When I'm Overwhelmed: Needing the perspective of friends

From fastcoexist.com

I'm easily overwhelmed.

I feel EVERYTHING, so not only do I perceive tasks mentally and physically in a space of time, but every event has to filter through my million layers of limestone emotions. Then and only then can the event be processed.

The problem is that events don't happen one at a time, but in general, eh, several in a day. And it all has to filter.

I can usually handle everything pretty well if I have a little time in the morning for quiet and sipping coffee. Sipping coffee speeds the filtering process. It also helps when I have a couple of hours over the weekend to walk or run, sit or smoke or drink wine to simply sit and think. It cleans the filter for another week so I can take on the load.

But when I don't have that time; when I can't filter, odd things start to happen.

I become restless and edgy. I crave stimulation like a drug. I can't focus, only movemovemove and hope that something will come along and make me happy. If it doesn't, I'll simply stay frustrated, irritable, and angry until it does.

So after 30 years of these ups and downs, I'm learning I need to take time for quiet, both for my sanity and the safety of the world.

But quietness alone isn't what helps me. I need the valuable input of friends and family who can help guide my thought process and give me new stones to put in my mill, the better to turn the grist. I need to share my processing occasionally with others so that they either affirm my thinking or hold up a few warning signs.

Because you see, with all this internal processing can come the deadly side effect of living in one's head. Left alone too long, a moldiness of mind and ideas sets in, and like mold, permeates every thought and every action. But when aired out with others, the good ideas flourish and the bad ones dry out.

I hung out with a marvelous friend yesterday whom I love. We can air out ideas and speak into one another's lives with our perceptions. On this particular day, I had the chance to talk about different jobs I was considering and how I wish I made more money.

It was while we were talking that I realized that the job and responsibilities I have right now are enough and that I can and should stop obsessing about money.

It was an idea that I've reflected on, chewed on and prayed over for weeks, months even, but an afternoon of chit-chat and Goodwill-ing told me what I needed to hear.

When I'm overwhelmed, my natural tendency is to retreat into my head, and certainly I need time for that kind of reflection. But I need the other kind too. Like amateur optometrists, or at the very least, humble mirrors, the best friends can correct our vision or at least reflect it, giving us insight we could never achieve on our own.