Overcome Overwhelm
“Stop the World I want to get off!”
Whether short or long term, we all get times when we just feel overwhelmed by what is going on in our lives… the kids constantly needing us, the bills that needs paying, the courses or projects you want to create and that dreaded pile of laundry that just keeps growing. There never seems enough time in the day to do it all and you feel like you’re just running in circles.
Whilst I can’t do these jobs for you, I can give you some great energetic tips on how to deal with the feelings they all illicit in your body… the racing heart, the tightness in your chest, the fuzzy head and low mood that comes with not achieving what you’d like. So let’s look at some simple and natural ways to take back some control of those out of control feelings.
1/ Grounding
When all your energy is in your head and you’re busy trying to figure out how to cope with your current overload, you create an energy imbalance within you that will literally make you dizzy. Balancing the energetic focus will help you to feel more equilibrium in yourself and help your body to take a metaphorical deep breath.
One of the easiest and simplest ways to ground your energy is to stand or walk barefoot on the earth. This helps our body to absorb negative ions from the Earth’s surface, which allows us to release our excess energy ie; our positive ions. Our body is an electrical circuit and by connecting to the ground, the body is liberated of this tension and energy from nature is absorbed.
We forget that man once walked barefoot on the ground, but now that natural connection is interrupted by leather or rubber shoes and concrete floors. Walking barefoot on the ground releases endorphins which can help improve mood and counteract depression & anxiety.. both of which can occur when you are feeling overwhelmed.
Grounding also helps to lower blood pressure, improving the blood flow in the body which also helps to decrease stress levels and then in turn improves your sleep. In fact you can even ground yourself whilst you snooze by using a special grounding sheet, which has conductive carbon threads woven into it and is then “earthed” via the socket plug.
This fascinating evidence from an 8 week study on the impact of sleeping whilst grounded, is a powerful reminder that connecting our energies to Mother Earth’s can benefit us in so many other ways as well.
2/ Bubbling Spring
In the centre of the ball of your foot is an acupressure point known as “Bubbling Spring” This important Chinese Meridian point has to do with strengthening your Chi (life force energy) and promotes longevity; it’s purpose is to keep you connected to your divine purpose. Through this valuable acupressure point we connect to Earth’s energy which stabilises and energises us as the Chi bubbles upwards from the bottom of our feet, through the legs and into the lower chakras.
This point is also the beginning of the Kidney Meridian, a meridian which holds our vitality & spark when balanced and also fear and trauma when imbalanced. When we work with this magic point, it can help you to trust in the process of life and supports us to be happy to make mistakes as they are a sign we are changing and expanding.
So when we connect this Bubbling Spring point through Grounding or balancing through massaging with oils or pressure, we could experience a strong upward rushing energy that floods the body with a renewed sense of joy and purpose.
Bubbling Spring is a major wellspring point, an energy gateway that revitalises the entire spectrum of the body, mind and spirit, helping to support your ability to manifest this essential nature in the world.
Understanding how to support our energy system, when in overwhelm, by using these powerful centres in our body is a fantastic way to instil calm and vitality back into ourselves.
3/ Breathing
Another natural method of calming us in times of overwhelm and stress is to use our breath. As an automatic function of the body, when we feel stressed our breathing rate and pattern changes as part of the “fight or flight response.” When the sympathetic nervous systems kicks in this way, it can also produce a freeze or fawn response; meaning that we can get stopped in our tracks with procrastination & overwhelm or try to hard to please and give more than we really should just to keep the status quo.
Scientific studies has shown that controlling your breath can help to manage stress related conditions and to help promote relaxation, lightening any feelings of overwhelm. Typically an anxious or stressed person will take small, shallower breaths, using their shoulders rather than their diaphragm to move air in and out of their lungs, thereby disrupting the balance of gases in the body. This shallow over breathing can prolong feelings of anxiety or overwhelm and taking the decision to control our breathing will help to improve any symptoms of stress of overwhelm.
Using your breath to calm the nervous system will help to:
lower blood pressure and heart rate
reduce levels of stress hormones in the blood
reduce lactic acid build up in muscle tissue
balance oxygen & CO2 levels in the blood
Improve immune systems
Increase physical energy
Increase feelings of calm & wellbeing
One breathing technique that can help you uses the abdomen to ensure you take deeper breaths, supporting the body to release any tension or stress you are holding in your system. Here is a link to a short Stress Breathing meditation to help you connect with what this breathing technique looks like.
