341: Staying Connected When Life Gets Stressful

The Connected Life

Justin Stumvoll

Mental Health, Religion & Spirituality, Health & Fitness, Christianity

4.9 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all hit seasons where life feels too big to carry—and often, our relationships take the hit. Stress doesn’t just affect our schedules; it hijacks our emotions, shrinks our capacity, and makes the people we love feel like the problem instead of the support.

In this episode, Justin and Abi get personal about what stress has looked like in their relationship—from the chaos of remodeling their house to raising a new puppy. They share how stress brought out their worst patterns, triggered old wounds, and tested their ability to stay connected. Through real-life stories, they explore the impact of nervous system overwhelm and the small (but powerful) tools that helped them repair—again and again.

If you’ve ever found yourself more reactive, more distant, or more overwhelmed than you want to be—or if you’re walking through a hard season and trying to stay connected—this episode is for you. You’ll walk away with language for what’s happening, practical steps for navigating stress together, and a reminder that hard seasons don’t have to break you—they can make you stronger.

You can WATCH us at https://www.justinandabi.com/theconnectedlife

Don’t forget to RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE, AND SHARE!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Life isn't perfect, and neither are we.
0:05.0	No, but we know how to face our fears and have some fun.
0:10.0	And talk about all the messiest things of life.
0:13.0	Like the messiest things.
0:15.0	Get connected to yourself, get connected to others, and get connected to the life right in front of you.
0:21.7	This is the connected life with Justin and Abby.
0:24.7	That's me.
0:25.5	That's you.
0:26.6	And you.
0:27.6	I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day and she was saying,
0:31.3	this year of marriage has been so much harder than I thought it was going to be.
0:35.9	And I was like, well, yeah, you guys moved. You had a
0:40.5	huge business transition in work that you had to do. You went to a new school. I started going
0:46.9	through all of the different things. And I was like, you understand every stress that you went through.
0:53.2	You went through very stressful situations.
0:56.4	And stress is so hard on relationships.
1:01.1	And when she saw the big picture of how many stressful things they had faced together in a year,
1:07.4	she was like, oh, yeah, you're right.
1:09.4	Like our marriage isn't falling apart. It's just that it has been a really intense year. She was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Like, our marriage isn't falling apart. It's just that it has
1:12.9	been a really intense year. And I was thinking about how much stress really impacts our relationships.
1:21.9	And we just got a dog. For those of you who are like, what is that little cute fluff? Yeah, anyone on YouTube.
1:27.7	If you're not there, come over to YouTube and check out this little ball of fluff.
	...

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