
The Intentional Midlife Mom Podcast | Simple, Practical Life, Home & Mindset Solutions for Moms Over 40
Welcome to The Intentional Mom™ Podcast, where we provide simple, practical solutions for women over 40 and over 50 who are feeling lost in their lives as their kids are getting older & leaving the nest. Hosted by Certified Intentional Living Coach, Jennifer Roskamp, this empowering show is brought to you by Accomplished Lifestyle, dedicated to helping women and moms over 40 and 50 craft the life they truly desire within their homes & families.
Our mission is to help you find your purpose, your confidence, and yourself as a person since your kids are more independent & maybe even off on their own.
Each week, join us as we candidly discuss common pitfalls, challenges, and stumbling blocks that often leave us feeling overwhelmed, confused, and lost about what our purpose is when our kids aren't needing us like they did before. With Jennifer’s guidance, we’ll explore how to uncover & rediscover who YOU are and what YOU actually want. You’ll discover that you’re not alone in the emotions, challenges, and trials of everyday life. Instead, you’ll feel seen, understood, and inspired to move forward just one step at a time, stepping into the you you've always wanted to be!
The Intentional Midlife Mom Podcast | Simple, Practical Life, Home & Mindset Solutions for Moms Over 40
Ep. 168: The Invisible Load You're Not Imagining: Why Your Nervous System Is Fried—and How to Get Back in Control
You’ve seen the phrase: “Women are carrying entire households on their nervous systems.”
You know what? It’s not an exaggeration.
Because while you're pouring cereal, responding to a work email, breaking up a kid fight, and thinking about your aging parents—all at once—your body’s screaming “this is too much.”
This episode is not about productivity. It's about capacity. It’s about helping you name the mental traffic jam you’re managing, and how to start sorting through it—without needing a week off or a personality transplant.
You’ll walk away with:
- Language for the mental chaos you’re quietly enduring
- A simple triage system to stop the swirl and get your mind back
- Permission to stop blaming yourself for feeling maxed out
- Capacity lifelines to restore peace—even if nothing else changes
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: THE SURVIVAL MODE SURVIVAL PLAN
Get some powerful mantras to inspire, encourage, and life you up when you need as little something intentional to focus on.
We have a beautiful pdf download of the 6 Mantras For Intentional Moms you can keep or print. Request them right HERE.
Visit The Intentional Mom
Follow us on Instagram HERE
Visit our YouTube Channel HERE
Rate & Review The Intentional Mom Podcast on Apple . We'd love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. If you listen on Spotify, you can rate & review us there, too.
Well, hey there. I am Jennifer Roskamp. am the host of the Intentional Midlife Mom podcast. And I am so excited that you are here today. So I'm going to jump right in, because this episode is jam-packed. So there's this phenomenon, right, that I think we as women are coming to realize. And we're talking about it. And it's this idea that it feels like we are carrying, really, our entire households on our shoulders. And it's really not an exaggeration.
This client I was talking to last week, she was describing how she feels behind before she even gets out of bed in the morning. Her brain was already running through 17 different things that needed her attention. And by 9 AM, she said, I feel like I've already run a marathon. Does that sound familiar? This episode is not about how to be more productive or how to manage your time. This is an episode all about capacity. It's about helping you name
that mental traffic jam that you're managing, and how to start sorting through it without needing a week off or some sort of personality transplant. You're gonna walk away with language for the mental chaos that you're quietly enduring. You're gonna gain a simple triage system that's really gonna help you stop that swirl and get your mind back. You're also gonna get permission to stop blaming yourself for feeling maxed out, and you're also gonna get some capacity lifelines to restore peace.
even if nothing else changes. Because here's what I've learned. After coaching hundreds of midlife women, you are not imagining this load. It's real. It's measurable. And it's time that we talked about it. So if you're thinking that this episode is jam-packed, you're right. This is likely going to end up being a little bit long. And just know I'm probably going to get a little bit fired up about what we're talking about today, too. Because I feel this down to my core. And
In all honesty, I'm so excited to be having this conversation with you today because this is the exact conversation that we should be having as women. And it's the exact conversation that everyone we live with should hear because we need them to understand us and what's happening to us. Really, they need to understand why we're running on empty, why we're on edge, why we're emotional, why we're struggling and can't even put into words what we're struggling with or how anyone might be able to help us.
