Search Mediators Near You:

When the World is Too Much, How to Release Overwhelm with Resonance

As our collective world seems to spin from one traumatic crisis to the next, an incredibly tender question along the healing journey is:

What happens in our brains and bodies when life feels like too much for us?

Too much fear, too much grief, too much change, too much aloneness?

This sense of "too much," or overwhelm, occurs when we seem to be drowning in the enormity of existence, when what life brings is exceeding the available resources we have to deal with it.

Indications of overwhelm can include:

  • Experiences of ongoing stress or a state of ongoing exhaustion
  • Feelings of panic if you imagine stopping work or activities
  • Sleep or attempts at rest that do not feel restful
  • Palpitations and/or headaches
  • High blood pressure and/or digestive issues
  • Living on the edge of depression
  • Hearing yourself say: "It’s too much," "I can’t," "I’m so tired," "I have to get out of here" or "I can’t cope"

Overwhelm is a natural response to living through a barrage of inputs and experiences our nervous systems aren’t designed to handle.

So what can we do to regain a sense of inner peace and equilibrium?

How can we increase our capacity to navigate the waves of challenge and crisis that wash over and around us?

First, by understanding how and why brains respond to overwhelm in the ways they do.

Next, by exercising resonance to gently build our system’s capacity for rest, release, and a sense of being accompanied in life (not feeling chronically alone).

While experiencing a state of overwhelm can often feel intractable and insurmountable, movement and healing is possible with persistent resonance and practice at developing self-warmth.

                        author

Sarah Peyton

Sarah Peyton, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and neuroscience educator, integrates brain science and the use of resonant language to heal personal and collective trauma with exquisite gentleness. Sarah is a sought-after expert who brings neuroscience expertise together with depth work, self-compassion, and the transformative potential of language. She works… MORE >

Featured Mediators

ad
View all

Read these next

Category

Sexual Harassment Claims: When Can Mediation Work?

"Originally published in Vol. 43, Number 4, July-Aug.-Sept. 1997 issue of Business & Economic Review, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina." The number of sexual harassment claims has...

By Elizabeth Whittenbury
Category

The Horror of Bullying at France Telecom

From the CMP Blog Between 2008 and 2009, 35 employees of France Télécom committed suicide. One woman threw herself from a fifth-floor window in front of her colleagues. Many had...

By Arran Heal
Category

Beyond Civil Rights: The Case for Enforcement of Harassment Laws as a Means to Deter Racially Based Confrontations

JAMS ADR Blog by Chris PooleAs a JAMS mediator, I believe that one of the best ways to assist parties to resolve a dispute is to educate them about the...

By James Ware

Find a Mediator

X
X
X