S1, E27 of the Dream Doers Podcast – “Ditch The Cape Superwoman” with Susan Wiesemann

🎧 Trying to be “superwoman” may look admirable on the outside, but for many women, it leads to burnout, overwhelm, and losing themselves in the process. In this heartfelt episode of the Dream Doers Podcast, I sit down with Susan Wiesemann, author of Undoing Superwoman and founder of Light of the Lamp.

Susan opens up about her journey through chronic stress, an autoimmune diagnosis, deep healing, and learning to surrender control after years of people-pleasing and pushing past her limits. Together, we talk about faith, practical healing steps, boundaries, nutrition, and what it really means to stop striving and start living from a place of grace.

💬 Have you been stuck in survival mode, feeling like everything depends on you? Share your thoughts in the comments, your honesty may help another woman start healing too.

🌐 Connect with Susan Wiesemann and explore her resources at https://www.lightofthelamp.org/ and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/light.ofthelamp

Undoing Super Woman: Losing Total Control to Gain Ultimate Freedom, now available.: https://store.lightofthelamp.org/collections/frontpage

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✨ Episode Highlights:

00:00 Introduction to Susan Wiesemann’s Journey
02:42 The Superwoman Syndrome: A Personal Story
05:42 The Path to Healing and Surrender
08:42 Practical Steps to Ditch the Superwoman Cape
11:30 Connecting Mind, Body, and Spirit
14:39 Building a Relationship with God
17:53 Recognizing God’s Voice in Our Lives
20:44 The Call to Write: Following God’s Guidance
30:27 The Journey to Writing a Transformative Book
32:18 Practical Tools for Inner Healing
36:35 Nutrition and Its Impact on Health
39:32 Setting Boundaries and Saying No
44:05 Finding Time for Self-Care
49:59 The Importance of Rest and Healing

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Show Notes: “Ditch The Cape Superwoman” with Susan Wiesemann

Jana Marler (00:00)
Welcome back, dream doers. Today I’m joined by Susan Wiesman. Susan is an author, speaker, and the founder of Light of the Lamp, where she helps women step off the hamster wheel.

of pressure and then rediscover joy, faith, and freedom. She’s also the author of Undoing Superwoman, Losing Total Control to Gain Ultimate Freedom, and her work encourages women to ditch the cape and step into God’s grace. Susan, I’m so excited you’re here.

Susan Wiesemann (00:30)
Thanks so much for having me.

Jana Marler (00:32)
For

those listening who may not know your story yet, can you start by sharing a little bit about your journey and then what led you to the work that you’re doing today?

Susan Wiesemann (00:44)
So for most of my life, I was in corporate marketing. I have two kids, a husband, and so I worked full time and I eventually started my own marketing consulting business and I was just really busy. And basically I was a people pleaser, a perfectionist, a control freak, and I just never felt like I could slow down. I felt like I had to say yes to

everything. So ⁓ it eventually caught up with me because on my 45th birthday I ended up spending it in the emergency room because I couldn’t breathe. I had trouble breathing. I felt like I was about to pass out and the doctor who sent me to the ER thought that I had a pulmonary embolism and the doctors could find nothing wrong with me and they sent me home saying everything looked fine only

I knew it wasn’t fine. In fact, I genuinely thought I might die. Like that’s how terrible I felt. And I thought to myself, I finally did it. I finally pushed myself too far. And you would think that’s the worst of it. Like, no, she went to the ER. No, ⁓ my symptoms got worse. I got to the point where I had so much trouble breathing that I had my

breathing analyzed and it turns out I lost almost 20 % of my lung function. My heart raced like I was running a marathon 24 seven. I had muscle weakness that was so intense that I would have to take a break from something as simple as chewing food. I had to take a two hour nap every day just to get through a day. And I just couldn’t do anything. Like I was basically couch ridden.

⁓ it took so much energy for me to do anything. Like if I ran an errand, I was taking a two hour nap afterwards. You can bet that. So it was all of these symptoms that just kept getting worse. It was all snowballing and I kept going from doctor to doctor, getting test after test to figure out what is this mystery illness that is going on? And it finally, ⁓ it finally got to a point where I was so

desperate that I realized I need to do something. Something needs to change. ⁓ And so I finally broke down and realized like, okay, you know what? What I am doing right now isn’t working. And part of what I was not doing was talking to God. I love Jesus. I was going to Bible study every week and

I sincerely like wanted to be a good Christian. But I didn’t know how to have a relationship with God. ⁓ So that’s kind of what started ⁓ the healing journey I went on where I realized that something had to give. ⁓ So God led me on a journey to healing.

And two years into that journey, I got a diagnosis for an incurable autoimmune disease. And the doctor who diagnosed me was a cardiologist, but it wasn’t really specifically a heart issue. It was just one of the symptoms that I had. And I’ll never forget what he said. He said, Susan, when I see otherwise healthy women your age, get what you have.

It’s because she’s trying to be a super.

And it was like a gut punch to my stomach. Like I knew, I was like, all right, busted. I am so busted right now. Like I’ve absolutely been trying to be a superwoman. I felt like I couldn’t say no to anything. I had zero boundaries. And I felt like if I did not say yes to everything, it made me a bad mom, a bad friend, a bad Christian, a bad business woman.

Jana Marler (04:46)
Thank

Susan Wiesemann (05:13)
So I just, even though I was running on empty all the time, I was just, I just kept pushing myself past the point of exhaustion. Like, isn’t this what it means to be a good Christian and a good business woman is just keep going, just keep going. I can do this. I can do this. And then my body was like, no, you really, you really can’t. And so once my doctor told me that the root of it was trying to be a super woman.

