When You've Been Calling Your SuperPower Your Breakdown

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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.

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Music:

Palms by Text Me Records / Bobby Renz
Gemini by The Soundlings
Sunset n Beachz by Ofshane
Misdirection ...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
You know that moment when someone asks how are you
holding up?
And you automatically say I'mfine, while inside you're
thinking if you only knew howclose I am to falling apart.
Yet here's what I realized in asession this week what if that
gap between your I'm fine andyour inner chaos isn't proof

(00:23):
that you're broken?
What if, actually, it's proofof something you've been
refusing to see about yourself?
Because the person who can holdthat much pain and still show
up for others, the person whocan smile at the grocery store
checkout while carrying griefthat could level most people,

(00:43):
that's not fragility pretendingto be strength, that's raw,
unglamorous greatness you'vebeen walking around with
completely unaware.
Welcome to the Lift One Selfpodcast.
I'm your host, nat Nat, andlet's go into a mindful moment
Right now.
Wherever you are driving,walking, holding laundry, I want

(01:07):
you to catch yourself in thismoment.
Notice, you're here.
After everything that'shappened to you, all the ways
life's experiences has felt likeit was going to break you down.
All the mornings you didn'twant to get up.
You're still here, breathing,listening.
Put your hand wherever it wantsto go in your body, maybe your

(01:32):
chest, maybe your stomach.
Feel that warmth.
That warmth it's been carryingyou this whole time and you had
no idea.
Did you been carrying you thiswhole time and you had no idea?
Did you Take a deep breath inopening up your body, allowing

(01:58):
that tension, that tightness toloosen up?
Feel the depths of what yourbody is carrying, that feeling.
You just had that recognitionof your own resilience.
I watched it happen in realtime this week.
She came in talking about hermother's death three years ago,
how she should be over it by now, how she felt weeks for still

(02:21):
crying in her car after work.
And then she said somethingthat stopped me cold.
I held her hand for 18 hoursstraight in that hospital.
I didn't eat, didn't sleep, Ijust held on.
I asked her what kind of persondoes that?
She looked confused.
I don't know any daughter would.
No, I said Most people can'tsit with death for 18 hours.

(02:46):
Most people would need breaks,would get overwhelmed, would
have to step outside.
Yet you, you held space foryour mother's entire transition
from this world.
You were her anchor.
The silence in that room.
You could feel somethingshifting.
Because here's what we do wetake our most profound acts of

(03:10):
love and call them what anyonewould do.
We take evidence of ourunshakable devotion and label it
.
Not enough.
You've been looking at yourgrief like it's proof of your
falling apart.
Yet what if your grief isactually proof of how deeply you
love?
What if your exhaustion isn'tweakness, it's evidence that

(03:33):
you've been carrying more thanmost people could even imagine
carrying?
What if you've been callingyour superpower your breakdown?
You want to know why you keepfeeling like you're not doing
enough, not healing fast enough,not strong enough.
Because you made the pain themain character of your story,

(03:54):
and I get it.
Pain is loud, pain demandsattention.
Pain feels more real than thequiet strength that's been
holding you together.
Yet here's the thing nobodytells you about leaning into
pain.
It doesn't mean wallowing in it.
It doesn't mean making it yourwhole ass identity.
Leaning in means looking itstraight in the face and saying

(04:18):
okay, you're here, I see you, Ifeel you.
Now, what else is here with you?
Because you know what else isreal the fact that you got up
this morning, the fact thatyou're still here, still trying,
still caring about people, evenwhen caring hurts.
The fact that right now someonein your life feels safer

(04:39):
because you exist.
Someone sleeps better at nightbecause they know you're in the
world.
Someone has hope, becausethey've watched you survive what
look unsurvivable.
You think that's nothing, youthink that's ordinary.
That's power you didn't evenknow you possessed.
So here's what we're going todo right now.

(05:01):
Think of one thing aboutyourself that you've labeled as
too much, too sensitive, toointense.
Got it Now?
I want you to flip the script.
You're too sensitive isactually your superpower to feel
what others miss.
You're too intense is actuallyyour refusal to feel what others
miss.
You're too intense is actuallyyour refusal to live a shallow

(05:23):
life.
You're too much is actually theperfect amount for someone who
needs exactly what you have tooffer, the thing you've been
trying to fix about yourself.
It might be the thing the worldneeds most from you.
The wound you've been hiding.
It might be your greatestsource of wisdom.
That grief you carry.

(05:44):
It's not making you weak, it'smaking you capable of holding
space for others in ways thatwill literally save lives.
Before you go back to yourregularly scheduled program,
before you slip back into thestory that you're somehow not
enough, look in the mirror,literally and figuratively.

(06:06):
Yes, look in that mirror andsay I see you.
I see how hard you've beentrying.
I see the love you carry, evenwhen it hurts to carry it,
because the person looking backat you, they've been great this
whole time.
They just forgot how to carryit.
Because, the person lookingback at you, they've been great
this whole time.

(06:26):
They just forgot how to see it.
And maybe it's time to rememberIf this hit you in the chest,
if you felt seen in any way youhaven't in a while.
Share this with someone whoneeds to remember their own
greatness today and rememberyou're not healing too slowly,
you're not loving too deeply,you're not feeling too much.
You're exactly who someoneneeds you to be, especially you.

(06:50):
Hey, you made it all the wayhere.
I appreciate you and your time.
If you found value in thisconversation, please share it
out.
If there was somebody thatpopped into your mind, take
action and share it out withthem.
It possibly may not be themthat will benefit.
It's that they know somebodythat will benefit from listening

(07:12):
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(07:33):
Come into a discovery callliftoneselfcom.
Until next time, pleaseremember to be kind and gentle
with yourself.
You matter.