Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s How to Shift Your Focus & Get Back on Top

Where attention goes, energy flows.

– James Redfield

Often, the number of things we handle daily in our personal and professional lives can leave us feeling overwhelmed and stuck.

It can be easy to spiral downwards. If you ever find yourself in this state of stagnancy, take a moment to reflect on where your focus is. 

What happens when you feel overwhelmed is that you’re giving all of your energy outwards. Sometimes, you need to open up to receive. At other times, you need to give to yourself. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

• Stop Burning Yourself Out
• Do These 5 Things When You Feel Burned Out
• Focus Your Attention on Your Needs

Only you can decide which energy you need, so you can shift your focus to Self when you’re feeling overwhelmed.

Stop Burning Yourself Out

When you are constantly giving your time, energy, and attention to things outside of yourself, you’ll get to a point of burnout. When this happens, these temporary feelings of overwhelm and dread may easily find their way in.

When life gets to be a bit too much, it’s important to take a moment and shift your focus inwards. If you feel like your thoughts, words and actions are misaligned or scattered and you’re spread too thin, give yourself some time back to reset.

Do These 5 Things When You Feel Burned Out

1.      Take a few deep breaths in through your nose and into your belly to center yourself.

2.      Identify what you’re giving your energy to – bring it to your conscious awareness (work, family, social events, the kids, etc.).

3.      Make a plan to give yourself a day off from work, from the kids, from the world. Arrange for your partner, friends, or family to look after the kids and switch off your notifications.

4.      Write down five things that will allow you to give to yourself. For instance, read, take a walk in nature, take a class, cook something delicious, have a night out with the girls…whatever it is that you know will heal you and allow you to feel connected.

5.     Take action and do those things on that day off that you’ve planned.

What you’ll realize is that when you’re able to give yourself that time to reset, you’ll come back refreshed and ready to face the world again. Except, this time, remember to ensure that you give to yourself more frequently so that you avoid getting back to the point of overwhelm and burnout.

Focus Your Attention on Your Needs

Learning to prioritize your needs is a skill that requires practice. Do what you need to do and try to weave a bit of that self-care into your daily or weekly rituals and notice how your perspective and stress-busting skills improve by looking after your needs first.  

If you’re running around taking care of everyone else’s needs instead of your own, it can be overwhelming. More importantly, you have to ask yourself – what are you teaching others about how to treat you? 

Learning to identify what you need when you feel overwhelmed and taking action to shift your focus to Self will bring you back to balance.