There are moments in life when it all feels too much.
Holding your breath,
Not thinking straight,
Thoughts buzzing in your ear tangled around one another.
The weight of life's demands and the pressure of your expectations,
It's all too much.
It seems the only way to fix this is to get everything done.
To hold up every heavy weight,
To cling onto every string,
Not letting any one slip.
So you do.
You grip and you push.
The rushed blur of your days is blinding.
The heaviness makes you numb.
It is all too much.
But you do it anyway,
For your family,
Your employer,
Your future.
You must.
This is all valid.
However,
I ask that you listen for just a moment.
Hear what I have to say.
I can't make everything that you need to do disappear,
But I can offer another way.
In times of overwhelm,
We think that we must do to resolve.
We speed ourselves up,
Multitask,
Skip a meal or a walk.
Once we get everything done,
It'll all be fine.
But when is it ever truly all done?
I don't say this to add stress,
But rather help you see.
See the big picture here.
When will all the obligations stop?
Sure,
They might lighten and slow down over seasons of our life,
But there will always be things to do.
So please listen.
When we feel like a boiling pot of water ready to blow its lid off,
Or a flower whipping around in a thunderstorm,
Or a young child holding onto too many balloons in high wind.
These are the moments when it feels instinctual to sprint.
But I ask you instead to stop,
To pause,
To go grab a glass of water,
To step outside just for a minute,
To breathe in the fresh air,
To close your eyes,
To send a long inhale into your lower belly just a couple of times,
To lock yourself in the bathroom and just sit down for a minute,
To go to your car and put on a slow gentle song,
To sit underneath a tree or on your couch and let the tears roll.
Crumble if you must.
It is good to fall to the ground sometimes.
Overwhelm is a lonely business.
It can make us sick and not see the beauty of our regular days wedging itself between relationships making our memory fade.
If we do not take a moment,
Even just a minute,
To stop and collect ourselves,
To give ourselves a moment of grace,
We will look at our cup one day,
Flip it upside down and see that it is bone dry,
That our life feels bone dry,
Depleted and malnourished,
Ready to snap like the limbs of a dying houseplant.
Instead,
See overwhelm as an old friend knocking on your front door,
Warning you that it is time,
Time to step back for a few seconds,
Telling you it is all too much to handle in this moment,
Begging you to pause.
So when you hear the knock,
Do what you can to step away and after remember to thank overwhelm for it is here to help.
