Not sure what to do? Do nothing.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed and stuck in overthinking cycles?
Do you call your mom to vent to her? Do you call your boyfriend? Do you Facetime your best friend in another state? Do you run to Chat GPT?
Or do you scroll endlessly? Do you journal? Do you run to Substack to see if anyone else can describe what you’re going through (btw I’m glad you’re here).
In my times of when I’ve felt overwhelmed with so many choices or so few choices, I chose to sit and do nothing. Scary thought right? Let me explain.
Zooming out and taking a step back.
I’m not where I want to be at in my life yet. Sure – the usual material things like: my home, my car, my closet my credit score, and more are all things I want to upgrade.
But lately, I’ve been waking up every morning with this dread of figuring out what I needed to do that day to get ahead. Often making decisions based on what I thought I needed to do instead of what I wanted to do.
Yes – two things can be right at once but this constantly kept me in a loop of feeling overwhelmed.
Often times when I’ve felt overwhelmed, for some reason the first thing I felt I needed to do was more.
Try this: the next time the feelings over overwhelm start to come up, take a step outside and sit. No phone, no laptop, no music. Just sit with you, yourself, and your thoughts.
This feeling? It’ll pass.
Your brain is doing its job—trying to keep you safe. But the moment you pause and quiet the chaos, you’ll see: the noise was actually the thing feeding the fear.
Learning to silence the noise.
Is it just me or when I feel overwhelmed, my brain goes into major overdrive. For some reason, the first thing I feel I need to do is more.
Having thoughts of, “If I do more of x, it’ll get me x.” “If I do more of this, maybe this will get me this.” And yes–some of this can be true, but the reality was this kept me stuck in a cycle of surviving and instead of truly living.
First thing I want to let you know is that you’re not alone. This is a common feeling I’ve come to terms with the older I get and the more I dive into my 20s.
What has helped me is to disconnect from all distractions and sit in silence. Zoom out from everything you think you need to do and instead do absolutely nothing.
When you pullback, step outside, take a deep breath, and sit with yourself, something pretty magical happens.
Having patience in the silence.
Learning to sit in the chaos of your mind can be a scary feeling but once you get past it, you conquer it.
Patience is a virtue, especially in silence—where the loudest answers often arrive without a sound.
In that quiet, the answers are already making their way to you. Just stay open. Don’t block the blessings because they didn’t come loud or obvious.
I also like to call this, divine guidance from God or aligned action. These divine downloads could be a nudge to:
read that book you never finished (that inspires you to the next step)
reach out to an old friend from college (that happens to connect you to your next client or business partner)
submit to that agency that’s been on your mind (that ends up booking you your first 5-figure job)
post that piece of content you’ve been sitting on (that gains the attention of a brand you’ve always dreamt of working with)
Listen to what your heart naturally gravitates towards. You realize that you’re gonna be okay. Even if it doesn’t look like it at the time or it doesn’t feel like it, just know that you are.
Doing too much and all at once will honestly just make you feel even more anxious and more overwhelmed. TBH you just end up feeling like Spongebob. FYI (WE DON’T WANT THIS!)
The next best thing to doing nothing.
When I’m finished with doing nothing and want to do something to get some juices flowing, you can find me doing one of the following:
Taking a walk – No music, no headphones, just me + nature (and my dog Louie)
Taking a nap – those mid-day naps hit different
Reading – Poetry books, the Artists Way, the Four Agreements, the Bible
Journaling – Stream of consciousness
Listening to music – Classical or anything instrumental
Coloring – Via my iPad or hands down a coloring book with pencils, markets, etc.
So, I’ll leave you with this…
The next time you feel anxious about what to do next, pause and take a deep breath.
Trust that it will come to you.
Have patience in the process and know that you’re meant for something special. What’s worth having will be worth the wait.
And if you need the advice again later down the line, remember to come back to this and re-read.
Signing off,
Jada
