We’ve all been paralyzed by overwhelming feelings from time to time: Whether we’re dealing with stress, fear, grief, heartbreak, or low self-confidence, it’s easy to get mired in our emotions and to struggle to break free.
Feeling our emotions is a great thing, though — it’s much healthier to work through our difficult feelings than to suppress them, which will only cause them to resurface more intensely in the future. But the key phrase here is “work through”; we must do the work to feel, process, and release these emotions and not allow them to hold us back from what lies ahead.
When we’re stuck in our feelings without a clear path forward, sometimes all we need is a little jolt to change our perspective and to remind us of all the good things that await us on the other side of our seemingly insurmountable feelings. If this sounds familiar, we hope these quotes will be just the jolt you need.
The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.Barack Obama
Break the unreasonable down into little reasonable chunks. A big goal is only achieved whenevery little thing that you do everyday, gets you closer to that goal.Maren Kate Donovan
Most people get overwhelmed by the insignificant decisions of their lives. I’m urging people to minimize the time spent on these when they’re not critical to their most important goals.Robert Pozen
The moment you think only of yourself, the focus of your whole reality narrows, and because of this narrow focus, uncomfortable things can appear huge and bring you fear and discomfort and a sense of feeling overwhelmed by misery. The moment you think of others with a sense of caring, however, your view widens.Dalai Lama
Sometimes when you’re overwhelmed by a situation — when you’re in the darkest of darkness — that’s when your priorities are reordered.Phoebe Snow
Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.Tyler Knott Gregson
When life gets hectic and you feel overwhelmed, take a moment to focus on the people and things you are most grateful for. When you have an attitude of gratitude, frustrating troubles will fall by the wayside.Dana Arcuri
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.Martin Luther King Jr.
Dream small dreams. If you make them too big, you get overwhelmed and you don’t do anything. If you make small goals and accomplish them, it gives you the confidence to go on to higher goals.John H. Johnson
Many of us feel stress and get overwhelmed not because we’re taking on too much, but because we’re taking on too little of what really strengthens us.Marcus Buckingham
The most efficient way to live reasonably is every morning to make a plan of one’s day and every night to examine the results obtained.Alexis Carrel
With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you're challenged because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed.Travis Bradberry
When feeling overwhelmed by a faraway goal, repeat the following: I have it within me right now, to get me to where I want to be later.Karen Salmansohn
Featured image credit: KieferPix/ Shutterstock
