As I write this my house is half-packed up in boxes, pregnant, have a list 5 pages long of address updates I need to put through, whilst also serving a full roster of beautiful clients.
All beautiful things that I am very excited for but I am getting some practise at handling overwhelm!!
So, I thought I would remind myself of the tools in my toolbox for dealing with overwhelm whilst also sharing it with you lovely people too.
What is overwhelm?
I like to think of overwhelm as feeling like you have too many tabs open in our heads or trying to keep too many plates spinning.
And when this happens, we can find ourselves getting into quite a pickle! We can find ourselves struggling to focus on any one task, not being able to switch off to rest and maybe resorting to old patterns such as anxious thoughts, procrastination, avoidance or full on hustle mode.
It can leave us exhausted, cranky and as this state sits well and truly in the fight/flight/freeze path it is stressful for ourselves and our bodies. This is when I tend to get things like mouth ulcers or thrush (sorry if that is TMI lol), basically my body’s signals to tell me that it has had enough.
It is not somewhere we want to stay for very long.
But how do we get out of it?
I am overwhelmed, what do I do now?
So I have a few tricks up my sleeve for dealing with overwhelm and I want to share some of them with you. So here goes…
1) Make a master to do list.
When we try to rely on our brains to remember all the things we need to do, it creates a tonne of anxiety that just isn’t necessary. So get it out of your head and onto paper.
Whatever it is taking up headspace, write it down.
You may also find talking about it can help you create more headspace.
2) Create smaller lists for each day.
Once you have your to-do list, create some time and create smaller lists that help you get moving through it. This will really help dial down the overwhelm.
But don’t forget to keep it manageable! If you don’t your coping mechanisms will kick in and it won’t be pretty, self-sabotage is a pain, I have been there promise.
There is no better feeling in my opinion that ticking things off your to-do list!
3) Create space to switch into rest & digest mode.
Whatever it is that chills you out, it is time to get those tools out of your toolbox.
It is really important we start getting your body back into rest and digest mode so that we can take the pressure of the fight/flight/freeze nervous system, after all it is only meant to be used for life threatening emergencies like being chased by a tiger!
There are lots of different ways we can help ourselves find our zen again, but some of favourites are: meditation, breathwork, bubble baths and curling up with a rom com novel!
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