293. When Feedback Feels Threatening: Nervous System Wisdom for Women Physicians
A real-time reflection on nervous system triggers, leadership, vulnerability, and mindful responses to criticism.
Have you ever found yourself physically triggered by feedback even when your logical mind knows it shouldn’t be a big deal?
This episode is a real-time, honest exploration of how high-achieving women—especially physicians, leaders, and caregivers—respond to emotionally charged moments of disapproval, and how to begin unwinding the nervous system patterns that often get activated.
I share a recent, raw experience with receiving unexpected criticism that sent my nervous system into full activation, despite all my mindfulness tools, coaching experience, and good intentions. Alongside Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang, we unpack how medical culture, leadership visibility, and deeply ingrained perfectionism contribute to why these moments can feel so threatening and how to meet them with compassion and presence instead of shame and overreaction.
We invite you to witness what it looks like to pause, process, and reflect before reacting as someone who’s been conditioned to perform, fix, and never disappoint.
Whether you're navigating visibility, leadership, or simply trying to show up with integrity in a complex world, this episode offers insight, grace, and nervous system wisdom for your journey.
Here is link to a blog I wrote about this same experience.
Pearls of Wisdom:
Your nervous system’s response is not a personal failure but, it’s a patterned response that can be gently re-trained.
Leadership, visibility, and authenticity are inherently vulnerable—and feedback will always come with risk.
Graceful responses don’t always happen in the moment. The pause is where your power lives.
Emotional reactivity is often a reflection of two activated nervous systems—not personal wrongdoing.
Mindfulness helps us build the space to respond rather than react—and to remember we’re human.
Reflection Questions:
How does your body respond when you receive criticism or feel misunderstood?
What do you tend to do when you're activated—fix, explain, retreat, or push back?
What might become possible if you paused and got curious before reacting?
If you're a high-achieving woman in medicine or leadership navigating transition, visibility, or feedback with tenderness and courage, I invite you to explore coaching with me.
My Leading From the Heart and Transition Well small group programs beginning this January offer practical support, grounded insight, and compassionate connection. Learn more at www.jessiemahoneymd.com/coaching.
You’re also warmly invited to join Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang and me for the Connect in Nature Retreat this summer, where we’ll practice mindful communication, nervous system regulation, and self-compassion in a nourishing, in-person community. www.jessiemahoneymd.com/retreats
To bring this kind of insight to your team, organization, or leadership event, we offer keynote talks and workshops that integrate mindfulness, medicine, and human connection.
Explore at: www.jessiemahoneymd.com/speaking and www.awakenbreath.org
Nothing shared in the Healing Medicine Podcast is medical advice.