So yesterday, as the title of this post might suggest, I felt overwhelmed. As in, crying in a bathroom cubicle in college by 11am kind of overwhelmed.

I am two thirds of the way through my Masters and although everyone keeps reassuring me that I'm on the "home stretch", I am still visualising the next three months of deadlines and group project meetings and inevitable mental breakdowns and life decisions to make. Not exactly something to look forward to. I know ultimately everything will be fine and I will get there in one piece and all of that, but sometimes you just need to allow yourself to feel overwhelmed, have the breakdown, practice some self-care and move forward.

So, today, with nothing scheduled in college, I have spent the day so far in bed, watching Grey's Anatomy with a jar of white chocolate spread, a spoon and copious amounts of tea. That, paired with an hourly scroll through Pinterest while waiting for my next episode to load has given me the self-care I need. It may sound silly, or ridiculous to some of you, but everyone has their own ways to care for themselves, everyone knows what they need to do when the meltdown hits and you need to get past it and out the other side. Sleeping really helps me - whether that's a good nights sleep, a late lie-in or an afternoon nap (or all three), it really does help. That, watching my favourite programme and eating junk food (I KNOW, it scientifically is said to make you feel worse but try white chocolate spread and come back to me). Then I plan.

When I panic, I am a planner. I organise. I schedule what work I need to do, what time and what days, I make to-do lists, I plan catch-ups with friends (essential) and that is how I cope when I'm overwhelmed and needing to get on with life (after my self-care day of course). It helps me feel more in control of what is going on. Sometimes, what you need is to come home from college and wallow and nap and stay there - which is fine - but yesterday post-meltdown I knew I needed to DO something with the rest of my day if I was going to take a self-care day the next day. So, I went food shopping - an activity I find oddly therapeutic but ONLY when I do it by myself - came home and cleaned the apartment, cleaned my room and bathroom, changed my bed sheets, had a long shower, put on three face masks, ate some dinner and went to bed, armed with a glass of wine and some Grey's Anatomy episodes to get through. And I felt better. And also like I had been productive with my life post-meltdown. Then today, I took a day. 


The point is, it is natural to feel overwhelmed. And even more than that - it is okay. We're all only human. If everyone just floated through life's stresses and never had a wobbler about anything - that is when I would worry that they were on some other planet and/or some seriously strong non-prescription drugs. 

Self-care is so important. Do what you need to do for YOU. Take a day. Take a nap. Change your bed sheets. Eat white chocolate spread out of the jar.

And the next day, wake up, check your to-do list, and try again.



Sending any fellow overwhelmed and teetering-on-mental-breakdown humans some love. We've got this.












photo sources: Pinterest