4 Steps to Reduce Overwhelm

Hey there

Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed right now?

Perhaps there’s a lot going on at work or you’re finding it tough juggling work and personal commitments. Perhaps the pandemic means you’re dealing with a lot of change in your day-to-day routine or some uncertainty about your future. 

Your mind jumps from one thing, to the next, to the next… then back to the first thing. You feel out of control and don’t achieve much of anything.  

Overwhelm can be totally paralysing. We’ve all been there. It sucks. 

But if you’re ready to get out of it, here are the 2 KEY things to remember:   

1. Overwhelm is just a feeling, created by your thoughts.
2. It is NOT caused by external events.

Believe me, I know that message is sometimes hard to hear. All the time we’re attributing our overwhelm to external things or people, we don’t have to do anything about it. Also, most of us have a LOUD inner critic, so being told that we cause our own pain, can make us feel pretty defensive. 

If this is you, please keep reading. Our thoughts may create our overwhelm, but that doesn't mean it's our fault. It's just the deal with having a human brain. And the reason I tell you the truth about how overwhelm is caused, is because it also provides the solution.  

The problem with attributing overwhelm to external events is that it makes us totally powerless. We can’t control most of them… and the ones that we can control, we don’t, because we’re in overwhelm.  

The good news is that as soon as we realise that overwhelm is just a feeling, caused by our thoughts, we also realise that it’s totally optional. We get to choose how we want to experience the world, regardless of our circumstances.

So, here are 4 steps you can take TODAY to reduce your overwhelm: 

1. Thought Download: start by writing down all the thoughts causing your overwhelm. Basically everything you're thinking about those external circumstances. This doesn't need to be pretty, the idea is just to get all of the thoughts currently swirling around your brain, onto paper.
2. Separate Facts from Thoughts: next, take a look over your thoughts and try to separate the FACTS from your brain’s story about them. What assumptions or predictions are you making? Is your brain throwing out subjective descriptions that aren't strictly factual? Those are all thoughts. 
3. Re-write Your Story: next, re-write the story of what’s going on for you right now, but in very neutral and factual terms. Don’t include any thoughts that are not based in fact. Nothing subjective, no assumptions, mind-reading or predictions of the future. Very boring, very neutral. 
4. Notice the Difference, finally, make a note of how you feel reading over your ‘neutral’ version of events. Remind yourself of the 'boring' story every time your brain tries to send you overwhelm. 

Let me know how you get along! If you want more guidance reducing overwhelm, I can help. Just click HERE to sign-up for a free Discovery Call.