In some ways, I think as a culture of women, as a culture of midlife women, we're almost in crisis mode. And that's why this conversation today is so important. You need to listen to this episode. You need to share this episode with every woman you know, because until we start to have this conversation on a larger scale, we're going to continue to think we're the problem. We're going to continue to think that we're without hope, and that this is just what we as women need to tolerate or accept as normal.
This nervous system overload? It's not any of those things.
So I was never really someone who thought of myself as someone who had anxiety. And really, I've always been the capable one. I've been the one who has it together. I've been the problem solver. I've been the rock that everyone has always been able to lean on. And not that long ago, all of that carrying, it nearly crushed me. All of the loops, they were like a chaotic superhighway in my brain.
So let me paint you a picture of what my Tuesday morning looked like a few months ago. I woke up thinking about the appointment that I needed to schedule. While I was brushing my teeth, I remembered that I hadn't called a friend back from yesterday. While I was making coffee, I noticed that the kitchen faucet was dripping again. There's another thing to add to the list. My daughter came downstairs asking about her English project that's due next week, which reminded me I needed to buy a poster board.
My son mentioned that he needed new goggles because his snapped at practice the day before and he forgot to tell me until now. My phone buzzed with a text from a friend asking if I could help her think through some processing that she needed to do. Another text, it was my husband asking what our plans were for the weekend and it was 7 15 in the morning. So a minute ago I talked about the loops in my brain being a super highway. Let me explain what I mean by loops. So a loop is any unfinished thought.
or task or decision or emotional cycle that your brain is trying to hold onto and failing. It's the permission slip you forgot to sign. It's the conversation you need to have with your teenager who's been distant lately. It's the worry about your friend's marriage. It's the guilt over yelling at your kids yesterday when you were overwhelmed. It's the meal planning you keep putting off because it feels like just one more decision that you can't make. The friend who texted you three days ago asking how you're doing and you still haven't responded because
You don't even know where to start. How do I even answer this? Each one of these things, they feel small. They feel manageable, even insignificant. But when you're carrying 47 of them all at once, that's when your nervous system starts screaming. I remember the exact moment I realized what was happening to me. I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to help my daughter with her math for the day. She was explaining a problem, and I was nodding, trying to follow along.
My phone buzzed with what looked like an urgent work email. And as I reached for my phone, just to glance at it, told myself, I was just going to look at it for a second, I told myself. And my son walked in and asked what was for dinner. In that split second, my brain was trying to hold the math equation in front of me, the urgent email that might need an immediate response, the fact that I had absolutely no idea what was for dinner and felt terrible for not planning ahead because I always plan ahead.
There was also the guilt that I should be more prepared. There was the worry that my daughter was struggling in math and I wasn't helping effectively. There was the realization that I hadn't called my mom back from earlier this morning. And there was the mental calculation of how much time I had before swim practice drop-off. I couldn't even complete a thought without being pulled into someone else's need, someone else's drama, someone else's real, genuine need. My daughter looked at me and said, mom, are you even listening? And the honest answer was no, I wasn't, not really because
I wasn't fully present anywhere. And that's when it hit me. You're not just multitasking. You're mentally mind shifting 50 times a day, 150 times a day, 500 times a day without closure, without a chance to pause or without help. And I used to think this was normal, that this was just part of what being a responsible adult looked like, that everyone lived with this constant mental chatter, this
Endless list of things that were undone, unsaid, unresolved. But then I started paying attention and I realized something that really kind of changed everything. Most of the loops that I was carrying weren't actually mine. I was holding space for my teenager's anxiety about college choices. I was managing my husband's dental appointment because he kept forgetting to schedule it. I was worrying about my sister's marriage problems even though she hadn't asked for my help. I was carrying guilt about
not being more available for my adult daughter, even though I talked to her often. Here's what was actually happening in that moment and so many others exactly like it. Somewhere along the way, I had become the emotional and logistical headquarters for everyone in my orbit and my nervous system was paying the price. Here's what I've learned coaching hundreds of women over the past five years. This isn't just a you problem. This is a midlife women problem.
