Overwhelm is Optional

How to Overcome Overwhelm & Achieve Your Dreams

• Heidi Marke • Season 1 • Episode 219

Share episode

Send us a text

Feeling overwhelmed by your goals? Discover how to transform that overwhelm into clarity and take meaningful steps toward your dreams. In this episode, I share the magic of focusing on heartfelt wishes, believing in the possible, and staying open to serendipity.

Here’s what you’ll learn:
 • How to navigate feelings of overwhelm when chasing big goals
 • Why a physical journal can be your ultimate tool for clarity and focus
 • The surprising power of reflecting on personal moments of serendipity
 • How to create an “impossible wish list” and make it work for you
 • My personal story about finding the perfect car—and what it taught me about belief
 • How your mindset shapes outcomes and attracts unexpected opportunities
 • A reminder that the magic of alignment is available to everyone

If you’re ready to overcome overwhelm and align with your desires, this video is for you!

👉 Subscribe for more stories and strategies to help you gently rebel against overwhelm and turn your dreams into reality.

🎙️ Welcome to Overwhelm is Optional

This podcast was created to help big-hearted, driven professionals break free from overwhelm and experience more clarity, ease, and joy.

But here’s the exciting news… I’ve moved beyond overwhelm.

If you’ve been listening and resonating with this message, you’ll love what comes next.

I’ve created a new podcast: Deep Heartfelt Success—because success should feel as good on the inside as it looks on the outside.

🎙 Join me there → Search "Deep Heartfelt Success" on your favourite podcast platform and subscribe.

💡 Experience Deep Heartfelt Success for Yourself
Book a complimentary Deep Heartfelt Success Session—a no-pressure, transformative conversation designed to help you step into your next level of success with ease.
📅 Book here

📚 The Gently Rebellious One-Minute Journal
A simple, powerful way to stay focused on what matters most.
👉 Buy here

🌍 Website:
Explore practical tools, resources, and ways to work with me.
👉 Visit here www.heidimarke.co.uk

🎧 Free Audio: The One Minute Marke
Start prac...

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Gentle Rebellion where overwhelm is optional. Hello, hello, hello. How are you? Oh, so nice to be with you again.

Speaker 1:

So in this episode I want to talk about something that I've noticed has come up for myself and my clients community, and that's the idea that, having identified our heartfelt wish list, we're now feeling a bit overwhelmed by whether it's possible, and I would, I would argue, actually, if it's not feeling impossible, then maybe, maybe you just didn't get courageous enough, but I don't know. You know, you know what, you know what you've downloaded as your heartfelt wish list for the year. So I received my author copy of the Gently Rebellious One Minute Journal last Friday and I was so excited to get it because I created it as a structure for you and me to support our minds in staying focused on what matters most to us this year. I was so excited about it, but it was really weird because, until I got it, I was honestly struggling a bit with overwhelm. I was like, well, where do I put this? Which is crazy, because obviously I have a version of it, or probably many versions of it on my laptop. But I really wanted the physical book, something about the physical book, and I'm actually really grateful to Amazon the way they've produced it. I have one person contact me and say I can only get it on Amazon. Can I get it directly from you? But the truth is Amazon is actually very kind, or, yeah, actually very helpful and supportive. I feel very kind to us self-published authors so I can upload it. It's not always that easy. I mean, I had to learn some more stuff. That's okay, and I've managed to create both an e-book, which is only available on I've noticed on certain e-readers, probably because you want to be able to write in it, so I wouldn't recommend having a virtual copy. You really want to be writing in this.

Speaker 1:

This is designed to last you the whole year as a structure to support you in staying focused on what matters most to you, so that your dreams don't feel impossible or and or they don't get constantly waylaid. Oh whoops, what was I up to again? You know the drill. Anyway, I got my copy, I excitedly put my heartfelt wish list in and my word of the year, and then I didn't have time because I was going away for the weekend. I couldn't set aside the time to catch up. I felt like I was behind, because what are we? We're halfway through the month. Oh no, I haven't put my monthly priorities in. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. I'd already identified my monthly heartfelt priorities. I just hadn't been able to put them in the journal because I didn't have a copy. And now I've got it in hardback. Oh, my goodness, there's something solid about it. It's just really helpful to me. It's really cheering me up.

Speaker 1:

I love the cover, as many people have said they do. Thank you for letting me know. I'm really, really excited. Please go and check it out on Amazon. Consider getting one. It's for the whole year, whole year of supporting you on staying out of overwhelm and focused on what really matters most to you. So if you didn't come to the workshop, if you're on my, if you're part of my newsletter, you will have got a link today. So I've made the link available to everybody, even those people who didn't say yes to the workshop, and I understand why you might not have done, because some people were traveling, lots of family stuff going on at that time of year. So I've now made I've now made the link available to everyone who's subscribed to my newsletter. If, oh, I can also put it in the show notes just in case you're not subscribed. It's really important to me that you have access to it.

