Overcoming Overwhelm - Deb's Top 10 stress busters

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After taking on a lot of goals this year, and with corporate and personal taxes coming up (I do the book keeping for our family business), and with my new schedule of driving my daughter to and from school, karate, and making dinners, lunches and breakfasts, plus my husband’s Saturday family clean the house dates (not very romantic but kind of fun and much better than doing all the cleaning by myself) - overwhelm has momentarily crept in and taken a hold of my sanity.

Lucky for me I get in the studio first thing – even if it’s just for 10 minutes. But when I leave my magic “heaven on earth” studio space, life creeps in…..


Then I remembered this list I created a while back…. Ok, you read on, I’m going out for a walk.

Oh and John Michael, if you're reading, for goodness sakes, don't do all of these at once - you're likely to get overwhelmed. Just pick one!!!

Here’s my top 10 list of getting past overwhelm:

  1. Get out of the house/office/studio! Take a break, breathe (funny how we often forget to fully do this!) and drink some water. Change the scenery.
  2. Get into your body and out of your head – often feeling arises because we are thinking about all the things we have to do. We are totally in our heads. Get out of overwhelm by getting into your body. Try:
    Deep Breathing
    Walking
    Do yoga, QiGong
    Swimming
    Stretching
  3. Play some music and dance! If you have are-bounder or trampoline jumping is a great way to release tension.
  4. Delegate some of the things on your to- do list.
  5. Re-evaluate – do you really need to do everything on this list?
  6. Increase your tolerance for mess and disorder -The house does not need to be in perfect order for you to do 10 minutes of your painting project. Just go do it anyways! Dishes be dammed!
  7. Try a Natural Remedy such as Rescue remedy or Bach Flower essences can help shift us energetically to get us out of the frantic state.
  8. Use Eric Maisels’ CENTERing sequence - it's an excellent way to bring you back to the present moment and out of overwhelm.

    Breathe in while saying the first part and breathe out while saying the second part.

    (I am completely) (stopping)
    (I expect) ( nothing)
    *(I am joyfully) (writing this article about overwhelm) [*note this is your current work]
    (I trust) (my resources)
    (I embrace) (this moment)
    (I return) (with strength)

    (I have obtained)(Permission to quote this from Eric Maisel)

    This concept comes from Coaching the Artist Within, Eric Maisel, pHD
  9. Ask yourself better questions. Sometimes overwhelm is a state of mind because we are asking ourselves questions that encourage the negative state of overwhelm. We could ask ourselves better questions such as;

    How can I simplify things here?
    What could I eliminate from my to do list right now?
    What is the purpose of all my busy ness?
    What is my desired outcome for all these things I am trying to get done here? (Because may I don’t need to do them all to achieve the desried outcome)
    How could I make this process more fun?
    How could I nurture myself in this process?
  10. Re-frame it. Jill Badonsky, author of the 9 Modern Day Muses and founder of Kaizen Muse Creativity Coaching encourages us to re-phrase our to-do's in playful and positive phrases such as “I get to… (write this blog )…!”

Just pick the one that seems easy and the most fun.