Sensory overload

#278

There are days when everything feels too much. Too loud or too bright. Flickering lights that make my eyes hurt. A crowd of people all talking at once, each voice competing for space in your head. So many inputs and stimuli that my nervous system just wants to run away.

So I run away. To my room if possible. Find a quiet corner. Curl up with my knees drawn to my chest - I love this posture. It makes me feel contained and safe. I dim the lights. And slowly, things start to get better. My mind quietens and I can think again. My brows un-furrow.

This is what sensory overload looks like: your brain receives more input than it can process. Sound, light, movement, people—all at once. Your nervous system gets flooded. You need to retreat because you can't process anymore. It's easy to label that as weak or antisocial but it's really just dealing with an overwhelming situation.

After stepping away from Instagram and discovering boredom (see #276 and #277), I started enjoying quiet spaces even more. I love silence nowadays. No TV, no podcasts, no music, just me and my thoughts. And sometimes, my thoughts aren't thinking anything either. I've lately discovered that doing this - just sitting quietly in my room even for 15 brief minutes calms and regulates my nervous system, similar to what writing often does for me.

You can find your own quiet space in whichever way appeals to you when you need it - A corner of a café during off-hours. A park bench early morning. A bathroom with the door locked. Anywhere your nervous system can pause and reset.

This quiet space is sometimes where I come up with blog post ideas in the realm of self-care. Like this post on sensory overload.

The world is loud, bright, and full of competing demands. Self-care during sensory overload isn't necessarily always about meditating or forcing yourself to calm down. Sometimes, it's simply giving yourself permission to step toward outer peace to find your inner peace.