Life can feel overwhelming, especially when you're dealing with anxiety, stress, a dysregulated nervous system, or constant overthinking.
But here's the good news: you're not alone, and relief is possible.
I'm Leah Davidson, a nervous system resilience coach and speech-language pathologist, and I'm here to help you navigate life's ups and downs by teaching you practical tools for nervous system regulation.
On this podcast, you'll learn how to manage anxiety, reduce stress, stop overthinking, and support a healthier, more regulated nervous system.
Together, we'll share inspiring stories, practical tips, and compassionate support to build resilience and create a life filled with purpose, joy, and connection.
Ready to befriend your nervous system and reclaim your peace? Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Life can feel overwhelming, especially when you're dealing with anxiety, stress, a dysregulated nervous system, or constant overthinking.
But here's the good news: you're not alone, and relief is possible.
I'm Leah Davidson, a nervous system resilience coach and speech-language pathologist, and I'm here to help you navigate life's ups and downs by teaching you practical tools for nervous system regulation.
On this podcast, you'll learn how to manage anxiety, reduce stress, stop overthinking, and support a healthier, more regulated nervous system.
Together, we'll share inspiring stories, practical tips, and compassionate support to build resilience and create a life filled with purpose, joy, and connection.
Ready to befriend your nervous system and reclaim your peace? Let's get started!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to heal, the worse your body seems to feel? You meditate more, stretch more, breathe deeper, and still, your nervous system won’t calm down.
In this episode, Leah Davidson explores the subtle but crucial difference between healing and pressuring yourself to heal. She breaks down the seven “F” survival responses: fear, focus, frustration, fight, figuring it out, fixing, and forlorn (6 of the F’s are based on Dr. Howard Schubiner’s work). These patterns keep your body stuck in protection mode even when your intentions are good.
You’ll learn why the nervous system doesn’t respond to force, how healing can accidentally turn into a job your body resents, and what to do instead to create true safety and connection with yourself.
If you’ve ever wondered why your nervous system work isn’t working, this episode will help you understand what’s really happening beneath the surface and how to step back into balance with warmth instead of willpower.
We’ll explore:
LINKS AND RESOURCES:
🏡 COMMUNITY
NERVOUS SYSTEM JOURNALING CLUB : Doodle, journal and heal in community.
Join here: https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-journaling-club/about
📚 MENTAL HEALTH STATIONERY - RESILIENT BRILLIANCE PRODUCTS:
1) RESILIENCE JOURNAL: A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
Amazon US - https://a.co/d/7DpuyVj
2) MY SAFE SPACE : AFFIRMATION AND JOURNAL PROMPT SET
Amazon US - https://a.co/d/2mANQs4
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
📸 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/leahdavidsonlifecoaching/
👍🏻 FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Let’s be honest, no parent wakes up thinking, “Today I’m going to lose it with my kids.”
But by mid-morning, the chaos hits, stress builds, and suddenly you’re yelling louder than you meant to, and the guilt floods in.
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah Davidson unpacks what’s really happening when you lose your cool and why yelling isn’t a sign of being a “bad parent,” but rather a cue from your nervous system that it’s overwhelmed and braced for danger.
You’ll learn how to create emotional safety for your kids (and yourself), even when you mess up, and how to repair connections afterward in a way that actually builds resilience and trust.
Leah walks you through her simple Safety Sequence to help you stay grounded in the moment, plus practical nervous-system-based tools to reduce yelling, strengthen boundaries, and reconnect with compassion.
We’ll explore:
COMMUNITY
Join here: https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-journaling-club/about
MENTAL HEALTH STATIONERY - RESILIENT BRILLIANCE PRODUCTS:
1) RESILIENCE JOURNAL: A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
2) MY SAFE SPACE : AFFIRMATION AND JOURNAL PROMPT SET
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the story that once kept you safe is now keeping you stuck?
In this final episode of the ReStory Yourself series, Leah Davidson guides you through how to release the old narratives that no longer serve you, not by ignoring them or forcing positivity, but through compassion, nervous system regulation, and embodied practice.
Leah introduces her powerful GRACE framework, a step-by-step process to help you acknowledge your past, integrate your lessons, and consciously author a new story that feels safe, grounded, and alive in your body.
Through gratitude, recognition, acceptance, choice, and embodiment, you’ll learn to loosen your grip on outdated survival stories and start living from a place of presence and possibility.
If you’ve ever felt defined by your past or caught in repeating patterns of self-protection, this episode will help you remember: your story isn’t over, you are the author now.
