May 5, 2026 • 21 mins
In this episode, we’re talking about overwhelm not just as a reaction to what’s happening in your life, but as a reflection of how much you’re taking in on a daily basis.
Many people are feeling overwhelmed right now, even when nothing is objectively “wrong.” And a big part of that is the sheer volume of information, input, and stimulation we’re exposed to constantly. Our systems were never designed to process this much, this quickly, without support.
Through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine, this episode reframes overwhelm as a digestion issue. Not just digestion of food, but of life. What we take in through our eyes, ears, and attention all requires processing, and when there’s too much input without enough discernment, clearing, or integration, things start to feel like too much.
This episode walks through three simple, practical ways to work with overwhelm: becoming more discerning about what you take in, creating space to release what isn’t serving you, and allowing time for integration. These are small shifts, but they can have a meaningful impact on how you feel day to day.
In This Episode:
- Why overwhelm isn’t always tied to a specific life event
- How modern life is flooding our systems with more input than we can process
- Why your nervous system doesn’t distinguish between real and perceived threats
- A Chinese medicine perspective on digestion beyond just food
- The role of the Small Intestine in discernment (what to keep vs. release)
- What it means to be intentional about what you take in (and when)
- The impact of social media, news, and constant information exposure
- Why what feels supportive varies from person to person
- The importance of creating boundaries around your inputs
- Simple ways to practice discernment in daily life
- Why “clearing” practices matter and how to make them your own
- Examples of clearing: water, movement, sound, ritual, nature
- The importance of integration time (and why we’re often missing it)
- How overwhelm connects to stagnation in the body
- Why stagnation can show up as anxiety, fatigue, pain, or digestive issues
- How small, intentional shifts can create more ease, clarity, and flow
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Tao of
Humaning, where we explore thephysical, energetic, emotional,
and spiritual aspects of what itmeans to be human together.
I'm your host, Dr.
Christine, and I'm so thrilledthat you decided to join me for
today's conversation.
In today's episode, I want totalk about overwhelm, this very
(00:24):
human experience that all of ushave had from at one point or
another of feeling like there'sjust more than we can handle
going on in our lives.
And I want to talk about threekey pieces that I think are so
(00:46):
important to being able to shiftaway from overwhelm and towards
having more ease and grace andpeace in our lives.
And so this conversation cameabout because I was talking to
several people recently about,you know, their feelings of
(01:09):
overwhelm.
And a lot of times what we'rewhat we noticed is that there
wasn't necessarily a you knowlife thing that was associated
with the overwhelm.
So they were having thephysiological sensations of
overwhelm.
And you know, that couldpiggyback on stress or anxiety
(01:34):
sensations.
But the the part that was reallystanding out was this aspect of
more of a generalized overwhelmsensation at like quote unquote
all the things, right?
But in their actual real life,they had the resources and the
skills and the, you know, thereweren't any major life changes
(01:58):
going on.
You know, sometimes our livesare overwhelming, right?
And that's not necessarilysomething that needs to be done.
There's nothing necessarily thatneeds to shift with that.
It just is.
And the sensations that weexperience during that are
something that we can shift.
And I say this a lot with stresstoo.
(02:20):
It's like stress on its ownisn't necessarily bad.
We're actually going to do anepisode about that the next
episode.
So stay tuned.
Subscribe.
Follow along, and you'll getnotified when that one drops.
Um, but this week I want to keepit focused on this idea of
overwhelm.
And what are these three piecesthat I feel like can really be
(02:44):
impactful if all of us start topractice more of?
Okay.
So one of the things I think thefirst piece that I want to
impart is that if you arefeeling overwhelmed at all the
things, and there isn'tnecessarily a storyline to it,
there's not you're not alone.
(03:06):
And I think a lot of people arefeeling that right now.
And there are things that youcan do in your day-to-day life,
small things that don't feeloverwhelming, because that's not
helpful.
Small things that could even befun, um, that can really make a
significant difference in howyou experience this uh overwhelm
(03:30):
and making it less.
Okay?
Sound good?
I think so.
Um, so the first piece, thefirst factor is discernment.
And I think this is somethingthat isn't talked about enough
is developing this ability to beable to see, okay, what is in
(03:51):
front of me and what is going tobe valuable in my life, and what
is not going to be valuable inmy life.
