Feeling Overwhelmed?

Listen to the audio ( 5.12 mins).

Coping mechanisms are essential when you feel overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed can easily be the case if your schedule has too many events in the day, week or even month. This can be in your personal life as well as at work. At work it is not always possible to change your meeting schedule so all the more important to be able to deal with feeling overwhelmed. The emotions that follow when too much is going on tend to lead to stress and the feeling of overwhelm.
Here are tips to help you deal effectively with those initial difficult and overwhelming moments.
Important detail:

• All of these suggestions start with a couple of breaths.
• Stop what you are doing, sit down comfortably, take some breaths. While exhaling, imagine blowing the negative emotions out of your body. I like the visualization of blowing them out of the top of my head – it feels good as if I was making some space in my brain!
  
  

Select the tips below that you are attracted to and have the time for. A few minutes can do the trick of settling the feelings down.

• Reawaken your creative side. One of the best ways to break your stress is by doing something that involves your senses. Nourish it by starting an enjoyable project or returning to a hobby. For example, you could draw an image on a piece of paper, bake something, do some gardening, rearrange a room, or an area of a room (a kitchen closet will do if you are not feeling too creative). Busying your hands allows your mind to focus on something other than the troubling overwhelming feelings. These kinds of activities are very grounding. As my mother always said: “Busy hands are happy hands”.
• Whenever possible, use the word ‘no’. Remember that in order to say yes to something you might have to say no every now and then. Take the example of being invited to join some friends on the very night you were planning on staying at home for some downtime. In order to please them, you say ‘yes’. In this instance you chose to value your friends’ wishes over your own. You said no to yourself while saying yes to them. In the end you have chosen to nurture them and not yourself!
• Meditate while sitting still or meditate while taking a walk observing all the wonderful sights nature has to offer. Look at nature, what you see outside, and other peaceful images to push the other thoughts away. Feel the wind blow over you, or the warm sunshine on your face; even the rain can have a similar effect.
• It is possible to find nature even if you live in the city. You can be indoors and look out the window at the sky, or if you manage to go outside, consider how incredible nature always finds a way to bounce back. If none of this is possible, bring up an image of nature from your memory bank.
• If you are able to, take a shower and feel how you can let the stress wash off and disappear down the drain. If you do not have enough time for a shower, wash your hands.
• Think about all of your good qualities. These might include your caring nature, your thoughtfulness, your ability to cook delicious meals, the love you have for others, being a good sibling, child, parent, or friend. Remind yourself of these qualities. Remembering these qualities can offer you strength when you need it. Hold these good impressions for as long as possible. This will give you strength, if only for a minute or two. Reconnecting with your good qualities when you are feeling overwhelmed gives you a break from the negative feelings.
• Give yourself permission to take some time out to watch something funny, call somebody who makes you laugh, or nurture yourself with an activity that you know helps you relax. You might take a short nap, have a massage, meditate, listen to music, watch a movie, or even sit and do nothing… just being. We are, after all, human beings… not human doings.
• Take three breaths, exhale slowly, and picture yourself surrounded by a golden bubble or golden egg. While exhaling, the tension is being expelled. Tell yourself that only good thoughts are allowed to come into the golden bubble or egg.

Choose whichever tip feels right. If necessary, make a note of it on your phone, computer, or notebook as a reminder until you reach for it naturally when an overwhelming moment strikes. The point is to break the energy of the overwhelming moment. Once you have done that, proceed with dealing with the issue on the table.
 
An excerpt from BALANCE - A Practical Handbook for Life's Difficult Moments by Suzie Doscher
Photo credit: Unsplash

For support with the changes necessary please contact Suzie Doscher to explore if she is the right coach for you.