Your ego wants you to believe you're in control. That if you just stay vigilant enough, productive enough, prepared enough—you can prevent bad things from happening.
It's a lie. And it's keeping you stuck.
In this episode, Chelsea gets raw about slipping back into survival mode after a year of deep transformation. She breaks down why your primitive brain creates false control through victim mentality, and how childhood survival strategies are still running your adult decisions.
This isn't about positive thinking or "choosing better thoughts." This is about the nervous system patterns that keep you reaching for familiar discomfort instead of uncertain growth.
You understand your trauma intellectually but still make the same choices
You feel trapped by circumstances you know you have the power to change
You're exhausted from trying to control everything and everyone around you
You're ready to embrace the unknown instead of white-knuckling certainty
Why your ego operates from the most primitive part of your brain
How victim mentality gives you false control over external circumstances
The daily disruption practices that reset your nervous system for resilience
Why small acts (different routes, new experiences) build capacity for the unknown
"Your core themes from childhood are still driving your thoughts and behaviors. By identifying these patterns, you can break free from the cycles of your past and step into an empowered version of yourself."
If you're done living in your head and ready to embrace the uncertain expansion you've been avoiding, Chelsea's 1:1 container is open.
You'll get a 90-minute Purpose Mapping Call where you'll identify the exact patterns keeping you small and map out what needs to shift.
This work isn't comfortable. But staying stuck is worse.
What happens when you hit every goal on your list and still feel hollow?
Chelsea pulls back the curtain on a year that looked successful from the outside—and felt like survival mode on the inside. Goals met. Revenue up. Business growing. And yet: burnt out, creatively depleted, running on fumes.
Here's the pattern most high-achieving women won't admit: You can build the business, hit the income goal, and check every box—while simultaneously abandoning yourself in the process. Because unresolved trauma doesn't care about your quarterly revenue. It shows up in how you build, why you push, and what you're actually running from when you call it "ambition."
In this episode, you'll discover:
The truth nobody's saying: You can't outwork unresolved trauma. Eventually, your nervous system will force the reckoning you've been avoiding. The burnout, the creative block, the hollow feeling even when you're "winning"—that's not failure. That's your body refusing to betray you anymore.
This episode is for you if you've been white-knuckling your way through "success," suspect your business is a sophisticated coping mechanism for unresolved childhood patterns, or you're ready to build from overflow instead of depletion.
Ready to stop achieving at the cost of yourself?
Chelsea's Courage Container is a 3-week intensive for women ready to stop postponing their dreams and start building from a nervous system that feels safe enough to expand. This is nervous system recalibration for women who've been achieving from survival mode and are ready to build from sovereignty instead.
Because ready isn't a feeling. It's a choice. And the only time you actually have is right now.
Six years of "getting ready" is six years of not serving the people who need you.
Chelsea breaks down the sophisticated self-sabotage that keeps brilliant women collecting credentials instead of claiming clients.
In this episode, you'll hear a raw voice memo exchange with a fellow coach who's been perfecting her process for six years—refining, researching, training, and waiting for the moment she finally feels "qualified enough."
Here's what's actually happening:
She's not unqualified. She's terrified.
And every course she takes, every certification she pursues, every method she studies is another permission slip to delay the one thing that will actually change her life: starting.
You'll discover:
The truth Chelsea reveals:
Your fear of fumbling isn't protecting your future clients from a bad experience.
It's protecting you from having to be visible, accountable, and powerful.
And every day you choose comfort over courage, someone who needs exactly what you have is suffering without it.
This episode is for you if:
What becomes possible when you stop waiting:
✨ Your lived experience becomes your competitive advantage, not something you need to compensate for
✨ You recognize perfectionism as the sophisticated self-sabotage it actually is
✨ You lean into the grief of identity shifts instead of running from the discomfort
✨ You build authority through authenticity, not credentials
✨ You stop performing readiness and start embodying it
The question isn't whether you're qualified.
The question is: How many more years are you going to spend getting ready while the people who need you wait?
