The Heart and Overwhelm: When It All Feels Too Much
- info729835
- Apr 4
- 4 min read
Overwhelm has followed me for most of my life.
As a child, I didn’t understand why I reacted so strongly to certain things. Why my chest would tighten, my thoughts would race, and my whole system would shut down over something others seemed to brush off. It wasn’t until later in life, when I discovered I was autistic, that it all began to make sense.
I’ve spent years trying to manage it—breathing through it, meditating past it, walking for hours to move it. And while all those things help, nothing calms my system quite like sound.
Humming softly.Gong in hand.Eyes closed.Letting the vibration do what my mind can’t.
There’s a point where the overwhelm melts—not because I’ve fixed anything, but because something inside me is finally being heard.
The Heart and Emotional Overload
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the heart is connected to joy—but also to emotional overflow. When too much energy gets trapped in the chest, or emotions remain unprocessed, the heart is where it gathers. Not physically, but energetically.
In modern terms, we’d call it nervous system dysregulation. The kind that leaves you flooded, frozen, or on the edge of tears with no clear reason why.
For me, any sudden change in plans, a confrontational message, or someone asking too much can bring it on. I go into shutdown mode. My heart races. My thinking scatters.
My breath shortens. My stomach knots. I’ve learnt to recognise it. But recognising it doesn’t always stop it.
Where It All Started
I’ve spent a long time untangling the roots of this.
I’ve been a people-pleaser most of my life. Always putting others first. Always trying to avoid conflict or discomfort. But every time I do it, something small dies inside. A piece of me folds away.
It’s taken years to name where that came from.
A father who was critical and emotionally absent.Who I love, deeply. But whose influence I still struggle with.I never got the praise, the encouragement, the “you’re doing great” that so many boys crave from their dads.
Like a lot of men I’ve spoken to, I was left feeling small. Not enough. And that feeling doesn’t just go away—it seeps into the nervous system. It becomes the background hum to your whole life. It becomes overwhelm.
How Sound Helps the Heart Feel Safe Again
There’s something about sound that cuts through all of it.
When I sit with my gong and gently flumi—just light strokes, no drama—I feel something shift. I don’t need to explain anything. I don’t need to solve anything. The sound just wraps around my body and tells my heart:
“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Here’s why it works:
1. Sound Regulates the Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve runs through the heart, lungs, and digestive system. It’s the key to our rest-and-digest state. When we hum, sing, or receive vibration, it tones the vagus nerve, which slows the heart rate and calms the body.
It’s no surprise that sound has been used for centuries in rituals and healing—it connects us to that deep, primal part of ourselves that knows how to reset.
2. Overwhelm Lives in the Body, Not the Mind
You can’t logic your way out of overwhelm. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Overwhelm is a felt sense. It lives in the tissues, the breath, the tension in the jaw or chest. Sound travels through all of that. Especially low-frequency sound, which moves through the fluid-filled spaces of the body, reaching areas our conscious mind can’t.
That’s why just five minutes with a gong or a bowl can feel like hours of rest.
3. Sound Gives Us a Safe Container
For people like me—neurodivergent, highly sensitive, and prone to emotional flooding—sound creates a boundary. A soft, vibrational container where the body knows what to expect. There’s no talking, no confrontation, no fixing. Just presence.
In that space, I can stop being strong. I can stop performing. I can just be.
Healing Isn’t About Becoming Less Sensitive
Overwhelm isn’t a flaw. It’s a signal.It says: “You’ve taken on too much. You’re doing too much. You’ve lost yourself trying to carry everyone else.”
Sound brings me back. Every time.To my breath.To my body.To the part of me that knows how to feel without drowning.
Let’s Leave You with This
If your heart feels heavy...If your chest tightens over little things...If you're always “on” for others but disconnected from yourself...
It might not be your fault. It might be your nervous system asking for a different kind of support.
Try this: Sit, bring your hand to your heart and Hum. Breathe. Let the sound move through you.
You don’t need to understand everything to let something go. You just need to be willing to feel.
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