Becoming Stoppable: The Skill High Achievers Need Most with Paul Simard
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What happens when you stop pushing past your emotions and actually listen to them?
In this episode, I sit down with Paul Simard for a powerful conversation about emotional awareness, grief, and what it really means to lead and live with clarity. Paul brings a unique perspective through his work as a death doula, supporting individuals and families through grief, loss, and life’s most uncomfortable transitions.
We talk about why unacknowledged emotions don’t disappear, they become blocks that slow us down. We also explore how grief shows up far beyond death, in career shifts, identity changes, and seasons of letting go, and why learning to become “stoppable” can actually expand your life rather than shrink it.
This conversation invites you to rethink productivity, momentum, and what sustainable growth really looks like when emotional awareness and nervous system regulation are part of the equation.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this conversation:
Why ignoring emotions creates internal blocks and resistance
How grief shows up in leadership, business, and personal growth
What it means to become stoppable without losing momentum
The connection between emotional awareness and clarity
How widening your life creates more capacity and alignment
Why emotions are signals, not problems to fix
Meet Paul Simard
Paul Simard is a Montreal‑based speaker, TED presenter, culture architect, death doula, and men’s wellness guide working at the intersection of grief, masculinity, dying, and societal change. Drawing from frontline experience with individuals, families, schools, and communities, Paul challenges modern narratives around the social constructs that have influenced our lives for generations.
Paul is the founder of The Canoe, H U M E N I T Y and Living Wisdom, platforms that are focused on transforming the human experience by focusing on counter-societal ways of seeing and engaging with our world, including nature‑based wisdom, considering our language as spells, reframing our emotional bodies and relational integrity. His talks are known for being deeply human, emotionally resonant, and culturally provocative—leaving audiences changed, not just informed.
For those of you interested, Paul is offering all of our listeners 2 free sessions to reach out and explore what it means to journey together!
FB: https://www.facebook.com/paul.sim.17
IG: https://instagram.com/living__wisdom
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-simard/
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Emotional Awareness, Grief, and Leadership Clarity
Why unprocessed emotions become blocks
One of the biggest patterns I see with high-achieving women is this belief that if we stay productive and keep moving, the hard emotions will eventually work themselves out.
We tell ourselves that once things slow down, once the launch is over, once we get through this season, we’ll deal with how we’re feeling. But emotions don’t work on a delayed timeline. They don’t wait patiently in the background while we check things off our list.
When emotions aren’t acknowledged, they don’t disappear. They settle into the body and quietly influence how we think, decide, and show up. Over time, that unprocessed energy turns into hesitation, exhaustion, overthinking, or a sense of pushing without traction, even when everything looks successful on the outside.
This truth sits at the center of my conversation with Paul. We talked about how often we override what we’re feeling in the name of responsibility, productivity, or momentum, without realizing the cost. Ignored emotions don’t go away. They show up later as resistance, burnout, chronic pressure, or a nervous system that never quite settles.
Many women don’t realize they’re carrying emotional weight because they’ve become so good at functioning under it. But just because you can carry something doesn’t mean you’re meant to.
Grief is bigger than we think
Grief is one of the most misunderstood emotions we experience, and it isn’t limited to death. Grief shows up any time something meaningful changes.
A job loss. A shift in identity. Letting go of an old version of success. Outgrowing a role, a relationship, or a belief system that once felt safe. Even positive change can carry grief when it requires releasing who you used to be.
When grief isn’t acknowledged, the body stays braced. The nervous system remains in a subtle fight mode, even when there’s nothing left to fight. That’s when life and leadership start to feel heavy instead of expansive.
In our conversation, we explored how grief doesn’t mean something has gone wrong. It means something mattered. When grief is allowed to be present, it becomes a bridge rather than a burden. When it’s ignored, it quietly drains energy and clarity.
This is especially important for leaders and business owners, because unresolved grief often shows up as impatience, self-criticism, or the urge to keep pushing even when your body is asking for something different.
Becoming stoppable is a leadership skill
Paul shared a perspective that reframes how we think about momentum. Growth doesn’t require constant pushing. Sometimes it requires learning how to become stoppable.
When we stay in constant push mode, our perspective narrows. Creativity drops. Awareness shrinks. We miss signals from our body, our relationships, and even our own intuition. We’re moving fast, but we’re not always moving wisely.
Becoming stoppable doesn’t mean quitting or giving up on your goals. It means allowing moments of awareness, reflection, and regulation so your nervous system isn’t driving every decision from a place of urgency or fear.
When we widen our life instead of forcing it forward, clarity returns. Capacity increases. Decisions feel less reactive and more aligned. Momentum becomes sustainable rather than exhausting.
Regulation creates clarity
Leadership isn’t just about strategy or execution. It’s about nervous system regulation. It’s about how safe your body feels when you’re making decisions, setting boundaries, or navigating uncertainty.
When the nervous system is constantly activated, everything feels urgent. Everything feels heavy. Even good things can feel like pressure. When emotions are acknowledged and allowed to move, the body softens and the mind clears.
That’s when leadership becomes grounded instead of forced. That’s when confidence stabilizes and decisions feel cleaner. Emotional awareness isn’t a detour from success. It’s part of what makes success sustainable.
We also talked about how shame keeps people stuck longer than the situation itself. Shame convinces us that we should already be past something, that we should be handling it better, or that needing support means we’re failing.
That mindset keeps people isolated, disconnected, and exhausted.
Let it all be present
This conversation is an invitation to release the idea that growth only comes from effort and pushing harder. You don’t have to choose between momentum and presence. You don’t have to ignore your emotions to succeed. You get to integrate them.
When emotions are allowed to move, clarity expands. Capacity increases. Life and leadership begin to feel wider instead of heavier.
If you’ve been feeling pressure without ease or momentum without clarity, this episode offers a grounded reminder. Awareness is often the shift that changes everything.