Ready to stop collecting certificates and start claiming your authority?
Chelsea's Purpose Liberation 1:1 container is for women who are done performing "not ready yet" and ready to build something real.
This isn't for women who want to talk about doing the thing.
This is for women ready to feel uncomfortable and do it anyway.
Apply by October 16th and receive a Purpose Mapping Call ($444 value)—where we'll identify exactly what's keeping you stuck in the preparation loop and map out your first bold move.
Chelsea gets brutally honest about the moment everything shifted - and why your own liberation story is already writing itself, even if you can't see it yet.
How long have you been performing "fine"? Chelsea opens up about her own liberation journey and the exhausting performance of having it all together while her nervous system was screaming for help.
The moment she stopped pretending changed everything. This isn't another healing story - it's a roadmap for what becomes possible when you finally admit the truth about where you really are.
Your darkness isn't the problem - it's the portal. Chelsea reveals how the moments when she felt most small, rejected, and incapable became the exact places where she reclaimed her power.
Every encounter with fear becomes an opportunity for expansion. When you stop running from discomfort and start meeting it with curiosity, everything shifts.
Sometimes the smallest tools create the biggest shifts. Chelsea shares her surprising discovery about how something as simple as colored glasses became a daily anchor for nervous system regulation - proving that transformation doesn't always require massive overhauls.
It's not about the tool - it's about the intention behind it. Small, consistent choices compound into life-changing results.
There's something inside you that's been waiting. Chelsea talks about that restless feeling - the knowing that you're meant for more than just surviving. That fire isn't your enemy. It's your compass.
Your unique gift is trying to emerge. Whether through creative expression, helping others, or pursuing dreams you've kept hidden, your soul has something the world needs to see.
Success without self-worth is just sophisticated suffering. Chelsea gets real about how apparent achievement can mask deeper feelings of unworthiness - and what it takes to break that cycle.
Vulnerability is not weakness - it's the birthplace of authenticity. When she finally embraced being seen in her imperfection, everything she'd been chasing finally became accessible.
✨ Your liberation story is already writing itself - you just need to stop editing it✨ The moments you feel smallest are where your power lives✨ Small, intentional tools can create massive nervous system shifts✨ The fire inside you isn't restlessness - it's readiness✨ Success means nothing if you're still pretending to be someone you're not
What would change if you stopped pretending you were fine? This episode isn't just Chelsea's story - it's permission for you to start writing your own liberation narrative.
The journey isn't linear. It's messy, vulnerable, and sometimes uncomfortable. But on the other side of that discomfort lives the version of you that's been waiting to emerge.
🔥 Regulate&Rise App - Your Daily Liberation ToolkitStop performing "fine" and start building actual resilience. Get access to regulation tools, guided sessions, and a community of women choosing authenticity over perfection.
Start your 7-day free trial: [App Link]
💎 Ready for Deep Liberation Work? Work With Me 1:1If this episode made something stir inside you, that's your liberation calling. Limited spots for private intensive work where we excavate what's been keeping you small and activate what's been waiting to emerge. Apply here
Chelsea gets raw about the real cost of running from your emotions - and why the edges of your discomfort are actually gateways to the life you're meant to live.
Your nervous system is a library of every experience that shaped you. Every time you choose avoidance over feeling, you're adding another book to the "things I can't handle" section. But here's what nobody tells you: that library is running your entire life.
The resistance you feel toward starting something new? That's not procrastination - that's your nervous system protecting you from emotions it thinks will destroy you.
Chelsea breaks down why we live in emotional avoidance and what it's actually costing us:
Your pain isn't a problem to solve - it's a portal to your power. Chelsea shares how transforming her own struggles into poetry became the gateway to discovering her true purpose. When you stop running from what hurts, it starts working FOR you.
The edges of your discomfort are where your expansion lives. Most people spend their entire lives staying comfortable, which means they spend their entire lives staying small.
