We often spend so much time thinking about things in our minds, ruminating, and even venting to friends and family about how we're feeling. But taking 30 minutes to do a structured self-check-in can do wonders and give you actionable steps to get out of a rut, to feel hopeful again, and to feel inspired. Keep listening, and I'll give you some tangible steps that you can take this week, and you can do right along with this podcast episode.

When was the last time you paused to check in with yourself—not just mentally, but physically and emotionally too? This guide will walk you through a simple, effective 30-minute self-check-in designed to help you reconnect with your body, mind, and emotions.

Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or simply curious about where you stand, these steps will provide clarity and actionable insights to realign your energy and priorities.

Why a Self-Check-In Is Essential

Think of a self-check-in as a mini audit for your well-being. We often spend so much time ruminating or venting to others about how we feel, but rarely do we give ourselves space to objectively process our emotions and experiences. Taking 30 minutes to pause, reflect, and reconnect can:

Help you identify emotional and physical stressors.
Bring awareness to unacknowledged needs or challenges.
Provide actionable insights to shift your energy and focus.
Create space for intentional decision-making in your personal and professional life.

Step 1: Reconnect with Your Body

Start by standing up (or sitting comfortably if needed) and take a moment to simply feel your body. We spend so much time in our heads that we forget our physical sensations until discomfort or pain arises. Here’s a step-by-step guide to reconnect:

Body Scan
- Starting from the top of your head, notice any sensations. Is your head heavy or light? Are your facial muscles tense or relaxed?
- Move down to your neck and shoulders. Roll them back to release tension.
- Continue through your arms, chest, back, hips, legs, and feet. Notice stiffness, discomfort, or areas of relaxation.
Move and Adjust
- Wiggle your fingers and toes. Rotate your shoulders and hips. Let your arms swing naturally, like a “wacky waving inflatable tube man.”
- Adjust your posture: Stand or sit tall, align your head and neck, and drop your shoulders.
Deep Breathing
- Inhale deeply through your nose, letting the air fill your chest and abdomen.
- Hold for a moment, then exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat this for a few breaths, visualizing tension leaving your body.

Step 2: Reflect on Your Current Challenges

Reflection doesn’t mean dwelling—it’s about gaining clarity. Start by asking yourself:

What has been my biggest challenge this past week or month?
Identify specific situations or emotions. This could be a work-related setback, a personal disappointment, or feelings of overwhelm.
What emotions are tied to this challenge?
Naming emotions—like frustration, sadness, or anxiety—helps you better understand your reactions.

Remember, it’s okay to hold space for negative emotions. Acknowledging how you feel without judgment is the first step to moving forward.

Step 3: Identify What You Need More Of

Ask yourself: What do I need more of in my life right now?

Be specific:

Rest: Is it physical rest (more sleep, shorter work hours) or mental rest (less screen time, fewer commitments)?
Connection: Do you need deeper conversations, family time, or support from a friend or therapist?
Joy: Could you incorporate hobbies, creative activities, or moments of laughter into your day?

Once you’ve identified a need, think about small, actionable steps to fulfill it. For example, if you need mental rest, you could try a social media detox or allocate time for a creative hobby.

Step 4: Let Go of What No Longer Serves You

To feel lighter and more aligned, consider:
What is one thing I can let go of this week?

This could be a task, obligation, or mental load that’s weighing you down. Sometimes letting go isn’t about removing something entirely—it could mean extending a deadline, delegating a task, or saying no to new commitments.

For instance, if a jam-packed schedule feels overwhelming, stretch out your obligations over a longer timeframe. Small adjustments can make a big difference.

Step 5: Explore Your Emotions with a Feelings List

Understanding your emotions is key to addressing them. Use a feelings and sensations list like the one from the Hoffman Institute Foundation to pinpoint how you feel. Some examples include:

Stress or Tension: Anxious, frazzled, overwhelmed.
Sadness or Disconnection: Gloomy, disappointed, lonely.
Aliveness or Joy: Energized, ecstatic, engaged.

