Landy Peek (00:07.726)
Hey there, it's Landy here. And hey there, it's your friend Landy here.
Landy Peek (00:18.168)
Hey there, it's Landy here. The friend you're...
Hey there, it's Landy here. So I wanna talk about overwhelm tonight because I think it's such a huge thing for so many of us. And I saw this post recently that got me thinking. It said something like, me, I'm overwhelmed. Also me, I want to expand my garden, get chickens, start beekeeping, bake my own bread, grow flowers, and be completely self-sufficient.
I mean, haven't we all been there? Feeling totally swamped and wanting something more? And that seems counterintuitive, right? To add more to our already overflowing plates. But I have a theory. Hear me out. I think it's not really about more. It's about feeding our souls.
It's not really about more. It's about feeding our souls. Look at the activities. Gardening, keeping chickens, beekeeping, baking bread. They all bring us back to our roots, back to something more basic, more grounding. They're hands-on, multi-sensory experiences that really connect us to the world.
And I think that's what we're missing. So often and so many of us have so much of our worlds virtually. So we're missing those deep connections. We're missing using our hands. We're missing the multi-sensory components with the smells and the taste. We're missing the multi-sensory components with the smells and the tastes and the feels and the textures, right?
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And I was here. So in early 2024, I was really overwhelmed and not exactly loving my life. So we decided to step back and I've talked about this earlier and I tried these things, not because they saw them in a post, but because this is what my heart was calling. I already had chickens and I knew that spending time with my chickens were highlights of my day. So we started doing more of that.
I started going back and really thinking about what made me happy. What were the things that I was craving? I did play in my garden. I went back to baking bread and it was transformative. It wasn't about the specific tasks or activities themselves. It was about the joy they brought me. It was about the change in pace. It was about, and all of those tasks,
allow our brains to turn off a little bit. And all of those tasks allow our brains to turn down the noise that we're constantly hearing. It's, I found it was really about having space and allowing creativity to flow. And as long as I had, and as long as I continued in the way that I was living,
where I was rushing through things, getting up early, trying to cram in the workouts, then trying to get the kids ready for school. And that's no easy feat, as it's a constant push, dropping them off, running to work, spent my whole day on the computer or on my phone, hunched over. I wasn't giving myself time to get into the sun. I wasn't giving myself space. I was working through my lunch, and then I'd go pick up the kids.
And then it was afterschool activities and getting them ready for bed and, and then it was afterschool activities and dinner and getting them ready for bed and making sure whatever homework needed to be done. And it started over and I had no space to breathe and I had no space for really me. Although I did have the activities that were me focused working out, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't a slow pace.
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where I fully enjoyed it and I could fully immerse myself in it. And my husband and I have talked about that self-sufficient piece and wouldn't it be amazing to just live off the land, being in tune with nature, having those fulfilling experiences on a daily basis, where your brain isn't so overloaded with so much information, where your brain isn't overloaded with so much information.
It feels like it's constantly short-circuiting. I remember last year, my daughter teasing me because I called the refrigerator the microwave. Can you please get the water out of the microwave? My brain was just overloaded with so many to-dos and so much information that is just constantly coming at us. We are overwhelmed and overloaded.
And it's not about wanting more. It's not about finding those things that feed your soul. It's not about wanting more. It's about finding those things that feed your soul. So a couple of years ago, when I first moved to Colorado, I was at a crossroads. I didn't really want to jump back into a brick and mortar practice. Even though I enjoyed my coaching clients, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to jump fully virtual. And I remember talking to a friend.
who asked me if you could do anything, what would you want to do? Without even thinking, I said, I want to play with my chickens, be in nature, hike every day, just connect. And she then said, well, why can't you do that? Why not have therapy chickens? And wouldn't that be amazing, therapy chickens? I would love to do that at some point. But my answer wasn't about work and what I should be doing for my career. It was about a craving for those simple things.
It was about a craving for being grounded and having activities that brought me joy and fulfillment on a daily basis. What I wanted to do was bring more of that into my life. And I didn't see it then, but I see it now.
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So when you're feeling overwhelmed, get curious. Maybe it's not about cutting out things, but about finding those soul feeding activities that make you feel alive.
It made me think how much better my life was and how much it made me think about how much better I felt when I was doing these things. And so in early 2024, I hit the reset button and I pulled back from work and I did go back to my roots. It just took me a little bit of time to get there from that conversation with my friend. And I spent more time doing the things that
I felt were my roots. So I pulled back from work and went back to my roots.
