What to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed

I want to share a snippet from my speech on managing the conflict between big goals and life balance. I went into more detail during SWAN Con '23, but here are a few of the best highlights.

When I was hyper-fixated on my goals of building my business, I would often feel overwhelmed. So, what do you do when you feel overwhelmed? One of my default responses to that stress was to eat out. Unfortunately, eating out negatively impacted my health and my wallet. With time I realized I was associating stress with eating out and I was stuck in a negative reward loop.

Exiting the Overwhelm

Our brains will repeat behaviors that lead to a reward. Just like a mouse will endure an electric shock to get the peanut, I would endure overwhelm to eat at a restaurant. I made the choice to reserve eating out for special occasions. When going to a restaurant to spend time with a friend or loved one, or celebrating a success, I noticed that I started feeling less overwhelmed. My circumstances hadn't changed, by my association did.

Wow! This realization led me to ask myself a difficult question, "is it possible that not all of the overwhelm is about my workload? Could some of the overwhelm come from within my mind"? The answer is yes. It is so humbling to admit. But this realization was worth it to learn, improve, and get out of that negative loop.

Are You Like Me?

How about you? What default choices do you make when you are overwhelmed? How do those choices impact other aspects of your life? Could you intentionally make different choices that would create a positive domino effect?

As SWANs, we are committed to becoming mentally strong together. Please reachout to a fellow SWAN and have a conversation about what aspects of your life need more intentional effort. We all have areas of our lives that need improvement. Another SWAN may be able to provide you with insight in one area, and you can help them in another. The answer to the question, what to do when you feel overwhelmed is two-fold. Self-evaluate and seek out a friend. We are stronger together.