and it's reaching crisis levels. Let me tell you about three clients I have worked with in just the last month. Sarah, she's 47. She's dealing with her father's declining health while trying to support her 19 year old son who moved back home after struggling with college. Her marriage is strained because she and her husband disagree about how much help their son needs versus pushing him out of the nest. She's working full time in a demanding job and she's trying to care for everyone and feeling like she's failing at everything. That's Sarah.
Then there's Michelle, she's 52. She has three teenagers at home, one with anxiety, one with ADHD, and one who's incredibly social and is involved in everything. She's managing therapy appointments, she's managing medication schedules, school accommodations, sports schedules, and social calendars. Her mother was recently diagnosed with the early stages of dementia, and Michelle is trying to coordinate care with her siblings who all live in other states.
She told me, feel like I'm drowning, but everyone keeps handing me more people to save. And then there's Lisa, she's 44. Her husband travels for work. She's essentially a single parent Monday through Thursday every week, managing two kids' schedules, the household, and her part-time business. When her husband comes home on weekends, instead of feeling relieved, she feels resentful because he seems to expect her to have everything under control. And of course, he's tired. He's been traveling and working all week. He just needs some cover.
She's thinking, I'm tired of being the only one who remembers that we're out of milk or that our daughter has a dentist appointment next Tuesday. And furthermore, when is my recovery time coming? Do any of these stories sound familiar? It could be that you're dealing with aging parents who need more support but are resistant to help. Could be adult kids who are launching but still need guidance and sometimes a safety net when things don't work out. Teenagers who are struggling with things like anxiety, depression, identity, social media.
College pressure in a world that feels increasingly unsafe and uncertain. Maybe it's a marriage that needs attention, but often gets whatever energy is left over after everyone else's needs are met, which most times is absolutely nothing. Maybe you're also navigating your own career transition, health concerns, or identity shifts as you move into a different season of life. And here's the cultural reality that nobody wants to acknowledge. Yes, men are stretched too.
Yes, fathers are more involved than in previous generations. But women are still absorbing the vast majority of the emotional weight of keeping everyone okay. We're still the ones who notice when someone seems off. We're still the ones who remember the doctor's appointments and the friend drama and the extended family birthdays. We're still the ones who carry the worry when our child is struggling, even when our partner is equally concerned. Society tells you, you should be able to handle this. Women have always managed families and households.
You have more opportunities and support than in previous generations. But here's the truth that nobody is saying. Previous generations didn't have the complexity that we're dealing with. They didn't have teenagers navigating social media and college applications and unprecedented levels of anxiety themselves. They didn't have aging parents who are living longer but requiring more complex care coordination. They didn't have the constant influx of information, opinions.
an urgency that comes with being connected 24-7. Here's the thing, you're not lazy, you're not weak, and you're not failing, you're over-capacitated, and you're responding appropriately to a broken system that no longer works for women. And so the problem isn't you. The problem is that you're trying to manage a 2025 life with a 1950s support system. You're trying to carry an invisible load that has tripled in size while pretending it hasn't changed at all.
So then what do you do when your brain feels like this highway at rush hour and you can't find the exit ramp? First, let me tell you what doesn't work. Making more lists, trying harder, getting up earlier, downloading another productivity app, berating yourself for not being more organized. You don't need a better routine. I just said you don't need a better routine and I help women set routines, but that's not gonna fix this.
