Do you feel constantly overwhelmed?

Do you know the story of the native American chief and the plane? Once upon a time, a chief lived in the western plains, wise and deeply linked to the traditions of his people. He was invited to attend a conference on the east coast, which was vital for the future of his tribe. He had to get there quickly, in the short term and was forced to travel by plane. He did not look forward to this.

Although the chef was amazed by technology, arrows in the sky at unimaginable speeds, completely without attachments of the earth, disturbed him deeply. When the plane landed, the chef landed and went directly to the conference. For three days, he negotiated.

When his business was finished, everyone expected him to go home immediately. Instead, the chef retired to a hotel room, where he stayed in deep meditation for three weeks. When he was asked why he did not rush into his home, he replied: “My body traveled too quickly. Now I have to wait for my soul to catch up.

Why is this story relevant? It illustrates a very modern, overwhelming condition. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines Overwelm as the too common feeling that “our lives take place in a way faster than the human nervous system and the psyche can manage well”. The technologies we have created have resulted in days when too many things happen far too fast. Many of us have trouble with a feeling of constant emergency and the feeling that we are simply happening in our lives. We feel more and more incapable of monitoring the pace and volume of events.

We could also say that our bodies and psychics can no longer catch up. We have no time to treat, marinate, digest and think. As the poet John O’Donohue says in his beautiful poem “for the one who is exhausted, a blessing”.

You have traveled too quickly on a false ground;
Now your soul has come to bring you back.

You have been forced to get into empty time.
The desire that led you abandoned.
There is nothing else to do now than to rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have abandoned in the race of the days.

Little by little, you will come back to yourself,
Having learned new respect for your heart
And the joy that lives far in slow time.