Speaker 1:

It's a very powerful piece of work. I'm very, very proud of it. I've had really good feedback about how powerful it is. It's edited. You do need to set aside over an hour for it, though. It's edited, so click the link either in the newsletter or in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Make that time for yourself. Download your heartfelt priorities. This is a really courageous act. I salute you. I salute you for even considering it, but do it imagine? Imagine if you oh, imagine if you just had that calm, confidence, confident focus for the year of. Yeah, this is what brings me joy, this is what brings me ease, this is what makes me feel safe and secure, this is what makes me feel like I've made it woohoo, all the things you want to feel. And when you've done that, I highly recommend that you get this beautiful structure of this book to support you in staying connected to it. So the big theme for me this year well, this year so far, who knows what other exciting ideas will come to me, but my big theme for this year is identify what matters most to you and stay focused on it. So the way to stay focused on it is to download your heartfelt wish list, which will be messy, then turn it into a more useful format, which is described in depth in the workshop and is also in the journal for you.

Speaker 1:

Then, once you've got it, the essence of that, the feeling of that all being done, all being here, all you having all the good stuff you want, that feeling, that feeling in your body, trying to this is an interesting process trying to encapsulate that, the essence of that feeling, in a word that, when you think of the word, will bring the feelings back in your body. That takes some doing. It does take some doing, but it settles. It really does settle. You just try it on like a new pair of boots. You walk around, you walk around with the feeling of that and then the word will change and it will morph into whatever you want. And then it's just a practice, because in the end it's not about the word, it's about the feeling. And then every morning, for one minute, you just get a glimpse of that feeling and then you let it spread through your heart, feel your heart spread through your body. And that's how you start your day Out of overwhelm, fully connected to the feeling that you're after the thing you're chasing by pushing through that crazy to-do list and then within the journal is structure for monthly and weekly check-ins.

Speaker 1:

It's beautifully designed. I'm really pleased with it. It was a lot of work, goodness me. It's not perfect. I'm now doing the whole. Of course it's not perfect. I'm doing the whole. Oh typo, but you know who cares. It's working for me, but I'm also struggling with it, not the journal, it's the whole. How do I stay fully focused? What's that self-doubt? Why am I suddenly thinking everything's impossible? And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

Speaker 1:

So, for those of you who are also listening to my YouTube channel, I want to separate the podcast from the YouTube because I want to make. Well, the podcast is on YouTube. This doesn't make much sense. I want to give you more value, so I don't want I'm not repeating myself in this. If you want to know all about how to, what to do when your dreams feel impossible, go to the YouTube video for the week, and I've had a lovely, lovely chat with you about that. I'd love to see you over there.

Speaker 1:

In this one, in this podcast, I want to add some more stories to get you really thinking deeply about the fact that you are magical, about the fact that when you choose to step out of overwhelm, everything does fall into place more easily, that the easier way is there, that it's just out of your awareness, which is also mentioned in the YouTube video and the blog this week. But I want to give you more stories and I want to invite you to reconsider, look back at your life and find the stories, the times when you weren't sure what you were going to say and the right words came. The time when you met the right person at the right time and you made a wonderful friend or you, you had this wonderful experience, or you've got this job or something magical happened. I want you to look back and think you, you can do this. You can choose to resist overwhelm and stop pushing through it to get the feeling that you want, and choose to have the feeling now and allow the easier way to present itself. Imagine it's just out of your awareness, but the more that you believe it's there and trust it, the easier it is for it to come into your awareness, which is true, right? Okay, so in America there's a Sasquatch or a Yeti. There's these monsters all over the world that people never see, or some people see, and they're mythical. Well, if you believe that they exist, you're probably more likely to see it. Or the whole reticular activating system of these yellow cars. Everywhere it's a similar thing. So if you believe there's an easier way and you trust it and you notice it, you've got to look for the evidence. The more evidence there is, the more you're going to find it, because that's how our minds work. So here's some of my stories. I'm not going to go through the impossible coat story again, because that's on the video and in the blog and the newsletter.

Speaker 1:

Exciting times I've got one for my car. I love this one. So a couple of months ago, well, well, I knew all last year that my current car had a big MOT bill. Nothing major, just normal stuff. It's just the prices have gone up, haven't they? So tires, brakes, normal stuff, no big deal. It's great car, loved the car. But I just fancied a new car, to be honest, and it had a bill coming up. So it's a good time to think about it. I find it.

Speaker 1:

I was finding it really difficult in previous years to let the car go because it's such a love, it's a good car like. Think about it, I find it. I was finding it really difficult in previous years to let the car go, because it's such a love, it's a good car, like what? And it's a lot of hassle, isn't it? And then I? So I started to say, okay, I want this car. So it's the first thing of missing. Yeah, I really want a new car. I want something more funky, more fun.

Speaker 1:

So I made an impossible list because I have discovered this is my best way of getting what I want. When I compromise and go sensible, it doesn't result in joy and it's not always an easy process, but when I say what I really want, I find this works really well. So I made this impossible car list. Honestly, it was ridiculous. I wanted it to be less than £2,000. I just did it was an experiment Just because I know people who do this and they get really good cars, and I've had more expensive cars go wrong. So I just thought I wonder if you could. So I read an article about the best cars for under 2000 and was very encouraged. Plus, my son had done it, my neighbour down the road. It's evidence, see evidence for the impossible. Anyway I. Then what did I do next? Oh yeah. What does it do next? Oh yeah, I just said okay.

