I've Hit My Limit

We unpack a week that stacked stress from every angle—travel, corporate pressure, political divides, and nonstop headlines—and map how the body signals overload. We share tools to regulate the nervous system, set boundaries, and build community that steadies us.

• naming layered overwhelm across work, travel, and news
• political tension inside family spaces and symbols
• how stress shows up in the body and vision
• dancing, movement, and sensory resets for regulation
• losing a stabilizing colleague and redefining buffers
• women’s hockey, respect, and backlash online
• choosing boundaries without guilt
• AI, warfare anxiety, and managing uncertainty
• why connection and community regulate humans
• building Linked We Stand and a docuseries

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This content may include satirical commentary, altered media, or opinion-based analysis intended for educational, entertainment, or advocacy purposes. Any video clips, images, or quotes that have been edited or recreated are clearly intended as political or cultural critique—not factual representations. Viewer discretion and independent research are encouraged.

Transcript

Owning The Missed Week

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I missed last week. I know, I know, and I feel very guilty about it. But I also learned something important about mental health overwhelm. And what happens when life stacks up faster than you your nervous system knows how to handle. It was a lot, a lot to keep up with. I'm Christy Chanel. And this is Sassy Politics. Like from every angle possible. So today we're just gonna talk about what it feels like when the world feels really, really heavy everywhere you go and everywhere you turn. And ultimately, how to stay grounded anyway. The reality for me is this last week and a half to two weeks has been a lot. I went to Colorado for a wedding. I spent way too much money for three days. I had executives in town at my job, my adult daytime job, and there was a very big company-wide event that I needed to be focused for and socialize a lot in. And you know, I'm not the most extroverted person at a party, and I had to be. I had to learn how to do that. Um, so it was, you know, stretching out of my comfort zone and talking to a lot of different people about a lot of different things. And then someone very important to me at work, someone who's been there for years and was honestly a stabilizing force for me in this company, gave her resignation. Yeah. And last week, last Friday, to be specific, was her last day. All of that matters. It all impacts me greatly. Because when you lose someone that helped you regulate your own stress in that environment, the environment just changes. And then I'm running Linked We Stand, a new company that we're building, and that has a lot of moving parts, leadership dynamics, different personalities, pressure to move faster. Because there's a lot going on. It's like the ticking time bomb, right? Can we can we beat it? Can can we get prepared faster? And then on top of all of that, you've got the world. War headline, Israel, us going to war, AI headlines, political tension everywhere. It was just it was just a lot. And I felt guilty for stepping away from the podcast. But sometimes stepping away is the only reason you don't break. And I didn't break. I just needed a band-aid or two. So Colorado was emotional in ways I did not expect. Well, maybe I did. I spent time with family and some distant family members. And at one point, I don't want to hear it. Let me just preface this by saying, I don't want to hear about it in the comments. I already know. Okay, I will never do it again. I already know. Okay. At one point, I had to ride in a truck with a Trump sticker on the back. I know. I feel nauseous even thinking about it. And before anyone says, I would never do that. Nope. Uh, I agreed to ride before I even knew the sticker was on the freaking truck. All right? And the owner of the truck wasn't even with us. They had kindly lent their truck to the group. But that did not take away the anxiety. Uh, I was stressed the hell out. It was very, very real to me. Guy was sweating. I just didn't want to take a bullet for Trump. And I don't know. People are crazy, right? Uh, I just I mm. I just didn't want to associate myself in the same verbiage. Not at all. Uh, yeah, hated it, hated it, and I will never do it again. Everyone in that vehicle knew how I was feeling. And I want to add, I learned that there were some people in the group that had actually been to the insurrection. That had actually been to the insurrection. I don't even want to repeat it. No, I'm not even gonna say it. I'm not even gonna say it. So so there's just a lot. There was just a lot for me to sit with emotionally. Um it was a rough, it was a rough moment or two. I I there's no reason to get into the dynamics and the reason, like, how'd you even go? Like, I know, like I I've I've been dealing with those emotions throughout the whole thing, so no need to comment. Um I'm just telling you because I want you to understand the emotional load I was carrying these last two weeks. Your environment really does affect you emotionally, it it affects your mental health more than you probably even realize. Your body will scream in ways you didn't even know were possible. One way my body has screamed at me, um, and it happened before, this wasn't this