In this episode of Salt & Sovereignty, Ashley reflects on doomscrolling, nervous system exhaustion, emotional overwhelm, and the grief of realizing she was never broken to begin with.

After months of constantly reaching for noise, distraction, podcasts, videos, and stimulation, Ashley shares what surfaced during a recent Brainspotting therapy session and how silence began revealing deeper layers of grief, trauma, self-blame, and emotional exhaustion.

This is not a productivity conversation or a “fix yourself” episode. It’s an honest reflection on chronic overstimulation, survival mode, emotional healing, and learning how to return to yourself gently instead of performatively.

In this episode:

• Doomscrolling and emotional avoidance
• Why silence started feeling unbearable
• Nervous system exhaustion and chronic fight-or-flight
• Grieving years of believing “I’m broken”
• Trauma, self-worth, and internalized shame
• Learning to sit with yourself without trying to fix yourself

This episode is for anyone who feels emotionally overwhelmed, disconnected from themselves, exhausted by constant stimulation, or afraid of what silence might bring up.

Maybe healing is not becoming someone new. Maybe it’s learning how to stop abandoning yourself when things get hard.

In this episode, Ashley reflects on creator burnout, visibility pressure, nervous system exhaustion, and the emotional cost of turning deeply personal work into online content.

What started as an effort to improve podcast SEO and discoverability slowly became a deeper reflection on performance, consistency, emotional honesty, and the pressure to stay visible online. Ashley explores the tension between devotion and optimization, especially within trauma-informed spiritual and healing work.

In this episode:

• The emotional impact of learning SEO and content strategy
• How visibility pressure can quietly become performance
• Burnout, nervous system exhaustion, and constant output culture
• The difference between emotionally honest work and optimized vulnerability
• Trauma, productivity wounds, and performance-based worth
• Why healing work does not always fit algorithm-driven systems

This is not a productivity episode or a creator strategy guide. It’s a personal reflection on what happens when meaningful work starts colliding with systems built for constant visibility and consumption.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to constantly produce, stay visible, or turn your life into content just to feel worthy, this conversation may resonate with you.

In this episode of Salt & Sovereignty, Ashley shares her real-time experience navigating panic and fear when a wildfire threatened her childhood home and her best friend’s home.

As anxiety and helplessness rise, she reflects on what it means to face something you cannot control, and how returning to spiritual practice can shift you from panic into grounded response.

In this episode:

• Anxiety and panic during an emergency situation
• Feeling out of control and overwhelmed
• The nervous system response to fear and uncertainty
• Turning to spiritual practice and Hekate for grounding
• Creating a protection working as a response, not control

This is not about stopping what’s happening, but about how you choose to stand in the middle of it.