Stop cleaning the pantry

Here's a problem I've been hearing both in coaching conversations AND from people in my inbox the last few weeks.

(PS - Thank you so much for your time and responses. I love hearing your stories.)

I feel very blessed that people are open with me about what's happening in their lives and businesses.

And one of the things I like to do is turn around and share it with you as well, right?

So what's been on everyone's minds lately?

Overwhelm.

(⬇️ Btw, you can watch instead of reading, or read on below. ⬇️)

Ah, overwhelm.

As we have more things pile on our plate, and more things come at us, we get overwhelmed.

And when we get overwhelmed, we find ourselves in this state where we move into mundane tasks.

🫠 "I’ll just do the dishes."

🫠 "I’ll just reorganize the pantry."

🫠 "I’ll just clean out my desk."

🫠 "I’ll just catch up with all the emails in my inbox."

Have you ever found yourself doing that?

A lot of good can come from it. It helps us decompress. Makes us feel comfortable and confident. Makes us feel in control.

(Because it’s all about gaining control, right?)

But deep down, what we’re actually doing is avoiding the overwhelming things going on.

Which means you’re still going to be overwhelmed after you’re done reorganizing the pantry.

So instead, how about trying something else that’ll help you deal with the problem more directly?

This is a two-parter…

YOU VS. OVERWHELM: REGULATE

When I was a little girl, I sang in the Texas Girls Choir from about the age of 5 on. And kept singing up through college.

One of the things I learned, was how to breathe really well.

Because you can’t sing if you don’t get a lot of breath deep down into your belly and diaphragm.

What I didn’t realize at the time was, that by breathing deeply in AND out, I was regulating my nervous system.

When we’re in the middle of stress and overwhelm, we don’t stop breathing. (We’d stop living if we did that.)

But we do forget to take that oxygen deep into the lowest parts of our body, and push all that excess air back out.

So next time you’re in a state of overwhelm when find yourself thinking “Lord, how can all this be coming at me?”

…Or maybe you’re finding yourself feeling like you need to run from everything going on (good ol’ fight or flight)…

I want to encourage you to pause.

To remind yourself to take a deep breath.

And then breathe allllll that excess back out.

And do that three times.

(In fact, try it right now and see how it feels!)

YOU VS. OVERWHELM: EVALUATE

Then, take a minute to brain dump. Write down all the things in your mind. All the things coming at you.

Even if you’re like, “I don’t want anybody to see this.”

Write it ALL down because that’s going to allow you to clearly evaluate what’s happening.

You’ll be able to look back over that list in a few minutes (with more deep breaths!) and figure out:

• What do I need to be focused on right now?
• What can I defer?
• What can I delegate or ask for help with?
• And what can just go away? (i.e. “bad” beliefs, patterns, thoughts or habits that we don’t actually need to do)

(NOTE: There might've been a time that a habit or pattern served you, but that might not be now. So releasing it is totally fine.)

So next time you feel overwhelmed or have a lot of things coming at you, take a few minutes and try that.

PUTTING THIS IN PRACTICE IN REAL LIFE

By the way, I’ve been encouraging a client to do this lately, and earlier this week he had something to say about it.

(And this isn’t one of those “This made everything instantly better!” quotes.)

He said, “I’m trying to keep this idea in front of me. Even though it’s kind of tough and a bit frustrating.”

😬

You’re not going to want to hear this, but…

If it’s not frustrating, you’re probably not doing it right.

Because when we have to slow ourselves down that much, it can be frustrating.

But you know what else he said?

“I’m doing it anyway because I know it’s a good way to release some of the stress that I carry.”

(Nate, thanks for your transparency in that.)

So I hope like Nate, you’ll also do it anyway.

Would love to hear how it works for you…or even how it didn’t!

Because we can’t expect a new habit to serve us at a high level the first time.

But I promise you with repetition, it’ll get you somewhere.

Love doing life with you,

Dawn