Podcast Script
When You Know the Tools and Life is Still Hard
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1
Hey friend.
Welcome back to Running to Myself.
I’m your host, Trisha Stanton.
Today, I want to invite you under the hood.
Here we talk a lot about mindset.
We talk about thoughts.
We talk about awareness and choice and tools.
But what does it actually look like when life is hard—
when the stakes are high,
when emotions are loud,
when you know the tools and still feel like you’re drowning?
That’s what this episode is about.
This is not a tidy success story.
This is not a “here’s what I did right” episode.
This is a real, lived example of mind management in motion.
Messy. Uncomfortable. Human.
And if you’ve ever thought,
“I know what to do… so why am I still struggling?”
This episode is for you.
Let’s get into it.
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2 WHEN THE TOOLS DON’T MAKE IT EASY (5–6 minutes)
A while back, I was walking through a season that felt… overwhelming.
There were obstacles.
Big ones.
Hurdles that felt relentless.
Problems that didn’t have clean answers.
For the sake of privacy—for my family and the people involved—I won’t go into details.
But I will say this:
I am pretty proactive with mind management.
I have practiced this work for a long time.
I have weathered a lot.
So when I start to feel like I’m drowning…
that tells me something real is happening.
It felt like my world was crashing down around me.
And not in a dramatic way.
In a quiet, heavy, hard-to-explain way.
The kind where everything still looks normal from the outside—
but inside, you feel like you’re barely staying afloat.
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3 THE ISOLATION LOOP (5–6 minutes)
One of the first things I noticed was how alone I felt.
Not physically alone.
But emotionally isolated.
The thoughts sounded familiar:
* No one knows how bad it is.
* No one really understands what I’m dealing with.
* If they knew, they’d be overwhelmed too.
Just your standard, run-of-the-mill victim thoughts.
And here’s the thing:
Those thoughts didn’t arrive as thoughts.
They arrived as feelings.
Loneliness.
Heaviness.
Separation.
It felt true that I was alone.
But then—thankfully—my inner coach brain kicked in.
That quieter, steadier voice that said:
“Wait. That can’t be entirely true.”
Because the facts were:
I have a strong support system.
I have family.
I have close friends.
I have people who love me deeply.
So if that was true…
why did I feel so isolated?
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4 WHY I WASN’T REACHING OUT (6–7 minutes)
This is where things got interesting.
I wasn’t reaching out.
I wasn’t sharing.
I wasn’t letting anyone in.
And I had to ask myself—honestly—why?
So I did what I always encourage you to do:
I slowed down.
I got curious.
I looked at each relationship individually.
And then it clicked.
I knew—without a doubt—that if I shared what was happening,
these people would jump right into the pool of despair with me.
They would agree:
“This is awful.”
“This is impossible.”
“I don’t know how you’re doing this.”
And while that might sound supportive…
I knew something important:
That would reinforce the very story that was keeping me stuck.
It would confirm the victim narrative:
“This is unbearable. You can’t handle this. There’s no way through.”
And I didn’t want that.
So I stayed quiet.
Not because I didn’t love them.
Not because they wouldn’t show up.
But because I was trying—clumsily—to protect myself.
And that choice had a cost.
Because when you don’t let anyone in…
you will feel alone.
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5 THE IMPOSSIBLE STANDARD (6–7 minutes)
That left one person.
My husband.
And here’s where I want to be really honest.
Even with all my tools…
even with all my awareness…
I let my thoughts run right over me.
Deep down, I wanted him to do something impossible.
I wanted him to:
* Set aside his own thoughts
* Ignore his own feelings
* And somehow… fix mine
Now, to be clear—I didn’t say that out loud.
Because I already knew it was unreasonable.
So instead, I did the next least healthy thing.
I carried silent anger.
I held him to a standard he didn’t know existed.
And every time he spoke about the situation from his perspective—
especially if he sounded worried or overwhelmed—
I felt more frustrated.
Because the last thing I wanted
was both of us drowning.
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6 DIGGING DEEPER: WHAT WAS THE ANGER REALLY ABOUT? (5–6 minutes)
This is the part where mind management gets real.
Because anger is almost never the first emotion.
So I asked myself:
“What am I actually wanting here?”
And then—seemingly out of nowhere—it dropped in.
What I wanted was simple.
I wanted him to hug me and say:
“It’s going to be okay.”
“We’ll figure this out.”
“You’re not alone.”
That’s it.
And the moment I realized that…
the anger evaporated.
Not because he had done anything wrong.
But because I finally understood my own unmet need.
He wasn’t there yet.
He was still processing the situation in his own way.
And instead of resenting that…
I could offer grace.
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7 THE BREAKTHROUGH: SELF-SOOTHING (6–7 minutes)
And then came the real breakthrough.
The one that changed everything.
I realized something powerful:
This was something I could give to myself.
I didn’t need to wait.
I didn’t need permission.
I didn’t need someone else to regulate me.
I could choose the thought that supported me most.
I could tell myself:
* You are going to be okay.
* You have handled hard things before.
* You don’t have to solve everything today.
I could self-soothe.
And here’s the truth that landed—gently but firmly:
It is no one else’s responsibility to manage my inner world.
That responsibility belongs to me.
And instead of feeling heavy…
that felt empowering.
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WHAT SHIFTED AFTER THAT (4–5 minutes)
Once that shift happened, everything changed.
I felt connected again.
Not dependent.
Not alone.
I had more energy.
More clarity.
More capacity to re-engage with the real challenges in front of me.
Nothing external had changed yet.
But I had.
And that made all the difference.
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PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS FOR YOU (6–7 minutes)
Let’s slow this down and make it practical.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself the next time you feel stuck, angry, or alone:
1. What am I believing right now that’s making this feel unbearable?
2. What am I wanting from someone else that I haven’t named?
3. Is this something I can give myself first?
4. What thought would help me feel steadier—not perfect, just steadier?
Mind management isn’t about being calm all the time.
It’s about being honest with yourself.
It’s about noticing when you’re handing your emotional power to someone else—and gently taking it back.
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CLOSING (3–4 minutes)
If you’re in the middle of something hard right now…
if you feel isolated or misunderstood…
I want you to hear this:
You are not broken because this feels hard.
You are not failing because you still need support.
And you are capable of offering yourself more compassion than you think.
Looking under the hood isn’t always comfortable.
But it’s where real change happens.
Thanks for being here with me today.
And as always—
keep running to yourself.
