What Your Anxiety Is Actually Trying to Tell You

What Your Anxiety Is Actually Trying to Tell You

In 2020, Alyssa was hiking down a trail in Glacier National Park when another hiker mentioned someone had spotted a bear nearby. They never saw the bear. But for the rest of that hike, every rustle in the trees, every sound from the brush — her body responded like it was already there. Heart racing. Senses on high alert. Running through exactly what she'd do if it showed up. That's anxiety. Not a character flaw. Not catastrophizing. Not being dramatic. Your nervous system running a safety protocol for a threat that hasn't happened yet — because it has happened before. And your body learned that being prepared hurt less than being caught off guard. In this episode, Alyssa goes into anxiety from the inside out. Not the version about challenging your thoughts or stopping worst-case scenarios. The real version — where it actually lives, what it's actually doing, and why telling yourself to just relax is probably the least helpful thing anyone has ever said to you. In this episode: * Why your nervous system can't tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived one — and why that's not a flaw, it's the whole point * How chaos and unpredictability in the past train your body to scan for danger everywhere — even in the lighting of a room * Why over-planning, over-controlling, and researching everything until 2am isn't a bad habit — it's a nervous system trying to keep you safe * The anxiety that doesn't look like anxiety: re-reading texts five times before sending, backup plans for your backup plans, a life that looks fine but a body that never fully exhales * What stress hormones actually do to every major organ in your body when anxiety runs chronically * Alyssa's personal stories — an unpredictable marriage where the rug got pulled out repeatedly, and going through IVF and the specific kind of anxiety that comes with tracking everything and still controlling nothing * The one question to stop asking — and the one to replace it with The takeaway: Next time anxiety shows up, stop asking "what more do I need to know to feel in control?" and start asking "what does my body need right now in order to feel safe?" Those are completely different questions. One sends you further into research and preparation that will never feel like enough. The other brings you back into your body, into this moment, into what is actually true right now. Try it once this week — and notice what comes up. Chapters 00:01 The bear on the trail — and what it has to do with anxiety 03:44 What anxiety actually is (and why your body is not broken for having it) 06:01 Alyssa's story: an unpredictable marriage and a body that stopped waiting to be surprised 08:53 Real threat vs. perceived threat — and why your nervous system doesn't know the difference 10:32 What's actually happening in your brain when anxiety fires 13:42 How anxiety shows up in ways you don't recognize as anxiety 15:32 Over-controlling and over-preparing — and why our culture rewards it 16:54 When hypervigilance is also genuinely useful — and where it still gets you stuck 18:17 IVF, infertility, and the anxiety of tracking everything while controlling nothing 21:45 Control feels safe. Letting go feels more dangerous than the exhaustion of holding on. 24:04 What chronic anxiety does to your body physically 27:18 Your brain running worst-case scenarios like a movie — and why it can't stop 31:47 There is no such thing as enough certainty 32:10 The shift: stop asking what you need to know, start asking what your body needs right now 35:10 The zebra analogy — what it looks like to only respond to what's actually real 37:06 Why this is almost impossible to do alone Join Her Steady Circle Membership [https://www.skool.com/align-empowered-living-2177/about] Apply for Reclaim [https://portal.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69cad2be58e322a80f7314a6?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnHfKuyb7f9HbBb5KiCeWnnr31M47osWFBZzWRlb-LU1pRmj29cBv4QSx1k7c_aem_JMBzYGEGLxMLgrJpvlEDAQ] Catch Alyssa on IG @heyalyssabooth [https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssabooth/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

