👋 Hi my name is Roslyn, I’m a 2x founder and executive coach. I help founders fall in love with building their companies again. Learn about working 1:1 here.

Hi there,

I hope you had a beautiful long weekend.

Here are a few things I did that filled my cup:

• Guided breathwork with becoming collective

• Sitting on the couch reading my historical fiction New York

• A three-hour catch-up with fellow spiritual founder friend

• Attending a dear fellow coach friend’s 2026 visioning workshop

I also painted my apartment, which ended up being its own form of self-care. I’m committed to making my surroundings more beautiful in 2026 because it makes a big difference to my mental health.

What are you doing to fill your cup this week?

That question ties directly into today’s newsletter, which explores how shifting our focus from chasing outer outcomes to cultivating inner states of safety and connection can lead to more fulfilling, easeful, and sustainable lives AND more stable, thriving companies.

Today we’ll explore:

• Real founder stories that show how prioritizing inner state changes outcomes

• Why nervous system regulation is what allows entrepreneurs to endure and evolve

• A nervous system mapping tool you can use to notice your patterns and guide yourself back to regulation throughout the day

And if you’re in NYC, join me this weekend for a Within Walk on Friday or Pilates, Pickleball, and Intention-Setting on Sunday!

An invitation to prioritize inner states > outcomes

Here’s something I really wish I understood better when I was in the founder seat of my first company.

When our nervous systems are in a state of safety and connection:

• We can more easily access intuition, creativity, and deeper wisdom

• We relate to ourselves and others with openness, compassion, and understanding

• We feel hopeful, excited, and trusting about the future
  

From this place, the energy we bring into the world tends to be reflected back to us. We feel resourced to expand into aligned opportunities. We call in investors, team members, and partners with open hearts. We meet challenges and decisions from a place of strength and self-trust.

When our nervous systems are in a state of activation or shutdown:

• We feel threatened and move through reactivity, defensiveness, or control

• We feel overwhelmed, disempowered, or anxious about what’s ahead

• We override intuition with overthinking, overworking, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or procrastination

• We assume the worst about ourselves and others
  

Often, the emotions we’re trying hardest to avoid end up being the ones we unintentionally invite in.

I see this pattern again and again with my clients and founders in my community.

FOUNDER STORY: FUNDRAISING

Last December, I sat down with a founder who was in the middle of raising her pre-seed round. She was nearing the end of her runway, dealing with investors who wouldn’t commit, and feeling understandably discouraged. She was even worried she might have to go back to finding a job if the round didn’t close.

Instead of jumping in with solutions, I just listened, validated her emotions, and witnessed her in the challenging season she was going through.

When we came to the end of our time together, the guidance I offered wasn’t strategic or tactical. I encouraged her to intentionally bring her nervous system back into a state of safety and connection whenever she noticed herself slipping into activation, shutdown, or looping on stories of despair. The energy required to close aligned investors wasn’t available in the state she had been operating from. From safety and connection, abundance becomes more accessible. So rather than focusing on pitch decks and intros, we talked about meditation, chanting, and somatic movement practices.

When we reconnected in the new year, she shared that things had taken a meaningful turn. She had locked in her lead investor and brought on a major advisor. She shared, “I think our conversation helped me shift into the abundance mindset I needed.”

Nothing about her company had changed. What shifted was how she showed up in the fundraising process. Her energy, mindset, and presence allowed her to align with what was already available to her.

FOUNDER STORY: DECISION-MAKING

This month, a client came into a session feeling anxious about a major decision related to her company. She felt stuck, convinced that either path would lead to failure.

As we explored what was driving the black-and-white thinking, we uncovered protective parts of her that were trying to shield her from failing.

As those parts were met with compassion and presence, her shoulders softened, her posture opened, and her breath deepened.

She began to access a sense of safety within herself.

From that non-threatened state, I asked how she was now relating to the decision. She shared that she felt calmer and more grounded, with a growing confidence that her self-worth wouldn’t be determined by the outcome. She trusted her ability to take things one step at a time, listen inwardly, and figure things out as she went.

The decision itself was still there, but her relationship to it had fundamentally shifted.

Before closing the session, we discussed how she could notice early signs of activation and gently guide herself back toward safety and connection.

WHAT THIS MEANS

The lesson I want to offer through these examples is that what shapes our experience as entrepreneurs isn’t only what’s happening in the external world. Markets, investors, teams, and customers matter, but so does how we relate to the circumstances in front of us.

When we’re able to embody a sense of strength, capability, trust, and openness, we gain access to creative solutions that aren’t visible from a place of threat or black-and-white thinking. From this grounded state, we can take small, values-aligned steps without needing to have every answer or outcome mapped out in advance.

Entrepreneurship is inherently uncertain. One complex challenge gives way to the next. Each stage asks something new of us, and growth requires expansion. You find product–market fit, then you’re fundraising. You raise capital, then you’re building a team. You build the team, then you’re scaling.

The founders who navigate this path most sustainably aren’t the ones with perfect plans or strategies. They’re the ones who can meet change from a grounded place that allows for agility, creativity, and resourcefulness in themselves and in their teams.

And, we won’t live in a state of safety and connection all the time. We’re human, and our nervous systems are designed to activate in the face of challenge. What is available to us is the ability to notice when activation is no longer serving us and gently guide ourselves back toward regulation.

Below, I’ll share a simple tool you can use to build awareness of your nervous system states and support yourself throughout the day.

1. NERVOUS SYSTEM MAPPING

This nervous system mapping tool was created by Deb Dana, a therapist, author and teacher of Polyvagal Theory.

The purpose of the map is to help you notice your patterns with curiosity, understand how your nervous system moves through different states, and increase your sense of choice over time.