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I spent more time in the garden, something I often did with my mom and grandmas when I was little, and I loved it. I baked bread, again a love from when I was a baker with Great Harvest. I brought back art and music and movement for fun. So I spent my day glued to the computer or the phone, hunched over.
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So I spent my day glued to the computer or my phone, hunched over, stressed out, just consuming more and more information as I was also sharing more and more information. And even though I had worked from home, I didn't get outside nearly as much as I should. As I transitioned, I had to make a conscious effort to go outside, to sit in the sun during my lunch, to collect eggs.
Even taking my dogs for a walk made a huge difference in how I felt. And it wasn't about doing things and checking off boxes. It was about what felt good. And we're all craving something that fills our soul, that brings us joy and light. And let's be real, our days are packed. For instance, how many of us get up early, squeeze in a workout before we have to go to work or get the kids up?
And then it's off to the races with back-to-back things all throughout our day. How many different emails are you feel, how many different emails are you fielding? How many different phone calls? How many different faces are you seeing throughout the day? How much information, how much different conflict are you having to, to resolve? And we go through without a breath and then end the day and it starts over the next day. And we never have time.
to breathe and we never sit in silence. We never have time to think and we've lost that time to be creative. How many balls are you constantly juggling? How many lists are you keeping in your head all the time? Work duties, school schedules, kids schedules, partner schedules, chores. My lists are crazy and it's just some of the simple daily tasks.
Making sure lunches are done, making sure kids have snacks, making sure their water bottles are full, making sure they're wearing appropriate clothing, making sure they brush their teeth. Those are just the kids things. And then it's going into what kind of activities, appointments do we have? What kind of maintenance things do we need to do? Do the dogs need vaccinations? All of those things, I'm keeping a running track in my head on a constant basis. And I'm guessing you're doing something similar. And that's what's overwhelming.
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That's what's exhausting.
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And so many of our, and often our days are filled with surprises. For me, my husband doesn't have a consistent schedule. So I don't have a, go in at eight, you're home by six. It changes. And often it changes day of I'll get a call that says, I'll get a call from my husband where he's in as I'm heading to Memphis at 4pm. And all of a sudden I think, crap. Now what?
I now have to do both kids picked up from school, take them to wherever they need to go. Instead of having a split, instead of being able to split and say, you've got her and I've got him, I'm now juggling both. And that means I'm doing dinner on my own and bedtime on my own. And it's not a complaint. It's just all of those little things add up. All of those little things add to our overwhelm. And those are just the things. And then we've got on top of that,
all of the emotional components. And many times as moms, and since I'm a mom, that's my role and that's what I know. And so that's I'll speak to. But I think it also applies to parents and caregivers and humans is that we do tap into the emotions of other people, right? So if I drop my kids off and they're all happy to go to school, it makes my day better. If I drop my kids off and they're crying and they don't wanna go,
I feel yucky after I drop them off. That again adds to my overwhelm. Then there's all of the other emotional stuff that's going on in the day and the people. And we share because we need to. We share because it helps us process. But we're also taking on everybody else's complaints, everybody else's struggles, everybody else's whatever it is. It adds up. And then we haven't even tapped into our own stuff. And we are our worst
critics. And so we're looking in the mirror and we're tearing ourselves down and saying, my gosh, that gray hair, those wrinkles, that tummy, all of those things then add to our overwhelm because it feels like we can't change them. It feels like when can I have enough time to actually change how I eat or change how I act or change how I work out or whatever it is, right? Because then it feels so overwhelming.
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because the thought of change is scary and just too much right now. And I get that, I feel that in a really big way. And so as we have our emotional tolls, as we have all of that emotional baggage that we're carrying around,
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that we're carrying around. also have the daily insecurities. You know, I, when I first was working on this podcast, I had five episodes done the first five that are released. And I sent a private link to my best friend and to my aunt. And I hit send. sent it by text. I hit send. And I literally had the sensation that I needed to throw up. Why?
These two people were some of these two people are incredible supports and love me for who I am and are not judgmental and are probably my builders and are some of my biggest builder uppers and are some of my biggest cheerleaders. But I still felt so insecure because what were they going to think? This feels really big to me. And then actually putting it out in public.
