40 | Breaking the Cycle of Overwhelm: How to Stop Living on Repeat

Feeling stuck in a loop where overwhelm never really goes away — it just changes shape? You’re not alone. Overwhelm isn’t just a busy season… it becomes a pattern. And the longer you live in that cycle, the heavier and more normal it feels.

But here’s the truth: overwhelm doesn’t have to be your identity. In this episode, I’ll show you how to recognize the patterns that keep you stuck, why you end up repeating the same battles, and how to finally step into freedom without guilt.

✨ It’s not about doing more — it’s about choosing different.

 ✨ Overwhelmed? You don’t need more to do — you need a reset.
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🎶 Instrumental Acoustic Guitar Music by Viacheslav Starostin (original_soundtrack), from Pixabay. 

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🎶 Instrumental Acoustic Guitar Music by Viacheslav Starostin (original_soundtrack),

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I N S T A G R A M - @lisamcovert

Transcript

You think you’re just going through a season… but what if that season has quietly become your lifestyle?

Overwhelm isn’t always a storm you pass through. Sometimes it settles in and becomes the weather you live in — the background noise of your every day.

Today we’re pulling back the curtain on that sneaky shift. We’re going to talk about how to spot when overwhelm has stopped being a phase and started being a pattern… and what you can actually do about it.

Welcome to, Episode 40

You know how we always tell ourselves, ‘it’s just a season’?

I used to say that all the time. Especially when my husband started traveling for work. He’s been doing it since my youngest was less than 30 days old — he’s seven now, so that’s been years of me telling myself, ‘This is just temporary. Once this season passes, things will calm down.’

And then when he transitioned to another company, I thought, Okay, maybe this will be the job that slows down the travel. But nope — different title, same suitcase. And I kept holding onto that hope. Just a season, Lisa. Hang in there. It’ll get better.

At the same time, my kids were going through their own stress. Stuck inside too much, bouncing off the walls, acting out because they didn’t know how to cope. So now it wasn’t just my husband gone a lot — it was me juggling practices, games, meltdowns, homework, dinners, and still trying to keep everyone moving forward. And again, I told myself, ‘Just a season.’

But here’s the truth — one season rolled into the next. The job stress, the school stress, the sports schedules, the kid drama… and suddenly, ‘temporary’ had become my normal.

And it finally hit me — this wasn’t just a season anymore. This was my life. And if I didn’t stop and tell myself the truth, I was going to keep wasting years waiting for things to magically get better.

I remember realizing I was waiting for everything outside of me to shift before I gave myself permission to actually live. Waiting for my husband’s travel to slow down. Waiting for the kids to come home from school happy. Eventually, I even caught myself waiting for them to just grow up — like that would finally make life easier.

But all that waiting wasn’t creating peace… it was creating regret. I could see myself years down the road saying, ‘I wish I had.’ Because while I was waiting for life to align perfectly, the years were quietly slipping by.

And listen, I know you do this too. We all do. We tell ourselves, Once work slows down… once school’s out… once the kids are older… once things aren’t so crazy. But it never really comes, does it? There’s always another season right around the corner.

Honestly, I kept waiting for that magical month where everyone’s schedules aligned and life felt lighter. But instead, if no one was asking me for something, I was filling the space with more to-dos — or numbing out just to cope. Binge-watching a show, scrolling on my phone, having a couple cocktails… anything to take the edge off for a minute.

That was my wake-up call. I realized if I didn’t stop labeling overwhelm as a ‘season,’ it was just going to keep running my life. And that’s when I decided to stop waiting for someone else’s plans to calm down before I started living mine.

You know what blew my mind? Years after I quit smoking — like, we’re talking three, maybe four years — I was driving one day, stressed out, running late, kids in the backseat… and out of nowhere, my hand reached over to the passenger seat. I’m digging around, irritated, frustrated, and then it hits me — oh my gosh, I’m looking for cigarettes.

I hadn’t smoked in years. I didn’t even want one. But that old pattern was so ingrained in my body that in the middle of stress, it just popped back up. Like muscle memory.

That’s how habits work. We think we’re in a “season,” but the truth is, when we repeat something long enough, our brain and body start treating it like normal. It hardwires. And then, even after the season changes, the pattern is still there.

It’s not always smoking, right? Maybe for you it looks like saying yes when you’re tired because it’s easier than dealing with the guilt. Or automatically numbing at night with Netflix and scrolling, even on the days when you’re not actually exhausted. Or always eating in the car because somewhere along the line that became the only quiet space you got.

