Leaving corporate won't fix it — if you take the pattern with you. This is the conversation nobody has about career change and burnout recovery for women.

In this episode I'm joined by Marijana Sommerfeld — former business analyst at Coca-Cola, corporate consultant at Lufthansa, and someone who spent years pushing through exhaustion, suppressing her emotions, and performing "fine" — until her body made her stop.

In 2015, Marijana was diagnosed with breast cancer. What followed wasn't just a health crisis — it was the beginning of a complete identity transformation that eventually led her to write a book, found the Self-Healing Academy, and build a practice helping exhausted leaders find their way back to themselves.

But this isn't a story about leaving corporate and living happily ever after. It's about what actually happens after you resign — and why the patterns tend to come with you if you haven't done the inner work.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Why accomplished women stay in roles that don't fit them — and the real fears driving that (it's not what you think)
• How the body signals misalignment long before crisis hits — and how to start reading those signals practically
• The difference between "I am fearful" and "I have a fear" — and why that one word changes everything
• Why leaving your job doesn't fix the problem, and what actually does
• How Marijana rode her bike to chemotherapy while refusing to identify as sick — and what that teaches us about identity and healing
• What acceptance really means as a strategy (and why it's the opposite of giving up)

Whether you're navigating a health challenge, a career crossroads, or simply the quiet feeling that something needs to change — this episode will give you a new framework for listening to yourself.

Connect with Marijana:

• Work with Marijana: reconnect2self.com
• Read Marijana's Book: Corporate to Calling

Mentioned in this episode:

• Marijana's book Reiseführer für eine ungeplante Reise (in German)

🎟️ Upcoming Launches:

My group mentorship "Spiritual Accelerator" is launching next month (in Bulgarian). To find out more and stay in touch:

Join the Business as Poetry Substack Circle: https://businessaspoetry.substack.com/

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/business_as_poetry/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hristina-vaceva-cfa-4245901a/

(00:00) Episode Preview

(00:21) Meet Marijana Sommerfeld

(01:50) Why We Stick to Old Identity

(04:30) From Corporate to Calling

(06:52) When Will You Choose You?

(12:35) The Signs Not to Ignore

(12:59) Cancer Diagnosis — When the Body Speaks

(14:46) The Turning Point

(18:24) Where to Start: Listening to Your Intuition

(23:23) How to Get Out of Your Own Way

(25:02) Finding the Calling — Writing & Healing

(28:28) I Am or I Have?

(31:23) A Message on Self-Healing and Reconnecting

(37:47) When to Leave Corporate