If You’re Feeling Overwhelmed, You Need to Hear This

Summary

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The Mel Robbins Podcast

Episode: “If You’re Feeling Overwhelmed, You Need to Hear This”

Host: Mel Robbins
Date: October 20, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deeply into understanding the difference between stress and overwhelm, why it matters, and how you can take actionable steps to regain control when life feels like “just too much.” Mel brings in two renowned medical experts, Dr. K (Harvard-trained psychiatrist, known as HealthyGamer) and Dr. Aditi Nerurkar (Harvard stress and burnout expert), to explain the science behind these states and walks you step-by-step through four science-backed strategies to pull yourself out of overwhelm and reset your mind and body.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Stress vs. Overwhelm (04:22 – 10:27)

• Stress is about pressure and often linked to things you can manage, sometimes motivating and productive.
• Overwhelm is a threshold phenomenon—where accumulated stress or demands exceed your capacity to cope, leaving you immobilized, unable to think, and out of control.

“Stress is just pressure that you feel... Stress sometimes can be a really good thing. Overwhelm is way bigger... you’ve hit your threshold. You can’t keep up, you can’t think, you can’t prioritize.”
— Mel Robbins [06:41]

2. Medical Perspective on Overwhelm (09:47 – 10:27, 15:20 – 21:16)

• Dr. K:
  • Overwhelm is not simply from “too much” but from too many out-of-control demands (passive challenges) and too few that you actively choose.
  • Overwhelm is a sense of losing agency over your own life.

“You don’t feel overwhelmed from dealing with too much. You get overwhelmed when many of the things that you’re dealing with are out of your control. Overwhelm isn’t about being too weak… It’s about carrying too many challenges you didn’t choose and too few that you did.”
— Dr. K [09:58]

• Dr. Aditi Nerurkar:
  • Outlines two types of stress: “adaptive” (healthy, motivating) and “maladaptive” (dysfunctional, chronic).
  • Chronic stress shifts brain control from the prefrontal cortex (executive function) to the amygdala (survival mode), triggering “psychological flooding.”
  • In overwhelm, the prefrontal cortex (planning, organizing) goes offline.

“When you feel that sense of overwhelm, what’s happening to you… is psychological flooding… The human brain is expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress… But when it goes past a certain threshold, that’s when that feeling of overwhelm can really set in.”
— Dr. Aditi [17:46]

3. Why the Difference Matters (10:27 – 15:20, 20:30 – 21:16)

• Using the wrong coping tool keeps you stuck; stress and overwhelm require different strategies.
• Overwhelm is a “system shutdown”—not a character flaw, but a biological response.

“Once you embrace the truth that these moments of overwhelm and even the stress that you feel… these are biological responses… you can stop judging yourself… You’re not supposed to handle it all.”
— Mel Robbins [20:30]

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The Four Steps to Escape Overwhelm

Step 1: Label What You’re Feeling (22:29 – 24:53)

• Identify whether you’re experiencing stress (manageable pressure) or true overwhelm (exceeding capacity, loss of focus/control).
• Self-awareness is the essential first move.

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Step 2: Biological Reset — Breathe (26:24 – 31:34)

• Engage your breath as a tool to reset your nervous system; it’s the only physiological function with both voluntary and involuntary control.
• Use cyclic breathing (physiological sigh):
  • Two quick inhales through your nose, then a long, slow exhale through your mouth.
  • Repeat for 1–5 minutes.

“The reason your breath can be so helpful … is because your breath is the only physiological mechanism in your body that is under voluntary and involuntary control.”
— Dr. Aditi [26:24]

“When life’s too much, just double in, then flush… Two quick inhales through your nose, and one long exhale through your mouth.”
— Mel Robbins [27:23]

• This technique toggles your nervous system from “fight or flight” (sympathetic) to “rest and digest” (parasympathetic).

“Your breath can be the toggle between these two systems [sympathetic/parasympathetic]… Simply by taking a few slow, deep breaths.”
— Dr. Aditi [30:38]

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Step 3: Mental Reset — Brain Dump (36:28 – 41:51)

• Get everything out of your head: tasks, worries, fears, reminders, and emotional clutter.
• Write it all down—don’t organize or edit.
• A 2025 meta-analysis and a Baylor University study show that writing down “unfinished tasks” helps reduce mental strain and even helps you fall asleep faster.

“Your brain is not a storage unit, it’s a processor. When you use it to hold onto everything… you’re clogging up your brain.”
— Mel Robbins [39:05]

“If you offload the things you’re thinking about… your brain can literally let it go and drift into sleep.”
— Mel Robbins [43:28]

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Step 4: Add One Active Challenge Back In (48:21 – 53:00)

• Key Insight from Dr. K: Overwhelm’s intensity depends on the ratio of “passive” (unchosen/out of control) to “active” (chosen/meaningful) challenges.
• When overwhelmed, our instinct is to drop activities that matter to us, increasing passive load and reducing the sense of control.
• The counterintuitive solution: add back one thing you actually want to do, no matter how small.

“Whether your brain feels overwhelmed is not based on the number of things you are dealing with. It is based on the ratio of passive challenges to active challenges.”
— Dr. K [48:59]

“The real solution is to take on more active challenges, start to take control of a single thing in your life.”
— Dr. K [51:14]

• Examples: writing every morning, walking every day, reading for 10 minutes, taking a lunch break—anything you choose for you.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Overwhelm is what happens when stress goes unchecked for so many days and weeks that you simply shut down.”
  — Mel Robbins [07:10]

• “You’re not crazy. You’re not lazy. Stress and overwhelm are biological responses… You and I, we’re not robots… You are designed to juggle, but not to juggle knives forever.”
  — Mel Robbins [21:00]