And here’s the kicker: when “overwhelm” becomes your go-to response, it doesn’t just fade out when the chaos calms down. It sticks. It becomes your default operating system.

That’s why you can finally get a break in your schedule and still feel just as drained as before — because it’s no longer about the season. It’s about the pattern.

So how do you know if a “season” has turned into a pattern?

It shows up in little ways you don’t always notice.
 Like… you feel guilty just sitting still. If you’re not folding laundry, answering emails, or running someone somewhere, you feel like you’re wasting time.

Or you answer texts faster than you answer your own needs. Someone says, “Can you…?” and you’re already typing back yes before you’ve even thought about whether you actually want to.

You get restless in silence — like, if you’re not “doing” something, then something must be wrong.

And maybe the hardest one to admit: you’ve stopped even asking yourself what you want. Your whole brain is running on “what needs to be done” mode.

And listen, here’s where I laugh at myself… if you want to know if this is you, just scroll through your Amazon cart or your “buy again” list. How many things are sitting there — or worse, sitting in your house right now — that you bought because you thought you or your kids needed it… and they’ve barely been touched? (I mean, I can’t even tell you how many Christmases I’ve looked back and thought… wow, that toy was more exciting in the cart than it ever was in real life.)

See, you’re not lazy. You’re not even indecisive. You’re patterned. And patterns make you think this is “just how life is.”

Let’s press pause for one minute, because if you’re listening to this, I think you need to hear this too.

Listen, I know your time is stretched thinner than your patience some days. You’re already doing all the things—trying to hold your house together, your job, your kids, your sanity—and figuring out how to actually feel better? That just feels… impossible.

But here’s the thing—getting out of overwhelm doesn’t have to be another thing on your to-do list.

That’s exactly why I created the Empowered Living 6-week course. It’s simple, it’s practical, and it’s designed for real life. You get plug-and-play tools, short video lessons you can do at your pace, and the exact steps I took to finally feel grounded again—without spending months in therapy or years reading self-help books.

This course gives you the reset, without the overwhelm. No fluff, no extra noise—just the clear, simple roadmap to go from burned out to feeling in control again.

Check it out now at lisacovert.com—I promise, your time’s about to feel a lot more like yours again.

So if overwhelm has become a pattern, how do we reset it?

The good news — it doesn’t take a massive life overhaul. It starts small.

Step one: Notice it without judgment.
 Overwhelm isn’t a character flaw. It’s not proof you’re failing. It’s just a habit your brain has practiced so long it feels normal. Once you start noticing it, you’ve already interrupted the cycle.

Step two: Interrupt it in small ways.
 Give yourself permission to experiment. Five minutes of silence in the car before going inside. Saying no to one extra thing. Leaving one dish in the sink overnight without spiraling about it. It doesn’t have to be huge — it just has to be different.

Step three: Practice new patterns on purpose.
 This is the part that surprised me. I remember venting to my husband once, listing everything I was frustrated about, and he looked at me and said: “Okay, but what do you want me to do?” And I froze. I didn’t know. I was so used to carrying chaos that I had completely lost sight of what I actually wanted.

If that’s you too, start with this: get clear on what you don’t want. But don’t stop there. For every “don’t want,” you need to name the opposite. If you don’t want to stay up late… do you want to go to bed earlier? If you don’t want to keep saying yes… what do you want instead — more rest? More time?

Here’s why this matters: your brain doesn’t hear “don’t.” If I tell you not to think of the color red, guess what pops into your mind first? Red. So when all you focus on is what you don’t want, you keep circling it. Naming what you do want is how you finally shift.

And listen, this isn’t about fixing your whole life overnight. It’s about proving to yourself — one choice at a time — that you can live differently.

Overwhelm isn’t just a season. It’s a pattern. And the longer you let it run the show, the more it convinces you this is just who you are. But hear me on this — it’s not. Patterns can be broken.

You’re not stuck in a life sentence of exhaustion. You’re not destined to always feel behind, guilty, or scattered. What you need aren’t more hacks or another “perfect planner.” You need tools and support to reset the way you live — from the inside out.

That’s exactly what we do inside Empowered Living. Together, we untangle the patterns, reset your defaults, and help you finally live from a place of peace instead of pressure. You don’t have to wait for the “season to pass” anymore. You get to change the story now.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. And hey — don’t miss the next episode, Episode 41. We’re talking about why rest feels harder than work (and how to make it feel safe again). You’re not going to want to miss it.

See you there.