Overscheduled and Overwhelmed: Strategies to Overcome Stress

Our fast-paced world spurs us to hurry and hustle. In real and virtual life, we witness people living what they call their best lives. Sometimes, we attempt to keep up with them instead of seeking God for what He has in store for us, causing us to experience stress.

While He has certainly created us with dreams, which we may have fashioned into noteworthy goals, we become overloaded and less effective when we try to match the world’s pace. When we do, we miss ourselves and the value that God wants to add to our lives when we prioritize Him.

Fueling frustration.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33, ESV

The challenge for us is that we chase “these things,” putting our pursuit into reverse order. Instead of God first, we place Him at the bottom of our endless to-do list. We crave His peace and joy, but we imagine finding it in a hustle-and-grind mindset.

Essentially, we can become too occupied to enjoy God and too exhausted to savor His rest. That can induce anxiety, further compounding the effects of the kind of stress that leads to burnout.

Stress takes its toll on our physical health in both small and significant ways. However, the wear and tear that it leverages on our mental and emotional states may not be as noticeable but are equally as important.

It causes disenchantment when we feel that we are not experiencing the full life that we know Jesus promised (John 10:10). Rarely, do we pause to rest and reassess, preferring to press forward. Instead of bringing this tension between discontent and exhaustion to the Lord, we tire ourselves with over-commitment, hoping to find internal fulfillment and peace along the way.

Scrolling for satisfaction.

We sometimes chide ourselves and feel condemned by societal standards and what we view on others’ timelines. In an attempt to keep pace with our own unrealistic expectations, we postpone the rest that our souls need.

While pursuing what looks bigger and what seems better, we burn ourselves out. The most expensive loss of all is our peace. While we may suspect that this is not how God intended things to be, it often results in encountering Him in the difficulty that stress imposes before realizing that major changes are needed.

Though initially overwhelming, it is possible to downshift from stress. We can partner with God to recognize the ill effects that anxiety and stress place on our lives.

That can be beneficial, but what may be more impactful is reconnecting with the peace and joy that He’s given to us. That comes at a price as well, but one that Jesus has already secured by sacrificing His life for us. What we may need to yield is fully within our reach but requires the Holy Spirit’s help.

Tech time-out to overcome stress.

Taking a break from social media can be critically important. We may value the connections that we have formed online, but spending time and energy longing for what appears favorable in others’ lives removes essential focus from our own.

We can reset by being intentional with our time and perhaps reallocating those scrolling moments to be more present with God and in our own lives. Beyond any work that may be computer-based, we may not even realize how much time we give to searching the web or playing with our tech toys.

It is easy to consume time and energy in pursuing what we might call mindless, but those words and images have a lingering impact on what we think about when the device is no longer in hand.

Often, we scroll and search for information and entertainment. Yet, we are on the quest for something deeper. We were created for the eternal (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Naturally, we long for meaning, significance, and fulfillment in our daily lives. Somehow, these seem to elude us, and we entrap ourselves with activities that numb us from pain and boredom instead of awakening to the fullness God intended.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10, NIV

Inspired by the content we absorb, we try to satisfy ourselves with busyness and the pursuit of more, yet it doesn’t answer the yearning to live out the purpose God assigned to our lives. Turning off our devices or modifying our online presence even for fixed periods can help us to disconnect from the stress of being on demand to the lure of distraction.

While every spare moment away from devices might not be one spent in active prayer, we can still partner with God. It creates space that we need to nurture stillness, resting our minds that become overloaded with external stimuli. We may not be able to eliminate every stressor, but we can learn to perceive it differently even as we awaken our imagination to what God intended uniquely with us in mind.

Positioned for perspective.

Essentially, shifting our position changes our perspective. When we allow ourselves to look at the same circumstances through a different lens, from a place of soul rest, we will see the same circumstances in another way.

Diverting our time and attention away from what drains and distracts accomplishes more than we realize. It reallocates the balance of our time and energy and redirects our focus from the earthly to the eternal. Taking the time and intentional space, even during a regular day, allows us to reconnect with God, ourselves, and others in meaningful, life-giving ways.

Shifting our planning calendars accommodates the need for margin. We must place a boundary around our schedules and revise how we think about and approach what stresses us. Doing so protects what matters to us and replenishes what we’ve lost.

We often overcompensate for anxiety and stress by doing more instead of less. The trouble is that if we don’t prioritize what we value by deliberately making room for it, what we don’t want will take over and burn us out.

Reconnect with recreation to overcome stress.

We can slow down enough to make new choices when we decide to no longer be on-call to the world. Taking a stress break helps us to turn away from what occupies and holds our minds and lives captive to dream again with God. It gives us space to imagine life as He intended it to be together.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to pursue new experiences with Him. He reveals the wisdom of how to revise our workflow so we can re-engage with the abandoned projects connected to our dreams and purpose.

Stress causes us to forfeit our true callings. As we continue to postpone the eternal that stirs in us, we also delay the fullness of joy that is found in the being and doing in alignment with how the Father created us.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. – Psalm 16:11, ESV

Reconnecting with a form of recreation invokes rest for the body and mind. When we allow ourselves to play and pursue purpose-oriented activities, we permit ourselves to bring a taste of heaven into our earthly lives.

Next steps to overcome stress.

While you may have experienced anxiety, stress, and perhaps burnout, you don’t have to remain there. It is possible to enjoy a vibrant thriving life where you enjoy yourself, God, and the good He has shared.

Even if you are experiencing overload instead of fullness, you can begin with one small but impactful choice. Search this site and contact a counselor for ongoing support and practical strategies.

You can learn to unload what overwhelms you and find useful techniques to overcome the stress that once threatened to break you. A Christian counselor can help you do this. Contact us today to learn how a counselor can help you if you are overscheduled and overwhelmed.