HOW TO AVOID OVERWHELM

🚨 DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR OVERWHELM WARNING SIGNS ARE?🚨

This week I knew I had a busy weekend ahead of me. I am someone who juggles a lot of balls career wise. After a full week in the office I had an opera performance of Madame Butterfly on Saturday over in Lincolnshire. This meant I had to be very prepared for a full day on the road with a 3 hour trip there and a 3 hour trip back, with two full run throughs of the show in between.

On Friday my to do list was very long!

- Before work I needed to get some papers signed at a bank.
- A rush to work to get in on time.
- A morning of testing.
- Lunchtime was taken up with a trip to get some documents in the post with just enough time left to eat.
- Another full afternoon of testing work.
- A tough exercise class at the gym.
- Cooking our meal.
- Doing some coaching
- An hour of couch time with Andy
- Preparing all my make up, costume accessories and food preparation for Saturday
- Bed later than normal with an early start ahead of me.

I ploughed through all of the above and still felt good but alarm bells were ringing!
🛎🛎🛎🛎🛎🛎

Having powered through, even though I felt ok I could see I was just a step away from OVERWHELM!

Have you ever had a situation where you suddenly felt overwhelmed and went in to crisis mode. Emotionally or physically (or both).

For me OVERWHELM can look like this:

🏎 Racing thoughts
🧠 Brain Fog & impaired decision making
😫 Panicked behaviour in seemingly normal non stressful situations
😣 Irritability
😭 Tears

The key to avoiding OVERWHELM is to learn to recognise the warning signs so you can avoid tipping the balance.

So, for me, a very long to do list with all the items checked off is a sign that I am “Powering Through” and that the next stage in the cycle for me is sudden overwhelm!

Now you can learn to set the alarm bells of self care ringing before you tip the balance next time!

On this occasion I went to bed on Friday already aware that I was on the verge of overwhelm so I activated self care mode and made sure I rested as much as possible on my busy day traveling and singing. I made sure I ate the right foods and drank lots of water and made it through the day without any stress.