• “The solution isn’t to cut back… the real solution is to take on more active challenges, start to take control of a single thing in your life.”
  — Dr. K [51:14]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 04:22 — Difference: Stress vs. Overwhelm explained
• 09:47 — Dr. K defines the medical/biological roots of overwhelm
• 15:20 — Dr. Aditi on “good” vs. “bad” stress
• 17:46 — Prefrontal cortex vs. amygdala and psychological flooding
• 20:30 — Overwhelm, self-judgment, and accepting your biology
• 26:24 — Biological reset: Why breath works
• 27:23 — Mel demonstrates the “double in and flush” breath
• 30:14 — How breath toggles your nervous system
• 36:28 — Brain dump/cognitive offloading technique
• 41:51 — Research on brain dumping and sleep (Zeigarnik effect)
• 48:21 — Dr. K on passive vs. active challenges and sense of control
• 51:14 — Adding back an “active challenge” as the antidote to overwhelm

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Tools and Strategies Recap

To break the cycle of overwhelm, follow these four steps:

1. Label It — Am I stressed or truly overwhelmed?
2. Biological Reset with Cyclic Breathing — Two quick inhales, one long exhale
3. Mental Reset with a Brain Dump — Write it all out, don’t organize, just empty your mind
4. Balance with an Active Challenge — Add back one thing you want to do for yourself

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Final Takeaway

Understanding the clear medical and psychological differences between stress and overwhelm is critical to choosing the right tools for relief. Overwhelm is not a personal failing but a sign of a system at capacity. Use Mel’s four steps to regain clarity, reset your biology, declutter your mind, and gently reintroduce control into your life. You’ll emerge calmer, clearer, and better equipped to face what life throws at you.

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“As your friend, I love you and I believe in you and your ability to create a better life... Practice these four steps—it’s not only going to make you feel better, it’s going to help you build the life you want.”

— Mel Robbins [55:50]

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's your friend Mel. And welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I just learned the craziest thing. Did you know that there is a major difference between moments where you feel stressed versus when you feel overwhelmed? I mean, I've used those words interchangeably my entire life. And now I realize, based on what you're going to learn today, it led to burnout. Because if you don't know the difference between overwhelm and stress, I know it's costing you, too. I mean, have you ever had one of those moments where it's like your brain just shuts down because you have too much to do? Well, I want to tell you something. You're not crazy. You're not lazy. You are definitely not alone. I have been there. And today I'm going to give you the four steps to get out of overwhelm when life feels like just too much. Now, these four steps come directly from two of your favorite medical experts that have appeared on the Mel Robbins Podcast. You love these doctors. And they're going to explain, first of all, the important difference, medically speaking, between a moment where you're stressed and overwhelmed. They're going to explain why these four simple steps work at a biological level. And by the end of this episode, you're gonna know when you're stressed versus those moments where life is just too much and you're overwhelmed. And you're also gonna know how to pull yourself out of it so you can feel clear and in control again. Everybody wants the perfect vacation, but you end up stressing over every detail and suddenly any chance of relaxing is gone. Not in Aruba, though, because this island throws perfection out the window and instead gives you something better. Love. If you visit Aruba and you walk on its white sand beaches, loved by generations of Arubans, you'll feel the whole island embrace you back. Sounds relaxing, no? Say goodbye to perfection and say hello to Aruba. Plan your trip [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by PNC Bank. Some people think self help podcasts are boring. Sure, if you find improving yourself growing to be boring, then I get it. However, it's hard, boring work that makes a better life. It's like banking with PNC might seem boring to save, plan and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live a happily fulfilled life. PNC bank brilliantly boring since 1865. PNC Bank National association member FDIC hey, it's your friend Mel. And welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I am thrilled that you're here. I'm so excited for the topic today. It's always an honor to be together and to spend this time with you. If you're a new listener or you're here because somebody shared this episode with you, I just wanted to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. You've picked a life changing episode to listen to. This is a really, really good one. Because today, you and I are gonna go step by step through the four things you're gonna do to get out of overwhelm when life feels like it's just too much. And doesn't life feel like it's too much right now? I know, I know. That's why I wanted to talk about this. I wanted to talk about this topic because so many of you are writing in from around the world and you're using the words I feel so overwhelmed, or you're saying, I'm so stressed out. And so here's what I did. I reached out to two of your favorite and my favorite medical experts who have appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast. They are also medical experts that I quoted extensively in the Let Them Theory book. And what I wanted to figure out was, what do we need to do in moments of stress and overwhelm? And that's when I learned the very first mistake I was making. I was using the words stressed and overwhelmed interchangeably. And medically speaking, they're very different states that your brain or body are in. And if you are going to take control in moments where you're stressed or overwhelmed, first of all, you got to know the difference. That's the first step. You got to know the difference between when you're experiencing stress versus you getting to this moment where you're so flooded and beyond your capacity to deal with it that you're actually overwhelmed. Here's how I think about it now that I have spent hours and hours researching this topic so you and I could have this conversation today. Stress is just pressure that you feel. And stress sometimes can be a really good thing. You know what I mean? Like, because when you feel stressed about a deadline, you tend to get the work done. So it's pressure that you feel. In fact, the days that we tape this podcast for you, they're very stressful. And I don't mean bad. It's just that the days are like, go, go, go, go. You know, we got an early call time and then the guests are showing up, or I'm showing up, and then we're getting the cameras ready. And it's like Go, go, go, go. You have days like that, right? Those days where you gotta get out of work or you gotta get outta School by 3pm because you gotta get the kids to their doctor's appointment or you got to make that soccer game or you got to pick up your mom and go do something. Those days are stressful because you feel pressure. It's sort of like you're stepping on the gas, right? And you're go, go, go. Overwhelm. Now that's different. Overwhelm is way bigger than a stressful day. Overwhelm is what happens when that stress that you're feeling, that pressure, pressure that go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go is building and building and building and building. And all of a sudden, you've had too many days or too many weeks, too many months, too many years in a row, and now you can't go. You've hit this threshold. You've hit your capacity to handle the pressure. You can't keep up when you're in a state of overwhelm. You can't think, you can't prioritize. Overwhelm means you just can't handle it anymore. Like, that's kind of how I know the difference. Stress. I keep powering through overwhelm. I've hit the wall, and I want to unpack this so that you really understand why this difference matters. Let's talk about a work example. Stress is you're answering one email and all of a sudden three more come in and the stupid notifications like, ding, ding. And as the ding, ding, ding happens, you start to feel the pressure rising. That's stress. Overwhelm is when you open your inbox and you see there are 342 unanswered emails and you don't know where to start, so you just sit there and you stare at the screen. And now you can't even remember why you logged on in the first place. And oh, my God, I have a meeting in seven minutes. That's overwhelming. Another example, you walk into the kitchen after work and driving your mom to a doctor's appointment this afternoon. You have all these emails that you need to answer because you're out of the office while you are doing the medical appointment. You realize there's no plan for dinner. There is nothing in the fridge. The dog is staring at you because it needs food. And you don't have food because you forgot to buy it on the way home. And you just sit down on the couch and you start crying. Or maybe you don't even cry because You've reached this capacity where you can't even cry. You're not even sure what you'd order for dinner at this point. That's overwhelm. Overwhelm. It's a threshold, a capacity issue. Your brain just isn't working. You have no focus. You're emo. Oh, my God. Emo. You either feel numb, I either feel numb, or I just feel. I don't know. I always feel run over when I'm overwhelmed. Like stress has this energy to. It overwhelms something else. I think this is personally super helpful to understand the difference. And it makes me realize I've been using these words incorrectly my entire adult Life, which is 57 years, for crying out loud. And none of us really understand this unless you're a medical doctor that studies it, because medically speaking, they're very different states, which means they need different tools. If you use the wrong tools, you're going to stay stuck. I want you to just stop and consider right now. Are you feeling stressed in life because you feel pressure or are you feeling what I'm describing to you, which is this? I've reached the capacity that I have. I bet if you're not feeling overwhelmed, you know somebody who is. And everything you're about to hear is gonna be so eye opening. And the first person I want you to hear from is the extraordinary Dr. K. Now, Dr. K is a Harvard trained psychiatrist who specializes in modern mental health. He's appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast twice. And every time, everybody just goes bananas over Dr. K. You may also know him as the healthy gamer online. He has millions of people that follow him on his YouTube channel. And so I reached out to Dr. K. He just has a way with words. And I said, hey, Dr. K, could you describe the difference between stress and overwhelm? And I want you to check out what Dr. K said.

