Send us Fan Mail

If you've been to all the doctors, tried all the things, and your anxiety still won't budge, this one is for you. Maybe the reason nothing has worked is that you've been trying to think your way out of something, but maybe it's not a thinking solution, maybe your body has been holding on to something the whole time, and you need to heal through the body.

About This Episode

I sat down with Jenny Cohen, an author, a speaker, a cancer survivor, and a dancer who believes movement is your birthright to heal. She used dance to stay alive through her cancer treatment, and what she shares in this episode is something I have lived in my own body for years.

Anxiety is not just in your head. It lives in your body. And when you have nowhere to put that energy, it doesn't disappear. It builds.

We talk about why your anxiety is the messenger, not the enemy. We get into why your body will go to extremes to get your attention, the difference between your conscious mind and your subconscious mind, head up versus head down, and what's actually happening when emotion releases as crying, shaking, or going completely still. Jenny also shares the dead simple daily practice that helped her, and the one question she asks her body the second symptoms show up.

If you're a high functioning woman holding it all together while quietly crumbling, this is your permission slip to stop performing and start letting it move.

What You'll Learn

1. Why your anxiety can get worse the moment you stop moving your body
2. Why anxiety is the messenger, and how the more you ignore the whispers, the louder your body has to get
3. How your conscious mind and subconscious mind split, head up versus head down, and why it matters for healing
4. What emotional release actually looks like, and what to do when it happens
5. A simple daily movement practice you can start with no skill and no one watching
6. The one question Jenny asks her body when symptoms show up

Reflection

Where in your life have you stopped moving, and what might be trying to get your attention?

When was the last time you let your body do something just because it felt good, with no goal attached?

Your Next Step

If your anxiety feels stuck in your body and you need something that actually helps tonight, start here.

Grab the free 5 Minute Nervous System Reset

And if you're ready to stop managing your anxiety and start getting to the root of it, this is where one on one work comes in. That is where we rewrite the subconscious patterns underneath, not just talk about them.

Book your free Freedom Roadmap session

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome and meet Jenny Cohen
01:43 When movement as a birthright to heal first came online for Jenny
03:07 From dance to occupational therapy
05:31 How dance kept Jenny alive through cancer treatment
06:15 What was driving the anxiety underneath
07:46 Overlapping conditions, depression, and unresolved trauma
09:25 Dancing before, during, and after breast cancer treatment
11:01 Sari shares how her own anxiety didn't show up until she stopped dancing
12:26 Movement is for everybody, even after your shower
13:23 Why our life force requires movement
15:18 Why our bodies will go to extremes to give us what we want
16:19 Why anxiety is the messenger, not the enemy
18:30 Fixed movement versus improvisation
22:21 The moment emotion released mid movement
23:20 Why you never touch someone who is emotionally processing
25:18 Conscious mind from the head up, subconscious from the head down
30:55 Why forgiveness is part of healing
36:53 You have the right to move, you were born with it
37:51 The daily practice, five random songs
39:19 Naming three things you liked about what you did
44:26 The question Jenny asks her body when symptoms show up
46:40 Sari's movement challenge
48:32 Are you doing your self care in a present way
49:49 Where to find Jenny Cohen

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

Are you feeling emotionally numb and you don't know why? Are you doing all the right things, and feel exhausted? This episode is for you. You're not falling apart. You're not in crisis, but just going through the motions and feeling nothing. That is a subconscious program running the show, and that's not a I need to be doing more problem. And if you're a mom, there's a good chance your kids are running a version of all of this too.

EPISODE SUMMARY: Sari opens with a real life recent story, coming home exhausted, being reactive with her oldest daughter, and the conversation the next morning that changed everything.

Her daughter was doing all the things. Good grades, chores, helping out. And she still was feeling unloved. She believed her younger sister was loved more, because she saw that her sister didn't have to earn it.

Sound familiar?

In this episode, Sari unpacks the subconscious agreement that so many high-functioning, anxious women are looking through life without realizing it: if I do more, I'll be loved more. She breaks down how this belief was formed in early childhood, why it keeps running on autopilot no matter how much you accomplish, and why 95% of your daily thoughts are recycling the same quiet story you made up about yourself when you were small.

She also speaks directly to moms: your children often mirror the subconscious program you modeled during their earliest years. Learning to see the agreement in them, and ask the right question instead of reacting to the behavior, is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself and for them.

She closes with a guided breathing and visualization exercise to help you meet the younger version of yourself who first made that agreement — and begin to choose something different.