Speaker 1:

So that's my budget and what I want is I want the inside of it to be so beautiful, like an old jag you know, it was like a, a walnut dashboard, something really special inside. I want leather seats. Um, what else do I want? Oh, you know, low tax, good fuel economy, that kind of thing. And I also want it to be fun to drive. I want it to be funky. I want, oh you know, low tax, good fuel economy, that kind of thing. And I also wanted to be fun to drive. I wanted it to be funky. I wanted it to just feel like me. Was that all? I think there was more on that impossible list.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, I then contacted my fabulous cousin who knows about cars and said are you up for an adventure to find the Goldilocks car, this magnificent, beautiful car which is under 2000 pounds? He says, yeah, I'm up for that. So then he phones me and I gave him the list. He said, yeah, I think you're going to have to at least double your budget. And I said no. I said no, I refuse to. I said you will. You will start to get this about me. You will, as you get to know me better, because this is a newly discovered, lovely, lovely cousin you will discover that this is just how I do things. So I fully believe that my impossible Goldilocks car is out there. We just have to find it.

Speaker 1:

So I stuck to my guns. I stuck to what I want, wanted and lo and behold, I now have the most beautiful mini, with leather seats and everything I wanted. Honestly, I love this car so much it's so me. She's called Pepper. I'm just so happy. I'm actually in love with my car. And what's really interesting is, on top of this, I have heated seats. I can't tell you the joy.

Speaker 1:

I didn't even know, really, I wasn't sure if I wanted them. Like people have them, but I'm not entirely sure. It wasn't on my radar. It was kind of like, well, that might be the icing on the cake, but it's just, it wasn't important to me. I got everything on my list and more. I refused to compromise.

Speaker 1:

I believed the impossible was possible. And here's the thing was possible. And here's the thing we sold my car for nearly the same price. Honestly, within a hundred quid. That's amazing. So basically, I swapped cars, which, looking back now I'm telling you this it's exactly what I said to my partner I just want to swap cars.

Speaker 1:

He's saying I don't think you can do that, it doesn't work that way. And yet it doesn't work that way, but it does for me, and this happens to me a lot. I was telling a friend of mine all these stories of these impossible things. It keeps happening to me. So I'm going to invite you. Does it happen to you?

Speaker 1:

Can you find your evidence for the impossible? I bet you can. I bet you can look back and find some of it Like, oh, that was amazing. I don't understand how that happened. It's really worth drawing attention to it because that's the easier way. That's what we want, right? So you're not willing to give up your dreams, but you are prepared to push your overwhelm into exhaustion for them. And now you've reached a stage where you don't want to do it that way, but you also don't want to quit your dreams. So you've got to find an easier way. This is the easier way. Believe there's an easier way, trust there's an easier way. Then look for evidence of it. And please don't assume it's just me. Other people do this stuff. You know this. It happens. Think of how you bought a house. Think of how you met your partner. Think of any time something's been magical and easy and choose to see more of it. Choose to believe there's always an easier way. Even when you can't see it, it's just outside of your awareness. Just outside of your awareness.

Speaker 1:

And I'm going to end with another story, and this time it was Wellies, wellington Boots. For those of you who don't live in England don't know what I'm talking about wellies. We always had wellies. They're rain boots, gum boots, rain boots, whatever, and you just need them if you live in the countryside, because it gets muddy in the winter a lot. Anyway, I only wear barefoot shoes. I can't bear any sole at all. It's got to be minimalist. It screws my posture and everything. So I've been stuck without proper wellies for a while now, which means it's tricky. It's tricky to negotiate all those puddles.

Speaker 1:

I really, really wanted some. Couldn't find any, gave up, walked into a shop that doesn't sell wellies in a city I rarely visit, walked up to these wellies. They were children's wellies. There was one pair. I tried it. One pair that said it was a size six. I'm a size five, but the children's one thought I'd give it a go. They looked like my size right, said the wrong size Tried. They fit. They're completely flat, they're really comfortable. They're only 18 quid. There we go, problem solved. How weird is that? What's weirder is I tried another pair of size six on, because these are silver, so they're like moon boots, and I thought, yeah, maybe I should get a sensible color. The other size sixes didn't fit me.

Speaker 1:

There was one pair of magical boots for me and one only. Same with my coat story, my impossible coat story. Maybe same with the car I don't know, exciting. Hey, how cool is that? So now I have magical boots, magical coat, magical car. Honestly, this stuff is worth paying attention to and it's fun. It's fun talking about it. It's fun. Don't you want more fun? Don't you want to believe in magic? Don't you long for things to be easier? I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you want more of these stories, subscribe, stay tuned, let me me know. I'll share some more. Share yours with me, let me know. You can easily send me a text message at the, in the show notes, or you can write to me at heidi, at heidimartcouk, or contact me in all the usual places social media. Lots of love. Havea great week, have a magical week. Bye.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.