Overwhelm

Uncategorized Feb 22, 2019

What to do when life’s demands become overwhelming & you find yourself about to spill frustration onto all those around you.... 

Think of a bucket.... it will only hold so much.  The fuller the bucket gets...the heavier it is to carry.  If you don’t empty the bucket...it will eventually begin to spill over.   

HOW FULL IS YOUR MENTAL BUCKET?   Many times I get behind or have so many things calling for decisions or needing follow up that I feel overwhelmed.  This happened last week when a unscheduled family emergency interrupted an already full week....stretching deadlines to the max.   

 

My Father-in-law entered the hospital and then had emergency surgery....Life is unpredictable... I returned home Sunday considerably behind.  Monday morning, I woke to a disorganized mess.  My makeup and clothing in a suitcase, laptop in my vehicle.......You get my drift and can probably relate.  A few more interruptions and unexpected events and I found myself about to erupt in frustration.  My mental bucket was full and about to spill over onto everyone.   

 

Do you ever find your mind so full of to-do's, meetings, and projects … imagine a bucket full of all those emotions, tasks, and

obligations...about to spill over into places and onto people they were never intended to?   

 

This is a problem for many people dealing with Type 2 diabetes ....and this is also the time when our eating tends to take an unhealthy turn!

 

How to empty our mental buckets ..and let all that frustration and negativity pour down the drain and out of us?   

 

When you feel overwhelmed, disorganized and scattered... this is the place where work deadlines and family commitments combine to overwhelm you.  Decompress and get all that’s in your brain out & onto paper before it impacts the quality of your daily decisions and undermines the choices and new beliefs you have about yourself.   

 

Do you ever get so behind or have so much on your mind that you feel scattered and can’t even figure out where to start when you sit down to work?? 

 

When this happens to me I stop and try to escape to a quiet place with my notebook or laptop and my headphones.  I put on an album (iTunes) called FOCUS MUSIC AND CREATIVITY—INSTRUMENTAL OR PACHELBEL CANON IN D....(CALMING).  and begin writing things down....making THE LIST.   

 

Dump everything that is on your mind onto paper....no order required.  Let all the to do’s and the thoughts and demands pour out of your brain (bucket) and onto your paper or computer screen.   

 

Clear the mental clutter ...Try to have a regular routine of brain dumping....getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper.  I use mind mapping software for this and it’s amazingly effective in reducing the clutter in my mind & organizing my thoughts to avoid mental overwhelm.  It also removes that fear of forgetting something important that nags at you when life gets too busy. 

 

When you are facing diabetes THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL COPING SKILL!  There are so many routine tasks that require your attention to diabetes.  Add this to your work and home thoughts & instant overwhelm.  Overwhelm hurts you in two ways... 

  1.  Quality of diet and diabetes decisions decline.  
  1. Stress level rises along with the hormones that induce fat storage and increase hunger.   

Empty this bucket daily and your stress level will plummet and your productivity will increase.   

 

Now what to do with the information on paper?   

Manage it....   

  1.  What can be omitted....I usually pray over this list.  
  1. Categorize as a priority:  Immediate, soon, not urgent.   
  1. Then number each list in order of importance.   
  1. Re-write your list with urgent tasks in numbered order, soon list in numbered order and non-urgent in numbered order.   
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