At some point in our lives, many of us reach a stage where life seems too hard to bear, we feel overwhelm. We might feel lost and broken and wonder where we veered off course. Yet, if we allow ourselves to fully experience these emotions instead of suppressing them with work, food, or social media, there’s an opportunity for profound transformation.  The path becomes clearer, and life becomes easier. Here’s how:

Most people I work with come to me because of feeling overwhelmed.

What does it mean to be overwhelmed? 

When you are overwhelmed, you are flooded by thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that can be difficult for you to manage. Sometimes, you know why you feel it – you can relate to a specific problem. Other times, you just feel like life has become too much to handle, you feel all over the place.

Occasional times of being overwhelmed are normal; life has its stressful moments. However, chronic stress and consistent overwhelm can seriously affect your mental and physical health.

Common Symptoms of Overwhelm:

• Irrational Thoughts: Making even small issues seem insurmountable.
• Paralysis: A state where even simple tasks become daunting.
• Disproportionate Reactions: Overreacting to minor stressors.
• Pessimism: Feeling a sense of hopelessness.
• Cognitive Fatigue: Struggling with concentration, decision-making, and problem-solving.
• Physical Symptoms: Rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fatigue, headaches, stomach upsets, and more.

• Withdrawal: Distancing oneself from loved ones.

When overwhelmed clients say to me, “Help me! I feel broken and need fixing,” my response is something like:  “First of all, you are not broken, and because you are not broken, you don’t need fixing. You need help and support to navigate these hard times and to figure out what led you here so that you can go and “fix it”  and create a new reality for yourself,” and this is exactly what happens.

Many things can make you feel overwhelmed, for example, stress and work and/or too much work, conflict in personal relationships with friends or family members, relationship difficulties or break-ups, major life changes, health issues, etc., but in my experience of helping women with burnout and overwhelm, there is a pattern that I have noticed. There is childhood trauma behind it, and the funny thing is that most of them say, “I had a good childhood.”

Childhood trauma and feeling overwhelmed

Here is the thing: for most people,  childhood trauma is often comprised of insignificant things said or done by significant people, and it is the repetition of these things that creates deep-rooted beliefs that will have consequences throughout our lives without us noticing it. Often, because no major traumatic event(s) happened, we cannot connect the dots. We cannot see how it has affected us, and it doesn’t mean that you had a bad childhood. We just need to remind ourselves that our parents are humans with their own traumas and unresolved issues, and they are not perfect.

For most of us, what we have learned as a child is that we had to sacrifice our authenticity. As children, we learn to sacrifice authenticity for connection. This is done unconsciously, and it’s a survival mechanism. We cannot lose the attachment to our parents; we need our parents to survive. So time we lose the connection with ourselves because we learn to suppress what we feel and to express what we feel so that we become acceptable, a good kid, loved by our parents.

When we are disconnected from ourselves, we lose touch with who we are, what we want, and our worth. We live in auto-pilot, always wanting to please others and to take care of everyone else, feeling inadequate and guilty for everything that happens. This is a heavy burden to carry!

Overwhelm is your CTA from Life

All experiences of overwhelm and burnout have something to teach us. Every time I feel overwhelmed, I ask myself the following questions:

• What might I be trying to do that goes against who I am and what I want for my life?
• Am I being authentic, or am I trying to fit in?
• Is this worth my health and well-being?

Feeling overwhelmed and burned out, it’s life calling you to take care of your inner world, to reconnect with your essence, to live your values, to deal with your traumas because it had just become too much, too tiresome to carry all of that. Its time to let go of those burdens!

If you need help with navigating your experience of burnout and overwhelm, I am here for you. Why don’t you book a free discovery call or message me?