Do you feel stressed out? All the uncertainty with your future, living now in this new norm, trying to deal with it all.
If you’re like any parent these days, you’re pulling your hair out on the regular. Kids are either home doing remote learning or they are in school and you’re stressed for their health. Either way it’s overwhelming to say the least.
Overwhelm: to bury or drown beneath a huge mass. AND OR have a strong emotional effect on.
Do you think these parents feel as if they are drowning? I think so.
Let’s explore what happens to the body on a physical, emotional and a physiological level.
First, when you think of someone overwhelmed, can you probably visualize them holding their head with their hand?
That’s because headaches are very real during these times. Usually that is accompanied by distress in the gut. Gut health is tied to brain health so, now we are looking at brain fog as well. Overwhelm has such an effect on our overall mind, body and spirit.
Your sleep also gets interrupted. You usually have a barrage of constant thoughts. You know lack of sleep is associated with higher risk of heart disease.
Anxiety is heightened which means higher levels of cortisol, which will now wreck havoc on your endocrine system. My hopes is that now you can see how just the overwhelming feelings can actually take a toll on your body, mind and spirit.
Then let’s add the drama of overwhelm. Did you ever notice the animation and drama of an overwhelmed person? I am not trying to be mean, I am just stating the facts. You don’t see a calm, soft spoken person telling you they feel overwhelmed right. There is drama that is synonymous with the word overwhelm.
Here are a few strategies that can help get out of overwhelm.
- Has anyone out there been through this? The answer is 99.9% YES That means there is a solution that perhaps someone can share to help you alleviate your overwhelm.
- Are you going to die from this? No joke here, if the answer is YES, overwhelm might be unavoidable LOL
- Sit down and write what’s overwhelming you on paper, everything. Now examine it and break it down into chunks. Overwhelmed people tend to mush it all together. That’s what causes overwhelm. Instead chunk it down, then asses each chunk to see if it’s overwhelming. Then revert back to questions #1 & 2
- BREATHE. Very important. Really taking deep diaphragmatic breaths helps calm the nervous system by restoring us back to your parasympathetic state of inner calmness.
- Seek support. Family, friends, are all good resources, as they can help listen to you sort it all out. Working with a therapist, a life coach, or other mental health professional is proven to be extremely valuable to decrease overwhelm. Please let me know if I can help. Check out my services here https://skyblue-fish-650057.hostingersite.com/services
Hope you found this valuable, please share it with anyone who may need to hear this.
XO
Maria