As a passionate and highly sensitive therapist and coach, I know that the pressures of being an entrepreneur and building a career can be very exhausting and overwhelming. For a highly sensitive person, that feeling of overwhelm and fatigue can be even more intense.
In this article, I share some practical examples and personal experiences so that you would better understand what you can do when facing fatigue and overwhelm as a high-sensitive entrepreneur or professionals.
Having always dealt with profound fatigue myself, I spent years searching for solutions and, thanks to many encounters with extraordinary people, I got my extreme fatigue, my high sensitivity and that overwhelming feeling under control.
And the single most important lesson I learnt, the biggest insight was that it was not that I had to try to address that fatigue, but rather how I thought about fatigue.
And I am writing this article to add some nuance to the ideas of 'being overexcited, tired and overwhelmed'.
A Meltdown: now what?
Have you ever experienced being so overwhelmed that you just dropped everything and did nothing? I know that feeling very well. My biggest meltdown feeling was in 2016, so intense that I didn't want to get out of bed.
Before we go deeper into emotional healing, I share some details of my bed-meltdown.
- Day 1 - just back from abroad. I wake up not feeling my body (thanks independent living). My husband sees that I can't get out of bed and motivates me to stay up and do nothing but what I really feel like doing. A few hours later, he sees me jogging.
- Day 2 - an insanely long list of "to do's". All day, I am working on that list. At the end of the day, I realise the list has not narrowed down.
- I give in to my first meltdown and feel the tears running down my cheeks.
- Too much is too much. I am tired. Everything is too much for me.
Overcoming those feelings of overwhelm and fatigue
What is especially important to understand is that it felt like too much. The moment our emotions take control, we should neither try to rationalise nor blame ourselves. We are with our emotions and know that they give us information. Among other things, about our nervous system - that it was no longer getting clear instructions and was absorbing everything it touched.
Tips for Dealing with Emotions:
Acknowledge Emotions: It is essential to acknowledge emotions without blaming yourself. And then learn to understand the emotional Information. What does this emotion tell me. Emotions provide valuable information about the state of our nervous system.
Learn to be with your emotions without going along with them. Pushing away emotions leads to even more nervous system disruption.
Practical Techniques to Maintain Your Emotional Wellbeing
To deal with emotions, we need to create a safe world both externally and internally. A technique I intuitively developed called "Somatic forgiveness" helps to deal with emotions compassionately.
This technique, inspired by RTT and NLP, I have shared with my clients and community and works as follows:
What is a Somatic Experience?
A Somatic Experiencing literally means physical experience. This is the core of the method of working, which is specifically meant as trauma processing. Dr Peter Levine developed this methodology and wrote about it in his book 'The tiger awakens'.
The physical experience is paramount
Working with Somatic Forgiveness is mainly about the physical experience in forgiveness. Fatigue and overwhelm often stem from traumatic experiences that are misunderstood and sometimes even ignored, even though they have major consequences, mentally and physically. The effects of trauma often do not become noticeable until much later, making it sometimes difficult to make the connection. Applying sometic forgiveness allows "big chunks" from the past to leave your body. The brain is like a muscle that you have to exercise every day. If you go to the gym and you want a six pack you won't obtain it immediately either.
Strengthening emotional strength is essential here. With Somatic Forgiviness, you can learn to control your emotions. Like strength training but for your emotions.
When you empower your emotions with positive language, you unlock a power within yourself. A Divine power. And that power can develop much faster when you work on the toxic and painful memories of the past.
When fight or flight doesn't work
When you are tired and overwhelmed, it is usually an intense period and experience. Your natural reaction is to fight or flee, but when you are tired, our system is overwhelmed. You are trapped in the situation. As a result, all you think about is being tired and overwhelmed. And that then actually causes even more fatigue and stimuli.
What do you do at Somatic Forgiveness?
Somatic Forgiveness aims at helping your body and mind to let go of the dominant emotions bit by bit. You do this for instance by finishing the things you want to do or realise. For instance, you want to continue and in Somatic Forgiveness you do so effectively: you continue manifesting or realising what you want, but you distance yourself from the emotion and shift to the energy that is released by applying forgiveness. What then happens is a kind of release, which causes you to experience tremendous peace in body and mind.
