The Overwhelmed Brain

Emotional Intelligence for Critical Thinkers

The Decision to Leave or Stay in the Relationship

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Can you accept the behaviors of those you love? If not, are you still in the relationship?

You have a choice to walk away from the behaviors you can’t accept in life, or stay and accept them. In the end, what you really want is closure. Knowing the direction you need to take is a much more powerful place than waiting for something to happen. Lingering is no fun.

Click on the play button above the video to listen to the entire episode or choose to read it below. By the time you’re done, you’ll know if you’ve reached full acceptance of the people in your life, and if you are choosing to suffer or not.

When it comes to accepting what is, or not accepting, one choice leads to suffering and the other does not. [Read more…]

How your needs drive your behavior and motivation

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Are all of your needs met? Do you know why you make the decisions you do?

Our needs motivate our behavior. If you respond to life’s events from a low level of survival, it’ll be more difficult to succeed in a loving relationship or keep steady employment or even gain a level of self-esteem and confidence. Let alone being able to pursue your hobby and passions.  [Read more…]

Personal Boundaries: Protect and Honor Who You Are at Your Core

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Boundaries are the rules we set up that dictate the people and experiences we allow into our lives. These rules also drive our decisions and behaviors, so that we can achieve a certain level of comfort and stability.

In other words, if you feel comfortable with someone, you share and give more of yourself. You can allow yourself to be more authentic, and feel vulnerable yet safe. These are the people you allow into what I like to call your “castle walls.”

If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, and they’re asking or pressuring you into doing things you don’t want to do, these are the people you keep out beyond the moat that surrounds your castle. You don’t let them cross the drawbridge, because if you do you’ll certainly compromise the integrity of your castle.

[Read more…]

Getting Past Your Past

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The residue of negative emotions after a significant event happens in your life can become consuming and controlling. They can affect your perspectives, the decisions you make, the people you connect with, and even your health.

So why do we hold on to negative emotions of an event from the past? What keeps something like anger, sadness, and other negative states around for weeks, or even years? The answer is: [Read more…]

What Is The Meaning Of Life? Oh, THAT Question Again…

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When using Google to search for the term: “the meaning of life”, there are roughly 4.7 billion results. When you exclude the term “monty” from the search, you see a significant drop to just over 7.8 million.

The meaning of life is...
The meaning of life is…

Aside from the obvious implication that the Monty Python movie is more popular than the actual philosophical question that has been tossed around for centuries, and that many books, articles, and TV shows have some version of that phrase in their titles, it is still one of the most sought after, but hardly ever attained answers to the question:

What is the meaning of life?

At The Overwhelmed Brain, I look at how everything relates to becoming overwhelmed and stressed. And, how to transform those things into clarity and peace. And I truly believe that when you are able to find your purpose, and the meaning of your own existence, you will not experience overwhelm or stress anymore – at least in the same way.

Acting from a place of purpose gives what you are experiencing an entirely different meaning. For example, if you had unwavering faith that something you were doing was not only the right thing to do, but also made you feel passionate and alive doing it, would you be as easily stressed?

[Read more…]