Do this when you are overwhelmed

Recently Mel Robbins had the renowned psychologist Ellen Langer on her podcast. They talked for a moment near the end of the podcast about a tip one can do when feeling overwhelmed. Dr. Langer said "thread a needle." This brings all of your focus to one small task. It forces you to get out of your head and focus on a task.

When I was a medical student and just starting the hospital rounds , I initially had a lot of physical reactions to what I was seeing. I have fainted in the OR, nearly fainted on a couple other occasions, and had the telltale nausea, lightheadedness, and cold sweat warning symptoms many times. What I learned in the OR was when I was doing something myself, I wouldn't get overwhelmed by the whole scene. If I was given a task, I was fine. So even if I wasn't given a task, I would focus on one small thing. I would ask to hold something, or hand something back and forth, or learn the name of one thing. I would just focus on one tiny thing and my perception would be narrowed from a viscerally overwhelming scene to a crile hemostat clamping an artery.

I love the phrase "action is the antidote to anxiety." This truly means any action. And often, when we are having anxiety or are in a state of complete overwhelm, we need to focus on the smallest action. If your to-do list seems way to optimistic, break it down into the tiniest bits. Stop consuming information - stop scrolling, stop watching, stop reading, and just DO one tiny thing. Put away a dish. Sign off on one work note or task. Respond to one email. Move the laundry basket to the laundry room. Open one piece of mail. Play one song on the piano.

Several popular news and magazine articles this year have reported on "Grandma hobbies" (baking, sewing, knitting, puzzling, reading, etc) being good for our mental health. I'm a Grandma hobby enthusiast, so I dove right into these. One of the many reasons they help is by requiring you to focus on a specific task. These hobbies can be expanded to anything that requires you to narrow your focus. Fixing something, weeding, woodworking, rock climbing, washing windows, playing an instrument, learning a few words in a new language, placing an IV, doing a cataract surgery. All of these things drown out the overwhelm, and stop you from spinning. They give you something to focus your attention on, and give you an immediate sense of purpose and accomplishment.