Why Do I Get Overwhelmed by the Smallest Things?

One for the road..

Survival Mode | Educational + Relatable

Hey there,

Have you ever completely lost it over something ridiculously small?

The dishwasher wasn't emptied.

Someone asked you one more question.

Your kid couldn't find their shoes.

You dropped something on the floor and suddenly you wanted to scream.

And almost immediately afterward comes the thought:

Why did THAT bother me so much?

Here's the thing.

It probably wasn't actually about the shoes.

When your nervous system has already been carrying too much, your capacity for one more thing gets smaller.

Imagine carrying ten grocery bags into the house at once.

You're managing.

Barely.

Then someone hands you a loaf of bread.

The bread isn't heavy.

But when your hands are already completely full?

It's too much.

That's what overwhelm can feel like.

Sometimes we look at the final thing that pushed us over the edge and decide our reaction was ridiculous.

But we're forgetting about everything we were already carrying.

The appointments.

The laundry.

The bills.

The unanswered messages.

The work deadline.

The groceries.

The guilt.

The noise.

The three things you're trying not to forget tomorrow.

And THEN someone asks where their shoes are.

Your reaction isn't always about the size of the problem.

Sometimes it's about the amount of capacity you had left when the problem arrived.

This Week's Burnout Bar Reminder

Before asking yourself:

“Why am I reacting like this?”

Try asking:

“What was I already carrying before this happened?”

That question leaves a lot more room for compassion.

Try This This Weekend

Notice your “one more thing” moments.

You don't need to fix them yet.

Just notice them.

What happened?

What were you already carrying?

What did you need in that moment?

Awareness comes before change.

One for the Road ☕

You're not ridiculous for getting overwhelmed by something small.

Sometimes the small thing was simply the thing that landed on an already-full plate.

Maybe you don't need to become better at carrying it all.

Maybe we need to start asking:

Why am I carrying so much in the first place?

See you next Friday,

Jenna
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
The Burnout Bar
Less Survival. More Living.