Overwhelm feels a little different these days.

Our normal responses and coping mechanisms may not be effective – nor even possible.

In normal times, I define overwhelm as a pile of decisions to be made. In these times – pandemic, economic unrest, social upheaval, isolation, upcoming election and and and – I define overwhelm as a pile of emotions to be felt.

We can feel the emotions without believing in them 100%. That’s new. Think about that. Do you usually believe the emotion, just because you are feeling it?

Emotions are indicators, not facts. Emotions indicate what is going on for use, and sometimes (most times) they are telling us how we are interpreting what is going on around us.

Sometimes our emotional response is pure habit or muscle memory. Overwhelm can be like that. When we don’t know how to process so many emotions, we go into overwhelm.

I’m not saying that we should go into denial and pretend that there aren’t a lot of unknowns, that there aren’t a lot of things on our plate, that there’s a ton that is unfamiliar and that things are not how we would choose for them to be. Nope, all of that is true. I’m also not saying that we should try to suppress our emotions because they are uncomfortable. Definite no!

I am saying that if we want to feel better, we need to decide to be a little more in charge of our emotional responses. We probably need to deal with the emotions, one at a time, to unravel the tangled pile.

Pick one. Maybe not the biggest, just the most accessible. Last week, I chose sadness. It wasn’t my biggest overwhelming feeling, but I could pull it out of the pile pretty easily. I checked – was this muscle memory or current? It was current. So I felt it. Let it wash over me. Shed a few tears. I took some time to be sad.

Then, interestingly, I had a little energy to make progress. I still had lot of other feelings, but I wasn’t overwhelmed any more. So I did some things. Finding the one little thing to do is a very magenta thing, because love is in the details. The little things.

A small action is better than no action at all. A small action is pretty much always possible. Then there is the ripple effect…

Sometimes there is overwhelm. Then we tug on one feeling. Then there is a small action, which starts a ripple.

In the meantime, remember these things: You are loved. We are all loved. Let’s all be kind. And in all things – progress, not perfection!

Love and light,

Maggie

*****

The book has been launched. It is still a#1 new release in Kindle – woo hoo!- and growing in paperback. You can get a copy here:  https://bit.ly/RainbowOnion  If you do get it, please leave a review. My goal is to get at least 50 reviews by September 25 (totally random date).