Do you ever feel guilty for everything you just can’t manage to do?

In this episode, I'll talk about guilt, about feeling like you’re not enough, and shame.

Hope this blesses you! 

Do you feel dizzy, in pain, have pressure in your ears or trouble breathing? Or maybe you struggle to pull yourself together and get things done. Maybe you feel tingling, numbness, tinnitus, or like your muscles just suddenly give out?

Today I’m going to talk about why you’re having all these symptoms—and why they’re not unexplained at all, but actually really normal reactions. I’ll talk about why you don’t have to be scared or worried about them, and of course, what you can do to actually feel better.

We’re going to go into what happens in the body during stress, and what happens when you’ve been sick for a long time. I’ll also explain why well-meaning advice like “listen to your body” or “just rest” might actually make things worse—and what you should do instead.

Sometimes the exhaustion and mental fatigue are just too much to handle. I've had moments where I just wanted to scream out in pure anxiety because it was so overwhelming. There’s no energy left to think positive thoughts, no strength to do constructive exercises. All I can do is lie in bed and hate my life. Today, I want to talk about how I survive those moments.

Having a setback can feel like a slap in the face. You're on your way back, you have hope of getting better, of getting well, and then you're just pushed straight down into that bottomless darkness. It's like a mockery, like someone wants to tell you not to believe that you can get well. The fear comes right away, and thougths like, maybe I can't get well? Maybe this will go on forever? And it feels like the setback will last forever.

But a setback can also feel like a gentle reminder to take it a little easier, something you shake off and with a few minor adjustments get out of. Today I'm going to talk about how I avoid that dark place of setbacks and crawl back on track. How I do to have fewer, milder and shorter setbacks.

Key takeaways

Setbacks will always happen, even if you do everything right. It's important not to get worried, lose hope, or throw out all your routines just because you have a setback. Setbacks come, but setbacks also go away. Things will get better again.

Review your routines. Do you do the things that make you better, like journaling, taking brakes, mindful movements? 

Question your to-do list. Do you really need to do everything, and with that deadline? Reframe it to remove things and prolong the dadlines.  

Give yourself more time for recovery, like breaks, reading, listening to music, pilates, forrest walks or yoga. 

Have you ever been in need to make a decision, but been so overwhelmed that the decision feels impossible to make? Maybe standing in front of the toothpaste aile in the grocery store, unable to choose one of all the options? Or looking at your to-do list, unable to choose what to start with? Not to mention the decision of what to eat for dinner. Or do you have activities that you know you should do to feel better, but just doing them feels impossible? Today I want to share 2 tools that I use to reduce my overwhelm in those everyday situations, and make everyday life easier and run more smoothly.

Key takeaways

Every decision we make requires energy and willpower. The more decisions we make, the more energy is used, and eventually there is no energy left. By making as many decisions as possibbly into routines, you need to take fewer decisions, get energy over for better things and get rid of that overwhelm. 

Seccond guessing your healing process all the time gives doubt, fear and stress, which put the brain into high alert, worsening your symptoms like brain fog and overwhelm. By building a process to follow, trust it and stick with that, you can lower the stress on your brain, increasing your symptoms. 

Does it feel like your to-do list never ends? Like the more you do, the more you get to do? Like time and control are slipping out of your hands? It's a common feeling when there's too much going on in life. And the more you do, the worse off you'll be.

Today I'm going to talk about why we get more stressed when we're stressed, how the brain creates this vicious cycle. I'm also going to talk about how to break it and give concrete tools and examples to calm your brain and make your schedule more manageable.

Key takeaways

When we get stressed, activity in the irrational part of the brain increases and rational brain activity decreases. This causes us to make decisions that give us more and more to do.

A good way to deal with this is to write a list of what you have to do, and what the consequences will be if you don't do it. Then reexamine your thoughts by questioning whether there is evidence that it will work out that way? You can especially look for if you think you can predict the future, have a too high minimum level or think you can read minds.

Do your thoughts constantly go to how tired you are? Do you constantly feel how hard life is? Do you constantly try to feel if you are getting worse? If you are getting more tired, more brain fog, more dizzy, more nauseated, more palpitations? There is a risk that you are making yourself worse, and your life and your exhaustion even harder.

Today I'm going to talk about how to make your exhaustion easier to live with, and maybe even enjoyable at times. I'm going to talk about how your thoughts can help you heal. And no, I'm not going to talk about thinking positively or lying to yourself. Being exhausted is a pain, there's a lot of sadness, anxiety, fear and frustration. But that doesn't have to mean it's always like that. It can actually be wonderful, fun and relaxing.

Key takeaways

When you get sick and start thinking more about how sick you are, which is completely natural and something we all do, we strengthen the neural pathways that sense the bad. We become super good at feeling bad, so-called sensitization. Which stresses our brain and our nervous system, which makes us more tired, more nauseous, dizzy, gives us more pain or whatever symptoms we have.

But just as we can build neural pathways to feel bad, we can build neural pathways to feel good. We can train ourselves to feel good by focusing more on what we actually enjoy. It needs to be what you really enjoy, not what I enjoy or what you pretend to enjoy. When you leaning into positive sensations, you create safety for the brain, the stress level drops and the nervous system can leave its survival mode for a while.

You can reinforce this reaction by writing down what you experience and by photographing it.

Do you want to do things, but get setbacks every time you try? Recovering from fatigue and brain fog is a balancing act. On the one hand, you have to allow time for recovery and not do too much. On the other hand, too much restriction becomes a confirmation for the brain that your illness is dangerous, which increases stress and increases symptoms. So how should you do it? That's what I'm going to answer today.

Key takeaways:

Do you find yourself trying to get back to your old life, trying different activities, but always get setbacks? Do your fatigue or brain fog get worse every time you do something? I’ve been there too, and there is a way to solve it. In today’s episode I’ll share how I went from not even being able to take part in a conversation or listen to a podcast, to getting back to a normal life again. This simple method will reset your brain, calm your nervous system and make it easier to do things, without setbacks, fatigue or brain fog. 

Key takeaways:

The brains fear of activities stresses itself and the nervous system. To reduce your symptoms you need to change your thoughts. This knowledge alone will have a calming effect on your brain. 

Work with gradual exposure for getting back to activities. Small, small, tiny steps, one at the time. Try again and again. 

Feeling stuck or pressured will increase symptoms. Always have an escape plan. 

The last couple of years before my burnout I was constantly hungry. I ate six times a day, and my portions were always bigger than everybody else’s.

When I healed from my burnout. I didn’t only recover from fatigue. My nervous system could finally calm down and get back to normal. And so did my hunger.

You might think that burnout is only exhaustion, but it is far more. In this episode I'll share how stress makes the nervous system make your hunger go bananas, and how to get it back to normal again.

Key takeaways