"When Everything Is Too Much"

Exhausted? Overwhelmed? Pretending you're fine when you're not?

This isn't another "think positive" podcast. This is for when everything feels like too much and you're tired of performing okay.

In this raw, unfiltered solo episode, NatNat gets real about what's actually happening right now. No toxic positivity. No forced gratitude. No pressure to heal perfectly.

You'll hear:

• Why you're not broken - you're responding normally to abnormal pressure
• The truth about your dysregulated nervous system (and why that's okay)
• A different kind of meditation that meets you exactly where you are
• Permission to feel everything without fixing anything
• What actually helps when self-care feels impossible

This is for the bone-tired, the overwhelmed, the ones carrying everyone else's weight. For people lying awake at 3 AM wondering if they're the only one drowning. For anyone who's exhausted from being the strong one.

Trigger warning: This episode contains honest discussion of mental health struggles, overwhelm, and emotional pain. It's designed to validate difficult feelings, not minimize them.

If you're ready to stop pretending and start breathing, this one's for you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Permission to Feel
• 1:42 Your Nervous System in Crisis
• 3:56 Guided Nervous System Reset
• 6:49 The Truth About Healing
• 9:50 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

NatNat Be: 0:00

Hey, it's Nat Nat, and welcome to the Lift One Self podcast. Before we go anywhere else, let's just land here. I know you found your way to this moment for a reason. Maybe you're in your car between obligations. Maybe you're lying in your bed at 2am with thoughts spinning. Maybe you're walking somewhere carrying more than what's in your hands. Whatever brought you here? Your nervous system already knows something your mind might still be figuring out. You need this pause.

NatNat Be: 0:35

I'm not going to tell you everything happens for a reason. That's garbage. I'm not going to tell you to be grateful when everything's falling apart. How can you be grateful when your world is on fire? I'm not going to tell you that positive thoughts will fix what's heavy right now. They won't. I'm going to tell you something different Feel the pain.

NatNat Be: 1:00

I know many of you may have just jumped and said what? Yes, feel the pain. You're allowed to feel exactly what you're feeling, without editing it, without making it palpable for other people, without apologizing for it. That ache in your chest when you see other people's highlight reels. Valid the bone-deep tiredness that sleep doesn't touch. Valid the way sometimes it feels like you're watching your own life from the outside. Valid You're not broken. You're responding normally to abnormal amounts of pressure. Your nervous system isn't broken. Abnormal amounts of pressure? Your nervous system isn't broken. It's dysregulated and you are at over capacity.

NatNat Be: 1:51

Let's get real about what's actually happening. You're living through multiple crises at once Personal ones, global ones, the ones nobody talks about. You're expected to function like it's 2019, but it's not 2019. Your body knows this. Your nervous system knows this. The part of you that used to bounce back. It's tired, not lazy, not weak tired.

NatNat Be: 2:21

And everyone keeps asking how are you? And you keep saying I'm okay. Because what's the alternative? Many of us can't say I'm not okay. Yet when did crying become not okay? When did we become a society that has to fight to be seen in our dense emotions? In our dense emotions, you see, when does it feel safe to say I'm barely holding on, I'm scared most of the time, I don't recognize myself anymore? Yeah, that doesn't fit in small talk, does it? Your body is not your enemy right now, even when it feels like it. That tight chest that's your body trying to protect you, that exhaustion that's your system trying to conserve energy for survival, that feeling of being underwater, that's overwhelm, not failure. Your body has been in survival mode, maybe for weeks, maybe for months, maybe way longer, it's been scanning for threats, bracing for impact, trying to keep you safe in a world that feels unsafe. That's not dysfunction. That's your nervous system doing its job. Yet it's been doing it over time, without breaks, without relief, without anyone noticing.

NatNat Be: 3:44

I'm not going to ask you to sit in a lotus pose. I'm not going to tell you to clear your mind. Your mind doesn't want to be cleared right now. It wants to be heard. So let's do this differently. Right where you are, however, you are put one hand on your chest, one hand on your belly, not to fix anything, just to make contact, to say I'm here, I see you, I feel you.

NatNat Be: 4:16

Now I want you to imagine your nervous system as a smoke detector. It's been going off constantly, beeping, warning, alerting, not because it's broken, because it's detecting smoke, real smoke. You don't need to turn off the detector, you need to acknowledge the fire. Say this to your body. I hear you. You've been trying to keep me safe. You've been working so hard, thank you. Don't try to calm it down, don't try to fix it, just witness it, the way you'd witness a friend who's been running a marathon. You wouldn't tell them to stop being tired, you'd acknowledge holy shit, you've been running, your body has been running, your mind has been running, your heart has been running. For how long? Now keep your hands where they are.

NatNat Be: 5:37

I want you to send your body a message, not with words, with intention. The message is simple you can stop running now, even if it's just for this moment. You can stop, feel whatever comes up Relief, resistance, nothing at all. All of it is okay. Your body might not trust this, yet. It might think are you sure it's safe? And you can say this I don't know, but you can rest anyway.

NatNat Be: 6:30

Take the deepest breath you've taken all day. I don't know, but you can rest anyway. Take the deepest breath you've taken all day. Not a performative breath, a real one. And as you exhale, let something go. You don't have to know what, just let your exhale carry something away. Here's what I need you to know.

NatNat Be: 6:58

You don't have to be grateful for this experience. You don't have to find the lesson. See, this is your mind trying to make meaning and it's doing its job. Yet for certain experiences you won't find the answer. You will grow from. This Just depends on how you lean in.

NatNat Be: 7:17

With integration and coming back to the as is of reality, and that's going to require you to feel some emotions. Some days, showing up is heroic. Some days, staying alive is revolutionary. Some days, feeling your feelings without numbing them is the bravest and strongest thing you'll ever do. You're not behind in life. You're not failing at healing. You're in it, the messy middle, where nothing makes sense and everything hurts and you have to keep going anyway.

NatNat Be: 7:58

You know what helps the truth, naming what's actually happening. Saying this is hard, this is really fucking hard. What helps is boundaries, saying I can't take on anything else right now. What helps is remembering that your capacity isn't infinite, that having limits doesn't make you weak, that saying no is sometimes the most loving thing you can do for yourself and others. The world is going to keep asking you to be strong, to bounce back, to be resilient, to find the silver lining. You don't owe anyone your resilience. You don't owe anyone your silver lining. You don't owe anyone your okayness. What you owe yourself is truth and tenderness and the radical act of not abandoning yourself when everything else feels abandoned.

NatNat Be: 9:03

If someone in your life needs to hear this, if someone you know is also drowning while pretending to swim, share this, not because misery loves company, but because isolation is the real enemy and sometimes the most healing thing we can hear is you're not the only one. Let your healing be out loud. You're going to make it through this, not because everything happens for a reason, not because you're strong enough, because you're here, still breathing, still trying, still human, and that's more than enough. Feel everything, trust nothing has to be different than it is right now. I've been through hell many times and I'm still here. Please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter. Your healing matters. Your joy and peace matter. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time.

NatNat Be: 10:17

If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them. It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation. So please take action and share out the podcast. So please take action and share out the podcast. You can find us on social media, on Facebook, instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self, and if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website. Come into a discovery, call liftSelfcom. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter.