When Overwhelmed, Slow Down 0 ▲ Nathan Peterson 51 days ago · Life · hide · 2 comments When you feel overwhelmed, slow down. I know this might feel like the exact opposite thing your system wants to do when you feel overwhelmed. But it's not... What if the feeling we associate with overwhelm is actually a message, sent by our system, asking us to please slow down? And what if the negative outcomes we associate with feeling overwhelmed are actually a result of ignoring that message—of working harder and faster and more frantically instead? I have a saying I throw at my children almost daily: haste makes waste. It's obnoxious, but it's true. Most injuries to our body, to our relationships, to our mental and emotional health, come from rushing. Not from going too fast, but from going faster than we actually want to go. Picture a runner who loves to run. They're running fast and loving it. That is fast, not rushing. Now picture someone who is running faster than they want to run. They're running away. They're not in pace with their own self. Part of them is behind, and part… Log in to reply on the Fediverse. Comments will appear here. jreber @jreber@mastodon.social 51 days ago [-] I needed to hear this. Never thought of the solution to overwhelm as a signal to slow down. I always fought my urge to take a break, or take a nap, as obviously making the overwhelm worse.Thanks for sharing. Al Firous @alfirous@mastodon.social 50 days ago [-] "Normally, we jump to reaction: "It's fine." "You're fine." "Stop complaining." "You just need to work faster and harder."That reaction is like noticing the low-gas light turn on in our car, and immediately slamming on the gas to try to get where we're going before the fuel runs out. It only leads to an empty tank. Burnout."Great analogy!
