Why Modern Life Feels Overwhelming When We Were Created for Peace

Episode 078

Have you ever known you loved God so deeply… but still felt so overwhelmed you didn’t know how to pray beyond:

“Jesus, You know my heart.”

You couldn’t even gather all the words into a coherent prayer, even though you had so much to pray about.

Life became loud. Chaotic. Overfilled.

And somewhere in the middle of illness, motherhood, stress, business, moving, and trying to hold everything together… your nervous system got so exhausted that even prayer felt heavy.

But lately I’ve begun thinking about something.

What if the pace of modern life is quietly disconnecting us from the very rhythms God created to sustain us?

What if many of the things we now call “normal” are quietly exhausting our bodies, scattering our attention, dysregulating our nervous systems, and pulling us further away from the peace God designed us to live within?

What if that disconnection is part of the reason so many people feel anxious, exhausted, inflamed, emotionally restless, spiritually distracted, and deeply discontent?

…and most of us are living nothing like that.

So what happens to the human body, mind, and spirit when we spend years disconnected from the way God designed life to work?

Intro

Welcome to Becoming Natural — a podcast for overwhelmed women learning how to heal gently, live intentionally, and reconnect with the beautiful rhythms God built into our bodies, our homes, and the natural world around us.

I’m so glad you’re here.

Lately I’ve found myself deeply impacted by Psalms 104 and the way it describes creation operating in rhythm, balance, order, and peace… while so many of us are living completely disconnected from those same rhythms God designed to steady us.

Because the more I study scripture, physiology, nervous system health, and even the patterns woven throughout creation itself… the more I am aware that many of us are living completely disconnected from the way God designed human beings to function.

And if that’s true…

what is it costing us?

Main Episode

I have a strong faith.

I always have.

But somewhere in the middle of illness, stress, business building, moving, renovations, parenting, lack of focus, overwhelm, and trying to carry too many things at once… my prayer life suffered.

Not fully. Not intentionally.

I prayed all day long in passing.

Prayer was always kind of an open tab in my brain… a constant conversation happening quietly underneath everything else.

Little thoughts. Quick cries for help. Random moments while driving. A whispered “Lord help me.”

But focused prayer? Quiet prayer? Stillness?

I struggled.

And there were many days where the only thing I could say was:

“Jesus.”

There’s a song by the band 7eventh Time Down called Just Say Jesus.

And it resonates with me because it reflects Romans 8:26 so beautifully:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Sometimes the exhaustion and overwhelm pile up until language itself feels tired.

Then prayer becomes less polished theology and more:

“Jesus.”

And somehow that single name carries the weight of a thousand unsaid prayers.

The chorus of the song says:

“When you don't know what to say, just say Jesus There is power in the name, the name of Jesus…”

There’s something profoundly comforting about realizing God never required eloquence to hear us.

The nervous system may be overloaded. The mind may be scattered. The emotions may be tangled.

modern life almost trains us to live that way.

Constant notifications if not from your phone, then your watch. If not your computer, then your iPad. We are Continuously interrupted.  We are under Artificial light late into the evening. Chronic stress. Inflammatory foods that compromise our mental health. Never-ending mental stimulation.

Our bodies were designed with rhythms. Morning light helps regulate cortisol. Darkness helps trigger melatonin and restorative sleep. Rest helps regulate inflammation and nervous system recovery.

But many of us live disconnected from those rhythms for years at a time.

We don’t get enough sleep. We let our calendars rule our lives. We stay overstimulated constantly. And many people never truly rest.

And eventually the body begins whispering that something is wrong.

But the heart still knows where to run.

And when your mind is spinning and your body is overwhelmed and your emotions are exhausted… even reaching toward Him matters.

And maybe part of wisdom is simply learning to pay attention again. Just awareness.

I have learned over the past couple years of very intentionally slowing my roll that some of the healing I’ve been searching for is found in slowing down long enough to see the blessings of God in a day. The clouds in a blue sky, the sounds of the crickets at night, the feeling of the cool grass on my feet and soil on my hands.

Not in perfection. Not in performance. Not in another self-help checklist.

Just being intentional and less distracted.

Returning to the Actual Bible

For a long time, I kept thinking I needed:

a Bible study

a devotional

another book

another podcast

another system

And while those things can absolutely be helpful… one day I had this very simple realization:

I just needed to read the actual Bible.

Not just content about God.

The Word itself.

llness with God. In Jeremiah: 15:16

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart…”

— Jeremiah: 15:16

We scroll. Listen. Save posts. Buy studies. Consume encouragement.

