Overwhelmed With Life? The Surprising Realisation That Changed Everything
Not long ago, I found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen, holding a spatula like it was the last piece of my sanity, thinking, I can’t do this anymore.
The smell of something burning in the oven didn’t help. Neither did the ping of text notifications lighting up my counter.
The “this” wasn’t just dinner.
It was everything.
The deadlines.
The texts.
The laundry that somehow regenerates faster than the family who wears it.
The business I love but that never stops needing me.
And the fact that five children can apparently have 63 urgent needs within a 10-minute window.
I felt overwhelmed with life — like I was playing Tetris on the hardest level, with all the wrong pieces dropping at once.
And here’s what I assumed, in that moment:
I needed less.
Less on my plate.
Less responsibility.
Less chaos.
That’s what we usually think when we’re feeling overwhelmed, right?
That the fix is cutting something out, scaling something back, finding some external magic to lighten the load.
But that’s not what happened.
Before I could even rescue the burnt whatever-it-was from the oven, another thought landed.
One I wasn’t expecting.
One that made me stop, spatula mid-air.
I had it all backwards.
I’d been complaining about my life being too much.
But the truth was, I built this life on purpose.
This was exactly what I wanted — even on the hardest days.
Because the alternative?
Sure, a quieter life might sound peaceful…
But for me, it would be stagnant.
Empty.
A slow drift into feeling irrelevant — like I’d benched myself in my own life.
I don’t want easy.
I want full.
I want to be in motion, building, creating, showing up — even if it means the occasional kitchen meltdown.
No one shoved me into this life.
I built it — piece by piece, choice by choice.
I chose to run a business that eats up my time because I want to create something meaningful. Yes, it’s exhausting and nerve-wracking and stressful… but it’s also thrilling and fulfilling.
I chose to be an attentive mother, which means I know what’s going on in my kids’ lives (sometimes more than they’d like).
I chose to fill my days with things that matter to me — not because they’re easy, but because they’re worth it.
The very things that make me feel like I can’t keep up are the same things that will get me where I want to go.
The business that keeps me up late will give me the freedom and impact I’ve dreamed of.
The parenting that drains me is already the source of my proudest stories.
The routines that feel relentless are also the structures that make it all possible.
I used to see overwhelm as a sign I was doing too much.
Now, I see it as a sign I’m deep in the middle of building the life I said I wanted.
Do I still get tired? Absolutely.
Do I sometimes fantasize about running away to a small coastal town and opening a quiet bookstore? More than I should admit.
But here’s the difference now — when the weight starts to feel too heavy, I remind myself:
This is the price of the life I said I wanted.
And if I’m paying that price for something I love, then it’s worth it.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with life, maybe ask yourself:
Is this overwhelm coming from building something you care about?
Or from living a life you don’t even want?
Because one of those is worth carrying.
And the other? You have the power to change it.
I’ve wrestled with overwhelm for years.
I used to think it meant I was failing — but then I learned something interesting about overwhelm that completely shifted the way I see it.
Here’s where I unpack what I discovered (and how it changed things for me) »
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