Whatever is happening in your life, perhaps in your relationships, or your community, can contribute to your sense of overwhelm too.

And though we all experience life differently, most people will say there have been more than a few opportunities for overwhelm in the last few years.

I think overwhelm is a catch-all emotion. Instead, you could be feeling stressed, frustrated, or agitated often.

We know what it feels like, but that feeling of overwhelm can represent many different internal challenges.

Overwhelm is much like the tip of an iceberg.

That iceberg tip can be sharp and destructive, but it's just the tip of the overwhelm iceberg.

There's a whole lot more iceberg under the water.

And the stuff you don't see is harder to pin down (well, not if you have a satellite tracker or something fancy like that, but with your natural eyes, you just can't get clarity).

Overwhelm could be...

• too many opportunities to be frustrated with your partner
• too many activities to attend or too many kids to look in the eyes
• too many angry moments with your kids
• too many confusing moments trying to determine what someone wants from you and how you can appease or satisfy it
• not knowing how to address something with another human or life event
• hearing too many hard stories (from your prayer chain or the television news)
• trying to do the right thing by your kids but not sure if you're hitting it
• trying really hard to do everything for everyone, knowing you're not hitting it, trying harder, and collapsing at the end of the night
• feeling like you're losing yourself to constant demands and requests and needs of everyone else
• trying not to succumb to anxiety because...(you fill in the blank here)
• not feeling supported in your homeschool life (or life, in general)
• homeschool feels like a daily struggle
• not feeling like you're showing up as you'd like in your homeschool (& you'd definitely not want someone to be a fly on the wall watching you)
• being unrealistic with your expectations, knowing it, but not knowing how to stop
• feeling that what you're doing isn't good enough
• and anything else you would put on this list...