on why I'm SO OVER overwhelm

Field Note no. 5 | gottagottagotta

Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash

So many of the women I know are over-whelmed.
Over-subscribed.
Over-stretched.

And also, speaking for myself at least, very, very Over It.

The world spins SO goddam fast. And no matter what I do to try and slow it down, it will not conform. Recently, I read an article by

Liadán Hynes

titled Burn Out: Don’t Just Tell Me to Stop. It was a brilliant reflection on what so many of us are carrying day to day, and more importantly how difficult it is to drop any of this load. It just isn’t possible to simply drop everything and ‘rest’.

Who is going to do everything if we simply stop?
Who is going to carry?
Who is going to earn?
Who is going to tend?
Who is going to hold?

It can also, as myself and Lia spoke about over DM’s, feel really dangerous to try and just grind to a halt. So many of us are juggling so many balls, our nervous systems on frequent high alert, why would it be wise, in that state, to stop? Our, still quite ancient, nervous systems are saying RUN!!!! for the love of god RUN!!! there is a giant wooly mammoth chasing you! RUN!!!!

Life can be a barrage of WhatsApp messages, reminders, to dos, creative thoughts, half-finished thoughts, interruptions, distractions, demands. There are so many reasons for this whirligig madness. I’m going to talk here about one or two, but they are perhaps only the tip of the iceberg … I know already I have so much more to say.

I’ll share also four ways I’m counteracting and working to make changes to the rat-race in my head. Because, as I’ve said, I’ve pretty over it!