Chat with Just Rest

The holidays pile a second job on top of your first one. For many women, it's the season in which burnout peaks. In this season 2 opener, we get honest about why holiday pressure is a systemic setup, not a personal failing, and share practical ways to scale back, protect your energy, and handle the one person in your life who wants everything to stay the same. Read more. [blog link]

My guest is Samantha Gregory, a wellness consultant, femtech founder, and self-devotion architect who helps high-achieving women break up with burnout. We each share our own holiday burnout story, then dig into the "shoulds" of tradition and the real cost of saying yes year after year. You'll leave with simple ideas you can use right away, from shortening your visit to asking for the gift you actually want.

Connect with Nicole and Samantha:

Samantha Gregory

• Self-Care Oasis Newsletter and Pocast on Substack : blyss.substack.com
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/samanthagregory
• Website: samanthagregory.com

Nicole Havelka

• Podcast: justrestpod.com
• Just Rest Newsletter: defythetrend.substack.com
• Burnout recovery coaching: defythetrend.com/burnout-recovery-coaching
• Setting Holiday Boundaries workbook and sticker set: defythetrend.com/setting-holiday-boundaries
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-havelka-35762022/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/just-rest.bsky.social

Samantha's Worldchanger Organization: CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a child advocacy program for kids in the foster care system: https://advochild.org/

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction to Holiday Setting Holiday Boundaries Episode

00:01:11 Introducing Guest Samantha Gregory

00:02:29 Pausing for a Deep Breath

00:03:29 Holiday Burnout Stories and Experiences

00:05:55 The Pressure of Holiday Expectations

00:08:44 Shifting Holiday Traditions and Practices

00:11:35 Setting Boundaries and Redefining Holidays

00:14:41 The Cost of Holiday Expectations

00:17:02 Understanding the System Behind Holiday Pressures

00:20:19 Navigating Family Dynamics and Traditions

00:23:09 Creating New Holiday Experiences

00:24:10 Reduce Holiday Stress by Paring Down

00:28:26 Navigating Holiday Expectations

00:28:33 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

00:33:48 Simplifying Holiday Traditions

00:39:46 Creating Personal Holiday Experiences

00:40:25 Rest and Self-Care During the Holidays

00:44:42 Final Guest Questions: Rest and Liberation

00:51:24 Setting Holiday Boundaries for a Meaningful Season

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A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Chat with Just Rest

Rest Rebels, we've come a long way in just 10 months! In this solo episode, I celebrate how the Just Rest community has grown from zero to more than 1,200 downloads, and I share the real reason I want more people to find us. I want burned out change makers to get support for burnout recovery right when they need it, not two years later. I also invite you to help us grow in season 2, and I give you a sneak peek at the conversations coming your way, starting October 16. Head to the blog post for the full celebration, my season 2 goals, and learn about the guest lineup!

Chapters

00:00:00 Welcome to Just Rest Podcast

00:01:53 Celebrating 10 Months of Just Rest

00:06:23 Meaningful Moments and Community Impact

00:09:22 The Burned Out Ones: Why I Want This Podcast to Grow

00:11:37 Goals for Season Two

00:19:41 Teasers for Season 2 Just Rest

00:26:10 Moment of Gratitude

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Bluesky

Work with Nicole

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Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Chat with Just Rest

What happens when two restless creatives sit down to talk about big leaps, burnout, and why rest might be the fiercest protest of all?

In this episode, I'm sharing my very first Substack Live, a conversation with my friend and fellow podcaster Kevin Chung of Standout Creatives. It's a little unpolished (it was my first live, and only Kevin's second), but it's full of honest, energizing talk about creative burnout and how rest and resistance feed your creativity.

Kevin and his wife recently left Miami for San Juan, Costa Rica, chasing a life more aligned with nature and creativity. Our conversation ranges from downsizing to improv, from the myth of the starving artist to Theater of the Oppressed, and from capitalism's obsession with hustle to the radical idea that rest is what fuels resistance.

And around the 5-minute mark, I blurted out my own scary, thrilling dream for the year ahead: living nomadically. It was the first time I'd said it publicly. (Spoiler: I'm doing it now!)

In this episode, we talk about:

• What creative burnout looks like and how to recover from it
• The myth of the starving artist, and why it keeps creatives depleted
• Art and rest as resistance
• How listening to your body protects your creativity
• Improv and Theater of the Oppressed as creative and liberatory practices
• Downsizing, big moves, and building a more intentional life
• Kevin's move from Miami to Costa Rica, and my plan to live nomadically

Links from the show:

Was it Chance? Podcast with Alan Seales and Healther Vickery featuring Historian Tad Stormer.

Theater of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal

Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson for Fueling Your Creative Life by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens

Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey

About my conversation partner

Kevin Chung helps creative people finish what matters: the book, the business, or the life they actually want, through creative thinking, mindset shifts, and marketing advice. He hosts The Standout Creatives, Standout Reinventions, and Standout Authors, and he recently left the United States to live out his creative dreams in Costa Rica.

Connect with Kevin: The Standout Creatives newsletter and podcast

Rest with me

If you want a place to rest so your creative juices can flow again, become a paid Substack subscriber to Just Rest. You'll get my full reflections on living nomadically, tips for preventing and recovering from burnout, and more opportunities to rest.

You are worthy of rest!

CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:

Newsletter

LinkedIn

Bluesky

Work with Nicole

Leave a Voice Memo

Send me a message via Speakpipe.

A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.