You need a way to organize the highway in your mind. And this is where this loop triage system comes in. I developed this after working with clients who were drowning in this mental overwhelm, but couldn't figure out where to start. So it's a three step process. So let's walk through it. Step one is dump. Set a timer for 20 minutes, get a piece of paper or open a note on your phone, or even just leave yourself a voice memo. I love to do that.
Write down every single loop you're holding, practical, emotional, relational. Don't organize it. Don't prioritize it. Don't solve it. Just get it out of your head and onto paper. I want you to write down everything, the big stuff, like the conversation you need to have with your teenager about their grades, the small stuff, like the light bulb that burned out in the hallway three weeks ago, the emotional stuff, like the guilt you feel about missing your friend's birthday, the relational stuff, like the tension with your mother-in-law.
that nobody talks about, but everyone feels. Write down the practical loops, grocery shopping, scheduling appointments, renewing insurance, organizing the basement, planning meals for the next week. Write down the emotional loops, guilt about yelling at your kids, worry about your marriage, fear about your parents' health, shame about not exercising, anxiety about money. Write down the relational loops, the conversation you need to have with your sister about holiday plans.
The apology you owe your friend, the friend who's been distant and you don't know why, the colleague who keeps making passive aggressive comments. Write down the cognitive output loops, the decision about whether to renovate the kitchen, the research you need to do about your teenager's college options, the budget you need to create, the business idea you've been thinking about for two years. Don't censor yourself. Don't judge what's important or unimportant. Just dump it all.
I did this exercise last month when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and I filled like three pages. Three full pages of things I was mentally carrying. No wonder I felt exhausted by 10 a.m. every day. And when I looked at that list, I realized that I was trying to hold solutions for problems that weren't even mine to solve. I was carrying worry about situations I couldn't control. I was managing details that other capable adults in my life could handle themselves.
The relief that I felt from just getting it all out of my head and onto paper, that was immediate. My brain could finally stop working so hard to remember everything because it was written down. So that's step one, what it looks like to do this full dump. Step two is sort. So now comes the sorting. For each loop on your list, assign it a different type and weight. Let's start with types. There are four main categories.
And I just ran through them real quick, but let me lay them all out for you now. You've got the practical loops. These are things like tasks, appointments, and logistics. These are the concrete things that need to get done. Make the dentist appointment, buy the groceries, file the taxes, fix the leaky faucet. Those are practical loops. Then you've got emotional loops. These are feelings that need processing. Guilt, worry, grief, anger, fear.
These are the internal experiences that you haven't fully worked through. Maybe it's the guilt over yelling at your kids, worry about your parents' health, grief over your changing relationship with your adult children, emotional loops. Then we've got relational loops. These are conversations that are needed, relationship dynamics that need attention, the talk with your kid about their attitude, the discussion with your spouse about finances, the boundary you need to set with your mother, the friend you need to call back.
relational loops. And then finally, there's the cognitive output loops. These are the decisions that you have to make and the problems to solve. Whether to change careers, how to handle your child's struggling grades, what to do about your aging parents' living situation, whether to renovate or move. Now here's the key, and this is where most people get it wrong. Loop weight isn't just about urgency or deadlines. It's a combination of
four factors, loop weight. Here is how you're gonna think about weighing your loops. Number one, emotional load. How much mental or emotional space does this take up? How much do you think about it when you're trying to fall asleep? That will clue you into the amount of emotional load that is associated with each one of these loops. Then you've got the energy cost. How depleted do you feel?
really during or after dealing with this. Some tasks are quick, but emotionally draining. And others take time, but feel energizing. So energy cost, how much are you being drained? Complexity, that's the third thing to consider. How many decisions, steps, or people are involved? How many moving pieces do you need to coordinate with each one of the loops? Some of them are simple and some of them are complex.
