How To Be At Peace With Yourself: Addressing Paralyzing Overwhelm
Learn how to be at peace with yourself and address paralyzing overwhelm in three steps.
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Are you an entrepreneur – a blogger, a digital marketer, an owner of a traditional brick-and-mortar business – who is mired in aaaall the things you need to do to make your business a success?
Are you a parent juggling a million tasks each day to make sure that you’re being the parent your children deserve?
Are you a dedicated employee multi-tasking your way to career superstardom?
Need help addressing the paralysing overwhelm that comes from knowing that your to-do list is never-ending?
Want to know how to be at peace with yourself?
Then this post is for you.
As a mum and an online entrepreneur, I am quite intimate with overwhelm. Luckily for me, I came across Ryan Biddulph‘s inspirational website called Blogging From Paradise where he consistently points out that how you are being is, in many (all?) ways, more important than the things you are doing.
He has very graciously agreed to write about the simple strategies he employs to address paralysing overwhelm (they affect us all!) so that you too can learn how to be at peace with yourself.
Enjoy!
Side Note: If you’re looking for tips on how to look after yourself on a daily basis (and why), check out these post:
✦ Mental Health Awareness For New Mothers: You Matter Too!
✦ How Do You Love Yourself, Let Me Count The Ways: The Ultimate Guide to Self-Love
✦ Quick And Easy Self-Care Strategies For Parents Everywhere
✦ When Moms Need A Break: The Little Things You Can Do
✦ The Gift Of Self-Care: Self Love Gift Ideas That No One Ever Thinks To Give
Aha!
What a timely post. I am glad Jade asked me to cover this topic.
Today I feel overwhelmed. Right in this very moment, my thoughts and feelings seem to flow like roaring, racing rapids, threatening to debilitate me at any time.
I usually have 12-14 hours daily to devote to the love of my professional life: blogging. I call it not labor. I write like I breathe, self-publishing 100 plus eBooks and thousands of guest posts, no sweat.
But today is different.
I wrapped up a house sit and returned home at 11 AM. After cleaning up, and opening a new Paypal account – strange policies, thy Paypal folks have – I am diving into playwork at about 12:30 PM. Normally, I get going at 8 AM.
Ouch.
Plus my wife and I decided to see a comedian tonight. Fun times, but this subtracts about 4-5 hours from my workday.
Fear, and nothing else seems to be paralyzing me now.
I do feel overwhelmed.
But fear, like any feeling or thought, has zero power over me, and you. No fear can paralyze you unless you decide to travel with the current of fear.
Let’s conquer overwhelm today, so you can have fun, enjoy life, be more present and spot this silly energy to face, embrace and release it, pronto.
Follow an Energy Management Ritual
You do not need to DO anything to defeat overwhelm. But you do need to BE the person who faces and releases overwhelm-feeding fears, to let go of this intense feeling, largely for good.
15 minutes ago, I felt entirely overwhelmed.
Now I feel relaxed, chill and poised.
Why?
Most energy in my being – aka most feelings in me – are free-flowing, circulating, chill, relaxed energies. The bit of overwhelm I felt seemed intense but passed quickly because I do not have much fear-overwhelm in me.
Why?
I manage my energy daily to keep it flowing so no “fear-energy-dams” build up, allowing me to remain chill most of the time.
Be – and do – whatever floats your boat.
I do 90 minutes of deep yin yoga and 90 minutes of brisk power walking daily.
Maybe 30 minutes of meditation serves you. Or 40 minutes of prayer.
The specific action matters not but how you resonate with it, does.
Managing your energy goads you to face, feel and release fears fueling your overwhelm. Starve overwhelm of fear and it dies – your energy flows freely and you slow down, calm down and feel at peace.
Leave Your Comfort Zone
Most people feel entirely overwhelmed because they rarely leave their comfort zone.
I recall feeling overwhelmed trying to write 1 post daily some 10 years ago.
Slowly leaving my comfort zone and nudging into deep, palpable fears helped me write 1, 3 and more posts daily. Now I write 10, no sweat. During my article writing heyday, I could write 30 articles, each spanning 600 words.
Leaving your comfort zone habitually helps you develop a better relationship with fear. Doing this helps you leave overwhelm behind.
Edge out of your comfort zone once, twice or 30 times daily.
Go ahead.
Do it.
What once felt overwhelming ain’t nothing when you nudge into the fears fueling the overwhelm enough times.
Nudge out of your comfort zone offline, too.
Do not turn the AC on the split second you feel a little warm. Be with the discomfort for 5-10 minutes.
I just spent 2 months in Thailand in a home with a crappy fan.
No air conditioning at all.
Over 60 days, every single day reached 100 F to 107 F. I developed high levels of tolerance for heat and became SUPER comfortable with being uncomfortable, heat-wise.
Today, the heat index is about 110 F in New Jersey and I am prepared to go for a run. While most silly Americans fear dying in such temperatures, it feels quite comfortable and relaxing to me.
Be uncomfortable! At least for a bit. When humanity feels overwhelmed and panicked, you will glide through most conditions like a hot knife through butter.
Trust
Trust in the process of whatever you are doing.
Trust in yourself.
Trust in the Universe.
Most humans feel overwhelmed because they wrongly believe THEY need to DO ALL THIS STUFF to succeed, to make money, to raise a family or to be happy.
Not true.
Happiness, success and fulfilment are borne of trusting deeply in self and if you believe in something far greater than you, it sure doesn’t hurt your ability to release overwhelm – for good.
Every happy, prospering, compassionate, highly successful person trusts deeply in self and believes that the calm, poised, relaxed, intelligent, effective path creates the greatest fulfilment in life.
These people rarely feel overwhelmed because trust instantly moves you out of fear and frenzy into knowing and peace.
I cannot and will not put in 14 hours of fun-work-blogging today but I trust in myself and in the Universe. Plus, surrendering to what is always creates a deeper, more profound sense of calm, confidence in my being.
Breathe deeply.
Relax.
Follow these tips.
Release overwhelm to feel calm, at peace and poised as you glide through your day.
WOW! great article indeed,I immovably accept that to be creative as an individual, you have to venture outside your customary range of familiarity and push your own limits, which can be unnerving and awkward from the outset. Anyway you do need to confide in yourself,trust and understand that whatever occurs, you can gain from such encounters.Thanks for sharing this article
Thank you very much. Ryan Biddulph is a personal favourite and we highly recommend people check out his blog – especially if you feel stressed, overwhelmed or just plain tired. It’s an energiser.
I get Paralyzing overwhelm on a regular basis and finding techniques to battle this have always been so difficult, no one ever talks about it yet most people are living this feeling every day, some people suffer worse than others but having read your post I gained a sense of relaxation knowing there are strategies I can adopt to help me overcome it.
I am currently taking down notes on following an energy management ritual, leaving my comfort zone and trust, 3 big factors I needed help with so thank you for sharing this information,
James
You’re right. It’s like this deep and dark secret that everybody knows but which no one should talk about.
Hopefully, we’re able to help normalise this.
Thanks for sharing, James.
I firmly believe that to develop as a person, you need to step outside your comfort zone and push your personal boundaries, which can be scary and uncomfortable at first. However you do need to trust yourself and realise that whatever happens, you can learn from such experiences.
Certainly I can relate to this.
Thanks for sharing!
I agree completely. Although it can be hard (and depending on your personal circumstances, it can be extremely challenging), the rewards that await are more than worth it. Thank you for your comment, Ben.