Running an online business has always come with ups and downs, and after more than 12 years as an entrepreneur, that part isn’t new to me. What is new is the level of emotional exhaustion and volatility I’m seeing lately.
Especially among high-performing women who are doing everything “right” but still feel drained, on edge, or mentally run down.
In this episode, I’m joined by Hope Pedraza, a functional practitioner and Nourished Business Accelerator alum who takes a truly holistic approach to burnout, nervous system regulation, and emotional resilience in business.
We talk about why business feels heavier right now, how hypervigilance and dopamine-driven patterns sneak in, and what it actually takes to stay grounded and clear when growth isn’t linear… without sacrificing your health, boundaries, or sense of self in the process.
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Why Running a Business Feels So Emotionally Exhausting (and What’s Actually Going On)
If you’ve been running a business for any length of time, you already know that ups and downs are part of the deal.
Revenue fluctuates. Strategies evolve. Seasons change.
After more than a decade as an entrepreneur, that reality feels familiar to me, and it’s no longer something I find particularly destabilizing.
What does feel different lately is the level of emotional exhaustion I’m seeing across the board, especially among high-performing women who are smart, capable, and deeply committed to the work they do.
These aren’t new business owners who are shocked by their first slow month. These are seasoned professionals who understand that business isn’t linear… and yet something still feels heavier than it used to.
This post is inspired by my conversation with Hope, where we talked about burnout, hypervigilance, nervous system regulation, and the subtle patterns that can quietly drain your energy if they go unaddressed.
If you’ve been feeling mentally tired, emotionally on edge, or like your business requires more from you than it should, there’s a good chance this will resonate.
Emotional Exhaustion Isn’t a Sign You’re Doing Business “Wrong”
One of the most important things to say upfront is that emotional exhaustion in business is not a personal failure.
It’s also not a sign that you lack resilience, discipline, or work ethic.
In fact, many of the women I see experiencing this are deeply capable. They’re thoughtful. They care about doing good work.
They’re invested in their clients and serious about building something sustainable. From the outside, their businesses often look “successful.”
What’s happening beneath the surface has much less to do with skill and much more to do with how the nervous system responds to prolonged uncertainty, pressure, and constant stimulation.
Why Business Feels Heavier Right Now
There has always been uncertainty in entrepreneurship, but the quality of uncertainty has shifted.
The pace of change is faster. The volume of information is overwhelming.
There’s always another strategy to consider, another platform to keep up with, another opinion about what you should be doing differently.
So many business owners are operating with a low-level sense of waiting for something to go wrong.
Not consciously, necessarily, but enough that their nervous system never fully relaxes.
When you’re constantly bracing for the next shoe to drop, even good days don’t feel restful.
This state of hypervigilance is incredibly energy-intensive. It pulls you out of presence and into monitoring mode.
Over time, it can make even a stable business feel emotionally unsustainable.
Hypervigilance Often Masquerades as Responsibility
One of the tricky things about hypervigilance is that it can look productive on the surface.
It shows up as closely watching numbers, tracking engagement, analyzing metrics, and thinking through every decision from multiple angles.
None of those behaviors are inherently problematic. The issue is what happens internally while you’re doing them.
When numbers start to dictate your emotional state, such as when a dip sends you into anxiety or a spike brings only temporary relief, you’re no longer using data as information.
You’re using it as regulation. That’s when mental spirals, second-guessing, and decision fatigue start to take over.
Hope described this beautifully in the episode: following metrics isn’t the problem. Obsessing over them to the point of emotional dysregulation is.
Perfectionism and the Pressure for Things to “Work”
Many high-achieving women come into business with a background that rewarded doing things correctly.
You followed the instructions, completed the assignment, and got the outcome. School worked that way. Business does not.
When that conditioning meets a non-linear environment, perfectionism often turns into pressure.
Things feel like they have to work — the launch, the offer, the strategy.
When they don’t, it’s easy to internalize the outcome as a personal failure rather than part of the process.
I see this most clearly when someone tells me, “I need this to work.” That sentence alone carries an enormous amount of emotional weight.
It turns experimentation into a threat and learning into judgment. Over time, that mindset makes business feel unsafe instead of creative.
Growth Is “Up and Down on the Way Up”
One of the most grounding reframes from my conversation with Hope was the idea that healthy business growth looks like “up and down on the way up.”
