Overwhelm
The American definition of “overwhelm” is “give too much of a thing to (someone or something); inundate.” My thought on this is when we give too much credence to our thoughts of events & circumstances being TOO MUCH TO HANDLE! To most people, that is what overwhelm is considered to be.
Most of you have been in overwhelm at one time or another. You have too many projects on your plate at work. You have one thing right after another at home that puts you into a tailspin. Or all of these things at exactly the same time!
What happens when you go into overwhelm?
You usually begin to shut down to life, to everything and everyone around you. You close yourself off to all your friends (not answering the texts or phone calls) or you begin to complain about how bad things are for you to anyone and everyone that will listen.
Now these are examples of what is termed “bad” things happening to you that put you into overwhelm. What about all the good things that are happening? All those wonderful juicy events happening in your life – moving into your first home, having your first child, getting a new job or opening up your own business! I could go on & on with all the great things that can happen that can put you into overwhelm.
Right now, I have many wonderful things happening in my business that can have me in moments of overwhelm. Just look at my events section in the newsletter. MY first webinar, a tele summit appearance, a local TV appearance (just failed to put that in the events calendar), a trip to Long Beach, CA, my coaching clients, my workshops, and these things are all happening in March. Yes, I do have my moments of overwhelm – I am human after all. So, the question is … how do you deal with overwhelm?
Do you break down into tears? Yes, sometimes. Do you overeat or over drink? Yes, sometimes. Do you shut yourself off from the world just totally closing in on all that is going on? Yes, sometimes.
Steps to Handle Overwhelm:
- Recognition of when you are in overwhelm is key. Understanding and recognizing your trigger and your go-to activity when in overwhelm is what you want.
- Hit the “Pause” button – you know this internal button you visualize to stop the world from spinning. Just hit that button hard and breathe. Then move your body – exercise, take a walk, dance, do something to get movement into your body.
- Make a conscious choice on how you want to be in this moment. Do you want to be a person that is constantly “reacting”? Or do you want to be a person who chooses their actions to everything that is going on around them? You are either choosing to come from LOVE or from FEAR.
- Once you have chosen to come from LOVE as that is the only choice to really make toward growth, then celebrate your new behavior when it comes to overwhelm, anger, fear, excitement, whatever the emotion is that puts you into the reactionary state.
Reactor or Creator
Making defined choices when in an overly emotional state of being is a choice. You can either be a Reactor or a Creator. It just depends on where you put your “C”.