So we have a lot of those that go throughout and it adds up into that overwhelm. And so if you think about it, if you think about all of the things we're holding on, if you think about all of the different things that we're thinking about, if you think about all of the things that we're carrying, all the things we have to remember, all the things we have to think about, all the things that we have to do,
all of the input that we're getting through social media, through the news, through the radio, right? It's a constant barrage. So think about your day in that constant barrage and then hit pause just for a moment and just imagine with me, you're out in the garden. You can hear the birds, the sun on your face, on your back and your
Planting plants, digging in the garden, pulling weeds, whatever it is.
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And then maybe hear the chickens or see them scratching and moving, see them scratching and pecking at the ground. And then maybe shift and go to.
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And then there are chickens just wandering around pecking and scratching and clicking. And maybe you come inside from.
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So how did that change? So as you shifted images from your day to being in the garden with chickens nearby, what changed inside of you?
Now, what if, because I know gardening's not for everyone, now picture yourself inside baking bread. If you haven't tried it, it's so much fun. So the process is really methodical and calming, mixing the ingredients together, the smells, the textures. And then the lovely thing about bread is it has natural wait times for you.
So can either utilize those wait times as self time or bounce back and forth between different activities. The bread has to rise. You're gonna have to shape it. Then you bake it. And it's such an incredibly sensory experience. The kneading, the smells in the oven and.
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the kneading and the smells in the oven. It's an incredible experience. But notice again, as I describe baking bread, what happens in your body as you just imagine that you're there in the kitchen, maybe with an apron on and you're creating something.
And then as the timer of the bread goes off, your kitchen is filled with this incredible smell of freshly baked bread. You cut yourself a warm slice or a cup of tea or coffee and maybe sit outside on the deck and just enjoy. Maybe you share that bread with your family.
I have a neighbor who does just this. He loves making sourdough bread. He works from home and he makes bread throughout the day. And because bread has such a lovely balance of active doing, bread doing its own thing and you can do something else, it fits in his day. And so he'll do the starter and then he goes and works as it rises. then, so he does the starter and then goes and works and then
And so between each step, he goes and works and then comes back. And at the end of the day, when everyone comes home, there's a loaf of bread waiting. And he said, it gives him those moments of peace, the moments to disengage his brain, the moments where his view shifts. Those little moments, those are the big things. So can you feel the difference in the pace?
Landy Peek (19:19.96)
So those moments are big things and take a nice deep breath. You can create those moments of calm in your own life. You really can without adding anything else, without the feel of adding to your plate. Did you notice the feel of the difference in pace? Like the world slows down for a bit, right? We're not here to pile on more stress.
We're all about finding that peace, those moments that feed our soul and help us breathe a little easier. Think about it. Doesn't it just make sense to seek out these moments? Whether you're into art or photography or pottery, notice how your body feels or remember how your body feels and you feel. Remember how your brain and body feels when you immerse yourself in these activities.
Maybe it's dance or yoga or a simple walk around the block. Not for exercise, but just for the joy of being out. Our bodies and minds are craving this slower pace. And I've been giving myself this time. I've built this in. Our garden is absolutely amazing this year. We have our chickens. I've been baking bread, filling the house with those delicious smells, taking time to bake goodies and
sitting in silence. Now, I know sitting in silence can sound scary, but it was actually quite life changing for me. At first, it felt really uncomfortable, but I had realized I was one filled space with sound constantly. And if I didn't have external sounds going on, I had internal sounds.
I would sing in my head or hum. And if I went for a walk or a run, I had a podcast. If I went for a, if I was driving, if I went for a walk or run, I had a podcast going. When I'm driving in the car alone, I have the radio on or a podcast going. And when I'm cooking in the kitchen, I have music going. It's constant sound. And I never gave myself the moment of silence.
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I was also the one who standing in a line. was now scrolling on my phone, had a minute, had a minute to wait for the kids in pickup. If I had a minute to wait for the kids at pickup, I'm reading on my phone. I was not giving myself space at all. My brain wanted, I was not giving myself, I was not giving myself space at all.
So I brought in a practice of silence and I got to tell you, at first it was really uncomfortable. I set a timer for five minutes and I noticed that in that first five minutes, my brain was going like crazy. It's like, it, fill it, fill it. And I kept at it just five minutes, nothing huge, but this means silence means nothing else.
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No reading, no... It means nothing else. It means you and silence. No engaging in books, no gardening while you're doing silence, like sitting there in silence. Because we don't give ourselves that space. And it became incredible. That time in silence turned into something really powerful for me. It was a space where I could truly reflect, recharge, and be creative.
