Overwhelmed? Maybe You're Not Resting Properly (Madi)

Existence can be overwhelming. Especially when dealing with mental illness that saps your energy such as depression and anxiety. We constantly try to fill our days with productivity hoping our accomplishments will fulfill us, but sometimes end up even more drained. And what do many of us do when we’re feeling drained? Check our phones. 

While scrolling can take our mind off our problems, it’s not a great antidote to overwhelm. According to the journal Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, though using positive emotions to distract from negative ones can be a good way to cope with stressful life events, it needs to be intentional. Purposeful relaxation is much more effective than the mindless distraction. Plus, it’s way too easy to end up encountering negative content on the internet. Unless you have curated a feed that you know only inspires positive emotions, you’re likely to end up doomscrolling. For people who have sensitive neurotypes like depression and PTSD, this kind of exposure to negative news is associated with worsening symptoms (source: American Psychological Association). 

This way of taking a break doesn’t truly provide rest. So how can we actually relax? You may have heard by now the benefits of meditation for mental health. It can sound like cliche advice for anyone experiencing mental health woes. However, I’ve found the best way to take your mind off the chaos of existence is learning the skill of meditation. 

According to pubmed.gov, when your mind wanders, you’re probably not happy. The skill of letting thoughts go as they arise without following the oncoming train of thought is paramount to wellbeing. Though not all forms of meditation are relaxing, especially if you have intense emotions that you’re used to avoiding, I have found a choiceless awareness practice to be the best for decompressing and relieving stress. In choiceless awareness, instead of concentrating on one focal point, you let your mind wander and notice whatever you notice. I do this for 15-45 minutes every day. Don’t let that time interval scare you, you can benefit from meditation with as little as 5 minutes a day. If you’re looking to build a practice, I recommend the app Insight Timer. It’s free and has thousands of meditations of all kinds. 

Since starting this practice, I finally have a place in my mind for true rest. Normally when overwhelmed I would float in a sea of stimulating content, increasing the amount of stuff my brain had to juggle. Now, My brain is free to go into defrag mode and process the chaos. After years of not understanding how to relax, I have finally found rest.