We’ll explore:
LINKS AND RESOURCES:
📌IT'S NOT JUST YOUR THOUGHTS, IT'S YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM (WITH A CREATIVE TWIST)
📌IBS NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET (Workbook and Worksheets)
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM STRESS TEST: Take the test to see how dysregulated you really are?
PRODUCTS:
1) RESILIENCE JOURNAL
2) MY SAFE SPACE : AFFIRMATION AND JOURNAL PROMPT SET
COMMUNITIES
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM JOURNALING CLUB : Doodle, journal and heal in community
📌CONNECTIONS - MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP: Coursework, Coaching, Creative Doodling and Community
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
📩 Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Two people can live through the same experience—a breakup, a job loss, or a childhood wound—and walk away with entirely different realities because of the story they tell about it. In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah Davidson explores how your inner narrative shapes both your mindset and your nervous system, and how stories can become survival codes that keep you stuck. She shares three powerful ways to shift your story through your lens, your language, and your nervous system state, offering simple, compassionate tools to help you rewrite your narrative from a place of safety, growth, and self-compassion.
We’ll explore:
LINKS AND RESOURCES:
📌IBS NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET (Workbook and Worksheets)
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM STRESS TEST: Take the test to see how dysregulated you really are?
MENTAL HEALTH STATIONERY - RESILIENT BRILLIANCE PRODUCTS:
1) RESILIENCE JOURNAL: A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
2) MY SAFE SPACE : AFFIRMATION AND JOURNAL PROMPT SET
COMMUNITIES
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM JOURNALING CLUB : Doodle, journal and heal in community
📌CONNECTIONS - MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP: Coursework, Coaching, Creative Doodling and Community
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
📩 Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter
ENJOYED THIS EPISODE?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
WANT TO CREATE YOUR OWN SKOOL COMMUNITY: 🔗 Check it out here
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Have you ever noticed that your nervous system doesn’t just react to what happened? It reacts to the story you tell about it.
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah unpacks how the stories we carry, those we’ve inherited, absorbed, or created, shape the way we think, feel, and move through the world.
You’ll learn how these stories can become survival codes that your nervous system still follows and why awareness is the first step toward shifting them. Leah also shares three simple metaphors: camera lenses, playlists, and weather patterns, to help you see your stories with more clarity and choice.
This episode is an invitation to notice your own stories and begin gently reshaping them in a way that supports safety, growth, and connection.
We’ll explore:
Links and Resources:
📌IBS NERVOUS SYSTEM RESET (Workbook and Worksheets)
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM STRESS TEST: Take the test to see how dysregulated you really are?
MENTAL HEALTH STATIONERY - RESILIENT BRILLIANCE PRODUCTS:
1) RESILIENCE JOURNAL: A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US - https://a.co/d/7DpuyVj
📌 Amazon CA - https://a.co/d/7DpuyVj
2) MY SAFE SPACE : AFFIRMATION AND JOURNAL PROMPT SET
📌Amazon US - https://a.co/d/2mANQs4
📌Amazon CA - https://a.co/d/7JtdlUM
COMMUNITIES
📌NERVOUS SYSTEM JOURNALING CLUB : Doodle, journal and heal in community.
Join here: https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-journaling-club/about
📌CONNECTIONS - MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP: Coursework, Coaching, Creative Doodling and Community
Join the waitlist here: https://leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/CONNECTIONS/
📌THE ADVANCED TRAINING IN NERVOUS SYSTEM RESILIENCE: A 6 month immersive experience for personal and professional training.
Join the waitlist here: https://leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/coach-training/
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
📌INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/leahdavidsonlifecoaching/
📌FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
WANT TO CREATE YOUR OWN SKOOL COMMUNITY:
🔗 Check it out here - https://www.skool.com/signup?ref=06e003b61b8148ebbafd3a067f3cc2e1
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We often think resilience means pushing through, staying strong, toughing it out, and keeping a brave face. But what if true resilience comes from something softer, kindness?
In this grounding episode, Leah Davidson shares how kindness, especially self-kindness, can shift your nervous system from survival to safety. You’ll learn how harsh self-talk activates stress in your body, while even tiny acts of gentleness, a pause, a breath, a kind word, begin to rewire your system for healing and calm.
Leah also explores how kindness shows up in parenting, relationships, and everyday moments of struggle. Whether you’re recovering from burnout, navigating chronic illness, or simply feeling overwhelmed, this episode will remind you that kindness isn’t weakness, it’s your most powerful tool for resilience, connection, and healing.
We’ll explore:
Links and Resources:
New: Worry Time PreSale Bundle (limited time offer) (ends October 17th, 2025)
Resource: IBS Nervous System Reset
Get: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Want to create your own Skool Community?
