Caroline Cavanagh explains how to handle overwhelm using a sat-nav approach: pick a specific goal, then focus only on the next small step. Treat the journey like following directions one stretch at a time. Worrying about the unknown future is pointless when you're not there yet.
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Hi, my name's Caroline Cavanagh, and I'd like to talk to you today about overwhelm, which is something that I think that most people can relate to. And it may be that the clocks have gone backward recently, the nights are shortening, that gives the perception that there's less time to do things. But I'm certainly seeing in my practice a lot more people coming in feeling very stressed, feeling anxious that they're not achieving all that they need to do. And And that very quickly becomes a downward spiral that you then worry about the things that you haven't done, and it just exacerbates the whole thing. So I'd like to share a fantastic technique that I've learnt to use that makes a very big difference. Now you may be familiar with sat navs. So with a sat nav, you punch in the postcode of where you want to go, but quite often you have absolutely no idea of how you're going to get there. You entrust the sat nav has the technology, has the know-how on how to do that. So after you punch in the postcode, you start driving and your only focus is what you can see on that little bit of road ahead of you, the next couple of hundred metres perhaps. And as each part of that road journey rolls on, your focus is continually just on that short span ahead of you. Now if you were to apply that into dealing with your overwhelm, it can be really, really effective. The, the, um, the really important thing is having an idea of where you want to go, because obviously if you have no postcode for the sat nav, you could end up anywhere. So the first thing is to get a really clear idea of what you want to achieve. Make it very specific, like a, like a postcode. Once that's in place, you then park it, you then put it in, and then you focus on what you can see in your immediate vision. So what you can see in that next stretch of the road. Don't worry about all the cities, all the roads, all the motorways that you may be journeying on in the future. You only need to concentrate on what you can see. And by taking on this technique, it means that you're still going to get to where you want to go, but you're only thinking about what you need to do next. What's the next step? And the beauty of this is by only focusing on the next step, suddenly all that other stuff that's stretching out in front of you disappears because you've become quite blinkered, but I prefer to use the word focused. By then becoming very focused, it makes it very achievable. What's the next one step that you can do? You move forward. By moving forward, the next step that you need to do comes into view. Just like on that long journey, once you've travelled one road, the next junction, the next road unfolds of your journey that you need to take. You focus on that. There's a lovely saying that people come across sometimes. It's, the only way to eat an elephant is bite by bite. Again, it's the same principle. It's the same way of saying the same thing. To tackle something that appears too huge, it's very overwhelming, you just need to break it down into the very smallest pieces. So with all the things that are causing you to be overwhelmed now, get clear on the destination that you want to get to. What is it you want to achieve? Having got that clear, punch it into your virtual sat-nav and then stop worrying. Then bring your focus all the way back to the one thing that you can achieve next. Achieve that, you will move forward. And very quickly, a number of very small steps will have led you a long place from where you were. And that road will continue to unfold. And what's a really interesting aspect of this is you don't know what the rest of the journey is going to be like, so why worry about it? Because you're not there yet. It's only when you get there do you need to worry about it. So I hope this technique has been of interest to you. Do give it a go because it really is incredibly powerful, and most importantly, it gives you back control. Overwhelm is very much about being out of control. You can control the next step. You know what the next thing is that you need to do. And each step, that stays true. That brings the overwhelm right the way back. It brings your confidence back. It allows you to progress. So thank you for listening, and I'll be back again next week with the next tip and technique to overcome anxiety. And if you like these tips, there is a little program that I'm running at the moment on Facebook, which is Caroline Cavanagh at Adding Zest. And for each day of November, I'm doing an early advent calendar. So that you can enter November or December even calm, relaxed, and in a bigger state of peacefulness. So please head over to that, or it's also on the anxietyalchemy.co.uk blog. So each day a tip, a technique, very simple steps that you can take that cumulatively will leave you a long way from anxiety and a huge step towards confidence. So join me there, and I hope to see you again next week. Take care. Bye-bye now.