What Nobody Told You About Emotions that Will Completely CHange Everything

How are you feeling right now? Not the reflex answer. Not "good" or "fine" or "just really overwhelmed." If you had to put something more specific than that — what would you actually say? For most of us, the answer is: I don't know. Not because we aren't feeling anything. But because somewhere between being a toddler who cried in Target without apologizing for it and being the woman who holds it all together in every room — we got taught to sort our feelings into three categories. Good. Fine. Bad. And we stopped looking any deeper than that. This season, that changes. Season two of the Strong But Struggling Podcast is going emotion by emotion. Not to make you feel more, but to finally give you the words for what is already there. Because the feelings you've been muting, minimizing, and converting into productivity or over-apologizing or deep cleaning your entire house — they didn't go anywhere. Your body has been storing them and getting louder in a language you don't recognize as feelings anymore. That's what this season is about. Learning to listen. Alyssa opens with her own story — the toxic Christian Bible study where she learned her real struggles were too much to say out loud, the marriage where her completely appropriate reactions were called crazy, the years of holding space for her clients' emotions every single day while completely ignoring her own — and what it actually cost her. In this episode: * Why your body's alarm system keeps getting louder — and why it's not random * How you learned to grade your feelings as good or bad instead of asking what they're actually trying to tell you * The thing no one ever told you: there is no such thing as a bad feeling * What anger, jealousy, numbness, grief, and rage are actually trying to communicate — and why they're not the enemy * Why you can understand your patterns perfectly and still have no idea what you're feeling in your body * What secondary emotions are and why you rarely feel just one thing at a time * The practice for this week — and how to get Alyssa's emotion pinwheel sent directly to you The takeaway: This week, just start collecting words. When someone asks how you are — or when you catch yourself reaching for "fine" — try to say something different. A body sensation counts. "Heavy" counts. "Like I want to crawl into a hole" absolutely counts. You don't have to know what to do with it yet. You're just learning to name it. That's where this all starts. Chapters 00:01 How are you actually feeling? The question most of us can't answer 01:29 What season two is about and why emotions come first 04:07 The moment someone asked how you were doing and you said "fine" 06:42 What happens in your body every time you mute a feeling 08:33 When the alarm gets louder — chronic pain, insomnia, snapping, spiraling 10:26 Alyssa's story: the Bible study, the marriage, and learning that her emotions were too much 17:58 Leaving and going into go-go-go mode — holding space for everyone else while ignoring herself 20:14 How we learned to sort feelings into good and bad — starting in childhood 24:44 There is no such thing as a bad feeling 26:28 Secondary emotions — feeling an emotion about your emotion 28:17 The whole season in one sentence 29:36 What emotions have you been calling bad that were just uncomfortable? 34:15 This season is not about feeling more — it's about finally getting the words 37:18 Your practice for the week 38:59 How to get the emotion pinwheel Join Her Steady Circle Membership [https://www.skool.com/align-empowered-living-2177/about] — your first week is free Apply for Reclaim [https://portal.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69cad2be58e322a80f7314a6?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnHfKuyb7f9HbBb5KiCeWnnr31M47osWFBZzWRlb-LU1pRmj29cBv4QSx1k7c_aem_JMBzYGEGLxMLgrJpvlEDAQ] DM Alyssa on IG @heyalyssabooth [https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssabooth/] to get the emotion pinwheel sent directly to you ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

