Overwhelm

I know the feeling of overwhelm.  I know the results of reaching overwhelm.  Sometimes, though, it takes a good friend or a skilled coach to help us recognize the behaviors just before reaching overwhelm.  We need help sometimes pinpointing what is making us feel as if we are in overwhelm.  Then, encouragement is so vital to help you through the results of overwhelm.  My first response is to run away when I just can’t take it anymore.  And then, I still have to come back and deal with it.

Here’s one story about overwhelm:

Imagine working on a home improvement project.  You decide to declutter your home one room at a time.  While you love collecting things and displaying them – gifts from various parts of the world or hand made items from your children – these are a form of input to your senses.  Without even realizing it, you have become overwhelmed from all this stuff.  The response may then be cleaning the clutter.  The constant decision making – and yes, it is decision making – while cleaning and working towards your goal of home improvement, is exhausting.  This cleaning process also takes you to feeling overwhelmed.

So, I need to paint the interior of my home.  I decide that I am not going to put everything back on the walls or on the shelves after painting.  Other things are going to be happening in the future (like also replacing carpet) so I purchase good storage containers and protective wrap to put things away for awhile.  I have been carefully cleaning all my collectibles and taking things off walls to fill in nail holes, and use the shop vac to do what I can to prepare the walls and 3/4 room dividing walls.  So, currently where I had walls of pics of family, art work, and special places the walls are now bare.  A totally different perspective of my home exists.  It is kind of weird to walk down the hallway or sit in my front room.  And I’m thinking, where is the balance in my physical environment?  I need some stimulation and then, I don’t want to feel overwhelmed when I enter a room.

One of my favorite resources for thinking about this is from my mentor, Dr. Meggin McIntosh.  She has shared her ideas with me and others about being in overwhelm and just being whelmed.  She has some great tips for us who want a better handle on overwhelm at: http://tinyurl.com/ny7zyx.

These past few days I’ve sure needed to remember her suggestions!

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Frederick

Today I feel like Frederick.  Frederick is a mouse created by the children’s author Leo Lionni.  Now Frederick was a different kind of mouse.  In the fall when his family was preparing for winter by gathering nuts and other food, he sat quietly and absorbed the sun.  He stored images and words and positive energy which he drew from nature.

When winter came and the mice had used up all of their stores, he still had something to give.  What he had to give was not tangible like the nuts his siblings collected.  No, he provided the others images of the good things nature game them.  I feel like Frederick.  Sometimes I do not have the same provisions to share that others may have.  I have something different that comes from inside.  I breathe deeply and call upon the source of my energy, thoughts, and being.  I ask my Creator for what I need.  He provides me with words, images, and the intangible resources we need during the winter season.

Do you ever feel like Frederick?  Have you found your special way of supporting those you care about during the winter season?  I have.

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