WITH ANDREA CRISP
Power of Presence
STOP CHASING
We celebrate strong women until they need support.
In this episode of The Soul Aligned Podcast, Andrea explores the hidden cost of being the capable one — the leader, coach, entrepreneur, caregiver, or woman who has learned to carry everything on her own. While strength is often praised and rewarded, many women discover they the very identity that once helped them succeed can eventually create a feeling of separation, exhaustion, and resistance to receiving support.
Through the lens of nervous system regulation, identity, Human Design and her own personal experience, Andrea shares why receiving support is not a weakness but a capactiy that must be cultivated. This conversatoin invites you to explore where you may be overfunctioning, self-abandoning, or unconsciously equating your worth with how much you can hold.
If you've ever struggled to ask for help, felt safer being the one in control, or found yourself carrying more than you need to, this episode offers a compassionate invitation to soften, receive, and remember that you were never meant to do it alone.
SOUL REFLECTION
Take a moment to reflect: Where am I holding more than I need to right now?
What would shift if you allowed yourself to be supported not because you've earned it, but because you're human? Your strength does not disappear when you receive help. In many ways it becomes more sustainable, more embodied, more aligned with who you truly are.
ABOUT ANDREA
Andrea Crisp is a certified coach, author, and guide supporting intuitive women in reconnecting with their inner knowing so they can live, lead, and create from a place of deep alignment.
Her work weaves together nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, mindset, and energetic practices—creating space for women to expand into greater ease, clarity, self-trust, and authentic expression.
"We celebrate strong women until they try to receive." Andrea Crisp
IN THIS EPISODE
Why strong, capable women often struggle to receive support
How nervous system safety impacts your ability to ask for help
How Human Design and the G Centre can influence your relationship with support
CONNECT WITH ANDREA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreacrispcoach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSoulAlignedPodcast
Website: https://www.andreacrisp.ca
Meditation on Insight Timer: Cashflow Nervous System Reset for Entrepreneurs
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We celebrate strong women until they try to receive. This episode is about something I've seen in
myself and in so many women I work with, especially women who are leaders, coaches,
and who are seen as deeply capable. There is a version of strength in all of us that gets rewarded.
It gets praised, it gets trusted, but there's also a cost that almost no one talks about.
And at a certain point in our leadership or our entrepreneurship, that strength stops feeling
empowering and starts feeling like it is separating us. Separating us from receiving support,
from being vulnerable, and from truly being known. And today we're going to explore what is
possible when we allow the support back into our lives from a place of safety.
Welcome to the Soul Aligned Podcast. My name is Andrea Crisp. I'm a coach, author, and guide, and I
support intuitive women in reconnecting with their inner knowing so they can live, lead, and create
from a place of deep alignment. My own path has been one of unraveling, releasing old identities,
healing patterns, and trusting the wisdom within. This space is an invitation to return to
yourself. to explore the inner work, the nervous system, and the energetic shifts that allow your
life to unfold with more ease, clarity, and truth. Take a breath and let's begin.
Hello, friend. Welcome to the podcast. I am so glad you're here. Thank you for tuning in to this
podcast on audio or watching on YouTube. Yes, if you did not know already,
I have a YouTube channel and it has been really fun. albeit a little bit stressful and challenging
to record each episode. I know that eventually I'm going to kind of find my way,
but to be honest, it is also what sparked the idea for this episode because I am notorious for
trying to do things on my own. If you know me, you know that I try to do all the things in my
business and I'm very resourceful and I'm very capable, but I'm... the worst at asking for help or
support and even worse at receiving it. So maybe you can relate.
Maybe you have also been in that place where you're like, I know that I can do this and I don't
need the help. And that is because so many of us have been conditioned that we are seen and
celebrated for being strong and capable. So that is how we show up in the world.
That is how we show up in our business. And that's how we show up in in our lives. So somewhere
along the way, strength has become a way for us to perform.
And that performance is what is getting us rewarded. Now,
as kids in school, we performed for our grades, we performed for the adults in our lives,
we performed for income, and we performed for love and for validation.
But heaven forbid, that we would be celebrated for who we are and not just for what we can do.
And as women, we've had to become the ones who figure things out, who are reliable,
who are available. And we started to recognize that we didn't get what we needed if we asked for
what we wanted. And this is... really become a pattern that plays out in our lives.
Feeling like we constantly have to show up a certain way and identify with that way of being,
identify with that role that we're playing. Remember when I first started coaching,
I would ask women, you know, who are you? And they would identify as the role, like I'm a mom,
I'm a wife, and that's just something that we do. But who are you? For myself,
when I was a kid, I identified as the good kid. I was the oldest.
I was the oldest sibling. I was the oldest grandchild. And I was praised for being the one who was
able to carry things, who helped around the house, who babysat my brother and foster sister.
And I learned that that was how I was seen. And I was recognized for what I could do.
So at a young age, I learned to override what I needed.
I started to override what I felt just so that I would get the attention and the validation from
what others expected me to be. And that carried into my adulthood.
It carried into the jobs I held, the way I interacted with. my peers,
with my bosses. It even went into when I was a teacher and of course into coaching.
And it has really been an undercurrent of how I've operated with my clients in the opportunities
that come my way because there is this strength that we are all performing that gets celebrated.
And there's almost like this need for us to continue to do it so that we can continue to be seen.
But I'll tell you what, this is actually not what is helping us create what we want in our lives or
to build the business we want or to be the person we truly want to be. Because we find ourselves
abandoning the truth of who we are. just to be who others want us to be,
to fulfill those expectations. And in doing so, it's almost as though we're like,
well, I guess I just don't need support. I don't get support. And then we close ourselves off from
really receiving what is meant for us. So today I want to talk a little bit about why receiving
support is not actually a weakness and why it requires us to feel safe.
to receive. Now, I've mentioned this already in the podcast, but I am actually someone who
struggles to receive that support. And even though I actually want support,
I consciously want people to help me, my nervous system does not always feel safe receiving it
because I feel like for some reason I'm out of control.
It's this feeling of like, I'm not safe and I don't need anything from you. And if I don't need
anything from you and I need to do things on my own, then I won't actually be disappointed if
you're not able to give me what I want. If you're not able to come through for me, if you're not
able to show up for me. And it can also create a scarcity because it makes you feel like you are
separate from other people. And maybe you've felt that way too. Maybe you struggle to receive
support or you struggle to receive what it is that you desire because it's safer for you to be in
the position of control and not seen as someone who actually needs the help.
And receiving support can... you feel like you're exposed or vulnerable.
It can feel unpredictable because you're not sure what's going to happen. You're not sure if
someone's going to come through for you. And often the body resists saying,
I can do this on my own. I can do this myself. why so many women feel depleted,
feel exhausted, and feel unable to receive. Not because they don't want the support,
but because their nervous system has not learned how to be safe when receiving it.
So the real work isn't in forcing ourselves to receive or forcing ourselves to get support,
but building nervous system safety while receiving. Now, I just want to jump in here and say this.
One of the ways that I have consistently helped myself in creating safety in my body is through
tapping, EFT, emotional freedom technique. And that is tapping through the meridian points in even
just the times where I feel like, oh, if I receive help right now, things are all going to go to
hell, that things are not going to work out. So it starts with the small things. It starts with
those moments that maybe feel insignificant, allowing in support in a way that doesn't cause you to
collapse or your nervous system to completely shut down. Just letting yourself receive small things
at first or getting support in ways that allow you to edge your way into receiving more and
trusting that you're not going to lose everything. just because you're getting help. Because
there's often an unconscious desire that we have to be seen as capable,
to be seen as having it all together, to be celebrated for being strong. And when we're receiving
help, that makes us question all of that. But underneath it all,
underneath all of that desire to be seen and that desire to be helped and that desire to be
supported is actually what we really truly desire, which is being fully known.
And that can be really scary to admit because beneath those expectations that we're carrying around
or the pressure to be successful is this underlying desire for us just to be seen,
as ourselves, for me to be seen as Andrea and not for the parts of me that are impressive or
showing up and performing, but just allowing ourselves to be truly seen.
And when we are seen and known, it is really creating that safety and that full belief that life,
that God is supporting us. in a way that we don't have to perform to truly receive.
Now, I love human design, and it gives us this glimpse into how we're wired.
So today I want to just tie this into the G Center, which is really the center of our identity,
the direction that we have in our life, the sense of love and how we live and how we operate in our
human design. I want to make this simple. I don't want to make it too complicated because for me,
when I was first learning human design, it was like, oh my gosh, I don't understand any of this. So
hopefully I will make it simple for you today. So we either have a defined or undefined G-Center.
And if you are looking for your human design chart, I have a link where you can actually download
your human design chart or you can send me a message and I can help you do that. But when you have
a defined G center, you may find that you know yourself more. Like you have this like sense of your
identity. You have a sense of where you're going in your life. And often those people with a
defined G center are those who everybody looks to. You're a stabilizing force.
