A real-time reflection on nervous system triggers, leadership, vulnerability, and mindful responses to criticism.

Have you ever found yourself physically triggered by feedback even when your logical mind knows it shouldn't be a big deal?

This episode is a real-time, honest exploration of how high-achieving women—especially physicians, leaders, and caregivers—respond to emotionally charged moments of disapproval, and how to begin unwinding the nervous system patterns that often get activated.

I share a recent, raw experience with receiving unexpected criticism that sent my nervous system into full activation, despite all my mindfulness tools, coaching experience, and good intentions. Alongside Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang, we unpack how medical culture, leadership visibility, and deeply ingrained perfectionism contribute to why these moments can feel so threatening and how to meet them with compassion and presence instead of shame and overreaction.

We invite you to witness what it looks like to pause, process, and reflect before reacting as someone who's been conditioned to perform, fix, and never disappoint.

Whether you're navigating visibility, leadership, or simply trying to show up with integrity in a complex world, this episode offers insight, grace, and nervous system wisdom for your journey.

Here is link to a blog I wrote about this same experience.

Pearls of Wisdom:

• Your nervous system's response is not a personal failure but, it's a patterned response that can be gently re-trained.

• Leadership, visibility, and authenticity are inherently vulnerable—and feedback will always come with risk.

• Graceful responses don't always happen in the moment. The pause is where your power lives.

• Emotional reactivity is often a reflection of two activated nervous systems—not personal wrongdoing.

• Mindfulness helps us build the space to respond rather than react—and to remember we're human.

Reflection Questions:

• How does your body respond when you receive criticism or feel misunderstood?

• What do you tend to do when you're activated—fix, explain, retreat, or push back?

• What might become possible if you paused and got curious before reacting?

If you're a high-achieving woman in medicine or leadership navigating transition, visibility, or feedback with tenderness and courage, I invite you to explore coaching with me.

My Leading From the Heart and Transition Well small group programs beginning this January offer practical support, grounded insight, and compassionate connection. Learn more at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching.

You're also warmly invited to join Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang and me for the Connect in Nature Retreat this summer, where we'll practice mindful communication, nervous system regulation, and self-compassion in a nourishing, in-person community. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats

To bring this kind of insight to your team, organization, or leadership event, we offer keynote talks and workshops that integrate mindfulness, medicine, and human connection.
Explore at: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking and www.awakenbreath.org

Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

Physicians are trained to believe that skepticism keeps us safe and belief is generally risky.
Over time, this quietly erodes trust in ourselves and what might be possible.
What once felt protective can slowly narrow our lives and choices. Stuckness, disconnection, and a subtle loss of feeling alive grows.

PEARLS OF WISDOM

Medical culture often rewards certainty while sidelining imagination, hope, and belief.
• Not believing in ourselves can feel protective, yet it frequently keeps us confined to versions of life that no longer fit.
• Belief is not naïve optimism. It is a skill and a gift that can be practiced and borrowed when our own feels unsteady.
• Imagining what is possible, even without a clear path, is essential for healing, leadership, and sustainable change.
• Practicing belief does not abandon logic or science. It creates the spaciousness and courage to move toward alignment.

Reflection Questions
Where have we organized our lives around not believing, perhaps to avoid disappointment?
What have we stopped believing in, and what did that belief once offer us?
Who has offered us borrowed belief, and how did it feel to receive it?
What might it look like to risk a small disappointment in service of something more alive or more true?

If you are ready to gently begin believing again, mindfulness and coaching offer grounded places to start. Slowing down allows us to notice where fear has shaped our choices and where belief may still be quietly present.

Whether you are navigating burnout, transition, or a longing for more meaning and spaciousness, coaching and retreat spaces can support this remembering. They all offer a compassionate, practical way to reconnect with belief and possibility.

Enjoy a yoga class on this topic on Jessie's YouTube channel - Mindful Yoga to Grow Trust and Belief with Dr. Jessie Mahoney

Read more about this topic on Jessie's Blog - The Gift of Belief

The Connect in Nature Retreat is also a meaningful space to rediscover awe, wonder, and belief—in ourselves and in what is possible. Partners and colleagues are encouraged to join. Shared experiences often deepen connection and clarity.
www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats

If we would like to bring this work into our organizations, Dr. Liang and I both offer speaking and workshop experiences that support belief, healing, and connection in healthcare and beyond.
www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking
www.awakenbreath.org

Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.

Have you ever considered how a few carefully chosen words could shape your year, your energy, your decisions, and the way you experience life?

In this annual tradition, we share our personal practice of choosing intention words for the year ahead. This isn't about goals or resolutions. It's about choosing how you want to be, move through, and live your life.

This year's process was deeper, slower, and more nuanced than in past years.

Intention words act like a GPS for your nervous system. They offer clarity and direction through challenge, and how the right words if chosen with care can become some of your most transformative tools for personal and professional growth.

Whether you're new to this practice or returning to it, you'll find inspiration, permission, and a deep sense of possibility.

Pearls of Wisdom:

• Intentions are not goals, they're a mindful orientation. They work at the nervous system level to support aligned action and self-compassionate growth.

• Choosing multiple words (including a stretch word) adds richness and dimension. Life is complex, and your words can meet that with grace.

• Words should feel aligned, not performative. Let go of judgment, and choose words that support the version of yourself you're growing into.

• Words are powerful tools for decision-making. Ask yourself: Will this make me feel wealthy, healthy, strategic, or exquisite?

• This practice is most powerful when done with intention, over time, and often with support. It's subtle but profoundly transformative work

Reflection Questions:

• How do you want to feel at the end of next year?

• What do you want to experience emotionally, physically, and in your relationships?

• What version of yourself are you growing into? What does she wear, how does she lead, how does she make decisions?

If you'd like support in choosing your own intention words and integrating them into your year, I offer this process within all of my 1:1 coaching and group programs. This work is gentle, profound, and truly life-changing.

If this episode resonates and you're ready to lead your life, your relationships, or your team more strategically, bravely, and exquisitely—join me in a coaching container or at a retreat.
Explore retreats at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats
Learn about coaching at https://www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching

If you'd like to bring this mindful approach to your team or conference, I'd be honored to speak or lead a workshop.
Learn more at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking
For Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang's speaking and workshops, visit www.awakenbreath.org

Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.