When Everything Feels Like Too Much: Finding Perspective in the OverwhelmWhen Everything Feels Like Too Much: Finding Perspective in the Overwhelm
Encouragementology
Kendell Boysen talks about why life can feel like too much and how the mind stacks stress into one heavy story. She shares simple, practical tools to sort what truly matters, let go of what isn’t yours to carry, and take things one step at a time.
30:00•16 Apr 2026
When Everything Feels Like Too Much: Making Overwhelm Smaller and Life Lighter
Episode Overview
- Overwhelm is a real feeling but doesn’t always match what is actually happening, because the brain prioritises intensity over importance.
- Mental stacking turns separate issues into one heavy story, making a single bad moment feel like the headline of your whole day.
- Simple tools like a mental reset pause, naming each concern, and sorting tasks into now, next, or later can shrink stress to a manageable size.
- Gratitude counterbalance helps offset the brain’s negative bias by noticing what is steady and going right, even when some things are hard.
- Sometimes overwhelm signals misalignment, inviting you to ask which responsibilities are truly yours and what genuinely matters most to you.
“You don’t have to untangle the whole knot at once. You just have to find one strand and start there.”
What drives someone to seek a calmer mind when life feels like it’s crowding in from every angle? This episode of Encouragementology, hosted by professional life and recovery coach Kendell Boysen, sits right in that messy middle where texts, emails, family needs, and worries all blur into one heavy feeling of “too much.” Rather than insisting you just “get it together,” Kendell unpacks why overwhelm feels so intense.
She explains cognitive overload in simple language, showing how the brain sorts by emotional intensity rather than true importance: one awkward conversation can suddenly rewrite an otherwise good day.
As she puts it, “That feeling of overwhelm, it’s real, but it’s not always accurate.” You’ll hear references to Stephen Covey’s line about urgency versus importance, and Brené Brown’s idea of “the story we’re telling ourselves,” all woven into everyday examples that feel very familiar if you’re juggling recovery, relationships, and regular life. The episode gently challenges the belief that you have to handle everything at once, asking instead: what is actually mine to carry today?
Kendell offers practical tools you can use straight away: a “mental reset pause” to ask, “What is actually happening right now?”, the “name it to tame it” approach to separate tangled worries, a simple “now, next, later” filter, and a gratitude counterbalance to stop the negative from hogging the spotlight. She even uses the classic jar-of-rocks story to help you think about your own “big rocks” – health, relationships, values – versus the sand of minor stressors.
Throughout, the tone stays warm, honest, and quietly funny in places, making heavy topics feel manageable rather than clinical. If your recovery or everyday life currently feels like a knot of jewellery you’d rather shove back in the drawer, this conversation might help you pick up just one strand and breathe again. What one thing could you choose to carry a little more lightly today?
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