Feeling Overwhelmed? 5 Tips to Help

Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone! It’s a natural response to the  ever-increasing demands on our time. Even with all of the great technology and  time management tools we have, 24-hours can still seem like not enough time to  get a day’s work done. When you feel you are drowning in a sea of too many  commitments and not enough time to honor them, remember to keep these thoughts  in mind:

1. Everything will be okay. As overwhelming as this moment  may feel, everything will work out eventually. Perhaps the end result will not  be what you hoped or imagined, but you will be okay. What you are feeling now  won’t be how you will always feel. Ask yourself if what you’re fretting over  will be important one year from now, five years from now, or even ten years from  now.

2. Remind yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It  can be tempting to procrastinate or want to give up, but think about the bigger  picture. This can help if you tend to get bogged down in the smaller, more  insignificant details. Think about the end result that you want to achieve and  use that as motivation to keep going despite your feelings of uncertainty or  inadequacy in handling certain steps of the process.

3. Believe in yourself. When you’re overwhelmed, it’s easy  to get down on yourself or start to doubt your own abilities. But studies have  shown that thinking positively actually leads to more creativity (meaning your  brain is able to come up with more possibilities and solutions). Instead of  using what little reserves of energy you have concentrating on why you think you  are inadequate, use that energy to believe that you can do it. Visualize your  success when you begin to doubt.

4. Taking a break may be just what you need. When you’re up  against a deadline, it can seem counterproductive to take a break — but if  you’re overwhelmed, it may be just what you need to re-energize yourself and put  a renewed, fresher effort into what you are doing. Sometimes doing something  unrelated to what is your most pressing task can actually help to give you some  perspective and make it better.

5. Ask for help if you need it. A lot of times we feel  overwhelmed because we may have overestimated our ability to handle something.  Let go of your pride and ask for assistance — whether that means extending a  deadline or having someone take over the some of the simpler, yet time consuming  tasks of your project. There’s nothing wrong with delegating; in fact, that’s  the sign of a great leader.

Remember that feeling overwhelmed is normal when you care a lot about the  outcome of something or have a lot on your plate. But try to stay calm, breathe,  and know that giving your best is all that you can do. Keep your resources in  mind and use them to help you manage your projects. Be proactive, take  initiative, and ask for help if you need it.

Image Credit: Helga Weber / Flickr

Erika Oglesby

Erika Oglesby is a freelance writer and wandering nomad currently located in  Grand Rapids, MI. She is dedicated to helping people better their lives through  self-knowledge and alternative therapies —  especially women of color and women  diagnosed with autoimmune diseases. Visit her website at http://www.erikaoglesby.com.

Know Yourself, Accept Yourself

 

If you’re very self-critical, you can often times find yourself apologizing to others about the way you are. It can be demoralizing when who you are doesn’t match up with who you want to be. But the way of getting from point A (who you are) to point B (who you want to be) isn’t through negativity or self-defeat, but rather: acceptance.

Accepting who you are now doesn’t mean that you will never change. Accepting who you are now doesn’t mean that you are dangerously overlooking your flaws or your areas of weakness. But if you do accept who you are, it means you are better able to acknowledge those aspects of yourself that are less than perfect and compensate for them if needed.

You can spend your time lamenting the fact that you weren’t born perfect or you can use that energy to work with how you are right now. So, you need an extra push to get your to-do list done? Instead of trying the same things over and over again and failing (making a to-do list then getting overwhelmed at the sight of it and procrastinating to the point that you don’t get anything done), use your resources to do things differently. A resource could be anything: a book, a website, a friend, a co-worker or even a rewards system. The key is first knowing who you are, then accepting it so that you can work with it (rather than against it) to get different results.

How can you learn more about yourself? One way is by taking inventory of your strengths. It’s been found that we often spend most of our energy focusing on our *shortcomings rather than what we do well. Maybe it doesn’t matter so much that your sock drawer is always a mess if you are the type of person who can turn someone’s frown upside down. It’s important to know what your strengths are so that you can bring the best of you to the world (rather than always focusing on the “worst” of you). A great book that can help you with this is StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. It gives an assessment of your skills and lays out strategies for utilizing your strengths in your everyday life.

The most important thing to remember is to keep some perspective on what really matters in the long run. Will you really remember that you didn’t make the best bean dip for your best friend’s party? Or will it matter more that you focused on being the best friend that you could possibly be — flaws and all?

Know yourself, accept yourself, and share your light with the world.

Erika Oglesby

Erika Oglesby is a freelance writer and wandering nomad currently located in Grand Rapids, MI. She is dedicated to helping people better their lives through self-knowledge and alternative therapies — especially women of color and women diagnosed with autoimmune diseases. Visit her website at http://www.erikaoglesby.com.

Image Credit: Ivan McClellan / Flickr