Rescue Your Nervous System from Burnout and Brain Rot

This episode offers support to rescue your nervous system from burnout and brain rot with gentle tips and powerful insights. If you are you’re feeling fried by constant stress, endless to‑do lists, or brain‑numbing scrolling, this episode helps you understand what your nervous system is actually trying to tell you so you can respond with care instead of self-blame. You’ll walk away with simple, realistic shifts that make life feel more doable, even when the world still feels heavy.

Some of what we talk about in this episode includes:

• How “nesting dolls of stress” and liminal seasons (like end of summer) impact your nervous system
• Shifting from shame and self-blame into choice, capacity, and compassionate responsibility
• Practical somatic tools to get out of your head and back into your body (without bypassing real problems)
• The difference between AI-driven “support” and real human connection—and why community matters for resilience

Have thoughts or questions about this episode? Share them with me!

Send me a voice memo: https://www.speakpipe.com/MindsetUnlimited

LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:

Emile Ennis Jr. Instagram 

Liberation With Ekta Instagram 

Mindset Unlimited: How to Manifest What You Want 

Harvard Business Review: AI Doesn't Reduce Work It Intensifies It 

Brave Space Alliance

Albany Park Theater Project

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This podcast was produced by Valerie Friedlander Coaching

Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective

Transcript

Valerie Friedlander: 0:08

Hello, my friends, and welcome to another

episode of Mindset Unlimited: 0:10

Mindset Tips, Tools, and Inspiration for Women in a Time of Change. I'm your host, Valerie Friedlander, Certified Leadership Coach, Sociologist, Intersectional feminist artist mom and nerd, and today we are talking about rescuing your nervous system from burnout and brain rot. And I just want to take a breath real quick because I know that for me right now there are like those nesting dolls of stressors in this particular period of life, and I also want to acknowledge that that doesn't mean that something's wrong. Like a lot of times, I think we take, I'm stressed. I'm feeling burnt out. I'm overwhelmed, or I'm falling into scrolling and the brain rot. All as personal failings, as like something's wrong with me that I'm struggling with this. Like as though struggling were a personal failing, and I just want to remind you that it's not-it's not a personal failing. Things are tough, and again, those nesting dolls of stressors-the more nesting dolls you have, the harder it is to navigate. So, I've talked a lot about these things over the years. I wanted to bring them together to consolidate them for you in this particular episode. Given the time of the season that we're in, I find it's one of those liminal spaces, and I talked about this recently. That idea of being in the liminal space-that's kind of stressful. We want to be on one side or the other side. We want to be either the caterpillar or the butterfly. Like, yeah, we want to be the butterfly, but hey, at least I know the caterpillar life. And going from oh, there's a lot of discomfort and unknowns in the process of change. That hey, you know what? I'm already feeling stressed. Let me reduce some of the stress of change by at least staying within what I'm familiar with, and that's an understandable feeling to have. There's nothing wrong with you for feeling that way either, and change is going to happen no matter what. Whatever, whatever we do, change will happen, and it's always a question of are we consciously, intentionally engaging that change in our own life? Are we being the agent in our life of the change, or at least intentionally being agentic with how we show up to the change as well, or are we just kind of hanging on for dear life? And I think a lot of us are hanging on for dear life right now, and that again isn't because there's a failing in you. It's not that you're doing something wrong. And when I give you these tools, these tips, these perspectives, these shifts, whatever, it's not because what you're currently doing is wrong. It's because I want you to know that you have options, you have choices, whether you choose to take them or not. The fact that you have them can feel like a little bit more of that relief, and to know that oh, there's a way to navigate. I know I want to get to the butterfly, but I have to go through the goo. I know that I want to stay in what's comfortable, even though it's not comfortable. It's familiar. There's like less stress in the familiarity of it, so I'm choosing the familiarity of it because it feels less stressful when everything else feels stressful. Even knowing that that's something you're choosing is empowering. I am choosing not to choose right now because it is too much. Letting go of the shame of your choices, knowing that you are making a choice and letting go of the shame of that choice opens up some energy that we are otherwise expending in ways that aren't helpful. It makes room for being able to make the choices that we want to make. So you may go. Well, I really want to do the butterfly thing, and I don't have capacity right now. So I'm choosing to nurture my capacity by staying in the places where it is a little bit more comfortable because of it being familiar. Even though I know I don't want to stay here because it isn't really comfortable. And while I am conserving my energy, I am going to build the pieces. I'm going to bring in the things that I need to help create that supportive chrysalis, that supportive space for the goo process. So, in that mind, just take a breath, and I will tangent here real quick and say that while I think breath work is extremely helpful for nervous systems. It can also be activating. I am someone who sometimes breath work feels really good, and sometimes it activates my