[B]

Mel, I'd love to help you make sense of overwhelm. Here's some stuff I'd love to share. When I deal with patients who are overwhelmed, they feel like life is coming at them way too fast. I have to deal with this over here. And then my boss wants this and my kid wants this, and then this person is sick and I need to do some back to school shopping. So life is coming at you and you feel completely out of control. You don't feel overwhelmed from dealing with too much. You get overwhelmed when many of the things that you're dealing with are out of your control. Being overwhelmed isn't about being too weak or not strong enough. It's about carrying too many challenges that you. You didn't choose and too few that you did.

[A]

I want to highlight something that he said. Okay, so I want to highlight this thing. You don't feel overwhelmed from dealing with too much. You get overwhelmed when many of the things that you're dealing with are out of your control. Just stop and think about that. Like, in moments where you're stressed, you're kind of. You got the pressure on. You're cruising through things. In moments of overwhelm, it does feel like life is coming at you. And the reason why we say it feels like life is coming at you, and then all of a sudden, you tap out is because the things that are coming at you probably feel like they're out of control. Whether that's the nonstop deadlines at work or the goalpost always moving in terms of what you are supposed to do in order to succeed, whether it's caring for somebody who's got a chronic illness. And so that's largely out of your control. Whether it's the headlines, like all these things that are coming at you. I think that's such an important thing to understand, that a lot of the things that overwhelm you are things that you didn't choose, or there's too few things that you did choose, Meaning you're not in control of some of the things that are important to you, because everything else has started to become a priority. And the reason why you feel out of control is because whatever that load is that's coming at you exceeds your capacity. You've hit threshold. That's why the system shuts down. You just don't have room. It's not working anymore. In other words, overwhelm's like a total collapse. That's why the ways that you get out of a stressful moment are very different from how you recover from overwhelm. Right. Stress requires a bit of problem solving based on the situation and the amount of pressure that you're feeling. And when you problem solve the right way, you always start to feel the pressure go down. Right. And the stress alleviate. Overwhelm is completely different because you've hit this threshold, and you really need to do a reset. That's why the steps that we're gonna go through today really matter, because it's not about problem solving. It's really about resetting your capacity to handle what you're going through. And we're gonna do that at three levels. We're gonna reset your capacity biologically. We're also gonna reset your capacity Mentally. And then we're gonna reset this balance between what's coming at you versus what you're choosing. Those are the three ways these tools work. So the first step to get out of overwhelm when life just feels like too much is just to label what you're actually feeling. Because there's a difference between saying, I'm stressed out because I have to cook dinner. I'm stressed out because traffic is really annoying. I'm stressed out because somebody's laying a guilt trip on me, and now I feel bad. That's very different than, oh wait, I feel like life is coming at me. I feel like I've lost control. I feel like my brain is maxed out. I'm feeling overwhelmed. So step one, label it. Are you just feeling stress or are you actually in a state of overwhelm? And we're about to get into the next three things that Dr. Aditi and Dr. K tell you based on the research that they want you to do. Once you recognize, oh wait, this is beyond stress. I'm actually overwhelmed right now, medically speaking. But because I'm not a doctor, I want you to hear from them. And so I called my friend, Dr. Aditi Nurikar to give you her point of view. And let me tell you about Dr. Aditi. Dr. Aditi is a Harvard trained physician with an expertise in stress, burnout and mental health. She in fact ran the largest stress management clinic for the Harvard medical system. She's also the New York Times bestselling author of the five resets. She's appeared on this podcast three times and she is the very first expert of 57 world renowned experts that I cited in the Let Them theory book where she talks all about how to use the Let them theory to lower your stress levels. You love Dr. Aditi. I love Dr. Aditi. And so I asked her, Dr. Aditi, from a medical point of view, what is stress versus what is overwhelm? And what do you want us to know about how these different states impact your body?

