Why do so many people feel exhausted even when nothing obvious is wrong?

In this opening episode of Season 4 of Mind the Gap, Michael Comyn explores what it means to live in permanent alert mode, a state of constant urgency driven by 24-hour news cycles, notifications, and global uncertainty.

This episode looks at how the human nervous system reacts to modern life, why being informed is not the same as being emotionally overloaded, and how chronic low-grade stress quietly shapes our thinking, relationships, and leadership.

Drawing on emotional intelligence, psychology, and neuroscience, Michael reflects on why we feel wired but tired, why reactivity has become the norm, and how to pause between stimulus and response in a world that never switches off.

The episode references insights from Daniel Goleman on emotional reactivity, Viktor Frankl on choice and response, and Robert Kegan on our ability to live with uncertainty.

If you feel tense, overwhelmed, or permanently on edge, this episode offers reassurance, perspective, and practical ways to regain calm without disengaging from the world.

In this episode

• Why constant urgency exhausts the nervous system
• How news and notifications trigger stress responses
• The difference between being informed and being emotionally inflamed
• Why reactivity feels normal but costs us clarity
• A simple emotional intelligence pause practice
• Why calm is a form of discernment, not indifference

Mind the Gap is a podcast by Michael Comyn exploring emotional intelligence, psychology, and modern life with clarity, warmth, and practical insight.

New episodes are released regularly.

Season Four moves beyond reaction and into reflection. It explores what sits beneath our emotions, how we make sense of experience, and why understanding our inner world matters in everyday life and leadership.

No quick fixes.

No noise.

Just thoughtful conversations grounded in emotional intelligence and lived experience.

Mind the Gap. Season Four begins soon.

In this special December episode of Mind the Gap, Michael reflects on the emotional landscape of the holiday season. For many, December is joyful and full of celebration. For others, it carries sadness, memory, and the quiet ache of missing someone who was here last year but is not here this year. Both experiences deserve space.

Through the simple ritual of putting up and taking down decorations, Michael explores the silence that appears in early January, a silence that offers honesty, clarity, and a gentle emotional reset for the year ahead. Drawing on insights from emotional intelligence and Stoic reflection, this episode invites listeners to notice what the year has taught them and to choose what they will carry into 2026.

As Mind the Gap reaches seventy episodes, this reflection brings the current season to a close. The podcast returns in early 2026 with a refreshed Season Four, focusing on everyday psychology, emotional intelligence, and the meaning found in the small, unnoticed moments of daily life.

Books by Michael Comyn:

Mind the Gap, The Next Station Is, and Between the Lines, available on Amazon.ie.

The Mind the Gap audiobook is available on Audible.

https://amzn.eu/d/2Ma0P1U