By Leo Babauta
Every month I speak with dozens of people—Zen Habits readers, coaching clients, Fearless Living Academy members, and others—who struggle with a mountain of things to do and feel overwhelmed.
It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed with work, messages, etc. It’s based on the fear that you won’t be able to handle everything that comes your way. The fear that you won’t be able to juggle all these balls, that you’ll drop them, that you’ll fail. That fear of inadequacy manifests as anxiety.
So what can we do about that fear? We can understand that fear is just energy that resides within us. We have all kinds of energy: joy, love, gratitude, optimism, sadness, hurt, grief, anger, power, and so on.
These types of energies within our bodies have certain properties that we notice when we observe them.
It is temporary. Energy changes throughout the day depending on what we do, how much sleep we get, how people behave towards us, what our actions and intentions are, etc. We create energy. For example, anger energy may seem to be caused by other people’s actions… but we create anger energy as a reaction to hurt energy… hurt energy is created by how we interpret their actions. It doesn’t mean that it’s a “bad” interpretation, but the point is that we are the creators of our own energy. We can change energy. If we are the creators of energy, that’s good news, because we can create anything we want. Have you ever practiced gratitude? It’s a very simple practice of reminding yourself what you’re grateful for in your life. When you do this, the energy of sadness or dissatisfaction that you’re currently carrying may change to gratitude and contentment. This shows that it is possible to intentionally change things if you practice.
So if we can shift our energy, how do we deal with overwhelming energy? There’s no one way to deal with it, but I’d like to suggest some effective ways.
Bring awareness to the energy of overwhelm in your body. Notice that you are feeling overwhelmed. You may notice it because you are avoiding everything or trying to get it done in a hurry. You have too much going on and feel anxious. Stop for a moment and notice how the energy of overwhelm feels in your body. Where is it? Is it in your chest? What does it feel like? Be curious. Play with the energy. Overwhelm energy is just energy. It can feel like fear, anxiety, panic, but it can also feel like excitement, adventure, creativity. These are all just labels. How can you use that energy to create courage? To get up and dance? To light yourself on fire? Play with the energy as if it were a fire that you could use creatively for any purpose you like.
In this way, overwhelm doesn’t control us, but rather becomes something we can feel, love, and use as we please. It becomes the foundation for our creative act.
I realize this might sound a little odd to some of you, but don’t ignore it, because you’ll be missing out on a powerful and beautiful way to deal with the things that show up on a regular basis.
It’s because you care that you become overwhelmed. Never stop caring.
