Hi,
Welcome.
This meditation is for those of you who are struggling with feelings of overwhelm.
So before you dive into this meditation,
I invite you to find a comfortable position.
So you might be seated in a chair,
On a sofa.
You could be also laying down.
Just take a moment to see what would feel most comfortable to you.
So the first step in working with the feeling of overwhelm is to simply acknowledge the overwhelm.
The word overwhelm consists of two words,
Over and whelm.
Whelm means to be submerged completely,
To be covered over,
As if a wave covering over you.
So just simply recognizing that there's maybe too much going on,
Maybe too many feelings are coming up,
Maybe your nervous system feels overstimulated.
And the next step is to simply accept the feeling of overwhelm and let go any judgment that might be present.
I know sometimes I tell myself that I shouldn't feel overwhelmed.
I should be able to get things done.
Or I should be able to feel through this with ease.
And sometimes we can't.
So simply accepting the overwhelm is already going to create a little bit of ease inside your nervous system and inside your body.
And the next step is to recognize what do you do with overwhelm?
How have you been handling it so far?
Do you have a tendency to ignore it?
Do you do more?
Do you disconnect from your body?
Do you pick up your pace and move even faster in life?
Do you feel like you have to do something?
So just recognize how you have been handling or not handling overwhelm.
What is your pattern,
Your tendency?
Once again,
Without shaming yourself or making it bad or wrong,
But simply recognizing that as a coping strategy that up till now served you in some way.
And I invite you to simply pause and slow down,
Letting go of the need to do anything with this feeling and the sense of overwhelm.
Just allowing yourself to be here.
And then I invite you to see if you can contact the sense of being overwhelmed.
For example,
You can start to notice where in your body does it reside?
Is it in your chest,
Your lower back?
It's also possible that whenever you feel overwhelmed,
You have a tendency to disconnect from your body.
To see if you can gently come back to your body by maybe placing one of your hands on your chest and just breathing into your chest.
Maybe placing a hand on your forehead.
There's a lot of activity going on in the mind.
Just supporting your head with this touch.
Once again,
Remembering that there's no need to try to fix anything right now.
You're just becoming aware and that awareness is the tool that will support you in handling this sense of overwhelm or connecting with this feeling of overwhelm.
And then from here you have a couple of choices.
One choice is to simply surrender.
If for example you're noticing you feel overwhelmed with sadness,
Can you give yourself permission to just surrender to that sadness and not resist it as much?
Sadness can be very gradual surrender.
You could be feeling overwhelmed with fear.
So just recognizing and noticing if you can soften around the edges of that fear and just gently surrender to the sensations of fear.
And another choice is to create spaciousness.
Meaning that as you're pausing,
As you're slowing down,
Choosing to do something that feels nourishing to you.
For example,
It could be taking a bath,
Could be going for a walk,
Could be listening to guided meditation that offers a sense of safety to you,
A sense of peacefulness to you,
Maybe even joy.
And in a way,
Yes you might say you're distracting yourself and on the other hand you're just allowing your nervous system to come back to its natural state,
To its home base where it's not as activated,
Where it's not as overwhelmed.
So just finding something very simple that you can do that will support you in having a little bit more spaciousness inside.
So that's once that spaciousness gets created,
Then you can go back to any tasks you have to complete,
You can go back to your life quote unquote and you can continue with a lot more peacefulness and gentleness.
So see which choice resonates for you.
Is it to surrender or is it to create spaciousness?
And I invite you to just trust your inner intelligence on this one so it's not your mind making this decision but it's more coming from your intuitive sense,
Your inner guidance as to what would be the right choice for you.
And the last step in this process is to simply allow yourself to rest.
Regardless if you're choosing to simply surrender to the feeling that is creating that sense of overwhelm or if you're just creating spaciousness inside of yourself and inside of your life,
The last step would be to simply rest,
Whatever that means to you.
So this way your nervous system will have an opportunity to reset and once again come back to its kind of a natural state that you can also call your home base.
And most importantly take care of yourself.
I wish you all the best for now and remember that the feelings of overwhelms naturally arise in all of us so the way we are with those feelings is what really makes a big difference in our lives.
If we can continue running while feeling overwhelmed it's really going to create more unease and dis-ease in our bodies.
If we allow ourselves to process what we're going through,
What is creating that sense of overwhelm,
We can move through life with greater ease.
Thank you for listening.
Bye for now.
