3 Things You Can Do Next Time You’re Overwhelmed

When you’re overwhelmed, what do you tend to do? 

A lot of us freeze when we’re overwhelmed and don’t know what to do next to experience relief. Utilizing somatic techniques can help you cope with overwhelm in the moment, so you can calm down and move forward. 

What happens to your body when you’re overwhelmed

When you’re overwhelmed, it usually doesn’t feel great. This is because when you feel moments of fear or distress, your body experiences it as a threat. Your “fight or flight” response will be triggered, to help you get out of the dangerous situation. 

Here’s the thing: This system was helpful when we were running around, trying to avoid predators and exposure. Now that we live in a more modern world, though, it can cause a lot of distress. When you’re in distress, your body automatically engages your sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which prepares you to survive the situation by telling you to fight, flee, freeze, or fawn. 

Here’s a breakdown of what that means:

• Fight: You stay where you are and prepare to fight whatever is causing the stress 

• Flight: You prepare to remove yourself from the situation and flee danger

• Freeze: You find yourself stuck or unable to move 

• Fawn: If the first three don’t eliminate danger, this response causes you to abandon your own needs and try to appease others

When your sympathetic nervous system is activated, your body prepares to protect itself, so you get a surge of energy, your heart rate increases, your vision improves, and your digestion slows down. If this state sounds like it would feel intense, you’re right! 

It’s really hard to calm yourself back down mentally when these changes have also taken place in your body physically. You need to also calm your body down by activating your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). Your parasympathetic nervous system is the one that’s in control when you’re resting. When it switches on, it prepares your body to rest by speeding your digestion back up, slowing down your heart rate, and brings you back down to your normal state. 

Somatic exercises, which incorporate body awareness, breathwork, and movement, help bridge that mind-body gap to help you regulate your nervous system. 

Why somatic techniques are helpful with overwhelm

It doesn’t matter if you think you shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the situation - your rational brain is probably offline when you’re feeling this kind of distress and your body is just reacting. While using other techniques might help calm your mind, somatic exercises help you connect to your body so you can calm that down too. Using exercises like these helps your body calm down enough so that your rational brain can take back over.  

Somatic techniques help you connect you back to your body. You practice how to notice and name sensations in your body (without judging), and connect with what’s happening right now instead of letting your thoughts run away with you. They don't just help with overwhelm, either. Somatic techniques can also help energize you if that’s what you need rather than calming down. 

3 somatic techniques to try the next time you’re feeling overwhelmed 

Voo breath or humming 

Your vagus nerve, which runs from your brain down to your abdomen, is a part of your parasympathetic nervous system. It sends signals to your organs to enter the “rest and digest” mode that your parasympathetic system controls. Stimulating the vagus nerve can help engage the PNS so you can get out of fight or flight mode and calm back down. There are a few different ways to stimulate the vagus nerve, but humming or using what’s called a “voo” breath are easy options. 

A “voo” breath combines deep breathing and vagus nerve stimulation to calm you down. To do it, you just need to take a deep breath from your diaphragm and make a deep, low “vooooo” sound when you exhale. The sound made when you do this is often compared to a foghorn. Doing this for a few minutes can help lower your stress levels and help you feel like your normal self again. If the voo breath doesn’t work for you, or you want to try another option, humming also stimulates your vagus nerve. Hum along to a playlist or just keep it a long, low hum, and you’ll feel similar effects. 

Grounding with the senses

When you’re overwhelmed, it’s hard to stay connected to the present moment. Your thoughts may get away from you before you can pull them back in. You might feel uncomfortable or like you’re not even connected to yourself or where you are. Grounding exercises can help interrupt this by helping you come back to the present instead of spinning out. 

One popular grounding exercise that you can do anywhere is grounding with the senses. This practice engages your senses and helps distract you from the distressing situation, which helps your body calm down. Start either sitting or standing, and take a deep breath. Then, take a few minutes and try to find: 

• 5 things you can see

• 4 things you can hear

• 3 things you can touch

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

The numbers are arbitrary - find however many of each you want until you feel calmer and more connected to what’s going on in the current moment. 

Body shaking

Have you ever noticed that after an animal has an encounter that upsets them, they instinctively shake their body after? This simple movement helps release stress, built up energy, and trauma in the body. 

It might feel silly, but shaking your body for a few minutes can really change how you feel. Start standing up, and try to keep your body relaxed rather than tense (this will be easier toward the end) so you can really shake things around. Begin with shaking your hands, and then move up to your arms, then up to your head, then back down to your hips, and finally your legs and feet, until you’re shaking your whole body. Sometimes bouncing lightly on your feet can help the shaking feel more intuitive. Try it for 30 seconds or a minute, then check in on how you feel after. If you’re still overwhelmed, shake a little more or incorporate one of the other techniques to help you calm down. 

Looking for more coping skills? Therapy can help! Our therapists at Anchor Counseling New York are accepting new clients - schedule an appointment today to get started.