Take your reflection further:

Look up the definitions of specific emotions to deepen your understanding.
Consider synonyms or related feelings that resonate.
Ask yourself, “What is this emotion telling me?” For example, feeling “disappointed” might reveal unmet expectations.

Step 6: Revisit Your Basic Needs

If you’re unsure where to start, focus on your foundational needs:

Sleep: Could adjusting your bedtime or evening routine help?
Nutrition: Are there small changes you could make, like incorporating more vegetables or preparing home-cooked meals?
Movement: Even short walks or gentle stretches can work wonders for mental clarity.

Step 7: Take Action

Now that you’ve identified how you’re feeling and what you need, create a simple action plan:

Choose one priority. Focus on a single need or change to address first.
Start small. Incremental changes, like adding 10 minutes of journaling or cutting back on one commitment, are sustainable.
Reassess regularly. Make this self-check-in a monthly habit to stay in tune with yourself.

Final Thoughts

A 30-minute self-check-in might feel like a small act, but it can have a profound impact on your well-being. By tuning into your body, reflecting on your challenges, and taking intentional actions, you’ll feel more grounded, focused, and ready to navigate life’s ups and downs.

Remember: self-awareness is a superpower. The more you cultivate it, the better equipped you’ll be to create a life that feels aligned and fulfilling.

Resources Mentioned:

