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February 6, 2025 16 mins

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Episode Summary:
In this episode of Differently, Carla Reeves guides us through a powerful mindset check-in focused on managing overwhelm. Whether you're feeling burdened by responsibilities, commitments, or expectations, this conversation will help you regain control by shifting your thought patterns and realigning with what truly matters. Learn practical strategies to lighten your mental load, release pressure, and step into a more intentional way of living.

Key Takeaways:

  • The importance of cultivating a thought life and being the gardener of your own mind.
  • How to become aware of thought patterns that contribute to overwhelm.
  • The power of self-awareness in managing mental resilience.
  • A simple yet effective mindset shift: response-ability – the ability to choose how you respond.
  • Questions to ask yourself when experiencing overwhelm:
    • Where are you experiencing overwhelm in your life?
    • What thoughts are creating additional pressure?
    • Are these thoughts real and true, or can they be challenged?
    • Do you notice any recurring patterns?
  • Practical tools to reduce overwhelm:
    • Creating a Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, Next Month list to organize priorities.
    • Identifying one conversation that could relieve stress.
    • Writing down thoughts for deeper insight.
    • Releasing pressure and applying love to gain clarity.
    • Experimenting with following your energy rather than forcing tasks.

Resources & Next Steps:

  • Join our free Differently class on February 21st: carlareeves.com/freeclass
  • Connect with Carla by sending a message via the podcast show notes.
  • Recommended reading: As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.
  • Subscribe and leave a review if you found this episode helpful!

Call to Action:
If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend who might need this encouragement. Let’s spread the word and help others navigate overwhelm differently. Don’t forget to subscribe for weekly episodes that challenge the status quo and inspire a life lived with boldness and authenticity!

Thanks for tuning in – see you next week!

Learn more about Carla:
Website: https:/www.carlareeves.com/
Connect on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reevescarla/
Connect on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@differentlythepodcast

Go to https://carlareeves.com/freeclass to get The Class schedule, sign up, and/or pass it on to a friend. Each month is a new topic. Come hang out and learn with us for FREE!

Get your copy of 5 Ways to Manage Your Mind

Go to https://www.carlareeves.com/getunstuck.com to download Carla's on demand journaling workshop + exercise to help you stop spinning and start moving forward.

Explore Coaching with Carla: https://bookme.name/carlareeves/lite/explore-coaching

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  • A free way to support our show is by leaving a five-star rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show and it helps others discover it, too.

Thank you for listening!

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently.
Whether you feel stuck insurvival, navigating a change or
seeking more for your life, maythis podcast be your weekly
nudge to take a risk to build alife that is uniquely bold,
authentic and in alignment withyour deepest values.
What if you worried less aboutthe bumps in the road and

(00:23):
instead got equipped for thejourney?
Get ready to rethink what'spossible.
Hey, welcome back to anotherepisode of Differently.
If you're new, thank you forchecking this podcast out.
We're so happy to see newlisteners and if you're gaining

(00:44):
value from the podcast, thegreatest gift to us is that you
share it with someone else whomight enjoy it.
Thank you.
If you're already doing that,so grateful.
So remember last month, I toldyou we were going to start doing
a monthly mindset check-inevery month.
So that's what we're doingtoday.
This is it.
Last month, we did this fromthe perspective of the new year

(01:06):
and setting out with our goals.
Today, we're going to do amindset check-in around the
places where you might beexperiencing overwhelm.
So before we get to that, forthose of you who are new, I just
want to share a simple tidbitabout my story.
It's super simple.
I spent half of my lifechecking the boxes to become

(01:29):
what I thought I was supposed tobe, and the second half of my
life breaking all of that downso that I could be who I was
made to be.
And now I'm in the practice ofliving free, and it is a
practice, and I've been helpingpeople get unstuck out of
survival and moving forwardintentionally since 2010.

(01:49):
So quick intro to the mindsetcheck-in I'm on a mission to
equip people in how to managetheir mind and cultivate a
thought life so that you can goall in on your own life, and
this has been my journey andpractice too.
Cultivating a thought lifemight be a new term to you.
It might sound strange, butit's about tending a garden like

(02:13):
a gardener.
I want you to think about beingthe gardener of your own mind.
It's about learning toself-soothe.
It's about learning to calmyour mind and organize your
thoughts so that you can movewith intention instead of your
thoughts running your life.
It's about becoming aware andpaying attention to your

(02:33):
thoughts, their impact, and thenbeginning to use this God-given
ability to shape and influencethe quality, shape and direction
of your life.
I believe that this is theleader's superpower, whether
you're leading your life, afamily, your business,
leadership comes in all forms.

