I recently had the opportunity to interview the founder of Soul State Wellness, Inc., Cindy Hyde. As she explains, her story isn’t a quiet one. Chronic fatigue. Chronic illness. Two cornea ulcers in six months. Temporary vision loss. Intermittent aphonia (her voice coming and going). Memory loss. Brain fog. By the time all these symptoms had presented multiple times it was too late.
She had a deep feeling that something wasn’t right. She was healthy by every other metric (diet, fitness, water, spirituality) so she got curious. As she describes it, obsessively curious. She came to understand that she had been operating in high stress states for far too long. She was a high performer and a people pleaser. She was unable to say no and had no personal boundaries. She was working 24/7. She had minimal connection to nature or the relationships that mattered to her deeply. She had cognitive dissonance. She was unable to catch her breath and settle. She was eating on the fly, running from meeting to meeting. But eventually, her body stopped whispering and started speaking louder. She took her health into her own hands and she explored everything: family physician, ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist, psychologist, psychotherapist, speech language pathologist accompanied by breath work, chiropractor, pelvic floor physiotherapist, metabolic coach, burnout coach, fitness coach, lymphatic RMT, teladoc / Best Doctors Program, naturopath, IV immune therapy, Reiki, somatic practitioner including training, yoga, and qigong.
Ms. Hyde explained that every one of these modalities served a beautiful purpose and supported her in some way. She describes it as putting the puzzle of herself together. Picking up one modality at a time to see if it fits and completes the puzzle she was trying to build – a puzzle of understanding herself. But the real game changer happened when the nervous system was studied and understood, and she received help from a somatic practitioner. That is when she saw the symptoms dramatically improve.
It helped her so much that she became a certified somatic coach. She now seeks to help others with her business, Soul State Wellness, Inc. She specializes in nervous system literacy and supporting people to reconnect with themselves.
Somatic Experiencing is a therapeutic method developed by Dr. Peter A. Levine, aimed at addressing the effects of trauma, grief and stress on the body. It emphasizes the importance of bodily sensations and experiences rather than solely focusing on the cognitive aspects. The goal is to help individuals to complete an incomplete threat response by releasing stored energy from traumatic experiences, and/or chronic stress (including burnout) allowing for healing and a return to a state of balance within the nervous system. It is a form of coaching that is created in a safe supportive environment where Cindy’s clients feel deeply seen and supported.
She explained that nervous system regulation is about supporting individuals to become connected to their bodies to feel safe and connected to the world and themselves, in the here and now. It is about understanding sensations in the body and being able to move between the three states of our system (Ventral, Sympathetic & Dorsal). She says that how we do this varies by client, however what is similar is in the approach is that we use various tools to support them to be in the here and now while slowing everything down. She likes to say it is about creating enough capacity to manage our day-to-day activities.
At the center of everything Cindy is working on now is burnout. She believes that learning about the Nervous System is a key skill in Fatigue Risk Management – something she now wants to devote her life to. The prevention. During her speaking engagements Cindy likes to highlight that your biggest risk has a heartbeat.
Not just recovering from it but preventing it in the first place. She believes that we have normalized exhaustion to a degree that genuinely concerns her, and she believes that when women understand what is actually happening in their bodies and their nervous systems, everything changes. That is the mission underneath all of her current work.
Right now that is taking a few different shapes. She is building out training material around Fatigue Risk Management (burnout recovery and prevention) that weaves together nervous system literacy and somatic practice in a way that is both deeply educational and deeply felt. It is not just information; it is an experience that helps people understand themselves in a whole new way.
She is also planning a wellness retreat for October 2026 that she is genuinely excited about. It will be a space for women to step away, slow down, and do this work in a real and embodied way. She says that there is something that happens when you give yourself dedicated time and space that just cannot be replicated anywhere else. That is what she wants to create.
She said that she is most excited to talk about her keynote work. Whether that looks like a lunch and learn, a half day workshop, or being brought in as a guest speaker, this is where she gets to take everything she teaches and bring it into a room full of people who are ready to hear it. She explains that there is an energy to that kind of gathering that she absolutely loves. When a group of people experiences nervous system literacy together, something shifts collectively, and that is really powerful.
From there, for the people who want to go deeper, she offers one-on-one coaching. This is where the real personal transformation happens. She says we slow down, we get specific, and we do the work in a way that is completely tailored to that individual and exactly where she is in her life.
And then there is something Cindy truly loves talking about because it surprises people every single time. She offers holistic facials specifically designed for vagus nerve activation and relaxation. It is luxurious and it is deeply therapeutic at the same time. The nervous system is being tended to while you are being cared for from the outside in. Cindy explains that it is such a beautiful entry point for women who are maybe not quite ready for the deeper work yet, but know they need something.
Ms. Hyde wants to highlight that according to recent data from the Global Wellness Institute, only 9.8% of employed workers are actually benefiting from the wellbeing programs currently available to them. That is 349 million people out of 3.56 billion. Read that again. We have built an entire wellness industry and we are reaching less than ten percent of the workforce. That tells her that we have a real problem, and she does not think we are talking about it honestly enough.
Burnout is not a personal failure. It is not a willpower issue. It is what happens when human beings are asked to operate beyond their capacity for too long, without the knowledge, the tools, or the support to understand what is actually happening inside their own bodies and nervous systems. The hustle culture that shaped the last decade is beginning to crack, and people are feeling it deeply. But the systems around them, the workplace cultures, the wellness programs, the leadership models, have not caught up yet.
This is where nervous system literacy becomes not just relevant but essential. When people understand the three states their nervous system moves through, when they can recognize what state they are in and why, they stop blaming themselves for struggling. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
She states that this is not about pointing fingers. This is not about blaming individuals for not doing enough or blaming companies for not caring enough. This is about recognizing that we have a shared responsibility to do better. Individuals looking inward, building self-awareness, learning to communicate their needs and hold their boundaries. And organizations genuinely reimagining what employee wellbeing looks like, not as a checkbox but as a true cultural commitment.
The ROI is there. Absenteeism, short term disability numbers, employee engagement, leadership capacity, better decision making. All of it is connected to how safe and regulated people feel in their nervous systems. When we invest in that, everything shifts.
Cindy believes we can do better on both sides, and she genuinely believes we will.
If you would like to learn more about Cindy Hyde and Soul State Wellness, please visit www.soulstatewellness.com.
