Do you feel overwhelmed? Does your life feel like there’s just too much going on it right now for you to handle?
Welcome to club. You’re not alone, but even better, your anxiety and overwhelm doesn’t have to be permanent.
So before your start drowning in your anxiety, use this checklist to stand up and see if you’re just freaking out in shallow waters.
Are you taking basic care of yourself through the fundamentals of sleep?
- Did you get 8 hours of sleep last night?
- If yes, have you been getting 8 hours of sleep consistently every night for the past week?
- When was the last time you drank water?
- How many cups of water did you drink today
- When was the last time you exercised, like really exerted yourself for at least 20 minutes?
- Are you sleep deprived, malnourished, or ingesting excessive amounts of unhealthy substances (e.g., alcohol)?
- Dumb question, but your response could be even dumber: are you breathing? As in are you even breathing properly with deep breaths where you feel the inhales and exhales all the way through?
Are you worrying about something you can control?
If no, then figure out what you can control to improve the situation and focus on that. Focus on what can be done immediately and of significant influence.
And if yes, then move on to controlling it. Write down how exactly you will control, manage, or solve this problem if you need to. You’d be surprised how moving thoughts and emotions from your mind to paper help with managing them. It contains the intensity of your imagination with articulate exactness so your worst fears are finally fit to scale.
How long have you been feeling anxious and overwhelmed?
If it’s just today, then today might just be a bad day.
However, if it’s been for numerous days consecutively (more than a week or weeks), then that would warrant talking to someone about it. And that might be all you needed to do, but it also might not.
But before we even get to the point of needing professional, try out all of the above. You might be surprised how helping yourself helps.