(02:55):
This happens to be one of thehardest things for fast moving,
high achieving kind of people,but it's one of the most
important, I believe.
Kind of people, but it's one ofthe most important, I believe.
Mental resilience comes fromslowing down, paying attention,
understanding your own mind,recognizing the patterns of
thought that show up again andagain and derail you, calling

(03:17):
out the lies, remembering whoyou are and what you're up to,
so that you can choose insteadof react, and do this on a
regular basis.
This is the practice in thebook as a man thinketh, he says.
As he thinks, so he is.
As he continues to think, so heremains.

(03:38):
That's by James Allen, anincredible book, by the way,
managing our thought life.
It's also biblical Proverbs 23,seven says for as he think it,
for as he thinketh in his heart,so is he.
And Romans 12, two don't copythe behavior and customs of this

(04:00):
world, but let God transformyou into a new person by
changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to knowGod's will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect.
And one of my favorite quotesby George Bernard Shaw says keep

(04:30):
yourself clean and bright foryou are the window through which
you see the world.
This all speaks to theincredible responsibility that
we have to manage our thoughts.
You can think of it as anobligation kind of thing, or you
can hyphen the word response,dash ability, and it speaks to
our ability to respond.
It's a choice, and that choicemight change your life in the
very best way.

(04:50):
So for the mindset check-in thismonth, in my private coaching
work, I've noticed a commonthread with high achievers Often
we find ourselves drowning inresponsibilities, commitments
and expectations of othersselves drowning in
responsibilities, commitmentsand expectations of others.
When I work with clients, theyare often expressing that
they're just got too many ballsin their air.

(05:12):
They're juggling too manythings at the same time and
they're afraid somethingimportant is going to fall.
As we dive in and understandwhat's truly going on in their
mind, instead of continuing tomuscle through it, mask it,
avoid it, numb it, we reallyhelp them find where they hold

(05:35):
power so that they you can beginmaking small little adjustments
that you put you back in thedriver's seat of your life, and
I want that for you too.
I'm going to share with yousome of the things that I would
do with a client when they'reexperiencing navigating
overwhelm, and so these are somequestions I'm going to give you

(05:58):
that I would ask a client tokind of start to dive in and
actually see what's going onunder the surface.
So the first question is I wantyou to just think about, like,
where are you experiencingoverwhelm, what area of your
life?
What does it look like, whatdoes it feel like?
And then I want you to look atwhat thoughts have been circling

(06:22):
in your head around that andjust be curious.
This is blameless discernment,no judgment, just being curious
what's happening in yourthoughts, because usually our
thoughts are creating so muchextra weight, pressure,
overwhelm, that that's reallythe source that's really
dragging us down and making thewhole thing worse.

(06:44):
The next question is are thosethoughts real?
Are they true?
Can you challenge them?
And the last question is arethese familiar?
Can you see a pattern here thatmaybe shows up every month or

(07:08):
every time you're, you know,getting ready for an event, or
every time a certainrelationship in your life,
something happens or somebodyresponds this way or asks you to
do something?
What are the patterns?
Because the more you canunderstand your own mind, the
patterns, and where thisoverwhelm starts to show up, the
more you can get in thedriver's seat and start to shift

(07:29):
it.
So if you're driving, you mayhave just been thinking about
those questions, but I wouldencourage you to go back and get
out pen and paper and actuallywrite some of this out, because
I think you'll get some reallygreat insight.
So there's a quote, and I don'tknow the author, but it says we
all carry a load.
The heavy is in your head, andthat's exactly what we're

(07:52):
talking about here is thatsometimes we can't change the
load that we're carrying, but wecan impact the heavy because
the heavy is caused by ourthoughts pressure that we add,
urgency that we add, and so on.
So a few more questions, andthis is more tangibly to start
to look at.
First question where can youlighten your load?

(08:14):
And this might be mentally,physically, spiritually.
Where are you taking on toomuch?
Where are you saying yes whenyou mean no?
Where are you adding thoughtweight?
That is making it all worse.
And if you're feeling anenormous amount of pressure, you

(08:35):
want to start to look and askyourself is this real?
Is there a hard deadline or isthis one you have self-imposed?
I do this all the time.
And the next one is if theoverwhelm in your life had a
message for you, what would itbe?

(08:55):
Listen closely.
This is the work, and the moreyou do this, the more you're
going to understand your ownmind, the more you can use it to
change your experience.
Right where you are and whenpossible when you're feeling
overwhelmed, if you can walkaway, get quiet and calm the

(09:17):
waters inside of your mind andbody, you're going to have a
better perspective abouteverything that's going on.
Okay, practical tools andstrategies.
One is just my favoriteprescription for overwhelm,
which is release pressure, applylove, because usually, the

(09:38):
moment we can release thepressure, everything relaxes and
when you relax, you can seebetter.
You have better perspective.
You know where you need tocommunicate or cancel or
delegate or delete, and thenyou'll know how to stand tall
and take that next step.
Okay, three more tangible ideasfor you.

