Why Everything Feels So Overwhelming Right Now (And What Actually Helps)

In this episode, we’re talking about overwhelm not just as a reaction to what’s happening in your life, but as a reflection of how much you’re taking in on a daily basis.

Many people are feeling overwhelmed right now, even when nothing is objectively “wrong.” And a big part of that is the sheer volume of information, input, and stimulation we’re exposed to constantly. Our systems were never designed to process this much, this quickly, without support.

Through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine, this episode reframes overwhelm as a digestion issue. Not just digestion of food, but of life. What we take in through our eyes, ears, and attention all requires processing, and when there’s too much input without enough discernment, clearing, or integration, things start to feel like too much.

This episode walks through three simple, practical ways to work with overwhelm: becoming more discerning about what you take in, creating space to release what isn’t serving you, and allowing time for integration. These are small shifts, but they can have a meaningful impact on how you feel day to day.

In This Episode:

• Why overwhelm isn’t always tied to a specific life event
• How modern life is flooding our systems with more input than we can process
• Why your nervous system doesn’t distinguish between real and perceived threats
• A Chinese medicine perspective on digestion beyond just food
• The role of the Small Intestine in discernment (what to keep vs. release)
• What it means to be intentional about what you take in (and when)
• The impact of social media, news, and constant information exposure
• Why what feels supportive varies from person to person
• The importance of creating boundaries around your inputs
• Simple ways to practice discernment in daily life
• Why “clearing” practices matter and how to make them your own
• Examples of clearing: water, movement, sound, ritual, nature
• The importance of integration time (and why we’re often missing it)
• How overwhelm connects to stagnation in the body
• Why stagnation can show up as anxiety, fatigue, pain, or digestive issues
• How small, intentional shifts can create more ease, clarity, and flow

