Rising Above Overwhelm

Matthew Kirby took this picture on his way to work. I love how he interpreted the colors in his edits.

Overwhelm. I am a big believer in words. I believe that if we go through life talking about and thinking about what we don’t want more than what we do want, we’ll end up getting a lot more of what we don’t want. But to write the title of this so it’s conjuring what we want, that means I need to know the opposite of overwhelm.

It’s trickier than I thought it would be. If you were to think of its opposite, what would it be?

Peace . . .

Clarity . . .

Assurance . . .

Capable . . .

Powerful . . .

Calm . . .

Ease . . .

Perhaps it’s hard to come up with an opposite because overwhelm is often more a cluster of emotions than just a very long list of things we have to deal with. It’s our heart and our head bouncing from one thought to another—worrying one second, talking ourselves out of worry the next. It’s finding clarity, but the next moment second-guessing ourselves.

And overwhelm could be a different mixture of feelings each time you experience it. It can encompass some emotions that are less fun than others, like pessimism, confusion, despair, etc. But it can also include excitement and eagerness. It’s just that when you’re feeling overwhelm, because there are so many different vibrations of emotion going on at once, those joyful emotions, like fun and anticipation, can just feel like they’re too much right now—like you’re not ready to receive them or feel them yet, and that you you’d rather just take a nap.

So the opposite of overwhelm is going to be the opposite of whatever brand of it you’re feeling, starting with the dominant emotion that is trying to run the show in your brain.

Here’s what’s going on inside me right now:

Over the last several months, I have been getting closer and closer to the Big Reveal on this website—the one that will finally explain what in the world Elevenses Society actually is and how we’ll all be able to be a part of it.

But as I sit here planning the days until Thursday when I’ll have all that new information up, I am writing lists of all the things I have to do. Most of the things on the list are things I don’t even know how to do, which makes the list even more overwhelming.

So far, I started following some great advice I heard from Abraham Hicks that says to write a list of what you have to do today (limiting it to ten), in a column that you label “Me, Today.” In another column you write the words “The Universe,” and under it, you list of ALL THE OTHER STUFF that you need to get done. It definitely helps to put the other stuff in the other column, even if it means that you are giving yourself permission to not have to try and tackle anything that isn’t in the “Me, Today” column. Supposedly, the stuff in the second column has a tendency to get done in ways you weren’t expecting, whether it’s because you are able to do it later and it feels much easier, or because some cooperative component in the Universe comes and does it for you. I’m all for that.

At first I started sneaking in a sub-heading under “Me, Today” called “This Week,” but that was making me feel antsy, so I just started to re-list all of the “this week” items under “The Universe” heading, and already I’m feeling much better.

Although this idea is helping so far, I’m still wanting a little more clarity from this feeling.

As I’m sitting here typing, it occurs to me that getting really quiet for a minute, to feel what I am feeling, would be a really good idea. I’m going to close my eyes, let myself feel everything I’m feeling, and then I’ll try and become aware of all the feelings under this umbrella of overwhelm. Be right back. :)

Okay, the first thought that came to me was one word: fear. I’ll unpack it for a second or two, but I don’t want to spend too much time there, because then I’ll just keep finding more things that I can be afraid of, but here goes.

I have been wanting to have some sort of business since I was a kid. I am now forty-five. But this week I gave myself the deadline to fully define the offer I want to put out to the world, how much I want to charge for it, and then post it for everyone to see. This is scary to me. I want to get paid for the work I do, but I’m scared to tell people that. Scarier still is the idea that no one will see the offer. Even scarier than that is that lots of people will see the offer and not sign up. Plus, like I said, I have a bunch of things I don’t know how to do that I have to learn how to do in the next 24 hours. I’m pretty sure that if I were to stub my toe while feeling like this, I would crumble into a big loud ugly cry.

Alright, that was probably more attention to fear than I wanted to allow, but now I can identify the emotion that is opposite to fear.

What are some ideas . . . faith, maybe? Assurance? That feels like what I am reaching for. I want the assurance or reassurance that everything will be okay.

So, now I will write the word assurance down on a piece of paper. If it feels really good when I write it, I may write it fifty times. But the word assurance and the vibration of the word are a little further from the vibration where I am right now. So if I were to try and conjure the feeling of assurance this second, I might feel other things with it and I’d get overwhelmed again.

So instead, I’ll just write the word down and get back to it. Now I’ll go back to the word fear.

Now, instead of being really specific why I’m fearful this time, I’ll tell a more general story about fear. Here goes:

I don’t know what I’m doing. Everything is riding on this. No one has every been less equipped to run a business.

Okay, that’s a little more general. It already feels a little better to say it that way. Now, what I am going to do is take those general statements, and try to talk myself into better feeling thoughts.

You don’t know what what you’re doing? You have been thinking about this for awhile. You must have some idea.

Hmm. “Everything is riding on this week.” It’s possible that this week won’t make me a million dollars, but it is a step in the right direction. Maybe there are people out there who have been following me and are curious to see what I am offering. I have been putting a lot of my ideas of what I wish existed into this business. It’s possible there are a lot of people that are looking for exactly what I am creating.

This week is just a first step. There will be lots of time for tweaking. There are wildly successful businesses that were started by people who know even less than I know now. I can do this. There’s nothing to worry about. The answers will come when I am ready. Little by little. I’ve got this. There’s no rush. I can trust myself to find the answers. I can trust myself. I can trust that the Universe will orchestrate all that needs to be done.

And there we go. I was reaching for assurance and then found myself carried all the way through to the feeling of trust. I’ll ride that emotion out for a little longer.

I’ve seen things before that looked impossible, but then came together. The Universe has my back. I think that this business is going to be amazing. I trust that it will attract the kind of people I want to spend my days with. Of course there are people in this world who would pay money for what I have to offer. Of course I can do this. Everything is going to be wonderful!

In the comments below, feel free to give it a try. What emotions are you trying to rise above?