Tag: With Featured Image

It was a perfect day on the water.

Blue sky. Calm waves. 💲300 less in my wallet. 😅

And I was determined not to leave empty-handed.

4 hours in, my reel screamed:

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—

“FISH ON!”I yelled, jumping to my feet like a maniac.

This was it.

The tug-of-war began.

He thrashed. 

He jumped.

He did everything in his fishy power to shake the hook loose.

But the harder he fought, the deeper the hook sunk.

Until finally, his muscular body gave out completely, and I was able to haul his beautiful fishy figure up alongside the boat.

“YIPPEE!” I squawked.

“Victory is mine, tuna boy!”

(I even did a smug little victory dance next to him—don’t judge me) 👀

But later that night as I was preparing him for dinner…

I made a grim discovery.

Grey.

From head to tail, what should’ve been beautiful pink flesh was a mushy, metallic mess!

That 💲300 sushi-grade dinner I worked so hard for?

Dead in the water.

Now, why the hell am I telling you this?

Because as I stood over this fish, I saw myself in his eyes.

PLUS I had a bit of a lightbulb moment:

See, we high performers are like tuna.

We’re hooked on pressure.

On stress.

On anxiety.

And we convince ourselves the only way to win is to FIGHT.

To resist.

To swim like our lives depend on it.

But here’s what we fail to realize:

Burnout isn’t a battle you win.

It’s a game you stop playing.

The smartest move that tuna could’ve made?

Was to cut the line.

What’s the smartest move you could make right now?

(Anyway, food for thought!)

In Love and Wisdom,
Pauline

P.S. Step 1 is to cut the line. Step 2 is to remove the hook.

P.P.S. If you don’t know how to do either, I teach both inside NUMINOUS.

 👉 Click here to learn how to cut the line, remove the hook, and live a life of freedom far from the clutches of burnout! 

Here’s a photo of me from 10 years ago.

Okay, okay — jokes aside…

That year, I felt dangerous.

Not “lock your doors and call the cops” dangerous…

I’m talking slow-burn, dead-eyed, iced-over soul kinda dangerous.

You know the feeling?

When your barista messes up your order 3 times in a row… and still, you feel nothing?

Not rage.

Not disappointment.

Not even a little passive-aggressive eye roll.

Just a big, fat… emotional void.

(That was me.)

My hair was falling out.

My nervous system was fried.

I was waking up more tired than when I went to bed.

And still?

Everyone around me thought I was “thriving.”

“Wow, you’re so calm under pressure,” they’d say.

(Which is a great compliment to receive when you’re basically Patrick Bateman from American Psycho with an Outlook calendar instead of a chainsaw.)

Now, here’s what I failed to realize back then:

When burnout looks like high performance… Nobody sees the danger.

Not even you.

You’re there smiling. Still hitting deadlines.

Still checking boxes like a productive little robot.

Meanwhile, your capacity for human emotion becomes almost non-existent.

That’s the real face of burnout.

It doesn’t scream, or panic, or even cry… 

It just detaches.

Bit by bit.

Until you no longer feel anything.

And that’s the moment you realize:

You may not look like a sociopath… but you sure as hell FEEL like one!

Now, I don’t have a 12-step recovery plan,

Or a cute Instagram carousel with 5 positive affirmations to send you.

But what I do have is the truth.

A hard reset.

A biology-first path back to safety.

A method for healing that doesn’t rely on “positive thinking” while your body begs for mercy.

If you want to see what it looks like?

👉 I lay it all out here

Because the only thing more dangerous than feeling pain…is feeling nothing at all.

In Love and Wisdom,
Pauline

I was at the Westfield carpark the other day when I saw this guy. 👇

Mid-40s.
Nicely dressed.
Shiny European car.

Standing next to what appeared like a flat tire. 🛞

No big deal, right? 

A minor inconvenience that happens to everyone.

But apparently… not to him.

Within seconds he loses it.

🤬

Arms flailing. 

Feet stomping.

Shouting words that’d make even a sailor blush.

And then, as if the situation couldn’t get more entertaining…

It does.

He starts kicking the car.

Not the tire. 

The car.  

As if it personally betrayed him or something.

So there I was. Frozen in the car park.
Watching this full-grown man have a toddler-level meltdown.

Yes, I probably should have turned to look away…
But I couldn’t help myself! 🤣

My brain immediately went into diagnosis mode:

| “Ah… a classic case of nervous-system dysregulation. In the wild. Fascinating.”

Now, I’m not judging or anything.

I just found it interesting.

