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Feeling overwhelmed by New Year’s resolutions? This episode of the JoyfulRx podcast offers a compassionate alternative for caregivers and busy women: setting intentions without pressure.

Dr. Michelle explores how to step away from resolution culture and create nervous-system-friendly intentions that meet you where you are—whether that’s the month ahead, the week ahead, or simply today. This episode speaks directly to caregiver stress and burnout, offering permission to work with your current capacity rather than pushing past it.

You’ll learn how to:
• Set intentions without overwhelm or self-criticism
• Honor your capacity instead of forcing change
• Use simple self-care rituals to support well-being
• Create intention practices that feel safe and sustainable

Perfect for caregivers and women navigating chronic stress, this episode invites a gentler, more embodied way to enter the new year—one moment at a time.

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Caring for others—whether in your personal or professional life—can be deeply fulfilling, but it also comes with its challenges. The weight of constant caregiving can leave even the most dedicated among us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and burned out. Too often, societal and cultural norms reinforce the idea that sacrificing ourselves is the price of being a “good” caregiver.

But here’s the truth: you cannot pour from an empty cup. You deserve to care for others without losing yourself in the process.

Welcome to The JoyfulRx podcast—your weekly dose of inspiration, tools, and strategies to rediscover your inner joy. Hosted by Dr. Michelle Welch, a practicing physician, mother, children’s author, entrepreneur, and certified coach, this podcast is designed specifically for caregivers who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.

Each week, Dr. Michelle dives into topics that matter most to caregivers, offering practical steps and actionable insights to help you reclaim your joy, build resilience, and create a life where you can serve others from your overflow, not your reserves.

Let’s stay in touch!

Visit: www.joyfulrx.ca to download free resources, powerful exercises and activities you can do today, to move you from burnout to balance. You can also join our Newsletter (we promise to only send information you will love).

📅 Book a free call with me today. Visit: ...

Send us a text

What happens when pain has no clear medical explanation—but still changes everything?

In this episode, I’m sharing a conversation I originally recorded as a guest takeover on a colleague’s podcast. As I listened back, I realized how deeply this topic connects to the work we explore here around capacity, nervous system load, and what happens when caregivers carry too much for too long.

I share my story as both a physician and a woman who has lived with chronic, unexplained pain—pain that persisted despite normal imaging, bloodwork, and exhaustive medical evaluation. Over years of working with women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain syndromes, I began to notice a consistent pattern: many had long histories of chronic stress, trauma, caregiving, and sustained over-functioning.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why chronic, medically unexplained pain so often leads to identity loss
• How the nervous system shifts into survival mode when pain is unpredictable
• Why awareness alone is often not enough to resolve pain cycles
• What it means to restore capacity rather than push for symptom control
• How listening to the body can become a turning point—without abandoning medical care

This conversation is not about diagnosing yourself or blaming emotions for pain. It’s about understanding how the body communicates when stress and emotional load have had nowhere else to land.

If your body has become loud after years of holding it together—this episode offers validation and a gentler way forward

Caring for others—whether in your personal or professional life—can be deeply fulfilling, but it also comes with its challenges. The weight of constant caregiving can leave even the most dedicated among us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and burned out. Too often, societal and cultural norms reinforce the idea that sacrificing ourselves is the price of being a “good” caregiver.

But here’s the truth: you cannot pour from an empty cup. You deserve to care for others without losing yourself in the process.

Welcome to The JoyfulRx podcast—your weekly dose of inspiration, tools, and strategies to rediscover your inner joy. Hosted by Dr. Michelle Welch, a practicing physician, mother, children’s author, entrepreneur, and certified coach, this podcast is designed specifically for caregivers who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.

Each week, Dr. Michelle dives into topics that matter most to caregivers, offering practical steps and actionable insights to help you reclaim your joy, build resilience, and create a life where you can serve others from your overflow, not your reserves.

Let’s stay in touch!

Visit: www.joyfulrx.ca to download free resources, powerful exercises and activities you can do today, to move you from burnout to balance. You can also join our Newsletter (we promise to only send information you will love).

📅 Book a free call with me today. Visit: ...

Send us a text

In this episode, we dive into the hidden impact of decision fatigue on caregivers — not just as a mental drain, but as an energetic one. We explore how constant decision-making pulls women out of their feminine energy, how it overwhelms men in their masculine energy, and why both lead to exhaustion, irritability, and emotional disconnection.

You’ll learn how decision fatigue shows up in everyday moments, and why the mental load of caregiving is far heavier than most people realize.

Most importantly, we talk about simple, grounded tools anyone can use to restore balance and create more ease in day-to-day life:

✨ Strategy 1: The 3-Breath Reset

A calming nervous-system tool that brings you out of your head and back into your body.
Three slow breaths — soften, release, and choose one next step — to quickly lower overwhelm and reset your energy.

✨ Strategy 2: Decision Buckets

A cognitive-load reducer that helps you categorize decisions into:

• Decide Now
• Decide Later
• Decide Never
  This simple structure brings clarity, reduces mental tension, and prevents decision spiraling.

Whether you’re a mom, dad, partner, adult child, or professional caregiver, this conversation will help you understand your energy patterns, reduce overwhelm, and reconnect with a more grounded, intuitive version of yourself.

Caring for others—whether in your personal or professional life—can be deeply fulfilling, but it also comes with its challenges. The weight of constant caregiving can leave even the most dedicated among us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and burned out. Too often, societal and cultural norms reinforce the idea that sacrificing ourselves is the price of being a “good” caregiver.

But here’s the truth: you cannot pour from an empty cup. You deserve to care for others without losing yourself in the process.

Welcome to The JoyfulRx podcast—your weekly dose of inspiration, tools, and strategies to rediscover your inner joy. Hosted by Dr. Michelle Welch, a practicing physician, mother, children’s author, entrepreneur, and certified coach, this podcast is designed specifically for caregivers who are ready to stop surviving and start thriving.

Each week, Dr. Michelle dives into topics that matter most to caregivers, offering practical steps and actionable insights to help you reclaim your joy, build resilience, and create a life where you can serve others from your overflow, not your reserves.

Let’s stay in touch!

Visit: www.joyfulrx.ca to download free resources, powerful exercises and activities you can do today, to move you from burnout to balance. You can also join our Newsletter (we promise to only send information you will love).

📅 Book a free call with me today. Visit: ...