Your period isn't just a biological function - it's an emotional processing powerhouse. Chelsea touches on how the cognitive changes during your cycle can actually become your secret weapon for deeper healing and self-reflection.
✨ Your nervous system shapes every reaction you have to the world✨ Emotional avoidance creates life limitations you don't even recognize✨ Pain processed becomes power reclaimed✨ Your resistance patterns are roadmaps to your growth edges✨ Creative expression can transform suffering into purpose
You can't heal what you won't feel. But when you're willing to meet your emotions instead of running from them, they become the very force that transforms your life.
This episode is for women ready to stop surviving their emotions and start using them as fuel for the life they actually want.
🔥 Regulate&Rise App - Your Pocket Emotional Processing CoachGet instant access to regulation tools, guided sessions, and a community of women doing this work together. Plus my exclusive Neuro-Cycle guide to support you through every phase of your cycle.
Start your 7-day free trial: Click me📱$49.99/month after trial
💎 Ready to Go Deeper? Work With Me 1:1If this episode cracked something open inside you, that's your signal. Limited spots available for private intensive work where we excavate the root of your emotional patterns and rewire your nervous system for sustainable transformation. Submit your application see if we're a fit.
"Your pain isn't a problem to solve - it's a portal to your power." - Chelsea
Chelsea sits down with Sarah, creator of the Soul Rehab Project, for a conversation that will make you question everything you think you know about authenticity, healing, and what it actually means to live your truth.
How much of your life is actually yours? Sarah drops truth bombs about how most of us build entire lives on lies we tell ourselves about who we need to be. From family expectations to societal conditioning, we've been performing a version of ourselves that was never authentic.
The pursuit of happiness is keeping you miserable. Sarah reveals why chasing happiness as a destination is the very thing that's stealing your peace. Real fulfillment isn't about feeling good all the time - it's about living in alignment with truth, even when truth is uncomfortable.
Why "doing the work" can become another performance. Sarah gets honest about how personal development can become just another way to avoid facing who you really are. You can't heal your way into happiness while living someone else's version of your life.
The terrifying silence of authenticity. When you stop filling your life with other people's expectations, there's a deafening quiet where your actual desires are supposed to live. Most of us are so afraid of that silence, we'd rather stay busy being the wrong person.
How toxic relationships teach us to abandon our truth. Sarah shares her experience with narcissistic dynamics and why we keep repeating patterns that require us to disappear ourselves. These relationships are training grounds for self-abandonment.
Breaking free from survival mode. Sarah's mission to help bold, badass women stop living in constant reaction and start living from authentic choice.
Why healing in isolation keeps you stuck. Sarah emphasizes that truth-telling requires witnesses. You need people who can see you as you really are, not as who you think you should be.
The importance of being honest with ourselves. This honesty isn't just liberating - it's essential for true emotional freedom. But it requires courage most people aren't willing to access.
✨ You can't build genuine fulfillment on a foundation of lies✨ Happiness is fluid and must be rooted in truth, not performance✨ The discomfort of authenticity is the price of freedom✨ Community support is essential when dismantling the lies✨ Small steps toward truth create massive life shifts
Your authentic life is waiting for you to get honest enough to claim it. But first, you have to be willing to face the lies you've been telling yourself about who you need to be to survive.
This conversation is for women ready to stop pretending their way through life and start living from the truth of who they actually are.
🔗 Soul Rehab Project - Sarah's platform for badass women breaking free from survival mode🔗 Connect with Sarah - Instagram
Ready to stop living someone else's version of your life?
🌟 Private 1:1 Coaching - Deep rewiring through parts work, subconscious reprogramming, and somatic healing. Apply here.
"You can't heal your way into happiness while living someone else's version of your life." - Sarah
Chelsea's Croatia revelation: Standing in paradise while her nervous system threw a tantrum because comfort felt more dangerous than chaos.
Picture this: You're in one of the world's most beautiful places, but your body is vibrating with discomfort. Not because anything's wrong - but because everything's right. And your nervous system doesn't know what to do with "right."
