The RISE Experience
It's not always about becoming someone different.
Sometimes it's about realizing you've been disconnected from yourself for longer than you thought.
The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman who can handle a lot. She shows up, gets things done, keeps life moving… and still quietly wonders, Why don't I feel like myself anymore?
Shannon Denniston is the founder of RISE, with a deep background in behavior change and the human side of transformation. Here, she explores what real transformation actually looks like — the patterns underneath what we do, the beliefs and roles we've carried, the relationships that shape us, the systems that support us, and the identity shifts that happen when our old ways of functioning stop carrying us.
A lot of what gets called "starting over" isn't starting over at all. It's learning to notice what's been running in the background, reconnect with your own voice, and move forward without erasing who you've become.
No reinvention. No pretending you need to become a whole new person. Just honest conversations about finding your way back to yourself, with faith as an anchor, and learning how to live from that place.
The RISE Experience
Why Overfunctioning Is Quietly Costing You More Than You Realize
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Carrying more than you were ever meant to hold might look like strength on the outside but what if it’s quietly draining your soul, your energy, and your leadership from the inside out?
Welcome to The RISE Experience, a podcast for women who are rebuilding trust with themselves — in health, leadership, faith, and everyday life. This is a space to slow down when everything feels loud, to lead from steadiness instead of urgency, and to listen again. Here, identity, faith, the body, and quiet inner wisdom matter. A place to pause, reflect, and rise from clarity instead of pressure.
Episode Highlights
In today’s episode, overfunctioning is named for what it really is: doing more than a role requires and calling it strength. The story traces how always stepping in and holding everything together creates quiet dependency, drains energy, and keeps the nervous system on constant alert. Listeners are invited to notice where responsibility has stretched too far, to step back into what is truly theirs to carry, and to let faith redefine leadership as steadiness, shared growth, and aligned responsibility instead of pressure.
Episode Outline
- April recap: control, trust, boundaries, and caring without carrying everything
- Naming overfunctioning: doing more than your role requires and calling it strength
- How overfunctioning quietly trains others to step back and underfunction
- The inner cost: constant mental load, low-level pressure, fatigue, and resentment
- The blurred line between being faithful and trying to be everything
- Shifting into alignment: doing what is yours and leaving space for others
- Creating room for shared responsibility, growth, and steadier leadership
- Reflection and prayer: asking God for clarity on what is and isn’t yours to carry
Episode Chapters
00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience
00:20 April recap: control, trust, boundaries, caring
01:45 What is overfunctioning?
02:27 Why overfunctioning looks like strength
03:23 How others adapt and step back
04:45 The hidden cost: pressure, fatigue, resentment
06:40 When one person overfunctions, others underfunction
07:45 Shifting from doing everything to doing your part
08:35 Creating space for others to grow
09:40 Faith, faithfulness, and overextension
11:48 Reflection questions and gentle realignment
11:58 Closing prayer and final encouragement
Action Taken
Invited listeners to pause, take a breath, and reflect on:
- Where they have been doing more than their role actually requires
- Where they have stepped in so often that others have stopped stepping forward
- What one small shift back into alignment could look and feel like in their real life
Conclusion
Overfunctioning can feel admirable and even spiritual, but it slowly reshapes your world so that everything rests on you. When responsibility is crowded into one pair of hands, growth stalls, for you and for everyone around you. Stepping back into alignment is not abandoning people; it’s trusting that you are called to carry what is yours, and to leave room for others to carry what is theirs. From that place, leadership becomes steadier, lighter, and more faithful to how it was designed to work.
CTA
Share this episode with a friend, teammate, or fellow leader who always seems to “have it all together” but might be carrying more than they were meant to.
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