Life can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when you’re trying to juggle work, family time, and errands during the average day. With limited hours in the day, you can be at genuine risk of burnout when you stretch yourself too thin to do everything expected of you.
While lightening the load is the most obvious way to rectify the situation, you might also see the value in doing any of the following things to remain calm during times of overwhelm.
1. Soak in the Tub
When the busyness of your day finally catches up with you, it can sometimes feel like you’re at the point of collapsing out of sheer exhaustion. Take some time for yourself by retreating to the bathroom for a soak in the tub. If you click here, you can learn more about CBD bath bombs and their potential for helping you relax and enjoy relief from sore muscles. Soaking in a tub might also elevate your mood, help you sleep better, and encourage blood circulation to ensure your muscles have adequate oxygen and nutrients.
2. Start Your Days On the Right Foot
The average morning in a busy household can be chaotic, particularly if you have to get the kids ready for school while also trying to feed the pets, dress yourself, and get to work on time. By the time you arrive at the office, you might already be feeling stressed and frazzled before the day has truly begun.
There might be no way of avoiding your morning routine, but it doesn’t have to be as chaotic as you typically experience. Consider getting up early to take time for yourself before everyone else wakes up. You might like to use this time to have a relaxing cup of tea or meditate, which might put you in a calm state of mind to manage the tasks that come next.
3. Stop
Overwhelming feelings can sometimes creep up on you when you least expect them, leaving you feeling powerless in that moment. Consider adopting the ‘STOP’ technique utilized in cognitive behavioral therapy.
STOP stands for Stop or pause, Take a step back, Observe your feelings, and Proceed mindfully. When you start feeling overwhelmed, you can stop everything you’re doing, take a step back to breathe, observe your strong feelings with curiosity, then proceed with a mindfulness practice like walking, yoga, or grounding to welcome feelings of calm.
4. Limit News and Social Media
The digital age has allowed us to receive all the information we need at the click of a button. While this can be helpful when you need assistance to solve a problem, it can be less helpful when you’re frequently bombarded with sad, traumatizing, and stressful information.
There is a lot of sadness in the world, and it’s essential to be aware of what’s happening around you, but there may come a time when you need to limit just how much you’re exposing yourself to. If you begin to experience feelings of anxiety or overwhelm, it might be time to take a step back from news websites and social media to focus on what’s right in front of you.
5. Prioritize Sleep
When your days are full of time-consuming activities like work and errands, it’s only natural to want to stay up late, long past when the kids have gone to bed, to enjoy some quiet time alone. However, sleep can be crucial for your physical and mental well-being.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends that healthy adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night to feel at their best. If you currently don’t get that much sleep, now might be the right time to change your sleep routine.
Set an alarm so you can go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning. If you struggle to fall asleep, you might also consider changes to your sleep hygiene, such as high-quality bedding, dark curtains, cutting out caffeine in the evening, and removing technology from the bedroom.
6. Go for a Walk
Most of us know just how beneficial walking is for our physical health. It can help us maintain a healthy weight or lose weight, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance. However, walking might also have some surprising benefits for your mental health. Studies have shown that moderate-intensity walking might reduce stress and anxiety and improve mental health.
Fortunately, walking is a free and fast activity that doesn’t require much effort. If you notice that you’re starting to feel overwhelmed or anxious, you can put on a pair of walking shoes and venture out into your neighborhood for 30 minutes. You might be surprised by how calm you feel when you return home.
7. Seek Help
While there are many things you can do in the comfort of your own home to calm yourself down when feeling anxious or overwhelmed, there’s no shame in reaching out for help when you need it the most. You might like to talk to your family and friends about how you’re feeling or even enlist the services of a mental health professional.
Trained therapists and counselors can listen to your concerns and provide helpful tools for managing strong feelings going forward. Sometimes, having your feelings validated, learning they’re normal, and being taught how to take care of them and yourself can be all it takes to keep your anxiety at bay.
8. Practice Gratitude
You are likely grateful for every good thing you have in your life, but strong negative feelings can sometimes overshadow all the positivity, even unintentionally. Studies have shown that keeping a daily gratitude journal in which you write down every big and small thing in your life you’re grateful for can lower your body’s levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
While the negative aspects of our lives tend to overshadow the more positive parts, the simple act of bringing the positivity to the surface might have more of an impact than you think.
Staying calm when you’re feeling overwhelmed can be challenging, especially when you feel trapped in your state of mind with no escape. However, small and simple daily changes might make a surprising difference to your state of mind. Take time for yourself, seek help, and prioritize your physical and mental health.
