I guess, you know, and I tried one dose, and I felt like a zombie and, and I was like, oh no, I can’t, this is this. I can’t have this. This makes [00:06:00] me numb and I need my emotions. So it was through a process of just trying to figure it out. I was like, okay, I know that there’s these points that you can like hold and like, well, maybe I’ll get on.
Like, I had to teach myself. I didn’t even have a, a therapist. So I think, you know, a lot of people just kind of stumbled their way through and a lot of things are thrown at them. But what I love about your talk, and this is what we’re going to get into, is that you can’t do anything cognitively for anxiety and panic until you calm your nervous system.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: That’s right.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: And this is the powerful stuff here. And I really firmly believe, and I work with my clients every time that nothing can be resolved without regulating the nervous system. And if we can learn how to tap into that, then everything is possible. So gimme a picture of how [00:07:00] you figured all of that out for yourself.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Well, I, I love how holistic you are, and I think that’s what makes you so special. Right, because it’s easy to go the, the route of what everybody else is doing. But solutions to these issues are, are so multifaceted. It’s not just like, take the medicine, you’re fine. Go on with your merry way. It doesn’t work like that.
We would love it to work like that, but it doesn’t.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: I was out on a walk with my dog, Mara, and another dog that lived in the neighborhood when she was a puppy, she was bit by a pit bull, so she was, she’s very scared of anything that looks like a pit bull, even if it’s a brunch bull dog. She’s afraid trauma response.
Okay.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Aw baby.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:We’re walking. We’re walking and this, this, we walk by this dog and it kind of lunges at her a little bit. And she froze up just so afraid. And then the second that the dog walked away, she shook a little bit and then she is just like, do, do do do, do, do, do. And I was like, oh my gosh.
This is, [00:08:00] this is it. This is it. She’s having a like stress response and she’s moving it out of her body so she can go on with her life. And I
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: realized what I had been doing. I had just been sitting in this stress and not moving and not getting it out of my body. And I realized that animals do this all the time,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: So we’ve been conditioned not to. That was what kind of unlocked the journey into somatic work and deep, deep, deep subconscious work and taking a more holistic approach to mental health.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: I love that it’s through dogs. I have two dogs. I am such a dog lover, and you can learn so much especially about their stress response and relaxation response. I mean, my dog saw a coyote this morning and his response was so interesting to me. ’cause it was just focused attention, you know, and just really checking out and wasn’t scared, but certainly did the shaking thing and then walked off [00:09:00] and was like, you know, everything was fine even though there was a coyote.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Like yawn in the office.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: I know. I know well, we’re not, we’re conditioned not to show these things and we’re conditioned not to do anything in response. So gimme a picture of, you know, your, what you developed into as your method. Like what are some of the somatic, uh, techniques that people can employ to try to reset their nervous system?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Well, I think what I teach is very similar to what you teach. It’s this inner knowing that we all have. So I teach something that’s, that’s called stop, drop, and regulate. So first of all, you, you, you stop what you’re doing when you are having a negative emotion, when you are feeling that pit in your stomach, when your chest tightens up, when your shoulders come up, stop.
You go, okay, I’m not feeling great. Right? That’s step one,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: If you don’t have [00:10:00] awareness of something, if you just go into the trigger. Without that awareness, then you have the same things happen over and over again, and you don’t feel good. So that’s step one. You stop. Next is you drop, you
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: drop into your body and you ask yourself what kind of movement would feel good?
Because you know in the moment, you know, if you are feeling some type of way and you wanna scream and just hit some things,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:What does gonna tell you? If you need to just sit in your chair and hug yourself and rock back and forth and just say, I’m gonna be okay. I’m gonna be okay. Your body knows how to do that too.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Step is just to do it. You regulate, you do that to three to five minutes till the emotion moves through your body, till you get to a point where you can think again.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes. I love that you, I think you are a little bit more unique because you incorporate like full body movements
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144:Rather than, you know, some of the kind of more tried and [00:11:00] true like, you know. Um, mainstream ways to do it. Like, you know, you’re deep breathing or trying to activate your vagus nerve by splashing cold water on your face.
But certainly movement, I don’t think is on people’s radar to do, because a lot of times when they get into a panic mode, they freeze, which is of course a trauma response. So a lot of people’s response to extreme stress is just to be frozen and not move. How do you help people remind themselves that movement is the way?
What is something that they can, you know, go quickly to, to remind themselves about movement?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Well, they just need to know. I think knowing in advance that movement is medicine, right? We move the least as a species that we ever have, and we are the most stressed, anxious, and and unhappy than we that we’ve ever been.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes. Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Right? [00:12:00] Just sitting for an hour will raise your cortisol, your stress hormone by 15%.
