May 6, 2025 • 13 mins
In this episode of The Infinitely Precious Podcast, James Henry offers a gentle and practical reflection on how to navigate the paralyzing feeling of being overwhelmed. With honesty and warmth, he shares personal stories and actionable steps—like making a list, focusing on one task at a time, and setting realistic goals—to help listeners find their way through the chaos of too many demands. Emphasizing presence, breath, and grace, James reminds us that even when life feels unmanageable, we are still infinitely precious and unconditionally loved. This episode is a thoughtful companion for anyone feeling stuck, scattered, or stretched thin.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:00):
Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by
(00:03):
infinitely precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me James and I thought I would just
come and visit with you todayand share some thoughts about
what it's like to be overwhelmedin the world. Now maybe you're
in that place right now, You'refinding yourself overwhelmed by
the challenges that are facingyou in your personal life or the
(00:35):
challenges that seem to exist onevery front in your economic, in
the world's life, all of thenews pushing you over various
edges, and you feel that thechaos of it all threatens to
(00:57):
pull you down in a way you can'tquite get back up. It can almost
feel paralyzing. I had aconversation with this about
this a couple of weeks ago withmy mom, but I also have this
conversation with myself on aregular basis because sometimes
there are a lot of good thingsthat are demanding your
(01:20):
attention.
Some of them may not feel good.Some of them may be bad things
demanding your attention, butthere are often a lot of things
that seem to call out to us andwant us to be focused on them.
And sometimes with the cacophonyof voices coming at us, we
(01:42):
become paralyzed. We can't finda way forward. We can't figure
out what we ought to do becausethere are so many good things or
less than good things that arerequiring our attention, that
call on us to do them now.
(02:03):
So, what I want to suggest toyou is that there are ways to
deal with that sense ofoverwhelm. The very first thing
I want to suggest to you is tosimply acknowledge it. There are
a lot of things that seem to bea lot of people, a lot of
activities or events, a lot ofchores that seem to be drawing
(02:28):
your attention and you'reoverwhelmed by it. So start by
just for a moment catching yourbreath. I feel overwhelmed.
I feel overwhelmed. So claimthat feeling. Claim that feeling
(02:49):
inside yourself. I know thatdoesn't solve it but it starts,
it's a place to start. Recognizethat this feeling that is short
circuiting all of your innerworking and keeping you it seems
from doing any good thing is thesense that you are overwhelmed
by too much stimulus, too manystimuli.
(03:12):
And as the case may be, thereare ways to deal when you have
too many stimuli in your life.So, having acknowledged it,
having caught your breath and byintentionally slowing your
breath, Intriguingly enough,tells us by that slowing of our
(03:39):
breath that we start to bringthe calm to any sense of panic
that's within us. That doesn'tmean you're not still feeling
anxious or perhaps overwhelmed,but that feeling can be
lessened. Now, the second thingI would encourage you to do is
to get out a piece of paper. Iknow old school, old school
(04:04):
here.
If you don't want to use paper,you could simply get out you
could get out some device,whether it be your desktop
computer or laptop computer oreven your phone. And open a
(04:25):
listing app or open a blankspace where you can create a
list of the things thatcurrently are the siren calls of
your life, all of the manyvoices you are hearing. The
dishes need doing. The livingroom needs vacuuming. The bed
(04:47):
needs making.
The clothes need washing. Theyard needs mowing. For me, more
books need packing and I'vereached the end of my boxes. So,
more boxes need to be acquiredso more can be boxed up. There
(05:08):
are meetings I need to attendto.
There are pieces of informationand emails that are sitting in
my box calling out to me. Thereis, you know, from several there
is the upcoming just a littleover two weeks away, the
upcoming memorial service for myfather. And all of these pieces
(05:34):
weigh on my time, on myschedule, on my thoughts. So, I
look at all of those. And one ofthe things on my list to do is
to record this message.
So, I look at the list and I tryto first of all having made the
list, look at it and say whatreally can I do right now? What
(06:01):
is it that needs to be doneright now? Now, you want to set
up an ordering of what's mostimportant, you can. But
sometimes you look at it andthey all have an equivalent
value in your mind. And so, onceagain, you're caught in that
cacophony of voices and they'reall a siren call.
(06:24):
I suggest to you that you needto start somewhere. I need to
start somewhere. So pick one ofthe things on the list. If it
helps you, circle it. It wouldif it was on a piece of paper or
check it or underline it orhighlight it or bold it,
(06:45):
whatever you want to dodepending upon how you've made
your list and start there.
