1 Simple Way to Reduce Overwhelm

I’m currently working on a new project which is stretching my comfort zones and forcing me to learn new stuff.?I was reading an article relating to the?project and it, (I'm blaming the article and not taking responsibility for my own thoughts and feelings), made me feel completely overwhelmed, when I realised how much was involved.

Can you relate? What makes you feel overwhelmed?

I was overwhelmed because I was filling my head full of crap and giving myself a negative peptalk. It sounded like this:

• ?You should give up.
• That seems like a lot of hassle.
• You can’t do that. No.?Flipping. Way.
• I think you’re gonna have to forget your dream.

?Very helpful ay?

After a few moments of trying to re-read the article and feeling dizzy with everything that I needed to do, my Inner Coach kicked in.

Most of us have an inner critic, or a character that will happily pee on our parade and point out all the negative things that could happen.?

This is our negativity bias at play.

It’s meant to keep us safe and alive. What we fail to recognise though is that these stressors don’t need to kill us (through prolonged stressy thinking)! We just need to take charge of the way that we talk to ourselves.

Ask Yourself Coaching Questions

If you’re starting out developing an Inner Coach, one of the first things you can do is ask yourself more helpful questions. Just as a real live coach?will challenge your perceptions of a situation, (because often there is deletion distortion or generalisation going on in our heads), we too can challenge our initial thoughts by asking ourselves?questions:

Here’s what I said to myself to challenge the overwhelm I was feeling:

1. When in the past, have you been learning something new and felt the same?

Answer: starting any new job, when setting up my business, learning to be a coach, writing my book… and I got through it! I’m still alive???.

2. How did you overcome that overwhelm?

?Answer: I got a coach. I read lots. I made a plan. I broke the plan down into small actions.

The idea is you ask yourself open questions so that you dig into the recesses of your mind and access the truth of the matter, rather than some distorted, scary version of crap that you’re filling your head with. Open questions start with: What, How, Where, When, Which, Who and Why (be careful with this one as it can feel judgy).

There are other elements to developing an Inner?Coach, which I discuss in Chapter 8 of my book. You can access a lot of free?content, either in my free workbook, which accompanies my book, or my journalling template which really focuses on developing your inner coach.

Get everything you need in this link.

Alternatively, if you're ready to be coached too,?why not?book a free 30 minute discovery call.?What have you got to lose except 30 minutes of your life??No sales pitch. It's an opportunity for you to tell me what's going on, what you'd like to change and for me to see if I can help.

Wishing you the very best.

Estelle Read at Beee

Executive Coach, Speaker and Best Selling Author