You are listening to episode 213 of the Mindful Productivity podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this week, I am urging you to hit pause and give yourself 30 minutes to do a self-check-in. We often spend so much time thinking about things in our minds, ruminating, and even venting to friends and family about how we're feeling. But taking 30 minutes to do a structured self-check-in can do wonders and give you actionable steps steps to get out of a rut, to feel hopeful again, and to feel inspired. Keep listening, and I'll give you some tangible steps that you can take this week, and you can do right along with this podcast episode. Let's go ahead and dive in. Welcome to the Mindful Productivity podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention, then get ready to join me as we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity. It's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live. And it all starts now.
Welcome back to the podcast, friends. In this week's episode, I want to guide you through some steps you can take to actually do a self-check-in and pause and see where you're at. We so often, just continue going through life. When there's endless stressors or world events, we often think that in order to prevail and keep going, we have to do just that, keep going. But it's really important to take pauses and catch your breath and check in so you can really know what you need. I don't know about you, but sometimes I think I know what I need or I think I know how I feel when in actuality, I don't actually have much of a solid idea. So what I want you to do is take action on these things. You can actually do them and pause the podcast as I'm talking you through them, or you can listen and come back later. If you're taking a walk, even better, you can go through these action steps as well. So there's going to be part of this where we're actually going to do some physical things with your body. And then there's going to be some other parts where you can think through this.
But I also really recommend and taking time during or after this episode to get out a journal and actually journal on some of these things. And I find, too, that it's helpful often to think on something, think on journal prompts. So go on a walk, get on the treadmill, go outside, even driving and thinking about stuff. Or oftentimes, if I'm taking a bath, it's a good time for my brain to think through things. But then to also come back to the same exact journal prompt and write it out. And doing so There's always more that comes up when you do that. So the first thing that I want you to do for this guided pause and self-check-in is to realize why this is so important. So checking in with your mind and your body and what's going on in your life and your specific circumstances is really going to help you know where your energy and mood is, and then that's going to help you inform decisions that you need to take. Again, this sounds like such a basic thing, and it is, but how often are we actually doing these things? Again, and I know I hit this home all the time, but more often than not, it's the things that we know, we already know, that we often put to the side and we don't put as much value and emphasis on because it's not this new idea.
It's not this new thing that sounds exciting and fun. It's the basic stuff, really, that keeps us going. And providing structure in those ways can really impact your life. So doing this self-check-in today, and once every 30 days at least, is really going to help you figure out where your energy level is, figure out if there's different decisions or pivots you need to make, both in your daily personal life and in your professional or business life. And it really can make the difference in how much money you make, depending on how you show up in your business or your job, what launches you might do or what changes you might make. So So don't underestimate the power of this. All right. The first thing that I want you to do is if you're already sitting down, I want you to stand up. And I want you to actually just stand in your body and Take note of how your body feels. I am so guilty of living in my mind and forgetting that I actually have a body until I have pain or until I'm tired or until I'm out of breath. Sometimes those are the only moments when I remember that I have a body.
Another way to tap into that is to get back into regular physical exercise if you're not already. There's really nothing better than going on a run or going on a walk or doing something that gets your heart rate moving to really tap into how you feel physically. It's so invigorating, and it also brings those endorphins back into our brain. So as you're standing here, and if you can't stand, whatever you're doing, I want you to just take note. Let's just do a quick body scan. Think about how your whole body feels. And try not to judge it. If you feel tired, if you feel exhausted, you feel tired or exhausted. It doesn't have to mean a certain thing, and you don't have to judge your sofa feeling that way. Like, oh, I should have more energy. Or why do I feel this way? I got eight hours of sleep. Release the judgment and just focus on the facts of how you feel. So starting with the top of your head and your face. Notice how you feel. Move your face around. Actually, move your face around, wiggle your nose, scrunch your face. Do you feel hot in your head?
Do you feel cool? Does the air around you feel present? Try to take note of how the elements around you feel. And even just moving your head side to side, dipping your neck back and forth. Notice how you feel. Do you feel stiff? Do you feel flexible? And as you're doing this, also take a minute to adjust your posture. So if you're still sitting, you sit up straight. If you're standing, adjust your posture, move your hips forward, right? Pull your shoulders back, and then notice how tense you feel. This is also a great time to release your tongue from the top of your mouth and let it gently melt into the bottom of your mouth. And also drop your shoulders. We often hold our your shoulders up really tight, right? Or if you get that desk, what do they call it, Microsoft neck, where you're leaning forward, looking at your computer all the time, take a minute to pull your shoulders back, align your head and your neck with the rest of your body, and just really start noticing how you're being in your body. Oftentimes, if we're not aware of our emotions or we're stressed and we don't really realize the full extent of it, we start positioning our body in different ways.
