This is one of this biggest motivation killers out there. Overwhelm!

What is it? Clumping and dumping. You clump stuff together and the emotional weight is dumped on you.

Essentially clumping all the emotion together or a whirlwind of detail so the mind does not efficiently filter and sort or is not generalising enough to move forwards…

Our minds do one of three filters on the information coming in.

• It deletes the unnecessary – i.e. selective memory. “I told you I gave you the keys”… “No you didn’t”
• Distorts into the perspective it expects and is used to: “You look curvy in that dress” – “Are you saying I’m fat?”
• Generalises into chunks – ie “Everything makes me stressed”li>

Overwhelm is a classic case of generalisation theme juggling, which spins a lot of detail and emotion around so it’s like being in the eye of a huge storm.

The key is to get above the storm and separate out the chunks again. Hypnosis is very effective for this.

Also – just letting you know – if any of the chunks are emotionally unresolved, emotion amplifies other emotion so things seem worse that otherwise wouldn’t.

Having to feed the kids in an hour would not normally be a major stressor, but today, in the current climate, with the deadline looming and the dog at the vets and the phone ringing, its suddenly a massively stressful exercise to even think what to cook.

STOP.

Just breathe

Your breathing is a really good indicator. When it tightens and feels shallow or constricted and high in the chest, you are getting stressed. Stop. Breathe like this in 7 / 11…

Practice this the 7/11 breathing technique

Scale your current stress out of 10 on the page.

• Breathe in though your nose to a count of 7 and breathe out through your mouth for 11.
• Repeat 7 times
• Then Breathe normally.

Do this whole thing three times. Now scale out of 10 how you now feel. It will be much much lower.

Use your breathing to release tension.

Longer term. Pay attention to what allows you to breathe fully in your life and what constricts your breathing – including people and things! Your body carries signlas to let you know what is good for you to be around right now, or avoid for a while until you have resolved it. Give yourself that space.

The little things make a big unconscious impact. Try these tips now.

Move Your Body

What your body does – your mind follows and visa versa. Chances are if you are stressed then your body will be the physical respresentation of that state. Shift your body and your mind will loosen up and relax too!

So – Move and change your state ASAP. Just move.

I promise that this will make a world of difference to your overwhelm short term enough to gan some new energy.

Physically move. Just stand up. Shift out of the zone you were in and move. Ideally get fresh air and walk outside – even grounding yourself barefoot on earth has been scientifically proven to reduce cortisol and stress in the body (due to something called electrons) apart from the obvious benefit of a new environment.

Longer term – incorporate exercise into the beginning of your day which will raise your feel good chemicals which you can surf on for the rest of the day. It will also act as ‘me time’, give you space and clarity, help with motivation and energy and your sleep!

Get It Out Of Your Head

What I like to call ‘The Dumbledore Technique‘

Remember when he pulled a memory from Harry’s head and into the font to look at it?

Well that has a lot of useful elements to it. From a hypnotherapist and NLP point of view it’s actually a brilliant technique.

When you move a thought into a written statement it changes how the body responds to it. Getting thoughts out of the mind onto a page in a coherent way you can reread it again, will help you gain some perspective.

So, write it out, get it out of your head onto the page into the major themes contributing to your overwhelm (to break it back down into little chunks.) Against each, notice the scale of how bad you feel just simply scoring it out of 10 being realistic.

i.e.

• Dog at The Vets – Emotional Stress 9/10
• Deadline for Project Due Yesterday – 9/10
• Children need their dinner – 4/10

Score each for their real urgency and ask yourself, Now THE ONE THING (To quote the excellent multi millionaire business owner, Gary Keller,) Ask yourself

“What is the ONE THING, just the one, that if I did that or resolved that, some of the others would also get resolved or be irrelevant?”

OR

What is the ONE THING that is to be done now in order to achieve what I want today.

Then put the others on a different pile for tomorrow.

Longer term solutions

Look at your environment and assess it as though for someone else and ask – is this a space where someone can get things done?

Move working location. Did you know attach emotions and feelings to things and places – in hypnosis it’s called anchoring and as a hypnotist I use anchoring constantly. You can even remove anchors. If you have a place where you work and also a place where you ‘do stress’ you will trigger stress every time you re-enter that space if you are used to behaving in that way. Sorry, but thats how the brain works.

Collapse that by playing miscue in that space, dancing (yes any kind of movement totally opposite to the norm) or change the lighting and open a window. It will shift your psychological anchoring and shift stagnant energy in that space making way for new uplifting energy.

What feels better? Door closed and phone off? or Door Open and music on. We are ALL different. ALWAYS do what is right for you.

Clear your desk – it has a psychological affect of the mind. Then organise your space enough to separate out different tasking where possible.

Break up your day so you move away from the work space.

Watch the videos on my Youtube channel – ‘PR Triangle’ or ‘Havening’ to get some immediate stress relief and reduce any emotional overwhelm.

Tips and strategies like this are good however, a clear out 1:1 session with me can be a life saver when you are overwhelmed and can easily be done right there in your workspace on zoom, anchoring new calm and peace to the space where you work!

Mental headspace will create strides for you, so always get in touch if you need help, don’t suffer and stew.

Also – One last important thing to remember – Let them wait. People and things that feel urgent often aren’t. Get your head sorted first so you can deliver at your pace. You will be glad you did!