You're like the foundation in people's lives. But it can also create this unconscious need.
in the person who has the defined G center to be the strong one, to be the one who has it all
together, to be the leader, to be someone who doesn't need the support. So there are so many women
that have a defined G center that have to learn that letting support in does not diminish who they
are. what they're capable of, and where they're going in their lives, that they can both have that
identity as well as have the support they need. Now,
I'm an undefined G-Center, which means that I see my identity as fluid.
It's shaped by the people I'm around, by my environment. So if I'm around somebody with a defined G
-Center, Oftentimes I'm like shape shifting into who they are and the sense of identity they have.
Women with a undefined G center are really able to adapt and read the room and we're able to become
what people need. But this flexibility can also create this subtle need to over effort or over work
or be more. And to get the validation that we need because we think we need to overwork or over
effort our way into getting validation or into being seen.
So women with an undefined G-Center need to learn that we don't have to shapeshift to be seen.
We don't have to do more to get the validation we're looking for.
being ourselves. So for both the women with an undefined G center and defined G center,
it's about learning to source safety and not having to change who we are, but we can learn to
accept and receive support no matter how we are showing up.
Now, when I first started recording the podcast on video, I was determined. to do this on my own.
So I was learning all of the things I needed to learn to record. And I felt like I was going to get
like a badge of honor just for learning it and knowing how to do it. But the truth is,
is that we all need help. We all need support, including myself.
And learning to let go of the control and accept help is a form of being open to receiving.
And I think it's always where we are in our journey is to really gauge like,
where can I grow? Where can I evolve? How can I learn to increase my capacity without feeling like
I needed to be celebrated for being strong? So today I want to invite you to just take a moment to
just get quiet. So if you're driving, maybe come back to it later. But if you are able and capable
right now, I just invite you to just, you know, ground into your space just to feel fully present.
Maybe just take a nice deep breath in through the nose and maybe place a hand on your chest or on
your belly and just take a nice deep breath in for the count of four. and then exhale for the count
of six. And as you just ground into your space right now,
as you're just being held in this moment, I invite you to really ask yourself this question,
where am I holding too much right now?
And just see what comes up.
Maybe you think that you need to really hold everything together in order to be seen.
Just encourage you to repeat this after me. I don't have to hold this alone to be powerful.
Support is not something I earn. It is something I allow.
And then take a nice deep breath in through the nose today and out through the mouth.
I encourage you to really see where it is that you are trying to over effort to be more and maybe
where you're resisting getting the help, the support and receiving what it is that you truly need.
And as we bring this episode to a close today, I'd like to offer you this. We don't need to let go
of our strength. In fact, we can be strong while also being supported and being seen and known as
who we are. Because your strength without support will become pressure and strength without the
support you need will isolate you from the people in your life that you really need in your life.
And strength without support will quietly turn into exhaustion that no one else sees.
As we learn to receive support, we learn that our identity is not in how much we can hold,
but it's in who we are. Now I want to talk to you about Something that has been one of the most
impactful things for me personally, and that is one-on-one coaching, both as a coach and being
coached. And not because I was told what to do, but because I was guided and I was held and I no
longer felt like I needed to do it alone. There's something that's really, really magical about
that relationship and about being supported and being seen in the inner work.
Because when you're doing the inner work, You're seeing these patterns, you're recognizing things
that are running in the subconscious, but you're also given the tools to shift and to change and to
really start creating what it is that you want in your life, in your business, in your
relationships, in your finances. And it also helps you recognize where you might be trying to do
things on your own.
truth of who you are. And that's been my lived experience. And it's what I see in my clients over
and over again. Just the other day, one of my clients was telling me how getting support in her
coaching relationship with me really helped her to realize how much support she needed in her
business and how much she was trying to carry on her own. Support is not what you turn to when
you're broken. Support is what allows you to stop self-abandoning.
So if this is something that feels like it is a pull, like an invitation to you,
I encourage you to honor that because you're not meant to do this journey alone.
If you want... information on how we can work together, how we can work one-on-one,
I am going to leave all of the information in the show notes for you. Thank you for being here and
for walking this path with me. If this episode supported you, share it with someone who's on their
own journey and leave a rating and review to help the podcast grow. You can connect with me on
Instagram at andreacrispcoach or visit andreacrisp.ca. Until next time,
trust your soul knows the way. Original music and production by Stephen Crilly.
If this episode stirred something in you, let’s take it further. Book a connection call and we’ll explore what’s coming up for you, and how we can work together to support your next level.
Trust Your Soul Knows The Way.
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