Remember you are in control of your mind, your mind is not in control of you!

Today I want to talk about being overwhelmed and 3 Ways, I use personally, to help get out of my head.

I'm doing a segment on Channel 3 for their Fit Friday's here in Las Vegas in a couple weeks on "Fit Mind" and simple steps to take for increasing your mental performance. I wanted to know, mentally, what people were struggling with. So I did a poll on my Private Mastermind Facebook Group  about what challenges people experience on a daily basis (internally).

By far 'feeling overwhelmed' was at the top of the list for most people. The sense of having so much on their plate, not knowing where to start, not having enough time and the list goes on. So I wanted to make a video specifically to everyone struggling with this! 

Here's a HOW-TO in reverse with a breakdown of 3 STEPS on HOW-NOT-TO Feel Overwhelmed.

STEP 1 - CHUNKING 

Minimize the noise in your head by categorizing all your to-do's. Take all your to-do's and group them into subcategories - for example; work, house, family, relationship, errands, clients, team, sport; whatever it is for you create your categories.  

Organize your chaos into those categories. Everything related to work (for example for me - all my coaching clients, follow up's, invoices, scheduling etc. all get put under work) So now I can take all the 15 to-do's in my head and put them into one main to-do. Then do this same step for all the other to-do's in your head. 

All of this will allow you to have more RAM space in your head. Take your phone for instance, all the apps open in your phone - close them out; by doing that your battery life will last longer.

Action Step - Write out all the things you tend to think about on a daily basis. Every little thing you can thing of, write it out and get it out of your head.

  • Pay the bills
  • Go to the gym
  • Email back so and so
  • Listen to voicemails
  • Plan dinner
  • Cook dinner
  • Clean the house
  • Oil Change
  • Sports practice
  • Date night
  • Grocery Shop

Then look at that on paper and start circling things that all match up into one category. Get different colors of markers and match up the colors to a category. Make 3-4 categories because 3-4 categories is a lot more manageable than 20-30 to-do's.

STEP 2 - DEEP BREATHS

Breathing brings you into the present moment and brings more oxygen into your body. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen in your body so the more you breathe in, the more efficient your brain can function.

What happens in a stressful situation? Your breath becomes more shallow.

The problem I find is we're never aware of our breathing.

How many deep breaths do you take a day? Start tallying how many deep breaths you take daily. 

The more you stop to deep breathe, the more relaxed you'll become, the more centered you'll become and the stress/sense of being overwhelmed will reduce. 

STEP 3 - LEARN HOW TO SAY NO

Seriously, learn how to say no! NO!

There has to be a standard for yourself and for the things you want. You need to allow 'you-time'. You need to have time for yourself and the things you want so you can connect to you. 

Don't say yes because you feel guilty. You're putting too much on your plate. Avoid looking at everyone else and how they're living their life. Focus on you. We all have our pace so take the time to find yours.

Find the rhythm in your life. 

-Please know that feeling overwhelmed is OKAY! It's a human emotion. Learn to embrace it and acknowledge it. When you acknowledge it, you bring awareness to it and when you're aware of it then you can shift it.

But if you're holding it down and resisting it - What we resist, persists. 

So don't hold it down, bring awareness to it, do these 3 things and shift it. 

Remember you're in control! 

Until next time!

- James

Peak Performance Coach