The Cameo Show

You Can Be Tired and Still Show Up for What Matters

Cameo Elyse Braun Episode 120

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Recording from the back of my car during a hectic day, I meet you where you are and share thoughts on how to stay grounded when life feels like one long marathon. We talk about resisting the urge to numb out, redefining self-care, and choosing what really matters—especially when everything feels urgent.

Let’s dig into:

• The temptation to check out when overwhelmed

• Identifying what truly matters

• Redefining self-care in busy seasons

• Showing up even when you’re tired


For more permission and perspective, my book The Reset Button launches May 20, 2025—available on Amazon in all formats.


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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and if you're watching the video, I am literally coming to you from the back of my car. So if you're in your car, it's from my car to yours, because life is happening really fast right now and it's really busy, and that's what this episode is about. If you are in a stage of life right now that feels like a lot, you're juggling everything and trying to keep it together and stay grounded. It's a busy time of year. This episode is for you, it's for me too, and maybe it isn't for you if you don't feel that way, but it's definitely for someone that you know, because someone you know and love does feel that way.

Speaker 1:

Right now, I am in the middle of a book launch campaign. Many of you know that I'm also a mom of two teenagers. The school year is wrapping up Award ceremonies. Right now I'm at a graduation ceremony. Actually, as I record this, people are traveling. I'm planning vacation, traveling, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

Then there's work and housework and all my relationships, and I'm definitely not complaining. I'm just simply stating that, like you, I have a lot going on and sometimes it feels like gosh, I'm running a marathon and I just finished a marathon, and when I finished this marathon, there's another marathon waiting on me, and it's quite exhausting. And the truth is, with so much going on, I often find myself with the very real temptation of kind of numbing out. I used to use alcohol to do so, and I now find myself wanting to just kind of self abandon and check out and default sometimes into survival mode, where I just want to read a book or watch a movie and just not have to tend to anything and just forget all of my goals, forget all of my responsibilities, but there's power in choosing to stay present and stay committed and stay focused on the things that are important to you. What I think is really important to note, though, is that you really have to understand what's important to you, because we're all being pulled in a million different directions. The only reason I'm sitting in the back of my car recording this at a graduation ceremony that I'm not attending is because it was important to me to bring my son, who can't drive himself, who I didn't want really riding with anyone else to this, to be here to support his friends, to be with his friends, because that was important to him. So it feels silly that I'm sitting in the back of my car waiting on him for hours, but I know many of you can relate to that, because you go sit at practices and you wait for hours on your kids because that's a priority. It's just finding things that you can do that are productive or restorative, while you're doing those things that are a priority to you, because everything can't be a priority, let me repeat that Everything cannot be a priority. So getting really good at understanding what those are and staying true and committed to them and yourself as one of them, is very important in that statement, gives you permission to focus, but also allows you to have trust in yourself that you will continue to push. Continue to push and I don't mean in like a grind, grind, grind, hustle, hard kind of way, but I mean continue to push toward what it is that's really important to you, without checking out Sometimes.

Speaker 1:

For me, self-care is just simply knowing what it feels like to feel grounded. Sometimes I walk to my mailbox through the grass. This sounds ridiculous, but it's so true. I walk to my mailbox through the grass in my yard instead of down the driveway barefoot when the sunlight's shining on me, and I look at my trees and my plants and I listen to the birds, and I take my good old time walking to the mailbox breathing in the fresh air. Good old time walking to the mailbox, breathing in the fresh air, getting my mail that's usually always junk being frustrated that there's never anything exciting in the mailbox, and then walking back up the grass not the driveway, but walking back up to the front door in the grass and just those few minutes to myself helps me ground in a way. Again. That sounds ridiculous, but it isn't. When you do it, it's like a recharging, refreshing moment.

Speaker 1:

For me, self-care and recharging isn't what you see on Instagram. It's literally less glam. It's more about getting connected to yourself. Sometimes it's boundaries, sometimes it's sleep, sometimes it's sleep, sometimes it's movement, sometimes it's saying no. Commit to yourself that you know what your form of self-care looks like and that you're not trying to performative self-care yourself by comparing what you see everyone else doing as quote unquote self-care. I'll leave you with this. You can be tired and still show up. I'm tired, I'm really tired, guys, but I'm committed to the things that are important to me. I'm overwhelmed, but I still move with intention. So make note of one way that you'll show up for yourself today, even if it's messy, even if you's messy, even if you're exhausted, even if you don't want to.

Speaker 1:

I told Greg this morning, my husband, that I just wanted to get in bed, basically in the fetal position, and cry and just do nothing all day, because that's the mood I woke up in, in this emotional state of overwhelm. But I couldn't. I have things that are important to me, that I needed to do, like work, like be there for my family, and so that's not, you know, overworking myself. It's not dismissing my needs, but it's allowing myself to take those moments. I started with yoga this morning. I needed to stretch and breathe before I dove into the other things, and those 15 minutes for myself were important to me and allowed me to move forward in my day with intention.

Speaker 1:

So I give you those examples in real time of me doing this because I want you to remember that it's important to do these things, to continue to show up for yourself but also respect yourself. So think of that one way you'll show up for yourself, even when you're exhausted, overwhelmed, when it's messy, when you don't want to, when you just want to go get in bed because you can do it, you can. You can find harmony between caring for yourself and still staying committed to your priorities and committed to the things that are important to you, even when they feel like marathons. You can Thank you, as always, for being here, even in the middle of your own chaos likely, and joining me in the middle of mine. That's why we're here.

Speaker 1:

That's why this podcast exists. There's new episodes every Wednesday so that we can meet each other where we are feel seen, feel normal, feel supported, feel loved from each other and from ourselves, and I hope you'll join us again. I also hope you'll check out my book. It comes out next week, on May 20th, if you're listening to this podcast in real time, and if you're listening months later, it came out on May 20th, 2025. It's called the Reset Button and it's available on Amazon in all forms, and I do hope you'll check it out, because I know there's a lot of things in there that are meaningful and helpful to each and every one of you, because I'm sharing my stories.

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