PODCAST SCRIPT
Episode Title: How Stress Shapes Our Health — and How Creativity Helps Us Heal
Podcast: Real Positive Change – Creative Renewal for Women
In this episode of Real Positive Change, we delve into how chronic stress impacts not only your emotions but also your physical health and spiritual well-being. You’ll discover:
1. Why do so many women in midlife feel constantly “on edge”
Learn how your body adapts to stress, fear, and anxiety — and why these patterns can make exhaustion feel “normal.”
2. How emotional adaptations become habits that hold us back.
We’ll talk about the hidden ways we protect ourselves from discomfort — by overworking, staying busy, or avoiding connection — and how to release those patterns gently.
3. A new way to think about healing.
Instead of trying to “fix what’s broken,” you’ll learn to ask, “How much more alive could I be?” — and open to possibility, curiosity, and growth.
4. The S.T.E.A.R. Model: a simple tool for emotional awareness.
You’ll see how shifting your thoughts and emotions can change your results — helping you move from stress to strength, and from chaos to calm.
5. How creativity and faith work together to restore peace.
Discover why art, journaling, and reflection aren’t just hobbies — they’re sacred tools that help you reconnect with God’s peace and your divine rhythm.
Welcome to Real Positive Change — the podcast that helps women renew their hearts and reshape their lives through emotional awareness, creativity, and faith-filled purpose.
I’m your host, Cathy Freeman, and for over two decades I’ve guided women as a mindset trainer, rapid eye technician, and creative coach — helping them rediscover peace, confidence, and joy from the inside out.
Have you ever wondered how stress might actually be shaping your health — not just your mood, but your body itself?
For years, I’ve been fascinated by how our emotions and thoughts connect to the physical stress in our bodies.
And lately, I’ve noticed something interesting — especially for women in midlife. So many of us are running on fumes — stretched thin, burned out, and downplaying what we’ve experienced just to make it through the day.
What’s even more fascinating is how we’ve learned to adapt to this way of living — to make it normal to live with stress, fear, and anxiety. We’ve trained our minds and bodies to survive that way… but not necessarily to thrive.
That’s what I want to explore with you today — how those adaptations shape us, and how we can begin to release them to find calm, creativity, and peace again.
I recently listened to a powerful conversation between Dr. Mariza Snyder and Dr. Aimie Apigian. They were talking about this very thing — how the body adapts to chronic stress, and how those adaptations can eventually lead to burnout, illness, and emotional exhaustion.
Dr. Aimie shared something that really resonated with me. She said,
“Anything that overwhelms our capacity to respond becomes a trauma for our body. And those changes impact us down to the cellular level — the immune system level. They are what become our diseases, often decades later.”
In other words, the body keeps the score.
When we live in stress for long periods of time, our nervous system adapts — but not in a way that helps us heal. It adapts in ways that help us cope.
Maybe that looks like
needing to control everything,
staying constantly busy so we don’t have to feel rejection or fear.
Maybe it’s avoiding people or situations that might make us uncomfortable, or
working endlessly to feel worthy or needed.
We all develop our own “adaptations” — emotional habits designed to keep us safe. But over time, they start to keep us stuck.
Dr. Aimie also shared a phrase that I loved. She said,
“When we start on a healing journey, we often think, ‘Let’s just fix what’s broken.’” Now she started this whole discovery
But she began asking herself a different question because of a pretty serious illness. And she said she was working from a place of “let’s just fix it.” And it’s how she worked in her practice, but this illness had opened up her mind it had helped her to do a little more discovery. To do some researching and some learning, and she decided that she wanted to ask a different question. And that question is
“How much more alive could I be?” How much more alive could I be?
In other words, how much more could I put into my life? Can I enjoy things? You know, respond in such a happy, joyful way.
That’s such a powerful reframe.
Instead of focusing on what’s wrong, we begin to open to what’s possible.
It keeps us curious, more compassionate, and in motion — it’s not just about trying to fix ourselves, but allowing ourselves to grow.
