WRITTEN BY: Hannah Strange, Founder of The Strange Apothecary
Why understanding your stress responses might be one of the most overlooked skills in
entrepreneurship.
You can have the perfect business plan, a brilliant product, an incredible team & a marketing
strategy that ticks every box, but if the person making the decisions is constantly operating in
survival mode, how much of that strategy is actually being executed from a place of clarity?
We talk endlessly about business growth, productivity, leadership & performance, yet we rarely
talk about the nervous system of the person responsible for making it all happen & that's a
pretty significant oversight.
Your Nervous System Doesn't Clock Off When You Start Working
Your autonomic nervous system helps regulate essential bodily functions & responds to
perceived threats through changes in alertness, heart rate & other physiological processes.
Those threats don't have to involve physical danger; an unexpected bill, a difficult client,
declining sales or an overflowing inbox can all trigger a stress response. When stress becomes
persistent, it can affect attention, memory, emotional regulation & decision-making. Suddenly,
you're not simply running a business; you're attempting to run a business while your body is
allocating resources towards managing perceived threats & that changes how you operate.
When Survival Strategies Become Business Strategies
Consider how frequently these behaviours appear in entrepreneurship:
People-pleasing: Agreeing to unreasonable client demands because disappointing someone
feels unbearable.
Overworking: Feeling unable to stop because rest creates guilt or anxiety.
Avoidance: Putting off financial decisions, difficult conversations or sales follow-ups because
they feel overwhelming.
Overcontrolling: Struggling to delegate because trusting someone else feels riskier than doing
everything yourself.
These behaviours aren't automatically evidence of nervous system dysregulation. They can
arise from financial pressures, learned habits, workplace culture or genuine business
constraints, but sometimes, what looks like a business strategy is also a protective response.
The important question becomes: Am I choosing this because it's genuinely best for my
business, or because it temporarily makes me feel safer?
That distinction can change everything.
Regulation Isn't About Being Calm All the Time
There's a growing misconception that nervous system regulation means remaining peaceful,
positive & unbothered regardless of circumstances; it doesn't. A regulated nervous system is
capable of responding to challenges & recovering afterwards; you can experience frustration,
excitement, disappointment or uncertainty without every uncomfortable emotion dictating your
next decision.
The goal isn't to eliminate stress; it's to develop the capacity to recognise your responses,
respond appropriately & recover when the pressure passes & for business owners, that's a
valuable leadership skill.
Three Ways to Bring Nervous System Awareness Into Your Business
1. Recognise your personal warning signs.
Before stress becomes overwhelming, what changes? Perhaps you start rushing decisions,
avoiding messages, becoming unusually irritable or working long after you've stopped being
productive. Identify your patterns before they become your default operating system.
2. Create space between activation & action.
Not every email requires an immediate reply, or every disappointing sales day requires an
entirely new marketing strategy. When you notice yourself becoming reactive, step away briefly
where possible. Move your body, slow your breathing or take a short break before returning to
the decision; a little distance can create room for a more considered response.
3. Build a business that accommodates human capacity.
Your business shouldn't require you to operate at maximum intensity every single day; review
your workload, communication expectations, delegation opportunities & recovery time. Where
possible, create systems that reduce unnecessary pressure rather than relying on your ability to
tolerate more of it.
Your Business Can Only Be as Sustainable as the Way You Run It
Business owners are frequently encouraged to push harder, become more disciplined & develop
greater resilience; sometimes those skills are useful, but resilience shouldn't mean becoming
exceptionally good at ignoring your own needs.
Sustainable business growth requires more than financial planning & clever marketing; it also
requires understanding the person responsible for delivering it, because your business doesn't
operate independently of you.
Your decisions, relationships, boundaries & leadership are influenced by how you're functioning
& perhaps one of the most powerful questions you can ask isn't simply: How do I grow my
business?
But: What needs to change in the way I run my business so that both the business & the person behind it can thrive?
About The Author
Founder of 19x award-winning brand, The Strange Apothecary, Minister of Pharmakeia, blending ancient wisdom with modern science through the power of plant medicine, sacred ritual & nervous system regulation.
Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn
