Feeling Overwhelmed? Here's an Easy Way to Feel Better!

If you’re like me, you might shut down when dealing with stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. In those moments, we often think that we can’t handle the stress and we don’t know where to start so we do nothing instead! 🤷🏻‍♀️ The only problem with this coping mechanism is that nothing gets done, and our stress and anxiety increase even more! 😩 Talk about a never-ending cycle of overwhelm - stress - anxiety = shut down = more overwhelm - more stress - more anxiety. No fun! 👎🏻

I'll give you an example. Let’s say it’s Monday and Becca has a project due Thursday. She puts it off on Monday because she’s a little confused about the directions, unsure of what topic to choose for her project, and feels overwhelmed with all that needs to get done. The overwhelm cycle begins! However, on Monday, her stress and anxiety don’t feel off the charts! After all, she has a few days to work on things. 💃🏻 Happy Dance!!!! 💃🏻 Tuesday comes around and she tries to get started but again, stress and anxiety creep in, uncertainty causes overwhelm, and as she sits with her laptop open, the blank page staring back at her 👀, she chooses to do something else because ANYTHING is better than feeling the stress, anxiety and overwhelm. By Wednesday, the overwhelming feelings are so massive that her stress and anxiety are through the roof! Becca is in full freeze mode, shutting down because it all feels like too much. 😭

However, instead of going into freeze/shut down mode and letting the overwhelm cycle begin, WHAT IF Becca baby-stepped her way through the project? What if she took messy action, moving forward one tiny step at a time starting on Monday so that by Wednesday night, the stress, anxiety, and overwhelm were gone because her project would be completed that night and turned in on time tomorrow? Not only would Becca’s stress, anxiety and overwhelm decrease but her confidence would increase! She would feel proud of her accomplishments and her project would be done to the best of her ability! 🙌🏻 😄

So if you get assigned something that feels overwhelming to you, take 10 minutes to look over the assignment and break it down into a “To-Do” list of baby steps you can take to get the task done on time and to the best of your ability. And if you need help learning how to do this or learning other healthy coping strategies for your stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, use this link to set up a quick call where we can see if coaching sessions can help!