The Overwhelmed Brain - podcast cover

The Overwhelmed Brain

Paul Colaiannisites.libsyn.com
Get to the root of emotional issues and learn the best way to relate to yourself and others by honoring your personal boundaries and making decisions that are in alignment with what's most important to you. This is not a "common-sense" personal growth and development show. You won't be told to think positively or create affirmations. The Overwhelmed Brain is about accessing that deeper mental and emotional strength inside you so that you can decrease or even eliminate old fears and evolve into the person you want to be. Learn what your parents or caretakers never taught you about emotional wellness and creating strong, non-toxic bonds with others. If you want the exact instructions that will help improve your life, you're in the right place.
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Episodes

The best kind of relationship is the one where you can be yourself

Romantic relationships can create some of the most complex emotional challenges in your life. From heartful to heartache, from elated to deflated, relationships bring us through a roller coaster of emotions until we are either fulfilled or completely drained. It doesn't have to be that way. Sometimes the right tools and the right mindset can create relationships that don't have to be so difficult. In fact, they can be wonderful when you know how to deal with the challenges that show up.

Jul 04, 20211 hr 27 minEp. 411

When you don't want to deal with someone else's fears, worries, and anxiety anymore

It's a challenge to stay present for someone who is so down and out. Sometimes you go into your own "stuff" trying to help them with theirs. It's the curse of many highly sensitive people, and certainly difficult for almost any empathetic person. But there are ways to do this, and sometimes it's necessary if the person you are there for just can't get out of their upset.

Jun 27, 202151 minEp. 410

Sometimes the best healing and growth takes place away from other people

We can create our own dysfunction but be so jaded by those around us that we can't think clearly enough to stop toxic or hurtful behavior. There's a time when you have to get away from other people so that the fog can lift and you can think clearly. It is during those times when a lot of healing can take place.

Jun 20, 20211 hr 2 minEp. 409

The inside the box thinking that keeps your emotional triggers alive

Many unresolved emotions sit outside the box of current thinking. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” When you aren't getting the results you want today, or you find yourself easily triggered by certain events or people, you may be carrying around old baggage that perhaps requires a level of thinking just outside the box. If you don't want to go outside that box, it could be why you're stuck.

Jun 13, 202152 minEp. 408

What fills the holes left behind when people leave you or die?

When someone you care about leaves or dies, there is a space inside you where they used to be. Your identity was wrapped up with them. They were a part of you. And because of that, when they're gone, you can feel lost. You can feel lonely within even when you're around others. It's important to start filling that space with something that gives you meaning and purpose.

Jun 06, 20211 hrEp. 407

Is it always necessary to dive into the past to heal old traumas?

Where should you start when it comes to healing old stuff from the past? Should you do a deep dive into your childhood, bringing up all kinds of memories and traumas that you may or may not have repeated to therapists over and over again? Or should you talk about how it bothers you today and see if someone can help you gain a new perspective? What about skipping over the trauma and just looking at what behavior came out of it? There's a path you can take to reverse old emotional triggers just by...

May 30, 20211 hr 18 minEp. 406

The part you play when you get terrible results

There's a cause and effect to patterns of behavior that, if you don't recognize the relationship of those behaviors to the results you're getting, you may be creating results that you don't want. However, when you find out just what you're doing that might be causing you to sabotage your own happiness, you might be able to turn things around.

May 23, 20211 hr 5 minEp. 405

Self-reliance, self-respect, and a mindset to go along with it

A single thought can change everything. Your perception relies on your mindset which relies on your thoughts. This is a multi-faceted episode covering three different topics but reminding you of the importance of self-respect, creating access to inner resources, and how being around the wrong people can take away both.

May 09, 20211 hr 16 minEp. 403

The hidden emotions that may be inside you and you don't know it

Most people aren't taught emotional intelligence in their upbringing. And because of that, there are often lingering negative emotions hanging around inside us that might need to be addressed if we're going to experience a life without the burden of anxiety, depression, and emotional triggers. Getting out of anxiety and depression are often not easy tasks, but there is an angle I take today that might give you a good start.

May 02, 20211 hr 8 minEp. 402

Closing the door so that you can stop overthinking and start moving forward

Sometimes you have no idea why someone did something that hurt or affected you somehow, and you just have to know the reason. You may never find out because they won't share that reason. I call this an open loop. It's how we become obsessed with certain thoughts that we can't get closure for. When this happens, life can seem to stop, and anxiety and depression have a higher chance of starting. It's time to close the door on old thought patterns that only do us harm.

Apr 25, 202152 minEp. 401

The Ten Commandments of Personal Power - Part 2

Part 2 of a two-part episode. Personal power, or empowerment, has a formula. That formula can lead to a much more enjoyable and fulfilling life. Knowing the formula is the first step but following it is an entirely different animal. In part two, I add more principles, or "commandments", to help you improve your life.

Apr 18, 20211 hr 5 minEp. 400

The Ten Commandments of Personal Power - Part 1

Personal power, or empowerment, has a formula. That formula can lead to a much more enjoyable and fulfilling life. Knowing the formula is the first step but following it is an entirely different animal. Let's talk about applying these principles, or "commandments", to your life.

Apr 11, 20211 hr 21 minEp. 399

Random romantic relationship questions answered

About 90% of the people that reach out to me have a question about their romantic relationship. That makes sense because relationships can be complex and tricky to navigate. In this episode, I tackle four relationship questions and share some of the lessons I've learned over the years in my own life. For more guidance on difficult relationships, head over to

Apr 04, 20211 hr 15 minEp. 398

Learning to counter rude and intimidating behavior from others

Whether it's the jerk at work or that one person in your family that just doesn't like you, rude and intimidating people can be found in any corner of the world (and under many rocks). In this episode, I share seven suggestions that will help you counter those behaviors and perhaps even make some of these people start respecting you again.

