When Overwhelm Consumes You | How We Tackle Feeling Overwhelmed

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Feeling overwhelmed stops you in your tracks. Your brain has scrambled thoughts of everything you need to complete, anxiety threatens to break you into pieces, and you feel like there is chaos everywhere. When overwhelm consumes you, how we tackle feeling overwhelmed helps move us forward.

When life is overwhelming, the feelings you have are natural. Feeling overwhelmed can make you feel:

• anxious
• confused
• out of control
• depressed

The truth is, feeling overwhelmed can’t be ignored. If you try to push them aside, the feelings become worse and your health will start being affected.

But where do I start?

When you feel overwhelmed this is the BIG question bouncing around in your brain. It’s the nagging question that won’t leave you alone.

How We Tackle Feeling Overwhelmed

Hint: have a pen and paper handy for this task.

Look into your feelings of overwhelm. With your best “mom look” stare directly into its face. You know the look. That look that stops your kids in their tracks and makes them think twice about doing something.

Yep! That look. Use that look to start your overwhelm in the face and ask it why you are feeling that way.

Write down the random thoughts that come to mind. Don’t think them through, just write everything down. The list might be long or short, it doesn’t matter the length.

Now look at one item and break it into small tasks you can do to get it crossed off the list. Focus on one item at a time. If the item is too big, break it down. Move forward bit by bit.

I started my day today feeling overwhelmed. I had trouble focusing on the topic I wanted to write about today. All of the panic and negative feelings that come with feeling overwhelmed came rushing forward, stopping me from getting anything done.

Still not sure you can do this yourself? Find your Pillars of Life and start creating a balance that works for you!

It Works

It was a clear sunny morning, one that showed promise of spring finally arriving. I should be feeling great, but that wasn’t the case.

I was frustrated, overwhelmed and all kinds of negative thoughts started bouncing around in my head. After trying to push those feelings aside, with no success, I finally looked them in the face and said STOP!  Seriously what is wrong with me today?!

My overwhelm today stemmed from the chaos that I find myself living in. We moved last summer into a home that is half the size of our previous home of 16 years. The accumulation of stuff and the small house is not going well (putting it VERY mildly). On top of this, we are renovating.

There is so much to do and the sheer size of the project, along with the clutter and chaos, are creating overwhelm. Knowing how big this project is overwhelming, but when I look at the list of items that need to get done they are just small steps. I can tackle them bit by bit and can look at each one as a win for the big goal.

Why It Works

Over the years I’ve used self-awareness techniques to help sort through issues at work and at home but didn’t give it too much thought as to why it works.

Psychotherapist, Peter Michaelson, has found that when there is a feeling of inner conflict the person’s intelligence and strive to flourish start a healing process within. When we look into the face of that feeling of being overwhelmed and asking why we feel that way, we start a natural healing process within.

I created that inner conflict this morning, as I faced the overwhelm head-on. As soon as I gave the overwhelming feeling my mom look, a feeling of control started coming back. As I worked through what was causing that overwhelm I felt a sense of calmness pour over me.

I still have that humungous list of tasks to complete, but I have a clearer picture of how I want to look at them. I’ll focus on working through the chaos bit by bit.

Feeling overwhelmed this morning was a natural reaction to trying to sort through the chaos of what feels like constant clutter in our home. I felt my thoughts spin out of control with all of the items that I want to do to make the house feel more organized.

When the overwhelm set in, I felt like I couldn’t concentrate on anything in particular. Random thoughts continued until I forced myself to look directly at my feelings of overwhelm and question them.

When I faced my feelings head-on, I felt control slowly seep back into my thoughts. Calmness started pouring over me, as I sorted through why I was feeling this way. Learning how we tackle feeling overwhelmed helps us move forward.

Have you been feeling overwhelmed lately?  How do you tackle feeling overwhelmed? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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