How to Cope with Overwhelm

Put your hands up if you’ve ever had a bad case of overwhelm.

(I bet there’s a great big sea of hands waving back at me right about now.)

Being a multipotentialite is like being the plate spinner at the circus. We have so many projects on the go at the same time and we try not to let any of them slow down or fall to the floor. This is an impressive skill but it’s also a skill that takes a lot of energy – mental energy.

One minute you’re on a roll and everything’s going magnificently well, and the next you’re retreating into your safe space with a bad case of overwhelm.

Whereas normally you’d be seeking out more input and absorbing information like a sponge, now the off switch has been flicked, you simply can’t take in anything more.

Ever met a multipotentialite who could resist a shiny new idea?

The need to constantly feed our minds with new and shiny information is like an addiction. Our desire for constant learning is, after all, what makes us pluralists. It’s also the reason we so often experience overwhelm.

There’s only so much you can take on before you need some downtime. Knowing this from experience, I decided to find ways to tackle my overwhelm. Hopefully the techniques I’ve developed will also help you deal with your own overwhelm gremlin when you feel it creeping up on you.

Here are three ways to tackle your overwhelm:

1) Rest

Anyone who’s ever taken up running or other sports on a semi-serious level will tell you that rest periods are just as important as training sessions. It takes time for those aching muscles to recover and consolidate the benefit from each training session.

In the multipotentialite world, this translates into giving your mind time to process and file all that information. Let it work its way through your sub-conscious before the next influx of new data arrives for processing.

It might also be worth doing something physical, as physical activity has a positive impact on mental well-being. How about using your time off from your projects to go for a run, swim, cycle, or climb?

2) Be selective

You don’t have to start everything right now, as tempting it may be to do exactly that. You might want to make a list of your personal goals and priorities and evaluate how important each project is to you and which ones you should work on now. This process could help you distinguish between the “I really want to do this” and the “This could be fun to try” ideas.

If you’re afraid you’ll forget that great new idea unless you start working on it right away, set up a system to capture your ideas. Systems like these also free up space in your mind and ease overwhelm that way too.

Don’t forget you can always say “no” whenever you begin to feel over-committed, no matter how exciting the proposition is. That brings me to the next tip.

3) Schedule

Okay, so you know you haven’t got time to work on a new book, an album, or a screenplay right now, but you don’t want to feel like it’s never going to happen. So what do you do? You schedule it in.

Booking for your project in for a later date has several benefits:

• You remember to revisit it.
• You have something to look forward to.
• You have a time frame for finishing your current projects.

We all know there’s nothing quite like a deadline to get us motivated!

These are just a few ideas to help you devise your own self-treatment plan for when overwhelm strikes. I’d love to hear how you cope when you get a bad case of this multipotentialite nemesis.

Your Turn

Have you ever found yourself in multipotentialite overwhelm? What techniques have you discovered to help ease your overloaded mind?