Emotions for Dummies, Like Us

With your hosts Blake & Jamie

Happy Monday 3% community!

Let me paint a scene that might hit close to home.

You're a kid, and your house is quiet, but not in a peaceful way. It’s the kind of quiet that makes your stomach tighten.

Maybe a door slammed earlier. Maybe someone got upset. You can feel the tension, but no one names it. No one says, “I’m hurt” or “I’m angry.” They just withdraw or explode, and you're left trying to make sense of it.

So you start scanning. Like overly scanning.

Their tone, their body language, the shift in their eyes. You tell yourself it must be your fault. It has to be, right?

So then you get good at staying small. You make yourself easy and you learn to sense what everyone else is feeling before they say a word—and then you try to manage it.

Some of us are still doing that in our adult relationships if we’re honest.

Still apologizing for things that aren’t ours.

Still feeling anxious when someone else is off.

Still thinking we’re “keeping the peace” when we’re actually just abandoning ourselves.

This week, Jamie and I are trying something new. It’s just the two of us on the mic, talking about a dynamic we both know way too well:

metabolizing someone else’s emotions.

It’s a subtle but exhausting pattern, especially if you grew up in a home where emotions were loud but never named. Where you had to feel what others were feeling just to stay safe. Where closeness meant self-abandonment.

This episode is a good one. You may wanna get your notebook out.

We talk about:

• What it means to “metabolize” someone’s emotions (and how early it starts)

• The difference between caring for someone and carrying their emotions

• Why emotional fusion feels like love but quietly burns you out

• How your body and nervous system can’t tell the difference between someone else’s emotion and your own

• The cost of overfunctioning, people-pleasing, and pre-managing other people’s reactions

• And how to begin returning to yourself

---

What You’ll Get Out of It:

• Language for a pattern you may have felt your whole life but never had words for

• Practical ways to start identifying what's yours and what’s not

• Gentle encouragement to build boundaries rooted in honesty and mutual care

• A deeper understanding of why you may feel anxious when someone else is upset—and why that isn’t your fault

• A reminder that you're allowed to stop over-explaining, apologizing, or shape-shifting just to stay close

🎧 Listen to the episode here

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Youtube

---

This is a format we’re experimenting with, so if you enjoy it & are crazy enough to want to hear more of just Jamie and I, let us know lol.

Your feedback helps us shape this podcast into something that really serves you.

Thanks for being here. Keep coming back. You're worth it.

- Jamie & Blake