[C]

Mel, I'm so glad you asked. There's actually two kinds of stress. There is good healthy stress and bad unhealthy stress. And all of the mental and physical health manifestations that you consider negative are actually due to the unhealthy kind of stress. So let's talk about the good kind of stress first. Healthy stress. In science, this is called adaptive stress. This kind of good, healthy stress moves your life forward. It creates a sense of forward momentum. Everything good in your life was created because of a little bit of healthy stress. Examples of good stress in your life could be things like getting a promotion or a new job, Falling in love, having a baby, graduating, planning a beach vacation, or rooting for your favorite sports team. The goal of life is not zero stress. It's actually biologically impossible to do that. The goal of life is healthy, manageable stress that can serve you rather than harm you. And so unhealthy stress in science is called maladaptive stress. This kind of stress is unproductive, dysfunctional, and gets in the way of our everyday functioning. When you say that you've had a stressful week or a stressful year, that's the kind of stress you're talking about. That unhealthy stress causes a lot of the mental and physical health manifestations that you're already familiar with. Things like anxiety, insomnia, depression, frequent headaches, abdominal pain, back pain. The list of unhealthy stress symptoms is endless.

[A]

Okay, so I just want to make sure that you and I are both tracking. Dr. Aditi so far is teaching us that, medically speaking, there's two different types of stress. There's the healthy kind of stress, and we've talked a little bit about that. That's the pressure, the go, go, go that helps you get things done. It comes and it goes and it's useful. But there's a second kind which is the unhealthy. This is the sustained stress that starts to build and build and build the chronic stress, so to speak. And so now that you understand, there's kind of good stress and healthy stress that you're gonna experience, I then asked Dr. Aditi a second question, and that question is, can you explain what's actually happening in our brains and in our bodies when we are experiencing stress? And how does this relate to the difference between healthy stress and what ultimately becomes overwhelm? And this is what Dr. Aditi said.

[C]

Under normal circumstances, your brain is led by the prefrontal cortex. So if you put your hand right on your forehead, it's the area right behind that forehead. This prefrontal cortex part of your brain governs things like memory, planning, organization, strategic thinking. It's what you are a master of in normal everyday life. But under periods of stress, your brain is governed by another region called the amygdala. Your amygdala is a small almond shaped structure deep in your brain. And the purpose of your amygdala is purely survival and self preservation. It's cave person mode. You can function for short periods of time in cave person mode, but when it becomes chronic. That's when burnout can set in. When you feel that sense of overwhelm, what's happening to you, scientifically we call it psychological flooding. When you are flooded with these big negative emotions. And that feeling of being flooded or overwhelmed is powered by your stress response. That amygdala, that small almond shaped structure deep in your brain and that drives this emotion. The human brain is expertly designed to handle short bursts of stress. It's actually really good at that. But when that stress becomes ongoing and chronic and goes past a certain threshold, that's when that feeling of overwhelm can really set in.

[A]

Dr. Aditi, I love that term, psychological flooding, because that's exactly what it feels like. When you hit those moments of overwhelm, you are flooded in your body and brain and you hit this threshold where you just can't do anymore, you can't think. What I'd love to have you explain to us is what is happening in your brain and your body when you're facing kind of a moment of stress. That pressure that you feel, that's kind of situational versus what's happening when you hit that stimulus, psychological flooding, that's called overwhelm.

[C]

When you are living in a state of chronic stress, your brain is being governed by your amygdala. Your amygdala by design, is focused on your immediate needs of survival and self preservation. That is the sole purpose of your amygdala and that is what it does. So planning for a future, strategic thinking, organizing, all of these things are not available to you because those tasks are, are the job of your prefrontal cortex, which is offline when you're feeling a sense of chronic stress and overwhelm. So if you find it difficult to plan for your future, even in the most simple ways like making dinner or meal prepping for the week, this is why it's not a personal feeling. It's your biology.

[A]

Oh my gosh. Did you catch what she just said? This is why it's not a personal, personal feeling. It's your biology, Dr. Aditi. Thank you. Because once you embrace the truth that these moments of overwhelm and even the stress that you feel, these are biological responses, this is important because it changes everything. Why does it change everything? Well, because you can stop judging yourself for feeling behind or weak or not able to handle it all. You're not supposed to handle it all. Biologically speaking, your brain and body has a mechanism to go, eh, overloaded. We're not doing this anymore. I want to remind you you're not crazy. You're not lazy. Stress and overwhelm. These are biological responses. You heard it from Dr. Aditi. Your brain and body are reacting exactly the way they're wired to because you and I, we're not robots. We're not powered by AI. We are human beings and you are designed to be able to juggle a lot of balls in life. That's what stress is for. The pressure, the go, the getting you to be able to pay attention. Overwhelm is when life feels like you're juggling knives and you're afraid to touch anything and you freeze because you both don't want to drop anything and you don't want to cut yourself. And if you're nodding your head thinking, oh my gosh, this is me, then I bet you know someone else who probably feels the exact same way. Whether it's a friend or a coworker. Maybe it's your sister or your spouse or your boyfriend or girlfriend. Do them a favor. Send them this episode right now. Because you never know. This might just be exactly what they need and the start of them getting back on their feet and back in control and hitting the reset. We all deserve this information and don't go anywhere because we have so much more to dig into about the science of stress versus Overwhelm and the four steps that you're going to take anytime you recognize you have hit the overload. 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Visit lookoptic.com and try them yourself. Use code MEL to save $30 when you buy two pairs. Plus if you don't like them, you can send them back within 90 days, no questions asked. One decision can change everything. Southern New Hampshire University can help you make it as a leader in online education. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 career focused degrees. There are no set class times so you can do it all on your own schedule. And with some of the nation's lowest online tuition rates, you can focus on what matters most. Your future. Start creating the success you deserve. Visit Snhu. Edu Mel. That's Snhu. Edu Mel. Ever seen a group chat spiral into chaos? One second you're planning a birthday party, five seconds later someone's dropping unrelated memes and someone else is RSVPing for the wrong week. Add in different types of phones and suddenly the cake photo is a blurry mess and no one knows who's replying to what. There's no need to stress for group chat that actually works. Just take a breath. Use the five second rule. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and open WhatsApp. Start a poll to settle the real debates, karaoke or chill dinner Pin key messages so the venue, address or surprise arrival time doesn't get buried. Use event invites to lock in details and track RSVPs. Send Crisp High res photos and videos that look amazing across across devices and with end to end encryption. Every chat stays private. Even the one where someone asks who's this party for again? Now the birthday plans are chaos free and no one is showing up a week late. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Welcome back, it's your buddy Mel Robbins and today you and I are learning about the major difference between stress and overwhelm and the four science backed strategies that you're gonna use anytime you hit that state where you've reached your threshold to deal. So let's just jump back into this. We've already covered step number one, which is labeling whether you're stressed or overwhelmed. And now we're jumping right into step number two, which is a biological reset. After you've labeled what you're dealing with, you're going to breathe. Now don't roll your eyes at me, okay? Because we're going to use the biology and the science and the physiology of your breath to alter your biological state of overwhelm and stress. How cool is this? But you don't have to take it from me. I want you to hear why breath is the second step from Dr. Aditi. Check this out.