I knew God was inviting me into discovering how to undo being a superwoman. ⁓ so it took two years, but two years later, I went back to that same doctor and he gave me a clean bill of health and told me I never need to see him again.

Jana Marler (05:51)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (06:09)
Yeah, right, yay guys!

Jana Marler (06:12)
I don’t want to be too loud. ⁓

Susan Wiesemann (06:13)
God’s amazing! So

⁓ now he has me on a mission to help other super women to ditch the cape, to surrender everything to God and to discover that Jesus says he has life for us. Life to the full. Life, not life to the running on…

coffee and dry shampoo. You’re like, that’s not…

Jana Marler (06:47)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (06:47)
So

he’s been showing me, you know, how, and he showed me how to heal. And so I wrote my book on doing superwoman as a field guide to freedom for other women who feel like they’re trying to be a superwoman. And it doesn’t have to be something as intense as mine obviously is a very extreme case.

Having an incurable autoimmune disease is one of the worst case scenarios for burnout and trying to be a superwoman. But it can look different and yet still be burnout.

Jana Marler (07:26)
Yeah, our bodies take and absorb so much of that and we think, you know, our minds might still be going, but our body’s keeping all of that and it will shut down when it needs to, you know, as you just shared. ⁓ I still maintain a relationship with my youth minister.

from junior high and high school. Him and his wife have been huge mentors for my own journey for 25 plus years. And even with the best of intentions, as a Christian who wants to help people or is in ministry, we can still fall short of that, saying yes to everything and trying to be the fixer and the helper. And we are that we aren’t the ultimate healer.

Susan Wiesemann (08:12)
Mm-hmm.

Jana Marler (08:17)
And he said a really important thing one day. said, know, Jana, this woman told me, ⁓ I was walking into her room and she said, leave your cape at the door. And he stopped and said, wait, what do you mean? And she said, leave your cape at the door. You know, you’re only in control of what you can do. You can’t come in here and fix and change everything and everyone. Even with the rest of intentions with the biggest heart, you gotta leave your cape.

Susan Wiesemann (08:42)
Yes,

absolutely. Couldn’t have said it better myself. ⁓

Jana Marler (08:47)
So I guess for the women who are listening and feeling that overwhelm or the stuck, you know, in that superwoman mode, ⁓ what are two or three practical things that they can start doing like this week to step out of that cycle?

Susan Wiesemann (09:03)
Yeah, so I realized that our mind, body, and spirit are all connected. And so I was ignoring all three of those. So some super practical ways that women can start to put the oxygen mask on themselves first. So mind, body, spirit, the body, super easy way. This is gonna sound so basic, but it has helped me and I know it will help other women.

We are all severely under eating protein. ⁓ I used to be a fitness and nutrition coach and I can tell you from my own experience, but also just onboarding all of the clients who I used to have, they, we all barely eat any protein and it affects how we function in our everyday lives. It affects ⁓ not just, know, like obviously like, okay, yeah, I want to some muscle. I want to have muscle tone. And yeah, it can help with that when you are.

you know, actually doing your ⁓ weight lifting and trying to get gains in that way. But I can tell you that I need to eat at least, and all of us, all of us need to eat at least 100 grams of protein every day for us to be able to function at peak capacity. I’m

Jana Marler (10:28)
⁓

You would think it would be fruits and vegetables like they’ve preached for 30

Susan Wiesemann (10:32)
Well,

that’s the next thing I would tell my clients. least, so at least 100 grams of protein a day and at least 25 grams of fiber. Usually, you know, a lot of that being in fruits and vegetables. So, you know, those definitely go hand in hand. Those are the top two in my book. And to give a little perspective, a four ounce piece of chicken has like 35 grams of protein. So if you shoot for 35 grams of protein at each meal,

then you’re good to go. And the reason why it’s so important is because it helps to keep your blood sugar even keeled and you’re appropriately fueled so that you can make good decisions to keep that oxygen mask on. So you aren’t making decisions that are reactive. You can, you know, just have a steady blood sugar so that you’re mentally sharp to make those kinds of decisions to really be able to, to take care of yourself.

Jana Marler (11:30)
Gosh, yeah, I love that because how many of us moms, you you said we aren’t eating enough protein. I thought you were gonna end up, we aren’t eating enough. I mean, how many moms get breakfast because they’re in a hurry to get their kids ready for school and they’re making sure everybody’s good to go and then they ran out of time and they’re like, it’s okay, I’ll grab coffee on the way to work and then maybe lunch got cut too short because the meeting went over and now they’re just putting a banana in there, you know, or an apple or something in their body, so.

I really thought you were gonna say we just weren’t eating or even drinking water. You know, we’re just going.

Susan Wiesemann (12:02)
Well, that absolutely

that you are absolutely right. That is absolutely true. And we’re doing it because we’re putting everybody else first. We’re trying, you know, like if you have younger kids, you’re trying to put, make sure your kids are getting dressed and they’ve brushed your teeth. You and all of those are perfectly valid things, but you also need to have the time and, and, just be able to say, Hey, I’m worth it. I’m worth making this.

a priority to yes, eat, first of all, eat something, ⁓ but make it something that is going to really fuel you. So, you know, a lot of times what my, what I would tell my clients, you know, advise them is to do meal prep, which I know sounds like that sounds like high in the sky, you know, but I promise like it’s, totally doable. But that’s just one of the things that like for me, when I can, I can tell when I’m feeling exhausted, grumpy,

easily offended, I always look to see how much protein have I had. And nine times out of 10, I have not had enough protein. So that’s one just super practical thing that I know most people just don’t think about. Yeah.

