⚙️OVERWHELM ⚙️….. who feels this emotion at times? ??
Admittedly, I am one to allow myself to get overwhelmed sometimes and get myself all worked up and feeling anxious. And usually when I take the time to look at things rationally, it was all for nothing. I read a book once that referred to it as “The Drama of Overwhelm” and it’s so true. Nobody needs drama. Nobody needs overwhelm…
The last few weeks, I feel like I’ve lost a little of my sparkle ? and I don’t like that… cuz I like to be super sparkly!! ✨?. I like being happy and joyful and having a pep in my step ????
And the last few weeks I’ve been a bit draggy. I can attribute it to a few things, but largely it comes down to one thing and that is that the proverbial “to do list” is feeling super long and never ending right now and I’ve been letting it get to me.
So, tonight I went back to a podcast that I’d listened to a little while back and I re-listened. It’s by a lady named Brooke Castillo, whom I love ❤ and the name of the podcast was simply “Overwhelm” and I’m going to share a few thoughts from that podcast that totally helped me remember to focus on the joy not the drama of overwhelm ?
Some of the thoughts from Brooke….
?? Overwhelm is one of those indulgent emotions that doesn’t serve us in our life. It pretends to be necessary and have a purpose but it has no purpose or usefulness. (Whoa – truth bomb – but so true right??)
?? Overwhelm is NEVER caused by what is going on in your life. Overwhelm is always caused by YOUR thinking. (Ok another thought to really take in and ask yourself – “Is this true?”… yep I bet it is…)
So let’s think about today’s reality. We are faced with SO many decisions – think about the number of choices of everything in the grocery store ?? or the options for a new cell phone ? or the amount of shows and movies ? to choose from on Netflix… this sheer magnitude and number of choices simply were not around years ago and our brains did not have to make so many decisions on a daily, even hourly basis.
If there are too many options, too many decisions, our brain freaks out. Our brains like routine. And when faced with too much, many of us..
? want to go hide in the corner
? buffer with food or other “medication” of choice… or
? we go into a complete emotional meltdown mode
Any of these ⬆⬆ familiar?!
(Yep again ?? – 3 for 3 at various times in my life)… ??
Remember that YOU are the one in control of how you handle situations and the drama of overwhelm never helped any of us. So, check yourself, give yourself some tough love ❤ and go find the joy!!
When I allow the drama of overwhelm to get the best of me, it causes me to lose a bit of my sparkle ?✨so I took it upon myself to refocus and get my feelings of overwhelm and being anxious under control.
This advice is from a podcast by Brooke Castillo and she puts it this way…
Because we have just SO many options available to us today and SO many decisions we need to make on a daily, even hourly basis, we need to start training our brains to deal with all the options, not just allow our brains to freak out. ??
Because let’s face it, the abundance of options and choices is NOT going away!!!
But really, we should be grateful that we do have so many choices available to us.
?So, first, make yourself make decisions. Just do it. Don’t worry about it. If you make a mistake, fix it, but don’t fixate on it.
?Practice constraint. Train your brain to give yourself fewer options. When you’re in the grocery store and there are 50 types of cereal to choose from, narrow it down to 5 of your favourites. You don’t have to scrutinize 50 boxes. Again, back to the previous one – just do it.
?This one is a biggie… Ask yourself “Is the stress and complaining and negativity warranted?” It’s usually not. It usually isn’t justified and it usually doesn’t add any value. There’s usually somebody else WAY worse off than you. So, let it go.
?Don’t use overwhelm as an excuse to not get things done. (Oooooh… this sometimes causes some major realizations… I know it does for me… am I using overwhelm as an excuse?! ?? ugh… yep.. often I am).
?Remember many options are a beautiful thing. So embrace the fact that life requires a lot of decisions, develop your decision making skills, develop constraint and when you hear yourself “overwhelming” ?? – separate out the facts of what you HAVE to do versus the drama around what you are freaking out about. Immediately stop yourself. Manage your vocabulary. Just don’t say “I’m so busy, I’m so I overwhelmed”. Just don’t. It really helps if you make a habit of NOT saying these phrases.
?As soon as you change your perspective, it gets a whole lot brighter ☀️✨ You can indulge in overwhelm or you can use your brain smarter.
To wrap this up, here’s a brilliant example she used. Think about when you log into Netflix to watch a tv show or a movie. There are THOUSANDS of options to choose from. But, you don’t feel like you have to watch every single movie or tv show right now. Nor do you feel like you have to read the description of every one to know whether you want to watch it or not. You remember that it is a privilege to have all those choices, you zero in on your pick (you just do it ??) and you’re done, but the fact that there are thousands of choices doesn’t overwhelm you. That example is kind of simplistic and sure, real life troubles can feel like the weight of the world sometimes, but I find this simple little example really demonstrates how the way you think totally affects the way you feel. Something can be a problem if you think it is or it can simply be what it is… and not be a problem.
I hope that advice helps even just one of you. Sometimes for me, hearing someone else’s simplified perspective on something just makes me get the a-ha ? moment and shakes me outta my funk. ??
