You Never Have To Feel Overwhelmed Again

Day 10: Overwhelm

Have you ever been so overwhelmed that you felt stuck and had no idea what to do next?

I remember clearly a time when my day to day activities came to a screeching halt.

Overwhelmed.

The feeling was so hard to manage.

It felt like I was juggling balls while spinning ceramic plates in the air. Slowly I could anticipate each plate dropping one by one while I stood by helpless. Unable to prevent them from hitting the ground.

The feeling felt tight and closed off, like I was holding my breath and clenching my fists.

I could literally hear the sound of plates breaking as they dropped in my mind.

It felt like I didn’t have enough hands to catch them all.

My brain was frozen and no solutions were in sight.

Another image I had during that time was of me floating in an ocean, no land in sight. I didn’t have a life preserver and the water was deep and choppy. It felt like I had been floating for days. I couldn’t tread water any longer. Every now and then I’d sink under and then suddenly bob up gasping for air. It was such a heavy and terrifying feeling.

I remember having both of these images come to me during the day. It was like a daydream (nightmare really). My thoughts were all consuming.

I couldn’t focus.

It felt like tears were on the verge of appearing all of the time.

The pressure was just too much.

I tried to come up with solutions, solve some of the problems.

I thought I just had too much to do and that I needed to adjust my schedule. Cut some things out.

What I know now is that overwhelm is a feeling.

It’s caused by the thoughts that I think.

When I feel it now, I get curious about what I’m thinking. Things like:

*I’ll never get all of this done.

*This feels impossible.

*I’m in over my head.

*I’m losing my mind.

*I’m so overwhelmed.

These thoughts do nothing to help me.

In fact, they keep me spinning.

No matter how much is happening on any given day I can choose how I want to feel about it.

Overwhelmed is never a feeling that I choose on purpose.

Determined, capable, persistent, organized, clear headed, focused.

These are all feelings that bring me forward motion.

How do you want to feel the next time your to-do list is too long?

Hope over to my Facebook page and let me know in the comments!

~Shaun

The Curse of Indulgent Emotions: How You're Creating Mental Stress

Confusion, Overwhelm, Doubt, Worry, Exhaustion and Busyness, are emotions that we indulge in far too often.

What do I mean by indulge?

We choose to feel them, because they keep us from feeling things that we imagine will be far worse.

The definition of indulge is, “to allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of.” Wait what?

We don’t enjoy the pleasure of worry or staying busy…or do we?

These indulgent emotions have a way of making us feel like we’re doing something productive and important in the short run, when truthfully, they are keeping us from achieving the results that we want in our lives.

That is why they are indulgent, they cost us our dreams.

Have you ever felt super busy and then arrived at the end of your day with nothing really important to show for it?

The busyness took over. It can feel like you’re taking massive action. When in reality you’re staying busy doing a whole lot of not much.

And what about worry? This sums it up pretty well.

" Worrying is a lot like a rocking chair, 
it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere. "

GLENN TURNER

Take a look at the short video below, that takes a closer look at how indulgent emotions may show up in our lives. Another tendency that you may want to learn more about is All or Nothing Thinking and ADHD. You can read more about that by clicking here.

Let's talk indulgent emotions with Shaun Roney of Revealed Path Life Coaching.

What To Do When You Feel Overwhelmed and Broke

Did you know that the same culprit is at work when you're feeling overwhelmed and broke? Any idea what that culprit is?

Your thoughts!

Yes, your thoughts. Here's why that's important to know when you have ADHD tendencies. 

The problem is that when you struggle with ADHD tendencies, there are SO.MANY.THOUGHTS.

All of the time.

Did I mention all of the time? They just keep coming.

Thoughts are a double-edged sword.

When they are creative and positive, they help us feel fantastic and move us into productivity with our superhero like problem-solving ability. When they are negative and out of control, they can bring the strongest superwoman to her knees. They can sabotage everything just by showing up, swirling around and going unnoticed.

As you may already know, those of us gifted with non-neurotypical brains are the creative problem solvers of the world. We have this incredible ability to come up with solutions where none seemingly exist.

In fact, I've been told by a friend, that if the end of the world were here and we had to divide into teams to survive, she'd want to be on my team because she's seen my brain in action under pressure. It's something that I now embrace. A unique part of who I am. Us "tendency" people, we tend to do best under pressure. It's why you'll find many an ADHD tendency mind in careers such as firefighting, EMTs, Navy Seals, Entrepreneurs etc. The higher risk associated with these fields actually fits perfectly with the way our brains work. The adrenaline can pull us right into our sweet spot! Are you a person that loves a challenge? That plays into this too.

That's all fantastic but, remember, there is that dark side of thoughts too.

Let's go back to feeling overwhelmed and broke for a minute. These are two issues that many of my coaching clients struggle with. While there are things that are ADHD tendencies that contribute to the feeling of overwhelm, for example, the sheer number of thoughts happening at any given moment, the difficulty of prioritizing when you have an uncooperative Executive Function, the number of exciting distractions all around us (Ooh look a squirrel!), the truth is, the actual feeling of overwhelm comes from a thought or thoughts that we are thinking. 

Let's look at feeling broke. You do realize the word or condition of feeling broke is relative right?

I mean one womans broke is another womans aspiration and vice versa. Sure there are times you have less money in the bank, you are late on a credit card payment, you may not have enough to pay the bills, but when you really look at it, the feeling of broke comes from a thought that you are having about those things. Some of those thoughts sound like:

"I don't have enough"

"I should have more"

"I'm so bad with money" 

This is helpful to know for a few reasons. The main one is that we always want to blame a situation or person for how we feel. You may think you feel overwhelmed because your kids make a mess throughout the house and you can't keep up, or your boss expects you to get more done than you are able, or the daily demands of your life are too many and too hard to keep up with. It's your thoughts about all of that that is making you feel overwhelmed. 

You may think you're feeling broke because you're undervalued and not paid enough, or the cost of living is too high, or your ex didn't pay their child support. It's your thoughts about all of those things that is causing you to feel broke. 

The good news is that thoughts are in your control. All of those other things are not.

Not sure if you believe me? Book a 30-minute coaching consultation and let's take a look at what you're feeling and how you can make it better.