This is not about doing more. It is about finally seeing the lens you have been looking through.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why you feel emotionally numb even when you're doing everything right — and the subconscious program driving it
• What the agreement or belief you're looking through life actually is — and how to identify yours
• How subconscious programs get formed between birth and age eight and why they keep running without you knowing
• Why your children often mirror the agreements you modeled during your most anxious years — and how witnessing theirs can heal both of you
• The difference between conditional love (earned) and unconditional love (already yours)
• Why self awareness is the first crack of light — and why it is not enough on its own
• Why hypnosis and subconscious work reaches what conscious effort and surface-level tools cannot
• A simple breathing and visualization practice to meet the younger version of yourself who made the agreement

REFLECTION:

1. What is the agreement or belief you are looking through life right now? What lens are you seeing everything through?
2. When did that agreement start? How old was the version of you who made it?
3. If you replaced that lens with unconditional love, how would you move through your day differently?
4. For the moms: what subconscious belief might you be watching play out in your child that you recognize from your own story?

If anxiety feels like a constant hum of "not enough no matter what I do,"

Grab the free 5-Minute Nervous System Reset.

It's a tool to bring you back to yourself when the autopilot takes over.

And if you're ready to stop collecting insights and actually feel the shift in your body.

Book a Free Freedom Roadmap Session

It's just a conversation. No pressure.

You're not broken. You're not behind. And you're not alone. If you made it here, that means something.

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

If you've got so much on your plate that part of you secretly wants to burn it all down and quit everything, this episode is for you. You're not falling apart. Your anxiety just found a new way to talk to you. And once you learn the language, you get your power back.

EPISODE SUMMARY This week Sari shares a real time story of anxiety showing up in a way she'd never felt before. After years of chronic panic attacks, she thought she knew her pattern, the fight response. Then she overcommitted herself into the ground, PTA, a leadership role, clients, the podcast, managing mom life and hit a wall where the only answer her body could find was quit it all.

In this episode she breaks down the four survival responses, fight, flight, freeze, and fawn, and how anxiety presents differently depending on which one is running. She talks about why high functioning women keep filling the void, where control sneaks in, and why honoring your no is the most regulating thing you can do for your nervous system. Anxiety is the messenger. This is how you start listening before it becomes a Mack truck.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Why your anxiety can show up completely differently than it used to, even years into healing
• The four survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) and how to spot which one is yours
• Why high functioning women overcommit, and the real question underneath the busyness
• How control shows up when you believe you have to carry everything alone
• Why awareness alone doesn't change you, but choice does
• How honoring your no actually settles your nervous system
• What happens in the subconscious mind when we sit down and have a conversation with the pattern instead of fighting it

REFLECTION When your anxiety gets loud, which response do you reach for first, fight, flight, freeze, or fawn? And what would change if you treated it as a messenger instead of an enemy?

Free 5 Minute Nervous System Reset If your nervous system feels strung out and you need something that actually helps right now, grab the Free 5 Minute Nervous System Reset. Something you can use tonight.

And if you're ready to stop white knuckling your way through and have someone help you talk to the pattern underneath it all, book a Freedom Roadmap Session. This is the work that gives you freedom from the very thing keeping you stuck.

You're not broken. You're not behind. And you're not alone. If you made it here, that means something.

TIMESTAMPS

00:02 Welcome in, and why anxiety shows up in so many different ways

02:24 The real question underneath overcommitting: what void are you trying to fill

04:47 Carrying it all alone, and where control actually comes from

07:10 The week it all caught up: Warrior Women, the missed episode, freeze and flight

09:35 The four survival responses explained: fight, flight, freeze, fawn

11:14 When the answer becomes "I quit everything, burn it all down"

12:47 Sitting in your emotions, and anxiety as the messenger

15:03 Your power and your choice: how long do you actually need to feel it

17:31 Giving yourself space, and why the coaching call landed so differently

19:52 Honoring your no, the Oracle card, and finding your own pattern

22:00 Hypnosis: having a real conversation with the program that's been protecting you

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

If you wake up every morning already knowing how the day is going to go, bracing for the same feelings, the same version of you, the same feeling as the day before, this episode is for you. You haven't run out of options. You've run out of permission slips. And that's exactly what we're talking about today.

EPISODE SUMMARY: What if the thing keeping your anxiety alive isn't your schedule, your relationships, or your past — it's the version of perfect you've been quietly chasing since someone else decided what that meant?

In this episode, Sari shares what an unexpected movie day with her daughter taught her about optimism, worthiness, and how deeply we shrink ourselves to fit into someone else's idea of who we're supposed to be.

She gets real about waking up as the anxious version of herself: the one who started bracing for the next panic attack before her feet even hit the floor. She talks about what it looks like to break that pattern, not with a 10-step routine, but with 1% of willingness to do something different.

