Voices from Around the World
Welcome to Voices from Around the World — a soulful space where stories breathe, borders blur, and humanity speaks.
This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a gathering.
A circle of voices—intimate, courageous, and deeply personal—echoing from every corner of the globe.
Through heartfelt interviews and reflective solo episodes, we explore the lived experiences that shape our shared world:
The struggles that stretch us.
The triumphs that lift us.
The quiet moments that remind us we belong.
Each episode invites you into conversation with artists, healers, activists, educators, and everyday visionaries—people whose perspectives are rooted in culture, resilience, and truth.
And sometimes, your host steps into the silence alone, offering gentle reflections on global issues through the lens of compassion, curiosity, and care.
This is a space for listening deeply.
For honoring difference.
For finding connection in complexity.
Because in a world that often divides, Voices from Around the World dares to weave us together—one story at a time.
Voices from Around the World
Embracing Your "Too Much" in a World That Asks You to Shrink
We explore the profound loneliness that comes from feeling different, not from being alone but from being unseen in spaces where we long to belong. Our global journey examines how various cultures police difference in their own ways, while offering a path to reframe our "too much" qualities as unique strengths.
• The feeling of being "too much" - too loud, sensitive, passionate, or different - creates a form of isolation dressed up as self-doubt
• Difference isn't deficiency but "a language the world hasn't learned to speak yet"
• Cross-cultural examples from the Netherlands, Brazil, Turkey, and the US reveal how difference is policed in various ways
• Reframing labels: "too emotional" becomes "deeply attuned," "too intense" becomes "passionately alive," "too different" becomes "uniquely necessary"
• Guided meditation to help listeners acknowledge where they've been asked to shrink and visualize what expansion might look like
• Reminder that your authentic self might be exactly what someone else needs to see
If this episode resonated with you, I invite you to share it with someone who might need the reminder. And remember, your "too much" might be someone else's "just right."
Welcome to Voices Around the World, a podcast that brings together diverse voices and perspectives from different corners of the globe. Each episode features interviews with individuals from various cultures, backgrounds and professions, allowing listeners to gain insights into different worldviews, experiences and ideas. From personal stories to discussions on global issues, this podcast aims to foster understanding, empathy and connection among people from all walks of life. Join us as we explore the rich tapestry of human voices and celebrate the diversities that makes our world so vibrant. I'm your host, obadiah, and today we're diving into something that's been sitting heavy on my heart, and maybe yours too. Have you ever felt like you were just too much, too loud, too sensitive, too passionate, too opinionated, too different? If you have, this episode is for you. Let's talk about the loneliness of being different. There's a kind of isolation that comes from not being alone, but from feeling unseen. You walk into rooms where your energy doesn't quite fit. You speak your truth and people flinch. You care deeply and they call it dramatic. You dream big and they call it unrealistic, and slowly you start to wonder is it me, am I the problem? And before we go any further, I want to say this clearly you are not too much, you are not too sensitive, not too intense, not too curious, too emotional, too quiet or too bold. Whatever to you've been handed by family, by culture, by institutions, I want to hold space for it, because being different often means being misunderstood. And being misunderstood can feel like isolation dressed up as self-doubt. But here's the truth Difference is not deficiency. It's not a flaw to be corrected. It's a language the world hasn't learned to speak yet. I felt it that moment you walk into a room and realize your rhythm doesn't match the one playing, when your story doesn't fit the mold and suddenly you're the one who needs to shrink. I remember being praised for my insight but warned not to go too deep, complimented for my voice, but told, toned down, seen, but only in fragments. And yet the very things that made me feel separate my sensitivity, my compassion, my passion, my intensity, my need to name what others avoided were the things that made me whole.
Speaker 1:Loneliness isn't always about being alone. It is about feeling unseen in places where you most hoped to belong. Let's shift the lens outward, embracing the cultural echoes beyond our own, because the loneliness of being different isn't just personal, it's cultural. In the Netherlands, where directness and emotional restraint are often seen as signs of maturity, vulnerability can feel out of place. A woman I spoke to shared how her emotional openness was met with discomfort, even quiet judgment. Over time she learned to temper her expression to align with the culture that values composure over confession. In Brazil, where expressive culture is celebrated, difference can still be policed. A trans activist described how her visibility was both empowering and dangerous Her body policed and her voice questioned. In Turkey, a poet shared how her writing about grief and gender was labeled too provocative. She wasn't silenced outright, but she was suddenly excluded. Invitations stopped and doors slowly, quietly closed.