If you’d like to work through this map yourself, you can copy this worksheet I use with my clients and fill in the three maps as we go. 

A.  PERSONAL NERVOUS SYSTEM MAP

The first table is a personal nervous system map, which helps you answer the question:

“How does each state show up for me?”

For each nervous system state, reflect on a recent moment when you were clearly there. Describe what you notice in your body, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

• Body: Breathing, posture, energy, muscle tone, and sensations

• Emotions: What feelings are present

• Thought patterns / beliefs: How you think about yourself, others, and the future

• Behaviors: How you show up in work, relationships, and leadership

B. TRIGGERS & GLIMMERS MAP

The second table answers the question:

“What moves my nervous system?”. 

Here, identify what reliably pulls you out of regulation (triggers) and what brings you back toward safety and connection (glimmers). These can be subtle and everyday.

Consider

• Glimmers: Moments, people, environments, or experiences that help you feel even a little more safe or connected

• Triggers (sympathetic): What activates urgency, pressure, anxiety, or reactivity

• Triggers (dorsal): What leads to shutdown, overwhelm, hopelessness, or withdrawal

C. SUPPORTING REGULATION & MOVEMENT BETWEEN STATES

This table answers the question:

“How do I work with my nervous system?”.

Here you’ll identify what supports you in each state and how you can gently move toward regulation over time.

Consider:

• When you’re regulated, what helps you stay there?

• When you’re activated, what helps you settle without shutting down? (Examples: breath, orientation, slowing pace, connection, boundaries, body-based practices.)

• When you’re collapsed or disconnected, what helps you come back online without forcing productivity or positivity? (Examples: small movement, warmth, sound, rhythm, novelty, compassionate structure.)

Once you’ve filled out your map, keep it somewhere accessible. You’ll likely revisit it, add to it, and update it as things evolve.

It can be especially helpful in moments when something feels off. You can pause, identify which state you’re in, reflect on how you got there, and choose practices that support a return to safety and connection.

If you practice this consistently, it will truly become a founder superpower. 

And if you want to learn more about this, check out Deb Dana’s books (these maps are from Polyvagal Theory in Therapy).

FINAL NOTE

If you find yourself frequently stuck in mobilization or shutdown, working with a professional can be deeply supportive. Our bodies store unresolved trauma from earlier in life, and present-day events can activate nervous system cycles that never fully completed. This is why something that seems small on the surface can feel disproportionately threatening.

Living in these states chronically can lead to burnout and even chronic illness (speaking from experience).

Therapists and coaches can support healing so present-day dynamics become less triggering and regulation becomes more accessible. In my 1:1 coaching practice, I use trauma-sensitive parts work to support clients. Personally, the practices that have supported me most have been Parts Work, Somatic Experiencing, Nervous System Coaching, and EMDR.

If you feel you need additional support, I encourage you to explore these modalities and use what resonates. You’re always welcome to book a call with me to learn more about how I can support you.

As someone who spent much of her life believing peace, joy, fulfillment, and freedom would arrive after hitting external milestones, grounding myself in these states directly has taken consistent practice.

One thing that’s helped has been surrounding myself with expanders, communities and teachers who live from this same orientation.

Here are a few resources I’m leaning into this season:

• Becoming collective: A soul-level healing community that gets together every Sunday evening online for breathwork, somatic practices, community coaching and connection. It’s suchhh a lovely way to go into the week.
  

• Reset with Liz Tran: I looooved Liz’s podcast when she published it in the early 2020’s and she’s doing a five-podcast reboot around her new book which is about the “Agility Quotion” - which is her term for our ability to adapt to change. And if you haven’t listened to the original podcast it’s such a relatable and comforting listen.
  

• The Expanded Podcast: Honestly the background soundtrack for my walks and chores. It consistently uplifts me, expands my perspective, and helps me feel grounded in my approach to life these days.
  

• EvolutionFM podcast: This one centers conversations on consciousness and spirituality and how to apply them to modern life.
  

• The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope: In case you forgot that having a fulfilling life involves living your unique purpose, this book is a beautiful reminder of that, and also shares HOW the heck you can go about doing that.

MINDSET IN MOTION

If you’re in NYC, join me and my wonderful friend Trisha, founder of Break Sports, for a day of movement and 2026 intention-setting this Sunday, January 25th. I mean, truly can you name a better combo than pilates, pickleball and intention-setting?!

Use code WITHINVIP to get your ticket for $10. Can’t wait to see you! 🙂 

WITHIN WALKS

Join us for our next Within Walk for female founders this Friday, January 23rd.

​​Start your day with movement outdoors + coffee + deep & meaningful chats with other founders.

​​Leave feeling more open, expanded and in community with others doing the really hard thing that is entrepreneurship.

PS, if it’s freezing, we’ll stay inside the cafe and I’ll lead a discussion around our theme instead of walking outside!

RSVP here.

WINTER FOUNDER CIRCLE

I’m co-hosting a winter circle for women founders on February 2nd.

​I’ll be guiding a reflection circle to explore what's ready to emerge this year, what you're being asked to release and who you're becoming in this next chapter.

Expect intimate conversations with fellow founders where you can remove your mask, be seen and supported in your real emotions, challenges and desires.

RSVP here.

• 1:1 Coaching: If you’d like support with your 2026 goals, you can book a free coaching consultation to learn how we can work together.

• Walk with us: Join for our next Within Walk.

• Let’s be friends: on LinkedIn and Instagram. I share more startup content and what’s going on behind the scenes there.

• Finally, tell me how you liked this newsletter. I read every piece of feedback.

Thank you for being here as always.

With love,
Roslyn 💚