Affirmation: When I'm Stressed and Overwhelmed (Shifting from Chaos to Calm in Business and Life)

After years of feeling trapped in the relentless cycle of stress and burnout, I discovered a powerful affirmation that has become my North Star: "When I find myself in a state of stress and overwhelm, I choose to breathe and treat myself lovingly so that I may respond consciously to the challenges of life." This episode of Effortlessly Productive invites you to explore the transformative power of this affirmation and how it can help shift your mindset from stress-induced chaos to calm, conscious responses. Join me, Annie Veblen-McCarty, as I unravel how acknowledging our feelings, coupled with mindful breathing, can help us navigate the entrepreneurial journey with authenticity and grace.

Together, we'll take a closer look at how our nervous system operates under stress and how we can transition from the reactive state of fight, flight, or freeze to a more balanced, creative, and logical state. It's all about embracing the human experience, accepting stress as normal, and utilizing tools to regulate our emotions. This isn't just about productivity; it's about living a fulfilled life and building a business that reflects our true selves. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a leader, or simply someone seeking a new approach to life's challenges, this episode is packed with insights that will empower you to harness your inner resilience and thrive.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Annie Veblen-McCarty and I'm gonna
teach you how to be effortlesslyproductive.
I've been an entrepreneur forover 20 years and I got sick and
tired of experts preaching whatbusiness and life should look
like and what I should be doingas a leader and to turn a profit
, only to find myself wastingtime, burned out, feeling

(00:22):
inauthentic and still not makingany money.
On this show, we are ditchingthe shoulds.
I'm giving you permission to dobusiness differently.
As a certified master coach, Ibelieve that everything you need
to have success and build thelife and business of your dreams
is already living on the inside.

(00:43):
I'm gonna empower you to leaninto what you do best, help you
see your path forward clearlyand give you the strategy and
action steps along the way tobecome effortlessly productive.
Let's dive in.
Welcome to this episode ofEffortlessly Productive.
This is another one of myaffirmation episodes where I

(01:05):
share with you some of my dailyaffirmations, why I have those
affirmations and how they havehelped me.
And, of course, you are alwayswelcome to borrow them if this
serves you, if this feels goodin your body, if this is helpful
in shifting your mindset andyour beliefs, tapping into that
subconscious, in shifting yourmindset and your beliefs,

(01:28):
tapping into that subconscious.
Definitely borrow these, please.
So the affirmation that we aregoing to be working with today
is when I find myself in a stateof stress and overwhelm, I
choose to breathe and treatmyself lovingly so that I may
respond consciously to thechallenges of life.
So let's break this downbecause that's a long one.
So when I find myself in astate of stress and overwhelm,

(01:51):
that happens.
That is part of the humanexperience of life.
Right, there are gonna be timeswhere we have those added
stressors.
Maybe you are just kind ofexisting in a state of stress
because of whatever is going onin your life or business, and
that is okay.
We all go through those seasons.
Maybe you're feeling veryoverwhelmed.

(02:12):
I know at the beginning of thisweek I had a lot of overwhelm
happening because of kidschedules getting disrupted and
then impacting my normalschedule.
So it happens to all of us.
No matter how much work we do,there are going to be times
where life throws things our waythat trigger off that stress

(02:33):
and overwhelm.
So, number one that is normal,that is part of being human and
it's okay.
That's part of why we have thisaffirmation, because this
affirmation reminds us that thisis normal, number one and it is
okay to feel this way.
All of our feelings are validand we also have tools.
When we are feeling this way,when we are stressed and

(02:55):
overwhelmed, I choose to breathe.
So that's number one becausesometimes we want to shift and
make ourselves feel better rightaway.
We're just looking for thatquick fix, that quick solution
where we're like just get rid ofthis feeling.
I don't want to feel like this.
This is negative.
I don't like this.
So when we are stressed andoverwhelmed, we are in our

(03:16):
sympathetic nervous systemresponse right, the fight or
flight.
That is what happens withstress.
Usually, stress is more of afight or a flight.
Overwhelm can often look like afreeze right, fight, flight or
freeze.
Overwhelm is often freeze,sometimes flight.
So when we find ourselves there, we are in our synthetic

(03:39):
nervous system and it's reallyimportant to start to shift into
our parasympathetic nervoussystem, especially with business
and just life in general.
When we are operating in thatfight, flight or freeze response
, the logical part of our brainis not really turned on and the
creative part of our brain isdefinitely not turned on at all.