We start hunching over, we don't sit up straight, and that only It really adds to the stress that forms within our body and our muscles and all that, right? So now just take a minute to continue that process. And honestly, it can just look like slowly being like one of those waving, wacky, waving inflatable two man guys, you know what I mean? When you see on the side of the road, just start moving your arms around, moving your shoulders, rotating your arms back, noticing all of your fingers and moving them across your hands. And as you move your fingers, notice how they move within the palm of your hand and the back of your hand. And then also how you feel that, right? Connectivity with all your tendons through your arm and down through your elbow. I'm thinking right now, I'm like, oh, this is like an anatomy lesson. I can't remember all the names of the bones. But just do that. Start moving your body. And as you do that, Notice if you have any knots in your back as you move your shoulders, pinch your shoulder blades together, right? And move your arms back and forth, just whatever movement.
And what you're doing right now is you're getting out of your head a little bit and you're getting back into your body. You're removing yourself from any maybe pattern of thought that you were having, and you're just moving back into your body. And so same thing, put your hands on your hips, move your hips around, do circle motions with your hips, bend forward and back, dip side to side, and just really start connecting into your body. If you do notice any areas that feel tense or that have a little bit of pain, make note of that, right? These are things that may improve in the next week or so as you get in touch with what you need. Again, working down through your body, you can lift your knees up to your chest, you can squat down a a little bit and bend your knees, rotate your ankles, give any joint that rotation movement. Start wiggling your toes as well. And as you're doing that, start feeling the bottom of your feet. Notice the ground around you. If you have shoes on, notice how that feels, where the support is. If you have socks, if you have bare feet on the ground, what's beneath you?
Is it carpet? Is it the outdoors? Is it cement on your patio? Just really take in all of the elements. And now that you've done that and you've realized where you're at with your body, I want you to stand tall and take a couple of deep breaths with me. So breathing in through your nose and really letting that air fill up your whole body, your chest, your stomach. Imagine and visualize all that air circulating through your blood and fueling oxygen throughout all of your veins and your body. And then you can hold that breath for a minute, and you can exhale back out through your mouth. Really simple things. Doing this brings you back into your body, and it can also let you know like, Oh, I was actually a little bit more stressed than I realized, or it feels really good to get back into my body. Even just doing something like this can remind you and inspire you to go for a walk or take more action, right? So now that we've done that, I want you to take a minute to think on some guided questions. So I'm going to give you a couple journal prompts, reflection questions, and you can think on these as I talk about them, and I'll share some insights into them as well.
And then you can come back, hit pause, and journal on them and go a bit deeper. So the first thing I want you to ask yourself is, what has been the biggest challenge to you during this past week or past several days in your life? And get as specific as you can. This can be something that's happened to you, that's beyond your control. And it can also be something that maybe you were more of a part of, maybe something that was disappointing or didn't go your way. It's important to acknowledge this. I also want to mention, too, I think we avoid this. And with some of the Internet culture over the past decade or so, there's There's always pressure to focus on the positive, but it's also really important to focus on what's real for you. And if we don't hold space for all of our range of emotions and feelings, we can't really identify them and let them go. It's really important to find that. It's like having a thorn or a splinter in your finger or in your toe. You can ignore it all you want, but it's a lot more effective to identify where that pain is and remove it with tweezers than waiting it to just hopefully remove itself over time or get worse.
So thinking about what the biggest challenge was for you this past month. And one thing I really recommend is doing this solo first. So thinking about it in your mind, writing it down, and then if you still feel a way about it, then bring it up to a family member or a friend or a counselor or therapist. But doing this first is really important because a lot of times when we go to family members to vent, there's still a filter we're putting things through. Even subconsciously, we're thinking, I don't want to burden this person, or I might want to frame this differently so I don't seem dramatic, or whatever it may be. There's something really nice about starting with ourselves and thinking through it and journaling because we don't have to hold back. We don't have to have anyone else in mind or consider anyone else. We can really focus on what we need and what we're going through emotionally. And that's really, really important. The next thing I want you to ask yourself is, what do I need more of in my life right now? And I want you to bring it home to very simple things.
