Dr. Charryse guides a seasonal check-in on quiet overwhelm, decision fatigue, and nervous-system activation, offering reflection prompts and practical reminders to rest, accept help, and notice where December pulls habits into autopilot.
Cody Sphere: Let us know where you are in the world and how you would rate your week. If I had to give myself a rating on this week, I would say a solid nine. When you are consistent with the things that are important to you, your body will always come back around.
Where is your silent overwhelm, your quiet overwhelm? Give me one to three words that you would choose that describe your current season. Rest and recovery are necessary, and to recover, we need to. Your something can be great.
When we get to this time of year, here's a few things that happen. Your focus narrows because your brain is conserving energy. Your habits loosen because fatigue hijacks decision making. Letting go of control and letting others help can really support yourself.
Your nervous system has to stay activated from social demands, from pressure, nostalgia, all the things that you do every year. I want to challenge you to make this season what you need and manage the nostalgia and the expectations of other people.
There are typically three emotional states that are most often experienced in December. Overwhelm. Too many inputs, not enough recovery. Decision fatigue. Emotional fatigue. Three emotional states overwhelm uncertainty.
The month hits so hard because we're tired. Food becomes comfort. Fatigue isn't failure. You've not done anything wrong. It's just feedback that you need to do things differently.
Where in my day am I living on autopilot instead of making an aligned decision? And what is December pulling me toward that I don't actually want? Take some time offline and reflect on those questions if you haven't already.
Cody Sphere. What is up here? We are together. You are where you are. I am where I am. My home place of Charlotte. And we're together working our way right through another day. Come in. Let us know where you are in the world and how you would rate your week. I would say if I had to give myself a rating on this week, I would say a solid nine. And I don't feel like I've had a nine in a minute, but it feels really great to say that I'll still continue to work part of that rating for me. Hey, Steph.
Irwin. Hello, Andrea. Is just me being very intentional about hello, Audrey. Where I'm spending my energy. My sleep has been a fight recently, but I continue to work on it. And I also love keeping the mindset that some days are going to be more challenging than others. Right. That's just the nature of the game. But you're going to find that when you are consistent with the things that are important to you, even if you have an off day, your body will always come back around. And can we also acknowledge.
Good morning, sruggles864, that I want to say that, Sarah, but if not, tell me your real name. If you want to be patient, be gracious, be considerate. Hello, Statesboro. With your body. Because our bodies go through a lot. They've been through a lot. They carry a lot. All right, let's get into our focus this morning. I want to talk about what does it really look like to stay steady? Okay. I thought it was Sarah. During the times that life feels demanding or unpredictable or overwhelming. And even though this is going to be centered around where we are in this current December time, this is an absolute message that I feel like we want to continue to keep in front of us.
Here's something I want you to consider as I talk as well, is where is your silent overwhelm, your quiet overwhelm? Sometimes it's not the big loud things that are drawing at our attention that creates that overwhelm or that uncertainty or feeling pulled. It's the those moments that we're worried about somebody else. It's the moments that we wonder, can I get through this? It's the moments that we think to ourselves, do I have the energy to fight this again or to battle this any longer or why is this happening to me?
Right. It could be a number of different things. What word? Maybe one to three words. Give me one to three words that you would choose that describe your current season, wherever you are in any particular part of your life. So you can think about as a whole. You can think personally, you can think professionally. One to three words that you feel like this is a little snapshot to where I am, what I'm holding. And that's just a powerful way for us to normalize that we're all going through something, navigating something.
And your something can be great. So know that I'm not always here to talk about things that are rough and terrible. You can absolutely come on and say, you know what? This is actually proving to be a better season than I ever thought, and I'm really happy. All right. I love it. Recovery and do slow down, because that is key. Rest and recovery are necessary, and to recover, we need to. All right. A lot of times people also enter this time of year looking for clarity. And instead, we might feel scattered, we might feel emotional, we might feel overstimulated and unmotivated.
