If there is one thing that is completely common in small business, it’s overwhelm. We all get there at least occasionally, and some of us seem to have set up permanent residence. Unfortunately, the view ain’t so nice, and the rent is exhorbitant.
When you are overwhelmed, your creativity plummets, your access to your intuition disappears, and your productivity goes out the window. You find yourself working harder and harder, trying to do more and more, and feeling like you are falling further and further behind.
The solution to overwhelm? Stop. Stop working. Stop doing.
What? As one client recently said, “How can I stop? At least I’m getting SOMETHING done.”
The truth is, if you are in overwhelm, you are not being truly effective. Why aren’t you? It’s helpful to understand where overwhelm comes from, and then you can understand better how to approach it.
Overwhelm is the completely appropriate, normal and expected condition that arises when you try to use your actions to manufacture essential qualities, such as Love, Mercy, Strength, Wisdom, Safety, Caring, etc.
Your actions can never create these qualities.
Think about it. When was the last time your were able to manufacture Love with your own hands?
No, ideally your actions are expressions of these qualities, not attempts to create them. So, the best thing to do when you enter into overwhelm, is to stop and find out what you are really trying to get if you were to get everything done.
Let me give you an example. One client who was overwhelmed by a bunch of to-dos before a deadline, stopped to look at all of his work. He realized that he was doing his tasks, not to get them done, but to avoid “people being angry at me.” When he looked more closely, he realized there was a place within him that was needing approval.
As he began to access the quality of approval within his heart, his belly started to relax, and the pressure he felt around the deadline eased. Once he felt the ease, and he accessed the internal approval, he realized he could only do what he could do. This in turn enabled him to move forward with his tasks in a much more peaceful way, and also enabled him to prioritize more effectively, knowing that there was already too much to do.
The key question for your heart is, “If I were to attain all of the results I’m seeking, what would that provide me with?”
Take this question into the Remembrance. It’s much more efficient, productive, and effective to stop for 5 minutes, 15 minutes, even 30 minutes. Ask this question of your heart through Remembering, rather than to continue on exhausting yourself with your infinite to-do list.
When your heart accesses directly what it is you are trying to attain, you are carried through your actions and to-do’s, rather than slogging through them.
This week stop the overwhelm, and Remember.
Keys to A Solution for Overwhelm
• We are often unconscious when we are in overwhelm, so it’s good to make a list of your overwhelm symptoms. Do you get cranky? Tense? Headaches, belly and/or shoulder tightness is common. Confusion, easily irritated, hopeless feelings can all come up. Over the next week, begin a list of your overwhelm symptoms, and keep it somewhere easily accessible. When you notice you are having one of these symptoms, you can remember you are in overwhelm, and you need to take a break.
• It’s true that your workload will not automatically disappear. But, the truth is, that everyone, including you, has a to-do list that is infinite in length, and is always being added to. If you take time to Remember and access what you need, then your heart can make good decisions. You will know which tasks are priorities, which can wait, and which should never have been on your list in the first place. Clutter clearing applies to tasks as well as objects.
• Be gentle with yourself! Overwhelm is not a fault, it’s a natural condition that sometimes arises for us as humans. Similar to thirst or hunger, it merely tells us that we need something that we’re not accessing in the moment.
