Unresolved feelings of not-enoughness and emotional repression caused my chronic illness. Jen Mann. #78
Release Date: 07/11/2024
Why You Still Go Quiet (Even When You Know Better), with Meg Josephson #99
Enough, the Podcast
You know about people pleasing. You've heard about the fawn response. You might even recognise it in yourself: the self-silencing, the conflict avoidance, the version of you that keeps the peace while something quietly fumes underneath. And yet, you still said nothing in that meeting last week. This episode is about the gap between understanding yourself and actually changing — and it's one of my favourite conversations to date. My guest is Meg Josephson, psychotherapist and NYT bestselling author of Are You Mad at Me? Rather than explaining the fawn response from a theoretical...
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Be direct. Feel awful. Don’t Fold. With Jon Prince #98
Enough, the Podcast
You know the moment: you’ve chosen to be clearer, less accommodating, a bit braver. And it feels good… for about two seconds. Then the wobble comes. That tightening in your chest. That playback in your head. The urge to explain or undo what you just said. In today’s episode, I talk with Jon Prince — former professional poker player, coach, and author of Start Before You’re Ready — about exactly that: how to hold your nerve when you raise the stakes, and your nervous system screams for relief. Poker isn’t just about cards. It’s about emotional control under...
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The Fix-It Trap: Shame, Body Image and the Search for Wholeness with Kate Gies #97
Enough, the Podcast
Have you ever thought, If I just fixed that one thing, I’d finally feel OK? In this episode of Enough, the Podcast, we’re talking about body image, shame, and the quiet fix-it logic so many women live inside — especially in midlife. My guest, Kate Gies, was born without an ear and underwent 14 reconstructive surgeries as a child, each one promising to finally make her whole. What she learned — far earlier than most of us — is that fixing the body rarely delivers the relief it promises. This conversation isn’t about giving up on your appearance. It’s about...
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What's Driving your Drive? With "The Crappy Childhood Fairy" Anna Runkle & Dr Sarah Madigan #96
Enough, the Podcast
Be honest. You secretly love how much you can endure. Like it’s a badge of honour that you can take on more, stay longer, push harder, and still (kinda) look put together? But here’s the kicker: What if that “unstoppable drive” isn’t grit at all? What if it’s your nervous system running on a decades-old operating system — one that learned, way back when, that proving yourself was the only way to stay safe, loved, or valuable? That would explain some things, wouldn’t it? Like why you: Secretly check emails on holiday… in the bathroom… while everyone else...
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Fawning Saved You. Now It’s Costing You — with Dr. Ingrid Clayton #95
Enough, the Podcast
Ever said, “No worries, all good” while your insides screamed otherwise? That’s not weakness. That was your nervous system doing its genius, trauma-sourced thing: fawning. In this episode, author and clinical psychologist Dr. Ingrid Clayton shows us that fawning isn’t a personality flaw—it’s a self-abandonment pattern we can gently unlearn, because it’s costing you. Big time. We get into why fawning isn’t actually “being nice.” You’ll learn how it shows up day to day, and how you can start building safety from the inside out, so saying “No”, or being in conflict...
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My Body Quit & My Identity Panicked, with Jo Rodriguez #94
Enough, the Podcast
You’re used to pushing hard – in fact, your identity is built on it. What happens when your body forces you to stop? Who are you then? That’s what happened to psychologist Jo Rodriguez, a behind-the-scenes TV expert, marathon runner, and mum who loved being called a machine. One day, what seemed like a simple illness forced her to slow down. She continued her relentless routine, and the mystery illness kept reappearing until the pain became unbearable, and Jo’s heart nearly doubled in size. After a diagnosis of pericarditis, she lay in hospital wondering if she’d ever feel...
