Choose Joyy Podcast

Caring Without Carrying

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The world feels heavy right now, and its easy to believe we have to carry it all. But compassion doesn't mean burnout. In this episode of Choose Joyy, we explore how to care deeply while protecting our peace-- with gentle reminders, practical tools, and space to breathe lighter.

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Speaker 1:

you've made it to the choose joy podcast. Here we make a conscious effort to choose joy. Daily we allow ourselves to heal and grow into the path designed for us. Join me to unpack, affirm and choose joy. Hello, and welcome back to choose joy. I am so glad that you're here and I don't know about you, but it just feels like lately the world is just asking us to hold on to so much.

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Every time we open up our phones, turn on the news or even sit in a conversation, there's another heavy story, another crisis, another reminder that life can feel so overwhelming. If you click play on this, I already know that you may be caring a lot, and not even only your own stuff. Sometimes it's the weight of everything that's happening around us, and maybe even things happening far away from us. And if you're anything like me, you probably ask yourself how do I stay compassionate without burning out? How do I show that I care without carrying it all inside me like a backpack that just keeps getting heavier and heavier? And honestly, that's what I want to walk through today how to care deeply, fully and authentically, but without feeling like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, literally. So first let's talk about why this happens. We are living in a time where our hearts are being stretched in ways that no human heart was meant to be stretched. Think about it Even a generation ago, you only knew the things that were happening in your neighborhood, maybe in your city, maybe the occasional big global event. But today, in the very palm of our hands, we can hear about heartbreak happening across the world in real time, 24-7. And what does that cause us to do? It literally floods our nervous system. It makes us feel responsible for things that we have no control over. It convinces us that if we stop paying attention or if we dare to rest, we're being careless or cold. But let me gently remind you today that you are human and humans weren't built to hold the whole planet's pain at one time, the whole planet's pain at one time.

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Caring deeply doesn't mean that you have to carry everything heavily, if that makes sense. I feel like here's where we kind of shift the perspective, because caring is showing up with love, it's empathy, it's generosity, prayer, presence, listening and sometimes taking action in the ways that you can. But carrying is completely different. Carrying means that you're internalizing everybody's pain as your own. Carrying means that you're holding guilt, shame, fear, exhaustion in your body until you're overwhelmed. One leads to connection, the other clearly leads to burnout, and I just feel like we deserve to live in a way that allows us to keep showing up without the constant heaviness pressing down on our chest, in our minds, in our hearts. Here's the affirmation that I've been telling myself I can care without carrying it all. Say that out loud, if you can. I can care without carrying it all.

Speaker 1:

Now I want you to think for a moment about where you feel the heaviest. Is it the endless news cycle or a particular cause that makes it feel personal? Maybe it's the weight of your own family's challenges, plus everything that's happening around you? Wherever that heaviness is, I want you to just picture yourself setting some of it down, just for a moment. Imagine that you're putting it on the ground next to you, literally like a backpack that you don't have to hold in your hands anymore. You're still aware of it, you still care, but you're giving yourself permission not to carry it inside your body.

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Let's get practical, okay. How can we live this thing out? For starters, set compassion boundaries. Boundaries don't mean that you don't care. We've said this before. We're saying it again. They mean that you care enough to stay present, and maybe that looks like deciding when and how often you check the news. Maybe it's saying no to certain conversations when you're already feeling overwhelmed.

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Take the time to actually look at one cause at a time. Just choose one, because often we feel pressure to fight every single battle that comes our way. Often we feel pressure to fight every single battle that comes our way, but if we picked one cost, one community, one area of impact, that you could show up consistently, that force, energy, often does more good than just spreading yourself thin across everything. Right. Another thing limiting doom scrolling. Limiting doom scrolling because, let's be honest, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, flipping, flipping, flipping, going down these rabbit holes it doesn't equal action and most of the time it just deepens your anxiety. Pick a trusted source and check in, and let that just be enough. Check in daily, get your news bit of the day and again. Let that be enough. And also do what we just did Create actual visuals of release.

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And this one is a big one for me, because maybe you journal what's heavy on your heart. That's symbolizing you, putting it down. Say out loud I've acknowledged this and now I release what isn't mine to carry. Pray. Stop what you're doing and pray about it. And maybe it's literally stepping outside, inhaling, exhaling, letting nature remind you that the world is bigger than your worries. God is bigger than what you're worried about and the worries of this world. Know that you were never meant to carry things alone. Talk to a friend, share the burden in conversation instead of holding it in.

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Sometimes, when we speak things out loud, even to ourself, they shrink in size, get it out, feel it and then sit it down. And I just want to be an encouragement that we just need to add small self-compassion practices throughout our week, whether that's taking a mindful walk without your phone, practicing gratitude for what's still good and stable in your life right now, speaking affirmations over yourself when grief kicks in, or, like I said, praying, because the lighter that you keep your spirit, the more space you have to extend care outwardly. Um, joy comes from the inside out, and if you aren't choosing joy or at least trying to find ways that you can lighten your load, you can't make it lighter on anybody else. What are you going to do? Just keep picking up everyone's weight? Then what? Because it's hard to help or to be needful when you feel depleted, when you feel crushed, when you feel crushed, I feel like our community needs. What our loved ones need is us.

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Is you the real, you, the rested, you, the hopeful, you, the one who can still laugh, breathe, create and show up in love? So, yes, keep caring, keep being the compassionate soul that you are, but please stop caring at all Like it's your personal responsibility to fix. Take a deep breath and say it one more time I can care deeply without caring everything. You are not selfish for protecting your peace. You are not careless for choosing balance. In fact, that's what will keep you soft, present and steady in a world that desperately, desperately needs those qualities. So thank you for sitting with me today and if this episode spoke to you, share it with somebody that you love who might need the same reminder. And, as always, remember joy isn't about ignoring the hard things. It's about choosing light even when the world feels heavy and dark. So, until next time, keep caring and keep choosing joy.