Overthinking, Overstressing ,Overworked: 4 Ways To step off the revolving door of overwhelm and stop anxiously worrying

I always think it’s important to start from the beginning, and in this case that means starting with why you may be stuck in this loop. 

Although this is a habit you’re in (and would like to break) you recognize there are certain situations or circumstances that have you going around and around in your mind, wondering, questioning, doubting, and overthinking the past or future scenarios. 

Overthinking and overstressing keeps you out of living in the present moment, which is the only moment that offers absolute peace. 

How did my thoughts get here? 

Recurring thoughts, the ones that mostly involve stressing about situations or feeling anxious about the outcome the may or may not happen are coming from some very root conditions or beliefs. 

• Judgment 

• Belonging 

• Self-worth 

But if the belief is here now, did we also have it when we were born? Or Children?

Further investigation, which is a very potent process that’s efficiently facilitated using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), will help not just widen the lens but also include a layer of forgiveness that offers a level of compassion that is not typically felt consciously. This is because the mind gets trapped inside the walls of it’s own view of reality. 

Consider this your field of experience that either supports and serves you well or takes away from it. On one end you have the ability to control your attachment to thoughts that will come up as either an enabler of fear (harming) or inspirer of joy (supporting). How wonderful that we are capable of shaping and manifesting our own reality. 

But, wait! There’s an aspect that must not be overlooked. The body’s trained response to thoughts, scenarios, even words or tones that are stored in our memory system. Critically linking the mind and body as one cohesive unit dispels the idea that you can sustainably think your way into a positive mindset. 

The full embodiment of genuine, positive mental, emotional and spiritual abundance is an intangible of life that requires an internal agreement to release, to heal, and to process stored traumas that have been trapped in the body. 

If you don’t already know, its important to understand that trauma creates changes in your brain that trigger the fight or flight and freeze or fold response. 

These responses can become so second-nature that stress hormones are released even without the stimulus of a threat in your environment. 

That means that on a biological level you are being triggered into a reactive stress response without your “doing”. Which is why it feels so challenging to control your reactions to certain noises, words, people, situations, etc. 

And another reason why the idea of cognitively disrupting stress-response patterns without utilization and involvement of the body (ie. Somatic Therapies) is a longer and sometimes unsuccessful (sustainable) singular route. 

A trauma is a lasting emotional response from a perceived distressing event. Where one person can perceive an event as distressing another may view it more in confusion and rustled excitement. The mind and body can venture into disassociation and entanglement if the traumatized individual doesn’t process the emotion fully. Without healing, the window of tolerance can be seldom found. 

The Window of Tolerance is a model that proposes that between the extremes of sympathetic activity and parasympathetic activity, there is a window within which optimal states of arousal occur where emotions and experiences are experienced as tolerable (Corrigan et al., 2010).

Within the Window of Tolerance, our bodies are able to regulate our emotions and in turn regulate our nervous system to a place of homeostasis, a place of harmony. 

The trauma response can result in either end of the extremes where one individual may be stuck in the ‘freeze’ mode where the mind chooses to numb out and suppress emotions. This is where you can be caught in the revolving door of self-sabotage because it ‘feels more comfortable’ to return to the state of no feeling rather than move through the hurt, shame, guilt, grief, or disappointment. 

For another individual, their responsive tendency may be to stay in an energetic overdrive state. This person unconsciously seeks situations, or ‘fights’, to continue the stress response because that feels ‘right’ or normal to the body. It’s as if the body is stuck in the “ON” position and the driver of the car is driving forward with the Emergency Brake on. Most situations and contexts involve this person being overstimulated, angry, reactive, pacing, anxious, on edge without the perceived ability to walk off safely. 

Regardless of where your tendency lies, the first step in healing and recovery is the acknowledgment.

Take this aspect just one layer deeper and hold as little judgment as possible with your acknowledgment. Using Tapping (EFT), Meditation, Breathwork, or Yoga will help you inquire beyond the thinking brain, into the amygdala, and begin to reshape and rewrite your thoughts –i.e. your perspective. 

The following ways (steps) are not typically done just once, so consider establishing some sort of routine or practice to move through the emotions or use a trained facilitator: 

1. Stimulate the vagus nerve by going through a series of breathing techniques to increase the range of respiration and induce calmness across the body. Allow the process to take place in a safe and supportive environment without distractions so you can be fully present with your body,  breath, and being. 

2. Move the body fluidly and unrestrained. This boundless movement will allow emotion to be transferred and transformed. It’s important to find your own internal comfort as you move through the movement before your surrender to the more challenging, less comfortable and more confrontational emotions to arise, be seen and let go of. 

3. Access the part of yourself that needed to be formed or show up for an event that you haven’t healed from. Begin the conversation with the Tapping Technique. Multiple rounds may be need to access that part of you, and discover the thoughts and emotions that have been kept away in hiding. Holding as little judgment as possible, bringing forth compassion, and being accepting during this process will help shift the energy (emotion) a bit faster than if you were to stay tightly bound with control and resistance. 

A continuation of belief shifting will be required along the journey of transcendence. Your desire to go further is a process that entails your own personal discernment of pace and pain. Your unsettled, distractive and avoidant response of emotional regulation has brought and left you here- at the bottom of the mountain. Now you have the choice, and ability, to strap up the courage and climb. The sooner you decide to start your ascent the more quickly your reality of the mountain becomes rolling hills filled with wildflowers, river crests, and roaming buffalo. This is the path you may choose to journey along. 

Step one: begin endurance training. 

Your Self-Leadership coach,

Juliana Lindner

Owner/Founder All in Harmony

References

1. Corrigan, F., Fisher, J. and Nutt, D., (2010). Autonomic dysregulation and the Window of Tolerance model of the effects of complex emotional trauma. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 25(1), 17-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881109354930  

2. “What is Tapping and How Does it Work?”. The Tapping Solution Foundation. Viewed January 2023.  https://www.tappingsolutionfoundation.org/howdoesitwork/