7 Truths I Wish I Had Learned Before I Tried to Heal the Hard Way

Ten episodes in. And before we go any further — thank you. For getting in the car with me. For doing the dishes with me. For showing up week after week, even when the topics hit places you weren't totally ready to look at. That means something. This episode is a little different. Alyssa is closing out season one with the seven truths that have made the biggest difference in her own life — not the things she learned from a book, but the things she had to live through before they actually landed. The ones she wishes someone had handed her back when she was in grad school, pregnant, in an abusive marriage, holding it all together on the outside while quietly unraveling inside. If you've been doing the right things and still feel stuck, this episode is the one to save. In this episode: * Why survival mode doesn't always look like chaos — sometimes it looks like the most competent, put-together woman in the room * Why discipline, planning, and willpower will never fix what is actually a nervous system problem * What distress tolerance actually means (hint: it is not getting better at handling more) * Why you don't have to forgive people who did unforgivable things in order to move on — and what happened when Alyssa finally stopped trying to * The real reason you can't stop even when you're running on empty — and why that vacation didn't fix it * The difference between rest you choose and rest your body takes from you because you never gave it a chance * Why healing alone is why you keep starting over — and what co-regulation actually looks like in practice The takeaway: One of these seven truths probably landed harder than the others. That's the one to sit with this week. You don't have to do anything with it yet. Just notice it. Let it be true for a second without immediately trying to fix it or think your way out of it. That noticing — that's already the work. Chapters 00:10 Ten episodes in — thank you for being here 01:59 Why Alyssa made this podcast and what this season has been about 02:56 Her story: grad school, an abusive marriage, and trying to think her way through all of it 09:12 Truth #1: Survival mode doesn't always look like chaos — sometimes it looks like competence 13:28 Truth #2: Discipline won't fix what your body is protecting you from 17:49 Truth #3: Distress tolerance isn't learning to handle more — it's learning to come back to yourself 20:19 Truth #4: You don't have to forgive people who did unforgivable things 24:27 Truth #5: Most burnout isn't from doing too much — it's from never feeling safe enough to stop 26:33 Truth #6: The rest you're getting probably isn't real rest 29:17 Microdosing regulation — why small shifts matter more than big resets 31:07 Truth #7: Healing alone is why you keep starting over 35:24 The workshop moment — the woman who hadn't showered in five days and the room that understood 38:06 What's coming in season two 45:09 Her Steady Circle membership — what it is and how to join Join Her Steady Circle Membership [https://www.skool.com/align-empowered-living-2177/about] Apply for Reclaim [https://portal.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69cad2be58e322a80f7314a6?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnHfKuyb7f9HbBb5KiCeWnnr31M47osWFBZzWRlb-LU1pRmj29cBv4QSx1k7c_aem_JMBzYGEGLxMLgrJpvlEDAQ] Catch Alyssa on IG @heyalyssabooth [https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssabooth/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

She's Not Trying to Hurt You. She's Trying to Protect You.

You hear yourself mid-sentence with your kid and stop. The tone, the wording, the way it came out — it doesn't sound like you. It sounds like someone else. Someone you grew up with. You repair it. You apologize. You do the thing you never got. And it's real, and it matters. But there's another voice. She doesn't care about the repair. She wants to know why you keep doing this, why you need so many repairs, why no matter how hard you try, you sound more like your mom than you want to admit. That voice is the inner critic. And in this episode, Alyssa isn't going to teach you how to silence her, argue with her, or replace her with positive thoughts. She's going to show you something most people miss entirely: your inner critic has a job. She's not your enemy. She's a protector running someone else's script — and once you understand what she's actually protecting you from, your relationship with her changes completely. Alyssa shares the story of meeting her now-husband at 28, after years of healing work, and introducing herself by listing every "bad" thing about her — nagging, controlling, a bitch — like a disclaimer. It wasn't until she'd been in a safe relationship long enough to notice those traits never actually showed up that she realized: she had been introducing herself using her ex's words. Her inner critic had absorbed someone else's cruelty so completely that it had started sounding like self-awareness. In this episode: * Where the inner critic actually comes from — and why it rarely traces back to just one source * The difference between being regulated and being calm 100% of the time (it's not what you think) * Why your inner critic gets louder, not quieter, every time you try to fight her * Alyssa's story of giving her now-husband a "warning label" about herself before they even started dating * Why getting yourself first feels safer than being caught off guard by someone else's criticism * The real work: not silencing the critic, but asking her what she's afraid will happen if she stops The takeaway: The next time that voice shows up, get curious instead of combative. Ask her: what are you protecting me from right now? What are you afraid will happen if you stop? Usually the answer is fear of rejection, fear of being "too much," fear of being caught off guard. You don't have to agree with her or fight her. You just have to hear her — that's how she finally gets to rest. Chapters 00:00 The moment you hear yourself sound like someone else 03:02 Meet the inner critic — and why we're not trying to silence her 06:21 Where the inner critic's voice actually comes from 09:34 When criticism is dressed up as caring 10:55 The societal voice — impossible standards, absent support 14:38 What "being regulated" actually means 18:00 Alyssa's story: the disclaimer she gave her now-husband 23:51 Realizing the traits she warned him about never showed up 24:50 A different way to relate to your inner critic — validate, don't fight 29:41 What your inner critic is actually afraid of 35:24 Whose voice is that, really? 40:00 How to practice getting curious instead of combative 44:24 The deeper work in Reclaim Your Steady Apply for Reclaim [https://portal.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69cad2be58e322a80f7314a6?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnHfKuyb7f9HbBb5KiCeWnnr31M47osWFBZzWRlb-LU1pRmj29cBv4QSx1k7c_aem_JMBzYGEGLxMLgrJpvlEDAQ] Catch Alyssa on IG @heyalyssabooth [https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssabooth/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Your Broken Leg Doesn't Heal Because Someone Else Lost Theirs

