psychology
This wallpaper trick will help if everything is getting too much for you
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Psychology helps us to understand ourselves better – especially when there is chaos in our head again. The wallpaper trick exposes our feelings layer by layer and thus creates relief for us when we are overwhelmed.
A friend is lovesick, his aunt has a birthday, the washing machine is broken and the car is TÜV-approved, presentations are pending at work and by the way, you actually wanted to change your internet provider before that important call. As you go through all of these things in your mind, the smoke alarm starts to beep and the cell phone starts to ring. You forgot the pasta with pesto and the long postponed phone call with your old friend.
And while you are trying to put out the pasta fire, a pandemic of the century happens outside the door. Your head feels like a single tangle of chaos. You let yourself fall on the mattress and only think about the fact that you should change the sheets again.
It's okay if everything gets too much for you
It's OK. If you are now wondering whether it is only you and whether you shouldn't be able to cope much better with the to-dos of everyday life, the answer is simply no. Everyone has to endure a lot from time to time. And that "a lot" can just mean an overdue household.
After a year of pandemic, we have already adapted to the outside in sweatpants and hoodies so that we quickly forget our insides. We are still in an absolutely exceptional situation. And it's completely normal to reach your limits faster during this time – and okay to feel overwhelmed.
Allowing a feeling helps us to deal with our excessive demands in the long term. In acute cases, we would like to have a magic formula that unravels our chaos in the head and dampens our inner restlessness. It could actually exist. Because in the magazine "Psychology Today" the psychiatrist A. Chris Heath published strategies that help when everything becomes too much.
Psychologist tricks against the chaos in the head
These pieces of advice are broken down into several units, but at the core a very specific picture emerges for us: And that's us, how we tear down wallpaper. Layer by layer to the concrete. And automatically become calmer …
Don't worry, there's a specific strategy behind the symbol. If you feel like your head is exploding with thoughts and feelings, take three steps:
- 1. Tear off the wallpaper: Look at your feelings – and name them. In times of overtaxing, we usually only perceive them as a tangle, unraveling helps.
- 2. Look at the building site: Who are you when you consider yourself completely independent of all these construction sites? What have you already achieved, what are your strengths and what are you proud of? This step reminds you that you are not defined by outside influences, but are in control.
- 3. Paint it the color that is good for you: The greatest constant is within yourself, now look for external sources of stability that will relieve you. That can be a call to mom to unload everything. A yoga sequence you can rely on; a meal, a song, a scent that always reminds you of home. Try to create places of safety for yourself and draw strength from them.
Free yourself from the feeling of having to resolve all stress factors immediately – and first become an observer. Release every feeling, every aspect layer by layer like wallpaper and see what comes out underneath. You will see that when you mentally detach yourself from all the external influences and defoliate yourself, you are still the same person. If you spread the scraps of wallpaper in front of you one by one, you will feel much calmer than defining yourself through them.
So before you next time you work off one to-do list after the next, force yourself to take some time and remember the building site under the wallpaper.