Feeling Overwhelmed? What can you do to lessen the burden?

Sometimes we feel very overwhelmed with many responsibilities, self-care, and other things to help maintain ourselves and our lives. Has there been a time you have so much to do and you felt so stressed out you felt extremely dysregulated or spiraled? I think we all have been there before, especially me. I’m going to show some tips and tricks on what can do to help with the crushing feeling of being overwhelmed.

First off get your emotional level to be a bit more regulated. I know it’s way easier said than done, but I’m here to show you what you can do. Some things that you can do is look at some soothing and “improving the moment” techniques. Find things to soothe yourself using your five senses such as touching comforting things, smelling scents that help calm you down, tasting foods that make you happy, looking at things that are visually appealing, listen to music you enjoy. As for improving the moment, use imagery to visualize a space where you’re comfortable or even what would it look like to be less stressed, find the meaning of the things that you need to do maybe accomplishing one of your tasks has important meaning or reason, find mantras, songs, words of wisdom, or even prayer to help motivate you, do relaxation techniques such as breathing or stretches to relax or mind and body, try to live in the moment and push away future worries and be with the present, take a mini vacation from your responsibilities which basically means take a break and come back, and lastly encourage yourself with realistic expectations.

Once you use these techniques to settle down a bit now plan small goals for yourself. Tackle one task at a time to help being overwhelmed. Organize which tasks you can do from importance to less and even categorize which ones are easiest and fastest to achieve. Once you figure out what you can prioritize first begin to take small steps. If you need to break down your tasks further you can always look at SMART goals. (specific goals, measurable goals, achievable goals, realistic goals, time-sensitive goals).

Remember to try to stay in the moment and focus on your task/goals and the benefits are completing the task. If you have the privilege of someone to help you like a family member, friend, or partner to help you stay on course or even help you with a task try to utilize the help you can get. Once you complete some of you tasks and little goals remember to treat yo self. You deserve it. Life can be overwhelming at times, but once we can manage it a little better and gain some control.