#8 The Low Point

In this week's episode of The Brighter Podcast, Chelsea and Batsheva dive deep into the real challenges of life—those low points that hit unexpectedly and shake you to your core. From navigating personal struggles like health scares, hormonal shifts, and overwhelming responsibilities, to learning how to lean on each other through it all, this episode is a raw and honest conversation you won’t want to miss.

🌱 Tune in as we discuss:

• The unexpected triggers of emotional lows
• The power of support systems when life gets tough
• A personal journey through trauma, healing, and growth
• The complexities of caregiving and how it impacts our mental health

This episode is for anyone who's ever felt overwhelmed or like life has knocked them down. You’re not alone. 💛

Listen now and remember, it's okay to have those low moments—it's all part of the journey to brighter days.

#TheBrighterPodcast #MentalHealthMatters #OvercomingLowPoints #SupportAndHealing #RealTalk #LifeJourney #PersonalGrowth #YouAreNotAlone

Transcript

Chelsea: 0:00

Hello, and welcome back to the brighter podcast. My name is Chelsea.

BatSheva: 0:04

And my name is Batsheva.

Chelsea: 0:06

My life is extremely brighter. Thanks to Batsheva.

BatSheva: 0:10

My life is super duper brighter, thanks to Chelsea.

Chelsea: 0:14

We love this podcast because we'd like to share everything that's going on in our lives, from the challenges to the amazing, incredible joys and all that is in between. And if you've been tuning in, you've probably learned some of our tools and favorite techniques and gotten to get a glimpse into our lives a little bit deeper. And today we're going to really get deeper as we talk about a really sensitive subject. But before we do that, we like to kind of ground in and arrive at the space together. So we're going to take a few deep breaths and just become fully present. So taking a nice deep inhale in through the nose. And exhaling out the mouth. Another deep inhale in, filling the belly, the ribs, and the chest. And exhaling out. One more deepest breath in, breathing in calming energy. And exhaling, letting anything that's ready to go, go. Ah, welcome, welcome. Last episode, we touched base on our recent experience fasting, whether it was a three day fast, a seven day fast, or that in between that we got to experience with our beautiful little group. And today we're going to touch base on kind of some things that have occurred , . We like to call it the low point.

BatSheva: 1:36

The beloved low point, which is not beloved when you're going through it whatsoever, only in retrospect.

Chelsea: 1:42

indeed. And, so kind of the first thing that we thought maybe we would discuss is, do you feel that there is a trigger or looking back maybe on the moment, the turning point of when did everything seem to get a little darker, seem a little tougher or not be as flowy as it was?

