Many people feel overwhelmed at work says Sara Young Wang but the volume of work is often not the cause of the stress.
Overwhelm can be caused by many work situations.
It happens when a stressful situation gets to be just too much for us to handle.
We often experience it when we have a heavy volume of work and our to-do list is daunting.
There are also many cases where the overwhelm is not even related to the volume of work.
There can be a lot going on in your mind and you feel stressed.
Perhaps you have an important project, or you’re waiting to hear back about something important and all the uncertainty is putting you on edge.
In these cases dealing with overwhelm is more about managing thought processes and less about managing time or tasks.
Here are four common causes of overwhelm beside work volume.
Fear of ‘bad’ outcomes:
There are times when we really want something to go a particular way.
We can do everything we can to influence the outcome, but there may still be a lot of fear of the ‘bad’ outcome happening.
What can help is to examine the scenario you fear in more detail.
It can be so scary to think about that often we haven’t really looked at what would happen up close.
If you walk yourself through it in your mind and how you would respond if the thing you fear were to arise, you will likely see a way you could manage through it.
Uncertainty:
While we might be afraid of the ‘bad’ outcome, not knowing whether it will happen is also stressful.
Research has shown that uncertainty around whether a bad thing will happen is even more stressful than if we know the negative outcome is certain.
For example, it’s more stressful to know there are some layoffs coming and wonder if you’re going to be let go than knowing for sure that you will.
Many of the ‘bad’ things that occur in our lives are not predicted.
Try to stay in the present. Just focus on the facts and what’s actually happening right now, not what might in the future.
Until you have more information to act from, let go and accept the uncertainty.
Have confidence in yourself that whatever happens (say, you are let go) you will be able to navigate your way through.
Often life’s challenges are actually not obstacles, but instead, opportunities to learn and experience personal growth.
Not having the answers to tough problems:
When we have a problem we want an answer now, but sometimes it’s not so easy.
When we’re faced with a tricky problem and struggling to find a solution, we can find ourselves experiencing anxiety, worry and overwhelm.
What we really need to do though is the opposite — relax.
Stressing when we need to come up with a creative solution to a challenging problem just makes things more difficult.
Reflect on times when you came up with an ingenious solution to a challenge.
What mental state were you in?
Likely you were holding the problem lightly, felt relaxed, and maybe you weren’t even thinking about the problem when the answer naturally came to you.
I know relaxing may be challenging when you’re in a situation where you feel pressured, but do your best.
You could even try activities, like driving or showering — anything that feels automatic — that shift your brain from beta to theta waves, the best type for problem-solving.
Mind racing with thoughts:
All of the above can make our minds race with thoughts going in every direction.
All the thoughts can easily bring on overwhelm.
Instead of trying to push these thoughts away observe and accept them.
Let’s say you’re worried about whether you’re going to do well on a project and having thoughts of self-doubt.
You can say to yourself: “I notice I’m having the thought that I’m not going to be able to meet my expectations for this project.”
The goal is to connect with the part of you that is aware of and separate from the thought.
When we do this we reduce the thought’s emotional charge and help ourselves move forward without feeling so consumed by the thought.
One final piece of advice: Be gentle and kind to yourself.
When you’re overwhelmed, do things that feel good to you; things that are positive, comforting, healthy and uplifting.
This is the time when you need to be emphasising self-care.
This will help to calm your nervous system, get you out of fight-or-flight and help you handle things from a clearer place.
*Sara Young Wang is a career coach for young professionals and entrepreneurs. She can be contacted at www.syoungwang.com
This article first appeared at Forbes.com
