What To Do When I’m Feeling Overwhelmed and Stuck

I’m struggling to even think of what to post right now. My mind lately is mush. I’m overwhelmed.

Yes, I’ve been travelling a lot lately, but that’s only a piece of it. There are other things, more personal things that I’m not ready to get into yet, that really have me feeling like the walls are closing in. Overwhelmed is the best word for it.

I’m struggling to keep up with everything I have going on. I’m Overwhelmed.

When I feel overwhelmed sometimes I go into “freeze” mode. It’s the third option in the flight vs fight thing. I’ll look at my email and I just can’t even process the titles let alone open them and process a whole paragraph. I try to make sense of things and nothing works. I feel stuck, frozen. Overwhelmed.

So, what can I do when I feel this way? How do I get past feeling stuck?

Remember it’s ONLY a feeling

I’ve been working with a therapist lately and we talked about fear and I think her words on fear apply here as well. It’s just a feeling. So often the fears I have are irrational and I know it.

I know that in all likelihood the thing I fear happening will not occur, but I still fear it. I have to learn to look at that fear and say “I see you” but you won’t stop me.

Keep Moving Forward

It’s easy to feel stuck in what happened in the past. To relive it over and over again. It’s just as easy to get stuck worrying about the future. But, the only moment we have is now. We can’t face the future if we don’t move forward.

Allowing myself to stay stuck means I go nowhere, and there’s nothing I’ll regret more later than looking back and seeing where I allowed fear to keep me from opportunities.

Make a Change

I find that most of the times that I feel this overwhelmed or stuck it’s because a decision needs to be made (usually a big one), sometimes involving a big change. The fear of making the wrong decision often leaves me frozen in place.

I’m at a fork in the road and I can stand here forever, or I can make a choice. I’ll never know if I made the right choice, because I’ll never know where the other option may have lead me. But, I still need to make a choice and make the best of the choice I make.

That’s what it all comes down to, at least for me. It’s time to make a change. What path will I choose, which fork will I take? Only time will tell.

Related:

• Life gets overwhelming sometimes
• Chronic are not make you a failure
• Why letting go is one of the best things you can do for yourself
• 5 ways to reduce stress during tough times