What does it really take to walk away from a six-figure consultant surgeon salary?

This week, I'm delighted to chat with Dr Bex Winterborn, who did exactly that after 25 years in the NHS. From experiencing PTSD after losing a colleague during surgery, to burnout during the pandemic, to that pivotal moment when she realised she was avoiding theatre lists - Bex shares her powerful journey of rediscovering purpose beyond the identity she'd held since she was seven years old.

We explore the courage it takes to remove the armour and mask we wear in high-pressure careers, why embodying your next chapter before you leap is essential, and how coaching and parts work helped Bex recognise she was multifaceted beyond just being a doctor.

If you're in a well-paid job but know there's something bigger calling you, this conversation about finding joy, setting boundaries, and understanding that it's absolutely okay to have different chapters in your life is going to really resonate with you.

00:00 The Journey of Transitioning from Surgeon to Coach

05:23 Rediscovering Identity and Purpose

10:17 Understanding Parts Work and Its Impact

15:13 Navigating Financial Concerns During Transition

19:20 Breaking Down Hierarchies in Healthcare

24:16 The Power of Language in Transformation

27:44 Embracing Change and Supporting Others

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I lost one really deep friendship when I started changing my relationship with money - not because I became a different person or got arrogant, but because I stopped being who they needed me to be. What nobody talks about when breaking money cycles is that sometimes the people closest to you have the most invested in keeping you exactly where you are.

This is the conversation I've been avoiding since we started this series because it's messy, it's painful, and it doesn't have a tidy solution. But if you've been setting boundaries and healing your relationship with money, you've probably already felt it - that shift, that distance, that uncomfortable realisation that your growth is threatening to some people.

Today, I'm talking about the hidden cost of financial healing that nobody really warns you about, the five relationship patterns that can't survive your evolution with money, and the actual conversation scripts you need when relationships begin to shift.

00:00 The Cost of Financial Healing

02:47 Navigating Relationship Changes

06:11 Identifying Relationship Patterns

11:52 The Impact of Family Dynamics

17:55 Understanding Friendship Dynamics

24:01 Recognizing Growth and Grief

29:51 Effective Communication Strategies36:00 Embracing Change and New Relationships

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Check out Friendsaholic by Elizabeth Day

What would happen if you stopped holding all the responsibility with money? If you weren't the rescuer or the provider, the generous one - would people still value you and would you still matter?

That may sound like a rather odd question, but right now there are thousands of people searching terms like "Why do I always put others first with money?" and "How do I stop feeling guilty spending money on myself?" because so many of us are trapped in what I refer to as the caretaker money cycle, where your mind and your body have literally learnt that giving money away equals safety, love, and worthiness. And that programming is essentially bankrupting your future.

Whether you're a business owner who's paying everybody else's salary before your own, a mother funding your adult children's lives whilst living on scraps, a partner who ignores your own needs to keep the peace, or perhaps somebody supporting an aged parent at the expense of your own retirement - the scenario changes, but the pattern is the same.

Today, I'm going to show you why financial caretaker exhaustion isn't about being generous, and I'm going to give you an emotional toolkit exercise to help you break free from these cycles, along with some practical steps as well.

00:00 Breaking the Caretaker Money Cycle

14:09 Understanding Financial Responsibility and Identity

22:17 Practical Steps to Break Free

40:04 Emotional Financial Freedom

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If money has been feeling rather heavy for you recently, or maybe you're waking up in the middle of the night worrying about money, I want you to first of all know that you are not alone and there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if you have debts.

This episode is specifically about debt and shame, and I'm going to be sharing what happened for me when I was in £35,000 of debt - a story I've rarely told publicly because of the deep shame I carried around it for years. The truth is, debt isn't just about the numbers on a statement; it's about the weight of secrecy, the fear of judgement, and the exhausting cycle of hiding your financial reality whilst trying to maintain a successful exterior.

Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on my own debt journey, why shame keeps us trapped in destructive patterns, and the exact steps that helped me break free - not just from the debt itself, but from the suffocating belief that owing money meant I was fundamentally broken.

00:00 Understanding Debt and Shame

10:24 The Emotional Side of Money

15:07 Practical Strategies for Debt Management

24:30 Combining Emotional Healing with Financial Strategies

- **StepChange:** 0800 138 1111

- **National Debtline:** 0808 808 4000

- **Citizens Advice:** 0800 144 8848

If you're dealing with ADHD, depression, or anxiety affecting your money behaviours - **get mental health support:**

- **Samaritans:** 116 123 (24/7)

- **ADHD UK:** adhduk.co.uk

- **Mind:** 0300 123 3393

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Listen to previous podcast episode Master Female Financial Freedom in 1 Hour: Everything They Never Taught Women About Money

What if next month's revenue felt as reliable as your morning coffee? As a financial expert who's helped thousands of business founders to steady their income, I can honestly tell you this: you've already done the hard part - people want what you sell. Let's make the good months stick. Feast and famine cycles aren't personal failures, and it's not even your marketing. It's a pattern that your body and your business have learnt to repeat.

Today, I'm going to widen your capacity to receive money, to hold and to give, and pair it with some really simple, practical planning strategies so that consistency feels safe and not scary. I'll walk you through a monthly money date and a clear 90-day look ahead so you can spot those revenue cliffs early, plus a gentle body reset that you can use when money speeds up or slows down.

No hustle, no shaming, just a calming rhythm to steady, repeatable income.

