To be overwhelmed, is to experience intense emotion that is a struggle to manage. It impairs your ability to think and act rationally. It also prevents you from engaging in daily tasks. Overwhelm has many causes which can include trauma, stress, and relationship problems.
We all know what it feels like to be so saturated by stress and emotion that we are unable to continue with our lives. So today, I would like to dig a little deeper than just the feeling and share with you, the 3 things I’ve learned about overwhelm…
1 – More and more people are experiencing overwhelm.
The union of technology and capitalism both promote overwhelm and demand that people do more than ever in less time. We are now able to do more, faster, at the click of a button which means we can accomplish more than ever before. Unfortunately this also means we are expected to do more than ever before aswell.
2 – We are complicit.
Not necessarily intentionally complicit but we are complicit none the less. Most people’s sense of self-worth is unconsciously but powerfully connected to their perception of their productivity. Moreover, our brain gives us little squirts of dopamine and other hormones each time we accomplish one more thing. Despite the fact that we may be harming ourselves in the process.
3 – We were not designed to be overwhelmed.
Evolutionarily, we were designed to deal with short term, acute threats, of a singular nature (you know, like a tiger). The poor fit of our evolutionary software and hardware combined with the demands of modern-day society is fucking us up. We must learn to understand our brains and nervous systems to truly beat stress.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, try this.
For meditations and tips to reduce the stressors in your life, go to my Youtube channel.
