Believe it or not, I don’t think stress is inherently bad.
I believe stress goes hand-in-hand with having a life full of things you’re passionate about, whether that’s chasing big career goals, taking care of the people you love or fulfilling your highest potential.
So my goal for you is not to eliminate stress.
It’s to GET BETTER at it.
Hey, I'm Carrie.
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every good intention you have to stress less, fails to stick. And each time you get your hopes up and then fall off, it further cements your belief that you are what’s wrong and this is just how life is: stressful.
Every meditation app, every podcast tip,
having time, energy and willpower to make it happen feels impossible.
But in your reality,
you see others seemingly juggling it all with confidence and ease.
You suspect this life is possible-
You may be struggling to turn off your brain to go to sleep at night or to have enough energy to get through the day, and it may feel impossible to imagine how you will ever feel in control of your mood or your mindset when there is always more to get done, someone who needs you to put them first or another fire that requires attention and energy you don't have to spare.
where you wake up each morning feeling grateful, energized, calm and excited about the day ahead. A life where you appreciate and enjoy the life you've worked so hard to create.
you imagine a life...
I know exactly how you feel because I have been there too.
I trust you are here because you want to change how you've been feeling lately.
...continue
A few years ago I was struggling with chronic stress and burnout...
I’d been working as a lawyer in finance for over a decade when I decided to switch careers.
I had a passion for wellness and had gotten certified as a health coach outside of work, quickly discovering that coaching people lit me up in a way that negotiating contracts simply never had. (Don't get me wrong, I still love a good edit.)
So I doubled down on my training as a coach, enrolling in a second coaching certification program (functional medicine health coaching) AND a third (psychology-based personal transformation) -- all at the same time.
On top of that, I launched a wellness program at the company where I worked -- an amazing experience that ultimately amounted to a second full-time role.
Let's do some quick fast-track-to-burnout math...
I worked long hours on nights and weekends to get it all done, pushing aside exhaustion and disregarding signals my body was starting to send me...
exhaustion, dizziness, brain fog, inability to focus, mild depression and anxiety
I didn't want to slow down or accept that I had taken on too much. What I would learn was that when we ignore our body, its messages get louder with time.
Ultimately, all of that chronic stress did what chronic stress does -- left me depleted and sick.
When my symptoms got too loud to ignore – nausea, vomiting, migraines – I finally saw a doctor who helped me get to the root cause of my illness and burnout.
I was sick for four months and then for four more months dropped everything to heal my body and recover.
I deferred a coaching certification, stopped working on my business -- and leaned deep into getting my body as healthy as possible.
I started to feel constantly behind,
like I was always dropping a ball, falling short or letting someone down.
1 in-house role running corporate wellness
2 full-time coaching certification programs
3 hours spent commuting each day
(+ trying to be healthy and do all the things - eat well, exercise, be a good daughter/friend/sister/partner/etc. etc. etc.)
= a formula for 1 stressed out, distracted and depleted human
I thought success meant –
“mind over matter”
“just keep swimming”
“put your head down + get through it”
– so that's what I did, thinking that what I was experiencing was normal and pushing through on adrenaline, ambition and caffeine.
While scary and challenging at the time, that experience ultimately changed everything for me.
...continue
Getting sick and being forced to slow down to recover meant I had to find a better way -- I wasn't willing to give up on my goals and vision. But not managing my stress had cost me time, energy and quality of life.
So I had to find a way to still be driven, passionate and ambitious -- WHILE taking care of my body, keeping myself safe and living in more balance.
The good news (and irony) was that the answers were to be found within everything I had been studying.
I turned to my coaching certifications, years of education and prior work with clients to compile a universe of tools around nutrition, yoga, nervous system regulation, psychology, mindset work, emotional mastery, subconscious reprogramming, somatic coaching, meditation, breathwork and more –
AND PUT THEM TO WORK FOR ME.
A whole new approach to stress...
work with me
1. I learned about the stress response and what was really happening in my body under stress. I became aware of my body's signals, reactions and innate intelligence around stress -- and then began to actually listen to that intuitive guidance.
2. I learned to manage my mind -- using tools to break patterns of negative thinking, avoidance, numbing out, irritability, and procrastination when under stress and questioning the stories and limiting beliefs I carried.
3. I changed my lifestyle, incorporating nutrition, movement, self-care and sleep strategies that optimized my body's ability to cope with stress.
Does stress still show up in my life?
OF COURSE.
(If I ever do find that magic wand that erases stress, you'll be the first to know.)
But now, when high stress or feelings of anxiety show up in my life, I have the skills to get my mind and body back to a state of grounded safety -- stopping the train of chronic stress + burnout before it leaves the station.
Mastering my stress levels is the greatest gift I've ever given myself.
Today my passion is sharing the tools and skills that transformed my relationship to stress and supporting others in trading patterns of burnout for more wellbeing and JOY.
Carrie Petri is an attorney-turned-wellness coach whose experience working in finance gave her a firsthand understanding of the challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle while balancing a demanding job. Having discovered in holistic health and functional medicine the tools to transform her own well-being, she is passionate about sharing those strategies to help others. She has helped hundreds of women break patterns of chronic stress and burnout through her private coaching practice and corporate wellness consulting. She received her BA from Duke University, JD from Fordham Law School, and coaching certifications from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Functional Medicine Coaching Academy and the Institute for Coaching Mastery. She recently completed her 200-hr vinyasa yoga teacher training.
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