For Entrepreneurial Leaders trying to create and run a business, worries, overwhelm, and exhaustion are nothing new. This is especially true for women leaders and visionaries who have a larger than life vision for their business and for their lives, and who want to impact the world in a big way. When you are this much passionate and dedicated to your cause and work, it is not unusual for you to end up getting overloaded and blindsided, end up slowing down rather than working at a fast or steady pace. So, today’s article would touch on the issue of what to do when you start reaching overload and overwhelm as a powerful leader and an entrepreneur. I have done a facebook live session on this aspect too and here is the link. So, firstly here are some signs that can help you detect the signs of overwhelm in your life:
7 Signs of Overwhelm and Overload
- You are putting too much on your plate because you have too many things going on at the same time.
- Small things that you can normally wrap up in 5 minutes suddenly start taking 10, 20, 30 minutes, and sometimes, you are still unable to wrap them up after spending that much time.
- You start feeling agitated and tense.
- You start taking things, even smaller stuff, personally.
- You are not getting a proper amount of rest, or you are not getting a proper amount of time outside in nature for a walk or just to enjoy some time out in your yard in the sunlight.
- You are not getting proper nutrition because you are too overwhelmed or overloaded in order to cook nutritious, healthy, vegetarian or light meat meals for yourself and end up eating the wrong things.
- You start feeling that the world is crumbling in on you.
Sounds familiar? Now here are some of the tips that can help you manage the overload in your life:
Tip#1: Automate, Delegate, Delete (ADD)
Start having an honest and realistic look at your schedule and start determining what items are priorities, must-have, must-get-done and what items can be delegated to somebody else or the timeline or deadline of those can be changed at least. This is known as the Automate, Delegate, Delete (ADD) rule, let me explain:
Automate: Can you automate the things that you are doing?
Delegate: Can you delegate the things that you are doing?
Delete: Can you delete the things that you are doing?
Now I don’t mean that everything can be deleted easily because there are things that you can’t take off your list. Obviously, if you’re coaching with individuals, you don’t want to call up your clients and say, “Oh I feel overwhelmed so I am going to reschedule you.” You really want to get your clients as much notice as possible, and let them know when you are going to have travel plans or let them know beforehand because individuals really like to have a schedule and they like to feel that trust. So, as a part of your getting to the overloaded, overwhelmed part, the one thing that you don’t want to delete is your clients or the trust that your clients have in you. So, always be mindful of that when you’re looking at your automate, delegate, or delete list and then prioritize things accordingly.
Develop a Leisure or Timeout Schedule and Follow It Staunchly
We understand the need for having a work schedule and follow it staunchly; however, having a leisure or timeout schedule and personal space is equally (and perhaps more)necessary; otherwise, the busyness of our routine and demands of our personal and professional lives begin to wear us down. It is really important to create a schedule and time so that you can be around nature, even if it’s just going outside, taking a few walks around the block, or walking to the end of the block and coming back, and or being able to go to a park. In case you didn’t know, I live in the desert and we have a lot of rock gardens here. So, I have a park literally just right around the corner where they have these little mountains or tiny mounds that you can sit on, so it feels like you are just sitting on the edge and your feet are a little lower than your hips. When doing so, you start feeling like you are starting to ground with the earth. If you are not very comfortable sitting as it is, place a matt or blanket underneath you. When you are actually able to sit on the ground, not on concrete, not on chairs, feel the grass or the dirt or the sand beneath you, it’s going to help you negate the feelings of overload and overwhelm and help you recover from their wear and tears. Secondly, go and lean against a tree. Trees have esoteric knowledge and potential we are not even fully aware of. You don’t even know when they transmit this knowledge to you, which will become beneficial to you sometimes for a day, sometimes for a week, sometimes, the potential would reveal itself a month later. And if you have a yard where you can actually pick flowers, that’s even better. I have noticed that when I am around trees, when I am around nature, when I am around grass or flowers, I feel better. I go to my backyard, clip flowers and place them in my office because I want to be closer to nature and it’s helping me to overcome the overload and overwhelm of adjusting and sprucing up my new house to which I moved into 9 days ago. Listening to music also helps me clear the overwhelm out of my life.
When you are able to use nature to effectively get rid of the overwhelm and overload from your life, it would help you sharpen your focus and think more clearly in your business and in your life, and locate hidden opportunities.
Breathe and Re-adjust Your Focus and Priorities
The moment when you start noticing the signs of overwhelm in you, start taking in some deep breaths. Let me show you:
- Breathe in, breathe all the way into the base, the diaphragm.
- Utilize your diaphragm, which is right below your rib cage and just put your hands in your diaphragm and breathe in and feel your hands expand out and then expand back in.
The other technique is when you are breathing in these breaths and you are focusing on being here now, you can start asking yourself,
- Where are my soul pieces?
- Where are my heart pieces?
- Am I here now?
If you’re not fully in your body, if you are somewhere out there or you are so busy that you start feeling like you are in a wave and it’s like you have been on a long, long ride and you still feel the road underneath you, you are not exactly in your body. So, pull in your heart pieces, pull in your soul pieces so that you are here now when you are breathing. This will start reducing the stress, start helping you with the overload, the overwhelm, and you’ll be able to start going through life moment by moment. Truly take a few moments out of your day, even if it’s just 5 minutes a day for you. And then start looking at what’s really, really important. Ask yourself:
- What am I attempting to accomplish as an entrepreneur, as an individual that is starting to have the overwhelm, starting to have the overload?
- What do I really, really want to focus on?
- What is my one next step?
Think about just one next step: Not the next ten steps, not the whole list of everything you have to do, not everything you have to do in one day, but what is your one next step, moment by moment? For instance, what I am accomplishing right now is that I am doing a Facebook Live. And in the next moment, I am going to be creating a Wealthy Wednesday Show. But right now I’m focused right here, right now. So, don’t try to think of too many things at the same time or multi task; otherwise, you would get overwhelmed too quickly.
Meditate Often
Meditation also helps us in clearing the clutter and overwhelm form our lives. So, I am going to teach you a simple meditation (don’t practice this while you are driving):
- Put your fingers in the pose of what is called a Moodra (watch the video and you would get a better idea).
- Then you can rest your hands or put them wherever you want on your body.
- Put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. You are going to feel this little mound, this little dip in the center behind the top of your teeth.
- And then close your eyes and just breathe in. Do the diaphragm breath, and imagine that you are breathing all the way down to your toes.
- You want to breathe in focused, balanced, centered. You want to breathe in focused, balanced, centered. Or you can breathe in any words that you need.
- You can breathe in peace, harmony and love.
- Whatever you need to breathe in, just imagine that you can breathe this little light into your body and just breathe it in and hold it for a second. Feel it filling you back up. And then breathe out.
- And when you start releasing your stress, you are able to start thinking more clearly, your fogged head starts going away and you are able to start being more focused in this present moment.
So, these are the few tips to tackle the feeling of overwhelm and overload from your life in order to clear out negative energies and stagnation from your business. If you would like to get hold of me, if you would like to have some tips and strategies on how you can overcome overwhelm, overcome frustrations, you can have a personalized consultation with me. I have been teaching women entrepreneurs how they can tackle their personal and mindset blocks, liberate themselves from negativities and mindset limitations and allow their mystic energies and businesses to soar as a result. Go to my website and book a personalized session with me. and we would see how we can cut out the overwhelm from your life.