Guest Post | From Ow to Wow, Overwhelm to Wonder

Look, look—another guest post! This one comes from Linda Joy Stone, OMD, L.Ac., with whom I connected on Daocloud, which I describe as social media for practitioners and answer-seekers in the realm of alternative medicine. Linda Joy agreed to take on the topic of overwhelm from her perspective as a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Akashic Acupuncture. (And I think I will adopt her perfect acronym for overhwelm, OW!)

Welcome to the “Age of Overwhelm (Ow!),” where people are stressed and running on empty.

Some common symptoms are anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, IBS, and musculoskeletal pain. The demands of parenthood, jobs, aging parents, and our own changing bodies as we enter perimenopause can feel daunting. And there never seems to be enough time. Ow!

It takes skill and awareness to navigate this fast-paced world of radical flux and uncertainty.

You are the author of your life: what do you want it to express?

Somewhere we bought into the program that we can do it all and be everything for others…until the pressure to perform gets to the point where something’s got to give.

We can either stop, evaluate our circumstances, and revise our so-called “reality” or deny the warning signs and wait for an emotional or physical breakdown. Sometimes such a profound shift can be what the system needs for a breakthrough to occur, but it can be costly.

It’s time to recognize and reclaim our power before the breakdown occurs!

Can you hear the clarion call to awaken?

Take a look at what an amazing time we live in: we have unlimited information at our fingertips and are globally connected to one another through the cosmic Internet. Wow!

There are myriad healing tools, therapies and coaches to assist in our evolution. And there are growing communities of seekers just like you and me who have not yet found each other!

We are at a tipping point amidst a creative and innovative cultural change like nothing the world has ever seen. With so many possibilities, it’s both frightening and exhilarating as we are given the opportunity to reinvent ourselves.

Unfortunately, our minds and nervous systems may not yet be equipped to discern all the beneficial choices that we need to make for optimal health and well being. We can easily catastrophize and, consequently, manifest symptoms as a reaction to a perceived world in chaos.

Take heart—if it feels like you’re falling, dive in!

Your Soul knows what to do: it is that everlasting core of who you are located within your heart center, your place of wisdom, strength and power.

Never mind that your monkey mind throws out alerts in the form of self-doubt. It’s the ego’s job to keep us safe and within the restricted program in which we normally function.

I can hear a sigh of relief as you momentarily let go of the mental grip to conform and figure it all out. What if you could just sit in that magical and bewildered state of “I don’t know”?

“Don’t-know” is the perfect place to be in order to move from the Ow of overwhelm to that liberating freedom of wonder, of Wow!

Stop and breathe this in. Can you see how amazing it all is to be experiencing the paradox of what I call “Earth School” at this moment in time? Yes, wow! If you can’t see this, then just try to imagine it.

Being human takes resilience, compassion and awareness—and imagination—along with trusting your own inner authority. You are the author of your life: what do you want it to express?

Finally, a note about humor, which is the saving grace that tops it all: laughter buoys our spirit and restores our energy. Here’s our opportunity to call on our inner trickster-fool to help us lighten up.

Let’s celebrate this divine comedy. Seek out other trickster liberators to play with, ones who see the folly in all this seriousness about aging, performing and giving our power away. Enough already!

We have more than enough being exactly who we are! Life and love can be effortless when we can relax into the moment of this wondrous, hilarious Now.

Don’t miss it—wowEEEEEE!

Linda Joy Stone, OMD, L.Ac., is a practitioner of Chinese Medicine and Akashic Acupuncture in Tucson, AZ. Her passion is healing through humor and the Akashic Field. She is available to do Akashic readings by phone or Skype. You can find her at http://www.lindajoystone.com.