Chelsea discovered something most people won't admit: She was in love with her own chaos. Her body had learned to metabolize instability like a drug, and peace felt like withdrawal.
Your nervous system can become addicted to what hurts you. When chaos has been your normal for long enough, stability feels like danger. Your body literally rejects the very thing you claim to want because familiarity trumps fulfillment every time.
Every area of your life mirrors this pattern. Money, relationships, health, opportunities - they all reflect your unconscious comfort level with receiving good things. If you're not wired for peace, you'll sabotage it every time.
Recognize the Addiction:Your drama isn't happening to you - you're creating it because some part of you needs it. The chaos serves you until you're brave enough to admit how.
Rewire Your Receiving:Peace isn't the absence of feeling - it's the presence of choice. Your body can learn to metabolize stability the same way it learned to crave chaos.
Alchemize the Pattern:The emotions you've been avoiding aren't your enemy. They're your compass pointing toward exactly where you need to grow.
30-Day Emotional Reset Program:For women ready to stop rejecting the peace they claim to want and start rewiring their nervous system for actual stability.
This isn't about managing your chaos - it's about evolving beyond the need for it.
Ready to Go Deeper? Work With Me 1:1:If this episode made something crack open inside you, that's your signal. I have limited spots for private intensive work for women who are done performing their healing and ready to embody it.
We'll excavate the root of why your body rejects peace and rewire your nervous system for sustainable transformation. This is for women who want to heal at the speed of trust, not trauma.
Your body will always choose familiar over fulfilling until you teach it that peace is safe. The question isn't whether you deserve stability - it's whether you're brave enough to stop rejecting it.
Chaos feels like love until you remember what peace actually is.
The moment Chelsea stopped making excuses for her financial chaos and started taking responsibility for the patterns she was unconsciously creating.
Chelsea's breakdown wasn't a tragedy - it was her nervous system finally getting loud enough to break through decades of self-deception. Sometimes your body has to force you to face what your mind keeps avoiding.
This episode is about the moment she stopped being a victim of her childhood programming and started being the author of her financial reality.
Your Nervous System Responds to Leadership:When you start showing up as the regulated adult in your own life, your body follows. It's been waiting for you to take charge.
Worthiness Is a Decision, Not a Feeling:You don't wait to feel worthy - you decide you're worthy and then take actions that prove it to yourself.
Emotional Maturity = Financial Maturity:The woman who can feel her feelings without making them everyone else's problem is the same woman who can build sustainable wealth.
If you're done with the victim story and ready to become the woman who creates what she wants instead of explaining why she can't have it, Chelsea's Somatic Wealth Code is for leaders who take responsibility for their internal landscape.
This is for women who want to heal AND thrive. Who understand that your past informs your present but doesn't have to control your future.
[JOIN THE SOMATIC WEALTH CODE]
Your financial reality is a direct reflection of your internal leadership. Time to step up.
The woman complaining about her circumstances and the woman creating her dreams are the same person. The only difference is which one you choose to be today.
Danielle couldn't tell if she was hungry or having a panic attack. She'd been living like a ghost in her own body for so long that existing felt like wearing someone else's life. This is what happened when she finally came home to herself.
Danielle walked into my Beyond Survival program carrying the kind of numbness that makes you pinch yourself just to remember you're real. She wasn't just disconnected - she was completely missing from her own existence. Going through the motions of living while feeling absolutely nothing.
If you've ever looked in the mirror and thought "who the fuck is that person, and how did I get here?" - you know exactly where Danielle was living.
Inner Child Work That Cuts Through the Bullshit:
Community That Shattered the Isolation:
EFT Tapping That Actually Worked:
The Brutal Truth About Boundaries:
Your numbness isn't weakness. It's your nervous system's most sophisticated survival strategy. When feeling everything would have killed you, your body chose numbness to keep you alive.
But here's what Danielle discovered: The body that saved you as a child might be suffocating you as an adult.
If reading Danielle's story made something crack open in your chest, that's not coincidence. That's your soul recognizing its own prison.