Jana Marler (13:16)
Yeah, food is fuel. We have to think

in that way. What we’re putting in our body is going to be pushing back out. If we’re not putting anything in or sugar or unhealthy things, that’s what’s gonna affect our inner thoughts and our nervous systems and it’s gonna be projected back.

Susan Wiesemann (13:25)
Yeah, because.

Yes. Right, exactly. So so

I can’t tell you how many mornings, know, when my especially when my kids were younger were just like you said, I would feel like I needed to get out the door and I wouldn’t have the I wouldn’t make the time to eat breakfast myself. So I would, you know, go grab a bagel with cream cheese. Well, there’s, know, that’s just refined carbs. Like, it’s just, you know, it just, you know, spiked my blood sugar.

probably made me really anxious and emotional because my blood sugar was just cranked up so high. that’s the effect it can have on you when your blood sugar is that high. So ⁓ that’s one of the super practical things that I think women can do. And then one of the other things that I was not doing that I think is so important is I was not making time for connecting with God in the morning.

Jana Marler (14:31)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (14:32)
And

so one of the things that, ⁓ that women can do is, you know, I’m not trying to give more homework, but I know in my case, I was certainly making time for scrolling social media or, ⁓ watching, you know, TV or, know, whatever. And there’s nothing wrong with those things, but I just find that when I connect with God, especially in the morning, my day is exponentially better.

Jana Marler (14:39)
you

Susan Wiesemann (15:02)
And I use a very simple prayer model that somebody taught me. this, helped me just to be able to have some, ⁓ framework. So I, I like to be told like a good life hack and for me, this is like a good life hack. Like, ⁓ I don’t have to overcomplicate this. I don’t have to read like a whole book of the Bible. Like I can just, okay. Here’s so the, framework is, I mean, I will read a Bible passage and then the model is called pray and each letter stands for, for one of the steps.

Jana Marler (15:21)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (15:32)
P stands for praise. Praise God for all the great things he’s done in your life. R stands for repent. ⁓ Ask God for forgiveness for the mistakes you’ve made. A is ask, submit your prayer requests to God. And then Y is yield. And that is ⁓ listen for what God might have to say. ⁓ So when the yield part was the hardest part for me.

Jana Marler (15:56)
Yeah, of course, for most of us.

Susan Wiesemann (15:59)
I haven’t met a woman yet who hasn’t struggled with that part. Yeah, right. And so, so just the thought of being still and not doing, especially for women like us who are used to being high achievers, we’re used to having a big to-do list that we’re, you know, checking everything off the list. And it feels, for me, it felt like a luxury. It felt indulgent.

Jana Marler (16:02)
I’m a pro at the yielding.

Susan Wiesemann (16:28)
to spend that time. ⁓ But what I do now is I, for me, it’s now it’s a non-negotiable. Like I have to do it. ⁓ So what I do with my yield time is I set a timer for five, 10, 15 minutes. I open my journal and I just listen for what God might be saying to me. And.

Jana Marler (16:53)
you just begin to write.

Susan Wiesemann (16:55)
Yeah. And we, and you know, sometimes it’s a conversation with him. Sometimes it’s just, you know, listening to what, just writing down what I think he’s saying to me, which was mind blowing to me because I had been raised in an environment where I thought that I couldn’t have a conversation with God. So, and, and when you don’t, so I didn’t know how to have a relationship with God.

And the reality is that, like, if you want to look at the root, like really the root of at my busyness, like feeling like I needed to just do everything myself, at the root of it was I did not trust God. And I didn’t trust God because I didn’t know God. I didn’t have a relationship with him.

And so that’s what the yield part of that process did for me was it was the beginning of learning how to have a relationship with him. And then once I started to see that like we got had a track record together, like I could see things that he that he had talked about in my prayer time, like, they happened. Look, what he said is true. And he he wants to talk to me and have a dialogue. He wants to talk to all of us and have a dialogue.

And the thing is, what I discovered is if you don’t trust God, then you lean on your own understanding. So you’re like Proverbs three, five through six, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your path straight. Well, I was definitely leaning on my own own understanding because I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know what else to do. So that’s

Jana Marler (18:48)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (18:53)
So that’s why I tell women, like, that’s one of the best places to start. So once you start having that relationship with God, if you don’t already, you can start to see where you can just hand stuff over to Him, like, okay.

Jana Marler (19:08)
yeah, like God’s got this. ⁓ Jesus literally takes the wheel.

Susan Wiesemann (19:10)
Yeah, like.

Yes, genuinely.

Jesus, please take the wheel because I am not doing a great job on my own. So you better take over. So those are some of the just practical things. ⁓

Jana Marler (19:30)
I love it when you were

talking about how you didn’t know that, like a relationship is two ways, and God wants to reciprocate, and he wants you to pour into him, he wants that connection with you. You know, and so many of us, I share this often, but so many of us go to God like a vending machine. I have a need, I’m hungry for something, I’m gonna go put in what I need, I expect him to give it to me, and then I’ll move about my day.

You know, and we forget that, and I talk to my children in this way, I say, God wants to hear from you. It doesn’t matter if you’re angry, you’re sad, you’re mad, but then he also wants to speak life into you and speak love and joy and goodness. And so many times we’ll come and we’ll, you know, dump it all. And then we retreat, we leave. We don’t do the sitting and going inward, but he wants that, he wants us to just listen. And I love when people speak about

Susan Wiesemann (20:15)
Good night.