If you broke your leg and sat down in the ER, and someone walked in who had lost their leg entirely — would you get up and leave? Would you decide your fracture didn't count anymore and walk out to figure it on your own? Of course not. Their worse injury doesn't fix yours. And yet that's exactly what you do with your own pain. If someone else has it worse, you don't bring it up. If someone else has fewer resources, you tell yourself you don't have the right to struggle. So you keep walking around on a broken leg, calling it fine, telling yourself you just need to be more grateful. In this episode, Alyssa names something that so many women have lived but never had language for — the way pain gets minimized by the people who are supposed to support you, the way empathy gets used against you the moment it points inward instead of outward, and what happens when this gets done to you enough times that you eventually start doing it to yourself. Alyssa shares her own story from after her divorce — accepting childcare help from her ex-in-laws that looked like support on the surface but came with control, comparison, and a Harvard study about what divorce does to kids, while never once acknowledging what addiction does to a child. She unpacks why she could name every clinical dynamic at play and still stayed stuck in it, and what it actually took to let herself feel it instead of just explain it. In this episode: * The "at least" minimization — why comparing your pain to someone else's "worse" situation isn't perspective, it's invalidation * How to spot help that isn't really help: support that comes with control, conditions, or someone else's agenda attached * Alyssa's story of accepting childcare help from her ex-in-laws after leaving an abusive marriage — and what it actually cost her * Why your empathy is only celebrated when it benefits someone else, and gets called "too much" the moment it turns toward your own needs * The difference between understanding why someone couldn't show up for you and needing them to have shown up anyway * Why grief and compassion aren't opposites — you're allowed to hold both for the same person at the same time The takeaway: Finish this sentence this week — "I've extended compassion to this person for this thing, and I've never extended the same compassion to myself for what it cost me." You don't have to remove anyone from the equation. You're just adding yourself into it. Chapters 00:00 The broken leg analogy 02:04 How minimizing your pain gets taught to you by others, then becomes your own habit 07:13 Extending grace to someone who hurt you — and what it costs 09:11 The complicated grief of figuring out parenting without ever being parented 12:38 Why empathy is only valued when it benefits someone else 14:29 Alyssa's story: childcare help from her ex-in-laws after leaving an abusive marriage 22:00 Naming the dynamics clinically vs. actually feeling them 25:38 The "at least" minimization 29:33 Help that isn't really help — support with conditions attached 31:39 Why women get trapped in caregiving roles 33:21 Noticing who only calls you "too sensitive" when it doesn't serve them 35:31 Where are you extending compassion you've never given yourself? 38:25 Holding both compassion and grief at the same time 41:34 Your practice for the week Apply for Reclaim [https://portal.dubsado.com/public/form/view/69cad2be58e322a80f7314a6?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnHfKuyb7f9HbBb5KiCeWnnr31M47osWFBZzWRlb-LU1pRmj29cBv4QSx1k7c_aem_JMBzYGEGLxMLgrJpvlEDAQ] Catch Alyssa on IG @heyalyssabooth [https://www.instagram.com/heyalyssabooth/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.