When Everything Feels Like Too Much (Even Though Nothing’s Wrong)
You know those days when you can’t name what’s bothering you, only that everything suddenly is? Highly sensitive women feel this more often than we’re taught to admit.
Fellow HSP women, I believe you’ll agree our sensitivity and cyclical nature often bring days that feel heavy without warning. You wake up and nothing is technically wrong, but everything feels a little off. The smallest things feel too loud. You’re easily irritated, unfocused, or emotionally thin-skinned. You want quiet, but can’t find it. You want space, but don’t know where to go.
It’s not burnout or heartbreak, it’s just one of those days. I’ve come to call them vrr days. That word captures the low, quiet growl under your skin, the hum of frustration or inner resistance that doesn’t want to be soothed or explained away. It just wants to be felt. Even though your conditioning, more often than not, urges you to end it immediately and push it away so you can feel and act “normal” again.
The worst part? These days often show up without a clear reason or with too many possible reasons if you’re deeply self-aware. Hormones, moon phases, weather, energy dips, a memory from a year ago, overstimulation (hello, HSP mothers), or nothing at all. But the good news is: you’re not powerless in them. These days don’t have to unravel you. There are small, deeply human ways to ground yourself.
Here are tools you can reach for when you feel stuck in that strange emotional fog: practical, honest, and not meant to “fix” you, just to bring you back to yourself.
Start With Breath
Before anything else, try to slow your breathing. Not because it magically changes everything, but because it helps you arrive. You can use a physiological sigh, which involves taking a deep inhale through the nose, followed by a short second inhale, then a long exhale through the mouth. This helps release tension and activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
You can also try square breathing: inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold again for 4, imagining the sides of a square as you go. Or simply breathe slowly and count your breaths from 1 to 7, then down from 7 to 1.
I continue this rhythm until I begin to feel myself from the inside, breathing in a way that reconnects me with my body and quiets the outside noise.
Acknowledge and Accept
Acknowledge your current state and offer yourself compassion. There is nothing wrong with how you feel. Say to yourself, It’s okay to feel this way. I am here with myself, and I can hold this. This isn’t about making the feeling disappear, it’s about allowing it to exist without judgment. Acceptance can be a form of release, too.
Speak Safety Into the Moment
Gently remind yourself of simple, grounding truths: I am safe for myself. I love myself. These aren’t affirmations meant to override emotion, but quiet reminders that help soften the edge of discomfort.
There cannot be too much self-love and safety for a dysregulated sensitive nervous system.
Lie Down Into Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra, often called yogic sleep, is a guided meditation that brings the body into deep rest while keeping the mind gently aware. Lie down, close your eyes, and follow a voice that guides you through breath, body awareness, and visualizations. It can help you pause the spinning thoughts and return to a grounded, restful state.
When I need something that meets my current state with softness or simply offers me a rest, this is where I go. Here’s one I return to often.
Move the Energy
Even when you feel tired, some kind of movement can help. Not structured exercise, more like instinctive body expression. Close the door, stay in your room, and let your body guide you. Sometimes you might stretch or sway. Other times you might flail, kick, or hit the bed with your fists. Silent screams, tearful groans. No choreography, just release.
It may look wild to someone else, but it’s an act of presence. Your body often knows how to process what your mind can’t yet explain.
Go Outside
When you have a lot of energy, try a brisk walk, ideally in nature, near a running spring or somewhere that feels good in the moment. For lower-energy states, simply go outside and sit on a bench to watch the clouds pass by in the sky. This alone can be a meditative state.
Watch the Green
Try lying down or sitting comfortably and simply watch what’s happening outside the window, the trees growing, bushes moving with the wind, or just observe your indoor plants slowly unfolding in their own quiet rhythm. Trace the outline of a leaf with your eyes. Remind yourself that growth can be slow, even invisible, and still be real.
This often leaves me in awe of nature and the order of things.
Fuel With Intention
Sometimes part of the irritability is just... physical. Drink mineralized water or an adrenal cocktail, or prepare a soothing hot drink. Eat something nourishing or comforting, ideally both. Something with protein. Or simply whatever you’re craving.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to remind your body that it matters and many times it helps the vrr feeling immediately.
Gratitude Is Always Helpful
Even when you feel dull, you can usually name one thing you appreciate. Not to erase the discomfort, but to anchor yourself. I look at something lovely in my life. My healthy and happy child. My supportive husband. The place I live in. The beautiful space around me. The way a sunlight plays on my wall through the shades. The fact that I can do this safely.
Gratitude isn’t always an emotion. Sometimes it’s a choice to pause and say: yes, this too exists.
Write It Out (Even If It’s Rambling)
When the vrr feeling doesn’t move through breath or body, I write. Don’t worry about coherence. Just empty your head and let your feelings find shape.
Sometimes I write with the hope that someone else might need these words. Sometimes I write just for myself. Either way, giving the mood language takes away some of its weight.
You Are Still More Than Enough
On days like these, when your emotional landscape feels raw or uncooperative, remember: you are still more than enough. You don’t have to be in your best mood to be worthy of care. You don’t have to be fully functional to matter.
This feeling isn’t all of who you are.
These tools aren’t meant to polish you up. They’re here to reconnect you with the quiet, steady part of you that knows: this feeling isn’t all of who you are.
If this feels familiar…
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