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How do you handle the feeling of overwhelm?
I have some family in town and I am overwhelmed. That’s an understatement, but to say “I’m going absolutely crazy,” doesn’t sound very kind to my family. I love them so very much. But, wow, they’re exhausting to be around sometimes.
This is definitely the most social thing I’ve done since the beginning of the pandemic and it’s like I’ve forgotten how to navigate interactions with people who don’t live in my own home. That, combined with some other things I’m dealing with, have left me feeling tired, cranky, and pretty defeated overall.
As we know, mental health is strongly tied to physical health and I worry what impact the next several days (filled with family activities) will have on me. I’ve been able to keep up on my regular treatment regimen. In fact, I even got an extra treatment in a couple times before or after outdoor activities that required a bit more physical exertion. However, I’m still not feeling very well.
Can you relate? What causes feelings of overwhelm to a point that you are affected on a physical level? How do you manage or mitigate those feelings?
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1 Reply
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I try to avoid overwhelm. So we plan our social visits carefully and sparsely. Always leaving some days of retreat between one event and the next.
Debbie and I have always found these orchestrated interactions with family or friends quite demanding, pleasant as they may also be. We have learned to keep them short and sweet, we seldom let these visits take longer than 2 hours. We mostly enjoy just being and seeing, and can do without the flood of talking and thinking that usually goes on on such occasions. We consider the way in which these habitual interactions has developped in modern society as quite unnatural, compared with the natural way of interaction we both enjoy so much between the two of us.
Together we have always found this natural bond where we can relate with a single gesture, a glance, and some words of understanding and just savor the still being together, the sharing of the immediacy of the moment. In meetings with family and friends however, this stillness is lost immediately and exchanged for a completely different dynamic, that – in our perception – has lost most of its intrinsic and real value and quickly drains the inner peace and balance.
So yes, we absolutely can relate. And our recipe is “less is more, short and sweet” and take time to recover and restore the inner balance after each of these occasions.
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