How to Build a Life You Don't Need to Recover From with Crystal Hadnott

If you’ve ever found yourself running on empty while the world sees you as unstoppable, this sacred conversation will speak directly to your soul. There’s something uniquely painful about being praised for your strength while quietly battling exhaustion, isn’t there? In this powerful episode, I sit down with the incredible Crystal Hadnott, a woman who knows that tension all too well. Crystal is not only a high-achieving professional but also a marathon and ultra-marathon runner. Her story is about much more than athleticism—it’s about what happens when achievement becomes a mask, performance becomes your identity, and rest feels like weakness.

For decades, Crystal lived in a constant state of “go.” She normalized burnout, thinking that being busy, tired, and constantly pushing herself was just the price of excellence. But beneath that drive was a deeper truth: her sense of worth was tied almost completely to her output. Like so many women, Crystal believed that if she wasn’t achieving, she wasn’t enough. And because she was good at it—because she could endure pain, push past limits, and deliver at a high level—no one saw the cracks forming.

Crystal shares vulnerably about her 40-year relationship with performance, describing it almost like a toxic love affair. She could run farther, work harder, and excel longer than most people around her. But, you cannot outrun soul exhaustion forever. Even the strongest engines eventually break down when you never give them time to cool.

The turning point came with an unexpected and life-altering diagnosis: Graves’ disease, a condition that can cause extreme fatigue, anxiety, and heart complications. Traditional medicine told her this was something she’d have to manage indefinitely. But Crystal’s spirit refused to accept limitation as her story. Instead, she became her own healing advocate, diving deep into research, intuition, and the mind-body connection. Through what she calls a “sacred healing protocol,” Crystal was able to stabilize her levels without medical intervention—a stunning testament to the body’s innate wisdom and the miracles that unfold when we finally listen.

Throughout this episode, Crystal gifts us with powerful metaphors and practical insights. One of my favorites is her Formula One race car analogy. She reminds us that high-performing vehicles don’t succeed because they run endlessly—they succeed because they are meticulously maintained, rested, and refueled between races. The same applies to us as women, leaders, and dreamers. If you want to sustain your purpose and passions, you must build in intentional periods of restoration.

We dive deep into the concept of rest as a radical act of power, and Crystal shares the eight different types of rest that most people are missing. Spoiler alert: sleep is only one of them. She walks us through how she crafts 90-minute morning and evening rituals, which allow her to align mind, body, and spirit before stepping into the demands of the day and as she closes the evening. These practices are not indulgent—they’re essential.

But this conversation goes beyond wellness hacks. It’s about facing the parts of ourselves we’ve been taught to silence. Crystal and I talk about how unprocessed trauma lives in the body, often surfacing as stress, illness, or anxiety when ignored. We discuss why your body keeps energetic score, even when your mind tries to stay positive or push forward. And we challenge the cultural narrative that constant achievement is the ultimate goal, exploring what it means to embody ambition without sacrificing inner peace.

Some of the sacred wisdom you’ll take away from this episode includes:

• Why your body keeps energetic score when you silence your truth – and how to finally listen.
• How to embody ambition while maintaining inner peace, so success feels expansive, not depleting.
• Creating wellness practices that honor your feminine rhythms, aligning your work and rest with your natural energy cycles.
• The revolutionary mindset shifts that rewire decades of perfectionism, allowing you to lead, create, and love without losing yourself in the process.

Crystal’s story is more than inspiration—it’s permission. Permission to slow down. Permission to question everything you’ve been taught about success. Permission to believe that your body’s wisdom is not only real but sacred.

If you’ve ever felt the weight of achievement, if you’ve ever wondered why you feel empty after reaching another milestone, or if you’ve sensed that there’s more to life than the hustle, this episode is your wake-up call. Crystal reminds us that true power is not found in endless doing—it’s found in alignment, healing, and unapologetic rest.

This conversation will leave you reflecting on your own patterns. Are you running life like a marathon without a finish line? Have you confused worth with productivity? Are you overdue for a pit stop? If so, let this be your invitation. It’s time to create, as Crystal says, “a life you don’t need to recover from.”

Tune in and take notes, love, because these are the tools, mindsets, and rituals that will shift not only how you work but how you live. Whether you’re a CEO, a creative, a caregiver, or a woman carrying the weight of multiple roles, this episode offers something you deeply need: a vision of success that includes your wholeness, your health, and your joy.

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