anxiety. Like I'm breathing, and suddenly I'm hyper focused on my breathing, and suddenly I feel like I can't breathe, and then I'm like really stressed. And what I do with that, and this may be helpful for you, if that is something that's true for you as well, is to sit with it and know that it is an experience that I'm having, and it will pass. I really love the saying that this too shall pass, because it applies to everything, and in ways that I like and in ways that I don't like. But it will always be true, so I just try and stay with it. There are things that you can do that can facilitate, can ease it, but a lot of times we just have to go through the uncomfortable. So that's just one small way that I sit through the discomfort. Is I just know this too shall pass, and I know that there will be another side to it. So, taking a breath, and sometimes I find that getting more into the other parts of my body can be helpful, so I'm not just focused on breathing. I'm focused on my feet and wiggling my toes because we get all caught up here in our head, all up here where we're thinking, thinking, thinking, and so much of what we're thinking has everything to do with what our bodies are doing, what our body is saying, and so getting out of the headspace and into the body space, getting as far down as we can go into our feet space, or even stepping outside of ourselves and taking a look around and noticing the space. There's the classic taking a look at what your senses are taking in, that what can you see, what can you smell, what can you taste, what can you hear, getting present is a really key part of all of that. And I mention getting present because when we're caught up in our head and trying to figure things out and think and think and find solutions, and what are the choices, and what's the best choice, and what's the that's you know it gets into this spinning whirlwindy sort of thing that can feel like another nesting doll in the layers of stress is the mental overwhelm of all of the things. So just getting into present, getting here, and and that is also in opposition to the disconnecting, getting into the phone, getting into the mindless scrolling, and all of those sorts of things. Which I bring that up not to shame it. There is a lot of reason to want to check out and disconnect, to get caught up in a game or something that really is that what we might call brain rot. Right? It's not intentional. It's kind of mindless. There's a lot of reason to have that, the thing to know with those things is that they are not forever, and they are designed to keep you in them, keep you doing them, keep you not being present. Because the more reactive we are, the less present we are, the more reactive we are. So, like reactive leads to not being present leads to being reactive, right? It it kind of relates to itself, and then we aren't making conscious choices, and we're kind of being dragged along, and we're much more susceptible to all of these ways. Is that our attention is being harnessed and pulled so that we are more manipulatable to the systems, and that just exacerbates the stress. Because here's the deal: it's all contrived. It's not supposed to be this hard. Doing life is not supposed to be this hard, and it's gotten harder. When we talk about the nesting dolls of stress, one of the reasons I want to talk about this in this period is because this is a season where we're coming to the end of summer, and that has a natural shift to it. There's a lot of expectation that we tend to have, whether we realize it or not, around the summer months and oh, vacations and relaxation and doing summer things. And if you find oh, we're almost at the end of summer and we didn't do all those things, or we didn't have the experience that we thought we might have, or we hoped to have, or maybe we have more things to do, and it feels a little hectic because you know we've got vacations coming up and all this work to do to get ready for the vacation, and then we go into school, and while it's great to get back to a routine, it's also stressful in other ways. It's just this liminal space where all of the possible things and all the need to do things and all the fires, literally, figuratively, are going, and it feels like so much. And if you have kids, your kids may be feeling stressed about getting back to school. You're holding a lot of space. You're holding a lot of emotion of your own, of your families. It's just it's a big time, and so the thing about it is that yes, liminal spaces are spaces of change. There is a natural stress there. Change is inherently stressful, and add in all of the contrived ways. You know, you work hard. The more harder you work, the more work there is to do. That has been coming up for people a lot, and then of course the the dynamics of the world and all of the awful things that are happening, and I imagine as someone listening to this podcast, you are aware of and concerned about the things that are happening in the world, at home, in our society, and want to show up to those things. And there's always a question of, well, how do I do that when I'm already at capacity? And that is the point. It is not supposed to be this hard. We are supposed to have more support. We are supposed to be more connected. We aren't supposed to have all of these things attacking our attention, trying to get us to pay attention to them, to need to do to go faster to do things. It's not supposed to be this hard, and it is not your fault if it feels really hard. I'm gonna take another breath because I have a tendency to just go, and and it's a lot. It's a lot, so I want you to know that I'm repeating. It's not your fault. It's not supposed to be this hard, and it is. And those are two things that I think are really important to hold space for, so that we're not layering on the additional nesting doll of stress related to beating ourselves up, it allows us to hold space for where we are, and that is one of the keys when it comes