There’s a lot happening in my life. 85% of those things are wonderful things that I’m excited about, but every now and then I still find myself completely overwhelmed by it all. That’s okay. It doesn’t mean that I wish it wasn’t happening and it doesn’t mean that I wish it was happening differently. It just means that while I’ve been racing full steam ahead and my engine started overheating.

I think there can be a lot of shame when you feel overwhelmed by good things, but a lot of time it just means that you’re a little too busy and you’re feeling too much. You can be excited about progress and still fear change. You can be happy about a big investment and still be nervous about what it means for your saving account. You can be busy with amazing tasks and still feel overworked by them. Also? You can be excited about too many things and simply get burned out from the force of that single emotion. Emotions are a lot to bare and they can effect us not only mentally, but physically.

We get ashamed because we worry that people will see us being tired, over worked, or strung out and think that it means we’re not grateful, excited, or happy. But you can feel all of those things at once. It’s not an oxymoron no matter how much it feels like it should be. Feeling to much and doing to much cause us to be overwhelmed, no matter if we want to feel what we’re feeling or do the things that we are doing.

It might take some work to get people to understand that, people don’t like changing their mind once they make it up, even more so if they are offended about something. But others feeling like you’re not grateful or happy doesn’t make you not so. Other’s people perceptions of your emotions don’t change your actual emotions.

Take the time to explain what is going on so that people can understand. Then go take care of yourself, take some time to relax and unwind all the stress that has built up from being overwhelmed. Know that your emotions are valid, but they are still something you need to get through and tackle head on. Then take the time to do so, address your feelings on by one and try to resolve them. Learn if the joy of moving is countered by the stress of packing or if the big promotion is countered by the fear of responsibilities you haven’t had. If any counters exist address those things, if they don’t and you’re just feeling too much all at once, make sure you give yourself the appropriate time to process your joy or excitement so you can move on with the actions that it required. After all, we preform better after we’re able to process the fact that we get to preform at all.