Some of my most aha moments started to come in that silence. The times that I was feeling frustrated or angsty, the solutions came in the silence. It was really incredible just to see how five minutes started to change how I felt inside. And so then I increased it. So then I increased it. I started with five, gradually went up to 10.
and then 20 and 20 is my typical morning silence.
And as I sat with no distractions, just me alone with my thoughts.
It was so incredibly life-changing and how I felt inside. I was allowing myself to ground. was allowing my brain to, I was allowing my brain space to think beyond just the push, push, push.
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You remember, do you remember back before we had cell phones, how much creative daydreaming time we had? You know, you'd wait in the grocery store line or in the pickup, you'd wait in the grocery store line or at a doctor's office or wherever you were waiting. You didn't have a phone to play on. And so you let your mind wander.
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So you'd let your mind wander. Remember way back before we had cell phones, when we'd have to wait in the grocery store line and you could either chat with somebody nearby, flip through a magazine maybe, or let your mind wander and daydream. We've lost a lot of that daydreaming time. We're now glued to our phones. We spend our moments.
We spend those moments of time that we have space scrolling through Instagram or Googling random stuff. One of my favorite escapes is going up to mountains where there is no cell service because I can completely unplug.
So what I'd invite for you to do, to combat that overwhelm, because we all have those moments of time, right? This isn't adding something to your day. When you're sitting there in the pickup line for your kids, instead of scrolling, turn everything off and give yourself the few moments of silence. Let yourself daydream. Or my daughter is an incredible artist.
and she takes a sketch pad everywhere she goes and she's incredible at in those few moments of waiting she pulls out her sketch pad and she
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She pulls out her sketch pad and she starts to draw. And it's not that she has the intention of finishing a drawing. I think we get stuck so much in that cycle of we can only, I think we get so stuck in the thought process that we can only start something when we can finish it. And I know why, and I'll explain it in a And I know why our brains do this, and I'll explain it in just a minute.
But for the overwhelm, for feeling that sense of joy and grounding, we're not looking to complete something. We're looking for the sensations, the feel. And so pulling out and carrying a sketchbook with you where you can draw in those five minutes that you're waiting if you're an artist. Maybe it is turning on music and moving your body. Maybe it is sitting in silence, but these are times in your day that are already there.
instead of picking up the phone and
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Instead of picking up the phone and scrolling, what about giving yourself something that feeds your soul? Our life can be a whirlwind and it does feel like there's a never ending
And it does feel like there's a never ending list of stuff and there's never enough time to hit pause or dive into something soul nourishing. You don't have to overhaul your whole life. It's just finding these minutes, these moments that are already there, that you're already waiting, that you can start creating those soul nourishing activities.
that you can start filling with those soul nourishing activities. Just for five minutes, it's gonna make a huge difference.
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So if you're thinking, I hear you, but I don't have time for that. Well, that's actually a sign that you need it more than ever. You don't have time to carve out huge chunks. I get it. Start small.
bake bread during the day. If you're working from home, take those five minutes to draw.
hit a time, set a timer for five minutes or pull up a song on YouTube and dance your heart out. We all have those spaces in our day. It's just really taking, we all have those spaces in our day that we're not using in best way. It's finding those little times that are the start to shifting your overwhelm. Now, if you do have time in your week and look at it as a week to do something bigger,
start figuring out what you could do. I used to work for a great harvest bread company and this is when I worked for the franchise and the culture was incredible because I used to work for great harvest bread company. This is the franchise not an actual bakery. I did work in bakeries as well but the culture was where the culture was all about staying active. So during our lunch breaks everyone
would go for a run or hit the gym. The culture was to use your lunch break to be active. And then we'd come back and eat during our first meeting after lunch. And everyone was doing it. And it was fulfilling. It helped us recharge. And it probably made us more productive.
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So maybe it's not about a daily activity. Maybe it is about finding something that you can look forward to each week.