So of course, your big answer might be money or time or energy. But when you think more in terms of the scope of your control, what do you really need more of in your life right now? Maybe it's something like rest. And if you find yourself giving an answer that's pretty broad, then start breaking it down and asking yourself, how do I define that? What does that mean to me? So what do you need more of in your life right now? If it's rest, what rest? Does that mean more sleep? If it means more sleep, maybe that means looking at your bedtime, looking at your screen time, looking at ways to wind down at the end of the night, right? All those different things you can do. We all know them, right? Or maybe it's a different rest. Maybe it's a rest for your mind. Are you on social media too much right now? Are you finding it hard to unplug from the news? Are you getting caught up in dis or misinformation? It's very easy these days to get caught up in all that stuff. What do you need and what do you need more of in your life right now?
So maybe that rest is for your brain. And if that's the case, it might not just be taking a break from thinking or plugging into those things. But also a lot of giving our brain a rest means taking action with our body or our hands or something, right? So this can mean going on more walks to give your brain a break. I can't tell you how often I'm on the treadmill and I'm like, oh, my gosh, my brain, it feels like it's just defragging all the stuff in my brain or taking out all this mental clutter. It can also be getting into a hobby. So for me, sometimes this is jumping into a pamp by number or getting into my Nintendo Switch and playing Animal Crossing. There's a new game I just started playing, I think it's called Ever After Falls. It's like Stardew Valley. Super cozy, really like it. And there's also a game I love that I started replaying again called Unpacking, where it's the '90s and you're unpacking your home. It's very cozy. So if there's something like that that you can do or even reading a book, reading something for fun, but focusing on something, so diamond paintings or drawing or any of those things, any hobby or craft, or maybe you can get together with friends and do something, or go to a craft store and take a class, any of those things.
So again, this question I'm asking you is, what do I need more of in my life right now? And if you're coming up with, I don't know, I just know that I'm overwhelmed or I'm burnt out, then think about one small thing that you know you need that you could expand on. So for example, If you're having trouble thinking of a place to start, ask yourself questions like, how much are my basic needs being met? So for example, coming back to the question, what do I need more of in my life right now? And if you're getting stuck, ask yourself questions like, well, Well, am I getting enough nourishment through food? Are there more vegetables I can incorporate into my meals? Would it be more helpful to cook a meal with my family once a week instead of getting the fast food that I've been getting lately? What basic things we all know could you do to improve some of the basic needs? Are there ways that you could be drinking more water? Are there ways that you could be laughing more or bringing more joy into your life? Those are just some of the things to consider.
The next question I want you to ask yourself is, what is one thing I can do to let go of, to feel feel lighter. What is one thing that you can take off your plate? I bet you there's something. And even if you're a busy business owner or you're volunteering and you got a lot on your plate, or maybe your boss is giving you more to do, I guarantee you there's something that can shift. And sometimes this means having an uncomfortable conversation, right? Sometimes this means talking to your people or your students or your clients, whoever, and saying, Hey, I've got to shift something up. I've got to move a call time or we're going to do something differently, right? One thing that I recently did is I'm hosting a live round of Pretty Simple podcast. And at first I was like, it would be fun to do these live sprint calls where I do student support court over four days. And at first I was going to do it literally in four days. We'd meet Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and we'd do the thing. And that sounded really fun. But then I was thinking about it from a student perspective right now.
And I'm like, man, if people are also feeling as overwhelmed as I am, then that might feel really overwhelming, right? What if you can't make each call each time? You might feel behind. And so I just decided to stretch it out. So sometimes taking stuff off of your plate means not actually removing it, but stretching it out or extending a deadline or expanding on a boundary you have. So what I did is I decided to expand the calls over 30 days. So instead of four days in a row, we're going to do them each Tuesday over the course of the next month. And that just felt a lot lighter. So what's one thing that you can do to let go of to feel a bit lighter? If it's a commitment, if it's some conversation you need to have with a family member. It also could be asking for help or saying, Hey, I know I normally cook dinner on Tuesdays, but this week really, really would be helpful if we did something different. I also want to add that if you're in a place right now where you really are feeling overwhelmed and burnt out, then take away the pressure to add anything new to your plate, right?
