Feeling Overwhelmed? Simplify Your Life (3 Best Practices)
When I speak to other people, I find that the sensation of being overwhelmed is fairly prevalent among them, and it is becoming more and more apparent to me that this is the default condition for the majority of us.
We are completely overburdened by everything that is going on in our lives, including everything that is going on in our personal relationships, everything that is going on in the world, everything that is going on in social media, and everything that is happening online.
It’s quite a bit! The richness of our lives is something to be celebrated, yet more often than not, we lament its presence.
The issue is not the plenty; the problem is the dread and anxiety that we have about everything. In all honesty, the majority of us are terrified that we will let other people down.
We’ll let folks down by dropping one of the several balls that we now have in the air… or, what’s much worse, we’ll just give up on all of them, which would reveal our inadequacy.
The question now is, “How do we cope with it?” I will outline three methods for simplifying your life.
As you gain experience with simplicity, you may find it helpful to repeat to yourself a mantra along the lines of “when you’re overwhelmed, simplify.”
Before we get into the three disciplines of simplicity, let’s speak about the dread and worry that’s been plaguing you.
Concerns that Are Responsible for Our Overwhelm
The fact that we often have too many responsibilities is the primary reason we experience feelings of being overwhelmed. We have often overestimated how much we can do in a given day, which has led to our taking on additional responsibilities for which we do not have enough time. It’s a lot lower than what we often imagine it to be.
It’s partially because we have a positive outlook on life, but mostly it’s because we have a hard time being direct with other people and saying “no.”
If someone like your employer, spouse, kid, or parent asks you to do anything, it is reasonable to assume that you will respond with a positive answer. The concept of rejecting someone’s request and maintaining one’s boundaries may trigger a great deal of anxiety due to the worry that one will disappoint or aggravate the other person.
Even with individuals who are not as vital to our lives, such as employees, neighbors, or friends, this phenomenon occurs. We are afraid of disappointing or upsetting them if we tell them no, so we always end up saying yes to their requests. This results in a massive backlog of tasks that we are unable to complete.
Having a huge pile of tasks that we can’t possibly get completed on time then brings up the feeling of being overwhelmed with the question, “What if I can’t accomplish all the things in my huge bunch of stuff?” I’ll fail! and disappoint other folks.
Now that we had too much to accomplish and the worry of disappointing other people has returned, we decided to establish the Huge Pile of Things because we were frightened of upsetting other individuals if we said no to their requests.
In addition to that, the anxiety remains even if we make the decision to reduce the complexity of the huge pile of things. And if we choose one job from the huge pile and attempt to tackle it, it ends up taking far longer than it should have since we’re always worried that we’ll botch it and disappoint other people.
The same dread: It paves the way for many sorts of perfectionism. And putting things off till later is just too much trouble.
As a result, you can see how the worry of letting other people down promotes our feelings of being overwhelmed in a variety of different ways.
The Art of Practicing Simplicity in Order to Calm Fear
The initial step in this exercise is to simply become aware of your dread and worry in any one of the aforementioned scenarios and work toward calming them.
Are you able to take note of how it affects your body? We allow ourselves to get preoccupied with ideas about them, but what about the way fear and anxiety manifest themselves as bodily sensations below the head?
When you have this dialed in, would it be possible for you to concentrate just on it for a moment? Take a few calm, deep breaths, and try to be more compassionate and kind toward yourself.
This is a simple and effective method. If you search, you may discover chances to practice it throughout the whole day, in every meeting, discussion, email, errand, and activity that you have to do. It will provide relief from your overwhelming feelings.
Practice of Simplicity: Taking It One Breath at a Time
After you have completed the first exercise, you should go on to the second one, which consists of selecting one item from the huge pile and concentrating only on that item.
Actually, instead of referring to it as a huge pile of things, let’s call it something more descriptive, like an awesome pool of opportunities. or the bottomless pit of love. You have made these choices; are you able to appreciate the inherent elegance in each one?
Then choose one activity, opportunity, or kind deed to do. And put all of your attention there, as though you were totally committed to doing that thing. as if it were the purest expression of love that you could possibly do while you were still alive on this beautiful and abundant planet.
Even if we have millions of breaths left to take, we can only take one breath at a time. Let us pray that this is not the case. We don’t let the number of breaths we have to take overwhelm us; instead, we focus on taking the next available breath.
How would it feel to simplify your life so that you could only concentrate on the next item that needed to be done? Inquire within: “What is it that I really want to accomplish next?” What is it that I am supposed to get done? After that, surrender yourself to it.
one after the other. That is the only option we have. It is so simple, so unadulterated, and so lovely.
Protecting Your Time and Commitments Through the Practice of Simplicity
And last, what are some solutions to the problem of having too many things to do? To begin, no matter what happens, there is a good chance that we will always have some of it.
If we so desire, we may take pleasure in the plethora of it; nonetheless, can you even fathom what life would be like if there was never anything to do? We are fortunate enough to have enough!
Second, we may begin to use the phrase “no more.” a sacred no that respects our limits while still acknowledging our want to give a hell yes to some things. A sacred no that relieves the other person of the responsibility of becoming a burden on us is, in a sense, a gift to them.
A good many of us will feel terror as a result of this. We are aware of how to exercise fear; in case you have forgotten, please refer to the first simple practice. Respect it, but don’t allow it to coerce you into agreeing to anything that goes against your better judgment.
How would your life change if you let your “Sacred No” guard your time and the obligations that were most important to you?