Jana Marler (20:25)
Chair time is how I’ve heard other people say it, like just sit for 15 minutes, don’t think about anything, don’t say anything, and just listen. And that is so hard for us to do, especially in this busy culture, because I remember for myself the first couple weeks I tried this, our minds go to, okay, I have to do this tomorrow, nope, come back. You know, it’s the squirrel syndrome. It’s like, okay, you know, what about this, okay, nope, come back. And I can’t.

Susan Wiesemann (20:44)
Yep.

Jana Marler (20:50)
finding myself even then, even trying to yield and listen, I would come back to the rattle and the noise and the to-do list and do you think my kids are, you know, and it just doesn’t stop. takes intentionality and training to sit still and be quiet and truly listen. And I know that we’re not always going to hear audible noises from God, you know, sometimes, but for the most part, there’s kind of that deep

just knowing within you, so was there ever a moment that like you, like pivotal time, I know that you had some big health things, but was there a pivotal time that you were sitting and it was just like boom, God said that to me. And I know it now that now I need to do this or I need to be this or I need to start writing my book or whatever the case. Was there a big pivotal moment for you that you felt him?

Susan Wiesemann (21:33)
And then you’re done.

gosh, no, there were so many times where I felt him, but God talks to us and so many, talks to me and all of us, I think in so many different ways. And, ⁓ I think one of the times when I really, really knew it was him was there was one morning, ⁓ in September of 2020, where I woke up at 3 a.m. couldn’t get back to sleep.

Jana Marler (21:48)
you

Susan Wiesemann (22:16)
And I could tell God was really talking to me. And one of the things that he… And not audibly, just for everybody listening, I’ve never heard God’s audible voice, just so you know. ⁓ It’s always just a thought that I know I wouldn’t have myself. And so I know it has… And you always have to test it. You always have to test it. Is it biblical? Is it something that seems to align with…

you know, with God and, you know, what he has to say in the Bible and, ⁓ you know, just, right. Yes. Or is this just something I want? ⁓ But so, so that morning when I was, when I, when I could tell it was him, ⁓ one of the things he said to me was that I was going to shut down my business.

Jana Marler (22:53)
Or is this coming from me? Do you know it’s my feed? Mm-hmm. Yep.

Whoa.

Susan Wiesemann (23:14)
Yeah, but I knew because I knew because I knew it was from him. Now that didn’t mean that I didn’t pray into it. My husband and I prayed into it and knew that it was okay. We finally discerned, like at first I was like, oh my gosh, am I calling all my clients today? Like what’s happening? But then we realized like, oh no, no, he’s telling us about something that’s gonna happen in the future. And

Jana Marler (23:19)
Yeah.

Right.

Susan Wiesemann (23:43)
And it was about six months later. In fact, when he finally said it was time to shut down my business, it was the day after I got my diagnosis. ⁓ The very next morning, he said, OK, it’s time.

Jana Marler (24:00)
He said, Susan, can’t do it all anymore.

Susan Wiesemann (24:03)
Yeah, mean, I

guess. Yeah, I mean, so I and what would it turn out? ⁓ I think there were a lot of reasons why he asked me to do that. And one of them was ⁓ I needed to understand that my identity wasn’t in what I do. It’s in whose I am. And it took months and months of just sitting.

and just healing, like he was really still healing me, inner healing.

It finally hit me one day that, I get it. He needed to strip this away from me and prune it, just like he does, he talks about in the Bible, that he prunes so that it can grow even more fruit. So he’ll take something away.

Jana Marler (25:03)
And in order,

he needed to push you into the path that he has for you, right? And so much of our busy schedules and all of the things we just shared, you know, get in the way of that. But sometimes it has to kind of be that big life altering, gosh, like I need to switch paths to go where I need to go to ultimately be, you know, and live within the best of myself.

And sometimes that takes really big things and sometimes it’s subtle. So where did your book play in? What was the timeline? When did that start alongside you closing your business?

Susan Wiesemann (25:43)
Yeah, so I closed my business

in February of 2021. And it wasn’t until February of 2023 when he told me it was time to write the book. So it was a long time of me not doing anything. I mean, obviously I was being a mom. Yeah, yeah, but it took that long.

Jana Marler (25:54)
Okay.

Yeah, sometimes resting, which is the hardest job that there is.

Susan Wiesemann (26:11)
for me to, I he just dropping breadcrumbs for how he wanted me, the opportunities for me to heal. So that might be reading a book on boundaries. That might be me going to a specific ministry to help with my inner healing. It might be like I’ve worked with a holistic health practitioner to clean up my diet and to understand, you know, how to take better care of my actual physical body.

So it was all of these different things leading up to it. ⁓ And actually you asked about how do you, like, when have you known it was God speaking? And like I said, sometimes God talks through other people. He uses people to speak to us. So ⁓ I had already kind of been hearing in my prayer time that I was going to write a book.

I didn’t know what exactly it was going to be about. I wasn’t healed at the time when I was hearing this. So I’m like, what am I going to talk about? So one day when I finally, it was a day when I actually had enough energy to walk around our block. Like that’s how weak I was that I couldn’t, I couldn’t take walks for a really long time. So it was remarkable that I could actually go for a walk. So my husband and I were out for a walk and I was talking to him about the book. You know, like I don’t.

Like, why, why would I write a book? You know, there’s so many people who have your really awesome healing stories out there. Why would anybody want to hear mine? And my husband just looked at me and said, don’t discount your story. And so ⁓ that, but that’s you think that’s how God used somebody. No, it gets better. So we go to church the following Sunday.

