Midrising Conversations · Episode 13
Your Head Is Too Full: 5 Questions to Clear the Noise
How many tabs are open in your head right now?
Work. Kids. Parents. Relationships. Health. Life admin. What comes next. The thing you forgot to do yesterday. The thing you need to remember tomorrow. And probably another ten things that have just occurred to you while reading this.
In Episode 13, Gill is flying solo and working through five questions designed to help clear some of that noise, notice what is actually taking up space and get more deliberate about what deserves your energy now.
About this episode
Gill starts with a fairly simple question: what is taking up the most space in your head right now?
Her own list gets long very quickly. Building Cherry. Midrising. Kids heading towards the teenage years. Marriage. Renovations. Changing friendships. Ageing family. Health. The gym. Food tracking. The veggie garden. And, somewhere in the middle of recording the episode, remembering she needs to pick her daughter up from the shops.
Which rather proves the point.
This episode is about noticing the noise before you try to fix all of it. It is also about working out what can wait, what belongs to someone else, what is draining you, what you might finally be ready to stop carrying and what you actually want from this stage of your life.
In this conversation
- What is actually taking up all that space in your head
- The invisible mental load of kids, parents, relationships, work and ordinary life admin
- Why you can care about someone without taking responsibility for solving their problems
- The difference between being busy and feeling drained
- Why work you choose can sometimes energise you even when it demands more from you
- Quitting vaping and recognising when you are genuinely ready to let something go
- The expectations, roles and habits we keep carrying because they have always been there
- Why one woman might want to build something enormous at 50 while another wants fewer responsibilities and a simpler life
- More, less and enough: what do you actually want from this season of your life?
- Why “I don’t know yet” is also a perfectly valid answer
This episode is for you if…
Your brain feels like it has twenty tabs open and you are not even entirely sure what half of them are anymore.
Maybe you know something needs to change but cannot quite work out what. Maybe you want more from the next part of your life. Maybe you desperately want less. Or maybe you are somewhere in the middle, trying to hear your own thoughts underneath everyone else’s needs, expectations and opinions.
You do not need to have your next chapter mapped out. Sometimes getting clearer starts with creating enough mental space to notice what is already there.
The Midrising takeaway
You may want to build something enormous. You may want your world to become quieter. You may still be working it out. The important part is creating enough space to hear what you want.
Want to work through it?
The five questions Gill works through in this episode come from Clear Your Head, part of the Stabilise stage of the Midrising framework.
If you want to start gently, begin with the free 5-Step Reset. If you are ready to go deeper into the mental noise, open tabs, friction and what deserves your energy now, move on to the Clear Your Head workbook.
If the bigger question for you is what do I actually want now?, try the free If You Feel Restless, Start Here guide.
Want to see how these tools fit together? Explore Stabilise →
A quick note: Gill shares her own experiences in this episode, including quitting smoking and vaping. This is a personal conversation rather than medical or cessation advice. If you would like support to stop smoking or vaping, speak with an appropriately qualified health professional or cessation service.
About Midrising Conversations
Midrising Conversations is the podcast for women in the middle of everything. Usually hosted by Gill Townsend and Barbara Scalzi, with solo episodes and guests along the way, it is a place for honest conversations about midlife, work, health, relationships, identity, reinvention and all the things nobody really prepared us for.
No perfect answers. No pretending we have it all figured out. Just real conversations about what this next part of life might look like.
Keep listening
Catch up on more Midrising Conversations and join us each week as we talk our way through the messy, funny and occasionally ridiculous reality of midlife.
Explore all episodes
0 comments