Ten minutes into a drive one morning, I had to turn off the podcast I was listening to so I could sit in silence. My eyelids were heavy and my mind was racing. I was confused why I felt so utterly exhausted. 

A couple of hours later, following numerous failed attempts to focus on work, I realized I was feeling overwhelmed by my lack of direction and accomplishment over the previous 24 hours.  

Feeling overwhelmed includes intense emotions that manifest into feeling powerless. Thoughts and confusing feelings literally overpower your body. It might feel like life is happening faster than you can control. Those mental and emotionally depleting experiences can result in making poor decisions. 

The lesson: when you feel overwhelmed, stop “to-do” tasks and start “to-be” work.   

Feeling stressed is different than feeling overwhelmed. The scale above may help you to discern how they’re different. Mental health support is crucial if being overwhelmed becomes (or is) a recurring experience. Otherwise, you might start a non-striving activity such as yoga or meditation, or a sensory processing concept. 

Coping by non-striving is being mindfully attentive. Getting yourself to a state where you are not striving could include mind-body scanning, meditation, or walking mindfully (such as extremely slow while thoughts are directed to every slight and small physicality in the action.)

Alternatively, you might stimulate being calm and in control. In fact, overwhelmed feelings may be the result of sensory processing challenges rather than your narrative - thoughts, identity stories, and confusing feelings. A destructive route to controlling or calming feelings with stimuli may appear as overindulgences. 

Do you get startled by an unexpected touch? Can’t handle heights? Experience car sickness? To better understand how your sensory systems react to sensory experiences email us. We’ll send you a questionnaire with directions to determine your results and next steps.