Start with that one thing. Thetruth of the matter is believe
inside of ourselves thatmultitasking is possible, but
neuroscience actually tells usthat's really not possible.
(07:06):
We're doing a series of tasksand in this moment I'm in this
task and this task and then thistask and then this task And when
we get that divided, none of thetasks really gets done well. So
we have to pick one and be inthat for a moment. Now you might
think of the spiritual practiceof practicing presence.
(07:27):
You might think of that breathbringing you back to the moment,
being where you are in thismoment. You can only be doing
one thing right now and you havechosen what that one thing is by
circling it in your list orchecking it, whatever you choose
to do. You have chosen to dothat thing. Now, without regret
(07:47):
that there are other things onthe list calling out to you at
the same time, set the listaside and go do the thing that
you have chosen is the thing foryou to do. Once you complete
that, first of all, there areless siren calls coming out to
you.
There are less places to befocused because if you started
(08:11):
with five and you've completedthat first one you circled, now
there are four voices that needto be attended to. Sit back down
with the list. You don't evenhave to sit down. You can be
carrying it in your pocket ifit's on your phone or whatever.
Look at the list and chooseanother item and go to it.
(08:33):
Perhaps you set as a goal, Iwould like to complete
realistically set realisticgoals, would like to complete
three of these items beforelunchtime today or before I go
to bed tonight, depending on howbig they are. And perhaps if
each one of the tasks is bigenough, you take a reward
(08:54):
between them. Perhaps if thetask is too big for you to
complete all at once, you set atimer and say I've got to knock
some of this off. I've got toget rid of some of this. I am
going to spend 15 minutes, 40 5minutes, however long you want
to set, set a timer and go at itfor forty five minutes.
(09:16):
Can turn on some music, whateveryou want, but at the end of that
forty five minutes, stop.Whatever amount of time that you
said, stop. Reevaluate. Is thissomething that I'm making good
progress on and I want tocontinue to do? Or are there
other things that really need myattention before I go to bed
(09:37):
tonight that I need to do now?
Now these are probably thingsyou do at work but they're also
working your personal life. Somove to the next thing or
reengage with the same thing andset another timer. Maybe the
other thing that you need to dois the dishes and you know that
takes you about five minutes.That's all the dishes you have.
(09:58):
Now, of course, if you have abig pile of dishes, maybe
longer, But you want to feellike you've finished something.
So maybe you take a break fromthat first thing you started
that you haven't been able tofinish. You go do the dishes.
They're done. They're drying.You know, you've wiped off the
counters.
The kitchen is clean. You goback to whatever the other thing
(10:22):
was you were doing. You see,being overwhelmed really comes
because there are too manythings that seem to be demanding
our time and we get to choosewhich of those demands really is
important enough for us toengage now. But sometimes simply
being able to see what the tasksare by writing them down, typing
(10:44):
them in, whatever it is, andthen working at them one by one
is all that it will take for youto feel a sense instead of being
overwhelmed that you'veaccomplished something. And then
maybe you'll accomplish all thethings on your list today.
(11:04):
Chances are you might not, butthen you have a place to start
tomorrow as well. It's nothanging over your head. Tomorrow
may bring with it new tasks andyou can sit down and make that
list again. Start somewhere.Make a list somehow.
At the end of the day grantyourself or at the end of the
(11:26):
list or at the end of each taskgrant yourself five minutes to
sit down and have a cup ofcoffee, drink a glass of water,
listen to your favorite song,you know take a walk around the
block, whatever seems like anappropriate reward before you
move on to the next thing so youcan sort of pause and change
gears. But you see, overwhelm isjust too many stimuli and if you
(11:52):
take them each individualstimulus one at a time, you can
begin to knock them off andshorten the list of things. Just
organize yourself a bit and findwhat is your priority now and
take that step forward one at atime. That's what I'm trying to
(12:15):
do. Surrounded by lots and lotsof tasks, I take on one at a
time and try to be focused onthat one for as long as I've set
my timer or as long as I can orwhatever means I use to measure
that.
Just a thought for today, itmight help you if you're feeling
(12:36):
overwhelmed by all the things inyour life. You can do some other
kinds of prioritizing. I'm notgoing to watch the things that
stir me up. I'm not going to doother things. But for today, I'm
thinking just about the tasksthat are calling out to you.