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Tao of Humaning, where we explore the physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual aspects of what it means to be human together. I'm your host, Dr. Christine, and I'm so thrilled that you decided to join me for today's conversation. In today's episode, I want to talk about overwhelm, this very human experience that all of us have had from at one point or another of feeling like there's just more than we can handle going on in our lives. And I want to talk about three key pieces that I think are so important to being able to shift away from overwhelm and towards having more ease and grace and peace in our lives. And so this conversation came about because I was talking to several people recently about, you know, their feelings of overwhelm. And a lot of times what we're what we noticed is that there wasn't necessarily a you know life thing that was associated with the overwhelm. So they were having the physiological sensations of overwhelm. And you know, that could piggyback on stress or anxiety sensations. But the the part that was really standing out was this aspect of more of a generalized overwhelm sensation at like quote unquote all the things, right? But in their actual real life, they had the resources and the skills and the, you know, there weren't any major life changes going on. You know, sometimes our lives are overwhelming, right? And that's not necessarily something that needs to be done. There's nothing necessarily that needs to shift with that. It just is. And the sensations that we experience during that are something that we can shift. And I say this a lot with stress too. It's like stress on its own isn't necessarily bad. We're actually going to do an episode about that the next episode. So stay tuned. Subscribe. Follow along, and you'll get notified when that one drops. Um, but this week I want to keep it focused on this idea of overwhelm. And what are these three pieces that I feel like can really be impactful if all of us start to practice more of? Okay. So one of the things I think the first piece that I want to impart is that if you are feeling overwhelmed at all the things, and there isn't necessarily a storyline to it, there's not you're not alone. And I think a lot of people are feeling that right now. And there are things that you can do in your day-to-day life, small things that don't feel overwhelming, because that's not helpful. Small things that could even be fun, um, that can really make a significant difference in how you experience this uh overwhelm and making it less. Okay? Sound good? I think so. Um, so the first piece, the first factor is discernment. And I think this is something that isn't talked about enough is developing this ability to be able to see, okay, what is in front of me and what is going to be valuable in my life, and what is not going to be valuable in my life. And it sounds so simple when I say it like that, but the reality for most of us nowadays is that there's so many inputs and so much information available to us, right? Like we all have these little magical devices that I can contact anyone, I can look up anything, I can, you know, explore the entire world and know what's going on. And like it's an incredible resource. And it's something that physiologically our systems haven't taken in this much information ever before in history. So if we think about our grandparents at our age, right, the amount of information about the goings-ons in the world that they had awareness of was significantly less, right? And in Chinese medicine, we look at the small intestine as the organ of kind of discernment, in that the small intestine is what we call it separating the clear from the turbid. So it is, you know, physically in our body helping us to take in, helping us to look at what we're taking in for nourishment and being able to say, okay, what's going to be nourishing to my cells, and what do I need to pass along to the large intestine to be excreted, to let go, right? This is a key function in the body. And in Chinese medicine, we see that small intestine function on a physical level. We also see that on an emotional level and on a spiritual level. So it's not just about digesting food, it's about digesting life. It's about digesting our experiences and also the experiences or the information that we're given from the world around us, right? So we look at what needs to be digested as anything that comes in through the mouth, obvious, and then also everything that's coming in through the eyes and everything that's coming in through the ears. So anything that's coming in to a sense organ, right, is information that we can either take in as nourishment and utilize, or we can let go of and use it as waste or excrete it as waste. Um right now, because we're getting so much information uh from everywhere, right? From people in our lives, from online, social media, AI, all of the things, our systems, in my opinion, are a little backed up. And this first piece of discernment is looking at okay, where am I getting my information from? Right? That's important. And a lot of times when, especially when we look at social media, we think sometimes that we don't have control over what comes in front of us. Or we think so, you know, we tend to pull to extremes, like social media is bad, or social media, you know, people are on there all the time and not thinking about it, but they're literally taking in things, information all of the time. And again, not necessarily bad, but wanting to be intentional and discerning about, you know, who are the people that you're following online, who are the people that you have close in your life, in your friends, and your family, like who are you taking in that information from and then allowing that to nourish yourself, right? Like I love one of my teachers would talk about the actually all of my teachers talked about the definition of a friend, right? Is someone that you feel nourished by their presence. It's like you don't have to do any special activity with them, you don't have to have any like special thing planned, you just hang out with them and you've leave that experience feeling better, right? Um anyway, I digress a little bit, but the idea of discernment is something that I think we lose sight of. And I talk about this a lot, especially with my patients that are going through fertility journeys, and really encouraging them to develop or explore what's going to be supportive for them because it is individualized, right? Like what's supportive for me today, it might be different than what's supportive to me even two months from now, and definitely could be different than what's supportive to you, right? Some people really like to have all the information, and that is actually relaxing to them, and some people prefer to have less information and have a more of a felt experience, and that's more relaxing to them. Neither is wrong, but it's about understanding the need to be able to look inside and see what's going to be supportive to you, and then making mindful choices based on that, right? And understanding also giving yourself the pivot that it might change, and that's okay too, right? It's the successes in the effort is something another teacher would say, and I find that to be very true. It's it's being more intentional really is the the win. It's not about really the results of the intentional actions, although that can also be nice, but simply noticing that more discernment could be valuable is a huge win. Um there is because we have this constant access to information and we are taking in more information from all of like what's happening all around the world, like is so incredible to me that we could know those things, first of all. And also a lot of times our nervous system doesn't necessarily know the difference between watching the news and an immediate threat to your own physical safety. And so if you are practicing this discernment, you want to notice like, am I watching the news and starting