Listen to this if you're reinventing yourself, with Donna Ashworth, #91
Release Date: 04/03/2025
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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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_outlineReinvention 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 rewritten what it means to feel enough.
By using her poet’s eye, Donna has mastered the art of being easily pleased—finding beauty in the ordinary, and joy in the small. And in doing so, she’s removed the pressure to get reinvention “right.”
If you’ve ever felt stuck, lost, or like it’s too late to start over… this conversation will feel like a deep exhale.
Links
Donna Ashworth’s website & books