Roots of the Rise
Short episodes with grounded wisdom for healing, growth, and reconnecting to your true self.
Roots of the Rise is a soul-centered podcast hosted by Sarah Hope—Ayurvedic health practitioner, spiritual mentor, meditation teacher, biodynamic craniosacral therapist, and energy healer. Drawing from thousands of hours of client work, group facilitation, and her own journey through childhood trauma, grief, and the profound rediscovery of love and joy, Sarah offers a grounded, heart-led space for inner transformation.
Short episodes (10–20 minutes) released on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, offer bite-sized insights, ideas, and practices for inner growth and self-development. Whether you're seasoned on the path or just beginning to explore, this podcast gives you digestible nuggets to stay inspired—without overwhelm. It’s perfect for those who want to stay engaged in the work, curious newcomers feeling overloaded by long-form content, or anyone wanting to understand a loved one's journey from a broader, more accessible perspective.
Sarah’s intention is to expose you to a wide range of spiritual concepts, therapeutic tools, philosophies, and practices—all in service of helping you become the healthiest, happiest, most authentic version of yourself. The journey can be hard. It can feel lonely. But you’re not alone. Come walk this path with her—learning, healing, and rising, one grounded step at a time.
This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Sarah is not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, she hopes it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.
Roots of the Rise
Episode 79 - From Inspired to Exhausted: Why We Shut Down with Overwhelm
The sudden shift from motivation to overwhelm isn't a character flaw but a nervous system response signaling that something needs attention and care.
• Overwhelm commonly appears when we face information overload, perfectionism, emotional exhaustion, or unrealistic expectations
• Research shows that too many choices can create decision paralysis, making it impossible to move forward
• Five steps to move through overwhelm: acknowledge what's happening, reframe and get curious, offer yourself compassion, regulate your nervous system, and return to your priorities
• Break down overwhelming tasks using the hiking trick: "See that tree up ahead? Just get to that one"
• Journal prompts for self-reflection include examining unsustainable expectations and identifying what needs care rather than pressure
• Remember that overwhelm is a signal, not a reason for shame—it's simply asking for your attention
If something stirred in you during this episode or you have a question, email me at rootsoftherise@gmail.com. Please hit follow or subscribe, share with a friend, or leave a review—it truly means so much to me.
Related episodes:
Episode 76 - The Growth Mindset Reset: How to Redefine Success and Embrace Failure
Episode 75 - Stop Skipping the Wins: Why Looking Back Helps You Move Forward
Episode 30 - Are you prioritizing your priorities?
Welcome back to Roots of the Rise with me, sarah, hope. Have you ever gone from feeling fired up and motivated to suddenly wanting to lie on the couch and scroll your phone for hours? That swing from energized to exhausted is so common and yet so many of us feel shame when it happens. In today's episode, we're unpacking why that shift happens, what it's actually trying to tell you and, most importantly, what you can do to move through overwhelm with more compassion, clarity and intention. This one is for anyone who's ever thought why can't I just get it together? Spoiler alert it's not about willpower, let's dive in.
Speaker 1:Last night I went to bed feeling so good, so motivated. I'd actually gotten through everything on my to-do list. I'd prepped my to-do list for this morning. I was feeling solid, like I was moving in the right direction. Part of that direction is shifting into school schedule mode, since it starts next week. So this morning my alarm went off at 5am. I really did not want to get up. I was so comfortable. But then I asked myself okay, what kind of life do you want to have, sarah? Do you want to keep sleeping in and wishing you had more time in the day, always feeling like the most important things on your list get pushed aside, or do you want to get your butt out of bed and just do the damn thing? So I got up and I had over two hours to myself while my son slept, and you know what happened I accomplished almost nothing.
Speaker 1:I'm in the process of revamping pretty much everything on the back end of my work my website, my newsletter platform. I'm getting ready to launch membership options for this podcast, which I'm really excited about. I've got two retreats. I'm planning a course I'm teaching, starting in September, some upcoming library workshops. There's a lot on my plate, which is not unusual, but at the moment I'm teaching, starting in September, some upcoming library workshops. There's a lot on my plate, which is not unusual, but at the moment I'm really feeling the enormity of my to-do list.
Speaker 1:So I sat down at my desk at 5.30, I opened my email, I started tinkering with the new newsletter system and immediately went down a rabbit hole of tech tangents and trying to figure out how to do X, y and Z. Before I knew it, I was completely overwhelmed and had not finished a single project. Eventually I stopped. I looked at my to-do list for the day, realized how little I'd actually gotten done, got incredibly frustrated, turned off the computer and walked away. I sat down in my comfy chair and I just asked myself what's going on? So much time, so little done, and now now I am totally overwhelmed. Like where do I even start? One of the things on that to-do list was prepping the next podcast episode. So I thought was prepping the next podcast episode.
