What to do When You Feel Overwhelmed

Institute Editorial Team 06/12/2023

Have you ever had an experience that caused you such intense feelings you could hardly contain yourself–like you were overflowing with emotions? That is the feeling of being overwhelmed. This happens when something causes an intense reaction in you, either emotionally or physically. You may react with happiness, tears, anger or a combination of all three depending on the situation. Overwhelm can also be a feeling that builds over time, with one small event being the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. This can happen when you ignore small things that bother you which eventually end up turning into a mountain of resentment. You might become overwhelmed when all the things you ignored come crashing down on you all at once. Negative overwhelm can also…

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Categories: Digital Library, Self-care, Subscriber Content, Wellness & Personal Growth

Tags: self-care, Stress Management, wellness

Institute Editorial Team

5 Ways Your Body Carries Stress and How to Relieve It

Most people who experience negative and unwanted emotions try to push them away. You may experience fear, sadness, hurt and irritation throughout your life, but instead of acknowledging these emotions, you might ignore and deny them. Storing unwanted feelings can result in aches and pains. This is not always the case, but there are bodily reactions to stress. These emotions can manifest their way into areas of the body and create tension. How Your Emotions Get Stuck Research supports the idea that mental and emotional well-being impacts physical health. An excellent example is being afraid and having your fight-flight or freeze response kick in. Your body generates a physical reaction due to fear. We are constantly taking in information, which is processed in our autonomic…

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Mia Barnes 02/10/2023

What Does It Mean to Be Vulnerable?

What exactly is vulnerability and can it help us in daily life? There are a lot of ways to define vulnerability. The term, ‘vulnerable’ means to be susceptible to harm. Another way to describe vulnerability could be “at-risk”. At the root of it, this harm comes from your emotional experiences. Being emotionally vulnerable involves the process of acknowledging your emotions, especially those that are uncomfortable or painful. Acknowledging painful emotions can be difficult because it is human nature to avoid experiences that hurt us. Oftentimes, instead of fully experiencing and acknowledging an unpleasant emotional experience, we may do things that help distract us. For instance, when you feel sad, you may call a friend for emotional support and ask for advice. When you feel angry,…

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Institute Editorial Team 01/31/2023

5 Exercises for Practicing Self-Compassion

Have you ever beat yourself up or said unkind words to yourself? If you’re like most of us, your answer is probably “yes.” Especially as women, we tend to be our own worst critics, and we usually treat ourselves in cruel ways that we’d never treat other people!But there’s a different way. Self-compassion is the practice of being kind and understanding with ourselves — not only when we succeed, but when we fail, too. Here, we’ve compiled 5 exercises you can use to start practicing self-compassion. These practices are based on extensive research by Dr. Kristin Neff, a psychologist who specializes in self-compassion. Try to incorporate them into your daily schedule as much as possible. You can use these 5 exercises at any time, day…

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Gina Messina, Ph.D. 02/28/2022

woman looking up at sky thinking, showing mental performance

Mental performance and you: 10 things you need to know

Our mental performance, how we think, analyze, and perceive the world, influences how we work, tackle challenges, relate to others, manage stress and more. Where we choose to put our focus has a tremendous impact on how we feel and perform in our day-to-day lives. Julie Jones, Mental Performance Coach and Institute instructor, specializes in helping people boost their mental game, and in teaching them how mental training, positivity and self-awareness can help us do better in our jobs, our personal lives, as leaders, as athletes, and as members of the community. As a former Division I softball coach, Julie specializes in training athletes in mental performance techniques. The same brain strategies that can help a softball player improve her swing can help us all…

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Institute Editorial Team 08/02/2021

How to care for yourself while taking care of others

Caregivers, this is for you. Even before the pandemic, more than 16% of the US population was providing unpaid care to an adult 18 years or older, including family members with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Women make up about 75% of those caregivers, and they put in the work while juggling jobs, children, and ongoing domestic-task overload. With COVID back on the rise, caregivers are under additional pressure to care for and protect their loved ones. If you’re a caregiver, the stress may seem relentless, and you may be: having trouble sleeping under/over-eating self-medicating with alcohol or drugs canceling (or not even booking) your own doctors’ appointments That’s because when you’re a caregiver, caring for yourself tends to happen only after everyone else’s needs have been…

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Institute Editorial Team 09/26/2023

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