Live w/ Dr.Charryse 🧠: “ Are You Carrying More Than Your Mind Can Hold?”

Hello, Cadre. How are things in your world? Take a moment, come in, and maybe start with a deep breath into the nose, out through the mouth. Because sometimes we just need a moment, right, to pause, to check in, to anchor yourself in the present. If this is your first time here, I'm so glad that you chose to come. Good morning. C. Mercer, 900. My name is Dr. Charisse Johnson. I'm a licensed clinical mental health therapist, mindfulness practitioner, and author. And I come into the space one or more times a week to talk about all things life.

Hello, Steph, Erwin. Hello, Andrea. As you come in, the name of the game is rate your week and where are you? It's just a beautiful way to anchor ourselves and remind ourselves that we. We're not alone, that we are definitely in community. And it's pretty amazing, too, to see individuals find each other and go, oh, my goodness, I didn't know that you lived here. And then you rate your week 1 to 10. 1, meaning it's been a rough week and given the context of your life, you don't feel like you're quite in it.

This week, 10, meaning you are rocking the week, whatever that means to you. It's just a really great way to anchor yourself in. Good morning, Jules. Today I want to talk about are you carrying more than your mind can hold? This is a big one. Very, very easy to do and something that we find not always that we recognize it. Right. We are trying to work through things. Our sleep is a little off. Could be a number of things, but then we just realize this is all too much. So I really think today's topic is a powerful reality check.

What's your first thought when I ask you that question? Are you carrying more than your mind can hold? Yes. No. Maybe. You don't have to tell me. Hello, Jaden. Mommy. But I really want to encourage you to kind of anchor yourself. And here's the thing that I want you to keep in mind. Northern Minnesota. What's up is that mental overload is not just cognitive. Right. It's not just a mindset issue. It's a neurobiological signal that your brain and your body are maxed out. Seth Irwin, thank you for your honesty.

Hello, Philly. So you will find that your body will also demonstrate signals along with your mind and your emotions. Thank you, Jules. And let you know this is too much. You're beyond capacity. So here's a few things to consider from a neuroscience standpoint. When we are in a place where our mind is on mental overload, and that is impacting our body, our executive functioning, our prefrontal cortex, our rational thinking, our clarity feels like it goes offline. So making even simple decisions may feel really challenging.

And yes, Jules, you'll find you're forgetting things. You're forgetting activities, you're forgetting parts of your schedule. You might be losing items that you had for a while or just feeling like, I know I just had was there, and I don't know what I did with it. Then add all the things that you may manage before the overwhelm. So other stressors with work, family stressors, if you are neurodivergent or going through some hormonal shift, all of those add to your clarity. So all that being said, it doesn't matter what age you are, doesn't matter what you are going through physically.

It is so important for us to make sure that we balance what we're carrying and not exceed what our mental capacity. Because prefrontal cortex goes offline. Amygdala, which is the body's threat center. Good morning. Speak. Wonder that part of that fear amygdala threat then makes everything feel like it's an issue. So then you're going through the day, and small, seemingly small tasks feel really challenging for you. Hello. 1% better. So those are a few indicators. So signs you might be carrying too much.

I mentioned a few, but I want to kind of list these down just in case you're taking notes. Brain fog, forgetfulness, and irritability. As I am giving the list, please add to it. Some of you already are fatigue despite sleeping. So you may feel like you go to bed at a decent time. You may even feel like you have slept 10 hours. First of all, if you can sleep 10 hours, I'm impressed. But you can feel like you've slept 10 hours and still wake up and feel exhausted. That can be due to mental overload.

Other things you might feel is tightness in your neck or shoulders. And let me say, tightness in those parts of the body can be overlooked. I don't know about you, but there are many times where I think, oh, I'm not that tight. I feel pretty good. Then I slow down, go get a massage, and I'm like, ow, ow, ow, ow. Right? And realize there's a lot of tension that's kept there in the body. So we're not always completely aware. Hello, Mel Myers. Of what we're feeling in the body. But that's an example.

And then feeling emotionally flat or detached, something happens and you're like, I don't have the Energy to respond, or on the other end, feeling very fragile and tearful like you are easily triggered and easily upset. So here's the thing. Your nervous system can't tell the difference between too many thoughts and too many threats. So we have the ability to make sure that we manage. Great question. Is mental overload the same as stress or anxiety? Not necessarily, because mental overload can be for a good reason.

We may have really great things happening in life, new projects, new opportunities, an upcoming trip that we want to take. But it's too many areas to focus on at one time. And if we don't manage those areas well, then it can lead to anxiety or. Or lead to stress. So that's typically how they correlate. Mental overload doesn't automatically mean that you have anxiety or high stress. However, when you're stressed and anxious, mental overload is typically present. Right. So it really just depends, but usually they do kind of play together well.

Really great question. And the rest of you, please continue to ask questions as you go along. Again, your nervous system can't tell the difference between too many thoughts and too much threat. So when your brain is overloaded, your body pays the price. Take a moment in the chat and let me know. Where do you typically feel it in your body when you know that overload is present? If I take a moment and answer this for myself, I would say I will often feel it in my gut. It goes immediately to my digestion, and I will often feel it in my hip area, so things feel tight.