Speaker 1:And here in the US we often praise individuality, but only when it's palatable, when it's marketable, when it doesn't ask too many questions. Across cultures, the message is often the same Be different, but not that different. Speak but not too loudly, feel but not too deeply. And so we learn to edit ourselves, to dilute our truth, to perform belonging instead of living it, so let's reframe it. Longing instead of living it, so let's reframe it. Let's take those labels Too emotional, too intense, too different, and translate them into truth.
Speaker 1:Too emotional becomes deeply attuned. You feel what others won't name, you sense what's unsaid. That's not weakness, it's wisdom. Too intense becomes passionately alive. You care, you commit. You burn bright in a world that often dims itself. That's not chaos, it's clarity. Too, different becomes uniquely necessary. You see what others miss. You ask the questions that unsettle, that heal. That's not disruption, it's direction. Your difference is not a detour, it's a doorway, and the loneliness you feel is not proof that you're wrong. It's proof that you're early.
Speaker 1:If you're listening and this resonates, I want to invite you into a gentle reflection. You don't need to journal it, just breathe with it. Ask yourself where have I been asked to shrink, and what would it look like to expand instead? Maybe it's in your family, where silence is safety. Maybe it's in your workplace, where conformity is currency. Maybe it's in your friendships, where you've learned to be the easy one. What would it mean to take up space, not with arrogance, but with truth, to be fully seen, even if it makes others uncomfortable, to honor your difference, even when it's lonely? Now I would like to invite you to join me for a reflective meditation.
Speaker 1:Take a moment to settle, let your shoulders drop, let your breath find its rhythm. You are here and that is enough. Now close your eyes or soften your gaze. Feel the weight of your body supported by the earth beneath you. Now close your eyes or soften your gaze, feel the weight of your body, supported by the earth beneath you. You do not need to perform it, you do not need to explain. You are allowed to simply be.
Speaker 1:Inhale slowly, hold Exhale gently. Now let's begin. Think of a time where you felt different, not in a way that made you proud, but in a way that made you ache. Maybe you were told too quiet, too bold, too much. Let that memory rise, not to relive it, but to witness it. You don't need to fix it, just let it speak. Inhale slowly, hold exhale gently. Now whisper to yourself, if you can. I see you, I believe you. You're not too much.
Speaker 1:Imagine someone across the world A poet in Seoul, a dancer in Nairobi, a healer in India, a teacher in Istanbul, each carrying their own version, different, each learning to breathe through the ache of being misunderstood. You are not alone. Your story is a part of a global chorus, a rhythm that refuses to be silenced. Inhale slowly, hold Exhale gently. Let that truth settle in your chest. Now ask yourself where have I been asked to shrink, and what would it look like to expand instead? Visualize yourself stepping into that space, not with force but with truth, not with apology but with grace. You are not a disruption, you are a doorway. Inhale slowly, hold Inhale slowly, hold Exhale gently. Say it again Softly I am not too much, I am exactly enough.
Speaker 1:Let this moment be a seed, a quiet remembering, a gentle rebellion. You were never meant to fit in a world that fears its own reflection. Your difference is not a wound. It's a wisdom, a rhythm, a revolution. Let it speak, even if it shakes the room. Being different is not a flaw, it's a gift, and, yes, it can be lonely, even if it shakes the room. Being different is not a flaw, it's a gift, and, yes, it can be lonely, but it can also be liberating.
Speaker 1:You are not alone. There are others, across oceans, across languages, across generations, who also carry the same ache. So keep showing up, keep being loud, keep being soft, keep being you, because someone out there is waiting for your kind of magic. I want to thank you for spending this time with me. If this episode resonated with you, I invite you to share it with someone who might need the reminder. And remember your too much might be someone else's. Just right, until then, I'm your host, obadiah, and this is Voices Around the World, jose Obadiah and Dessa's voices around the world. May you walk slowly, breathe deeply and bloom gently wherever you are. Until next time, stay unfiltered, thank you.