Emily initially couldn’t bear to refuse her mother because she loves her dearly, and the guilt felt like it would be too much.

Emily is overwhelmed by the demands that her frail and elderly mother puts on her every day.

The 5-minute breakout is less about thinking or feeling about the situation in a different way, at least in the immediate term, and more about responding in a different way. This different way of responding might very well be temporarily uncomfortable; yet ultimately it is more helpful, and makes our life a lot more manageable and less overwhelming

Rather than getting caught up in his usual overwhelming cycle of letting the bills build up over months and then tackling them all at once, Sean could use a 5 minute breakout. He could take only one bill, sit at a table, breathe deeply in and out four or five times, and then open it. He could read the amount on the bill and notice any uncomfortable

When seeking change, many people run into trouble by trying to break too far outside of their comfort zone, so that they are also outside of their self-care zone.

Take a look at the Power of Small TEDx talk to see a visual representation of the self-care zone.

Left unchecked, overwhelm can lead to us to acting in ways that erode our health and wellbeing, our relationships with ourselves and others, and our sense of fun and general positive engagement with life.

When our sense of being overwhelmed is such that we are unable to do anything to change it, our task is not to completely eradicate it but to find a way to transform it into something manageable.

Identify your comfort zone In your small steps diary, write down three actions you take to keep yourself in your comfort zone. They could be things like drinking wine every evening, staying in rather than going out, or avoiding a particular task that you know needs to be done yet you can’t seem to get around to. Only you will know what you do to