I have limited spots in Beyond Survival: The Resilience Code - but this isn't for everyone. This is nervous system rewiring for women who are done performing their lives and ready to actually inhabit them.
Book a call with me. No scripts. No high-pressure tactics. Just an honest conversation about whether you're ready to stop being a ghost in your own existence.
We'll talk about whether your nervous system is ready to feel again - because coming back to yourself isn't comfortable. It's necessary.
Your body is waiting for you to come home. The woman you abandoned to survive is ready to be found.
You can't heal what you won't feel. But you also can't live what you won't inhabit.
This week, I'm sitting down with Sydnie—a woman who thought deconstructing her faith was the hard part. Turns out, convincing her body that she was actually free? That was the real work.
If you've ever left something that everyone else thought was "good for you," this conversation is going to gut you in the best possible way. Because here's what nobody tells you about liberation: your nervous system doesn't automatically update its software when your mind decides to evolve.
We're diving deep into:
The aftermath nobody warns you about – How panic attacks became Sydnie's daily reality after leaving high-control religion, and why her body felt more unsafe in freedom than it ever did in captivity
When your protector becomes your prison – The specific ways religious trauma wires your nervous system to equate visibility with danger, and why speaking your truth can literally make you feel like you're dying
The purpose awakening – How Sydnie finally felt safe enough in her own skin to stop hiding her gifts and start sharing what she was actually meant to bring to the world (spoiler: your nervous system has to give you permission before your purpose can fully emerge)
Obsessive thoughts as survival strategy – Why your brain creates elaborate worry scenarios and how to recognize when your "anxiety" is actually your system trying to predict and prevent the next trauma
The mother wound meets the God wound – How Sydnie's relationship with her children transformed when she stopped parenting from fear and started parenting from her own regulated nervous system
Reciprocity as revolutionary act – The game-changing moment when Sydnie realized that giving and receiving aren't transactional—they're relational, and her nervous system had to learn the difference
This episode will hit different if you:
The hard truth nobody's talking about: Your mind can leave. Your body stays hostage until you do the specific work to liberate it.
Sydnie's story isn't just about religious deconstruction—it's about what happens when you stop trying to think your way out of trauma and start having conversations with the parts of you that are still scared shitless of being seen.
Key Takeaways:
Resources mentioned:
Connect with Sydnie: @iamhealingwithher
Ready to interrupt your own patterns? If Sydnie's story is lighting something up in your chest, your nervous system is trying to tell you something important. It's saying: I'm ready to stop running this same exhausting program.
I'm offering a limited number of Pattern Interrupt Sessions designed to break the patterns keeping you locked in survival mode. These aren't therapy sessions. They're precision interventions that target the exact places where your system learned to protect you in ways that no longer serve you.
Book your sessions here: [link]
In this gut-punch of an episode, Chelsea rips open the veil between trauma and your money story, showing how your nervous system's grip might be strangling your financial freedom.
Chelsea is offering three deeply intimate 1:1 sessions at an accessible rate for those ready to excavate the root causes of their financial struggles. This isn't surface-level coaching—it's a guided journey into the trenches of your money wounds to build resilience from the ground up.
📆 Book your Pattern Interrupt Sessions here
If your gut clenched while listening to this episode, that's your body recognizing truth. Honor that reaction by taking one small step toward healing today. Grab Chelsea's limited 1:1 slots to begin untangling your nervous system from your financial reality.
The path to thriving demands facing what hurts. Chelsea creates a container where that facing becomes your liberation, not another trauma.
You weren’t meant to grieve in silence. You were meant to be witnessed in your return to wholeness.
In this raw and reverent episode of the Start Thriving podcast, Chelsea Bartell-Smith shares her personal journey with grief as a sacred threshold—not something to move on from, but something to move with. Through the loss of her cousin and the grief that followed, Chelsea reflects on what it means to hold pain without becoming it—and how grief, when fully felt, can unlock unshakable love and deep internal resilience.