Jana Marler (27:42)
you

Susan Wiesemann (28:05)
And the message was about God using our gifts for expanding his kingdom. So we got to the end of the service and our pastor invited us to like have a quiet moment to just listen for what God had to say about how we could use our gifts for expanding the kingdom. And this was when I was having this wrestle by who wants to hear my story? And so, ⁓ so he

Jana Marler (28:30)
you

Susan Wiesemann (28:33)
He paused and I’m telling you, like he paused for just like a second and he said, I feel like there’s somebody in this room who needs to know that you need to write the book. And I thought. There there, but I still wasn’t convinced, Jana, I still. It was like, but there are hundreds of people in this room. Maybe it’s not me.

Jana Marler (28:48)
gave me chills on my cheeks.

And that one’s specific.

Susan Wiesemann (29:03)
And then he paused for a beat and he said, don’t discount your story. And it was the exact thing my husband had said. And I was like.

Jana Marler (29:04)
course.

⁓ my

god.

Susan Wiesemann (29:17)
Okay.

Jana Marler (29:19)
When people keep going, that was just coincidence. I’m like, we are missing a lot. If we aren’t paying attention, God is speaking to us super vividly. And we just, we discount that. We just say, well, you know, there’s like you said, there’s thousands of people, hundreds of people. It couldn’t be. And then it just keeps going. No, we keep defending the reason not to hear it. And God is like, I don’t know how to be any more clear.

Susan Wiesemann (29:30)
Yes.

Yeah.

Right, shall I use a megaphone? Like should I bonk you over the head like Like what else do you need kid? Come on, just do it

Jana Marler (29:48)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly the thing. Yes,

and then you start to get in tune with that and then more starts to align. At least in my story I was like, okay, I’m paying attention, God. And then the next thing happens and you’re like, this isn’t coincidence anymore. It just keeps aligning. Pretty cool.

Susan Wiesemann (30:13)
Yeah.

Yeah. So even after that, it wasn’t right away that he asked me to, know, that where he said it was time to start. He told me to start actually a month before I got like the official stamp clean bill of health from my cardiologist. But I mean, I already like, and I didn’t even want to go back to the cardiologist because I was like, I know I’m healed. And then and then I realized like, no, I need a professional to tell me that I’m actually healed.

Jana Marler (30:27)
No.

Susan Wiesemann (30:41)
Otherwise, it’s not very credible. ⁓ so yeah, so that’s so that’s how I knew ⁓ that I needed to write the book.

Jana Marler (30:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, do you have the book nearby?

Susan Wiesemann (30:54)
I do. This is what it looks like. I’m doing Superwoman. Thank you.

Jana Marler (30:56)
First of all, it’s a beautiful cover. It’s

inviting. Can you, without giving away all the good stuff, because I think everyone should go buy it. I actually last night was like, I need to go get your book. I have not read it yet. So what is them like, you know, just tease us a little bit. What’s in there that would make us want to go pick it up?

Susan Wiesemann (31:20)
Yeah, so it’s ⁓ what I call it a field guide to freedom for women who do feel like they are trying to be a superwoman. And it’s all of the tools that, ⁓ there are lot of very practical tools in it that I use all the time for inner healing or forgiveness or all of those kinds of things, just super practical information that really helped me. And it’s obviously told through the lens of my healing journey.

So what I like to tell women is, you know, some of it might work for you. All of it might be for you. God will show you what you’re meant to run with, you know, when it comes to like once you’re reading it and you’re in the thick of it. ⁓ But I’ve already had many women tell me how transformative certain chapters were for them. Like they genuinely had on the spot inner healing.

Jana Marler (32:16)
you

Susan Wiesemann (32:18)
from reading this book. And ⁓ then even just like some of the practical information about diet and nutrition. I think so many women don’t realize just how ⁓ damaging a lot of the foods that we eat are. The processed foods and the inflammation. So so much of autoimmune diseases

Jana Marler (32:40)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (32:46)
and just a lot of diseases are caused by inflammation. Well, you get inflammation from eating processed foods, seed oils, just artificial sweeteners, or, you know, just, but 65 % of the food in any given grocery store is considered to be an ultra processed food. And yeah, isn’t that nuts?

Jana Marler (33:12)
It’s hard to, you know, even when you’re walking into a natural food store, it’s hard to think like what in here actually is gonna help me, you know? The packaging can look so healthy. The regulations or lack thereof can look like something’s healthy, but it’s actually not. And so it’s really scary to think, and I say it all the time, unless I’m growing it from the ground or I’m farming it, it’s probably not the best to be putting in our bodies, but that’s everything.

Susan Wiesemann (33:21)
Right.

Yeah. So, you know, what I, what I try to do and, know, I would say this to like, when I was a fitness and nutrition coach, what I told my clients was focus on eating just whole foods. If you focus on eating, you know, like you don’t have to overthink it at first. Well, you never have to overthink it, but, know, but don’t put so much pressure on yourself to do it perfectly. But, you know, we all know intuitively that probably

you know, a bag of chips off the shelf, probably not going to be healthy. ⁓ but if you’re going, if you’re eating produce, if you’re eating meat, if you’re just eating those whole foods, you’re going to make huge gains. It’s going to be a huge step in the right direction.

