How to feel less overwhelmed and give yourself a chance to breathe

I’ve put together five top tips to help you beat overwhelm back while things are pretty intense. You can watch the video, or read the blog post below!

It is completely normal to feel overwhelmed, and when there’s a lot going on (like there is for us all right now!) we can get like a rabbit in headlights. Frozen, unable to move and frightened. Overwhelm happens when we have a lot of choices or information to take in at once, or if we have too many emotions coming through all at once, and we just can’t process it. It can be hard to think rationally, to function normally, you’re essentially feeling submerged and unsure which way is up. It can then be hard to know what to do. All our focus is going into survival mode and our rational thinking brain takes a back seat. We all know that moment when you have a lot to do and you just sit and stare at your screen for ages, or mindlessly scroll Instagram for an hour.

Here are my top five tips to help ease a bit of the overwhelm and get back you track.

1. Minimise decision making.

The human brain doesn’t like choices. And yet we’re exposed to more information and more choices daily than ever before. All of this can take up valuable real estate that can then make it difficult to get on with the important things. To help your brain get some much needed breathing space, start to simplify the decisions you make daily. Can you meal prep? Or set out your clothes the night before? Can you automate certain parts of your business? What can you do to remove some of the decisions you need to make each day?

2. Declutter your space.

Make sure the space you are living and working in is pleasant to be in and not full of clutter, to prevent it from being distracting. It takes up mental energy when you have a lot of visual stuff around you, particularly when it’s untidy. The lack of order reflects in your mental state. Even if you can only manage one small area in your house, see if you can find somewhere to make a little haven for you that stays clean, tidy and organised.

3. Make a list.

Simple but effective. Write down everything that needs to be done. For bigger tasks break them into a series of smaller ones. Chunk similar things together. Identify the most important ones and do those first. Be critical about what’s important. If there are tasks which aren’t actually that important, ask if you really have to do them. Much like with decision making, you want to find ways of simplifying noise and mental clutter so be brutal with the list. It will also stop you focusing on small unimportant things.

4. Do some self-reflection.

Really look at what is happening internally that contributes to feelings of overwhelm, what choices you’re making that contribute to it. Are you enabling a feeling of overwhelm by taking on too much or putting too much pressure on? Are you avoiding thinking about something, so you pile on the work and then feel overwhelmed? In short, there might be something that you’re hiding from or that you’ve learned internally which can make overwhelm feel more comfortable. If you can understand the root of it, you might find it easier to let go of. This does take a bit of soul searching and some head space, so if you’re going to dig into this, approach yourself with kindness and compassion and go gently.

5. Breathe.

Overwhelm is the freeze response that goes along with fight and flight. If you’re overwhelmed, you’re probably breathing quite shallowly, your heart rate will be high, you’ll be a bit jittery from the adrenaline. It is possible to bring your mind out of this by bringing your body out. If you can shift your breathing from short and panicked to deep and slow, your body will start to tell your mind that you are safe. You’ll be able to think a bit more clearly. So take a few deep breaths in through your nose, slowly, fill up your whole lungs, from top all the way down to your belly, and as you let it out, let the tension out too. Focus on feeling the tightness start to leave – scan down your body from head to toe and consciously let it melt away. Take three or four of these nice deep breaths to feel a bit more centered.

Hopefully this helps to give you a little bit of relief from the overwhelm!