The Overwhelmed Brain | Stress | Anxiety | Relationship | Critical Thinking | Emotional Intelligence | Emotional Abuse

What is your responsibility when it comes to your emotional state? Can others control how you feel? Do they have that power? We're told that we can choose our emotional state, but I just don't think it's that easy when we're dealing with people that know exactly how we operate. 

Just how can we navigate through life's challenges and overcome overwhelm? The path to overcoming overwhelm can sometimes look a lot different than you think. Addressing the weight of negative emotions can begin the process and perhaps even resolve the conflict you're holding on to. 

When you compromise your wants and needs, especially because you believe it will benefit others, you erode your deeper sense of self and happiness. Do that for years, and you can dig yourself a hole so deep, it may feel impossible to crawl out and find happiness again. 

What do you do when someone you care about withdraws and simply can't cope with [you, work, life, etc,]? Do you let them be? Do you try to talk them through it, acting like their therapist or coach? Sometimes it's difficult to communicate with someone who didn't learn how to express themselves or deal with stress. Sometimes you just have to take a different path to connect. 

Direct communication can save you a lot of time. But most people don't use it. Instead, they focus on what they can say to keep things "safe" and non-confrontational. But that tactic can sometimes lead to an unforeseen, unwanted outcome.  Can honesty and transparency lead to stronger bonds even at the risk of the relationship? 

Trying to accept people as they are can be challenging. The old adage about good people can do bad things certainly applies to many of us. But what about bad people who do bad things? Sometimes people are bad and won't change. It's up to us to be very aware of who those people are so we don't get stuck waiting for someone to change that never will.

When you feel judgmental and critical toward someone you love, it might be time to reflect and figure out if you've lost the emotional connection with yourself. Emotions can help us to nurture relationships or erode them. The path you choose can often depend on just how deep you let yourself go.

Feeling stuck, like really stuck, sucks. And when you feel like you have no other options but to accept your circumstances, it can feel sad. And sometimes, you can even become depressed, making you wish you could at least feel sad again!

Where is confidence when you need it? Today I share five unorthodox strategies for increasing confidence in life that you may not have ever heard of. 

Sometimes we fall in love before listening to our instincts and then get into a relationship that is definitely not healthy for us. There is a deeper part of us that we're supposed to listen to, but sometimes we don't. Things don't always work as planned when your heart leads the way. 

Just how far are you willing to go to feel comfortable or even be HAPPY in your life? Are you willing to do whatever it takes? What if whatever it takes means facing fears or even losing those you want to keep in your life? Happiness is only a few leaps of faith away.  

You can talk to certain people all day long, and they won't take things the wrong way. Then there are those that can't seem to get past a certain perception of you and take almost everything the wrong way. This episode is about how sometimes misinterpretations can lead to disconnect. 

If you find yourself witnessing someone approaching a perilous situation in everyday life, can you trust that they'll make the right decision to avert the danger? This isn't about catastrophic events like car crashes but rather common situations where you believe someone could potentially make a poor choice that might even affect you.   It can be incredibly challenging to resist intervening and trust that they'll ultimately make the right decision.

Some people say, "You shouldn't feel that way," or even worse, "You don't feel that way!" In either case, you can be tricked into believing your own thoughts, feelings, and emotions are invalid. If that happens, you can also be tricked into staying in a situation that is very harmful to you. 

Some relationships are easier than others. The person you care about in your life may be sweet and kind 50% of the time, but what about the rest of the time? Will that be enough for you to stay and endure the bad to get the good? Just how much is too much?

Why does getting to a more comfortable place in life seem to be so difficult sometimes? Some choices seem impossible to make. When that happens, what is the best strategy to make such impossible choices? Great topic to talk about today. 

What happens when those you care about become jaded by your dependency on them for your happiness? Are you inadvertently wearing them down and dissolving what could be a great relationship? Sometimes we drain others and we don't even realize it.

Where do you turn when everyone and everything is against you? Just how bad can your luck run? Do you feel like a constant victim to the world and believe there's nothing more you can do?  Sometimes life throws us curve ball after curve ball. When it does, you might need a completely different way of looking at things. 

Do you spend a lot of time looking at other people and what they've accomplished and start regretting some of the decisions you made throughout the years? How about just feeling like other people are luckier than you?  There is more going on that you may realize and it's important you consider all the facts before you give in to defeat. 

You give and give and maybe you get back, maybe you don't, but you feel fulfilled by giving so much that you keep on doing it until, perhaps, there's nothing left of you to give. Sometimes we can get so caught up in who we think we're supposed to be that we forget who we really are.