What to Do When Life is Overwhelming You

It’s 6 o’clock in the morning and you’re still awake. Instead of feeling alive with the dawn of a new day, you feel like you’re already behind. There’s so much to do but so little time… HOW WILL YOU EVER GET THROUGH IT ALL?!

I’ve woken up feeling this way before. Some days, it means I procrastinate on what needs to get done because it all seems too overwhelming. Other days, it means I buckle up and get through my to-do list, battling on and eventually feeling exhausted. I look for a better solution but come up blank. My mind feels numb. I fall back into bed and pull the covers over myself.

It was a good thing I did. The fact that I felt incapable of facing the day freed up the mental resources to stay in the present, process what had been going on, and plan the way forward. It helped me put things into perspective and take a longer-term view of life — something we don’t get to do often enough, simply because the day-to-day always feels so urgent, so critical, and so much.

If life is overwhelming you now, here’s some advice that may safeguard your sanity and physical well-being…