Living in the Inhale: Why Women Forget To Exhale
Why so many women stay stuck in fight-or-flight and how to learn to pause and exhale
Many women are managing careers, families, aging parents, partnerships, and their own expectations, often in a constant state of inhale (fight or flight), never taking a pause or remembering to exhale.
In this episode of Spark Me, we sit down with Stacy Fritz, speaker, wellness strategist, and inventor, to talk about breath and self-regulation not as soft ideas, but as practical tools for staying well over time.
Stacy shares how her deep work with breath and nervous system regulation grew not only from years in corporate wellness, but from trying to teach her terminally ill brother how to breathe to manage pain and anxiety. That experience ultimately inspired her to invent a guided breathing tool called the vidaBALL. Along the way, she discovered that breath was not just a wellness practice, but a way through grief, stress, and sustained caregiving.
Rather than offering another list of things to fix or optimize, Stacy reframes self-care as protection. Caring for yourself now is not indulgent. It is how you stay healthy, resilient, and present for the life you are still living and the future you want to reach.
This is a Spark Me conversation about pause, nervous system awareness, and learning how to protect yourself without stepping away from the people and responsibilities you care about.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why so many women live in a constant state of “inhale” and how that keeps the body locked in fight-or-flight
- What Stacy learned trying to teach her terminally ill brother how to breathe and how that changed her work forever
- Why “protection” of your future health matters
- How to exhale and use breath as a practical tool in moments of pressure, conflict, and overwhelm
Resources mentioned in this episode
- vidaBALL – A guided breathing tool Stacy created to help people regulate their nervous systems in under two minutes - https://thevidaball.com
Code: CHRISTINE (save $19.00) - Believe Big – A nonprofit supporting individuals and families navigating cancer through integrative and conventional care - https://believebig.org
- Stacy Fritz – Speaker, wellness strategist, and founder of FIT2Order - https://stacyfritz.com
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