Your brain loves a good disaster movie — and sometimes it casts you in the starring role. A late text reply? Suddenly your relationship is over. A headache? Must be a brain tumor. A mistake at work? Clearly the end of your career. Sound familiar? That’s catastrophizing.

In this episode of Exhausted Sparrows Unite, we’re diving deep into why our minds default to worst-case scenarios, how catastrophizing keeps us stuck in stress mode, and—most importantly—how to quiet that inner alarm bell.

We’ll talk about:

- Why catastrophizing is a survival instinct gone rogue

- The everyday ways it shows up in relationships, parenting, health, and work

- The hidden cost of living in “apocalypse mode”

- Practical tools to break the spiral and reclaim your peace

If you’ve ever turned a stubbed toe into the end of the world in your head, this episode is for you. Let’s laugh, get honest, and learn how to stop letting imaginary disasters steal our energy.

Have you ever been surrounded by people and still felt completely unseen? Or sat in silence and felt a sense of peace wash over you? There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely — and understanding it can transform the way you relate to yourself and others.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why alone is empowering, and loneliness can be a silent wound.
• The science showing how chronic loneliness impacts your brain, heart, and immune system.
• How intentional solitude can boost creativity, clarity, and emotional resilience.
• Practical steps to turn loneliness into healthy, restorative alone time.

Join us as we explore the emotional, psychological, and biological sides of solitude and connection — and learn how to tell the difference between the two in your own life.

Are you always in a rush, always overwhelmed, always on the verge of something? Do you secretly feel more comfortable in crisis than in calm? You're not alone — but you are allowed to break up with the chaos. In this episode, Krista along with her cohosts Chauntel and Tom explore the sneaky addiction to urgency, how some of us become emotional firefighters by default, and how to reclaim peace as your new baseline.

We cover:

• How adrenaline becomes your fuel (and how to stop guzzling it)
• Signs you might be creating chaos
• What to do when others thrive on crisis
• Real, tangible steps to replace drama with stability