00:00 Understanding Feast and Famine Cycles

02:47 Practical Planning for Financial Stability

05:54 Emotional Connections to Money

08:35 Recognizing Patterns in Cash Flow

11:15 Preparing for Revenue Cliffs

14:24 The Role of Body and Mind in Financial Cycles

17:04 Strategies for Managing Cash Flow

19:44 The Importance of Financial Stability Funds

22:30 Navigating Seasonal Fluctuations

25:28 Evolving Pricing Strategies

28:09 Implementing Monthly Money Dates

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Listen to previous podcast episode What is a Money Date and Why You Should Have One

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by a money decision that you've Googled "best savings account," opened 17 tabs, read 18 articles, and ended up way more confused than when you started?

Here's the trap we all fall into: when we're stressed about money, we think the answer is more information - one more podcast, one more YouTube video, one more expert opinion that will finally make it all make sense. But that information is actually making the overwhelm worse.

Today, as a former financial adviser with 20 years of experience, I'm showing you what's actually happening in your brain when you try to make decisions whilst feeling overwhelmed, and why the best thing you can do for your finances might be to stop consuming and start clearing. Research shows we're processing the equivalent of 174 newspapers worth of information every single day, and when we're in information overload, our decision-making shifts from our considered mind to our reactive, survival-orientated brain - which is pretty catastrophic when it comes to making sound financial choices.

00:00 Understanding Financial Overwhelm

09:37 Clearing Your Mind for Better Decisions

13:52 The Importance of Emotional Regulation in Finance

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I've spent the last 10 years trying to find the perfect financial management system for my business and personal finances, and here's what I've discovered: it doesn't matter which system you implement if the one thing avoiding the numbers is you. As a qualified financial advisor and somatic money expert, I can tell you with absolute certainty that financial avoidance has nothing to do with lack of financial education - it's a protection response your body has learned. When you retrain that response, money stops feeling like a threat and starts feeling like simple, neutral information.

Today, I'm guiding you through one simple somatic money practice that will prove to your body and mind that money is safe, and I'm sharing how I went from three months of complete avoidance to checking my numbers daily with curiosity, joy, and ease. Because here's the truth: you can have all the financial knowledge in the world, but if you can't look at your numbers, you can't use any of it.

00:00 Introduction to Financial Management and Avoidance

03:22 Understanding Financial Courage and Its Importance

08:36 Transforming Your Relationship with Money

13:26 Overcoming Perfectionism in Financial Practices

17:49 Somatic Money Practice for Financial Confidence

28:12 Building Financial Courage Step-by-Step

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Have you ever achieved a major financial milestone - landed a big client, hit a revenue goal, or finally built up your savings - only to watch yourself systematically self-sabotage it within weeks? Maybe you suddenly took on underpriced work, made an impulsive expensive purchase, or created some drama that torpedoed your success. If this sounds familiar, I need you to understand something crucial: this isn't weakness, it's not a character flaw, and it's not lack of willpower. This is your nervous system literally treating financial success like a threat to your existence.

Right now, thousands of people are searching terms like "why do I self-sabotage when things go well" or "why can't I hold onto money" because they're experiencing what I call success dysregulation - where your body cannot tolerate the feeling of having more, so it creates chaos to bring you back to the familiarity of struggle.

Today, I'm diving into why you might be getting 80% of the way to your financial goals and then something just happens, and more importantly, how to rewire your nervous system so you can finally keep what you've created. Chapters

00:00 Understanding Financial Self-Sabotage

02:46 The Role of the Nervous System in Money Management

05:52 Success Dysregulation: The Fear of Holding Success

08:35 Patterns of Self-Sabotage in Financial Success

11:22 Exploring the Three Money Zones

14:00 Common Patterns of Financial Dysregulation

17:06 Somatic Practices for Financial Success

19:51 Rewiring Your Nervous System for Success

22:11 Creating a Safe Space for Financial Growth

25:12 The Journey Towards Financial Empowerment Resources: Get my FREE book 'It's Not About The Money'

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If you've ever caught yourself saying "I don't want to price myself out of the market" or felt that familiar guilt creeping in when considering raising your prices, you're about to discover why being the affordable option is actually a financial trauma response. The hidden cost of undercharging isn't just the money you're leaving on the table - it's the cycle of resentment, exhaustion, and trauma responses that keep you trapped in patterns of unworthiness. In my book "It's Not About The Money," I explore how under-earning often starts as a trauma response where we overwork to prove ourselves, yet still feel undeserving. Today, I'm diving into why you've learned that charging less keeps you safe from rejection, but what's really happening is that every time you undercharge, you're training your body to believe you're worth less. This belief doesn't just affect your pricing - it rewires how you show up in every area of your life, creating a perfect storm where all three money zones get hijacked simultaneously.

00:00 Understanding the Cost of Undercharging

03:14 Exploring the Three Money Zones

05:48 Identifying Symptoms of Under-Earning

09:43 The Impact of Money Trauma

14:08 Body Work and Emotional Connection

19:25 Shifting Perspectives on Pricing

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Have you ever looked at your bank account and thought "this should feel like enough," yet still felt that familiar knot of anxiety in your stomach whenever money came up? You're absolutely not alone in this experience.

This week, I'm diving deep into why you can feel broke even when you have money - and it has nothing to do with the actual numbers in your account. The real culprit? Your nervous system and how it's been programmed to recognise what feels "safe" around money. If you grew up hearing "we can't afford that" or witnessed your parents stress about finances, your body has been encoded with those scarcity patterns, even if you're now financially secure as an adult.

Today, I'm sharing the 10-minute daily practice that completely rewired my relationship with worthiness and abundance - because the truth is, you can't think your way out of feeling unworthy, you have to feel your way into a new reality.

00:00 Understanding Financial Anxiety

03:11 Breaking Money Cycles: The Three Money Zones

10:00 Emotional Freedom and Healing Practices

12:14 Heart Breathing: A Transformative Practice

23:52 Rewiring Your Relationship with Money

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Download more resources at themoneypanel.co.uk/breakingmoneycycles