Roots and Branches

Building up our inner reserves for when the world feels heavy on our creative spirits

(A free gift for paid subscribers is at the end of this post, so be sure to read all the way down!)

Life is inherently full of frustrations. Even for those of us who, like me, lead largely enjoyable and fulfilling lives, there are days that feel frustrating and overwhelming on a deep and existential level: In a way that can stop us in our tracks.

Overwhelm is a big theme of the moment, brought on by the events in our macrocosms and microcosms. We’re living in a world crafted to be overwhelming, to give us a firehose of information (most of it crap) and too many things to do, while asking us to sacrifice critical thinking and deeply living and feeling in the name of convenience.

It’s a lot, and it’s especially a lot if you’re a creative, intuitive, deeply feeling person. A lot of us are navigating freeze responses: Where when things get too much, we just shut down and dissociate.

Moving out of that freeze response takes practice, but most of all it takes gentleness to come back home to ourselves. No one is doing anything ‘wrong’ by freezing: It’s a natural response to situations that our nervous systems perceive as unsafe.

It can be useful to see it as an opportunity to assess, and intentionally move forward in a way that best serves you, your work, and your loved ones (and whoever else you want in that bubble, like your readers or clients).

Here are some practical ways I’m working to move out of freeze response right now:

-Physical distance and being physically resourced:
Simply put, creating distance between you + stressful things, no guilt or apologies needed. You deserve to work and live in a world that doesn’t drain you dry, and creating intentional distance is one way to do that.

If I’m already feeling overwhelmed and sounds are making it worse (I’m super noise-sensitive), I put on noise canceling headphones, for example. Or work in my office with the door closed.
Something that puts actual distance between me and whatever stimuli are overloading my system, so I can focus more deeply in my internal world (if you’ve worked with me before, this is also the time to implement those boundary practices we learned!)

Sometimes, being overwhelmed and drained is simply a matter of building up our physical resources: Before spiraling into an existential crisis when I have writer’s block, I check if I’ve eaten enough food, drank water, rested enough. etc.

-Energetic distance, and energetic care:
It is so important to not only be tapped into our energetic selves right now, but to practice energetic hygiene. We’re all being barraged with information, scary news, and riding the waves of our own emotions.

Just like with reducing exposure to physical stimuli or stressful situations to the extent we can, here we’re doing the same but energetically. Cord cutting and other practices (see more on energetic boundaries here) help us move through the world as our discrete, individual selves, rather than scattered, exhausted beings who take in all the chaotic energy around us. Doing energy work can also be helpful (you can do that with me, here).

(P.S. I don’t really love the term ‘energetic hygiene’ because it kind of feeds into purity and morality stuff, but it’s a useful shorthand people understand so, until I come up with something better, that’s the term we’re using!)

-Turning within and being flexible:
Let creative time be really loose and free when the world is feeling really not that way. Be curious, ask questions, offer yourself unstructured space to just do whatever feels natural and called for in the moment. Maybe creative time involves drawing one day. Maybe it involves sitting in meditation with yourself to find exactly what is feeling overwhelming so you can get things moving again.

-Speaking of movement:
Move your body. Drink water. Move some more. Trust that your body and your inner self know how they need to move, and honor that. I do weird-to-watch floppy arm, waving, hip shaking dances at random throughout the day just because my body has decided there’s energy to move, and I trust my body to know how to do that.
Movement can help a lot with overwhelm and freeze responses (think of how other mammals, after being stuck in a stressful situation, sometimes shake it out or get the zoomies to move that energy). If you want some ideas for how to move to support your stuck energy, comment or send me an email.

–Reorienting:
To the extent you can access them, turning your attention to what you want and what feels powerful, resourced, and generative in your body is a huge boon to getting stuck energy moving and reducing overwhelm (more on that here).

-Ritual and pleasure: When we access feelings of pleasure and comfort in our lives we teach our nervous systems that we’re safe in a given moment (I recognize the complications of this in moments that aren’t safe: I’m talking about like, being overwhelmed while creating new work, and tapping into something that feels good as a way to reorient yourself to feel safe to express yourself fully in that moment).
Right now is really the time to tap into ritual and into focusing your attention on desired outcomes: Take time to do yoga asana, guided meditations, or to light a candle and do breathwork, or to just think about, and let yourself feel excited about, a new project on the horizon. There are so many ways this can look and it is one of my greatest joys in life to help you find them: Just reach out and I can point you towards the best resources.

This isn’t about hiding under a rock or ignoring things that matter to us, but it is about moderating our exposure and being resourced. Because you can’t serve anyone if you’re running on empty.
And your creativity won’t be able to thrive if you’re in survival mode.

You owe it to yourself, to your creative work, and to everyone who you dream of being able to work with, to be a resourced person living a life with as much joy, pleasure, and capacity for expansion as you wish to have.

What are you doing to resource yourself this week?

Paid subscribers: A free gift for you!

I recently started offering Body of Work, 2x/month energy work sessions specifically for creative folks (plus a recording library), after many requests.

Anyone who is a paid subscriber as of this writing, or who becomes a paid subscriber this week gets access to these for free, for as long as you keep your subscription.

It’s a way for me to say thank you and to pour some of my care and attention towards you and your work. If you’re interested and have a paid subscription, shoot me an email (julia@root-kitchens.com) and I’ll send you everything you need to access it.