10 Powerful Strategies to Overcome Overwhelm in Stressful Times

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Make Time for Success podcast. This is episode number 270. It was just a short while ago that I was wishing you a happy new year, and we're actually rounding the corner and headed into the Chinese New Year soon on February 17th. I wanna reflect that I have found the past month of January to be quite overwhelming. With so many different factors feeding into that overwhelm. So if you are feeling overwhelmed yourself, I want you to know that you are certainly not alone. I have noticed a general sense of overwhelm amongst the people that I speak to, and I've certainly felt it in my own life as well. That said, I want to share some good news, and that is that there are so many different techniques and strategies and shifts you can make in your daily life that can really help you to reset yourself back to a steady, calm, and peaceful state.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:12]:
I promise you, these strategies are effective and they're worth listening to. So let's go listen to 10 of them now. Oh, I think I added one at the end. So there are 11 strategies here for you now.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:32]:
Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped thousands of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they could begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body, and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time for Success podcast.

Dr. Christine Li [00:02:14]:
Hi, my friends. In this episode, I am going to share 10 strategies for overcoming overwhelm. The topic came up because I designed the topics inside my program called the Success Lab. I meet with Success Lab members every week on Wednesdays in the evening and on Saturdays in the morning. And this group of 10 suggestions for overcoming overwhelm was the topic of today's Saturday discussion. And it was so rich and meaningful and useful that I wanted to bring the topic over onto the podcast and share these great ideas with you. So the first tip for handling overwhelm is to know what overwhelm is in the first place. You need to know that overwhelm comes when you feel like you have to handle everything all at once.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:25]:
It's a great way to trigger your brain and body to go into freeze mode, and we want to avoid that as best as we can. It's fine to take rest at any point, of course, but we don't want to have our body locked up in a panicky feeling when we can avoid that. So the first tip is to not only understand what overwhelm is, but to really know what you're dealing with at any given moment. You want to decide for yourself, am I thinking about something that I actually have control over? And if I don't have control over the issue that is causing me to feel overwhelmed. I'm going to release this connection with what I can't control. Because when we are feeling overwhelmed, that is the perfect time to decide, I am only going to focus on what I can actually take action on or be responsible for. Because handling absolutely everything in times of stress is really not an efficient or productive or helpful way to get yourself through the situation. You wanna focus on what is absolutely inside your control.

Dr. Christine Li [00:04:48]:
The second tip that I have for you is related to the first tip. You want to be able to call back your energy, and I will explain a little bit about that. Over the course of the day, what we are doing is making decisions. We're making meals for ourselves and others oftentimes. We are planning the future. We are washing dishes. We are doing all sorts of tasks. And all of these thoughts and actions are energy-consuming.

Dr. Christine Li [00:05:25]:
So basically our energy is going from within us and it is being expended. And when I say you can call back your energy, I mean just that, that you want to be able to practice this energy recall, literally saying to your energy, I'm calling you back. It may sound funny to do that, but I think we're so in the habit of just giving our energy away and using our energy throughout the day, but we are not in the habit of pausing, of recollecting our sense of peace, our sense of being grounded, our sense of our being able to refill our energy tanks. So try this today, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed recently, and know that you can very intentionally refocus on yourself and call back your energy. I love doing this throughout the day. I think as a therapist, you are really listening to people intently. You're using your brain and your body and receiving what your clients are giving you. So actually maintaining control over your own energy is a very central and important survival technique for the therapist.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:57]:
We really have to maintain boundaries, make sure our energy is sufficient for any given session and throughout the day, right? It doesn't help anyone when we are wiped out of energy. We really want to be attentive and focused when we can. But we also want to break and decide, I need some time for myself, some time to recollect myself. The third idea for overcoming overwhelm is to take action in small, doable steps. Larger projects can be completely overwhelming when people all of a sudden are needing you to do something quite complicated or large in scope, and you weren't feeling ready or prepared, and you weren't given notice, this is a perfect scenario for you to pause, collect your energy, and decide, I'm gonna deal with this new situation, this new challenge, by taking action in small steps. You might get yourself in a bit of a worried state by thinking, Well, what if it's not fast enough? What if I can't do this? Those are worrisome thoughts and those are taking away your power. You want to restore your power and remind yourself anything is doable in small steps and that you can absolutely figure out and take the next step. So break everything down.

Dr. Christine Li [00:08:32]:
Don't stay in overwhelm. The fourth strategy is to have a clear Plan. Writing down what your priorities are or creating a nice straightforward to-do list really does help reduce the feeling like everything's out of control and you don't know what to do and you're running out of time and it's all feeling really scary. Instead of terrifying yourself, decide, I'm actually someone who gets through rough situations. I can devise a plan even though this assignment didn't necessarily come with a clear plan. Use your brain. This is what your brain was built for, problem solving and keeping you in action and keeping you well. So have a plan.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:24]:
Don't shy away from using your intelligence, from using your intuition when you're feeling overwhelmed. A great strategy to just say, I've got this, I'm smart enough, I can get through this. The fifth strategy is to practice grace and self-compassion. Grace and self-compassion, I believe, are two things that you should be doing all the time throughout the day, no matter what your circumstances are. We can fall into overwhelm. We are human. Life can be very stressful. But we can be really beautiful managers of our spirit, of our energy, of our creativity, of the gifts that we have to share with the world.

Dr. Christine Li [00:10:13]:
And the way we manage all of that is through feeling self-compassion, gratitude, and grace. Grace just means for me Having kindness to yourself, knowing that you might make mistakes, but that you're doing your best. It's really allowing yourself maximum room to figure this out. When we're feeling like we need to yell at ourselves or that we can't give ourselves grace, we're working within a much more cramped and nerve-wracking and stressful situation. So again, learn to expand your room for play, problem-solving through grace and being kind to yourself. Next strategy, you can use strategies like tapping. We call that Emotion Freedom Technique, or things like meditation for stress relief. I have done tapping for several years now informally.

Dr. Christine Li [00:11:22]:
And tapping is a somatic technique, and somatic means it's related to your body. And by tapping, you basically tap on multiple different areas of your upper torso in order to instruct your brain and body to release what you no longer want. In this instance, it's the overwhelm. And to bring in what you do want, which is calm, your intelligence, your creativity, your ingenuity. You wanna bring back that steadiness. So using techniques like tapping and things like meditation can be kind of like a fast track towards settling yourself back down from the panicky feeling. And feeling like you are releasing that feeling of stress. I know that whenever I set a meditation to play, I oftentimes use guided meditations in the morning and I use the Insight Timer app.

Dr. Christine Li [00:12:30]:
Again, it's called Insight Timer. I'm not affiliated with Insight Timer, but I've been a big fan of this. App for many years. So you could put on a guided meditation, you could look one up on YouTube, you could look up tapping on YouTube as well, and just take a 5 to 7 minute break and listen, right? When we're listening, we're oftentimes in a much calmer state. When we're generating worry from within, we tend to get worked up. So decide, I'm going to take my sense of calm and restore it within myself by putting on a guided meditation or a YouTube video that is in line with what I need right now. And then go on with your day. Relieve the stress in order to say goodbye to the overwhelm, and then you can take those short and small action steps to just get yourself back into momentum again.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:37]:
Speaking of momentum, the next strategy is to celebrate when you take action. I want you to get really good at finding moments during the day where you can celebrate, no matter how small, no matter how easy it was for you, I want you to say, oh, I did that. I'm so happy I did that. I'm so happy I used that time. I'm so happy I got over my anxiety about that. I'm so happy I was able to use my skills in this way. I'm so happy that it's the end of the day. These are all reasons to celebrate, and I think they're great reasons to celebrate too.