I guess we’ve all had moments like these. Where the world shrinks to the size of the one tiny thing that isn’t working.

But as I stood there watching this unfold,

I couldn’t help but think…

                | “How did we get here?”

How did we (the species that split the atom) become so damn fragile that something as small as:

A flat tire
Slow Wi-Fi
Or a misplaced phone

…can send us into full Godzilla mode on an inanimate object?

(Food for thought, right?)

Now, while many people may think complaining, venting, or “blowing off steam” is a harmless practice… 

They’re mistaken.

Every sigh.
Every eye roll.
Every “why is this traffic so bad?”

You’re literally carving grooves in your brain — like dragging a knife through plasticine.

Do it once? No big deal.

But do it every day?

And that groove becomes the Grand Canyon of grumpiness.

And just like water flows down a groove…

So too do your thoughts.

Not metaphorically.

L I T E R A L L Y

And what’s worse is… 

You can’t “positive-think” your way out of these grooves.

That would be like telling someone with a broken leg to, “Just walk it off.”

Uh, no. 

The bone’s STILL broken.

So the solution isn’t as simple as “just stop complaining”, {Name}.

It takes serious re-patterning…

Rewiring of the systems beneath the thoughts…

And repetition to stop yourself from sliding back into old reactive habits.

At least, that’s what the high performers I coach are doing instead of trying to “positive think” their way out of decades of bad wiring!

If you want specifics on how they’re doing it…

Here’s exactly what they’re using to reprogram their brains from meltdown moments to default chill mode.

In Love and Wisdom,
Pauline

P.S. I like to imagine the man in Westfield car park eventually calmed down, changed his tire, and drove away. But the neural groove he carved that day? Definitely still there.

You can chant.
You can breathe.
You can rub crystals into your eyes and sip cacao in a circle while someone fans smoke in your face calls it “medicine.”

But if you’re still waking up with a tight chest.
A racing mind.
And a feeling in your gut that says: 

“This ain’t it my friend.”

Then I hate to be the one to break it to you:

You’re in the wrong place.

Because NO ritual can save you.

You don’t need another sound bath.

You need inner f*cking stability.

The kind that doesn’t vanish the second Slack pings or the market takes a wee dip.

If you’re a high-performer, who’s:

– Done with spiritual woo woo…
– Craving something grounded and backed by science… 
– Ready to create lasting change in your:

 🧠 Mind
 💼 Business
 💔 Relationships

Then keep reading.

I. Pauline. Don’t do woo.

I don’t do oracle cards, palm reading or crystal balls.

And I DEFINITELY don’t do pop-spirituality “TikTok” trends.

All I offer is this:

⚒️ Grounded power tools to master your sovereignty
🧬 Practices built on neuroscience, biochemistry & psychology
📈 Tactics that create real shifts from your boardroom to your bedroom

This is science-meets-soul for high-performing leaders who are done chasing rituals and ready to embody results.

I work with founders, executives, and elite entrepreneurs who don’t have time for incense-soaked gibberish.

They’re sharp.
They’re successful.
And they’re DONE being internally scrambled while externally scaling.

They want calm under chaos.
They want clarity under pressure.
They want courage in the face of doubt.

And most of all… 

They want control of their inner world.

This work fuses ancient wisdom with hard science.

It’s embodied.
It’s integrated.
And it works.

No airy-fairy fluff.

Just precision tools to help regulate your nervous system

and dissipate your biochemical addiction to stress.

So on that note…

If you’re done playing spiritual dress-up — if you’re ready to stop collecting practices that leave you feeling hollow and empty — if you’re ready to become the alchemist of your own operating system, then let’s talk.

👉 Book a 15-minute intro call.

We’ll see if you’re a good fit for this program.

Beware: Not everyone is.

I need to tell you about Claire.

(Not her real name, but her story is 100% real.)

Claire was what you’d call a high performer.

Up at 5 am. 

Trained like an athlete.

Managed a team of 14. 

Ran a household with a toddler who thought sleep was a government conspiracy. 🤣

But here’s what scared me about Claire:

She couldn’t sit still.

Couldn’t take a moment to rest.

And even when she tried? Her body wouldn’t let her.

So, I asked her the obvious question:

“Claire, why do you operate like this?”

Her answer?

“I don’t know how else to feel safe, Pauline.” 💀

Let that sink in for a second…

Her sense of safety was LITERALLY tied to staying in constant motion.

And that’s when I realized what was happening:

Claire’s body had pulled the greatest “Uno Reverse” in history.

See, your body’s incredibly smart.

Train it? It builds more muscle.

