What to Do When You Feel Like You Can’t Do Anything At All
Three teachings for when you feel overwhelmed
If you’re feeling overwhelmed—by the news, your emotions, or the sheer amount of notifications lighting up your phone on any given day—you’re in good company. If your response is to turn away and shut down, you’re also not alone.
“A lot of people on some level say, ‘Abstractly I care, but it’s too much and I’ve just got to get through the day,’” meditation teacher Tara Brach acknowledged in a recent Tricycle Talks podcast episode. But turning away doesn’t address the painful feelings underneath, so we end up walled off from the world and potential avenues of care. Meanwhile, we neglect the root of our suffering and stunt our ability to heal.
As Brach says, “The challenge is that overwhelm and going numb or indifferent are defenses that cover over a very deep level of anxiety, and the anxiety doesn’t go away. It just impacts our life from the sidelines so we never can actually relax and open to the moment.”
One antidote? Pay attention. Ask yourself what’s behind or beneath your feelings of stress or burnout. Direct your compassion there. Look closely at the events or people provoking your angst. Direct your compassion to them. This week’s Three Teachings encourages anyone who’s feeling paralyzed or numb to pay deep attention, and to watch how grace unfolds, for yourself and others.
Overwhelmed? Pay Attention
By Kimberly Brown
In an article on responding to the world around us, meditation teacher Kimberly Brown describes how attentive presence and compassion for others can help us connect deeply with everyone’s struggles and suffering—including our own.
The Courage to Choose Love
With Tara Brach
In a recent podcast episode, Tara Brach urges us to connect with ourselves and our sense of belonging to break harmful patterns and instead find support and ease.
Wise Effort and the Window of Tolerance
With Jake Dartington
In this Dharma Talk, meditation teacher Jake Dartington explains how we can respond with wisdom to painful and challenging states of mind and find ways to cultivate wholesome ways of being in the world when our instinct is to feel overwhelmed or numb.
Coming up on Tricycle:
Join Ryuko Laura Burges for an hour of guided meditation and discussion over Zoom at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, July 20 as part of Tricycle’s Meditation Group. Sign up here.
If you’re in NYC, join us for an in-person bilingual poetry reading with four leading contemporary poets at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 22. Sign up here.
Can AI help your practice, and should it? Join us for our latest free virtual discussion over Zoom, co-presented with the Buddhism & AI initiative, at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 23. Sign up here.
Join scholars Jimmy Yu (also known as Guo Gu) and Natasha Heller to discuss women in the classic Chan text The Gateless Barrier over Zoom at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 28. Sign up here.
Beautiful reminder. I've learned that awareness isn't about fixing what's happening inside us. It's about meeting it with enough kindness that it no longer has to hide.