BatSheva: 2:05

And Chelsea is asking this specifically to me, I think, because the germ of this episode was birthed after I myself passed through pretty fucking low point recently, in fact. And I do believe, and I'm pretty sure that on the other side of that three day water fast that we spoke about in our last episode, I likely was influenced by a various hormonal fluctuations that for sure it contributed to and that likely, there's no way to know for sure, but it likely played a part in what I then experienced. So again, I still, as I said in the last episode, do not regret doing that fast.. I believe in this technique for the body mind and soul the technique of fasting we were introduced to, but also believe helped set me up to be more fragile and therefore, I experienced what I mentioned in the past episode, the, what is it called a conflagration when everything happens at once and set on fire, literally our city was set on fire, Los Angeles and my son's dislocated and broken ankle major surgery that happened the very same day of the fires. And then subsequently, because I have, 100 percent custody of my four children. Two of them are older, 18 and 20, but they live at home. So I'm still their mama. I still take care of them. Now he's my oldest. He's the most independent. He does his own thing all the time. he buys his own food. He makes his own food. He works full time. He studies. He's in college part time right now. So he was my biggest helper actually at home. And again, I'm not married. I don't have an adult roommate. So it's me and the children. But I had this 20 year old son who really stepped up and did the dishes every night for me. Anything I asked, you know, take out the trash, help me with this, move that. He was very good natured about helping too, which parents will know is rare. So all this flipped when he had the surgery and was told he could not put any weight on that foot. For three months, by the way, we're still in it, but in the beginning, after the fast within the context of the fires burning and fear all around me, literally, and fear within the household wondering, you know, how far the fire is going to spread, how is it going to impact our lives, our air, etc. But even more intimately, I had this experience with my only adult helper in the house. All of a sudden become the child again and not just the child, but somebody had to stop everything and wait on hand and foot, which anyone who has lived with a partner or a child who's needed that kind of care or an elderly parent or grandparent, you know, you know exactly , what I'm talking about. It becomes by default, your number one priority because it's their own life and their well-being and you are responsible because you are the parent or you're the partner or you're the child. It's like a visceral biological, chemical connection to that person that overrides any logic, at least in my case, and what I wound up going through was this super dizzying Low point. Now, I was very lucky because I have all these support systems in place, including Chelsea and we were still doing our daily check ins and daily Ws and as I was going through what I describe to Chelsea later what I realized retrospect a little bit was PTSD triggering this low point that I'd experienced as a new, mother back in the day when I had a newborn and I felt completely overwhelmed and I felt like it's all on me and I was my fault. I had the child. I made the decision. Now it's all on me and I have to keep them alive and I have to wake up at all hours of the day and I have to subjugate and sacrifice everything and anything that I've ever dreamed of for myself in order to serve this human being. I fucking had PTSD like about that when I was caring for my son the first few days I have since regulated and normalized blessedly, but again, going back to that low point. When I was really in it, I knew I was in it. I felt horrible. I felt angry. I felt resentful. I felt like there was no point in dreaming anymore and having any hopes and having any goals for myself. And I found myself angry at Chelsea. I found myself resentful at her towards her. And I was speaking my truth to her because we are Good enough friends that we're very real with each other and I was telling her I don't want to hear anything you have to say about anything. I don't want to hear comments. I don't want to hear feedback I was basically like saying, you know, just just love me. Just love me. But it's Chelsea can tell you guys how she felt with me all of a sudden after working with her like a year and a half, you know, in bliss and like birdies and butterflies, like all of a sudden to hear this beloved friend. say things like that. to her and with no consciousness. I wasn't when the thing about the fucking real low point when you're in it. Some people say, Oh, you know, when you're in it, you know, it's the dark before the dawn and you know that you have to go through it and you have to allow yourself to go through and enter the cave willingly. Well, I'm here to tell you, because I just experienced it and I was reminded there are times when we go through a low point, you might be in one now, or maybe you remember it yourself, or maybe you have a loved one who's could be in it, where no matter what your consciousness was just a week prior, it could have plummeted to the point where at the moment you have no recollection and no higher consciousness available to you at that moment, I did not. So I didn't even see how I was. Basically, twisting things and receiving words that Chelsea was giving me a way that felt And it did remind me of when I was younger and I used to have PMS that would affect the way I thought. And I would receive things totally different in those times each month. I would pick fights. with my loved ones. and then later I'd be like, Oh shit. But like, what can you do if it's hormonal, if it's this, if it's that I was in the low point.

Chelsea: 8:37

It definitely was a low point and one that we had not experienced yet. Which was a whole nother learning curve, , I will say that during thank goddess that during the time that was going through her low point, I was not, I was kind of almost in the opposite. And then shortly after. There definitely came a low point. Now, I'm not going to compare this to my lowest of lows because it definitely has not been there. I've, I've can recall those points very vividly and they were a It was almost like bed bound of just such despair and depression and hopelessness and just thinking there's no way I'm going to survive this. I don't, I can't even do anything right now and not wanting to live or not wanting to get out of bed or not wanting, not wanting to help myself. And it definitely has not been that for me this time around, but I will say that in this lower side of it, which To me, there wasn't one specific point, not one specific time is kind of feels like a culmination. And as she's asked about, she was talking about hormonal. It's the week before my moon cycle that things shift in the. Hormones in the mental game, and the emotional Game, very sensitive, All the feelings, just feeling all the feelings fully and feeling like they're all. Chelsea: supercharged. And as I have become more in tune with my body and my cycle and what's going on, it has been easier to say, okay. Here it's coming, you know, thanks to some, even some apps that remind you, Oh, your period's on its way. Be kind to yourself. You know, that pops in like three or four days before also very helpful. And then there's other things, you know, coming off the fast, feeling like super, super high, and then maybe allowing something to come in, like eating something like, Oh, I told myself after the fast, I wasn't going to do this. and then it happened And so then feeling a certain way or not, you know, being completely strict or whatever it was. It was kind of for me, this last time was kind of like just a little bundle of things. But thinking back to my lowest points, I will say that I feel like that those were pretty much relational, like relationship triggered for me. it was losing,my partner, it was having that sort of security and intimacy and definitely codependency for a long time for me was a huge thing. And so whenever those relationships ended, that felt like, whoa, my life is over. And up until the last time I hadn't really reached out for support through like a therapist. It had always been something that I really wanted to do, but I'd never really made the time for it. I didn't know how to find a therapist. I didn't even know what I was looking for. Like, you know, do you pick this out and where are these people? So that was something that I'm so grateful to have. The last time it happened, it gave me that opportunity. And, you know, to say the straw that broke the camel's back, like that was it. It was like, there's no other option. Like you have to go. And it literally changed my entire life. I think that something that Batsheva and I have talked about is that the low point allows you to. Like you're at the bottom, and so the only way is up from there. And that's exactly what that low point gifted me. Was, here you are, rock bottom, now, let's, let's get out of here. Let's figure out, what good can come from this. And, essentially, it changed my life, and I will forever be grateful for that moment and that heartbreak and that destruction because with that destruction came this new foundation, this new building of a whole new life for me.