Dr. Christine Li [00:14:19]:
Again, no achievement is too small for a celebration. When you make it a habit to easily celebrate, you're gonna find lots of reasons to celebrate, and then you're gonna be able to keep this action strategy going forward. You're not gonna be stuck in overwhelm. Overwhelm typically causes us to physically be stuck, and that's not comfortable either oftentimes. So get unstuck. Get out of overwhelm, celebrate, and then keep moving. Next strategy, shorten the gap between thinking about something, making a decision, and taking action. There are so many things that we're doing over the course of the day, and the way to save time on just about anything is to say, my word, my decision, my intention, whenever I express it or feel it or sense it, is best used quickly.

Dr. Christine Li [00:15:28]:
I want to make my word happen right away. If I say I'm going to bed, I want to be in bed within the next 15 minutes. That's just one example. But when you use your intention as a guideline for how you're taking action and you shorten the distance between your decision and your action, everything is going to feel like one giant, wonderful flow. You are not going to feel like you have to stop and start, stop and start all the time, which can be very energy-draining. You can think to yourself, oh, I'm thinking about doing something. Now I'm gonna set myself up to do it. You're gonna shorten the gap between decision and action.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:20]:
And by doing so, you're gonna be in execution mode. You're gonna be the doer. You're gonna be the person that people think of when they need something done. But of course, you can always say, I'm busy if you're too busy. But you can be seen as an action taker, and that's gonna be lovely. You can avoid being in a perpetual state of overwhelm in this way. I have two more strategies. The second to last one is to recognize that overwhelm is not a path to be taken.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:57]:
It's just a signal. Oftentimes, I think when people tell me that they're feeling overwhelmed, I have the sense that they're thinking that that is a strategy for moving forward. I'm going to say, in my opinion, it is not. Overwhelm is really your body's and your brain's signal to you that you need to pay attention to something, that you've done too much, that you're looking at too much, that you're thinking about too much. There's something about too much. And so it's not so much a road to travel as much as a cue to listen to. So listen to yourself again with that grace and self-compassion, and then decide what path do I wanna take? Because when you're walking, when you're moving, when you're taking action, typically you're not as much in overwhelm. The final strategy that I have for you is to connect with a group of supportive people.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:02]:
Now, this does not have to be an established, steady group like my group, The Success Lab, but it very well may be. It might be really wonderful for you to get connected with a group of like-minded people, a group of lovely people who share interests with you. A hobby group, get things done group, a therapy group. There are all sorts of groups, which is lovely. When I started my training way back when, I think these resources that we have access to these days, really not in great supply. And now I think no matter what you're interested in, there's a group for that. And so take advantage of the resources that you have connections to or the ability to connect with and find that when you learn from other people, it's actually a great way to say, oh, I don't actually need to feel overwhelmed about this thing. I know how to borrow energy from this person.

Dr. Christine Li [00:19:14]:
I know how to copy a strategy from that person and it could be that much more fun. I think fun— I'll add that as the 11th strategy today. When you decide, I'm going to have more fun instead of thinking I'm overwhelmed, that, that tends to help as well. It's one of my personal favorites. I love to have fun. I love to create fun in the world and in my own life and with friends and clients. And I invite you to try that strategy out for yourself too. So there was a lot in this episode.

Dr. Christine Li [00:19:49]:
I hope you take 2 or 3 of these strategies, maybe 4 or 5, and strip yourself of the overwhelm and decide this is a beautiful day. Might be chilly. There might be a lot going on in your life, but this is a beautiful day to decide I'm going to get something done. I'm going to feel accomplished and celebratory at the end of the day and keep on going. I'm right there with you. I'm supporting you all the way. And I want to say thank you for listening to these ideas. If you'd like a free download that reviews the strategies that I've just shared, I invite you to go to maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com.

Dr. Christine Li [00:20:31]:
/winning. Again, it's maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com/winning, W-I-N-N-I-N-G. And once you do that, you'll have some reflections and I think you'll have a little bit more energy to use. Okay, I'll see you next week. Thanks so much again for being a loyal listener of the Make Time for Success podcast. Take care.

Dr. Christine Li [00:21:05]:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time for Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com, for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name Procrastination Coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success.

Dr. Christine Li [00:21:45]:
Talk to you soon.