Does it feel like everything is building up; the endless to-do list, the invisible mental load, demands at home or at work, or the sense of responsibility? Does it often feel like you have reached capacity to be able to cope and feel completely overwhelmed?
Stress and overwhelm can creep up gradually or appear all at once, leaving you feeling emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, and struggling to cope, even with the small things.
The stress bucket:
Imagine that you carry a bucket around with you, and this bucket represents your capacity to cope with stress. Each day, different pressures and challenges add water into your bucket. These might include work demands, family responsibilities, lack of sleep, anxieties or worry about the future, or even small day-to-day frustrations or irritations.
What happens when the bucket starts to fill:
When the water going into your bucket fills up faster than it can drain away, the level begins to rise. At first, you might notice small signs, feeling a little more irritable, losing patience, finding it harder to concentrate, seeking unhelpful ways of coping or a feeling of constantly being on edge. But as the bucket continues to fill, it eventually reaches capacity and it can overflow.
This is often when stress feels completely overwhelming. You might feel anxious, highly emotional, unable to think clearly or make rational choices or decisions, or as though everything is becoming too much. Even small situations can feel very difficult to manage, because your bucket is full, there is no capacity to respond or react calmly or from a place of control.
Why it can feel hard to switch off:
When your stress levels are high, your brain can begin to move into its primitive state (see the anxiety page for further information on this). This means you may find it harder to think logically, rationally or respond in the way you would like. Instead, your mind and body are simply trying to keep up with the levels of demand and pressure you are under, you are in survival mode.
And when this continues over a prolonged period of time, it can feel like you are stuck in a cycle of stress and overwhelm that feels difficult to break.
How solution focused hypnotherapy can help:
Solution focused hypnotherapy helps you understand and manage your stress bucket. During sessions, we begin to focus on the positive things in your life and the things going well for you and it starts to divert the attention away from the stress, we also work hard to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep. This helps to calm the mind and over time, life starts to feel less stressful and overwhelming.
We also explore small, practical ways to help release some of the water in your stress bucket, identifying what stress you are carrying (and whether it needs to be in your bucket), and start to change the mindset towards that stress. We finish sessions with gentle, relaxing trance to embed the positive messages, making it easier for you to feel calmer, clearer, and more in control. When the levels in your stress bucket lower, you start to notice that you are able to think more clearly, respond more calmly, and cope with challenges in a way that feels much easier and more manageable.
Support:
If you feel stressed or overwhelmed, support is available.
At Calm by Victoria, I offer gentle, compassionate, and evidence-informed online hypnotherapy sessions, helping you feel calmer, more balanced, and more in control, all from the comfort and familiarity of your own home, to create lasting, positive change.