In today’s episode, we’re diving into the truth about being hard on yourself and why it’s not actually a personality trait. If you’ve ever labeled yourself as “just someone who’s hard on myself,” this conversation will completely reframe what’s really going on beneath the surface.

We’re unpacking the nervous system, the illusion of control, and how to finally break the spiral in a way that feels empowering and not just surface-level.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why being hard on yourself is a nervous system response and not who you are

• The illusion of control and why self-blame can feel safer than uncertainty

• How fight-or-flight shuts down creativity, intuition, and high performance

• The identity shifts required to stop reinforcing the “I’m just like this” story

• A simple 3-step tool to break the spiral in real time

This episode is your reminder that you don’t have to motivate yourself through criticism. There’s a better way and it actually feels good.

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