When stress + overwhelm hit.

Feeling overwhelmed is a completely normal and universal human experience. 

The challenge is not this sensation in itself, but the action you take when it arises.

Most of us have never been taught how to fully be with our emotions, meaning giving them space to move through you, rather than them letting consume you.

That is why, most of us tend to distract, numb or shut down completely, when overwhelm hits. The more we do that, the more intense this sensation becomes. Over time you might find yourself experience overwhelm more frequently, more intense, perhaps even to the point that it hinders you to fully focus on your tasks.

If you experience this, know that there is nothign wrong with you. It is an invitation to get to know the lanauge of your body better while cultivating inner emotional safety - the most important foundation for a life with lasting vitality & inner peace.

Understand this:
Your body's control room - your nervous system - is constantly evaluating wehter you are safe or not. If you've never been taught howt o be with unfomrtoabel emotions, your subconscious stored the belief that feeling big sesnsations, like overwhelm is not safe.

That is why whenever that sensation arises, your brain perceives it as a threat. This activates 1 of the 4 a survival strategies in your nervous system, leading to specific actions/behaviours:

The 4 survival stragegies are:
Fight -  irritability, snapping, controlling, frustration, anger

Flight -  rushing, overthinking, overworking, doing more, mental spiralling, urgency

Freeze - exhaustion, numbness, procrastination, shutdown, “I can’t think clearly”
Fawn - people pleasing, trying to manage everyone else’s emotions, overcommitting
 to manage everyone else’s emotions, overcommitting

If you are not aware of what is happening & if you are not attuning to that overwhelm when it arises, one of the above survival mechanisms will be activated. This what happens when we REACT emotionally to a sitatuon or circumstance.

Cotninue to do that over weeks, months & years, you are perpetuating that emotional stress cycle & that overwhelm intensifies, which makes your nervous system perceive more danger, which creates more stress, which over time becomes chronic &  ultimately disregulates your NS.

this is where dis-eases, burnout happens.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Cultivating emotional awanress & safety supports you in these moment to release that emotional sterss cycle.

Living with vitality, is not the absence of overwhelm or stress. IT's about

living with vitality is not about the absence of never feeling stressed or overwhelmed anymore, but recognising when it is happening & knowing how to support yourself by completing the stress cycle itself.

The below NS regulation tool is a very easy & effective tool for moments when you notice stress + overwhelm building up. It's less than 2 minutes & it changes your whole way of being.

After following the Emotional Release Process with
step 1 - aware
step 2 - accept
the below video demonstrates step 3 - release
+ a micro moment of step 4 - explore, where I anchor myself in in my Vitality Oasis & give myself compassion.

Try it out for yourself & keep attending to your body + NS. that is where vitality + capacity for life sits.

 
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