We are always talking about how our kids can become overwhelmed, but did you know that adults can become overwhelmed just as easily?
Being emotionally overwhelmed means to be completely submerged by your thoughts and emotions about all of life's current problems, to the point where you lack productivity and feel frozen or paralyzed.
Sound familiar? Have you ever found yourself walking around or looking around the house aimlessly knowing that there is so much to do, but not actually knowing where to start or being able to do any of it? If yes, then you have likely experienced feeling overwhelmed.
So how do we cope with this, and get through it so that we are able to be productive? We learn about, and teach our kids lots of different techniques for dealing with feeling overwhelmed, but there are ways of dealing with it as an adult too.
- Pay attention to your mindset. How are you thinking about the tasks to be done? Are you thinking they are too hard or too time consuming? Or maybe you just don't enjoy doing the task, and don't want to do it! If you catch yourself thinking about the task in this way, try and simplify it. For example: "If I vacuum the floor, then I will feel more at peace in the house, because I wont be walking over crumbs and looking at dirty floors for the rest of the day". Find the positive result in what you are trying to do.
- Let go of multitasking. Do one thing at a time. We are human, not robots.
- Focus on the present moment. Take some deep breaths for a minute, go for walk, do a quick meditation. You don't have to do everything right now.
- Interrupt the pattern of negative thoughts. Give yourself permission to be imperfect, and set realisitic expectations.
- Focus on small wins.
- Build in habits that support your best intentions. Slowly build small consistent positive habits into your daily routine. For example: Do your self care routine in the morning before you tackle any other household tasks.
- Recognize your resilience. Think about past habits, activities or relationships that you enjoyed and that provided stress relief. Use these strategies now to help boost your well-being.
Reducing overwhelm isn’t about changing your personality; it’s about finding small steps you can take to shift your mindset.