Overwhelm Got You In A Chokehold?
5 ways and mindset shifts to break the cycle of overwhelm
We wear multiple different hats:
Daughter. Father. Mother. Caregiver. Sister. Employee. Spouse. CEO.
The list is never-ending.
The tides of life run us over, leaving us feeling as though we’re drowning, only able to get quick gasps of air to stay alive.
We are engulfed in the run-on to do lists that never gets done and ideas swarming in our head that is screaming at us to bring to fruition.
One thing I was never taught was, “When things hits the fan and life gets too much, how the heck do I navigate through this?”
Being overwhelmed can be triggered by a multitude of things and I know that for me, when I am overwhelmed, a few things happen:
Worrying.
Paralysis.
Overthinking.
Helplessness.
From practicing self-reflection and self-awareness, I discovered a pattern in my behavior around being overwhelmed which helped to develop different ways to combat feeling overwhelmed.
Overwhelm is good… hear me out.
Being overwhelmed feels like the responsibilities are crushing you, making it difficult to breathe. Difficult to do anything.
When I would get overwhelmed, anxiety would fill my chest and I would panic. Time felt like it was slipping from my fingertips and I would scramble, feeling lost and powerless.
Because overwhelm was swallowing me up, I reframed the way I thought about it.
Overwhelm is a signal. That’s it.
The feeling of being overwhelmed is signaling you that something is wrong and it needs to be addressed now.
When I flipped it on its head, instead of my feet melting to the ground unable to move, I sprung into action.
Get it out of your head.
As the talented, Daniel Kaluuya, said: “Once you’re in your head, you’re dead.”
He’s 100% accurate.
You must write, type, create a voice note, record yourself - get every thought, every task, every idea, etc. outside of your head. I realized that when I’m overwhelmed, my thoughts are falling on top of each other and I need to release them.
Scribble out the to-do list.
Scramble down what’s eating you up, worrying you.
Let everything out.
Ask yourself, is it a glass ball or a rubber ball?
Sometimes, we feel as though everything on our plate is a priority but in reality, everything’s not.
Imagine you’re holding an arm full of glass and rubber balls. Your arms are so full that your arms don’t have the capacity to hold all the balls.
All the NECESSARY things in life are glass balls. The things that if they fall, the glass would break. We don’t want to drop these balls. To name a few:
Job/ Running the business, if that’s the main source of income
Family
Health
Now, let’s move to the rubber balls. These are the opposite of necessities. If you drop them, they’ll be there when you’re ready to pick them back up again. To name a few:
Hobbies that you don’t truly enjoy
Volunteer opportunities that you may need to pause
Unhealthy habits
Letting go of a dead side business (this was me)
Hanging out with friends when you have other priorities
We’re juggling many things in life and sometimes the load gets too heavy. Sometimes we need to drop the rubber balls to get a grasp on the glass balls. Then once we manages the glass balls, we can pick back up the rubber balls or you can leave those suckers on the ground. Your call.
Ask yourself, are the things on my list aligned with my goals and priorities?
Be real with yourself when asking this question.
My answer to this question was, “Absolutely not.”
I realized that there were things that I was doing that no longer aligned with where I was headed. Prime example: In corporate, once upon a time, I wanted to climb the corporate ladder and become a senior leader but that’s no longer a goal. So, I stopped chasing that dream and dropped the extra priorities that I was extending myself for and shifted.
Get clear on what you’re wanting in life. This will help set your priorities and you’ll be able to answer what balls should you drop.
Breathe.
You are not alone. The person right next to you is feeling overwhelmed with life as well. Often people like to make it seem as if life is good, but I’ll let you in on a little secret, we all don’t know what we’re doing and we’re figuring out life on the way.
Overwhelm will come and go throughout our lives to signal us that we need to re-prioritize and take note of the things we’re expending ourselves to.
Life doesn’t get easier, we gain the tools we need to handle the situations better.
Repeat: One task at a time is enough.