Feeling Overwhelmed? Look The Ball Into Your Hands!

Feeling overwhelmed? Again? Constantly?

I get it.

The things that we need to take care of seem to get more and more, no matter how fast we take care of them.

In our day job, with our family, another career maybe, health issues, our writing life, meeting friends that we don’t want to forget us… ough… exhausting.

The feeling of being overwhelmed comes from wanting to do everything at once.

Our brain is constantly trying to think ahead, what might happen, what else do we need to take care of, where could we make mistakes, what could go wrong, what if this happens in time, then what…

Why does our brain do that?

Because it can. And because we let it.

If you take a minute to think it through, almost none of the “thinking ahead” serves you. It only creates more stress.

What you need to try to do instead is, focus on the task at hand.

There is something in American Football that the coaches tell to their receivers. “Look the ball into your hands.” That means, if you’re about to catch the ball, no matter how many truck-sized defense guys run at you in order to tackle you, first, you need to focus on catching the ball. If you don’t do that, everything else doesn’t matter.

Or, speaking of my own experience. There are experiences where the brain stops thinking ahead because the task at hand is so important that you just HAVE TO focus on what you’re doing RIGHT NOW. Examples: rock climbing, sailing in strong winds, competitive dancing…

The learning out of all this?

The mind can be trained to focus on the task at hand. You just need to take control.

Feeling overwhelmed comes from wanting to do many things at once. But you can’t. It’s a trap. You can only do one thing. And then another. And then another.

And that’s how you get through it.

How to get control over feeling overwhelmed?