Grief isn’t just sorrow—it’s sacred proof of connection.
And when you stop bracing against it, something remarkable happens:
You begin to come back to life.
Inside this episode, you’ll explore:
Why grief is a form of love that deserves space, not suppression
How unprocessed grief gets stored in the body—and how to gently release it
The hidden link between emotional avoidance and survival habits like people-pleasing, overworking, and emotional numbness
Somatic initiations that reconnect you to the wisdom beneath the weight—because your body remembers how to come home
The importance of being witnessed in your healing (because we rise together, not alone)
Chelsea doesn’t just talk about grief—she models what it means to meet your inner landscape with grace. She holds the space for you to return to the parts of yourself that felt too tender to touch, too painful to hold—and bring them back into your body with reverence.
If you’ve ever whispered:“I’m too much. I’m not enough. I want to feel... but I don’t know how.”
This conversation is your permission slip to begin.
💌 If this episode resonated, it’s because you’re ready for deeper work.
Beyond Survival Mode: The Resilience Code is not just a program—it’s an initiation. A 3-month journey into your fullest expression. A space where pain becomes portal, and resilience is built not through bypass, but through brave embodiment.
This is where women come to sit with what hurts—and rise with what heals.
You’re not here to just cope. You’re here to transform.
If you felt cracked open by this conversation, it’s because your healing has already begun.
Welcome to the women who rise differently.
Ever feel like your brain is running a marathon with no finish line? You replay conversations, analyze every decision, and convince yourself that this mental spinning is productive. But what if I told you it’s not?
In this episode, we’re exposing the truth about overthinking — it’s not problem-solving. It’s a survival response. A sneaky form of emotional avoidance dressed up as analysis.
We’ll dive into:
Why overthinking is actually under-feeling — and how your body holds the key to real healing.
The neuroscience of emotional loops — understanding why your brain won’t let go.
The childhood connection — how unhealed wounds keep you stuck in survival mode.
Practical tools to disrupt the cycle — because clarity doesn’t come from thinking harder; it comes from feeling deeper.
If you’re exhausted from the constant noise in your head and crave emotional freedom, this episode is your permission slip to stop overthinking and start healing.
🎧 Listen now and learn how to reclaim your power.
👉 Ready to take this work deeper? Join me for my free live workshop, "How to Reclaim The Woman You Were Before The World Taught You to Play Small." We’ll dive into the patterns that are keeping you stuck, and I’ll show you how to break free — once and for all.
🔗 Save your spot now: Show Up Big Sis [Click Me]
Register for the workshop here📆
In this raw and revealing episode, I pull back the curtain on one of the most damaging pieces of advice in modern therapy: "just sit with your uncomfortable feelings." What happens when this well-intentioned guidance collides with a nervous system that's primed for survival? I share the heartbreaking story of a woman whose OCD symptoms intensified dramatically after following this common therapeutic recommendation.
I break down the biological reasons why so many women struggle with traditional anxiety and OCD treatment approaches. When trauma has altered your brain's regulatory centers, "just sitting with feelings" isn't just difficult—it can reinforce the very patterns you're trying to break.
This isn't about willpower. It's about working with your nervous system's unique wiring—not against it.
Discover the critical step that transforms emotional processing from overwhelming to empowering. Learn why creating a regulated state first allows you to:
"I felt so broken before, like I couldn't even do the ONE thing my therapist kept telling me to do. Learning that my nervous system literally wasn't wired to 'just sit with' these feelings without regulation first changed everything. Now I have tools that actually work for MY body." - Recent client
If this episode resonates with your own struggle to "sit with feelings" successfully, know that your nervous system is likely doing exactly what it was designed to do. The key isn't trying harder—it's shifting the approach to work with your biology, not against it.
Ready to experience proper nervous system regulation and transform your relationship with difficult emotions? Book an Emotional Alchemy session to discover the difference proper regulation makes: [Click to book]
Remember: Your struggle to "feel your feelings" isn't a character flaw—it's a biological response to past experiences. Healing is possible when we work with our nervous systems instead of against them.
