We live in an incredibly fast-paced society these days. Everything has developed into a trend one needs to follow within a given time frame; a race you need to win. There’s so much to do and simply not enough time to do it. According to a poll by YouGov, 74% of people admitted feeling so overwhelmed that they could not cope with anything. Now, what can we do to make our lives easier? While therapy and better stress management are viable options, they may not be readily available. Are there any tools and techniques – such as using journal prompts for overwhelm- to help with emotional regulation? Can they help in the acquisition of inner peace? What are some prompts and book recommendations to help us understand the psyche of a burnt-out mind? These are just some of the questions we’ll be answering today. So, without further ado, let’s get into it!
How Do You Journal When Overwhelmed?
The best thing about journaling is that there are no rules for it. You can write about whatever you want, whenever you want. Remember: this isn’t your English class, and no one will mark you for it. The purpose is merely emotional expression. This means you can also employ drawing, doodling, small phrases in a character’s thought bubble, and a video where you let out all that inner turmoil.
However, while there is no objective structure, you can incorporate various strategies to acquire optimum results. We recommend going through the following list and adding them to your journaling routine as you see fit.
Have a Free-Writing Session About Everything You’re Feeling
Journaling is your safe space. Here, you can scream, whimper, wail, cry, and mourn as much as you want. It is a non-judgment zone where no one will interrupt or prefer someone else over you. In the words of Lynda J. Dimitroff, it is a “practical way for the author to have a relationship with her/his own mind”. Therefore, the key here is not to hold yourself back. You can be as unapologetic as you want. Just start talking and see where that communication takes you.
Take Some Time Off for Self-Reflection
Fixating on certain emotions can be more detrimental to your well-being than you realize. So, while emotional expression is healing, journaling can be damaging when you can’t pull yourself away from everything you’ve said.
Taking a break where you let the newfound tranquillity settle in your bones will help you return to it with a fresh mind. So, scream into the void. Then walk away from it, dropping the weight off your shoulders.
Ask Yourself: Is the Exhaustion Physical or Mental?
Your psychological and physical well-being overlap. This is why depression may make you physically drained, lethargic, and inactive. This is also why you may feel emotionally burnt out after a long stressful day at work.
However, understanding the underlying reasons will allow you to decide your next action. For example, eating when you’re hungry will make you feel more fulfilled, rather than journaling about starvation. It’s all about what your mind and body need at the moment. Your job is to understand their requirements and act accordingly.
What Is Your Internal Narrative About the Situation?
Getting a deeper glimpse into your inner monologue will allow you to understand yourself better. Sometimes, the problem isn’t that you got a bad grade. It’s your self-worth tied to academic validation.
There will always be things you’re good at and vice versa. Paradoxically, understanding the functionality of your mind may help you practice detachment from it. Diagnosing the sickness helps in the prescription of medication, after all.
What Can You Do To Make Yourself Feel Better?
So, now you know why you’ve been feeling so frustrated. Practicing journal prompts for overwhelm has helped you decode your inner psyche. But can you do something about it? Is the cause of concern within your hands?
If yes, you can devise a plan to resolve the issue. So, let’s say you made a mistake or completely forgot about an important meeting. You can’t go back in time. But you can make a plan to stop this from happening in the future. Understanding this will help you relinquish everything beyond your control. And journaling will help cement these thoughts into newer healthier patterns.
Can Journaling Reduce Feelings of Overwhelm?
Yes, journaling works as an effective outlet for emotional expression. It allows you to be as honest as you want since there are no social barriers to be mindful of. So, whether you’re dealing with the loss of a loved one, childhood trauma, family problems, or any friendship or romantic breakup, journaling will be there to hold you close.
Here, you can let your heart spill its contents until there’s nothing left. This will allow you to make space for everything you need to embark on a new, more fulfilling phase of your life.
In the words of Lynda J. Dimitroff, “Writing and wellness are natural allies. When approached in a purposeful and intentional way, journal writing can be an agent for healing and change. Writing thoughts and feelings in a journal develops insight, compassion for the self, and body awareness. Writing organizes cognition, articulates intuition, and regulates emotion”.
So, yes, journaling prompts for overwhelm can help reduce the feeling. And how does it do that? By helping you pursue inner peace. It merely changes your perception of the world while it stays the same. It teaches you how to regulate yourself and your reactions – the only thing you have control over.
Pursuing Inner Peace To Overcome Overwhelm
Focusing on cultivating inner peace can help you overcome overwhelm. “But how can I do that?”, you may be wondering. Don’t worry. We’ve got you sorted. To answer your question, I will quote one of the first things my therapist told me when I started visiting her.
