Your boundaries are not broken, your nervous system is trying to protect you. Cheryl Paris sits down with Hannah Curman for an honest, practical conversation about work stress, anxiety, and the quiet ways we abandon ourselves when we want to be liked more than we want to be well.

We dig into why knowing your boundaries is not the hard part. Tolerating the feeling of holding them is. Hannah shares how getting clear on your values makes every yes and no easier to live with, then challenges us with a leadership coaching question that cuts through people-pleasing fast: would you rather be respected or likable? We talk about what respect really means, how a simple pause before you answer can prevent over commitment, and why “perfect boundaries” is the wrong goal. If you occasionally work longer hours or miss a family dinner, that does not erase your values. The real win is returning to your baseline without shame.

We also explore “manifestation” as attention training that keeps you focused on the horizon instead of stuck in the drama box of gossip, urgency, and emotional noise. From there, we connect guilt to decision-making: guilt grows when you drift through choices without naming them, but it shrinks when you own the trade-offs as active decisions.

To close, Hannah offers a powerful body-based takeaway: muscle tension and recurring pain can be a signal that something is off at work. Her story about Friday meetings and physical pain is a reminder to track patterns and listen early, before stress turns into burnout.

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Work Stress Anxiety by ABGW is part of HerGuru Hypnotherapy and Coaching™ and grounded in the ABGW Method®.

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