At times, it can feel like you can’t quite conquer overwhelm when you’re living with a challenging health issue. Particularly when you may be in the early stages of living with it. Or some kind of change happens with your health or life that throws your previous normality out the window.
The overwhelm can feel like a constant in your life. It’s not surprising as you can be dealing with a lot of change, you may not be sure how best to deal with it, and you don’t know what the future holds. So yeah, overwhelm can easily happen.
So how do you conquer overwhelm?
Without it being incredibly difficult?
Here are three steps you can take to conquer overwhelm with ease
It will be a learning process. And you may not get it right from the start. In fact, don’t aim to get it 100% right as that can fuel the overwhelm.
Learning how to conquer #overwhelm is a learning process. And you may not get it right from the start. In fact, don’t aim to get it 100% right as that can fuel the overwhelm. #stress #anxiety Click To TweetFirst, show some compassion to yourself
And tell yourself:
“It’s ok. I’ll get there. Everything is figure-out-able.”
When you show compassion to and reassure yourself, you calm your nervous system. When you feel calm, it’s easier for you to take effective action to help yourself.
Second, get curious about your experience of overwhelm
Get to know what it’s like for you when you feel overwhelmed.
What sensations do you feel in your body and where?
What do you do when you experience overwhelm? Do you deny it and try to get on with life as normal? Do you hide away? Get cranky? Cry a lot? Get angry? Experience lots of anxiety? Something else?
Whatever is causing the overwhelm? How do you think about that issue? What are your thoughts?
Is it typically certain issues which trigger overwhelm?
When you are aware of how you experience overwhelm and what triggers it for you, you are in a much better position to take charge of the overwhelm much earlier.
When you are aware of how you experience #overwhelm and what triggers it for you, you are in a much better position to take charge of the overwhelm much earlier. #stress #anxiety Click To TweetWhen you feel overwhelmed by a problem, the problem feels bigger than you
You need to get bigger than the problem.
When you do that, you can see how big or small the problem really is and the different parts of the problem.
To get bigger than the problem and overwhelm, the third thing you can is write about the cause of it
There is no right or wrong way to write about the problem. It may be a simple bullet list of the issues you face. So it doesn’t have to take a long time.
You might write about the different parts of the problem. You may end up writing just how you’re thinking about everything as it occurs to you. Spelling and grammar do not matter.
When you write about the problem, it does two things:
- It takes the overwhelm out of your head and puts it on paper. You can let the overwhelm rest on the paper and not in your head or body.
- You create distance between yourself and the problem. That makes it easier to look at it and evaluate it more objectively.
You are then in a much better position to start dealing constructively with the problem.
So think of your pen as your sword in helping you conquer overwhelm.
What’s it like for you?
Have you used writing before to conquer overwhelm? If not, what do you think of writing as a tool to do that? What other approaches do you use to conquer overwhelm which you’ve found effective? Share your thoughts or questions in the comments below or alternatively email them to me (contact form in sidebar).
If you are living with a challenging health issue or are caring for someone who is, and would like support on any of the issues discussed here, have a look at how we can work together and get in touch for a free no obligation consultation.
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© Copyright Barbara Babcock 2020