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Is it possible that the true key to success, in business, healthcare, and life, isn’t found in data, but in kindness?
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah Davidson explores how kindness, far from being a “soft skill,” is actually a powerful nervous system practice that sustains growth, connection, and creativity.
From medical school ceremonies to entrepreneurial struggles, Leah reflects on how we often measure success by numbers and performance while overlooking the biological and relational power of kindness. She shares how kindness can reframe our understanding of success, foster nervous system safety, and even become a smart business strategy, something AI will never replicate.
Whether you’re a leader, entrepreneur, or healer, this episode will remind you that kindness isn’t just a moral choice, it’s a biological intervention and the foundation of sustainable success.
We’ll explore:
Links and Resources:
New: Worry Time PreSale Bundle (limited time offer)
Resource: IBS Nervous System Reset
Get: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Want to create your own Skool Community?
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this milestone episode, Leah is joined by bestselling author and master coach Molly Claire to talk about her new book, She Rises.
Together, they explore what it really means to rise through adversity, whether that’s grief, burnout, perfectionism, or life transitions, and how emotions, nervous system health, and community all play a role in building resilience.
You’ll hear powerful stories from She Rises and learn simple, practical ways to embrace growth, process grief, and find strength in life’s hardest seasons.
We’ll explore:
Links and Resources:
Life, Mastered with Molly Claire Podcast
Free resources: https://www.mollyclaire.com/freebie
—-------------------------
New Resource : IBS Nervous System Reset
NEW: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Want to create your own Skool Community?
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If you’ve ever struggled with IBS, you know it’s about more than digestion. It’s the discomfort, unpredictability, anxiety, and sometimes even shame that come along with it. And while food lists and symptom trackers may help a little, they rarely get to the root of the problem.
In this episode of Building Resilience, Leah explores IBS from a nervous system perspective. She unpacks the fascinating connection between the gut and the brain, why stress makes symptoms worse, and how your body’s protective “alarm system” may be keeping you stuck in flare cycles.
We’ll explore:
New Resource : IBS Nervous System Reset
NEW: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Want to create your own Skool Community?
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the very things you do to manage your health are actually keeping you stuck?
In this episode of Building Resilience, Leah uncovers the common habits that may be making you sick, like constantly talking about symptoms, compulsive Googling, avoiding activities, or delaying joy. These everyday patterns can keep your nervous system locked in protection mode, fueling chronic pain and stress. The good news? With awareness and small, practical shifts, you can begin to rewire your system toward safety, calm, and healing.
We’ll explore:
• Why symptom-focused talk and reassurance seeking backfire
• How avoidance and hyper-monitoring shrink your world
• The power of micro-habits that retrain your brain toward safety
• Why joy and gratitude are essential to nervous system healing
New Resource : IBS Nervous System Reset
NEW: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Want to create your own Skool Community?
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a 5 star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Have you ever felt like food has all the power, that you can’t trust yourself around it, or that no matter how hard you try, you keep falling into the same patterns of overeating, restricting, or guilt?
What if your struggles with food aren’t really about willpower at all, but about your nervous system?
In this episode of Building Resilience, I’m joined by Jane Pilger, a coach who helps people move from fighting with their bodies to building food freedom and body trust. Jane shares her own 25-year journey with binge eating and how learning about the nervous system became the missing piece in her healing.
We’ll explore:
Links mentioned:
Mini Series on food and the nervous system
Free resource: IBS Nervous System Reset
NEW: My Safe Space: Affirmation and Journal Prompt Set
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care:
🛍️ Amazon US
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More and more parents are quietly noticing a growing distance with their adult children, and many Gen Z kids are just as quickly setting boundaries or even stepping away completely. If you’ve wondered why this is happening, you’re not alone.
In this episode of Building Resilience, I explore the generational nervous system gap and why relationships between Gen X parents and Gen Z children can feel so strained. This isn’t about blame, it’s about understanding how cultural shifts, nervous system regulation, and different approaches to mental health have shaped how each generation sees family, boundaries, and connection.
We’ll unpack research on rising family estrangement, why Gen Z is more likely to see boundaries as survival rather than betrayal, and how Gen X parents, who often poured decades of effort, time, and sacrifice into raising their kids, are making sense of this new reality. I’ll also talk about the risks on both sides: what Gen Z might lose when they disconnect too quickly, and what Gen X could face as they age without the support they expected.
