Finding Peace When You’re Overwhelmed
Let’s acknowledge that you’re stressed and overwhelmed and the idea of “peace” seems so far away, maybe impossible, that reading even the title of this blog feels like a joke. But you deserve some calm in the chaos, so let’s try together to find it, for even just a minute.
I imagine your day is filled, top to bottom. You wake up, you maybe try to get a workout in, shower and prepare for your day, fill up on coffee, and then you get started. You’re consumed with work. Whether you’re in an office, working from home, or your work is your kids, you stay busy.
By the end of your day, you’re cleaning up from dinner and ready to crash. You don’t have a lot of room to just breathe. And if you do, you probably have that filled with distractions. You want to forget the day by binging a new show, scrolling social media, or getting lost in a book.
My friend, you are overwhelmed. Your stress cup is full and you have nowhere to dump it. Your loved ones want to be close to you, but you have nothing left to give. You’ve worn all the hats, all day, and you are done.
You finally get to bed, trying to actually rest. And the cycle continues. You wake up in the morning and start all over again. Same story, different day.
It’s so frustrating, I know. You hear other women talk about rest, and mindfulness, and being present. You think to yourself “Well, they clearly don’t know what stress is. I’m busy, I’m overwhelmed, I don’t have time for that bullshit.”
My heart hurts, for you and with you. We want so badly to be tuned in to our loved ones and to feel peace throughout our day. But some days, maybe even most days, that challenge seems too great. And we feel too small.
We’re already carrying the weight of so many labels, pressures, expectations. We feel crushed, just trying to be enough. So the overwhelm gets even bigger, louder, heavier. We feel so overwhelmed by all the things we want to do, that it’s hard to take a step toward doing even one thing.
Let’s pause here.
Take a deep breath.
I know you wish you could snap your fingers and it would all be fixed. You wouldn’t feel overwhelmed. You’d be able to manage everything perfectly, never feeling any bit of frustration or exhaustion.
We both know, deep down, that isn’t possible.
So I’m going to tell you something you might not want to hear.
We’re not solving this whole problem today. But we’re going to take a baby step.
We’re going to be present in it. Sit in it. Feel it. And acknowledge our experience in it.
Just breathe. Maybe you’ve barely started your day, and you’re already overwhelmed by it.
Just breathe. The next minutes will take care of themselves. But give yourself 60 seconds, right now.
Take a deep, belly-filling breath. Let the sounds around you stay there. Maybe you hear birds chirping, and it brings you peace. Or you hear your coffee pot working its magic, and the smell of hot coffee brings you energy. Maybe you hear kids waking up. That’s ok. You don’t have to absorb those sounds and the energies they bring yet.
Feel your feet beneath you. Sit, if you can. Feel the seat supporting you. You don’t have to have all the strength today.
Stretch your fingers out. Wiggle your toes. Then be still.
Breathe.
Rest.
Just stay present, right here, right now. Whatever is going on around you can wait a few more seconds. Right now, just acknowledge yourself. Of course you feel overwhelmed. You have a lot going on. Anyone in your position would be stressed. It doesn’t make you any less of a person.
In this moment, the overwhelm doesn’t have to propel you into future worries. This moment can bring peace.
You’ll be done reading this soon.
You’ll get up. You’ll go about your day.
But before you do, take a minute now to soak in this peace. Let your soul form a memory of it. Inhale peace. Exhale worry. Stay present.
Stay attuned to your present needs.
Stay in touch with your present surroundings.
Let yourself bring attention to only what you feel in this moment.
Stress and overwhelm may exist, but they don’t have to consume you. You can learn how to pause, how to breathe in the midst of the chaos.
Now, you can get up. You can go about your day.
And when the overwhelm starts to creep in, as I imagine it might, let yourself breathe. Just take 10 seconds to bring mindfulness to your immediate experience.
When you feel the overwhelming tightening in your chest, or cramping in your stomach, give yourself the space to breathe for a minute. The world will carry on, and you’ll be able to carry on with it.
But soak in the peace, friend. We all need it.
You’ll get to work on completely ridding yourself of the overwhelm over time. But for today, just take this first step. It might sound small, but it’s a big, brave step. You’re beginning to create a new pattern. A world in which you have power over the stress. A life that doesn’t run you into the ground.
It starts with this one, deep, mindful breath. It starts with you sitting in the present, not running from the past or toward the future.
Inhale peace. Exhale overwhelm. Inhale peace again.