If you find yourself asking ‘Why does everything feel so hard’, you are not alone.
Simple tasks feel harder than usual
Big tasks feel even bigger
Everything takes longer
If feels like a challenge just getting through the day
You find yourself wondering why you’re so tired all the time, why it’s so hard to focus, or why everything feels overwhelming.
You question ‘what is wrong with me’ and feel like you are somehow failing.
Here’s the good news, it’s nothing to do with being a failure, you’re not doing anything wrong, the answer to why you’re feeling this way could be chronic stress.
When your mind and body stay under pressure for too long, normal daily tasks can feel really challenging, sometimes impossible.
Chronic Stress Changes How Your Brain and Body Function
When stress is constant, your nervous system does not get a chance to fully recover, it gets stuck in state of fight of flight, also known as ‘survival mode’.
Over time, this can affect your sleep, concentration, memory, motivation, and energy levels.
This is one of the main reasons everything can start to feel harder, even basic tasks and daily responsibilities can feel to challenging.
If we stay stuck in this constant state of stress for long periods, this can lead to burnout.
Burnout Isn’t Just About Work
Many people think burnout only happens in high-stress jobs but burnout can happen to anyone.
You can burnout from work, school, caregiving, medical issues, parenting or navigating difficult challenges.
How does burnout show up?
There are many ways that burnout can affect us, including:
- Emotional exhaustion
- Irritability
- Low motivation
- Brain fog
- Dreading responsibilities
- Wanting to withdraw from people
- Feeling like you are failing or falling behind
The worst part about burnout (speaking from experience) is the belief that you are failing, you are not coping like everyone else around you is.
The reality is that you’re overwhelmed with too many things to do, to many responsibilities and not enough support.
Mental Overload is Real!
Every day you make hundreds of decisions.
Prioritising what needs to be done
What to eat
How to respond to messages
How to best manage your time with a never ending to do list
Remembering what everyone else needs in the family
The list goes on and on
When your brain gets overloaded with too many decisions, everything starts to feel overwhelming which can make simple tasks feel so much harder than they should.
What To Do When Everything Feels Hard
When everything feels hard, most people try to push harder and do more as they think they aren’t doing enough, when the reality is, they are already doing too much
Here are some things you do to…..
- Make tasks smaller – Instead of trying to do everything at once, choose one small thing or break down a bigger task into smaller more manageable steps
- Lower the bar – Spot putting so many high standards and expectations on yourself. Does it matter if you don’t dust the house this week?
- Allow yourself some breathing space – stop jumping from one thing to the next and increase the time between the next job or next decision
- Ask for help earlier. You do not have to wait until everything falls apart to get support.
- Rest without guilt: True rest isn’t just sleeping; it means stepping away from screens, lowering demands and taking some time to yourself during the day.
Final Thoughts
If everything feels hard right now, it does not mean you are lazy, broken, or failing at life. More often, it means you are overwhelmed, burned out, under a lot of stress, or trying to function without enough support.
You do not have to fix everything this week. Focus on the next small step. Then the next one after that. Small steps are often how people move out of survival mode and back into a life that feels manageable again.
If you’re still not convinced it’s stress making you feel this way then please take a look at The Stress & Burnout Symptom Checklist to see how many other symptoms of stress could be affecting you