How to Beat Feeling Overwhelmed & Calm Your Mind

If you have a million thoughts buzzing around in your head, try this incredibly effective technique.

I practice this IMMEDIATELY anytime I am feeling really overwhelmed. 

Grab a piece of paper or notebook and just write everything down. Everything you need to do, every idea, or anything at all.

This simple act of taking everything in your head and putting it down on paper has an incredibly calming and relieving effect.

When we feel overwhelmed, we at the same time get a fear of missing out or forgetting something. This, of course then causes us to feel even more overwhelmed and anxious.

By doing a mind dump, you lose the fear that you may forget something and your mind becomes more at piece.

It's a release, and takes the load out of your mind and onto paper (or digital equivalent) in front of you. 

After which, we can then create a game plan for them. 

The feeling and calm you get after doing them is so powerful you'll never want to go without them. Chaos and overwhelm turns into control and planning. 

1.) Start by writing everything down. Everything on the top of your head. You can do this on a blank piece of paper, in an app like Evernote or using the worksheet below. 

2.) Add some order. Once everything is written down take that initial list and add a bit of order and grouping to it.  Group tasks together based on if they are work related, personal etc.

3.) Prioritize. Take that list and add a bit of priority too it, focusing on what ones need to be immediately addressed and which are less  urgent. 

4.) Repeat as needed. Anytime you feel overwhelmed, or there is so much going on use the worksheet and do it over and over again.  This list will start the foundation of creating the system to plan our days. 

1.) Breathing  - Next time you feel overwhelmed stop and pay attention to your breathing.

Nobody ever does this, so you may be surprised to see they will probably feel short, shallow and quick. This signals our bodies stress hormones.

Instead close your eyes and take deep, slower breaths for a few counts. This instead signals your body that everything is okay. 

2.) Limit new information - When we are already overwhelmed, it's a good idea to stop the flow of new things going into our mind for a bit until we've tackled a few things off the list. 

Put down the books, podcasts, news, meetups or anything that is just going to add more into your head. (Try calming music instead).

Once you feel adequately in control again, you can flick the switch of new information back on. 

3.) Move in Nature -  Nature has a brilliant way of calming us down. Whether near the ocean or in the forests, walking outside in the sun with fresh air has a powerful calming effect. 

After doing the mind dump above, I recommend going for a walk to further calm your mind down. I find it just so happens some of my creative ideas and solutions come during these down moments in nature.

4.) Use Theta Brain Waves -  Much like how we can use Delta waves to influence sleep or Alpha waves for focus, Theta waves can induce a calmness in us.

My preference again, is having theta waves underlying a relaxing soundtrack. Check this one out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkM-FjfN6Mc

5.) Mindfulness & Journaling - The benefits of a regular mindfulness practice are so widely regarded and used by entrepreneurs and CEO's that I won't cover them here, other then you should give it a try. 

Two easy ways to get involved are the Calm or Headspace apps. 

 Journaling is also incredibly powerful, so much so that a large number of the CEO's and Entrepenreurs I interviewed stated it was part of their daily practice.

Most of them use The 5 Minute Journal. 

You've finished Module 1! 

The first section was built to create a strong base for you to build out from.  In the next section we are going to get into your head a little bit . We will discuss your confidence, how it works and how to get more of it.

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