A lot of women know they struggle with people-pleasing, over-functioning or feeling responsible for everyone around them. But recognising the pattern is one thing. What happens when you actually stop performing it? When you don’t organise everything. When you say no. When you let somebody be disappointed. When you stop explaining yourself until everyone feels comfortable again. Because sometimes changing a survival pattern doesn’t only change you. It changes the relationships that learned how to function around the old version of you. In this episode, Carina explores why choosing yourself can feel so unsettling when being helpful, agreeable, easy or needed once helped you feel safe and secure in relationships. And why someone else’s discomfort with your changing behaviour does not automatically mean you’ve done something wrong. In this episode, we explore: Why relationships can feel different when you stop over-functioning How being useful, agreeable or easy can become connected to belonging Why another person’s disappointment can trigger guilt, fear or the urge to backtrack How relationships develop unspoken roles and expectations over time Why healing can reveal which relationships have space for the fuller version of you What becomes possible when you stop abandoning yourself to restore connection If you’ve ever found yourself thinking: “Maybe I should just do it.” “I don’t want them to think I’m selfish.” “They never used to be upset with me like this.” “Maybe I’ve changed too much.” This episode is for you. Because not every relationship will immediately know what to do with the version of you who stops abandoning herself. And someone being uncomfortable with your growth doesn’t automatically mean you need to become the old version again. Continue the Conversation: If this episode has you wondering where survival might be showing up in your own life in ways you’ve learned to call normal, I’d love to invite you into my free private audio series: Six Hidden Ways Women Quietly Abandon Themselves Across six short conversations, we explore some of the everyday ways survival can become woven into how you think, behave, relate and move through the world... often so quietly that you begin mistaking those patterns for personality. Listen privately. At your own pace. And start noticing where survival may still be running the show. → Start the free six-part audio series here — Carina Bull is a trauma-aware facilitator, intuitive mentor and host of Soul Medicine. Her work helps women recognise where survival became identity, so they can stop abandoning themselves in real time and reconnect with who they are beneath the roles they learned to perform. Music from Uppbeat Mountaineer — Juciest License code: OEPVET9VNFBLLISZ

Content note: This episode includes discussion of bereavement following murder, depression, alcohol, smoking and self-harm. Carina does not go into graphic detail, but she does speak honestly about what that period of her life looked like. Three days after my sister was murdered, I went back to work. I told myself I needed routine. Normality. Something familiar when everything else had suddenly become incomprehensible.  And for around three months, I kept functioning. I went to work. I did what needed doing. I carried on. And because I was functioning, I thought I was coping. I wasn’t. In this deeply personal episode, Carina shares one of the lived experiences behind her work and explores what survival can look like when it doesn’t look like falling apart at all. Sometimes survival looks remarkably capable.  It gets dressed. Goes to work. Answers messages. Looks after everybody else. And keeps moving. Because functioning and processing are not always the same thing. In this episode, we explore: Why functioning does not necessarily mean you are coping How routine can initially support us but sometimes become somewhere to hide Why some women become incredibly capable when life feels unbearable How emotional pain can begin speaking through behaviour when we do not yet know how to process it Why survival responses are not something to shame What happens when the thing that helped you survive becomes the way you continue abandoning yourself Why receiving support can be very different from proving how much you can carry Why you do not have to completely fall apart before your pain is worthy of support If you have ever found yourself thinking: “I’m fine. I’m still getting everything done.” “I just need to keep busy.” “Everyone thinks I’m coping.” “I don’t know what would happen if I actually stopped.” This conversation is for you. Because some women don’t fall apart when life becomes unbearable. They become incredibly good at carrying on. And sometimes the question is not whether you are strong enough to keep going. You probably are. The harder question is: Are you moving through what you’re carrying... or staying in motion so you don’t have to feel it? Continue the Conversation: If this episode has you wondering where survival might be showing up in your own life in ways you’ve learned to call normal, I’d love to invite you into my free private audio series: Six Hidden Ways Women Quietly Abandon Themselves Across six short conversations, we explore some of the everyday ways survival can become woven into how you think, behave, relate and move through the world... often so quietly that you begin mistaking those patterns for personality. Listen privately. At your own pace. And start noticing where survival may still be running the show. → Start the free six-part audio series here: — Carina Bull is a trauma-aware facilitator, intuitive mentor and host of Soul Medicine. Her work helps women recognise where survival became identity, so they can stop abandoning themselves in real time and reconnect with who they are beneath the roles they learned to perform. Music from Uppbeat Mountaineer — Juciest License code: OEPVET9VNFBLLISZ