The fourth thing to consider in terms of weight is stakes. What happens if you drop it or delay it? What are the real consequences versus the imagined ones? And that's a key there, the real consequences versus the imagined ones. A lot of times we imagine a whole bunch of extra things that aren't actually reality-based. So what are the real consequences versus the imagined ones? So what do we do with this measuring system?
Well, a loop with high urgency but low weight might be sign the school permission slip. It's due tomorrow, but it's quick. It requires no emotion and it has clear steps. A loop with low urgency but high weight might be figure out how to talk to my teenager who's been shutting down emotionally, right? There's no specific deadline, but it's weighing heavily on your heart. It requires a lot of emotional energy and careful thought and the stakes, they feel enormous.
So let me give you the quick descriptions for each of these weight levels. So we've got low weight. This is quick, clear, low emotion. You think, I can do this right now with no emotional residue left over. Then there's medium weight. This requires effort, planning, or a push. There's resistance there. You think, I can do this, but it takes energy or focus that I don't always have.
Then there's high weight. These are emotionally or mentally taxing. You think, I'm avoiding this because it's draining me. It's complex or it's deeply emotional. So you can see how weight, it's not just about how soon something is due. It's about how heavy it feels on your mind and body when you think about doing it or hanging on to it for longer.
While I sorted my own list, I was really shocked to discover that some of my low urgency items were actually high weight and they were taking up enormous amounts of mental energy. And some of them that I thought were urgent items, they were actually low weight and they could be handled quickly if I just focused on them. So step two is to sort. Step three is to move. And really here's where the magic happens.
You're going to pick one loop from each weight category to move forward today. Not solve completely, just move forward. So a low weight loop. This is going to give you a quick win. We want a quick win here. Just do it right now if possible. Get it off your list and out of your head. Then with something that's medium weight, we want to give it structure or support. You want to schedule it, set up a new system, or ask for help.
Don't just leave it floating. Give it some sort of container and structure. And then for something that's high weight, we want to give it either containment or release. And this is crucial because for your heaviest loops, you're not trying to solve them today. You're either containing them by setting boundaries around when and how you'll think about them, or you're consciously choosing to release them, either temporarily or permanently.
So containment might look like, I'm not going to think about my mom's living situation on Sunday afternoons. I'm not going to think about it on Sunday afternoons. That's my downtime. I'm not going to allow myself to think about this stressful loop when I'm trying to relax and get some much needed rest. So that's what containment might look like. I'm putting boundaries around Sunday afternoons. I'm not allowed.
to take on this complexity that riles me up and weighs me down. Release might look like I'm going to stop carrying responsibility for my adult son's career decisions. I can love him, and I can support him without managing his choices. Now know that, especially when it comes to release, it's not going to be a one and done thing, right? It's going to creep back in, and you're going to want to take it back on. And life might want to put it back on you.
but release and re-releasing, that is going to be something that you should do with a lot of what you're carrying right now. Remember this as you go through this exercise, you don't need to close every loop. You just need to give them somewhere to go. You just need to lead them in how you're going to carry them going forward. Most women that I work with,
They feel exhausted, but they don't understand why. They say things like, I didn't even do that much today, but I'm completely drained. Or I got a lot accomplished, but I feel worse than when I started. And here's what's happening. Different types of loops drain different parts of you. And if you don't understand this, you'll keep trying to restore yourself in ways that don't really match what you actually need. So let me break it down. Practical loops, they drain your time, and they
Really, you have a task switching capacity. These practical loops, they feel like pressure, impatience, mental juggling. You know that feeling when you're trying to cook dinner while helping with homework while responding to that work email? Your brain is constantly switching gears, and each switch, it costs you energy. These loops, these practical loops, they feel like rushing. They feel like forgetting things.
