Awaken Your Inner Whole Woman
Awaken Your Inner Whole Woman
Unmasking the Hidden Signs of Overwhelm
The silent epidemic of overwhelm is ravaging women's lives, often disguised as "just being tired" or "this is normal." As high-achieving women, we've normalized a state of perpetual exhaustion that's actually dangerous to our wellbeing.
In this deeply personal exploration, I share fourteen hidden signs of overwhelm that most women miss until it's too late. From chronic busyness masquerading as productivity to emotional numbness we blame on fatigue, these subtle signals reveal how overwhelm infiltrates every aspect of our lives. I reflect on my own experience as a mother of three young children, constantly telling myself I was "just tired" while actually drowning in overwhelm.
Why do we resist admitting we're overwhelmed? Perhaps because it feels like confessing inadequacy—as if we should be able to handle everything on our plates. Instead, we attribute our symptoms to other causes: decision paralysis becomes "perfectionism," lost joy in favorite activities becomes "outgrowing" them, and irritability becomes "just my personality." Most concerning are the physical warnings we ignore: the tension headaches, muscle pain, and chronic fatigue our bodies use to signal distress.
The path forward begins with recognition. By acknowledging these hidden signs in ourselves, we create space for healing. Whether through rediscovering abandoned joys, creating moments of stillness, or seeking professional support, change is possible—but only if we're willing to act. Your inner whole woman is calling for more peace, more joy, and more authenticity. What one small step will you take today to answer that call?
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Healing and Wholeness for Every Woman
Welcome to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman, the show for spiritually rooted women who are hungry for change and growth. I am your host, natalie Warren, and my mission as a personal development strategist and inner healer is to inspire, educate and motivate women worldwide to stop limiting themselves and settling for less than what they want and were created to be. If you are ready to transform your life by getting out of your own way, hearing your soul's voice above the noise and activating your life's purpose, you are at the best place. Let's tune in to today's episode of. You are at the best place. Let's tune in to today's episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman podcast. I am delighted that you are here at this very moment, listening in and really being in the space of awakening. You're awakening to the truth of who you are. You're awakening to healing. You're awakening to your power. You're awakening to consciousness. There is something happening in you that maybe even you don't have the words to describe right now, but I invite you to stay on this journey because you are awakening to your inner whole woman, the woman that has always been there and maybe at times you felt a little disconnected from, but the truth is she's always been there. And so today, in this episode, I'm just delighted that we get to share on something that I am seeing. With so much going on in the world, we need to understand this deeper and understand it better. And so I have a thought to say you know, let's have a conversation, let's talk about in today's episode, the hidden signs of overwhelm.
Speaker 1:Because as I've worked with women professional women, business leaders, fellow healers and go-getters I realized that oftentimes, as high achieving, high performing women, it sometimes is easy to overlook the subtle signs of overwhelm. I know for myself, I didn't realize that I was in a state of overwhelm, that it had become a norm, that I was just operating and doing the things that we have to do. And I remembered, two times in particular, but one time that I just kept saying to myself I'm tired. And it wasn't just a physical tired, it was just a feeling, an internal feeling, an emotional experience of being tired. And I would say to my husband I'm tired and I would just keep going. And I would just keep going. And I realized over time in that season of my life this was the season when I had very young kids. At the time I had a newborn, I had a two year old and a four year old or somewhere within that time period, and I just remember being tired.
Speaker 1:So, as we talk about these hidden signs of overwhelm, I don't want you to beat yourself up Certainly doesn't serve you or make you feel better but I want to open your eyes to a different perspective and invite you to change behaviors, to change mindsets, that you can actually find inner peace and inner calm in the midst of chaos, the midst of chaos. So in this I'm going to give you some of the signs and seeing where we see ourselves, and I'll share a little bit more about my journey. But one of the signs I want you to reflect on is chronic busyness disguised as productivity. Do you recognize that maybe you feel your schedule with work, with social commitments, with responsibilities, believing that being productive, when in reality you're avoiding rest and self-reflection? And if that is hard for you to kind of understand, I'm going to ask you the question like when was the last time you prioritized rest? And even when was the last time you prioritized self-reflection? To even ask yourself what is it that I like? Who do I want to be? How am I taking care of myself? What is it that I am ignoring or not paying attention to? Those, for me, are big questions that I often ask every day in prayer. I'm like God. What is it that I need to pay attention to today? How do I want to show up today? Those are questions that I ask with these moments of self-reflection.
Speaker 1:Secondly, you may actually have a hidden sign of overwhelm. If you are aware, or even unaware, that you have emotional numbness or detachment, maybe you notice you're emotionally checked out, right, so you're disconnected, maybe from yourself. You're disconnected from others, and maybe we often attribute it to just being tired rather than overwhelmed, and I don't think that was my vocabulary. I remember saying I was tired, but I don't recall me ever saying I was overwhelmed. And in a brief conversation I was having with someone about this, I said why is it that we won't admit that we're overwhelmed? Is it possible that overwhelm may make us feel like we're less than that? I am supposed to be able to do this. I'm supposed to be able to handle this, but if I say to myself, or even to someone else, that I am overwhelmed, am I admitting that I'm not enough, that I'm not capable, that I'm not able. I wonder, because we'll say we're tired, and tired might actually justify our busyness, right? So it's like I'm doing a whole lot. I should be tired, but overwhelmed may have a different meaning.
Speaker 1:Number three decision fatigue. You might have a hidden sign of overwhelm when you have and you struggle with making small decisions. I know there are times when I say to myself I don't want to make another decision, I don't know what we're going to eat, I don't know what we're going to do. Decision fatigue is real. Or the other way that it shows up is we start to feel paralyzed or we second guess everything. So you start feeling like I don't know if I can make a decision. But we attribute it to not overwhelm. We attribute it to perfectionism Right that I want everything just so and everything just right that it has to be. I want it to be perfect.
Speaker 1:Number four we decrease joy in things you once loved. There are activities that you used to enjoy, that used to bring you fulfillment. Now those things actually feel like a task, they feel like a chore. Yet we may think that we've simply outgrown them. Oh, my goodness, how many times have we say I don't really want to do that anymore? I don't think I like to do that anymore. Our mind is so interesting in how it can convince us of things and we are not even aware of it that maybe it's not that you've outgrown it or you don't have time to do it. You're just so overwhelmed that it has impacted you that you now lost joy.
Speaker 1:Next, what if it looks like perpetual self-criticism and high expectations, expectations, the unrealistic expectations that you have put on yourself, that you constantly feel like you're failing. And you may not say it outwardly, but it's that internal struggle, the one maybe you don't share with anybody, not realizing that you are not making the mark, not because you are inadequate, but because you simply are burnt out, that you simply are not hitting the mark because of this internal pressure that you've placed on yourself let's keep going, pressure that you've placed on yourself, let's keep going. What about hidden signs of overwhelm looking like over-responsibility and boundary erosion? We're saying yes to everything out of habit or out of that yucky feeling we call guilt. Causes you to feel obligated to take care of others while neglecting your own needs, without realizing that you are even imbalanced, that it can have your thoughts so distorted that you don't even see it.
Speaker 1:Second or seventh, physical signs being overlooked. When we have hidden signs of overwhelm, we will overlook and dismiss fatigue you are chronically fatigued, but you keep pushing, or you have headaches, muscle tension in your neck, in your shoulders, in your back, or just simple and overlooking or dismissing these as minor inconveniences, rather than the body trying to warn you, to say hey, pay attention to me, I am overwhelmed. Number eight relying on external validation, where we seek constantly reassurance from our accomplishments, those work accomplishments. We seek it from social media, looking for likes or comments or responses, seeking the validation of relationships getting upset when people don't do it, unaware that it's a coping mechanism for feeling overwhelmed. Did you notice that? Did you even consider that that actually could be one of the signs that you are overwhelmed? Instead, we end up being disappointed or frustrated, or feeling isolated or that we don't belong.
Speaker 1:All of these other emotional experiences may come up. What about this one? Difficulties sleeping or resting, and for some of us we may say, natalie, I do find sleeping, but how do you do with resting, where you may actually struggle to wind down, that you might actually experience racing thoughts at night. You wake up in the night and your thoughts are going and actually dismissing it as just normal, normal stress, normal things to deal with, rather than seeing this as a sign of deeper overwhelm or even avoidance and procrastinationination, where we may put off tasks, conversations, decisions because they feel too draining, but not realizing that this is actually due to what?
Speaker 1:Emotional and mental exhaustion, feeling on edge constantly. You notice you're more irritable, you're more impatient. You actually may just say that's my personality or that's just the way I have become, rather than saying you know what. This actually may be a sign of overwhelm when you've lost creativity and focus and you find it's hard to think clearly, come up with new ideas or stay engaged in something, but not connected to what?
Speaker 1:Mental fatigue, comparing ourselves constantly, comparing ourselves to other people, measuring our success to them, leaving you to feel inadequate, measuring yourself to the woman you used to be, without realizing that you're not her anymore, and sometimes we even compare ourselves to who we think we should be, thus leaving us with this greater sense of self-doubt, neglect of self self-care, not prioritizing things like movement, healthy meals, downtime, because we feel we don't have time. Not recognizing that when we are not prioritizing our self-care, we are compounding the impact of overwhelm on our overall well-being. And, lastly, a hidden sign of overwhelm that you may not have realized is relying on coping mechanisms that don't serve you. Now, we all have to find ways to cope, we all have to find ways to get through and, by habit, we rely on old habits and old patterns and old programming old programming. But what if indulging in social media, binge watching shows, emotional eating, are actually ways that we are escaping, rather than us recognizing the underlining feelings of overwhelm and positioning ourselves to find a new way to be open to learning something new. Find a new way to be open to learning something new.
Speaker 1:These subtle signs of overwhelm could very well be impacting your life that, over time, they'll accumulate, they'll make it more difficult to even pinpoint what's going on, and you may find yourself in a state where you're not fully able to have mental, emotional, spiritual well-being, that you're not able to give to the world in the ways that you want, you're not able to do the things that you enjoy and be with the people that you love, and I've seen this so many times. But I've also seen it with myself, which is why I'm so passionate about sharing it with you, because I want to see something change for you, and I invite you, if you saw yourself in any of these things, to look for ways to change this, whether it looks like engaging in an activity that you once enjoyed and allowing yourself to feel whatever you feel about that, to be immersed in it, to allow yourself to take a break, even if it's just for a moment, to go do something new, something that you had on your list years ago and you never did years ago, and you never did. Allowing it to do that, to find moments to have stillness, silence. What I've learned is that in stillness and silence, you create a flow, a flow for God to move. So being able to do that, treating yourself to something it doesn't have to be big, it just has to be intentional Finding a way to move your body, considering some new eating habits, going and scheduling the appointment for the doctor that you've been putting off, doing something different can help.
Speaker 1:And if you find yourself with many of those symptoms and you say, natalie, I need a little more support, I encourage you to do that. Whether it looks like finding a therapist or a life coach, that can really help you to restructure your mindset but also create new habits and understand what's underneath the behavior, Whether it's going on a retreat, a wellness retreat, a spiritual retreat. It could just be a sisterhood connection retreat. Whatever that is for you, I invite you if you see yourself in many of those symptoms, it requires more of you to do something different. What we know for sure, though if you don't change anything, nothing will change, and you'll find yourself in that cycle of overwhelm. But I know there's more for you, and I know, because you showed up today, there is a part of you that is calling for more, more peace, more joy, more abundance, more health, more relationships. All of those parts, all of those things are being called forth for you, and I want to see that happen for you, and I encourage you to find a book, if that helps you, a podcast. Do something, because if we don't change anything, nothing will happen. I'm hopeful that these hidden signs of overwhelm bring some enlightenment and some awareness, but I'm also hopeful that they are a call to action. It calls you forth into doing something different, and that change starts now.
Speaker 1:Until the next episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman, thank you for being here. I look forward to seeing you there Until then. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. If you liked our show and want to know more, check us out at wwwawakentothenumber2powercom. You can also leave us a review on iTunes and we would love to hear your feedback. Join us next week for another episode of Awaken your Inner Whole Woman. Your inner whole woman.