But sometimes what our souls are actually longing for is simply the quiet presence of scripture itself.

And that sounds almost embarrassingly obvious now.

But sometimes we make spiritual growth far more complicated than it needs to be. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” — Romans 12:2 Renewal of your mind means

Changing thought patterns

Transformative thoughts and learning instead of mindless and empty scrolling

resisting cultural drift

I heard about The Bible Recap — a short podcast that truly recaps a daily one-year Bible reading plan.

Reading through the Bible in a year has humbled me many times.

Because every year I start strong.

Genesis? Amazing.

Exodus? Let’s go.

Then somewhere around April or May… suddenly I’m reading lineages and census counts and measurements and I’m hanging on by a thread.

And currently?

I am deep in ancestry lists.

Pray for me.

But this time has been different.

I listen to the YouVersion Bible App audibly while I read.

Then I listen to the recap afterward.

Then I answer a few study guide questions.

The whole thing usually takes maybe 20–30 minutes depending on how many layers I add that day, and I love that it can stay incredibly simple or go a little deeper when I have more time.

That’s it.

And somehow… it has become the most grounding part of my entire day.

Sometimes I listen once.

Sometimes I have to replay sections three times.

Sometimes I realize during the recap that I completely missed something important.

And that’s become part of the beauty.

Because I’m not rushing through scripture trying to “accomplish” reading the Bible. To check off that day on the checklist.

I’m actually sitting with it.

And the biggest unexpected blessing?

It helped me stop scrolling social media first thing in the morning.

Now when my alarm goes off, I push play on my Bible App that coordinates with The Bible Recap plan and reads my daily scripture to me.

Sometimes I even fall back asleep and have to restart.

But I don’t start my day consuming chaos anymore.

And I cannot even explain how much calmer my nervous system feels because of that one simple shift.

The author of The Bible Recap calls it “priority time.”

At first I thought that sounded a little cheesy.

But after four months of being consistent.

She’s right.

What we prioritize shapes us.

And little by little, I feel grounded again.

Psalms 104 and the Orchestra of Creation

Im going to read a short clip from Psalms, but before I do just pay attention to how animals, humans and the Earth are truly connected and rhythmic

“You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees.

The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.

You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.

When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”

I just sat there thinking:

God forgot nothing.

Nothing.

The deeper you study creation, the more staggering it becomes.

Millions of interconnected systems operating with precision.

The body alone contains layers of intelligence we still do not fully understand.

And yet most of us walk past sunsets, seasons, trees, birds, oceans, and even our own breath without stopping to realize the magnitude of what God built.

Creation is breathtakingly complex, yet so faithfully consistent that we take miracles for granted every single day.

Plants.

Animals.

Light.

Darkness.

Food.

Rest.

Strength.

Cycles.

Seasons.

Even olive oil — something we now know has incredible health-supportive properties — was mentioned as soothing for the face to shine.

Isn’t that amazing?

Our bodies are miraculous.

And increasingly I understand how our bodies were designed to work in partnership with creation itself.

The more I study physiology, inflammation, grounding, sunlight, nervous system regulation,… the more blown away I become by the way God designed this earth.

Modern people have become deeply disconnected from it.

Psalms 104 keeps going.

The trees God planted become homes for birds.

The mountains become places for wild goats to climb.

The rocks become refuge for the hyraxes.

The moon marks seasons.

The sun knows when to set.

Darkness comes and the forest animals emerge.

Then the sun rises and people wake and labor until evening.

There’s rhythm.

Flow.

Balance.

Even the oceans and sea creatures are described as part of this beautifully sustained system.

And while reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking:

We are the ones who left the rhythm.

Creation didn’t.

The sun still rises.

The moon still marks seasons.

Animals still operate by instinct.

The earth still follows patterns.

But we stay up late in the dark while staring at tiny glowing rectangles that convince our brains it’s noon.

Then we wonder why we’re anxious, inflamed, exhausted, disconnected, and unable to rest.

Our nervous systems were never designed for constant stimulation.

And maybe that’s part of why scripture feels so grounding.

It reconnects us to truth.

The Wisdom We Lost

There’s something so cool about how farmers still watch the rhythms God built into creation — the seasons, the moon, the rain, the soil. They know how to read “the signs”. We have the Farmers Almanac afterall.

Modern life has made us efficient, but sometimes at the cost of losing our attentiveness to the patterns woven into the earth itself.

And then there’s my dad.

We can tease him and roll our eyes at his ways, but when it comes to someone who knows not only how to read the wind, the clouds, even the birds, but how to apply what he sees, he’s the one.