[C]

The reason your breath can be so helpful as a first step in managing those feelings of overwhelm and chronic stress is because your breath is the only physiological mechanism in your body that is under voluntary and involuntary control. Your brain waves don't do that. Your digestion doesn't do that. No other system in your body is under voluntary and involuntary control. Which is why your breath is such a powerful gateway to resetting your stress response.

[A]

Since Dr. Aditi just shared with us that breathing is a powerful way to not only reset your stress response, but also to help you get out of these moments of overwhelm. I'm sure you're thinking the same thing that I'm thinking, which is, okay, what am I supposed to do with the breathing? How am I breathing? So there's a specific form of breathing that has a lot of different names. Okay? Some people call it cyclic breathing. Other people call it a physiological sigh or physiological breathing. I was first told about this type of breathing by Dr. Russell Kennedy, who is an expert that has appeared on this podcast. He's also quoted in the Let Them Theory book. And in order to simplify it, because I'm going to teach it to you right now. Because I use it all the time. In moments when I'm overwhelmed, I've given it a name I can remember. And here it is. When life's too much, just double in, then flush. Okay, and let me explain the science behind this form of breathing. There's a lot of research coming out of Stanford that explains why this form of breathing is particularly effective in moments of overwhelm or even anxiety. If you love Huberman Lab and the work of Dr. Andrew Huberman, he talks a lot about this in terms of the physiological sigh. But the bottom line is this has been around for a long time. And the clinical definition is cyclical breathing. And it was explained to Me by Dr. Russell Kennedy. So when you're in a state of overwhelm, like, your breathing can be really quick, right? And so are your thoughts because you're at capacity, or you can be so kind of overwhelmed that you're not even aware of your thoughts or aware of your breathing. And that's because, as Dr. Aditi just explained to you, your body's fight or flight on edge response is now activated. So Dr. Russ Kennedy, who calls himself the Anxiety MD Online, taught you and me this technique when I interviewed him on this podcast. I love it. And here's how you do it. Remember, when life's too much, you're just gonna double in and then flush. That's it. It's just two quick inhales through your nose. Double inhale through the nose. Flush it out with one long exhale through the mouth. Now, if you repeat that Cyclic breathing technique for a minute. You will feel different if you do it for five minutes a day. The research out of Stanford shows it can reduce anxiety more than meditation. So remember, cyclic breathing is step two. You're gonna label stress or label that you're overwhelmed. Then you're gonna remember, I gotta breathe because I'm in a biologically compromised state when life is too much. Double in, exhale, and flush that overwhelm out. Now I'm going to have Dr. Aditi come back on. And now explain why this breathing technique resets your biological response to stress and overwhelm. Because basically, you are manually resetting your nervous system's stress response when you do cyclic breathing. Let's hear from Dr. Aditi.

[C]

Just as there are two kinds of stress, there are two kinds of nervous systems in your body. One is called the sympathetic nervous system. This is where the fight or flight response lives, and that is what the amygdala powers. The second system in your body is called your parasympathetic system, or rest and digest. The fascinating thing about your brain and body is that these two systems are mutually exclusive. They can't be turned on at the same time. It's like a light switch. When the sympathetic system is on, your parasympathetic system is off and vice versa. Your breath can be the toggle between these two systems. When you are feeling a sense of anxiety, overwhelm, or chronic stress. Most likely you have rapid, shallow breathing in your chest, what we call in science thoracic breathing. And when you are mellow, relaxed, and really driven by the parasympathetic system or the rest and digest system, you have deep belly breathing. In science, we call this diaphragmatic breathing. And the reason your breath can be such a powerful tool is because you can move from that fight or flight sympathetic nervous system back to rest and digest or the parasympathetic system simply by taking a few slow, deep breaths.

[A]