That’s crazy.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: That’s crazy. And so it becomes just a, a process of like, okay, stop, drop, regulate maybe, and at for the first couple minutes, you are doing that breathing and you’re just returning to your body. And then you stand up and you take a little walk and you feel better.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: But just knowing that that movement is medicine
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: you have an innate knowing of what is gonna feel good is really powerful. It’s
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: rocket scientist. Rocket scientist. It’s not rocket science, you know?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Like special movement like that you can do. I can just make stuff up
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Tell us some of the things that you’ve made up is, it was so, so, uh, fun to watch in your speech,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Yeah.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Some of the things that you do.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Sometimes, when I get, when I get frustrated, when I just feel like I’m just done with everybody and everything, I will just inhale up [00:13:00] big and I will just exhale and go, ah. I
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Ah, that’s great.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Throw my arms up, swing them down, and just let every kind of like, you know, those, um, inflatable men at the car, car dealerships.
You can do things like that. Yeah.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Oh, I love it.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Instead of going off on one of my employees, I’m gonna do that for five minutes and I’m gonna save myself a lot of drama.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes. Oh my goodness.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Five minutes can save you five hours of drama.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes, I, uh, have been doing, uh, fire survivor relief efforts, uh, for people who were impacted by the fire, and we do them at this place called the Healing Equine Ranch,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Ooh.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144:My partner who owns the ranch talks a lot about stress that she sees through her horses and how the horses tend to regulate tend to regulate
which is really similar to MARs to any, uh, animal, but it’s, this is something that I’ve picked up just from watching the horses, but when they [00:14:00] see something and after the stress passes there.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144:That is super stress relieving. It’s really powerful. So yes, we can start to create and we don’t even have to have somebody’s set movement ideas. You can, all you have to do is just get up and move. And I think one really super simple, easy way to remind yourself is to set a little timer. If you have like a, an Apple watch or whatever, they, they usually remind you time to stand up and then that can be like a regular practice that you employ, so that stress,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Every hour right?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Exactly. Exactly. And I would say too, that there are so many powerful things that you can do somatically, uh, you know, on a longer basis, like progressive muscle relaxation. Meditation is my go-to, and I, [00:15:00] I’m not that person that you, you have to sit rigidly in like lotus position or whatever. I lie down to meditate.
I don’t care if I fall asleep sometimes ’cause then I just need the nap. But meditating in a completely relaxed state is also incredibly stress relieving. So let’s actually talk about, you know, about high achievers in particular. You work with a lot of high, uh, achievers and gimme kind of that general picture, like of the high achiever.
What are their characteristics normally?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: They will push their way through anything at the expense of their health. They are driven, they are determined, and they are ready to grind and go, go, go, go, go.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: And also
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: I.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: will say, know, high achievers. A lot of them, it’s very like shocking. They’re so good at the [00:16:00] things that they do, but when it comes to basic habits that support the nervous system, so many of them do not do that. I just finished up a project, I was working with over a hundred leaders at the SoCal Gas Company. Right. So we’re talking like leadership, like awesome in it to win it. One of the first things that we did is we talked about the, the morning energy vampires that you have that basically suck your joy away and increase your cortisol.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah. And, and for most of us, what do most of us do? In the morning? We turn off our alarms on our phones, and then all of a sudden we’re scrolling.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yep.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: That’s a, like a, a brutal way to start your day because you are like triggering so much and you’re training your brain to seek dopamine for the rest of the day.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: lot A lot of high achievers don’t move in the morning.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Nope.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: A lot of high achievers aren’t drinking water in the morning. There’s, it’s, it’s the basic things that they’ve, they’ve gotten really good at their niche [00:17:00] and they’ve forgotten about the basic things that you do as a human to take care of the only home you live in, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes. So what do you see as a result of that constant go, go, go?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah. They hit a wall and they, a lot of them, they are just kind of living their life for work, for work, for work, for work, and that’s that.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Why do you think that is? I, I always like to delve into the psychology of that, and I have a lot of different theories myself.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: I would love to hear yours. I think that like people who do that, they, it’s, it’s great to be good at the things that you’re really, really good at, and you get that positive reinforcement, so it encourages, it encourages you to do more of that,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: It becomes addictive,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Stress is something that becomes extremely addictive. We have our allostatic load, our baseline of stress.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: And over time when your nervous system doesn’t recover, it gets elevated
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Right?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:The[00:18:00] second you start to go below that stress baseline, that’s super, super high, you’re sitting at home on a Saturday and you’re like, I should be working right now.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: feel safe, nervous system.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: it’s addictive and I
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: we’re really good at it.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: What think?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: I, I think. There. I find that there are kind of two camps in the high achiever camps. I think that there are the ones that are just driven by passion, that are in love with it, and they, they, they don’t even necessarily see it as work.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Right?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Interestingly enough, with that camp, I, I feel like there are fewer incidences of like complete burnout.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144:You, you know. They may go, go, go, go, go. But they tend to also see it as a mission. And if it’s their mission, then they incorporate a lot of self-care practices. They’re doing things that help to [00:19:00] offset that go, go, go. I would say you fall into that camp and so many people that we saw at TEDx Temecula fall into that camp where it’s just a passion and you can see that that mission like lights them up.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yes, for sure.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: And then there’s, there’s another camp. And that’s not to say that they don’t have passion about what they’re doing, but I think that they’re driven actually by a trauma response. Usually you will see people who are super high achievers and they are highly stressed and anxious. They’re usually the people pleasers, right?
