How to Best Relax When You’re Overwhelmed, Dear Heart
I wonder where you’re feeling most overwhelmed. What’s beneath your tension headache and audible exhales? What stiffens your shoulders and triggers an insatiable, internal stopwatch?
“Don’t forget to enjoy this season,” my literary agent says, and it startles me. Because I’m so busy sorting out the next two years I forget that the season I’m in should feel slow. There should be room to breathe. To dream, not all rushed like I’m in crunch time, but like lungs expanding. Like a soul at rest.
Maybe you relate. You try to solve problems ahead of time to eliminate potential stress. But you’re out of your lane and time zones ahead and really, you just need to stay present right where you are.
So let’s talk about it, shall we? How do we stay present when we know what’s coming, and it feels like a lot? And in the same vein, how do we stay rooted right where we’re supposed to be when we don’t know where the road leads? Because for many of us, there are knowns and unknowns jumbled together. Enough to leave us overwhelmed and a tinge anxious.
I find that obsessively putting more on today–in effort to make tomorrow less overwhelming–backfires because I never run out of things to do. The more I ruminate on the weight of responsibility, the more weighed down I feel. The more I hash out a solid, in-my-ideal-timing plan, the less I surrender to God’s perfect plan. The more I account for what-ifs and uncontrollables, the less I recount what God’s already promised to me.
What stops this cycle for me is slowing down.
Since slowing down does not come naturally for me, I build unhurried time into the beginning of my day. I light a candle and linger on my knees, simply listening. I feed my spirit with nourishment from God’s Word. List the gifts that fill me with gratitude. As time allows, I respond to what I read in Scripture and remember where I am in relation to God through Ann Voskamp’s questions in Sacred Prayer.
I’d like to share a few verses that recently gave me pause because they feel especially relevant to overwhelm. Read them over and over, as many times as you need. Write your favorite promise on a post-it note and put it on your mirror, dashboard, or computer. Pick one to commit to memory.
Three Biblical Promises for the Overwhelmed Soul
When you catch yourself taking on expectations of yourself that are unfair or premature, rewind the lies with God’s truth. When you’re tempted to rush, slow down to steep in God’s promises. This is how we win again overwhelm.
1–God breathes life into you 365 days a year.
He is a never-ending supply of vitality. The daily renewal your overwhelmed heart craves. Here, in Hosea 14:8, He assures us,
I’m the One who responds to your pleas and cares for you. I’m like a flourishing juniper tree; I provide life year-round.
(The Voice)
There isn’t a moment God isn’t thinking about you. All the things that feel unsolvable? He already has a solution. Everything that feels burdensome? He says, Let Me carry it for you.
God never wearies of filling you with life. Day by day He shelters and watches over you. You can trust Him–one day at a time. Each day as it comes.
2—God restores you with His peace.
You can rest right where you are, because God is Perfect Peace. The Prince of Peace. Restorative Peace.
This blessing, from Daniel 10:19, meets us where we feel inadequate and overwhelmed:
May peace rest on you and make you whole; be strong; be brave.
(The Voice)
Maybe you’d never call yourself strong or brave or whole. But God steps in when we stretch ourselves thin and says, Receive My peace. That’s the thing about God’s peace. We can’t manufacture it, and we often can’t explain it. We simply accept it, like a gift.
3–God holds you in cupped hands.
Whatever is weighing on your mind, whatever you’re trying to handle–retroactively or proactively–the pressure’s off. You don’t have to figure it out alone. In fact, it’s not your hands holding your life together, but God’s cradling you. As Jeremiah acknowledges,
O Eternal One, I know our lives are in Your hands. It is not up to us to direct our own steps–we need You.
(Jeremiah 10:23, The Voice)
God’s not going anywhere. He’s not tied up fixing someone else’s problems. He’s available to you and attentive to your every need.
A Prayer for When You Feel Overwhelmed
Notice what happens when we shift our focus from what overwhelms to the God who is over all of it? We realize we’re supported, prioritized, nurtured, and counseled. It’s not that God ever stops loving us in such needed and meaningful ways, we just miss His presence–and His peace–when our attention is wrapped up in the wrong things.
We’re not at our best–not able to do our prime work or offer the best version of ourselves to anyone, much less our families and neighbors–when we’re overwhelmed. So rather than working harder, taking on tomorrow’s worries, and tucking into bed spent every night, let’s invite God to replenish us.
Lord, You know what overwhelms us. What steals our peace. What invites hurry and worry into our days.
Please turn our attention back to You. Breathe Your life into the places we’re weary, stressed, or overwhelmed. Replenish us with Your peace. Cup us in Your gentle hands. Strengthen us and guide us. Care for us as only You can.
Your ear is already bent towards us. Your attention is unwavering and Your promises sure.
Right now, right here, we pause our can-do and choose to trust You.
We embrace the slowness of staying in our lane.
We choose to stay present to today. To the work before us and the people in front of us. To You.
Help us to spread hope and peace, not stress.
May the surrender we’re practicing in this letting go have a ripple-effect.
May our joy be contagious.
May our spirits be light.
May our souls be nourished.
May our hearts be at rest.
In Your name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
What if you gave your faith the chance to ripple right into your neighborhood? These quick tips provide a wide variety of baby steps to help you begin to build friendships with your neighbors. When we get close to God and let others get close to us, the things God is working out in us can show.
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