(04:00):
I did an episode about thislike a few weeks ago.
So if you're curious and divingin more, go look for that
episode.
But breathing accesses ourparasympathetic nervous system.
So this is a tool to sit inthose feelings, sit in those
emotions, giving ourselvespermission that this is okay.
It is okay to feel this way, itis normal, it is human.

(04:23):
There is a reason why our bodyis doing this.
It is trying to protect us.
And then we are breathing sothat we can shift back into that
logical, creative,parasympathetic part of our
nervous system.
It's that nervous systemregulation that is so important.
As entrepreneurs, we realizewe're stressed and overwhelmed

(04:44):
and we're breathing.
And the next part of it is Itreat myself lovingly.
We're literally sitting theregiving ourselves a big giant hug
, because sometimes we need thathuman connection in that hug
and sometimes that can't comefrom anybody else at the moment.
It can always come from you.
We treat ourselves with love.

(05:04):
It's not that shame of why areyou feeling this way.
It is that acceptance of thisis how I'm feeling in this
moment and I am going to lovemyself.
No matter what, I'm going togive myself that extra love that
I need right now.
Right, if we think about if wehad a kid come home and they
were stressed and overwhelmedand crying.
Most of the time, we're goingto give them a big hug and

(05:25):
that's what we're doing withourselves.
So think about yourself inthese moments as your child or,
if you don't have children, likehow you would reach out to
another human who was in thatstate.
So we're gonna treat ourselveslovingly and the reason why
we're breathing and treatingourselves lovingly the last part
of this affirmation is that soI may respond consciously to the

(05:49):
challenges of life.
This part of the affirmationreminds us that life is going to
throw us challenges.
It is not going to be smoothsailing the entire time.
You will face challenges inlife and that is okay.
That is part of life.
When these challenges come up,it is really important to
respond consciously, and thisgoes back to what I talked about

(06:09):
what is happening in our brainwhen we are stressed and
overwhelmed.
We are in that sympatheticnervous system response.
We are in that fight, flight orfreeze mode and when we respond
from that place, we're notresponding consciously, we are
responding from the primitivepart of our brain that is taken
over.
It is now running the ship andit is fighting, flighting,

(06:33):
running away or freezing anddoing nothing.
That is not a conscious levelresponse.
That is subconscious,pre-programmed, very primitive
response.
This part of the affirmationreminds us how important it is
to respond consciously, becausewhen we can bring that
parasympathetic nervous systemback online, bring that logical

(06:55):
and creative part of our brainback online, we suddenly have a
very different response tothings, and it often is a
response that is going to helpus be able to walk through these
challenges, not fight, flightor freeze these challenges right
.
We're going to be able torespond logically.
We're going to be able to thinkthrough things.
We're going to be able toproblem solve.
We're going to be able to thinkthrough things.

(07:16):
We're going to be able toproblem solve.
We're going to be able to becreative.
Sometimes we're going to beable to just sit in those
challenges and acknowledge thatit sucked, and this is part of
that human experience and itwill be okay.
That is why I have this reminderin my daily affirmations.
Again, I will read it back toyou so that you have the full
thing in its entirety, now thatwe've broken it all down.

(07:37):
When I find myself in a stateof stress or overwhelm, I choose
to breathe and treat myselflovingly so that I may respond
consciously to the challenges oflife.
I hope you enjoyed this episodeof Effortlessly Productive.
I will catch you on the nextone.
I hope you have a beautifulrest of your day.