We’ll explore:
Links and Resources:
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care:
🛍️ Amazon US
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Silence can be one of the most powerful tools we have but it can also become one of the most damaging. In this episode of Building Resilience, we talk about the double-edged nature of silence: when it truly helps regulate your nervous system, and when it tips into avoidance, shutdown, or even self-abandonment.
You’ll learn five different ways silence shows up: from a healthy reset to a symptom of trauma - and how to tell the difference. we also explore silence as a boundary, a relational message, and even as a quiet container for grief.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I choosing silence from a place of strength, or from fear?”- this conversation will give you clarity, compassion, and practical insights to navigate your own patterns with silence.
We’ll explore:
Want to create your own Skool Community? Check it out here: https://www.skool.com/signup?ref=06e003b61b8148ebbafd3a067f3cc2e1
—-------------
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Do you ever feel guilty for spending time on things that don’t feel “productive”? Or maybe you’ve let go of hobbies altogether because they don’t seem to “count”?
In this episode of Building Resilience, we explore why skipping hobbies is actually wrecking your nervous system, and how bringing them back can help restore your energy, identity, and joy.
Hobbies aren’t just frivolous or “nice to have.” They’re nervous system nourishment. They help us regulate, re-engage with life, and remember who we are outside of our roles and responsibilities. Whether it’s painting, gardening, collecting, or listening to music, hobbies can pull you out of survival mode, help you find your “play zone,” and bring you back to life.
If you’ve been burned out, overwhelmed, or stuck in survival mode, this conversation will remind you why fun, curiosity, and creativity are not optional extras, they’re essential for resilience.
We’ll explore:
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What happens when your kids grow up, and your role as their parent quietly, but profoundly, changes?
In this episode of Building Resilience, I unpack the real meaning behind the shocking phrase, “I hate my kids.” Spoiler: it’s not about hate at all. It’s about the complex, often unspoken realities of parenting young adult children, the shifting roles, the nervous system toll, the grief of being needed less, and the bittersweet pride of watching them build their own lives.
I share my own behind-the-scenes experiences, from feeling invisible in my own home when they visit, to resisting the urge to “fix” their struggles, to navigating sibling dynamics and new partners, to rediscovering my own identity beyond motherhood.
This is a conversation about saying the quiet parts out loud, about letting the messy and the beautiful coexist, and about finding your footing again when the rhythm of parenting changes.
We’ll explore:
—-------------
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the way we teach kids about emotions is actually making things worse?
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, I’m diving into 10 essential truths I wish every kid, and every parent, knew about mental health.
We’re having more conversations about emotions than ever before, but we’re still missing the most foundational piece: the body.
We tell kids to calm down, to use their words, to think positive… but we rarely teach them how to feel safe in their bodies. And if you were never taught that yourself, you're not alone.
From why movement is daily medicine and sleep is non-negotiable, to how breath can shift anxiety faster than any pep talk - this episode offers a practical, science-backed roadmap to help your child (and your inner child) build real, lasting resilience.
We’ll explore:
• Why emotional education must include the body, not just the mind
• How movement, breath, and sleep are powerful tools for regulation
• The role of creativity in calming a dysregulated system
• Why stillness isn’t laziness, it’s essential for growth
• How to teach kids (and ourselves) that safety is something we can create
• The nervous system’s role in shaping thoughts, feelings, and behaviour
• Practical ways to support brain and emotional health through daily rhythms
• What it means to "ride the wave" of anxiety rather than resist it
• That health is not a status, it’s a daily practice
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Do you feel like you’ve done all the right things - mindset work, supplements, protocols - but your symptoms still linger?
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, I share a compassionate reframe: maybe the goal isn't to fix your body… but to help your nervous system feel safe enough to stop fighting.
Whether you're navigating chronic pain, illness, or stress-related symptoms, I unpack 10 powerful yet practical ways to create safety in your system without needing to be symptom-free first. From breathwork and somatic tools to environment cues and outcome-independent healing, these tools are grounded in science, self-compassion, and nervous system literacy.
These aren’t quick fixes or toxic positivity, they’re real tools to soften the grip of suffering and begin healing from the inside out.
We’ll explore:
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the quickest way to calm your nervous system didn’t involve meditation, mindset work, or even deep breathing, but just a pen and a few minutes?
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, Leah Davidson shares three simple, science-backed tools to help you gently regulate your nervous system, using creative expression, not perfection. These practices don’t require artistic skill or profound insights. Just a willingness to explore, express, and create a sense of safety in your body.
You’ll learn how doodling, gentle journaling prompts, and repetitive shapes can act as regulation anchors helping you shift out of survival mode and into a state of calm, clarity, and connection.
