Life is Overwhelming – What To Do?

Life is overwhelming at times. And in this 2020 modern era, yes? Feeling overwhelming anxiety and stress can turn out to be productive or unhealthy in your choosing. And this article is all about how to process stress and when life is overwhelming.

For better long-term health and productivity you could emphatically scream to release or let out your frustrations in private, instead of bottling inside.  Or you could prefer quiet peace.

But whichever you choose, release the trauma in the present.

In the same stressful situation, all things being equal, for a Vata dosha that’s already anxious, the overwhelming anxiety and stress can turn into deeper worry and show up as any number of physical body symptoms.

For a Pitta or Pitta imbalance, that could be expressed and turned into criticism, blame, irritation, or heart-related issues.

For a Kapha dosha, that could be withdrawing from happiness or experiencing depression.

Know that you can restore any of the dosha mood imbalances through your daily restoring mind, and repair seasonal imbalances.

For any of us, short-term stress situations can temporarily create havoc in our life (where life is overwhelming at times). But some stress and temporary stress is good and can lead to success and discovery as you’re productive and get things done.

And we are grateful when the stress ends.

But when the long-term stress dust doesn’t settle (and runs as an undercurrent in our lives) without any end in sight, this can take a toll on your mind and body, that can result in discomforts. And you can tell from your body symptoms  that you can help change.

They can show up as repeated Ground Hog day feelings, sluggish moods, and heavy thoughts that add up.

You can change the trajectory, operating from your own higher self-care awareness and creating better daily practices and habits that lead to a better outlook and happier, more balanced results.

You can learn repeatable and sustainable ways when you get clarity that’s what you want (and know you’ve had enough of what you don’t want to repeat again).

Balance Anxiety and Stress When Life is Overwhelming

Taking a pause and stepping back from stress can serve you. It’s a good strategy to embrace so you create habits around stress (that doesn’t have to be a daily existence).

Here’s how I took an overwhelm (anxiety and stress) break 5 years ago…   with a sweet happy cake pop 🍰 afternoon pick me up.

Those were the days when I lived and breathed chick peas in hummus as a party appetizer working for a chic Lebanese restaurant chain.

The definition of overwhelm is “bury or drown beneath a huge mass.”  And I think the 👆photo illustrates the point well. 😂

You know how you walk into someone’s office and you can tell the state of affairs. If they have nothing on their desk, you know they HAVE A LOT of help. And if they can’t find their desk, then they NEED A LOT of help. I was definitely in the NEED HELP category!

And that’s what it felt like at the time… a storm came through the roof of the building and hit my desk. Oh my goodness!… this isn’t my work life now, but years ago, this is where I worked 15 hour days during the holidays in an overwhelmingly busy catering office. My work life is overwhelming was an understatement.

Some nights I burned the midnight oil trying to catch up on all the details required to put together social, corporate, and wedding events. Sometimes I was too busy to even notice all the imbalances I had going on!

…Any hotel and restaurant people out there who can relate? 😉

And when you can get back time of processing your life (work or not), you can see how overwhelming and consuming it is.

Overwhelm feelings = you don’t fully own your life…

This is when the mind or body has taken over some control like in busyness where you go through the motions and keep going.

And you can keep going… going… going…

But one day the body shows stressor signs. I know that’s how it was when I worked in hotel catering offices.

Nothing is worse than a health warning that I experienced as a panic attack two decades earlier in life’s busy overwhelm.

In those moments, you hopefully learn (like I did in trials) to not deplete yourself of joy and to take care of your health. I chose to prioritize work life balance after that.

No work is that important… I’m sure you would nod your head agreeing with me if you’ve ever felt helpless in life’s overbearing situations.

Taking A “Need a Break” Moment 

It’s okay to take breaks. Points aren’t won for killing yourself for a work goal.

Your mind and body are keeping score. And taking short breaks add up…

We all can take a walk, stroll, get our steps in, do gentle stretching or yoga every day even if it’s just seconds at a time.

This can help our body’s balance and our mind’s balance life-work-passion.

We can help allow situations that feed our overwhelm or underwhelm seasons.  These aren’t opposite sides of the same coin.  They are the same possible malaise or dis-ease that affects mind-body, especially when there are multiple causes.

The smallest things can rock us off our best selves, and create anxiety and stress undercurrents.

Like, if I wrote this article in all bold cap fonts, that could create anxiety, as could an alarm buzzer sounding (or not sounding) when scheduled.

Or when you deal with a series of mundane busy tasks that seems bottomless, the accumulation effect can leave you feeling bored and listless.

Our listless outlook can make us feel like we don’t matter… are not enough… and sometimes useless as life swallows us in self-pity.  Even though that’s hardly the truth as you have so much to offer and a much bigger future to be uncovered.

These are both subtle stressors.

Then there’s Impostor Syndrome (fueled by ego) lurking around the corner, and ready to kill our inspiration and get us to start and stop or never start.  So it’s not just our external circumstances. It’s also us.

Be ready to stop the offender at the gate with inspiration, love, and joy. 💕

Flipping our internal dialogue to healthy self-talk and perspectives changes everything for us. I

Especially in America where I live, we can definitely help ourselves with a heavy dose of relaxation and lowering our overachieving or overthinking standards.

Adding Ayurveda components to the modern grocery shopping list and activity lifestyle help to bring back the healthy bliss balance. And reduce stress.

Reducing Stress and Restore Healing

And if you’re living in a major metro area, you may need this reminder regularly as it permeates the air.  Living in the #2 most stressed-out metro area in the nation, I had to breathe in this reality.

And no matter where you live, we’re all plugged in through the internet and smartphones that can create another anxious source.

You have relationships and work with people with that can create stress.

We need to soothe our bodies, unplug our minds, and find time to disconnect from the outside world.  This helps us with better moods…

A mood can be characterized by happy, sad, anxious, worried, aggressive, or passive feelings that show up differently for each of us. And with better moods, we have the ability to heal ourselves, even in high-stress seasons and moments, in the busy pace and slow dance of life.

Depending on what dosha you lead with, you can find your version of getting to pure joy.

For Vata, you could use your calm surroundings to impact your mind and body, to shift you away from automatic anxiety, worry, and then gradually ease you out of your overwhelm. For Pitta, you can release your pent-up frustrations through physical activities. And for Kapha, you can choose to stay actively inspired and purposefully plugged into your life.

To learn more about how to restore your imbalances, take the body balance quiz.

These days my snacks are more simple like this Baked Chick Peas snack recipe idea… a great way to get in your protein and salty fix.