Life can seem like an uphill battle.
No matter how hard we work, it never seems to be enough. There's always more stuff to do coming towards us. I often wish it would get easier.
It's easy to get lost in day-to-day activities, the to-do lists, planning the next week and reviewing the last one. And that is all on top of whatever we do for a living, time with our loved ones, and hobbies we enjoy.
In those moments, when it all seems like it's too much, we have a choice:
- either we give in to this feeling and accept the double-edged sword of self-pity,
- or we take a deep breath and remember that life happens in this very moment, not yesterday, and not tomorrow.
And if we choose the latter, we're left with a few other questions:
- Am I feeling this exhaustion too often lately?
- If so, what can I change? There must be either a concrete end in sight, or a concrete step I can take to improve the situation and reduce this feeling of being overwhelmed.
- If I don't experience this too often, what can I do at this moment to take a step back and relax?
One thing you can always do when you're overwhelmed is the following. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Take another deep breath. Smile. Forgive yourself. And open your eyes.
“People are willing to be brave when they admit their smallness within the enormity of the world, and the best way to understand our smallness is to leave our comfort zones and start exploring, one foot in front of the other.” — Tsh Oxenreider
Reading Recommendations
8 Breathing Techniques and Breathing Exercises for Anxiety
“When people are anxious, they tend to take rapid, shallow breaths that come directly from the chest. This type of breathing, called thoracic or chest breathing, causes an upset in the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body resulting in increased heart rate, dizziness, muscle tension, and other physical sensations. Your blood is not being properly oxygenated and this may signal a stress response that contributes to anxiety and panic attacks. Diaphragmatic or deep breathing, on the other hand, …”
The Secret to Managing Being Overwhelmed
“We rush for many reasons. To dull emotional pain. To flee from anxiety, depression, or feeling we’re not enough. In response to unrealistic expectations of what we can accomplish in a finite period. Fear of stillness and silence. Whatever the reasons, rushing is different from operating quickly and efficiently when your rhythm’s in sync with a busy balanced life.”
“There are 4 main strategies for a fine-grained distributed dynamic task scheduling:
- Work-stealing. That's a reactive asynchronous strategy. The essence: when a thread is out work, it randomly chooses a victim thread and asynchronously tries to steal some work from it.
- …”
Weekly Mindfulness Practice
A three-step mindfulness exercise check-in with your body:
Step 1: ask yourself what you are doing in the current moment. What are you hearing, seeing, and feeling?
Step 2: breathe consciously for 6-8 breaths.
Step 3: expand your awareness outwards. First include your body and then your surroundings.
End Note
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Have a great week
Simon
PS: How do you feel about this? Please reply and let me know. I’m curious!