Doing Hard Things in Hard Times

There might be a lot that’s tugging on you-

burdens and bids for attention.

The what if’s and how’s, how could’s and why’s.

Maybe fear is pumping through you

living on dark corners and shadowed edges. 

blossoming, and still, there are things that call to you.

things you need to do.

Things that feel too hard right now.

Maybe the task is a challenging one-

that requires courage

or strength 

or humility.

Maybe you need to extend yourself beyond your normal boundaries

reach further into yourself and 

pull out something bold and true. 

Maybe the task itself is small-

but the effort required feels monumental. 

like it might take all you have to shake yourself out of your frozen/fleeing/fragmented state

and do tasks of daily living. 

Maybe you don’t feel like you can celebrate what needs celebrating. Holidays, life cycle events. Moments that “should” be commemorated. 

Maybe regular life feels impossible in this irregular time. 

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This exercise can be done in conversation with someone you trust or written in a safe place.

When we get stuck in a sense of overwhelm, what can be helpful is choosing to say out loud or write down what is living in our bodies and in our minds.

Here are some questions that can support your process of calling the struggle by name and discovering what resources are available to you in this moment. Itemizing a list and identifying specifics of what you are experiencing can make space for problem-solving or a pause to sit with a current reality. Through this exercise that you may be able to begin shift a sense of helplessness internally.

1. What is causing your sense of overwhelm right now? (Be specific)

2. What tasks or goals do you wish to work towards accomplishing?

3. What emotions are coming up for you when you think about those tasks or goals?

4. Where do those emotions live in your body? What do they feel like?

5. What resources or support is available to you (internal resources or outside help)?

6. Was there a moment in your past that you can recall, when you were similiarly stuck in a state of overwhelm or fear- and you were able to move out of that state of being? What supported you throught that then? Is there something you can take from that experience and apply to this moment right now?