The Overwhelmed Brain…..
Is that a concept that sounds familiar to y’all? Because it sure did and does to me. And I promise that it’ll all make sense at the end of my droning on, so bear with me.
If 2020 and 2021-ish have taught any of us anything, it’s that our brains have been more overwhelmed than ever before (amirite?) Factor in any pre-existing things like depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, and it’s an absolute recipe for disaster.
2018 and 2019 brought severe challenges my way. I was fresh off of an ex-boyfriend stealing my entire savings and disappearing, all while I had just buried my dad as he lost his fight with pancreatic cancer. I had walked away from a job for personal reasons. For the first time in my almost 20 year career in media, I was struggling to find employment and struggling to find my way. For almost two years, doors were slammed in my face as far as jobs were concerned. It felt like anything I touched as an independent business venture failed. People who I thought were my friends, betrayed me. I had an incredibly wonderful relationship with my now current boyfriend and I was slowly self-sabotaging that because I couldn’t get a handle on my own mental and emotional health. I was overwhelmed. My brain was overwhelmed. And I just flat out didn’t know where to start or what to do.
Then 2020 hit. And the world stopped. And it forced ALL of us to stop. And self-reflect.
2020 hit our household and with a vengeance. Hospital stays financial struggles, and just about everything that could hit us in between, seemed to. I was desperate to find peace. Inner peace. True inner emotional and mental peace. I would keep asking the universe, WHY? WHEN IS THIS EVER GOING TO JUST END?!?! (because quite frankly, with no money coming in, it was getting REALLY hard to start fitting the bill for all of the therapeutic wine drinking lol). I started reading more, journaling my thoughts, soaking up any self-help book or podcast possible. ANYTHING. I just needed it all to be okay. I needed everything to be okay. I needed ME to be okay.
And then, the call came in April of 2020, asking me if I would accept the role as co-host of “Morning Koffy”. Little did I know that when I did, it would lead me to where I needed to be. Like where I truly needed to be. In the energy that I needed to be in. And then all of a sudden, all of those slammed doors in my face, all of that rejection, just made sense. It’s like the universe was like, “DUH, JASMINE! You had to get out of your own way and stop keeping score of everything wrong going on in your life and start capitalizing on the positive! YOU HAD TO LET GO SO I COULD SHOW YOU!”
All of this through a pandemic. A pandemic filled with so much fear, worry, heartache and struggle. There was a bright spot. For the first time in my adult life, it forced me to pause. It forced me to fix all of the things I was running from. And trust me y’all, I was running like it was a cross country marathon. “Just keep running and don’t stop because you don’t want to be in the stillness,” I would tell myself. The overwhelmed brain.
Through all of my soul searching, and healing, I stumbled upon a podcast called… you guessed it… “The Overwhelmed Brain”, hosted by Paul Colaianni. It didn’t just speak TO me. It spoke THROUGH me. If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, feelings of overwhelmingness, or just want to challenge your own personal growth through critical thinking, you HAVE to check this out.
I’ve linked the website here: http://www.theoverwhelmedbrain.com
And PLEASE share with me the podcasts y’all are listening to now! I would love to know what is out there that I’m missing!
And remember, hold on. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when it’s not easy. Even when it feels like you’re losing grip and are about to slip off. Get out of your own way so the way can happen.
About Jasmine…
A parent of two black lab rescue dogs, Jasmine is a proud Texan. She is trilingual – fluent in English, Farsi and Armenian. She helps with the DFW Lab Rescue and the Texas Humane Legislation Network and is a member of the Association for Women in Sports Media and Alliance for Women in Media.