And it sounds so simple when Isay it like that, but the
reality for most of us nowadaysis that there's so many inputs
and so much informationavailable to us, right?
(04:14):
Like we all have these littlemagical devices that I can
contact anyone, I can look upanything, I can, you know,
explore the entire world andknow what's going on.
And like it's an incredibleresource.
And it's something thatphysiologically our systems
haven't taken in this muchinformation ever before in
(04:37):
history.
So if we think about ourgrandparents at our age, right,
the amount of information aboutthe goings-ons in the world that
they had awareness of wassignificantly less, right?
And in Chinese medicine, we lookat the small intestine as the
(04:58):
organ of kind of discernment, inthat the small intestine is what
we call it separating the clearfrom the turbid.
So it is, you know, physicallyin our body helping us to take
in, helping us to look at whatwe're taking in for nourishment
and being able to say, okay,what's going to be nourishing to
(05:18):
my cells, and what do I need topass along to the large
intestine to be excreted, to letgo, right?
This is a key function in thebody.
And in Chinese medicine, we seethat small intestine function on
a physical level.
We also see that on an emotionallevel and on a spiritual level.
(05:40):
So it's not just about digestingfood, it's about digesting life.
It's about digesting ourexperiences and also the
experiences or the informationthat we're given from the world
around us, right?
So we look at what needs to bedigested as anything that comes
(06:03):
in through the mouth, obvious,and then also everything that's
coming in through the eyes andeverything that's coming in
through the ears.
So anything that's coming in toa sense organ, right, is
information that we can eithertake in as nourishment and
utilize, or we can let go of anduse it as waste or excrete it as
(06:29):
waste.
Um right now, because we'regetting so much information uh
from everywhere, right?
From people in our lives, fromonline, social media, AI, all of
the things, our systems, in myopinion, are a little backed up.
And this first piece ofdiscernment is looking at okay,
(06:54):
where am I getting myinformation from?
Right?
That's important.
And a lot of times when,especially when we look at
social media, we think sometimesthat we don't have control over
what comes in front of us.
Or we think so, you know, wetend to pull to extremes, like
social media is bad, or socialmedia, you know, people are on
(07:18):
there all the time and notthinking about it, but they're
literally taking in things,information all of the time.
And again, not necessarily bad,but wanting to be intentional
and discerning about, you know,who are the people that you're
following online, who are thepeople that you have close in
(07:40):
your life, in your friends, andyour family, like who are you
taking in that information fromand then allowing that to
nourish yourself, right?
Like I love one of my teacherswould talk about the actually
all of my teachers talked aboutthe definition of a friend,
right?
Is someone that you feelnourished by their presence.
(08:02):
It's like you don't have to doany special activity with them,
you don't have to have any likespecial thing planned, you just
hang out with them and you'veleave that experience feeling
better, right?
Um anyway, I digress a littlebit, but the idea of discernment
(08:22):
is something that I think welose sight of.
And I talk about this a lot,especially with my patients that
are going through fertilityjourneys, and really encouraging
them to develop or explorewhat's going to be supportive
for them because it isindividualized, right?
Like what's supportive for metoday, it might be different
(08:46):
than what's supportive to meeven two months from now, and
definitely could be differentthan what's supportive to you,
right?
Some people really like to haveall the information, and that is
actually relaxing to them, andsome people prefer to have less
information and have a more of afelt experience, and that's more
(09:08):
relaxing to them.
Neither is wrong, but it's aboutunderstanding the need to be
able to look inside and seewhat's going to be supportive to
you, and then making mindfulchoices based on that, right?
And understanding also givingyourself the pivot that it might
(09:30):
change, and that's okay too,right?
It's the successes in the effortis something another teacher
would say, and I find that to bevery true.
It's it's being more intentionalreally is the the win.
It's not about really theresults of the intentional
actions, although that can alsobe nice, but simply noticing
(09:54):
that more discernment could bevaluable is a huge win.
Um there is because we have thisconstant access to information
and we are taking in moreinformation from all of like
what's happening all around theworld, like is so incredible to
(10:16):
me that we could know thosethings, first of all.
And also a lot of times ournervous system doesn't
necessarily know the differencebetween watching the news and an
immediate threat to your ownphysical safety.