BatSheva: 13:12

That totally reminds me of one of the low points. I mean, I have many throughout my life. One of mine also sent me into therapy. I wrote a blog about that actually exactly like very similar, very parallel to that low point. Then leading to one of the biggest blessings in my entire life is finding the angel who was my therapist for many years, my twenties. but. I mean, I talk about it openly more recently, a couple of years ago when my marriage ended my marriage of 20 years, and I went through a really low point and it wasn't like just one point, but it was just a very, very tough year in many, many ways, and I did have a lot of tools, almost like what you were saying this time around. In a microcosm, what you experienced after the fast, when you had a bit of a crash, but you were also self aware and you kind of understood the context of that crash, you understood your hormones, you understood, the fast and the aftermath, and you had so much awareness and I am so grateful that after my marriage, thanks to the work I had already been doing on myself spiritually, mentally, emotionally, creatively, I had certain level of resilience that allowed me to, to yes, also be able to have a certain degree of comfort and awareness, even as I went through a fucking very bad and long prolonged low point for like a point was like a year, but I remember so clearly when I felt like it passed. It was in the spring before you and I met the spring of 2023, I guess, it was right after the holiday of Passover. And there, I really felt like I hit like a. Very big depression low point and then it all lifted and I was like, wow, and I just felt and I just knew in my bones I had turned the corner and that moment, all the way through the summer where when you and I met at the retreat that we talk about in episode one, in case you guys missed that.. And then all the way into the fall of 2023, when I developed the W Method and the coaching program , that I'm, I launched and now I'm using with clients, it was all thanks to me having recovered because then I could look back and say, wow, okay, I use this tool, that too, this, this tool, and that tool, and these were all the reasons that and as you said that I didn't just recovered but I uplevelled. I was much happier, I was much more creative, I was more authentic, I was stronger, more empowered, more confident. I use the term confidence coach for my coaching technique because comes from self love and it comes from self awareness and it comes from self compassion, not from as you sent that text the other day. I loved it. Not from succeeding or reaching a goal. That's not what true confidence comes from. I loved that. Chelsea sent me this little quote from somebody she follows. I wish I could. What was his name? We can plug him.

Chelsea: 16:08

Rob Dial with the mindset mentor is one of the first mindset podcasts and coaches that I got into actually. And he has tons of great techniques listed on his podcast. He talks about all sorts of tools that he likes to use. And it's really inspiring.

BatSheva: 16:26

I think we list him on our website if you guys want, some other wonderful podcasts, we list at least around six that we love and I'm sure he's one of them

Chelsea: 16:35

Yes. Yes. Chelsea: Yeah, so it just kind of reminded me touching base, you know, not only I'm finding a therapist, but just finding someone that connection because , Healing happens in the presence of an empathetic witness. And so just being there, just having someone to share with, to confide in, to receive that love from, and as Batsheva said, during her time, she wasn't wanting advice. She wasn't wanting a different perspective. She wasn't wanting any of those things. And she was just completely open and honest. And I think that that's really important. Whenever you go into. When, whenever you're in this dark low point that you're just, whoever it is that you're choosing to share this with, to be completely vulnerable with that, you offer that up in the beginning. And it's something that my therapist and I have talked about or in couples therapy that, you know, before you go into something, if there's something that you need from it, like, Listen, I need to tell you something. I need someone to share this with, and I don't want anything back. I just want you to listen, or I just want you to. Agree with me or just, you know, just tell me that you love me. So I think that that's like a really important piece. And luckily, we're so close that we're able to communicate that. I feel like this time it didn't get communicated in the very beginning. so it definitely led to us having a deep, intimate conversation about our exchanges. But ultimately. It allowed like coming out and being that vulnerable, that honest of this is what I need right now allowed that conversation to happen. And both people, I feel like to be heard and witnessed and be there for each other in the right way for each other at the right time.