to get sensations in my body that are triggering or that are you know noticing, activating this noticing in me that I am in immediate threat or immediate danger. I am in threat. That's not the right word. Um, that I am in immediate danger, right? And again, not necessarily bad. It might just be that you need to be more discerning in terms of when you take in information, right? Like if you feel really resourced and happy and balanced in the mornings, then maybe that's the time that you catch up on the news, right? You take in that information. And it's not always possible to do this, but when you can, it makes a big difference. And being able to say, like, oh, you know what, I'm really feeling stressed out about work or this relationship or an upcoming move or my IVF cycle, and like I'm just not in the headspace to know all of the things that are going on in the world right now. I'm gonna, you know, get an update from a friend, or I'm gonna pause and catch up on things tomorrow, or, you know, just giving yourself that space to have some intentionality around your inputs and base it on how you're feeling when you can. Okay. It's not always possible. And it's also possible a lot more than we remember. So this is a remembering conversation, I guess, as many of mine are. Um, so remembering that discernment piece. The second aspect of overwhelm that I think is really, really important and often underlooked, especially in a lot of like energetic systems, is this need for a clearing or purging practice. And there are so many. You don't need to know all of them. You need to have something that allows you to feel like you are intentionally, again, right? It's like the success is in the effort and in the intention. You need to have you don't need, you could explore having some kind of a dedicated time where you are releasing what is no longer serving you, or where you are just cleansing the excess away. And we can do this through water. So you could do it, you know, when you're drinking water, you could say a little dedication of, you know, as I drink this water, I pray that anything that is, you know, no longer serving me be washed away and cleansed, right? We can do it in the shower by visualizing ourselves being washed, literally, washing away anything that is not of benefit to us, right? You can do use sound vibration, you can use bells, you can use incense, you can use light, you could go walk in the grass, you could do some grounding. There's so many things out there. Um, there's a lot of qigong practices that we do in the system that I was taught that are so valuable to be able to clear away that excess, right? If we're thinking back to the digestive analogy, being able to create a dedicated space to let go. And that could be lighting a candle while you read before bed. It could be saying a prayer, reading the Bible, whatever s nourishes your soul, have a piece of that that is a dedicated practice to letting go and to clearing. Okay. Intentionality really matters here. And I could say a lot about the letting go piece, but I think for now that's good. I don't want to add to the overwhelm. But it can be simple and it could even be fun. If you can add some fun into your clearing, all the better. Okay. Um, if you have a favorite clearing practice or exercise that you like to do, um, I would love to hear in the comments what you love and enjoy. That would be fun for me. Or send me a message. Um the third piece that I was thinking of to share today that I see could bring us more towards ease and grace and peace is uh allowing time for integration. And integration is often uh I don't know, it's kind of an overused word, but giving yourself time to digest. You could we could keep on the digestion analogy for today. But giving ourselves time to digest and understanding that there are times when we just have a lot more to take in. And again, not bad, it's just information and training that awareness so that you can allow for more digestion time is so valuable, so that you're not, you know, speaking of digestion, right? It's if you have a lot of things coming into your system, right? It's like eating a big Thanksgiving meal, delicious, wonderful company, right? You're really enjoying the whole thing. If you eat too much, right, you're gonna need more time to digest. And if you go and you eat another big Thanksgiving meal right after that, you might not feel so good. Right. There's some great Chinese herbs for that. We call it food stagnation, and there's some yum, some great herbs that help move that through. Um, but giving that time for integration. And again, going back to the individualistic aspect of this, understanding that that integration will look different for you than it will maybe for your partner or your friend. You know, for you it might be taking a walk without any devices or sounds in your ears, right? It might be just physically moving your body and allowing your thoughts to just be whatever they are and taking in some fresh air, right? For other people, it might be, you know, listening to a podcast on a walk. It might be taking a nap, it might be reading a book, it might be whatever it is. Taking that time, I will always be saying all over the place that resting is a verb, and resting is an activity that is incredibly valuable to your system, to your body, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Resting is a necessary aspect of being human. And when we feel overwhelmed, we need both. We need activation and movement, and we need resting. We need to be able to practice moving through those periods of activation and rest so that all of these experiences are able to come into our field, into our system, and move, you know, nourish us where they're meant to nourish us, and then be released, whatever's not serving us. Okay. A lot of this actually mimics that peristaltic action, right? When I think about shifting from the activation to the rest, it reminds me of that like peristaltic movement through the intestines. It's like everything's gonna keep moving along, right? Um so we have our three things, okay. Discernment is number one. Where are we getting our information from? What are we taking in, right? What is useful, what's not, having some sort of dedicated something to release, and then having time for integration. And when we implement those three pieces, that sense of overwhelm softens and it really becomes something that we are moving with versus feeling like something is happening to us, right? When we feel overwhelmed, that overwhelm often translates to like, I can't handle it, I can't, I just can't, is what I end up hearing all the time. I just can't do all the things, right? But really, we can do so much. And having these little moments in our day can really make a big difference in how we physically feel, because energetically we're gonna be preventing those stagnations from happening, right? And we've talked about this in other episodes, but ideally, our energy moves through our body in a flow, like a river, right? Like it's gonna move through things. And when we have tension and overwhelm, we tighten and constrict, okay? And that blocks that flow in different ways, and that will end up showing up as pain or fatigue or digestive upsets, anxiety, depression, all these different things start to show up in our world when that flow is impacted or impeded. Uh so there are ways that we can help ourselves feel less overwhelmed. And I would love, I would love actually to hear what's supportive to you in the comments. I would love to hear um if there's resources that you especially enjoy, put them in the comments, send me a message, and I would love if this is beneficial for you, if you share it with a friend, make sure you're following along, subscribed so you get all of the new episodes when they drop. And it also helps me to get my work out into the world to other people who would benefit. So really appreciate you listening in today and being part of this conversation. And I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.