to overwhelm. Is recognizing your responsibility. Overwhelm is the sense that things are too big; they're bigger than you, and you are powerless, and there are some things where that's a perception. It has to do with your capacity, not your actual like what you could actually impact. Some things are much bigger, like the societal things, the global things, the economic and political things. All of those things, in their entirety, are bigger than us. There are pieces that are not bigger than us, though. There are pieces that we do have the ability to impact, and those are the things that we build on. Right. So when we're talking about dealing with overwhelm, checking in with our responsibility, I break that down into two pieces. First, responsibility has to do with your ability to respond, your response ability. So, number one is, what do you have the ability to respond to? What is in your wheelhouse? What. Is in your circle of things. What can you actually do? So many of us are conditioned to try and engage things, try and change things that aren't actually ours, like how somebody else feels. Can't change that. Can change how we show up. Can change what we say, what questions we ask, where we show up, when we show up-like those things-we can change. Can't change somebody else. So, what do you have the ability to impact? What is in your circle of influence? And the second piece of that is your capacity. What do you have the capacity for? Often we have more capacity than we think we do, and it might be in a different way than we thought. Like the capacity to be resilient, the capacity to be in discomfort. Like there are places where we might have a little bit more capacity than we think we do. That said, we also have this tendency to deny our own needs and not care for ourselves and push past our capacity till we're totally depleted. So it's an all-or-nothing sort of situation. So what do you have the capacity to do? Here's what's in my wheelhouse. Here's what I have the capacity to do. Choose one small thing. One small thing. Each thing you do builds on other things. So, when we think about, oh, I can't make this choice yet, but here's a way I can support myself. So let's put it into a job context, okay? If you are like, I want to change jobs. Something isn't working in this space that I'm in, in this career, in this particular circumstance. Something needs to change. Maybe you don't know what it is yet, and it feels really intimidating to do something differently, but oh, I'm so busy. I'm putting out all these fires. I'm doing all of these things. I don't have time for anything else, let alone even thinking about doing something differently. So I'm just going to keep going, keep going. Okay, overwhelm is an indication that we need care. So if you can switch from trying to control, trying to get to that end place, and go, what care do I need right now? I feel so overwhelmed by all the work I need to do, and I know I want to change jobs, and oh, it's all too much. I can't do any of it. What care do you need right now. Start with that, and that may open up. You know what? I I have a friend who's doing something really interesting, and I can call them and chat with them about what they're doing. I have a friend who just changed jobs recently. Let me call them and ask them what worked for them. I'm not going to do that thing yet. That's 10 steps ahead, but I can make the phone call and connect with the person. And this is where I'm going to highlight connecting with people. Connect with other people is so key. I've talked about this before when it comes to dealing with the overwhelm of the world. Connecting with other people because you can't do everything on your own, but together with more people, the thing that you want to impact becomes a little bit smaller in Relation, right? The percentage of the ratio-that's the word I was looking for. The ratio changes. Connecting with another person is key. One thing that's happening a lot right now is that people are using AI for counseling. I have a lot of feelings about that, as you might imagine, and I'm not gonna go down a rabbit hole about AI. Lots of thoughts, lots of feelings. If you want me to talk about that more, let me know. I'm happy at some point to do that. I've I've I've talked about doing that before, and I just there's so much. And what I want to say about that right now, in terms of using it for counseling, is Octavia Butler said that everything you touch, you change. Everything you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. This is something that I think is really important, especially for me as someone who is a service provider. I show up, I support people. I want to share with you that every single person that I work with changes me. Every person. That I interact with as a service provider, but also as a person, as a friend, I'm changed by. And there's something special in that. While people come to me for change, and I support them in their change, that changes me. There's a spark that happens in that interaction, a unique thing that occurs between two people being changed by each other, and that is not what happens when you reach out to AI. It's full of helpful tips that it has stolen from people like myself and people who have written books and have put things online that have really useful tips and tricks and things, and so yes, you can get some good ideas from AI. It's important to know that it's sycophantic, and remember that in all things you can tell it not to be syncophantic, but you can't change the nature of it, right? So it's still gonna be that whether you whether you ask it to not be, it's still gonna be that because that's its nature. That's how it's been programmed to operate. So it's syncophantic, which means that it is going to do what it thinks you want. It's going to tell you what it thinks you want to be told. Partly because it wants you to keep using it. It's been programmed to keep you on it, to keep you engaged with