People often describe overwhelm as the feeling they have when they are facing many demands and they don’t feel able to manage or cope. Overwhelm can appear to be a sudden feeling – like a firework exploding or falling off a cliff – but the stresses, the decisions, the choices, the demands have very likely been building and building until it all just feels like ‘too much’. It can be like emotional paralysis or like being crippled with indecision. Even simple tasks can feel like ‘too much’. Does this sound familiar? Have you ever felt like this?

Overwhelm has been a factor for many of the clients I have helped through hypnotherapy and often they feel guilty or a sense of failure! Guilty that they need to get some support and help, feeling like a failure because they imagine that everyone else is coping superbly well with life and never struggles. But we all struggle at times and getting help before the struggle becomes unbearable is the sign of a strong person, not a weak one! One of the things people often say to me is “I don’t know why I’m struggling so much, other people manage with much worse things than this”. They downplay their own problems, and don’t acknowledge that actually, they have done very well to keep coping for as long as they have.

What has happened when overwhelm strikes that generates these feelings I described is that the body has gone into ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode in an attempt to get you safely through this perceived danger. Your body is flooded with stress hormones, which can make you feel jittery and panicky, you are probably not able to sleep well and your brain just can’t stop buzzing. But the less you sleep, the more that you worry, the more the overwhelm builds and the worse you feel – it’s a vicious cycle.

How hypnotherapy can help with overwhelm

Finding a way to switch out of this mode can be the most useful thing that hypnotherapy can teach you. Guided relaxation, often using breathing, is one of the first things that we practise in my sessions and it is incredibly effective at showing your brain and your body that it is safe to let go – let go of the worry, let go of the tension in your body. Finding some time during the week, during the day, to take care of yourself is essential, it isn’t self-indulgent or selfish. You aren’t putting your own needs first, you are making sure that you are strong enough to carry on.

Learning to let go of worrying thoughts

So what else can hypnotherapy do to help? Another really helpful strategy is to learn how to let go of thoughts. When we are overwhelmed our thoughts can feel like potent truths that sear into our brain. They feel powerful and hot, but they are only thoughts. Learning to let them pass through our brain and not trigger painful emotions is a very important skill. We can practise letting go of our thoughts by simply noticing them and imagining we can watch them float off into the air. I often teach people to practise this early on in the treatment as it is the practising of the technique that helps, not whether you are good at it or not. I have an exercise on the website called ‘Leaves on a Stream’ which is a guided way of doing this.

A habit of worrying is often a key factor leading to overwhelm. Remember that you only need to deal with catastrophes when they actually happen, you don’t need to have multiple plans in your head to address every possible way that a difficult situation can unfold. I ask client to think about whether they are the person who is able to take action to improve the situation, and if they can take that action now. If the answer to either of those questions is ‘no’ then that worry isn’t something you need to hold on to just now – let it go! Practising techniques that help you to let go of worrying thoughts is therefore also up there with the most useful techniques I teach.

All these hypnotherapy techniques are applicable to everyone who comes to see me – they are that good!

Remember that overwhelm will pass. We choose how to respond to every situation we face. We can either respond in a helpful way that moves us forward, or in an unhelpful way that leaves us feeling stuck and emotionally paralysed. 

You are much more resourceful than you realise. Tap into that resourcefulness and challenge yourself to never let overwhelm get the better of you in any situation ever again.

Get in touch with me to find out how hypnotherapy can help you to overcome overwhelm