Feeling overwhelmed? Try these ideas.
Life can feel intense right now and it’s appropriate to have a bit more stress at the moment. If you feel like things are getting a bit too uncomfortable then these tips are for you.I wanted to share some quick ideas for you to do at the time when you’re feeling anxious and also some tips if you’re experiencing more of a gradual build up of anxiety or stress in the background. Feeling overwhelmed can affect our mood and our health, both mental and physical.
Signs of overwhelm:
racing thoughts or difficulty concentrating
being irritable or teary
being constantly worried, anxious or scared
a lack of self-confidence
trouble sleeping or feel tired all the time
avoiding things or people you are having problems with
eating more or less than usual
drinking or smoking more than usual
In the moment help
Breathe - try to breathe in a way that inflates your stomach. It doesn’t have to be a fancy technique. We tend to have shallow breathing mostly in our chest when we panic. You may have noticed that I recommend this a lot, a long exhale can be very soothing and can activate our parasympathetic response which is the opposite to stress.
Havening technique - is a very quick and comforting way to calm your nervous system. You can listen to me talk through it here.
Cross your arms, put your left hand on your right shoulder and your right hand
Run your hands from top of shoulders to your elbows and back up again.
Repeat moving your hands up and down your arms, slowly or quickly.
Notice the sensations. It's almost like giving yourself a hug.
You can slow down your breathing - making your exhale slightly longer than your inhale. You could close your eyes and think a helpful word or phrase along the lines of "peace" "calm" "I'm ok" for example.
Move - jump or shake your arms and legs. This is a natural way animals use to discharge adrenaline.
This will pass - panic is a short term response. Remind yourself that it will end. It doesn’t have to mean anything for your future. We often can catastrophise and think about the worst case scenario - which is unlikely to happen and not helpful!
Background worry - if you feel like things are building up then try these ideas:
Identify a pattern
Keep a diary of when you are most anxious or worried, what has triggered it? Was it the number of unread emails? A particular tone of message from someone? Or is it the end of the day when it hits you? Increased awareness of patterns can help you to put some strategies in place.
Slow things down
If you feel on high alert then create some space. Where possible, silence email notifications and what’s app messages. Have a dedicated time to check emails and messages, let people know to expect a different response time. It’s hard to feel calm if we spend every moment being reactive. If you need to be available to people all day then make sure you have a break from your phone in the morning and of an evening to balance that out. Little moments of downtime can have a positive dripping tap effect, things like: savouring a cuppa of a morning, a little walk outside at lunchtime or a few stretches throughout your day can make all the difference.
Let good things in
We have a negativity bias which means that as humans we tend to place more importance on negative things rather than positive or neutral things. It makes sense that this strategy can be a useful for our survival but not so great when our priority is being happy. This is why in appraisals we can focus on the one negative piece of feedback and not the 9 good things that were said!
With this in mind it pays to savour the positives in our lives. I often recommend having a gratitude practice to my clients:
Write 3 gifts at the end of the day in a notebook just for this purpose. Research has shown that over 2 weeks this is more effective than Prozac for moderate depression. It just shows how powerful it is to retrain your brain! Ideally you’d write it down which can strengthen the effect but just thinking it through or talk it through with someone
If you’d like some support with anxiety and stress then please email me (hello@sianquipp.com) or book in direct for a coaching session. We can build on the helpful things you’re doing already and come up with some practical ways to help.