it, which keeps us disconnected from other people where that spark resides. So it is extracting from you, and it's changing you. When you engage with a human being, you both are changed, whether you see it in that moment or not. And I think that's one of the things that we resist interacting is because there's a lot of fear of change. So we're going to cycle back to that fear of something new, of something different, of being changed, of changing, because it's unknown. We don't know what's going to happen, and it is a special part of being present, a special part of the human experience to be able to sit in the discomfort of the unknown and allow yourself to be changed. And this isn't to say like change your mind, right? Like this isn't okay. I'm going to sit down and talk with somebody that I disagree with, and I'm going to allow them to change my mind. That's not the same thing as connecting and listening and being present with someone and allowing the experience to impact you, and that is actually part of stress resilience. It might feel stressful to do, especially if it's not something you've been practicing or if you have dynamics in your life, traumas where it has been unsafe, it may take. Again, this may be a stepping stone sort of thing. I want to do that kind of connection, and I am not there yet. So where could you start? What's a small step towards that? Maybe it's making a list of people I feel safe with that I might want to reach out to. Maybe it's calling one person and being vulnerable, being open, saying, "Hey, I don't know what to talk about, but I just I wanted to talk. Anything small allows you to start building into a new thing and allowing that change to happen. And I was heading somewhere else with that, and I sidetracked myself. Talk about another nesting doll of change, like heading into perimenopause and being like,"What is happening with my brain? And again, it's uncomfortable to be in change, and it's part of life. The more we can get present to ourselves and embrace where we are, and not shame ourselves for being there, it's just this is where I am. This is what's happening. One of the content creators that I really enjoy, his name is Emil. I will have a link to his Instagram that I follow him on in the show notes. He recently talked about that butterfly, the caterpillar to butterfly idea, and what he mentioned was how he was curious. Does the caterpillar know that it's going to turn into a butterfly? And he looked into it finally, and no, the caterpillar does not know that it's going to turn into a butterfly. So the analogy is flawed, where it's like I know I'm going to be a butterfly, but right now I'm just a cat. Caterpillar, and this is another layer that I want to help open up a little bit. Is that you can know that change is happening, and that it's time for change, and you can be like, I don't know what that looks like, and that's okay, because here's the thing about the caterpillar that he talks about, that I've talked about, is that there are cells in that goo process. Right, the caterpillar has to literally digest itself into goo, hence the chrysalis to hold the goo. Right. So, what can be your chrysalis? What are those little things you can pull? And I know, I know, change is happening. I can feel it in my body, and it feels uncomfortable. And I've been conditioned that things that feel uncomfortable are bad and wrong, and I I need to resist. No, pause. Something's happening. Something's happening. What if we didn't judge it? Maybe there's something that we can do. The little, the little things. What support do I need? What care do I need? What is mine to engage? What is mine to care for? What is under my lotus of control? What's one thing, right? That check in. What can I pull in to create that chrysalis? And then in the goo, there are cells that know what's being formed. There are cells that know the butterfly, even though the caterpillar doesn't know the butterfly. There are pieces, there are building blocks in there that know. There is something in you that knows what's possible, and it may not be up here in your brain, in your head. So this is where we circle back towards the beginning of getting into your body. You don't have to know the exact path, and yes, it's ironic because I help people with strategic plans for life and business. I help people build the plans, but the foundation of the building process that I use is the idea of walking intentionally toward an unknown destination, because part of you knows. I hold that you are the expert of your own life. It doesn't mean the expert in your brain. It means the expert in your being, your whole being. You are amazing. You are full of possibility. Whatever the world does with that, and yes, we have to interact with that too. And there are various layers of difficulty and challenge within that. And bring it small. What care do you need right now? This is where we reclaim our nervous system. Isn't by thinking our way out of it. It isn't by figuring it out in our heads, it's about listening, and this is the thing that none of that all the hustle, all the push, and AI is part of the hustle system. There are some people out there who are saying AI will help us get out of the hustle. This is a way to utilize a tool that allows us to get more done and not hustle as much. And research has shown that's not true. The more we use AI, the more hustle we have. And I will include a link in the show notes to the research study article. I think it was the Harvard Review that looked at the more people are using it, the more we are pushing and doing more. It is a way of producing more faster, which is part of hustle culture, which is part of all of that system. So know that that is part of what is being engaged when you're using that tool, and I'm not saying don't use it at all. I I think of it kind of like plastic bags, right? Like we can't, or plastic in general, we can't fully get away from it. It's embedded in so many things. It's