237. From Hustle to Healing: Parenting, Pressure, and the Cost of Always Being 'On'

The Kristen Boss Podcast

Kristen Boss

Entrepreneurship, Education, How To, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 751 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this insightful and vulnerable episode, Kristen is joined by longtime friend and author Sarah Boyd to unpack the often misunderstood world of nervous system regulation and how chronic stress shows up in parenting, entrepreneurship, and everyday life.

They explore how hustle culture isn’t just a mindset—it's often a nervous system coping mechanism, and why high achievers struggle with stillness, rest, and emotional connection. Sarah shares practical tools for recognizing overstimulation, building emotional regulation, and deepening relationships at home—especially for parents who are also business owners.

If you've ever felt like you're stuck in "go mode" and can’t seem to slow down without guilt or anxiety, this episode is a must-listen.

What You'll Learn:

What nervous system dysregulation actually is—and how to spot it in your own life
Why high performers often struggle with parenting and connection
How hustle can be a trauma response masked as productivity
The hidden role of overstimulation in burnout and disconnection
Tools for re-regulating your nervous system—especially during transitions between work and family life
How entrepreneurs can build deeper emotional awareness and healthier coping strategies
Why rest might feel unsafe for you—and how to change that

Timestamps:

[00:00] Intro and heartfelt reunion with Sarah Boyd
[04:00] How Sarah's new book reframes overstimulation and parenting
[08:30] The science of stress: what your nervous system is trying to tell you
[13:00] What keeps high performers stuck in chronic dysregulation
[17:00] Kristen’s personal story of entrepreneurial vigilance and internalized scarcity
[22:00] A hard truth: many entrepreneurs are dysregulated and calling it “ADHD”
[27:00] The role of parenting in nervous system awareness
[30:10] Why entrepreneurs struggle to connect with their kids
[35:00] How to move out of “fight or flight” and back into empathy
[38:45] Reclaiming rest: learning to downshift your nervous system after work
[42:00] Hustle as a flavor of dysregulation—and recovering from it
[44:30] Why EQ (emotional intelligence) is the future for our kids
[45:36] Final reflections + where to find Sarah’s work

About Sarah Boyd:

Sarah Boyd is a writer, child and adolescent development expert, and founder of the educational company, Resilient Little Hearts, a platform helping parents and children navigate big emotions in a chaotic world. Her book, Turn Down the Noise, helps readers understand the impact of overstimulation on the nervous system and offers practical tools to find calm, especially for parents raising children in the modern age.

Follow Sarah:

Instagram: @resilientlittlehearts Book: Turn Down the Noise – available now wherever books are sold

Learn more about Kristen by heading to her website: www.kristenboss.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to brand new eyes.
0:07.1	You're listening to the Christenboss podcast.
0:22.7	I'm your host, Kristen Boss.
0:25.0	As a best-selling author and performance coach,
0:27.4	I'm on a mission to share about sustainable and purposeful approaches to both business and life.
0:32.8	Each week, I bring relevant topics that I believe are necessary to create a life of purpose, significance,
0:38.8	and meaning.
0:40.5	Entrepreneurship is about so much more than growing your bottom line.
0:43.9	It's about who you are becoming in the process and building a life that is truly extraordinary.
0:50.7	Entrepreneurship is really just the beginning.
1:00.0	Thank you. entrepreneurship is really just the beginning. Hey listeners, welcome back. I'm super excited about this week's episode. I have a very dear
1:06.3	friend of mine on the show with me, Ms. Sarah Boyd, I'm so glad you're here.
1:12.5	Oh, I am so glad. It's so lovely to see your face, as always. So I'm pumped to be here.
1:18.4	I know. Sarah and I are the type of friends where we won't talk for like six months and we won't
1:22.8	but we won't miss the beat in between. And literally, I think we just had like a 15 minute,
1:28.2	like, I miss you before we clicked record. I was like, we should probably actually record a podcast.
1:35.0	Otherwise, this is going to turn into like a catch-up call, which it kind of did. And I'm like,
1:40.0	okay, we're about to start talking about the good stuff. We should probably start recording.
1:51.3	But for my friends who don't know how amazing Ms. Sarah Boyd is, she, you probably follow her social media account.
2:06.0	It's resilient little hearts. And it is, Sarah has, friend, you just have such a beautiful way of, oh my gosh, just bringing empathy and compassion and accessible language to living the human experience in our everyday life and how to do that well. And I'm excited about
2:13.5	this conversation. You just, this year, you came out with the book, turned down the noise, and when it came to
2:21.9	my house and I ordered it, and I just read just the back of it, I looked at Scott.
	...

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