Ever feel like you’re just going through the motions — stuck in the same old patterns, knowing you want more but feeling too exhausted or numb to make a change? If you’re nodding along, this episode is for you.
In this week’s episode of Start Thriving, I’m getting real about what it takes to break free from survival mode. If you’ve experienced complex trauma, you know that constant cycle of anxiety, emotional overwhelm, and feeling disconnected from your body all too well. But here’s the truth: You don’t have to stay stuck there.
We talk about:
👉 The sneaky signs that you’re stuck in survival mode — and why you might not even realize it
👉 How tiny acts of courage and spontaneity can help you break free from emotional autopilot
👉 Why your nervous system craves new experiences (and how to give it what it needs without overwhelm)
👉 The real reason change feels so hard — and how to make it easier
👉 My own story of how small shifts, like changing my routine and getting out of my comfort zone, helped me rewire my brain and reclaim my life
If you’re tired of feeling stuck and ready to step into a life of more ease, presence, and joy — this episode will give you the tools and hope you need to start moving forward.
And if you’re ready for more personalized support, my Fuck Survival Mode group program and 1:1 coaching are designed to help you get to the root of your patterns and finally feel safe, regulated, and fully alive. In these containers, we use measurable tools tailored to your unique nervous system so you can create lasting change — no more guessing, no more getting stuck in the same cycles.
📲 Ready to go deeper? Grab an Emotional Alchemy call with me to close a survival loop for good! Click here to book 📆
With love and resilience,
Chelsea
📆 Book your Nervous System Liberation Call
🌊 Burn the Ships: Embracing Fear to Ignite Your Potential 🌊
What if the thing keeping you stuck isn’t your lack of clarity or motivation — but your fear of fully committing to the life you actually want?
In this raw and powerful episode of Start Thriving, Chelsea Bartel Smith gets real about what it takes to break free from survival mode and step into your true potential.
🔥 Why do we cling to safety — even when it keeps us stuck?💡 How fear shows up as procrastination, self-doubt, and indecision🧠 The role your nervous system plays in keeping you in familiar (but limiting) patterns🌱 Why burning the ships — eliminating your escape routes — creates true transformation
Chelsea shares her own journey of facing fear in her business, the emotional rollercoaster of questioning your purpose, and the exact tools she uses to regulate her nervous system and move forward despite fear. Plus, you’ll hear an inspiring story about her assistant, Issa, who confronted her fear of sharing her singing and unlocked a whole new level of self-expression.
If you’ve been feeling stuck, scared, or unsure of your next step — this episode will light a fire in you.
Ever felt like you’ve hit an emotional dead end? Like no matter how much you want to move forward, your body just won’t cooperate? That’s not laziness or lack of willpower — that’s your shutdown response. And it’s more common (and more misunderstood) than you think.
In this episode of Start Thriving, I’m diving deep into what’s really happening when your nervous system goes offline — and how to gently find your way back to safety and connection.
🧠 What You’ll Learn:
💡 The key difference between the freeze response and full-on shutdown — and why it matters
💔 How early experiences of emotional neglect shape your adult relationships and self-worth
🔍 Why isolation fuels shutdown — and the surprising way connection helps you heal
✨ Practical, science-backed strategies to reawaken your emotional world and break free from trauma loops
🤝 The role of self-regulation and co-regulation in rebuilding trust and safety in your body
This episode isn’t just theory — it’s a lifeline. If you’re stuck in a place of numbness, overwhelm, or disconnection, there’s a way out. And it starts with understanding the language of your nervous system.
🎧 Ready to take that first step toward healing? Listen now and start reconnecting — with yourself, your body, and the people who love you.
🔗Ready to book a consult call? Book here 📆
🔗 Wanna take my free Dominant Survival State quiz? Get practical tools curated for your unique nervous system state? Click here
💔 Attachment Styles: The Invisible Force Behind Your Relationships 💔
Root Cause → Why does this happen?
