Tips for the Stressed and Overwhelmed

Is it just me, or after more than a year of COVID craziness and not doing much of anything, does everyone feel just as overwhelmed and busy as ever? No matter what you do to get ahead, there just never seems to be enough time in the day, and your anxiety level never seems to get any lower. Now, more than ever, we need to take action to calm the feelings of overwhelm and take back control of our minds. Luckily, at Clarity Counseling Center, we can provide you with some tips and suggestions of things you can try when you’re feeling maxed out:

Limit Social Media

If anyone asked how many hours a day you spend on social media, you would probably underestimate the amount of time — we all would. How many times a day do we pick up our phone to check the time and suddenly find we’re scrolling through Instagram or TikTok? If we spend two hours a day on social media, that adds up to 30 days a year: an entire month! Considering this is based on 24 hours per day for those 30 days, and assuming most of us sleep at least a few hours a night, this means more like two or three months out of 12 spent on social media! Scary, right? Think about all we could accomplish in our lives with that amount of time, or what it would mean to use even some of that time for self-care when we’re feeling maxed out.

In addition to the time suck, social media has a bad tendency to make people feel like they aren’t doing “enough.” Cooking gourmet meals, involving their kids in more extra-curricular activities, earning enough to buy an amazing house, working out enough to get an ideal body — the things we could be doing just keep adding up. We all know that social media is the “highlight reel” of everyone else’s life, yet don’t we all find ourselves in the comparison game? That comparison game causes us to overextend ourselves in all areas of our life so we can be “better,” but instead, we quickly find ourselves feeling like a failure because we can’t do it all, which leads to us feeling completely overwhelmed.

Brain Dump

Do you feel like you’re living in a constant state of low-level (or high-level) anxiety because you have all these “things to do” and “things coming up” floating around in your head? Does it seem you have a never-ending list of goals circulating around in your brain, leaving you feeling overwhelmed? Get out a notebook and dump all those thoughts, responsibilities, and “to-dos” out in one place. Take a look at it on paper in front of you. It may still be overwhelming, but once visible, at least it is a quantifiable number of actions you need to take instead of a limitless swirling hurricane of ideas.

Once you’ve got it all down on paper, the next step is to do it, schedule it, or drop it. If it’s a quick task you can knock out in the four remaining minutes of your lunch break, do it. If it’s a project — such as reviewing your taxes with your accountant or getting your yard aerated — schedule it. If there’s something on your long list that is not absolutely necessary, by all means, drop it! The world will not end if every single item on that list is not accomplished, so give yourself some grace and let go of the things that don’t matter; your peace of mind depends on it.

Schedule Self-Care

I can’t count the number of times I speak with clients about their self-care and hear, “I just don’t have enough time in my day!” We make time for everything and everyone that is important in our lives, except ourselves. If we haven’t seen our best friend in a while, we schedule a lunch date. If our kiddo needs a dentist appointment, we schedule an appointment. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else, so schedule self-care as well. Schedule gym time into your week, a hot bath into your bedtime routine, a mini-vacation every once in a while to just unwind. Scheduling works well for everything important in our lives, so be sure to schedule time for yourself.

Utilize Your Support System

A lot of us live in a state of not only taking care of everyone else before ourselves, but also denying we ever need help. Why is it okay for everyone else to need your help, but it’s not okay for you to need help from others? When you’re feeling stressed out and feel like you can’t handle any more, ask for help! Ask a friend to pick up your kids when they get their own so you don’t have to rush from your work meeting to make it to the school on time. Let your mother-in-law do the dishes or take the kids off of your hands for a night so you can unwind. Delegate that small project at work that doesn’t need your direct attention. Utilize the support you have to take some of the weight off, especially knowing that you would do the same thing for any of those people if they needed you.

Get More Sleep

When you feel like you have way too much on your plate, it’s a normal instinct to think, “If I just work a few more hours, I can get more done.” Resist that thought! Sleep is so important for your energy, your state of mind, and your mental health. If your sleep suffers, everything else will suffer too. You’re far more productive in getting all those to-dos done when you’re well-rested.

Deep Breathing

When all else fails, utilize the best tip of all — just breathe! Take 60 seconds to sit in a comfortable spot. Take a deep, slow breath in through your nose, allowing your abdomen to expand, as well as your chest. Hold that breath in without forcing it for a couple of seconds, then exhale slowly through loosely pursed lips, as if you were trying to blow out a candle without disturbing the wax. For added benefit, count in your head while you’re doing this to distract yourself from the racing thoughts in your brain. A few mini-breaks like this throughout your day will become a lifesaver for those stressful days when you feel like you can’t take anymore.

If you’re looking for more tips on how you can find peace when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, Clarity Counseling Center is here to help. We offer a variety of services at our counseling center, and our therapists are more than happy to work with you. Explore our website to learn more, and schedule an appointment today!

By Tara Parker