And so if you are practicingthis discernment, you want to
(10:38):
notice like, am I watching thenews and starting to get
sensations in my body that aretriggering or that are you know
noticing, activating thisnoticing in me that I am in
immediate threat or immediatedanger.
I am in threat.
That's not the right word.
Um, that I am in immediatedanger, right?
(11:01):
And again, not necessarily bad.
It might just be that you needto be more discerning in terms
of when you take in information,right?
Like if you feel reallyresourced and happy and balanced
in the mornings, then maybethat's the time that you catch
(11:21):
up on the news, right?
You take in that information.
And it's not always possible todo this, but when you can, it
makes a big difference.
And being able to say, like, oh,you know what, I'm really
feeling stressed out about workor this relationship or an
upcoming move or my IVF cycle,and like I'm just not in the
headspace to know all of thethings that are going on in the
(11:43):
world right now.
I'm gonna, you know, get anupdate from a friend, or I'm
gonna pause and catch up onthings tomorrow, or, you know,
just giving yourself that spaceto have some intentionality
around your inputs and base iton how you're feeling when you
can.
Okay.
(12:04):
It's not always possible.
And it's also possible a lotmore than we remember.
So this is a rememberingconversation, I guess, as many
of mine are.
Um, so remembering thatdiscernment piece.
The second aspect of overwhelmthat I think is really, really
(12:24):
important and often underlooked,especially in a lot of like
energetic systems, is this needfor a clearing or purging
practice.
And there are so many.
You don't need to know all ofthem.
You need to have something thatallows you to feel like you are
(12:49):
intentionally, again, right?
It's like the success is in theeffort and in the intention.
You need to have you don't need,you could explore having some
kind of a dedicated time whereyou are releasing what is no
longer serving you, or where youare just cleansing the excess
(13:11):
away.
And we can do this throughwater.
So you could do it, you know,when you're drinking water, you
could say a little dedicationof, you know, as I drink this
water, I pray that anything thatis, you know, no longer serving
me be washed away and cleansed,right?
We can do it in the shower byvisualizing ourselves being
(13:32):
washed, literally, washing awayanything that is not of benefit
to us, right?
You can do use sound vibration,you can use bells, you can use
incense, you can use light, youcould go walk in the grass, you
could do some grounding.
There's so many things outthere.
(13:54):
Um, there's a lot of qigongpractices that we do in the
system that I was taught thatare so valuable to be able to
clear away that excess, right?
If we're thinking back to thedigestive analogy, being able to
create a dedicated space to letgo.
(14:15):
And that could be lighting acandle while you read before
bed.
It could be saying a prayer,reading the Bible, whatever s
nourishes your soul, have apiece of that that is a
dedicated practice to letting goand to clearing.
Okay.
Intentionality really mattershere.
(14:36):
And I could say a lot about theletting go piece, but I think
for now that's good.
I don't want to add to theoverwhelm.
But it can be simple and itcould even be fun.
If you can add some fun intoyour clearing, all the better.
Okay.
Um, if you have a favoriteclearing practice or exercise
(14:58):
that you like to do, um, I wouldlove to hear in the comments
what you love and enjoy.
That would be fun for me.
Or send me a message.
Um the third piece that I wasthinking of to share today that
I see could bring us moretowards ease and grace and peace
is uh allowing time forintegration.
(15:22):
And integration is often uh Idon't know, it's kind of an
overused word, but givingyourself time to digest.
You could we could keep on thedigestion analogy for today.
But giving ourselves time todigest and understanding that
(15:48):
there are times when we justhave a lot more to take in.
And again, not bad, it's justinformation and training that
awareness so that you can allowfor more digestion time is so
valuable, so that you're not,you know, speaking of digestion,
right?
It's if you have a lot of thingscoming into your system, right?
(16:12):
It's like eating a bigThanksgiving meal, delicious,
wonderful company, right?
You're really enjoying the wholething.
If you eat too much, right,you're gonna need more time to
digest.
And if you go and you eatanother big Thanksgiving meal
right after that, you might notfeel so good.
Right.
(16:33):
There's some great Chinese herbsfor that.
We call it food stagnation, andthere's some yum, some great
herbs that help move thatthrough.
Um, but giving that time forintegration.