So people pleasers fall into fawning as a trauma response, and usually they’ve done that because they’re scanning the room and they’ve grown up with caregivers that have been so demanding and so unpredictable that you just try to predict everything. Like, if I can just make everybody calm down, that would be great.
If I could be this best person that this person wants me [00:20:00] to be. If I can do all of these things and achieve all of these things, then I have safety. And it, you never really fully have safety because you never fully please anybody and you certainly don’t please yourself.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144:Those are the type of people that tend to really burn themselves out.
They don’t necessarily even sometimes love what they’re doing. They’d done it because they were told to do that or that would please their caregivers. So how would you, if you saw somebody in that camp. Not to delve into the psychological aspects of it really, but how would you help them realize what’s happening in their body and how that relates to their high achieving?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Hmm. That’s so great. Yeah, it is a big difference between purpose-driven high achievers and, you know, people who are not fully in alignment with what their like deep inner [00:21:00] knowing their soul wants.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Right.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: So with them, you don’t dive into the deep stuff right away. You just learn how
to start listening to your body.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Some people are so cut off from their stress responses, they just, or, or they just think it’s normal. They’re like, oh yeah, I’m getting old. My body hurts. And um, I’m bloated all the time and I can’t think straight, and that’s just
And I have ADHD, so give me more Adderall,
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: So that there’s a little bit of education that comes there first, and then also we do a lot of awareness work.
So know, just like how you suggested setting those alarms, I suggest setting alarm to do movement and also to check in with yourself and say how am I feeling?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Where do I feel it in my body?
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: creating that interoception is so important.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes,
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: That was the core of my talk and our talks were, they’re similar in a way. My was really about how can we navigate back to [00:22:00] listening to our intuitive and hormonal selves in the era of diet culture, especially with the advent of these weight loss medications. And our method is essentially the same in that if you can, you know, drop into your body by becoming aware of your breathing and by slowing yourself down and trying to get the mind offline and get back into the body and slow down and just listen.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yeah.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Just listen to what your body tells you. We’re so conditioned out of that, not to do that, to just go, go, go, go, go to, you know, push through things to try to hack our bodies to try to like, you know, restrict them into, you know, whatever shape they, we think that they should fit into. But when you actually slow down, your body’s just gonna tell you.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Oh yes.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Tell you exactly what it wants. [00:23:00] It’s gonna say, I need to get up, I need to move, or I need to take a nap. Or, I am hungry, or I’m sad. And when you actually tune in and listen what happens in the body, can you, can you go into a little bit of the science of what happens in the body when you actually do slow down, listen and calm the nervous system.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144:Yeah, you’re, you literally start to call your nervous system. That’s it.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Right?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: You have to have three things to fix any problem. You have to have awareness of the problem, otherwise you’re not gonna fix it. So if you don’t stop and you don’t listen to your body and you don’t know what’s happening and you’re just pushing through things, look, I was guilty of this last week. I was like in the gym and I was getting all mad at myself, and I was like, why am I not doing great today?
Raaahhhhhh..
Rah.
And my physical therapist is, she was like, well, it sounds like your nervous system’s just been kind of taxed. You’ve been working a lot. You’ve been like making a lot of things happen. I’m like, yeah, but I’ve been in my joy.
And she’s like, it doesn’t [00:24:00] matter. Like you’re still tired. Maybe you need to calm down for a few days. And I did.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: There you go.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: So yeah. So you gotta have awareness and then you have to have knowledge to solve a problem, and then you have to actually do the things that
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: provides you and the knowledge that you have does.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Yes, and I would say to people before we end on this half, I can’t even believe we’re already out of time for this half, is that a lot of people don’t trust what that voice says, and I would just like to put out the message that that voice is never wrong. If you are not up here and you’re not thinking about all of the fearful things and all the things that could go wrong, what’s wrong with you, and you’re actually in your body and you’re calm and you’re listening, that voice is never wrong.
And if we could all just trust that, think about how much more we could be, do have.
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Yes.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: When we’re in this nervous system state. So [00:25:00] I’m so grateful there are people out there like you who have realized this, who’ve gone through that struggle and who’ve found ways to do this. And we’re gonna talk more about that in the second half of just, you know, kind of going through, um, how people can, um, you know, reconnect with their bodies, how they, uh, may have misconceptions about stress and all of that.
So, will you come back and join me?
squadcaster-g6ij_1_12-10-2025_110144: Absolutely.
dr–supatra-tovar_3_12-10-2025_110144: Thank you everyone for joining us. Tune in next time for the second half of this incredible interview with TEDx Temecula, speaker, founder of the Phoenix Effect and nervous system coach Beth Bishop.
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