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So I talked about maybe it's not about a daily activity that you're fitting in. Maybe it's that you want to find something that you look forward to each week. Maybe it's finding that Saturday morning thing or Sunday morning thing or afternoon thing where you go for a bike ride, where you are able to bake bread or bake cookies, right? So I had mentioned before about why our brains want
about why our brains don't want to start an activity unless we can finish it. So it all comes down to the feel good chemicals. It all comes down to the feel good dopamine and serotonin boosts. Those are what makes us feel good, right? With the anticipation of completing a task. So this is the hardest thing. And I think one of the biggest struggles I had as a new mom with little littles
is I never could finish a task. I was always interrupted. So I would start an activity, say laundry. I'd have that little bit of boost of serotonin and dopamine going, I'm gonna finish this. And then something happens and I don't. when I was taken away from that activity,
I had a mini crash of that serotonin and dopamine. It's like ripped away. And so if we're going through our day constantly, talk about overwhelm, a constant overwhelm of I'm going to finish this. Nope. All that feel good was just ripped away. And it's a constant thing. Activity after activity after activity.
And many of us are living our days like that. The slight up boost of I'm going to finish it. And the rip away of nope, didn't happen. And at the end of the day, you sit there you're like, well, have a bunch of like partially done things, but nothing's completed because when you complete something, you get a big serotonin and dopamine hit. I feel good. So one of the things that I learned in helping with overwhelm.
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is I break down tasks. I stopped saying, I'm going to fold laundry. I started saying, I'm going to just fold the towels. And once I got the towels done, then I could move to the next small task. But I got that mini celebration in my brain each time I finished something. And those little celebrations of dopamine and serotonin, those little boosts helped me keep going.
And so I never put anything big on my to-do lists and I am a to-do list person. Any of you ever noticed with the to-do lists and that serotonin and dopamine, if you don't have it on the list, but you did it, you write it down, I'm big on this, write it down and then cross it out. My husband will get grumpy at me if he did something on the list and I crossed it out. It's because that completion, that serotonin and dopamine, wha, when we complete the task,
That's what we're looking for. And so if we allow ourselves to chunk activities, we get more of those hits. And as we get more of those hits, we feel better throughout our day.
It's when we try to do everything at once, we end up feeling like we barely made a dent. And that's.
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So I invite you to look at what's overwhelming you. Not in a big sense, don't get overwhelmed by the overwhelm, but see what you can chunk into smaller tasks. And it's not saying that you can't do the tasks right after each other, right? I might fold all the laundry in one sitting, but I still just gave myself, I'm gonna fold the towels. Okay, now I'm going for all the socks and I'm pulling out each thing, right? But I have, if I get interrupted,
I have checks going along. So look at the tasks. What can you chunk into smaller tasks? What can get you that, yes, I finished it. Amazing feel multiple times a day.
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me
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So here are my two biggest takeaways. So here are my two biggest takeaways for today. First, find something that feeds your soul. It could be anything, taking a walk by yourself, sitting in silence for five minutes, basking in the sun, baking bread. I, one of the things that I found that didn't really add anything to my, one of the things that I found was plants.
I love having plants all over my house, basking in the sun, gardening. Okay, wait.
So here are my big takeaways for today. First, find something that feeds your soul. It could be anything. Taking a walk by yourself, sitting in silence for five minutes, basking in the sun, baking something, gardening, art, dance, yoga. It really doesn't matter, but it gives you that pause, it gives you that downshift, it gives you that feel of joy, contentment, and grounding.
For me, it's become plants. I love having plants all over my house. Watering them doesn't take that long. It's not a big commitment, but it gives me those moments in my week to connect, to really breathe, to pause. The next thing I'd love for you to take away is breaking down those tasks. I no longer say on my list,
Get the podcast out. I no longer say on my list, get the podcast episode out. Instead, I outline each separate task. Outline the podcast, record it, edit it, transcribe, write the show notes, upload. Each step has its own check, check, check, which gives my brain those mini celebrations.
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That's making me feel better throughout my day. So I'm giving myself things that feed my soul. Watering plants doesn't take long. I'm giving myself the serotonin and dopamine hits that make me feel better throughout my day. And it's in those little things that can change the overwhelm. It's not about adding more to your plate or feeling guilty because you want to do these things when life doesn't give you those options.
It's feeding your soul with small meaningful activities. It's breaking down those tasks into manageable chunks. Doing this, you'll feel more productive. You'll feel better and you'll feel less overwhelmed. And sometimes it's all about the little wins, not anything big. So I really want to thank you for hanging out with me today. I so appreciate it. And I want you to hear, because I think it's so important for us all to hear.
that you are such an incredible human. You're kind, you're fun, you are thoughtful, you are courageous, and you are strong. And I am so glad that you are in my life. I love you and I like you. And I wish you all the happiness. We'll talk to you on the next episode.