And again, going back to theindividualistic aspect of this,
understanding that thatintegration will look different
(16:56):
for you than it will maybe foryour partner or your friend.
You know, for you it might betaking a walk without any
devices or sounds in your ears,right?
It might be just physicallymoving your body and allowing
your thoughts to just bewhatever they are and taking in
some fresh air, right?
(17:16):
For other people, it might be,you know, listening to a podcast
on a walk.
It might be taking a nap, itmight be reading a book, it
might be whatever it is.
Taking that time, I will alwaysbe saying all over the place
that resting is a verb, andresting is an activity that is
(17:38):
incredibly valuable to yoursystem, to your body,
physically, emotionally,spiritually.
Resting is a necessary aspect ofbeing human.
And when we feel overwhelmed, weneed both.
We need activation and movement,and we need resting.
(17:59):
We need to be able to practicemoving through those periods of
activation and rest so that allof these experiences are able to
come into our field, into oursystem, and move, you know,
nourish us where they're meantto nourish us, and then be
released, whatever's not servingus.
Okay.
(18:20):
A lot of this actually mimicsthat peristaltic action, right?
When I think about shifting fromthe activation to the rest, it
reminds me of that likeperistaltic movement through the
intestines.
It's like everything's gonnakeep moving along, right?
Um so we have our three things,okay.
(18:40):
Discernment is number one.
Where are we getting ourinformation from?
What are we taking in, right?
What is useful, what's not,having some sort of dedicated
something to release, and thenhaving time for integration.
And when we implement thosethree pieces, that sense of
(19:04):
overwhelm softens and it reallybecomes something that we are
moving with versus feeling likesomething is happening to us,
right?
When we feel overwhelmed, thatoverwhelm often translates to
like, I can't handle it, Ican't, I just can't, is what I
(19:25):
end up hearing all the time.
I just can't do all the things,right?
But really, we can do so much.
And having these little momentsin our day can really make a big
difference in how we physicallyfeel, because energetically
(19:45):
we're gonna be preventing thosestagnations from happening,
right?
And we've talked about this inother episodes, but ideally, our
energy moves through our body ina flow, like a river, right?
Like it's gonna move throughthings.
And when we have tension andoverwhelm, we tighten and
constrict, okay?
(20:05):
And that blocks that flow indifferent ways, and that will
end up showing up as pain orfatigue or digestive upsets,
anxiety, depression, all thesedifferent things start to show
up in our world when that flowis impacted or impeded.
Uh so there are ways that we canhelp ourselves feel less
(20:30):
overwhelmed.
And I would love, I would loveactually to hear what's
supportive to you in thecomments.
I would love to hear um ifthere's resources that you
especially enjoy, put them inthe comments, send me a message,
and I would love if this isbeneficial for you, if you share
(20:52):
it with a friend, make sureyou're following along,
subscribed so you get all of thenew episodes when they drop.
And it also helps me to get mywork out into the world to other
people who would benefit.
So really appreciate youlistening in today and being
part of this conversation.
And I look forward to seeing youin the next episode.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Tao of
Humaning, where we explore thephysical, energetic, emotional,
and spiritual aspects of what itmeans to be human together.
I'm your host, Dr.
Christine, and I'm so thrilledthat you decided to join me for
today's conversation.
In today's episode, I want totalk about overwhelm, this very
(00:24):
human experience that all of ushave had from at one point or
another of feeling like there'sjust more than we can handle
going on in our lives.
And I want to talk about threekey pieces that I think are so
(00:46):
important to being able to shiftaway from overwhelm and towards
having more ease and grace andpeace in our lives.
And so this conversation cameabout because I was talking to
several people recently about,you know, their feelings of
(01:09):
overwhelm.
And a lot of times what we'rewhat we noticed is that there
wasn't necessarily a you knowlife thing that was associated
with the overwhelm.
So they were having thephysiological sensations of
overwhelm.
And you know, that couldpiggyback on stress or anxiety
(01:34):
sensations.
But the the part that was reallystanding out was this aspect of
more of a generalized overwhelmsensation at like quote unquote
all the things, right?
But in their actual real life,they had the resources and the
skills and the, you know, thereweren't any major life changes
(01:58):
going on.
You know, sometimes our livesare overwhelming, right?
And that's not necessarilysomething that needs to be done.
