Hvad hvis overvældelse er et signal – og ikke et problem?

By Natasha Swerdloff

We are used to thinking that overwhelm comes from outside ourselves. That it is our busy schedules and the many tasks and demands we face that make us feel pressured inside. It makes sense: the more we have to achieve, the more pressure we feel. Right?

But what if that's not the truth? What if being overwhelmed isn't abouthow muchwe have on our plate, buthowwe relate to it?

Overwhelm can creep in even before we get out of bed. One glance at the calendar or mental to-do list, and the body reacts. For me, it feels like a heavy weight placed in the middle of my chest—as if an elephant has sat down there. How am I going to manage to get out of bed and tackle all the tasks that lie ahead of me?

But it is rarely about the amount of tasks. It is about the feeling of overwhelm that comes with thinking about the many tasks. That is what we try to avoid. That is what we resist. To avoid feeling it, we become busy on the surface:

• We scroll
• We clean up
• We respond to emails that could wait
• We start with small things and lose focus

All toavoidbeing in what we feel. But feelings are not dangerous. We have simply been taught that they are.

Overwhelm is a sign of overthinking

Many of us have, perhaps without knowing it, learned to suppress or ignore our emotional reactions. We have learned that strong emotions are "too much." That we must pull ourselves together, be strong, handle things, and not feel so much.

So when we feel overwhelmed, we think that feeling needs to go away as quickly as possible. But what if there is nothing wrong? What if the feeling is just a signal to us and not something that needs to be fixed?

Thoughts and feelings are connected. Overthinking manifests itself in the mind as worry and racing thoughts. We feel overwhelmed in our bodies as restlessness and tension. But both stem from the same thing: an overactive stream of thoughts and the idea that everything must be done perfectly, preferably yesterday.

The more we try to reject or deal with the feeling, the more we push ourselves—and the more we intensify the experience of being overwhelmed. But what if you don't need to do anything other than just let the feeling be there?

Let the overwhelming feeling be there

Your mind regulates itself, just as your body heals without your intervention. This means that you don't have tofixthe overwhelm. You don't have to fight it. You don't have to perform your way out of it. Youjust have tobe with it.

For me, that means stopping what I'm doing. Moving away from the computer. Breathing. Feeling my body. And reminding myself that I don't have to fix anything. Just be. 

And then it often happens that something settles down. Something lets go. I feel myself again.

There is no such thing as "too emotional."Youare not too much, you are human.

The Three Principles are not a vaccine against being human!

Emotions are not dangerous. They are movement. Energy. When we try to stop them, they feel heavy. When we give them space, they move freely.

When we meet what we feel with kindness instead of resistance, energy can flow more freely through us. If you have learned that you must fix your feelings before you can move on, try something different:

• Take a break
• Pay attention to your body
• Allow the feeling to be there
• Remember that thoughts are not truth

Overwhelm is not a sign that you are behind. It is a loving signal to you to turn your gaze inward.

You are already enough.

You're not behind.

You're not wrong.

You're not too much.

You are enough—right here, right now.