not an individual problem. It is An company, corporation, tech bro problem. So we need to put our energy toward what it actually belongs to, but that doesn't mean that we have no power. So we do still have power in that is to choose. Hey, okay, this. Is where I can bring my reusable bag. Oh, I forgot my reusable bag. You know what? I'm just gonna put everything in the cart. I'm gonna take it to the car. I'm gonna put it in. It takes more effort because the current is going this way. It takes more effort. Takes more intentionality. And this is where we can stretch a little bit more than we realize that we can. It takes a little bit more effort to do things differently to swim upstream, recognizing, oh, I am choosing to swim upstream. I am going to be using more energy, so I'm going to find other people who are also swimming upstream, kind of like you know birds in formation, right? I'm going to find people who can support that process, and I'm also going to recognize that sometimes I need to allow myself to rest a little bit, and that might mean some sliding. Paying attention to okay, but I am as I slide, I'm going to connect with more people and get that support to keep going the direction I want to go, keep building the future I want to live in. So often, especially in these online spaces, our rage shows up because that's the other piece of this stress response. We have the overwhelm, the shutdown. Things are too big for me. We also have anger, and here's the thing about that. And there have been a variety of people who've talked about this online. I'm going to link one of them who I really appreciate-a therapist that talks about this. I have talked about this for a while about recognizing the importance of the different components of our system and what they're telling us, rather than judging them and saying, "Oh, we just need to peace out. We need to, you know, be calm. That's the toxic positivity, the spiritual bypassing, all of that stuff. We don't want to do. We want to stay in the discomfort. Our dysregulation is telling us something, it's saying that there's a problem here, and there is. It's not supposed to be this hard. We're not supposed to be living in this this amount of difficulty in just doing life. So, being mindful online, it's designed. A lot of these spaces are designed to activate sacred rage, things that we actually should be angry about. Our nervous system should be dysregulated, but what it does is it taps into the parts of our conditioning that aim us to being angry at certain things that aren't actually helpful. We're expending energy in ways that don't actually support what we really want. So knowing that anger is important, we're not just trying to numb out, right? Like the nervous system regulation isn't about oh everything's fine. It's just your nervous system. It's a you problem. No, it's not a you problem. It's not a you problem. There's a reason your nervous system is dysregulated. And what care do you need for it? And what is it telling you? So going back to checking in, what is in your locus of control? What care is needed? And what does it inform you about what change you want to lean into? Take. that space to really interrogate. It takes time. It's not easy. And again, this is one of the reasons why connecting with other people, being present, allowing the change between people is so powerful. One of the most radical things that you can do is be present in your body, feel the feelings without judging them. Know that they're there for a reason. It might not be a present reason. It might not be a personal reason. I mean, it's always sort of personal, but like, it's not necessarily because something's wrong with you or something is going on with you. It might be that you're picking up signals that there's a problem. Again, one of those stress nesting dolls, right? Like picking up. Maybe there's a problem with the fact that the air is full of smoke and I can't breathe outside. Maybe that's a problem. You know things like that. It's like, yeah, that makes sense to be stressed about that. What is one thing that I can do? I can check on a friend. I can check on a neighbor. I can take care of myself. I can make phone calls. Like, what are. Those small things, one thing that you can do, because as you take action, this is what I wanted to talk about before. As you take action, you build your sense of confidence. You start to teach yourself that you are trustworthy, that you will be there for yourself. I have a need. I have a need. We're not numbing that need. We're going. Yes, you have a need. I see you. Your need matters. Maybe just take a moment. I put my hand on my chest, or wherever the tension is. I mean, it could even be on your shoulders. Could be, you know, that hug yourself sort of situation, right? I often find that the weight sits on my chest, and just take a breath and and say, "You need something, and that matters. You deserve care. You deserve care. Holding space for that, and then taking action to show yourself that care, and again, that can be just sitting with a feeling of discomfort. That can be calling a friend, saying, "Hey, I need care. I'm going to connect with somebody who I know cares about me. So this isn't about like I'm gonna go get a manicure. I'm gonna do a bubble bath or whatever, you know. I'm whatever capitalist thing to spend money on. None of that. And if you're not sure what care you need, that's okay too. Sitting with I don't know. I don't know what care I need. I know I need care. There's a part of you deep inside. You might not have unlocked it yet because you're not the butterfly yet. But there's a part of you that knows, and just by saying this, and I talk about this in the manifestation episode, which I will link in the show notes. Saying that, acknowledging it starts to shift your lens so that you'll notice what it is you need, and each piece of that action starts to teach yourself to notice it more, and then you'll start to know the clarity