The 6 Hidden Types of Overwhelm—And How to Tame Each One
If it feels like life’s slapping you in the face with a Category 5 hurricane… you’re not wrong.
Let’s cut through the spiritual niceties and get honest for a second:
If you’ve been walking around with brain fog, soul fatigue, and a nervous system that twitches every time your phone pings—
You're not weak.
You're overloaded.
And overload leads to overwhelm.
Not the “oh, I’m just so busy” kind.
The kind that knocks the wind out of your chest and leaves you staring at the wall wondering how to human.
And here’s what most self-help lists totally miss:
Not all overwhelm is the same.
There are different types. Different flavors. Different energetic signatures.
And each one needs a different kind of medicine.
So instead of asking “how do I make it stop?”
Ask this:
→ What kind of overwhelm am I in right now?
→ And what would it take to meet myself here?
Let’s break it down.
1. Emotional Overwhelm
When your feelings flood the system—and there’s no drain.
You find yourself crying over an old voicemail.
Snapping at a loved one for breathing wrong.
Or feeling nothing at all—because numbness is the only thing that feels safe.
Why it happens:
Because emotion is energy. And you’ve been absorbing more than you’re releasing.
Add in unprocessed childhood conditioning, ancestral grief, societal pressure to “hold it all together”—and it’s a miracle you haven’t combusted.
This isn’t you being dramatic.
This is your soul waving a red flag: I need space. I need care. I need to be felt.
How to tame it:
Pull out the Emotional Guidance Scale.
Find yourself on the map.
Not to judge. To locate.
Then breathe. Move. Cry. Shake.
Do whatever it takes to let the pressure leave your body instead of calcifying inside it.
You’re not broken. You’re just full.
2. News Overwhelm
When your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a headline and a personal crisis.
You open your phone and suddenly your stomach’s in knots.
You weren’t even trying to go deep—just a scroll.
But now you’re spiraling.
Why it happens:
Your brain evolved to track danger in the tribe.
It was never designed to download global trauma 24/7.
But now? You're mainlining a stream of heartbreak with zero time to process.
And here's the energetic truth:
Every story, every video, every tragedy—your system feels it like it’s happening in your own home.
How to tame it:
→ Set a sacred container around your information diet.
→ One trusted source. One intentional time window. One deep exhale.
And then?
Get into your body. Get into your breath.
Don’t scroll your way into despair. Ground your way into discernment.
3. Doomsday / Democracy Overwhelm
When the world feels too broken to fix—and hope feels like a hallucination.
You wonder:
Does anything I do even matter?
Should I keep building this vision when everything’s burning?
Is there even a point?
Why it happens:
Because you’re awake.
Because you see what’s happening.
Because you were never built to look away.
But here’s what lives beneath the spiral:
A deep, ancient ache to belong to a world that makes sense.
And when that ache isn’t met with community, purpose, or trust? It turns inward. And heavy.
Now, the shift:
You don’t have to carry the whole world.
You don’t have to scream louder to be heard.
You can simply live from the frequency of Love—and change the field around you.
Your presence can shift rooms.
Your energy can soften hearts.
Your truth, spoken from alignment, can ripple farther than you imagine.
How to tame it:
→ Take one loving action today.
Not reactive. Not performative. Real.
Feed someone. Call someone. Create something beautiful.
That’s how we rebuild what’s broken: not with urgency, but with energetic integrity.
4. Overthinking Overwhelm
When your mind won’t shut up—and your body feels like static.
You’ve played out 37 versions of the conversation.
Written 6 drafts of the email and still haven’t sent it.
You feel trapped inside your own head.
Why it happens:
Because your mind is trying to protect you from feeling something your body doesn’t feel safe enough to hold.
This is a trauma loop. A control mechanism.
You’re not indecisive. You’re under-resourced.
When the body doesn’t feel safe, the brain takes over—and spins itself into exhaustion trying to predict every possible outcome.
How to tame it:
→ Interrupt the loop with movement. Shake. Dance. Breathe.
→ Drop back into your body.
→ Then ask: What’s the next true step? Not the best. Not the safest. The true one.
Clarity doesn’t come from spiraling. It comes from embodiment.
5. Time + Energy Overwhelm
When it feels like everyone wants a piece of you—and you’re disappearing by the minute.
You’re double-booked. Emotionally fried.
And still getting asked to do just one more thing.
Why it happens:
Because the world taught you to trade your energy for validation.
To confuse productivity with worth.
To be agreeable, helpful, available—even when your tank’s on E.
But listen carefully:
You are not a utility.
You are a human with a soul.
And your energy is sacred currency.
How to tame it:
→ Cancel something.
→ Say no without an explanation.
→ Rest like your freedom depends on it—because it does.
Every time you honor your limits, you reprogram your life.
Every time you protect your energy, you lead.
6. Dopamine / Agitation Overwhelm
When your body is buzzing, your brain is scrambled, and your soul is begging for stillness.
You scroll while eating. While texting. While half-watching something else.
You can’t sit still, but you also can’t focus.
You feel scattered and weirdly numb all at once.
Why it happens:
Because the modern world is engineered to dysregulate you.
Every ping, every ad, every stimulus trains your brain to chase more—but feel less.
You’re not broken. You’re chemically overstimulated.
And beneath the noise? Your nervous system is screaming for silence, beauty, presence.
How to tame it:
→ Take a 60-minute dopamine fast.
→ No screens. No multitasking. No artificial anything.
→ Just space. Music. Nature. Breath.
Stillness isn’t laziness.
It’s how you remember who you are.
Final Thought
You’re not lazy.
You’re not fragile.
You’re not “too much.”
You are a finely-tuned system running on ancient wisdom—trying to survive in a world that forgot how to feel.
But you? You’re remembering.
And the moment you name what kind of overwhelm you’re in? You reclaim your power to shift it.
This isn’t about doing more.
It’s about doing differently.
And it starts by choosing not to abandon yourself in the chaos.
Overwhelm doesn’t get the final say.
You do.
If you’re interested in my FREE 3-part training on how to become masterful with your energetics, Strategetics is the best next step for you. Learn more here.