How to Beat Overwhelm
How to Beat Overwhelm
Oftentimes, we find ourselves walking through the day with a huge weight on our shoulders. We continue to tell others that we are overwhelmed with the amount that we have on our plate. Day in and day out we continue to pile tasks on our plate because we are Superwoman, right? RIGHT??!
I will give you an example. Many years ago I hit a wall. I was washing my hands at my house after work one day and then I passed out, out of nowhere. I thought that I ate healthy, exercised often, had a good group of friends and family but there was one thing I was missing; my ability to manage the stress in my life. I worked 70 hours a week, went to exercise, came home and cooked, worked a second job, and then turned around and did it all over again. Essentially, I hit a wall. Every day I was exhausted. I complained all the time to everyone and became very negative to be around. My relationships started to fail. I wasn’t happy in life and was depressed. To some everything up in one word, I was overwhelmed and it had a trickling effect to every other area in my life.
Let’s start with the definition of overwhelm. Overwhelm means to have a “strong emotional effect on something.” Let’s dig a little deeper into this definition and take away everything but the word emotional. Emotional is just a person’s feelings. Yes, you heard correctly. I was overwhelmed because of my own feelings towards my life and situation. If I look back now on my life at that time, I was running ragged trying to get everything done because I thought that’s what hard work meant. I thought that climbing the corporate ladder, exercising 7 days a week, working another job, and working extra for not enough pay was the way to earn respect from others. But what I didn’t realize is that I didn’t have respect for myself. My emotions and belief system behind this situation caused me to become stressed and, in return, increased my cortisol levels. This caused weight gain, irritability, extreme fatigue, and depression. I didn’t realize that I needed to take a step back as a prevention measure before falling off the wagon completely.
So my question to you is, on a scale of one to 10, where are you on the stress scale right now? WHO are you running yourself ragged for? What result can you expect in the long run? Will it be positive or negative?
I have found that life balance is key to living a life full of happiness, less overwhelm, and more ease. It’s always good to level-set and see where you are on the life balance scale right now. Coaching has been the key to unlocking the balance that I needed in my life.
Head on over to my Life Balance Quiz at www.lifebalancequiz.com to find out where you are on the Life Balance Scale.
LIv Well,