There's nothing necessarily thatneeds to shift with that.
It just is.
And the sensations that weexperience during that are
something that we can shift.
And I say this a lot with stresstoo.
(02:20):
It's like stress on its ownisn't necessarily bad.
We're actually going to do anepisode about that the next
episode.
So stay tuned.
Subscribe.
Follow along, and you'll getnotified when that one drops.
Um, but this week I want to keepit focused on this idea of
overwhelm.
And what are these three piecesthat I feel like can really be
(02:44):
impactful if all of us start topractice more of?
Okay.
So one of the things I think thefirst piece that I want to
impart is that if you arefeeling overwhelmed at all the
things, and there isn'tnecessarily a storyline to it,
there's not you're not alone.
(03:06):
And I think a lot of people arefeeling that right now.
And there are things that youcan do in your day-to-day life,
small things that don't feeloverwhelming, because that's not
helpful.
Small things that could even befun, um, that can really make a
significant difference in howyou experience this uh overwhelm
(03:30):
and making it less.
Okay?
Sound good?
I think so.
Um, so the first piece, thefirst factor is discernment.
And I think this is somethingthat isn't talked about enough
is developing this ability to beable to see, okay, what is in
(03:51):
front of me and what is going tobe valuable in my life, and what
is not going to be valuable inmy life.
And it sounds so simple when Isay it like that, but the
reality for most of us nowadaysis that there's so many inputs
and so much informationavailable to us, right?
(04:14):
Like we all have these littlemagical devices that I can
contact anyone, I can look upanything, I can, you know,
explore the entire world andknow what's going on.
And like it's an incredibleresource.
And it's something thatphysiologically our systems
haven't taken in this muchinformation ever before in
(04:37):
history.
So if we think about ourgrandparents at our age, right,
the amount of information aboutthe goings-ons in the world that
they had awareness of wassignificantly less, right?
And in Chinese medicine, we lookat the small intestine as the
(04:58):
organ of kind of discernment, inthat the small intestine is what
we call it separating the clearfrom the turbid.
So it is, you know, physicallyin our body helping us to take
in, helping us to look at whatwe're taking in for nourishment
and being able to say, okay,what's going to be nourishing to
(05:18):
my cells, and what do I need topass along to the large
intestine to be excreted, to letgo, right?
This is a key function in thebody.
And in Chinese medicine, we seethat small intestine function on
a physical level.
We also see that on an emotionallevel and on a spiritual level.
(05:40):
So it's not just about digestingfood, it's about digesting life.
It's about digesting ourexperiences and also the
experiences or the informationthat we're given from the world
around us, right?
So we look at what needs to bedigested as anything that comes
(06:03):
in through the mouth, obvious,and then also everything that's
coming in through the eyes andeverything that's coming in
through the ears.
So anything that's coming in toa sense organ, right, is
information that we can eithertake in as nourishment and
utilize, or we can let go of anduse it as waste or excrete it as
(06:29):
waste.
Um right now, because we'regetting so much information uh
from everywhere, right?
From people in our lives, fromonline, social media, AI, all of
the things, our systems, in myopinion, are a little backed up.
And this first piece ofdiscernment is looking at okay,
(06:54):
where am I getting myinformation from?
Right?
That's important.
And a lot of times when,especially when we look at
social media, we think sometimesthat we don't have control over
what comes in front of us.
Or we think so, you know, wetend to pull to extremes, like
social media is bad, or socialmedia, you know, people are on
(07:18):
there all the time and notthinking about it, but they're
literally taking in things,information all of the time.
And again, not necessarily bad,but wanting to be intentional
and discerning about, you know,who are the people that you're
following online, who are thepeople that you have close in
(07:40):
your life, in your friends, andyour family, like who are you
taking in that information fromand then allowing that to
nourish yourself, right?
Like I love one of my teacherswould talk about the actually
all of my teachers talked aboutthe definition of a friend,
right?
Is someone that you feelnourished by their presence.
(08:02):
It's like you don't have to doany special activity with them,
you don't have to have any likespecial thing planned, you just
hang out with them and you'veleave that experience feeling
better, right?
Um anyway, I digress a littlebit, but the idea of discernment
(08:22):
is something that I think welose sight of.
