Welcome.
I hosted a workshop recently or a little class,
A gathering for highly sensitive people and we worked on the topic of overwhelm.
And maybe this helps you when you are feeling overwhelmed.
So I'd love to bring in some of the things that they shared,
Not individual people,
But in general and what the group shared with me and then we're gonna do some tapping for overwhelm.
So let's do this first.
So just take a nice,
Deep breath in and out.
Oh,
Sigh it out like a sigh.
That's always useful to just start settling and calming down the system.
And then bring to mind what you are overwhelmed about.
I know there can be so,
So many different things.
The main sort of the root of overwhelm is when we feel swamped or submerged.
It's like there's all these things and it's just too much and I feel like I'm under the surface and I'm not being able,
I can't get up out of it.
So that kind of feeling of being submerged or swamped.
So just bring that to mind and we're just gonna do a round for that and we'll take it one step further.
Starting on the side of the hand and saying,
Even though I feel swamped,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though this thing or situation or event or person makes me feel swamped and I can't get out from under it,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though I feel completely swamped,
Submerged by this thing or situation or event or circumstance,
I soothe and comfort myself.
I feel swamped,
I feel completely overwhelmed.
I feel submerged by all of it.
And this may or may not be true for you,
I'm just gonna say it because it came up for me.
I feel panicked when I feel like that.
Like I just wanna get away from it.
Like I just wanna do this and turn away from it or run and hide.
I wanna get under the duvet and just hide for days until it's past.
The swamped,
That I'm tapping under the arm,
A swamped,
Submerged feeling.
And then I finish on the inside of the wrist points.
I feel swamped,
Submerged and overwhelmed.
And then rest your arms,
Take a really nice deep breath in and out like a sigh,
Whoo,
Good.
Now there can be many other things too that come up,
Other emotions as we are feeling or tuning into the thing that is swamping us or overwhelming us.
So just noticing again,
Thinking about the thing that is overwhelming you or the situation or maybe you have to start a big project and you don't know where to start or what to do first.
Maybe there's too much going on,
Too much on your to-do list.
Maybe it's a person just sort of swamping you with their need for attention.
Maybe it's work.
It can be so many things that overwhelm us.
Think of that thing.
Now I'm gonna tap through with a few emotions that came up in the gathering.
Maybe it's true for you,
Maybe it's not,
Just say the emotion that comes up for you.
So as you start thinking about your own situation,
Just notice what other emotions are coming up for you about this thing as well as the overwhelm.
So we're gonna name a few and tap through them and if it's not yours,
Then just say a different word.
Even though I feel all these emotions,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though I feel some other emotions about my situation,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though there are other emotions here too,
I soothe and comfort myself.
I feel fear.
I feel anxiety.
I feel scared.
I feel ashamed.
I feel guilty.
I feel anxious.
I feel turmoil.
I feel sadness.
I feel frustration.
I know some people on the gathering share that they feel frustrated with themselves because they've been here before and they just can't get out of it.
So let's just do that a few times.
All this frustration about the overwhelm.
I try to get ahead or I try to get out from the situation and I just can't.
I've been here before.
I've dealt with the overwhelm before and I'm still here.
Maybe I blame myself for being here again,
Still suffering from this.
All these emotions,
Anger,
Frustration,
Fear and anxiety,
Badness,
Repulsion,
Regret,
Shame,
Turmoil.
So raise your arms,
Like a nice deep breath in and out.
Ah.
It really helps to sigh it out,
Like a big sigh.
Can also stretch,
Just let your body stretch in any way that it wants to.
I feel a yawn brewing,
So you may find that as well.
Oh,
Or another nice deep,
Big sigh,
Come up for you.
And just settle in,
Just notice if you're noticing still any of those other emotions hanging around on top of the overwhelm.
If you are,
You can always replay this and just take that piece with all the emotions and just tap with that again.
Or you can pause it and just do your own tapping with one emotion at a time.
You can just keep tapping on one emotion on every one of the points until it feels like it subsides.
By the way,
You're not tapping in an emotion.
We're naming the emotion so that our system knows we're tuning in on it.