There's often this idea of what can you start or what can you stop doing? What can you start doing and what can you start doing, and what Can you continue doing? And I love that framework idea. But you don't have to start something new. You can literally just look at what you're already doing every day and improve those things by one or five %. Again, coming back to, if you're already drinking water every day, how can you drink a little bit more? Or how can you move your bedtime a little bit? Or whatever any of those things are. So the next exercise, and I'm actually going to have a link to this in the show notes that you can find over on my website at Sarahsteckler. Com. If you look up episode 2:13, I'll also have it linked below if you're listening on a podcast platform. But we're going to be looking at the Hoffman it's a feelings and sensations list. And there's Tom... This is from the Hoffman Institute Foundation. Now, there's tons of different feelings lists, emotions lists. But I like this one because it's not too big, so you won't spend a ton of time trying to find how you feel.
And it also gives you a list of body sensations. So I'll link to this. You can print it out or you can look at it on your phone, your computer. But basically it breaks down feelings into several different categories. And I really think it's helpful to look at these and highlight how you're feeling as part of this 30 minute check-in. Because I know for me, I think I usually I would say that I'm a pretty intuitive and self-aware person. But at the same time, when my husband or my friends ask me how I'm feeling, it's usually only one of four adjectives, right? It's like I'm mad or I'm exhausted or I'm fed up or I'm super happy. But getting more specific on those things can be really, really helpful in helping us identify and go a step further, right? If we're mad and we just leave it at that, we don't always what actions to take, right? Versus maybe I'm mad because I'm actually fearful or I'm actually afraid, or I'm actually feeling scared or paralyzed in my life. That helps us know a lot more, right? So let me read you some of the categories of this feeling list to get your mind jogged a little bit.
So some of the feelings categories are accepting or open, aliveness and joy, feeling angry or annoyed, courageous or powerful, connected and loving, despair or sadness, disconnected or numb, embarrassed or shameful, fear, feeling fragile, feeling grateful, feeling guilt, feeling hopeful, feeling powerless, feeling tender, feeling stressed or tense, feeling unsettled, and doubt. And then along with those, there's a whole list of body sensations. So if you heard one of those that popped out to you the most, then write that down or go ahead and circle it on the sheet if you're printing it out. But I think I'm going to actually read through these and just pick a couple. If there's maybe two or three that really stand out to you, hang on to those because that's going to really inform what you do next to take care of yourself and any shifts you might make. And also I think it's so helpful when we identify how we're feeling to take that word into Google or here, if you still have a dictionary, and look up the word. Look up what it really means, and then look up the synonyms about it and really start to dive into how you feel.
It's a way of counseling ourselves because there's so much more beneath it. Okay, so let's go through these real quick. So the first one is accepting and open. And some of the words, the feelings used to describe this specific feeling is feeling calm, centered, content, fulfilled, patient, peaceful, present, relaxed, serene, and trusting. If you're feeling aliveness or joy, then you might describe it as amazed, awe, bliss, delighted, eager, ecstatic, enchanted, energized, engaged, enthusiastic, excited, free, happy. Okay, there's a bunch more. If you're feeling, but I know, too, we're often not doing a self-check-in when we feel great, right? We're often not like, How happy do I feel? We're just really grateful that we're happy. So if you're listening to this, you might be like, Okay, that's not how I'm feeling. So let's dive into some of these other ones. So if you're feeling more angry or annoyed, maybe you're feeling agitated, aggravated, bitter, contempt, cynical, disdain, disgruntled, disturbed, edgy, right? And also, let me just type one of these in. Let's say we say we feel disturbed, and we look at the definition for this. I love that it's pulling up the band, disturbed. Disturbed definition.
Again. We look this up. It says, Having had its normal pattern or function disrupted. Isn't that so helpful? If you think about feeling disturbed, Having had its normal pattern or function disrupted. I really relate to that right now, a feeling of uncertainty and dread. It also says suffering or resulting from emotional and mental problems. It's And some of the synonyms are trouble, distressed, unsettled, upset, distraught, unbalanced. That is so incredibly helpful, right? Because when I hear unbalanced, I think, oh, that almost gives me answer that almost gives me an action to something I could then take, right? I'm feeling disturbed. Yes, I'm feeling troubled, distressed. And unbalanced tells me, oh, well, how could I help balance my life? What are some of the things I could do, right? It comes back to what's in the scope of my control. If you have my Daily Productivity and Brain Dump book, that's one of the templates. What can I control? What's outside of my scope of control? And knowing those two things, what will I change? So again, super, super helpful. So some of the other words for angry, annoyed were furious, frustrated, grouchy, impatient, irritated, pissed, resentful.
