Being overwhelmed at what to do is like standing before an entire mountain, knowing you need get to the top of it, but feeling paralyzed by the sight of the height of it all. If it is a large, stressful task you have to do, the very sight of the whole thing is enough to make your head spin.
If it is a dream you want to accomplish in your life, standing before the dream as if it were a mountain may make it seem as breathtaking and magnificent as one, but the same view paralyzes you as to the sheer magnitude of accomplishing it, keeping you frozen where you are.
Now let’s make this view less overwhelming. Imagine yourself somewhere in the midst of hiking the mountain, how does the view seem? Vastly different. What you see right before you as you are hiking are the tangible plain brown earth and gray rocks of that very mountain which once appeared an ethereal and foreboding blue from a distance.
When you stand in front of the mountain, even if you were to squint, can you really clearly see the small and winding pathway up the mountain shrouded in trees? Not at all. Yet when you are on your journey up the mountain, the pathway emerges in front of you. You may not be able to make out more than a dozen yards ahead, but you trust that when you keep walking, more of the path ahead will become clearer to you.
When we are overwhelmed, it is like forcing ourselves to squint and be able to see the whole entire pathway to our destination, before we even start the journey or are in the midst of it. It is very human to want to have all the variables to be clear for us to begin our journeys or have confidence to go on, but clarity only emerges in bits and pieces as we move along our journeys.
When you are on your hike, there are places where the trees clear and you can step out onto the open. It is good to take a break, and get some perspective. From this view, you can appreciate how far up you have come. Looking up, sometimes parts of the future pathway show themselves, and though they seem distant, they do not seem too distant and certainly manageable.
After your break, you are back on your journey again, shrouded in trees. But maybe that is a good thing: they will keep your mind on the path ahead, and thus less overwhelmed.
By now the terrain has grown familiar to you, as you are back among the plain brown earth and gray rocks. They make you feel grounded as you feel them beneath your feet with each step that you take. And as you hike, focusing on that feeling may be all the matters in the moment.
For in that moment, the mountain has disappeared before you and has been reduced to the meditative rhythm of your feet.
