Podcast Summary
Exploring Overwhelm and Coping Mechanisms: Recognize signs of overwhelm, understand causes, and find coping mechanisms through journaling.
Overwhelm is a feeling of being overloaded, caused by an overworked executive function in the brain. Executive function refers to the cognitive processes responsible for managing daily life, including planning, organizing, focusing, and regulating emotions. Overwhelm can occur easily in today's distracted world and can impact anyone, regardless of their stage in life or capacity. During a recent positivity hangout, we explored dealing with overwhelm through journaling and discovered that it's essential to recognize the signs, understand the causes, and find ways to cope in the moment. Remember, it's personal and can affect us differently at various stages of our lives.
Recognizing and managing overwhelm in children and adults: Accepting overwhelm, taking a quick break for physical activity or deep breathing can help prevent escalation into heavy emotional outbursts.
Everyone experiences overwhelm, and it can manifest in various ways, even in young children. Executive function, the ability to manage and prioritize tasks, is still developing in young children, leading to tantrums over seemingly trivial matters. For adults, overwhelm can lead to a "tantrum" of emotions, which, if not addressed, can escalate. Accepting and acknowledging this feeling is the first step in managing it. Some effective strategies include taking a quick break for physical activity or deep breathing to dispel adrenaline and calm the mind. By recognizing and addressing overwhelm early on, we can prevent it from escalating into a more heavy emotional outburst.
Allow yourself to feel overwhelmed and practice calming techniques: When feeling overwhelmed, acknowledge the emotion and practice calming techniques to help manage it, remembering that it's a normal part of life and you have the strength to get through it.
When you feel overwhelmed and on the verge of losing control, it's important to allow yourself to experience the emotion, but also to practice calming techniques to help manage it. This could include taking deep breaths, engaging in mindfulness practices, or simply acknowledging the feeling and reminding yourself that it's normal to feel overwhelmed at times. In the moment, it's important to acknowledge the overwhelm and give yourself permission to feel it, rather than trying to push it away or suppress it. Once you've acknowledged and processed the emotion, you can then begin to take steps to manage it and move forward. It's important to remember that everyone experiences overwhelm from time to time, and it's a normal part of life. But by practicing calming techniques and allowing yourself to feel and process the emotion, you can better manage it and move through it. So, in summary, when you're feeling overwhelmed, give yourself permission to feel the emotion, but also practice calming techniques to help manage it. Remember, you have the strength and resilience to get through it, and you'll come out the other side stronger and more capable than before.