Climb a mountain? It produces more red blood cells.

Cut yourself? It literally stitches your skin back together.

Adaptation is what it does best.

But here’s the problem:

It adapts to what hurts too!

Stress?
Pressure?
Overwhelm?

“No worries,” it says.

“We’ll just make that part of your routine.”

Put these into your system long enough, and your body starts thinking:

“Ah… so THIS is normal now. Cool. I’ll wire that in permanently.”

…

That chronic tension? Becomes normal.

That inability to switch off? Also normal.

That “Why do I feel numb when nothing’s wrong?” feeling?

You guessed it…

Also normal.

Continue feeding it to your body long enough…

And it becomes part of your baseline.

(You’d be shocked at how many successful business owners this happens to.)

On the outside, they look fine!

But beneath the surface… 

They’re SLAPPING at the water like a drowning octopus, trying to stay afloat.

“Why do I feel numb?”

“Why can’t I just switch my brain off?”

“Why do I wake up exhausted after a full nights sleep?”

Simple.

Because they’re attempting to solve the problem the wrong way round. 

Top-down instead of bottom-up. 

Now, most people think they can “logic” their way back to normal… 

But the nervous system doesn’t speak logic.

It speaks in sensation. 

(That’s bottom-up solutions.)

The best results actually come from reverse engineering this approach. 

The opposite of what mindset coaches teach,

And exactly what I teach inside NUMINOUS.

(My flagship program.)

Inside, clients learn how to:

✅ Regulate their systems in under 3 minutes
✅ Spot the sneaky “survival habits” keeping them stuck in hyperdrive
✅ Unhook the coping tactics that quietly reinforce burnout

Without spending years in therapy. 🤣

There’s more to it, of course.

As for Claire, she went from constant motion… to actually enjoying the stillness!

Want to learn how she did it?

👉 Click here to read more about NUMINOUS

I go WAAAAAY deeper into the science on the next page.

In Love and Harmony, 
Pauline

Here in Australia, when December/January hits… something weird happens. 

The whole country slips into a collective trance.

“Hey mate, you coming into the office tomorrow?”

“Nah… BBQ at Steve’s.”

“What about next week?”

“Beach with the kids.”

“And the week after that?”

“Christmas. Then Boxing Day. Then New Year’s. Then… look, let’s talk in March, yeah?”

I kid you not. 😂

☝️THAT’S December/January in Australia.

Meanwhile, in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Canada & the UK), a different story unfolds.

“Hey, you coming over?”

“Can’t. Snowstorm.”

“What are you doing then?”

“Catching up on work. Planning Q1& Q2 Getting ahead.”

Which makes sense when it’s minus-12 degrees and pitch-black outside by 4 pm.

There’s literally f*ck all else to do.

☝️ And this right here?

It’s why January 9 belongs to you. Not the Aussies.

Why?

Because every year I watch the same exact pattern play out:

North Americans, Canadians, and the English all pile into the January NUMINOUS cohort.

Meanwhile, only a handful of Aussies join.

| “CURSE YOU WONDERFUL SUMMER WEATHER!!” 🤦

And come February, my inbox is full of messages from the few Aussies who do join, with things like:

“Pauline, I was so distracted during the holidays…”

“I feel like I wasn’t present enough…”

“I wish I’d taken this more seriously…”

Not their fault.

Not when an entire culture shuts down over summer.

And the expectation from December through Feb is “BBQs and beach time”.

Of course it’s harder to prioritise deep nervous system work when that happens.

Which is why I always say:

“The January NUMINOUS cohort belongs to the Northern Hemisphere!!” Haha.🤣

Anyway, if that’s you… 

👉 Go take a peek at the January 9 cohort here

I’ve got some brilliant things lined up for you.

— Pauline

P.S. Aussies… you’re welcome too. Just don’t make me compete with your BBQ. I know who wins that battle. 😝

Am I pronouncing that right?

(Nguyen. Numinous.)

“Vietnamese people don’t give f*ck about how letters sound.”

That’s not me saying that,

That’s comedian Andrew Schulz, delivering a mic-dropping truth bomb.

And for those who haven’t watched the skit…

He’s referring to a single word.

My last name:

N G U Y E N

Yep. The one I’ve heard publicly executed more times than I can count.

According to Schulz, it’s a cryptogram:

| “The name Nguyen looks like it should take you three business days to pronounce. But they just go: Win.”

Funny thing is… he’s DEAD ON.

For decades, I’ve stood silently while the world butchered it into oblivion:

“Nig-oo-yen”

“Nuh-goon”

“New-jan”

“New-York” (…seriously?)

