When Life is Overwhelming

Finding Internal and External Resources

3rd August 2016

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It's been very overwhelming lately in the UK post-Brexit and also generally the news has been one thing after another all year.

It's only natural and easy to feel overwhelmed with it all. It's important that we honour our feelings and learn to be with whatever this situation throws up for us. I know I have experienced a lot of guilt and powerlessness watching the racism that's going on as a white woman knowing that my ancestors were part of that story.

If you are sensitive then the impact of it all will have shaken you to the core and sometimes the psyche's response to that overwhelm can be to slip into a gradual depression where you don't have to feel so much. This turbulence in the world isn't going to end overnight and so what's needed is community and stronger internal resources.

My sense is that we can address the epidemic of disconnection and really reach out to people. Not only the people living close to us but people who we wouldn't normally get to know.

When life gets overwhelming it feels like you are failing inside or the safety of your inner world is caving in on itself. It's at that point that people often consider going for some counselling because it's helpful to just let that overwhelm be seen and 'allowed' somewhere and to hear that you are not failing. Just to express whatever feelings are there without analysing them but letting them be witnessed can be life saving. This is in part what meditations are about - the holding and allowing of all that is to just be as it is. Part of the problem with emotions is that we judge them, suppress them, deny or project them and so it's healthy to just withdraw from the soap opera of the world and dedicate some time to oneself and then naturally we are in a better place to support others in our communities who may need it.

As someone who has dipped in and out of spiritual practices in my life I also know that they can provide a lot of strength through life's difficulties. I'm not suggesting we all try and escape the pain but I know that spiritual wisdom provides a useful lens through which to view it and ultimately make meaning of it all. I noticed post-Brexit that the people in my life who meditate were less identified with it, leaning on their wisdom and taking strength from their internal resources instead of getting swept away by what was happening. The key here is finding an anchor and a safe place inside oneself. It doesn't matter how you do that but we all need to find a way to replenish ourselves from the inside and to find hope. A friend of mine who chants said to me he chants everyday so that when things get tough he has accumulated the strength to survive it. I guess the other option is to lose oneself through one addictive substance or another but that's just going to create further challenges.

Overwhelm comes to us all and therapy is one way to figure out what's really going to serve you.

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