Overcoming overwhelm – a personal plan

What is overwhelm and what causes it?

Being overwhelmed occurs when there is too much of something going on or we don’t have enough time to complete everything– we feel like we’re drowning or being buried.

This can happen for a number of reasons, but a feeling of too many things to do, too much work, too much work pressure and too many deadlines can be a major contributor.

Feeling overwhelmed has repercussions on the whole of our life. It can make us feel tired, interfere with our sleep and make it difficult for us to think rationally. These negative emotions can make it more difficult for your body to fight off infections and can have a physical effect with fatigue, neck and upper-back pain, for example. Add all this together and it can affect every area of life, impacting our social lives and relationships on top of the work challenges.

All these feelings distract us from being effective and efficient and that, in turn, leads to lowered ‘performance’ and sets up a vicious cycle dragging us further down. This can lead to procrastination (making things worse!) and creative avoidance – doing things that don’t really matter to distract ourselves or things that give us pleasure, putting off the real work further.

This five hour course offers a practical and experiential opportunity to understand, appreciate and acknowledge that different situations trigger people in different ways. What one person will find ‘easy’ another may find ‘challenging’ and adding to levels of stress.

Once we have an understanding of our personal ‘triggers’ we are then in a better position to find the solutions to manage our stress, our workloads, and find effective ways that enable us to feel more ‘in control’.

The course is made up of 2 sessions:

Session 1

• By eliminating any guilt or personal judgement around feelings of overwhelm, participants are better placed to find the solutions that work for them


• Understanding that our minds can work against or for us will encourage any changes in thought patterns / deeply-held beliefs


• The recognition that they are not alone with their feelings also helps to dissipate feelings of anxiety and worry


• Having practical tips, tools and strategies at their disposal, participants will feel better empowered and confident to make the changes and adjustments that are right for them

Session 2

• Participants will have a deeper understanding of their personal triggers and how their personality profile can impact their experience of stress


• They will have a practical appreciation of how their personality can support them in building resilience appropriately for their character


• They will be able to acknowledge the personal action they can choose to take in order to support themselves


• They will have an appreciation that not everyone thinks, reacts and behaves in the way they do


• Communication, with themselves and others, has the opportunity to be enhanced

Pre-course

Each participant will be sent a link to complete the online CORE Matrix questionnaire, this will take 10 - 15 minutes. Once completed each participant will be sent their full profile.