I want to now try to explain this in just simple terms. I mean, clearly I'm not a medical doctor, but I've used this technique now in my life ever since learning about it from Dr. Russell Kennedy. And it works wonders. And have you ever had a moment where you've been so overwhelmed and crying and then all of a sudden you're overwhelmed by your crying that you're like. And you suck in twice and then you let it out? You did that instinctually because you were getting too worked up and your body was resetting itself. To me, this is the same technique, only you're doing it on purpose. You're getting out of that like racing heart and that panic state and you're doubling. And the long exhale, it not only feels like you're breathing out the stress and overwhelm, you are manually, based on what Dr. Aditi just told you, resetting your nervous system back to the parasympathetic rest and digest response. Because when you double in and you flush it out as you do the long exhale, you will notice that you drop back down into the belly. Breathing. This is a way for you to shortcut from that stressed out state and shift down back into the diaphragm where you're in your rest and digest state naturally. So not only in that long exhale are you flushing out the overwhelming and stress. You're also taking a beat and resetting. And I like to think on the long exhale about dropping back into the body. It is crazy how effective this is. Okay, so step one, we're going to label I'm stressed out because or oh my gosh, I'm in a state of overwhelm. I've hit the threshold, I've hit the capacity. You now know step two is breathe. Because we've got to have a biological reset to the biological response of stress and overwhelm. And so when life's too much, we double in and then we flush it out. Now step three is kind of another biological thing that we're going to do because one of the reasons you're probably feeling a state of overwhelm is because of all of this stuff that is coming at you, right? And so you've got this overload in your mind and that I want to help you empty. And so after you've labeled what state you're in, stress or overwhelm, have done a biological reset with your breath, I now want you to go to step three and let's do a mental reset. What is that? I call this a brain dump. What is a brain dump? Oh my gosh. It's as simple as getting out a piece of paper and picking up a pen and dumping all of that crap you're carrying in your brain down on a piece of paper. Now I can almost hear you. I can almost hear you say, mel, oh my gosh, give me a break. Overwhelm. I'm going to breathe and do a brain dump. It can't be that easy. Well, let me ask you something. When you're overwhelmed, do you want a complicated solution to fight the overwhelm? I didn't think so. Life's already complicated. Enough. You need something simple to do that's backed by research. So if you really stop and think about what I'm asking you to do, I'm asking you to take everything on your mind that is weighing you down, that you're carrying around, that is contributing to the chronic stress, all of the things on your to do list, all of the ways that you're making yourself wrong, all of the things that you didn't have a chance to get to, the reminders, the don't forget to call the mom to pick up the prescription, to email Sarah back about the budget, to text your friend whose birthday you forgot to sign the field trip permission slip and call the doctor and get a physical before the sports team stuff, to register for classes, before the registration window stuff. When did we say we were going to go meet about that fundraiser or my friends, whatever. All of it. All of it. But don't just stop at all the to dos. Get all the emotional stuff out, the awkward conversation that you're are avoiding, the fact that you know that you are slowly, quietly quitting this relationship, the anxiety that your kids feel, the resentment that is building up with your partner because they're not doing their fair share around the house, but you just don't want to say anything. The weird things that you ruminate about at 2am get it all out. Oh, there's a lot up there, isn't it? Like if you really think about the size of your head, it's kind of crazy how much you're carrying around. No wonder it's weighing you down. Get it all out. Get it out of your brain. That's the goal. And here's how you can do it. I want you to set a timer for 10 minutes. Grab a notebook or open up a dock on your phone or your laptop. And then you're not allowed to edit, you're not allowed to organize it, nothing. It's just like barfing on paper or on the screen. Everything gets written down. Every task, every to do, every fear, every worry, every should, every conversation, every idea, every every. Oh yeah, I forgot about that thing. Here's one that would go on my list right now. My sink has been backing up forever. Like it's been backing up for months and months and months. And every time I brush my teeth in the morning, I've got like 4 inches of water in the sink. This morning, do you know what I did? I had my curling iron turned on. I forgot that the sink back up and I literally set the plugged in curling iron into a sink. Full of water. I'm surprised I didn't electrocute myself. I have been thinking about this thing forever. I need to get it out of my brain because it's weighing me down. I just need to unclog the sink. I think about it all the time, but it's not going anywhere. That's an example. You've got thousands of those things that you're carrying around. And by the way, whatever you dump out, it should be messy because this isn't a planning exercise. This is a purge. The technical term for a brain dump is cognitive offloading. Let me hit you with some research about why this works. There was a meta analysis done in 2025. That means they've analyzed a bunch of different studies and then summarized it for you and me. That confirms that when you write things down, in other words, you get it out of your head, you cognitively offload, you reduce your mental strain. You improve your brain's ability to perform. Your brain performs better when it knows it doesn't have to remember everything. Let me tell you why. Because your brain is not a storage unit. It's a processor. And when you use your brain to hold onto everything instead of directing it to help you handle everything, you are clogging up your brain, and it's creating, spinning, and forgetting and shutting down. I want you to think about it like you open up your computer and there's a thousand tabs open. You've got a thousand tabs open in your mental browser right now. Your brain isn't broken. It is at capacity. Its storage is used up. It can't save anything on the hard drive. Aren't you loving this? I love what we're talking about today. And I also love anytime I feel like at my age, I'm learning something new. I wish I had had this so, so long ago. Here's what I want you to do. First of all, pat yourself on the back because you're really getting it. But don't keep this episode to yourself. I want you to take 10 seconds and share it with one person in your life who needs it. It could fundamentally change not only how they understand the way that their mind and body works, but more importantly, what they can do about it to reset their stress or to deal with overwhelm when life is just too much. And please don't go anywhere because I'm gonna be waiting for you after this short break, so stay with me. Many people feel stuck in dating, and it's rarely about chemistry alone. The real difference is clarity. Clarity about your values, the qualities that make you feel truly seen, and the kind of relationship you want to build. Take a moment to write down the three things that matter most to you in a relationship. When you have that in front of you, it becomes easier to recognize