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What Do You Do When You Feel Overwhelmed?

Content advisory: This post discusses anxiety, overstimulation, and coping with mental health challenges.

A reflection with Greg and Rich

When life feels like too much

Notifications stacking up
Demands colliding
Your mind racing faster than your body can move

What do you do at that moment?

In this episode of The Support & Kindness Podcast, hosts Greg and Rich share how they personally handle overwhelm while living with brain injury, ADHD, and the everyday chaos so many of us know well.

This isn’t theory, it’s lived experience, mixed with simple, grounded tools you can actually use.

Slowing Down: The First Step Back to Yourself

“Just the act of slowing down can make all the difference.” - Greg

Both Greg and Rich agree:
When you feel overwhelmed, your first move shouldn’t be to push harder. It should be to pause.

For Rich, overwhelm often comes from overstimulation:

“When I feel pressured, I freeze up… I can work myself into panic attacks or even seizures with overstimulation.”

His family now uses a gentle cue:

They raise their hands
And say: “Slow down, Dad.”

That small moment helps him reset before his anxiety spirals.

Greg adds an important reframe:

“Feeling overwhelmed doesn’t mean that you’re failing—it means that you’re human.”

Overwhelm is not a character flaw.
It’s your nervous system saying:

“This is too much right now.”

Writing It Down: Lists as Lifelines

For Rich, writing things down isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.

“I have a list on my computer of big tasks, but I also keep a notepad on my coffee table for what I need to do today.”

Greg laughs about finding old notes from 2019,
but he agrees the act of writing itself can be calming:

“Sometimes the act of writing something down in itself can be a help.”

You don’t need a perfect system.
You just need a place to put things down so they don’t live only in your head.

A simple structure to try

Must do today
Could do this week
Parking lot (later / someday)

Then:

Circle one task to start with.
Take big, scary tasks and shrink them down:
- “Write a report” → “Open a document and write one sentence.”

This isn’t just productivity.
It’s a way of telling your brain:

“We have a plan. You’re not alone in this.”

Grounding the Body and Mind

Greg shares a small toolkit he put together (with some help from AI) to reset a stressed nervous system:

1️⃣ Box breathing

Inhale for 4
Hold for 4
Exhale for 4
Hold for 4

Repeat 4–6 times.

2️⃣ Cold-water reset

Rinse your hands or face with cold water
Or hold an ice cube for 30–60 seconds

3️⃣ 5-4-3-2-1 grounding

Look around and name:

5 things you see
4 things you feel (touch)
3 things you hear
2 things you smell
1 thing you taste

These small resets:

“Unclench the body, slow the heart rate, and give the brain time to recalibrate.”

Rich adds a real-life example of overwhelm:

“The phone ringing, the oven alarm, and a family member talking to me…”

When everything hits at once, he focuses on order:

Take the food out of the oven
Then answer the question / conversation
Then the phone (or let it go to voicemail)

“It’s about slowing down and figuring out what order things need to happen in.”

Asking for Help & Setting Boundaries

Both hosts are clear:
Ask for help early, not when you’re already burned out.

Greg offers simple scripts you can borrow:

“I don’t have capacity right now.”

“I need to finish X before I commit.”

“Could you take task B? I can’t take it all on today.”

Rich connects this to his experience as a soccer coach.
Delegation isn’t weakness—it builds others up.

When he teaches players to run the offside trap themselves,
he’s not just giving them work—he’s teaching leadership.

Letting others help you isn’t selfish.
It’s how teams, families, and communities get stronger.

Caring for the Basics: HALT

Overwhelm gets worse when your body is running on empty.

Greg uses the HALT reminder:

Don’t get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.

Start by checking in with the basics:

Food: Have you eaten something with protein and fiber?
Water: Have you had enough to drink today?
Movement: Can you move gently for five minutes?
Sleep: Are you giving yourself a chance for consistent rest?

“When I feel lost and afraid and scared… my breathing labors. It’s just like I need some help. But even then, breathing and centering myself can solve a multitude of things.”

Sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do is:

Eat
Drink water
Breathe
Lie down

It all counts!

🔁 Reframing the Story

Greg closes with a simple, hopeful reminder:

“You don’t have to fix everything today. Focus on the next kind step. Small actions count, and they add up. You’re doing your best—and that’s enough for right now.”

Rich adds:

“You overcome feeling overwhelmed by asking for help—and you learn that by failing to ask for help a few times in life.”

The heart of their message:

Be kind to yourself.
Progress happens one gentle, deliberate breath at a time.

Key Takeaways (at a glance)

Pause first.
Slowing down interrupts panic and gives your body a chance to reset.
Ground yourself.
Try box breathing, cold water, or 5-4-3-2-1 grounding.
Write it out.
Use simple lists: must, could, later.
Shrink big tasks.
Cut the job in half, then in half again, until it feels doable.
Protect your inputs.
Silence notifications, close extra tabs, limit noise and interruptions.
Ask early.
Delegation and clear boundaries prevent overload.
Care for your basics.
Food, water, gentle movement, and sleep matter more than we think.
Be gentle with yourself.
You don’t have to do it all today.