Unless you’re not human, you’ll experience stress at some point in your life. The WHO has even named it the epidemic of this century. It’s easy to know why when you look at the world we’ve created. We all expect each of us to be on call 24/7, we value materials more than friendships and ‘busy’ is the word of the century. All this can lead to feeling overwhelmed that never seems to go away. So, what can we do about feeling overwhelmed? 

What is Being Overwhelmed

Our brains are designed for a much simpler hunter-gatherer life without the pressures of deadlines, bills and the internet. We are constantly being distracted by various adverts, social media updates and various chemicals to numb the mind. Most of us have forgotten that we’re not just floating heads. We have bodies that are still operating with the same systems we’ve had since  the beginning. 

We now know from neuroscientists that stress can lead to heart failure, cancer and general illness due to many things going on in the body when we’re triggered. Stress isn’t bad on its own because it’s simply a warning signal that we need to change something in a particular situation. The problem is that today’s problems don’t run away like a large tiger. They linger and we don’t give our bodies the time to calm down. 

Essentially, our sympathetic nervous system, or ‘fight-or-flight’, can get activated by anything we see or hear around us. Sometimes even memories can trigger it. Normally, its opposing parasympathetic system acts as a calming balance. Although, if we don’t give the system the chance to rebalance itself then it gets caught up in the sympathetic loop and we stay in constant stress.

How Mindfulness can Help 

An interesting point about the sympathetic nervous system is that when it’s activated, it essentially shuts down the rest of our cognitive function in order to conserve energy. Our focus becomes overwhelmed with whatever problem triggers it in the first place. To add further insult to all this, the negative emotions then create thoughts that build up a story that we attach to. All this becomes very painful as we get stuck in the worry loop. 

Mindfulness helps train the mind so you can develop wiser focus. You essentially practice placing your attention in the present. This allows you to tame the mind and stop it from creating stories or travelling to the past or the future. It also means you get a pause from trying to second-guess people around you. 

Most importantly, mindfulness usually comes with breathing, meditation or grounding yourself. These techniques calm down your sympathetic nervous system so that your parasympathetic system can rebalance things. Your mind is infallible and will get lost in its own fantasy. Instead, you use your body and your senses to focus on the now and let your mind sink into the background. 

Other Techniques to Reduce Feeling Overwhelmed 

It’s a weird paradox that mindfulness and meditation feel alien to people whereas they’re actually techniques to get us back to our natural states. It isn’t natural for us to be running around in our 9 to 5 jobs. We used to be in harmony with nature and lived the world at its own pace without clocks and deadlines. 

Nevertheless, there are a few other things you can do to get yourself started with feeling less overwhelmed: 

1- Move your body and spread out the energy

Our minds take an incredible amount of energy especially when we’re thinking. By creating stories, you add fuel to an already painful fire and this takes energy. That’s why taking a walk can feel so great, as can dancing or just walking around your desk. 

Have you ever noticed how when you walk away from a problem, you often have the solution when you come back to it later? Of course, you also have endorphins to thank. 

2- Connect with creativity

Creativity uses several networks with the brain which, simply put, can silence your inner critic. You also get lost in the flow when you’re being creative with something you enjoy. This flow state is also the key to finding contentment as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi determined whilst studying happiness. 

The idea is that we can develop happiness which is a state of mind rather than an acquisition of things and achievements. Yes, goals are important but it’s actually the journey to reach them that gives us greater satisfaction. 

After all, you don’t get lost in flow after you’ve reached a milestone. You do get lost in flow when you’re applying your skills to something challenging and interesting and perhaps even fun and without worry. In that state, you forget time and yourself. Without your self worrying and nagging you, you connect with something deeper that goes far beyond any reference to “I”. Interestingly, you’re also being mindful. 

3- Challenge your habits 

One of our most disparaging habits is our addiction to our thoughts. Yes, it’s an addiction because we let them control us and define us. We can’t seem to let go of our stories and we go back to them time and time again. Just as addiction is the inability to give up a substance so overthinking is the impossibility of letting go of your thoughts. 

Of course, some thoughts are helpful but many of our negative thoughts have become habit. For example, how often do you tell yourself “you’re not good enough”, “you should have said / done this”, “I’m a loser / failure”, “no one likes me”…? Whatever your thoughts are, we all have variations of the same. 

So, how to break away from the habit of negative thinking and feel less overwhelmed. Its starts by paying attention to your inner critic. What is it saying and what triggers it? The best way to get to know your thoughts is to ask yourself questions. For instance, what is causing me to feel sad / angry / happy? What could I do and think differently instead? How can I challenge my inner critic – am I really a failure or did I just make a mistake like every other human on this planet? 

What’s Your Plan of Attack?

It’s so tempting to just stay with our thoughts and feel helpless. How has that been working for you till now though? Clearly, you have to want to change if you want to let go of negative thoughts. It doesn’t mean that they won’t appear but you’ll be able to look at them as just thoughts rather than a definition of who you are. So, each time you feel overwhelmed, try mindfulness, observe your thoughts or simply start by being creative and see where the journey takes you.