Ways To Help When You're Overwhelmed
The feeling of being overwhelmed affects all of us at times. It can come on strong, leading down a spiraling rabbit hole. Whether our workload is piling on, our relationships turn stressful, or we begin to doubt the progress we are making in our lives, highly overwhelming emotions can take over and send our nervous systems into haywire. Below I have curated tips to help quiet down feelings of overwhelmingness and return our nervous system to its calm and equilibrium state.
Ask For Help
This one may seem like common sense, but you may surprise yourself after reflecting on how many times you have refused or turned down help. While independence is a great thing, we are not meant to accomplish everything ourselves! Everybody needs help from time to time, and it is totally more than okay to ask for it. Asking for help from a friend or a professional can aid in taking some of the load off of a stressful plate.
Say “No” & Set Limits
It is a wonderful thing to help others and take on favors, but it is also important to make sure you aren’t taking on more than you can handle. Taking note and being honest with your limits can be helpful in preventing overbearing feelings of being overwhelmed. Saying no to things or people when you feel you can’t handle it or manage it with various other tasks is perfectly okay, and will certainly help lower stress levels.
Grounding Techniques
There are certain techniques you can do to help ground yourself and lower stress levels. My favorite one is called the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Technique! It works as follows:
Name:
5 things you see.
4 things you feel.
3 things you hear.
2 things you smell.
1 thing you taste.
Once you go through a round or two of this exercise, you will notice your nervous system has calmed down and your stress levels have reduced.
Take Small Steps & Refrain From Multi-Tasking
While multi-tasking can be incredibly efficient and may seem like the best option at times, as humans we are really not meant to do multiple things at once. Especially when we feel overwhelmed, multi-tasking can actually be counterproductive, and in turn make us feel more overwhelmed. Taking small steps and completing one task before attempting another can help reduce feelings of being overwhelmed and stress.
Prioritize Your To-Do List
Sometimes when we think about everything we have to do, we can begin to feel so overwhelmed just at the thought of all our responsibilities. When this happens, making a visual can be really helpful in reducing overwhelming feelings. Writing out all of your tasks and responsibilities creates that visual, so you can see what actually needs to be done. Sometimes, when we do this, we also see we don’t have nearly as much to do as we thought, and everything feels more manageable.
Practice Acceptance
Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed, not all of our stressors are in our control. There is no point in stressing or worrying about things that are not in our control. All that does is add unnecessary stress to our plate and can in turn make us feel more overwhelmed. Accepting that some things are out of our control can allow us to stress less and find our to-do lists, workloads, and life events a bit more manageable.
