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What To Do When Feeling Overwhelmed
1. Breathe
Know to stop. Stop. Take a deep breath. Slowly regulate your breathing.
Our mind and body is an amazing system. Breathing is the most simple, immediate, no-need-for-tool intervention available to us in times of panic. By the time we are overwhelmed, our body has gone through a cascade of hormone releases and bodily reactions that caused the severe stress. Breathing reduces the production of stress hormones such as noradrenaline and cortisol, and brings us back to our normal state.
2. Check-in with your right brain: Feel
It’s important to check-in with the right brain first, before the left brain. If we check-in with our logical left brain first, we tend to over-rationalize and it fuels the overwhelmingness, which is counter-productive. The right brain, the visual and intuitive side of the mind, helps us tap into our feelings and rhythm.
Meditation and mindfulness is largely a right brain side of exercise, so if you already have a regular routine, activate it. I practice Vipassana which is a meditation of “seeing things as they are.” So when I feel overwhelmed, I scan my body to find where that overwhelming feeling is, and once found, I just stare at it. It’s a quelling technique that works well for me.
