Unbreakable Mind & Body

Your Brain Won't Stop Spinning (How to Make It)

• Tiana Gonzalez • Episode 16

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Ever feel like you're drowning in responsibilities while maintaining a perfect game face for the world? You're not alone. In this deeply practical episode, I pull back the curtain on my own experience with overwhelm and share the exact five-step framework I use to regain clarity and calm.

Grab a pen and paper for this one - you'll want to capture these actionable strategies that go beyond surface-level advice. From the surprisingly powerful act of taking a complete mental inventory to the counterintuitive final step that most high-achievers resist, each technique is designed to work especially well for those who feel the weight of everything on their shoulders.

I dive deep into why delegation is particularly challenging for natural leaders and provide specific language to make this process less painful. For those constantly caught in the doing-thinking-consuming cycle, the guidance on creating intentional mental space might be the permission slip you've been waiting for. 

Throughout the episode, I weave in personal stories from my journey through engineering school, the construction industry, and competitive bodybuilding that shaped my approach to handling life's pressures.

Whether you're feeling the squeeze from economic uncertainty, workplace demands, or family responsibilities, these five practical steps will help you transform overwhelming chaos into manageable action. And for my fellow boundary-challenged listeners, the final minutes offer crucial insights on protecting your peace in a world that constantly demands your attention.

Ready to transform your relationship with overwhelm? Hit follow after listening so you never miss an episode of the Unbreakable Mind and Body podcast. 

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Disclaimer: This show is for education and entertainment purposes only. This is not intended as a replacement for therapy. Please seek out the help of a professional to assist you with your specific situation.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Unbreakable Mind and Body podcast. I am your host, tiana Gonzalez, a multi-passionate, creative storyteller and entrepreneur with a fierce love for movement. This is our space for powerful stories and actionable strategies to help you build mental resilience and elevate your self-care practice. Together, we will unlock the tools that you need to create an unbreakable mind and body.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the show. I am your host, tiana, and on this episode, I am going to talk to you about things that you can do when you are feeling overwhelmed. Now, before I dive into the episode, I highly suggest you find a pen and paper or grab a notebook, or perhaps, while you're listening to this episode, you can open the notes app on your phone or wherever you put reminders or your to-do list. I'm going to give you these five things and, to be completely transparent with you, I feel overwhelmed all the time. I have mastered having a game face when I'm in public. Having a game face when I'm in public, when I'm at work, when I'm in front of clients or when I'm on social media. I think it comes from being able to perform.

Speaker 2:

I was a musical theater kid growing up, which may be surprising to some people who have met me only in my adult life, but yes, I was a musical theater geek. I loved Broadway musicals. I really don't anymore, and I'll tell you why. I find the format very predictable and kind of boring. But maybe that's a topic for another episode of the show, because I want to make this episode bite-sized and usable. And again, if you're not driving and you're listening and you've got your notes app on your phone. I want to get right into it. So being able to keep your composure is great in the heat of the moment, or when you get upsetting news or when you read something, and then you have to go put on your game face but underneath the surface something. And then you have to go put on your game face but underneath the surface it's still there. And so a lot of times we're leaving our homes, we're getting out into the world, we're going to work, we're in front of our friends, our network, our family, we're out in public and underneath the surface there's a lot of shit going on. I want to give you these things to do to help you find clarity, to help give you peace of mind, to help you feel a little bit more grounded and more calm in those moments. It's not going to remove the triggers, it's not going to take away the feeling of I need to do this or I have to do this, but maybe it will allow you to shift your perspective to I get to do this or I get to do that, but it's landing there and it's getting there. That's really what the work is.

Speaker 2:

So number one first thing I want you to do when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're feeling like your head is spinning, slow down and take an inventory. Write everything down that's swirling in your head. Do a word vomit on a page. I love pen to paper. There is power in that action of writing things down in your own handwriting. Maybe it's not legible, but just get it out. This is going to help you just sort of clear your mind. Dump it all out on that paper.

Speaker 2:

Now, number two start prioritizing what's really important. Now I know some of my alphas, listening, are going to say well, everything's important and truly, maybe it all is important, especially if you're the alpha of your household, especially if you're the primary breadwinner and or the primary caregiver for your children. I train several clients in person who are both the primary breadwinner and the primary caregiver, believe it or not. And yes, they are in a relationship. But that dynamic is none of my business. So think about what's truly important, what needs to be done right away or what is most critical, and those things are going to go at the top of the list. Okay, Now look at that list again this is number three and think about what can be outsourced or what can you delegate to someone else? This may be a challenge for my alphas listening again, and you know what. I have to pause for a moment.