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When Love is a Hustle: Healing the Fixer Identity, with Dr Natalie, #93
Enough, the Podcast
When Love is a Hustle: Healing the Fixer Identity, with Dr Natalie Cawley #93 If you’ve ever over-functioned in a romantic relationship hoping to feel enough, this episode is for you. My guest is Dr Natalie Cawley, psychotherapist, counselling psychologist and author of Just About Coping: A real-life drama from the psychotherapist’s chair. Natalie shares openly about her own challenges with over-giving in her personal relationships, showing that we’re ALL prone to struggles – even therapists! We get into the *real* reason you keep over-giving, and how to finally stop it. Listen...
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Rewiring the Need to Please: Fawning, Relationships & Enoughness, with Nicole Vignola #92
Enough, the Podcast
Ever said, “No worries, it’s fine,” when it absolutely wasn’t fine? Or maybe you’ve pushed down your needs and shape-shifted into whoever you thought you needed to be in a particular situation. That’s not kindness. That’s fawning—people-pleasing’s sneakier, brain-based cousin. In this episode, neuroscientist and author of Rewire, Nicole Vignola, joins me for a juicy, no-fluff convo about why we fawn, what’s going on in the brain when we do it, and how to unhook from this exhausting survival pattern. Nicole shares real talk from her own relationships, where...
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Listen to this if you're reinventing yourself, with Donna Ashworth, #91
Enough, the Podcast
Reinvention often stirs up a storm—self-doubt, not-enoughness, the old habits of perfectionism and overworking. We think we have to earn our way out of stuckness. But what if the answer wasn’t in doing more—but in needing less? What if your enoughness was right there in plain sight, but you’ve been looking for it in the wrong places? This week, I’m joined by the glorious Donna Ashworth: poet, best-selling author, and queen of reinvention. She’s been a music industry exec, a magazine journalist, a business owner (of a children’s play centre) —and through each chapter, she’s...
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Achievement Won’t Carry You Through Tough Times, But This Might… Julia Baird #90
Enough, the Podcast
What actually holds you together when life blindsides you? Maybe it’s a breakup. A diagnosis. Or the crushing weight of everything right now. If you’re wired for hustle, your first instinct might be to work through it—to push harder, achieve more, be exceptional. What if the answer wasn’t in doing more, but in seeing oneself as LESS? Wait, what? Julia Baird—broadcaster, journalist, and bestselling author—gets it. She loves being hyper-productive. But when her world cracked open, she didn’t seek solace in success. Instead, she discovered the power of her shrinking self and the...
info_outlineToday's guest is Jen Mann, ex-ballet dancer and co-author of the international best-seller, The Secret Language of the Body. In this conversation we discuss how Jen’s early life contributed to the perfectionism, people-pleasing and self-criticism that would ultimately end in chronic illness that traditional medicine was unable to solve. Frustrated and anxious, Jen started connecting the dots between the mind-body cross-over with the clients she was supporting after her ballet career ended. She pieced together insights on how to heal herself by increasing her vagal tone and somatic experiencing, alongside talk therapy and physio. She shares 3 key tips for longer-term healing, as well as 5 practical things you can do right away to decrease your perception of stress during days of back-to-back meetings.
3:52 My childhood was a perfect set up for anxiety
9:21 Jen becomes a professional ballet dancer
13:31 What came after Jen’s ballet career
14:50 Jen spots connections between her clients’ work stress and their physical pain
16:00 The symptoms she was seeing in her clients – and how her own chronic illness symptoms started
20:50 Unresolved feelings of not-enoughness and emotional repression cause illness
25:40 Jen’s body said “Enough!”
28:42 Window of Tolerance
35:17 Conventional medicine didn’t work for Jen, and what she discovered instead
39:57 Vagal tone
44:39 Three tips for longer-term change
51:15 Five strategies you can use at work to soothe your nervous system during hectic days
1:03 Jen’s Brick of Wisdom
Links:
Jen Mann and Karden Rabin’s website (with book and program)
Jen Mann on Instagram
Mandy Lehto on Instagram
Episode 55 with Tatiana Poliakova