Hey, my friend what is up and welcome back to another episode of Do Life Big, I'm so excited to have you here today cannot wait to dive into this episode. But before I begin, I just want to make sure that you have had the chance to head over to Kathireuter.com/thinkthisnotthat it'll be in the show notes. But I have put together a completely free workbook that has 19 of the most common limiting beliefs or negative thoughts that are going on in your mind on repeat, and how you can replace them with the more positive empowering belief. Remember, changing the way that you think changes everything for you in your life. So head on over to Kathireuter.com/thinkthisnotthat and go ahead and snag that workbook.
We're gonna dive into today's episode, and it's going to be all about how to stop feeling overwhelmed. You know, it's getting near that time of the year now where the holidays are rolling around the end of the year is coming. And we can tend to get really overwhelmed. It's just a common word that I hear all the time, right? And it's extremely easy to get overwhelmed these days. You know, if you think of all the technology that we have, you know, we have phones, we have TVs, we have virtual realities, we have tablets and iPads, other people in our life, we have children, we have work, we have family, the list goes on and on and on. So many things are trying to get our attention. And some of the things definitely do deserve our attention. But then there are other things that shouldn't be getting our attention.
So not only is overwhelm bad for your mind, but it's also really bad for your body. There was a study done that showed people with higher levels of overwhelm, were more prone to develop heart disease, and other mental illnesses compared to other people who didn't have such high levels of overwhelm. So overwhelm is something that affects you mentally and physically. So it's something that we should definitely all try to work on. It's not like it ever completely goes away, right life is going to get in the way. It's not like you're never going to be overwhelmed, but how can we minimize it? And how can we deal with it so that we don't get as overwhelmed?
So when we look at overwhelm, what is it really, and it's really the body's way of being like holy crap, you need to chill out, you got to calm down, this is way too much. Just chill for a little bit. But the problem is, if you're someone like me, for example, who has trained yourself to be on the go, go, go, go go. The problem is that when you are like that, and you finally force yourself to sit down and chill, it makes you feel even more on edge and more stressed. And you start thinking I should be doing this, I should really get up and do this. Because this is due next week, I should really start. You start thinking about all the things that you should be doing, instead of just letting yourself chill out in the moment, right?
Been there done that I am totally guilty of this. But we are responsible for putting the stress or strain on our minds and bodies. We aren't going to play the blame game here. Because it's you who was responsible for it. It's me, who creates the feeling of overwhelm when I'm feeling overwhelmed, which is why it's so important. Each and every one of us works on this, you know, and it could be that maybe your body is overworked, right? Maybe you have a very physically demanding job. And you're doing too much physically. That could be the reason why you're feeling overwhelmed. I'm not saying it can't. But most of the time, the overwhelm is coming from your inability to be able to turn your mind off.
So if you're thinking and then you're overthinking and then you're waking up first thing in the morning and you're checking all your social media platforms, and then you're running and you're grabbing your coffee and rushing your kids to school to get out the door and go go go go go and then your kids finally come home from school you do the whole homework thing dinner, get ready for bed, and then unwinding, or your idea of unwinding and relaxing is just sitting down watching TV every single night. And you live in this pattern every single day. Well, it's no frequent wonder why we're overwhelmed, right? Because we aren't giving ourselves a second to just sit and be still, to just chill. It's one of the reasons why I love going to our places in North Carolina in the mountains. Because when I go there, and I should really practice this more here in Florida, but when I go to North Carolina, I love it so much, because it is so quiet, we're up in the mountains, there's no traffic, there's really no traffic lights, and you can sit out on the patio, and just watch the deer in the backyard. And you can look at the bright, bright stars at night. And it's so quiet. And I don't look at my phone when I'm out there. I just sit there and I listen. And it is so relaxing and so peaceful.
So, you know, when people say her, I've even said it to, it's making me overwhelmed. It's really not that thing that's making you overwhelmed. It's how you're thinking about it in your brain that's causing the overwhelm. So this goes back to another episode, where I talked about the story that you tell yourself internally, that's what this is all about. It's not work. It's not your kids, it's not your business overwhelming you, it is not overwhelming you, when you do this, and you live in this constant cycle of saying, He's overwhelming me, works overwhelming me, this is overwhelming me, it's overwhelming me, when you do this, you're taking all the blame and putting it on something external. And that's making you the victim to your circumstances.
