Overwhelmed seems like a feeling hard to escape.
The feeling of being overwhelmed consumes us and takes away our ability to make sound decisions. It feels as if our mind is running so rapidly, and we are trying to catch up. It goes a step further than stress, and in this post, I want to share the first things I do when I’m starting to head down a path of being overwhelmed.
Steps for dealing with overwhelmed
Recognizing the emotion
I felt overwhelmed so many times that I can detect my pattern when I am heading towards that. For me, it is when I feel physically and mentally drained all the time, can’t seem to create anything up to my standard when I distance myself from others, and if they get too close I snap at them and then have a breakdown. Then the cycle starts all over again. The goal in this stage is to have the ability to recognize your actions and behaviors, so you can start breaking the cycle and cope with negative emotions effectively.
Releasing yourself of activities you have control of
As we grow older, we have roles and responsibilities that we can’t just set to the side. So if something becomes too much for you, take a break from things that aren’t at the highest level of your priority. Sometimes you try to be this super person because you see all these people doing these amazing things and you want to be doing amazing things too. We tend to forget that the parts we see in other people’s lives are just windows. They are sharing how much they want to and even one aspect you see seems good, that doesn’t mean that every aspect is. Stop putting so much on your plate by making promises you may have to break, making time for everyone but yourself, pursuing “hobbies” that you aren’t doing for yourself.
Recharge yourself the way you need to
The way you recharge can look different from someone else. Some people may need a weekend vacation, others may need a month off of social media, some may need to spend more time with their family, etc. How you recharge is based on what makes you feel happy and fulfilled. If you are an introvert, you may need some alone time where you either read, watch your favorite show, dance in your room, etc. Whereas an extrovert may need to facetime a friend, meet up for brunch with a cousin, pay a visit to their favorite person, etc.
Re-evaluate where you are at
Recognizing how you feel after your recharge is just as important. If you instantly go back to feeling overwhelmed after your break, then the break wasn’t long enough or fulfilling. You need to incorporate more self-care in your daily and weekly routines so you don’t go back to the same heavy negative emotions.
Reach out to other
I would only do this when you feel ready to talk. For some, this may be an easier thing to do but if you are like me, you need space to process things. Only tell people you feel are trustworthy and want the best for you.
Feeling overwhelmed is natural
I feel like the connotation of being overwhelmed is always negative. Like of course these are emotions that aren’t positive but people who go through this cycle shouldn’t be seen as weak or get told to toughen up or to get used to it. People eventually figure out what’s the best way for them to reset themselves to give them back clarity.
I haven’t posted in a long time, which is kind of ironic because you would think that when you have time off of school, you would be more carefree and have more time to create things. That was my case last summer, but I feel like I have taken a huge step towards adulting. I decided I need to find internships that are more aligned with what I wanted to do as a career.
The irony is when I was searching for jobs that I know many teens and young adults like working at retailers or grocery stores etc. I just didn’t have luck. So I pushed myself this spring. I knew that if I didn’t it would be much harder to find an internship in my senior year, which is more important. Since I am changing my major, it is now officially required for me to have an internship to graduate. I applied to three internships and I got all three which wasn’t what I expected, but I am so grateful for it. Two were unpaid, and one was paid. They all have to do with writing or communication. Needless to say, I got burnt out throughout June.
Since I was giving so much energy to other things I just felt like the quality of my post went down, and I was having trouble just wording what I wanted to say. I just felt like it wasn’t fair to make content about personal development or wellness, knowing I wasn’t in the best state. As July set in, things became a lot calmer in terms of being able to organize my thoughts.
I tried old tactics to reset myself like taking a bath, reading more, catching up on sleep, and cleaning up my space. I also tried new things like a weekend getaway and creating a mood board. I did mines digitally, but I feel like even having that gave me a lot more clarity. I’m excited to be writing on here once again.
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Until next time,
xoxo Lay 💋