Right? And again, what's interesting is we all know what these words mean, but having the definition really helps. So let's look up resentful. Resentful is feeling or expressing bitterness or indignation at having been treated unfairly. He was angry and resentful of their intrusion. So resentful... What this really tells us is that the feelings come from somewhere, right? They come from external sources. And we obviously have a choice in how we react. But that doesn't mean that we don't accept how we feel. There's a big difference between acknowledging how we feel and then having a reaction. And I think some people mistake not reacting, right? Like they want to control their reactions, right? And have better self control. But that doesn't mean not acknowledging your feelings. So if you are feeling resentful and you are feeling bitter, you are feeling like you were treated unfairly, or there was an outcome that felt unfair to you, you have to acknowledge that, because behind that is the answer to what you need to do moving forward. Okay? All right. So I'm going to continue through this and just do a couple more of these sections. So if you're If you're feeling connected or loving, you might feel accepting, affectionate, compassion, empathy, fulfilled, present, safe, right?
If you're feeling despair or sadness, you might feel anguish, depressed, despondent, disappointed, discouraged, right? Forlorn, gloomy, grief. Let's look up the definition of disappointed. Again, I think just Disappointed. It's really helpful to look up definitions of words, even the most basic ones, because when's the last time you really, really, really dove deep into it, right? Disappointed, sad or displeased because someone or something has failed to fulfill one's hopes or expectations. Isn't that so much more powerful than just saying, I feel upset or I feel sad? Isn't that so much more helpful to say, Oh, I do feel sad and depressed, but I also feel disappointed. And then to know the disappointment arises when you feel like someone or something has failed to fulfill your hopes or expectations. Knowing that, I just feel like that's so incredibly helpful. And again, this I really think is the secret to a lot of stuff in life, is leaning into the simplicity of things. Really diving deep into stuff we already know and then being like, how can we describe that better? So again, I think I'll do one more in here, and then I'll let you obviously look at this whole list.
Okay, well, let's do the stressed one because that's typically how we're feeling, right? If we're coming here and we're wanting to be present and do a self-check-in. So stressed or tense, you might describe yourself as anxious, burnt out, cranky, depleted, edgy, exhausted, frazzled, overwhelmed, rattled, rejecting, restless, shaken, tight, weary, or worn out. Let's look up one more definition, and that is the definition of overwhelm. Overwhelm. As a verb, to bury or drown beneath a huge mass. The water flowed through to overwhelm the whole dam and the village beneath. But we can also look at that as feeling like we're drowning below a massive emotion, or something like that. Overwhelmed can also be defeat completely. His teams overwhelmed their opponents. And it could also be to give too much of a thing to someone, to overwhelm someone, right? Let's see, other definitions. Have a strong emotional effect on. I was overwhelmed with guilt. Or this one, I think, resonates the most for me is be too strong for, to overpower, And the sentence they use here is the wine doesn't overwhelm the flavor of the drought. But I think for me, it's like, overwhelm can often override, right?
Maybe not the flavor of a food, but maybe it can overwhelm our ability to be self-aware or our ability to have capacity or energy in the moment to do what we normally would want to do or to even make decisions. And again, I just think this is such a powerful exercise. So the last thing I want to point out here on the sheet is the body sensations. And one thing that's really fascinating, too, is you can look up common body body reactions to things. When we're angry, we actually increase our body temperature. We can actually feel hot in our face or in our arms. We can actually feel a tenseness, and we can feel like our body heat has increased. So other body sensations that you might feel, and again, this is helpful to identify these too, could be achy, blocked, breathless, buzzy, clammy, cold, dizzy, drained, electric empty, frozen, gentle, heavy, icy, itchy, jumpy, numb, prickly, queezy, relaxed, rigid, sensitive, sore, soft, tense, tender, wobbly, warm, suffocated, still. Again, I think doing a mind map of all these things can be incredibly helpful to identifying how you're feeling. So again, we just did some really simple things today.
We checked in with your body. So you moved your body around. You sunk back in. You felt your fingers, you felt your toes, you noticed how your body moved in the air in the room around you, whatever environment you're in. We did just a couple quick reflection questions to think on. We We thought about what can you let go of, what maybe can you expand on. And then we just really tapped into the emotions and identifying them. And really simple, really basic exercises. But I hope this podcast episode is a reminder of how doing these things is vital to taking care of ourselves. Because now that you have that information, now that you have words to give to how you might be feeling, you can then move forward. You can then know, okay, if I'm feeling overwhelmed, right? Or if I'm feeling disappointed, then I now know what steps I might need to take to take care of myself what decisions I might need to make in my business, how those feelings and reactions I'm having might impact my ability to do my work or to be with my family or to be with my friends, right?
It gives us a whole lot more information. And And that's essentially what we're getting when we do a self-check-in. So I hope this week's episode was helpful for you in terms of taking a moment for yourself. I hope that you can share these simple steps with a friend or family member if they're struggling or if they're having a hard time. And thank you again so much for being here and for listening to the podcast. As a reminder, there's over 200 episodes for you to listen to. You can go back and listen to them anytime. You can also find transcripts on the website over at Sarahsteckler. Com, along with more resources available for you there as well. I hope you have a cozy week and season ahead. Please take care of yourself and do this check-in as needed.