Living in These Overwhelming Times
Recently, someone asked me what they should do because they felt completely overwhelmed by what’s happening in the world, in the country, in their own lives. They told me it was hard to even get through the day.
And I get it. Honestly, I’ve been feeling the same way. There’s so much coming at us from all directions. So I took a few days to sit with their question before answering, because I didn’t want to give a quick fix or a neat little “tip.” I wanted to offer something real.
Here’s what came to me:
When you’re feeling panicked or overloaded, the first thing to do is stop and bring your attention into your body. Just notice. Notice where you’re feeling tight or heavy. Notice your breathing - how your chest rises with each inhale, and softens as you exhale. Just sit and notice for 5 minutes.
That simple act of paying attention to your body helps shift you out of your head. And that shift is everything. Because so much of our overwhelm comes from being stuck in our thoughts - spinning stories, imagining worst-case scenarios, going deeper into fear.
I see it in myself, and I see it in the people I work with. The more time we spend in our heads when we’re stressed, the more tangled up we feel. So taking a few minutes to come back into your body isn’t about ignoring what’s going on - it’s about giving yourself some breathing room.
It doesn’t make the hard stuff disappear. But it gives you a little space, a chance to reconnect with yourself. And that space matters, because it’s what allows you to make choices instead of just reacting from fear.
When we’re in panic mode, it can feel like we don’t have a choice. Fear takes over and starts deciding for us. But when we pause, breathe, and ground ourselves, we start to see other possibilities, other ways we might respond.
Try this:
A few times a day, take 5 to 10 minutes to stop, breathe, and notice what’s going on in your body. Just be with yourself. You might be surprised at what starts to shift - how your thoughts soften, how your mood settles, how your perspective widens.
You don’t need to have everything figured out. You just need space to be with yourself. From there, you can start to make choices that come from clarity, not panic.