There are moments when life feels loud in ways that have nothing to do with actual noise. Sometimes it is the sound of notifications coming through while I am trying to finish a sentence. Sometimes it is a half written email, a growing to do list, laundry waiting to be folded, dishes in the sink, and a dozen thoughts competing for space in my head. And lately, as a new mom working from home, the noise can be both literal and invisible.
There is the beautiful chaos of caring for a baby while trying to answer emails during nap time. The mental tabs that remain open long after I have closed my laptop. The strange overlap of work and home, where it can feel like there is always something I could be doing. Even the things I love can begin to feel overwhelming when there is simply too much happening at once.
As a yoga and barre instructor, I have spent years helping people come back into their bodies. I teach breath, movement and encourage people to slow down and notice how they feel. And yet, like everyone else, I still have moments when I feel overstimulated, distracted, and completely disconnected from myself. Perhaps that is why I have come to appreciate simple wellness practices more than ever.
Because the reality is that I do not always have an uninterrupted hour to meditate. I am not always able to disappear into a perfectly curated morning routine. Some days, wellness looks less like a ritual and more like remembering to take a full breath while reheating my coffee for the second time. What I have learned is that knowing how to slow down and actually having the space to do it are two very different things.
So when I am feeling overwhelmed, I do not reach for a complicated routine or expect myself to completely transform my day. Instead, I return to a handful of simple practices that help me create a little more space between myself and the noise. These are the wellness practices I come back to when life feels too loud.
1. I Start With My Breath
When life feels overwhelming, my first instinct is often to move faster. I answer the email. Make the list. Clean the kitchen. Open another tab. Try to solve whatever feels uncomfortable as quickly as possible.
I can feel myself doing it sometimes. Moving from one thing to the next without ever quite arriving anywhere but one of the simplest ways I know how to interrupt that cycle is also something I am already doing: breathing. Before trying to fix the feeling, I notice my breath. Is it shallow? Am I holding it? Has it become quick and high in my chest? Simply paying attention can be enough to create a small pause.
From there, I focus on slowing down my exhale. Nothing complicated. No pressure to perform the perfect breathing exercise. Just a slow inhale followed by a slightly longer, more intentional exhale. This might happen sitting at my desk before opening another email. It might happen in the car before heading home. It might happen while standing in the kitchen, waiting for the coffee to brew.
For me, breathwork is less about getting rid of stress and more about giving myself a place to return to. When everything outside of me feels demanding, my breath reminds me that I am here. Sometimes that is enough to begin.
Let your wellness practice meet you where you are.
2. I Move My Body Without Trying to Accomplish Anything
As someone who teaches movement, I believe deeply in the power of exercise but I also think we have been conditioned to believe that movement only counts when it is productive. A workout has to be long enough, sweaty enough, challenging enough, tracked by something. When I am feeling overwhelmed, I do not always need a workout.
Sometimes I need to stretch on the floor for five minutes while the baby plays nearby. Sometimes I (or we) need a walk around the block. Sometimes I need to put on a song I love and move around my kitchen. Sometimes I need a few minutes of yoga without following a class or checking the time.
Especially in this season of life, I have had to release the idea that movement needs to happen under perfect circumstances. I may not always have an uninterrupted hour for a class or make it to the studio. Some days, the movement I need most happens in small pieces throughout the day.
Mindful movement gives me an opportunity to shift my attention away from everything happening in my head and back into my body. I notice my feet on the floor, the stretch in my shoulders, the rhythm of walking and the feeling of taking up space.
There is something incredibly grounding about moving simply because your body wants to move and not for a calorie count, a step goal or because you are trying to earn rest later. Just because movement can be a way back to yourself.
3. I Let Stillness Be Imperfect
For a long time, I thought meditation had to look a certain way; a quiet room, a long stretch of uninterrupted time. A perfectly clear mind. Real life has taught me otherwise. Especially now.
There are very few moments in my day that are entirely uninterrupted. And if I waited for the house to be perfectly quiet, my inbox to be empty, and my mind to stop thinking about everything I need to do, I might never meditate at all. So I have learned to let stillness be imperfect.
It can be sitting with my coffee before opening my laptop, lying on the floor for five minutes or closing my eyes for a moment after putting the baby down for a nap instead of immediately rushing into the next thing.
When I am feeling overwhelmed, I try not to put pressure on stillness to transform me. I simply let myself be still. The thoughts will probably continue to come. My to do list will still exist. The circumstances of my day may not change at all. But mindfulness for stress has taught me something important: I do not have to follow every thought simply because it arrives.
I can notice it, and then I can come back to my breath, to my body and to this moment.
Learning how to calm down when overwhelmed is not about adding another thing to your list.
4. I Get Outside, Even When I Don't Have Much Time
There are few things that help me reset quite like changing my environment. Working from home can make it especially easy to spend an entire day inside without realizing how little fresh air I have had. One minute I am sitting down to answer a few emails, and suddenly the afternoon has disappeared.
When I have spent too long inside, especially in front of a screen, everything can begin to feel a little heavier than it actually is. Going outside does not have to mean a perfectly planned nature walk or an entire afternoon away from responsibilities. Sometimes it means a walk with the stroller or just sitting outside between meetings. Sometimes it means leaving my phone behind and taking a walk without documenting any of it because looking up is one of the simplest things I can do when I feel like my world has become very small.
Being outside gently reminds me that I am part of a much larger world. The trees are not rushing. The sky is not checking its inbox. The seasons are not worried about getting everything done by five o'clock.
Nature has a way of putting urgency into perspective. And when I am feeling overwhelmed, perspective is often exactly what I need.
5. I Create Moments of Sensory Quiet
I think overstimulation is one of the most overlooked reasons we can feel overwhelmed. We are constantly taking things in; Notifications. Podcasts. Music. Television. Conversations. Screens. Opinions. Information.
And as a new mom, there is another layer of sensory input that I had not fully appreciated before; toys that make noise, a monitor in the background, someone needing something from you while you are trying to remember what you were doing five minutes ago, the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer or bottle washer. (Those can actually be kind of soothing on the right day if I’m being honest.)
Even things we enjoy can become exhausting when there is never a pause between them. One of my favorite calming practices is intentionally creating sensory quiet. This might be:
Driving without listening to anything.
Putting my phone in another room.
Turning off the television while I cook dinner.
Resisting the urge to fill every quiet moment with a podcast or something to scroll through.
I am not trying to create a perfectly silent life. I love music, conversation, movement, and the beautiful messiness of a full home but I have learned that I need moments where nothing is asking for my attention.
Sensory quiet creates space to hear yourself again.
“Sometimes it is about remembering what you can take away.”
When You Need a Nervous System Reset, Start Smaller Than You Think
When we feel overwhelmed, it can be tempting to believe we need to change everything; a vacation or new routine.
A better morning or completely empty calendar is great but often, we do not need to overhaul our lives in order to feel a little more grounded. This has been one of the biggest lessons for me in this particular season of life.
I cannot always control how busy the day will be. I cannot always guarantee uninterrupted time. I cannot always wake up before everyone else and complete a beautiful, perfectly planned morning routine. And honestly, I do not want wellness to become another standard I feel like I am failing to meet.
Sometimes I just need to pause, to take one slower breath or step outside.
Moving my body, and turning down the volume are wellness routines that do not have to be another thing on the to do list. It can exist within the life you already have. For me, these practices have become less about achieving a constant state of calm and more about knowing how to come back when I have drifted too far from myself.
That, perhaps, is the wellness practice I value most. Not perfection, not productivity, not always feeling peaceful. Just returning, again and again.