Mar 28, 20211 hr 2 minEp. 397

Getting comfortable in your own skin

Getting comfortable in your own skin is more than developing confidence and facing the fear and doing it anyway. Confidence is one component. There is also self-worth, self-esteem, self-compassion, and self-love that needs to occur so that even if the most hurtful person tries to criticize you or put you down, you will know yourself so well that it will be impossible to believe what they are saying about you. To stop self-sabotage, check out the workbook here:

Mar 21, 20211 hr 7 minEp. 396

The secret to making passive-aggressive people less aggressive

Passive-aggressive people have a knack for making you feel bad without you even realizing they're making you feel bad. Their covert methods are designed to poke at your emotions like tiny emotional daggers. If you want to thwart their often hurtful behavior, it's vital to take them out of ambiguity and into the details. This might be the scariest episode ever for the passive-aggressive person in your life.

Mar 14, 20211 hr 7 minEp. 395

When their sexual history bothers you

Your sexual history is yours, but some people like to make it a big deal and cause you to feel guilt or shame for things you did long ago. Whether you regret what you did in the past shouldn't make a difference because it's your past and no one else's. Other people need to keep their eyes off of your rearview mirror and put their focus on the road right in front of them.

Mar 07, 20211 hr 7 minEp. 394

Every action you take in your life either increases your power or decreases it

If you gave yourself a +1 for every empowered decision you made and a -1 for decisions made that avoided consequences, would you be abundant in personal power or in deficit? Every decision you make and every action you take every day either adds to your power or depletes it. It's important to be conscious of this as those 1's can add up quickly! You just want to make sure you're going in the right direction more often than not.

Feb 28, 202159 minEp. 393

When the fear of failure stops you from doing anything and everything

It's one thing to be afraid to fall off your bike. It's another to never consider riding one just in case you fall. The fear of failing can be imagined as so traumatic and painful to some that they literally do nothing instead. As you know, doing nothing leaves you in a rut. It is the fastest way to go nowhere. Maybe it's time to learn to redefine failure and learn what success actually feels like.

Feb 21, 202143 minEp. 392

Laying down the ground rules for the toxic people in your life

If you want a toxic person to change, it will probably never happen. However, there is something you can do to change the course of the relationship that may actually cause them to act differently. Sometimes you gotta make rules that guide toxic people to healthier behavior.

Feb 14, 20211 hr 2 minEp. 391

Making the shift from repeatedly being upset at someone else and letting it go

When you have emotional reactions that you don't want to have toward someone you care about, you probably try to control yourself but fail. Because of that, the pattern repeats itself over and over again until you heal from some past event or shift your perception so much that what used to bother you simply disappears. That shift is possible.

Feb 07, 20211 hr 19 minEp. 390

The risk you take by being your authentic self

Do you form authentic relationships by being the real you, or do you only show people what you believe they want to see? What are the risks of showing up as the real you? It may be worth taking a risk to find that out.

Jan 31, 20211 hr 8 minEp. 389

Making the decisions that help you prevent overwhelm

If you make the right decisions ahead of time, you can prevent overwhelm from being a normal part of life. It's a matter of making decisions that are in alignment with who you are at the deepest level. When you don't, anything goes.

Jan 24, 20211 hr 7 minEp. 388

How some life choices bring on your own suffering

You can be around people that mistreat you, call you names, and are just downright nasty, and you could still be responsible for your own suffering because of how they show up in your life. It's vital you know the role you play and if you have a choice other than the one you're making in certain situations otherwise you could find yourself in a whirlwind of hurt that might be completely avoidable.

Jan 17, 20211 hr 10 minEp. 387

Feeling more secure with your insecurities

We bring our insecurities with us everywhere we go. To work, to appointments, to our relationship, and everywhere else that might bring a sense of fear into our lives. It's important to address what you are insecure about so it doesn't become a challenge that you have to repeat over and over again. It's not required that you overcome your insecurities, but it sure makes life easier.

Jan 10, 20211 hr 7 minEp. 386

Learning to control your own reactions and overreactions

Some people might say you overreact and sometimes you agree with them but can't figure out how to stop doing it. If you find yourself reacting as if you were in fight or flight, it's time to get a grip on your emotional triggers and change the patterns that create those reactions in the first place.

Jan 03, 20211 hr 18 minEp. 385

The path to empowerment is full of risk and reward

Empowerment means having choices and some level of control over the results you get in your life. Disempowerment, as you know, is quite the opposite. In my book, , I take you along the path from disempowered to empowered. In this episode, I summarize the path so that you can get a good start.

Dec 27, 20201 hr 3 minEp. 384

Arguing as a tool for healing

Are arguments ever productive? You may not like to do it (I know I don't) but if done right, you can release a lot of negative energy and you might even get to some core issues that need to be addressed. Addressing the core issues is so much healthier than carrying around negativity that drip feeds into the relationship in destructive ways.

Dec 20, 20201 hr 7 minEp. 383

Don't let fear of confrontation make you silent

What if you could tell someone something that was bothering you but present it in a way that didn't seem confrontational? If you have a fear of confrontation, perhaps this is the episode you need to make a shift that takes you out of the fear and into empowerment.

Dec 13, 20201 hr 2 minEp. 382
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