Hello Hedge Schoolers,
This week I wanted to delve into the world of overwhelm. When great intentions become so large that they strangle us with anxiety. The inquiry is a constant fringe conversation I have with myself. As a perennial yes man, my eyes are bigger than my belly. Insatiable curiosity and wide interests lead to deep rabbit holes that breathe me alive and dead in the same breath. What do I mean by that? The scale of the dream or vision I have energises me and then overwhelms me. So much so, that I hardly move. This experience would be familiar to everyone at least at some point in their life. For me, the overwhelm comes from desperately wanting to put the finishing touches on my book but life is snagging me on the brambles of responsibility and must-dos.
So how do we move through the quicksand of overwhelm?
The Tending Pace
Nature is a master teacher. Efficient, effective, and emergent. So I began my inquiry sitting in nature. Actually with my fingers deep in the soil of the rose bushes near our front window. As the plants prepare for the space of winter, I find myself tending to the overgrowth. Pruning. Shaping. Nourishing the soil. Removing the excess. The process requires slowness and consistency. A thriving garden is not achieved in one sit. In one tremendous, all-out exertion. Nature requires a more intimate relationship, with regularity a key feature. This tending pace is bouts of micro-nourishment over a consistent period. Without it, my garden will fall into disarray. The balance of the environment is thrown off as members of the ecology throw their weight around, strangling the life of others within. For my garden to thrive, I need to tend regularly.
Moonshots and mini steps
For anyone with a grand vision or dream, the peak of the mountain can feel out of reach. The list of things we need to do, don't know how to do or items we don't know we need grow widely in the ecology of our mind. Such weight freezes us in stillness, unable to take the next step. So we don't move on it. It remains at distance. And don't we let ourselves know about it. The inner narratives. The imposter syndrome. The cruel inner critic. They crank to maximum volume. With often our only move, a retreat in the other direction or complete abandonment.
The next steps need not be one giant leap for mankind. The tending pace is micro in nature. And it nurtures our nature. Nurtures our evolution with proof. Proof that we are enough. Proof that we are exactly the person who can do this. Identity-based habits, as James Clear calls them, are shaped with proof. Micro wins that show we are tending to the evolution of the dream. And micro wins are deliciously and deliberately small. One push-up. One sentence. One weed pulled from the garden. These mini-steps are the way we tend to our souls. With slowness, consistency, and gentleness.
Micro nourishment for macro thriving
So this week, I've given up the idea of monumental writing sessions. Gone are the sporadic 4am wake-ups, replaced with a commitment to tend daily to the final writing of my book with ten minutes every day. That time commitment is so small that I don't shudder at the thought. I laugh at it. So small. Such a Tiny Habit, as behavioural specialist BJ Fogg, calls it. I commit only to ten minutes every day. Anything beyond that is a bonus but not necessary. And so every day this week, I have tended to my book and written for more than ten minutes every day. For the friction of the first step is the only battle. The only item I need to work on.
As the saying goes, "the heaviest weight at the gym is the front door." The garden that is my book needs the tending pace. Regular interaction. Regular dialogue. Regular sitting. This micro-nourishment has led to macro thriving. I can feel the momentum building. With every sit, I feel the evolution of the story I tell myself. The micro sits are sessions of macro compassion as I give myself the space to enjoy the journey. To slowly let the final stages unfurl, breathing in every word, and edit.
Your turn
So what dream has been knocking the wind out of your sails recently, slaying you with overwhelm.
How can you apply the tending pace?
What tiny micro nourishment can you commit to every day to ensure that your macro vision thrives?
Be kind. Think small. So, so small. For an inch forward every day is a monumental distance in a month's time. Consistency is delightfully simple. Almost to the point of boredom. But that doesn't discount the magic of showing up every day. In the Yoga Sutures, Patanjali Maharishi outlines a spiritual practice called Abhyāsa. Abhyāsa is a spiritual practice that is regularly and constantly practised over a long period of time. This regular tending is required to tend to the garden of the mind.
We need to show up to our yoga mats.
The only goal is that we show up. The rest takes care of itself.
So inch forward with the tending pace. Nourish your magic with the micro and watch the macro take care of itself. Love the journey beautiful humans and it will love you back.
Till next week,
Steve
The Tending Pace: Micro nourishment for Macro Thriving