Meanwhile, every Vietnamese person is just standing there like:

| “It’s Win. Chill.”

(Click the below to watch the skit if you haven’t seen it! It’s hilarious!)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNmzHeFJh97

Anyway, I’m telling you this story of constant struggle…

Because my program, NUMINOUS, gets the EXACT SAME TREATMENT!

People see that word for the first time, and the record scratches:

“Nu…my…noose?”

“Nummy-nose?”

“Numin…what now?”

And then I have to fight the burning urge to throw a piping hot bowl of pho at them!!

– – – – (the internal struggle is real, believe me)

But here’s what’s ironic:

Like ‘Nguyen’, once they get the pronunciation down, they never forget it.

Oh, and NUMINOUS isn’t just some random word by the way…

It’s a reset button.

A 90-day protocol that surgically retrains the nervous system, silences the subconscious chaos, and flips the underlying patterns to help your body run on clarity, calm, and flow.

And yes, the name looks like an ancient riddle to all the non-Vietnamese people out there…

But the experience?

Well, it’s impossible to forget.

NUMINOUS (say it with me: “Nu-mi-nous”)

Find out more about Numinous. Book a Call. Let’s Talk.

https://transform.numinousinstitute.com/numinous-1

P.S. Fun Fact: I came up with the name whilst meditating in the garden. It dropped in my ear like a quiet whisper from… somewhere else.

P.P.S. Also, I’d never even HEARD of the word before. I’d only heard of luminous. But later I discovered Carl Jung coined “numinous” to describe a state of awe, inner peace, and connection to something far beyond the ordinary.

P.P.P.S. When I read that, I thought: “F*CK. That’s exactly what I teach!” What are the odds? And thus the program NUMINOUS was born into existence.

When I wrote my book ‘Secrets of the Red Lantern’ back in 2007…  

I never dreamt it would leave the house. 

It was supposed to be a memoir. 

A keepsake for my children. 

Something to help them understand where we came from and what it took to get here. 

But life has a funny way of surprising you. 

As it happens… 

This little family project went global.

Debut Writer of the Year.

International Best Seller.

Tens of thousands of copies sold. 

And — my poor kids — it even landed on the HSC curriculum.

Imagine having to sit exams about your mum’s trauma and her cooking in your final years of school.

But the biggest shock?

The emails.

War veterans living with PTSD reached out. 

Survivors of domestic abuse wrote to me. 

Even people who openly admitted to being racist said my story gave them empathy and understanding.

Children of Holocaust survivors said: 

“Same story, different war.” 

All different people.

All different backgrounds. 

All connected by story.

And this made me realise something:

The details of our lives might look nothing alike.

(That much is true.)

But the patterns underneath it all?

Almost always the same.

Which is why, years later, when I created NUMINOUS…

I designed it not for one single type of person.

But for any living, breathing being… with aspirations, purpose and drive.

Because the nervous system doesn’t care if you’re an entrepreneur, a parent, or a leader.

It doesn’t care if you’re from Sydney, San Francisco, Spain, or São Paulo. 

It only cares if you’re wired for survival…
Or expansion.

For fear…
Or freedom.

And that’s the common thread, {Name}.

Different stories.

Different faces.

Same nervous system underneath it all.

Today? NUMINOUS has become this wild little tapestry of people from every walk of life.

CEOs, creatives, parents, athletes…

All working on the same thing:

Rewiring their foundation so they can finally live a life without the brakes on.

If quality of life is something you’re craving…

Here’s where you can learn more about my program 👇

NUMINOUS>>>

In Love and Wisdom,
Pauline

P.S. My kids still tease me about having to study my book at school. But secretly? I think they loved it. 😉

The grief is real.

Twenty-five years.

That’s how long Red Lantern (my restaurant) has been part of my life.

Half my lifetime.

I watched it survive the Global Financial Crisis. 

The Sydney property boom. 

COVID-19.

(You know… the epidemic that wiped out 95% of hospitality businesses.)

And now?

… 

We’re closing shop. 

…

I know.

25 years eventful years later… and our baby ‘Red Lantern’ is finally coming to its natural completion.

God, it feels awful typing that.

Twenty-five years – gone in a single sentence.

Yet, as painful as it is…

I believe my partner and I made the right call.

Here’s what most people don’t seem to understand:

You don’t quit because it gets hard. 

You quit because it no longer makes sense.

We’ve been brought to our knees (quite literally) so many times by this business! 

The GFC was hard. 

