SLP 542: Drowning Lifeguards: Listening to the Body with Ruth Hull

In this deeply nourishing conversation, Kim welcomes Ruth Hull, a former investment banker turned reflexologist, homeopath, and author of Drowning Lifeguards. Ruth shares her remarkable journey from high pressure corporate life to natural therapies, shaped by her own experience with chronic fatigue and burnout. Together, Kim and Ruth explore the body’s subtle language, the emotional roots of fatigue, and how modalities such as reflexology, homeopathy, essential oils, and self-reflection can support healing. They discuss the integration of conventional and alternative medicine, the unique traits of high-achieving individuals prone to burnout, and why self-love is not a destination, but a daily, living practice. This episode is a powerful reminder that illness can be an invitation to slow down, listen deeply, and reconnect with the wisdom of the body, mind and soul. About Ruth Hull: Trained as a homoeopathic doctor, Ruth Hull is a counsellor, integrative health consultant and author who has spent more than twenty-five years helping people navigate fatigue, burnout and chronic exhaustion. With master’s degrees in counselling and health science, she brings a gentle and grounded approach to healing, weaving together trauma informed therapy, natural health and practical, realistic support. Her work centres on helping people understand their bodies, reconnect with themselves and rebuild their energy in ways that feel achievable and sustainable. She is the author of five widely used health science textbooks, including three on anatomy and physiology, and her new book Drowning Lifeguards offers a practical and compassionate guide for anyone feeling overwhelmed or depleted. Through both her writing and her clinical work she aims to make healing feel less overwhelming and more human. Her definition of Self Love is: Self Love is like a relationship. It’s what you do. It’s the actions you do. If you think of a really good relationship, it us about always being there for that person. So always being there for yourself, supporting yourself, standing up for yourself. Accepting yourself just as you are. Her favourite quote is – Illness is an opportunity for growth and transformation, whilst recovery is just a return to the obsolete status quo. Links to follow: Subscribe to Ruth’s blog at ruthhull.com and you’ll get access to her private subscribers-only page filled with free resources, practical guides and sample chapters from her books. Website: https://www.ruthhull.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ruth-hull/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ruthhullnaturaltherapies/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RuthHullNaturalTherapies Quotes: Even though I was working in the health industry, along the way I suffered very bad chronic fatigue. That is when I started to really learn what healing is really about. I wrote my book, Drowning Lifeguards, which is the book I wish I had had when I was struggling so much. We are not just physical beings. We are energetic beings. We are made up of energy and energy needs to flow. Reflexology will one day be proven through science but to me it is really about the flow of energy. The body never lies. The physical body is really just an expression of something much deeper, like our emotions, our spirit, our soul and our mental health. I think what we are learning is unlearning that is we are learning to remove those barriers that we have grown up with. I think we see life through spectacles and we have lots of spectacles that are put on us from our parents, our teachers, who are mean to us, from the kids in the playground. We put all these little glasses on and they stop us seeing life as it is and they stop us connecting with deeper things. I very much believe, especially with essentials oils. We have to remove our logical mind. A lot of the healing happens through the smell and memories If we can get our logical mind out the way and let the body speak that is when we will find what is good for us. If you can stop listening to all the noise outside and actually just get quiet and find what feels good. The quieter we get, the more we hear. The more you just allow yourself to be with yourself, the more you will be able to listen to your body. People with fatigue and burnout are busy, busy, busy people. They are not listening to themselves. If they were to just stop and start listening to what they really need, that is when the healing takes place. No one really knows yet how homeopathy works but there is so much clinical evidence. Like treats like. Vaccination is a personal choice. There is no right or wrong way. If we believe something to be truly safe or ok, then our body potentially can respond in a safe and good way. I think allopathic medicine shines in emergency medicine and homeopathy shines in chronic disease. I think we can work together. In a consultation we look at the whole person, we ask a lot of questions about their background and childhood. ...