Jana Marler (34:25)
Yeah, and from a financial perspective, my boys and I, every Sunday after church, go down to our local farmers market. And of course, in the off season, we’re not able here in the Midwest to buy a lot of things locally. But whenever we’re able, we try to buy from all the local farmers. And I will get such a large amount. The other day, we bought probably 30 tomatoes for a dollar. You know, so you can save so much money,

Susan Wiesemann (34:38)
I mean,

Jana Marler (34:55)
A lot of us think, and even in school systems, they talk about how expensive it is to eat healthy. It’s cheaper to eat horrible, which is why so many of the lesser served communities eat junk food, because they say it’s cheaper. But if you think about it, if you’re going to things like farmers markets, you can grab a whole head of lettuce, and you can grab tomatoes and anything local, I mean, again, the bundles.

are $10 or less. If I go to the grocery store, not only am I buying it wrapped in plastic, single-use things, it’s probably shipped from a few states or countries away, been on trucks for a while, you know, and it’s marked up. So, from not only a health perspective, a financial perspective, if we just start to tweak little bits, you know, you say, like, don’t, don’t overthink it, don’t make it too hard. It’s totally true. What we don’t know seems so overwhelming to make changes.

in our life and anything. But if it’s just small, small little shifts, you know, it can change a whole bunch more than just our physical health. It’s our mental health, it’s our pocketbooks, you know?

Susan Wiesemann (36:06)
Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. So those are just some simple shifts that that women can make today to really put them in a in a really great trajectory toward being able to ⁓ have less inflammation and just like that will help them to feel better and to be able to think more clearly and just lose that brain fog that is so prevalent. Yeah, there’s it’s just huge gains there.

Jana Marler (36:14)
Yeah.

Yeah, you have to think, you know, our, it sounds so weird to say every time, but we are in this temporary shell on earth, right? So we didn’t get to pick the shell we’re in, our bodies, our spirits are living. And someone said it the other day, he said, so many people think that we are humans having a spiritual experience, but really we are spiritual beings having a human experience here. Temporarily, yes.

Susan Wiesemann (37:02)
⁓ I love that.

Jana Marler (37:05)
Temporarily we’re in these bodies and it’s, know, Christ even says to treat our bodies like a temple because what we’re fueling into our minds, our spirit, our bodies, it’s like you said, it’s all playing together. So I tell people, treat your spirit as a garden, right? And we are the gardeners. How are we gonna tend to it? Are we gonna let?

someone come in and spray poison all over? Are we gonna let people plant something toxic in the middle because we all know how that works, then it’s gonna start seeping into your healthy foods that you’re planting. So what are we letting in? Who are we letting in? How often are we tending to it? We all know if we don’t water a garden for a few weeks, it’s all gonna die off. So we have to be nurturing that. We have to be protecting that.

You know, if you think about farmers from a visual perspective, they’re putting nets or cages or greenhouses so that things can’t get in to steal and rob your joy of what you’re building. But we don’t think like that. We think our bodies are just, they’re just, you know, something to not consider. We put it last. As you said earlier, how many of us were trained to put everyone else first? So we neglect ourselves.

And if we can’t be our healthiest self, we can’t be healthy for others. So we’ve kind of got to reverse that mindset. It’s not selfish, you know, but we’ve got to tend to us so that we can then pour our best gifts, our best words, how we’re thinking, and like you said, the brain fog, how we’re processing things, how we’re responding to people. It all truly plays in, and I like how you said it’s just.

Susan Wiesemann (38:32)
Yeah.

Jana Marler (38:55)
Little, like don’t make it harder than it is. You know, it’s just little things that can totally shift how you go about your week.

Susan Wiesemann (39:02)
Yep, absolutely. And then one of the other things just you’re asking for you practical tips. One of the other things that I that I like to tell women as a starting point for how to shift from just exhaustion and being everything to everyone is to think through some questions whenever you’re before you consider your next. Yes. Think through a few questions. So one of them is.

Is this something you want to do? Is it something you want to do? Or is this something you feel like you have to do? If you are feeling obligation, I am confident this is probably not something that you’re supposed to say yes to. You need to think through what is your motivation for possibly saying yes to it? Do you want to do it? First of all, is it good for you?

Jana Marler (39:50)
you

Susan Wiesemann (40:01)
and your family.

And does it align with what you think God has for you in this season? You know, so there are some perfectly great things that can come up that sound like they, ⁓ of course I’ll say yes to that. you know, that just, of course I should say yes to ⁓ baking cookies at the bake sale. Like that’s a no brainer. Well, maybe it’s not a no brainer because what if, that brings me to my next question. Do I have the margin?

Jana Marler (40:11)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (40:35)
If you don’t have the margin, both from a time perspective, but from an energy perspective, gosh, is baking even something you enjoy doing? Now for me, I enjoy baking. So baking for the bake sale might, you know, like that could be a good guess for me because it also honestly like kind of builds into me. It’s something that would fill my cup some, you know, to bake as long as I actually have the time and the energy.

So if I’m if I’m thinking about that as a possible opportunity, do I want to do it? Well, yeah, I like to bake. So that’s something I might want to do. And that would be cool to have a homemade baked good for the bake sale. Sure. ⁓ Is it something I have time to do? ⁓ Well, if my week is crazy and I’m running from sporting event to sporting event or or if I just have a really heavy meeting week.

business wise, then okay, maybe that maybe this isn’t the right time. ⁓ Is, you know, and just like, is this good for me and my family? Well, if this is going to just make me tired and grumpy and have a short fuse. Well, you know what? It’s probably not good for my family. So, and I can still participate in the bake sale, but maybe I just go to the grocery store and pick something up.

Jana Marler (41:41)
you

Yeah?

Susan Wiesemann (42:03)
instead of feeling obligated to bring the homemade whatever. And the same goes with business decisions. Like do I accept this business opportunity? Do I want to do it? Do I have the margin? Is this good for me and my family? All of those, those are the same questions. If it follows for anything, if you filter it through all of those questions, I promise you will be able to suggest

significantly cut down on the exhausting activities that are not filling you up.

