God it’s a shit feeling, isn’t it? When everything suddenly feels on top of you, your chest a little tighter, your mind a little faster… Feeling overwhelmed sucks, and although sometimes it feels inevitable there are so many ways to ensure that you don’t get to the point when everything feels just a little too much…
I feel like the word “busy” has become kinda romanticised… That unless you’re working all hours of the day (and night) and are visibly doing more than your 9-5, you’re not doing *enough*. Now I get it, I love my job and although you will often find me on Trello at 10PM making next weeks plans, I also know that there needs to be a cutoff point too…
The end of last year left me feeling crazily content. I had reached business goals that I was incredibly happy with, had a gorgeous month filled with social events with friends and had a bloody lovely Christmas, but, good god was I burnt out. I don’t think I could even recognize it myself. The combination of having a lot on personally and to do with work too meant there was zero time for me to just do me.
So, I decided it was time to make a couple of changes… Mainly focusing on putting more effort into separating my work and personal life a little more… Concentrating on creating a balance between the two that I’m really comfortable with and most importantly, accepting that it was gonna take time and a whole lot of work to get there…
Almost a month later and the feeling of overwhelmed-ness (totally know this isn’t a word) has lifted. I feel so much better, calmer, and more relaxed and there’s definitely a couple of key things that have helped, so, naturally, I wanted to share them with you! So here goes, I hope they help in any way, shape or form! All the love ♥️
Focus On The Now.
I know this sounds simple, like really simple, but bloody ‘ell it can be hard to do! When you’re stressed and feel like you’re spiralling into a “but what if” “what will happen” “I don’t know how” mindset the best way out is to ground yourself, bring yourself back to the moment you are actually in right now and stop thinking ahead or behind. Concentrate solely on what is going on around you, where you are, what you’re doing, who you’re with, the sounds and space surrounding you. Bring yourself back to the now, whether it be with a couple of deep breaths, a second to stop and clear your mind or by listening to a song that you know makes you feel super calm. Always try to foccus on the now.
Less Procrastinating, More Doing.
Okay so this one’s kinda tricky, but I really feel like procrastination is often what leads me down the overwhelmed path and can often create situations that could have been easily avoided… It’s all about finding small ways to ensure you can ~get shit done~ without the stress of it. There’s actually this phrase that I keep hearing that’s kinda stuck in my mind… “If it takes less than five minutes, just do it now” or something along those lines… Basically, if a task, job or errand is a five minute or under kinda task don’t put it off, just do it now. Now I know this isn’t much help for bigger, weighty “to-dos” but keeping on top of the small things that can v quickly build up and become overwhelming will ensure you have all the more time to concentrate on the bigger more exciting things on your list!
Let go of what you can’t change.
Now this one’s gonna take a lil more practice from me but I think it’s a really important one… Sometimes you have no control over a situation and there is literally nothing you can do about it… No matter how hard you work, how much you do, what you say or where you are and that is ~totally~ okay. Some things are completely out of our hands and learning to be okay with that is a lesson that I’m still very much trying to work on. Accepting that doing our best is all we can do and acknowledging that as cheesy as it sounds life is going to throw curve balls at you left right and centre and it’s all about how you handle them, not how you control them…
This feeling of being overwhelmed can literally take over within seconds and create situations out of well, nothing really… Your train is late, your car won’t start, the queue in the shop is too long, your meeting’s been cancelled, I could go on and on but you get the point… Yes, they’re annoying, yes, it might mean you’re ten minutes late, or that you have to change your plans but really, really there is nothing you can do… Don’t allow these everyday situations to overwhelm you, they are not in your hands. Instead put them aside and allow more time for situations that are worth it, that do need and warrant your attention, time and energy. #Dontsweatthesmallstuff.
Okay, I think I’m gonna leave it there. I find it wayyy more helpful to concentrate on a couple of pointers rather than a big ol’ list of them. I hope this was helpful in some kind of way! & do let me know if you have any other tips on the topic, I would love to hear them! ♥️
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