Speaker 1:So I thought, okay, let's talk about this. Let's talk about that feeling of getting so overwhelmed that you accomplish nothing, you can't focus, you can't even figure out where to begin. First of all, let's normalize this experience. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever had conversations with friends where someone says, oh, I was so motivated, I was so ready to go, and then I just ended up binge watching the latest season of the Great British Baking Show? Yeah, it's common. It's also deeply human.
Speaker 1:But why does this happen? I'd argue that this is a nervous system response, not a character flaw. It's your body saying too much, even when the actual tasks seem technically doable. Maybe it's the straw that broke the camel's back kind of moment Too many little things adding up over time. That would be me in this case, for sure, this morning. Another reason this might happen is because you're going through something emotionally hard and we forget how draining that is. Emotional processing takes a huge amount of energy. Sometimes it leaves you with nothing left for anything else. Or maybe you carry the lovely trait of perfectionism. You know that internal belief that you have to get everything right the first time and flawlessly Also me, cue childhood trauma. Yada, yada, gotta be perfect or I'm unlovable. Raise your hand if you're with me. Another big one information overload Also me. This morning, I mean honestly, now that I'm naming all of this, I'm feeling a little better about why I got overwhelmed, because, yeah, I'm currently trying to learn five different platforms all at once, but all while pressuring myself to get everything set up perfectly. By September 1st, when registration opens for my January retreat, the course I'm teaching on alignment begins. My fall retreat happens. Yeah, it's a lot, and it has a name actually many names really.
Speaker 1:This information overload, also called decision fatigue or choice overload or decision paralysis. This happens when the number of choices, the number of options, exceeds our brain's capacity to effectively evaluate them. There was actually a study about this by Iyengar and Lepper, sometimes called the JAM study. Shoppers were presented with 24 different types of jam and then, in another scenario, only six People were more likely to make a purchase when there were fewer options. There was another one, I think, with cereal, that found the same thing, though I can't find that one now.
Speaker 1:But regardless, we've all felt this. You know, sitting there trying to pick something on Netflix. 30 minutes later you still haven't picked anything, and suddenly you don't even know if you want to watch anything anymore. Or scrolling through takeout options until you're too hungry to decide, and you just get hangry instead and wind up picking something that doesn't even hit the spot by the time it shows up. I mean too many options. We short circuit.
Speaker 1:Another possible reason for the overwhelm is unrealistic expectations and ironically, this might show up most strongly after a moment of clarity or motivation. Think about it. You have a vision, you feel inspired and you suddenly go all in. You're full throttle, but most things require time, so your energy and excitement are flying at like 80 miles per hour, and then you hit the real world slow lane. You hit traffic it's like running full speed to catch the subway and when you finally make it to the platform, you run into a wall of people waiting to board. And now you're stuck shuffling forward.
Speaker 1:Sometimes our motivation has us vibrating at a frequency that is way faster than the pace of real progress, and when we're forced to slow down it can feel disorienting and disappointing. And of course, there are external factors too. I mean, maybe you're super excited about something, but then a friend or a partner criticizes the idea and it just totally sucks the wind out of your sails. Maybe you're pumped to start working out again, but then you realize the gym is really expensive and it's not in the budget. You're going to have to work out at home, which does not super excite you. I mean, there are so many reasons why we can shift from feeling motivated to suddenly shutting down. Can you think of others? Do any others come to mind for you? What's your pattern? Now onto the important part what to do about it. So I'm going to give you what I do in five steps. So step one, you know.
Speaker 1:Start by simply acknowledging what's happening. Bring it into your body. This is so important. It grounds the experience and helps you connect the emotional overwhelm to the physical stress response it's triggering. Whether we recognize it or not, stress always creates a physiological response. Naming it helps loosen its grip. So for me this morning, I literally stopped and said to myself okay, I am feeling really overwhelmed. My shoulders are up to my ears. I have got this tightness in my gut. I can feel tears in my eyes, whoa, like yeah, I am really overwhelmed. So just naming it like that it really does help.
Speaker 1:Step two reframe and get curious. Instead of getting annoyed or down on yourself, try to see overwhelm as a signal, not a flaw. It's your system saying hey, something is out of alignment. Maybe you're expecting too much of yourself, maybe you haven't set yourself up for success. Either way, this isn't about you being broken and failing. It's about the system around you needing some work. James Clare talks about this in Atomic Habits. When a habit fails, it's not because you're a failure. It's usually because the system supporting that habit has a flaw. Same here If you're shutting down, there's a reason. So now that you've reframed the experience, you've got to get curious about it. You've got to ask yourself why am I feeling this way? What's too much for me right now? This step is not about fixing anything. It's just about noticing. Look gently at what's going on beneath the surface. You might identify a few of the patterns we talked about earlier Emotional exhaustion, perfectionism, you know unrealistic expectations For me.
Speaker 1:This morning I had too many irons in the fire Five projects all at once, all feeling equally important, and I wanted to get every one of them right. Of course, I shut down Step three offer yourself some understanding, some compassion. You hear this all the time, like to talk to yourself as you would a friend, and I know for me it felt really weird when I first tried it. I mean, I did not grow up with pep talks. I got criticism and do better. Not, you've got this, keep going. So it felt very weird at first, but now it's kind of one of my favorite tools.
