WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FEEL LOST AND OVERWHELMED

“To live without roads seemed one way not to get lost.”

Naomi Shihab Nye

We have all been there before, when we just don’t know where to turn. We look back on our lives, and remember the dreams we had of a successful career, a happy marriage, a healthy body, and they look nothing like the life we are living. The voice in our head says, “Where did I go wrong? What could I have done differently? What next?”

This can be a terrifying moment, especially if we had a very clear path mapped out, with no intention to deviate from the security of the road well planned. Yet, life happens, and if you have not arrived at such a moment, be aware that they exist, and give thanks for the great blessing you are living. For those who resonate deeply with this feeling of being lost and overwhelmed with the sadness of a broken dream, give a blessing also. Some of you may already be experiencing the grace that such a time offers, the opportunity for revelation that exists for the very fact that you feel so lost. 

Others may be there now, reeling from the discovery of betrayal, of a diagnosis, of an accident that was not part of the plan. For all of us, there is this sweet opportunity for something unforeseen to emerge from our struggling heart and soul, something new that could only arise by becoming fully present to this moment.

Here are 3 perspectives that can help you when you feel lost and overwhelmed: 

• One piece of wisdom I have learned from the several times I have felt lost and overwhelmed is that this moment is the only one I really have. When you stop and become fully present to where you are, you realize that every choice you have made in your life has brought you to this moment. It always helps me to remember that life is not happening to me, it is happening because of me. What is happening is the sum total of all the choices I have made in my life. Even if someone I love is leaving or hurting me, my choice to love that person is part of the sorrow I am feeling. Every one of your moments belongs to you, and is the present moment of your own beautiful life. It is precious, even if it is difficult.

   

• It helps me to remember that I am co-creating with the Universe all the time, and that the path of my life has not been carved before. No matter how well laid my plans are, there are an infinite number of other factors and forces intersecting with me on my path all the time. In many ways, my Soul is the road, and is where I put my attention and my intention as I move through life. 

Sometimes a poem says it best: 

YOUR SOUL IS THE ROAD
By Kathleen Hanagan

Your soul is the road
whose map is the heart
and
loss is a landmark
that invites you to
soften
sit down
in whatever it is you call
Home
alone
with your sweet body.
There you can listen to light
filling emptiness
full
to begin your life
over again.
There is no need
to measure progress
along this way
which widens the moment
you welcome
Love
as your guide.
Ask a friend to play
a flute,
a drum,
a mandolin,
and walk gently
along this road
always arriving.
Always.

• And last, but not least, when I feel lost and overwhelmed, I turn to nature.

Nature is like a really good mother, always there, always the ground that you can return to. It is literally grounding to walk on the earth in times of feeling lost and overwhelmed, or to tune into the inevitability of the sun rising again. Another poet says it so beautifully: 

Lost

By David Whyte

Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

…The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.