What do you do when overwhelmed?
You may not know, I'm a local coordinator for Youth for Understanding, an organization that helps place exchange students. As a local coordinator, I support them throughout their stay in the US. One of my students had an incident and needed to be removed from her host family and a new one found. Not going into all of the details, but there were some very uncomfortable moments as well as 3 unplanned trips to and from Bloomington, IN.
Monday was a designated work on business day, I didn't do much. I had no energy and was still integrating everything that happened. I also knew that yesterday, after working at the school in Noblesville, I'd have to trek to Bloomington, which meant a very long day of driving.
I hadn't even gotten to processing what happened, what signs there were and what I could learn about this circumstance for next time (hoping there wouldn't be a next time!) or to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed, bordering shut down. What did I do? Several things:
One of the things I did do Monday was go for a walk, I knew I needed to be outside, in nature, soaking it in.
I was super gentle with myself. I allowed myself to just be and not do.
I gave myself a break between getting home from school and driving to Bloomington.
I kept my evening tea ritual on Tuesday night, even though it put me to bed later than I wanted to.
I LISTENED to my body, what it needed, and did it.
Take deep breaths when needed and pay attention to my breath
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Sometimes my list is different, this is what has supposed me these last few days.
As always, Your life is your practice.
