Unfortunately, overwhelm and stress is part of life for many of us. Too much happening all at once and we don’t know where to turn first or in what order we should be doing things. How to deal with being overwhelmed and stressed is something we all need to learn to manage.
Believe it or not, a lot of the stress we deal with is within our control to change or manage. Being stressed, overwhelmed, and leading an overly hectic life are known to be two of the key stresses for most people, and, mostly, they are both in your control!
In this article, let’s look at how to deal with being overwhelmed, how stress and overwhelm can skyrocket your stress levels, and what you can do to help yourself.
How Do I Know I Am Overwhelmed?
When someone experiences overwhelm, it can take shape in a variety of ways.
In most instances, the person is generally more likely to be overwhelmed by negative emotions like anger, anxiety, fear, or guilt and it is often difficult to understand and verbalize the exact source of the stress.
When you feel overwhelmed the stress hormone Cortisol surges through your body and leaves you overloaded with intense anxiety. At the same time, your serotonin stores start to deplete. Serotonin is a chemical that helps your body to fight off depression and anxiety.
This combination causes the intense feeling of total despair associated with being overwhelmed. Mostly overwhelm is as uncomfortable as it is uncontrollable. It rears its head as anxiety or anger or irritability and worry. Doubt and helplessness start to make their way into a person’s normal thought process.
These feelings are often paired with a quickened heartbeat, perspiration, shortness of breath, or even chest pain in more serious cases.
So, What Is Stress And Overwhelm Doing To You?
Living a hectic life that causes you to be overwhelmed and stressed all the time forces you to stay in a constant state of stress. You just go and go with little to no break. This is not good for the human body, especially long term.
Humans need to take breaks, allowing them to calm their minds and bodies, starting anew with fresh energy. Keeping yourself in a constant state of busyness is horrendous for your stress levels, which, in turn, is bad for your health.
If your life seems too hectic, it’s time you do something about it and start delegating. This will help you to reduce your stress and feel less overwhelmed.
How To Deal With Being Overwhelmed
- Reverse Your Overwhelmed Thought Processes – Try to find alternative more positive thoughts.
- Accept Your Anxious Feelings – Remember that anxiety to a certain degree is normal and use acceptance to work through uncomfortable feelings.
- Breathe – Breathe in deeply as this triggers your body’s relaxation response and can come in handy in stressful moments.
- Be In The Moment – If you are thinking ahead all the time, you become more susceptible to becoming overwhelmed.
While there are some hectic and overwhelming things that are out of your control, there are a few things you can do to help calm things down and reduce your stress levels.
First, get your priorities in order. Make a list of everything you have to do in descending order of importance. When you’re done, see what you can cut out or maybe even delegate to someone else.
Next, get better organized. Organization can greatly reduce your stress. Keep a well-detailed calendar; divide your day up into what you have to do and the time you’ve allotted in which to get it done. This will help you to feel less overwhelmed.
Lastly, ask for help. You’d be amazed how much your loved ones want to help you and it’s about time you let them pitch in. Start delegating tasks and try to make your own life less hectic.
Delegating Can Help Make All The Difference
It can be hard to let certain things go, especially if you are a perfectionist, but sometimes, when it comes to your health, you just have to. Delegating can help you minimize the hectic areas of your life, helping you to have reduced stress and preventing you from feeling so overwhelmed.
Delegating means allowing others to do some of the work for you so you have time to do other important things. To help with your stress, you can delegate chores to others in your household, have someone else drive your kids to their extracurriculars, or even just let someone else handle some of the responsibilities in your life so you can take that weight off your shoulders.
Why You Should Bother?
The biggest reason you should bother trying to minimize your stress is that stress kills. Stress can cause heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and several other bad conditions.
Minimizing your stress can help you think clearer, sleep better, and be healthier. It can help lessen your anxiety, as well. So why, given an easy way to lessen your stress, would you not try it? It could literally mean the difference between life and early death for you.
We all deal with stress each and every day of our lives, but that stress builds up and could cause some serious health problems if you don’t learn to manage it better. Being overwhelmed and living a hectic lifestyle are two of the biggest stresses in a lot of people’s lives. They can be managed, however, with some practice.
Now that you know how to deal with being overwhelmed and stressed, it’s time you sat yourself down and did something about it.
Learn how to delegate in order to live a less hectic life and be less overwhelmed.
Remember if you are really battling, there are qualified therapists who can help you deal with overwhelm and put things into more perspective for you.
