Overstimulation often comes with lots of feelings. Irrational irritability. A short fuse. Half-cocked in the f-you position. Or maybe the deep desire to just be left the hell alone. In a recent piece on my blog, I wrote about what happens when even gentle pranayama feels like too much—when controlled articular rotations feel unmerciful.
You know you’re overstimulated when you’re trying to meditate and every noise is a nuisance instead of a call to return to practice. When the sound of dinner being made—a joy, a gift—sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
This is where pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses, becomes less philosophy and more survival tool. But first, you have to notice.
🪞 Thank The Messenger
First, you thank the friend who told you that you were being a pill. If that friend was your own self-awareness, remember to thank yourself, then. Give yourself some credit. Most people sleepwalk through their reactivity. You caught it.
But often we notice ourselves in reflection. Someone else’s face. A tone we didn’t mean to use. The silence after we snapped.
This means it’s time to start some self-care. It probably means alone time. This can be tough when you have others depending on you. You might start with some negative self-talk. Avoid this.
🫀 Self-Care Is Not Indulgence
We confuse self-care with vices constantly. We binge eat at 10 PM because we haven’t had time to eat all day. We have four drinks at happy hour to decompress. We have a bottle of wine at home, alone, to feel some semblance of tranquility.
That’s not self-care. That’s applying tiger balm and a bandaid on a broken leg. It may feel good but it does not address the root of the issue.
So what actually helps?
🧭 Remember The Science Of Feelings
When the emotions are outsized, it helps to remember that feelings are biochemical events. They have structure. They have duration. They pass. Understanding the machinery takes some of the teeth out of it.
Feelings aren’t character flaws. They’re signals. And signals can be worked with.
🏔️ Get Grounded Through Meditation
I discovered a meditation called “The Mountain” through Jeff Warren’s work on the Calm app. You become immovable. The weather happens around you. You stay.
Sometimes you don’t need a guide. You need sound that asks nothing of you. Theta waves—the frequency your brain hits in deep meditation and light sleep—do the heavy lifting. Put on headphones. Both ears matter with binaural beats.
🛁 Take A Soak
Epsom salts. Despite the name, they aren’t like the stuff you put on your fries. They’re called salts because of their chemical structure—magnesium and sulfate. You can find them in most drugstores. A large box costs just a few dollars. They work for muscle aches, stress, sleep—all of it.
Hot water. Salts. No phone. Twenty minutes. That’s the whole prescription.
🌬️ Use Your Breath
Pranayama techniques can get you amped up or chilled out. But when you’re overstimulated, sometimes even a balancing practice—or anything with a sharp edge—is too much. What you want here is cooling.
Sheetali. Sheetkari. Left-nostril breathing. These are the ones that take the temperature down without asking you to perform.
Overstimulation isn’t a character flaw. It’s a signal. The practices exist. The hard part is remembering to use them before you’ve already said the thing you can’t take back.
Start with the one that sounds easiest. That’s the right one.
— MJH