Whether you’re overwhelmed, shut down, overstimulated, or just looking for a way to reconnect with yourself this episode will give you three powerful ways to feel a little more regulated in under 10 minutes.
✨ Want to go deeper? These are the exact kinds of practices we use weekly inside the Nervous System Journaling Club, a creative, supportive space to build safety and resilience from the inside out.
We’ll explore:
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Do you ever feel like you're doing all the inner work, journaling, processing, consuming wisdom, but still not feeling purposeful or alive?
In this episode of the Building Resilience Podcast, we explore a powerful reframe: healing alone isn’t the goal. Living is. Using the metaphors of weeding vs planting and consuming vs creating, we’ll unpack how real purpose isn’t something you chase, it’s something you experience, through small acts of creation and participation.
We’ll talk about why so many people get stuck in chronic weeding mode, what happens when we only consume but never create, and how even the tiniest moments of planting can signal safety to your nervous system.
This episode is your reminder that healing doesn’t have to be a full-time job, and that joy, meaning, and purpose come from doing, not just fixing.
Timestamps
00:00 – That “What’s the point of all this?” feeling
01:00 – Purpose as pressure: why it dysregulates the nervous system
02:15 – The weeding vs planting metaphor
04:55 – Healing = weeding, but what about planting?
06:20 – How your nervous system interprets creation as safety
07:00 – Consuming vs creating: input ≠ output
08:10 – You don’t regulate from what you know, you regulate from what you do
09:10 – Chronic weeding and chronic consuming = dysregulation
10:00 – Regulation through participation, not perfection
10:40 – Let purpose reveal itself through small acts
11:20 – Journaling prompts and where to start
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal...
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-...
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-...
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the most resilient people aren’t the ones who bounce back quickly—but those who allow themselves to break, feel, grieve, and still move forward?
In this heartfelt episode, we explore tragic optimism—a powerful reframe introduced by Viktor Frankl—and how it allows us to hold both pain and hope without bypassing either. You’ll learn how real resilience comes not from fixing or rushing, but from the ability to live with the full truth of what is and keep going anyway.
We’ll explore:
• Why “bouncing back” is a cultural myth
• What tragic optimism really means (and what it’s not)
• The nervous system’s role in resilience and meaning-making
• The 3 Ps of pessimism—and how to unlearn them
• Practical tools to regulate your body, reframe your thoughts, and hold space for grief and growth at once
This is your invitation to stop striving to return to “how things used to be”—and instead, build capacity to bounce forward with wisdom, gentleness, and courage.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Resilient people aren’t the fastest to recover
06:55 – When Breath Becomes Air & the phrase “devastatingly beautiful”
10:14 – What tragic optimism really means (Viktor Frankl)
13:05 – Why it’s not toxic positivity (Brad Stulberg’s take)
15:15 – Introducing learned optimism (Martin Seligman)
17:32 – The 3 Ps of pessimism and how to flip them
20:18 – Why your nervous system must feel safe before optimism is possible
23:12 – You can’t access nuance from a dysregulated state
25:50 – The nervous system’s role in meaning-making
28:36 – Post-traumatic growth: Making meaning, not finding it
31:45 – What it means to hold both pain and hope
33:58 – How to actually practice tragic optimism
36:10 – Step 1: Reframe with “both/and” language
37:15 – Step 2: Befriend your nervous system, not fight it
38:48 – Step 3: Hold space for others with “Tell me more”
40:10 – What resilience really looks like: bouncing forward
41:50 – Why regulating isn’t about avoiding pain—it’s about holding it
43:30 – Final thoughts: You can be devastatingly beautiful too
📝 Get My Resilience Journal
A guided journal for emotional well-being and nervous system care
📌 Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/Mental-Journal-Anxiety-Management-Self-Care/dp/B0DNRSLV9F/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.aXvnLQ5iNMBUxzQYYcrgjg.AteqhnbvcWMthzgND7lwUxHbtn59LfW9Y7jqFUK9X-M&dib_tag=se&keywords=Mental%2Bhealth%2BJournal&qid=1751362532&sr=8-1&th=1
📌 Amazon CA: Buy Here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Journal-Anxiety-Management-Self-Care/dp/B0DNRSLV9F?th=1
🎓 Join the Nervous System Journaling Club
Doodle, journal, and heal in community:
https://www.skool.com/nervous-system-journaling-club/about?ref=06e003b61b8148ebbafd3a067f3cc2e1
Let’s Stay Connected:
Instagram & Facebook: @leahdavidsonlifecoaching
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter: leahdavidsonlifecoaching.com/newsletter
Enjoyed the episode?
Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. It helps more people discover these tools for healing and resilience.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.