61: GUEST | How to Stop Over-Functioning and Start Living with Barb Nangle

If you’ve ever felt like your worth depended on what you did for others, this episode will hit you straight in the nervous system.

I sit down with Barb Nangle, boundaries coach, podcast host, and recovery warrior for a deep conversation about how compulsive people-pleasing, codependency, and religious conditioning shaped her life… until she reclaimed it.

We talk candidly about Barb’s decades in Christian spaces, why the church gave her identity but stole her agency, and how 12-step recovery helped her heal from both addiction and approval-seeking. If you’ve been navigating burnout, over-functioning, or secretly resenting the people you’re always rescuing, this is your episode.

Boundaries. Truth-telling. Recovery. Spiritual reclamation. We’re talking SHIFT.

⏱️ In This Episode, We Talk SHIFT About:

00:01 – From addiction to awakening: Barb’s path to recovery

01:56 – What compulsive people-pleasing actually is—and why it’s not selfless

03:17 – Religious trauma, patriarchy, and losing your Self in service

06:34 – Why boundaries are the antidote to burnout

08:42 – The fawn response: when fear shows up as niceness

11:50 – How women are groomed to be over-functioners

14:26 – Church, shame, and the myth of humility

18:10 – How Barb untangled worth from performance

21:23 – 12-step recovery as a path to nervous system regulation

24:50 – The guilt of saying no—and why it’s a sign of growth

27:11 – Healing doesn’t mean you stop caring—it means you stop bleeding

29:38 – Why emotional honesty isn’t optional in leadership

33:05 – From codependent to coach: Barb’s mission now

37:44 – Cultivating healthy selfishness and relational integrity

40:00 – What to do when people don’t like your boundaries

44:17 – The difference between being needed and being whole

48:51 – Self-trust, self-worth, and the return to your truest self

💛 Connect with Barb Nangle

🎧 Listen to her podcast: Fragmented to Whole 🌐 Work with Barb: https://www.f2w.co 📲 Follow on Instagram: @higherpowercoaching

🎧 Loved this episode?

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