I’m constantly explaining to my clients how the simple act of shifting your thoughts and emotions can change your result. I think of emotions as that perfect indicator. You know if I am feeling kind of overly emotional, “ok let’s pause for a moment, Cathy. And what’s going on?” I know that emotions come directly from thoughts that we are thinking. They are the electric…. the emotional charge. So like when your diriving your car and that engine light comes on and all of a sudden that little panic feeling happens wondering what’s wrong with the car. I instantly want ot pull over, or get to the closest place that can help me. And find out what’s going on. That is why I created this simple framework
* THE S.T.E.A.R. MODEL. It’s something I teach inside Real Positive Change.
And it basically stands for this:
S — Situation: What’s happening around you. It’s the facts. It can be a little boring. It’s nothing with emotion attached to it. “It’s a Sunny day.” It’s exactly what is happening at the moment.
T — Thought: What you’re telling yourself about it.
E — Emotion: How that thought makes you feel. You know emotions are like I said a few minutes ago. They are the chemical reaction to your thought. And you FEEL them throughout your body.
A — Action: What you do in response to that thought? If you are upset with someone, are you ignoring them? If you are frustrated are you doing certain actions? Are you blocking your relationship? Are you shutting down? What is the action?
R — Result: What you create or experience because of it.
So, not to tell on myself here, but one of my typical patterns in the past when I’m frustrated with my husband is I shut down. I don’t say anything…I go quiet. You know, it’s that Silent Treatment thing. And then, because of that, my result is HE SHUTS DOWN also. So our whole bridge of communication has just gone out the window. And I’m thinking in my mind, “Well, if I shut down and I don’t say anything. And I act a little frustrated…this quiet, whatever. He should get the clue. He should know….”she’s upset with something, and maybe I should step forward and do XYZ. I don’t know….do something.”
No, that never happens. LOL! They always go the opposite direction than what you want. So, I’ve learned I’ve got to change it around. Really look at the reaction that I want…what is the result I want? And then back it in the other direction.
Once you begin to notice this flow, the STEAR, the direction you are going. You can start shifting it — one thought, one emotion at a time.
You can move from stress to strength. You can move from fear to faith, and absolutely, you can move from chaos to calm.
🎨 THE POWER OF ART TO CALM THE CHAOS
Most of the time, it is hard to recognize what is going on in our head….because we are telling ourselves, we are living it. We’re in the midst of it…we’re in the thicket of it. And so we don’t recognize it as much. It’s when we have to step outside of ourselves, or get coached by somebody, that we begin to see these things. And we start to see what we’ve created, the story. And on some level, it does have some truth for us at that moment.
For this reason, I love to incorporate art or some other creative form like journaling. Because when you're working by yourself in that, you need to get it out of yourself. You need to get it down on something else so you can step away from it and you can really examine it with a different lens.
Journaling, creating art, all these are perfect outlets.— the pause between our thoughts, that’s what they create. The sacred space where the ongoing mental story finally quiets down. Our mind begins to focus on something else….
When we engage creatively — whether it’s journaling, painting, collage, or even just doodling — we give our emotions a place to rest, a period to renew.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about presence.
Art becomes a bridge between the mind and the spirit — helping us hear God’s whisper again. It’s how we remember that we’re not just reacting to life…we’re actually co-creating it with Him.
🌸 So take a moment and take a big breath. Open up those lungs. Bring in that oxygen. Calm that stress level down.
Then Pick up your brush or your pen.
And give yourself permission to begin again.
Ask yourself today —
“How much more alive could I be… if I stopped living in stress, and started living in rhythm with peace?”
✨ Alright, my friend, until next time, keep creating…. energizing life’s positives — one change at a time
Thanks for listening to Real Positive Change: Creative Renewal for Women.
If today’s episode spoke to your heart, share it with a friend — and don’t forget to join me for a free live Creative Coaching Workshop at RealPositiveChange.com/freecoaching.
Until next time, remember — real change begins within you.
