Working with Feeling
Working with Feeling
17 | Rachel Nazhand: Leadership that Breathes
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17 | Rachel Nazhand: Leadership that Breathes

What if high performance doesn't require overriding your body?

In this episode, I sit down with Rachel Nazhand, a seasoned ops leader who’s done the high-growth hustle, the burnout, the ER visits… and found her way back to herself. Through a deeply personal conversation, Rachel shares what it’s taken to move from hyper-productivity and depletion into a sustainable rhythm of leadership fueled by presence instead of pressure.

Rachel proves that it is possible to lead in high-intensity environments without losing yourself. She’s worked across Fortune 100s, scrappy startups, and pre-IPO orgs, yet what makes her stand out to me goes beyond her resume: she integrates her somatic practice into how she leads, builds teams, and sustains her own well-being.

We talk about:

  • The fallacy of control (and why “just take action” is a trap)

  • What the nervous system actually needs to reset at work

  • How she stopped equating worth with output

  • Tiny, subversive ways to rehumanize fast-paced work cultures

  • The weirdly transferable wisdom of toddler parenting

And maybe most importantly, Rachel gives language to what so many high-achieving professionals feel: It might not be the job itself that’s unsustainable. It’s the way we’ve been taught to push through it.

“Nobody’s thinking about you as much as you’re thinking about you—so you might as well use that to your advantage.”

🎧 Listen for real talk about success that doesn’t require self-sacrifice.


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Learn more about somatic work for leaders at Feeling School.


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