What is Chaos? 5 Ways to Calm Overwhelm

The word “Chaos” and “Chaotic” are words that seem to be floating around more and more as time goes on. But I was talking chaos back in 2019, before the Pandemic was even though of.

Listen to what I said about chaos (this is me back in 2019)

So what is Chaos?

• Complete disorder

• Unpredictable behavior

• Random or intense situations

• Small changes that happen in bundles or are sensitive in nature

• Disorganized

• (And my favorite) A confused mass or mixture.

These can be in any of your major life domains, including

Physical

Mental / Emotional

Environmental

Societal

Legal

Political

Family / Relationship

Financial

School

Career / Occupational

Technological

Institutional

Examples: Big events, like any war, the Stock Market Crash, riots, weather systems that cause power outages or death such as hurricane Katrina), 9-11-2001, Watergate, January 6th, Columbine or any mass shooting, the Pandemic.

But smaller, more personal events can cause you mental / emotional chaos: like a cancer diagnosis, changes in health care, moving, getting pulled over by a cop, getting robbed, paying more taxes, having kids, being a parent, graduating high school, a wedding, computer hard drive crashes, being ghosted.

For all these situations of chaos there is a simple formula that you can use to calm yourself and have more order to your experience. And for this, I will use my yard as an example.

So how did I calm the chaos?

1. I noticed the situation and my thoughts and feelings about the situation. (Aware)

2. I focused on what needed to be done to restore order (Assess)

3. I committed my time, energy and patience to restoring order (Agree)

4. I spent my time and energy to restore order, being as patient as possible (Act)

5. I celebrated each successful restoration of order….not perfect…but orderly (Appreciate)

Bottom Line: If you are aware that you are in chaos, you can assess what needs to be done to restore order, agree to commit the time to take action to restore order, and appreciate each successful restoration of order.

You can do what I did in my garden in any area of your life!

#mentalhealth #psychology #gardening