Ever wonder why you keep attracting the same kind of partners? Or why love sometimes feels more like anxiety than safety? The way we bond (or struggle to) isn’t random—it’s wired deep in our nervous system from childhood. If your early caregivers were inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or unpredictable, your brain adapted to keep you safe… but at a cost.
These unconscious patterns dictate how you show up in love—whether you chase, shut down, or sabotage the very thing you crave. Anxious attachment? You might overthink every text and fear abandonment. Avoidant? You pull away the moment things feel too intimate. Disorganized? It’s a push-pull of wanting closeness but fearing it at the same time.
Healing your attachment wounds isn’t about forcing yourself to be “less needy” or “more independent.” It’s about rewiring your nervous system to create real emotional safety—so relationships become a place of security and connection, not stress and survival. Imagine feeling calm, confident, and deeply seen in love, no longer stuck in old cycles.
Your attachment style isn’t a personality trait—it’s a survival response, and the good news? You can rewire it.
Think of attachment like your phone’s default settings. If you grew up in chaos, your system is wired for instability, scanning for threats instead of connection. But just like software updates, your attachment patterns can change—once you know how to reprogram them.
🔥In this episode, Chelsea and her husband Zack pull back the curtain on their own relationship, attachment wounds, and the tools that actually create lasting security.
You’ll learn:
✅ Why your nervous system determines how safe (or unsafe) love feels
✅ The hidden ways attachment wounds show up in dating, marriage, and conflict
✅ How Zach’s avoidant patterns almost sabotaged his relationship—and what changed
✅ The #1 key to breaking painful cycles and creating deep emotional safety
If you’ve ever felt like love is a battlefield, this episode is your roadmap to peace.
👉Listen now and start rewriting your attachment story.
Tell me what you want to hear next:Topic Submission Form
🚨Your Childhood is Messing With Your Self-Discipline (And You Don’t Even Know It) 🚨
If self-discipline feels like a constant battle—forcing, shaming, or white-knuckling your way through—there’s a reason for that. And it has everything to do with what you were taught as a kid.
In this episode ofStart Thriving, we’re flipping the script on discipline. Because real self-discipline? It’s not about punishment, suffering, or “just try harder.” It’s about self-leadership, trust, and finally breaking free from the cycles that keep you stuck.
🔥 Why your childhood shaped your entire relationship with discipline (for better or worse)
🚫 How shame-based discipline leads to procrastination and self-sabotage
✨ The secret to making discipline feelgood—so you actually stick with it
🧠 Why small, doable wins are the key to rewiring your nervous system for success
💡 How honoring your inner child can unlock real consistency and self-trust
You don’t needmore discipline—you need a new way of thinking about it. This episode will help you ditch the guilt, stop the endless start-stop cycle, and build self-trust like never before.
Listen now and start leading yourself the way you always needed.
[Nervous System Liberation Call] 📆
When twelve potential clients ghost their nervous system liberation calls, most coaches would question their worth. But what if the real story isn't about rejection – but about the epidemic of "healing procrastination" that's keeping thousands stuck in survival mode?
In this raw and revealing episode, trauma healing coach Chelsea Bartell Smith pulls back the curtain on a phenomenon she calls "mental masturbation" – the addictive cycle of consuming trauma content without taking action. Through her own vulnerable story of recent client ghosting, Chelsea exposes why:
"Trauma may not be your fault, but healing is your responsibility." Chelsea breaks down exactly what this means and provides a practical roadmap for moving from knowledge to embodied change.
Discover how Chelsea's State Spotlight Method helps clients:
If you're tired of just understanding your trauma and ready to actually heal it, this episode provides the wake-up call – and practical tools – you've been waiting for.
Don't miss this powerful exploration of why healing happens through action, not information, and how to finally break free from the cycle of knowing better but not doing better.
Your next step: Ready to move beyond understanding and into actual healing? [Click here] to book your nervous system liberation call with Chelsea.
