In this episode, Laura shares the story of her decision to leave the teaching profession in order to regain some balance in her life. She describes the difficulties she encountered in finding balance as a teacher, and how the mounting workload, and the pressure - both in and outside of work - pushed her to a breaking point. And she touches on some of the tools that she applied to recognise and recover from burning out. Laura also talks about her experience of falling pregnant in her teens, and her pursuit of balance back then when, contrary to most of her student peers, she was juggling school life with the responsibilities of motherhood. Having been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism, Laura also talks about the impact that this has had, and continues to have, on her work-life balance choices. As you can probably tell from the this short run-through of this episode’s content, my guest packs a lot in to her time. Did I mention that since leaving teaching, she has changed careers to become a project manager for an engineering consultancy, and that she has a home-baking business on side too? And there are those five children I definitely mentioned… It’s no wonder then that Laura describes herself as “the busiest person I know”. Which leads me to this loaded question: How do you find balance when you’re busy? Laura doesn’t come with all the answers. She’s still in the thick of it, so to speak, and pursuing her ‘fine balance’ as she goes, one day at a time, depending on whatever challenge life throws her way.