I Feel So Overwhelmed!

Can you relate to the feeling that sometimes it just seems to be TOO MUCH? To much for your body, too much for your mind, too much to handle in a conscious and calm way and you simply feel overwhelmed?!

 

In the new podcast episode I speak about feelings of overwhelm and despite overwhelm is experienced in a different way by each person, I try to give you some ideas, how to deal with feelings of overwhelm.

 

First of all:

Pick one area where you feel mostly overwhelmed. I distinguish between mental, physical, emotional and spiritual overwhelm.

 

If it`s for instance mentally that you feel overwhelmed, than its likely that the other areas don’t get enough energy from you – your emotions, your physical body, your energy system and your spiritual needs (your need to make sense of life).
 
Sounds paradoxical to work on the other aspects first, but it actually gives a relief to the overwhelm in the area you feel most stressed about.

 

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It`s also important to get to know yourself very well and how you express overwhelm so that you can deal with it effectively. I will give you some examples, how the different kinds of overwhelm might be expressed or experienced:

 

Emotional overwhelm:

Emotional overwhelm is often expressed by anger, frustration, losing your temper easily or bursting out in tears, feeling a lot of anxiety or even feeling numb because it`s just too much to feel anything at all.

 

Mental overwhelm:

Mentally, the feeling of "it`s just too much for me" can be expressed by this downward spiral of inner conversations, talking badly about yourself or wanting to blame others constantly. It results in self-confidence issues, lack of focus or even brain fog.

 

Physical overwhelm:
If your physical body is already suffering from overwhelm, it is always a sign that you did not take care well enough of being emotionally and/ or mentally overwhelmed, which happens before the overwhelm is shown in physical struggles. You might constantly have to deal with another thing that hurts, is soar or in general your immune system is weak and you are very likely to catch any virus around you.

 

Energetic overwhelm:
Energetically, you might notice that you find it much harder than usual to be energetically in a good and stable state like waking up already kind of tired in the morning and not spreading your usual motivation and good vibes.

 

Spiritual overwhelm:
What I experienced a lot during the last couple of months are clients who felt spiritually overwhelmed. "The never ending pandemic, now a war in Europe ... what is next? Does this all still make sense and how? Where am I actually heading to within all of that?" - sentences like this I heard a lot from clients lately which showed their spiritual overwhelm.

 

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Let me give you my ideas now how you can experiment to deal with the different aspects of overwhelm and the feelings of "it`s just too much!" - but first, I need to share a couple of maybe somehow more harsh words in this context:

In my opinion, the times where we had the luxury to endlessly talk about stuff is over. The times where we had the luxury to endlessly meditate over stuff is also over. This is the time of actions, not any more of let`s see when it feels right for me to change something. 
 
And these actions start right here right now with you – please check all the 5 aspects I mentioned and ask yourself:

 

In which area do I feel overwhelmed and am I really willing to do something about it?

 

And then: What do I currently do to create this overwhelm?

 

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Now, let me give you some ideas how to deal with overwhelm:

Emotionally:
Instead of getting lost in e.g. anger, you could ask yourself:

How can this anger be useful for me and my surrounding right now without using it in a harmful way?

Which quality does the anger have that is needed right now?

 

Step out of the drama and harm the emotion might cause and figure out the useful quality of the emotion in a positive manner!

 

If you rather experience anxiety the question supporting you towards a more productive and positive outcome can be: Where do I need to protect myself better, set clearer boundaries so that I don`t need to get lost in anxiety?

If you don`t seem to have feelings at all any more your can check if your can stay in this neutral energy but without ignoring whats going on around you so that you try to balance emotion and the ability to act.

 

Mentally:
If you are having endless inner conversations it might be that real contact is missing. That you actually need to stop asking YOURSELF the questions or discuss stuff with YOURSELF but bring it in contact with your surrounding - with the people you are involved in the situation or even someone neutral from outside who can support you with a fresh idea.

 

If you are stuck in blaming you are actually wasting your very precious time. The time you waste by blaming others you could easily use to find a solution for yourself and to just let others do their stuff. Your overwhelm is NEVER somebodies elses fault! What you experience and how deep and how long you think about it is ALWAYS your decision and you have the power of stopping it any time if you really want to! And if you think you can`t stop it yourself that it is important to get support in this!
 

Physically:
Feeling sick all the time or physical issues showing up consistently: of course, you need to check with your general doctor or specialists first, what might be wrong or what`s the matter!

 

But any kind of physical health issue can be supported with two things:

1) to find peace with your body the way it is right now

and

2) to learn to treat your body better (even better, if your think you already treating your body well)

 

It might be the way you look at yourself, the way you treat yourself with words and the way in which you nourish yourself with good food and nutrients. Physically taking good care of yourself also means to do regular check-ups and don`t miss important or necessary doctors appointments. Even getting a blood test from time to time to see how well your nutrients are balanced or not is a very good way of taking care of your physical wellbeing and balancing physical overwhelm.
 
Energetically:
If your reality is, that it needs a huge effort to bring up energy every day: don’t underestimate the field you are in every single day. With field I mean your close and also further away surrounding. Your house or apartment, your room, the city or area you live in, the work-field, the social-field .. – I think, it was never as important as it is right now to really create a home in which you feel safe in, where you feel like 100% yourself and don’t just take on the rules of others.

 

Energetical overwhelm can also be balanced with enough light, sinshine, water, spending time in nature, have body contact with the earth, getting fresh air...

And of course you can nourish your energetic body with chakra and aura work, breathwork and meditation! 
 

Spiritually:
I think we are actually overwhelmed with so called spiritual messages like “be the change you want to see in the world”, “don’t feed the negative”, “embrace the shift”, “everything is just love”, “loving yourself means love to the world”, “only abundance manifests more abundance” .. I meet people in therapy and counselling who heard those phrases, even said them themselves and did believe in them, but STILL they feel lost and spiritually overwhelmed sometimes!

And as I said, I think empty words are not helping any more – it’s the actions in which your spirituality needs to be expressed and the effort you make for yourself to figure out what does spirituality actually mean for ME? How does my life actually make sense in the bigger picture of THIS world I am experiencing right now? Not in the world I would like to see, but in THIS world right now with these challenges, all these fights, all this blame and separation – how is my presence useful for this world right now, every day anew – what does THIS world, THIS new day need from me today?

 

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I hope, I could give you some motivation and inspiration to turn your moments of overwhelm around and actually make them your guidance for what is necessary right now in your life to take the next steps.

 

All the best for you!

 

Jasmin