Getting over the Overwhelm

One emotion I experience a lot is overwhelm - the shortness of breath, the feeling that everything is flying at you too fast, not enough hours in the day, everybody wants a piece of you and there is no time left for you.  Sounds pretty normal for a lot of people when I say it like that!

The first thing I need to remind myself to do is Take a Deep Breath (or as many as I need), there are breathing techniques you can learn to cope with things such as panic attacks.  The technique I was taught is as follows:

• Take a deep breath in, hold it for 5 seconds
• Breathe out and then hold that for 5 seconds
• Breathe in and hold it for 3 seconds
• Breathe out and hold it for 3 seconds
• then repeat the last 2 steps 10 times (total)
• finish off with holding it for 5 seconds

This was taught to me by a Doctor when I was experiencing panic attacks and it worked really well for me (distracting me from the issue at hand).  I showed a few different people in my circle of friends who I spent a lot of time with, in case I had a panic attack and couldn't remember the steps. 

The next thing for me would be to Get Organised.  I previously did up a family planner which I will go home tonight and fill out.  I did up a table and then laminated it so I can write on it each week and stick it on the fridge, the columns would be:

Across the top - the days of the week

Down the side are:

Me - including exercise time, time for me (yes I plan to get at least 1 hour a week!), appointments and social plans

Hubby - similar to mine

Kids (listed separately) - day-care days, appointments, nights away

Meals - dinner each night

Notes - necessary things to be done each day (feed animals, perhaps one cleaning job a day)


Lastly if it is all too much for me in a day, I ask myself "If I don't do this will it be detrimental to me or my family??".  An example of this is cleaning - things such as tidying and making beds, if I don't do them one day and give myself a little break to prioritise other things, it is not going to affect me or anyone else is a serious manner.  Sometimes I need to chill out and not sweat the small stuff (my hubby is better at pointing these things out to me!).

This has been a good little reminder for me today, I hope it works for you too!

Elly