If your anxiety is wrapped up in perfectionism, needing approval, or a quiet belief that the way you are just isn't quite right.... this one will open something up for you.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why waking up expecting the same day keeps you locked in anxious patterns
• How perfectionism and anxiety are more connected than you think
• What your need for control is actually trying to protect you from
• Why your uniqueness isn't the problem, it might be the exact thing that sets you free
• Whose rules of "perfect" you've actually been following (and where they really came from)
• The 1% shift that can start changing everything — starting tomorrow morning

TIMESTAMPS:

00:02 — Sari opens: being human and using her tools every single day

01:27 — Letting her youngest take a mental health day; the STAAR test; being in her luteal phase

03:54 — The UglyDolls movie story begins; why she said no to it years ago

06:19 — Waking up expecting the same anxious day; bracing for panic attacks before getting out of bed

07:18 — The optimist UglyDoll character; being a pessimist from anxiety and stagnation

09:20 — Judging by the outer layer; how control showed up in a simple parenting moment

11:57 — Reflection: how did you wake up this morning?

12:48 — You get to decide right now; shaking up your morning

15:16 — Are you willing to stand up and do something different?

15:26 — Worthiness of a new experience; the perfect doll vs. the ugly doll

17:50 — How anxiety shows up when you feel like you don't fit in; birthday suit metaphor

19:54 — Stop being ashamed of how you look

20:13 — Question what perfect even means

20:18 — Changing your idea of perfect = a permission slip to be yourself

21:43 — The insecurities behind the people who built these standards

22:15 — Finding real freedom by letting go of what other people think

23:51 — How perfectionism kills your ability to have fun; the painting class story

25:15 — Your uniqueness is what makes you shine

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

• Where in your life are you waking up expecting the same thing — and quietly believing you're not worthy of something different?
• Whose definition of perfect have you been carrying around that was never yours to begin with?
• What would it look like to give yourself a 1% permission slip today?

5 Minute Nervous System Reset

And if today's episode hit and you just need something that helps right now, grab the free 5-Minute Nervous System Reset. [https://thegrowthgoddess.net/free-meditation]

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

If you've ever known exactly what to do for your anxiety and still couldn't make yourself do it... this one's going to hit. Because it's not about lacking the knowledge. It never was.

EPISODE SUMMARY You've read the books. You've done the research. You know breathing helps. You know mindfulness is good for you. And yet — when the anxiety actually hits, you check out, go through the motions, and end up right back where you started.

In this episode, Sari gets real about why knowing isn't enough. The anxious programs running in the background are designed to keep you safe — which means they are also designed to keep you exactly the same. The safety bubble feels comfortable. But it's a trap.

She breaks down what actually has to happen in the moment anxiety shows up: the choice, the presence, the willingness to sit in the fire for two minutes without giving up. She talks about your nervous system, the vagus nerve, and why slowing down isn't "doing nothing" — it's the whole point. And she calls out the sneaky way we seek validation for staying stuck instead of asking what's working.

This is a fired-up episode. And if you're someone who knows more than you're doing, it was made for you.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Why knowing what to do isn't enough to change your anxiety
• How your safety bubble keeps you stuck in the same patterns every day
• What it actually means to be present during a breathing exercise
• Why seeking validation from others can reinforce the anxious identity
• How the vagus nerve connects to your heart — and why that changes everything
• What choosing a new identity looks like in a real, 2-minute moment
• Why sitting in the fire isn't painful — it's just unfamiliar

REFLECTION

• What behavior or tool do you keep abandoning before giving it a real chance?
• Are you looking for someone to tell you it's not working — or are you looking for what actually is?
• When anxiety comes online today, what would it look like to stay in the room with it instead of checking out?

FREE NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET

If anxiety has you checked out before you even start, download the free 5-Minute Nervous System Reset to help your body slow down in real time. https://thegrowthgoddess.net/free-meditation

WORK WITH SARI

Ready to stop doing the same thing every day and expecting something different? Book a free Freedom Roadmap Session and let's map out what it actually looks like to change. https://link.thegrowthgoddess.net/widget/bookings/freedomroadmapsession

You're not broken. You're not behind. And you're not alone. If you made it here, that means something.

Time Stamps

00:00 — Why Sari is fired up today

02:07 — The client who has all the knowledge but can't put it into motion

03:29 — How the anxious safety bubble keeps you doing the same thing on repeat

05:51 — Why breathing "doesn't work" (and what's actually happening when you try)

08:18 — Sitting in the fire: why discomfort is part of the process

10:38 — The hair salon story and how we seek validation to stay stuck

12:42 — Fight or flight, the amygdala, and why you can't think your way out of anxiety

15:09 — The vagus nerve: why your heart is leading more than your brain

17:17 — The first step: just admitting it

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

If you're exhausted from the same fights, the same resentments, the same feeling that everyone around you is the problem, this episode is for you. You're not crazy. But there's something nobody's told you yet.

EPISODE SUMMARY:

It's so easy to point the finger.