And then the tapping is what helps you to release it.
Also,
What came up in the gathering is some situations that people were saying that,
And I'm just gonna go and look over here on my notes.
Yes,
There were some things like uncertainty,
Overwhelmed from expectations from myself,
And overwhelmed from juggling other people's schedules,
Other people's expectations,
Over-complicating things,
Trying to over-deliver,
Creating overwhelm for myself that way.
So let's,
In case this is true for you,
Let's just work with that a little bit.
Even though I over-complicate things for myself,
I soothe and comfort myself.
I'm doing the best I can.
Even though I want to always over-deliver and give more and more,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though this pressure is self-created,
And that frustrates me,
I soothe and comfort myself.
I want to over-deliver.
I complicate things for myself.
All this pressure that is from inside of me to over-deliver,
All the self-induced pressure,
A lot of expectations on myself,
From myself,
Probably for all sorts of good reasons,
And yet the effect is not so great.
And yet,
All these huge expectations that I have from myself.
I wonder what would happen if I start putting down some of those expectations.
I wonder what it would be like if I could lower the pressure on myself to keep up this over-delivery,
Complicating things.
I would love to be open to a new idea that I don't have to over-deliver or complicate things because I actually am enough just the way I am.
And rest your arms like a nice,
Deep breath in and out.
And I'm just gonna have a look at my notes again to see if there's anything else.
This one is big.
Maybe this is true for you as well.
With HSPs,
It can be,
Especially if you're on the empath side of being an HSP,
Even though I put other people first.
And myself last,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though I get overwhelmed because I put other people's needs first and my own needs last,
I soothe and comfort myself.
Even though it feels like other people's needs are more important than mine,
And there are so many other people whose needs are more important than mine,
And my needs always seem to come last,
Of course that would be overwhelming.
I soothe and comfort myself.
Ah,
Nice sign for me.
I hope you are sighing or yawning too.
Other people's needs always come first.
And of course that is overwhelming.
I put my own needs last so I don't get my self-care,
My needs met.
So of course my energy tanks are gonna run low,
Which means I shrink and I get smaller and smaller.
And the mountain of other people's needs look bigger and bigger,
The smaller I feel.
Of course I'm gonna feel overwhelmed from that.
All this overwhelm from taking care of other people's needs ahead of my own.
I wonder what would happen if I was open to a new idea.
I wonder if it's possible to start taking care of my needs in baby mini steps,
In a way that's right for me and still kind to other people.
Because when I'm this overwhelmed,
I'm truly no good for their needs nor for myself.
Oh,
Nice sigh for me.
So take a nice deep breath in and out,
Side out.
Love a little stretch.
I feel like yawning again.
I love it.
I hope you do too.
Okay,
And I think we'll pause it there for today.
I hope this was helpful to you and maybe it tweaked some thoughts or ideas for you.
There was actually a quote or two that I just wanted to remind you of.
And I'm just looking here in my little list just to remind you.
Maya Angelou's quote that I love so beautifully said is,
When you're,
Oh no,
This one is,
When you're feeling overwhelmed,
Your body is giving you signs that you're overdoing it.
Stop,
Breathe and remember one thing,
Everything can wait.
And I almost wanna say stop,
Breathe and tap because the tapping helps all of us to move through so that we can think clearly,
Make better decisions and get into appropriate action.
And that's good for us and good for other people.
I hope this little tapping helped about overwhelm and I hope it's useful for you in the moment when you do feel overwhelmed.
You can also repeat this a few times and think about something that you could be overwhelmed about in the future.
When were you last overwhelmed?
And apply this tapping to that event as well.
The more tapping we do about the overwhelm,
Whether it's current,
Past or future,
The more the system will start settling and realize that we're actually quite safe and we don't have to keep putting other people first and we can take care of our own needs and we can get out from all of that submerging and feeling covered in all the stuff that we need to take care of.
None of it's urgent,
Remember you can always wait.
Everything,
Everything can wait.
Lots of love,
Thank you for watching.
This is Liesl Teversham and I work with especially highly sensitive people to help them thrive in life and realize that there are such gifts to the world.
Thank you for watching.