Speaker 1:You know, this is also a great time to check in. Are you focusing on results or effort? We talked about this in the growth mindset episode which, yeah, I'll link in the show notes, but it's worth repeating. When you only focus on results, you're setting yourself up for frustration and feeling like a failure. But when you focus on growth, on the effort you're putting in, you take a lot of pressure off yourself to be perfect. So one easy trick here is if you're telling yourself I'm not doing this well, add the word yet I'm not doing this well yet. It seems small, but it makes a big difference the way we talk to ourselves in these moments it really matters. So here's what my little pep talk to myself sounded like this morning.
Speaker 1:Okay, sarah, of course you're overwhelmed. This is a lot. You care deeply about what you're doing. That's a good thing. You're moving forward in the direction of your dreams that's a good thing. You're supported by your husband, your friends, your clients that's a good thing. But you're also doing this alone. Of course it's overwhelming. You don't know what you're doing with any of this technological stuff yet, but you've got this. You can do this. Just take a breath and then literally take that breath.
Speaker 1:That's step four. Do whatever helps you regulate your nervous system. That might mean deep breathing or a walk outside. For me it's meditation. My mentor always says a better mood is just one meditation away, and I found that to be so true. It quiets all the noise, the itty bitty, shitty committee in my head and brings me back to my true self. So that's what I did this morning I meditated to help myself regulate. And then, finally, step five return to your priorities.
Speaker 1:I pulled out my priorities list. If you haven't heard that episode, I'll link it in the show notes. I looked at what really matters to me. And I started at the top, not with work, not with what is stressing me out in the moment, but I started at the top of my priorities list because we don't want to skip past the things we're already doing right, Episode 75, if you're following along and we also always want to make sure that we are prioritizing our priorities. So I asked myself okay, priority number one my husband. Things good with him, yeah, we are solid. Number two my kid. Yep, I am honestly rocking. Being a mom this week, for once, feels good, all right. Family. Number three family Solid. There too, we just saw a ton of family feeling very connected. That's good, okay. Number four work. Yeah, that is where I'm up a creek, so great. That's where I'll focus, since the things that I put before work are all okay and since work is the thing that feels overwhelming right now, and it's overwhelming because I have all these different projects going on.
Speaker 1:I used an old hiking trick. If you've ever gone on a long hike and you're not particularly a hiker you've probably hit that moment of I don't want to do this anymore. That happened with my kid this summer. We finally did the hike that my dad always used to take me on. It is so beautiful. It's one of my favorites. It was bittersweet to do it without my dad, but it felt great to do it and it was the longest hike my son's ever done. And as we started he hit that wall. So I pulled out the same trick my dad used with me See that tree up ahead. Just get to that one. Then we'll go from there. Just break it into steps.
Speaker 1:So, with my work, I asked okay, what is the one thing that if I finished it today I'd feel really accomplished? My answer the podcast. If I get this episode done, it clears space for the rest of the week. It releases a ton of time pressure Added bonus. I actually feel like I know what I'm doing with the podcast.
Speaker 1:So in this moment that I'm feeling overwhelmed with all these new things that I'm trying to learn, not the worst idea to go back to something that I feel like I actually have a good handle on. So I put the rest of my to-do list away I mean literally put it out of sight after checking it one last time for anything urgent. And then I started working on this episode. A few times I thought of something else I needed to do. I got distracted, but instead of getting up or shifting to that task, I just wrote it down and came back to what mattered. This is what matters right now, and here I am about to wrap things up and I feel great because this was the actual work priority, and once I upload this and get it ready for you on time, I'm going to feel good about moving on to the next thing and to decide what that is, I'll probably close my eyes, maybe meditate again, do a little heart centering and see what comes.
Speaker 1:So if you are in a moment of overwhelm, or the next time one creeps in, just pause, just stop, name it, reframe it and get curious. Give yourself some compassion, regulate your nervous system and use your priorities to help you choose your next step. Remember, overwhelm does not mean you're off path. It just means something is asking for your attention, not your punishment. If you want to investigate this for yourself a little further, here are some journal prompts that might help.
Speaker 1:Where in my life am I trying to go faster than is sustainable? What expectations am I holding that might not be realistic right now? What am I afraid might happen if I slow down or get things wrong? What part of me needs more care, not more pressure. What's one small thing I can complete today to move gently forward? And finally, just remember overwhelm doesn't have to send you off track for weeks, days or even hours on end. It is simply a signal that you are overloaded in some way, holding too much without enough care, and that should be honored, not shamed. That can be moved through. It's not something that has to keep you stuck. You've got this. Keep going. That's it for today.
Speaker 1:If something stirred in you during this episode or you have a question, I would love to hear from you. Just email me at rootsoftherise at gmailcom, and if you found today's episode helpful or thought provoking, please hit, follow or subscribe, share it with a friend or leave a review. It truly means so much to me. When you do, until next time, remember, know who you are, love who you've been and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.
