Overwhelm

This week, we’re diving into the theme of overwhelm—a common feeling that can hit when we’re faced with seemingly insurmountable tasks.

Overwhelm can be likened to super glue—it keeps us stuck in place and prevents us from moving forward. It feels strangely comforting because it’s familiar, even if it’s not productive. We often indulge in this emotion because it feels safer than stepping into the unknown and taking action.

So, how do we break free from overwhelm? Tune in to this episode to find out.

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WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER

• What creates overwhelm
• Why we get stuck in overwhelm
• A simple strategy to combat overwhelm

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TRANSCRIPT

This is The Joyful You Podcast, episode 102, Overwhelm.

Welcome to The Joyful You Podcast.

On this show, I talk all about the tools you need to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, your mind, and your life.

I’m your host, Rachael Collins.

Let’s do this.

Welcome to the podcast.

The theme this week on Coach and Calls with Clients, as well as myself, seems to be overwhelm.

So that is what we’re going to talk about today.

Overwhelm is a feeling that is typically created from thoughts such as, this is impossible, I have so far to go, I’ll never get this, I have too much to do, this is too hard.

And the thing about overwhelm is that it will stop you dead in your tracks.

The only action that happens when you’re in overwhelm is no action.

So last week, I started a new job.

A medical doctor reached out to me and contracted me to coach some of her clients.

I love coaching.

I love that part.

But the job also requires me to document and code for insurance purposes, which is something that I have never done before.

So when I sat down and I started doing the training and I tried to figure out how to code and how to document correctly and learn how to do it, I had all of these very similar thoughts.

This is hard.

This is impossible to learn.

I’ll never get this.

There’s just too much to remember.

All the thoughts.

And because I was thinking those thoughts, I was feeling very, very overwhelmed.

All I wanted to do was cry.

I didn’t want to do anything else.

I just wanted to sit on the floor, cross my arms over my chest, pout, and cry.

And the thing about overwhelm is that it is like super glue.

It keeps us super stuck.

We don’t want to take action.

Why would we?

Why would we want to take action if we think it’s impossible and the outcome of getting the result that we want is slim to none?

We wouldn’t, right?

So it’s very easy to indulge in overwhelm.

Overwhelm is probably one of the biggest indulgent emotions I’ve seen.

Now, if you don’t know what an indulgent emotion is, let me tell you, an indulgent emotion is just an emotion that you dive into, that you choose to feel more than you would probably like to.

And it’s also an emotion that doesn’t give you the result that you want.

There’s no traction, no growth, no progress, no movement.

There’s just a whole lot of inaction when you’re in that indulgent emotion.

And in a weird way, it’s a very comfortable emotion for us to feel and to be in.

And that is why we indulge in it again and again and again.

And for so many of us, sitting in overwhelm feels so much safer to us, so much more comfortable to us than taking action into the unknown and doing things that we haven’t done before, or trying to do all the 1000 things on our to-do list that feels impossible to get done in the time that we think we need to do them.

So we just sit in overwhelm and we just do nothing at all.

So when we find ourselves here, how do we get out?

How do we get out of overwhelm?

How do we get over it?

Let me tell you, you take one small step.

That’s it.

As soon as you are aware, you’re feeling overwhelmed, you just do one small thing.

This doesn’t have to be a huge thing.

It’s not a huge step.

It’s not a great big jump.

It’s just a baby step, one tiny little step towards your goal.

A tiny step creates movement.

It’s going to get the wheels to start moving again, and you’re going to get out of overwhelm and into feeling productive, which is what you want when you’re working towards a goal.

Now, once you take this one tiny small step, what you need to do is tell yourself, good job.

When we celebrate, when we reward ourselves, this lets our brain know, hey, this is good.

We need to do more moving, less sitting in overwhelm.

Now, let me warn you.

Your brain will try to talk you out of taking even just one tiny little baby step.

It will tell you, that’s not enough.

You have to go big or go home.

But that’s not the truth.

That’s not the truth.

When my husband and his siblings were younger, they had a grandma, and all throughout the year, whenever their grandma would make her purchase, she would always use cash.

She always paid in cash.

And she would take whatever spare change was left over from her purchase.

So whether she bought a gallon of gas, or she went to the store and brought bread and milk.

So it could be 18 cents or 75 cents.

Whatever extra change was left over, she would put it inside this glass piggy bank.

And she would do this all year long.

And then at Christmas time, everyone would guess how much money they thought was in the piggy bank.

And then they would break the piggy bank, and everyone would count it.

And whoever got the closest in their guess got to keep all the money.

Well, sometimes there was $100, $200.

All those small, tiny deposits that grandma made over the year added up, added up to be hundreds of dollars sometimes.

And that was really one of the very favorite Christmas memories and gifts that she could have ever gotten them was to win the money that was inside the piggy bank.

So when you are feeling overwhelmed, even a small 18 cent deposit will add up to be an amazing gift for you and also for your family.

Because, mama, when you take care of you, you’re also taking care of your kids, your spouse, your family, your community, your church members, any single person that interacts with you.

You’re also taking care of them.

So what you need to do is just take one baby step, then another baby step, and these baby steps won’t feel super hard.

They will feel doable.

They might even feel like they’re only 18 cent deposits.

They’re not really moving the needle.

But I promise you, they are.

They are moving you in the right direction.

They are moving you step by step to your goal.

So the next time you find yourself in overwhelm, here are the steps.

Step one, the thing to do is notice.

Be aware that you are in overwhelm.

Remember, awareness is always the first step.

So as soon as you notice that you are indulging in overwhelm, the second step is to pick one small thing to do that will move you closer to your goal line.

Some people find that it helps if they do a to-do list dump.

So they write down everything that they need to do, they think that they should do, they want to do.

They get that all out of their head, so they’re not just all jumbled up.

And then they pick one thing, just one, not a whole list of things, not a whole to-do list.

You’re just picking one thing, and it doesn’t have to be big.

Remember, it should just be a very small, doable baby step.

And then the third step is do that small thing.

Do that one small thing, and then tell yourself, good job, we want to celebrate so that our brain gets a new habit created.

Right now, it has a habit of sitting in overwhelm.

That feels good to it.

But by rewarding it when we take that one small step, when we make that little tiny incremental deposit, it will create a new habit.

All right, guys, that is all I have for you this week.

I will talk to you later.

Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to The Joyful You Podcast.

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