COVID, even harder.

We know hard. 

We eat hard for breakfast.

But the dining landscape has completely changed, Phuong.

So rather than renew our lease and take on another 5 years

of unique, unusual challenges…

We’re ending the chapter on our own terms.

Red Lantern terms.

It was more than just a restaurant.

Our story is one of grit, courage, resilience and love.

SO MUCH LOVE.

And no one can say we didn’t give it a f*cking red hot go!

I mean, c’mon — 25 years is a bloody good innings!

And it’s not like we’re about to stop cooking altogether.

(Believe me, my family would riot if they thought chilli salted squid nights were over at our house. 🤣)

So yes. We’ll still cook.

We’ll still feed people.

We’ll still tell stories.

Just… not for 100’s of hungry diners all at once.

Come join us for one final feast — honoring 25 years of Red Lantern (Before we close shop on Nov 22nd)

After some serious contemplation and debating which lesson I should pull from this bittersweet news…

I settled on this one:

| “Endings aren’t the enemy.”

They don’t erase what was. They honor it.

They’re proof you were brave enough to start… strong enough to compete in the arena and wise enough to know when to move on.

And for us? It’s time to move on.

Red Lantern as we know it is complete.

And while I’m devastated with our decision to close shop… I can’t help but feel some sense of relief and excitement for what comes next.

We’re about to pivot HARD, Phuong!

Here’s where I’ll be pouring all my extra time and energy

Much Love
Pauline

P.S. To everyone who’s been part of this 25-year journey — thank you. Red Lantern was never just ours. It was yours too. And that’s exactly how we’ll remember it.

My closer had an interesting call this week. 😅

A self-proclaimed “hypnotherapist” from NYC.

Now, I’ve coached plenty of hypnotherapists, psychotherapists, NLP practitioners, coaches…

You name it.

But this guy?

Unhinged is the polite word.

He tells my closer he’ll only sign up to my program if I…

1. Personally have a 1:1 meeting with him

2. Give him a free session

3. Prove my expertise right then and there

In other words:

“Dance for me, Pauline. Show me your tricks.”

😑

Then, as if auditioning for Conspiracy Theories Weekly, he launches into this bizarre tirade:

“I showed my mentor Pauline’s website… best website he’s ever seen… must’ve cost her $50K.”

“I looked at her socials… too polished… clearly she spends too much on marketing.”

“Obviously… she’s hiding something.”

Wait. What??

In his mind, having a world-class brand is proof that you’re bad at your job?

That’s like accusing Gordon Ramsay of being a terrible chef because his restaurant has Riedel glassware and linen tablecloths. 😆

But he wasn’t done.

“Testimonials? Pffft. They don’t count! People only give them in the height of emotion.”

Translation:

“Pauline’s brainwashing her clients into giving heartfelt, positive feedback.”

🤦

At this point my closer is bemused and amused.

And I can hardly blame him.

Because the mental gymnastics here could EASILY win an Olympic gold.

Then, with a nod of his head like he’d conveyed the main points he wanted to share, he arrived at his ultimatum:

Either I bend to his frame and prove myself.

Or no deal.

——-

“No deal mate.”

——

Because when you’re wired like this guy, and your nervous system only screams:

Cynicism.
Suspicion.
Contraction
Scarcity.

You can never attract clients.

You’ll only REPEL them.

And for the past 20 years…

I’ve built a reputation to attract some of the most successful, high-calibre entrepreneurs and leaders around the world.

High net worth.
Highly intelligent.
Highly discerning.

These aren’t people who are easily hoodwinked by shiny websites or slick marketing.

They’re too smart for that.

They work with me — and happily pay what they do — for one simple reason:

“Because I’m f*cking good at my job.” 😎

And word gets around.

So while this guy’s comments are a backhanded compliment…

Really, they’re just an insult to the intelligence of my clients!

Anyway.

The only hope this guy has of becoming truly magnetic…

Is to retrain his operating system.

And if you’re a little curious to see what that looks like…

Here’s exactly what I teach to high-functioning individuals who want to magnetise clients instead of repel them 👇

NUMINOUS>>>

In Love and Wisdom,
Pauline

P.S. After learning he did not qualify for NUMINOUS, here’s what the hypnotherapist had to say:

“I mean, this response sounds like a fear of competition.”

Impressive reverse psychology, right? 😆

P.P.S. On the off chance you’re reading this email, thinking:

“Oh sh*t. I am THAT hypnotherapist”…

Don’t sweat it.

I’ve dealt with worse insults in my 20+ years of business. Good luck to you.