Jana Marler (42:39)
It takes intentionality to really be in tune with yourself and to pause, yield for a minute and go through those steps. But how long does that take? 20, 30 seconds and change everything for you.

Susan Wiesemann (42:45)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Great!

Yeah. And obviously if it’s a big decision, invite, you know, if you’re married, you invite your spouse into it. If you’re, you know, if, you’re not married, you can invite friends into it. You know, I am married, but I still, sometimes if it’s a big decision, I still invite friends to pray on it for me, ⁓ for wisdom and discernment because, you know, sometimes there are, there are opportunities that just sound like something I want to do, but

Jana Marler (43:24)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (43:25)
Maybe this isn’t

what God has for me in this season. like you said, with the 20, 30 seconds that you’re taking to process, like, OK, should I do this opportunity? Part of it can be just asking God, like, hey, God, what do you have to say about this? What do you think I should do? And you’re probably going to hear an answer.

Jana Marler (43:52)
Yeah, he can close some things pretty quick if you’re asking. I joke all the time like, if it’s not a heaven yes, then it is a hell no, is what I say. You know, especially if you’re spending weeks and weeks and weeks almost trying to convince yourself of what you should and you’re having everything aligned that you shouldn’t. That’s a big hell no, you know?

Susan Wiesemann (43:56)
Right. That is definitely true. ⁓

Yeah. Yeah.

Right, right, absolutely.

And then the last tip I would give women, ⁓ and this is just, you know, it’s super practical, something they can do right now is take a look at your calendar and your to-do list and see what you can cut or delegate. Like what can you do right now to free up some time and therefore free up some energy? And then in place of whatever it was that you discerned, you don’t need to be the person to do it.

Fill that time with something that’s going to fill your cup. Think of whatever that hobby is or that whatever that you’ve been, you know, putting off like, I’ll do that when I get my to-do list done. Well, guess what? Your to-do list is never going to be done. Never. It’s just going to keep stacking. so you have, and this is something that’s been that that’s probably one of the hardest things for me is to just realize like, that to-do list.

Jana Marler (45:01)
As long as your ear, it’s going to keep stacking.

Susan Wiesemann (45:17)
I need to set it aside. I don’t have to, I don’t have to earn my opportunity to rest and to play. I don’t have to earn it.

Jana Marler (45:24)
⁓ there it is.

Susan Wiesemann (45:28)
I don’t have to have a to do ⁓ a completed to do list to justify doing something fun just for me and anybody out there. You also do not have to earn it. You need it. It’s necessary.

Jana Marler (45:42)
Yes.

Yes, that is huge. It goes back to the putting everybody first. We’ve got to pivot to putting ourselves first, finding time for all of it, putting things aside. When do we lay things down? When do we pick them up? When do we let God be in control? When do we put action in? It’s a lot of, and even talking in that way, I’m like, I’m overwhelmed because your moms are managing all the things and we’re trying to figure out, okay, when do I seek outside?

like mentors or friends to pray over this. Like it takes so much and we’re juggling. You know, as women, they joke that we have spaghetti brains. We’re juggling and managing all of that all day. We can’t shut it off. So that’s the hardest part for people to set something aside. That for me was all of the weight I felt on my shoulders was having those to-do lists that wouldn’t go away. And I was like, well, if I can just get through all of this, then.

And it was never then, so I had to learn to stop it. I am in charge of my time schedule. I am in charge of where I’m choosing to spend my time. Am I waking up and pulling my phone up and scrolling first? Or like you said, am I pausing to really put God first? And we don’t realize until we start paying attention how many things are stealing our time. So when we say we’re too busy or we can’t do that or.

we’re not a cook or it takes too long to, we don’t know how to grocery shop, whatever the excuses we have are, if we can pause, just take a day and really sit down and be like, where can I, what can I cut? Where can I evolve and become educated on or pour my time into and like you said, how am gonna fill my own cup? If I’m running on empty, it’s not gonna look good for how I’m treating.

especially children who need you to have a full cup, you know? And there’s a lot of stress and pressure when you’re a working mom to not only manage your whole home, but then either go manage your own business or work for someone else’s business.

Susan Wiesemann (47:42)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. You have to have your cup full if you’re going to pour out to other people. It’s just that simple. So if you want to be the mom, the business owner, the employee, whatever it is, if you want to be that person, the best version, then you need to be able to have your oxygen mask on first or else

or else nobody else is getting the oxygen mask.

Jana Marler (48:24)
Why do they say that on a plane, right? Because if you’re not putting your oxygen mask on before your children, before the people next to you, you’re gonna, you’re not gonna be able to help them.

Susan Wiesemann (48:36)
Right, exactly. So that’s all Ditcher Capes.

Jana Marler (48:41)
Did the cape. ⁓

Susan Wiesemann (48:43)
Let’s

all connect with God so that we can just embrace that grace he has for us and to be a daughter of God first.

Jana Marler (48:55)
Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (48:56)
before we are anything else.

Jana Marler (48:59)
Yeah. Now, my last question, you and I have pretty similar stories in the sense that God was like, we’re gonna pause this in your life and you’re gonna have a time for healing. A long time for healing. I probably had a year and a half to three years where I was just like, you know, I kept asking friends, like why is my work not taking off like it should? Why do I not have jobs coming in? And she said, because God needs you to rest.

And people like me and you kind of needed to be a little more clear. And I joke, that will make you sick. Like your body’s gonna shut down. And to get our attentions, right? To really pause us, to take the time to heal. So you and I have similar stories in that way. Do you think that there might be a woman listening in that’s like, you know, maybe God’s calling me to rest, but it’s.

gonna look different. She won’t get a year or two. That might not be practical or even doable.

