Disproportionate reactions

You may find yourself overreacting to something minor in your day such as bursting into tears because you can’t find your car keys.

Irrational thoughts

You may image that something terrible is going to happen, inflating the problem way beyond the actual reality of the situation.

Freeze response

You may feel that you are paralysed to act and find yourself procrastinating and ruminating instead of being proactive in making changes.

Emotional hopelessness

You might feel that you have no control over your life which will in turn make you feel angry, depressed, hopeless, irritable or anxious.

Physical symptoms

You may experience non-specific aches and pains, have poor energy, tightness in the chest, cramps, stomach problems, shortness of breath or a rapid heartbeat.

Be kind to yourself

Whilst I was going through such extreme overwhelm, what made a significant difference was letting go of anything that was not essential to my life. I became very mindful of how I spent my time and realised that I had let my personal boundaries slip. I stopped all online activities, quit scrolling social media and refrained from reading the newspaper or watching the news. Within a few days I found that my feelings of anxiety decreased, and I quickly gained more head space and time to concentrate on looking after my own wants and needs.

Accepting the feelings

Denying or ignoring how you feel will only intensify feelings of overwhelm. Ensure that you acknowledge how you are feeling and try not to judge or criticise yourself for what you’re going through. It helped me to keep a journal. Seeing my feelings written down helped me process thoughts and get them out of my head. I also reminded myself every day that the things I was going through would pass. I just had to take things a day at a time and lower my expectations of what could be achieved in a day.

Create a self-care routine

Nourishing your mind and body is vital when you are experiencing overwhelm. There were so many things in my life at the time that I had no control over, however I did have control over taking the best care of my body. Coming to this realisation made a huge difference and practising letting go of what I couldn’t control was truly empowering. I made the effort to eat healthy nutritious food and stopped lunch being taken at my desk. I made sure that I was drinking a couple of litres of water a day and avoided caffeine and alcohol. I set an alarm on my phone twice a day and began taking a couple of regular ten-minute breaks to walk around the grounds of Homefield. I found that intentionally making the time to take breaks reduced the amount of stress build up that came from the feeling that I was ‘switched on’ every second.

Book a treatment therapy

Research published by PubMed Central, a highly respected database of the National Institutes of Health, reported that physical touch therapies such as massage, reflexology, facials etc can help reduce anxiety and lower stress levels. Go book yourself a regular massage. Without doubt it will help reduce your feelings of overwhelm.

Take a look at our health retreats which offer various specified therapies to help relax and lower stress.

Get physical

Many health practitioners would recommend that you practise some mindfulness or meditation to cope with overwhelm. From experience I have found that there are two camps of people; those who find that meditation works for stress and overwhelm and those that say they benefit more from being physical active. Ideally try both, but either way, I cannot stress to you enough the value of regular physical exercise. When I was experiencing my ‘annus horribilis,’ I got into the habit of walking outside in the countryside for 30 mins a day which made a significant difference in lowering my stress levels in just four days. Research shows that we help our nervous system relax if we see the colour green so being in the countryside was highly beneficial. Remember that stress hormones can cause catabolism, (breaking down) of your muscle proteins, which can decrease your muscle strength. Therefore, movement is so important to counteract the damage done by these destructive hormones. Exercise helped me get back in contact with my body and gave my head the space to download. It forced me to concentrate on the here and now.

See the varied activites we offer at Homefield Grange to help you on your journey to a more relaxed state of being.

Helpful Supplements

Supplementation needs are highly individual, (and you should always check with your health care provider before you try any supplement). What worked for me may not be right for you. However, I did find one supplement highly effective in helping me cope naturally. Ashwagandha is a well-used adaptogen in naturopathic medicine, (an adaptogen helps the body manage its stress levels). After a week of taking this supplement I felt calmer and slept better, plus it helped me lower my feelings of anxiety. This is the supplement I used (and there is no affiliation in recommending this).