And it really gives you that scattered sensation when you walk into a room and you can't remember why you're there. You restore from a practical loop drain with small wins, batching similar tasks together, or asking for help. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just knock out five quick tasks in a row, just to clear out some of that mental space. So that's what practical loops feel like. Emotional loops
They drain your nervous system and they kind of keep you in this low level of anxiety. They feel like guilt, fear. It's the what ifs. It's a tight chest that not in your stomach that never quite goes away. These are the loops that wake you up at 3 a.m. The guilt about losing your temper with your kids, the worry about your marriage, the fear about your teenager's mental health, the shame about not being more organized, more patient, more present. You restore from emotional loop drain with
truth-telling, journaling, coaching, therapy, or quiet. You need space to process feelings, not just solve problems. Sometimes you need to cry. Sometimes you need to rage clean. Sometimes you just need someone to share your struggle without trying to fix it. That's what it looks like in practical terms with emotional loops. Relational loops, they drain your heart and they chip away at yourself.
worth much of the time. They feel like rejection, resentment, emotional depletion, that hollow feeling that you're giving more than you're receiving. These loops often involve other people who aren't cooperating with your timeline or your solutions. The kid who won't talk to you, the spouse who doesn't seem to notice how much you're carrying, the friend who criticizes your choices, the sister who only calls when she needs something.
You restore from emotional or relational loop drain with validation, with boundaries, or with safe connection. You need people who see you, who appreciate you, and who remind you that you're valuable beyond what you do for others. And sometimes you need professional help to navigate complex relationship dynamics. Some of them just can't be managed on our own. So those are those relational loops.
And then we've got the cognitive output loops. These drain your brain and really your creativity. They feel like fog, burnout, decision fatigue, avoidance, that overwhelm that comes from having too many options or too many unknowns. These are the loops that require mental processing power, figuring out the best school option for your child with learning differences, deciding whether to care for your aging parent at home or research assisted living facilities.
determining how to handle your teenager's anxiety. Is it more therapy? Is it medication? School accommodations? All of the above. And you restore from cognitive output loop drain with silence, passive input like music or nature or movement, sometimes just sleeping on it. Your brain needs downtime to process complex information. And so sometimes the best thing you can do is stop trying to figure it out for a while.
This is why a day of cleaning might feel less draining than a 30 minute conversation with a struggling teen. Cleaning is mostly practical loops, clear tasks, you've got visible results. The conversation, it's emotional and relational loops. And this is complex. There's unclear outcomes, there's high stakes. So understanding this changes everything. You get drained in different ways. And when you're drained, you can ask yourself, what kind of drain is this?
And what kind of restoration do I actually need?
Sometimes the fix isn't a plan. Sometimes it's not a strategy or a system. Sometimes what you need is a lifeline. So there was a day last year, it was not an awesome day. I was in my car in the parking lot of Target crying because I couldn't remember what I went there to buy. I'd been running from one thing to another all day and I was so mentally scattered that I couldn't hold on to a simple shopping list.
And I sat there thinking, I used to be capable. I used to be organized. What happened to me? And then I got a text from a friend. She'd sent me a picture of her own car, also in a parking lot, with the caption, crying in my car today. What's happening? And I started laughing through my tears, not because it was funny, but because I wasn't alone. Someone else was having the exact same experience at the exact same moment. And
In that moment, that text was a lifeline. Here's what I've learned. Lifelines are not elaborate self-care routines. They aren't spa days or weekend retreats. They're tiny moments of relief, connection, or grace that remind you that you're human and you're not alone. A lifeline might be a friend who gets it and says, yep, same. A song that you cry to on repeat, not to be productive, not to get over it, just to feel your feelings.
