How to Listen When Your Body Says ‘Slow Down" for the Overstimulated Mom

We all know that feeling. It’s the tightness in your chest, your heart racing. Your mind is racing too—jumping from one to-do list to the next. It’s as if your entire nervous system is running on high, buzzing with a restless energy you can’t control. Every sound feels louder, every touch feels sharper, and relaxation seems like a distant memory. Your body is on high alert, even though there’s no immediate crisis—yet it feels like everything needs your attention all at once.

This constant state of feeling on edge is known as hyperarousal. Hyperarousal is a heightened state of sensory sensitivity where your body’s stress response is always on, even when there’s no real threat—like when your toddler calls out “Mom” for yet another snack, and you find yourself snapping back “What?” without meaning to. It’s as if your body and mind are stuck in “fight-or-flight” mode, constantly releasing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. For many moms, this state becomes the norm, leading to a persistent feeling of restlessness and being on edge.

Many of my clients come to me searching for solutions to make the anxiety stop, hoping for some magic fix that will take it away completely. But what if, instead of trying to make it stop, we acknowledged it as our body’s alarm system? What if we used this hyperarousal as a signal to actually listen to our bodies—to recognize when it’s time to slow down, take a breath, and give ourselves permission to pause? Rather than pushing through until we’re completely burnt out, we can use these moments as opportunities to check in with ourselves. What if the racing heart and tight chest were signals telling us we’ve taken on too much and that we need a break?

Instead of trying to make those feelings disappear, maybe we need to ask, what are they trying to tell us? Our bodies have a way of sounding alarms when we’ve pushed too far for too long. That racing heart, that sense of being on edge—it’s a signal that we’re doing too much, that we need to slow down and take a step back. But in a culture that prizes productivity, it’s easy to ignore those signals.

So many of us get caught up in the endless to-do lists, the constant demands, the pressure to be everything to everyone. And when we inevitably snap—when we hear ourselves answering our kids with a sharp “What?” because we just can’t take one more question—it’s easy to berate ourselves for feeling that anxiety, instead of thanking our bodies for sending us a clear message that we’re stretched too thin.

Maybe it is time to change the way we respond to these signals. Instead of seeing them as failures, perhaps we can learn to see them as invitations to care for ourselves greater. When we feel that familiar tension, the racing heart rate, or the sharp tone in our voice, we can take a moment to pause, breathe, and ask ourselves what we may need.