If you’re feeling overwhelmed, this is for you…

Sometimes overwhelm can feel like this.

Last night I had the privilege to join Tara Brach for a group meditation and Q+A with Cloud Sangha.

She mentioned a recent Gallup poll finding that well over half of Americans are suffering from fear and anxiety, meaning that many people are off the charts in reactivity, stress, fear and anger. I would imagine folks all over the world, not the US, are feeling similar. All this is surely compounded by the war in Ukraine, threat of nuclear conflict, the continuation of the pandemic, the climate crisis and being a human during late-stage capitalism.

Whew - it’s a lot, isn’t it?

The overwhelm can feel so intense and paralysing. Where do we even begin when we feel like everything is too much?

Tara gave us this tip: when you’re feeling overwhelmed, what’s your refuge?

Take some moments to connect to this refuge. It might be with a spiritual figure, a place in nature, your home or sacred space.

Imagine yourself in or with this refuge, describe it, feel it…

Now ask yourself, what’s the spirit of the figure or place? Perhaps it is calm, wise, open, spacious, loving, nurturing…

Once you have a good sense of the spirit of your refuge, tune back into yourself. What feels like too much right now?

Take that thing that is too much, and almost like you’re taking it with two hands and offering it to your refuge and the larger, spaciousness of it. Like you’re handing it over to some larger belonging. You don’t need to carry this all by yourself.

You’re not getting rid of anything, you’re just letting this overwhelm into a larger space.

What do you notice? How does it feel?

♡

Taking a small pause like this to recognise, allow, nurture and honour our difficult feelings, like overwhelm, is a small but effective way to support yourself during challenging times. It might not fix everything, but it will help.

In my Reiki Level 1 course, we will learn meditations like this for self-compassion and how to infuse them with loving Reiki energy. If you’d like to support yourself and gift yourself an amazing self-care practice and tool, do join us on April 23/24.

Sending much love to you and all beings ♡