It might be a five minute scroll through Instagram without guilt just because sometimes you need mindless input. Could be sitting in the car just 30 more seconds before walking into the house just to transition. Could be ordering pizza instead of cooking dinner and calling it strategy, not failure. Could be letting your kids watch more TV than you planned on because quiet is more important than screen time limits today. Could be going to bed at 8 p.m. because rest is a radical act.
when you're carrying too much. These aren't elaborate solutions. They're tiny resets that say, I see you. You're allowed to be human. You don't have to be perfect to be valuable. I keep a running list of my capacity lifelines in my phone. And when I'm drowning and I don't have the mental energy to figure out what might help, I just scroll through my list and I pick something. I pick something that can take less than five minutes. Sometimes it's texting one person who makes me laugh.
Sometimes it's stepping outside and taking three deep breaths. Sometimes it's giving myself permission to just do the bare minimum and call it good. Sometimes it's playing one song that somehow makes me feel better. Here are some other lifelines that clients use. Maybe this will give you some ideas. One client says, I keep a playlist of songs that remind me I'm strong. And when I'm overwhelmed, I play it while I fold laundry or clean the kitchen. The music makes the job easier.
Another client said, I have three friends who text in our group chat when we're struggling. Just knowing I'm not the only one having a hard day helps keep me going. Another client said, I give myself permission to go through the McDonald's drive-through for dinner without any guilt. Sometimes easy is exactly what my family needs. Another client said, I sit in my closet for five minutes. I know it sounds weird, but it's quiet and it's dark and nobody looks for me there. It's my reset space. Here's an interesting one.
I watch puppy videos. I know it sounds silly, but they make me smile even on the worst days. The key is finding what works for you and giving yourself permission to use these tools, these lifelines without shame. You're not weak for needing support. You're human for recognizing your limits and working with them.
So we're just about ready to wrap all this up today. And I want to make sure that you walk away with this one truth planted firmly in your heart. If you feel maxed out, it's because you are. And it's not because you're weak. It's not because you can't handle what other people seem to manage just fine, or maybe what you can manage on a different day. If you're feeling maxed out, it's because you are maxed out. The load you're carrying is real and it's heavy.
And it's more than any one person should have to carry alone. If you feel broken, it's because no one has named what you're carrying. You've been told you should be grateful. You've been told other people have it worse. You've been told that it's all going to be okay. But you don't even know what that means.
Of course you're tired. Look at what you're managing. Of course you feel overwhelmed. This is legitimately too much for one person. Those are the things that could feel like music to our ears when someone actually recognizes what's going on. Know that if you're surviving, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It means you're showing up in a world that just has so much for us to carry. Survival mode gets a bad reputation, but you know what? Really? Survival?
It's strength. Getting through hard seasons is an accomplishment. Keeping your family fed and your household running and your relationships mostly intact while dealing with everything on your plate, that's not failure. Survival isn't failure. It's actually heroic. And if you want more than survival, well, you're allowed to want that too. You're allowed to want to feel energized instead of exhausted. You're allowed to want relationships that feel reciprocal instead of one-sided.
You're allowed to want space in your life for your own dreams, for your own interests, for your own needs. You're allowed to want to wake up feeling excited about your day instead of already behind. You're not selfish for wanting more. You're human. And you're not failing because your brain feels like a traffic jam. You're not broken because you can't remember everything or manage everyone's emotions or solve every problem that comes your way. You're human. And you're caring a lot.
a lot more than any one person should carry alone. But here's what I also want you to know. You have more power than you realize. Not power to control everyone and everything. That's not the goal. But the power to choose what you carry and how you carry it. Power to say no without guilt. Power to ask for help without shame. Power to set boundaries without explanation. Power to recognize that your worth or your value, it's not tied to your productivity.
And if you're in survival mode, make sure that you grab my brand new free resource. It's the Survival Mode Survival Plan. We'll link it down in the show notes. It's your rescue plan. It's your lifeline. It's your way forward, all rolled into one. So that's what I had for you today. I hope that you listen to this episode again if you need it. There was a lot here. And please share it with a friend. Leave us a review.
That's how we can get this conversation into the lives of more women who need to hear it. So until we talk again, make it an intentional day.