From Burnout to Breakthrough: Why I Created Exhale Retreat

What I discovered when I finally addressed my exhaustion—and why it transformed my business

You're scrolling through client messages while your coffee goes cold.

Your team needs an urgent decision, but you're already in back-to-back meetings until 6pm. You agreed to review that proposal tonight because saying no feels impossible, and now you're staring at your laptop screen feeling the weight to exhaustion and wondering when it’ll let up.

You've cancelled lunch with friends again because work is too busy. You snap at your kids over something small because your patience is paper-thin. You lie awake at night mentally preparing for tomorrow's presentation, even though you know that you’ll be wading through the brain fog, because you never really switched off.

If this sounds all too familiar, I want you to know: it’s not that you’re broken, or that you “haven’t got what it takes”.  

You're exhausted. And I know, because I've been exactly where you are.

When Success Comes at a Cost

Two years ago, on the outside it looked like I had it all figured out. Award-winning entrepreneur. Successful business. Beautiful family and a new baby.

But inside, I was drowning.

The warning signs had been there for months: severe stomach pains, bone-aching exhaustion, brain fog so thick I couldn't think clearly, and emotional overwhelm where everything made me cry. I did what every high-achieving woman does, at first, I ignored it! Then, I went to multiple doctors, had tests, got told "there's nothing wrong with you."

But my body was screaming at me.

Finally, I found practitioners who understood what was really happening. The lab tests revealed stage 2-3 adrenal fatigue (I shouldn't have been able to get out of bed), SIBO, compromised liver function, and completely depleted neurotransmitters [dopamine, serotonine]. Years of chronic stress and one strong round of antibiotics had destroyed my gut health.

Here's what I know about ambitious women: we're incredibly good at holding space for everyone else—our teams, our clients, our families—but we're terrible at holding space for ourselves. We've been conditioned to believe that our worth comes from our output. That significance equals suffering.

And my deepest core belief? That I was insignificant. So, I overworked, over-delivered, and over-committed to everyone except myself, so no one could spot what I believed was my weakness, my inadequacy.

The Transformation

Healing required both physical protocols (supplements, dietary changes, gut repair) and addressing the beliefs that created the burnout in the first place. I had to face the truth: I was outsourcing my self-worth to external validation, taking responsibility for everyone else's emotions while completely ignoring my own.

The breakthrough came through doing the deeper work to address these patterns. When I finally released the emotional baggage and limiting beliefs I'd been carrying for decades, something magical happened.

Suddenly, I had spaciousness. Internal capacity I'd never experienced before. And nothing external had changed—not my business, not my responsibilities. The transformation was entirely internal.

What Happens When You Stop Running on Empty

Here's what shocked me most: when I finally addressed my burnout properly, my business didn't suffer—it thrived.

Within weeks of my transformation:

• My relationships deepened (even my 2.5-year-old finally started sleeping!)
• My business began attracting better clients and higher profits
• My health improved dramatically
• My capacity for complex decisions expanded exponentially

The Strategic Advantage of Being Well

When you're operating from a place of internal spaciousness rather than chronic stress, everything changes:

Enhanced Decision-Making - You make choices from wisdom, not fear. When your nervous system is regulated, you can see opportunities and solutions that overwhelm blinds you to.

Increased Leadership Capacity - You can handle bigger challenges without reactive responses. Your team feels your groundedness and responds with more trust and engagement.

Sustainable Performance - You work with your natural rhythms instead of against them. Peak performance becomes achievable without the crash that follows.

Magnetic Presence - People want to work with leaders who are centred and clear. Your energy becomes an asset that attracts the right opportunities and repels the wrong ones.

Authentic Success - You create results that align with your values, not just your ego. This creates longevity in both satisfaction and business outcomes.

Strategic Thinking - When you're not constantly in survival mode, your brain can access higher-level thinking. Innovation and creativity flow naturally.

I restructured my business to focus on the work that lights me up—strategy and leadership development—rather than the tasks that drain me. I embraced seasonal rhythms, allowing for peak performance periods followed by necessary rest and rejuvenation.

Most importantly, I stopped measuring success by how much I could endure and started measuring it by how aligned I felt.

The ROI of Investing in Yourself

The most successful women I know aren't the ones who can endure the most. They're the ones who learned to resource themselves so deeply that they can show up powerfully without depleting themselves.

Think about it: when you're chronically exhausted, how much mental energy goes to basic functioning? How many opportunities do you miss because you don't have the capacity to see them? How many decisions do you make from fear rather than strategy?

When you address the root causes of your exhaustion—not just the symptoms—you don't just feel better. You perform better. You lead better. You create better.

Your external results will only be as strong as your internal foundation.

The Permission You've Been Waiting For

We live in a world where we're constantly inhaling—taking on more clients, more responsibility, more pressure, more "shoulds." When was the last time you gave yourself permission to truly exhale?

This isn't about working less (though you might choose to). It's about working from a place of resource rather than depletion. It's about recognising that taking care of yourself isn't selfish—it's strategic.

The transformation doesn't stop with you. When you show up resourced instead of depleted, your team notices. Your family feels it. Your clients experience it. You become living proof that success doesn't have to come at the cost of your wellbeing.

Your Next Strategic Move

If you're recognising yourself in this story, if you're successful but exhausted, if you know you're capable of more but can't see the path forward through the overwhelm—there's another way.

Your exhaustion isn't weakness—it's information. Your body isn't broken—it's trying to protect you. And you don't have to figure this out alone.

I created Exhale Retreat for the woman I was two years ago—successful on paper but struggling internally. It's where business strategy meets nervous system regulation, where ambitious women reconnect with their vision and return to themselves.

Because you deserve success that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is exhale.

Ready to transform your relationship with success? Join me for Exhale Retreat in the Tweed Valley, October 23-26, 2025. It's time to discover what becomes possible when you operate from spaciousness instead of stress.