the right matches and feel a real connection with people who fit. Bumble's prompts and shared interests help you express what matters to you, and verified profiles give you confidence about who you're connecting with. Clarity is freedom. It lets you show up confidently, and Bumble is a great place to put that into practice. In fact, so many members of the team here at the Mel Robbins Podcast has stories about Bumble. One of our producers has a friend named Hannah. She was using Bumble BFF as a way to make new friends, and then she thought, wait a minute, if this works so well for friends, why am I not using it for dating? Can you guess the ending to this story? She matched with Declan. They went on a first date. They share values and interests. Guess what? They're now married. How awesome is that? So what are you waiting for? Download Bumble and start your love story. Have you ever had to sleep next to somebody who tosses and turns all night? I mean, it's so annoying. One flip and suddenly you're wide awake. And by the time morning comes, ugh, it's like you've barely slept. Well, if fall is a season of change, maybe it's the perfect time for you to change the way you sleep. That's where Mattress Firm and their sleep experts come in. Mattress Firm Sleep experts will match you with a bed for deeper rest. Like the Tempur luxeadapt, it has unique tempur material that absorbs motion for undisturbed rest. It helps minimize disruptions caused by movement from your partner, pets or kiddos. Mattress Firm Sleep experts are trained to match you with the perfect Tempur Pedic mattress and with next Day delivery right to your door, Mattress Firm makes it easy to start sleeping better right away. Restrictions apply. Next day delivery Available on select mattresses and subject to location. See store for details. For the great sleep you deserve, visit Mattress Firm and upgrade to a Tempur Pedic. They make sleep easy. Peloton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread plus, powered by Peloton iq. Now this isn't just equipment. It's a tool designed to help you push past excuses and take charge of your health. Peloton IQ tracks your progress and even suggests weights that challenge you so you can get stronger. The new movement tracking camera counts your reps and keeps your form on point in real time so you don't have to second guess yourself. You can start training safer, lifting smarter and making every rep count. Plus, the new tread has a swivel screen so you can go from running to strength training or Pilates with one smooth spin of the screen. Then let Peloton IQ build a personal workout roadmap for you with weekly recommended classes led by instructors who match your personality with plans, insights and real guidance. It's like having someone in your corner keeping you consistent and showing you what's possible. When you commit, let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push and go explore the new peloton cross training Tread [e-mail] Welcome back, it's your buddy Mel Robbins. And today you and I are learning about the major difference between stress and overwhelm and the four science backed strategies that you're going to use anytime you hit that state where you've reached your threshold to deal with. Do you know that studies have shown that mental load, it is disproportionately carried by women? I don't need to tell you that study because you know it's true. Because you're the one carrying the birthdays, the school emails, the dog meds, the dentist appointments, the emotional state of the entire family, everybody's birthday, the holiday shopping, the cooking, the planning, the cleaning, the folding. I'm here to tell you that it's real and you deserve to redistribute that load. And the first place we're going to put it, we're going to cognitively dump it onto a piece of paper. That's why I call this a brain dump. That is the step you're going to take because it gives you clarity. It gives you something to point to when you can say, look, I need help or I got to set this boundary, look at all this stuff I'm carrying around. So set the timer to 10 minutes, dump it all off. And I know what you're asking, Mel, when is the best time to do this? Well, first of all, the best time to do this is anytime you've labeled the fact that you're stressed or overwhelmed, you've done the breath and you've reset your response biologically and now you're in a slightly different biological state, then you can do the brain dump. But I did check into this and believe it or not, there's research on this. Baylor University did a study where one group of people journaled before bed about what they had already accomplished. Okay, so this is like one of those. So today I did all these things. The other group, check this out. You know what they wrote down? They wrote down everything they didn't do. So basically, what was on your to do list that you didn't get to? And who do you think fell asleep faster? The people that journaled about what they got done or the people that brain dumped all the things that they didn't do on a piece of paper, basically sleeping next to a to do list for the very next day? The people who wrote the unfinished tasks. Honest to God, that's the people who slept better. They fell asleep nine to 10 minutes faster than the group of people who wrote down what they got done. Now, let's just unpack this for a second, okay? Why would writing down all of the things that you didn't get to on a piece of paper before you go to bed help you sleep? Help you fall asleep 9 to 10 minutes faster? By the way, that's the same effect as some prescription sleep aids in clinical trials. I'll tell you why. It has to do with something called the Zeigarnik effect. See, your brain hates open loops. Open loops are these, like, open tabs in your mind. It's all the things that you haven't done. It's the lingering ideas. It's the things on your list you didn't get to. These open tabs, these undone things. Your brain's just gonna keep cycling through them because it's afraid you're gonna forget it. It's trying to help you. But see, when your brain sees that you and I just wrote, oh, yeah, I gotta buy Drano. I've gotta do the birthday text. I gotta make sure I do this. Your brain sees it all dumped on a piece of paper. You just cognitively offloaded it. It's like, oh, check, check, check. So if you're lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about emails and errands and phone calls, the fix isn't lavender oil or white noise. It's a brain dump. The research proves if you offload the things you're thinking about onto a piece of paper, the Zeigarnik effect takes hold, and your brain can literally let it go and drift into sleep. Oh, my gosh. Isn't that incredible? So now that you've put it all on the list, what comes next? This is the fourth thing. And it brings me back to Dr. K. Remember Dr. K at the very beginning of our conversation today, and he talked about the fact that overwhelm is when you feel like life is coming at you too Fast, and now it's too much, and you just feel out of control. And he also went on to explain what's happening when your brain gets overwhelmed. Turns out when you're overwhelmed, it's because there's two different types of obligations that your brain is trying to process. Wow. And so Dr. K is back to teach you that when you're in a state of overwhelm, it has to do with the number of things that are out of your control that are coming at you versus the number of things that are on that to do list that you actually want to do. I want you to listen closely because Dr. K is about to add yet a deeper layer to the medical state of being in overwhelm. And that's going to set up the fourth step of what you're going to do after you have taken a breath, after you've done a brain dump. Let's take a listen to Dr. K.