will come when you give room for it to come. So, that's what rescuing your nervous system from the burnout that is being imposed upon you is trying to burn you out. That is the intention to burn you out, so that you are more manipulatable, so that you won't take the small actions that make a difference over time, and collectively we have so much power. Collectively, if we say this burnout is not our fault, this feeling of overwhelm, this feeling of stress and how hard it is is not your fault. Take a breath. You are worthy of care. I hope that this has been helpful for you. If you are wanting some space, wanting a container to do some really intentional looking at the things that are coming for you, that I know I want to step into some change. I know I want to feel that clarity and that confidence in the transition that I want to engage intentionally in my own life. That's what I'm here for, and a one small step can be getting on an exploration call. I'm not a pushy princess. The call is for you, so that you feel supported and you get what you need. Whatever clarity about what support you need, whether it's working with me or I give you a referral or a resource, that's the point. That's the point of it. We need each other right now. We need support, and we don't need more things being shoved down our throat that aren't actually for us or supportive to us. So I'm all for that. So there's a link in the show notes. If you want to grab a free exploration call with me, and I am happy to talk with you. I do have more interviews coming. I had some rescheduling, so that is why we are not in an interview episode right now. But I am looking forward to sharing some of those soon. Hopefully, we can get scheduled and edited. I'm a one-woman shop here, so if you feel like you would like to support my podcast, there's a link in the show notes to do that as well. And also, as I say that, I do want to shout out a couple other places that are doing some really important work in the world, i.e. especially here in Chicago, because that's what this episode is all about. My son just ran in a 5k for Brave Space Alliance, and it was their Dignity Dash to supply their Dignity suite with gender affirming support and products and things like that to make sure that everybody is treated with dignity, and so it is a trans space LGBTQIA plus space in the South Side of Chicago that is really it's helping people be able to be their full selves and be supported in a world where there is not enough support and a lot of opposite of that. So I will have a link in the show notes. They are still raising funds. They did not quite meet their goals with the fundraiser. So I would love it if you all would consider contributing, and then the other place here in Chicago doing amazing work is the Albany Park Theater Project, and I live here in Albany Park. The theater project just is in the middle of a production for the American Project, and unfortunately, it's really hard to get tickets. It's a small space, but it's a powerful production, and they focus on youth and telling the stories of our community. The American Project was-I just saw it, and it was so powerful talking about a few core stories, a Trans Korean dual citizen here in our community, and her story and her experience, and then a teacher navigating caring for students as we had so many immigrants shipped to our area to care for, and then the ice raids, midway blitz, and the just the trauma that these kids have gone through, and telling their story, and then another story about some other immigrants and the navigating racism within the community, and one of the powerful sayings in that story that has really stuck with me was how this young man's heart broke, but it mended not because there was justice, not because any of the things stopped, but because love stayed. So I invite you to have love stay. Make room for that in your life, that care that you need, and how you can extend it in places where maybe we have forgotten that we can, or we don't usually, those connecting pieces. As someone who has stood up and said this isn't right, and threatened my own well-being in spaces, and that's something I didn't quite touch on. Is how when we, when we do certain work, when we say no to the systems. When we have proximity to power, we have privilege, and we say we use that privilege to say no. This isn't okay to stand up to something. It can feel like threatening our well-being because it means that we are losing or actively throwing off the privilege that we have by being in solidarity with people who don't have that privilege, and that can feel like a threat to the well-being in that moment. Again, nervous system dysregulation and the rewards of that-the actually being in solidarity, that actual feeling of connection with people, with leaning into a beloved community that really cares and supports each other, there's a reward there that we don't know unless. We do it, and there's power in stepping into that unknown. So many gifts that those little cells that know what the butterfly looks like knows what the butterfly is. It holds that the goo will be like no, and that's okay. That's why it needed to be goo. So, again, thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. I hope that this has been helpful as always. I also love to hear from you. So, in the comments, depending on what platform you're listening or watching to this episode, in leaving me a comment, sending me an email, a DM, a voice message. I have a link in the show notes where you can do a little speak pipe thing, where you can leave me a voice message anonymously if you prefer. I just I love to hear from you and know what stood out. Was there something in particular that was really helpful? Is there something you'd like me to talk more about? As you may have noticed, I can I can go on. It's really helpful for me though to know what you want to hear about. So stay tuned. Interviews are coming, and I will talk to you all next time.