So remember you are infinitelyprecious and unconditionally
(12:57):
loved for the gift you alreadyare no matter how overwhelmed
you feel or how well you are,how good you are at taking care
of the tasks one at a time.You're still infinitely
precious, you're stillunconditionally loved, you are
still a gift just as you are.Keep that in mind until the next
time we're together, May youfind a way to the other side of
(13:20):
overwhelmed. In any case, have agreat day.
Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by
(00:03):
infinitely precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.
James (00:12):
Hello, beloved. It's me James and I thought I would just
come and visit with you todayand share some thoughts about
what it's like to be overwhelmedin the world. Now maybe you're
in that place right now, You'refinding yourself overwhelmed by
the challenges that are facingyou in your personal life or the
(00:35):
challenges that seem to exist onevery front in your economic, in
the world's life, all of thenews pushing you over various
edges, and you feel that thechaos of it all threatens to
(00:57):
pull you down in a way you can'tquite get back up. It can almost
feel paralyzing. I had aconversation with this about
this a couple of weeks ago withmy mom, but I also have this
conversation with myself on aregular basis because sometimes
there are a lot of good thingsthat are demanding your
(01:20):
attention.
Some of them may not feel good.Some of them may be bad things
demanding your attention, butthere are often a lot of things
that seem to call out to us andwant us to be focused on them.
And sometimes with the cacophonyof voices coming at us, we
(01:42):
become paralyzed. We can't finda way forward. We can't figure
out what we ought to do becausethere are so many good things or
less than good things that arerequiring our attention, that
call on us to do them now.
(02:03):
So, what I want to suggest toyou is that there are ways to
deal with that sense ofoverwhelm. The very first thing
I want to suggest to you is tosimply acknowledge it. There are
a lot of things that seem to bea lot of people, a lot of
activities or events, a lot ofchores that seem to be drawing
(02:28):
your attention and you'reoverwhelmed by it. So start by
just for a moment catching yourbreath. I feel overwhelmed.
I feel overwhelmed. So claimthat feeling. Claim that feeling
(02:49):
inside yourself. I know thatdoesn't solve it but it starts,
it's a place to start. Recognizethat this feeling that is short
circuiting all of your innerworking and keeping you it seems
from doing any good thing is thesense that you are overwhelmed
by too much stimulus, too manystimuli.
(03:12):
And as the case may be, thereare ways to deal when you have
too many stimuli in your life.So, having acknowledged it,
having caught your breath and byintentionally slowing your
breath, Intriguingly enough,tells us by that slowing of our
(03:39):
breath that we start to bringthe calm to any sense of panic
that's within us. That doesn'tmean you're not still feeling
anxious or perhaps overwhelmed,but that feeling can be
lessened. Now, the second thingI would encourage you to do is
to get out a piece of paper. Iknow old school, old school
(04:04):
here.
If you don't want to use paper,you could simply get out you
could get out some device,whether it be your desktop
computer or laptop computer oreven your phone. And open a
(04:25):
listing app or open a blankspace where you can create a
list of the things thatcurrently are the siren calls of
your life, all of the manyvoices you are hearing. The
dishes need doing. The livingroom needs vacuuming. The bed
(04:47):
needs making.
The clothes need washing. Theyard needs mowing. For me, more
books need packing and I'vereached the end of my boxes. So,
more boxes need to be acquiredso more can be boxed up. There
(05:08):
are meetings I need to attendto.
There are pieces of informationand emails that are sitting in
my box calling out to me. Thereis, you know, from several there
is the upcoming just a littleover two weeks away, the
upcoming memorial service for myfather. And all of these pieces
(05:34):
weigh on my time, on myschedule, on my thoughts. So, I
look at all of those. And one ofthe things on my list to do is
to record this message.
So, I look at the list and I tryto first of all having made the
list, look at it and say whatreally can I do right now? What
(06:01):
is it that needs to be doneright now? Now, you want to set
up an ordering of what's mostimportant, you can. But
sometimes you look at it andthey all have an equivalent
value in your mind. And so, onceagain, you're caught in that
cacophony of voices and they'reall a siren call.
(06:24):
I suggest to you that you needto start somewhere. I need to
start somewhere. So pick one ofthe things on the list. If it
helps you, circle it. It wouldif it was on a piece of paper or
check it or underline it orhighlight it or bold it,
(06:45):
whatever you want to dodepending upon how you've made
your list and start there.
Start with that one thing. Thetruth of the matter is believe
inside of ourselves thatmultitasking is possible, but
neuroscience actually tells usthat's really not possible.
