Life can be very challenging at times, but with the right strategies you can find calm in the chaos. We've listed 10 tools that can help you manage when you're feeling emotionally overwhelmed. The expectations you impose on yourself through work, family, friends, relationships, country, external factors or thoughts can sometimes make you feel like you are carrying the whole world on your back. The modern world moves fast and you may feel like you can never keep up with your constantly competing priorities. This experience can be summed up in one word: depression. Feeling like you are wasting your time in an endless sea of anxiety will make your life miserable by robbing you of your time, health and happiness.
If you feel like this, you should first realize that you are not alone. Moderate or extreme depression is not a rare condition. In fact, what is more important is to understand that no matter what, it is not your fault. Being depressed is actually a systematic event that comes with modern life and belongs to society, in short, it is included in the account. What is actually created in a fast-paced, technology-driven society where only success is talked about is a huge imbalance. It is also known as Vata imbalance according to Ayurvedic philosophy.
Vata is the principle of movement, activity, change and transformation. Although this concept is an essential part of life, when taken to extremes, too much Vata leads to a state of hyperactivity and imbalance. This atmosphere gets on your nerves, confuses your mind, and makes it impossible to stay balanced. The first step to dealing with depression is to understand it, when the odds show that you will lose, follow the steps below; You will be more compassionate to yourself.
1. Make time for yourself a priority
When you start to see signs of depression in your life, you should put taking care of yourself at the top of your priority list. Consciously do something to put your own well-being first and not wait for your ship to start sinking. From the moment you first notice that there is a crack in the ship, that is, when you feel that your family, work and personal concerns are starting to bore you a little, stop, evaluate the situation and decide to focus on the skills you love that will help you stay balanced and relax you.
2. Change Your Perspective
The stress of depression will of course begin with a change in perspective. What we call perspective is actually the subjective interpretation of situations and events. How you perceive things will determine how situations affect you. When you feel overwhelmed, try to look at any of your experiences from a new window, from a new angle, and focus on that. Focusing on different interpretations of a situation will make you take that situation less seriously. Also remember this wise saying: “This too shall pass. ” Everything in the material world has a beginning, middle and end. The thoughts and feelings that make you feel overwhelmed by life will also pass, no matter how tiring they may be.
3. Slow Your Breathing
Feelings of overwhelm and anxiety from Vata naturally make you feel excited, and in doing so disrupt your body's response to stress. In this case, your heart rhythm accelerates, your blood pressure rises, your breathing accelerates, your stress hormones are released more intensely and your muscles become tense; Therefore, you harm your body physiologically. The best way to counteract these is to take slow and deep diaphragmatic breaths. These breathing techniques are known as Pranayama in Yoga and Ayurveda, and these breathing techniques help you balance and regulate your body's energy levels in a short time, while also calming your mind and body in tense times.
4. Meditate
5. Slow Down and Manage Your Time
Naturally, in times of emotional crisis, you may feel like you cannot achieve anything. Therefore, managing your time wisely also means managing the anxiety and chaos of competing priorities. Make a clear and effective to-do list, rank each task on this list according to their importance, then decide how you will do them, that is, the method, and handle them all one by one. Also, as counterintuitive as it may seem, slow down whenever you can. Running around madly only brings more activity, which reduces the quality of your work and relationships. Act with awareness and awareness, so you can manage time; instead of feeling like time is controlling you.
6. Act with Awareness
Reducing the feeling of depression and changing our perception of time comes with acting with awareness. By participating in activities such as Qi Gong or Yoga, you can experience your awareness and emotions in a more stable and non-impulsive way. This grounding works against unbalanced Vata energy and helps you feel more at home in your body and in the world. These movements, which you will do consciously and with awareness, will make you feel that time passes more slowly and will cause you to experience your awareness more deeply, creating the perception that you have more time during the day.
7. Unplug – Step Away from the Digital World
The world is becoming more dependent on technology every day. Information is everywhere. Unfortunately, with all the devices and screens, our already overcrowded minds are pushed into more activities. As a result of this information-heavy diet, it cannot fully meet our need for stability and balance.
Therefore, devote a few hours, days, weeks or even longer to cutting the umbilical cords. If your connection with technology is very deep, you may have difficulty at first, but over time, the awareness of getting rid of the unnecessary information traffic you are exposed to throughout the day will settle and you will enjoy it.
8. Get Enough Sleep
Depression can be extremely taxing, both physically and mentally. Improper use of mind and body energies can lead to chronic stress and make you feel bad. Therefore, get plenty of sleep to heal and rejuvenate. Although seven to eight hours of sleep each night is recommended for adults, you may need to sleep longer when you're feeling overwhelmed.
Apart from regular meditation, consider taking a 20-minute nap in the middle of each day. To get the most out of your time in bed, be sure to create a routine that will relax both your mind and body.
9. Know When to Walk Away
Sometimes the best choice for body, mind and soul is to walk away. You can't be everything to everyone, and it's important to recognize when you've reached your limit.
You need to set a clear boundary for yourself and know when to say no. Doing this may sometimes occur in decisive and courageous moments; In these moments, you make the decision to no longer feel like a victim of external circumstances. When you do this, you create a nurturing and supportive life for yourself by making the decision to take charge of your life and not feel the need to explain your own decisions to others. As Richard Bach said: “The best way to avoid responsibilities is to say 'I have responsibilities'.”
10. Surrender
Finally, be ready to surrender completely to this situation. This doesn't mean giving up trying to be better, of course; on the contrary, instead of getting attached to any outcomes that may occur, leave them to universal intelligence, God, or your higher self.
Surrender is an act of humility, proof that you can leave events to a power greater than yourself. You realize that you don't have to do everything yourself, and that sometimes the greatest power is being able to put aside the desire to control everything.
In yoga, this is known as Ishwara Pranidhana, meaning surrender to the divine. In this surrender, you step into unknown territory and believe that everything will be fine; because, as the book A Course in Miracles says, “There is no such thing as degree of difficulty in miracles. One cannot be harder or bigger than the other. They are all the same. All expressions of love are to the maximum.”
It's normal to be overwhelmed by life. These tips are designed to help you manage and overcome your overwhelming thoughts and feelings. When you apply these, it will be easier for you to focus on living a happy, healthy and positive life.
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