Speaker 2:

I do talk to the alphas a lot, why I'm an alpha female and I will say I'm only an alpha female by design, not by desire. I'm an alpha female because a firstborn daughter, lots of trauma, lots of family nonsense we talk about it on this show quite a lot. Every week. You hear my stories Engineering, school, construction, industry, bodybuilding when there was not a lot of women in the sport. It's quite different now. All those things have contributed to me being an alpha or a leader, and I attract that type of person into my world as a client, as a business partner, as somebody to collaborate with, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I'm talking to you, you, the one who says yes to everything, who has the weight of the world on your shoulders or who feels like, unless you do it, it's not going to get done right. You need to stop that. There's got to be something on that list, on that word vomit, piece of paper that you just created that you can give to someone else. And it may be uncomfortable and it may be challenging for you, but here's what you do and here's how you do it. Well, when you delegate or when you outsource something, you have to give clear instructions on how you would like it done and level set expectations, and that means you have to level set your expectations as well. Okay, all right. Now back to my list Number four. Now back to my list Number four.

Speaker 2:

I want you to check in on all of these things on this list, particularly the items that you have chosen to put at the top. That are your priorities. Do they align with your? Why Do they align with your goals? Are they really that important? Only you can truly answer this question, not your partner, not your boss, not your colleague, not your friends. Only you know. Does this align with where I'm going? Okay, so let me give you an example. If you are thinking about all of the family expenses for the year and you're looking at things such as saving for your kid's college, doing a renovation on the home, going on a special vacation or two with your family, okay, those are all very real and valid things. Or maybe you're working on your fitness goals. Whatever those things are that are truly your motivators, the things you're working towards, the things that are truly important. Do the other items on your list align? Now number five on the list, and this is important and it may be counterintuitive, but I encourage you to take a rest.

Speaker 2:

When you are constantly in an action mode, when you're always thinking, when you're always doing and when you're always consuming and we consume a lot you are not giving your brain downtime. You are not allowing things to come to you. You have to be in a relaxed state of mind in order to really find the clarity needed to take the next step. So again, for my people who are action takers, for my people who are always going, going, going, going, you wake up. The first thing you do is grab that phone and you start looking at the screen. You're still crusty eyed, smelly breast, you haven't even had coffee yet and you're already clicking away on the keyboard on that phone, looking at the weather, looking at the sports updates, looking at your stocks or your Bitcoin, looking at an email that came in. How dare you? You're not even giving your body an opportunity to get up and get level set for the day. So I want you to take a rest, I want you to slow down. In reality, when you allow yourself to slow down, you actually give yourself a runway and space to accelerate and speed up. Try it and see how you feel. So let's run through this list one more time.

Speaker 2:

Okay, five things to do when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're feeling like you cannot possibly take on any more, and or if you get one more piece of negative news or bad feedback or something else falls apart, you're going to crumble to the ground. This is what you're going to do. Number one you're going to take an inventory of everything swirling in your head, throw it all down on a piece of paper or throw it all down in your notes app. Number two you are going to prioritize. What are the top three things. Number three you are going to select a few items, maybe not numbers one through three, but maybe some of the things lower on the list that you can delegate and or outsource. Think about it Grocery shopping you can do a delivery service for a couple of weeks if you don't have time to go and squeeze your mangoes before you buy them. Okay, number four you're going to check in on this list and compare it to your goals, your why, your purpose, your number one priority right nowize. Your why must always remain the center point, the focus, and everything else fills in around that.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and number five take a rest, slow it down, give yourself room and space to breathe. It is in those moments that you will find clarity, if you feel like you really do not have time to slow down, that there's so much pressure and I know a lot of us are feeling this way right now because of the economy, because of what we're seeing in the news, because of the things our friends are communicating to us about what's going on in their life. We're just getting so much. You're slammed constantly, from the moment you open your eyes until you close them at night. Take a moment and pause.

Speaker 2:

Something simple like putting your phone on. Do not disturb while you're at the gym. It doesn't mean you don't have it, it doesn't mean you won't look at it, but you're doing it on your terms. This is from boundaries and if you've been following me or along on this journey for any amount of time, you know I am huge on boundaries because I had none growing up and I had to learn how to first vocalize them, implement them and then maintain them, and that's nobody's job except your own. So I hope you found this episode helpful Five things to do when you're feeling overwhelmed. If you have any questions, you can always send me a text. There's a way to do that. Just check the show notes and then I will answer that question on an upcoming episode of this show. I appreciate your time and attention and, as always, if you found this episode helpful, do me a huge favor and hit the follow button on the platform that you're listening on and I'll see you on the next one.