(07:06):
We're doing a series of tasksand in this moment I'm in this
task and this task and then thistask and then this task And when
we get that divided, none of thetasks really gets done well. So
we have to pick one and be inthat for a moment. Now you might
think of the spiritual practiceof practicing presence.
(07:27):
You might think of that breathbringing you back to the moment,
being where you are in thismoment. You can only be doing
one thing right now and you havechosen what that one thing is by
circling it in your list orchecking it, whatever you choose
to do. You have chosen to dothat thing. Now, without regret
(07:47):
that there are other things onthe list calling out to you at
the same time, set the listaside and go do the thing that
you have chosen is the thing foryou to do. Once you complete
that, first of all, there areless siren calls coming out to
you.
There are less places to befocused because if you started
(08:11):
with five and you've completedthat first one you circled, now
there are four voices that needto be attended to. Sit back down
with the list. You don't evenhave to sit down. You can be
carrying it in your pocket ifit's on your phone or whatever.
Look at the list and chooseanother item and go to it.
(08:33):
Perhaps you set as a goal, Iwould like to complete
realistically set realisticgoals, would like to complete
three of these items beforelunchtime today or before I go
to bed tonight, depending on howbig they are. And perhaps if
each one of the tasks is bigenough, you take a reward
(08:54):
between them. Perhaps if thetask is too big for you to
complete all at once, you set atimer and say I've got to knock
some of this off. I've got toget rid of some of this. I am
going to spend 15 minutes, 40 5minutes, however long you want
to set, set a timer and go at itfor forty five minutes.
(09:16):
Can turn on some music, whateveryou want, but at the end of that
forty five minutes, stop.Whatever amount of time that you
said, stop. Reevaluate. Is thissomething that I'm making good
progress on and I want tocontinue to do? Or are there
other things that really need myattention before I go to bed
(09:37):
tonight that I need to do now?
Now these are probably thingsyou do at work but they're also
working your personal life. Somove to the next thing or
reengage with the same thing andset another timer. Maybe the
other thing that you need to dois the dishes and you know that
takes you about five minutes.That's all the dishes you have.
(09:58):
Now, of course, if you have abig pile of dishes, maybe
longer, But you want to feellike you've finished something.
So maybe you take a break fromthat first thing you started
that you haven't been able tofinish. You go do the dishes.
They're done. They're drying.You know, you've wiped off the
counters.
The kitchen is clean. You goback to whatever the other thing
(10:22):
was you were doing. You see,being overwhelmed really comes
because there are too manythings that seem to be demanding
our time and we get to choosewhich of those demands really is
important enough for us toengage now. But sometimes simply
being able to see what the tasksare by writing them down, typing
(10:44):
them in, whatever it is, andthen working at them one by one
is all that it will take for youto feel a sense instead of being
overwhelmed that you'veaccomplished something. And then
maybe you'll accomplish all thethings on your list today.
(11:04):
Chances are you might not, butthen you have a place to start
tomorrow as well. It's nothanging over your head. Tomorrow
may bring with it new tasks andyou can sit down and make that
list again. Start somewhere.Make a list somehow.
At the end of the day grantyourself or at the end of the
(11:26):
list or at the end of each taskgrant yourself five minutes to
sit down and have a cup ofcoffee, drink a glass of water,
listen to your favorite song,you know take a walk around the
block, whatever seems like anappropriate reward before you
move on to the next thing so youcan sort of pause and change
gears. But you see, overwhelm isjust too many stimuli and if you
(11:52):
take them each individualstimulus one at a time, you can
begin to knock them off andshorten the list of things. Just
organize yourself a bit and findwhat is your priority now and
take that step forward one at atime. That's what I'm trying to
(12:15):
do. Surrounded by lots and lotsof tasks, I take on one at a
time and try to be focused onthat one for as long as I've set
my timer or as long as I can orwhatever means I use to measure
that.
Just a thought for today, itmight help you if you're feeling
(12:36):
overwhelmed by all the things inyour life. You can do some other
kinds of prioritizing. I'm notgoing to watch the things that
stir me up. I'm not going to doother things. But for today, I'm
thinking just about the tasksthat are calling out to you.
So remember you are infinitelyprecious and unconditionally
(12:57):
loved for the gift you alreadyare no matter how overwhelmed
you feel or how well you are,how good you are at taking care
of the tasks one at a time.You're still infinitely
precious, you're stillunconditionally loved, you are
still a gift just as you are.Keep that in mind until the next
time we're together, May youfind a way to the other side of
(13:20):
overwhelmed. In any case, have agreat day.
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