(10:00):
This is one that I love to do.
You can grab a piece of paperand make four columns and you're
just good.
The columns are today, tomorrow, next week and next month.
Often, overwhelm is causedbecause we collapse everything
that's on our plate into likefeels like we have to do it all

(10:21):
right now, today.
So if you can separate thisinto categories, you're going to
create some space in your mindand some relief, because it's
not all today, and then you canreally focus where you need to
today.
The second one is often withclients.
When they're overwhelmed, it'sbecause they've been putting
something off, avoiding aconversation or maybe

(10:41):
procrastinating, and often thatinvolves communication.
So if you could just, is thereone conversation you could have
today that would relieve some ofthis pressure or overwhelm or
avoidance that you've beenfeeling?
And the third one is to takethe questions that I gave you.
Pull out a notebook and reallygo deeper, really sit with the

(11:04):
questions, listen for theanswers.
You're going to get some deeperinsight there.
You might bump up against theobstacle of just feeling
resistant, of letting anythinggo on your list.
Be curious about that too.
This is highly common and thisisn't about giving up or letting

(11:27):
people down or doing a bad jobor not being as effective.
It's really about making smallsteps within yourself to realign
your life so that you can showup more healthy, so that you can
have boundaries that allow youto have more space in your life
and reduce the overwhelm.
And this isn't a luxury.

(11:48):
It doesn't involve pedicuresand spa days.
It's really self-discipline,and the self-discipline is
important because there'ssomething more important in your
life that requires you to showup and do this work.
So if this doesn't work for youor you're still feeling

(12:09):
overwhelmed, this is what we do.
We've been helping people, likeI said, since 2010,.
Get unstuck and moving forwardintentionally.
We have different ways we cansupport you.
It could be a burst of coaching, something small or a deeper,
intensive, and the great thingabout asking for help or working
with someone is that you canrelax.

(12:30):
You don't have to figure it out.
You don't have to know how todo this.
We know how and we're going toguide you to a fresher
perspective, a calmer mind, sothat you can move forward in
your life.
I have one more strategy for you, but I want to share something
with you.
First, we hosted our first free, differently class in January.

(12:53):
We had a great turnout, andwe're putting together
February's class, which is gonnabe about managing overwhelm
differently.
It's gonna be on Friday,february 21st.
Would love to have you there.
You can get all the details atcarlarevescom forward slash free
class, and there'll be a linkin the show notes too.

(13:13):
Thank you for hanging with methis long.
I want to give you one morestrategy that I love to use.
The next time you're feelingoverwhelmed with a long to-do
list, I want to dare you to trysomething different.
I've been experiencingexperimenting more and more with

(13:33):
trusting and following myenergy.
So, as an entrepreneur, Ialways have a to-do list.
I always have goals, andsometimes my energy doesn't want
to do what my to-do list says Ishould do, and sometimes we
just have to push through and dothe thing.
That's okay.
I'm not talking about thosemoments, but I'm talking about

(13:55):
the moments where you actuallydo have some flexibility, and
the way I do this is I'll,instead of doing the thing I
have to do, I'll scan my wholelist and kind of get a feel for
where does my energy want to go.
What do I, what am I excited orwant to do?
What feels easier to do in thismoment?
And I often discover as I dothat doing that other thing

(14:22):
informs something for that thingI had to do.
I discover new information thatmakes that thing I had to do
easier.
Sometimes it makes stuff on theto-do list go away entirely.
It's really, really powerfuland I get back in the flow of my
creativity instead of forcingmyself to do things, and there's
just greater peace, greaterenergy, greater clarity around

(14:46):
everything.
I encourage you to experimentwith it.
And lastly, send me a messagehere on the podcast.
Right at the top of the shownotes you will see a message
that says send Carla a message.
Click that and say hello.
I would love to hear from you.
Tell me what you love about thepodcast, what you'd like to
hear about, what you don't like.

(15:07):
I would be so delighted to hearfrom you and I want to leave
you with one last quote fromJames Allen Self-control is
strength, right thought ismastery, calmness is power.
I'll see you next week.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of Differently.

(15:30):
It's been an honor to sharethis conversation with you.
You know, one of the keys toliving fully is to take action
when you're inspired to do so.
I hope you found that spark ofinspiration today and would you
help us spread the word.
Did someone you know come tomind while you were listening?
If this episode could impactsomeone you know, please share

(15:52):
it and pass it along.
New episodes drop weekly, sotap that subscribe button and
join us next time as we continueto challenge the status quo and
get equipped to live lifedifferently.
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