What do you do if you're feeling drained and overwhelmed while facilitating?

Stress is a natural response to challenging situations, and recognising it allows us to take necessary steps to manage it effectively. By acknowledging our stress, we validate our feelings and create space for self-care and reflection. This awareness enables us to respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively, ultimately enhancing our ability to lead and facilitate with clarity and composure.

Feeling overwhelmed while facilitating can impact not only your performance but also the effectiveness of the session you're leading. It's important to address these feelings constructively. Facilitating requires focus, energy, and the ability to manage group dynamics. It's completely understandable to feel drained and overwhelmed in this role. Implementing strategies to manage stress and improve your facilitation experience is crucial. Even experienced facilitators can feel overwhelmed sometimes. By taking care of yourself and constantly refining your approach, you can become a more confident and effective facilitator. Remember, addressing your feelings is key to facilitating effectively and maintaining your well-being.

Feeling overwhelmed is a common experience, signalling a need for self-reflection and strategy adjustment rather than defeat. It's important to understand one's motives and adapt to stressors as essential resilience-building measures. Strategies to regain focus include seeking support from peers or mentors, effectively managing stress through personalized methods like mindfulness or exercise, maintaining comforting routines, emphasizing self-care to nurture mind, body, and spirit, setting and pursuing clear, actionable goals, fostering a positive mindset, and customizing approaches to meet individual needs. Moffatt (2015). Reflexivity and self-care for creative facilitators: stepping outside the circle. Studies in Continuing Education

I go back to the basics. The most important thing is to remember to breathe! It helps to take a step back which can help to create some space and perspective. Simple grounding exercises like EmotionAid are also very helpful.

Taking breaks is essential for maintaining productivity and focus during facilitation sessions. It's crucial to recognise when your energy is dwindling and take proactive steps to replenish it. By incorporating well-timed breaks into the session, you not only recharge yourself but also create space for participants to process information and reflect on the discussion. Whether it's a brief moment of silence, a stretch, or a quick walk, these breaks allow everyone to reset and come back to the session with renewed energy and clarity. Remember, prioritising your well-being ultimately benefits the overall effectiveness of the facilitation process.

Delegating tasks isn't just a way to lighten your load when you're feeling overwhelmed as a facilitator—it's a powerful strategy for fostering engagement, collaboration, and skill development within the group. By sharing facilitation responsibilities, you not only alleviate your own feelings of overwhelm but also create a more dynamic and inclusive environment that taps into the full potential of every participant.

Depending upon what you are facilitating, you can always take a few deep breaths, and ask if the group is feeling overwhelmed as well. I facilitated groups with heavy topics such as mental illness, suicide, etc. I would acknowledge the feelings, discuss them, and sometimes inject an appropriate sense of humor to lighten the mood (skillfully done of course). Sometimes I would do some grounding and deep breathing exercises with the entire group with our eyes closed. We would all feel refreshed and calm (myself included) and ready to continue on.

Energy management. Give yourself time and grace to experiment with what you can do and what feels too much. As your competence grows, as more you can take and handle with easy.... while taking on new tasks and projects that keep you growing even further. You will learn when during and after a project you reflect on how reality panned out compared to your plans and expectations. Where is the difference, where can you improve, where can you do things differently. Act -> Reflect -> Learn