Overwhelmed? Is that even a thing?

I am entirely overwhelmed, right now, by the amount of times the word is used throughout my day.

Everything, everyone is overwhelmed, apart from my dog and the chickens who could not care less and are loving the rare January sunshine.

The hospitals are overwhelmed, the governments are overwhelmed, the schools are... you guessed it... overwhelmed

and this morning

as I sat at my desk to write the next blogpost, I suddenly thought, O no, I am overwhelmed.

Took a deep breath and started tapping on the side of my hand, "even though I think I am overwhelmed right now, I acknowledge this is where I am at and I am curious to find out more."

Curiosity is my best trait so off I went in the corners of my mind, searching for this thing they call overwhelmed.

First of all, is overwhelmed a feeling?

Not really, because, as far as I know hospitals do not feel anything because they are buildings.

So what is overwhelmed? It is about not managing a situation, not being in control, or, if you are human and you feel, having a lot of feelings at the same time. fighting for attention.

So the first thing to do, when you think "I am overwhelmed" is to write down the word in the middle of a piece of paper and then start listing all the stuff that you think overwhelms you.

For example, I could say that I am overwhelmed because of all the overwhelm  around me. Then I can realise that all of this has nothing to do with me, not really and I can let it go. Tapping away "Even though I could choose to be overwhelmed by what is going on in the world right now and all the overwhelm around me, I decide not to get involved and concentrate on myself and my feelings."

Once you have written all the stuff that is really overwhelming you, try to work out what the actual feeling is! For example. "I am overwhelmed by the fact that I am running a workshop next week", the feeling behind that is panic because I have not even started thinking about it. So instead, I can tap on "Even though I have a workshop to run next week and I have done nothing about it, I choose to feel excited about it and start prepping right now."

Overwhelmed is gone!

Seriously, do be careful about the words you use to describe what is happening in your world. 

The other day, a kid told me they were overwhelmed. Surprised, I asked clarification. What do you mean, I said?

I don't know, they said, everyone is saying it so I thought I would too.

We did the piece of paper exercise and the kid realised that if they put things in order of importance and gave them deadlines, then there was no sense of panic or not being in control.

Perhaps, it is easier to say that we are overwhelmed because when we are indeed in that space, we feel frozen and unable to function at all and may be this is what you need right now.

Once you are fed up with the frozen feeling, though, have a go at my suggested exercise. I'd love to know if it helps.

In case you fancy working one to one with me to sort these little niggles out, here is the link to my website where you can book yourself in for a free casual chat.

https://www.baya.ie/work-with-me

Meanwhile, I have to dash, work to do, you know, stuff to get excited about!

With love

Baya