last time, um, thankfully. Uh it was it's my vision, ironically. It's my vision. Like, I didn't even know this was a possibility, but I was overwhelmed one time. I just felt emotionally stressed. Uh, I was, you know, not in the best head space, and I wasn't really doing anything about it. So uh my eyes started to like bug out, meaning it just it looked like I was looking through shards of glass. And yeah. And uh it was very uh unnerving to say the least. I had to close my eyes, I had to lay back. I didn't really understand what was going on. Am I dying? Like, what is this? Like, you know, um, but what it did is it forced me to lay back, close my eyes, and just kind of relax. Yeah. I don't recommend uh doing that to get yourself relaxed, but it's definitely one way the body will force you to do that. Um so I I don't want it to get to that, and luckily it didn't this last trip, so that was good. Yeah, I gotta listen when you do that, right? Your body is reacting. Um, I know you can think back to ways stress has affected your body too, right? It it's just it affects us all differently. I would love if you put in the comments a way that your body has forced you to relax. Um so I know that I'm not crazy and alone in that scenario. I just know I'm not. Here's the interesting part. While I was in Colorado, I was also surrounded by kids and cousins and bunk beds and chaos. And quite honestly, that was the most comforting. That was the most fun. I'm single, so I always end up in the group with the kids. You know, like I don't get my own room. Um like when when the adults have an adult table at Thanksgiving and there's a kids' table, well, I'm I'm the one at the kids' table. And that's the best part for me. They're the fun group. I had some really fun moments, some dancing, which helped me bring out a little of my stress, and I'm a dancer, so I absolutely love any moment I can to dance. I don't regret going. It was just tiring. Um, and uh, you know, there's a political divide which adds this thing, this living vibing thing throughout the group that I recognize. Now, maybe maybe they don't, and maybe it's all in me, but it's hard for me to have anything to connect with on that level. Do you know what I mean? And that's a body mental disconnect, right? It's like I like you, I just hate everything you stand for, or I love you, but I just hate everything you stand for. How how do you reconcile those two things? It it doesn't regulate very well for me. Um, relationships are complicated though. People are complicated, emotions are complicated. Then there's the corporate world, my adult daytime job, where politics just doesn't even exist. Like you walk in and the world stops, right? It's it's about the order, it's about processes and procedures and and leading your team for the company. But there's not really politics involved. At least it's not supposed to be. So you disconnect, you compartmentalize, you put one part of yourself away so you can function professionally. And what I realized is disconnecting from the world didn't reduce my stress. Like I was completely disconnected for two weeks, and I still had a lot of a lot of stress. I just moved it somewhere else. And when someone who helps buffer stress leaves your environment at work, Phoebe, I'm talking to you. This is where you immediately feel stress. We underestimate how much certain people hold our nervous systems together, whether it be best friends, your spouse, your cousins, um, anyone. When they leave and they are your touchstone, it really causes havoc in your system and in your mental state. And that's happening for me at my job. I'm gonna find out in real time how much she actually held mine together. And I'm not looking forward to it. Then I there was a post I made. You know, I like to speak my mind. And by the time that you're hearing this, this post has probably grown even more. But as of today, Saturday, it was around 50,000 views on Facebook and almost that on Instagram. And the subject you ask is women's hockey. USA team. You know, they won a gold. Um, and there was a moment where the accomplishments of these women were minimized by the president of the United States and the men's hockey team, which is something we honestly as women deal with every single day. And I was triggered because I'm a feminist, I don't hide it, I don't, I don't shrink it, I wear that proudly. If you listen to me, you already know that. And actually, the cool thing is, I went to Google and I just hit um sassy politics, I put it in that search bar, and AI pops up and it says Feminist AF podcast with Christy Chanel. And I proudly wear that label every damn day. That's not a trend for me. That's actually who I am at my core. And when I see women diminished, I will speak about it every single time. I don't care how many men jump into my comments and they did, and there were a lot. I don't care how many names I get called, and I was, and there were a lot. As a man, why would you jump into my post speaking about men that aren't respectful? What would force you to do that? And I'm not talking one or two, I'm talking a lot of men jumped in and called me a Karen. They just all had an opinion, but if you're not doing that as a man, why do you feel the need to comment? Why did I hurt your feelings? I think I think these men need to look inward because that is scary, like on a lot of different levels, but also very validating for the post. And I will continue to do it because apparently a lot of people need to hear it, especially the men. Silence in the face of disrespect is still participation. What fascinated me wasn't even that post, it was just the reactions. People taking something that was about respect and polarizing it. And that's another layer of stress we're all living in right now, right? That is the very reality of women and marginalized people in America. Everything doesn't have to be a battlefield. Basic humanity shouldn't be polarizing. Basic humanity shouldn't cause you to react in this visceral way, right? It's basic. 