Thriving in the Face of Overwhelm
- May 11
- 4 min read
When Life Feels Like a Chocolate Factory
In a classic sketch from I Love Lucy, Lucy and her BFF Ethel take jobs wrapping chocolates at a candy factory. “If one piece of candy gets past you and into the packing room unwrapped, you’re fired,” their supervisor warns.
At first, the work is manageable. Then the conveyor belt speed increases. Soon Lucy and Ethel are frantically stuffing chocolates into their mouths, hats, and uniforms in a desperate attempt to keep up.
Seventy-five years later, millions of people still watch that clip online—and laugh in recognition. Because at some point, most of us have felt exactly like Lucy and Ethel: life moving faster than we can manage.
That feeling has a name: overwhelm.
What Overwhelm Really Is
Overwhelm happens when the nervous system gets stuck in fight, flight, or freeze mode.
When the brain perceives a threat, it releases a cascade of stress chemicals designed to prepare the body for action. We either fight back, run away, or—when neither feels possible—freeze. In freeze mode, we can feel mentally foggy, emotionally numb, or completely shut down.
Many people describe overwhelm as the sensation of drowning—sinking beneath the flotsam of everyday life. Common signs include:
Difficulty focusing
Social withdrawal
Chronic fatigue
Overreacting to small inconveniences (the “straw that broke the camel’s back”)
If the nervous system stays in this state long enough, the stress can begin to show up physically. Over time, chronic stress is linked with cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, metabolic disorders, and other serious health concerns.
Overwhelm isn’t a personal failure. It’s a nervous system struggling to function under pressure.
Why So Many of Us Feel This Way
Modern life delivers an unprecedented flood of information and responsibility.
Every day, 95 million photos and videos are uploaded to Instagram
Every minute, four million videos are watched on YouTube
Every second, 40,000 search requests are typed into Google
My personal challenge is email. Of the over 347 billion emails sent every day, close to 200 land in my in-box. And that’s just the digital world.
Add financial concerns, job pressures, family responsibilities, relationship challenges, major life transitions, and political uncertainty—and it’s no wonder so many of us feel stretched thin. In fact, a survey by the American Psychological Association found that 76% of U.S. adults report significant stress about the country’s future.
Many of us feel like we're trying to outrun a tsunami every day.
Energetic First Aid
When a pipe bursts, the first step is to shut off the water supply. When overwhelm hits, the first step is to calm the nervous system. Try these simple “energetic first aid” techniques.
Box Breathing
Place one hand over your abdomen just below the navel.
Inhale slowly until your hand rises.
Hold the breath with the lungs inflated.
Exhale slowly.
Hold the breath with the lungs empty.
Repeat several cycles, letting the breath slow and deepen. Try to make the inhales, exhales, and breath holds equal in length. Click the image below to practice box breathing with me.
Triple Warmer Hold
The Triple Warmer is an energy meridian that ends at the tip of the ring finger. Holding this meridian soothes the fight, flight, or freeze response.
Wrap the fingers of one hand around the ring finger of the other hand.
While holding the finger gently yet firmly, take five slow, deep breaths and repeat: I am safe. Everything will work out for me.
This simple practice can quickly signal safety to the nervous system.
Energetic Clearing
Once your body feels calmer, it's time to turn your attention toward the sources of your overwhelm. Research over the past two decades suggests that tapping can significantly reduce stress and emotional intensity around difficult situations.
Make a list of everything contributing to your stress. Don’t worry about getting it perfect.
Choose one item from the list to focus on.
Use tapping (stimulating acupressure points while focusing on the issue) to release the stress associated with it.
Click on the image below to follow along with me as we practice a version of tapping documented in the book, Tapping: Self-Healing with the Transformative Power of Energy Psychology, by clinical psychologist and researcher Dr. David Feinstein with his wife energy medicine pioneer, Donna Eden.
Energetic Wisdom: Making Self-Care Sustainable
The number one reason people give for not practicing energy medicine is lack of time.
But here’s the paradox: when we integrate small practices into our existing routines, time seems to appear.
You already find time to shower, brush your teeth, and eat every day. Nervous-system care is just as essential. Here are a few ways to make it stick:
Choose a technique you enjoy.
Attach it to an existing habit (before getting out of bed, while coffee brews, during your commute).
Use reminders—notes, alarms, or visual cues.
Practice at the same time daily until it becomes automatic.
Be gentle with yourself when you forget. Progress, not perfection.
As your nervous system settles, you can explore deeper questions:
Can you limit your daily data intake? Try setting a timer to remind you to disconnect.
Are you trying to meet unrealistic expectations?
As a recovering perfectionist, I once would have stayed up late fixing a typo in a newsletter. Recently, I spotted one the night before sending—and let it go.
It was surprisingly freeing.
Let a Few Chocolates Go Unwrapped
In the chocolate factory sketch, Lucy and Ethel are rewarded for their frantic effort by having the conveyor belt sped up even more.
Life can feel like that sometimes. The faster we try to go, the faster the belt seems to move.
There will always be more to do. More information to process. More expectations to juggle.
Everyone is susceptible to overwhelm. Stress is not what happens to us, but how we respond to it.
We can choose not to wrap every chocolate. Sometimes, the healthiest choice is to let a few roll by.
P. S. ICYMI, here's the chocolate factory sketch from the I Love Lucy show
References
“Lucy and Ethel at the Chocolate Factory.” Paramount Plus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnHiAWlrYQc&t=61s
“How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read.” Bernard Marr & Co. Accessed May 8, 2026. https://bernardmarr.com/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/
Duarte, Fabio. “Amount of Data Created Daily (2026).” Exploding Topics. Feb 23, 2026. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/data-generated-per-day
“Stress in America 2025.” American Psychological Association. Nov 2025. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/stress-in-america/2025
“What Causes the Feeling of Overwhelm?” Unwinding Anxiety. Accessed May 8, 2026. https://unwindinganxiety.com/articles/what-causes-feeling-of-overwhelm/
Feinstein, David and Donna Eden. “Tapping: Self-Healing with the Transformative Power of Energy Psychology.” Sounds True, 2024.
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