Coping with Feeling Overwhelmed with Life

Feeling overwhelmed with life is something many of us have experienced. When overwhelmed,  it can be challenging to manage the things that are going on in our lives.

Feeling overwhelmed with life can happen for a variety of reasons. For example:

• Work-related stress
• Personal and family commitments
• Poor sleeping patterns or poor health
• Financial difficulties
• Bereavement
• Relationship issues

Everyone has experienced high levels of stress and anxiety, depending on our circumstances. However, some of us can cope better with these feelings than others. Nevertheless, it is common for people to say to themselves, “I get overwhelmed so easily”. Therefore, if you ever feel this way, remember it is something you can learn to handle. We all cope with our emotions differently, but what is important is learning healthy ways to address this feeling.

Do you ever ask, “why do I get overwhelmed so easily”? Some of us experience feeling overwhelmed with life more often than others due to how sensitive we are. Understandably, highly sensitive people tend to become overwhelmed more often than those who are not so sensitive.

In short, the answer to this question is yes. Feeling overwhelmed with life is not always a negative thing. On the contrary, it simply means that you see things differently and more intensely than others and can often be a good thing.

There are benefits to being a highly sensitive person, such as:

• You will likely be good at empathising with others and can offer them advice.
• Although you may experience feeling overwhelmed with life more often than others, emotions of happiness and joy can be more intense.
• You can become more self-aware and better at recognising emotions. Therefore, you will know when to seek help to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed with life.
• You will become more appreciative of the more minor things in life.

When we are feeling overwhelmed with life, we can develop a negative mindset, and problems can worsen over time. Consequently, we can become anxious, angry, stressed, worried, and fearful. As a result, we can act differently.

For example:

• Overreacting to minor problems
• Becoming distant with friends and family
• A constant feeling of tiredness or ill-health
• Lesser ability to concentrate on simple tasks
• feel down often or for an extended period of time

However, this list is not exhaustive, and it is common for you to become overwhelmed due to a build-up on small things. Therefore, to break the negative cycle, you must find better ways to cope with feeling overwhelmed with life.

When we are feeling overwhelmed with life, often we struggle to explain why we think that way. Overwhelm is out of our control, and therefore, makes us uncomfortable. However, there are many ways that you can learn to cope with feeling overwhelmed.

When you refuse to accept that you are feeling overwhelmed with life, you prevent yourself from dealing with our issues. However, accepting your struggles allows you to have a different viewpoint. As a result, you can approach problems in a more positive light. Therefore, you can cope with problems better in the future as you become more resilient. Also, many of the issues you face in life are outside of your control. For that reason, you need to be able to understand what you can and can’t control. Consequently, it would be best if you remembered external forces will always impact your life, but you control your mind. In other words, by choosing to become more accepting, you can regain control of your life.

It is not uncommon for you to lose track of your goals when you feel overwhelmed with life. It would help if you tackled this by re-evaluating your priorities. For that reason, make a plan of how you intend to achieve your goal by working backwards to plan smaller tasks. Therefore, you can take one thing at a time and is much more manageable to address.

When you are overwhelmed, you should not compromise your goals. In other words, it is important to keep goals in mind and constantly work towards achieving them. For that reason, when you are feeling overwhelmed with life, think of solutions that will help you achieve your goals. Moreover, it would help if you worked out what barriers you are facing to reach them and develop solutions. Therefore, you are to change your mindset by healthily approaching problems. Furthermore, you can stay in control and not let barriers hold you back from achieving your end goal.

If you find yourself saying, “I get overwhelmed so easily”, it is probably because you limit yourself to your current beliefs. Therefore, become more flexible. Ask yourself, “Am I a perfectionist?” If the answer is yes, then it might be worth challenging what you believe in to address your thought of “I get overwhelmed so easily”. Most importantly, remember that perfection may be a good aim, but it is not always the case. You should “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”. In other words, you should aim high. However, if things don’t go to plan, you can still achieve great success, which could be even more so than the original goal.

Sometimes, we carry too much pride to seek help. The word “help” comes with a stigma that makes out that we cannot do something ourselves. An alternative way to think about this is to ask for support. In other words, although you may be able to achieve your goals on your own, it is helpful to have support in achieving them. Support should be considered a tool that helps to promote great success. For example, if you are stressed at work, ask a colleague to take over some of your tasks.

Feeling overwhelmed with life may come from you not taking enough time to focus on yourself. You are the most crucial person in your life. Therefore, it is essential to know when to take a step back and prioritise your mental health. Likewise, caring too much about what others think of you is useless as you are the only permanent thing in your life. Therefore, practise self-care to enable you to become the best version of yourself. Doing so may help to get to the root causes of your problem and address why you are feeling overwhelmed with life.

Some practical self-care methods are:

• Practising mindfulness
• Learning how to tap (Emotional Freedom Technique)
• Meditation
• Learning more about gratitude
• Breathing techniques
• Becoming more active
• Eating more healthily
• Making time for your interests and hobbies

It is helpful to talk to others when you are feeling overwhelmed with life. It allows you to share your problems with those who care about you. They will be able to offer advice or even a listening ear. Furthermore, you are then able to see your issues from a different point of view. Your support network can include anyone to who you feel comfortable talking. Such as,

• Friends
• Family
• Workmates
• Neighbours
• Support group

When you say, “I get overwhelmed so easily”, they will talk through your problems with you. Moreover, they will probably feel privileged that you are confiding in them and asking them for advice.

Written by Amy Bamford