Underwhelmed by Overwhelm

November 20th, 2011

Danielle LaPorte recently wrote about removing the word “overwhelm” from our vocabularies, and as much as I love Danielle’s work and as much as I agree with every point she made in her post, I’m keeping the word. I’m continuing to acknowledge my overwhelm.

Because, that powerful, truthful piece of work is only part of the story. It’s the piece about the things we choose to work on, the things we want to bring into our lives. The passions, the devotions, the learning and truths of our beings.

The Flip Side

It’s not about the other side. The side that you and I share, but not every one does. The side to overwhelm that tells of so much noise you can’t think, of too many people wanting your attention at once, of all the buzzing little things that make it so you can’t focus on the now.

I’m keeping the Overwhelm for that, because I need a way to say that sometimes, what’s going on is too much. That I am overwhelmed and need to stop, for self care. That I can acknowledge that it’s too much and it’s okay that it’s too much, it’s just overwhelming. And then, once I’ve named what’s wrong, I can figure out what will make it better.

Heads or Tails?

Because there’s riding the crest of my power, creativity, and incredible ability to take on too much and still get it done. And then there’s being bombarded with ideas, sounds, and shoulds. And they’re not the same. Not at all.

How about you, how does Overwhelm work for you?

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In the comments:

We’re being open here, sharing and saying things we don’t always say out loud. What helps: Sharing your stories and Ideas. Cheering and telling what works/worked for you. What hurts: shoulds, harshness, and such. (I used to teach first grade, I can’t help it.)

Tags: hsp, overwhelmed, patterns, perceptions, shy, words

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2011 at 10:53 am and is filed under Learning & Awareness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

R.M. Koske

Hm. Danielle’s article is great, but it leaves me with the same feeling that such exercise motivation as “pain is fear leaving the body” does. Sort of “that’s all right for you, that’s nice, but I’m really just not that tough, and I’m not sure I want to be.”

Which is partially me missing her point. Because I really love the idea that even at our most overwhelmed, we can pull out the strength to make it through.

I thought about it a little and now I’m thinking of it like the ocean. Danielle seems to me to be saying that if you walk out into the ocean and get knocked over by a wave, you shouldn’t call it overwhelmed because that’s denying that you can swim, and anyway you walked out there on your own power so you know what you can handle.

But that doesn’t feel true to me. I might have *believed* I could handle it, but that doesn’t mean I was right. And I can get stronger, but that doesn’t mean I can get stronger fast enough to handle it now. Strong swimmers drown sometimes, and even if this wave won’t drown me, even if I can swim away and be fine, that doesn’t mean I won’t panic for a few moments when I’m head over heels and staring up at bubbles from underwater.

I feel like she’s denying the possibility of getting knocked off your feet, but maybe her point is that using the word overwhelm is giving in to the panic? My preferred method of escape (both in reality and metaphorically) would be to try to ride back to a point where I can put my feet down or control my movement, but it feels like she wants me to fight my way to the surface. That feels like a recipe for drowning to me.

Hm. Lots to think about.
http://thesocialcaterpillar.com/ Kathryn Hunter

We are precisely where we are and it sounds like you have a good grip on where that is for you. I have a sneaking suspicion that Danielle is, by nature, in a different place than most of the people who stop by here, are.
R.M. Koske

Oh, I agree totally – I think she’s in a different place. I read her just enough to see that she is wonderful and not right for me right now. That was part of what caught my attention about this – her advice about overwhelm is wonderful and uplifting but your opinion about it felt more natural for me, and unpacking what I thought the distinctions were was fun, so I decided to share. Heh.