From Chaos to Calm: Meditation for Overwhelm
by Kyle Schauenberg
Your heart is busy. You care about a lot of things. And sometimes you have a backlog of unprocessed emotions from everyday life. Other times, the people in your life have a lot going on and it involves or affects you. Still other times, community events, work events and even world events are pulling your heartstrings in multiple directions.
This is a sign that you care about life: your life and the lives of others.
Even people with really strong boundaries experience overwhelm sometimes. Life can sometimes simply offer too much to process at once.
We need meditation techniques designed to help soothe this overwhelm. And generally, we can approach this from two opposite angles in meditation.
On the one hand: you can look it in the eye. It can be a relief to face the overwhelm head-on and immerse yourself right into the center of it all. Resisting the feeling of being overwhelmed is exhausting, in and of itself. It adds an additional layer of discomfort because, in an effort to avoid the overwhelm, it’s really easy to keep stewing on the sensation of resisting it altogether. And now, the task of “not being overwhelmed” is added to the pile of to-do’s!
When you choose to engage with the sensation of overwhelm intentionally, you reconnect with your freedom and you give yourself spaciousness to let yourself feel into your life and metabolize those feelings.
In Practice: Intentional Empathy
“I am free to feel”
In your meditation practice, you can create an intentional atmosphere to let your feelings run wild. This is a way of sitting down and doing what your heart is asking of you anyway (sometimes annoyingly, all day long). By just giving in and offering structured intentional attention to each of the people toward whom you are feeling deep empathy, you can put that instinct at ease. You might begin by making a mental (or physical) list of all the items gripping your sense of overwhelm. And then try a mantra like "I am free to feel." Gently move through each item at whatever pace and rhythm feels good to you. And let your attention expand into each item or person on your list. You might eventually rest into the mantra and let it direct you to new places and sensations.
In practice: Reclaiming Your Centered Power
“My center radiates healing power”
And on the other hand, you can look your own power in the eye. It is an immersive sensory experience to remember how strong your heart is and how powerful you are at your center. This is a practice of feeling into your strength so that you remember that you are capable of handling all that life is offering you. And as you rest into your strength, all the chaos of overwhelm begins to repair and eventually it doesn’t feel so insurmountable.
Try offering attention to your heart or to your solar plexus area. Both of these areas offer profound expansion qualities, just by giving them attention. Notice yourself feeling more expansive and powerful. And allow a mantra to surface that describes this feeling. It might be something like "I am centered in my truth (or my purpose or my love or my power)." Let this sensation continue to grow and strengthen. You’ll begin to remember that you are in charge of your own life. From this seat of autonomy, allow the thoughts pertaining to your overwhelm to surface into the power of your inner authority. It’s as if each aspect of your life is being healed, tended to and loved by your own fierce love. After a while, let yourself rest into the sensations of your own radiance, and absorb it.
