Why You Feel So Emotional and What to Do When You’re Overwhelmed
Have you been been feeling unusually emotional, overwhelmed, anxious, or stuck lately? And wondering why everything seems to be affecting you so deeply?
The world is intense lately and you may logically understand that you’re going through a lot, but that doesn’t necessarily make the feelings easier to experience. When emotions feel intense, the instinct can be to try to calm down, get back to normal, or figure out how to stop feeling this way.
But, I propose that feeling deeply is not the problem.
One of the biggest shifts I have experienced during an intense season of my own life has been learning to stop making myself wrong for having the experience I am having. Somatic healing and nervous system regulation can help you become more present with difficult emotions without needing to push them away, fix them, or make them mean that something is wrong with you.
Sometimes Life Is Simply A Lot
The last couple of months have brought a lot of experiences. There was travel international, being away from home, returning home, family dynamics, old emotions being stirred up, and the ordinary things that continued happening alongside all of that.
Additionally, I’ve also noticed that many people around me seem to be feeling more emotional lately.
As a deep feeler myself, and I am used to experiencing emotions strongly. But that doesn’t mean I enjoy being emotional all the time.
There are definitely moments when I think it would be lovely to be one of those people who can simply let things roll off their back.
But I am not that person and and I have spent enough of my life wishing I were different, to know that fighting with my own experience doesn’t actually make it any easier.
The Part That Has Changed For Me
I still have emotions that are uncomfortable and moments when I feel overwhelmed, activated, sad, angry, tender, uncertain, or simply full. Traveling to Central America this past August was incredibly overwhelming in so many ways.
What has changed is my relationship with those experiences because I’ve stopped adding another layer of suffering by telling myself that I should not be feeling what I am feeling.
This is one of the foundations of somatic support: learning to notice what is happening in your body and nervous system without immediately turning the experience into a problem that needs to be solved.
There is a meaningful difference between feeling something difficult and believing that you should not be feeling it. And between being overwhelmed by an emotion and making space to acknowledge that the emotion is here.
For me, that distinction is pivotal.
You don't have to stop feeling to become more regulated
Nervous system regulation is sometimes described as though the goal is to feel calm all the time.
That’s not a particularly realistic or helpful goal because life is going to affect us, people are going to disappoint us, relationships will bring up old patterns, and change will often unsettle us.
Grief, anger, joy, uncertainty, excitement and tenderness are all part of being a human. For me, being more regulated means having more capacity to stay present with what is actually happening rather than becoming completely consumed by it or needing to immediately make it go away.
The truth is, sometimes I am regulated and sad. Or regulated and angry. Sometimes I am regulated and deeply uncomfortable.
Regulation does not necessarily mean that the emotion disappears. It means that I can feel what I am feeling and still remain connected to myself.
Your body is part of the conversation
Emotional experiences are not only thoughts; they also show up in the body. You might notice your chest tightening when you receive difficult news. Or your stomach clenches when you are anticipating a conversation. You may feel heat, tension, heaviness, shakiness, restlessness, fatigue, or an urge to withdraw. And sometimes you don’t even know what you’re feeling until you notice what your body is doing.
Somatic healing brings attention to these body-based signals because they can give us information about how we are experiencing stress, emotion, and overwhelm.
This does not mean that every sensation needs to be interpreted. Sometimes a tight chest is simply a tight chest and sometimes you need to cry, to walk, rest, breathe, write, talk to someone you trust, or simply sit quietly for a while. There is no way to perform regulation correctly, and that’s not even the point! The point is to become a little more available to yourself.
What helps me when I am feeling a lot
I use somatic healing and practices regularly, especially when I notice that I am having difficulty staying present with what is happening. This can mean slowing down enough to notice my body and orienting to my surroundings and reminding myself that I am here, now.
I also use writing, movement and energy healing. Energy healing can be one way of supporting the body and nervous system when emotional stress, overwhelm, or old patterns feel difficult to shift on your own.
I never use it as a way to make myself stop feeling, instead, I use it because I have found that when my system settles, I have more capacity to be with what is actually happening. This means I can hear myself more clearly, feel what’s mine to respond to, and I can notice when I am reacting from an old emotional pattern rather than responding to what is actually in front of me.
This is the kind of integration I support through energy healing in Kelowna and online, where intuitive energy work is combined with gentle somatic, body-based support
You do not have to make yourself less sensitive
I think there is a particular pressure on sensitive women to become less affected by life. We are encouraged to be resilient, to let things go, to move on, to not take things personally, to stop overthinking and to keep functioning.
Some of that advice can be useful but it also quietly, relentlessly communicates that being deeply affected is a flaw. I no longer believe that my sensitivity is something I need to overcome. I believe it’s important to discern and to know when and how to care for myself when I am feeling a lot. Or to notice when I am overwhelmed and respond accordingly.
I also believe that I need boundaries and to take responsibility for my own emotional experience, but none of those things require me to pretend that I am not deeply affected by the people and circumstances I care about.
For sensitive and intuitive women, body-based support can offer a way to work with emotional overwhelm without requiring you to become less sensitive or disconnected from your feelings.
A different Kind Of Nervous System Regulation
I don’t think the goal of healing is to become untouched by life. Instead, I think it is possible to become more able to meet life as it actually is.
Somatic healing and energy healing can support this process by helping you develop more awareness of your body’s signals, more capacity for emotional experience, and more presence when life feels overwhelming.
Through my years of healing and life experiences, what I discovered is that sometimes being present feels good and sometimes it absolytely does not.
Sometimes there is relief and other times there isn’t; there is only the recognition that this is hard and I am here with myself while it is happening. That has been one of the most meaningful shifts for me during this intense season.
I’ve stopped trying to become less emotional, and I am constantly practicing how to stop abandoning myself because I am emotional.
If you are feeling a lot right now
If you are going through a season where everything feels close to the surface, you do not have to figure it all out at once.
You can start by noticing what is here without making yourself wrong for it, and if you want support being with what is coming up, I offer energy healing sessions in Kelowna and online that combine intuitive energy work with gentle, body-based support.
If you are looking for energy healing in Kelowna for anxiety, overwhelm, emotional stress, or feeling stuck, you can learn more about my approach to energy healing sessions.
You don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what needs to change, we can begin with what is actually here.
Summary
Feeling emotional, anxious, overwhelmed, or stuck does not necessarily mean that something is wrong with you. Nervous system regulation is not about feeling calm all the time. It is about having more capacity to remain present with your experience, including difficult emotions. Somatic healing brings attention to the body’s signals and can help you relate to emotional patterns with greater awareness rather than automatically reacting to them. Energy healing can be used alongside somatic support to help settle the nervous system and create more space for clarity, presence, and emotional processing. You do not have to become less sensitive in order to feel more grounded. You may simply need a different relationship with what you feel.