There's a particular kind of overwhelm that belongs to this moment in history.

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It's not just the usual pressures of adulthood: the bills, the deadlines, the responsibilities. It's the sense that the world itself is vibrating at a frequency our nervous systems were never designed to hold.

Wars unfolding in real time. A cost-of-living crisis that feels like a slow-moving avalanche. Housing insecurity that no longer affects "other people" but almost everyone we know. Petrol prices that spike because of geopolitical tensions on the other side of the world.

And the constant pressure to work more, earn more, stretch further, just to keep beans on toast on the table.

It's no wonder so many of us feel like we're living with a permanent knot in our chest.

For neurodivergent people, this overwhelm can hit even harder. Our brains are wired to notice patterns, connect dots, follow threads.

What starts as reading about a conflict can turn into a three-hour deep dive into global alliances, oil markets, political influence and the domino effects that ripple into our daily lives.

We call it a "side quest", but it can leave us overstimulated, anxious and carrying the weight of problems far bigger than any one person can solve.

And it's not just the information itself - it's the pace of it. The speed at which crises unfold, the immediacy with which we receive updates, the expectation that we should understand, process and respond to global events in real time.

So, the question becomes: how do we regulate ourselves in a world that feels fundamentally dysregulated?

The first step is acknowledging that the overwhelm is not a personal failure. It is a rational response to an irrational moment. We are living through overlapping crises - economic, political, environmental, social - and pretending otherwise doesn't make us resilient; it makes us brittle. Strength begins with honesty.

The second step is recognising that our nervous systems need boundaries even when the world has none. Regulation is not something we "should" have mastered by adulthood; it's a lifelong practice. It's not about being calm all the time. It's about learning how to return to calm.

And returning to calm requires deliberate choices.

It might mean limiting how often you check the news, not because you don't care, but because you care so much that your body can't absorb the constant shockwaves.

It might mean stepping away from conversations - online and offline - that spike your anxiety.

It might mean noticing when your brain is spiralling into geopolitical analysis at 1am and gently redirecting yourself back to the present moment: your room, your breath, your body, your safety.

It might also mean acknowledging that your brain is not built for endless vigilance. Humans were never meant to hold the whole world in their hands. We were meant to hold our communities, our families, our immediate environments. The global scale of modern stress is simply too large for any one nervous system to metabolise.

At work, regulation becomes even more important. Many workplaces are running on fumes: understaffed, overstretched and under pressure to deliver more with less. In these environments, overwhelm isn't just common, it's contagious. One person's stress becomes the team's stress.

This is where small acts of self-regulation become acts of leadership.

Taking a moment to breathe before responding to an email. Pausing to clarify instead of reacting. Acknowledging when you're at capacity instead of pushing past it. These aren't signs of weakness; they're signs of maturity. They create psychological safety. They model steadiness. They remind others that it's possible to move through pressure without collapsing under it.

For neurodivergent people, regulation at work often requires externalising what others can internalise: writing things down, breaking tasks into steps, using timers, creating sensory buffers, asking for clarity. These aren't quirks - they're tools that let us function in systems not designed with our brains in mind. And when we use them openly, we give others permission to work in ways that support their own nervous systems.

There's something powerful about recognising that regulation isn't just an individual task - it's a collective one.

When workplaces normalise pacing, clarity, rest and boundaries, everyone benefits. When leaders model steadiness, teams stabilise. When colleagues support each other's capacity, the whole environment becomes less volatile.

Calm is contagious too.

And here's the quiet truth: the world is not going to slow down for us. The crises will continue. The headlines will keep coming.

But we can learn to slow ourselves down within it. We can create pockets of steadiness in the chaos. We can protect ourselves with the same seriousness we bring to protecting our families.

Finding calm in the storm doesn't mean ignoring the storm. It means refusing to let it sweep you away. You are allowed to be informed without being consumed. You are allowed to care without collapsing. You are allowed to step back without becoming apathetic. You are allowed to be a human being in a world that keeps demanding superhuman endurance.

And maybe that's the real act of resistance right now: choosing to stay grounded, present and connected in a world that keeps trying to pull us into panic.

Choosing to return, again and again, to the small, steady practices that remind you that you are here, you are safe and you are allowed to rest.

Even if it feels like the world is on fire.

Zoë Wundenberg is a careers consultant and un/employment advocate at impressability.com.au. She is a volunteer with the Voices of Farrer.

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