Posts by Pat:
Overcome overwhelm…
It’s a rotten feeling, isn’t it?
Life can sometimes feel like it’s careening uncontrollably toward disaster-rather like the feeling you get when you’ve lost control of your moving car. It’s that feeling of complete helplessness and panic.
While we may be feeling overwhelmed with everything going on in our lives right now, there are some concrete steps we can take to regain a sense of control of our lives.
Expectation vs. Reality
In most cases, overwhelm is a realization that a gap exists between our expectations and reality. The greater the gap, the greater the feeling is of being overwhelmed.
This gap is often created when our expectations are too demanding or when our reality changes in a way we did not anticipate.
Think of the behavior you expected from your family at that fateful holiday dinner when it all went wrong. Think of the weather interfering with your carefully made travel plans to get across the state. Think of that illness that derailed your to-do list.
Here are some steps you can take to narrow that gap between expectation and reality!
1. Accept
It’s ironic that one of the biggest sources of overwhelm is the expectation that we ought not to be overwhelmed in the first place! But overwhelm is a natural part of life. When we’re feeling overwhelmed, it only means we are living, breathing, dynamic human beings.
For life is like a roller coaster ride with its ups, downs, twists, and turns. It’s also like the seasons with its alternating periods of relative calm and periods of varying degrees of stress and anxiety. Sometimes we forget this.
2. Adapt
No matter how much we try, we may not be able to control our reality. But we can adapt our expectations to match our reality. This may mean revising our goals, delegating tasks, quitting projects.
Adapting may be feel like failure in the moment, like giving up, but this ability is a God-given opportunity to create success in the long term. Working with reality rather than against it can give us perspective and hope.
3. Celebrate
When we’re feeling overwhelmed, we can easily fall into an all-or-nothing mindset. We may disregard the things we do manage to accomplish in the midst of the overwhelm. But celebrating our small wins creates space for gratitude to take hold in our hearts.
Tony Robbins, personal growth leader and author (of the “walking-on-hot-coals” fame!), said:
“Trade your expectations for appreciation and your whole world changes in an instant.”
Celebrating wins (whatever size!) allows us to clearly see the progress we are making.
- Appreciating our blessings,
- acknowledging our small bites, and
- celebrating our wins however small
enables us to have a more accepting perspective on the opportunities, the gifts, and the joys in our lives.
Overwhelm may be a part of life, but if we just step back a bit we can see the ups and downs of our roller coaster ride are just called LIFE!
So…enjoy the ride!
It’s only one day…
This week we celebrated Thanksgiving. For many it was just a day to relax and to abuse ourselves nutritionally! But even so, many of us do remember the meaning of the day. It is… Thanks. Giving. It is a day to express our thankfulness and gratitude for the people, opportunities, and blessings in our lives. But it has […]
Attitude is all!
There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. “Well,” she said, “I think I’ll braid my hair today.” So she did and she had a wonderful day. The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and […]
Erosion can be subtle…
The Grand Canyon wasn’t created by an earthquake! While it’s tempting to imagine that the world changes via sudden shocks, our culture is shifted by dramatic changes in leadership, grand gestures make all the difference.. it turns out that is usually our daily practice, the piling up of regular actions, the cultural practices and biases […]
Here we are again…4 years later
Politics! Politics! Politics! Why are we so cranky? Could it be overload? Is it that “enough” has become “more than enough?” Is that why we’re so quick to snap at a family member or co-worker when the conversation turns to the election coming up in this next week? Maybe it’s because: We’re tired? We’re anxious? We’re worried? We’re […]
The truth in a leaf…
Have you ever really looked at a leaf? This is the perfect season to do it! Not only are the leaves of fall gorgeous, but they can be lessons in truth! The shape and color, the way the leaf feels in your hand, its delicate veins and the stem that once held it fast to […]
What’s your attitude?
Our attitude can be based on the weather, politics, the way people treat us, or a whole lot of other things. We’ve all seen our attitude rise and fall, sometimes surprising us…and sometimes not! Or… our attitude can be exactly what we choose it to be. When we allow our attitude to be determined by […]
Do it all or don’t
Every life form except human beings operates by instinct in its genetic code. It has no multiple choice, no other options. In the winter, the goose flies south. Why? Because he’s a goose. He couldn’t fly west. If you said to the goose that it’d be better to go west, he’d ignore that advice. Why? Because […]
Diverted or Distracted?
We saw the repeated television coverage of Sully Sullenberger’s jet plane landing on the Hudson River due to that flock of Canadian Geese disabling the engines. (or maybe just saw the movie “Sully”..?) Diversions are a choice we make (to head for the airport or to land in the river?) Being diverted is not the same as […]
9 Life Lessons
Did you ever see the email that went viral on the internet called “Life Lessons from a 90 Year Old Woman?” Now, this is a gal I can relate to! And, no, she was not 90 years old. Regina Brett wrote the list the night before her 45th birthday after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She […]