At the relationship that's draining you. The family member who doesn't get it. The boss who pushes your buttons. The partner who never shows up the way you need.

And here's the thing, sometimes those people really are doing something that hurts. That's not the issue.

The issue is that as long as the problem is out there, you have zero power to change it.

In this episode, Sari gets honest about the moment she realized she wasn't the victim of the people around her, she was the one keeping herself stuck. She digs into how our ego builds walls to "protect" us, how complaining bonds us to the very emotions keeping us in anxiety, and why you literally cannot change a situation from the same emotional state that created it.

This isn't about blaming yourself. It's about taking your power back. Because the minute you stop looking out there for the problem and start looking in the mirror, everything can start to shift.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

• Why the problem gets louder when we keep seeing the problem as outside of ourselves
• How the ego uses blame and frustration to "keep us safe" — and how that backfires
• Why you can't fix a situation from the same emotional state it was created in
• The difference between aggressive and assertive and how it shows up in anxious women
• How low-vibration emotions like resentment and anger keep your nervous system in fight or flight
• What it actually looks like to raise your emotional frequency to compassion instead of control
• Courage is the one thing that changes the room, the relationship, and you

REFLECTION:

Where in your life are you pointing the finger at someone else right now, and what would change if you looked in the mirror instead?

What emotion are you operating from? And is that emotion capable of creating the future you actually want?

Where are you shrinking instead of speaking — and what's the worst case scenario you've been imagining that's keeping you there?

FREE 5 MINUTE NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET

If anxiety feels like it's coming from everyone around you, download the free 5-minute Nervous System Reset to help calm your body and create a little space before you react.

WORK WITH SARI

If you're ready to stop living in anxiety and want support in actually changing it, you can book a free discovery call.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:02 — Why we're conditioned to see the problem as outside of ourselves

02:11 — The sister story: when Sari realized she was the aggressive one

04:13 — Why complaining bonds us to low-vibration emotions (and keeps us stuck)

06:39 — You cannot change from the same emotional state the problem was created in

09:02 — What happens when you replace frustration with compassion

11:07 — Where did these emotions get built? Asking the deeper question

11:35 — How we give our power away and how to reclaim it

13:48 — Guided moment: asking your body where it doesn't feel safe

17:12 — The truth bomb: you can't change from the same emotional state

17:24 — Courage is not the absence of fear

20:59 — Courage opens doors that fear keeps shut

24:26 — When you stop blaming, you start transforming

25:50 — Closing: courage doesn't always feel good, but it always feels true

Please leave us a rating and review on your listening platform.

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve ever had a panic attack that felt completely random, this episode is for you. It wasn’t random. Your body had been whispering long before it started screaming.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode, Sari shares a real, recent story — a panic attack that hit in the middle of recording a guest interview. Not on a hard day. Not during a crisis. Right in the middle of a normal Tuesday.

Because that’s how high-functioning anxiety works. You keep going. You keep holding it together. And your body keeps tapping you on the shoulder, throwing rocks, until one day it sends the train.

Sari breaks down how anxiety actually builds — through the small signals we override, the gut feelings we negotiate with, the whispers we tell ourselves we’ll get to later. She explains the nervous system loop that turns one thought — “something is wrong” — into a full panic spiral. And what the 120-second window is, and how to actually use it.

This episode isn’t about managing anxiety better. It’s about understanding what your body has been trying to say — and starting to rebuild the relationship with it. If you’re a mom, a high-achiever, someone who holds the whole world together on the outside while quietly falling apart on the inside… this one is for you.

Your body is not against you. It never was.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Why high-functioning anxiety and panic attacks don’t come out of nowhere — and how they actually build

• How ignoring your body’s early signals turns a whisper into a full panic attack

• Why the thought “something is wrong” is what triggers the anxiety and overthinking spiral

• How control and fear keep you from hearing your own intuition

• What the 120-second window is — and how to use it before your nervous system takes over

• Why your body is not betraying you — it’s communicating with you

• How to zoom out when fear has the blinders on and anxiety is running the show

REFLECTION
Where in your life are you already getting the whispers — and choosing to ignore them?

What would change if you started trusting what your body is trying to tell you before it has to scream?

FREE NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET
If anxiety feels like it’s always one thought away from a full panic attack, download the free 5-minute Nervous System Reset. It’s a guided hypnotic meditation designed to calm your body and interrupt the anxiety loop in real time.

Download the Free Nervous System Reset

WORK WITH SARI
If you’re ready to stop living in high-functioning anxiety and want real support in changing it at the root, you can book a free Freedom Roadmap Session with Sari. It’s a free 45-minute call to map out exactly where you are and where you want to go.

Book Your Free Freedom Roadmap Session

5 minute nervous system reset ad for midroll