Overwhelmed? Do this! An Antidote to feeling overwhelmed

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Are you feeling overwhelmed?

When you get overwhelmed do you feel paralyzed, freeze up or quit? Or do you “run amuck” frantically trying to do everything? Or get irritable, defensive? Maybe you procrastinate or avoid the task?

When you start to have a bad day do you go out of your way to bring to mind every single bad thing that is happening or has ever happened? Or do you just feel like there is so much to do that it’s pointless to even start? These behaviors are also functional in the short term- they give us an excuse to shut down and curl up in bed. But they won’t help you in the long run.

On the other hand some people have the habit of sprinting about trying to do everything for everyone until they become completely exhausted and shut down. This might get some things done, but it also isn’t sustainable in the long run.

We often develop habitual responses to high levels of stress, the tendency is to shrink back, withdraw or protect oneself. Look at these responses, each is a type of fight, flight or freeze response, triggered by an overload to the ‘alerting’ part of the brain, the sympathetic nervous system. These responses are natural, but they often get in the way of getting anything done.
What are your behaviors when you feel overwhelmed? How well are they working?

The deep brain (The brain stem and the limbic brain) is not built to multitask efficiently. Our cortex can do it to a degree, but juggling multiple tasks freaks out our core brain and triggers an emotional response. Fortunately this is something we can counteract in a few simple ways.

First check yourself for faulty thinking that gets in the way of getting stuff done:
“I should be able to handle all of this now.” There’s this faulty idea that scientific discoveries were a single “Eureka!” Moment. The reality is most tasks, great and small are accomplished by degrees. Small progress that builds on others’ work.
“All or nothing thinking” says “if I can’t do it all and get it all right then I might as well not even try”. Practicing big picture thinking paired with small little actions.
“I must always say yes” The ability to say no-to prioritize. We want to be able to maximize our short time in this life, we want to be able to do everything, and we sometimes delude ourselves that it is possible to do everything, we spread ourselves thin and multitask ourselves into non-productivity. “Choose the Important over the Urgent”
“I will do it when I don’t feel—— about it”. (I’ll put myself out there when I don’t feel scared) (I need to feel motivated before I start writing my book) Sometimes we need to just start something before our confidence and motivation build.

The Antidote to being Overwhelmed:
Write it down- (do a brain dump or a mind map)
Break it down (into small concrete steps)