Do you have to forgive everyone? And relive all the trauma?
Many types of therapy (cognitive trauma therapy, EMDR, imaginal exposure, psychotherapy) focus on reliving the causes of fatigue and overwhelm. The theory is that catharsis then occurs. This is not how Somatic Forgiveness works. Instead, the focus in Somatic Forgiveness is on the bodily sensations and the energy of abundance and everything you want in the here and now. Those sensations are the language of your body and mind recognising the experiences of what you have already experienced as happiness. By becoming aware of what has already made you happy, what has made you energetic and joyful in the past, that feeling of fatigue and overwhelm disappears instantaneously.
What does Somatic Forgiveness work for?
Somatic Forgiveness works where the effects of traumatic or negative memories are stuck in the body or nervous system. The experiences that cause your fatigue and overwhelm are released in doses with forgiveness, as you direct that yourself, which ensures you don't become unbalanced and overwhelmed. Although fatigue and overwhelm, burnout and stress do get 'touched' and memories may surface, you don't have to tell and or relive it. Without consciously retrieving memories, the method works very directly on the (somatic) symptoms in the present. Forgiveness is also mostly forgiving yourself for holding on to the pain for so long.
Self-regulation and Further Support:
After my Meltdown experience, I eventually came across RTT and then took that training. Today, I have developed self-guided audios and videos to help you self-regulate the nervous system and instruct your mind and emotions. You can access that resource of knowledge through my monthly membershio. Or request a free consultation for personal coaching or an RTT session.
Conclusion:
Emotions are temporary. By consciously dealing with them and understanding how our nervous system has become over-stimulated, we can re-energise, cultivate a strong mind and thus work ourselves through that over-tiredness, even if you are still over-stimulated or tired. As a high-sensitivity business owner or professional, it is crucial to recognise our vulnerabilities and apply practical techniques that immediately release us from the emotion, instantly releasing new energy....
Dealing with Fatigue and Overwhelm"
Being an entrepreneur or building a career can be a challenging journey. In addition to my Somatic Forgiveness Method, I can of course help you with RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy) and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).
Acknowledging Fatigue:
In this article, I want to briefly touch on the important signs of fatigue: overexcited reactions, wanting to go to bed early, having trouble getting up, worse eating habits, and craving distractions.
So these symptoms may indicate that you should no longer ignore this overtiredness. As a high-sensitive person, it is crucial to take fatigue 'au seriously', as it can be destructive in the long run both personally and professionally.
Tips for Dealing with Fatigue:
- Think Structural: Getting and keeping your professional life on track can be intense, especially in the build-up phase. I know what I went through. And that hustle in itself certainly does not always lead to success. It is important to consider structural solutions. That's why I got coaching from a coach who could look at both my business and my soul (www.businessbutpeace.com) , because structure and organisation in my business, that was not my strong suit. When fatigue rears its head too often, it can indicate the need to learn to structure and collaborate. The ability to detach from the moment and take a broader view of yourself and your business is invaluable.
- Be kind and gentle to yourself: Self-criticism and unrealistic expectations are often real slave drivers. It is important to be kind to yourself and understand that rest is as important as hard work. Communication with partners about rest needs is also important to create a supportive environment.
- Create summer breaks: Take short Summer breaks regularly, on your own but also with family members or friends. These mini Summer breaks may seem like taking holidays and time at first, but rested work is considerably more productive than tired work. So come up with a summer game, put on some summer music, book a flight for a weekend down south, create a summer setting, ... think of something that will allow you to take a short break and feel like you are on holiday. It can also be a winter holiday. The balance between working hard and relaxing is vital.
- Work Preventively: see fatigue as an opportunity to grow both physically and spiritually. Now that you're tired or overwhelmed you're going to be more likely to learn something: such as herbs to strengthen the adrenals, meditation, acupuncture, and physical activities, ... this can help prevent fatigue, along with working on your nervous system and learning to consciously manage your emotions and 'energy-drainers'.
Conclusion:
Doing business as a high-sensitive person is like top-class sport.
It is essential to take breaks, implement sustainable solutions, and work preventively to avoid fatigue.