4/ Crystals
As electromagnetic beings we are affected by the energies around us, both good and bad. We can use this to our advantage when dealing with overwhelm by using the positive energy of crystals to help elevate our mood and thoughts. Alongside overwhelm you will often find stress, anxiety, fear and worry and the following crystals will help support you during these heavier times. Wear them as jewellery, stick them in your bra or under your pillow, just enjoy the uplifting energies they bring and don’t forget to cleanse them in sunshine or moonlight afterwards.
Black Tourmaline
True grounding in a stone, this crystal is excellent for repelling and protecting against the negative energies of others. It helps with emotional stability, understanding yourself & intellectual acuity.
Rose Quartz
This heart stone is perfect for removing fears & resentments, encouraging trust & harmony in relationships, self forgiveness & self trust.
Lapis Lazuli
This beautiful crystal helps with stress relief, self confidence, transformations, releasing fears & inspiring your thoughts.
Lepidolite
Known as “The Stress Stone”, it is a soothing calm stone that brings emotional balance and helps to reduce anxiety, stress & depression.
Amethyst
A powerful & protective stone it is a natural stress reliever that encourages inner strength. It helps regulate your sleep patterns, mood fluctuations and promotes feelings of calm.
Fluorite
This healing stone helps to balance emotions, provide clarity of thought and can be especially beneficial when you are under duress. It’s a stone of harmony that transforms negative energy into positive promoting peace of mind.
(Left to Right) Fluorite, Amethyst, Lepidolite, Tourmaline, Rose Quartz, Lapis Lazuli (at back)
5/ Emotional Freedom Technique
The final technique we are going to look at is EFT, which literally gives you freedom over any emotions or limiting beliefs you hold when in overwhelm and other stressful states. These can look like: “I can’t cope..” “I don’t know where to start..” or “I’m feeling really anxious about how much I have to do.. “.
This powerful technique, that is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology, balances the energy system and appears to aid psychological stress and physical pain relief.. This form of psychological acupressure uses a gentle tapping technique instead of needles to stimulate traditional acupuncture points. The EFT protocol
What tapping on the end of meridian points around the body does with amazing efficiency is halt the fight or flight response and help to re-programme the brain and body to act – and react – differently. Whilst we are no longer chased by tigers, our stress response is internally generated and is often triggered by a negative memory or thought that has its roots in past trauma or conditioned learning from childhood. The stress response in the body takes the same form, whether the trigger is the tiger (external) or a negative memory (internal).
It’s been shown that tapping on the meridian endpoints on the head, body and hands, creates kinetic energy via the meridians and seems to turn off the amygdala’s alarm – deactivating the brain’s arousal pathways, sending a calming response to the body and allowing the amygdala to recognise that it’s safe.
Whilst it is more effective to explore the routes of your limiting belief with an EFT Practitioner, you can use this simple script below to help you in the present moment, combined with these tapping points:
Sit quietly for a moment and identify what you are feeling and whereabouts in your body this is, for example you could be feeling anxiety as a pressure on your chest. Rate this feeling out of 10 (1 is low stress and 10 is very high) This would translate to:
(Tapping on side of the hand) “Even though I’m feeling this anxiety like a pressure on my chest, I am open to the possibility that this will change”
Then move round the head & torse tapping points with shorter “reminder” phrases such as “this anxiety”, “this pressure on my chest”, “I have so much to do”, “It’s overwhelming”, “it’s making me anxious” “I feel this in my chest”…
Connecting to the feelings and sensations in this way is like using a torch in the body to find these stuck negative energies, showing the body what it needs to shift. Keep going for a couple of rounds and then take a deep breath at the end. Take a moment to reassess how you are feeling and what your number has gone down to.
Maybe the feeling has shifted to somewhere else (that’s good news, you’re on the right track!), so examine what this looks and maybe do another round eg: “Even though I’m feeling this stuck feeling of overwhelm in my body , I accept myself in this moment”. Then travel round the tapping points with your reminder phrases.
If you would like to explore this further with me, please do feel free to book a no obligation free Clarity Call to discuss how I can help you at: