5 practices to help you feel a little less overwhelmed (aka safer inside) 💕 

Have you been finding yourself on this boat lately, avoiding self-care? Avoiding the things you KNOW will help you feel lighter, brighter, and less overwhelmed with whatever it is that's getting on ya? Or, maybe you’re unsure what could help you feel less overwhelmed. 

When I get sucked into what feels like a never-ending abyss of overwhelm, you can usually find me endlessly reading the news, doom scrolling, procrastinating, and of course self-judging and shaming. All of these often leave me feeling terrible and more frozen- wash, rinse, repeat- and I'm caught in the vortex of being overwhelmed and its subsequent manifestations.

What's cool is I can step out of it, YOU can step out of it.... AND what's fascinating and maddening all at the same time is that there is this physiological pull to stay in the cycle even when my rational mind says I could do something different…you can do something different! For me, it's a familiar madness that feels comfortable, albeit not so fun; however, when I am (frequently) there, swirling around, there is some semblance of safety within the vortex(es). I do love me some swirling (it's so familiarly comfortable.. like the worn out towels that are tattered and holey (not holy) that I just can't quit. I am attached.)

Maybe, like me, you know all kinds of ways to step out of the vortex, to take care, to interrupt, and yet these hard-wired behaviours/habits/processes are deeply ingrained. My rational mind says "stop it", and my survival mind says (YELLS), "but it's safer here." And maybe you feel like you don't even know where to start.

Does any of this feel like an experience you find yourself in at times?

So whadda ya do, what do I do when I'm caught here, in overwhelm-- aware but stuck, pissed off, and ashamed that I find myself here again?

Pause.
Notice.
Care.
Move.
Smile.
*Plus the most important practice, which is the game changer: Pause again. 

I've created a free two-page downloadable PDF that goes into more detail about each step. See link above.
Take it. Try it. Share it. Adapt it for you. Let me know what you think and if it supported you at all to try something new-- to kindly and gently step outside your usual overwhelm and create a new sense of safety inside (not the kind of safety that feels comfortable yet familiarly rough like I described above).

Be. Kind. To. You.