By Janet Alston Jackson

When you become overwhelmed, take a moment to just stop.

Yes, stop in your tracks.

Ask yourself WHO is overwhelmed? Now the quick answer is “I am overwhelmed and stressed out, of course.”

However, that answer is coming instantly from your egoic-mind. The mind run by your ego.

The egoic-mind loves to keep you in chaos.

When you are overwhelmed, if you take the time to tune into what you are thinking, you’ll find the stress is coming from your thoughts linked to the past, or the future thoughts of fear.

For example, here is a past thought: “I gotta get this done because I missed a deadline before and this happened __. I don’t want that to happen again.”

Here is a future thought: “I gotta get this done, or something awful is probably going to happen.”

These thoughts are based on conditions and perceptions. When you stop and just examine the stressful, overwhelming thoughts, you will find you are not living in the here and now moment.

In the present is where you will find inner peace. You will be able to do what you have to do, without getting overwhelmed.

In fact, you will get more done because you are not spending your precious energy with stressful, fearful thoughts draining your life energy.

Instead focus on what you are doing at this very moment. Getting your special-needs child dressed? Stay in the moment and look at the color of the clothes as you slip a shirt of her head. Or how the texture feels. Don’t let your mind wander to the next thing.

Your child will most likely feel your anxiety and resist the simplest task. This can be confused with their special-needs, but the truth is any child, without special needs, could feel your tension and resist you.

When you live in the moment, even the most arduous tasks will begin to be OK with you because you are not dreading them. Dreading what you have to do is living in the future. “I hate what I have to do.” This only builds up tension and makes the job harder.

So think. Is it the tasks that get you overwhelmed, or the thoughts you are thinking about the tasks?

Be honest. Question your thoughts.

When you begin to observe what you are thinking, you will not be dragged around life like a fallen horseman whose foot is still attached in the saddle of a runaway horse.

Be in the moment.

Don’t try to stop your thoughts of being overwhelmed, or criticize them. Just watch as they come and go.

You are now the master and not the slave.

Being a special-needs parent is also taking care of your own special needs, protecting yourself from being overwhelmed.

Love, light and blessings,
Janet

Take care of yourself to take care of special needs and difficult children. Visit http://www.StressLessParenting.net

Janet Alston Jackson is a USA Book News Award Winner. A communications expert, she has facilitated workshops to thousands of parents on effective communications and finding inner peace.

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Parenting Autism
By Autism, Parenting Autism