But what you're experiencing, it's not weakness. It is absolutely your brain. Body overload. I will be honest. I think this was yesterday. I had to reach out to my sister to get the energy to leave the house. Part of it is I have been on the go, on the go, on the go, on the go, on the go. And I've had really good pockets of rest. But I. I really want to just be done for the year. But that ain't my reality. But it was one of those days where it's freezing cold, and I just wanted to just do nothing.
But I'm grateful that I know enough about how the brain and the body works to know I didn't call myself lazy in that moment. So watch that really great feedback. Warring, praying and resting in God. Yes. Slow, simple. What's necessary? Oh, that's good. In low. Yeah. What is absolutely necessary. And so I knew I wasn't being lazy. I knew my brain and my body were like, hey, if this isn't absolutely necessary, can we not? So I want you to also be conscious of the moments that your brain and your body are telling you, I really need you to rest.
And instead you're like, I can't. I'm being lazy. Because most of us. That's not true. Oh, I love it, Audrey. In a season of anticipation and excitement. And then I love slight concern and anxiety because that can coexist at the same time. And it's okay that you give more than three words. I just, you know, gave you a landing place. You can bring whatever you want. So here's the thing that I want you to consider. When we need to change something to meet Us where we are. You can't just talk about it.
You have to be about it. Right. It's important. I want you to hold over to the side. What is something that you know needs to change in how you are caring for yourself or what you're expecting out of yourself right now that you're talking about it and thinking about it, but you're not actually doing it because it is that action that's going to get you where you need to go. Yeah. Letting go. Leaning into letting go of control and letting others help. That's good. Sarah. Another side conversation, but it fits.
I was talking to another friend, lots of that going on. And we were talking about that because she's in a tough moment and we're all offering and she keeps going. I'll be fine. I'll be fine. We didn't ask you if you'll be fine. We actually know you will be fine. But let us help you. And I bring that into the conversation because part of the overwhelm, sometimes the uncertainty and the load that we feel is because we're the helper, but we don't allow ourselves to receive help. And that might be something that you can bring into this time of year to really support yourself.
When we get to this time of year, here's a few things that happen. I call it the December drift. You can add to it because it may not look this way for you, but this is how I'm looking at it. Your focus. Your focus narrows because your brain is conserving energy. Anybody felt like their energy is a little bit lower and it's harder, more difficult to focus on multiple things. If you resonate with any part of the December drift, just go, yep, that's me. Yep, that's me. Your habits loosen because fatigue hijacks decision making.
Tell me why I was craving a KitKat yesterday. What? Don't get me wrong, KitKats are phenomenal. I haven't had a KitKat. I can't even tell you. It is the most random craving on the face of the planet. So anybody having random crazy cravings, And I was like, a KitKat, like, honestly. And I knew you could have it, but then you're going to eat it and be like, whoa, I haven't had this in a while. I was able to move through and let it pass. But my typical habits are like, girl, let's just escape. And I knew what my body wanted was sugar because I was tired.
So what I did is I went to bed. But that's an example. Another part of the December drift. Your emotional bandwidth has gotten tighter. It shrinks because you. You've been constantly stimulated, keeping it together all year. But your nervous system has to stay activated from social demands, from pressure, nostalgia, all the things that you do every year that you just can't not do them. And let me also add other people's nostalgia. So you may actually be ready for a change of season. And you may want to do things differently, but you have people in your life that are.
Oh, but we've always done that. Now, granted, they may not be the people who actually helped make it happen, but they're pulling on you to be what you've always been. And you may not have that in you. So I want to challenge you with this. I want to challenge you to make this season what you need and manage the nostalgia and the expectations of other people. Yes, Audrey, I feel you, who are all over the place that want things the way they've always been, but don't want to contribute. But they want you to land that plane.
And I want you to pay attention to when you're putting yourself in that position so you know you're done. You don't even want that tradition anymore. You're not feeling it this year, but you feel bad because you know other people like it. They will be okay. All right, I want to end this with this, because I am working to not make things so long. There are typically three emotional states that are most often experienced in December. Overwhelm. Too many inputs, not enough recovery. And remember, overwhelm has levels.
