The crazy thing about overwhelm is

I’m definitely feeling it. Maybe you are feeling it too. 

Overwhelm.  

Some days I’m like WTF am I doing? 

Full time sales role, 2 podcast episodes per week, 3 kids, sleep, working out,8 meditating, creating content, coaching +100 members in my communities. 

Oh, and then there are the messages: Slack. Facebook Messenger. IG. LinkedIn. Text. Microsoft Teams. Work Email. Gmail. Business Gmail. What’s app.  

Seriously, WTF am I doing?  

Ok let’s break this down and I’ll show you how I handle overwhelm.  

There are physical and mental limits to our bandwidth. 

Physical is time and activity (the doing), and that is finite and very defined (you can only do so much).  

The other part of it is mental, and this is a very big part of it, but also very subjective.  

Being the Mindset Hacker, I’m always intrigued with how much we can bend things like time, abundance, memory, creativity and in this case, overwhelm.  

It’s important to understand that the mental (and body) part of overwhelm comes from thoughts that cascade into ‘feelings’ in our body. 

The ‘feeling’ of overwhelm comes from cortisol in our body, which is responsible for things like helping us wake up in the morning, it also is attached to stress or agitation.  

In prehistoric times it was used to get us in motion, to go out there and find food, heat, a tribe or shelter  (just like adrenaline is used to get you to fight or fly).  

Think about that for a second, technology in the last 100 years has made MASSIVE shifts vs. human evolution, no wonder it’s so easy to get overwhelmed! 

Here are a few things I do to reduce overwhelm in my life:  

State of lack – Overwhelm (feeling) can come from a lack thought such as “I’m not doing enough”, or I’m not keeping up, or I feel guilty for not contributing more, or I should be there and here at the same time. We can focus on what we are not doing instead of what we ARE doing. A feeling of lack (just like in money or time) doesn’t have much to do with how much (time, money, or how much you are actually doing). Focus on how far you’ve come, focus on the next step in front of you, focus on what you ARE doing and not what you think you are not doing.  

Wiring new neural pathways (learning, getting out of your comfort zone) – If you’ve been doing the same  things you’ve always done, you’ve carved out very comfortable neural pathways (neurons that fire together, wire together). If you are in a state of transformation, recognize that you are unwiring and rewiring and that will cause discomfort and agitation in your mind, which creates the feeling of overwhelm. Instead, embrace this and give yourself a pat on the back for being willing to create change in your life! You got this! Your flexing your brain muscle and sometimes it makes you sore! 

Boundaries – setting boundaries is so very important and can be hard to do. Many of us are out there to help people but be aware of toxic people, victim mentality, negativity, gossip, etc. Its wonderful to be there for people who need help but make sure to avoid situations where people are getting their fix from complaining or having people fall sorry for them. Also set boundaries with things like media and social media the gets you triggered or your mind spinning. You are so very worthy of a pristine sphere!  

Time to process – it sounds like the last thing you should be doing when you are busy, taking time to chill, meditate, paint, etc. Most people say “I don’t have time to meditate” when that downtime can give them exactly what they want more of (time and bandwidth). But it doesn’t have to be meditation, it just needs to be time for all that data to funnel through your brain instead of staying backed up. The down time also helps solidify learning, just like your muscle growth comes when you rest. Slowing way down for parts of the day can really help you speed up! 

One step in front of the other. Remember to play the long game, focus on the very next step while being aware of the journey but not trying to map out every single mile. Play the long game, trust yourself and know that you will get there (you actually already are but you are just seeing the mile that you are on).

A few weeks ago I sent out an email with all of my top hacks around productivity, if you haven’t seen that give it a look and you can download it here!. 

Check out the latest episodes of Mindset Hackers, today I dropped a great conversation with Hallie Avolio on the power of choice - Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and last week I had the Energy Surgeon Andrea Choate with me. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!