Overstimulated, overwhelmed, exhausted
A Traditional Chinese Medicine approach to building resiliency by creating internal harmony.
If you constantly feel overwhelmed, mentally fried, emotionally reactive, or exhausted, you’re not alone.
On top of life’s regular stressors, we are surrounded by endless notifications and background noise. Social media being a constant stream of “what you should do” without being rooted in anything that makes sense, it is all too much.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, this state doesn’t mean something is wrong with you, it means there is some level of disharmony.
The good news is that harmony can be restored.
In TCM, health is the smooth communication between systems. Each system links to an element: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood. Each element includes a Yin/ Yang organ pair, and they support one another. One group nourishes the next, while a different one keeps it in line. If you overuse one system, it becomes depleted and can’t nourish the next, all while becoming vulnerable to being overwhelmed by another, causing a domino effect of imbalance or disharmony.
To restore harmony, we need to consolidate resources, sedate what is over-acting, bring down what is in excess, while strengthening and building what we have lost. We (the practitioners) do so by identifying the patterns of disharmony through understanding symptoms, pulse diagnosis, tongue diagnosis, along with other tools.
Overstimulation Through the Lens of Chinese Medicine
When stimulation outweighs restoration for too long, we often see patterns like:
Heart Shen disturbance
(racing thoughts, anxiety, emotional sensitivity, poor sleep)Liver Qi stagnation
(irritability, tension, frustration, feeling “on edge”)Spleen Qi deficiency
(mental fog, fatigue, overwhelm, poor digestion, overthinking)Kidney Yin or Qi depletion
(burnout, depleted resilience, fear, deep exhaustion)
Overstimulation disturbs qi and depleted or disturbed qi can lead us to feeling overstimulating.
When qi is not flowing smoothly, energy becomes chaotic, depleted, or stuck.
This is why people can feel:
Wired but unable to truly rest
Emotionally reactive
Unable to tolerate stress
Overwhelmed by small things
All signs that the nervous system is in desperate need of regulation as well.
How Acupuncture Helps Restore Harmony
Acupuncture can help the body, mind, and spirit, learn how to regulate again.
When we’re under chronic stress, the body stays stuck in sympathetic mode (fight or flight). This looks like a racing heart, tense muscles, slower digestions, and a mind that cannot settle. This mode is useful in times of threat, but over time, this state becomes the body’s “new normal”… a state of hyper-vigilance. While it is obviously uncomfortable, it also takes a lot of energy and resources to maintain this state, leading to further depletion.
Acupuncture helps interrupt this pattern.
By stimulating the Para-sympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, and heal), it gives the whole a system a chance to settle down and remember what safety and regulation feels like.
From a Chinese medicine perspective, this looks like:
Calming the Shen (mind/spirit)
Smoothing qi flow
Strengthening the body’s internal communication between organ systems
When the parasympathetic system is activated, there is:
Deeper breathing
Slower heart rate
Improved digestion
Reduced anxiety and muscle tension
A sense of grounded calm or even sleepiness
Building Resilience
Resilience isn’t about pushing harder or being able to handle more, it’s about having enough resources to adapt.
In TCM, resilience is built when:
Qi flows freely
Blood and Yin nourish the system
The organs communicate instead of compete
When harmony improves, people often notice:
Better emotional tolerance
Less reactivity
Deeper sleep
Improved focus
A stronger sense of internal stability
Lifestyle Shifts That Support Harmony
1. Reduce the stimulation
Overstimulated systems need less, not more.
Fewer screens before bed
Fewer background noises
Fewer multitasking demands
Quiet creates space for regulation.
2. Eat Warm, Grounding Foods
Cold, rushed, or stressful eating habits weaken the Spleen.
Warm meals
Regular eating times
Stability in digestion = stability in the mind.
3. Create Predictability
Your nervous system loves rhythm.
Consistent sleep times
Simple morning/night routines such as making the bed and a warm cup of tea
Intentional pauses during the day
4. Allow Rest Without Productivity
Rest is medicine !!!
Chinese medicine is not a pill or a quick fix, it is focused on real-life tools and lifestyle changes/habits that are simple but effective.
Schedule your next appointment to build your own personal plan toward harmony and resilience.