Not constant expansion. Not smooth progress. But movement that includes pauses, dips, recalibration, and learning.
The problem isn’t the fluctuation itself; it’s when every downturn feels like evidence that you’re failing or going backward.
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When your sense of safety or self-trust is tied to outcomes, even normal variability can feel overwhelming.
When you anchor yourself instead in your vision, values, and long-term direction, those same fluctuations become information rather than emotional emergencies.
The Body’s Role in Decision-Making
One of the reasons emotional exhaustion can be so confusing is that it often shows up in the body before it makes sense intellectually.
You can know that a decision is right and still have a strong physical reaction to making it.
We talked in the episode about moments where setting a boundary or saying no feels disproportionately intense.
That intensity isn’t necessarily about the decision itself. It’s about what the decision represents.
Often, it’s bumping up against an old pattern like people-pleasing, fear of disappointing others, or learned beliefs about worth and value.
When you’ve spent years prioritizing others’ needs or overriding your own signals, your nervous system doesn’t immediately trust new behavior, even when that behavior is healthier.
That doesn’t mean you should abandon the decision. It means your system needs time and support to adapt.
Discomfort vs. Misalignment
One of the most important distinctions Hope shared is the difference between discomfort and misalignment.
They can feel similar in the moment, but they lead in very different directions.
Discomfort often comes from growth, boundary-setting, or doing something unfamiliar.
Misalignment tends to feel heavy, draining, and restrictive over time.
Learning to tell the difference requires paying attention not just to what you think, but to how your body responds before, during, and after decisions.
This isn’t about avoiding challenge. It’s about developing discernment, and that discernment gets sharper with practice.
When Identity Gets Entangled with Business Outcomes
Another quiet contributor to emotional exhaustion is identity attachment. Not in an obvious “my worth equals my income” way, but in subtler forms.
Feeling validated by productivity or when numbers are up. Feeling uneasy when momentum slows.
This often goes unnoticed when things are going well. It becomes visible when they’re not.
Hope spoke about how dopamine plays a role here. Sales, engagement, and wins naturally create positive feedback in the brain.
The issue arises when those hits become necessary to feel okay. When one win isn’t enough anymore and you’re constantly chasing the next one.
That pattern doesn’t come from greed or ego. It comes from nervous systems that have learned to associate external validation with safety.
Why This Leads to Burnout
When business becomes a source of regulation rather than expression, burnout isn’t far behind.
Chasing dopamine requires more effort over time to achieve the same emotional payoff.
The work increases, the satisfaction decreases, and the system becomes unsustainable.
This is why so many experienced business owners lose enjoyment in work they once loved, not because the work itself changed, but because the relationship to it did.
Burnout isn’t always about doing too much. Often, it’s about doing things from the wrong internal place.
Rebuilding Emotional Resilience in Business
The solution isn’t to care less or disengage. It’s to relate to your business differently.
That starts with reconnecting to why you started in the first place. Not your revenue goals, but the deeper motivation behind your work.
It also requires creating space to process experiences instead of pushing through them.
Reflection, integration, and nervous system regulation aren’t luxuries; they’re foundational to sustainable leadership.
Practices like walking, time in nature, EFT tapping, breathwork, prayer, or meditation aren’t about productivity in the traditional sense.
They’re about restoring capacity so you can make clear decisions without operating from urgency or fear.
Ironically, slowing down often produces better results than forcing momentum.
Business Doesn’t Have to Feel This Hard
One of the reasons I wanted to bring this podcast back is because I believe we need spaces for longer, more nuanced conversations about what it actually takes to build a business that supports your life, not just your income.
If your business feels heavy, that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means something deeper is asking for attention.
When you address that — thoughtfully, intentionally, and with support — business can become more spacious, grounded, and sustainable.
If You’re Ready for Deeper Support
If this resonated and you’re ready for more alignment, clarity, and confidence in how you lead your business, deeper support can make a meaningful difference.
Inside my mentorship, the Nourished Business Accelerator, I help experienced coaches and experts create premium offers that reflect the true value of their work and build ethical, sustainable enrollment systems, without relying on pressure, manipulation, or burnout-driven strategies.
Most people don’t realize how heavy their business feels until they experience what it’s like to be supported at this level.
Click here to learn more about the program and apply to work with me inside.
You don’t have to push through growth alone, and you don’t have to sacrifice your well-being to build something meaningful.
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