Assessing Your Stress Bucket (Back to the Basics Series – Part 4)
Episode 104: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
View transcript on Buzzsprout
If one small inconvenience tips you over the edge or leaves you spiraling, your stress bucket is likely too full. In this episode, Amanda offers a visual analogy to help you understand why chronic stress and emotional overwhelm show up—and how to approach them with clarity, compassion, and strategy. She breaks down the concept of your “stress bucket,” teaches you how to assess yours, and shares why this exercise is a powerful starting point for personalized healing.
What We Cover in This Episode
- What your “stress bucket” actually is and how it works
- The two types of stressors you carry: baseline and daily
- Why stress management isn’t just about doing less, but adding more support
- How strategic healing offers clarity, choice points, and self-compassion
Why The Stress Bucket Analogy Works
We all have a nervous system, and every nervous system has a limited carrying capacity for stressors before it becomes overwhelmed. Think of your nervous system like a bucket. The bucket represents your carrying capacity, the water is your stress load, and symptoms (like anxiety, exhaustion, irritability, shutdown) show up when the water overflows.
This isn’t just a metaphor—it’s a framework we use in our Restore 1:1 coaching and Regulated Living Membership to help clients pinpoint what’s contributing to dysregulation and where to begin creating change. Because the truth is: you’re not broken. Your bucket is likely just too full.
The Water: Baseline vs. Daily Stressors
Amanda categorized the water, or stressors, you’re carrying around in two ways:
Baseline stressors are the weight you carry every day until something changes. Chronic illness, trauma, marginalization, financial strain. These form the foundation.
Daily stressors are the extras that pile on—like rushing through your morning, social media overload, tense work meetings, parenting demands, or decision fatigue. These add up fast, especially if your baseline is already high.
When your stress load outweighs your carrying capacity, you experience symptoms. And those symptoms are not random—they’re your body’s signal that something needs attention.
Stress Isn’t the Enemy—Imbalance Is
It’s also worth noting that not all stress is bad. Just like lifting weights can make you stronger (when done in moderation), manageable stress helps build resilience. But too much, for too long, without support? That leads to burnout.
The problem isn’t stress itself, it’s the mismatch between your load and your support systems. This is why we help our clients assess both stressors and supporters, so you can increase your capacity without just trying to do less.
A Framework That Offers Clarity and Choice
This exercise isn’t about judgment. It’s about data, it’s about organizing the information and experience that makes up you. When clients lay out their stress bucket—identifying both what’s in it and what might help balance it—they often feel more compassion for themselves and more strategic about where to begin healing.
Healing doesn’t always mean starting with trauma. It might mean shifting your evening routine, asking for help, getting labs done, or rethinking your schedule. That’s the beauty of the bucket—it gives you choice points.
“Many of you are walking around with a 300# life that nobody taught you how to carry. Of course it feels heavy. Of course it’s wearing you down.”
One client in our membership recently shared that this analogy finally helped her realize her stress symptoms weren’t about daily busyness, but an unresolved trauma history and menopausal shifts. Another client saw it was her cluttered environment and lack of rest that needed attention first.
Assess Your Stress Bucket
If you’re not sure where to start with your healing, take inventory:
- What are your baseline stressors?
- What are your daily stressors?
- What, if anything, supports your nervous system right now?
From there, ask: what feels easiest to shift or support? What could you change by 1%?This is how we help clients begin regulation—by working with their reality, not against it.
Three Tangible Takeaways
- You have a unique stress capacity. When your bucket overflows, symptoms show up. That doesn’t mean you’re failing—it means your body is communicating with you.
- Identify your stressors. List both baseline and daily stressors. This simple awareness offers a more personalized path forward.
- Healing is about balance. You don’t have to eliminate all stress. Add support, increase capacity, and shift what you can.
Looking for more personalized support?
- Book a FREE discovery call for RESTORE, our 1:1 anxiety & depression coaching program (HSA/FSA eligible & includes comprehensive bloodwork)
- Join me inside the Regulated Living Membership, a mental health membership and nervous system healing space (sliding scale pricing available)
- Join my Release Class – Monthly guided nervous system regulation class
- Order my book, Healing Through the Vagus Nerve today!
- Download free resources here
*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
