Overwhelm Doesn't Have to be a Bad Thing
Overwhelm Doesn't Have to be a Bad Thing
Being overwhelmed can suck.
You need to get something done and can’t find where to begin?
Suck
People are expecting ‘deliverables’ from you and you’re busy with something else?
Suck
Just started a job, or school, and you’re inundated with new information?
Suck!
When we get too much queued up in our brain, we struggle to process all of it and if you’re lucky enough to have ADHD, you may just shut down. If you’re lucky, you can spot the overwhelm and try to nip it in the bud. If you’re experienced, you may have some strategies to handle it. And if you’ve created systems to manage time and information, you may never even notice.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you don’t have those tools. Or haven’t had them every time you needed them.
Channeling Chaos is about building those tools, but sometimes you might not need them.
Why does it suck? Does it have to?
That’s a dumb question, really. Overwhelm sucks because it makes us feel weak. Overwhelm is deflating, as it shrinks our sense of agency and leaves us feeling incompetent.
It sucks because it makes us feel bad.
It also sucks because it prevents us from accomplishing the things we want to accomplish.
It doesn’t have to suck though. Learning to spot your sense of overwhelm and isolate why you’re feeling that way, and it can give you the power to reframe it.
As you take steps to change your life or improve the areas where you feel lacking, you slowly start to change your mind. Change your mind in the good way. With each step towards self-improvement, ideally you’re seeing a shift in your mindset and how you few yourself and the world you’re living in.
How do you make overwhelm not suck?
Overwhelm is scary because it leaves you confused and that is scary.
Being afraid fires off your fight or flight, lizard brain, which results in you switching to a screen with kittens and ‘not scary’ things.
The more often you get overwhelmed and do nothing to overcome it, the stronger the sense that you’re out of control.
Overwhelm doesn’t have to be scary though.
Try this, think about the last thing you were overwhelmed by, it was probably one of a few things:
You had too much to do, your list seemed long and impossible, and you couldn’t figure out where to start or how you’ll finish in time.
You were trying to learn something but didn’t know which thing to learn first. You didn’t know what you didn’t know and were uncertain what to learn first.
You’re someplace with a lot of strangers, and you’re overstimulated without a way to escape.
You’re teaching someone, or managing something that is new to you and you have no safety net.
There’s a pattern here.
Overwhelm is a balance of “too much” and “not enough” and an inability to navigate that safely.
Making the most of “too much”
Whether you have too much to do, too much to learn or are generally overstimulated, you can embrace a mantra:
This too shall pass.
Having a Stoic mindset, or a zen mindset, or being an anti-Gandalf doesn’t matter. The intent is more important than what you’re channeling. The first thing to learn is that your current feeling of overwhelm is temporary.
As you make peace with the impermanence of… everything, there is a need for reflection as well.
“Have I felt this way before? What happened?”
“What is the smallest step I can take right now?”
“If I can make it through this, what’s on the other side?”
Hopefully your experience with overwhelm is that, regardless of how you felt, it all resolved itself in a positive result.
The whole world says to break things down into smaller steps to be productive, but this is different. Maybe it’s as simple as turning off the TV, or maybe it’s typing a sentence. Projects can be self-lubricating if you just get started.
Finally, knowing there is a compelling reason to make progress makes all the difference. It lubricates problems as well.
Overwhelm is only a problem for the fearful
Learning to get past your fear, pushing yourself to be brave, this is what starts to shift your mindset. Showing up, in this case, is acknowledging the reason for the overwhelm. Consistency is then all about taking steps when it happens, not getting stuck.
A final ADHD note, because sometimes this is ridiculously hard to overcome. If you know, you know. When I say take the smallest step, I literally mean the smallest. Do ANYTHING that is moving forward and do it again, and again. I’ve literally typed out typing exercises of nonsense just to get myself to start writing… you can always delete the crap once you’re starting to move.
My experience with overwhelm is no different from yours, we all struggle with it. I have some things that overwhelm just ruins, and it’s a struggle to overcome. Sometimes, though, some things feel overwhelming, but it’s exciting. I am often overwhelmed as I start a hyper-focus type task, but I’m so excited by it that I can push past it.
It is possible to see overwhelm as a good thing. You can learn to embrace that feeling and let it fuel your motivation. It just takes time and the willingness to shift your perception.