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Welcome back to Thank God It’s Monday!
tl;dr When we operate in a state of overwhelm, we suppress our creativity, our rational thinking, and our ability to be grateful. Overwhelm is caused by factors both inside and outside of our control. To better function during a period of overwhelm, we can modify our controllable factors, avoid distractions, and set realistic expectations.
It feels like finals week. I wake up feeling overwhelmed about what has to get done in the day, and go to bed thinking about all of the things still left to do. Except instead of research papers and exams, I’m getting paid to stay up all night at a great job, my non-work time is spent building a business, and instead of a big party on Friday night to look forward to, I am heading to the airport for the trip of a lifetime!
Obviously, the details have changed, but the sensation of overwhelm has not. I distinctly remember junior year going to the library after my organic chemistry final to put my head down and cry. After five or ten minutes of crying at the table with my friends, I picked myself up, told them I’d see them in a couple of days, and headed back to my isolated study spot in the science building to study for my cell bio final. I was doing my best to operate in the overwhelm.
The urge to cry for no reason still comes and goes, but now that those pesky science finals are over, I can better assess the situation.
When we talk about feeling overwhelmed, what physical sensations arise for you? Is it a lump in your throat? Tightness in your chest? Shallow breaths?
Those are the more obvious, unpleasant sensations that can be identified. And they may differ person to person. However, the more universal effects of overwhelm are a lack of creativity, rational thinking, and gratitude.
Consider when you’re swamped at work. Your brain probably has a hard time problem-solving or seeing potential solutions for a project you’re working on. You cannot be creative when you are dealing with a “threat,” the threat being the deadline, a large task, or a seemingly insurmountable issue.
On the other hand, consider when you’ve been overcome with a great idea or solution in the shower or while on a walk in nature. The mental space away from the “threat” allows your mind to wander and be creative.
Rational thinking is the next area of your brain that goes offline. Your only subconscious task is survival during these periods of overwhelm. Any minor inconvenience that you could normally tackle in five minutes becomes the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Rationally, you know that text from your friend was harmless, but your overwhelmed brain cries at what it could possibly insinuate. There is no room for rationality when your body is trying to ration its energy.
The last part of your brain that forgets how to function is the ability to be grateful. Even if you are typically a glass-half-full type of person, when you’re overwhelmed, you most likely become a glass-half-empty one. Where you would normally be able to see a silver lining, you are now all doom and gloom. This is again a survival mechanism. If you’re feeling threatened, your body is adapted to look for anything else that is potentially harmful. The benefit of practicing gratitude is only possible when one feels safe.
So how can we avoid this system overdrive during periods of overwhelm?
First, modify controllable factors. There will be plenty of times when life happens, and you have no control over the arising situation. Instead of focusing on what is outside of your control, mitigate the controllable factors as best you can. Try to continue your exercise routine and eat well. These are two controllable factors that will also have a big impact on your mental tenacity. Any other factors that you can leverage to your benefit, do so.
Second, avoid distractions. Our nervous systems do NOT want to be strained, so we look for distractions. Email you don’t want to answer? Check social media. Room you don’t want to clean? Eat a snack. Difficult conversation you’ve been avoiding? Online shop. But these are all distractions. And the worst part of distractions is that they not only do not address the overwhelm, but they often make it worse. When you do come back to face the task that creates the overwhelm, you feel worse for avoiding it and wasting time. So minimize the distractions and jump in feet first.
Third, set realistic expectations. During a deadline week, would you also set up dinner with all of your friends and plan to go away on vacation? No. You wouldn’t expect to stretch yourself that thin. Then why, when you have one aspect of your life demanding excellence for a period of time, would you try to be excellent in multiple areas? Prioritize your priorities (I am purposefully redundant because people love talking about their priorities without actually prioritizing them).
Life comes with seasons of overwhelm. But hopefully, each time they happen, we get a little bit better at handling them. Thankfully, I never have to take cell bio, organic chemistry, and physics finals back-to-back again. But when new challenges do arise, and I find myself again in the overwhelm, I can take it with a little more grace than back then.
How do you handle your overwhelm?
If you found some value in this, please share it with a friend you think would enjoy it! And let me know if you’d like to be added to get TGIM.
This week, my podcast recommendation is from Science Vs. “What Do Tear Gas and ICE Raids Do to People?”
With that, I will talk to you guys next week!
Until next time,
Shannon
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