BatSheva: 18:30

And I definitely credit the conversation that Chelsea and I ultimately had when we finally spoke on the phone. You know, we don't live in the same city and so we usually just leave messages for each other and reply in the audio text. And other than a few times a week, we don't always have these live conversations. So that long, wonderful, intimate conversation that we finally had where we did just put it all on the table. And there was so much love, even as I was experiencing a lot of pain and Chelsea was experiencing pain too, because I'd caused pain in the way I had like spoken and phrased things to her. and I had triggered Chelsea, great feelings and she was trying not to put those on me probably to make me feel worse but we really able to Get it out and I for sure credit that above everything else with helping me to get out of the low point I will also add that During those couple of days where I hit that low point I did know enough to reach out to both of my sisters ask them if they could come visit and help me It wasn't practical for them to actually do it in the moment. But honestly, just the act of me calling them and them saying, I wish I could, I'd like to, I love you. was like a little gift and a little piece of my recovery. I just happened to get a couple of texts during those couple of days from different friends. And just hearing them you know check in to seeing their text and seeing that they're checking in with me was a piece of the recovery which leads me to remind myself and all of you who are listening if you think of somebody if someone pops into your head, dont hesitate just shoot them a text or call them and check it with them because sometimes that tiny, . tiniest little communication can be a very important foundational piece of that person getting out of, we have no idea what people are going through. And a lot of times we never hear about it until they're through it. so, that text or that little call or that little visit can Move mountains for that person if they came into your mind, there's a reason for it is what I'm saying. And then on the flip side, if you yourself low point, this as Chelsea said, I was so glad that you shared that about like, the times when you were actually just almost in your bed and could barely get up and you know, do I need to keep living? That's real. And it's not something we need to be afraid of or want to hide from people But in that moment, that's pretty much all we generally want to do. So if we can just force ourself to make one call to a safe person or one email to and it could be a potential coach or therapist, It could be to just a sibling or family member or a distant cousin or a friend, anyone that you have the inner intuition that that person is safe And you can tell them, as Chelsea said, I need you to just listen for a minute. I don't want advice. Please don't give advice. But can I just share with you what's going on with me? I know it's almost impossible, but it's not impossible. And that action can light a match that can light up a dark room. And once the darkness is gone, it's gone. You don't have to analyze it. It's just gone. And we're always happy about that.

Chelsea: 21:50

Yeah, I think also another important resource is if you don't have someone because I know that, you know, for some really close friends or family that are going through transitions in their life, sometimes they feel like they I don't have one friend. I don't have one person that I can come to with this. Like there are helplines, there are crisis hotlines. There are so many resources and people want to hear you. They want to help you. It is like their gift to be able to give back and they, you know, Whenever you're in that space and you want to give and you want to help, it requires somebody asking for it and someone saying yes to help in order for you to actually be able to give that gift. So it's really a blessing. Whenever someone is vulnerable enough to reach out and say, Hey, I need some help. Hey, I'm here. Like, can I just share this with you or whatever that is? So

BatSheva: 22:49

Thank you so much for adding that. I think that is incredibly important to say and to remind everyone about. and with that, we can wrap up the low point episode, but we're going to end with our beautiful daily W's.

Chelsea: 23:07

yes, I believe it's my turn to say my win and wow. And then you'll finish off with a wish. My win, for today so far is that I had a beautiful morning. Yeah. Routine and got to enjoy some cacao and have a lovely breath work session. So I'm really happy to be able to gift that to myself and a gentle Qigong and yoga experience. And my wow is that I am so grateful for the opportunity to come on this podcast, to have this sort of creative outlet, to share these stories and experiences with the world. And to have the potential to be able to help someone or for someone to be able to relate or for someone to feel inspired to share their story, to share their experience and to help others in the same way.

BatSheva: 24:12

Along those lines, my wish definitely is that this, Endeavor can help in a very real and tangible way, uplift at least one, and ideally as many as possible, people that it can gift them and pay what we receive forward and make a difference to help another person feel better. That is my wish.

Chelsea: 24:40

Love it. Love it. Love it. So just remember, if you are in your low point, it is always darkest before the dawn. What can you take away from it? What is being deconstructed in order for you to build the beautiful reconstruction that is that which you truly desire, that is that which is meant for you and your soul's journey. And until next time, may your day be brighter and brighter.

BatSheva: 25:07

We love you. Bye.