101 foundational. Everything right now is a battlefield, clearly. Even things that shouldn't be. So we're exploring a docuseries around the creation of Linked We Stand. Details to come, I promise. Then we just add in the world element of what's happening in the world right now. We've got war headlines, families scared their kids could be pulled into conflicts that they never chose. AI accelerating faster than society can possibly understand. You think you understand it, but you really have no idea. How could you? You're not a mo- you're not- you don't know the future. We we are just learning that these entities, I don't even know what to call them, truly, um, agents, uh have a it's like they have a mind of their own. Listen, I was a teenager before cell phones, so we have come a long way, baby. You know what I mean? But we can't possibly fathom how far this will go and what it will do to us. There were recent reports about government agencies exploring whether advanced AI systems could be used in military planning. Military planning. For example, reporting around companies like Anthropic, the creator of the AI system, Claude, has explained they are willing to work with governments on things like cybersecurity, threat analysis, and defensive research. But they have also publicly discussed limits on using AI directly for offensive weapons or battlefield decision making. So this is already being talked about at a very high level. Think about that for a second. We're talking about technology that could influence warfare decisions. It's not a science fiction movie. So if you feel like the world is unstable, you would be correct. You're not crazy. Your brain is responding to real uncertainty that none of us fully understand. And I don't know when we will, right? I don't I don't know. The cool thing is, Anthropic said, Nope, we're not doing it. Give me a little bit of hope. But uh we already know how the administration's going to respond. They're gonna try to bankrupt them, right? Well, if you're not gonna help us, fuck you. Is really what they're gonna do. So, anthropic, uh, I I hope you continue to keep your stance. We need you to keep your stance. So the psychological reality is stress stats, environmental stress, leadership stress, global uncertainty. They don't happen separately, they combine and stack. And when they layer, overwhelm is the normal response. It's not a weakness. I mean, even though it feels like it, it's definitely not. You didn't fail, you're having a normal nervous system reaction. None of this has ever happened before. You're the first. We are the first people to feel it and see it and worry about it, right? This is exactly why I'm building Linked We Stand. Because isolation makes everything worse. We make up our own mind, we we come up with our own ideas as to what could and will happen. When you don't necessarily have to do it alone. Connection regulates humans, it's how we're built, it's how we function. Community stabilizes humans, belonging protects mental health. We were never meant to navigate chaos by ourselves. And and I want to end this podcast episode with saying you are allowed to step back when it's too much, you are allowed to remove yourself from environments that overwhelm you, you are allowed to prioritize your mental health, even if it inconveniences others. Nobody is responsible for protecting your nervous system more than you. And sometimes you have to choose yourself. So I apologize to my team for stepping back. I hate it. I really do. And I meant that apology. But internally, I also knew if I didn't do that, I would be no good to anyone. No one. Sometimes survival decisions don't look perfect from the outside, but they're necessary on the inside. So the very hopeful, optimistic part of this episode is we are building spaces where you don't have to do this alone anymore. You just don't. That's the point to help people find where they belong, to help people feel less isolated, to help people navigate exactly the kind of week I just had. Talking, processing, sharing that matters to me. I don't think I'm ever gonna stop podcasting. Even well into my 90s, so you might as well get used to me, because we're gonna be here a long time. We're also planning a docuseries around building linked we stand, the good, the bad, the messy parts. Because people need to see that creating something meaningful, it's it's not perfect. It's complicated, it's got layers, it's very, very human. Just like us. So thank you for being here with me today, and thank you for letting me vent. I needed this session with you. Um, and if it resonated, share it with someone who might need to hear it. Because none of us are navigating this world alone, even when it feels like we are. I will see you next week. I don't think I have anything stressful except for the world to deal with. So there's that.