Or my sciatica flares for random reasons. And it's not really random. It's because there's too much of a mental load. And the hips are actually the place that store a lot of our overwhelm. And that somatic tracking like we're talking about right now is really crucial because for some of us, we don't recognize the mental capacity of the overload, but we do a better job of recognizing the physical. So I want you to be able to recognize both. Yes. Be quinder. Lower back can also be another significant one.

And we can kind of toss it to the side and think. We don't really realize, but it's extremely important. Yeah. It can be difficult to take a deep breath. Right. Breathing can feel very shallow. Headache. Yes. And short naps are amazing. Here's a question that you can ask yourself in the moment. Is my mind busy during this season over the past few weeks because I'm productive or because you're protecting yourself from feeling? We overload the brain sometimes unintentionally but often intentionally because we're also trying to figure something out.

We're trying to navigate a situation, we're trying to get ahead of what we're feeling. Yes, Mel Myers. Head, shoulders and gut. Absolutely. So do you find that your mind is typically busy because you're being productive or is it an attempt to not feel or to manage the magnitude of a feeling, to figure things out? So sometimes our thoughts race because our emotions are stuck. Overthinking little known fact often signals under feeling. Even if you are feeling anxious, overthinking is still masking a layer of under feeling.

So you want to get to the root of that. Let's talk about two tangible tips that you can use to support yourself when you feel that your mind is overwhelmed and it's impacting your body and your emotions and your motivation and all the things as well. Number one, create cognitive space. So this is the mind dump plus sort. Spend three to five minutes writing down every single thing that's on your mind without filtering. But without filtering is the key. We often will think about the things that we feel comfortable thinking about, but all the other things are going to be there anyway.

Three to five minutes. Set a timer. Everything that's on your mind without filtering, then this is key. Circle what actually belongs to you. Because you may often find that when you start going down that list, you realize a lot of this has to do with other people and situations that aren't yours to carry or situations that you can't control. So circle what belongs to you and cross out what doesn't. Make that allows you to determine are you over carrying responsibility for other people and are you trying to control what you can't change?

When you externalize your thoughts through the process that I just described, your brain actually regains clarity. So doing this in your head is not as effective as doing it on paper. It's the actual work of going through and doing it on paper that helps the body move those thoughts through, helps you separate from the things that you're carrying, and then helps the brain regain clarity and to separate responsibility from emotional absorption. Some of us are over capacity because we are emotionally absorbing everything that's happening around us.

And if you are what we call a highly sensitive or an empath, that can include what's happening in the world, what's happening in your community, what's happening to your loved ones, what's happening to your family. And it doesn't mean that you can't not care. But you have to recognize when are you taking on emotional responsibility for areas of other people's lives that you can't change. All right, give me some hearts if you've ever been there. If I could heart, I would, because I absolutely do that and have to catch myself and go, therese, this is not yours to fix.

Second tip. Practice a micro release so you can't think your way to calm. I almost want you to make that an affirmation or something that you put on a note card and a post it, Put it on your refrigerator, put it in your room, put it on your bathroom mirror, put it in your car, put it on your computer. I can't think my way to calm. Calm is a nervous system balance. It means we have to cue the nervous system that we are safe in order to experience any one level of calm. So, yes, this is not yours to fix.

It is not mine to fix. I had this conversation with a 20 year old yesterday. This is not yours to fix. You can't fix other people. And no matter what you do, that doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to change. Today's hard truth. The only person that you can choose to heal yourself. Breath work is phenomenal. That's absolutely a way that we signal in and let the vagus nerve know that we are calm. Specifically, box Breathing. Inhale, hold, exhale. Breathe normally. 4 by 6 by 8. Inhale for 4, hold for 6.

Exhale through the mouth for 8. Or just simple diaphragmatic breathing into the nose and out through the mouth. The body is what you want to work on bringing down. And as the body comes down, the mind will follow. And those are exactly what I want you to consider. Those kind of breaks, when we think about micro releases. Another one that you might like if you're not comfortable with breath work is the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Name five things you can see, four things you can hear, four things, three things you can feel, two things you can touch, one thing you can taste.

And that helps bring you back to present. Okay, final thought. Over functioning does not make you strong. It makes you silent about your needs. When you're over functioning and you're in your head and you're overwhelmed, it quiets your voice. You stop communicating because you're so withdrawn trying to figure everything out that you're not actually communicating what you might need. And so resilience means not pushing through when you're over capacity, but recognizing your body and the parts of your body that signal that burnout is coming.

Because burnout becomes a breakdown. And we don't want that for you. All right. Finally, question for you to ask your body. What am I carrying that's too heavy for my mind alone? All right. I want you to keep that in mind. You can ask yourself that question multiple times a day. And then really work on incorporating some of those tangible skills as you are engaging with me. One of the things that I will always bring you are actual tools and practices that you can do, because that's how you change the way that you're showing up in life.

So even before you get to overwhelm, I want you to practice the micro releases, the breath work, the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I want you to consider incorporating in your day a brain dump and sort circling what's yours, crossing out what's not, and being very mindful of how much of your overload belongs on someone else's plate. Okay. As always, I'm so glad that you are here and you chose to come in this space. I hope you take care of yourself this week. I hope you honor the pace that you need. Whether that's your physical pace, whether that's your emotional healing pace, whatever it may be, your emotions are not out to get you.

Their messengers. And if you listen to, they will direct you very well. All right. I look forward to connecting with you very soon. Have a phenomenal rest of the week.