A lot of women believe they keep choosing the wrong people. They wonder why every relationship seems to leave them feeling unheard, emotionally alone, or responsible for holding everything together. But what if the repeating pattern isn’t only the person you choose? What if it’s what happens inside you when something feels wrong? In this episode, Carina explores why women can recognise that something has hurt them, then immediately begin questioning their own experience. They ask: “Am I overreacting?” “Is this bad enough?” “Would anyone else be upset by this?” Because sometimes the pattern repeats at the moment you stop trusting what you felt and begin negotiating with your own reality. In this episode, we explore: Why women ask other people for permission to trust their own experience How emotional dismissal can slowly erode self-trust Why you may keep moving the line for what counts as “bad enough” How understanding someone else’s behaviour can become a way of abandoning yourself Why questioning your reality may once have helped you preserve connection What becomes possible when you stop cross-examining your own feelings If you’ve ever found yourself thinking: “Maybe I’m being too sensitive.” “They didn’t mean it like that.” “Other women have it worse.” “Am I allowed to take this seriously?” This episode is for you. Because you do not need a unanimous verdict before your experience becomes real. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to continue the conversation through my weekly email. It's not a traditional newsletter. It's a written coaching conversation. One new way of seeing yourself each week, straight into your inbox. → Join the Conversation — Carina Bull is a trauma-aware facilitator, intuitive mentor, and host of Soul Medicine. Every week, she invites listeners into the conversations she's already having with the women she works with. Conversations about survival, self-abandonment, emotional exhaustion, and what becomes possible when we begin seeing ourselves differently. Her work helps women recognise the survival patterns they've mistaken for who they are, so they can remember who they were before survival taught them who they had to be. Music from Uppbeat Mountaineer — Juciest License code: OEPVET9VNFBLLISZ

Have you caught yourself thinking... “I don’t feel like myself anymore”? Maybe your life still looks mostly the same.  You are still working, parenting, answering messages, remembering what everyone needs and keeping everything moving.  But somewhere underneath all of that, you no longer recognise the woman doing it. In this episode, Carina explores why feeling lost does not always mean you have drifted away from yourself. Sometimes it is what happens when the version of you who knew how to survive no longer fits, but the woman you are becoming still feels unfamiliar. Because healing does not always feel like coming home straight away. Sometimes it feels like losing the map. In this episode, we explore:  Why you may no longer want to return to the woman you used to be   What happens when familiar survival roles begin to loosen   Why saying no, asking for space or behaving differently can feel unsettling   How the nervous system can mistake familiar roles for safety   Why feeling unlike yourself does not necessarily mean you are going backwards   What it means to become someone you have never had room to be before  If you have ever found yourself thinking: “I just want to feel like myself again.” “This isn’t like me.” “I don’t know who I am anymore.” “But I don’t want to go back to who I was either.” This conversation is for you. Because maybe you have not lost yourself. Maybe you are between identities. And maybe finding yourself is not always a return to who you were. Sometimes it is finally becoming who you never had room to be.  Listen Next If this episode opened something for you, continue with: Episode 48: Who Were You Before Survival Taught You Who You Had to Be? That episode explores the parts of you survival may have asked you to leave behind. This conversation takes the next step by asking what happens when returning to yourself does not mean returning to the past. → Listen to Episode 48 here: https://soulmedicinewithcarina.com.au/48  — Carina Bull is a trauma-aware facilitator, intuitive mentor and host of Soul Medicine. Her work helps women recognise where survival became identity, so they can stop abandoning themselves in real time and reconnect with who they are beneath the roles they learned to perform. Music Credit Music from Uppbeat Mountaineer — Juciest License code: OEPVET9VNFBLLISZ

A lot of women believe they have a problem with food. They tell themselves they have no willpower. That they should be more disciplined. That they should be able to control it. But what if your relationship with food makes more sense than you’ve ever allowed yourself to believe? In this episode, Carina explores why some women reach for food when life feels overwhelming, while others lose their appetite completely. On the surface, they couldn't look more different, yet both may be survival strategies. Because sometimes food is not the problem. Sometimes it is the strategy survival found. In this episode, we explore: Why emotional eating isn't simply about willpower Why anxiety can make eating feel almost impossible  How food can become comfort, control, protection or relief  Why survival repeats what once helped  What becomes possible when shame is replaced with curiosity If you’ve ever found yourself thinking: "Why can't I just eat normally?" "When I'm stressed, I completely lose my appetite." "What is wrong with me?" This episode is for you. Because maybe your relationship with food makes more sense than you've ever allowed yourself to believe. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to continue the conversation through my weekly email. It's not a traditional newsletter. It's a written coaching conversation. One new way of seeing yourself each week, straight into your inbox. → Join the Conversation — Carina Bull is a trauma-aware facilitator, intuitive mentor, and host of Soul Medicine. Every week, she invites listeners into the conversations she's already having with the women she works with. Conversations about survival, self-abandonment, emotional exhaustion, and what becomes possible when we begin seeing ourselves differently. Her work helps women recognise the survival patterns they've mistaken for who they are, so they can remember who they were before survival taught them who they had to be. Music from Uppbeat Mountaineer — Juciest License code: OEPVET9VNFBLLISZ