But in reality, it's you who is in control of what you do every day, or what you don't do every day. So when you are the victim it's making you have no power over your life. And when you feel like you don't have any power over your life, then you get more overwhelmed. So it's not making you overwhelmed, you are making yourself overwhelmed. So you want to take internal blame. Because when you do when you put the blame and responsibility on yourself, it puts you into the driver's seat, and it gives you control. Because if you are the only one making yourself overwhelmed, then you are also the only one who can make you not overwhelmed. But when you blame external things, you can't change it. When you blame you, you can change it such a tiny little change between it's overwhelming me, or I am overwhelming myself. But it can really change the way that you view the world and what you can or cannot do. So now how can we get free from this overwhelm?
Really, number one, breathe more, just chill the eff out. It's just a chance to take a break two to three minutes a day. Don't do anything else. But just focus on your breathing, maybe you're even in the car and your husband has to go get gas instead of pulling out your phone and scrolling Facebook, just sit there and breathe for a couple of minutes. You know, if you constantly are Go, go, go go go and you never allow yourself to breathe. I mean, there's been studies done about this, eventually all of this will catch up to you. If you don't slow down. Our bodies are not meant to go go go all the time. So how can you get that in two to three minutes of just breathing every day?
The next thing is to focus on one thing at a time, get good at this and get good at focusing on one thing at a time. How do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time, prioritize the things that you need to do. And then take action on one thing at a time, get better at your time management and your prioritization. And if you need help on this, I mean, you can just you can even just google this, you can Google everything right? One thing at a time, instead of looking at your big to do list of like 40 things on it one thing at a time.
The next thing is as you prioritize, you need to get better at your decisions. So this is where you could have a to do list of like 40 different things, and be completely overwhelmed by it. Because you're looking at the list thinking of all the 40 things that you need to do right now in your mind. Look at your to do list and categorize it to what is urgent, like what needs to be done today, or what needs to be done over the next two days. That thing that's on there that doesn't need to be done until mid December or whenever that can go at the bottom. You don't need to worry about that right? Focus on the most urgent things that you need to do just get better at prioritizing and get better at making those decisions.
The next thing to kind of free yourself from some overwhelm, is to stop doing so many things at once. Right? Stop saying yes to everything and everyone. You're afraid to tell you know your friends “No”, you're afraid to tell your boss “No”, you're afraid to tell your spouse “No”, your family “No”. And then you end up having a million things to do on your plate. Start saying “No” more so that you can be great at a few things. You don't want to be a jack of all trades, right? Find the thing that you love, and then master.
The next thing is maybe you're just not doing enough of what you love. You know You're mentally resisting things you don't want to do. So make a list of things that make you happy. How can you bring more of those things into your life? Maybe you can only do it on the weekends. Because listen, sometimes you can get overwhelmed from doing too much. But you can also feel overwhelmed. If you aren't doing anything for yourself that you love, or that brings you joy. Maybe it's even tennis, maybe you played tennis in high school, and you haven't played in years and you loved it. How can you maybe fit that in. So maybe after work, you're meeting your friends to play tennis, once a week, whatever it is, do more of what you love, because it's going to be a mental break for you.
And the last thing is to and my husband always makes fun of me because I always say you should write it down. Like, write down all the things that are stressing you out, write it all down versus keeping it all in your head. You want to get it all out of your brain. And then you will start to notice patterns about what is stressing you out. And then you can start to avoid these things. Right. You just don't want to keep it bottled up in your mind. So I hope that you found today's episode helpful. I think you're awesome. Thanks so much for being here. You know, I love you and I will see you the next time. Bye. Thanks so much for listening in. I really appreciate you choosing to spend your time here with me today. You totally rock. Hey, listen, if you love today's episode, go ahead and tag me on social and go share this with a friend right now. Like do it immediately. Well, the day gets ahead of you and you totally forget I couldn't be more pumped to be on this journey with you guys. Go make today awesome and I will see you the next time
