Feeling a little overwhelmed? Write it down

It’s all those intangibles floating around in your head, driving you NUTs. Grab a pencil or pen. Write it down.

They’re driving you NUTs. 

Too many thoughts, many of them negative, are swirling around in your brain right now. Because there are so many of them, and because you haven’t corralled them, all those ideas are starting to make you doubt your ability to move ahead. NUTs (Negative Unconscious Thoughts) are the reason many men doubt themselves and lose confidence.

Write it down.

When you take a moment to write, suddenly there is a limiting factor which is natural and helpful. As your pen moves across the page, you can only write about one thing at a time (as opposed to letting all those ideas swirl around in your head all at once). Writing thus limits how many things you can look at. And once you start writing, your NUTs begin to appear, one by one. 

Grab your NUTs.

Once a thought is on the page, you can grab it. Let’s say you are feeling a little overwhelmed right now. It could be for any reason, but you know the feeling. So grab a piece of paper and a writing implement and start writing. Suddenly, a NUT will appear. Such as, “I can’t figure this out.” That is an example of a NUT. Grab that NUT and follow it.

Like this.

For example: Let’s take that NUT from above: “I can’t figure this out.” Your next step is to keep writing, with a question: “Figure what out?” Which will lead you to write something, like “Figure out why do I feel so bad?” Which will help you remember: “I told Martha I’d be there on time last night, and I was late again.” 

Then act on it.

You get the idea. This process of writing helps you take that general bad feeling and drill down to something you can do something about. If you blew it with Martha last night, write down: “I’m going to apologize to Martha.” Now you’ve got an action. Follow through, and you will feel better. It’s the inaction on all those swirling thoughts that is overwhelming you.

Repeat.

Keep doing this. Write it down, find the problem, and act on one problem at a time. You will find your mind clearing out and notice that you feel better and less overwhelmed.

The takeaway: 

If you are feeling overwhelmed about something, take a moment and write it down, then act on what you see on the page.

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I can help you feel less overwhelmed.