ACTIVE SHAKTI

I sat down to record this episode and my mind went completely blank. Nothing. I'd been thinking about it for days, I had things to say, and then the moment I pressed record — nothing. I sat with that for a few minutes before I started speaking. And then I realised: that blank feeling is the whole episode. Because you know it. The moment you sit down to do the thing you've been meaning to do, and your brain tells you something must be wrong with you.

In February 2023, I recorded a video for my boss explaining why I couldn't come in that day. I sent it. I waited. She didn't reply. And eventually I went back into the chat and deleted it — because I had exposed myself completely, and the silence on the other end felt worse than if I'd said nothing at all.

Delphine has worked for over 25 years as a VP of product management in global technology. She runs teams across time zones — engineers, data scientists, product managers — and does it as a single mother of two. She is precisely the kind of woman who appears to be managing everything. And several years ago, her nervous system stopped cooperating entirely.

You cannot build sustainable performance on top of a chronically activated nervous system. Recovery isn't optional. It's the work.