When Business Overwhelm Isn’t Only About Your Business
This article is written for Soulpreneur Corner— a space for those building, birthing, or leading something that matters to them, and tending the inner landscape behind their outer work.
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Running a soul-led business asks a lot of your nervous system.
What we often overlook is that the way we meet the demands of building or running our business, or any kind of soul-led project we bring out into the world, isn’t shaped only by what’s happening now, but also by experiences from much earlier in life — especially times where we were learning, trying to keep up, navigating unfamiliar systems, or being taught how to think, perform, and adapt. For many of us, those early experiences created layers of overwhelm that didn’t simply disappear; they live on as feeling memory in the body.
When our business or soul-project asks us to be visible, responsive, confident, or adaptable, those old imprints can quietly come back online — as stress, overwhelm, brainfog, procrastination, self-doubt, or reactions that feel bigger than the moment.
This was very much my own experience in the early days of both my first and second business.
When the Past Quietly Enters the Present
In my first business, I freelanced as a translator and teacher after I left my job in medicine. Finally, and courageously, I had stepped onto a completely new professional path. Having faced the fears of leaving such a huge established professional field, I thought I had already mastered the worst part of it. I believed I would now easily be able to set up a business and figure out what my soul really wanted. I was ready.
But instead, I felt more and more overwhelmed — far more than the situation called for.
I couldn't relax. I got stressed with every new contract I had landed instead of celebrating. I started hiding away from interested clients because I feared I could not meet what they were asking of me (even though on a rational level I knew this not to be true, but the feeling just took over).
I had tension and fear around doing things wrong constantly running below the surface, even though my customers highly valued and praised my work. I felt like a complete failure and even started to feel like I couldn't speak English at all — what on earth was I doing teaching English, writing in English, and translating complex medical literature into English? Who did I think I was?
At the time, I had no idea where this intensity was coming from.
It was rampant imposter syndrome and trauma that was still alive from my school days — a time in my life when I was moving between different countries, educational systems, language environments, and social norms as a neurodivergent child, without much emotional support to integrate what I was experiencing.
There had been enormous stress around language, switching countries and school systems, and trying to keep up with the demands of a school life in a new country that I didn’t yet grasp. I simply was not managing, and my system carried a lot of overwhelm from that time.
So what I was reliving was coming from a younger inner part of me, an inner child, trying to run my business.
When Feeling Memory Comes Online
It took me a few years to make that connection, because at the time I didn’t yet know what I’m sharing with you now. But once I could see that the intensity I was feeling came from real situations I had lived as a child, I could begin to respond differently.
With support, I started to care for that younger part and help it understand that those days were very much over — after which I could navigate the demands of my business from a much more resourced, adult place.
I’m sharing this with you to show that sometimes feelings of overwhelm, not managing, fear (and the list goes on) aren’t so much about now — they’re echoes from earlier chapters of your life — calling for healing and transformation.
Exploring Feeling Memory More Deeply
My blog article ‘Not everything you're feeling has to do with now’ explores feeling memory and why certain moments of overwhelm or self-doubt may actually be your body remembering, not evidence that you’re on the wrong path — and what you can do about it.
It includes a story from my childhood, a simple practice you can try, and a video I recorded a few years ago that explores feeling memory and patterns more deeply.
The video is imperfect in form (I’ve been planning a more polished version for a long time — arghh, here’s me practising letting go of perfectionism and reducing my to-do lists), but still rich in insight and very alive in its essence.
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Author’s note:
Julia’s reflections arise from her own Soulpreneur journey, woven together with professional training in somatic and trauma-informed approaches, mindfulness, and decades of lived experience exploring embodiment, intuition, and inner transformation.