Creatives and Overwhelm.
Aside from doubt, I believe that overwhelm is the biggest issue facing highly creative people.
Without recognising it as overwhelm we begin to do things like chronic overthinking or zoning out and getting distracted. I used to go into hyperdrive, getting scattered and trying to do everything like a maniac.
An urgency would come over me and I’d be ungrounded and all over the place.
If creatives can take up a self-inquiry practice and ask themselves good questions like ‘is this overwhelm perhaps?’ then they can catch the energy which overwhelm is an energy drain and get centred again. Overwhelm is a little like caffeine, it has more of a draining energy than encouraging energy and eventually leads to a crash and addiction to doing. It’s a lie folks!
To be able to stop and ask yourself where you are at, what is your current experience and whether you are on track with your intention for the day will bring great relief. Our great gift is our creativity, inspiration and visionary nature, but sometimes the creativity can come too fast and the to-do list can get too big and we forget to stop and audit what we are doing and why and what can we adjust on our list.
Simple is the way.
We must start scaling down regularly like a writer at the editing stage, sloughing off the dead and useless words. I like to re-evaluate what I want to do, what my priorities and my goals for the week are every Sunday evening. This way the creative energy within me is updated and the overwhelm is much less.
Overwhelm is also a sign of resistance - sneaky thing. You know the feeling of when you finally get the inspiration you have wanted for a while and the steps to take flow out of you in a delicious, almost orgasmic flow? So satisfying! But give it a day or two and the resistance sets in as overwhelm. This is where the practical nuts and bolts steps come in to help you through.
I can’t stress enough the importance of an excellent self-inquiry practice, to critically self-reflect with honesty and integrity, admitting what needs doing and letting go of who you are being and where you are at. It is truly liberating. With the emotional tug of war from resistance cleared, the aligned steps will be there for you. This stage isn’t the most glamorous or creative, but it is what will create the scaffolding for the building and production of your final creation.
In my Mahadevi Dham spiritual centre, I teach a classic approach to self-inquiry. If you are interested, email me, and I’ll help with all things resistance, block, doubt and negative self-talk.