Monday March Musings
A personal note on navigating overwhelm, RSD and succumbing to freeze response in these times of pregnant reckoning
Welcome to (almost!) Spring equinox in the NH and a revisitation by the sunshine! 🌞🌞🌞
Have you been out in it?
There’s a stirring in the air too - ever so subtle but pulling ever more strongly like a magnet, urging us out of our caves whilst adding ferment and fizz to our winter cauldrons.
A bubbling. A rising. A reckoning…
Do you feel it?
How I get myself out of frozen overwhelm
My head feels like it’s stuffed with a party-full of people. Mostly talking loudly, all vying for attention in some way.
I am frequently finding myself in a familiar freeze response, overwhelmed by my own brain and feelings.
When this happens, the best I can do is chip away at my to-do list slowly and painstakingly. I choose what feels right / most doable in the moment. Ironically, that’s not always the small-jobs-for-a-big-win (like updating which paintings have sold for example, a job that always feels ridiculously hard for what it is!).
Often, it’s jotting down ideas and sometimes organising them. It’s reaching out to one person - simply to connect with a friend, update a client/partner, or do the big scary introduction to someone brand new as a potential collab.
It all adds up, and it begins to make sense of things again, and reduce the overwhelm bit by bit.
Slowly, the party in my head becomes a little less raucous.
I also find having a good book on hand to dive into as a quick retreat helps enormously! This month I’ve found solace in Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood and I’m half way through On Starlit Seas by Sarah Sheridan. Very different books, nourishing me on myriad levels!
What’s your go-to retreat when you need it?
(I also binged One Day on Netflix - super late to the party - and now need some new, inspiring shows to come out please! 😆🙏).
Winning the RSD challenge
In other unrelated challenges, I mastered my fear and screaming RSD in following-up on an intro/request email - almost 2 weeks after I sent it.
I can’t express how mammoth this is for me. I try; I really do. I have plans to follow up and I gear myself up to do it, but my RSD takes over almost every time. Follow-ups make me physically cringe at myself. They are so somatically painful for me! I lose all the excited, authentic and brave energy I put into the initial email completely and suddenly I don’t have a clue how to express myself. Everything I write sounds trite, insincere and sycophantic 🫣😱.
But today I won - I sent the email and I received a reply! Even more of a bonus, it was a lovely, thoughtful and inspirational reply. My whole day brightened and I was able to feel rewarded for the ridiculous challenge I’d overcome. Here’s part of that beautiful response, because YOU may need to hear it too 😘.
Upcoming projects & 💖special offer!💖
I’m so very excited about ideas and plans which are very much brewing right now. The first is my RECLAIM project which I’ve mentioned briefly on socials - and I’d love you to help me out by answering this short question here. Thank you! 🙏
I’m also excited to be planning the next stunning pieces in my new immersive installation series Fabric of the Universe. I’m actively exploring funding options to create these and bring them to public spaces near YOU! 😍. Let me know where you’d like to see them!
And lastly, it’s been a while since I offered commission pieces - your very own, bespoke energy landscape for your sacred/magical space! I’ve been so busy with installations! Whilst I am securing funding for my next leg of intensive creation on these, I’d LOVE to create something really magical for one gorgeous soul this month. Message me if this might be you! 💖
How is this bubbling cauldron of transformation treating you this Madhatter March?
Much magic and love,
Zoë