When we feel overwhelmed, we think we must to do something about it -- delegate, cancel plans, examine our to-do list, take things off our plate, etc. All of the "doing" is keeping the overwhelm active. It's as if overwhelm is not welcome and so we have to get rid of it.
Consider this -- what if there is nothing to do with it? It is simply information about the quality of our thinking in the moment. Overwhelmed thinking creates a feeling or sensation of overwhelm in the body.
We are designed so well that we feel our thinking. We are not feeling the job, the to-do list or the line at the DMV. We are feeling conditioned thinking. And because we are feeling that thinking, it just makes sense to let it go because if we really looked into it — thought is not personal; it is arising from learned conditioning; we aren’t choosing to have that thought in the moment, it is simply what is arising. Speaking for myself, knowing this has really allowed me to notice the thoughts that arise, but with full curiosity in what the learned system is creating because it isn’t Truth.
Spiritual teacher, Byron Katie, beautifully explains the nature of thought:
"A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It is not our thoughts, but the attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.
Most people think that they are what their thoughts tell them they are. One day I noticed that I wasn’t breathing—I was being breathed. Then I also noticed, to my amazement, that I wasn’t thinking—that I was actually being thought and that thinking isn’t personal. Do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself, “I think I won’t think today”? It’s too late: You’re already thinking! Thoughts just appear. They come out of nothing and go back to nothing, like clouds moving across the empty sky. They come to pass, not to stay. There is no harm in them until we attach to them as if they were true." - Byron Katie
For one day, be the observer of your thoughts. Notice them. Witness them. Get curious about them. Are they true? What happens when you don't take them seriously?
When you don't entertain it, you may notice it naturally settles and a fresh new thought appears as a deeper knowing, a nudge, an idea, an insight. This comes from a much deeper and reliable space.