After listening to me intently, she took out a set of notes and said: “One’s circumstances do not create stress as much as their thoughts do”. Thus, understanding problematic thoughts and rectifying them as required forms an essential component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy employed in treating depression and anxiety.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Can Help With Feelings of Overwhelm
According to CBT, one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviours are closely interrelated. It is a cycle that goes into that particular organization. Your thoughts create feelings, and your behaviour is just you acting according to them. Let’s take a look at a few examples to understand this phenomenon better:
Examples:
| Thoughts | Emotions | Behavior |
| I will never be good enough | Feelings of unworthiness | Resistance toward healthier relationships |
| I’m never going to win | Feeling like a failure | Intentionally withholding one’s self from participating |
| Everyone hates me | Feeling isolated from social groups; may develop into social anxiety in severe cases | Avoidance; inability to connect with people in a meaningful way |
As you can see, our thoughts manifest as certain behaviours. That is because our beliefs about ourselves and the world affect how we interact with it. So, if we do not think we deserve love, there’s a high possibility of sabotaging ourselves when it comes. Of course, the people who love us will do so even at our lowest. However, that is another standard we are subconsciously setting. In the words of Stephen Chbosky, “we accept the love we think we deserve”.
How Journaling Helps Acquire Inner Peace
Journaling helps us target these unconscious thought patterns that underlie our everyday life. It makes us aware of what is going on inside our minds when we’re on auto-pilot. When you start resolving these internal conflicts, the external changes with it. It no longer controls you the way it did before. Understanding your locus of control helps relinquish everything out of your hands. For example, whether you win or lose is beyond your control. All you can do is give it your best shot.
That ultimately helps you feel more relaxed, allowing inner peace to flourish. In the long run, it helps you feel less overwhelmed. Or even when the feeling strikes again, you’re well-equipped with sufficient emotional resources to bring your mind and body back to a stable equilibrium. How does it do that? The answer is simple: Root-Cause Analysis.
Root-Cause Analysis
The American Psychological Association this problem-solving strategy as “a method that identifies the underlying cause or causes of a recurring problem … by using progressively more specific strategies to uncover the source.”
Example
Problem
In simple words, journaling helps you uncover the thoughts that bother you. It helps process those emotions. Moreover, questioning their validity allows you to detach yourself from their intensity. For example, let’s say you’ve uncovered your unconscious belief that you don’t think you’re good enough. That may have manifested in self-criticism and consequently being harsh on yourself.
Solution
Understanding the problem may allow you to stop yourself from indulging in such behaviours. You can make a conscious effort to not only relinquish these tendencies but also create new and healthier thought patterns. That may begin with journaling for self-esteem, success, grief, forgiveness, and even better decision-making. This will allow you to reset past behaviours and grow into a new, healed version of yourself.
Wellness Activities to Help with Overwhelm
Cultivating other wellness activities can help you reduce overwhelm as well. These may include:
- Setting 10-15 minutes aside for daily meditation.
- Taking a break from social media break.
- Going out in nature.
- Practicing mindfulness.
- Sleeping and waking up early.
We recommend gradually incorporating these into your routine alongside journal prompts for overwhelm to gain optimum results.
12 Journal Prompts for Overwhelm
So, now you know the intricacies of journaling and how it assists in emotional expression and regulation. We’ve established its efficacy in processing your feelings better. But what do you even write? Well, here are 12 journal prompts for overwhelm to help you get started:
- What specific situations or tasks are causing you to feel overwhelmed right now?
- How do you typically respond to feelings of overwhelm? Do you avoid tasks or procrastinate? Do you try to power through?
- What are some small steps you can take today to begin tackling the tasks that are causing you to feel overwhelmed?
- How can you break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable steps?
- What self-care practices can you incorporate into your daily routine to help reduce feelings of overwhelm?
- Are there any specific people in your life who can offer support or help with the tasks that are causing you to feel overwhelmed? How can you ask for their support?
- What are your priorities right now? Are there any tasks or obligations that you can let go of or delegate to others?
- How can you create a more structured routine or schedule for yourself to help manage your time and reduce feelings of overwhelm?
- What are some positive affirmations or mantras you can repeat to yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed?
- What are some physical activities or exercises that help you to reduce stress and overwhelm? How can you incorporate these into your daily routine?
- Are there any underlying beliefs or thought patterns that are contributing to your feelings of overwhelm? How can you work to shift these beliefs or patterns?
- What are some long-term strategies you can implement to prevent feelings of overwhelm in the future?
You can also check out the following video for inspiration for stress relief and feeling less overwhelmed:
5 Book Suggestions for Addressing Overwhelm
Using journal prompts for overwhelm can help in giving a subjective interpretation of what is happening inside your head. However, if you’re looking for objective research-based data to understand the process, you might want to delve into book reading.
Here are five books to understand the phenomena from a mix of self-help, psychological, religious, and humanistic perspectives:
- Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed by Jentezen Franklin
- Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte
- The Book of Moods by Lauren Martin
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Final Thoughts
Healing isn’t linear. There will be days when the ghosts of the past knock on your door, waiting to be led inside. While you may think keeping the door locked is the solution, this is temporary. There will come a time when you’ll have to open it and walk out; you won’t have a choice then.
The solution isn’t to put up defences. We’re human, after all. Journaling allows us to interact with the essence of humanity. It helps us befriend the ghosts, so neither their arrival nor departure overwhelms us.
Once we understand ourselves better, we can make conscious efforts to live freely and authentic to ourselves. We don’t have to shackle ourselves to things beyond our control.
Journal prompts for overwhelm will help you uncover the conflicting thoughts that manifest as unhealthy coping mechanisms. So, get that journal and pen and write the emotional exhaustion away. The results will be worth the struggle!