And I talk about this a lot,especially with my patients that
are going through fertilityjourneys, and really encouraging
them to develop or explorewhat's going to be supportive
for them because it isindividualized, right?
Like what's supportive for metoday, it might be different
(08:46):
than what's supportive to meeven two months from now, and
definitely could be differentthan what's supportive to you,
right?
Some people really like to haveall the information, and that is
actually relaxing to them, andsome people prefer to have less
information and have a more of afelt experience, and that's more
(09:08):
relaxing to them.
Neither is wrong, but it's aboutunderstanding the need to be
able to look inside and seewhat's going to be supportive to
you, and then making mindfulchoices based on that, right?
And understanding also givingyourself the pivot that it might
(09:30):
change, and that's okay too,right?
It's the successes in the effortis something another teacher
would say, and I find that to bevery true.
It's it's being more intentionalreally is the the win.
It's not about really theresults of the intentional
actions, although that can alsobe nice, but simply noticing
(09:54):
that more discernment could bevaluable is a huge win.
Um there is because we have thisconstant access to information
and we are taking in moreinformation from all of like
what's happening all around theworld, like is so incredible to
(10:16):
me that we could know thosethings, first of all.
And also a lot of times ournervous system doesn't
necessarily know the differencebetween watching the news and an
immediate threat to your ownphysical safety.
And so if you are practicingthis discernment, you want to
(10:38):
notice like, am I watching thenews and starting to get
sensations in my body that aretriggering or that are you know
noticing, activating thisnoticing in me that I am in
immediate threat or immediatedanger.
I am in threat.
That's not the right word.
Um, that I am in immediatedanger, right?
(11:01):
And again, not necessarily bad.
It might just be that you needto be more discerning in terms
of when you take in information,right?
Like if you feel reallyresourced and happy and balanced
in the mornings, then maybethat's the time that you catch
(11:21):
up on the news, right?
You take in that information.
And it's not always possible todo this, but when you can, it
makes a big difference.
And being able to say, like, oh,you know what, I'm really
feeling stressed out about workor this relationship or an
upcoming move or my IVF cycle,and like I'm just not in the
headspace to know all of thethings that are going on in the
(11:43):
world right now.
I'm gonna, you know, get anupdate from a friend, or I'm
gonna pause and catch up onthings tomorrow, or, you know,
just giving yourself that spaceto have some intentionality
around your inputs and base iton how you're feeling when you
can.
Okay.
(12:04):
It's not always possible.
And it's also possible a lotmore than we remember.
So this is a rememberingconversation, I guess, as many
of mine are.
Um, so remembering thatdiscernment piece.
The second aspect of overwhelmthat I think is really, really
(12:24):
important and often underlooked,especially in a lot of like
energetic systems, is this needfor a clearing or purging
practice.
And there are so many.
You don't need to know all ofthem.
You need to have something thatallows you to feel like you are
(12:49):
intentionally, again, right?
It's like the success is in theeffort and in the intention.
You need to have you don't need,you could explore having some
kind of a dedicated time whereyou are releasing what is no
longer serving you, or where youare just cleansing the excess
(13:11):
away.
And we can do this throughwater.
So you could do it, you know,when you're drinking water, you
could say a little dedicationof, you know, as I drink this
water, I pray that anything thatis, you know, no longer serving
me be washed away and cleansed,right?
We can do it in the shower byvisualizing ourselves being
(13:32):
washed, literally, washing awayanything that is not of benefit
to us, right?
You can do use sound vibration,you can use bells, you can use
incense, you can use light, youcould go walk in the grass, you
could do some grounding.
There's so many things outthere.
(13:54):
Um, there's a lot of qigongpractices that we do in the
system that I was taught thatare so valuable to be able to
clear away that excess, right?
If we're thinking back to thedigestive analogy, being able to
create a dedicated space to letgo.
(14:15):
And that could be lighting acandle while you read before
bed.
It could be saying a prayer,reading the Bible, whatever s
nourishes your soul, have apiece of that that is a
dedicated practice to letting goand to clearing.
Okay.
Intentionality really mattershere.
(14:36):
And I could say a lot about theletting go piece, but I think
for now that's good.
I don't want to add to theoverwhelm.
But it can be simple and itcould even be fun.
If you can add some fun intoyour clearing, all the better.
Okay.
