Four simple tips to help you cope with overwhelm

What is overwhelm?

Overwhelm or mental fatigue happens in your brain when you are constantly thinking about your to-dos and your responsibilities, and your brain gets tired. As a mom, wife, and business owner, I have a constant playlist of thoughts going through my head: the grocery list, the schedule for the week, who is taking the kids while I work, what I’m going to feed the kids for three meals every day, and snacks when they are hungry, cleaning up, putting laundry away, making the most of my personal relationships, my health: eating right and moving my body, and the list goes on. There is so much to think about and do every single day, it’s overwhelming and just thinking about all these things puts my brain on overload. Once my brain is overloaded, it shuts down, which usually means I snap, get irritable, and don’t get anything done.

We are in constant stress mode: Fight or Flight

Along with the daily stuff, our brains are processing the trauma of what is happening in our world on a daily basis. Living through a pandemic has put our nervous systems in a constant state of alertness, ready for fight of flight. We are always “on,” ready for the next threat to our system.

Literally.

The pandemic is a direct threat to our health, wellness, and safety. Our #1 goal of being human is to be safe. During the pandemic we are not guaranteed our safety doing anything we once knew. We can’t go to the grocery store, send our kids to school, or gather with friends without wondering if we are spreading this deadly virus. 

This constant threat plus the regular demands is contributing to our mental fatigue and overwhelm. But this is not another thing to fear, I’ve got a solution for you.

Four simple tips on how to cope with overwhelm

There are simple ways to make small changes In your life that can help you cope with mental fatigue and overwhelm.

1. Simplify: Start by cutting shit out of your life, in all areas of your life. This could look like doing a major purge of your home and possessions, or it could be that you start saying no to a lot more things on your schedule. Maybe you stop volunteering your time at your kids soccer games, or you don’t go the birthday party for your friend’s kid. Sometimes you just gotta say no, and protect yourself and your mental health first. Some people won’t understand, because we live in a society where this isn’t the norm. It’s not taught, and it could be thought to be rude to pass on social engagements. A great place to start would be to make a physical list of all the things on your schedule and to do list, then start crossing things off. Be ruthless. Your mental health is more important than Sally’s fourth birthday party at the bowling alley. If you’re looking for some resources to help you get started with this, my book: Lighten Up Your Life and companion workbook are great places to start! Find them here.

2. Move your body. This always works. Walk away from everything else (literally) and make your only focus your body and the movement. There are so many ways to do this; it doesn’t have to look like an intense workout where you wear all the fancy gear and sweat out your breakfast. It could be turning on some music and moving your body in whatever way feels good to you. It could look like some easy gentle stretching or a barefoot walk outside. As long as you’re moving, it counts. (courtesy of Coach Mack).

3. Get grounded. Grounded means bringing your attention back to your roots or your center. If we think about our energy as a ball (of bright white light) when you are feeling overwhelmed that light is spread out all around you, beaming in all directions and sometimes it doesn’t even feel attached to you at all anymore. That light is your life force, your energy, your being. Bringing your attention back to your body and your own energy and imagine that ball of white light inside you, at your core. Bringing your attention within immediately grounds you. The next step would be imagining a string from the base of your seat reaching down into the Earth, connecting you to the center. Just simply stepping out into nature will ground you.

4. Let it go. Just like they say in Frozen, whatever it is that’s overwhelming you, let it go. Release the worry, breathe it out with every breath you take. When I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed and my thoughts are taking over, I like to ask myself, “What is true right now?'“ This helps me come back to the real present moment, stating the facts of reality. Everything else in my mind, the chatter and stories I’m telling myself that aren’t based in facts, I release.

Choose healthy ways to cope

Mental fatigue and overwhelm are real and something we all have to cope with at some points in our lives, some of us more frequently than others. Instead of choosing unhealthy ways to cope (like food or alcohol) I encourage you to reach for one of the above tips to focus on to help you find some peace and calm in your life amid the chaos.