Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile healing mind, body and spirit. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. I choose peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit over stress, exhaustion or overwhelm. Together, let's explore and pursue the many.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Ways to build holistic health and wellness.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Hey there.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Hey, it's Ramsay here. How you doing? Good. That's a question we ask and answer what every day? Multiple times per day? That answer really isn't the answer though, right? Good. More likely the real answer is stressed out, exhausted, overwhelmed, maybe even burned out, sick or lost. If you really are good to great, that's great. I'm glad to hear it. But if you're dealing with fatigue, exhaustion, stress and overwhelm, then listen up. We don't need to feel that way. Let's talk about these feelings for a while and what they really do to us. And then let's talk about how to deal with them. Seems like we're always experiencing some kind of stress. Some stress is good. It motivates us to take action, to address a problem or opportunity. But chronic stress is different. When we feel put upon, unsafe, afraid, anxious, demanded to produce at the risk of being fired or discarded, those kinds of feelings have very real and negative impacts. Our hormones get screwed up. Cortisol rules the day and the night. It increases heart rate, blood pressure, it shuts down digestion, proper blood sugar regulation. We lose sleep. Chronic stress makes us a mess. And being a mess stresses us out. A lousy loop, go figure. Back in the day when our ancestors faced cliches like saber toothed tigers, they had clear decisions like fight or flight. But now things are a lot less straightforward. These days we perceive our threats through our screens over the Internet and via emails and social media. It's hard to understand what people were thinking when they say or do stuff, hard to know why they do what they do. And oh, it's hard to even know if those videos are real or if they are misleading or even fake. Now we're left to stew in our own juices instead of having the luxury of actually fighting the tiger or running away from it. Man, stress stresses me out. Dealing with all that is exhausting. And fatigue and exhaustion are caused by many other things too. Lack of rest and enough high quality sleep, blood sugar crashes between meals, chronic illness and pain, chemical and biological exposures. The list goes on. Not to mention good old fashioned trying to accomplish too much. We all get tired, wasted, exhausted from burning the candle at both ends, trying to make everyone happy, trying to get ahead. But what does fatigue and exhaustion do when it becomes too much. We can't keep up, can't keep up. Our end of bargains feel like we're missing out, letting down our loved ones. We pull back from life, avoid difficult things, sink into ourselves. We feel numb, or we want to feel numb. So we seek alcohol or drugs or distractions. When it all has gone on unabated for too long, overwhelm sets in. Overwhelm is overload. Too much, too crazy, from too many directions at once. All the little pieces, all the loose strings, all the minor tasks we've missed and misplaced catch up to us, come crashing down when we feel overwhelmed. That's when things start coming apart. We make mistakes, we snap at people even. Especially people we care about and who care about us. Whatever ailments we already have flare up, get worse. Whatever bugs we've been fighting off get the upper hand on our immune systems. And we get sick. Our mind, body and spirit flashes red alarm signals. But it's hard to back down, hard to yield to those warnings because we're already so far behind. Gotta catch up. Gotta push harder. Boom. Something breaks. Snaps. It's no fun. And in fact, it is dangerous to feel stressed out and exhausted to the point of overwhelm. It leads to loss of health and wellness, greater physical illness and lack of recovery or healing. It leads to weight gain and loss of strength and stamina. Stress, exhaustion and overwhelm constrain or even destroy relationships like friendships and marriages. It worsens physical, emotional and spiritual pain. It literally shortens lifespan. Feeling exhausted, stressed out and overwhelmed all the time quickly leads towards spiraling, burning, burnout and breakdown. Look, I hate to be this negative and keep piling it on, but I think it's important to recognize that we all experience this to some extent. And it's real. And it's a problem if left unaddressed. I've felt plenty of stress, exhaustion and overwhelm over the years. Praise God. I'm actually doing pretty well these days. I push against it. I choose to push against it. There is so much better and there is so much more. We can seek and find peace, vitality and joy instead of stress, exhaustion and overwhelm. Peace is the knowing, the understanding of what's happening with ourselves and others, what's expected of us, what is true, which empowers and enables us to make good decisions about what to do. Vitality is the energy and vigor and capability to wake up each day and do the things that we want and need and long to do. Joy is the experience of inhabiting our place. In the universe alongside other people, our friends and our family and loved ones, seeking and loving God and knowing and accepting his boundless love for us. Vitality, peace and joy are the goals of mind, body and spirit. And happily they are interconnected and there are many things we can do, many ways to pursue and build peace, vitality and joy all at once. Off the top of my head. Quiet the noise and distractions. Meditate. Be mindful of yourself and others. Be curious. Ask questions. Seek the truth wherever it may be. Speak up. Share. Encourage others. Eat well. Choose natural whole foods over ultra processed foods. Eat more protein and less sugar. Drink more water and less alcohol. Go outside. Get some sun and some fresh air. Take a walk. Reach out to family, friends, neighbors or perfect strangers. Pray. Seek God. Forgive past wrongs and be grateful for what has gone right. Believe that more and better is possible and hope for it. Get clear on your purpose in life. I choose peace over stress, vitality over exhaustion, joy over being overwhelmed. I know that sounds great and it's easier said than done. I didn't say it was easy for me or easy for you. This whole podcast what's worthwhile is my pursuit, my promise to seek and share potential solutions, strategies, answers towards healing mind, body and spirit. We're all stressed, tired and worn down to some extent. None of us have it all figured out and none of us are complete goners. So let's keep moving forward together and for today, that is enough.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Where to go from here? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsey Zimmerman and please reach out to me and let me know what you think. I don't want this podcast to be some message in a bottle thrown out to sea. I want to hear back from you. Please send me a message or an email or hit me up on X, LinkedIn or Instagram. And please leave a rating and review for the what's Worthwhile podcast on Apple, Spotify, Iheart or Amazon. Thanks.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Ra.