Um, if you have a favoriteclearing practice or exercise
(14:58):
that you like to do, um, I wouldlove to hear in the comments
what you love and enjoy.
That would be fun for me.
Or send me a message.
Um the third piece that I wasthinking of to share today that
I see could bring us moretowards ease and grace and peace
is uh allowing time forintegration.
(15:22):
And integration is often uh Idon't know, it's kind of an
overused word, but givingyourself time to digest.
You could we could keep on thedigestion analogy for today.
But giving ourselves time todigest and understanding that
(15:48):
there are times when we justhave a lot more to take in.
And again, not bad, it's justinformation and training that
awareness so that you can allowfor more digestion time is so
valuable, so that you're not,you know, speaking of digestion,
right?
It's if you have a lot of thingscoming into your system, right?
(16:12):
It's like eating a bigThanksgiving meal, delicious,
wonderful company, right?
You're really enjoying the wholething.
If you eat too much, right,you're gonna need more time to
digest.
And if you go and you eatanother big Thanksgiving meal
right after that, you might notfeel so good.
Right.
(16:33):
There's some great Chinese herbsfor that.
We call it food stagnation, andthere's some yum, some great
herbs that help move thatthrough.
Um, but giving that time forintegration.
And again, going back to theindividualistic aspect of this,
understanding that thatintegration will look different
(16:56):
for you than it will maybe foryour partner or your friend.
You know, for you it might betaking a walk without any
devices or sounds in your ears,right?
It might be just physicallymoving your body and allowing
your thoughts to just bewhatever they are and taking in
some fresh air, right?
(17:16):
For other people, it might be,you know, listening to a podcast
on a walk.
It might be taking a nap, itmight be reading a book, it
might be whatever it is.
Taking that time, I will alwaysbe saying all over the place
that resting is a verb, andresting is an activity that is
(17:38):
incredibly valuable to yoursystem, to your body,
physically, emotionally,spiritually.
Resting is a necessary aspect ofbeing human.
And when we feel overwhelmed, weneed both.
We need activation and movement,and we need resting.
(17:59):
We need to be able to practicemoving through those periods of
activation and rest so that allof these experiences are able to
come into our field, into oursystem, and move, you know,
nourish us where they're meantto nourish us, and then be
released, whatever's not servingus.
Okay.
(18:20):
A lot of this actually mimicsthat peristaltic action, right?
When I think about shifting fromthe activation to the rest, it
reminds me of that likeperistaltic movement through the
intestines.
It's like everything's gonnakeep moving along, right?
Um so we have our three things,okay.
(18:40):
Discernment is number one.
Where are we getting ourinformation from?
What are we taking in, right?
What is useful, what's not,having some sort of dedicated
something to release, and thenhaving time for integration.
And when we implement thosethree pieces, that sense of
(19:04):
overwhelm softens and it reallybecomes something that we are
moving with versus feeling likesomething is happening to us,
right?
When we feel overwhelmed, thatoverwhelm often translates to
like, I can't handle it, Ican't, I just can't, is what I
(19:25):
end up hearing all the time.
I just can't do all the things,right?
But really, we can do so much.
And having these little momentsin our day can really make a big
difference in how we physicallyfeel, because energetically
(19:45):
we're gonna be preventing thosestagnations from happening,
right?
And we've talked about this inother episodes, but ideally, our
energy moves through our body ina flow, like a river, right?
Like it's gonna move throughthings.
And when we have tension andoverwhelm, we tighten and
constrict, okay?
(20:05):
And that blocks that flow indifferent ways, and that will
end up showing up as pain orfatigue or digestive upsets,
anxiety, depression, all thesedifferent things start to show
up in our world when that flowis impacted or impeded.
Uh so there are ways that we canhelp ourselves feel less
(20:30):
overwhelmed.
And I would love, I would loveactually to hear what's
supportive to you in thecomments.
I would love to hear um ifthere's resources that you
especially enjoy, put them inthe comments, send me a message,
and I would love if this isbeneficial for you, if you share
(20:52):
it with a friend, make sureyou're following along,
subscribed so you get all of thenew episodes when they drop.
And it also helps me to get mywork out into the world to other
people who would benefit.
So really appreciate youlistening in today and being
part of this conversation.
And I look forward to seeing youin the next episode.
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