Susan Wiesemann (49:59)
Yeah, will say that, yeah, not God doesn’t call all of us to sit on the bench for multiple years. That’s just, that’s just not, I mean, it’s, that’s not, you know, he’ll, he’ll, he knows what journey you are on. So for the woman out there who is feeling exhausted, I don’t, I don’t know how God wants you to heal, but

Jana Marler (50:12)
around.

Susan Wiesemann (50:28)
It doesn’t have to you don’t don’t feel overwhelmed by the idea that it has to be this huge sabbatical or you know, no. But he wants all of us to be whole in mind, body and spirit. And so if you just ask him, hey God, can you just guide my steps? Can you light my path? Even if it’s just one step at a time, show me how I can. How I can live life to the full.

the way you want me to live my life. And if you keep, I mean, it says in the Bible, if you seek me with all of your heart, I will answer and he will answer. So he just wants to hang out with you. He just wants to hang out with you so he can tell you who you are, who you really are. You are not your to-do list. And he will tell you, Hey, this is, this is the next step.

Jana Marler (50:59)
it.

Mm-hmm

Yeah.

Susan Wiesemann (51:28)
Because I promise you, I promise you there were a whole lot of baby steps between that emergency room and getting the diagnosis and then getting the diagnosis, shutting down my business and then clean bill of health. There were so many baby steps. So, so please don’t hear my story and think like, ⁓ well, you know, she just had all the time in the world and you know, she just.

It just happened. It was miraculous, but it was it was a miraculous healing, but it was a lot of baby steps of just being faithful to take the next step that I felt like God was asking me to take. So just keep asking God and he’ll show you what that next step is so that you can heal, whether it’s healing from burnout or healing from an autoimmune disease or anything in between. He’s faithful. He’ll show you.

Jana Marler (52:23)
Gosh, I love that. And if it’s one thing God’s gonna do, He’s gonna remind you that you’re whole in Him, period. All of the other titles are just icing on the cake. Business owner, mom, whatever it is, that is secondary to you being whole in Christ alone.

Susan Wiesemann (52:30)
Yeah, amen.

Yeah.

Yeah, amen. Yes, for sure.

Jana Marler (52:46)
Very cool. Gosh, I feel like I personally got so much out of today. Anytime I’m doing interviews, I’m like, this is for me. But I love that other people get to hear your words of wisdom. So thank you for sharing all that. Is there anything else that you feel like is on your heart that you want to speak on before we hop off?

Susan Wiesemann (52:51)
Haha!

Well, I mean, if women are interested in taking the next step and learning more about it so that you can order undoing Superwoman losing total control to gain ultimate freedom on Amazon or on my personal storefront at store.lightofthelamp.org. And I’d love to speak at women’s events on burnout, women’s wellness, setting healthy boundaries. And so you can find out more about that at lightofthelamp.org slash speaking.

and you can follow me on Instagram at light.ofthelamp.

Jana Marler (53:39)
That is so perfect. Thank you for doing all of that. That’s what I was gonna ask. So I will make sure to put all of those in our show notes in the post so that you all can find that and make sure you go follow Susan. Thank you so much. That meant the world to me that you took an hour out of your day today. So thanks for being on my podcast. Yes, okay. Everyone go follow her and then until next time.

Susan Wiesemann (53:56)
Thanks for having me!

Jana Marler (54:02)
And cut. ⁓ my gosh, that was awesome. I mean, another really ⁓ cool thing for me is that how many of us, especially women, have to hear the same thing over and over and over until it really hits, right? A lot of the things you said I have heard or I’ve had people pour into me, but sometimes there’s just that right moment. And I remember a lot of these on my own journey. There’s that right moment when someone says something and it clicks.

Susan Wiesemann (54:03)
Hahaha!

Yeah.

Jana Marler (54:31)
You know, so thank you. That was so fun. I hope that was, you know, life giving for you too. And honestly, good.

Susan Wiesemann (54:38)
for sure. This

is a huge blessing. Thanks so much for having me. I really, really enjoyed it.

Jana Marler (54:44)
Yeah, I’m glad you reached out, you know? It starts with just connecting with a stranger on the internet. How fun. the country.

Susan Wiesemann (54:49)
Exactly, I know. For

as crazy as the internet can be on the other end of the continuum, how awesome that God uses it in this way too.

Jana Marler (54:57)
Yeah.

Yes, I love that. Okay, well I will make sure, so I try to post my podcast on Monday, so I’ll work on it this weekend and then I’ll make sure to, was there anything that you needed to be cut? Yeah, I thought that was a pretty smooth, you know, all the transitions, everything, so I’ll just kind of tweak little maybe silences in between, but I’ll post it Monday and I’ll share it with you and then if you want to blast it out, can too.

Susan Wiesemann (55:07)
Okay.

Jana Marler (55:28)
The only thing, I usually go in and just steal a selfie on your Facebook, but if you wanna send me one of your favorite photos of you, I’ll make sure to put that on my YouTube cover or the social media stuff. Will you do that this weekend? Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. I’m gonna go buy your book, pronto. ⁓

Susan Wiesemann (55:40)
Yeah, yeah, I’ll send you the headshot.

Thank you.

Well, I hope it blesses you.

Jana Marler (55:52)
Thank you.

Okay, well you have a great day and then we’ll be in touch. Thank you, Susan. Bye.

Susan Wiesemann (55:56)
Great, have a great weekend. Thanks, I’ll see ya.