How to be Productive & Happy Despite Overwhelm

When someone is feeling overwhelmed, this is their bodies communicating to them that something is out of alignment. This is not a problem in and of itself.  It is a sign of healthy inner communication.  It is similar to how running a small fever is not a problem, but actually a sign that the immune system is working. 

The problem is when we do not listen to this communication and try to use our "will power" to grind through. Productivity and happiness is not decreased because of overwhelm; your resistance to relaxing makes you ineffective, inefficient and unhappy.

Being dynamic means being able to adapt, and the ability to adjust defines the ability to be productive and happy. When you feel overwhelmed, it is a direct signal to offer yourself a mental/emotional/physical reset. Overwhelm is too many inputs that are out of alignment to your core desires (love, joy, expression, etc.) and not enough outputs of release (creative energy, sexual energy, fulfillment, etc.).

A reset can take one minute or one hour or one day or one year. The length of time that it takes for you to find your center is dependent upon your beliefs that you hold about yourself and how much resistance you will continue to choose to have in your resetting process. The more you allow yourself to relax your bodies, the less time that it will take to reset your energy into harmony with yourself. The key is to start DECREASING inputs that are out of alignment and INCREASING outputs that are directly in alignment.

Decrease destructive inputs

What are the things that you do that you don't like to do? Make a list. Make it big. Look at yourself honestly and answer the question directly, not indirectly. Don't tell yourself that you like to do something because of the indirect consequence of doing it in this exercise; look at the actual activity. Once you have the big list of things that you don't like to do, ask yourself, "What can I eliminate, and what can I replace?"

Then practically adjust your routines and agendas to remove those things and replace them with a more aligned activity.

This can and many times do include auditing the people that we hang out with. 

We have a Spirit Science friend that was struggling with some addictions. After recognizing that nearly all of the people that he was associating with had many of the same obsessions, he realized that if he cared about breaking the addictions, hanging around these people would not be in his best interests. Or rather, he was making it harder on himself by doing so. Committing to this change meant quitting his job and doing a reset on the direction of his life. This detox from those people basically turned his job into a digital nomad, earning his income through storytelling online. He's a year into this journey of removing the destructive inputs and now has a successful following on several platforms where he helps people break their addictions. He's completely independent and travels around North America very freely.

Increase creative, supportive activities

See the movement as the output itself, not as the production of a thing that gives you something in the future. What do you like to do for the sake of doing it? Much of this has to do with your creative and sexual energy. These are the bulk of your expressions of yourself into the world. If you are experiencing overwhelm, there is likely something going on where you do not perceive yourself to be contributing in some meaningful way to yourself.

Make a big list of things that you love to do. For guidance, look back at your 8-to-13-year-old self and see what that person loved to do. There is likely something to learn there.

Once you have the list, pick out a few exciting things to do and be present with, bringing nothing else into the equation, just you and the joy of that activity. On a metaphysical level, this type of presence activates your energy centers associated with your sacral and throat.

Some of the most revered people in history expressed through their sexual center and their creative (throat) center daily and were non-negotiable in these practices. This process will also assist you in removing unnecessary labels that you place on yourself. "I am a tech entrepreneur, so I do not paint." "I am a corporate sales leader, so I do not do improv." These are all limiting boxes that we place ourselves in. Going directly to what we enjoy explodes out awareness out of these plastic boxes.

Do the simple things for your body well

All of our bodies are connected - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. When we positively impact one, we positively impact all of them. If you are experiencing overwhelm, merely focusing on the physical for some time is incredible. Breathing. Yoga/stretching. Increase in water.

This seemingly simple remedy will encourage your ego will tell you, "NO! It can't be that easy! This is a complicated problem that needs a complicated solution."

You will then sabotage yourself by looking for things that have nothing to do with your physical body ailments, wasting time and energy. Just focusing on these three things for three days (breath, yoga, water) will immediately reduce overwhelm even if you do nothing else.

Don't be overwhelmed by the overwhelm. It's just a signal from your bodies with a request for simple changes, which you can make very quickly. Bring acceptance into the equation and start with improving just one thing, then another, then another. Let it build.  Good luck!