Remind Yourself That You Have Choices to Lessen Overwhelm
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
I don’t know about you, but there have been days in my life that have felt overwhelming. Finals season at school, extremely taxing days at work, early days as a new parent – there are times when I feel out of control and overloaded. During these times when I feel overburdened, a simple exercise often helps me to calm down. I remind myself that I have choices.
When I felt stressed about studying for finals in high school and college, I would take a few minutes to remind myself that I could take a break and study again later, stop studying all together and get whatever grade I get, drop out of school and get a job, and so on. If days at work felt like too much, I would consider taking a sick day in order to retreat and try again the next day. During the days and nights of new parenthood, I reminded myself that I could lean more heavily on my husband and other family members if I needed a break.
Most of the time, just considering the different options and reminding myself that I have choices in all situations opened up space in my brain for me to calm down and no longer feel overwhelmed. For the work example, as soon as I considered taking a sick day and leaving, I almost always was able to settle down immediately and rationally plan out how to tackle the activities of the work day.
As adults, there really aren’t things that we HAVE to do. We don’t have to work at jobs we don’t like. We don’t have to be in relationships that don’t feel right. We don’t even have to pay taxes (obviously there are consequences for this, but there is a choice that we make to not face those consequences). Reminding yourself of your choices can open up space in your mind to lessen overwhelm and more rationally consider your options.
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Productively Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team