When You've Been Calling Your SuperPower Your Breakdown

We explore the profound realization that the gap between saying "I'm fine" and feeling like you're falling apart isn't weakness—it's extraordinary strength. Through a moving story about a client who sat with her dying mother for 18 hours straight, we discover how we often mislabel our deepest strengths as inadequacies.

• The way we automatically respond "I'm fine" while carrying immense internal pain
• How we diminish our profound acts of love as "what anyone would do"
• Reframing grief not as proof of falling apart, but as evidence of how deeply we love
• Recognizing that what we label as "too much" might be our greatest gift to others
• The importance of seeing our sensitivity and intensity as superpowers, not flaws
• A guided mindful moment to connect with your own resilience

Please share this episode with someone who needs to remember their own greatness today. Remember, you're not healing too slowly, loving too deeply, or feeling too much—you're exactly who someone needs you to be, especially yourself.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Gap Between Fine and Chaos
• 0:53 Welcome and Mindful Moment
• 2:13 Reframing Grief as Deep Love
• 3:58 Flipping the Script on Self-Judgment
• 6:53 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

You know that moment when someone asks how are you holding up? And you automatically say I'm fine, while inside you're thinking if you only knew how close I am to falling apart. Yet here's what I realized in a session this week what if that gap between your I'm fine and your inner chaos isn't proof that you're broken? What if, actually, it's proof of something you've been refusing to see about yourself? Because the person who can hold that much pain and still show up for others, the person who can smile at the grocery store checkout while carrying grief that could level most people, that's not fragility pretending to be strength, that's raw, unglamorous greatness you've been walking around with completely unaware. Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast. I'm your host, nat Nat, and let's go into a mindful moment Right now. Wherever you are driving, walking, holding laundry, I want you to catch yourself in this moment. Notice, you're here. After everything that's happened to you, all the ways life's experiences has felt like it was going to break you down. All the mornings you didn't want to get up. You're still here, breathing, listening. Put your hand wherever it wants to go in your body, maybe your chest, maybe your stomach. Feel that warmth. That warmth it's been carrying you this whole time and you had no idea. Did you been carrying you this whole time and you had no idea? Did you Take a deep breath in opening up your body, allowing that tension, that tightness to loosen up? Feel the depths of what your body is carrying, that feeling. You just had that recognition of your own resilience. I watched it happen in real time this week.

Speaker 1: 2:13

She came in talking about her mother's death three years ago, how she should be over it by now, how she felt weeks for still crying in her car after work. And then she said something that stopped me cold. I held her hand for 18 hours straight in that hospital. I didn't eat, didn't sleep, I just held on. I asked her what kind of person does that? She looked confused. I don't know any daughter would. No, I said Most people can't sit with death for 18 hours. Most people would need breaks, would get overwhelmed, would have to step outside. Yet you, you held space for your mother's entire transition from this world. You were her anchor. The silence in that room. You could feel something shifting.

Speaker 1: 3:06

Because here's what we do we take our most profound acts of love and call them what anyone would do. We take evidence of our unshakable devotion and label it. Not enough. You've been looking at your grief like it's proof of your falling apart. Yet what if your grief is actually proof of how deeply you love? What if your exhaustion isn't weakness, it's evidence that you've been carrying more than most people could even imagine carrying? What if you've been calling your superpower your breakdown?

Speaker 1: 3:43

You want to know why you keep feeling like you're not doing enough, not healing fast enough, not strong enough. Because you made the pain the main character of your story, and I get it. Pain is loud, pain demands attention. Pain feels more real than the quiet strength that's been holding you together. Yet here's the thing nobody tells you about leaning into pain. It doesn't mean wallowing in it. It doesn't mean making it your whole ass identity. Leaning in means looking it straight in the face and saying okay, you're here, I see you, I feel you.

Speaker 1: 4:22

Now, what else is here with you? Because you know what else is real the fact that you got up this morning, the fact that you're still here, still trying, still caring about people, even when caring hurts. The fact that right now someone in your life feels safer because you exist. Someone sleeps better at night because they know you're in the world. Someone has hope, because they've watched you survive what look unsurvivable. You think that's nothing, you think that's ordinary. That's power you didn't even know you possessed. So here's what we're going to do right now.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Think of one thing about yourself that you've labeled as too much, too sensitive, too intense. Got it Now? I want you to flip the script. You're too sensitive is actually your superpower to feel what others miss. You're too intense is actually your refusal to feel what others miss. You're too intense is actually your refusal to live a shallow life. You're too much is actually the perfect amount for someone who needs exactly what you have to offer, the thing you've been trying to fix about yourself. It might be the thing the world needs most from you. The wound you've been hiding. It might be your greatest source of wisdom. That grief you carry. It's not making you weak, it's making you capable of holding space for others in ways that will literally save lives.

Speaker 1: 5:55

Before you go back to your regularly scheduled program, before you slip back into the story that you're somehow not enough, look in the mirror, literally and figuratively. Yes, look in that mirror and say I see you. I see how hard you've been trying. I see the love you carry, even when it hurts to carry it, because the person looking back at you, they've been great this whole time. They just forgot how to carry it. Because, the person looking back at you, they've been great this whole time. They just forgot how to see it. And maybe it's time to remember If this hit you in the chest, if you felt seen in any way you haven't in a while.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Share this with someone who needs to remember their own greatness today and remember you're not healing too slowly, you're not loving too deeply, you're not feeling too much. You're exactly who someone needs you to be, especially you. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. 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. 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 liftoneselfcom. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter.