About The Overwhelmed Brain
The Overwhelmed Brain blog and podcast is a personal growth portal designed for those who want to better their lives by questioning what doesn’t work and changing behavior that doesn’t serve them anymore. If you have the desire for a more emotionally stable, happier life, this show will help to empower you to forge the path to that destination.
We are bombarded with thoughts, emotions, and an unending series of unpredictable events. The Overwhelmed Brain was created to give you specific, purposeful steps to help you improve your life and empower you to make the right decisions. You won’t find any rehashed, regurgitated self-help teachings or new age mysticism here, just practical and sometimes radical steps that guide you to fulfillment.
As critical as that may sound toward popular authors and speakers, I am not against anything that works. In other words, if psychics help you become fulfilled then keep using psychics. If energy healers help you cure your ailments then keep using energy healers. If religion is your path to happiness then stay religious!
Always do what works for you and not necessarily what you’re told to do.
But do it armed with knowledge.
That’s why I approach personal growth from a critical thinking perspective. Critical thinking is about learning, questioning and being skeptical, even about your own beliefs. When you question what you believe, you either reinforce what you know to be true or find out a different truth you weren’t aware of before, causing you to make better decisions for yourself. Either way you win and your life will improve regardless of old beliefs or subconscious programming.
When you combine critical thinking with personal growth, you not only learn and grow faster, you understand how to repeat the process and teach it to others. Learning about your own and other people’s behavior in general is a fascinating, life-long process. But learning how to repeat successful behavior is a recipe for happiness.
If you want to increase in your emotional intelligence, strengthen your self-worth and self-esteem, learn how to show up in the world as your authentic self, get into alignment with what you value most, and build the courage to honor your personal boundaries, you’re in the right place!
Remember, you are amazing! If you ever need a reminder of that, come back anytime.
About Me
My story starts back in 2005 when I went through a breakup of a 13 year relationship. It was quite a shock to my system. One night she told me she no longer loved me. The next day, she moved out. And shortly afterwards, I fell into a depression.
I got hit pretty hard. I didn’t realize how much I took being in a relationship for granted. I didn’t see any of the warning signs. The first few months of my depression, I was just trying to stay afloat. I didn’t really have my own identity without her in my life. So I wandered around aimlessly for awhile.
I kept working, but it was always dark and lonely inside my head. After a few months of this, I realized the best course of action would be to just meet someone new and replace the person that left me. Well, I did meet someone and we hit it off right away. She lived 3000 miles away, so I had no clue how it was going to work out. But after we met in person, we knew we had to be together (none of this long-distance relationship stuff). A few months later I moved to California to be with her.
After living together a while, we realized there was one big problem that was affecting our relationship: I was still depressed!
Depression was hitting me pretty hard which made her think she might be better off without me. So one night she told me she wanted to leave. That news put me into shock and I felt my life crashing around me again. In that moment, I had what you might call a breakdown. Suddenly, everything I hated about my life came out in tears.
I fell to my knees and cried out all the hatred and sadness inside of me. It was the first time I’d ever expressed any of that to anyone. I never even realized I had it in me. Years of repressed childhood fear and anger from growing up in an alcoholic home poured out of me until I was exhausted.
After I was done crying, I felt different… lighter. Something shifted inside me. It was a glimpse of what it felt like to be without hate and anger, and I felt just a tiny bit less depressed than I did hours before.
After my tears dried I felt peaceful. My depression wasn’t over by any means, but I realized that by expressing what was truly on my mind, it made a huge, positive impact on my emotional well-being. So I started a journey of personal growth, learning about human behavior and how we communicate. I studied and became certified in brain sciences such as hypnosis and neuro-linguistics. I picked up meditation techniques on how to clear my mind and be present. And as I was healing myself, I discovered how to communicate with others in such a way that they would also transform.
I ended up marrying the woman I broke down in front of. She was incredibly loving and caring, just the type of person I needed at that time. However, our marriage could not survive my healing journey. I was toxic and it was disintegrating her love for me. As my issues were disappearing, which were one of the main causes of the problems in our relationship, her love for me waned. And as I healed, I grew closer and more in love with her than ever before. But she soon revealed to me that she was no longer in love with me at all.
The end of my marriage was a powerful wake up call and a true test of everything I was learning about myself.
It seems that at the peak of any type of personal growth and development is a challenge that tests just how much we’ve actually “evolved”. I learned the hard way that sometimes a true shift into something greater involves the loss of something great. I’ve lost some great things in my life which have shaped me into the person I’ve always wanted to be. But I’ve also learned to stay mindful and present, and be at peace even during times of suffering.
I’ve also been able to connect more with my deeper emotions and have learned to embrace both the feminine and masculine aspects inside of me (we all have both within us). It is this balance, along with practicing presence and showing up in the world authentically that has brought more fulfillment into my life than anything ever has.
I don’t claim perfection or enlightenment, just more awareness today than I had yesterday and to learn more tomorrow than I know today.
My purpose with The Overwhelmed Brain is to help you break through your negative stream of thoughts to empower you to make decisions that are right for you. I do this through the podcast, coaching sessions, books and worksheets, the TOB Patron Program, and the blog.
Reach Out!
If you have questions about the show or my coaching services, or would like to send me an email for any reason, click here to contact me.
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And remember, you are amazing!
Paul Colaianni
Host of The Overwhelmed Brain podcast
Personal Empowerment Coach
Atlanta, GA
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