When you experience emotional overwhelm, it can feel all-consuming. For the many people who will face this feeling at some point in their lives, it entails being completely overcome by an intense and unruly emotion that something is too challenging to manage and overcome.
When confronted with being overwhelmed, it can be difficult to think and act rationally, and even function in a normal way. Needless to say, the experience of this feeling is uncomfortable and the causes and effects can span across your personal and professional life.
Preventing Emotional Overwhelm
No matter the reason, if you feel the onset of overwhelm, there are some ways to help address the emotions both on your own and by leveraging outside support.
1. Accept the anxious feelings
Fighting off all-consuming emotions likely doesn’t do much to ease them in a particularly anxious moment. Try to remember that anxiety, to a certain degree, is a “normal” part of the human experience and use acceptance as a tool to work through those uncomfortable feelings (when possible).
2. Reverse your overwhelmed thought processes
Feelings of unpredictability and complete despair fuel overwhelm. Those unreasonable thoughts build up as anxiety and can cause a person significant distress. Stop those damaging thoughts before they become habitual ruminations by honestly asking yourself if that way of thinking is unreasonable or unhelpful. At the same time, try to find alternative, more positive thoughts.
3. Take some deep breaths
When you consciously breathe in deep, it triggers your body’s relaxation response and can come in handy during particularly stressful moments. Additionally, practicing yoga, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation can help calm your body’s response to anxiety, as each exercise helps you to focus your breath.
4. Be in the moment
If your thinking is focused on what the future holds — whether in a few minutes or several years down the road — it may make you more susceptible to becoming overwhelmed. Think about one moment, task and experience at a time, in the present moment, to help remove the possibility of uncontrollable thoughts that may or may not come about.
5. Know your resources
Besides breathing and meditation techniques to help prevent overwhelm, there is plenty of scientific research available about how stress and anxiety impact our cognitive abilities. To strengthen your ability to manage those feelings, discover what studies and recommendations resonate with you by using online digital tools. See: https://eapassist.com.au/digital/