10 ways to reduce stress + overwhelm

Are you feeling burnt out? Is your nervous system feeling taxed? Maybe you’ve recently been pushed to your limit or perhaps stress just feels like a normal part of your life. 

Throughout my twenties I reached my limit far too often and stress-related (or at least stress-exacerbated) health issues had me brushing shoulders with … d e s p a i r.  I was desperate to slow down, to find my way to peace, to feel joy. 

I thank the universe every day that I was given the opportunity to spend a year at Kripalu Center where I deepened my practice of yoga and meditation and discovered a lifestyle that allowed me to have the peace, joy, and freedom I sought. 

Below I’m sharing 10 practices and actions I now employ to shift my inner experience when I’m feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Everyone is different so I’ve offered a variety of options. You might find they all suit you, or only one or two feel right to you. If any of them feel like they exacerbate anxiety then try a different one. For some people closing their eyes and meditating feels wonderful, and for others it feels awful. You have to find what works for you. 

1. Five Senses Meditation. When experiencing anxiety, stress, and overwhelm one of the most helpful things you can do is to connect with the here and now. Often anxiety and overwhelm can be a result of worrying about the future, thinking about the many things you have to do, and feeling helpless. The solution to this is to connect with the simplicity of the present moment. One way to do this is to practice a Five Senses Meditation. This helps you connect with reality instead of the imagined reality you're worrying about. In a five senses meditation you spend about one minute meditating on each sense: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. After doing this you might find that one sense felt particularly good to sit with. Perhaps you’ll want to linger a bit longer on listening to the sounds around you, or just sitting and feeling the sensations in your body. You can try my Five Senses Meditation here on Soundcloud and here on youtube.

2. Take 5 minutes for conscious breathing. Another way to get present is to breathe. The breath is always happening in the present moment. When we’re aware of each inhale and each exhale we are fully present. If your mind is going wild set your timer for anywhere from 1-5 minutes and stay present with your breath. You could say “in” as you breathe in and “out” as you breathe out, or “rising” as your belly fills and “falling” as your belly empties. Or you might try the 4-7-8 breath: breathe in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 7, exhale for a count of 8. Making your exhale longer than your inhale activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System (rest+digest). You could also try “box breathing” where you inhale on a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, and continue with this rhythm. To learn a bit more about taking full and deep breaths into your whole torso check out my post on the yogic three part breath known as Dirgha breath. . You could also try alternate nostril breathing, Nadi Shodhana.

3. Restorative Yoga. If you’re feeling totally burnt out and just want to lie down and do nothing give restorative yoga a try. Taking 20-60 minutes to practice restorative yoga could be just what you need to let go of what’s been on your mind and give yourself a break from worrying about what’s next. The more you practice restorative yoga the better you’ll get at just dropping into the pose and giving yourself the time to just rest. Click here to learn more about restorative yoga and to try a 30 minute practice click here.

4. Take a break….from your senses. One of the most helpful things you can do for your nervous system is to take breaks for sensory deprivation…or at least sensory reduction. For example, have you tried a media fast? What about a social media fast? Taking a break from the news, tv, movies, facebook, instagram and the like can give your nervous system a break. In yoga the practice of sensory deprivation is known as Pratyahara (the fifth limb of the eight limbs of yoga). Whereas in the Five Senses Meditation we found peace and stillness through connecting to the senses, here my suggestion is to disconnect from the senses. This might mean going into one of those sensory deprivation float tanks, it might mean practicing restorative yoga on your own without any audio and with an eye mask on, or it could mean just taking a break from tv for a week, or facebook, or even music! You’ll see further down that music is on my list of things that are helpful for the nervous system, but I really recommend seeing what happens when you take a break from different kinds of sensory stimulation. Many of us don’t even realize how over-stimulated we are. Because of smart phones we have access to sensory stimulation 24/7. Give yourself a break and see what happens. (One of my favorite ways to practice Pratyahara is to take a day of silence…I’ll write a post about this soon!)

5. Shift Your Perspective. Sometimes this feels impossible, and you’ll know when this feels appropriate or not, but at times shifting your perspective by reflecting on what you’re grateful for can be just the pick-me-up you needed. And yes, I know, gratitude. It’s one of those words that’s been used so much that I feel it’s lost some of its power. But it keeps coming up because there’s actual research proving its positive effects on the mind/body. If you can’t stop thinking about what’s going on in the world, you feel totally drained, and you can’t imagine taking positive action because all you want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep, it might be time to…curl up in a ball and feel grateful. Stress and fear can narrow your perspective so all you see is what’s upsetting, but gratitude can expand your perspective by filling your body and mind with a sense of aliveness opening your mind to possibility.

6. Don’t let what you can’t do get in the way of doing what you can do. This is my favorite quote and something that I remind myself of at least once a week. Having dealt with chronic pain and an overwhelmed nervous system for most of my twenties the most important thing for me to remember was to focus on what I could do and not on what I couldn’t. This is a potent mantra for the times we’re living in when many of us feel overwhelmed by the profound injustices in our society. I know at times I get discouraged when I think about everything I want to change in the world and how helpless I feel, but thinking like this doesn’t help much of anything. What does help is sitting down and making a list of what I can do to make a change. 

7. Transform Stress into Creative Energy. Transforming your pain into something else through creative means can feel very empowering. If you’ve got an hour to spare and the weight of the world on your shoulders why don’t you take 5-10 minutes to stream of consciousness pour your heart mind and soul out into a journal, then choose a sentence or two that really stick out to you, and let it inspire a collage, or a painting, or a song, or a dance! 

8. Commune with Nature! Hug a tree! Smell some grass! Eat some dirt! Lick a toad! Whatever you gotta do! Get out there! Marvel at the expansive sky. Walk barefoot on the earth. Swim in the ocean, a pond, a lake. Gaze at a tree, a flower, a bush. Remember you are nature. Remember you are part of something bigger. Breathe it in. Marvel at it. Move with it. Breathe it in. Breathe it out.

9. Mantra Meditation. Mantra meditation can be very steadying for the mind. Choose a mantra that makes you feel grounded. To learn more about mantra meditation click here and try out the mantra “my roots run deep into the center of the living earth” as you visualize your energy rooting down into the ground beneath you. You might also use the Bhu mudra which has grounding effects. 

10. Music! As someone who has a deep love for music, both playing and listening, it blows my mind that sometimes I forget what an amazing tool this can be for relieving stress and anxiety. I am a compulsive playlist maker which really comes in handy when I’m feeling overwhelmed and just need to lie down and be cradled by the music I love. Take some time to make playlists of music that makes you happy, that soothes your soul, that makes you feel optimistic, or maybe that helps you to cry and makes you feel all the feels! While you're at it make a playlist to dance to and dance your cares away! 

There is no one size fits all when it comes to what will make you feel better. I made this list so that when you start feeling overwhelmed you know there are things that can be done. I have a lists like this in my phone for when I’m sick, if I have a pain flare up, if I’m feeling anxious, feeling down. It’s in those moments that we forget that there are things that can be done.

If you have anything to add to this list share them in the comments below! What have you been doing these days to keep your mood up, to feel grounded, to mitigate stress?

Wishing you deeper breaths and greater joy.