[B]

When your brain is feeling overwhelmed, it's actually measuring two different kinds of things. One is something called a passive challenge. Passive challenges are things that happen to you without you ever choosing them. These are things like paying taxes, dealing with a spouse or child or parent who gets sick, or other things just out of your control. The other really interesting thing is there's another kind of challenge called an active challenge. These are challenges that you face in your life that are things that you actually choose to do. So when you wake up on a morning and you say, you know what? I'm going to learn how to bake sourdough. This may require a lot of work, maybe a lot of effort, but it's something that you choose. Now, the really interesting thing is that whether your brain feels overwhelmed is not based on the number of things that you are dealing with. This is what a lot of people get wrong. It is based on the ratio of passive challenges to active challenges. When I deal with patients who are overwhelmed, they feel like life is coming at them way too fast. I have to deal with this over here. And then my boss wants this and my kid wants this, and then this person is sick and I need to do some back to school shopping. So life is coming at you and you feel completely out of control. The really scary thing is that when life is coming at you at a really fast pace, what is the first thing that you give up? You give up the things that you want to do. You stop working on your book. You stop exercising. You stop learning how to make sourdough because you don't have the time, which, fair enough. The problem is Then the percentage of things that you have control over in life actually decreases.

[A]

Dr. K, that is fascinating, because it's true that in those moments where you're overwhelmed, you do stop doing the things that you care about, which means the only thing on your plate is the bills and work and, you know, caring for your aging parents or the dog that's sick, or the fact that you gotta find a new. Like all of these things that you didn't choose that are coming at you. So if you recognize that that's true, you're in this state where just so much of what you have to deal with every day feels like it's out of your control and also feels like something you don't want to have to deal with. And you didn't choose for your kid to have anxiety. You didn't choose for there to be a challenging job market, and now you're overwhelmed, looking for a new job, you didn't choose the divorce, and now you're faced with. With all the things that you have to deal with. So what is the advice you give to your patients? Because we're already overwhelmed. Life's already coming at us. What do we do? Dr. K?

[B]

So we have a really interesting technique that we use in psychiatry, and there's tons of research to support this, that if someone is feeling out of control in their life, the solution isn't to cut back. Because that's what all my patients want. They wish their boss would leave them alone. They wish they didn't have to pay taxes this year. The solution is not to cut back on what life is sending your way. Although that would certainly make things easy. The real solution is to take on more active challenges, start to take control of a single thing in your life.

[A]

I'm sorry, Dr. Gay, that makes no sense. That makes no sense. I'm already overwhelmed and my brain isn't working. How is taking on something else when I've hit this threshold the answer? How does that work? Can you give me an example of what your patients add in? Like, how are you dealing with this in your clinical practice?

[B]

When I work with patients who are in the throes of addiction, they're going through divorce, they're on probation at work, they have legal problems and DUIs. Almost all of them start by taking control of one thing in their life. In this case, it could be, I'm not going to drink today. And as you start to take a little bit of control in your life, your brain feels less overwhelmed. And then you are better able to handle those passive challenges.

[A]

I Actually understand what you're saying. Like if you take a step back, if you're in a state where life is coming at you and so many of the challenges that you're facing are out of your control and you didn't choose them and you don't wanna deal with them, of course, we just wish they would go away, but that's not, not happening. What you're basically saying is that by adding something in that you care about, whether it's not drinking or it's every day I'm going to look for a job because I care about this, or whether it's picking up a book instead of picking up your phone tonight. What Dr. K is saying makes a lot of sense. That you've got to signal to yourself that there are things that you care about, that you still do, that are for you and your own sanity that make you feel in control. I love this. It actually like when he first said, I was like, wait, I don't think that makes sense at all. I'm not doing anything right now. I'm overwhelmed. No, no, no, no. Stop letting go of the things that matter to you. Add one thing in. Wow, I love that advice. Cause it's so counterintuitive. So let me make sure you got this. The four steps to any moment where life feels like too much and you want to take control because you're overwhelmed, they're very, very simple. You now know the difference between stress, which is pressure, and hitting that psychological flooding, which is overwhelming. And so you're just gonna label it step two. We're going to use a biological reset to meet the biological stress and overwhelm response. And when life's too much, you know, it's the double inhale and then you're going to flush it out. Third thing you're going to do is you are going to cognitively offload the mental load, right? And you're just going to do a brain dump on a piece of paper, 10 minute timer, dump it all out. If you do it at night, we can leverage that amazing research from Baylor and you're going to, based on the study, fall asleep faster, which. Oh, we love that too. And finally, I love that kind of reframe from Dr. K that if it's overwhelm, you have to find something to add in that's important to you, something that you are going to do right now that you can focus on. For Chris, it's writing every morning no matter what. For you, it may be walking every day no matter what. It might be cutting out the alcohol or cutting out the sugar. It might be closing your laptop at 7 o' clock when the alarm rings at night because you're practicing boundaries at work. It might be taking a lunch break today instead of standing around and eating your sandwich at your shift, at the hospital or at school and really separating yourself for a minute. Because when you add that in, Dr. K is right, you will feel this little moment of control. And that's gonna counterbalance all the things that are out of control that are coming at you. And based on what Dr. K said, those small moments of control help you be better equipped to handle all the other things. So those are the tools and that's the science. And I wanna give a huge shout out to Dr. K and to Dr. Aditi and Dr. Russ Kennedy for unpacking this really important difference between stress and overwhelm. And giving us this detailed, deep, simple, four step guide that you can use anytime you need the next time life feels like it's just too much. And in case someone else tells you today, I wanted to be sure to tell you as your friend that I love you and I believe in you and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And understanding these key differences between moments of stress and the psychological flooding of overwhelm and practicing these four steps. Holy cow. It's not only going to make you feel better, it's gonna help you do what you need to do to make your life better. And I love that for you. All right. Thank you.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing this with people that you care about. I can't wait to see you in the very next episode. I'll welcome you in the moment you hit play. Amy, I'm gonna try something in the open. Ben, just stay with me. I'm gonna get there. Okay, you ready? I didn't know that there was a difference between stress and overwhelm. Hold on a second. Let me just say go up just a little bit and so are we going to go? Do you want me to do this or where am I putting in Dr. K. Hold on a second. Did I do that? Like, okay, great. Do we need this for right now? This? I don't think we need this. Yeah, I think I'm just thinking about this. Yeah, of course, of course. Okay, that's that one. Nope. And then let's move on. All right, let's eat. Great job, everybody. Where are we time wise? Just like where I am on my dick. Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper this is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode. SiriusXM podcasts Hallmark it's everything you love about Hallmark all in one place. Stream all new Hallmark original series and movies next day, Enjoy the largest collection of Hallmark rom coms, mysteries, dramas, holiday movies and feel good series. Get benefits like a $5 monthly coupon to spend at Gold Crown stores or Hallmark.com free cards, exclusive gifts and much more. Visit HallmarkPlus.com and use code HPLUSPOD. That's H P L U S P O D to get two months of HallmarkPlus for just $2. If you're in the market for a new pair of boots, look no further than L.L. bean boots. L.L. bean crafting boots Built to last over a century, their iconic Bean boots are still handcrafted in Maine the same way since 1912. With full grain leather, durable rubber bottoms and triple needle stitching, they're built for rain, mud and snow. These boots are made to handle season after season and become more personal, more comfortable and more yours with every mile. Every season, L.L. bean boots are simply best worn. Find your [e-mail].