The kind of overwhelm that I'm not talking. That I'm talking about isn't. You are flatlined and about to fall out. Overwhelm can also look like you being a little anxious when you wake up in the morning. Overwhelm can also look like decision fatigue. Overwhelm can also look like you wanting more time to yourself because you're just tired of people. Can we be honest? We're just tired of people. They're great, but you just need a break. So don't make overwhelm be an extreme. It's a silent, steady drip where you feel like you have to work your way up in order to do things.
Yeah. And that's a good one, Sarah. There are moments where we don't have a choice because of recovery needs. And that can be odd. Very odd and freeing. And that's such a real, real feeling, like, oh, this is a relief. I don't have to do this anymore. But then this is also weird because it's what I've always done. So who is my identity, right? What is my identity if I'm not her or him anymore? Yeah. But something new is coming. Three emotional states overwhelm uncertainty. I don't know about you, but I haven't come across anyone that isn't heading into this month or the coming year without a little uncertainty in some area of life.
So there is this quiet weight of not knowing what next year will look like in some areas. Anyone else feeling that? I have a ton of uncertainty right now. And some of it is uncertain with excitement, and some of it is uncertain with absolute fear, worrying, concern, because I have no clue. And both can exist. And then that last emotional state is emotional fatigue. You may not be tired in your body. You're still moving, you're still exercising, but your being is tired. That's the drift. You start moving through your days more reactively instead of intentionally.
Here's what I'm gonna do, because I can. If you need to hop off right now, come back later and you can finish this. There's a few other things that I have that I want to give, and I feel like they're important for somebody to get today. So here's why. The month hits so hard, because we're tired. Our decision making is taxed. Our prefrontal cortex is like, do we have to do any more right things? Can we just go offline? Your prefrontal cortex right now wants a break. Your amygdala, your fear center is more sensitive.
Some old emotions might be surfacing. Some small stressors feel bigger than they had before. Food becomes comfort. Cue my KitKat story, right? I'm starting to crave things that are both nostalgia and past comfort foods. Pizza, popcorn. Those are mine, right? When I'm craving those things, I know I am in the land of emotional fatigue. And you might find that avoidance becomes very tempting when that amygdala, that fear center part of the brain is just overwhelmed. And our dopamine patterns are shifting.
Our brain wants quick relief. It wants sugar. It wants coffee, scrolling sugar. Emotional eating. Those are the dopamine pathways that you might see spiking up. It wants anything that's going to reduce internal noise, even if that's temporary. But here's something I want you to keep in mind. Fatigue isn't failure. You've not done anything wrong. It's not a sign of weakness if you find that you're in a place of extreme fatigue week. It's just really feedback that you need to do things differently.
So I want you to. I do want to leave you. I'll wrap up here with these two questions. Number one, where in my day am I living on autopilot instead of making an aligned decision? Do you notice that in the mornings? Do you notice that in the afternoon? Evenings? Later in the week? Where my day slash week. Right. Where is your energy? Where are you drifting? And the second question. What is December pulling me toward that I don't actually want? What is December pulling me toward that I don't actually want?
All right, I'll leave you with those two questions. Here's the invitation. Take some time offline and reflect on those questions if you haven't already. And I would love for you to come back and share any part of your reflection that you want to. I'm going to see if there's a way that I can comment on my own live and do that or I'll find someone else to do it for me. But I'll repeat those two questions again. Where am I living? Where in my day slash week am I living on autopilot instead of making an aligned decision?
And what is December pulling me toward that I don't actually want? You don't have to meet everyone else's needs at the expense of your own. I love that. Audrey, you did the 10 minute breath reset thing. It is fabulous. Fabulous. I love that. I always want to hear when you're using all the tools. Please take care of yourself. Please pace yourself during this season and I look forward to seeing you next week. Have a good one.
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