My dad is a lifelong pilot who watches the weather for a living, relentless outdoorsman who loves to beat the sunrise rain sleet or shine to go hunt or fish, and of course an Eagle Scout who could find his way out of a black hole.

He pays attention to weather and nature in ways I used to think were kind of funny.

One of MANY rules he abides by is that he never winterized his boat based on a calendar date.

He waited until after the first full moon of October.

It never failed him.

Not once.

Who thinks like that?

“That’s ridiculous.”

But now?

I’m starting to realize people used to live much more connected to the rhythms of creation.

The Farmers still do. People who pay attention still do.

Nature still matters.

Seasonal patterns still matter.

Light still matters.

And the more advanced our society becomes, the more disconnected we seem from the very systems God created to sustain us.

Sometimes we’ve mistaken convenience for wisdom.

And I’m saying that as someone who absolutely appreciates technology and a hot bath.

This isn’t about romanticizing hardship.

It’s about remembering we were created to live with rhythms.

Rest.

Movement.

Sunlight.

Stillness.

Purpose.

Connection.

There is incredible intelligence in creation.

And Psalms 104 reminded me of that in such a profound way.

I also think about my older patients.

I’ve worked with people in their nineties who are still incredibly agile mentally and physically — maybe recovering from a knee replacement or a fall, but still remarkably sharp.

And over the years, I’ve made it a habit to ask many of them the same question:

“Did you grow up in the city or in a rural community?”

Almost every one of the oldest and healthiest patients tells me the same thing.

They grew up in the country.

With gardens.

Playing in the dirt.

Spending entire days outside in the sunlight.

It’s become my own little unofficial study.

And the more I learn about the body, the less that connection feels accidental.

Even the buzzards.

Even the scavengers.

Even the creatures we tend to overlook or think are unpleasant.

Everything serves a purpose in the cycle.

God forgot nothing and remembered everything.

That line just keeps echoing in my heart.

The Pace of Modern Family Life

This episode has also made me reflect on motherhood.

Because looking back now with three young men almost launched into adulthood… we lived too fast.

We were consumed with:

- sports

- schedules

- grades

- achievement

- performance

- doing all the things

And I understand why.

As parents, we love our kids deeply.

We don’t want them to miss opportunities.

But somewhere along the way, modern parenting started feeling like a nonstop performance treadmill.

And I wonder if life would have been richer if we slowed down more?

Spent more evenings outside?

Watched more sunsets?

Sat under stars more often?

Allowed more boredom?

Lived closer to the rhythms of creation?

I don’t say that with guilt.

i really don’t.

God is in our story.

And He has beautiful plans for my boys.

But lately I’ve found myself longing for some of the things we traded away.

Smaller town values.

Country roads.

Night skies.

The simplicity of being known.

I think about how much we loved going to my grandmother’s house in the country where we could see the sunset for miles. Laying outside with my cousins watching for shooting stars.

And that peace?

It was real. Let the record show that she lived to be 96 years old. Country living.

The peace was Far more real than the frantic pressure of overscheduled calendars.

And maybe that’s why Psalms 104 feels so emotional to me.

Because creation itself still reflects peace.

There’s a rhythm to sunrise and sunset.

A rhythm to work and rest.

A rhythm to seasons.

And maybe we were never meant to outrun all of it.

Closing

If you’re overwhelmed today…

If your prayer life feels messy…

If you’re exhausted by the noise of modern life…

Can I encourage you gently?

Start small.

Open the Bible.

Even ten minutes.

Even if you don’t understand everything.

Even if all you can pray is:

“Jesus.” I’ve been there….many times.

Because maybe healing begins when we stop trying to perform spirituality and simply reconnect with God. Sit in His presence again. Listen to the sound of silence.

And maybe part of healing our nervous systems is reconnecting with the rhythms God built into creation from the very beginning.

The birds still build nests. The trees still grow. The oceans still move.

Creation still trusts its Creator.

Maybe we can learn to rest there again too.

We are the ones who left the rhythm.

Creation didn’t.

That line has just stayed with me.

Because the sun still rises. The moon still marks seasons. The oceans still move in rhythm. Creation still follows the order God established.

We’re the ones living under fluorescent lights at midnight eating dinner in the car while answering emails and wondering why peace feels so far away.

The wild animals, the plants and solar system never left their natural rhythm. We did.

Thank you for spending this time with me today.

If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend who feels overwhelmed by the pace of life.

And if you’ve been struggling to reconnect with scripture, maybe this is your gentle reminder that you don’t need perfection.

You just need to begin. One baby step at a time.

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